| You’ve probably read a lot of claims about e-mails to your list. They say your ROI is 42:1. Frankly I think that’s hooey – and here’s why. 1. The market is so crowded and the economy increasingly fragile 2. There’s a hell of a lot of heavy news right now. That always kills response. 3. People are worried which makes things worse still. You certainly won’t succeed if you haven’t a clue what you’re doing. (And most emails are written by amateurs, who don’t have a clue). But sometimes even someone who does have a clue sends a lousy email. But they get away with it – for a simple reason Here’s an example. The other day I got it from someone I know and have worked with who is launching a book. The book is only 36 pages long – but he claims those 36 pages will change your life. I can’t even begin to count the people who promise to change my life – it’s a bit late for me at 84, anyhow. But his email does something I seriously do not recommend unless you’re famous. He uses 9x as many references to himself as he does to the prospect. Only one use of the word you in the entire email. If you send out such an email to people to whom you aren’t well known you’re crazy. But he is well known; his followers believe in him, and he has lots, so he gets away with it. The moral is simple: you better offer something so wonderful that you get loads of followers. The other email is from someone completely unknown with an extra disadvantage: English is not his first language. Here it is: |
| He starts with a huge no-no. A meaningless subject line… Explainer Video Creations | ML | 3dtrix Completely incomprehensible, isn’t it? Your subject line is like the headline in an ad. If it doesn’t grab people at least 80% won’t read on. So when you’ve written that you’ve spent almost all your money. And then he says “I hope this note finds you doing well.” I bet you get that kind thought in most of the emails you receive. Crazy. They don’t know you and you don’t know them. So I call that costly insincerity. They don’t give a damn whether you’re doing well or not. What they give a damn about is will you buy. And in my case, I won’t, for a reason which may surprise you. If you read the copy you will see that there is no real reference to selling. There are circumlocutory ways of describing it. He talks about brand messages, conversion rates and revenue. But not good old-fashioned sales. That alone puts me off. But what, apart from the points I’ve mentioned, deters me is very simple. At the bottom he has a list of his clients. These names may impress you, but they never impress me. They may impress you because they’re big names, but I’ve dealt with many big firms. They often have money to burn, shed loads of executives with fancy titles, all doing so well they don’t really care whether they make money or not. They tend to spend their time thinking about social responsibility, communicating their brand values, their next meeting and all that sort of horse shit. Our clients are all interested in profit and loss. Are you? You may well be too busy to study what makes emails sell, but I spend an alarming amount of time thinking about it. And thinking makes all the difference to whether you succeed or fail in business. Amateur emails won’t do much for you – but professional ones still get amazing results. I know this because we write them for people – and 97.5% of those people are happy. Drop me a line (db@draytonbird.com) if you’d like to know how we can help. Best, Drayton P.S. Know anyone who’d appreciate my Bird Droppings? Tell them to sign up to my mailing list here – dg250.infusionsoft.com/app/form/signup |
