Better Business Profits Marketing Training For Small Business
Have you been in business for more than 6 months?
If you’ve been doing any type of marketing then I’m guessing you have had many potential customers come through your business that haven’t bought from you.
Today I want to share an email marketing strategy that I was taught by Dean Jackson of the “I love Marketing” Podcast.
This strategy has been going gangbusters for myself and my clients recently and if you have a list of old leads that has at least a couple of dozen names on it, then I can almost guarantee this one sentence email will generate new business for you.
Or at the very least re-active your cold leads to start the sales process again.
You see most (and I mean 99%) of businesses are using email ineffectively.
Everyday I receive big flashy graphic designed emails with pictures (that don’t load and make the email hard to read in the first place), large headlines, bold offers and dozen other features that make it easily recognisable that someone is trying to sell me something.
Which instantly raises my consumer defences (just like it does to you when you know someone is after your hard earned cash).
The other thing that is instantly clear to me is that these emails have been sent to a large group of people. It’s not a personal email.
What Emails Get Read 100% Of The Time?
Can you think what emails you open and read 100% of the time?
These are personal emails from your friends or maybe from your work collegues or contacts.
Plain text emails with personal subject lines.
At the end of each email you will generally have some question that your friend/colleague wants you to reply to. So you do.
Now just for a minute I want you to take off your business owner hat and put yourself in the position of your ideal customer.
Instead of getting an email with a BOLD offer in the subject line, images and logos, blatant call to actions and no sign of personal attention.
Imagine you received an email that was short, personal and expecting a response.
This is the type of email I have been creating for my clients with outstanding results and in ten minutes you can do it too.
How To Re-active Your Cold List With A Personal Email
Now here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. The breakthrough that will start the profits gushing into your business. Ok maybe I better settle down a little bit.
Here’s a simple example for a recent Web Designer Client.
Subject: Hi FNAME It’s Been A While Since We Spoke
(notice this is highly personal, it creates interest as to what you spoke about and what else might be inside the email)
Email Copy:
Hi FNAME
Do you still need some help with your website?
(This is asking a targeted question to someone who was recently interested in these services. Also because it’s so short and is expecting a response it genuinely feels that it was sent to one person)
Regards,
(Your Name)
STOOOOOP!!!
Don’t add anything more.
Resist that business owner brain urging you to sell something.
This email is simply trying to reopen the communication between you and a cold prospect.
And if you send an email like this, chances are it will.
Don’t add a logo or any product images. Use a simple blank email template that looks like what you send to friends and colleagues everyday.
Of course this email can go to your list of thousands of prospects, but they won’t know that. They’ll think there is one person on the other line asking them a simple question and expecting a response. And that’s exactly what we want your prospects to think.
Of course this is only the first step in the re-activation funnel. Before you send this email you’ll want to have a clear strategy for turning this communication into a sale. But sorry, I don’t have time for that here.
Take Away
This isn’t just for re-activation emails. It can be used in all your autoresponders, follow-up, sales and broadcast emails (I’ve written hugely profitable direct response emails using these same principles).
From now on before sending your next email campaign stop and think… What will this look like to the person on the other end?
Hopefully after reading this it will be short, personal and expecting a response.
You can literally send this to your list today. Actually stop reading right now and do it. Then come back and let me know your results.
Go on, get busy!
I’ll talk to you soon.
James Brine
The Barefoot Marketer
Hi James, great post! On the topic of which emails get opened: the ones that you know are going to be good. If you know your customers and give them timely, useful and interesting content week after week, they will not only open your emails, but actually look forward to them. How to create that content? Find out as much as possible about your audience, test different formats, and personalize said content. This is what works for us and hopefully for others too.
Hi Didi
Completely agree, how do you research what your customers are really crying out for?
James,
I do like the simplicity and personalisation of the email.
However I don’t believe it would be persuasive enough or create the right “hot buttons” for someone to even respond back. Simply by asking as to whether they’re ready to buy or not without creating a buying desire means you’ll end up wasting alot of time. It also self serving-don’t you think? How about creating a bit of trust/credibility in the content?
Thank you.
Hi Mark
Just to clear up I’m not asking them to buy anything. I’m suggesting you imply ask if they are still interested (do they still have a need).
This email is not about selling. It’s about re-opening communication with a cold prospect. Once you start going into benefits and features to create desire it’s obvious you are trying to sell.
This is just the first step in getting that lead back into your sales funnel where you can then do the things you are talking about like providing value and creating desire.
Also I’m not sure what you mean by self-serving??? But I respect your opinion either way.
Thanks, James.
That’s what I do… build relationships and nurture them. Don’t sell. Or at least if you must then “sell without selling” just like in your very short email.
Spot on Rhonda. We are always selling in one way or another but by becoming a trusted industry authority by providing great value we are able to attract high quality prospects instead of chasing them.