"How to Get More Bytes Out of Your Marketing Emails"
Simply put, in the game of life it all boils down to your ability to create and maintain relationships. We need others to create a source of income, whether it’s a person to hire you or an audience to buy what you are selling.
89% percent of professionals check their email daily, so lets take a look at what we can do to improve our chances of getting the response we are looking for. Read more stats on email use here.
Preproduction
Image via Flickr Nghiem Long
First things first, we need to find our audience.
- What are you looking to gain and who can provide it?
- Once we know our target, we need information on them. Where do they live online? Learn about the person, and not just their current work.
- Familiarize. Follow them on social media, share tweets and posts or comment on an open question.
Confused on who your target audience should be? More information on finding your target audience here.
The Subject Line.
If your subject line does not somehow grab their attention they are probably going to skim over it like the hundreds before yours.
- Make them curious or excited. If someone they personally know referred you, use their name. State the name of an article they recently posted, or ask a question.
- Be all-natural. You know all those spam emails and automatic advertisements that you never read, don’t do that. Make it stand out.
- If it can’t fit on a smart phone screen (3-5 words) it is too long.
- More on subject lines here.
Writing a Thoughtfully Composed Email
This is where the magic happens.
- Wait on your introduction. This may seem counterintuitive, but by skipping this you don’t give the person a chance to pass judgment immediately, thus making them more likely to read the important things.
- Open with a compliment or by telling them why you find them interesting. People love to be told their work impacts others and have a natural inclination to respond.
- Tell them how they have impacted you, and be specific.
- The goal is to get their attention without being pushy or seeming desperate. Again, Less is more.
- Timing is everything, send outside of hectic hours.
Follow up
Staying in contact is vital to growing a relationship, and whether we get a response or not we need to prove our interest.
- If you did get a response thank them. Let them know how being in contact helped you.
- Use what you may have learned about them personally if you had a phone conversation or direct meeting. Having a personal connection will strengthen the business side.
- Continue to add value. Send them articles they could benefit from, recommend them to others, share their work. DO NOT blow up their inbox.
Tired of getting no response? Read this.
In an age where people spend more time connecting on the web than on the phone or in person, it is not difficult to see how important standing out in networking emails is. When you take the time to create something thoughtful and genuine, it pays with better results. Sometimes all we get is that first impression, so make it count.
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