Is anybody out there?

Should you ever bring up the topic of email marketing, you will certainly hear people complain about the hundreds of emails they receive on a daily basis. They might even give you a strange look and start asking you if you are “one of those people” who sends huge volumes of email.

With increased postage rates and the desire to reach your prospect when they are attentive, email has increasingly been the solution. The most recent challenge has become: with so many businesses sending messages, how should you stand out in the crowd?  How can you ensure that your message actually gets noticed?

Now more than ever it is essential to have an edge with email marketing when you want to reach new prospects for your business. To cut through the spam filters and be sure that your message is one that someone truly wants to read, consider the following tips:

The success you will enjoy with email starts with your offer
Whether your database holds 200 emails or a million, look at how people found out about your company before looking at the content of your emails. 

Did recipients originally sign up for a newsletter?  Did your prospects sign up for information on a specific product line?  Far too often the same email messages are sent to every prospect in a database. The person who signed up for the newsletter is looking for something entirely different than the person who signed up for product line information.

Look carefully at what prospects sign up for and you will start to uncover the issues with your response rates. The better you make your offers, the more responsive your prospects will be through email.

An interest-piquing subject line can save the day
Open your email right now and take a look at the volume of messages. 

How quickly do you scan the list to determine if you should delete the message, save it for later, or actually read it? Five seconds? Ten seconds?  You have just a few seconds to grab a prospect’s attention, which means taking the time to craft a powerful subject line is worth the investment.

Craft engaging email subject lines by asking yourself the following questions:

• Interest-piquing: Is there an element of curiosity to the subject line that would make want to find out more?
• Pain: Does the email subject alleviate pain or pound on a bruise that is bothering prospects?
• Benefit: Will your prospect experience a benefit of time, money or wellbeing if they read on?

Take time to craft your email subjects, and watch as your response rates increase. 

Not just any email will do — each touch must bring value to the receiver
While the goal of email is certainly to bring more customers to you and push potential customers to purchase more of your products, that can’t be what your emails are all about. Sending emails that are only about sales is a sure-fire way to ensure that your messages are quickly deleted. Look at the content of your emails and ask yourself a very simple question: “If I were opening this email as a total stranger, does it add any value to my day?”

For most emails received, the answer is no. It’s merely an advertisement delivered digitally. Add real value, and your emails will be eagerly anticipated by your prospects — and that’s a win for everybody.

How many emails are you sending?
Even with a database that has a few million records, sending a big “blast” email is not likely to help you achieve your goals. Instead, consider developing an email follow-up sequence that will keep prospects engaged until the moment they are ready to take action.

A good email follow-up sequence will appear personal, add value, and can allow you to stay in touch with a prospect for many years. In the best cases, you’ll have a different email follow-up sequence for those that have purchased a product or service versus the ones that have not yet purchased anything.

Todd Bates is a leading business consultant, speaker, author, and president and owner of Todd Bates Systems. Over the past 20 years, he has worked with more than 25,000 individual business owners and has shared his proven techniques with more than 250,000 people at speaking events.

Have a question? For more, visit www.toddbatessytems.com.