Email Copywriting Tips

As your customers continue to have more and more access to content due to the 2006 surge of consumer generated content, how do you keep them interested in what you have to say?  Here are a few copywriting tips to keep your customers reading further and ultimately making a buy decision.

Write Strong Headlines – Write headlines for your main topics as if you were submitting them for approval to make the front page of the New York Times.  You have less than 3 seconds to pique your readers interest after they have opened your email.

Practice – Send a test email of a template to yourself.  Open it in your email application (Outlook) and only look at it for 3 seconds.  Then look away or minimize your application.  What do you remember?  Are you excited to read on?  Do you know what to click?  Do you know what the main points are?  Remember much of your content may be below the fold.  In your 3 second snapshot, before scrollin, were you able to understand that a buy decision could be made?

Do the Research – OK, you’ve convinced me to read on and in fact I’m looking forward to learning what you have to say, but if the body copy is fluffy and sales pitchy I’m pitchin’ the email.  If it provides valuable, unique, original, relevant content I’m not only going to read on and come closer to a buy decision, I’m going to take some of the content, post it to my blog, forward your email to my colleagues and reference it in a whitepaper I’m writing giving you credit and exposure for providing excellent insight.

Practice – Commit to putting a graph, a chart, a matrix, a quote, something extra in your next email that will add robustness to your content and prove to your readers that you are willing to go the extra mile.  It’s a time commitment, but it pays off in reader loyalty, your database will grow quicker as your thoughts are spread by your readers and it will help you establish credibility with new readers.

Ask for Help – A good habit to get into once you have salved over putting together excellent email copy is to pass it off to someone else to have a look over.  Give them the complete product, built in your template with images and all.  Don’t just give to anyone either, give to your design/advertising team to look over headlines and creative copy and give to someone that understands moving people to buy decisions to see if your email does just that.

Practice – Ask to be an editor for a friends email outside of your organization.  Do the 3 second snapshot and make recommendations based on your experience.  Critiquing an email that is not your own will help you understand what works and what doesn’t and will ultimately lead you to becoming a better copywriter.

Good First Impression

Something to think about as you enter into the weekend.  The first email you send to a customer is the one that is going to set the tone of your ongoing relationship with them.  If you are sending out a tips email and don’t have the time to put in something that is really worth remarking upon, then don’t.

You may be telling yourself that you haven’t put out a newsletter in a while and your last one was so good that they might overlook this latest version that is not as informative.  Think about all of the new customers that have come on since then.  Do you really want their first impression to be a reflection of your hastiness?

It’s important to remember this.  If you don’t have anything really worth talking about, don’t talk for the sake of talking.  Believe me, your customers, I, would much rather receive terrific information once in a longer while than mediocre information on a more frequent basis.

Another thing to note: Be honest – preface your newsletter with “I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while, but I wanted to have something great to say before I sent you anything…”  This leaves a lasting first impression.

Broken

Here is a gem of a site that sparks a few important points about customers.

This is Broken

What about your product experience, presentation, marketing material is broken and did you break it on purpose? Did you break it to niche yourself even further? Is it broken for people it shouldn’t be broken for?

If one person thinks it’s broken, it’s broken.

Are you listening to those that say it’s broken? It’s difficult to find a user that will actually take the time to tell you how broken your product/service is. Wouldn’t you rather have a screaming user than a quietly frustrated user?

Be happy, be thrilled, for the customer that takes the time to point out all of the short comings of your offering. Listen to why they think its broken and fix if it was not meant to be broken in the first place.

The Core

It seems as though roughly 500 people do a mojority of the posting, moderating, and editing of wikipedia – The worlds largest encylopedia with over 6 billion articles written since it’s conception 4 years ago.
Who is your core?  Who are the 5-15% of your customers that contribute the most to your product development?  How much more pasisonate are these customers than the majority?  Do you listen to them?  What if you made a suggestion to a company who makes a product that you use and they actually made the change!  How much more evangelistic would you be?

Forward Facing

Have you ever thought about your logo, your branding and the way it may make your customers feel just from looking at it.  Take a little test and check out the cover contest for Guy Kawasaki’s latest book.  Nearly 75 entries all trying to convey the same thing.  Did he make the right choice, was there a different cover that resonated more with you?  Think about this and think about the way your forward facing images may appeal to some and turn off others.

Fashion Forward

What can we learn from the fashion industry in terms of word of mouth marketing?

Did you know True Religion jeans made a name for themselves by giving away pairs?  We’re talking about jeans that cost $400+!  They were having a hard time selling (no surprise at that price point), even in high-end boutique shops.  They made a bold move and their CEO hit the streets and gave random urbanites a post card.  On this card was an entry form for your pants size.  Fill it in, drop it in the mail and True Religion jeans showed up on your porch within a week.  Why?

He knew the power of Word of Mouth and believed that if people were wearing his jeans, they would be noticed.  So what happened?

Stores couldn’t keep them on the shelves and they are posting over $20 million in revenue this year.  What are you doing to encourage word of mouth with your products?  Are you branding your email campaigns?  Are you telling a story that easily spreads?  Are you giving away trial versions?  Think about the effects of true word of mouth and think about what a real product evangelist can do for your brand.