Part III — Writing Killer Email Copy

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about marketing through e-mail. This week’s tip focuses on the meat and potatoes of an email marketing campaign: writing killer copy that generates results.

· Start off by writing your email offline — Think about what you want to say and how you are going to say it. You may want to consider outlining your email with the specific points you want to make in the text.

· Customize your content - Don’t just write an email message and expect it to appeal to every type of reader. If you’re creating an email to target conservative, no-nonsense buyers, don’t write something that’s uses “the familiar” tone of voice, for example. Likewise, if you’re trying to reach a young, hip audience, you might want to use pop jargon and have a little fun with it.

· Give your readers a reason to read on - All too often, emails, even opt-in ones, are nothing more than hype. All of us receive far too much junk these days to be bothered by reading just one more email. Try to include useful information to your reader — tell them about some new service you offer and why or how it would help them; or about a new content you have added that they might be interested in.

· Be honest and truthful - Yes, there are suckers born everyday, but the majority of your online readers would feel more comfortable with you from the start if you established a sense of trust. Be sure to include important information like your web site URL, your company name, address and telephone number. And by taking it one step further and personalizing it by giving your name and your title (Joe Smith, Director of New Business Development), you will be lending all the more credibility to your proposition.

· Follow the 3 laws of “benefit selling” - In benefit selling, there are really only three reasons why someone should buy from you, and you should state that clearly, in plain English: #1, Your product or services saves someone money; #2, It makes someone money; or #3, It makes them or their customers happy. “Buy from us today because our products are sure to save you money,” is about as plain English as you can get.

· Make sure your message is consistent and clear - Does your email say what you had wanted to say? Does it send the same message throughout? Before you send it out to all your visitors (or even one) have someone else read it for clarity.

· Always, always, always do a spell-check! - Don’t expect a computer to catch your crappy journalistic skills either. Be sure that your grammar and syntax are correct, and again, have someone else read your document for errors. What is that old saying about “one chance to make a first impression”?

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