How to write well targeted mails

by Shabbir on October 15, 2009

Since I began my series on Effective Email Marketing I have shared with you my methods for building and nurturing your email subscribers.

Building a list is critical to your success, but just having a good list is not enough in itself! You must be able to send them information, updates and newsletters which are laser targeted to your audience. If your email titles and content are not relevant or interesting, you run the risk of them going into the trash can, and of the reader canceling their subscription. Remember that your list customer sees the TITLE first…and it is vitally important that you keep in mind why the client signed up in the first place. If you site is about gardening equipment, your list opt-ins do not want to hear about Forex Trading!! relevance to your customers needs is crucial. I use Aweber autoresponder software as you know, and they provide lots of features and tools which you can use to customize your emails. Using these tools to help you write well designed and targeted newsletters can drastically improve your profile with you opt-ins…and your sales!.

Here are a few critical options which I use:

Name: {!name_fix}
I always prefer to start each email or even the subject line with the name of the person it is addressed to, and this little bit of code enables you to do this for every customer on your list! Yes it is HTML….but nothing to be scared of, Aweber explain it all for you very simply. This is the reason that I always have the name as well as the email address on my two field subscription forms. My stats returns have shown me that adding the name in the subject line of emails to CodeItWell.com Subscribers has dramatically increased the ratio of people opening the email and reading it. It makes it seem that it is a personal message from you to them….
The date they signed up: {!signdate dayname}, {!signdate long}
This can also be of real interest to the consumer – you are actually reminding them that it has been however many days since they signed up and asking them how their experience has been. This can lead to positive interaction, which is always good, with really good responses and feedback. I use the same technique on my Finance Blog to ask readers for comments and reviews about my free ebook, and the response is excellent.
Today’s date: {!date long+0} Or a future short date {!date abb+7}
This allows automatic entry of the date, or a date a short time in the future. This is very important, it makes sure that the email appears topical, and not something that you have rehashed. It is very laborious to do this manually, and you might forget, so use this little snippet of code instead! I use this in my MBA Forum Newsletter Title and even subject line. Something like {!name_fix}, Whats happening at MBAGuys.net – {!date long+0} would deliver to me “Shabbir, Whats happening at MBAGuys.net – October 15, 2009″

Other Fields which could be used.

Email address: {!email}
URL from where user signedup: {!add_url}

You can always email users something like {!name_fix} at {!email} requested information by e-mail from our website url {!add_url} adding the information where user signed up because at times user may forget where he actually signed up for updates from your site.

This can also help when you have multiple sites for sign-ups like myself here at CodeItWell.com. You can Sign-up to CodeItWell.com from Go4Expert.com, CFanatic.com or from various forms at CodeItWell.com. Using the method above, I can always remind the user of which link he used to opt-in. The origin can change the user perception of the site, and they might need slightly differently tailored emails. Using these Aweber tools can avoid the problems that can arise from multi site sign ups.

Geographic Location: {!geog_city} {!geog_region} and many such fields which can be used to specify special group of people like Hello all your around in New York.

I would like to finish with a case study from a client of mine. This client had a product ready, and almost 10,000 people on his email subscriber list. Despite this, he was not making the big sales that he was hoping for when he emailed offers to the list. He hired me on the basis that I would receive 20% of all sales generated from his user data base over a given period. I suggested, and not surprisingly he agreed, that he give the users 10% and I would take the rest. I then designed a newsletter with a 10% discount coupon, but with my little additional technical know how I was able to configure the email so that the user name was the discount code. Making the discount specific to the user name and non – transferable made it seem like a personal gift: the response: 22% of people receiving the email purchased the product.

This was not particularly difficult to do, and in any case the point here is to remember to be creative, and to offer your clients interesting variations and ideas! This building of a dialogue can pay off big time….because never forget, at the end of all this care and attention that you lavish on your list members…….you will be able to sell to them! Get it right and every third or fourth email can be a sales pitch, for your own or an affiliate product…

Above all, remember that your business cannot afford to be without an email marketing campaign. In which case, you are going to have to use an autoresponder. If you are not using Aweber, make sure that the company that you are using offers the same range of features to enable you to get your emails in front of your audience, and not into their bins!

Tagged as: AWeber, Email Marketing