Richard Shepherd

Okay, let’s cut straight to the chase. Here’s the nugget of wisdom that fell out of my brain the other day:

At the point where
‘what I want to say’ meets ‘what you want to hear’
is a potential sale.

Think about that for a while, and you’ve nailed email marketing. Not quite sure? Well read on…

Every marketing communication, every email we send out, has an agenda. More often than not that agenda is ‘what you want to say’. You have products and services and you want to sell them. So, send out an email selling your stuff and how great (and well priced!) it is. That is essentially what you want to say.

But is it what a potential customer wants to hear? Of course it isn’t. They don’t care what you want to sell or what you want to provide.

Unless you have a solution to a problem. That problem could be ‘when should I think about writing a will’, ‘what can I buy dad for his birthday’ or ‘what should I wear out on Saturday night’.

What I want to hear is a solution to a problem that you don’t know I have.

Again, because we have no idea what the problems people have might be we fall back on old reliable – an email crammed full of things we want to say, in the hope that you might want to hear some of it.

Here’s an example. “Company X is proud to announce it’s recruited two new staff to head up the new Widget division”.

Seriously. Who cares?

“We specialise in providing you and your team with a fun yet professional experience.”

Wow. Really? Good grief.

So how on earth can we start to put together an email that gets beyond the clichés, and the arrogance of telling people what we want them to hear.

We listen

We listen. And we put ourselves in our customers shoes for a few minutes. We ask ourselves questions like,

“What do we want to hear” and “How do we want to be treated”.

Think about how many email newsletters/magazines/mailshots you get a week. And think about the one that gets the most time from you. That’s the one that works.

Now I don’t know you, but I bet I can guess what’s in that email. I bet it’s something you’re interested in. It may or may not be related to work, but whatever it is you are passionate about it. You might read magazines about this topic, or watch TV shows about it. You probably read news sources on the web about this topic.

It could be a digest email. I bet it has a point of view on a number of current topics that then points you in the direction of further information if you need it. I bet it consists of small snippets of information, rather than long paragraphs of uninterrupted story.

I bet it has some colour in it. I bet the images are strong yet simplistic. I bet for some of you, you’re even surprised at how little ‘design’ seems to have gone into it. It might not have an ounce of eye-candy to it’s name.

But you care about the subject and this particular email always acts as the brightest and most compelling window into that subject.

Guaranteed opens. Guaranteed clicks.

So how do you guarantee that the people you email want to hear what you have to say?

Well here’s the rub: It’s nothing new, but we often forget it along the way somewhere.

Small targeted email lists are always, always better than large untargeted lists.

“Half the Money I Spend on Advertising Is Wasted. The Trouble Is, I Don’t Know Which Half” – John Wanamaker

You do know which half. You can see on your list which half.

Here’s an idea. Delete them. Delete them from your list today. If someone hasn’t opened, say, the last three emails your have sent then delete them right now!!

You email list may halve in a second. You may worry about all those potential customers you have lost.

Delete them.

Surely they want something you sell.

Delete them.

They might have been on holiday for three weeks and so not had chance to read the emails.

You are kidding yourself. Delete them.

Okay, so maybe let’s first send an email along the lines of, “Hey you haven’t read the last few emails we sent so we’re going to remove you from our list. If you wish to remain subscribed then click here” – or something to that effect.

You need to remove these people from your list. You are getting an inflated sense of the number of people who want to hear from you, and you are wasting your time and money on marketing to people who have no interest in what you want to say.

It’s time to clean out the trash (or as we say here in England, the rubbish). It’s time to let go of the hope those people who genuinely has no interest in you or your products.

And watch your list of email subscribers dwindle.

Here’s the good news.

You now have a list of people who want to hear what you’ve got to say. They are avid readers. They are loyal ambassadors. They value your information, they value your insight, and they value the products and services you provide.

And here’s the better news. You don’t have to sell to these people because they are already sold. You merely have to start a conversation with them, which is a lot more fun. Don’t worry, they’ll buy when they’re ready. But whilst they are engaged in a conversation with you they ain’t goin’ nowhere.

Your list is gold. It is a list of targeted individuals who want to join in. It’s not small – it’s lean. It’s focused. It’s manageable.

Now you can do two things.

Firstly craft emails that engage these people. Don’t worry about selling to them. Talk to them about issues that affect your business and theirs. Review products with honest feedback. Share your stories, and invite their feedback. Have a conversation with the friends of your brand.

And secondly, put together a campaign of growing your list with like-minded people. Don’t buy or harvest thousands of email addresses. Look at ways of building you list so that it remains of excellent quality.

Make sure it’s double opt in for a start. That will stop, amongst other things, joke sign ups and spam. Sign people up when they enquire about your product or service. Sign people up when they buy something from you. And sign people up when they comment or review something on your site.

Always ask their permission, and always encourage them to be an active member of the community you are forging.

Draft in photo sharing and blog sharing elements. Ask your customers to contribute to your emails – not just read them. If they have a review then share it with the community. Spend more of your time trying to listen to your customers, rather than talking (or shouting!) at them.

Now you have a group of people who want to listen to what you want to say. You and your potential and existing customers are on the same wavelength, and both groups can add value to each other.

And in email marketing, what could be more important than that?