Random email tips that have worked for me !

In a previous post I wrote about some general email campaign do's & don'ts - in this one I thought of sharing some tactics that have shown good results in campaigns that I have run. A word to the wise though - these are not prescriptions so use carefully only when the situation is appropriate.

1. Many people use mail clients like Outlook & view the mail box in split screen - a list of mails with basic info. & often a preview of the first line on one side & an actual preview of the mail on the other half of the screen. This suggests a couple of tactics - for starters I try to keep the actual mail short enough to get all the "meat" as close to the top of the mail & hence appearing in the portion that would fit into the half screen preview with the sign-off & the signature going "below the fold".

2.  Now almost all mails are addressed to the recipient by first name but I also try to name the target segment they belong to in the first sentence to reinforce that the mail is topical - so something like "I thought it would interest you to know how other Medical Insurance leaders have addressed customer support challenges...". This also helps get this reference into the preview that comes up on the mailbox list - seeing something interesting there may mean the difference between the mail getting opened or canned.

3.  A few personal rules about the content of the mail - I try to keep my claims realistic & as obviously sincere as possible so no hyperbole like "perfect", "raving customers" & the like !    

4. As far as possible I look to include no more than 1 hyperlink in the mail. Ideally that link should be to a specific section in the site that holds some very relevant information to the target segment. As a general rule I try not to direct people to a home page or something as generic as that. In those cases we are depending on the prospect making the effort to look for something more appealing & then clicking through. Chances are that is not likely to happen.

5. It sounds obvious but the mail should be tailored to invite the desired CTA - if that is to click through a link then the mail should specifically drive towards that, if the mail in intended to convince the recipient to give time for a demo or a meeting then one tactic I have found useful is to provide just enough information to pique interest but not enough to tempt the prospect to think they have all the information  they need to take a decision on their own.

6. I also try to anticipate the most common "objection" & deal with it in my closing - so something like "Many organisations with existing vendor relationships in this area have still found value in talking to us because of our unique combination of skill sets."

7. Perhaps most counter-intuitive but I have had some success with emails that include an error or an obvious mistake in the title or the early text - people often feel compelled to read through or even to write back & point the mistake out. This is a high risk-strategy though - mistakes can reflect on your brand so I sometimes hedge by including a reference to the mistake towards the end of the mail & make it clear that it was deliberate. 

So there you have it folks - some personal tips that I have found useful. I would be interested to hear from others if there are things they have tried that have worked for them - no doubt we can all use all the help that we can get ! 

  
(Image Courtesy - Wikimedia Commons)

What to expect when you are Emailing.

First things first - this post is for those still in the early days of flirting with email campaigns. There is plenty of great information out there about more advanced techniques, delivery rates, success metrics & the like but I thought it may be useful to set out first principles - well first !

For the uninitiated then there are 3 types of results that we can expect from emails - all of them useful in their own way.

You've got to Mail !

1. Email read - this is a perfectly valid response. In most cases when we first send an email this is the best result we can expect. The intention of the mail is to let new people know of us or remind people we have been in touch with in the past about us. Think of this as a Shout Out - useful to identify people with whom a longer conversation is warranted or possible but requiring follow thru'. 

2. Clicking through a link in the email - this is much more likely to happen when the email itself calls for that specific action, for eg. the mail campaign itself is talking about a whitepaper & inviting people to download it from the link. In some emails the link is provided only in support of the central message - for instance a link to a webpage. A lack of large nos. of people clicking through this should not necessarily be a cause for concern. What I would definitely recommend is staying connected with  people who do click through such. They are more likely to have some future need coming down the turnpike for which they may be at an early stage of exploration - hence the kicking of the tyres.

3. Email reply - in my personal experience follow-up campaigns sometimes stand a greater chance of eliciting this response than the initial email campaign. Broadly there are 3 kinds of replies - 

a) We like what we hear but we don't have any need right now

b) Don't bother me

c) Something specific in relation to a need or a query 

We have to take care to stay in touch & build a relationship with the people who give the first response, make sure that we do not send any more unsolicited emails to the second category & jump all over the third category. 

Something more specific, links to referenceable work, something cool to showcase etc. is much more likely to have an impact with the first category - there the need is to grow the initial interest so we should respond to their mail with something tailored to their specific area of interest.  

Coming to the dream response - people who have a specific need. To a large extent this is completely unpredictable given that this is only going to occur when there is a live opportunity at the prospect. We can only hope to maximize the probability of this response by covering as much ground as possible through well thought out & targeted email campaigns.

So to all the email campaign newbies out there - start drafting those mails & putting together those campaigns because if you are not reaching out to your prospects your competitors definitely are & chances are they're using mail to do so !