section 5 email marketing
Email is the most effective sales tool after the phone...
This section explains how to use email as part of a telephone marketing campaign.
Leaflets sent with letters work well and are easy to produce and you can make them up.
Handwritten notes included with letters and scribbled on a leaflet or some technical information work particularly well.
Product information bulletins, newsletters and innovative ideas can all be put together in-house.
(Postage notes stuck on letters work).
Make notes on a letter look like an afterthought. Send a posh brochure or leaflet and scrawl all over it with different coloured pens.
Use Google Sites to make quick web site/infotorials that reflect the call you have just made and send a link.
Email Marketing
Telephone marketing is a mix of phone calls, email, blogs, webpages, links and even letters.
The phone is the opening gambit of a process known as 'content marketing'
If there is one golden rule of email marketing it is
send useful information
It’s known as ‘content marketing’.
Content marketing in a nutshell involves sending useful information to prospective and existing customers.
The more practical and the more useful the information the better it is and the better it will work.
Email has largely replaced letters but paradoxically; it enhances the power of and occaisional letters.
It is also tempting to send an email instead of making a phone call. Apart from legal issues the response from stand alone emails is low. If you hate making phone calls, sending a letter of introduction will get you a better response.
Developing new business is a relatively slow process because buyers are cautious. You can only travel at the buyers speed. We nudge the sales process along. The most effective strategy is a cautious approach and email is perfect for this.
After a phone call asking if you can send some information the first email should be short with general information. This is just the start of a process that builds trust.
You can then gradually send more information and get permission to send attachments and links.
Once permissions have been given, email can complement and largely replace the phone as the main sales medium.
There are four parts of a marketing email.
1. Subject line
2. First two sentences
3. Content
4. Call to action
As with all marketing communication you should put yourself into the mindset of your potential customer and write everything from their point of view.
Instead of telling the potential customer what you can do, tell them what they will get.
Think about what's in it for your customer because this is the only thing your customer is interested in.
Get permissions to insert attachments and links, give information and build confidence.
Send things that are helpful and useful
The subject line is a headline
more on this subject line as a headline what is a headline and how to write subject lines
How to write subject lines that work
Subject line should be intriguing with no tricks or capitals and don’t use the word free or exclamation marks. more more more
Target a specific audience and make your message clear.
Use a call to action and ask them to do something.
Subscribe to competitors sites to see what they do.
(cut & paste this section and fill in the blanks)
Practical steps to writing an effective sales email
Write a truthful and interesting subject line
Avoid words like free, discount, special offer or anything similar
Write a clear direct message in the first sentence.
Get straight to the point very few people spend much time reading emails in any depth
Focus on just one thing and tell them how they will benefit rather than describing a product or service
Ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?”
Tell them exactly what to do next
Next means immediately and they have to be able to do it easily
Give them something in return for reading your email
The signature must contain your details and an opt out and this is where you can put a link to your website
Sales letters
A letter of introduction seems old fashioned but they can be very effective and often get a reply
But most letters get thrown in the bin!
The aim of a sales letter.
It's true that sales letters get thrown into the bin. Almost all sales letters do get opened and get looked at. This means that they are read in part. knowing how buyers scan letters we can get one or two main points across. This might plant a seed for the future or it might redirect the letter from the bin to the in tray. OK, it won't be acted on just yet but one day it might be.
A small number of letters actually get read. This is perhaps as small as 1 in a 100. But when a sales letter does get read it is read all the way through and back again. Not only is it read it is studied. Studied for opportunities and for flaws. In fact when a prospect is interested the sales letter is read with more scrutiny than a lecturer reads an exam script.
When a letter is read like this it is normally acted on. Bearing in mind the first job in prospecting is finding people who are interested by screening out all those who are not.
The first thing to consider when writing a sales letter is how it gets read.
This is how people read sales letters.
1. look to see who it is addressed to
2. look at a main headline and scan it to see if it is relevant
3. look to see who it is from
4. Read a short PS or note.
This takes seconds but it’s enough to get key information noticed and possibly even noted.
Then they throw it away.
If they have some level of interest they will scan sub headlines.
They hardly ever read the letter fully at first glance. If they are really interested they put it into an in tray and read it later. When they come to read it properly they will follow the above sequence and then read it in depth when they will look to find answers to relevant questions.
We must know what these questions are and give answers using subheadings, charts and pictures.
When the prospect has found enough reassurance s/he will read the letter in depth looking for further reassurance. Then s/he will call and ask for a meeting or further information.
The letter needs to stand up to a high level of scrutiny.
Certain graphic design and layout factors will help and there are persuasive structures that we can use. We can plan the look of the letter and some basic arguments before we even begin to write it.
How the letter should look.
It should be quite long 2 - 3 pages.
It should contain a lot of white space with indents and room to allow key information to stand out. We have four key places to place information. The headline, the subheads, the PS and the use of some form of chart.
When we are selling it is more useful to know
how people buy than it is to know how to sell.
The psychology of purchasing has been studied in some depth and it is worth digressing to examine some aspects of buyer psychology..
Meaningful purchases.
When people have to make a 'meaningful' purchase they seek out and need lots of information. Meaningful can mean expensive, risky or have emotional consequences. Almost all business purchases have all three of these factors. This means that almost all business purchases can be classed as meaningful.
This means almost all business buyers seek lots of information. For this reason alone longer letters work well.
When we are making a meaningful decision we experience a degree of anxiety. The more meaningful the decision the greater the anxiety. Anxiety causes us to avoid making decisions. We need to move at the speed of the buyer and this might be slower than we expect and the buyer may well engage in what seems to be unreasonable delays and procrastination. We can help the buyer by reducing anxiety and this can be done in the letter. Even the look of a letter or email has an emotional effect on a buyer.
The level of the emotional response depends on the frame of mind and the level of risk the prospect is facing.
Persuasive message structure.
During the second world war the British and Americans began to study the psychology of persuasion. They called it psychological warfare or psyops. The study of persuasion has continued and we understand a great deal about persuasive communication now and marketing makes good use of this.
The double sided message
Put forward your strongest case backed up with highly credible evidence.
Put forward a weak counter case with evidence that is not very credible
Put forward a second strong case with another source of credible evidence or re-state the original case with another credible source.
Writing the letter.
Quick information that the reader will absorb when just scanning the letter before chucking it away can be put in a headline and what advertisers call a strapline.
The headline comes after the address and before the name of the receiver. It is centred across the page and in bold text like this
John Smith
ABC Ltd
City Centre
Macclesfield
This is where you can put key information
Dear John
The headline is written entirely from the readers point of view. Consideration is given to what s/he wants most from the product or service you are asking them to consider and the headline brings this to their attention.
The strapline comes at the end and it is normally an instruction what to do next. In sales letters a PS is often used but I often use the term 'note' and I often hand write the strapline in blue ink.
Yours sincerely
Graham
Callwrite telephone marketing
Note, Well written sales letters get results
The headline and the strapline, which comes at the end of a letter in the form of a PS will always get read even if nothing else does. So these are the first two things to consider.
Sub Headlines in between paragraphs tell the outline story of the letter and if the prospect is interested s/he will glance at these. The subheads should take the reader through the gist of the letter and they should summarise the content.
Write the subheadlines first so that they make sense and tell the story.
Body copy is the text within the paragraphs and this gives the detail and arguments.
The text needs emphasizing with pull outs. Pull outs are bits of text that stand out and one of the best techniques is to use a bullet pointed list of key benefits or advantages.
· Letters allow detailed information to be sent
· They reassure people and give confidence
· They can be designed to be scanned
· Or read in depth
· One good letter can be adapted to many different circumstances
The customer's point of view
Perhaps the most important thing in writing a sales letter is to put yourself in the position of your prospective customer. Instead of focusing on what you can offer them consider what they want from you. Match the two together and then write from your customer’s point of view.
The most persuasive word.
The most persuasive word in any language is because.
You'll have success in sales and or business because of the information in this manual.
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Action step 6. Write a three page letter
Think about all the ways your customer will gain from your product or service and write a three page letter explaining these benefits. The whole letter should be focussed around your customer and not you, your company or your product/service.
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Personal notes on Prospecting…
The one area that I am pedantic about is prospecting.
It’s the base for everything.
All sales stem from prospecting and it is the easiest job of all.
If you do nothing else you could still succeed.
In my experience advertising is a weak method of bringing in leads when selling to another business. As is 'word of mouth' and PR.
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Marketing activity such as advertising and PR gets the company name known and helps sales people when they are prospecting.
It is my experience that a successful sales process starts with a quick, low key phone call.
A letter of introduction can work as a prospecting tool but it is expensive, the level of response is low and you still don't know if the prospect is interested until you make that first telephone call.
All you have to do to succeed in sales is to keep on prospecting.
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