SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Opt In Email
How To Make Recipients Want To Open Your Marketing Emails
How
do you get recipients to open your email once you have
established an opt in email list and have sent
out your first newsletter? Your best course of action is
a plan of regular contact to everyone on your opt in list.
How do you do this and still keep it interesting?
Personalized
email is a great tool to keep and hold the
interest of your contacts. Following these hints will not
only build rapport, but will make each of them feel special
to you and your company, which indeed they are.
Be
polite. Response is higher if emails are personalized.
A simple “Hello John” goes a long way toward imbuing a sense
of familiarity. People often prefer receiving mail personalized
to him or her name on it. Most people throw away un-addressed
mail or mail addressed to “Occupant” without ever opening
the envelope. Your opt in program or service will make it
easy to send personal responses to your leads and, if you
are a small business with less than 100 names you can probably
do it yourself.
If
your lead has already purchased something from your company, a reference back to that product is a good way to keep in
contact. Is the buyer satisfied with the product? Send a
questionnaire regarding customer satisfaction about the item.
This is a personal email that will give the buyer a feeling
that the company is looking after his interests and that
is exactly what you are doing. This is also an early warning
system if there does happen to be a problem with an item
of merchandise.
Is
your company local, or does it have branches scattered
across the country? Regardless, you can use a reference that
is local to the lead if you add that information to his file.
Also remember to use catchy phrases that will be memorable
to your customers and clients. Some phrases are easily forgotten
and cannot be associated with a business or product. Of course,
you will have to be sure that you know what city your contact
is in and that you send the appropriate email.
Appeal to members of groups or organizations by offering
limited time discounts to affiliated members. Understand
what your clients and customers are looking for and always
remember that in your promotions and ads.
An image of the product model that the client purchased
can be very effective in keeping the opt-in interest in your
emails. Remember what the client has purchased and include
that product in future correspondences.
One thing you must always keep in mind is that using this
type of email requires that data be kept absolutely up to
date. What can give a client a warm fuzzy feeling if based
on correct identification information, can wreck a relationship
if the data is wrong.
One easy way to get leads to look forward to your next email
is to always send information that is pertinent to them.
This is sometimes easier to say than to do and requires some
research on your part. A good start to developing your email
is to write down 25 topics that relate to your product and
that would be of interest to your members of your opt in
list.
Next, do an Internet search for information related to those
topics. Choose the 12 best results and design a newsletter
around each one. Include a link back to the information source
and you have an interesting email that will appeal to your
leads and uses a source outside your company. Leads who have
indicated an interest in receiving information about your
product will be interested in related information and will
appreciate the effort you took to send it.
At your company year-end send out a thank you to your clients
for their continued support. Each of these should contain
information that would be important to your client, and all
should have some reason that they should be opened and read
at the time they are sent. This could be anything from a
birthday sale or discount to an invitation to a year-end
celebration.
