The email success formula. Right, so this is where we kind of get into the juicy stuff. This is where you get into how you can actually get better results with your email. So, we’ve covered some of the basics around the types of emails you can send, and the pros and cons of email. However, we’re looking at how to get into the success and what makes an email successful before we break that down into copy and design and things like that. So, the golden rule, for email marketing, write this down, is to send the right message to the right person at the right time. Now, this may be an ‘aha!’ moment for you or it could just be, yeah, I knew that already Doug, what are you talking about? That is the golden formula. If you can send the right message to the right person at the right time, you’re onto a winner. So the right message for that person. So, this is where kind of those different things feed into each other. So, the right message could be for me, I’m interested in trainers, sports shoes, or Tesla cars or whatever it might be. Like, if you’re sending something related to that, to me, and this is looking back at the types of email you could be sending. Your newsletter has no relevance to me.
Now even though I’m a fan of say Tesla and Apple, and brands like that. Do I care about their internal news, awards they’ve won and what they’re doing? No. Do I want a special offer and updates on their new releases and enticing me with the inside of the brand-new Tesla that I haven’t seen yet? Hell, yeah, I’m interested in that. So this is where you’re getting the right message to the right person. You’ve got to have a product market fit. So, who you’re sending to and the message you’re sending to. So, if we are sending the right message to the right person, you’re onto a winner. Now, the last part is crucial as well, the timing. Now with automation, you can hit the timing just right. So abandoned cart emails, you leave the cart and 24 hours later you get an email that sort of says, ‘Oh, you left this cart.’
They can really recoup a lot of lost revenue. So, things like that are important, but the timing, you know, sending on people’s time zones or when they’ve opened in the past and a lot of email platforms have some of the kind of clever automation stuff you can send by people’s time zone or looking at your audience and picking the time where most people have opened or clicked in your email. So, the timing is crucial and the thing to remember is that email is a channel. So, getting that message to somebody to send them to a third party, like your blog or your e-commerce store or whatever you want them to read or do, there’s an action you want to perform. You’re not just sending an email blindly because it’s Thursday once a month and that’s when you’ve always done it. No, you’ve really got to think, what is the purpose of this email?
Why am I sending it? So, using email as a channel to actually get people into your email and through out the other side, don’t use it as a one-stop shop. So, for example, what I’ve seen in the past is having big, long copy in emails. What we try to encourage as a business, at MailNinja, is to encourage people to actually say, host that on your blog and actually, we want eyes on your website because that’s traffic. We want people to come to your website because then they read more about what you offer, maybe buy products, download certain guides, and all that kind of stuff. So really we want people on your website where we can, where the useful stuff happens. Email is a way to get them there. So don’t put the big, long copy in your email, get that down to a little bit, and then a button ‘Read more’ and get people through and really use email, as a carrot.
Dangle the carrot and get them through to where you want them to go. So, remember, email is a channel, not a one-stop shop. And email is about engagement. Email isn’t always a sales tool. So, even if you are in e-commerce, some of the best companies we’ve worked with that do it really well and understand this is that email is the long game. It’s not quick wins, it’s not instant sales, it’s drip, drip, drip over time and adding value, not just going in with a sales all the time, adding value over time. So email is about engagement. So think of it a bit like LinkedIn or Facebook. You’re not going to put sale, sale, sale messages all the time because people get bored of it. They won’t follow you anymore. So the same with email. People will get bored if just sales all the time. It has less impact. So really sell the value of your product.
Kind of dive into what the products are about. So, as I said, the internal makings of a Tesla. Now, if Tesla were emailing me all the time and saying, here’s an offer, here’s an offer, yeah, ok, I’m still going to subscribe because you know, maybe one day I’ll take them up on it. But if Tesla, over time and Apple, Apple never do sales, really, generally speaking, Apple never do sales. They don’t need to. So again, focusing on the value, focusing on the products, really high, glossy pictures of the products and breaking down the product benefits and the features. They’re the things you look at, at actually engaging with people. You like this, this is great. And sell the benefits and the value of your brand and your products and the story behind your brand, you know, that’s the valuable asset. Tell your story, your personal story, why you created the brand. Don’t just go in with sales all the time. So, when you do actually come out with a sale, maybe on an occasion like Black Friday, you’ve spent all year or half of the year building up, building up, building up momentum, and then you go in with the sale and you’re going to get more sales. So that generally is the success formula. Use email as a channel, use email to engage and upsell value, but sending the right message to the right person at the right time. Do that and you’ll do email marketing well.
