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4 Quirky Hacks For Higher Email Copy Conversion

Ever since Google introduced Gmail’s Promotion Tab, marketers declared email is dead. This a wild overreaction.

The Promotion Tab’s function is an opportunity to become more successful.

The beauty of Gmail’s Promotion Tab is that it forces the copywriter to get outside of himself. The sales process isn’t about copy formulas and frameworks, but it’s about getting creative. It’s about context and where you fit in it. It’s your customer who fits in that context in relation to your product and/or service.

In the “old” days, email marketing was easy (too easy, in fact). Especially when you factor in all the spam emails pouring into your inbox.

This got so bad that governments stepped in with anti-spam laws. Plus, regulations on how to manage subscribers’ information.

Yet, Google went a step further by filtering marketing messages. This step was to improve the user experience for Gmail.

Enter the Promotion Tab.

Now, unless the subscriber wants to read your message in their inbox, you get moved. As a result, you are out of sight and out of mind as a result.

However, this isn’t all bad news.

Most marketers are unoriginal and lazy (thank goodness). For you, this is good news. Because with a little creativity, you are set to increase your inbox deliverability. Now, you are a welcomed guest instead of an annoying nuisance.

First, understand that the Promotion Tab is to keep out the “door-knockers”. Google engineered it this way to make room for content and offers that the end-user is eager to consume. And, keep out the ignored, unwelcome emails.

To help, here are 4 quirky ways to get your customers’ attention and get your emails opened.

They are:

  1. Use the “From __” technique.
  2. Text over HTML.
  3. Two-step content marketing.
  4. Controlling the frame (and managing expectations).

The “From _” Technique

If you want to be successful at email marketing you have to get your reader’s attention.

This is easier said than done.

The vast majority of email copy is stale and tends to follow the herd. To get attention, you have to be able to grab your client’s attention and pull them into your narrative.

One way is to stand out from the crowd of emails pouring into their inbox by changing the angle of your message. To do that, you need to pivot by assuming a different point-of-view (POV). Then, communicate from that place to the deep emotional core of your client.

So, when emailing your list, assume the POV from a deep emotional need. An “emotional touchpoint”. Then, label that touchpoint in your email service.

Instead of blasting out emails from Larry’s Gym, you tailor your email message. Your From Sender should read “Your Future 30-inch Waist…Your Achy-Breaky Heart (needs you to exercise!)…Your Future Self That Wants To See Your Kids Grow Up…To Grow Old With Your Spouse…Your Wish To Be Sexy To Your Husband Again…”

This helps you stand apart from the “me too” type of marketing that your competitors are doing. Better, it communicates to the deepest wishes and desires of your prospects.

Text Over HTML

Most commercial offers inside of emails, as well as newsletters, use a lot of banners and graphics. This is appealing on the eyes but, again, it makes you look like everyone else.

Worse, it gets you sent directly to the dreaded “Promotion” tab for any of your customers that use Gmail.

Google’s Gmail is the most popular. It is also the most used email service provider worldwide by consumers. With over 1.8 billion users gives Google more than 43% of the market share for email.

If almost half of your consumer base is using Gmail then you have to get into their inbox and out of the Promotion tab. To help, use text over HTML.

Bottom line: stay away from graphics and banners inside of your email messaging.

Instead, use strong persuasive storytelling that revolves around overcoming objections in advance.

Note: One way you can do this is with case studies as proof of delivering the desired results.

Two-Step Content Marketing

Combining more than one form of content to increase engagement is Two-Step Marketing.

Content that refers to another piece of content increases increased conversion. Think of a time when you read an article on a topic that interested you. If the article referred to a book that expanded on that topic and you ended up buying it. That is a form of Two-Step Content Marketing.

Email marketing yields the greatest ROI than any other form of marketing. Email returns $38 for every $1 invested which makes email a major marketing channel.

That said, video marketing has one of the highest forms of engagement between a consumer and a brand. This becomes even more impactful when you combine both email and video marketing.

I’m a big believer in “results-in-advance” marketing. Frank Kern coined this phrase years ago. Frank encouraged businesses to give the end-user value upfront in the form of results. It was only after he gave value that he felt he had earned the right to ask for a client’s business.

By creating a piece of content that orbits your current offer and gives value upfront.

You then use email to drive traffic to that video where they engage with your content. Then, give the client a taste of results-in-advance to give value upfront. They are then exposed to an offer that expands on the results they experienced.

For example, on cooking lessons, you would take them through a recipe from start to finish. On getting in shape for busy people, you take them through a quick 10-minute routine. For investing, you show them how to find undervalued stocks with a stock screener. For married couples who want to become more intimate, you show how to deepen an emotional connection. For kids struggling with Algebra, you take them through a learning plan on how to solve word problems.

Copywriting and coach, Chris Laub, uses this tactic with Facebook Groups. He invites aspiring copywriters and freelancers to his group and dazzles them with the broad scope of his experience to fill in the gaps of his audience’s knowledge. Then, he takes them on a journey to the next-level of their success and, eventually, as a student to really raise their game.

In each of these examples, you take one facet of your offer and then share it in video. Only then, do you create value in the customer’s mind as well as getting them engaged with your product or service. It’s at that point you can then ask them if they want to expand on what they’ve learned or experienced.

Once you have taken them through that process it makes conversion easier. Now, they’ve gone from cold lead to a hot prospect.

Controlling The Frame

Controlling the context of communication and the narrative is “frame control”.

In email marketing, you want to present the ideas that support your message. Also, you want to craft the sequence of the message.

By creating the narrative, you create the context you want to present to the reader.

Let’s say you’re a yoga instructor who’s wanting to offer customized classes to middle-aged men. You can start by crafting the subject line and copy as:

Subject line: The back pain you’re not even aware of…

Opening line: Pain. You don’t even know you have it but it’s killing your quality of life.

Body copy: By the time you’re 40 you probably don’t even realize the pain you’re in. But, you can see its toxic effects in your life.

“Pain. You don’t even know you have it but it’s killing your quality of life.

At the end of the day, you’re tired and your energy is gone. You can barely stay awake and want to call it a day. But, you’re kids need help with homework. Your spouse wants to spend time with you but you don’t feel like it. What’s happening.

According to the American Medical Institute, as you get older you’re body. This “tight” feeling in your lower back is the sum total of stress and trauma you’ve experienced in your life.

What they don’t tell you is the negative effects of a lack of flexibility. The toll it takes on your life in the form of pain, lack of mobility, and how it sucks the quality of life from your health.

Worse, it set you up for chronic back pain for the rest of your life. Even worse, you may become so used to the pain that you’re not even aware of it. It may be a constant companion that grows underneath your awareness and you accept it.

What do you think is going to happen 1-, 3-, or 5-years down the road if you allow this to happen? Will you be able to reach your potential at work if you’re weighed down by pain and discomfort? Can you see how it impacts the quality of your life with your family?

Here at Family Yoga, we know the solution and how to improve your quality of life through the practice of yoga.

In fact, we’re so sure we can help you in as little as two weeks that we have a special offer to help you take charge of your health.

Give yourself a commitment of 3 times a week for two weeks and there is no charge. Yup. Totally free.

We are so sure that we can help you shed off that pain and discomfort that we will teach you for free.

Think about it – better energy, no more discomfort, feeling better, putting more “life” in your life.

In two weeks, you’ll be able to take charge of your physical well-being and start the path to true health.

Don’t let Father Time rob you of better mobility and lower the quality of your life.

Get it back with our help.

If at the end of two weeks you don’t think it’s for you then no harm, no foul. You walk away with no obligation (but we’re positive that once you realize how good you feel then you’ll want to come back).

Just hit reply and we’ll set up a call to get you started.

Best,

Family Yoga”

Notice that this email didn’t get into losing weight or getting in shape. It also didn’t get into getting washboard abs or speak to teenage girls.

It had a direct audience (middle-aged men) and to a specific problem (back pain).

It also presented a simple offer (two weeks of free yoga sessions) but asked for a small commitment (free if they attend 3 times a week) so they can reap the benefits. This prequalifies them as serious leads who want to be pain-free who are willing to take action.

This is how frame control works. It presents a focused message to a targeted audience with a specific offer that has clear pain points and an desired end-result.

Wicked Combinations…

These quirky email hacks are a form of pattern interrupt.

Consumers are assaulted with endless marketing messages each day. Like walking through a carnival, carnival barkers shout to get your attention. They work to convince you to try your luck with their product/service.

Reducing your marketing to this level puts you on the same level as your competitors.

In business, it’s always better to be different than run with the crowd.

Your first step is to set yourself apart from the sea of competitors in your market.

These 4 methods will set you apart from the crowd to grab more attention and help you build trust.

Copy Breakdown: Digital Marketer – Abandoned Cart Email Reactivation

Did you know that ecommerce stores have reported that as much as 75% of online shopping carts are lost to abandonment by potential customers?

Would it be crazy to think that you need to have a strategy in place to try and recapture some of those sales?

The good news that these potential sales can be tracked and retargeted to bring them back into the purchase cycle.

I’ve written about several email sequences to plug the leaks in your sales process so today we’re going to look at one of them sent by Digital Marketer via Ryan Deiss.

Lately, Ryan has been promoting an interactive training called “The Napkin Challenge” where he is taking digital business owners through a 5-day training on developing a simplified marketing plan.

The promotion is directed to cold to warm traffic on Facebook and is in-house list of subscribers.

It’s worth noting at this point that Digital Marketer, a company that he helped found and currently serves as the CEO, has been reported to have as many as 10,000,000 subscribers across several subscription plans and verticals. Needless to say, that is ALOT of subscribers which require a lot of emails to keep engaged to promote to.

For that reason, it pays to pay attention to what a giant like Digital Marketer does and take a closer look under the hood.

When I got the email promoting “The Napkin Challenge” I clicked and went to the sales page that’s promoting the offer.

It has well-written copy with an engaging story about how the challenge came into existence along with the inherent promise of helping you create a plan to achieve success in your business.

What was interesting is that I added the offer to my cart and then proceeded to enter my information then decided to abandon to see if they had this sequence set up. Bingo! A little later I got this gem below:

Notice that the initial email in the Abandoned Cart Email Sequence started with a question. This is designed this way to convey concern on the part of Ryan but also to get you curious enough to open the email again.

The open loop it creates is meant to create an “itch that needs to be scratched” by asking a question, engaging your curiosity, and create the inner motivation to seek the answer by opening the email.

The email goes on to ask what happened and if it was there fault. This takes the pressure off you for failing to follow-through but also reintroduces the order form again to get you back in to their sales process.

As the email begins to sign off, Ryan does something kind of cool by offering the customer support’s email, just in case there is an issue. This also accomplishes a secondary benefit of making the reader feel special by offering a little extra help, even if they don’t need since they can just click back to the order form again.

The one weakness I see is that there are no more follow-up emails in this sequence. Now, granted, it’s a low-priced offer ($38.60) so Digital Marketer may have decided it’s not necessary since the cost/benefit analysis may not require it. However, it might be short-sighted on their part. Why? Because I suspect that there is a backend offer and this is just a low-end offer to get warm leads into their funnel.

It’s a trend right now to host these 5-day intensives and then after giving the customer a ton of value a high-price ticket is introduced.

So, a full Abandoned Cart Email Sequence may help get those extra leads into the funnel with more potential high-ticket sales on the backend as a result.

It’s also worth mentioning that massive marketing giants like Digital Marketer and long-time established marketers like Ryan have sent billions (that’s “B” for a billion) of emails. That, and they have tested countless sequences, subject lines, body copy, and position of the links inside of the email so they are worth examining.

So, do yourself a favor and add this to your swipe file and make notes.

80/20 Series: Most Effective Headlines

In this 80/20 series, I’m going to focus in on the leverage points in sales copy structure. I’m doing this for you for a couple of reasons.

One, so you can begin to see where the “magic” lies inside of your copy.

Writing persuasive copy is a beast.

There are countless interconnected persuasive elements connected by one overarching strategy. If they are out of place or disjointed, it’s like pineapple pizza. It’s a pizza but it’s an abomination to the diehard Chicago deep-dish pizza fan. You don’t want your customers to have the same reaction when they come to a particular part of your sales process.

I’m a big believer in the “frictionless” experience. Your customer has certain expectations as they through your sales process. They are on the lookout for anything wrong so they can have an excuse to bail. Your message has to be engaging to keep them going on that journey with you. The moment they hit a speed bump they are going to flee.

By breaking down the your salesletter into its separate pieces you can polish and improve it.

Second, these sections within a salesletter are responsible for the lion’s share of the ROI.

And, the most important part of the salesletter is the headline.

To get your creative juices flowing, here are 10 of the most effective headline strategies to draw more customers into your sales letter.

Breaking News!

The “Breaking News!” headline is a pattern interrupt.

Think of it as if you were watching a herd of gray elephants go by and then you see a pink elephant. It shocks you out of the hypnotic trance of observing the common to getting a cold splash of the uncommon hit you in the face and shock you back to your senses.

It’s an attention-getting headline designed to introduce new information with a major benefit to draw you into the rest of the message.

Guarantee

“Guaranteed to Make You !…Guaranteed to Help You Lose Weight!…Guaranteed to Save You More Money On Your Taxes!…We Guarantee You Will Achieve _ Or We Will Refund Your Money, No Questions Asked!…

These types of headlines target a market that desires security before actually purchasing. By offering the guarantee upfront, you are transferring your confidence in your offer to the reader. This pulls them in to read the rest of your message.

Question

“Got Milk?…It’s 10:00 PM – Do You Know Where Your Children Are?…Do You Feel You Want More To Do With Your Life?…”

Questions draw a reader in and make them consider things that they hadn’t considered before. It’s a powerful way to draw someone in to a narrative that you’ve designed to get someone to take an interest in your offer.

Most people run on auto-pilot due due to our psychological makeup. Human beings run on efficiency so people conserve energy by considering things in their field of awareness.

By crafting the right question in the headline, you get your reader to pause. This pause is your opening to get them and consider the relevance of your offer.

How To…

“How to” headlines introduce solutions to a market that is looking for answers to a problem.

“How to Lose 10 lbs. in 10 Days…How to Reach Retirement With A Million Dollar Portfolio…How to Find the Love Of Your Life in 30 days…How to Get in the Best Shape of Your Life, Guaranteed!…”

“How to” headlines are most effective when they have elements of urgency, uniqueness, ultra-specificity, and useful.

Not all “How to” headlines have all of these elements but the more they have the stronger the influence on the reader.

Reason Why

Your copy needs to give your reader a valid reason to act now.

The “Reason Why” headline introduces that compelling idea to the reader to take action.

“If You’re 55, Buy This Stock or You May Never Retire!…If You’re 55, Buy This Stock and You Can Retire This Year!…If You’re Diabetic, You Could Lose Your Feet If You Don’t Do __…”

These headlines are powerful when selling ideas versus physical products because ideas can be abstract and vague. But, by communicating consequences, ideas move from the realm of vague abstraction to having real world consequences.

Those consequences speak to the personal experience of the reader to becoming a source of motivation for them to take action.

Benefit

Losing weight, making more money, meeting the love of your life, forming greater benefits with your children, achieving greater health, overcoming life-threatening diseases, and more are all benefits that are deeply personal to the human experience.

The “Benefit” driven headline seeks to communicate those benefits in a personal way to grab the reader’s attention.

“Get Your Dream Career in 3 Simple Steps…Would You Give 10 Minutes a Day to Gain 10 Years of Life?…Create the Life You Want, Not the Life You Settled For…”

These headlines imply benefits like a dream career, more quality of life, and reaching one’s potential. All of these ideas speak directly to the human experience and compel the reader to consider what are the inherent secrets of your offer and draw them into the message (which is what you want).

Emotion

Emotions are the driving factor behind all buying decisions.

Every great salesletter has to have emotional elements in the copy to draw the reader in and drive them to buy.

The “Emotion” headline introduces feelings at the beginning of the message. This acts as the first domino to fall in a series of dominos taking the reader all the way to the end buy.

“Do You Lay Awake At Night Worrying About Money?…Regrets? Wish You Had Saved More Money For Retirement?…How to Have More Fun and Energy With These Tibetan Secrets…Not Feeling Like The Man You Used To Be?…”

A good strategy for “Emotion” headlines is to introduce a negative emotion to steer the reader towards a positive emotion in your lead or vice versa. Once you understand the power of appealing to emotions, you can craft several “moving towards, moving away from” elements within your salesletter to motivate the reader to read more of your message.

Personal Story

Stories are a powerful tool to create a personal connection to the reader. Emotional experiences create common ground with the reader and can become more personal.

“Personal Story” headlines set the stage to touch the heart of the readers.

“Thank God My Husband Did This Before He Died…People Laughed At Me When I Sat Down At The Piano To Play,…I Was The Ugly Girl That No One Asked To Dance, But Look At Me Now!…”

Vulnerability and authenticity are force multipliers of “Personal Story” headlines. Use them and it sets the stage for your buyer to take action. It also to creates raving fans for your offer instead of just customers.

Testimonial (social proof)

Certain audiences are skeptical within a market.

The need for proof, evidence, and facts to back it up can go a long way to convert cold traffic to red hot buyer.

“8 Out of 10 Doctors Recommend …Breaking New Research Reveals to Accomplish __…I Struggled With My Weight All My Life Until Science Showed Me _…Unknown Sociologist Reveals Science-Base Method Guaranteed to Add 50 New Clients Each Month…”

Engineers, attorneys, doctors, and other professionals where fact-based decisions are part of their daily working lives. And, as a result, they are good examples of consumers that need data to help make a buying decision.

Command

Contrarian or contrasting messages to the status quo are a way to rise above the crowd and create points-of-difference between you and your competitors.

In marketing, it’s better to be different than to follow the crowd of regurgitated sales message in a market.

That’s what makes “Command” headlines a powerful way to reach your audience.

“Stop Buying Mutual Funds If You Want To Get Rich!…Stop Exercising If You Want To Lose Weight!…Want More Love In Your Life? Then Stop Asking Women Out! Do This Instead!…”

Consumers have varying degrees of awareness to solutions to their problems. Think of cell phones 10 or 15 years ago where they were pretty basic but then iPhone came along and changed the landscape.

In health, there was a time where eating carbohydrates were all the rage for a healthy lifestyle, but then Atkins and keto were introduced, and then carbs became a pariah. At the time, Atkins and keto advocates yelled from the mountaintops to “stop eating carbs, they are making you fat!” Both were criticized by “conventional thought” but are now accepted as fact.

Putting Them Into Action

Each of these headline strategies can be an effective launching point to grab your readers’ attention but it’s important to test different versions. Headlines are the first thing that your customer is going to see which gives you a split second to grab their attention.

A good copywriter will always offer more than one headline for you to test. Small tweaks in conversion can lead to big changes on your bottom line if you apply the painstaking process to improve them.

Also, a strong copywriter can combine different elements of each headline for countless variations to increase the power of their communication.

By focusing on this part of your copy and brainstorming new ways to reach your customer you can help more people as well as your bottom line.

Plugging The Leak Strategy

Want to make 30% more money without buying any more traffic?

What about making more money automatically anytime someone hits your page?

So, here’s the thing, every time a visitor comes to your site, chances are they are going to see something they want and then flake out. They will abandon the purchase or optin for something never return. Or, they will buy one time and then fail to return again and purchase more great stuff from you.

In any of those scenarios, it’s not good for you and it’s definitely not good for your visitor. Why? Because you have awesome products and/or services which they will never experience nor realize the life-changing transformational power of your offer, that’s why.

Bottom line, you are in a boat with several leaks that you need to plug so you don’t end up underwater.

How? I’m glad you asked.

Let’s get started…

The Strategy

There is an old Spanish saying, “When the wind is strong it is smooth sailing. When the wind is gone you have to paddle like hell.”

When things are going great and you’re sales numbers are trending in the right direction it’s human nature to coast. But, as a business, you know that things are not going to go smoothly. In fact, things going smoothly is the exception, not the norm.

You’re attention is being pulled in any given direction, often at the same time, with the gravitational pull of a black hole.

That’s why you need a method to recapture traffic and get them back in your sales sequence automatically.

Enter: The Plugging The Leak Strategy.

If you’re tracking your visitors (and you should be with Google analytics or some tracking tool) then you can track where you visitors enter your site, what they do, and where they exit.

It is the exit part of this equation where the “leaking” is happening and where you want to plug it up.

To help, here are some of the most common places where you want to “plug the leaks”:

  1. Welcome Email
  2. Abandoned Cart Email
  3. Upsell Email
  4. Reengagement Email

Welcome Email Sequence

So, you got a customer who bought. Now what? Well, if you’re like most business owners you sent them there order, right? Wrong.

You want to welcome them into your world! You want to tell them how much you appreciate there business!

Even better, ask them to buy something else!

Don’t be afraid to pour it on thick and even make it a little light-hearted.

“The sun broke through the clouds and rainbows appeared! There! Deep in the blue clouds, there came a ray of sunshine that beamed down on me, signaling you had just joined our happy family of customers!

Seriously, thank you for your business. You could have spent your hard-earned money anywhere and instead you invested it here with our little operation.

It means alot and I want you to know I will never take your business for granted.

Please, use this coupon of “10percentoff” any time in the next 48 hours to show our appreciation for your next purchase.”

See what I did there? I probably made them smile a little and then presumed the next sale while adding a little scarcity (”…the next 48 hours…”) to sell them more stuff.

Abandoned Cart Email Sequence

The bulk of customers will come to your site, find something they like, add it to their card, and then bail.

That’s the reality of doing business online.

However, by making them set up an account, and/or get them to optin prior to purchase, you can trigger this email sequence to get them back in your sales process.

Here is how the numbers breakdown: If you have 20,000 potential clients and half of them bail on you in a month that’s 10,000 lost sales. If the average first-time sale is worth $100 then you’ve lost potentially $1,000,000.

But, you set up an Abandoned Cart Email Sequence asking them “Something wrong? Can I help? Did you forget something?” to get them back in the fold. If you recover 30% of those lost sales then you’ve bumped your sales to an additional $300,000 in revenue (10,000 abandoned sales x 30% recovered x $100 average first-time transaction = $300,000).

With one email sequence, you’ve doubled your revenue.

How would it feel to have an additional $300,000?

Now, I know, I know. Not every Abandoned Cart Email Sequence will earn 30% sales back. But, sometimes you do a lot better.

Out of all the “plugs” this one is missed the most and alot of lost money as a result.

Upsell Email Sequence

Want to know the best time to sell a buyer something else? Answer: As soon as they’ve bought something.

When you buy something you’re body releases “feel good” chemicals they give you a type of “high”.

This is why Amazon is such a beast in eCommerce.

Amazon has the most frictionless selling process in the world. They measure and track everything from the color of their “Add to Cart” button to their referral engine of product recommendations to the emails they send you with products they think you’ll like.

You buy something from them then they come full-force gangster at you with lots of offers.

When someone buys from you, then the Upsell Email Sequence kicks in to sell them something else.

If someone buys something, then you want to setup an automatic email to fire off and offer them something more.

“Hey, Bob! Thanks for buying the Hedgehog Wonder Socks from our site! Look, I know you’re going to love these socks (everyone does!) but let me give you some advice…

If you’re going to get the socks, then you’ve got to get the Hedgehog Wonder T-shirts too!

Seriously, the fabric slides of your skin like silky lavender and adds an extra layer of warmth between you and your over-shirt. Plus, the color scheme matches the socks.

But the cool thing is (are your ready)…they are REVERSIBLE! Yup, it’s like getting two shirts in one!

Do yourself a favor (and because I like you), go add this to your cart by clicking here AND, Bob, buy one T-shirt and get the next one 50% off on us!

Don’t wait, go now and get the T-shirts and we’ll ship it along with those righteous looking Hedgehog Wonder Socks!

Do it now and it’ll ship right now so you get it in a few days!”

This sequence works because the buyer is still in a buying mood plus you’ve offered him a chance to keep his “high” going.

And, did I mention? You get more sales as a result.

Give it a try.

Re-engagement Email Sequence

Sometimes, leads cool.

It’s normal, but that’s why professionals have email sequences to get them re-engaged with their brand.

In email marketing, there are sequences that serve a purpose (think Plugging The Leaks Strategy by yours truly) but there are also emails whose purpose is to get the client active with their brand again.

If a customer has bought in the past then sometimes they need to be reminded that you’re still around and have cool stuff for them to check out.

When you send a special reminder (”hey, we’re back in stock on that awesome vanilla latte flavored oatmeal that you love”) to gain their interest again.

Now, if you’ve tracked your sales (and you always should) plus when they last bought then you can plan your marketing strategy accordingly.

If a client hasn’t bought in 30 days, for example, then a simple email based on their past interests may be enough to re-engage with your brand and activate them again (get them to purchase something).

But, if a client hasn’t bought from you, in say, 90 days then it may take a little more coaxing. It’s at this stage, you might want to make a special offer in the form of a discount and/or bundle offer. Anything that can get them back into your sales process so you can offer them awesome value and keep them as a customer.

The rough outline is designing a broadcast email that has a special offer to a group of past buyers. The links in the email will help you track their interest in the offer while your site should be pixeled to retarget them with relevant ads till they purchase.

Once they do purchase, voila! They are reactivated and you continue to follow-up with more offers to keep them in sequence and present them with similar offers to expand your offering to them based on their behavior (clicking links, buying stuff, etc.).

Let’s Huddle Up

This is a rough outline of a very sophisticated approach (Plugging The Leaks) which can give you a lot of ideas on how to increase sales without increasing traffic.

It takes a combination of creativity and know-how, but the good news is that once you put an emphasis on email marketing then you don’t need to worry about increasing ad costs.

Most businesses try to put their foot on the gas peddle and increase paid traffic but that’s only effective up to a point. As ad prices rise or you experience “ad fatigue” by your ideal customers who are growing weary of your ads you have to create better systems to stabilize your revenue.

Email marketing and Plugging The Leaks Strategy can help you do that.

And, unlike PPC marketing, you set it up once and it runs automatically, forever.

How to Construct an Effective Email Sequence

Do you want email sequences that generate large sales and create new buyers?

Do you also want email sequences that are “evergreen” and to use over and over again?

Today, competition is fierce. Your competitors are bidding up the cost of advertising for new leads making cold traffic tough to convert.

Adding to the difficulty, most leads won’t convert so you will have to have a strategy in place to follow-up. Since roughly 85% of all sales is made during follow-up to convert mildly-interested customers until they become activated buyers.

So, the question is how do you accomplish that without having a sales team actively calling and following up? The answer is that you automate it with email marketing.

Email marketing company, Constant Contact, reports that for every dollar you spend on building a list of prospects returns an average of $38.

Knowing that should make an impression on you as to why you should be collecting emails as a core part of your marketing. It also means that you need to have a strategy to move those leads from cold to hot since they’re going to offer you the “biggest bang for your buck” in your marketing wheelhouse.[

To help, you need a framework to create a series of automated emails to maximize sales opportunities.

Email Sequences

Email marketing is tailoring your message to match the market that your product/service is designed to serve.

But, here’s the thing, the consumers your targeting are diverse. They have different stages of awareness, beliefs, and buying criteria before they’re going to commit.

The goal is to create a promotion that gets your message in front of the fast-action takers at the beginning of the sequence and then changes its tone to match more closely with those consumers that need more information.

The goal of every email is to get a “click through” to a sales page where the case for purchasing can be made. Preferably, a sales page that has been proven to convert leads from visitors to clients.

Email 1 & 2

These emails need to be more emotional and dynamic.

This email needs to express energetic messaging to draw the client into a story. It focuses on how they can get the results that are part of your marketing message.

“Get that promotion…lose weight quickly and easily…look younger…make more money…”

These are all themes of your messaging that need to be addressed and the inherent promise of reaching that end-goal needs to be made.

You want to stay focused on the solution that your offer makes and that they want but don’t give it a name yet. Keeping an air of mystery about it makes it more compelling and more likely that they’ll click through to get more information.

Once it’s made, you want to have 2 to 3 hyperlinks in the email’s body copy so the client can click and taken to the offer itself.

Email 3 & 4

Some people need more time to think about the offer. It’s not that they won’t buy, but that they need more information which is foundation for this weekly email sequence.

In this phase of the email sequence, you need to talk a little bit about the offer, even mentioning it by name. If you have bonuses or special terms, then this the time to start introducing it and begin building up the value.

Also, use testimonials and case studies. This adds social proof helping to persuade them that you have the solution to their problem.

A compelling case study also adds a story if presented well. This can draw the reader further into your message putting them into the story by seeing themselves receive benefits of your offer.

It’s also important that you don’t over-promise in this phase of the sequence. Building expectations beyond what the reader can expect will create problems for your brand or even get you in trouble with authorities.

FAQ’s and Urgent Clickers

In emails 3 and 4, it mentioned that the clients need more information about your offer to take action.

It’s at this point that you might want to start emailing them twice a day using two more customized emails.

FAQ’s

The FAQ email stands for “frequently asked questions”.

It’s typically longer than your other emails and it’s focus is to address the common questions and/or objections your clients have.

Now, this assumes that you’ve been promoting your product/service for awhile and know your core audience well enough. If you haven’t, then you might want to skip this email or create a list of what you think they’re concerns might be and address them upfront.

These can be in any order – doubts, questions, fears, objections – and then lay them out in 1,2,3 fashion.

Begin the email with something like “I know you probably have some questions or doubts about _________ which is completely understandable. Most of our clients had the same questions and doubts that you do so we felt that could address them for you right now.” And then, just lay it all out.

You want to address these points now because if they are on your client’s mind then they will fester in their mind till they are resolved or addressed. If not, then it will create confusion for them and a confused mind never buys.

End the email with “If you have any doubts/questions/fears/objections that I didn’t address here then hit reply and ask me directly. I’ll get you an answer ASAP so that you can make the best decision for what’s best for you.”

If someone replies, then you’ve hit gold.

Even if they don’t buy, you can start collecting a list of doubts/questions/fears/objections that you can use in your marketing, going forward.

Urgent Clicker

By now, if your customer hasn’t bought then now is your chance to reengage their emotions.

This email is usually sent in the evening of Day 4 and will stress that time is running out.

You want to reengage the reader with a compelling vision from moving from the pain where they are now to the pleasure of achieving the benefit of your offer.

You also want to stress that time is running out and lead the way for the closing out of the promotional email sequence and stressing to take action now.

Email 5 & 6

This is it. It’s now or never.

And that is what you want to stress to the reader.

Send email 5 on Friday morning and send email 6 on Friday evening.

Email 5 lets the reader know that the promotion is ending. If they want to get that bonus, rate discount, special price/offer or whatever incentive tied with this promotion, then they need to act now.

Email 6 is to remind them that the offer is ending in a few hours. Reemphasize the benefits and the transformational power of your offer on the positive side of the emotional spectrum. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, you want to emphasize loss opportunity and regret in the form of price, value, and/or achieving their primary end-goal.

Use FOMO (fear of missing out) is a powerful incentive to get people off the fence and take action. Emphasize that once this offer is gone then so is the chance to make the change and/or achieve the results of your offer.

I like to remind them that if they are reading this far into the sequence then there is some part of them that this message resonates within them. If that it is true, then they owe it to themselves to take action and direct them to “click here now”.

Front-loading Attention

It’s worth noting that if you can “front-load” your marketing with content and/or studies about the benefits of your product/service prior to this promotion then it can increase your sales.

Studies have shown that by sending your list useful information geared towards helping your email list with any problem, not just tied to your promotional offer, you can greatly increase conversion.

Using this method and putting it in line with offering value by helping your customers you can lay the groundwork for greater sales and customer retention.

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