"Selling newsletters." Book in 15 minutes

On the subject of email-marketing written a lot of articles. We will not try to say something new, but simply and briefly present the main ideas from the book by Jan Brodie “Mailing lists. Increasing sales using email marketing. ”
Hopefully, sammari (summary) will help to put the necessary information on the shelves.

So…

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Attract customers by email

How to increase sales in the least expensive way? Marketing expert Ian Brodie believes that email marketing is the most effective sales tool today. This is proved by the four-year study of the analytical company Custora and the data of the Direct Marketing Association - link clicks from emails bring purchases 40 times more than transfers from social networks.

The success of email marketing is largely determined by the ability to understand the needs of target customers. To write a letter that will interest customers and push for action, you need to know their needs, goals, aspirations. To do this, create a portrait of a potential client.

Creating a client portrait

A photo

Do not be too scattered, trying to please everyone. Focusing on a narrow circle of potential clients helps to achieve better results. For this:

1. Determine the type of clients whose portrait you are creating.
2. Collect available information about this type of clients.
3. Create a portrait using the needs card.
4. Analyze your current customer base (if you have one) or think about who you would like to see among them. Determine who you are interested in the most of those with whom you have already worked. Then highlight the key features of customers that make them perfect.

Do not forget about economic efficiency: is your company enough of such clients? Can they use your goods and services? The optimal number of types of clients: two or three. When launching the first email marketing campaign, focus on one type and then add the rest to it.

When collecting available information, first write down everything you know. Include in the analysis and data marketing research, if any. Conduct a survey among customers, identifying their interests, goals, preferences and problems. Put yourself in the client’s place to dive into his surroundings.

It makes sense to create a map of customer needs, where you will record and organize basic information about your customers. First, surface observations are recorded, then deep-seated factors affecting customer behavior.

On a large sheet of paper in the center, paste a picture or photo of a real person. This will help create a specific image.

To the right of the photo is located quadrant A (short description of the client). Indicate the basic facts that are known about the ideal client: gender, age, education, work experience, position, marital status, children, hobbies, hobbies, enemies, idols.

On the left - quadrant B (external targets and incentives). Write down all the data about the external goals of the client and the factors affecting him. For example, when describing a portrait of an entrepreneur, indicate his goals regarding profitability, growth rates of an enterprise. Describe the actions of competitors, suppliers. How does legislation affect him? What does society dictate to him?

Upstairs - quadrant B (internal aspirations and tasks). The external targets described in the previous quadrant do not always coincide with the internal ones. Wanting to increase sales by 20% this year, the entrepreneur sets another internal goal - to double sales in 3 years and sell the business. “ As a rule, personal aspirations are a much more effective incentive than goals .” Studying the clients' personal goals, you will find the key to their worldview, touching on the main topics in your letters. The pressing problems of customers and their concerns will also be able to show you the strengths of their proposals.

The latter is G quadrant (factors of knowledge and sensations).

“Here you need to write out the data identified and extrapolated from other quadrants. Determine what your ideal customers need to find out and feel in order to be happy to purchase a product or service from you. ”

Ask yourself questions:

• “How do these problems affect the client’s business?”
• “What can you offer them and what troubles should you save?”
• “What should customers know about you in order to take advantage of your services or products?”
• “What risks do customers see in collaboration with you?”

EXAMPLE

Customer needs map

A. Customer brief

• Male, 35, purchasing manager.
• Higher education.
• Previous position - middle manager in production.
• Workaholic, result oriented.

B. External goals and incentives

• Cost reduction of 10% annually.
• Do not expand the staff of the procurement department.
• Monitor the conduct of procurement.

C. Internal aspirations and tasks

• He wants to reduce costs by more than 20%.
• The goal is a higher position.
• New to the procurement industry, does not have a clear idea of ​​what is needed to achieve a result.

G. Factors of knowledge and sensations

• Reducing costs by more than 20% is a big personal victory.
• He prefers to receive recognition for achievements, not trying to share his success with consultants.
• It needs a reliable support - experts who can recognize unfair play.

The client is ambitious, but not experienced enough and understands that he cannot influence the result of the work of his department. It means that he is interested in information or services that will help him to better understand the procurement process.

The goals and aspirations of clients, their tasks and problems - these should be the key topic of your letters.

Starting a newsletter with what excites your customers, revolves in their head, you open the doors to success.

“Creating a detailed portrait of an ideal client and his deep understanding is the key to the success of effective email marketing. Take time to understand the goals and aspirations of clients, their problems and tasks, and also find out what they need to know and feel in order to hire you. This will allow you to write letters that you want to open, read and get started. ”

Subscriptions

How to make a mailing list? Work in this direction requires careful attention.

Ian Brody calls the following ways to attract subscribers:

1. Buying a list of email addresses. This idea is tempting at first glance, especially for beginners. But there are a number of shortcomings that can not be ignored. Any list cannot be targeted to your ideal customers. Yes, classification by industry, scale of business and other parameters is possible, but this is not a list of people interested in your offer. Send to addressees from the database of offers to subscribe to free reviews or other useful newsletters. So you identify potential customers.
2. Adding people to the mailing list without their consent. Receiving a business card from a potential client is not at all permission to send him letters day and night. You will cause a negative reaction from people who are most likely to send your letters to the trash, and you will be blacklisted.
3. Offer to subscribe to the newsletter in a personal conversation. Immediately after meeting, send a letter to a potential customer proposing to subscribe to the newsletter. This will show your respect for the customer.
4. Attracting subscribers to the site. “Visitors to the site can subscribe to the newsletter by filling out a special form (subscription form), which indicate their email address (and, as a rule, name), and sending a request. Thus, they agree to receive letters. The number and quality of subscribers depends on where and how often this form is displayed, how it looks, how your letters are presented in it, what the subscription bonus is, how you propose to solve possible problems for subscribers and what other reasons you have to make the subscription tempting .

On the latter method of attracting customers should be more detailed.

An increase in site traffic leads to an increase in subscribers. It is important to focus not only on the number of visitors to the resource, but also on quality. Usually the most useful visitors (potential subscribers) get to the site on the recommendation. Another part - from search engines, social networks.

Ian Brodie displays a successful subscription formula:

P - benefits (long-term). This is what the subscriber hopes to acquire by regularly receiving your letters.

B - bonus (short term). It is offered to visitors to the site to push for a subscription - video recording, review, useful tips, in general, everything that you can offer for free. Naturally, this should correspond to the topics of your newsletter.

T - friction. What slows down the subscription process is the inconspicuous submit button, the difficulty of filling out the form when subscribing, and so on.

R - risk (perceived). If the client is afraid to give you his address, fearing spam or unpleasant schemes, he will refrain from subscribing.

Long-term benefits

Visitors to the site appreciate the degree of usefulness of your proposed mailing. What will help them make the right choice? Good free content on the site will show the visitor that the newsletter may be useful for him.

The visitor should see the benefits that he will receive by subscribing to the newsletter. Think of the map of the needs of the ideal client and focus on the important problems for him, goals and objectives.

Short Term Bonus

" If users subscribe only for the sake of a bonus, most likely, they will rather soon ignore your letters ."

Therefore, it is important to choose a bonus that offers ideas for solving actual customer problems. It is often also called a “magnet” for potential customers.

The magnet can be presented in several forms. For example, a user passes a test, and then subscribes to a newsletter to get the test result. As a magnet, you can use short-term training courses, templates, tables, software components, and resource guides.

“The current trend is to offer free registration to gain access to resources, and not to subscribe to the newsletter. In this case, the emphasis is on the fact that most users register on services that they find useful. ”

How to create an effective magnet?

Its subject and results of use should attract the client. To determine the magnet theme, analyze the map of the needs of ideal clients, list the problems of your recent clients, recall the difficulty each client faces, name the “first inhibitory obstacle” - the initial problems for clients on the way to the goal.

“ By choosing a magnet theme for potential customers, make sure that its usefulness is obvious at a glance. The name and description of the magnet should clearly state that the customer will receive a direct benefit . ”

Friction reduction

“Friction is a set of factors that impede the subscription process. As a rule, these are distractions. For example, the user is going to fill out a form - but the image suddenly changes on the site, and the user is distracted. Or he notices an interesting article on the page and starts reading it . ”

Remove all distractions, direct traffic to a special page with a suggestion of a magnet. And do not forget about the spectacular title! Pop-up windows, if they are done professionally enough, do not annoy the client, but encourage action. But even more effective - the main page of the site.

Reducing friction is achieved, for example, by reducing the number of fields in a registration or subscription form. Another trick is replacing the "Send" button with a button that describes the benefits of a subscription, for example, "Get free access."

Reduced perceived risk

“If a potential subscriber fears that the transfer of an email address during registration will lead to some undesirable consequences, he is unlikely to do so. He may assume that you will send out spam and regular messages about sales or sell his email address to third parties. In fact, he does not trust you . ”

Aggressive advertising or false promises do not like customers. Therefore, it is important to ensure that your website, pages and subscription forms look safe. So, for people with conservative views more suitable classical design of the site. A statement on anti-spam policy will also increase visitor confidence, as well as positive feedback from partners and an indication of the number of subscribers.

Reading letters

In order for the letter to reach the addressee, it is necessary to bypass anti-spam filters.

Modern spam filtering algorithms take into account several factors:

1. Technical, for example, DKIM signatures and SPF records.
2. The reputation of the email address and mail system that you use - suddenly they received complaints about spam.
3. It is taken into account whether the links in the letters to the domains seen in the spamming list do not.
4. The frequency of following your emails as spam. “The more often the subscribers open your letters, the more time they spend reading, scrolling to the end, answer the letters and follow the links indicated in them, the more likely that your next messages will not be sent to the Spam folder.
5. Do not forget about the "hygiene of the list" - exclude from inactive subscribers by sending out one or two reminders in advance. This affects the overall rating of the list.

How to make your letters open

Your goal is to motivate the addressee to action. The effectiveness of the distribution is not determined by the indicators of the opening of letters, but by sales and applications. And the main factor is the sender.

"Therefore, your first letters should be very useful; your magnet should open up tremendous ideas for potential customers."

Encourage subscribers to interact with your emails — participate in polls, respond to emails, ask questions, share content on social networks. A small reward (a gift for participation or your personal answer to a question) will increase your credibility.

Topic of the letter

One of the factors that determines whether the addressee will open your letter or not is its subject.

Here the formula is relevant: Profit + Curiosity = Interest.

For example, “5 bad beliefs that prevent consultants and coaches from succeeding. Benefit: avoid obstacles to success. Curiosity: “I wonder what those beliefs are? I hope I don’t have them! ”

To determine the benefits, use the map of the needs of ideal customers.

How to hook the receiver to the topic? Ian Brodie offers several ways:

1. Disprove stereotypes or common opinion.
2. Give an amazing fact.
3. Add a rating or score.
4. Focus on emotions.
5. Connect the topic with something unexpected.
6. Tap news or current events.
7. Use the name of a successful professional.
8. Admit mistakes.

The topic should give a clear idea of ​​the content of the letter, while causing curiosity. Change the theme model, stimulating the interest of subscribers.

“And if you plan to repeatedly use a certain letter (for example, a standard message that all subscribers of the series receive), perform a split test on various topics in order to determine which of them is more effective.”

The beginning of the letter is equally important. The mail browser displays the subject and first line of the message. This is practically a mini-topic that will play a significant role when a subscriber decides whether to open a letter or not.

EXAMPLE

Topic: My most unfortunate business meeting.

First line: “Conducting successful business meetings is the key to the success of any business. I will tell you what I did wrong. You will be able to take into account my mistakes and improve the efficiency of your business meetings. ”

It is important that the letter make the right first impression, and for this it is necessary that the received letter is easy and convenient to read. Short paragraphs, the absence of unnecessary words will play in your favor. Make sure "your emails are optimized for mobile and can be easily read on small screens."

Increases in clickability and openness

When sending letters, it is important to consider the time at which the reader will receive a letter. The answer to this question depends on the audience. “If your ideal clients work“ in the field ”all day, it’s likely that they should be contacted early in the morning or late in the evening when they are actively working with the mail.”

Some statistics suggest that clickability increases on weekends. By sending your letters during the least competition, you will increase the level of openability.

Proper appeal to the reader

To write a convincing and interesting letter, you need to involve the subscriber in communication with you. Involvement is expressed in sending your materials to friends, participating in surveys, in likes, or even in person.

“In addition, relationships with subscribers are built through interaction. The more they benefit from it, the more they like you and the more willingly they will do something for you. ”

How to engage readers: three rules

1. Personal tone of treatment. It is better to write in conversational style, as if you are having a leisurely conversation with a client over a cup of coffee.
2. Simple design of the letter without intricate formatting, complex headers and logos. For one topic, send one letter, no more.
3. Communication beyond the facts, tips, tips. "Your task is not only to inform, but also to entertain." A funny story can be presented in the form of a fable or a parable.

Ask the subscriber to perform specific actions, creating a comfortable environment for this. For example, leave a review about the newsletter, answer a few questions, like your article or add you to the contacts on Twitter.

Letter structure

In order for your letters to attract readers, the author advises using the time tested formula - AIDA .

A - attention (attention). Attract the attention of readers to the letter with the help of "catchy" topic.

I - interest. Interest the recipient, prompting him to read the text to the end.

D - desire. “In the mailing list, attention is not focused on sales. You immediately propose to receive benefits: telling a story, giving useful information, introducing new ideas. ”

A - action (action). Make sure that the letter has a specific call to action.

How to turn subscribers into buyers

The ultimate goal of any newsletter is to convince the reader to buy your product or service.

"It is believed that customers make a purchase" in due time. " And although this is largely true, the content of your letters can bring this moment closer or further away . ”

How to understand whether the subscriber is ready to purchase? He emotionally and rationally understands the need to purchase a product or service from you. And you have earned the client credibility and sufficient confidence.

Fascinating letters hold the interest of the reader. But to decide to buy, use in the texts the factors of knowledge and sensations - they form the necessary level of trust.

EXAMPLE

You are a business coach. The desire of customers - to increase cash flow. They need to know and feel your experience working with retailers. Instead of a set of tips, enclose your recommendations in a story about the company you helped to increase profits.

How to provoke action

As a rule, the client in this case is offered to follow the link. It may be:

• Link to personal website sales page. It is better to use it for inexpensive and understandable products.
• Link to register for a webinar or other event of a similar format, where the participant will receive additional material and an invitation to make a purchase. This is a kind of preparation, the establishment of direct contact.
• Link to order a meeting or a personal call. It helps realize costly, comprehensive services.
• You can combine all these approaches with each other. Sometimes it is better to give a link as if in between times, casually mentioning a product, or by postscript.

How to make a call to action?

It depends on the frequency of distribution. With the frequency of mailings once a month, you need to specify in one letter all the reasons for following the link. For more frequent mailings, devote to preparing several letters - in one tell us about the advantages, the second devote to common objections, etc.

Try to avoid the similarity of mailings with advertising. Readers subconsciously fear advertising gimmicks.

“In order for the selling part or the call-to-action not to look too intrusive, you need to“ earn the right ”to add them to the letters or to do it implicitly. Let readers see these elements as an advantage or entertainment. ”

Autopilot Marketing

Special services provide an opportunity to " pre-configure the sending of letters in a predetermined sequence, as a rule, from the moment of subscriber registration ." This greatly simplifies your work and demonstrates clear advantages in comparison with the regular mailing list:

• Each subscriber will receive his “portion” of letters.
• It is possible to choose specific letters for subscribers, depending on what stage your relationship is at.
• Answering machine does not need to be configured every time. A long series of letters will allow subscribers to receive relevant materials from you for several months or years.

How to plan an automatic series of letters?

Determine the purpose (to make a personal call, buy a product), analyze the map of the needs of the ideal client and write out the goals, aspirations, difficulties, tasks, factors of knowledge and sensations. This will help outline the range of topics for letters. Factors of knowledge and sensations illustrate with examples and stories.

Analyze what materials and resources you have (infographics, articles, videos, etc.) and how to link them to a specific letter.

“The first letters should be devoted to the most urgent and urgent tasks and goals of subscribers - they will want to read about this in the first place. In addition, it makes sense to start with the most simple practical tips, tips and ideas. Later you can share more complex ideas by adding the information provided earlier. ”

After planning the main series of letters, proceed to writing a specific letter.

How to influence subscribers

To convince a client, Ian Brodie recommends three factors:

1. Subscriber motivation. “The most effective way to convince someone to perform a certain action is not to try to convince him that he wants to do just that, but to understand what he already wants, and then show how he can get it by completing the action you need.”
2. Principles of effective communication. Deliver information in clear language, clearly and specifically. Catch the reader's attention and hold with the help of interesting examples, statistics or other techniques.
3. Means of persuasion. They should be discussed in more detail.

The author of the book proposes to use the means of persuasion, based on psychological principles.

These are the six principles:

1. Reciprocity. “ People tend to respond with courtesy to repay debts. We treat people the same way they treat us . ” Show your customers a friendly attitude with the help of unexpected bonuses, and you will receive a reciprocal favor, for example, a repost page.
2. Social proof. " People tend to repeat the actions of people like them. " Reviews or quotes from potential subscribers and customers are especially valuable.
3. Commitment and consistency. " People tend to adhere to their obligations (especially publicly) ." : , . .
4. . « , ». , .
5. Authority. « ». , . , .
6. Deficiency. " People want what they cannot get ." The desire to have something exclusive can push a customer to make a purchase. But do not deceive - offer really unique things.

How to evaluate the effectiveness of email marketing?

Help in an objective assessment can control panel. Determine which sales were due to the mailing list. Keep track of the number of subscribers, average sales per subscriber and growth rates each month. So you can get an idea of ​​the productivity of the system you have developed.

“If sales do not grow, with the help of these indicators you can find out the reason: the subscriber base is growing too slowly, too few subscribers become buyers, or there is too little sales per customer.

Summary:

1. E-mail is the most effective internet marketing tool that allows you to communicate information simply and efficiently.
2. Set clear goals you want to achieve with the newsletter. Define a portrait of an ideal client, paying attention to the map of goals, aspirations, problems and tasks, as well as the knowledge and feelings of the subscriber.
3. Pay attention to the topics of letters, develop a magnet for customers, use ways to engage the subscriber in communication. By building letters using the AIDA formula, you ensure the success of the advertising campaign.
4. Automatic mailing will help to send a series of letters with topics relevant to specific customers.

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