Hearken back to the year 1998, when I moved to Nashville for a sales position at a marketing firm I had been working with at CGI Systems in Philly. I had become the resident expert on email and digital marketing for both the firm I worked for and my clients. At that time, I easily secured a near 100% delivery rate and 40%+ response rates to the emails I was sending. Sick.
Not so much today. Opt-out rates are still relatively small, with the bigger problem being spam filters and inbox overwhelm. People lose interest fast when they’re processing hundreds of emails every day. So, if you want to have any chance of getting your email opened and, more importantly, clicked on and responded to, you have to put some real thought into how you craft your message, which is what I’m going to cover in this article.
But before I get into the WRITING of an email, know this: If you are genuinely spamming people by pumping out emails to people who don’t know you and have never given you permission to email them, stop it. Now. A responsive email list is largely gained by ONLY emailing people who WANT to receive your messages … who have “opted in.” I’m not getting into this because I’ve covered how to build a responsive email list multiple times.
Elements of a Successful Email Campaign
If you ARE playing clean and ONLY emailing a permission-based list, here are the core elements that go into a successful email campaign:
1. The sender: Do they recognize the name? If not, you’ll get a lower response and may get a bump in opt-out rates.
2. The format: In most cases, you want to send an email in a “pretty” graphic template but instead have it look like a personal one-to-one communication. There are exceptions, like when selling physical products (clothing, for example) or if the subscription is for a newsletter (like MSP Success). But even then, you do NOT want the graphics to overwhelm the message, pushing the lead, CTA (call-to-action), and link below the fold. (The “fold” is the point on an email or website that you have to scroll down to see. The term comes from the newspaper industry.)
3. The subject line: This is the headline of your message and is extremely important to getting your email opened and read. People skim the sender and subject line and decide to open and read it based on that FIRST.
4. The lead: This is the opening sentence of your email.
5. The offer or CTA: What are you writing them about? What do you want them to do? Reply? Click?
6. The link: If you want them to click, you have to provide a link that is ABOVE THE FOLD, not buried down in the email.
Now, let’s dig in a bit more with a few of the above. Given this is about how to WRITE an email, I’m going to focus on that and skip getting into the details of the sender and the format. Enough said above.
The Subject Line
As I said above, your subject line is the headline of your email. It is the first big determinant of whether or not your email will get opened. Here are a few mistakes to AVOID when writing a subject line:
Mistake #1: Capitalizing The First Letter Of Every Word
The above, while a subhead, is an example of this. Capitalizing the first letter of every word in an email subject line instantly tells me “spam.” Why? Because that’s not how most personal email subject lines are written.
Mistake #2: Trying To Sell
Here are a few real subject lines from spam emails I received that are trying to sell:
- Mobile App Development
- Boost B2B SEO Now
- Festival Delight: Get 60% Off Web Design
- Cost-Effective Web Development & Mobile Apps
- Accounting And Bookkeeping
As you can see, these also commit the first-letter-of-every-word-capitalized mistake AND they are coming from a complete stranger. This is the one-two knockout punch that kills ANY chance of me opening these.
Mistake #3: Being BORING
Another problem with the above subject lines is that they’re boring. The last thing anyone wants is to waste time on something totally irrelevant AND boring. Here are some other examples of subject lines that are BORING, even though they came from senders I know:
- A Buyer’s Guide To Unified Communications
- Press Moves Update – USA September 2024
- October Newsletter
- Tailored Lead Generation Strategies For You
Again, the capitalization mistake. This is because untrained amateurs trying to write copy ALWAYS go into “brochure speak” when they craft a marketing communication. Here’s the key: Write your email like you’re sending it to ONE person, not a broadcast. If you were writing to someone you know, would you use any of these subject lines? Of course not. Your writing style would be entirely different; it would be more casual, more natural. Now let’s look at what some GREAT subject lines have in common.
Strategy #1: Create Curiosity
All things being equal, curiosity is your BEST FRIEND when it comes to getting your emails opened (and clicked on). Here are some subject lines we’ve used that have been successful (note that the ones with “Robin” were personalized to the recipient):
- Robin, is this REALLY you in the photo?
- That voicemail I just left was horrendous
- I’m SO excited, my hands are shaking!
- Our office flooded (pics enclosed)
- I’m getting some hate over this …
- You WILL get left behind
- IMPORTANT (please read)
- I’m SO embarrassed about this
- WTF should I do now?
- This MSP added 41 new clients … Here’s how
- How to write a blog post that goes viral
- The ONE WORD you should never say to a prospect
- One sign your IT company is FAILING you, big-time
- Forward this to your employees ASAP
- Are you okay?
- Is this Robin’s actual email?
Strategy #2: Personalization
When email marketers first figured this out and started personalizing subject lines, response rates went through the roof. Then everyone started using it, and everyone became numb to it, and we’re right back to the usual open and response rates.
HOWEVER, strategic personalization does work in a subject line. As you can see from the example above, “Robin, is this REALLY you?” uses personalization well. Obviously, it could be added to any subject line, but you don’t want to overuse it.
The person’s name is not the only personalization you can use in a subject line. For example, the company name, the person’s FULL name, zip code, city, or location are ALL ways to “personalize” an email to get a bump in open rates.
The Lead
The “lead” is the opening sentence or paragraph to your email and is critical to keep the reader engaged enough to click on your link. You have SECONDS to grab someone’s attention with your lead. The mistake most make is doing what copywriters call “clearing your throat,” which means you open with some drivel to warm yourself up to the point you want to make. Here’s my advice:
GET RIGHT TO THE POINT and MAKE IT INTERESTING!
Here’s an example of a BAD lead where the person is clearing their throat:
The threat landscape is constantly evolving and increasing in impact. Globally, cyberthreats are up on all vectors. That’s why you need to be up-to-date on regulatory compliance laws to stay ahead of the curve.
Here’s another:
The market for purchasing properties is always shifting. Right now, interest rates have some people concerned about making the next move. But no matter what the market is doing, we’ll help you go from dreaming to owning your own home.
One more:
Every day, we are bombarded by massive amounts of information. From daily news and stocks to the latest sports scores—keeping up with it all is a full-time job.
The commonality among ALL these lead openers is that they are making statements, clearing their throat and losing the reader in an instant.
Here are some GREAT leads to emails where I have the link embedded in the opening. This isn’t required, but you DO want to make sure the link is ABOVE THE FOLD:
Story: I bet you won’t even believe this MSP’s story when you read it, but I swear EVERY word of this is true …
Content: Here’s a step-by-step blueprint on how to overcome the “We’re fine” sales objection. I just posted it to YouTube so you can watch it today.
Curiosity: May I send you what may be the most shocking (as well as the most eye-opening) MSP industry report we’ve published this year?
Scarcity: I’m hosting a free workshop for a small group of 30 people about how to generate a mini-surge of sales fast and dirt cheap. Here’s all the info.
Offer: Since it’s my birthday, I’ve decided to drop the price of the Toolkit in HALF (with $75,954 in bonuses) … AND offer an easy payment plan. Just know this offer expires in 24 hours.
The CTA (Offer)
Tied VERY closely to the lead is the offer. When I say “offer,” I don’t necessarily mean a SALES offer or a direct promotion to buy something (although that is a legitimate email campaign you should use from time to time).
An offer could be any of the following:
- Blog post
- Video
- Webinar or longer livecast
- E-book or physical book
- Information kit
- Facebook Live video (announcement)
- Checklist, SOP
- Industry research (special report)
- Dark web scan
- Risk assessment
Typically, we are going to put the CTA in the lead with a link. However, the offer itself needs to be INTERESTING. In general, the less the audience knows you, the more your CTA needs to be free information that is easy to access, not an actual offer like the example provided above with the Toolkit discount.
All offers have a “friction factor;” that is, a resistance to responding. All things being equal, the lower the friction, the higher the response. For example, downloading free information by going to a web page is very low friction because it requires only a click, with no effort or commitment, vs. scheduling an appointment with a sales rep, which is much higher friction. Here are offers, with the lowest lead friction to the highest:
Lowest Friction: Free Information, NO FORM To Complete To Access.
The user can go directly to the content and instantly consume it. This is best used when you simply want to keep responsiveness and engagement high, so your email deliverability stays high and your list remains engaged. Sending an email about a new blog post or YouTube video would be examples of this.
Low Friction: Free Information, Gated.
This is where you require a person to complete some type of form or questionnaire before gaining access to the information you are providing. You would definitely do this with a landing page where you are sending traffic that you want to convert to a lead (opt in). When you’re emailing your list, you already HAVE their email and permission, so you would only do this if you wanted to get them to take a survey or to lead-generate from your own list a “hot” list ready to meet or buy.
Medium Friction: A Webinar Or Livecast
This is higher on the “friction” list because a webinar has to be scheduled and attended, requiring more effort for the user to consume it. You could lower the friction factor by making it an “on demand” webinar or by having the start time ready every 15 minutes using an on-demand webinar technology. The LIVE webinar is higher in friction factor because the person has to look at their calendar and make sure it’s clear. There’s also the risk that someone registers, then has a conflict, gets busy, and/or loses interest between the time they register and when it starts. That’s why a 50% no-show rate is common for live webinars.
High Friction: Sales Consultation
This is “high” friction because for someone to accept it, they need to be high on the “want” scale for your services. This is a perfectly appropriate offer for NEW inbound leads and for the occasional bump in between content for older, unconverted leads on your list.
Very High Friction: In-Person Seminar
Getting people to an event is by far one of the most difficult offers to sell. Even if it’s free, the time and cost commitment of getting there is HIGH, so only your most interested prospects will attend.
The Full Monty
This IS one of my all-time favorite movies, but I digress. Here are some examples of how to write an email that follow the above guidelines:
Subject: URGENT – please read this ASAP
Robin – I can’t stress enough how big a deal this is.
Hackers have your personal information and WILL use to this to rob you blind.
This is not “fearmongering.” This is a legitimate threat we’ve seen that you, your employees, and your family need to be on high alert about.
Robin
Subject: This is going to make you very, very angry …
Robin, this week’s cyber alert is going to have you boiling.
Imagine getting an email from a total stranger that says the following AND contains a picture of your home:
“I suggest you read this message carefully. Take a moment to chill, breathe, and analyze it thoroughly. ’Cause we’re about to discuss a deal between you and me and I ain’t playing games.”
Then it gets worse. It continues, “Is visiting <<your street address>> a more convenient way to contact you if you don’t take action? Nice location, btw.”
This example is NOT FAKE.
This is a very real threat happening, which is why I wrote up an important special report on what’s going on and how to respond if you get one of these emails.
Click here to read it now. Also, please share with your friends and family.
Many people are losing thousands of dollars over this, and it’s highly disturbing.
Robin
Subject: AI will kill Google search
Robin, if you spend time and money trying to get your website ranked in the search engines, this video is going to shock you.
We believe AI will bring the Google search empire (and HIGH pay-per-click costs) to its knees.
I created this video to explain what’s going on and what to do now so you’re not caught off guard when your SEO and PPC efforts crash suddenly in the next couple of months.
And you can start doing one of the items today for a HUGE boost to qualified traffic.
Robin
Practice Makes Perfect
Now it’s time to “sharpen your pencil” and get to work using the above examples to craft emails that get the response rates you need to boost your business.
RELATED: For a primer on social media marketing, see Social Media Marketing For MSPs: Is The Juice Worth The Squeeze?
