HOW TO WRITE THE BEST EMAIL FOR CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Who wants more boring email??

Exactly. Nobody wants that.

And yet email marketing is the most effective way to activate and retain existing customers – and entice them to come back to you faster.
And yet…

Pretty much everyone is so afraid of sending boring, pushy, salesy, intrusive emails that they end up sending too little. Or worse, nothing at all.

People are busy! And yup, they get a lot of email already.

You need to cut through the clutter and send the BEST emails.

What are the BEST emails? Let’s dig in a little deeper.

So what are the BEST emails?

BEST is an acronym:

• Beneficial
• Engaging
• Significant
• Targeted

So what does that mean?

Beneficial: Your emails should benefit the folks reading them. What value does your email provide? What will the reader gain from taking their valuable time to read what you have to say? Too often, folks frame information in ways that don’t clearly benefit the reader. There’s a big difference between saying, “We just got some cool new stuff!” and “Our newest stuff will be the perfect holiday gift for your picky Mother-in-Law.” The first is really a statement about you, the business owner, talking about your business. The second puts yourself in the role of the customer and identifies with THEIR needs. In this case, their need to find a freaking holiday gift for a persnickety Mother-in-Law. (NOTE: My Mother-in-Law is delightful and easy to shop for. Yes, I’m a lucky woman.)

 

• PRO TIP: Writing emails that are snackable is also part of being beneficial. Use a tool like the Hemingway App so make your emails easy to understand and digest.

Engaging: Your emails tell a story about your business. You get to decide how to tell that story…but writing something appealing will go a long way to encourage customers to actually read what you’ve written.

Before you write your first email you’ll want to be clear on the unique story of YOUR business. Every single business has its own personality. The more you identify yours and tap into it with each email, the more you’ll grab the attention of your best customers.

Of course, the most important element of your email is the headline. Without an attention-grabbing headline, folks may not even open your email to sip from the fountain of your delicious goodness.

• PRO TIP: Amp up your emotional engagement with the handy Headline Analyzer. This cool tool scores your headline and looks at its emotional punch across Intellectual, Empathetic and Spiritual values.

Significant: It’s not enough to make your email beneficial and engaging. For the BEST emails, they also have to be time sensitive. Why does this email matter to a business owner NOW? What make it something they’ll take their precious time to open and click TODAY?

If you send an email about buying a gift for a picky Mother-in-Law, but it’s not a time of year when you’re buying a gift for your MIL, you’ve lost the moment. So how do you make sure your emails are relevant? Part of it comes from knowing your customer (see Targeted, below) and part of it comes from being aware of the world around you. Tap into the topics people are talking about today. What’s happening in the world, your community, celebrity culture, food, weather…you name it. The more you speak to topics that are significant and time-sensitive for your customers, the more you’ll grab their attention.

 

• PRO TIP: Local news sites can be great sources of relevant topics for local businesses. For more national flavor, I get inspired for ideas from generalist Huffington Post to tongue-in-cheek winner BuzzFeed. What sites inspire you – and more importantly, your customers?

Targeted: What grabs MY customers’ attention won’t grab yours. The BEST emails will target YOUR audience of ideal customers. In fact, the more you’re clear on your ideal customers, the more the unique personality of your business will shine through. And THAT cuts through the clutter.

• Cutting through the clutter means more folks feel seen, heard and valued.
• More folks feeling seen, heard and valued means more customers open and read your email.
• More customers opening and reading your email means more business.
• More business means more revenue.
• More revenue means a more profitable, successful business where you can focus attention on making customers feel seen, heard and valued.

Everybody wins!

• PRO TIP: Want to get started? These 10 Tips to Improve Customer Retention will help. Simply enter your information below for a free download you can use immediately!