SMarketing Communications
Writing compelling emails has gotten more and more difficult in today’s world. As marketers around the world have exploited the creation of content and technology has bombarded our lives with too much information, the real question is how you get your sales message across. Technology has increased people’s access to information from anywhere in the world, and the volume of email we receive on a daily basis has increased even faster. Your content has to stand out, or it will just wind up being another unwanted message headed for a spam folder.
Know Who You’re Writing to
Any form of content marketing you produce should be targeted. Identify your buyer persona, and spend some time developing a profile on them. The more you know about who you’re trying to reach, the better-focused your final product will be All marketers strugle to sufficiently target their communications – “everyone” is definitely not your market. Let’s be honest – we’d all like to acquire “everyone” as a customer. You cannot be all things to all people, and it is a waste to try. It is better to close one sale than to chase 100 leads with no results. Sales emails are about quality and not quantity.
Build Relationships
Relationships are the key to being successful in sales – people buy from people. Automation can be used, but your content needs to be from the heart. Consumers have become very sophisticated at being able to determine insincerity. Also, keeping your message clear and concise is appreciated. Nothing is worse than getting a rambling email that you just can’t hack the message of. Likewise, a good clear call to action of what you would like them to do always helps keep the reader focused, and at least brings them to a decision of whether or not to engage.
If you are dealing with a mailing list that you are close to, the message will be very different than if it is to a group of prospects that you have met once or twice along the way. It is important that if it is people who are further removed from you to demonstrate credibility to your audience. This can be done quietly, and does not need to be the prominent message. Linking to your website and testimonials is always a great way to help show your work ethic and how others view you.
Don’t Forget Your UVP!
One of the most underutilized tools is your ability to demonstrate your unique value proposition. I am cautious with using this terminology because people are so numb to business jargon speak. But let’s start with your value proposition. People are willing to pay for goods and services. Not only that, but they are willing to a fair price for it as well. The key is are they getting value? Consumers are not naïve to the fact that everyone in the supply chain needs to make money, and none of them are not-for-profits. However, they also do not want to be taken advantage of.
You need to demonstrate how you justify your services for the price for which you charge. But here is the big, and toughest, point – your value proposition needs to be unique. Every car dealership out their uses the same old marketing messages to sell and none of their messages tell me what is different and why I should use them. For all their promotions I choose my vehicle based on model, make, style and location long before I listen to their message. So take a moment and sit back and think about what it is that you offer that makes you unique. You would be surprised how hard this is for some people to answer. Yet they expect people to just buy from them. If you, as the owner of your business, cannot tell me what makes your service unique, how can you expect the casual consumer to make an informed decision to use you? If you rack your brain and still cannot come up with anything, turn this into an exercise of what changes you need to make in your business to make it unique.
The key with any email is to convey your message to the reader. Everyone looks for the secret to have it outperform everything that you have done prior. The answer is there is no secret. Spend some time prepping, put your heart into what you write and show them why you would purchase your goods or services over someone else’s.
Lastly, never give up. If you do all of this and it is less than successful, change things up and try it again. You never know how it will be received and if the time is right for a given email.
