Using Emails and Email Newsletters to
Attract People to Your Website

This section includes:

• Sources of email lists
• Building an Online Sales Funnel (to capture email addresses and sell through them)
• Email Services Available
• Copywriting  (getting through the clutter so people read your emails and take action from them)
• Email Newsletters

 

Whether you are marketing to one person at a time or to lists of hundreds and even thousands of people, email is one of your most important tools for attracting prospects and getting them to buy.

Once you have someone’s email address, if you’ve qualified them and know they are a prospect for your product or business, you can:

• present information about your product or business,
• invite them to visit a page or website that explains your product or service in more detail, and even
• invite them to a seminar, teleseminar or webinar where they can meet you, get comfortable with your trustworthiness and learn more about how your product or service can solve their problems or meet their needs.

 

What’s the Big Deal About Email

Compared to the cost and effort involved in sending brochures and sales letters through the mail, email is an incredible bargain.

For almost no cost (except perhaps paying for an email distribution service), you could:

• share information about your product or service in full 3-D color,
• gain feedback through surveys and return email, and
• engage them through hyperlinks in your email that bring these potential clients to web pages, video, audio and slide presentations, and even live online events

…in a way that no other medium could.

However, this is only useful if you have the email addresses of real “qualified” prospects… people with the means and interest to buy what you are offering.

So… where would you get the emails of potential buyers?

And then, what would you do, once you got them?

Understanding the answers to these two questions could catapult your business to heights of prosperity unseen by many old-school businesses.

 

Sources of Email Lists – Getting the Emails of Real Buyers

FOR STARTERS… you could buy an email list from a list broker. Besides the expense, purchased email lists are rarely as effective as most people expect.

Here’s why…

Consider this. What if you had a list of “real” buyers for your product or service? Would you be willing to share it with anyone else?

Not until you’d gotten them to buy everything you possibly can, and they are totally tapped out. Or otherwise, only if these are the deadbeats on your list, the people who never buy anything.

Either way, it’s a crappy list, and that’s what most list-brokers offer.

SECOND… you could get the email addresses of potential buyers by finding someone who already has an email list of people who are ideal as potential buyers for you, and get them to send an email promoting you. (Note: Someone with a great list will never give you their list. But many will promote you to their list, (a) if you pay or compensate them and (b) if your offer is valuable enough that people won’t UNSIBSCRIBE.)

There are two ways to work with people who already have a list:

• Industry-Specific Promoters who sell access to their lists. These can be expensive but valuable, and can be highly restricted as to which offers and which advertisers they will accept.Here’s how they build their list.These promoters will typically offer some highly valuable report or white paper to a specialized technical audience through extensive advertising, in exchange for their email addresses. Then they carefully screen potential advertisers, making sure the look and offer are familiar and relevant for their audience – to ensure few people UNSUBSCRIBE to their email list.These advertisers will send your emails to their list, without allowing you direct access otherwise.If you can get accepted by one of these promoters, this could be an extremely valuable source of qualified leads for your product or service.Rather than offering their product or service in these emails, most advertisers will typically have an opt-in – where they capture the person’s email address in exchange for something valuable, such as a white paper, and ebook, etc. – on a topic a “real” buyer would be interested in.Then, once the advertiser has the prospect’s email address, there’s more freedom to market their product or service to them. (The opt-in process is explained in more detail below).
• Affiliate and Joint Venture Partner relationships is the second way to work with people who already have a list of your potential clients. See our AFFILIATES, JV PARTNERS section for more extensive details on this.

THIRD… and most important for many marketers, you could get a list of the email addresses of potential buyers by creating an opt-in process on your own web pages – where you offer something valuable in exchange for their email address.

 

Online Sales Funnel — Using Your Website to Capture Email Addresses

Most Internet marketing revolves around getting people to visit your website or web page.

Once there, what will the visitor do?

Although some will buy, contact you or visit your location, by far, the majority of people will leave soon after they visit, and never return.

The reason? They’re not quite ready to buy. They’re close but…

Wouldn’t it be great if you could capture the email addresses of these people?

Of course it would!

That’s where having an online “sales funnel” becomes so incredibly valuable to many businesses.

An online “sales funnel” is a system for capturing the emails of “qualified” prospects who are almost ready to buy… and plugging those emails into a system that gets them to eventually buy from you.

Here’s how a typical funnel works:

• First, you attract people to your website, through advertising, PR, talks, Internet marketing, networking, etc;
• Next, you qualify them with questions… Do you have this problem or need?
• If yes, next you show them how your product or service is the solution,
• Then, you ask them to buy, call or visit, by…
  • Offering easy purchase through ecommerce and your shopping cart,
  • Inviting them to set up an appointment and pay,
  • Inviting them to a free discovery/evaluation session,
  • Inviting them to a free seminar, teleseminar or webinar, or
  • Inviting them to visit your location (perhaps with a coupon or other incentive).
• If they are not quite ready to buy, you get them to opt-in – capturing their email address in exchange for something valuable you offer them.Typically you’d offer something they could quickly download, like an eBook (a pdf book or report with a fancy cover), a chart or cheat-sheet, a video or video training program, an audio, or some other item that is easy to deliver online;
• Once you have their email address, you send them a series of emails to build rapport and eventually get them to buy, by using:
  • A SEQUENCE OF EMAILS – Creating a series of training emails – also called an “autoresponder” series. These are emails that automatically go out in a timed sequence, say once a day for 10 days. These emails position you as an expert and hopefully give them confidence to buy from you.The emails may contain FAQs (frequently asked questions) – which are the most commonly asked questions about your product or service.At the bottom of each email, you include a brief sales pitch for your product or service; or
  • A REGULAR NEWSLETTER – Sending them an ongoing newsletter with valuable relevant tips, perhaps once or twice-a-month, with an ad for your product or service at the bottom or side.

Why go to so much trouble?

Remember, these people are qualified. They indicated by their visiting your website and opting-in to your freebie that they are interested in your product or service. So spending time trying to convert them to customers can generate real income from people who would otherwise never have bought from you.

If yours is the type of business where people need to get to know you before they buy, the online “sales funnel” can be a crucial marketing tool.

 

What Kind of Freebies Work Best

To get people to give you their email addresses, you’ll need to offer something they value, either free or for a very low price.

The best item to offer sets up the ultimate purchase, by providing answers to questions that a “real” buyer would typically ask, as they consider your product or service.

For example, a printer could offer a free ebook on, “5 Secrets to Avoid Getting Gouged by Your Printer” – or – “45 Surprising Ways to Get More Clients Using Post-Cards.”

The more valuable the item, the more likely they will give you their email.

The good news is, creating an effective ebook doesn’t have to be very complicated. To start, an ebook is usually a WORD or PAGES document (typically 8-80 pages) converted to a PDF. PDF converters are available free at www.Cnet.com and may already be built into your word processing program.

Once you’ve written a valuable document, adding a 3D cover suddenly makes it appear more substantial (see Scam Busters example).

You’ll use the cover in promotions for the free information and could be repeated as the first page of the ebook itself.

Two popular sources to get ebook covers made are www.Fiverr.com – for about $5 and www.KillerCovers.com – for about $100.

Still, the most important element of your ebook by far is the quality of the information. If you trick people into giving you their email address and all you provide is something junky or useless, they will not be interested in buying from and will probably UNSUBSCRIBE from your email list.

Remember, you do not get a second chance to make a first impression.

If you are offering first-rate valuable information they could use, that sets the expectation that your product or service are also first-rate, so make sure whatever you offer is good.

 

Should You Ask for More Than Just Their Name and Email Address

There’s a simple rule in capturing email addresses. The more you ask for, the fewer people will sign-up.

Meaning… ask for their first name and email address, and most people will freely give them in exchange for whatever you are offering. Ask for anything else and the number of people could drop by 90% and more.

Of course, with some creativity, there are some cases where asking for more could work, especially if you’re willing to spend some money.

For example, Infinity Publishing, a print-on-demand (POD) publisher selling to would-be authors who want to self-publish a book, offers a free book entitled, “How to Become a Published Author.” It outlines the entire self-publishing process. They understand that, if someone has come to their website, they are probably an author investigating options for self-publishing, and are probably close to making a purchase.

Therefore, Infinity wants more than their email address, if possible.

So they’ve come up with a clever trick.

They offer to mail you a softcover copy of, “How to Become a Published Author” when you fill out their form. Of course, the form asks for your shipping address. Not surprisingly, near the bottom, after you’ve completed most of the form, there’s a request for your phone number, which most people provide.

They also do something very important. They give the person instant access to an ebook version of the book that’s being sent by mail.

Think how powerful this is.

They now have the email address and the phone number of someone who’s preparing to buy. Can you see how valuable that can be?

With the phone number, they have a Print-On-Demand consultant (a salesperson) call:

• Letting them know the book is on its way,
• Asking where the person is in the publishing process (is your book already written, is the text edited, do you have a cover),
• Explaining how the POD process works and pricing, and then
• Asking if they would like to get started.

Although their technique is clever and works for them, most marketers will simply ask for the first name and email address and use emails to complete the sales process.

Once you have that important email address, your selling process can then continue… until they buy.

 

How Many Pages Should a Freebie Have

Although ebooks can range from a few pages to over 100, the typical one is 60-80 pages for a full-blown one, and 12-20 pages for a smaller one, often with bigger type.

Many marketers believe an ebook should be about 60-80 pages, but studies have shown the opposite can be more effective. Ebooks with 8-16 pages, cheat-sheets with 1-2 pages and 1-page infographics (see example below) tend to do a better job of converting visitors into buyers.

Infographic Example

 

One theory is, if you offer too much information, they won’t buy anything until they’ve finished the book, which may take forever. Another is that when you provide too much, there is a sense they are satiated and don’t feel they need anything more.

Whatever the reason, it’s worth noting that short ebooks and freebies (which can take a lot less effort to create) may be all that’s necessary to get website visitors to give you their email address and be satisfied with what they get. Of course, you still need to make sure what you offer is considered of real value.

 

What’s Better – Is Free Always the Best

There’s one more important issue about capturing email addresses.

Might it be better to offer something they have to pay for, even if it’s just a few dollars, rather than giving them something for free?

Ryan Deiss, an expert on conversion and one of the wealthiest marketers on the Internet, is a real advocate for what he calls, the “tripwire.” He believes that someone willing to pay you $7 or even as little as $1 could be more valuable than someone who gets something for free.

His reasoning is, if you offer something of incredible value, maybe worth $50 or more, and you charge just $7, if someone isn’t willing to give you their credit card for that, how likely are they to do it for a higher-priced offer?

Of course, this isn’t an absolute law, even for Deiss. I noticed he still offers free items as opt-ins.

Still, this “tripwire” concept is worth considering, as a way to separate real buyers from everyone else.

When you have an email list of thousands of people who already spent some money – even if it’s just a buck – that’s probably a more valuable and responsive list than one with people who only get free stuff from you.

 

Email Services — Which Ones Are Best

As previously mentioned, there are many important benefits to using a professional email service. They include:

• “White-listing,” (deliverability) where your emails are more likely to get through the email spam filters of the receivers,
• Opt-in boxes of many sizes, styles and types, which you post on your web pages to capture the email addresses of people coming to your site,
• A database to hold all those emails that you captured, and that may be separated by which opt-in and which web page a person signed up from,
• Formatting for both text and html emails (with graphics), so your email will get read even if the receiver does not permit graphics,
• Templates (formatting) for and eNewsletters, etc, and
• Autoresponders, where you can pre-schedule emails to go out at predetermined times, like upon their entering an email into an opt-in box, then one day later, one week later, and so forth.

The most popular email services include Constant Contact, iContact, aWeber and Mail Chimp. Although each service has minor differences, each is basically comparable.

MailChimp is free for up to 1,000 people on your list (with a few restrictions). It can be a great way to start using a robust email system for limited risk while building your email list. Once your list gets larger, their prices are comparable to other services.

Email distribution and management is also available through shopping cart and marketing management systems such as 1ShoppingCart, InfusionSoft and Hubspot, generally offering opt-in boxes, database management and autoresponders.

 

Copywriting — Getting Past the Email CLutter

With billions of emails sent out every hour, and more than 80% considered as spam, getting through the clutter so people actually read your emails can be the most important challenge of online marketers.

Therefore, your most important challenges with email marketing are:

• Making sure your email gets to the recipient, then…
• Making sure your email gets opened, then…
• Making sure your email gets read, then…
• Making sure your email gets them to take action (click a link, call you, visit your location or buy something).

Whether you are sending emails to one person at a time or a massive list, the following tips apply.

DELIVERABILITY: In this world of email overwhelm and spam filters, if you send an email, you want them to receive it.

As mentioned in the previous section, using a professional email service like Constant Contact, iContact, aWeber and Mail Chimp can help.

OPEN RATE: Next, will the person open your email?

That depends on three factors:

• the email’s SUBJECT line,
• whether your email has an attachment, and
• whether it’s from someone they know and trust.

So the first rule is, no attachments.

Second, if you are able to get someone to give you their email address, as fast as possible after they sign up, send them a few emails of value – starting with a THANK YOU FOR SIGNING UP FOR…  This gets them comfortable with receiving emails from you, and will get them familiar with your email’s signature line.

Many email marketers also suggest using a person’s name and not a business name when sending an email. People are generally more comfortable opening emails from a person than a company, but it’s not absolutely essential.

 

Creating a Headline That Gets Your Email Opened

Your email’s subject line (the headline, in essence) is the most important element of your email. It’s the first thing people see. That’s why an engaging meaty subject-line is critical.

When they read the subject line, will the reader want to open and read the email?

If the subject is interesting to them, they will.

To ensure the subject line of your email is engaging and gets opened, here are a few tips you could try:

• Use numbers, brackets, hyphens, quotation marks and/or ellipses…  they stand out:
  • 17 Email Marketing Rules You Have to Break
  • 4 Ways to Get More Publicity by Speaking in Sound Bytes
  • 5-Minute Guide to Cheap Startup Advertising
  • 72 headline formulas that get social media clicks…
  • 43 Split Test that (Almost) Always Win
  • Only 24 Hours Away – Get FREE Access Today
  • “How To Enroll New High-Paying Clients Without Doing Any Selling”
• Offer something specific:
  • Doing “this” will get you hired 80% of the time
  • 4 Ways to Get More Publicity by Speaking in Sound Bytes
  • Free 68 page book – Formula to ‘Get to Yes’
  • 5-Minute Guide to Cheap Startup Advertising
  • New eBook: How to use landing pages for business
  • Download Complimentary Grunge-Style Graphics
  • PDF Download: 10-Step Marketing Checklist
  • My 10 keys to creating a bestselling book
  • “How To Enroll New High-Paying Clients Without Doing Any Selling”
• Surprise them by saying the opposite of what people expect:
  • Blogging is DUMB!
  • 17 Email Marketing Rules You Have to Break
  • New Google Service PAYS YOU!
  • I’m Not Stopping with a Free Chapter
  • Do this and your business will FAIL!
• Ask a question:
  • Is your great-looking website SCARING away clients?
  • Did you miss this?
  • James … can you make it Wednesday?
  • Are you committing these 7 lethal email mistakes?
  • Are Your Retirement Savings at Risk?
  • James – want your own a Web TV show?

 

Writing Content That Gets Read

Your email’s body (the text part) must now connect to your headline. The headline identified who you’re looking for…

• Is this you?
• Do you have this problem?
• Are you interested in this?

In their mind, once they answered YES, now you need to explain how they can solve this problem or satisfy this need with your product or service, in as few words as possible.

Your email’s first sentence and first paragraph need to get to the point quickly and succinctly, give them confidence that you have a legitimate answer and/or something of value to them, then ask them to take some action to get it or to get more information about the solution you are offering.

Here are a few tips to have email copy that people want to read:

• Target someone specific with a specific need:
  • Not “women” but – “working women who are too exhausted at the end of the day to spend enough quality time with their kids…”Not “online marketers” but – “business and life-coaches who are struggling to attract clients through the Internet…”Can you see how focusing on someone specific with a specific problem is much easier to write effectively for?
• Write as if you’re writing to a trusted friend. Too often people write to a crowd, when one person at a time will be reading your email. The reader doesn’t feel they’re part of a crowd. It’s just you and them. So think of a friend and write your email as if you’re writing just for them.
• Use short sentences and short paragraphs.
• ALL CAPS LOOK LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING. Limit the use of words in all caps in your email.
• Worry less about proper grammar. Write the way you speak.
• Always check your spelling and typos.
• Use emotionally engaging words:
  • Instead of “great” use words that paint a picture and excite the emotions, like sumptuous, tasty, incredible, amazing.Whenever you can introduce even subtle emotion into your email, more people will buy.Even if you’re selling industrial equipment, don’t just say, it’s “black” or “red” or “yellow” when you can say, it’s jet-black, high-gloss-black, fire-engine-red striping, alert-yellow trim. Even the slight inclusion of emotional-words and descriptions will often boost your results to surprising levels.
• Get to the point quickly. People can be impatient when reading emails.Write your email, then ask yourself if the message is obvious to the reader and if the call-to-action (what you want them to do) is obvious. Journalists call it, burying the lead… meaning, burying your main point deep within the text instead of putting it right at the top.After writing your email, try this.Look at the last sentence of your email. Should that also be your first sentence?
• Put your name at the end of the email. Don’t make it an email from some faceless nameless corporation. Sign your email,
  • John Robertson
    Director of Client Engagement
    Nike Corp.Having the email from a real person will always add to its readability.
• Consider putting a FROM line in your email where you put your name, and even the date:From: Jane Mollinson
  Date: June 23, 2014
• Tell them what you want them to do. What’s the call-to-action?
  • Do you want them to click a link? Tell them… Click this link to learn how to boost your income using teleseminars (followed by the link).
  • Do you want them to call you? Tell them… Call now for a free evaluation – 888-888-8888.
  • Do you want them to sign up for a webinar? Tell them… Click here to register (followed by a link).The more specific you can be to what you want them to do, the more people will do what you ask.
• Use a p.s. at the end of the email. People read them… Use the p.s. to summarize what you want them to do and why.
• Remember to include an UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of your email, and/or to take the person off your email list if they request it. Professional email services automatically add this to the bottom of your emails.This is the law!If people no longer want to receive promotional emails from you, you must make it easy for them to unsubscribe, and stop sending emails if they request it.
• Use their first name when possible. It makes the email seem more personal and generates better results.In your opt-in (email capture box), ask for their first name and email address. Then, when you send emails, make sure you include the field that includes the first name they entered (email services explain how to do this).Be careful to not ask for more information up-front in your opt-in. The less information you require, the more people will sign up.
• Improve your text with a scissors. This is a powerful tip. Start by writing the email. Then, go back through it and delete as many words, sentences and paragraphs as possible.Keep asking yourself, is this word, sentence or paragraph absolutely essential? If not, delete it. You’ll be amazed at how much you can improve your email’s effectiveness with a scissors… cutting everything that’s non-essential.
• Be enthusiastic yourself, as you are writing. Don’t just blurt out a few boring facts in your email. Tell your reader what’s awesome about your product or upcoming seminar.
• Remember WIIFM – what’s in it for me? Write your email for the reader, explaining and describing why they should care about your subject. If you are excited, they will be excited.
• Whenever you get a great email from another marketer, save it. Create an email folder called GREAT EMAILS. So whenever writing your own email, now you’ll have something to give you ideas, inspiration and formatting.
• Less is more. Could you say it in 3-4 short paragraphs. It’s not always crucial to be short. Many powerful emails are long. However, if you can make it short, you could have more people read it and take the action you want.
• Measure results. If you’re not sure if your headline is effective, try a split test, where some people get one version of the email and others get another. Even the experts are always testing.
• Remember the bottom of your email. Every email service allows you to put some graphic or text in the signature part of the email. You could put a graphic of your signature, and that definitely makes it appear more personal.Also remember to put the title of your business, contact information if appropriate, a logo if you have one and some slogan that defines a relevant message that you want people to know about your business, and perhaps even a list of the different products or services you offer. This is one of the simplest ways to let people know about your business. It also makes getting referrals simpler, by enabling people to forward your email with the contact info at the bottom.

Also, should your email be text only or HTML (with graphics, a fancy logo, etc).

Many email receiving services only show text unless the reader allows graphics to be displayed.

Therefore, always make sure the body of your message is text and not graphics. Too often someone with a great opening question or statement, puts it inside a graphic at the start of the email, and therefore it never gets read.

If the reader doesn’t allow graphics, your message will be missed and your email deleted or passed over. That’s why you always want to make sure the bulk of your email shows in text and not graphics.

 

Including a Call-to-Action That Gets Results

Finally, is your call to action obvious? What specifically do you want the reader to do? Click a link, call you?

Make sure your call to action is clear and stands out from your text.

Putting the call to action in its own paragraph can help:

Sign up now at: www.BigTicketBlueprint.com

Also, mention your call-to-action several times in the email. If it’s a link, put it 2-3 times within the email… perhaps early, in the middle then at the end.

Remember, whether you are sending an email to one person or to a massive list, the more engaging your email is, the more people will respond the way you want.

 

Newsletters — Creating and Distributing Email Newsletters

If you decide to create a newsletter to send to people on your email list, here are a few tips that may help:

• CALENDAR: Create a calendar with a 12-month schedule, which includes major holidays and events throughout the year (Valentines Day, Super Bowl Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, etc). Even if every month is not filled in, it greatly simplifies your ability to consistently provide content to your list.Should a special topic or product arise that you want to include in one of the newsletters, you could always add or change elements easily. However, establishing your 12-month calendar will relieve a ton of stress while simplifying your ability to consistently send out a newsletter.Also, if you are using a professional email service, your newsletter can be written in advance and scheduled for distribution at a later time.
• FORMAT: If you subscribe to a professional email service, most have templates for email newsletters, where you can select a design and color scheme, add your logos if needed, and then, simply add your content.Also, save great email newsletters from other advertisers as examples and inspiration.
• TABLE OF CONTENTS: At the top, always include a bulleted list of what’s included in this newsletter. This increases engagement and readership.
• CONTENT: For inspiration of great articles for your newsletter:
  • Create an ongoing file of articles from industry magazines,
  • Visit your trade association’s website regularly,
  • Subscribe to key blogs for your industry (in Google, typs the name of your industry followed by the word “blog,”
  • Check LinkedIn Groups for discussions about your industry and the kinds of questions people ar asking,
  • Subscribe to Google Alerts, where Google sends you new Internet articles they find pertaining to keywords you request.Google Alerts is a fabulous free service (type Google Alerts in Google it find it). They send you a list and description and link to every new item they find about your topic. Warning: Set the alerts to once-a-week, otherwise your email box will get flooded every day with these alerts.
• PRODUCT INFO: Always include information about the product or service you offer, on the side and/or at the bottom of every newsletter. In this way, besides any articles you may create about a new product, the reader will regularly be reminded to consider buying your product or service.If you have a new product you are introducing, you could include it as the first article of your newsletter. You may also want to include the last article Selling text / product or service on the side and/or bottom

Creating a regular email newsletter is a large commitment. However, if you have the means and interest, it can be an important way to:

• get people trusting you,
• expose them to new products and services,
• get them to buy even more from you (if they have purchased in the past),
• get referrals from people forwarding your emails to their friends and associates, and otherwise
• increasing the success of your business.

Example of LegalZoom Newsletter with table of contents and list of services they offer

SEE ALSO

MEDIA AND METHODS — Page 129 EMAIL MARKETING
and…

The PDF Download for 5-MINUTE MARKETING
and…

The  WHY YOURS videos of The 5 Questions

.

If you’d like details about another Website Magnet — click on a link below

How will you bring “qualified” prospects to your website or web platform?

Search Engines | Social Media | Directories | Press Releases, PR & Articles | Blogs | Posting Expert Comments on Forums | Article Directories / eZine Directories | Video and Blog Sharing Sites | Articles on Partner Sites / Partner Newsletters | Affiliates / JV Partners / TeleSummits and Alliances | Emails / Email Newsletters | Banner & Text Ads | Webinars / Teleseminars | Viral Marketing | Tell-A-Friend | Promotional Marketers | Offline Marketing