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What our members have to say...
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"Just a quick note to say thanks for the service you provide. I was worried about it being a scam but after two genuine investor contacts I can see that it's genuine."
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Jane Hamilton - Managing Director of GayGirlNet.com Ltd |
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How to write the magic email
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I recently returned from speaking in the Far East to an in-box of several hundred e-mails. Many hoped to interest me in their services or suggest subjects for this column. All these e-mails had one major drawback; they were far too long.
There is a saying attributed to many, including Mark Twain: “I am sorry to write you a long letter, I did not have time to send a short one.” It takes real skill and application to communicate your message in just a few words, which is why good journalists and copywriters are so cherished.
The World Wide Web is the spiritual home of the verbose and self-obsessed; you can easily write as much as you like about your company’s products and services. Much harder is first to drive people to your web site, and then to keep them there.
We all send too many e-mails and most of them are far too long. The attention span of a potential customer is very short, so you need to convey a very simple message with a clear call to action.
A common mistake is to attempt to convey complex philosophies, deep emotions or humour in an e-mail; this can go horribly wrong and even be counter-productive. It is very important to realise that an e-mail is a very inefficient form of communication for anything other than basic facts. It should always ask a very obvious question designed to elicit a simple ‘yes’ or no’ response.
When used correctly, e-mail can be very effective and take the misery out of making appointments with customers. We designed our Sales on a Beermat workshop specifically for entrepreneurs who were not natural salespeople and thus intimidated by cold-calling, especially as most business prospects now hide behind voice-mail.
The solution to this challenge is ‘Mike’s Magic E-Mail’, which is only four lines long and has the first benefit of applying discipline to the writer, including basic marketing to define first precisely who it is you are targeting and exactly what it is you are tying to sell them.
Important pre-work is to secure the e-mail addresses of the people you are targeting. The place to start is your existing happy customers, studying their demographic profile, including company type, location and size.
Once you have assembled a good set of target companies similar to your favourite customers, you can work from a purchased list (which must always be re-qualified) or employ a telemarketing company to secure the right e-mail addresses. Then you have to employ the gifts and discipline of Mark Twain to write them an e-mail that is only four lines long.
The first line should address the pain, problem or challenge that the customer faces, based on your research or market knowledge. Sometimes you have little information on a particular prospect, but a visit to the ‘news’ or press’ pages of their web site will often generate some ideas.
The second line explains the premise of your business and how you plan to solve their problems or help them address their challenges. It is important to be very literal here, avoiding slogans or by-lines generated by your marketing agency. You may indeed be achieving ‘vorsprung durch technik’, but you also need to explain that you provide reliable and cost-effective cars.
The third line must provide proof, someone who can back up the bold claim in your premise. Here you must have a one-line customer endorsement backed up by a web link to a full case study on your web site. The fourth and final line is your call to action, which can even be as bold as requesting a fifteen minute meeting on a specific date, as you happen to be in the area.
So if your ambition is to be featured in this column, your ‘Magic E-Mail’ might read: “Dear Mike, I see you are interested in meeting interesting people who might have useful learning points for your readers. We represent Jane Smith, one of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs. She has successfully grown her business in a recession using simple but very effective sales techniques. Are you free at 10am on Tuesday 28th to meet her over a coffee?”
So please do send me an e-mail; I always enjoy receiving them, especially if you are interested in booking me to speak at your event or awayday, something I do very successfully all over the world (there was my pitch). But please remember, the shorter the e-mail, the swifter you will receive my reply. |
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