5 Years Of Email Marketing Secrets

Your List

The oldest cliché in the business is that the money is in the list. The reason it’s the oldest is that it’s true. The money IS on the list but ONLY if you know how to communicate with your list. As I said in the last chapter, I’m going to stay away from gimmicks and fads here. I’ve never used them. That’s not to say they don’t work, but unfortunately, especially in the “make money” niche, these fads get old very fast and lose their effectiveness almost immediately as soon as the cat is let out of the bag.

So let’s keep this simple, basic and effective.

Email Subject

When your prospect signed up for your list, most likely you gave them some kind of list name. Use it. Your list name, or at the very least the list name initials, should be the first thing in your email subject.

Here’s an example of how Paul Myers, one of the most respected and successful marketers online, does it.
[TalkBiz] If you could have anything you wanted....
All his emails start with [TalkBiz].

Okay, why do we want to do this? The reason is that when somebody signs up for your list, they did so for a reason. They’re interested in what you have to say. They want to read your emails. So don’t make it hard for them to find those emails out of all the junk they get. Just by doing this much, you stand a much better chance of getting your emails opened.

But still, it’s not enough. I mean, if you just send an email that said [TalkBiz] or whatever your list name was, I doubt you’d get many emails opened. You need to generate some interest.

How do you do this?
Well, now we’re really getting more into the realm of copywriting. Truth is, a good email subject requires good copywriting skills. However, you don’t have to come out with the slam dunk headlines
that the top copywriters come out with. Just something to get your prospect curious will be good enough.
There are many ways to get somebody’s interest. I am going to cover the most common here.

The Question

Ask them a question? It’s almost impossible to resist answering a direct question from somebody, especially if it’s somebody’s list. Remember, the prospect is expecting your email. So give him something to be curious about.
Some questions that have worked for me have been the following:

Are You Having The Success You Want?
Have You Seen This?
Did You Hear The Latest News About <fill in the blank>?
Do You Suffer From <fill in the blank>? (health niche)
Can You Use An Extra $<fill in amount>?

I could go on but I think you get the point? You have to tailor the question to what your actual message is about.
How do you do this? Simple.

You read through your message and pick out the most important point in that message. You then turn that point into a question.
Question emails are very effective because people can’t resist answering questions. Curiosity will always get the better of them.
Use this to YOUR advantage.

The Offer

This is another very effective tactic when coming up with subjects for your email. Let the prospect know exactly what the offer is that they’re going to get IF they open your email and act on it.

Here are a few examples of subjects with offers.
5 Free Email Tactic Tips
Free Report On How To Do Niche Research
Use These To Increase Profits By 100%
My Biggest Special Ever…<product> At 50% Off

This way, when the prospect sees the email, they know EXACTLY what they’re going to get out of opening the email. Now, there are some schools of thought that say if you do this, you’ll get prospects who won’t open the email because they’re not interested in that offer.

Here is what I have to say to that.

If the person is on your list, then they’re on it for a reason…to get information from you. If the subject of your email relates to the type of information that they’re expecting to receive from you, then there is no reason for them NOT to open the email. If they don’t, then quite honestly, they’re wasting their time on your list.

The Sensational Subject
I don’t use these often but the truth is, they are very effective as long as you don’t overuse them and don’t jump on the bandwagon if a certain sensational subject is being used to death. (See “bad news”)
Here is a subject that Paul Myers used that absolutely compelled me to open his email.
[TalkBiz] Michel Fortin called me a thief!

Think about it. The great copywriter Michel Fortin called Paul Myers, a respected marketer, a thief. Now, I knew there had to be a catch to this, even if it WAS true that Michel Fortin called Paul Myers a thief, but even though I knew there was a catch, I had to find out what went down. What were the circumstances of Michel Fortin calling Paul Myers a thief?

Now please, don’t start emailing your list saying “Steve Wagenheim called me a thief!” For one thing, I didn’t. For another, the story you’d have to make up would have to be a whopper.

The Informative Subject

These subjects usually involve letting the subscriber know about some news item or something about the niche you’re involved in that will be of some interest to them.
Here are some examples of informative subjects that pulled very well for me.

Google Changes Make Pay Per Click A Royal Pain
Ezine Articles Shakeup Gives Article Marketers Fits
Forum Marketing Takes A Big Hit Thanks To Spammers

The key is understanding why your subscribers are on your list, what it is they’re interested in and then if anything happens in the industry that you think they’ll view as important, let them know about it.
Now, you might be thinking that being in the industry already, they know all this stuff. It doesn’t matter whether they do or not. You still want to send these emails.

For one thing, some subscribers might NOT know about these events. So it is YOUR responsibility to fill them in. After all, they’re counting on you to train them.

Secondly, even if they DO know what’s going on, having an expert like yourself confirm the story and add some insight to it, which you will do, gives it more credibility. It also gives YOU more credibility. It shows your subscribers that you’re keeping up with things.

And of course, there are variations and combinations of these and tons of gray areas. The number of possible email subjects is virtually limitless. However, if you stick to these basic types, you should have no trouble coming up with an email subject that will get your subscriber to open your email.

Intro Paragraph

The intro paragraph of an email to your list is going to be different than an intro paragraph for any other type of email. The reason is that of the relationship you have with your list.
These people know you and trust you. At least they should. So the last thing you want to do is hit them with a sales pitch right out of the gate.

I have found that the best way to begin an email with your list is by telling them what information they’re going to be receiving in this email. It doesn’t matter what kind of subject you’re using, whether it be the question, offer, sensational or informative subject. You will start each email off the same.
Let’s take each type of subject and write an intro paragraph for it.

Question:
Why don’t we tackle this one?
Can You Use An Extra $<fill in amount>?
Here goes.


Hi:
Many Internet marketers and home business owners are finding it difficult to bring in the kind of income that they’d like. It seems that everywhere they look is another obstacle. In this issue of my newsletter, I’m going to show you a simple but effective method to make an extra $<fill in amount> without having to kill yourself in the process. I think you’ll find these tips most helpful.


Think this isn’t going to get your subscriber to want to read the rest of your email? Opening paragraphs like these are very effective.

Offer:

Let’s see what we can do with this one.
Free Report On How To Do Niche Research


Hi:
One of the most difficult things that Internet marketers have done is niche research. Between doing keyword research, competition research and product research, this process can be quite unnerving. Well, you can relax. In this issue of my newsletter, I’m going to give you some basics of doing niche research and then show you how you can get a free report that goes into more detail.


Now, what a lot of people will do is skip over the tips and just look for the link to get the free report. And that’s fine because ultimately, that’s what you want them to do anyway. If you’re smart, your free report will be loaded with backend offers, which is how you’ll make your money.

Sensational:
No better example to use than Paul Myers’ Michel Fortin subject.
[TalkBiz] Michel Fortin called me a thief!


Hi, folks...
In this issue, my old friend the Copy Doctor calls me a thief, and I follow that up by committing copywriting heresy. Oh, and I plan to murder AIDA, right here in front of a few thousand witnesses.


Not only does he hook us in with the Michel Fortin thief bit but he also gets us curious about the comment about him committing copywriting heresy. Paul is a master at writing.

Informative:
Since article marketing is my bag, let’s tackle this one.
Ezine Articles Shakeup Gives Article Marketers Fits


Hi:
If you’re an article marketer you probably know that Ezine Articles is the top directory to submit your articles to. Well, recent shakeups at this directory as far as what you can and can’t do are giving article marketers fits. If you’re not familiar with what they are, I’ll fill you in on the details in this newsletter. You’re going to want to read this if you’re into article marketing.


Now, anybody who is into article marketing is going to be concerned about what these changes are and will most likely want to read what’s going to come next.

In all these intro paragraphs, do you see what we did? We let the person know EXACTLY what they’re going to find in the newsletter. This way there is no guessing and no wondering if it’s something they’re going to want to read.
I have personally found these to be the most effective intro paragraphs in my 5 years of marketing online. I used Paul’s for the one example because I just loved it so much.

Here is Paul’s TalkBizNews newsletter in case you want to subscribe to it. I highly recommend it.
http://talkbiz.com/

Main Content

Okay, now we get into the part of the email where we give the subscriber the main content of what it is you want to relate to them. Now, I could say something simple like, “In your intro you told them what you’re going to tell them, now go and tell them.” But instead of taking the easy road on this, I’m going to give you examples of this. Since I don’t have Paul’s permission to reprint his newsletter (I did get permission to use his paragraph and offer his link to you) I will use another example for the sensational subject…one that I wrote on my own.
Okay, let’s get to some examples.

Question:
We’re going to use the same one as in our intro example.
Can You Use An Extra $<fill in amount>?
Okay, we’ve just told the subscriber that we’re going to give them some tips to make a few extra bucks. So let’s tell them.


One of the best ways to come up with quick cash is through freelancing. If you go to sites like Elance.com, you’ll find many people who are looking for articles, software, sales letters, ebooks and all kinds of jobs to be done. If you have the skills to do any of these things, it could mean anywhere from $25 to $2,500 for one contract, depending on how involved the job is. The best part is, there is no expense involved. You don’t need a website, hosting or anything. All you need is an email address and a way to collect payments.

Another great way to make some quick cash is by selling things on Ebay. Sometimes things that you have laying around the house, things that you have no use for, can bring in hundreds of dollars. And if you don’t have anything around the house to sell, garage sales are perfect for coming up with items.
Of course, if neither of these options appeals to you, there is always focus groups. You can’t even begin to imagine how much money they pay for some of these. Usually, a focus group will concentrate on some aspect of human nature or marketing and analyze it to death. By the end of the month (usually how long they last) you’ve made anywhere from $300 to $500 or more. And trust me, they don’t take a lot of work.


And there you go. We’ve given the subscriber what we promised them. We didn’t fancy it up. We just gave it to them straight, which is what your subscribers want.

Offer:

We’re going to use this subject and the intro that went with it.
Free Report On How To Do Niche Research


There are essentially 3 keys to doing niche research. The first is the actual keyword selection. It is critical to choose keywords that not only are being looked up by prospects but also are specifically targeted to what they’re looking for. For example, you don’t want to include generic keywords like “dogs” if you’re selling a book on dog training because you don’t know what a person looking up “dogs” is really looking for. Certainly, there is no indication that he’s looking for any type of training info.

The next key is competition research. You want to have a good idea of what kind of competition you’re up against as well as how much. For example, if you’re selling a book on debt relief and you see that there are over 15 million sites for that keyword, it’s going to be a lot harder to break into the market than if you’re selling something like digital photography tips that only has a couple of hundred thousand sites in competition.

Finally, there is product research. If you’re going to create your own products, you want to know what the competition is selling. You need to know what the features of the product are and how much the product sells for. That way, you’ll have an idea of what kind of product you need to create and what price range it should sell it. If you’re looking to sell affiliate products, you need to know what’s available. You might find some niches don’t have viable products for affiliate use.


There you go. You’ve given your subscriber the tips you promised. Now all you have to do is close with the link to the free report. We’ll get to that when we get to the closing.

Sensational:

For this example, I’m going to use one of my sensational subjects. This one performed very well and got me quite a few sales.
Here was the subject.
I Was Robbed Of $2,500 By A Well Known Marketer
I will not reprint his name here.


The way it started was that this person contacted me and offered me a business proposition. It sounded good and since he was pretty well known, I figured I didn’t have anything to worry about. He told me that the materials would cost about $5,000 and we’d split it 50/50. I had no problem with that and promptly sent the $2,500 to his PayPal account.

Well, as the days went by, I didn’t hear anything on this. I started to get a little concerned. So I did a little digging. To make a long story short, I found out that this marketer had actually ripped off quite a number of people. I felt so stupid. It seemed like I was the only one not to know.
Anyway, I put in a dispute with my PayPal account and I did get my money back eventually. The marketer’s name is <name omitted>. If you should happen to run into this character, please run in the other direction. He is bad, bad news.

Here is a link where you can read about more of his schemes.
<link omitted>


And that’s it. The only thing that followed was the close.
Informative:
Let’s use this one.
Ezine Articles Shakeup Gives Article Marketers Fits
Okay, so what’s the big changes over at Ezine Articles? Well, there’s been a number of them, and none of them good.


For starters, anchor text has now been limited to three words for your resource box. So you Bum Marketers, you can forget about anchor text like “discover-secrets-of-email-marketing” because that’s two words too long. So you’re going to really have to use your imagination now for anchor text.

Another change, that actually took place a while ago, in case you missed it, has to do with affiliate links. They are now a no-no. Any links in your resource box have to go to a top-level domain that YOU own. You can redirect to an affiliate sales page, but the domain has to be your own. This makes affiliate marketing a little tougher if you’re promoting many products.

Another thing you might want to know is that there are certain topics that they just won’t let you write about. One of them is PLR. You can’t even mention the name PLR in your article, pro or con. As an article directory, they don’t even want to acknowledge the existence of PLR material. Safelists and FFA sites are also on the no-no list, as well as mentioning any brand of the drug by name.


There you have it. We’ve given them some important info about what’s going down at Ezine Articles. All that’s left is the closing.

Closing

This is the ballgame folks. Whatever came before this was put there for the purpose of setting up your closing. It’s kind of like in baseball. Your setup man is there to pitch the 8th inning so that your closer can close out the 9th. Well, this is it. This is where you earn your money. If you blow this, you might as well not even bother with email marketing because all you’re doing is wasting a lot of words.
So let’s take these one at a time.

Question:
We’re going to use the same one as in our intro example.
Can You Use An Extra $<fill in amount>?


If you want to pick yourself up a great book with some more killer ways to make extra money online, check out my Honest Income Program. In the first section, I show you where you can find tons of freelancing opportunities all over the Internet. Some places pay as much as $200 for a single article.
You really want to check this out.
<link>


That product in my closing sold 200 copies a month for a whole year, a good number of them because of emails like these.

Offer:

We’re going to use this subject and the intro that went with it.
Free Report On How To Do Niche Research


If you want to pick up a great book that goes into niche research in detail, visit my site at:
http://www.nicheresearchrevolution.com/report.html
You’ll learn everything from keyword research to picking out products to sell. I cover every nook and cranny on the Internet for doing complete research on any niche. And the best part…it’s FREE.


Short and to the point. If your prospect is at all interested in this subject, this report is as good as in his hands.
Sensational:
We’re going to use the subject that I sent out to my list about the guy who tried to cheat me out of $2,500.
I Was Robbed Of $2,500 By A Well Known Marketer


If you’ve been ripped off yourself, don’t panic. I’ve got a site that exposes every scam and scammer that I have run into over the years. You can find it at:
http://www.wagtunes.cashhosters2.com/biz/index.html
Just check out Weekly Picks. You’ll find all the good AND the bad that exists on the Internet.


Now, you’re probably wondering what I get out of sending people to a review site. Well, some of the reviews are good, and in some cases, I actually endorse products that I believe in, and of course, use my
affiliate links to do it. Review sites are a great way to make a nice side income online. What makes this site work is that there are just as many bad reviews as good reviews, if not more.

Informative:

Let’s use this one.
Ezine Articles Shakeup Gives Article Marketers Fits


If you’re having problems getting your articles to work for you, check out my critically acclaimed book on article writing and marketing. You can find it at:
http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html
You’ll learn everything you need to know about article writing and market those articles either for pay or to promote products online.


Again, if this is something the prospect is interested in, they’re at least going to check out the site. This is one of my best selling books because of emails like these.
There you have it. Everything that you need to put together an email to your list that should more than get the job done. If you go through my emails, you’ll notice that they are:
1. Short and to the point.
2. Provide good content.
3. Have a short and good call to action at the end.
If you’re thinking it can’t be this easy, it is. Your list is not looking to be dazzled out of their seats. They’re just looking for good content that is going to help them with the problem they’re having.
And this method will work no matter what niche you’re in.

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