Self Employed Success

Over the past several years, people have become accustomed to building personal relationships with a business via email. They reject companies and service providers where they don’t feel they’re being honored.

Your first email to them, your “Welcome” email, can begin that relationship, and turn a one-way conversation into a conversation that goes both ways between your business and your customer. Make it count.

Send the first email out automatically, within a few minutes after a person subscribes and opts-in to your email list. It can be one email, or a series of emails, triggered by a person’s joining.

Some tips on what you should put in your first email:

• Welcome them to your community. Remind them how they got on your list – did they sign up for a free offer, or did they make a purchase from your online store?
• Thank them. Acknowledge that you’re grateful they chose your content, or for their purchase.
• Talk to them about what they’ve signed up for. What kind of content can they expect? If they bought something from you, let them know how to access that item or when they can expect to get it.
• Give them more than they expected. Offer links to important and helpful content on your website, or links to audio files, documents or webinar and video content.
• Tell them how often they can expect your emails. You should be sending email newsletters at least once a month, but once a week is better.
• Provide them with links to your social media accounts as another way to connect.
• Answer frequently asked questions. Are there questions that pop up all the time, that an FAQ could answer quickly?
• Continue the conversation. If you promised something in return for their signing up, make sure you give it to them. You can also follow up to make sure they’ve received your email, ask them to fill out a survey about what they think. Remember: Even if it’s free, they’re still a customer. They’re consuming your content.
• Tell them how to unsubscribe. It’s important that you give clear instructions on how to get off your list.

Doubling down with a double opt-in

Sometimes, asking people to confirm their email address – known as a “double opt-in” – will be your first electronic correspondence with a client. By asking people to double opt-in, you’re ensuring a quality list of real email addresses. The double opt-in is meant to get people to click on a link to confirm their email address. Some people don’t do this right away – or they don’t do this at all – so you might have to send a reminder. You can also check the list of people who signed up but didn’t confirm their subscription to check for obvious misspellings in their email addresses.

A well-crafted welcome email – whether it’s confirming a person’s subscription or offering immediate access to your content – can build trust and a rapport with your audience. It sets the tone of future communication, starts a conversation, helps reinforce your brand and message and acknowledges how important they are to you. Consider it your calling card; it’s your one opportunity to knock their socks off with meaningful content that solves their problems or answers their questions. You want them to open future emails from you. Be warm, professional, helpful – and human.

I’d love to hear from you.

Are you sending out Welcome emails? Do you add anything to them aside from the 9 items listed above? Do you send them automatically or manually? Share your story, comments and questions in the Comments area below.

This article is for the rest of us – people who are NOT professional copywriters, but need good copy and good headlines for our websites and email newsletters.

Let’s focus in this article on writing good headlines. Or, in the case of email newsletters, good subject lines.

The purpose of a headline or subject line is to grab the reader’s attention and motivate them to want to read further. If you can’t get them past the headline, the rest of your copy is wasted, no matter how elegantly it’s written.

(Most of the examples are funny, but you’ll get the point. )

I’ll share 3 headline writing tips today:

1. Use numbers
2. Tell a secret
3. Use emotion

Use Numbers

Formula:

• _____ (number) _____ (adjective) Ways To _____ (thing they want to do or to have or to become)
• _____ (time) to Learn/Get _____ (topic)

Examples:

• 10 Easy Ways to Wash Your Dog
• 5 Exciting Ways to Make Spinach That Children Will Eat
• 20 Minutes to Learn Chess Like a Pro
• Get a Complete Personality Makeover in 10 Minutes or Less

Tell a Secret

Everyone wants to the learn the insider secrets of people who have been successful.

Formula:

• My Secret Formula to _____ (thing they want to do or have or become)
• Insider’s Guide to _____
• Easy Success Secrets to Create _____

Examples:

• I’m Drawing Back The Curtain and Revealing My Secret Formula to Buying Pencil Holders
• 10 Secrets Steps to Finding Online Grammar Mistakes

Use Emotion

People are only motivated by two things: to go towards pleasure and to get away from pain. But pleasure and pain can be subtle. For instance, I find it a pleasure to learn something new, to increase my mastery of a subject. So if I see a headline that promises to teach me something, I will always continue reading.

Another thing that motivates people is scarcity. If you TRULY have a limited number of items available (don’t lie to people about this, folks, they can see right through a scam), then telling them how many are left can get them to read the rest of your web page or email newsletter. Also, if there is a time limit, that motivates, too.

Think about what emotion your customer wants to feel. Confident? Energetic? Free? Safe? Take a moment and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Then you can write a headline that speaks to their emotional needs. (Look at the photo above…who would respond to a Stop sign like that?)

Formula:

• _____ (number) Keys to_____ (topic or outcome)
• Learn _____ (topic)
• How to _____ (outcome)
• Only _____ (number) of _____ (item) Available
• You Have Done _____ , Now Try _____
• Do You Have _____ (name of problem)?
• _____ (name of problem) Got You Down?
• Do You Want _____ (name of desired item or outcome)?
• Never Be _____ Again!

To increase the motivation level, use phrases like hurry, last chance, and only.

Examples:

• 3 Keys to Better Prison Life
• Learn to Buy Fresher Bread
• Only 5 Seats Available for Seat Sitting 101 Seminar
• Last Chance! Special 1 Percent Off Coupon Expires Wednesday
• Do You Want a Better Goldfish?
• Find Your Keys. Find Your Children. How to Solve Your Clutter Problems.

Plain and Simple

Don’t forget the basic, informational headline. You don’t always have to get jazzy with your headline or subject line; sometimes just saying what the article is about is motivating enough. What if you were to see these simple headlines or subject lines?

• 50 Percent Off All Classes
• How To Type Faster
• The Recording Is Available Now

TAKE ACTION NOW: Now take these headline tips and write three possible headlines or subject lines for your next article or email newsletter. Play with them until they feel right. Then try them out and watch the results!

Want more information on copywriting? Let me know in the comments area of this post and I’ll create more copywriting blog posts in the future! I could write about this stuff all day.

We’d all love it if we could close every deal or every sale with a new customer in 30 minutes or less. But that rarely happens. A sales cycle can last up to six months, depending on how much research the potential customer has done before he or she comes to you.

Before customers are ready to sign on the dotted line, they first must go through a well-researched route to purchasing products and services, called the Buying Cycle. You need to nurture these potential clients and help them along this route to ultimately choosing the solution you’re offering them.

Studies show that 79% of website visitors aren’t ready to buy. They’re somewhere else in the buying cycle. They may not even be aware of the scope of their problem, and may simply be in the early stages of researching a possible solution.

But just because they’re not ready to buy doesn’t mean there isn’t opportunity for you as a business owner. If you continue to educate them and nurture those leads – wherever they are in the buying cycle – you’ll be at the top of their minds when they’re ready to buy.

The Buying Cycle

The typical buying cycle goes from having an awareness that there is a problem to evaluating the possible solutions, choosing one and implementing it. And it ends, hopefully, with a long-term, meaningful relationship with a customer.

A more detailed explanation of the buying cycle:

1. Acknowledging there’s a problem they need to solve. Something is broken – either a physical product, like their washing machine, or a process in their business – and they need to fix it.
2. Making a decision to fix this problem. They can’t do it themselves, so they need outside help.
3. Determining exactly what results they want. What’s their end goal? What outcome or results do they want after purchasing and implementing a solution?
4. Gathering basic information. They’re searching for companies that can help them, and often doing this research online. Perhaps they’re asking friends or other business owners who’ve had similar problems about their solutions.
5. Identifying possible solutions or vendors that will give the result or results that they want.
6. Comparing those solutions or vendors.
7. Selecting a vendor/product.
8. Negotiating the deal.
9. Making a purchase decision. This can mean either signing a contract or making a direct purchase.
10. Implementing the solution. Your relationship doesn’t end with the purchase. Now you have to help them use your product or service wisely to get full results.
11. Forging an ongoing relationship. This allows for repeat business from the same customer and ensures ongoing customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth referrals.

Recognizing where your customer is in this buying cycle is key. When a customer first makes contact with you, have a set of questions ready that help determine where he or she is. “Tell me about your situation?” “Have you looked at other solutions?” Their answers to these questions can help determine whether they’re still early in the buying cycle, or if they’re close to making a decision.

Pick Marketing Techniques Based on Buying Cycle

Choose different marketing techniques for each phase of the buying cycle. For instance:

• A well-designed website can help customers early on in the buying cycle by allowing them to gather information.
• A free whitepaper outlining possible solutions and comparing them helps mid-way through the buying cycle.
• An email campaign helps prospective customers through the pre-purchase process, and later forges an ongoing, repeat-buying relationship near the end of the buying cycle.

Having content for each stage tells your customer, “We’re ready when you are.” If they’re early in the buying cycle, back off and let them explore, but be available to answer questions. If they want to discuss possibly buying from you, be available for a phone or in-person meeting, and have marketing material ready to help them make a choice from among your offerings.

By being aware of the different stages in the buying process, and thinking about what questions your customer are asking at each stage of the cycle, you can provide a prospective customer with the appropriate marketing technique at the right time.