In the current Moneyflow class, one of the participants is promoting a seminar. "People aren't responding to my emails. What do I do?"
"Well, tell me what you've done," I said.
"Today the second email went out. I've only had 5 people respond so far on my list of 100. And I've been networking, and making phone calls, and sending out flyers."
What wasn't working?
It was working- better than you might expect.
If you don't have a lot of experience marketing across a broad spectrum of different types of businesses, then it's hard to know what's 'normal.' You would never know, for instance that five responses from a single email to 100 people is actually fantastic.
If I were her, I'd be celebrating, which is what I told her.
But five isn't enough. (Neither is one email.)
Of course it isn't. To get the results she wants, minimum of 8, sell out at 15, she needs to send more emails to her list.
How many more? Several more. Maybe as many as six or eight more, depending.
Why so many emails?
People track commitments, not undecided decisions.
Let's say you decide to go to dinner with a friend two weeks from now. What do you do? You write it in your calendar.
But, let's say that for the past five days you and your friend have been playing phone tag, trying to decide when to meet for dinner. During that five days prior to setting the date, did you write it in your calendar?
I'm betting you didn't. It's something you're considering, but it's not yet a commitment. How many decisions are you currently considering, but haven't decided on yet? And how do you remember to decide?
We all need a personal secretary.
It would be nice if we all had an assistant following us around, "Excuse me, Mr. Silver? Don't forget those five things you need to decide on by Friday."
I wish... :) Instead, something triggers my memory, so that I know I have to decide. "Oh yeah, there's an email from Ken, I've been meaning to make a lunch date with him."
They'll decide... if they don't forget.
I'm betting that our friend who was promoting her seminar- out of her list of 100, many more than five were considering coming. But, they've put the decision off. They won't decide until they decide... or forget.
If you don't remind them, they won't decide. They'll just forget. And then they'll be upset that they missed it.
A true story.
A few years ago I was offering something to my email list, and I didn't want to bother people. So I didn't send an email reminding them of the early-bird deadline.
"They already know about it. I don't want to pester them," I thought.
After the early-bird deadline was over, the next time my article went out with the offer, I received an irate email from a subscriber: "Will you still give me the early-bird price? And why didn't you warn me before the deadline actually passed?!"
Oops. They were irate because I didn't do something that I had decided not to do because I didn't want them to be irate...
The bottom line: you need to remind them many times.
You do. You need to send out more notices than you think. Maybe as many as 8 or 10, or more depending on the event and time-frame involved.
Sounds like a lot. And it is. And it's true, you don't want to pester people.
How do you catch that balance between hiding your offer under a rock, and blasting people so they get annoyed from being oversold?
Read Keys to Non-irritating Repetition
• Keep 'em short and clear.
When you do send a notice, you want to put the bulk of the information about your offer on a web page, but you want to keep the actual email short. Just enough for someone to tell if they're interested or not. If they are, they'll click to the web page that has more information.
And, make the subject and heading really clear, so that if someone isn't interested, they won't read it. You'll make friends if you make it easy for folks to decide whether to read your notices or not.
But, you can only send a limited number of these short announcement emails during a single offer. I usually only send out three- one to announce it, one for the early bird deadline, and one for the final deadline. So where do the other notices show up?
• Embed most notices in content.
If you are maintaining an email list, hopefully you are being generous with that list. By generous, I mean you are sending articles, tips, information that is going to help, support, entertain, and educate your readers.
And, with every one of these generous emails, there should be an announcement for your latest offer. If you are sending out help to folks on a weekly basis, that's quite a few extra reminders that people get.
I send out weekly articles, so over eight weeks, that's nine notices, plus the three short announcements.
• People will get annoyed anyway.
People will get annoyed. I get annoyed, you get annoyed. You can't keep the peace all the time. Sometimes they're annoyed because you overdid it, and that's good to learn from.
But, sometimes they're annoyed because something else is bothering them, and you're a convenient place to let off steam.
Either way, it's okay. If you are writing from your heart, making a sincere offer, and not trying to manipulate anyone, you'll be able to clean up messes with the folks who matter.
• Think strategically.
Because it does take a certain amount of effort to make an offer, don't make them all the time. See if you can structure your offers and your cashflow so you aren't promoting something big every month or two.
If you have three big pushes a year, with months in between, you'll be less likely to irritate your readers.
Remember: be in your heart, make a sincere offer, and then remind your readers often. Surprisingly, they'll thank you. And, you're offers will fill up.
The best to you and your business,
Mark Silver