457 – Email is where the money is: Tom talks Email Marketing Part 2

Episode 457 – Email Marketing Part 2
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody is Tom here with episode four hundred fifty seven of Screw the Commute podcast. We're doing email marketing, part two. This is where the money is, folks. Last Monday, I gave you some important information about staying out of trouble and making sure your emails look good when they were received. Plus a bunch of other stuff you need to know about spam filtering and white listing and all kinds of stuff. That was Episode 454. So make sure you go back and listen to it. If you happen to miss it, of course, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash 454 to go to that episode. Now, today, I'm going to tell you how to make sure your emails get opened and how to figure out how often to send email and how to sell and sell people to make the most money with the least number of people on. Now, how would you like to have me send your money? Well, if you prefer my products and services, we have a great robust affiliate program and I will send you checks, PayPal, gold bullion, whatever you want. So just email me at Tom@screwthecommute.com if you want information on that program. All right. Pick up a copy of our automation ebook at screwthecommute.com/automatefree.

[00:01:40] This thing is going to make you lightning fast, reduce your workload and help you steal ethically steal customers from people because you'll get back to them so fast. So check that out. screwthecommute.com/automatefree and pick up a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app. All right. And you know, if you've listened to me a long time, I pushed the heck out of my school because it's just so powerful for people. But just to put the school aside, let's talk about what the school is doing now for folks with physical disabilities. We have a program going on and I'm going to make it successful if it kills me. Right, because I really want to help a lot of people because it's perfect for people with physical disabilities so they don't have to travel to some crap school. You know, it takes them three hours to do what we can do in fifteen minutes. If you don't have a physical disability and they're going to have highly in demand skills that they can work from home. So they again, they don't have to travel and commute every day. Screw that commute. Right. So please help support it. It's going great guns. They go fund me campaign and you can find it at the school website. IMCVA.org/disabilities. Of course that will be in the show notes. Click on the Go fund me and I'll show you the people in the program. All the things we're accomplishing and and whatever you can contribute. We really appreciate it.

[00:03:19] All right, let's get to the main event. Email marketing. I told you, go back and listen to 454 if you missed it, but this is 457 and we're going to jump right in with talking about subject lines. Now, what do you think the number one thing is that keeps your e-mail from getting deleted immediately when it hits people's inboxes? Fooled you, it's not the subject line, it's whether the recipient recognizes who the email is from. So you must keep this consistent for each different list you have. If you have a list of golf enthusiasts, maybe your email comes from the golf nut. If you sell archery stuff, then maybe the email you send comes from Broadhead. That's an archery term. And you can always just use your name. No problem there. Just be consistent. So the email doesn't get deleted immediately. All right, now, just because it doesn't get deleted immediately doesn't mean your email gets opened and I'm not following you here. The number one thing that gets your email opened is, you guessed it, the subject line. Now, here's a couple of things about subject lines, I told you this is a little teaser last time and I'm going to reiterate it because it's so important the subject line should be 140 characters or less, including spaces.

[00:04:48] Now, look at your own e-mail reader and count how many characters you have allotted to subject lines on my big laptop. It's only 36. And that brings up my next point. Put the most important words in your subject line to the left. Most places in the world read left to right. People should be able to tell what the email is about, even if the subject line gets truncated, which is a fancy word for cut off on the right end. Now, this brings me to another point on subject lines, and that is that the subject line must truly reflect what is in the e-mail or you have violated the Can Spam Act in the United States. Some forms of this are called clickbait, where someone writes some outrageous thing like so-and-so celebrity passes to make you think some celebrity died. When you click on the email, it's about tooth whitening cream or something totally unrelated. Well, not only is this technically illegal, no one is going to open any more of your e-mails because they see you as a liar. Now, I'll just throw a sidebar in here from my Internet training, never, ever, ever get people to click on a link where they think they're going one place and they end up somewhere else. They will leave immediately.

[00:06:16] And you have just damaged your reputation and they won't be back. Now, the clickbait example I just use does have a powerful element that we will use in our emails, and it's extremely powerful. It's called the Garnick technique. And I covered this more in depth in Episode 13 on Advertising Copywriting. You'll want to go out, go back and check that out. And I also have an in-depth copywriting webinar at TomAntionwebinars.com and all this stuff will be in the show notes for this episode. Now, and this is episode 457. Now, copywriting is the number one business skill I've ever developed in 44 plus years of business, and that's why you hear me emphasizing it so much. And I have a course on it at Copywriting901.com, the fast track to writing words that sell. But a quick recap about the Zeigarnik technique is that it creates curiosity and the human mind cannot stand unfulfilled curiosity. So using it legitimately to get people to open an email is fine. Using it like the clickbait example is not. So you can use this as a Garnick technique in the subject line to get more people to open your email. We call this the open, right. In other words, if 100 people get your email and 30 people open it, that's a 30 percent open rate. So here's some example of subject lines. Wow, did I get in trouble now people will be curious to find out what I got in trouble for.

[00:08:03] Here's another one he scammed me. Now, this is kind of a double whammy, people will wonder who I'm talking about and how did I get scammed. Here's another one. The dumbest thing I ever heard. Now people want to know what the dumb thing was and most likely who said it or what dumb policy did some government agency implement? I really don't know what they would think about this one, but as long as I deliver in the email what I talked about in the subject line, I'm OK with the people and with the law. All right, now transitions now here's a question you might ask me. OK, that's cool to get them to open the email with his Zeigarnik technique, but how do you make money telling stories of what happened to you or stories about dumb things you heard? Well, you make money by transitioning to what you learned or what the situation meant to you and others on your list. So, for instance, let's take the subject line. Wow. Did I get in trouble? Now, in the email, when they open it, I might write. Times sure are changing. I was talking to a woman at a seminar and she had her teenage daughter there with her who had been participating very intelligently in the seminar. Her comments were especially articulate and very insightful for her age.

[00:09:35] During a break, I was chatting with her mother and I made the fatal mistake. I said, your girl is extremely bright and a great addition to this seminar, huh? Her mother said to me indignantly, She is not a girl. She is a woman. And she walked away and avoided talking to me the rest of the three day seminar. Wow, that that really hit me hard. I was trying to compliment a mother on her daughter and it got shoved right back down my throat, I figured if this is the way the world is now, I better get up to speed. So I started researching political correctness and I found an overwhelming amount of stuff that I had been messing up. I knew there were lots of guys out there like me, so I compiled everything into a quick read ebook called The Politically Correct Way to Speak to a Woman. Blah, blah, blah, blah. All right, I'm just kidding, I didn't write this book. But but in today's atmosphere, maybe I should, because the cancer culture and it's more important than ever. So you tell them a story and then you take them to a Web page to show them the full sales later letter for that, you know, fictional book I just talked about or sales video or whatever mechanism you're using from my copywriting from Episode 13. You see, I used a story to illustrate to illustrate the problem and transition to what I did about it and how it turned into a product.

[00:11:08] So you need to get good at storytelling and transitioning and practice that. All right, let's talk a little bit more about selling and up selling. Well, one of my overriding principles is that I want people to get used to getting emails from me that help them. That's what email newsletters are all about, you give them tips and news on your topic that help them and then they don't mind if you put in some ads or occasionally do an email. That's just an ad. So make sure the bulk of your emails help the people on your list and they will stay a long time, sometimes forever, which gives you lots of chances to get them to buy something from you or an affiliate product that you're recommending. Then I went in depth on all kinds of affiliate marketing and episodes, 52 to 68 and 271. Again, those will be in the show notes. But some of these people could stay on forever, and I did a webinar not too long ago and I asked people how long they had been doing business with me. There were many people over 20 years, and I think the most was 24 or 26 years, because all the stuff I give them helps them and then they don't mind if I sell them something once in a while. So use the Zeigarnik technique, you don't have to use it every time, it's just one of the tools you can use, but you must always use good copyrighting to get them to buy.

[00:12:38] Now, another thing I want you to keep in mind is that it's harder to sell high priced items directly from email. Usually you want to get them to click through to a Web page, either using this as a Garnick technique in the body of the email to create curiosity or just tell them briefly about the great thing you have and get them to click through to the website for the complete details. Now, on the other hand, cheap items can be sold directly from emails, not cheap is a relative term based on your market. Now, if your market is stay at home, parents who can barely make their rent cheap is one thing. If you're selling to stock market people who regularly pay four hundred dollars a month for various financial newsletters. Well, cheap is something entirely different. And you can have various promotions like holiday sales, anniversary sales, birthday sales, and, you know, people do love a sale. And make sure you review my upselling episode 22 for lots of ways to increase your income once you get them to buy the first product. I always are. I also cover advertorials in that episode, which are sales letters that just look like articles and they sell like crazy. That's episode 22. Now, another way to make money with your email marketing is that you can sell solo ads.

[00:14:06] A solo ad is usually an ad for someone else that you send to your list where nothing else is in the email except the ad. Now, if you get enough people on your list, people will pay you pretty big money for this. Of course, you could also call it a solo ad if it's just sending an ad for your own stuff in an email that has no other content. But but usually solo ad means you're emailing someone else. Is that. Another way to make money with your email marketing is that you can promote affiliate products now in this case, instead of someone paying you a flat fee for emailing their product and you email it for free and you get a commission for each product sold. Again, I covered this extensively in the affiliate marketing episodes I just mentioned a minute ago. And of course, you can sell your own stuff either as a small add in a helpful email full of content or as a solo at. Now, to get thousands of ideas for products that are proven to sell listened episode 19 on creating quality products out of nothing. And I hope you're not getting sick of me referring to other episodes before I got so much darn material. I can't fit it all in one recording, I have over 150 of these Mundey training sessions and a whole bunch more to come. So check them out.

[00:15:33] All right, now let's talk about frequency and timing or how often and when you should send email. Now, in general and I mean very in general, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best unless you have a weekend oriented topic like sports. Now, that doesn't mean Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best. I've had success on every single day of the week, including holidays. But in the beginning, you probably don't have any idea of the people that are on your list. Do they work 9:00 to 5:00 weekdays? Are they entrepreneurs working from home or are they small business owners not working from home? Do they work shifts? Are they retired? What's the average age? What percentage of people are in different time zones and all of these factors? So you have to start sending email and then start paying attention to the results. And if you're just starting out, see what Openreach you're getting for certain subject lines and days of the week and so forth. Just keep good records and you'll start to get a pattern of what your list and your offers and so forth. When's the best times? You know, once you get some experience with your audience, you're going to see what days of the week and even what time of day you get the best response. And then you can see most of your emails to those days and times.

[00:16:58] But I got to tell you, like I said, sometimes I just have an open space and nothing to do and I want to make some money. So I'll send an email. And it could be a Sunday. It could be a Saturday afternoon, you know, so so you don't always have to stick to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Don't even think that. All right, now the frequency, so we'll talk about how often you should send emails. Well, there's a rule of thumb here, too. The more emails you send, the more money you're going to make, period. OK, but I always have to throw in a little extra the end up to a point. She gets Antion a day to most audiences. All right. So, yeah, I mean, you'll overwhelm some of your audience with emails and then they'll unsubscribe. So here's the method I teach. Keep sending more and more emails until you get an unsubscribe and complaint rate that's too high. And of course, too high is also subjective and depends on how many new subscribers a day you bring in through list building, which I covered in episodes 58 and 327. Now, most people get nervous about sending too many emails, thinking their audience will think poorly of them and it's going to hurt their reputation. Well, I guess that's possible, but you have to decide if you want to make money or not. There are many doctors and lawyers who are making a fortune, selling information and supplements and all kinds of stuff online.

[00:18:34] They're jealous, broke colleagues, you know, that are paying massive malpractice insurance and barely making a living, always cut them down, but they don't seem to care. I know one doctor who never sees patients pulling in 40 million dollars a year doing this kind of stuff. He probably laughs when he hears about some other doctor criticizing him. So long as he's doing ethical things, I'm perfectly OK with him earning 40 million dollars and not seeing patients. So send more emails than you're comfortable sending and watch your unsubscribe and complaint rates and adjust accordingly. Just keep sending good and helpful information and you will attract and keep interested subscribers. And those not interested that wouldn't give you any money anyway are going to leave. Who cares. Wave goodbye. But for God's sake, don't stop sending because a couple people complain that's part of the deal. You can't let a couple negative people run your business for you. All right, next topic is scheduling advance emails, and I won't spend too much time on this simple concept, scheduling means that let's say you sit down on Sunday and write three emails to go out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You put them in start card and you schedule them and you're done writing your emails for the week. Well. Here's the thing, let me tell you a story of why you shouldn't, let's say, get too far out in front of your skis on this.

[00:20:06] That's an old saying. See, I know this really nice, thoughtful and caring guy from Texas who months in advance wrote an e-mail with the subject line. Get a flood of new customers, well, guess when it went out in the middle of Hurricane Katrina? Oh, my God, I felt so bad for him. And he got tons of hate mail and called every name in the book. So pay attention to your automated scheduling and don't get too dependent on it. And one more thing. I've had a successful email go out on Thanksgiving, even through a telecast on Thanksgiving one time. That's how pitiful. I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving. Well, guess what? 60 people signed up for it. And I made four thousand dollars that day when most other people were wasting time watching football and getting drunk. So don't be afraid to experiment with promotions at all times. All right, now, I got some miscellaneous tips for you before we hang it up for today. Moving your list, this freaks people out, they they have their list on a poor email system, and when it comes time to move to someplace good, they lose tons of subscribers. This happens to everybody. Don't worry about it. It's better to get a good system in place than limp along with a poor system and a bunch of what you think are great subscribers.

[00:21:32] But they really aren't. If they were, they'd be bugging you to make sure they got signed up on your new system when you told them you were switching and they'd be spending your spending a lot of money with you. Now you have to get your ego out of it and realize most people on your list don't revolve their world around you. Hard to believe right now when my students have to move their list, I teach them methods to maximize the switchover. But you got to just be resolved. You will lose subscribers when you move a list. But just remember, you're not losing that much, even though it seems so. And the next thing is there's a big, big danger in free or cheap email hosting, you may get enticed to partake in this because you're on a budget. And, hey, I'm the first one who will jump on something free as long as it doesn't hurt my business. But email hosting is not the place to go budget. Let me say that again, email list hosting is not where you, you know, penny pinch, you're crazy if you do. And here's why I always explain why. See, every spammer and every newbie that has does all the things wrong, I listed in the spam section on last Monday's episode will be on that cheap email server. Servers around the world that receive email will be blocking all the email from that service that you're on because the bulk of the email coming out of it is spam or terrible.

[00:23:07] We're all full of spam trigger words and all these bad things, no matter how legitimate your list is, you're on the same server that's sending out millions of spam emails. You will be totally wasting your time. Virtually none of your emails will get through and you always run the risk of getting shut down. None of this is worth it if you can't afford to do this right. Don't bother until you can. You'll just get frustrated and quit. So. We had a great primer on these last two episodes on email marketing, this is the place you must concentrate on for either an online or offline business, because this is where the money is. Get the proper tools like Kickstartcart.com, where we give you unlimited free one on one training and start sending those emails. Hey, did I tell you this is where the money is? I think I did several times. All right. And please visit IMTCVA.org/disabilities and contribute to our go fund me account for people with disabilities. You will really be doing something great in the world helping change these people's lives for the better. All right. I'll catch you on the next episode.

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