Lessons

Lesson Info

What a Pitch Email Should Look Like

I also wanted to talk today are that in this segment about what and a pitch email actually looks like because this is another huge mistake I see people making a a p s a little graphic down at the bottom of an email does not a pitch email make you're not going to sell anyone on that completely unrelated ps or that completely unrelated little graphic but that's what I see I see people coming to me I have had lots of people come to me over the years and say man, I really put everything I had into that launch it created videos I did interviews I had affiliates I created amazing content I just really think my messaging was spot on people really they were digging it but it just really fizzled out at the end and I just didn't get all the sales that I wanted and I said okay send me a few of the sale's e mails that you sent before the cart closed and then what do you mean sales emails? Well, you know just a few of the e mails you sent before before the cart close okay? So we get the e mails and...

then right down here down at the bottom of the e mail is that little ps nobody's going to see that when do you stop reading emails probably right around in here, right? If you don't mention to call the action in here people don't see it a direct sales email an email that's making a pitch for your product or service or program needs to be about your product service or program it's not okay to just send out another piece of content and mentioned oh by the way this is available now you're not doing anyone a service by doing that you're not doing yourself and you're certainly not doing your potential clients who would really like to buy from you so this is just another idea I've got three three different slides of kind of walking through maybe a longer form us direct a sales email your emails might be shorter they might be pictures instead of words but these air sir some of the different things that I included an email so I do use a header most of the time sometimes I send out just a regular just text email well most of the time I have a header that's the on ly graphic at the top of my e mails and then I say something like hello I know it's shocking uh one thing that I mentioned to jessica a few weeks ago a few months ago is that she was addressing her emails hey you guys are hello everyone that's a no no from a tactical standpoint hello doesn't is neither singular or plural you don't want to address your email to a group of people you wanted to read like it was written for. One person if you have any trouble of that at all, think of one person and write the email to them if you collect first names in your opt inform you can actually insert a little tag that puts first names in that salutation area I do on some list I don't on other list so I just thought I'd keep it simple hello is enough sometimes they don't put the salutation and it doesn't matter but you know maybe figure out what feels good to you and what you think might work better you can actually split tested all email programs have a split testing things you can figure that out and then I start off with the problem if you didn't really send emails with complicated templates, you're not alone, so get I'm addressing you singular I'm also telling them they're part of a larger community and I'm kind of suggesting that their problem doesn't have to be that right, right? It doesn't have to be that way simple templates get better conversion rates and make sure your message is front and center for the reader s o right there what I'm doing essentially is listing my hypothesis right? Simple templates would be the key insight like let's say I was selling an email product right? Simple templates would be the key insight on dh the better conversion rates make sure your message is front and center for the reader that's after results. Right. So this is a hypothesis. I forgot I had pretty arrows. So header salutation. Uh, opening. Yes, next. Okay, awesome. Um, I keep going. Keep making the case a little bit more. Some essentially almost creating another lead. Here. Do you see how that kind of works? In a simple template? The body of your email is clearly the star. And you can make your case in a personal, familiar way. Here is where I have the first call to action. Um, or at least the first link toe what they might be interested in it's? Not really a call to action, but it is a mention that it's a suggestion that maybe they go check something out when you're writing a sales email, have one. And on lee one called action repeat that. Call the action at least twice. Because readers often skin at the end of the email, make that call the action clear one more time and reiterate the outcome of for the customer of taking that action. Click here. If you want to generate more revenue from email marketing. So again, I'm using a call the action that, uh states clearly one of the key results. People want more revenue from email marketing. Don't just say click here for more information they don't want to click here form or information they want to click here tto have better relationships they want to click here to save time and money they want to click here to start on a path of losing weight I don't know whatever your whatever your outcomes are weave it into the call to action make it super strong reminds them what they're clicking for so again multiple times to click out toe one and only one thing and that is yourselves page a product description wherever your product is for sale if you don't have a sales page say your sales method is going to be hit reply to this email and tell me something or ask for your free session that's fine too just do the same thing say it twice almost then I ended and generally in a sales email I will sign it s so it doesn't just look like another block post this is a direct sales email this is like this is the email that this is the climax of your content arc sorry I should've clarified that earlier but this is your climax okay and you might actually use this kind of an email multiple times as well you know as your action falls in the act of selling phase and I'm going to get into what some of those different emails might look like in the next segment and then you know, this is like classic internet marketer stuff, but guys, I know it's cheesy, it works, it works, and it doesn't just work in like people like to click on p s is it works for really good, clear reasons one of them is that you can actually sum up your email in one sentence in a ps, so sometimes people just completely scroll down the email, but that ps catches their eye and they could have not read the whole rest of the email, but that one ps gives them a really good reason to click through ps guess what you'll save, you'll save time when you switch to a less complicated format as well. More effective emails and less time signed me up called action another one. So here I am, kind of clearing objections as well. Pps worried that more direct email marketing will feel like spam all show you why it won't and how it's actually a service to your readers. Now let's, think about this in terms of a product based business, a visual direct sales email let's, think about a tom's email, shall we? There are multiple calls to action to the same thing in one email, and if and if there is not it's only because the email is completely above the fold. So you know what the fold is it's like if you don't have to scroll down on your computer, right, so if you're just looking at the window of that email, then the main called action is there and only there if it's any longer than that, I would bet you ninety nine percent of the time there's going to maura than one button to click on to purchase that product. Whitney, I just want to clarify that everything that you've linked in this one email goes to the exact same place it does? Absolutely, absolutely, and you can get some really interesting data on that, too, because a program like mel champ is actually going to tag each of these links differently so you can go into your report and see who clicked on what not you can actually find out who clicked. You could also just find out percentages, maybe more people clicked on this link than on this link. And so I might know that this is a stronger objection, depending on how I message this, right? So here, that's essentially what I'm doing that email marketing takes too much time and email marketing feels like spam, so email marketing feels like spam might end up being the stronger objection, and that kind of data might tell me that in the next email, I need to address that objection more clearly okay, and so then I can actually create a content piece that gives people an experience of what I'm selling and still creative very strong call to action about my new product does that make sense? Etsuko if you sending a blogger content by email and if but they also signed up for analysis feeding they getting twice yes um don't worry about that because our ss is on the decline and people who want your stuff by email are frankly more important than people who want your stuff by r s s and if they have signed up for both, then I guarantee you just they're just skimming over your rs s anyhow, email trumps everything but good question, jessica subject lines yeah, so I share a lot of content. They're not all called action sales do I differentiate the subject line so someone knows there's an offer in here? Uh test it sometimes especially if you don't sell a lot that could be really effective because people might actually you know how I say that people aren't waiting to get their credit cards out for you. Some people are waiting to get their cards out for you and so if you haven't made an offer for a while or people are anticipating an offer saying, hey, this is available now or I'm taking new clients now could be a really effective thing to dio for instance, when I opened the doors a ten thousand feet, that email subject line is gonna be super clear, it's not going to say anything about doubling your revenue and doing it with less work. It's going to say, I'm now accepting new clients in ten thousand feet because that's what that is actually what most important that's actually, what matters most to the people most likely to buy in that moment makes sense winning. So if you could go back just one slide because I'm trying to get the system down, I see the key insight and the hypothesis, the results, the first call to action and then there's a paragraph before the next call to action. What would you characterize that as just more kind of story? So, like, if you think of this email is just another lead because that's essentially what it is another lead story, then you know, there's there's, that kind of filler that we put in those stories yesterday that really made them sing where before it just was like, yeah, I could make it sound pretty going directly from before to after turkey and saito hypothesis, but what really made it sing where those little transat transitions that brought everything together used some really clear details spoke really directly to the person that I was trying to target that's essentially what's going on here a swell so I might order things differently just all and that all depends but that's essentially what's happening yeah so this is a sense this is a lead right this is essentially before you send emails with complicated templates and probably you're not getting us good a conversion rates and people aren't actually reading your stuff all that before is implied I'm also implying the after of make sure you're not implying I'm explicitly stating the after make sure your message is front and center get better conversion rates save time blah blah blah so all of those parts are still there I just jumbled them up a little bit and rewrote them yeah and you know it probably wouldn't shock any of you to know that I wrote this in about five minutes if I was actually sending this out this email would make a lot of money right yeah okay I don't spend a lot of time on sales emails why I know who my people are I know what matters to them I know the before and after of my product and I know why they should buy this product instead of something else if you know that stuff if you know that stuff we covered in the session yesterday then it's not going to take you a long time to execute on this you can sit down and write it really flippen good sales email in fifteen minutes so let's do that, mr five how you guys feeling about direct seat sales emails and the whole purpose of email marketing in general? Yeah, five's all around fantastic will come back to the online audience than in just a minute. But let's, do a hot seat and we're gonna bring, uh, and up for this particular hot seat. Okay. Hi. I know you, but tell the rest of the world who you are, where we could find you online and in person soon on dh then tell us what your next big thing is. Ok, so my name is anna and I have a infant in children's clothing company called an apple were based in sacramento, california, and, uh, you can find us online at an apple dot com. And our big thing that we're launching is a a boutique so storefront in the historic district of sacramento. And the kind of secondary space to it is going to be a creative space where kids can learn from local artists. Um and it's just gonna be often, yeah, yes. So I asked anna for this hot seat because what she is selling is neither a workshop nor fundraising general fundraising for this space anymore, but what are you looking for, potentially potentially looking at investor, an investor or a sponsor? Yeah. So this is great because what we're actually going to do is write an email that you might send teo one or two people at a time or that a friend might forward on to someone else because I don't know how many people, you know who are ready to invest in something like that. So you might be this might be like a friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing, but it's gonna be a very personal email. And so I thought this was a great example, because not only does anna have a product based business physical business as well, but it's uh, it's an example of how these same principles kind of apply to an email that you're sending to literally one person, okay? Because it does, you don't need a big list, you don't need a big list, you might you might send five emails and make your quarter revenue goals, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You might send five emails and get the working capital that you need. Okay, so great. So, um one thing that writing to an investor, or a sponsor of implies which is a similar to what we were talking about in terms of wholesalers and retailers yesterday, is that you I have to think of two different groups of stakeholders one stakeholder is the person that you're actually asking to take a stake in your business which is the investor but you're also going to have to paint a story for them about what it is that you're building and who it's for and why it's important for the of them do you miss have to sell them twice? Yeah okay, so um just run us down real quick your before and after your key insight and your hypothesis as it relates to the investor or sponsor okay, I might need a little bit of direction to keep me on test with that, but um I'm sorry do I take before and after us for the parents because that's what I've yeah, I think that's really the only thing we need to think about in terms of, uh, the email for these two groups, okay? Because there's like the before and after it before you invest, you're not yeah after your system in your community and it's very straightforward, just like it is with a retailer and a wholesale business, which, you know, if you're pitching retailers wanted a time it's a great way to approach it right? So ok for the ferry so in thinking about this parent child relationship and what this concept is that we're trying to execute here before is kind of like, you know, I see very visually so like kids at the playground mom's on her iphone or they're sitting next to each other on the couch and there's just lots of, like, intangible, no hands on kind of stimulation or it's like a million different activities, but they're not there's no real connection, mom's the shuttle, not you, and not really not really engaging in kinda getting in their window on dh. Then after it covers some money, awesome things that you have got a couple of, yeah, you have ah, very inspired and creatively stimulated child who's all of a sudden got this this venue, tio alongside other children in the community just really kind of dive into all these new mediums that they might not be able to to get at school or at home. For whatever reason, you guys are learning directly from local artists that are probably the best people to give them the access here. Um, and then with, you know, how many parent child workshops we want to do, it's just I think that's the most important part is, like, is really facilitating something that you guys can do together, you can get very messy together, and we're just going to kind of guide you through you have to worry about the mess in your own home, so it's when I see it as a very visual kind of yeah, I think the other element that you should consider here too is the community element your investors are going to be really thinking about what this does for the community so what does having a bunch of engaged to creative both parents and children do for the community? It just creates this pulse I mean like for our city in particular um we're kind of really like coming into our own identity like we're not quite san francisco but we're not trying to be you know, like that's that we kind of and that's really how I believe that uh city u shaped this through is through things like the arts so especially with this this younger generation I think it's like the potential is amazing, you know, and soto have some another place that fosters that is going to just be really cool like they're just going to be passionate than we roll rounded they're going toe really have this curiosity that's that's being fostered so cool so you're you're kind of part of building a thriving creative capital for california yeah, right because it's sacramento is the beating heart of california or you'd like it to be political part way could think a little aspirational right? So um so let's talk this out let's talk this out ok what um so first of all my salutation this part's easy ready for this hello miss carter okay, so we're writing an e mail directly teo ms carter I don't know who she is think of someone you might actually can I actually to make it to put me in the space? Can I put it as mr stevenson? Because that's actually who I'm going to approach hey, hello. Sorry, mr stevenson. All right, what does he care about right here right now he cares about, um in this place in the email or him and I just want to make sure I'm on track so what is important to him in general? Oh, and especially as he spends or invest his money, he cares about how well probably two things how it relates to making his own company look because he's the ceo of another okay pretty successful company all right? And also how that how he's kind of fostering arts community also because he's very tight into okay part so it could be something like so I'm just gonna I'm gonna lose my through and not write the whole thing or welcome here forever company and creative community. So so you could start off with a sentence of gratitude and say something like, hey, my name's animate asano and I am so thrilled that you've made your company a vibrant part of this creative community and I really appreciate the work that you dio to build the creative community in sacramento okay, so great opening I this is why I'm writing because this is important to you when I like starting it with a like a gratitude kind of thing because that's just the kind of a person I am and break and it was a personal connection right there. Now speaking of connection, we need to make a connection between what he's building and what you're building okay, so I would say something, so, um let me write just write that in what I am building so you might say, um, I am also working to make the sacramento community a thriving creative community and I've hade on infinite children's line of clothing for five years, five years and it's finally time toe open a boutique and workspace, right? My vision is to have a place where parents and kids can turn off their screens and start engaging each other in the messy art of making stuff, learning from local artists, building a community both within our walls and without here's what I need from you. Yes, well, here's, what I'm looking for, what you're looking for, uh, support both financially and, um, I would say secondaries word of mouth like just helping helping me by using his voice in his company's platform teo get us more support that makes sense, your voice and connections yeah, in essentially I, um I was telling her I want him to be a sponsor for the studio so helping us get, uh, furniture and supplies and kind of just a kick start to get the space go and and so in exchange you would actually be putting his logo places oh yeah you'd be yeah yeah uh something your name from the rooftop exactly. Uh I will help you tell help you tell the story of how your business and your support your personal support is helping to build this creative community in sacramento so we're constantly bringing back to what's most important to him now what's your call interaction going to be because I think they called action in this email should not be give me money, right? So what do you want? Do you want him to call you? Do you want him to set up a time to meet real live to meet with him? Yeah. Would you want him to tour your space? Yes. I'd love for you to tour my space ooh and maybe meet with, um meet with one of our like that us teachers were going thank god I'd love to invite you to tour the space meet one of the teachers that we have who's already you know, a part of the creative community and sacramento um and you know just for you to take a few minutes to listen tio more listen to more of the vision I'm building curate sacramento um when would that be convenient for you and even better I would maybe say I have I have openings on the twenty fifth the twenty seventh and the twenty eighth would one of those days be convenient for you? Right? Okay because there's always friction around getting people to take a call to action whether it's clicking a link buying hitting it by now but we're just replying to an email so the more friction you khun take out there the better and so the friction would be it's really hard to suggest a date when it's open ended right and so if you could take that away and say how about the twenty eighth that's way way, way way better it's hard to say no to that even if it's so I don't have the twenty eighth by every thirty f right? Okay, that makes perfect sense okay yeah and then if there's a p s it could be just um oh it could be a p s about your indiegogo campaign because that would actually lend some credibility or it could be a p s about the media that you've done so far could be a p s about the award that you won so any of those ps is would be excellent so I'm not just like little miss not random czar sent asking for money or asking for sponsorship you you know, you mentioned that you've already had this line for five years, which is great but any way any other way you can build in that credibility would be fantastic, okay? Questions no okay, but this is it I mean, this is it this is and this is stuff we do on a daily basis so even when you're not building out a big ole launch campaign and you're just wanting people to take a particular action maybe it's just a follow up after someone you know completes with your coaching program and your wanting to follow up and ask them if they're looking for more coaching which is something we should all be doing. This is the kind of email you write it's clear it's concise it starts off with what matters most to the person that you're writing to whether that's an individual or it's a community and it ends in a clear call to action and it incorporates well, actually we didn't I I apologize we didn't actually incorporate that before and after stuff but you know, I might actually even do that here in exchange I will help you, um be a part of the story that we're telling in sacramento about mohr kid being engaged in the arts and mohr parents being engaged in their kids and you can work those little details that we didn't know what about a little bit in here but yes, so and just kinda quick mentions in here two of those before and after things but having those building blocks make this so much easier right? Three times I tried to write this e like literally just little there you go yeah, I mean massage and obviously this is like the three minute job, but still I think I think you've got it. Okay, okay. All right. I'm gonna run through a couple of these questions that I had come in from readers. Okay, so lee rambo from turn of phrase is a journalist turned writer for hire on dh he's looking for suggestions for reaching perspective clients on a street shoestring cool remember what? The forty three hundred percent about the forty three hundred percent r o I email marketing even though it might be one of the higher expense aces you have is actually one of the cheapest ways to build a new audience and reach perspective clients. Okay, so even if you're one of the higher levels that you're paying for your particular service in it's still cheaper than anything else you could be doing it's a reach. I mean, I can't even fathom the amount of money I would have to spend on facebook ads teo equal the kind of results I get from email marketing in a month I mean, we're talking about maybe a factor of one hundred that's nuts right shoestring budget equals email marketing and at the very least it equals content marketing that you're regularly putting out okay but email is the best way to do it maybe you start by emailing individual people not spanning people not emailing people you don't have have relationships with but saying hey, I was writing this article and I thought of you because of that conversation we had last week I just wanted to send it to you or I had a realization about this and I just wanted to email it to you that's that's okay, okay uh this is from um sultan from sketchy muslims if I'm saying your name wrong, I'm so sorry wrote I've had this product waiting in the wings for almost eight months but I don't want to launch two crickets I've been able to grow an audience on social media but my email list is nearly non existent this is a common problem, especially for people who are afraid of email you can move people from social media teo email marketing very, very easily what you need is a landing page I had whitney build a landing page a few months ago whitney how's that going for you? Yes so whitney has about twenty thousand followers on twitter but didn't have much of an email list so she's able because she has a landing page which is essentially a sales page for an email list she's able to direct people from social media to that page, the beautiful thing about email landing pages is that you can get them to convert at thirty, forty, fifty percent. I just built a page in two days ago that's right now converting at fifty percent whitney so I haven't told you this yet, so this is I'm not a plant. She is. Actually, I have had this list for all six years that I've had my block said the email is's just my block post, huh? And since creating the landing page with your help and tweeting about it, huh? I've grown the list by twenty percent because move, but amazing, awesome. So that's, how you can move people from social media, which is not a great place to sell to an email list because one thing people do, like on social media's free stuff, right? So if you could say, I've got this free guide or even just I send out free weekly emails on such and such a topic so that you can get such and such a such a results that's a really great way to build your list. So there's an idea for you? Um, we talked about this one from virginia creeper no, you're content doesn't all have to be different in fact, it should all be very similar um we talked a little bit about this to nicole's zeitler from sugar plum peppery says my industry is very visual I'd guess my customers want to seymour images and less taxed but I struggle with what the perfect balance might be I'd say go nuts if you want to put pictures up on your emails, go for it just make sure that they're sized properly for the internet so that they load up well you know don't be sending out images that are three thousand by three thousand pixels luckily, most services won't let you do something like that but shrink things down make it a five hundred pixel wide put a picture that fits neatly in an email if people want to see a bigger image asked them to click through your web page no big deal so yeah so I don't think you need to be more selective, careful and smart I think you need to do exactly what you've been doing on your block because what if what you've been doing on your block is working? It will most likely working e mail as well how do I find a balance between being a spammer and an active market here? This is from eva cure ou of lulu witness wellness institute how do you find you tell me guys, how do you find a balance between being a spammer in an act of market here? No, seriously somebody sal give value, give value oh, beautiful, two word answer lovett give value, the more value you give, the more value will receive. I would say create systems for receiving email marketing is a big part of your systems for receiving the more value you give out of it, the more value you can create for yourself from it as well. I don't want to say extract and I don't want to say take because it's not about extracting or taking and it's absolutely about creating. So this is probably from paula fat fitzpatrick of lower back pain tool kit, she says, I have only done one product launch, and I felt like I had bothered my list so much over that period that I couldn't do that. I didn't want to mention the product ever again. Consequently, I haven't sold any more, either. I want to know how to construct a plan for post launch promotion that would engage new sign ups or those who are not ready and yet not irritate the old list. Really good news, paula, that is exactly what we're doing in the next segment I have four or five forget which it is different emails that I used to follow up with people teo continue giving value to continue answering their questions to continue helping them overcome their objections. And they're not the kind of e mails that are going to bother people. They're the kind of emails that are going to help you sell maur over the period of your launch. And then we can also talk about following up post lunch as well.