Purpose Driven Email Marketing
Websites are supposed to be easy to use. The website in question sold Amish food (you
know, canned peaches and pickled beets). Then I was asked me to buy something. So I
tried. Then I tried some more. You would think that a fairy web savvy guy would be able
to simply buy a can of peaches; but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Then I sat back and
imagined how many other people were having the same experience. The website was built
to sell Amish food. However when they planned their website; they did not consider the
steps necessary for customers to find them on Google to actually purchasing their
products. I can only imagine the store's sense of discouragement as they received little or
no sales from their efforts. We can look at this and think, "da, what were they thinking".
But defining goals and strategically mapping out how to lead our customers to a desired
end through our email newsletters and websites is not easy and often forgotten. It is
important that we make sure our readers don't get lost or road blocked. Here are a few
ideas to make sure your email marketing is purposely achieving your desired goals.
Start With The End In Mind
To reach our objectives, we must be able to answer at least one of these two questions:
What do we want our readers to do? For example, do we want them to buy something;
attend an event; call or email us; come into our store; sign up for a free consultation or
class, or sponsor an event? Defining exactly what we hope our readers will do, gives us a
destination to lead them to. It gives us something to shoot for.
How do we want our readers to be different? Every email needs a purpose. If we
don’t have something we actually want people to do, then we must ask ourselves how we
want them to be different. Do we want to educate them about something? Do we want to
build relationship, trust and/or confidence? Do we want them to know how to do
something or the value of doing something? For example, after reading this information, I
want you to get more of the results you are hoping for. This newsletter will be successful
when it makes you experience more success with your email marketing. To accomplish
this we must define how we want our readers to be different or what we want them to do.
After all, if we aim at nothing, we will probably hit it.
Consider The Steps
Now that we have determined our pinpoint goal. What exact steps do we need to create to
lead our readers to that determined goal. John Arnold (the author of Email Marketing For
Dummies) gives a great example of this process done well. He tells of a fly fishing shop
owner that sent an email to his readers. He started with the subject line, “See the Big
Fish”. He knows his fly fishing audience loves to see big fish so it inspires them to open
the email. On the email is a small picture of a person holding a big fish. Underneath the
picture are the words, “Click to Enlarge”. He knows his audience wants to see a clearer
image of the big fish. So they click and are taken to his website where they see a big
picture of an exceedingly happy fisherman with this huge fish. Next to the picture was the
inscription that went like this, “if you would like to catch a fish like this, we will make ten of
the exact flies that caught this fish and take you to the exact spot this fish was caught and
released. Click here to sign up to catch your big fish.” When they clicked, it took them to
a sign up form to join a guided trip to catch a big fish. Was the owner’s ultimate goal to
have his audience see a big fish or sign up for a guided fly fishing trip? He wanted them
to sign up for the fishing trip so he strategically created steps from the interesting subject
line, to the email, to the website, to the sign up form. By the way, John said the sign up
form was full and all the tours were booked. WE need to list the steps our readers will
need to take to reach our desired goal.
Evaluate and Refine
Once we put our plan into action, we need to monitor the effectiveness. We can look at
our reports to see if our readers are opening our email and clicking on the links we
created to funnel them to the next step. We can also look at our website analytics to
determine where readers are going on our website. We can also use our friends and
family as guinea pigs to walk through our process to see where they lose motivation or get
hung up.
Important Keys To Remember
Websites are supposed to be easy to use. The website in question sold Amish food (you
know, canned peaches and pickled beets). Then I was asked me to buy something. So I
tried. Then I tried some more. You would think that a fairy web savvy guy would be able
to simply buy a can of peaches; but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Then I sat back and
imagined how many other people were having the same experience. The website was built
to sell Amish food. However when they planned their website; they did not consider the
steps necessary for customers to find them on Google to actually purchasing their
products. I can only imagine the store's sense of discouragement as they received little or
no sales from their efforts. We can look at this and think, "da, what were they thinking".
But defining goals and strategically mapping out how to lead our customers to a desired
end through our email newsletters and websites is not easy and often forgotten. It is
important that we make sure our readers don't get lost or road blocked. Here are a few
ideas to make sure your email marketing is purposely achieving your desired goals.
Start With The End In Mind
To reach our objectives, we must be able to answer at least one of these two questions:
What do we want our readers to do? For example, do we want them to buy something;
attend an event; call or email us; come into our store; sign up for a free consultation or
class, or sponsor an event? Defining exactly what we hope our readers will do, gives us a
destination to lead them to. It gives us something to shoot for.
How do we want our readers to be different? Every email needs a purpose. If we
don’t have something we actually want people to do, then we must ask ourselves how we
want them to be different. Do we want to educate them about something? Do we want to
build relationship, trust and/or confidence? Do we want them to know how to do
something or the value of doing something? For example, after reading this information, I
want you to get more of the results you are hoping for. This newsletter will be successful
when it makes you experience more success with your email marketing. To accomplish
this we must define how we want our readers to be different or what we want them to do.
After all, if we aim at nothing, we will probably hit it.
Consider The Steps
Now that we have determined our pinpoint goal. What exact steps do we need to create to
lead our readers to that determined goal. John Arnold (the author of Email Marketing For
Dummies) gives a great example of this process done well. He tells of a fly fishing shop
owner that sent an email to his readers. He started with the subject line, “See the Big
Fish”. He knows his fly fishing audience loves to see big fish so it inspires them to open
the email. On the email is a small picture of a person holding a big fish. Underneath the
picture are the words, “Click to Enlarge”. He knows his audience wants to see a clearer
image of the big fish. So they click and are taken to his website where they see a big
picture of an exceedingly happy fisherman with this huge fish. Next to the picture was the
inscription that went like this, “if you would like to catch a fish like this, we will make ten of
the exact flies that caught this fish and take you to the exact spot this fish was caught and
released. Click here to sign up to catch your big fish.” When they clicked, it took them to
a sign up form to join a guided trip to catch a big fish. Was the owner’s ultimate goal to
have his audience see a big fish or sign up for a guided fly fishing trip? He wanted them
to sign up for the fishing trip so he strategically created steps from the interesting subject
line, to the email, to the website, to the sign up form. By the way, John said the sign up
form was full and all the tours were booked. WE need to list the steps our readers will
need to take to reach our desired goal.
Evaluate and Refine
Once we put our plan into action, we need to monitor the effectiveness. We can look at
our reports to see if our readers are opening our email and clicking on the links we
created to funnel them to the next step. We can also look at our website analytics to
determine where readers are going on our website. We can also use our friends and
family as guinea pigs to walk through our process to see where they lose motivation or get
hung up.
Important Keys To Remember
- Make sure your objective is defined
- Keep your reader’s best interests in mind. If our readers have the perception that
we don’t carry their best interests, we will lose their trust and often their business.
Look for win-win situations. - List why this objective has value to your readers. Look for opportunities to use
these persuasive aspects in the steps to motivate your readers to read on. - List any obvious obstacles hindering them from the goal that needs addressing in
the steps. For example, do people need to be educated about the value of your
objective? Is there a considerable time, energy, effort, or money investment? Build
bridges over these obstacles in your steps so they don’t become roadblocks. - Consider whether your objective can be attained in one email marketing campaign
or needs several. - Keep refining.
- Never give up.
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