Writing powerful headlines that sell
After noticing a significant decrease in the quality of the marketing emails sent to me from a number of unsubscribe mailing lists, I thought it was time for a refresher course to write effective emails for better response rates from marketing. After all, it only makes business sense. As a business consumer, I am always looking for products or services that improve my business. So don’t waste my time.
Writing effective emails starts with the subject line. Your subject line determines whether the reader opens it immediately, sets it aside for later, or simply throws it in the trash. The title should be a powerful title that sells or makes the reader want to open the email.
Headlines must be credible. For example, I received an email with this subject: “Glen, $ 500k in 72 hours with this method!” From my perspective as a reader, it is not credible even if it were true! I never imagined winning half a million dollars in 3 days unless it was the lottery. Too much hype doesn’t impress anyone.
An important concept that is obviously missed by most marketers doing email marketing is a lack of copywriting from the reader’s perspective. It’s not about what their email will do for them, but what it will do for me, the reader. I’ve seen too many emails saying “Join my downline and make money.” Sounds good to the sender; is the downline of the sender.
The subject line should be powerful enough to grab the reader’s attention. You have 4 basic options for writing subject lines. Your first option is to arouse the reader’s curiosity as an emotional hook. Second, make an announcement or tell how the reader benefits from opening and reading your email. And finally, use humor. Examples of each are:
1. Curiosity: “Are you ready to drive more website traffic?”
2. Announcement: “Marketers Traffic Vault Awards New Members 10,000 Ad Credits!” This guy tells the reader something he wants.
3. Benefit: “Discover the rapid mass traffic pooling strategy that will increase your affiliate sales.” This shows the reader that you have a solution that will fix a problem that the reader has.
4. Humor – “Glen Palo is ugly but he knows something about …”
Another important concept is that the subject line should reflect the content of the email. Deceptive ads may cause the reader to open the email, but they probably won’t finish reading it. What reader wants to do business with someone who shows so little ethics or respect for the reader? The marketer called himself unethical or even a scammer.
Finally, personalize the subject line using the name of the reader.