Use a Catchy Headline

Potential customers only take a few seconds to scan the email subject line. If your headline is not interesting enough or if it comes across as a sales pitch that oversells or promises more than can be delivered, there is a chance that the recipient will not click on the email, let alone read it.  If your reader has opted-in, the headline should hint at the value your offer provides or offer a solution to address the prospect’s needs.

You want to use a catchy headline, but remember that there is the risk of getting caught in a spam filter and getting your message blocked.

To avoid this risk, try to refrain from using words and phrases like: free, #1, 100% satisfied, call, click, congratulations, get it now, no obligation, offer, save up to, special promotion, or urgent in the subject line.

Offer Prospective Customers A Solution

It is important to emphasize benefits over features. Remember to use active voice over passive voice when describing your benefits. Your customer is always thinking, “How does this benefit me?” Make sure to research your target audience’s pain points and address what their needs are. Using five to six bullet points to highlight your solution is useful and makes the offer easier to read.

Remember to be specific about your solution’s benefits (within your industry, whether it’s entertainment, health, technology, finance, etc.), and don’t generalize. Since you are an expert in your field, speak to customers using language and words that they understand. If you are using technical jargon, remember to explain any acronyms, just in case potential clients do not have the same frame of reference that you do.

An alternate approach is to consider any obstacles that clients may have. For example, if you’ve decided that price may be an issue, you may want to consider that and address any concerns.

Use A Clear Call to Action

The call to action is the most critical part of your marketing email — a single command that tells customers how to proceed.

Depending on where prospects are in the sales cycle, remember to tell customers what YOU want them to do. It may be to sign up for a newsletter or webinar (Sign up to receive a newsletter), request a product tour (Request a demo), or buy a product (Add to cart). In addition, create a sense of urgency if possible, for example, Offer ends this Friday! Also, call to actions must not be complicated. Do not give multiple options. This will just confuse the customer.

A marketer can measure results based on the response to a call to action. If the response to your promotion is low, it may be time to revise your email’s offer or tweak your subject line to get a better response rate.

Keep it Short and Simple

Keep the email short and simple. Avoid adding multiple links to other pages within your website, since this will distract from the main offer and call to action.

A reminder about the obvious:

• Avoid typos
• Double-check that links to graphics and images are working properly
• Provide an html link, in case images are disabled
• Provide a link that allows prospects to opt-out or unsubscribe
• Provide a privacy policy

Leverage Your Signature Block

The signature block is an underutilized area that is easily overlooked, yet a place that can provide added value. You can provide an additional link to your website for branding, including reminders of upcoming promotions and events, or a link to your twitter account. As mentioned, use links in the signature block sparingly.

A small boilerplate about the company can also be used beneath the signature block to give additional contact information, for example, company name (for branding), address, phone number, fax number, email, hours of operation, and website.

Following these 5 easy tips will make your promotional messages easier to read, tell customers how to proceed, and give them information so that they can reach you and your products or services.

“People love to talk about JetBlue because the experience is so unexpected. Most airline travel has a particular pattern: small seats, bad entertainment, and little (if any) food. JetBlue breaks this pattern. Leather seats, your own entertainment system with dozens of channels, and at least some choice of food. People can’t stop talking about the experience because they have to express their surprise especially given the “value” price. They are so used to airline travel being poor, late, or uncomfortable these days that cases where a company seems to care and provide good service seems noteworthy. Satisfaction itself is unexpected.”

Other companies should be listening.

I met one of the social characters at one of these events, which I thought was the coolest thing. Nevertheless, the mass market was indifferent, and still doesn’t get the whole CNN call for tweets. Whatever. Nobody cares, right?

I like posting on Facebook as much as the next social media geek. I think last Monday, I talked about my new haircut. But, I recognize that posting about what I’m going to eat on Twitter doesn’t make me some kind of expert. It just means I use it. I don’t charge an arm and a leg for my advice, and I’m still amazed at the impact of Social Media on sites even though some of my friends consider me ahead of the curve. Myself and a few of my friends have been lucky to work in some Social Media environments (MySpace, for example), and even we don’t consider ourselves experts.

Social Media and even User Experience experts shouldn’t be able to call themselves that if they’ve been on one or two panels and read a book. They should have some successes and failures behind them and grown to tell the story. The truly great experts not only know how to leverage their personal brand, but point out the obvious while doing it, for free. Here are some ways to tell if your Social Media Expert is full of crap:

Your Social Media Expert spends more time blogging than working.

Self promotion can be high art on the web. Tila Tequila? Dane Cook? I mean, who really laughs at Dane Cook’s jokes? My friends talk about all the Ringo Starrs out there. You know them; they were with one company as someone inconsequential. The company made it big and found a way to parlay it into selling several books and evangelizing ideas. They are their own personal brand.

That said, there’s a really bad sign if your Social Media Expert spends more time blogging than working. Think about this: one post of this length takes about an hour of write. It’s like the cook with the great cookies; the last thing they are going to do is tell everyone the recipe, right?

If they are spending all their time writing blog posts about how much they know about Social Media, they aren’t helping your company do Social Media.

Your Social Media Expert thinks social media started with Facebook and Twitter.

The reality is that the core foundation of social media has been around since two people talked around the campfire about inventing the wheel. It’s just moved to a different medium, and that medium as we know it, the Internet, started on October 29, 1969. A lot of us older people — you know, the one’s that had jobs before an email address — remember bulletin board systems.

Technically, my first social media message that I sent to a friend of mine on Usenet was in 1987. Seriously, that’s longer ago than the age some of the experts I’ve seen. The message took four days to get there. The distance traveled was from Irvine, California to Claremont, California.

Real Social Media Experts understand conversations, and how those conversations interact on whatever medium they are on. That could mean a letter to the editor sent via a mail carrier in the 1950′s or a page established on Facebook in 2009. It’s the conversation that’s important.

Your Social Media Expert thinks that Twitter is the start of your brand.

One of the great aspects of Social Media is that, if you do it right, your customers have the conversation for you, promote your business and make you lots of money all for the cost of good service. One of the biggest mistakes we all make is where brand starts.

What is brand? Is your your name and the experiences tied to your name. It’s not a twitter post or a blog entry or the color you have or the logo you are designing. It’s the name of your company, and how every representative of your company is associated with it.

If a stupid Twitter post goes out about how Memphis sucks or 15,000 people complain on Facebook that your company uses slave labor, that hurts your brand. Social Media conversations shouldn’t be measured in just metrics but also in quality of the conversation, because that relates back to your brand. The linked article is a good example, because it talks about the success of Comcast. Ask any of their customers.

Your Social Media Expert always has a clown in the pocket.

This a famous phrase I’m going to attribute to a friend of mine. Whenever a company was going down the drain, especially during the late 1990′s, there was always a skunk-works project that was shown off in front of the venture capitalists. This was to distract them from the fact that the company was burning $15 million a month, they were surrounded by $1,000 Herman Miller Aeron chairs, the core product still hadn’t launched, and the CEO was doing coke.

Look, online video! We can put that on our Geocities pages!

Real consultants offer some kind of road-map, including what the deliverables are, what they are going to do and what should be the result, hopefully. It doesn’t always have to succeed, and sometimes you can’t always measure it. Even the biggest agencies have a hard time generating good numbers around social media. At the end of the day, if sales go up, it’s a good campaign.

It’s about the strategy, kids. Plan. Plan. Plan, again. It’s not rocket science, and it doesn’t take a 25-year-old to tell you otherwise.

Your Social Media Expert speaks in 140 character sentences.

If the only way they promote themselves is through Twitter, fire them.

Yesterday.

Why?

Twitter is the Apple of the Internet without the cool products. Their market reach is under two percent, which is interesting because MySpace is still in the 30′s and Facebook is way, way over that in the 50′s. I look at it as the “mom test.” If my mom has heard about it, it’s gone mainstream. We had dinner a few weeks ago, and the conversation started something like, “They wanted me to get on Facebook, but I don’t see time for it. I wish they would have called me up.” Twitter never entered the conversation.

The truth is that Twitter has some great uses, including being the new RSS feed and a great way to watch conversations around specific topics or events.

Your Social Media Expert recommends Delicious and Stumble Upon for an audience of seniors.

It’s all about the audience, right? If your consultant doesn’t know who to talk to, then how can they have a conversation. That’s what blow my mind about some of the people that recommend Twitter for everyone. The first question asked should be, “Where can I have a conversation with this audience?” For example, Email is still relevant. About 46 percent of all embedded links are still through email, yet the Social Media Expert wants you to use hashtags.

Figure out where your audience is, and talk to it. For some, it’s Foursquare. For others, it’s Facebook. For other people, it’s Etsy.

For every audience  there’s a proper venue, and your Social Media Expert should know where to look.

What to do? What to do?

If you really need a Social Media Expert that is one, email me, even if the “expert” doesn’t call himself one.

Church of the Customer predicts that this is the year Social Media really starts becoming part of Corporate America. Boring isn’t necessarily bad, because it means it’s profitable.

My prediction for 2010: social gets integrated into business functions. That means: social media policies, aligning social media strategies and tactics with overall business objectives and revenue goals, and realigning functional teams. Yeah, not as exciting as another viral video but those are as reliable as a Vegas roulette table. Social media process is hard work, so it’s time for social media to get boring! For process geeks like me, that’s pretty exciting.

Lack of Experience

Perhaps you just started a business. Some might consider your inexperience to be a liability. Maybe business is still a little slow. How can you put a positive spin on things? You’re not “inexperienced,” you’re…

• Affordable
• Flexible
• Offering a fresh perspective
• Ready to tackle the client’s project immediately

High Prices

Not everyone wants to be the low-price leader. But you also wouldn’t want to tout that you’ve got “the highest prices in town”! You’re not “expensive,” you’re…

• A highly-skilled expert
• In demand nationwide
• Providing customized and unique solutions
• Catering to those with discriminating tastes

“Me Too” Service

What if you’re in an industry where all of the players offer essentially the same thing – or it at least appears this way to the average consumer? How can you position yourself to stand out from the crowd? You’re not “just the same as your competitors,” you’re…

• A specialist in a particular niche of the market
• The organization with the most longevity
• The go-to provider in a given geographic area
• The one that provides the best value

Many businesses try to hide their potential negatives completely, hoping that no one will notice them. This approach tends to back-fire. It’s often far better to confront these potential negatives head-on, by spinning them around and turning them into positives.

Make it Easy to Scan

People don’t want to wade through what appears to be a short novel. If the mere site of your written piece overwhelms the reader, you can bet he or she will quickly move on to something else.

• Recommendation: Put your headings and subheads in bold type, use bullet points, left justify your text (don’t center everything) and break things down into short, easy-to-manage paragraphs.

Avoid Giving Readers a Headache

Have you noticed that an increasing number of websites are composed of tiny little white letters set against a black background? Ugh! Instant eyestrain.

• Recommendation: For maximum readability of any written piece (not just websites) stick with dark type on a light background, and don’t use anything smaller than a 10-point font.

Think about Your Font Formats

Sometimes it works to use special formatting to call attention to particular words, but if you’re not careful you’ll end up making those important words difficult to read.

• Recommendation: Go easy on your use of ALL CAPS, italics, underlines, Initial Caps, and other special formats. These all work well on headlines and brief items, but should generally be avoided on longer passages.

Remember, if your letter, website, brochure, or other written piece isn’t formatted for maximum readability, there’s a good chance it won’t get read at all.

The All-Important Unique Selling Proposition

Your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP, is what clearly answers the question, “Why should I do business with you instead of your competitors?” Often translated into a tagline, the USP should be the basis for all of your company’s marketing efforts. You’ve got to let people know why your products or services are the best choice.

Developing Your USP

How do you determine your USP? Start by finding important benefits that are unique to your product or service. Try looking at. . .

• A Product Feature – This can be anything about your product, service, or service delivery. For example, Folgers coffee is Mountain Grown. I think most coffee is mountain grown, but they make it sound unique and special.
• An Emotional Appeal – Perhaps your USP can be based on an appeal to the prospect’s emotions, such as love, humor, or fear.
• A Possible Association – This is the celebrity endorsement approach. Your product is wonderful because so-and-so says it’s wonderful.

Once you have a good list of possibilities, pick one that is unique (i.e. not being touted by your competitors), believable, and a big advantage. Remember, this should be something that can be used to motivate people to make a purchase!

Using Your USP

The final step is to boil it all down to one clear and concise sentence and then integrate it into all of your marketing materials. Remember, if you can’t figure out what sets you apart from your competition, your prospective clients aren’t likely to see any reason to do business with you either.

In fact, there are a number of words that commonly confuse lots of people. To help you out, here’s a guide to some of the ones that I see most frequently in the editing work that I do.

Its & It’s

Its means of or belonging to it.

It’s is the contraction of “it is.”

It’s just amazing the way the dog can sense when its owner is about to come home.

Their & They’re

Their means of or relating to them.

They’re is the contraction of “they are.”

They’re flying to Chicago to visit their cousins.

Whose & Who’s

Whose means of or relating to whom.

Who’s is the contraction of “who is” or “who has.”

Whose turn is it to pick up the guest who’s arriving on the 2:00 train?

Your & You’re

Your means of or relating to you or yourself.

You’re is the contraction of “you are.”

You’re doing a fabulous job sticking to your diet.

Advice & Advise

Advice is a noun that means guidance or counsel.

Advise is a verb that means to counsel or give advice to.

My advice to you is that you advise your staff to answer the telephone promptly.

Complement & Compliment

Complement (as a noun) means something that completes; complement (as a verb) means to complete.

Compliment (as a noun) means praise or a favorable remark; compliment (as a verb) means to praise.

“I would like to compliment the chef,” said Ralph, “for the way the flavors of this dish complement each other so perfectly.”

Insure, Ensure & Assure

While all 3 of these words relate to guaranteeing that something is true or that something will happen, there are subtle differences in their usages:

Assure means to say, write or confirm the guarantee.

Ensure means to do something to make certain that something happens.

Insure means to guarantee something with insurance or other financial instruments.

“Let me assure you that there’s no need to worry,” he said. “While your firewall will ensure that hackers don’t get into your system, this new policy will insure you against loss in case your system goes down.”

What are your options?

There are many different ways to stay in touch. Depending on your circumstances, your program may include telephone calls, direct mail, email, newsletters, blogs, personalized greeting cards, and other vehicles.

What’s the perfect frequency?

Unfortunately, there’s no “one size fits all” answer here, but at a minimum most companies should keep in contact with their customers on a quarterly basis. I receive emails once or twice a week from one of the major national bookstore chains, and I find this a little excessive. I also receive a handful of e-zines that arrive weekly, and I eagerly open each one. The difference? The bookstore is just trying to sell me something, while the e-zines provide information to help make my business more profitable.

In marketing, the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” is often true. Create a system that ensures you’ll keep in contact with your customers on a regular basis, and watch your sales increase.

If not, why not?

A big part of branding is recognition. Having a “look” that you use across all of your marketing materials makes it easy for your customers and potential customers to recognize that a message is from your company. So what are the elements of this “look”?

The Four Important Elements of Your Brand’s Visual Image

1. Your logo symbolizes your company. Make sure it is easily recognizable and works well in a wide range of advertising media. Overly creative logos can sometimes harm you rather than help you — make sure you pick something that can be remembered for it’s elegance and simplicity, not forgotten because it’s too complex.
2. Your color scheme should be uniform throughout all of your materials, and appropriate for your goals. Some color combinations are relaxing and soothing, others suggest excitement and enthusiasm, while others project a very “corporate” image.
3. Your overall “look” (including colors, fonts, pictures, layout, etc.) needs to visually reinforce the feeling that you want your product or service to convey. For example, a company marketing “mom’s apple pie” to senior citizens will have a much different look than one selling the latest electronic gadgets to teenage boys.
4. Your printed materials need to reflect important elements of the “look and feel” of your website (or vice versa). There’s nothing worse than having printed materials that don’t look like the website — your prospective clients will usually refer to printed materials first on their desk.

Remember, it often takes multiple exposures to an advertising/marketing message before a consumer will decide to make a purchase or inquiry. If your materials are a mismatched hodge-podge of colors, designs and messages, it will be very difficult for you to build a recognizable presence in the market place.