Recently I participated as an affiliate with a top drawer marketer who is known as the Queen of Sales Conversion. She is really, really good at sales techniques. But I got an eye opening email from a subscriber during this time that made me realize that even the best have something to learn.
You see, once a person registered for this Queen’s preview call, they continued to get barraged by emails, as many as three a day. The funny thing is that these were directed to getting them to sign up and they were already registered. My subscriber pointed out that while she was going to listen in, more curious than anything else, she fully expected to unsubscribe from the Queen’s list due to the pushiness of the emails. I got inundated too but just let them stay in my junk file.
The irony is that what the Queen is selling is how NOT to be pushy or salesy. Now all of this being said, I was on the call. Since I’m familiar with the Queen’s routine, she was in top form as always. You could feel the tension, not desperation (critical difference) and sales started rolling in as would be expected. I simply wonder how many were left on the table because of the overwhelm in email that could easily have been stopped.
I’m betting that the Queen isn’t the only one who does this, in fact, I can recall more than one instance where once I opted in to a call or event I was buried under an onslaught of pitching mails. It wasn’t pretty, or fun, and honestly it made me want to unsubscribe too. In fact, sometimes I have unsubscribed and ditched that call or event, other times I stuck it out just to see what was on the other side.
There are some simple tricks you can use to avoid this and keep your hot prospects HOT!
#1 Keep registrants on a separate list!
They have already registered and deserve to be treated with extra care and attention. They have already raised their hands and said, I’m in. Now they haven’t bought yet, but they are a lot closer than those who haven’t registered. Don’t bury them with continued pitches.
#2 Only send continuing pitches to NON-opens.
Whenever you send an email series that is timed close together, be sure to allow some gap time (even it it’s two days) by sending the second mail (often a duplicate with a new title) to NON-opens only. This way those that opened aren’t hit again quite so quickly. I’m not saying don’t tap them again, just give them a little room. (Yes, this may fly in the face of conventional email marketing, but then I’m not conventional and nor is my tribe.)
#3 Keep your tone warm and friendly.
You aren’t Crazy Eddie (are you?). You aren’t hawking street wares on the corner. Instead you are more likely selling transformation through information and systems. Even if you are selling hard product you’ll want to do this in a way that showcases the transformation your product delivers instead of just the sales noise. Be sure to personalize (first name) youre emails and even include their first name occasionally in your subject line.
Alternatively, if you are the recipient of a barrage of mails and you want to stay on the list, but want to quell the noise, set up a folder in your email with a rule that sends all emails from this source directly to that folder. That way you can look at them at your leisure and not feel the crush as it enters your box. You also might find some gold nuggets in the copy that is received (food for your swipe file, why reinvent the wheel!)
Share your stories of email marketing woes and wins here. Love to get your take about what is too much, what makes you opt-in to a call or event, and what drives you crazy!
