How many e-mails daily do you open, scan the first sentence, then close and move on? When it comes to written marketing and sales, it becomes much more important to carefully analyze what you say and how you say it. One of the largest reasons for this is that your e-mail or letter recipients have the opportunity to reread and scrutinize each detail. You also don’t have the opportunity to readily defend yourself to any misconceptions they may draw from it, or to responsively rebuttal their concerns. You have to structure your e-mail to not only grab their attention, assuage their doubt, then offer them something they can’t resist learning more about. Here is a loose writing path to keep in mind when you’re ready to send out offers to your customers.
The Hook
Absolutely always try to capture their interest as quickly as possible. If you can’t give them a solid reason to read the whole thing quickly, chances are they won’t look at it for more than a couple seconds, and certainly not long enough for you to speak your piece. One excelling hook is to start with a question, preferably one that sympathizes with them or challenges them, such as (if for example, trying to interest someone from Generation X into buying or renting a home) “Tired of living at home with your parents?” This immediately, while not necessarily the most pleasant feeling, resonates with them on an emotional level. You’ve brought to mind a problem that they’re acutely aware of but likely don’t normally want to think about. It’s a good thing you have…
A Solution
Here’s where you make your case. Tell them what you can do for them, how you can do it, and why you. Give them offers, get their hopes up, pique that curiosity. However, you don’t want to spend too long here. You don’t want them to spend so much time hearing about multiple offers and background that they lose interest, time and attention are rare and precious things these days. You just want to give them enough confidence they’ll respond to…
The Call to Action
Call me today to find out more. Move now! Attaching a sense of urgency to resolve this immediately. With their needs fresh on their minds and a solution in front of them, they’re significantly more likely to respond to your offers. In some situations it even helps to leave out some information, that way they have questions ready to ask you when they reach out to you, giving you time to learn more about the customer and help finalize your deal.
