Bunkumless.com: The best thing since the invention of the time machine
Since 2012, I have personally typed and carefully went through every single email I sent. I sent thousands of emails, resulting in an 18% sent-to-publication success rate. There was and there is still no miracles here, only painful experiences, hard work. blood, sweat and tears.
During my first few weeks I made sure to carefully note every email I sent, every response I received and whether it led to a successful new acquisition or not. For every five emails I sent, I would get one new subscription.
Over the next year and a half, I would continue sending about five hundred emails a week that, resulted in 150,000 visits to my client’s blogs and websites. The conversion rate averaging 40%, this eventually led to a total of 60,000 new subscribers.
You want to achieve the same results?
There are two options:
Option 1: You click here to hire me;
Option 2: You do your homework.
You decided to do your homework!
This is a full-time job and here is what you need to do to drive thousands of signups for your business:
- Do your research
Before ever sending out your first emails or answering any emails you may receive, you need to research the people, the persons you are talking or want to talk to:
Google their name; read their work online; bookmark some of their great pieces of work; scroll through their social profiles; learn about what makes them tick, what annoy them or makes them angry; check their political affiliation, how they feel about important social topics and their opinions on the subjects.
This research will help you learn what they are interested in and what they are most likely to notice in a conversation. Use this information wisely and in a timely manner. This being done, look to attract media attention.
- Make yourself familiar
You are now ready to procced with your first email campaign. There is a reason why it is called “Cold Email”. It is your first contact with people who know little or nothing about you. Unfortunately, people tend to like places, things and people they are familiar with and ignore unfamiliar people and novelties.
Before sending an email, make sure to devise a way to get your contact to remember your name or the name of your product or service. Before sending your emails, follow your prospective contacts on social media. Try interacting with them and see how it goes. Contact them after a big change or success in their life. A quick “congrats” or “Happy Birthday” will go a long way.
- Personalize your emails
Most people can immediately spot a mass email and are quick to discard it. In your email to strangers and prospective customers or clients, make sure you mention their name, their product/service or the name of their company. Write and tell them about why they are special to you and what made them stand out among many others.
- Find something you have in common
Never send an email before finding at least one thing you have in common with the person or the business you are reaching out to. Finding something in common with people you are trying to talk to makes you more likable and familiar to them.
- Strike a conversation
People love being asked questions and talk about themselves. Make sure you hit the right topic and they will not be able to resist replying. Whoever you want to talk to, learn enough about these persons to figure out what gets them excited. Strike and make sure to maintain a conversation about it.
- Use emotional hooks
Like for “Cold Calls” using “emotional hooks” in a cold emailing takes a few smart adjustments but when done properly, they are incredibly effective and produce amazing results. One of the most basic emotions is “Desire”. If your prospects are truly motivated, if they have “Desire”, if only for one of your products or services, then they will feel connected to you. And the more they desire, the more interesting you and what you have to offer become.
- Make it short and simple
The ideal length of a Public Relations or Marketing pitch always has been two to three paragraphs. Apply this simple rule to every cold email you send. Avoid overselling, getting lost in long pitches or overwhelming your reader with too much info. Avoid alienating your readers: go straight to the point.
Think about what you want to say, the message you have to convey. Stay focus. Focus on the main point of your email and edit out all unnecessary parts. Assign a goal to your email and then, to each sentence. This being done, edit out all the sentences that do not support the main goal of your email.
- Make your email about them, not you
Focusing on yourself and the points you are trying to bring up, focusing mainly on the benefits of your products or services is a mistake. Your email will not be relevant to anyone, to any person unless you focus on them.
Make your email everything about your contact, your prospective customer, not you. People love to talk and hear about themselves. Use this petty human characteristic against your reader and start with focusing on them and only them.
- Check the clock
Before sending any email, double check the time zone of your prospects, of your targeted audience and schedule the release of your emails to reach them while they are at work and still focused enough. 5:00 P.M. is not a good time.
Mornings are best, but not too early. Tend to aim at 11 A.M. deliveries.
If you want them to notice you, be respectful of your prospects’ time and make sure your email is still relevant. The perfect pitch is timely, relevant, personal and intriguing enough to get a conversation started.
- Follow up
Follow-ups get 30% higher response rates than first emails.
Make sure to follow up by writing a quick email acknowledging how busy and important your contacts are while politely asking them to consider your email one more time.
One last word
Again, all of this is time consuming and if you don’t have the right tools, this will fast become a full-time job.
If you do not have the time, I can do it for you.
JMD
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Owner of Bunkumless.com and King Global Earth and Environmental Sciences Corporation, JMD, a former attorney, is a Columnist for The Futurist Daily News and editor of the Social and Political Blog JMDlive.com Follow JMD @ jmdlive
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