Business

The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines

Email is back !

Despite repeated proclamations of its extinction, rumors of the death of email marketing have been greatly exaggerated — especially since email and social media are a powerful combination. You might not reach the average college freshman, but for slightly older types (you know, the ones with the money), email is still the way to go in many lucrative mainstream niches.

You must first, of course, get your emails read. And it all starts with the subject line.

Email subject lines are a form of headline. They perform the same function as a headline by attracting attention and getting your email content a chance to be read.

So, headline fundamentals still apply. But the context is different, with the email space having its own funky little quirks that need to be accounted for.

Here’s the good news — email also implies a special relationship with the reader; a relationship that will get more of your messages read, even with subject lines that wouldn’t work in other headline contexts. Let’s take a look back at headline fundamentals, the specifics that apply to subject lines, and the “secret sauce” that makes email your top conversion channel.

1. The Fundamentals:

When you’re writing your next subject line, run it through this checklist, based on the Four “U” Approach to headline writing:

• Useful: Is the promised message valuable to the reader?
• Ultra-specific: Does the reader know what’s being promised?
• Unique: Is the promised message compelling and remarkable?
• Urgent: Does the reader feel the need to read now?

When you’re trying to get someone to take valuable time and invest it in your message, a subject line that properly incorporates all four of these elements can’t miss. And yet, execution in the email context can be tricky, so let’s drill down into subject-line specifics for greater clarity.

2. The Specifics:

Beyond headline fundamentals, these are the things to specifically focus on with email subject lines:

• Identify yourself: Over time, the most compelling thing about an email message should be that it’s from you. Even before then, your recipient needs to know at a glance that you’re a trusted source. Either make it crystal clear by smart use of your “From” field, or start every subject line with the same identifier. For example, with our own Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter, every subject line begins with [Smart People].
• Useful and specific first: Of the four “U” fundamentals, focus on useful and ultra-specific, even if you have to ignore unique and urgent. There are plenty of others who work at unique and urgent with every subject line — we call them spammers. Don’t cross the line into subject lines that are perceived as garbage. But do throw in a bit of a tease.
• Urgent when it’s useful: When every message from you is urgent, none is. Use urgency when it’s actually useful, such as when there’s a real deadline or compelling reason to act now. If you’re running your email marketing based on value and great offers, people don’t want to miss out and need to know how much time they have.
• Rely on spam checking software: We all know that certain words trigger spam filters, but there’s a lot of confusion out there about which words are the problem. Is it okay to use the word “free” in a subject line? Actually, yes. All reputable email services provide spam checking software as part of the service or as an add-on. Craft your messages with compelling language, let the software do its job, and adjust when you have to.
• Shorter is better: Subject line real estate is valuable, so the more compact your subject line, the better. Don’t forget useful and ultra-specific, but try to compress the fundamentals into the most powerful promise possible.

3. The Secret Sauce:

Getting someone to trust you with their email address is not easy. Twelve years ago when I started in email publishing, people would sign up for anything remotely interesting.

No longer.

But if you do gain that initial trust, and more importantly, confirm and grow it, you can write pretty lame subject lines and people will still read your messages. Just as with that ditzy friend from high school who nonetheless always has something interesting to say, trust and substance matter most.

Don’t get me wrong, writing great subject lines combined with the more intimate relationship email represents is much more effective. And you have to get your initial messages read to establish the relationship in the first place. Regardless, your open rates will improve based on the quality of your subject line.

But there’s something special in this jaded digital age about being invited into someone’s email inbox. You just have to over-deliver on the value to ensure you’re a treasured guest who gets invited back.

The inbox can be a stressful place. How do you make it brighter?

Is Your Tribe Holding You Down?

There’s a great divide in the online marketing world at the moment.

On one side is the Tribe of the Cool Kids. They’re part of The Conversation. They use the niftiest open-source tools. They have trendy haircuts. They’re about voice and influence and attention.

They’re getting as close as they can to a benign Borg, plugging themselves into the collective consciousness. They spend more time updating the collective about what they’re doing than they spend actually doing anything.

On the other side is the Internet Marketing Tribe. They drive the flashiest cars. They have great abs. They’re about tactics and money and staying ahead of trouble.

They’re more like the Zion rebels from The Matrix, flying outside the system but jacking into it to get what they need. In Dean Hunt’s great phrase, they spend 16 hours a day working so they can make money while they sleep.

Clearly one of these tribes is lame and the other one is smart. But which is which?

What it’s like to be a Cool Kid

At the top of the Cool Kids Tribe you’ll find some folks who are very comfortable. Some of them cashed out big before the Dot-Bomb implosion, some have put together cushy consulting gigs, some are enjoying the money and attention that come from top-dollar speaking careers.

The middle of the tribe is having a pretty good time. They might be freelancing, or they might have a corporate gig somewhere. Maybe they have a neat title like “relationship manager.” They work a lot of hours, their boss/clients can be clueless asshats, and the trainwreck economy is starting to freak them out a little (“relationship managers” tend to be first in line for layoffs). But they have a lot of connections, they make a decent living, and mostly they’re doing fine.

Then there’s a big band of Cool Kids who are broke. They’ve figured out how to get attention, but they don’t know what to do with it. They have 4,999 Facebook friends, 34,278 Twitter followers, and $12 in the bank.

Obviously there’s no way the Cool Kids can learn anything from the Internet Marketing Tribe. Those guys are cheesy and creepy and they do things that Google doesn’t like.

And living in your parents’ basement isn’t so bad. Have you seen the new case for my iPhone 3G? It’s pretty sweet.

What it’s like to be an IMer

At the top of the Internet Marketing crowd you’ll find some folks who make truly staggering amounts of money. Some of them are selling garbage. Some of them are selling solidly useful stuff. It’s all packaged about the same way, which makes it hard to tell the difference.

They’ll tell you that the toughest decision of the day is whether to drive the Lambo to Lauderdale or fly the private jet down to Cabo to party with the hot girlfriend. That’s a pose. These guys work, and they work hard. The smartest have built strong, sustainable businesses by providing real value to their customers.

The part about having a Lambo, a private jet, and a hot girlfriend is true, though.

The middle of the tribe is having a pretty good time. They make the same money that a successful small to mid-sized “real world” business makes, with considerably less hassle. They’re a long way from the Lambo, but they can pay their bills and buy decent stuff and spend time with their kids. Their only problem is that they feel like a failure because they’re not doing 8 or 9 figures. That, and their wives have definitively nixed the hot girlfriend thing.

Then there’s a big band of IMers who are broke. They spend tens of thousands of dollars on magic bullets, while their day jobs grind them to dust. In the middle of trying to figure out pay-per-click arbitrage, someone pitches them a product on how to flip domains and they’re digging out the credit card again.

There’s also a small band of IMers who are broke because the Federal Trade Commission took everything they had. They kept the Black Hat on a little too long and they’re paying a steep price for it.

Obviously there’s no way IMers can learn anything from the Cool Kids Tribe. Those guys are snobs and eggheads and they don’t make any money.

And having your wife kick you out of the house isn’t that bad. Have you seen the Lambo I’m gonna buy some day? As soon as the DVDs get here for this seriously killer product, I’m going to pull it all together. She’ll be sorry then.

Obviously there’s no way for these two to meet

If you care about quality content, about your relationship with your community, and your reputation, you couldn’t possibly learn anything from someone in the IM tribe. They have yellow highlighting on their sales letters. Clearly they are Bad People and should be shunned.

If you care about making money, about building a sustainable business online, and about turning your 1,000 true fans into customers, you definitely can’t learn anything from the Cool Kids. They’re elitist communists who couldn’t ask for the order if you held a gun to their head. Clearly they are Bad People and should be shunned.

I wonder, though, if there’s any possible way a tribe could come together that was about building real businesses online without being cheesy, sleazy, or tacky? Could a tribe form around ethical business practices, effective persuasive communication that actually sells something, respectful relationships with customers, and a commitment to keeping the White Hat on at all times?

Could that tribe actually come to terms with getting paid for the work they put in? Could they be willing to learn to create businesses that don’t require a superhuman effort to get off the ground? Not necessarily getting rich quick, but getting rich without killing yourself?

Is it possible for these two tribes to actually learn from one another? To find the greatest value, satisfaction and success at the intersection of the crossroads?

Could we actually pretend that we’re done with high school and create a third tribe that embraces the best of both worlds?

I don’t know, sounds like a pipe dream to me. How about you, what do you think?

How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes

I don’t really want to spend more than 20 minutes a day on writing articles. And I spent no more than 20 minutes to write this article.

I realize this is writing blasphemy. Content is king, and all of that. But when I have a daily schedule to post on and a business to run, I don’t have time to spend hours polishing every single blog post or writing 2,000-word articles.

Writing quickly doesn’t mean compromising on writing well, though. I’ve got seven tips to get you in and out of that composition box in twenty minutes – without sacrificing quality.

1. Keep an idea list.

When inspiration for a post strikes, scribble it down in a notebook or a word file. For many bloggers and content creators, finding the topic to write about takes up half the time. Keeping an idea list lets you leap in to a new post quickly when you’re ready to write.

2. Let your ideas incubate.

If you try to force yourself to come up with supporting information for your brilliant idea right away, it’s going to take ages. Let that topic sit for a few days, though, and you can add new ideas as they occurs to you – and when you’re ready to write, you’ll already have all the supporting info you need.

3. Edit before you start

You’ve probably got twice as many ideas as you need at this point, so it’s time to be brutal. Cut out any supporting idea that doesn’t fit with the main topic of the article. Remember, we’re talking about how to write an article in 20 minutes, not an epic. You can always use the ideas you don’t need for later posts.

4. Use bullet points

Bullet points, or numbered points like “10 Ways to Get More Subscribers”, can make writing an article a lot simpler in terms of organization because you no longer have to figure out transitions from one idea to the next. The great side benefit is that readers like lists; they’re easier for the eye to follow.

5. Keep it short

If you want to finish that article in 20 minutes, try to keep it under 500 words. Don’t feel like you’re skimping on quality content, either: this article is only about 500 words but it’s chockfull of information. Make every word count and you’ll save time without letting quality slip.

6. Come back later

If you find that you’re stuck, don’t try to force the words to come. Save the article and work on something else for awhile. If inspiration strikes, open up that document again. You can even switch from one blog post to another, spending a few minutes on each as ideas comes to you. It’s a huge time-saver.

7. Never save a good idea

It’s tempting, when you look through your list of ideas, to save the best ones for later because you think they’ll be easier to write. You don’t want to save time later, you want to save time now. Do the articles you know will come easily and make the most of that time.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your way to brilliant articles in a fraction of the time. Share some of your favorite article writing tips in the comments!

The Johnny Depp Guide to Awesome Marketing

On Stranger Tides is just one more in the long line of big budget Hollywood movies. Or is it?

Actually, it happens to be just another movie that Johnny Depp refused to appear in for anything short of $42,000,000.

He charges that amount because the movie can’t exist with out him.

Johnny’s the star of the show. Pirates of the Caribbean without Captain Jack Sparrow is like an ice cream sundae with no ice cream.

But if Johnny Depp didn’t act in movies — if he were a regular job-holding guy from Kentucky — nobody would care about him. Nobody would pay him.

That could easily have happened, you know.

John Christopher Depp is a high-school dropout from Lexington, Kentucky. He once made a (sort of) living as a ballpoint pen salesman. My cousin swears she once spotted him years ago in a local WalMart.

He was unshaved. His clothes were old and torn. He looked like a hippie. Reclusive. Possibly homeless.

That doesn’t match his public image, does it?

We’re used to seeing Johnny Depp behind four millimeters of stage makeup, in hand-tailored black tie, and signing $42 million Hollywood film contracts.

How does he do it?

How does a normal guy become an A-list star — attracting a raving following and getting paid to do what he loves?

The answer is simpler than you might think.

Johnny Depp knows his audience

On Stranger Tides isn’t about entertaining Johnny.

It’s about entertaining his audience. Johnny isn’t messing around trying to collect his thoughts or share breaking news in pirate technology.

No, he’s giving his audience the content they’re looking for. He’s connecting and delivering.

Here’s what Johnny Depp means to your blog

You’re actually in the entertainment business.

Every byte of data you blast onto the web is a piece of your movie.

Each time you publish a post, you’re broadcasting a scene — a link in the chain — that brings your film to the next level.

It takes work. Some days you feel like retreating to your little hometown …

But remember, when the camera’s running, you have to connect.

It takes focus

You aren’t doing this to become a better writer, even if that’s a sneaky side effect.

You aren’t doing it for the fame or money — though money facilitates the journey.

You aren’t doing it just for you — though you absolutely love what you’re doing.

The moment you focus on those things, you lose your touch.

Like an major league baseball player at bat, your eyes are glued to the ball. You ignore everything else, and you aim for a grand slam.

Prepare your script to match your audience’s deepest desires. Peek around the curtain and listen to the gossip. The tools are before you, pleading to be used.

Get your act together, then freaking deliver.

Like it or not, here they come.

Just ask Johnny Depp.

NEWS | Jay-Zannounces 2012 NBA Brooklyn Nets

Rapper, entrepreneur and partial owner of the Nets basketball team, Jay-Z, announced some exciting news for the sports world. The formally known New Jersey Nets will officially be changed to the Brooklyn Nets for the 2012 season. In addition to the name change, the Nets will have a new colorway that has yet to be debuted. In celebration of the recent transition, the new Barclay Center will kick off its opening later next year with a special concert series featuring Jay-Z and friends. What are your thoughts on this name change?