Many years ago I signed up for a free online training session. The presenter (who’s gone on to become quite successful) sent everyone who attended a personalized recommendation. Then he followed up with everyone, genuinely puzzled because we hadn’t all signed up.
When we compared notes, we realized he was extremely judgmental and critical. And he didn’t even know us! Why should we pay someone to be insulting?
I remembered the story when I saw an article with the title, “Two words to get people to open your emails.” It turned out these two words managed to judge and insult all the email recipients at once…quite a feat for a subject line.
“The two words were, “I’m curious.”
Two words loaded with meaning.
My inbox currently holds at least a dozen emails with subject lines like, “Frankly, Cathy, I’m puzzled…Why haven’t you responded?”
Some say, “I’m curious…”
Or even, “Where were you?” I’m always tempted to write back – falsely – “in the Emergency Room getting sewn up.”
People we’re getting to know have to give us a reason to open their messages. A generic subject line like, “Frankly, I’m curious…” might be a reason not to open the message.
And who wants to work with someone – or sell a course to someone – who doesn’t really want what we offer? Bad karma.
“Never blame the customer.”
One of the core principles of services marketing is, the customer is rarely wrong. Even if they are (say they forgot their consultation appointment) you can usually lower the odds they’ll make a mistake.
You can take payment up front (20-50% on big ticket items, with milestones)
You can send reminders of every call with the call-in info (one of my favorite coaches does this).
You can accept responsibility for unclear communications.
One consulting program offered two calls a month with emails “in between calls.” She was complaining about clients who didn’t get it. They emailed after the second call. “Don’t they know what ‘between’ means?”
The problem was, her policy was vague and inherently unfair. If you scheduled your calls a week apart, you’d get a week of emails. For the same price, if your calls were 3 weeks apart, you’d get more email times.
Why not have a clear policy – maybe “30 days of emails after the first call.”
And if someone doesn’t respond to an email offer, why not assume your offer wasn’t juicy enough or maybe something else was going on in the world?
By the way, your email list is—hands down—your most important sales-generating asset. You’ve probably noticed that the more emails you send, the more money you make, too.
The question is, how do you balance all of those sales emails with plenty of value?
Cindy Bidar has a system for that, and you’re going to love how easy she makes it.
In her brand new course, Email Marketing Campaigns: How to Fill Your Calendar With Engaging Offers That Get Results, she’s pulling back the curtain and showing you exactly how she consistently enjoys five-figure months (and her list isn’t that big); gets thankyou notes from readers who love her copy even when she sells; and saves effort by turning her best-performing emails into evergreen earners.
Leave a Reply