Top 10 Tips for Making an Offer through Email

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Email is a powerful marketing tool. It allows you to build a rapport with your audience, keep your offerings in the front of their minds, and present them with special offers to help seal the deal. Here are ten tips that will help you get the best possible results from your email offers.

#1: Make it Worthwhile and Useful1-useful

Your reader’s time is valuable, so if you’re going to send him an offer through email, it’s important to make sure it’s worthwhile. And that means more than offering a substantial discount (although that is a good start). It means sending targeted offers that the reader can use. If you send offers that are of no interest to him personally, not only will he not take advantage of them, he might decide to unsubscribe.

#2: Use a Descriptive Subject Line

There are times when a vague or mysterious subject line can work, but it’s important to remember that you’re taking a risk that such an email might be deleted unread. So when you’re making an offer, it’s especially important to let the reader know in the subject line. You don’t necessarily have to lay out all of the details, but you want to let them know that there are savings waiting for them if they take the time to read your message.

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#3: Create a Sense of Urgency

Any time you make an offer, you’ll get better results by creating a sense of urgency. Letting subscribers know that the offer is only good for a limited time or to a limited number of customers will give them an incentive to act now.

Remember to stick to any deadlines that you set – while an occasional extension of a popular offer can be a good thing, if you extend every offer you make subscribers will not take you seriously.

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#4: Don’t Overwhelm the Reader

Emails containing offers should be fairly short and to the point. If you bury the offer at the end of a thousand-word article, it’s unlikely that your readers will make it that far. It’s also a good idea to avoid cramming multiple offers into a single email. One or two related offers should be the focus of your message. Add more than that, and it can lead to confusion and fatigue. Besides, giving each offer its own email gives you more opportunities to make contact with your subscribers.

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#5: Target Your Offers5-target

When you make an offer, it’s tempting to send it to your entire mailing list, but sometimes that’s not a good idea.

A better approach is to create relevant offers for customers who have shown interest in what you’re offering or similar products or services. This way you avoid wasting the reader’s time with offers for things that he can’t or won’t use.

#6: Lure Them in with Anticipation

If you have a big product launch coming up, it’s important to build anticipation and lure your subscribers in beforehand. The same is true for your best email offers. Let your subscribers know that something big is coming up, and they will pay attention. You can start out by simply telling them to be on the lookout for a great offer in the coming weeks. As the time draws near, you can let out more details. This will keep them interested and give them a reason to open every email you send to learn more.

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#7: Make it Exclusive

Making exclusive offers is a great way to boost sales. An offer that isn’t available to just anyone has a way of making the recipient feel special and making him want to take advantage of grab it while it’s available. And if you make the offer available to subscribers only, it can also boost new opt-ins. Alternatively, you could make exclusive offers to subscribers who signed up for a specific course or bought a particular product.

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#8: Tell a Story8-story

While you don’t want to get too wordy in an offer email, telling a story is a good way to draw the reader in and avoid special offer fatigue.

You could tell how you came to create the product you’re offering or why you decided to put it on sale. You can even tell a funny story from your personal life if you can find a way to connect it to your offer.

 

#9: Focus on the Click

9-clickYou put a lot of work into your sales page. It’s designed to tell the reader what your product can do for him or her and make him want to buy it. That means that there’s no need to try to make the sale in your offer email. Its purpose should be to capture the reader’s interest and make him want to visit your sales page.

That’s where the money is, after all.

#10: Follow Up

One of the most common mistakes marketers make when making an offer is failing to follow up. While it’s important not to wear an offer out, you’ll want to remind subscribers about the offer before it expires. That way, those who have put off making a purchase for one reason or another will have a chance to take advantage of the deal while it’s still good. And it’s just as important to follow up for those who did buy.

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Sending them a simple thank-you email or asking for feedback will let them know that you appreciate their business and make them more likely to become repeat customers.

Email is an excellent medium for making special offers. Used wisely, email offers can increase your sales and help keep your subscribers happy.

Top 10 Email Subject Line Tips

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The subject line is one of the most important components of any email. It helps the reader decide whether or not a message is worth reading. As an internet marketer, it’s important to make sure that your subject lines always make the reader want to open your email. Here are some tips that will help.

#1: Keep it Short

When it comes to an email subject line, less is more. The goal is to get the reader to open the email and read it, not give everything away from the start. A Mailchimp study found that subject lines with a length of 28 to 39 characters had the highest click rate. It’s also important to keep the subject line short for practical reasons. Most email programs cut it off at 50 to 55 characters, so if you go beyond that the reader will not see the whole thing.

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#2: Avoid Spam Triggers

No matter how spectacular your email may be, if it ends up in the user’s spam folder, the chances of him reading it are slim to none. It’s a good idea to encourage your subscriber’s to add your email address to their whitelist so that they won’t miss any of your emails, but since not everyone will do so it’s important to avoid using words and symbols in your subject line that could trigger spam filters as much as possible.

These include:

  • Free
  • Earn
  • Income
  • Cash
  • Buy
  • Clearance
  • Million
  • Credit
  • Stock
  • Sale
  • Online pharmacy
  • Weight loss
  • Urgent
  • Winner
  • Casino
  • Dollar signs
  • Excessive exclamation points
  • All caps

You can also use your autoresponder’s spam check. Here’s an example from an Aweber spam check.

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#3: Use Numbers

Numbers have a way of making headlines more appealing, and the same holds true for email subject lines. Using a number promises quantifiable information and people like this. And in the case of lists such as “5 ways to boost conversion rates” or “Top 7 Facebook marketing tools,” it promises an easily digestible list of useful information.

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#4: Create a Sense of Urgency

If the reader doesn’t read your email as soon as it is received, chances are he won’t read it at all. That’s why it’s good to create a sense of urgency with the subject line. Go ahead and let them know that spots for your latest course are limited, that your big sale ends tomorrow, or that they must take action right away. They will feel compelled to open your email and learn more.

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#5: Be Clear About What’s Inside

Sometimes an air of mystery can work to your advantage, but in most cases readers want to know what an email is about up front. Their time is valuable, and if they are unsure whether it will be wasted by reading your email, they may send it straight to the trash.

Never mislead your readers…it will reduce your credibility and is also likely illegal.5-be-clear

#6: Make it Timely

Current events that are relevant to your audience make for great email subject lines. You don’t necessarily have to make the entire email about the event. Simply finding a way to tie it in with your message is a good way to generate interest and make recipients want to read more.

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#7: Focus on Benefits
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One of the most important rules of copywriting is to focus on the benefits that your product offers the customer. This can also be

applied to email subject lines. Let the reader know what’s in it for him right off the bat, and he will be eager to read the rest of your message.

 

#8: Be Controversial

Don’t be afraid of stirring up a little controversy. It’s a great way to pique the reader’s interest, even if he doesn’t agree with your stance. Just make sure that you back up any claims made in the subject line within the email; otherwise, you may lose the reader’s trust.

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#9: Avoid Cheap Tricks

9-no-tricksSome marketers resort to trickery as a means of getting readers to open their emails. For example, they might add Re: or Fwd: to the beginning to make it look like the email is coming from someone the recipient knows.

Most users are savvy enough to ignore such tactics, and those who do open the email will be turned off by the dishonesty and delete the email.

Just give it to them straight and treat them like you would a friend that you’re emailing.

#10: Test Your Subject Lines Untitled

There is no foolproof formula for creating the perfect subject line. Tactics that work for one marketer may be all wrong for another, so it’s important to test your subject lines to determine what works best for your specific audience. You can do this by sending identical emails with different subject lines to two groups of subscribers. Look at the open and response rates for each, and apply the techniques that work best to future emails.

No matter how good your email is, it’s worthless if it goes unopened. By taking the time to craft an informative and attention-getting subject line, you can make sure that most of your recipients will keep reading.