How To Make E-Mail Marketing Click For Your Training Or E-Learning Business.

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CLICK!

Yes! A highly placed training purchase authority is opening the e-mail promotion you sent them. Out of dozens of messages of all sorts in their mailbox, they have chosen yours.

What was it about your message that enticed them to open it -- rather than immediately delete it as just so much worthless SPAM? What will it take to get them to read your message and act on it? Here's some advice on how to make e-mail marketing work for you.

Getting Your Message Opened

The key to getting your message opened rather than deleted is the "From" and "Subject" line.

Be sure your message looks like it is from a real person -- not from an impersonal business entity. Here are a couple of satisfactory efforts:

From: John.Doe@TrainingGuru.com
From: John Doe

Try and avoid the following:

From: TrainingGuru.Com
From: Opt In Service Provider

The ideal subject line includes a key word or phrase that immediately relates to your prospect audience. If you are promoting to a sales training audience, then consider working "sales training" into your subject line.

Subject: Who Says Salespeople Can Be Trained

If your prospects are CIOs, then consider putting "CIO" in your subject line.

Subject: This Certification Even a CIO Could Love

It's critical that your prospects immediately conclude "this is for me." While you're at it, see if you can include a promise or intriguing come-on that speaks to the benefits your training product or service offers. For instance, if you're promoting a learning management system that's undeterred by fire walls, you might author a subject line that says:

Subject: Finally, An LMS No Firewall Can Stop

Of course this subject line assumes your target audience consists of knowledgeable LMS buyers.

Try and keep the substance of your subject lines within 40 characters or less. If you go much longer, your copy will be cropped by your recipients' inbox margins.

Some e-mail promotion experts will tell you not to use the word "Free" in your subject line. They are also opposed to personalization. Why? Because they feel frequent use by scamsters has turned these time honored techniques into turn offs. I don't agree -- so long as you use them in appropriate context. For instance, following is one of the subject lines I use to promote Training Business E-Visory:

Subject: John, you CAN sell more training - here's how

My goal here is to challenge complacent training company execs with the slightly cheeky and uninvited use of their first name. The result: a 10%+ subscription rate -- and no complaints.

Here's another subject line that draws a 10%+ subscription rate to Training Business E-Visory, this one leading with "Free."

Subject: Free Training Business Intelligence Resource

What should you avoid in your subject line? Any extravagant promise or clever come on that isn't grounded in your audience's business reality. Here are a few obvious candidates for the delete key:

Subject: Big Savings, Act Now.
Subject: Succeess Is In Your Grasp
Subject: Get What You Want.
Subject: Banish Failure Forever.
Subject: You May Already Have Won...

Getting Your Message Understood and Acted On

Some people will tell you that writing effective e-mail promotion is an entirely different craft than writing effective direct mail. Generally, that's because they don't know how direct mail is really read and responded to.

Just because you send somebody a 2-page direct mail letter doesn't mean they read it through from A to Z. What they really do is to read the first paragraph or so. Then they fast forward to the reply form to see what your proposition is. Then they browse your attachment to see what sort of proof of performance you have to offer. Then they skim a few more paragraphs of the letter. Then they read the P.S. Finally they return to the reply form and fill it in.

If you were to require this kind of hyperactive reading behavior with an e-mail message, your audience would wind up scrolling themselves silly. So you need to reformat your message to cater to your reader's natural inclinations.

Since many readers will want to cut to your reply form after they've read your first paragraph or two, put a link to your reply form here. For readers who are more patient, also put a link to your reply form near the end of your letter. Finally, for die hard letter readers, include a link in your P.S.

And where should your link go? To a landing page or mini-Website that is totally focused on supporting the premise of your promotion letter and on getting readers to qualify themselves and provide the necessary contact information.

Be sure the landing page repeats any important information that folks will have missed by clicking through to it after the first paragraph or so of your letter. Because it's not likely they will want to go to the trouble of toggling back and forth between your landing page and your letter.

Organize the supporting information on your landing page so it surrounds your reply form. That way if someone is immediately inspired to respond they don't have to wade through it. If you decide to layer the supporting information on separate pages in a drill down way, then try and use pop up windows so your reply form is always visible.

As for your reply form, don't request any information you don't really need to qualify and contact your prospect. And, if you request their e-mail address, be sure and indicate that you will hold it in confidence and not share it with any 3rd party.

Whatever you do, don't dump prospects on your general Website homepage. If you do, you run the risk that they will go off on an extended surfing expedition and erroneously conclude that you can be of no help to them. In fact, it is generally better not to provide a link to your homepage from your landing page. Better to summarize the general Website information that supports your offer within the confines of a closed landing page loop.

Some Additional Thoughts

Your e-mail letter should come from a real person (preferably your president) and should be written in a one-to-one way. Be sure and include a signature section at the end of the letter including the writer's name and title. Also be sure and include full contact information (address, phone, e-mail address). In a virtual and uncertain world, this will help make your firm seem more substantial and legit.

Format your e-mail letter in ordinary text. Don't use HTML (coding that makes an e-mail look like a Web page). This takes away from the impression of a personal, one-to-one correspondence. (However, you may want to consider rich media communications on other occasions).

Questions You May Have

Q: Does e-mail marketing mean I can dispense with traditional direct mail?

A: Probably not - because of a practice known as "Permission Marketing" also known as "Opt In."

While list owners will cheerfully sell the mailing addresses of their entire file without asking for permission, reputable firms will not sell e-mail identities without each person's express permission. This convention stems from the efforts of Internet pioneers to limit rampant commercialization and to protect people's privacy. There's also a pragmatic reason. With inboxes increasingly crammed with unwelcome solicitations, few individuals would be willing to disclose their e-mail identity unless they are assured there will be limitations concerning how it will be shared.

As a result, many list owners have yet to make e-mail addresses available. And, where they have, permission requirements have reduced the number of e-mail identities available to a small fraction of the overall file.

What this means is that if you want to reach all of your prospects, you will need to use direct mail to supplement your e-mail promotion efforts. Also, you may not find e-mail "opt-in" prospects to be of the same quality as traditional direct mail prospects.

Q: Will e-mail marketing be a financial windfall for me?

A: E-mail promotion costs nothing for envelopes, stationary, printing, and postage. So, even though external e-mail lists are typically 3x more expensive than direct mail lists, you're likely reaching your prospects for 1/2 to 1/3 the expense of a full blown direct mail package.

Will you be inundated by responses? Several years ago, e-mail marketers were reporting response rates 2x - 3x higher than direct mail -- a downright bonanza. However, as the novelty wears off and competition increases, e-mail response rates have come down dramatically.

In my opinion, the cost of an e-mail inquiry will eventually stabilize at about the same cost of a direct mail inquiry.

What sort of results can you expect? Try promoting your training offerings to a qualified e-mail list and see. If you are able to attract qualified prospects via e-mail at less expense per inquiry than traditional direct mail you're in business!

Q: What is the primary advantage of e-mail marketing?

A: Speed!

It can take 2-3 weeks to produce a direct mail campaign. Plus another 4-6 weeks for all of the responses to trickle in. In contrast, an e-mail campaign can be launched the week it is conceived -- with most responses on hand within 3-5 days.

This means you can get leads out to your salespeople almost immediately. And that you can promote time-sensitive offers like Webinars and showcase seminars in a more timely way. It also means that you can determine whether a promotion campaign should be rolled out or nipped in the bud while there's still time to act on this information.

Q: We have been totally unsuccessful with direct mail marketing. Will switching to e-mail marketing give us the breakthrough we need?

A: Sorry, probably not. Both delivery methods require the same planning disciplines. Check out "Not Enough Sales Leads? Try This 'Less Is More' Approach" in the back issue area of our Website (http://www.sellmoretraining.com/012600a.html)

Q: Are you saying that our e-mail promotion copy should be the equivalent of two text pages in length?

A: Not at all. Simple inquiry promotion needn't be any longer than a few paragraphs. Webinar or seminar or merchandise offers will require longer copy. The main thing to understand is that you need to insert links to give your reader the opportunity to click away to your reply form early on in your message as well as periodically throughout your message, including the PS.

Q: We've come up with 2 exciting alternatives for a subject line. Is there any way of testing which line is best?

A: Absolutely.

One way to test the click through appeal of alternative subject lines is to divide a test e-mail promotion among your subject line candidates. Whichever candidate draws the most clicks is the one to use when you roll out.

A less expensive way to test subject lines is to develop each subject line into a headline for a Google AdWords ad, purchase several key words that apply to your target audience and pit each headline against each other. Within 7 days and for a cost of less than $200 you'll have your winner. (We'll be addressing Web advertising in a future E-Visory).

Q: We're interested in brand awareness as well as inquiries. Is there any way to measure the number of people who click through to our reply landing page but don't respond?

A: Yes. Ask the firm that the list owner uses to send out your e-mail for this information in advance. As a rule of thumb, for inquiry offers you can expect 3x-4x as many people to click through to your landing page as actually wind up completing your reply form. However, this can vary widely.

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