Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 2.

There are lots of ways to harvest emails.

Maybe the one I like the most is the quiz or survey. I worked on a super-successful one for a golf company. It was one way of providing valuable information.

There are many other ways to provide information in return for a valid email. I started a birthday promotion for one client, a small restaurant in the world’s worst restaurant location. They now have 3,500 email addresses, a valuable resource. Other ways to harvest emails using information range from video tutorials to webinar access and even contests. And, of course, you must keep the emails of people who have become customers.

Many companies base their whole traffic strategy around harvesting emails. For example, they might advertise on Facebook and offer some free information.

You want high quality emails. What does that mean? You want emails from people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. That’s one reason it’s important to work with a direct copywriter throughout the entire process. This includes coming up with the information and then selling it. I’ve written thousands of opt-in pages, also known as “squeeze pages.” The copy on the squeeze page will help you get these high-quality emails.

Once you have your emails in the database, it’s time to think about your overall email strategy. I’ve seen many different approaches.

• Pedal-to-the-metal every day emails pounding away at the database, always selling something.
• More occasional emails with 5-6 instructional or educational emails for every email that sells.
• Emails that are half information and half selling.

The bigger companies segment their database based on buying patterns and other factors. There’s no right way and no wrong way to organize email strategy. You have to know your market and look at the data that comes back.

Should emails be short or long?

Again, there’s no right or wrong answer. I’ve seen emails from serious direct marketers that are just a few lines of copy. I’ve seen others that are thousands of words and essentially take the place of a sales page.

In the next installment, I’ll talk about writing subject lines that get your emails opened.