Most of what I wrote is emails giving tips, and usually showing the way to a product, workshop or service that will help solve the same problem in more depth.
Every once in a while I need to add a new product into the mix and my emails take on a slightly different feel – more talk of customers who have had success with the formula before it’s launched to the world at large. My launch strategy is OK, and follows some of the practices in Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula, but that’s very heavily built around a website for JV’s to promote, not so much on emails to a house list.
Up steps Bond Halbert with a formula.
(If you recognise Bond’s surname, it’s because he’s the son of Gary, arguably the greatest copywriter of all time, and it was to Bond that Gary wrote “The Boron Letters” whilst incarcerated, passing on his skills directly to Bond at a young age. He was literally weaned on great copy!).
Bond posted a brief summary of his strategy in a copywriters group I’m part of an when I asked if he’d be happy if I quoted it, he very kindly wrote it up in full with more examples, just for you.
What’s below are Bond’s words, verbatim:
I like to send three to five emails when making an offer.
The first email has a curiosity heavy subject line to get the most opens. It usually has an implied benefit as well but my main goal is to make the recipient very curious about what’s inside.
For example I once wrote “Thank god my dad went to prison” and “Email Marketing Lessons from Prison”
Next I send a benefit heavy email, like “How To Use Advertorials To Rake In $7436.20”
The third email will have a subject line with a serious sense of urgency like “Final Call for the last 2 Seats” or whatever your sense of urgency is.
The goal of the first email is to get the most opens.
The second email gets those who are only motivated by self interest to open and those who opened the first don’t feel tricked into opening the email on the same subject so fewer people unsubscribe and a few who opened the first come off the fence to buy.
The third subject line lets everyone know the email series is coming to an end and pushes some more people still sitting on the fence to act.
This strategy reduces unsubscribes, gets your offer seen by the most people on your list, and the copy inside doesn’t have to change that much.
Your best open rates will come from subject line said with a combination of curiosity, benefit, and sense of urgency.
You will also do better if your subject line has numbers in it. They can be dates, dollar amounts, dates etc. Any numbers will do because “The best email strategy of 2016” drives a lot more curiosity and promises something more specific than just “The best email strategy”
Bond mentioned to me that he has a book coming soon with more strategies like this, in just as much depth, so I’d recommend you getting onto the email list at his website ready for when it comes out.