On the docket for today is a big secret to success with email marketing…
About a year or so ago I crafted an email marketing campaign for a business broker. He had a decent size email list so these emails were sent out to 2000+ people.
On the day the first emails were sent, one of this business broker’s friends called him up. She got the email from the campaign and wanted to know if the email was just sent to her personally or to a big group.
Because, even after reading the email, she couldn’t tell.
And that my friends, more than anything, told me the email marketing campaign was gonna be a big ‘ol success.
Cuz I very intentionally wrote the email hoping those receiving it would think it was written personally to them.
Why?
It has to do with something called the The Bystander Effect.
It’s a psychological principle. It basically states this…
… When someone is in distress, the more people who are around at the time… the LESS any one individual in the crowd will intervene, call the cops or help in some other way.
It’s not that they’re cold hearted people.
It’s just when we’re part of a group we believe it’s not our problem and someone else will take care of it.
There are a number of suggestions on how to overcome the Bystander Effect. One, in particular, is relevant to our email lesson.
Let’s say you’re lying on the sidewalk bleeding and dozens of people are walking by.
If you want someone to help, point directly at them, make eye contact and say “You, call 911!” or “You! I need a first aid kit”.
By singling people out, you become impossible to ignore.
And so it is with email marketing.
If it’s obvious your email has been sent to a large group, it’s easy for those receiving the email to ignore you.
However, if they think you sent the email to them personally… it’s kinda hard for them NOT to respond.
Which is exactly the response you want to the emails you send out because…
… more response = more leads = more sales.
So when you’re crafting an email marketing campaign, write your emails as if you’re writing them to one person. Even better, write them as if you’re writing them to a personal friend of yours.
Because they more that person who receives that email thinks it’s just a personal email from a friend, then the greater the success your email marketing campaigns will be.
