Writing email copy

WRITING EMAIL COPY
Suzanne Kart, M.A., CeP
Associate Vice President, LERN
@suzannekart #lern13

Why email?
• It’s effective
• It’s measurable
• It’s cheap
• It’s targetable

eMail does not replace
your print catalog!
• Your catalog is still the most important
weapon in your arsenal.
• 75% of registrations still originate with the
print catalog.

It’s not just our field…
• A recent USPS study looked at the shopping
habits of nearly 5,000 visitors after they left 135
retail Web sites, including traditional retailers and
manufacturers.
• What they found was:
– 57% of online shoppers said that even though they
buy online, they still like to have a catalog on hand
– 61% of online retail shoppers reported that when they
have a catalog while shopping online, they may see
additional items they would like to buy
– 84% of catalog recipients feel it’s easier to shop online
with a catalog in hand.
https://www.usps.com/business/pdf/comScore_Retail_WP.pdf

Better yet
• The study also found:
– Catalog recipients purchased 28% more items and
spent 28% more money than their non-catalog
counterparts
– Sending catalogs more than doubled online sales
– Websites supported by print catalogs saw a
revenue lift of 163% over those that were not
supported by print catalogs

But eMails are still VERY effective

Email promotions that work
• Notices of new courses and events (1 email,
several activities)
• Email newsletters
• Single event promotions

Two kinds of email
• Text emails
– Like the kind you send
from your computer. All
text, no graphics,
nothing fancy.
• HTML emails
– Involve graphic design.
– Can have color and
graphics
– Can be developed in-
house or done by an
outside vendor (LERN
recommends this).

Text emails
• Good for small lists – up to 200 names
• Get better results when they are coming from
an actual person
• Cannot track open rates, click through rates
• Lack visual impression.

But you can make an HTML email feel
like a text email
• Doesn’t feel like
you’re being
“sold” to.
• LERN sees higher
open rates (5%
higher) & higher
click through rates
(7% higher) with
this type of email.

HTML emails
• Better visual impression: graphic design, color
pictures
• Can track open rates, click through rates
• Professional vendor can do the work
• Good for newsletters

Who should it come from?
• When your email comes from a person (i.e.
Jane Smith versus Springfield Continuing Ed),
it’s more likely to be opened.
• You don’t have to have the reply address be a
personal email.

Having a target list is the most
important component to success in
email promotions

A smaller, targeted list beats out a
large untargeted list every time

Who do I target?
• High-value segments
– Those who are the most recent customers
– Those who are the most frequent customers
– Those who spend the most

Case Studie – 2013 Institutes

Each institute had a two-step drip
campaign

When someone did one of these
things, they were put on a list then
they received two follow up emails.

They were pushed to one of those
pages by a mass email
• Watch for the brochure
• Early bird discount to expired
• Etc.

When someone converted, they got
two special emails

Second email – personal email

Results
• Institutes Inbound Marketing Campaign
• Registrations three weeks out
• 2012 - 60
• 2013 - 89
• At the time I pulled the numbers, 650 people were in the
lead nurturing campaign, and 85 registrations were
inputted into Hubspot.
• Of the 85 registrations, 38 had converted from the lead
nurturing campaign (45%).
• Of the 650 people in the campaign, 38 converted, making
the conversion rate 6%.
• As of 3/15/13, registrations were up by 31 people, or 56%

We had even better results with this
conference

Once you’ve decided on a list – now what?
• Some parameters for sending out
ePromotions

Some tips
Make them feel special
• Use the person’s first name, if you have it
Give an exclusive discount
• Tell the person that they are among a select
few to receive this discount
Add urgency to offer
• Give them a deadline

Never put names in to: or cc:
• Rule: If you are sending out email promotions,
never put the names in either “To” or “CC”
• This disrespects people’s privacy and
spammers will get the email addresses
• Always put names in BCC – if you are not using
a third-party vendor

Subject line
• Very important. Like the cover of your
brochure. Determines whether people read on
• Generally keep the subject line the same
• Create familiarity with your program
• Tell them in the subject line the email is about
upcoming courses

Sample subject lines
• Upcoming classes from the Workforce
Development Center
• New Dental CE courses
• Next CE class session starts soon!

How many people should be opening
your emails?
– Open rate – 20%
– Click through rate – of those who open the email,
you want 10-20% to click through
– If you’re not getting the open rate you hope for,
look at
• Your list
• Your subject line
• The relevance of the information
• Your bounce rate

Unsubscribe notice
• Rule: always have an unsubscribe notice in
every email
• Anytime you get an email address, it means
you can send the person email
• BUT anytime a person doesn’t want email, you
need to stop emailing that person

Best format for email promotions
• Four paragraphs of copy is ideal. 3-5 is good
• Space between the paragraphs of copy
• Each item needs to be separate
• Have a theme – upcoming courses, new event, etc.
• Graphic or picture with each item gets more
attention
• Every item should have a click for more information
• Use the sidebar to promote/sell extra item

Six keys to copy writing for great email
promotions

Key #1
• The first sentence/paragraph is critical
• Get right to the point, to the meat, to the core
of what the news item (course/event) is about
• No introduction
• No history
• No beating around the bush

Example first paragraph
LERN's Program Review Helps Boost Revenue,
Increase Enrollments
In the 21st Century, competition is greater than ever. If you want
to make your program the most efficient and effective it can be,
LERN’s Program Review (hyperlink) is the answer.

Key #2
• Use good action verbs
in the first sentence and
every other sentence
• Don’t have the same
verb in each sentence
• Some action verbs:
– Discover
– Create
– Develop
– Win
– Get
– Build
– Satisfy
– Experience
– Enjoy

Example
Nine Shift Strategic Planning Seminar
Come experience two days with experts who spend every day on
the cutting edge of education. Discover how society is changing
as we move from the Industrial Age to the Internet Age. Learn
about the implications for repositioning your community or
technical college for success in the new century.
Then take home our exclusive 21 action recommendations for
strategic planning for community and technical colleges, and
participate in the adventure to make our education even more
successful in the second decade of the century.

Key #3
• Use “you” language.
• Use second person. Don’t say “we.”
• Don’t say “they” (or “participants.”)
• Say “you” (You will get …)

Key #4
• Stress outcomes and results
• Talk about what will happen after they attend
your course or event
• “Take home…”
• “Come away …”
• “You’ll find out …”

Key #5
• Don’t “Over Content”
– Less is more
– Small paragraphs

Key #6
Every part of the eMail matters
• Don’t just focus on only the subject line or
call-to-action - realize every email walks
readers through a progression of steps:
– Subject line
– Headline
– First paragraph
– Body copy
– Call-to-action

Next level in email copy
• Segment your audience
• You have 7 primary market segments
• Write different email promotions specifically
for each primary market segment
• Send just one of the emails to each customer
• Start with your 2-3 biggest market segments

Finding Your Seven
Primary Market Segments
Step 1: Get registration software
Step 2: Run out your best 200 participants
Step 3: Survey your best participants
Step 4: Analyze your demographics
Step 5: Get data for all participants
Step 6: Now you know

There are many ways to segment a market
Age
Grey – Boomers
Purple – Xers
Green – Millennials
Gender
Green – male
Purple – female
Location
Grey – uptown
Purple – downtown
Green – south end

Email newsletters
• Some programs also do email newsletters
• If you have the time, email newsletters are an
excellent way to promote your program

Email newsletter definition
• An email newsletter:
– Provides information of interest to your customers
– Comes out on a regular basis
– Is sent to past participants, inquiries, and others
who sign up for the newsletter
– Is NOT sent to those not requesting it

Keys to starting an email newsletter
• Use email addresses from your current
participants
• Have a sign up on your web site
• Think of something your best customers want
to know
• Promote our classes/events in your email
newsletter
• Come out once a month

Tips for articles in email newsletters
• Have 3 to 10 paragraphs of copy
• One to 3 sentences per paragraph
• Provide 2 articles for every 1 “ad” for your courses or
events
• Look for items of interest to your readers. Trends,
news, practical “how-to” tips are some examples of
good articles or items
• Link to your web site and registration for events
• Avoid linking to other sites, if possible

Video emails
• Video emails can be a very effective way to
engage your key constituents.
• It’s actually quite easy to do.

You don’t really imbed
the video, you take a
screen shot of the
YouTube screen
(ctrl+print screen), put
the picture in your
email, and hyperlink it
back to YouTube

Exciting new data – Personalization works
• Using our Inbound Marketing platform, we sent an email from Julia King
Tamang last month to everyone who attended the CT last year.
• We used Hubspot and the email came from kingtamang@lern.org and
we’re personalized in both the subject line (i.e. Mary, I hope you can make
it to the Contract Training Conference again this year) and the greeting
(i.e. Hi Mary,).
• We also mentioned their Institution in the body of the email. (It was great
having someone from the University of XYZ at last year’s conference).
• The numbers on this are awesome.
– 17 of the 18 people who opened the email clicked on the link. That’s a 94.4%
click-thru (we usually say 10-20% click thru is good.)
– Our open rate is 36%, which is quite a bit higher than the 20% we aim for.
– Better yet, 5 people registered this week and the brochure wasn’t even
printed yet.

Last, but not least, planning
• You need an email schedule
• Four emails before the sessions start
– 6,4,2, and 1 week out
• Don’t suspend all emails to everyone because
of a couple infrequent complaints – look at
the behavior of the recipients as a whole

Thank you!
• SuzanneKart.com
• kart@lern.org

Writing email copy

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