I think you’ll like this from Jeanniey Mullen at ClickZ:

We All Get Old Eventually

I’ve been working at my company for two and a half years. During that time, I’ve had a number of learnings that shape my future thinking. Many times these learnings aren’t new items, as much as they are reminders of things I should remember to do. Usually, after one of these learnings hits me, I walk away thinking about it for awhile. Today, I thought I would share two of these with you.

• The first happened when I was showcasing our free iPad app and gushing about how good the high def images of professionally designed magazine pages looked on it. I was showing one of my favorite magazines on the iPad, Us Weekly, and I looked down and saw a beautiful photo of Cameron Diaz and…her crow’s feet. “Yes!” I thought, celebrities my age do actually look like they’re aging. I was so happy that, for one second, an iconic beauty was caught on camera looking like a real human.
• This lead to my second realization. Oddly, it too is about aging. It was the day I realized that, “Yes Virginia, your e-mail offers will get fatigued” no matter how well you treat them. After watching one of the best performing campaigns start to show signs of lower and lower results, even though it was being sent to a new batch of readers.

Who knew? I mean, no one believes that as things age they aren’t working quite as well as they did when they were younger. There’s nothing you can do to stop it, but knowing about it enables you to be ready with a backup plan.

E-mail offer fatigue is a real occurrence. It happens, no matter how well you take care of your lists or how strong your brand is. I’m not speaking about list fatigue, I’m speaking about offer fatigue. The times where your welcome e-mail, your confirmation e-mail, or even your on boarding e-mails just start underperforming. In some cases, you need a creative lift. In others, you need a revision of your offer. And in some cases still, you need to redefine the strategy.

How do you avoid e-mail offer fatigue? Here are three ways:

• Refresh your creative on your “notification e-mails” (e.g., your welcome and confirmation series) quarterly. Even though it’s a new audience, trends for reading e-mail are changing fast as new devices come out, and you’ll be surprised at the minor enhancements this will make.
• Pull your website’s top 10 search terms, and search.twitter.com’s last day of entries about your brand and update all of your e-mail copy with phrases real people (not your marketing team) use to discuss your brand and offers. This can drive up to a 10 percent increase in results.
• Test a “holiday” e-mail to people who have been on your list for over a year. By “holiday,” I mean anniversary, birthday, or “thanks for your last purchase” e-mail. Sometimes people call this an unanticipated delight e-mail. This will spice things up.

These three ways can often wake up a consumer who has become tired or bored of the same e-mails from you. Or, it can help drive improved results from a loyal shopper.

In any event, this will help the bottom line, especially as we head into the holiday retail season. After all, you’re only as old as you feel, and I’m not about to let my e-mails feel old and slow. Are you?

Here’s another list from my friends at Vertical Response:

blog.verticalresponse.com

These are from retailers so you can edit to match your business.

Remember: the subject line’s job is to gt them to open your email BUT it must be congruent with your message and your market.

Offer, Offer, Offer – Lead with the Offer

Enjoy [Special Offer] at Our New Location

25-40% off – Email-Only Offer – Today Only

Invitation-Only 2 Hour Event Starts 11:30 AM CT

Ends Today! 20% Off Friends & Family

Top 10 under $10

Free shipping – offer ends in 3 days

Free product with purchase of [product name]

[New Product] has arrived. Order now before we run out.

Earn double points for [insert product or action].

Last Chance: Get up to $25 now

Save 10% on your next order

Enjoy [season] with rates from $65

Service Notice: Exciting new changes at [your company]

An Exclusive Offer for You

[Your company] October Specials

Last minute deals, special offers, and new [product name]

Act Now to renew your [subscription name]

Online only: 25% off friends and family

Introducing our latest…[product/feature here]

[Product name] Promotion week. Save 25%

Extended for a day! Get Free shipping through Friday

Stock up and save 15%

Limited Supply: Limit 2 [product name] per customer

Ho-ho-ho: The [your company] holiday catalog is here!

Email subscriber exclusive: [Product name] sale is here

Ends Today: Take 20% off your entire order

Private Sale Ends Today

Your choice of amazing items $50 + under

Great gifts for [Dad, Mom, etc]

Best Sellers every [girl, boy, man, woman, dog, etc.]

Everything you need when the temperatures [rise, fall]

Free Shipping–Limited Time Offer

Catchy & Creative

Sometimes all you need is a little vase lift  (retailer selling vase’s)

We’ve got you covered from head to toe (retailer selling hats, shirts, pants and boots)

How La Perla got its name (retailer selling lingerie, telling a story inside the email)

Temperatures Fall, Style Rises (retailer selling coats)

Celebrity Favorites (selling accessories that Hollywood is wearing)

Did you remember to get a gift? It’s ok, we did. (retailer wanting to get people to register for gift reminders)

10 Gift Ideas for your little ones (retailer listing top 10 suggestions for kids)

Manhattan View for a Song in the Shower (retailer selling shower curtain with Manhattan skyline on it)

Take your pick: Our 9 Favorite Dresses (retailer suggesting by popularity)

Coolest modern desk on the job…for $149 (retailer including price in the subject line)

Score Great Savings on Game-Time Gear: HDTVs, Furniture & More (retailer selling TV’s with a sports slant)

Party Like it’s 1999 Aged Cabernet Special (wine retailer)

In our store: Last minute Mother’s Day combo ready to go (retailer getting the last minute shoppers with a catch “combo to go”.)

Adorn Your Home Now & Through the Holidays (Home decor retailer)

Mind-Blowing Grenache (wine retailer)

Bring this email to a Gap store and win! (retailer trying to get store traffic)

Show us your creative adaptations of these subject lines (and what kind of response you got) – add your comment below!

Thanks – Lee

This is from a blog I read frequently: blog.verticalresponse.com/

It’s a post they did last fall and has a lot of good ideas. Why not try one or two new ones and see how your list grows?

“ There are a ton of ways to get people to sign up for your email marketing offers. I’ve put together a list for you to read, so you know all of the ways you can be growing your list.

1. Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
2. Trade-shows - Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to trade-shows and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up.
3. Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
4. Send an opt-in email to your address book asking them to join your list.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it’s opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
6. Host your own event – Art galleries, software companies (one here has a party every quarter and invites the neighboring businesses), retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to sign up.
7. Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up.
8. Incentivize your employees – Give them $ for collecting VALID email addresses.
9. Giving something for free like a PDF? Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
10. Referrals – Ask you customers to refer you, and in exchange you’ll give them a discount.
11. Bouncebacks – Get them back! - Send a postcard or call them asking for their updated email address.
12. Trade newsletter space with a neighboring business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
13. SEO – Make sure you optimize your site for your keywords. You need to be at the top of the natural search when people are looking for your products or services.
14. Giveaways – Send people something physical and ask for their email address as well as their postal address.
15. Do you have a postal list without emails? Send them a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
16. Include opt-in forms on every page on your site.
17. Popup windows – When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address.
18. Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
19. Include a forward-to-a-friend on every page of your site.
20. Offer a community – Use Ning as your easy-to-set-up community and have your visitors interact and sign up for your newsletter.
21. Offer “Email only” discounts and don’t use those offers anywhere but email.
22. Telemarketing – If you’ve got people on the phone, don’t hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
23. Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product – then announce it to your newsletter. Add everyone who put their card in on to your newsletter list.
24. Include an opt-in form inside your emails for those people who get your email forwarded to them.
25. Tradeshows – Collect business cards and scan them into a spreadsheet. Make sure you ask permission to send email to them, then mark the card.
26. Use Facebook – Host your own group and invite people to it, then post new links often. From time to time, post a link to sign up for your newsletter.
27. Use Facebook – Post the hosted link from your newsletter into Linked Items to spread the word.
28. Use Facebook - Include an opt-in form on your Facebook Fan page.
29. Use Twitter - Twitter the hosted link of your email campaign every time you launch.

If you’ve got any additional ideas, let’s hear them!”

I could defiantly try a couple of these – I’d love to hear from you how you’re using any of these or something else to grow your email list – comment below!

Thanks – Lee

We’ll let this note speak for many subscribers:

I just want to drop you a note (and take my time) to tell you what I appreciate about your newsletter (email) A few points:

• They do not come too often (it’s a bi-weekly email)
• They provide solutions
• They provide inspiration
• They are concrete
• They are NO LONGER than they need to be
• They are NOT SELLING But see my next line….
• They build up my confidence in you over time.

If I am ever in need of more of the knowledge you and your team possess – you will be a natural source (even though you’re if half way around the globe).

Start by taking a look at how many versions of “YOU” your email has.
Remember, we’re all looking for “What’s In It For Me” when we open an email (or any other piece of information).

But that doesn’t mean we want the writer to talk AT us. We want a reason to get involved, to make a connection.

As you create messages for your subscribers you’ve got to let them know there’s a real live person, who cares about and even shares their problems and has some insights into how to fix those problems.

Telling stories – your own or by putting a local “spin” on national or celebrity news stories – draws your reader in.

Don’t be afraid to reveal a bit about your beliefs, habits, family & friends, in addition to the inside scoop on your business. Will you offend or drive some subscribers away? Probably.

But those that stay will be a much better fit for you. Many of us believe life’s too short to mess with people who don’t “get” us so start letting your prospects and clients get to know you better.

Do you have an ideal customer? 

One you wish you had a dozen just like? Well write to them. Use their name while you’re drafting, get a picture of them and keep it near your screen. Write to them like you’d talk to them when they come into your shop or you see them at the local Starbucks.

If you don’t have one perfect customer, take time to build a composite. Give them a name, an age, sex, marital status. Dress them, know what kind of job they work at and what they like to do with their time off. Find a photo and paste it up near your computer display and write like you’d talk to them.

This isn’t some wooowooo exercise you can just blow off. If you want to write engaging emails that keep customers coming back for more of your services, you need to know who they are.

After you build up a substantial number of subscribers you will notice that many of them don’t open your messages. Once you verify that the emails are being delivered to their IN box and not the SPAM folder, you need a strategy to get that open rate up.

If you see a noticeable decline after a particular email gets delivered, open that message and see what it’s doing that may be turning your readers off.

Split test some subject lines, improve your from field and be sure you’re offering content that’s worth your reader’s time and attention.

After all that, you may want to design a recapture program to see if a targeted effort can improve your open rates.

Stephan Webster at  iMedia Connection  has published a step-by-step guide for planning and executing a recapture program. In his article, you’ll discover:

“One of the most cost-effective email marketing programs is outreach targeted to recapture the interest of disengaged subscribers. These are customers who subscribed to your email list but lost interest, and stopped opening or clicking your emails. They’re still on your list and receive email, but they’re no longer purchasing from you.”

And he revels his “Recapture program recipe” including how to:

1. Define “inactive subscribers”
2. Establish baseline statistics of their email (email service provider) and site (web analytics) behavior
   1. Click and open rates
   2. Conversion rate
   3. Revenue per mailing
3. Generate an email list of inactive customers
4. Send recapture offer email
5. Measure response
6. Feed results back, repeat

If you’ve got a substantial number of subscribers who aren’t even opening your emails any more, hop on over to: iMediaConnection and plan a recapture program PDQ!

Great!  They’ve opened your email – you’ve got about 50 seconds.

That’s all the average email gets, according to the Nielsen Norman Group’s research. In those seconds, readers determine the email’s value and decide whether to give you more time, click on the link or delete it.

Clarity is the virtue that you need now.

Don’t try to convince your subscribers – present them with a clear offer that’s easy for them to see WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).

>>Here are four ways to  structure your emails for clarity that will get your readers to take the next action.

Use Headlines/Subheads to make scanning easy.

Pull out your copy of 101 Headline Swipes and write compelling headers. Use larger fonts that have been bolded. Other points to keep in mind:

• Use a bullet points list whenever possible
• Communicate ideas in short succinct paragraphs (5 lines max)
• Bold ideas at the beginning of longer bullet points and paragraphs. Then expand on the idea with additional text and examples of how the key idea can be used.
• Hyperlinks with relevant anchor text. Anchor text is critical to SEO because it’s how real people use the web too. Readers actively look for hyperlinks to take them to more detailed information about a subject they’re interested in.

Position most relevant Information Above The Fold

Using a bulleted list of key points they can read before scrolling lets the reader know a bigger time investment will payoff.

Build Credibility

If you cite statistics, link back to the source. If you mention a company or public figure, link to their web site.

One Email, One Purpose

The most effective emails offer only one call to action:

• Redeem your coupon
  
• Buy this product
  
• Take our survey
  
• Come get this information

Email marketing, like any other business process, requires that you make a plan, gather the resources and implement. Then you go back and evaluate, make changes and re-evaluate.
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Part of your plan must be how often you send emails and with what type of content. To begin implementing your plan you’ll formulate an opt-in strategy and produce the initial content.
As you execute, remember one of marketing’s cardinal rules: “Don’t Be Boring”.
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If you haven’t opted-in to my list to get the “Email Marketing Wizardry Guide”, now would be a good time to do that (New Flash to your right). The guide gives you “5 Fun Ways To Engage People Via Email”.
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Or you can follow Seth Godin’s list of how to get people to read your blog (edited by me for email):
• Be topical… write emails that need to be read right now.
• Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
• Break news.
• Be timeless… write emails that will be readable in a year.
• Be among the first with a great email on your topic,
then encourage others to comment on the same topic.
• Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
• Announce news.
• Write short, pithy emails (sometimes).
• Encourage your readers to pass it on (forward to a friend links)
• Don’t write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids – unless that’s what your business is about.
• Write long, definitive emails (sometimes).
• Write about your kids, your pets and your spouse – as they relate to business.
• Be sycophantic. Share resources.
• Include polls, images meters and other eye candy.
• Coin a term or two.
• Do email interviews with the well-known in your market.
• Answer your email.
• Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
• Encourage your readers to subscribe.
• Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
• Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
• Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
• Highlight your best emails on other blogs.
• Point to useful but little-known resources.
• Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current readers–like gadgets and news.
• Have relevant ads (on the blog) that are even better than your content.
• Run no ads (in your emails).
• Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
• Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
• Invent a whole new kind of interaction.
• Mail on weekdays, because there are more readers.
• Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don’t bore your readers.
• Post on weekends, because there are fewer new emails.
• Don’t interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
• Dress your emails and blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting.
• Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
• Don’t promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader’s attention.
• Be patient.
• Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
• Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
• Write in English.
• Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
• Don’t be boring.
• Write stuff that people want to read and share.
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Remember too, that while the backbone of your program can be set up on an autoresponder like: [ad#Aweber Logo 88x31] timely, relevant broadcast emails will need to be part of your plan. Make someone on your team responsible for monitoring news and producing email content that’s applicable to your market.
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Next – upping the value of FREE email, for you and your readers
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As I’ve discussed before, there are 3 elements to training your contacts to respond to your messages: Content, Frequency and Value.
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You set the tone of the relationship with your sign-up procedure. .
If you’ve offered quality content relevant to their concerns, they’ve had a positive first impression and will (often) keep opening and reading your emails – as long as you remain consistent in your frequency and the value you provide.
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Email marketing operates under the same principles you’ve learned in personal and business relationships: You’ve got to give before you get. Maybe you’ve heard BNI say “Givers Gain” or as the Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
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Online, we encounter two types of marketers: the givers and the greedy. Long term success belongs to the givers but, you’ve got to know when to ask for a response. This is why many email marketing programs favor the short intro paragraph with the read more link to a blog post.
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Just be sure following the link gets the reader what you promised – great free content relevant to their interests. After they consume that, they’ll take a look around and that’s where you may “Get”.
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Next up: Frequency – be there for your subscribers without devoting your life to sending emails.
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Rules for Email Marketing Succes

Your open rate, once you’ve avoided the SPAM folder and being edited out via the FROM field, is won or lost at the SUBJECT line.

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Just like an ad’s headline, the email subject line’s job is to get the reader to take a look at the next line. With email it’s even harder because they must click on the subject line and open the email before you can hook them into reading.

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One technique novices and pros alike use is copying or swiping proven headlines from direct marketing campaigns of the past. I’ve got a free report that includes over 100 of these headlines, just enter your email and confirm the request and you’ll have a swipe file of headlines to edit and use.

[ad#101 HL request opt-in form]

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Another proven method is to refer to news events – celebrity news works particularly well in most markets.

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And giving valuable content, relevant to your readers, for permission to email them later is a winner too.

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But, every market is different and the best way to get your subscribers opening your emails is to know them and talk to them like a trusted friend. This requires testing, tracking and studying your results.

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As a side note, take a look at what your email looks like in several of the most popular email readers. See where your subject line gets cut off and what portion of your message header appears. Be sure you’re taking advantage of this space to get your subscribers opening and reading your messages.

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Next up: Training your readers to respond, or not.

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