Effective email writing tips

This week I’d thought I’d share with you 4 ways you can improve on writing emails so you can connect and engage your reader on a much deeper level to help increase your sales, your email marketing automation and email effectiveness.

But before we get into that, I’d like you to have a think about how you and other people use email for a second?

Most people use email to communicate with suppliers, friends, prospects, co-workers, and family in their own voice, personality and tone right? So with that in mind let’s get into it…

• Writing effective email tip 1

Focus on your reader

No matter what you’re writing or whom you’re writing to, you are writing to one person who has thoughts and feelings of their own. So, a great way to keep one persons attention is to make the email about him or her. Focus the email on them. Keep in mind that your reader is time poor, and even if they do know you they need to know early on that the email is about them so get to the meat early for your reader.

• Writing effective email tip 2

Show you care

Showing the reader you care about them using your passion, personality and honesty in your email tone is a proven formula to having your reader feel like you understand them. Before writing your email ask yourself Why are you writing to them? What benefit do you want them to get out of it? When you do this sincerely your reader will feel like you understand them. It shows you are there to help them.

• Writing effective email tip 3

Stay focused on the one big idea

If there is too much information and too many ideas in your email the reader will become confused and fail to understand the message you’re trying to deliver. So before writing your email (and any other copy), write what the big idea is and what the purpose of your email is. What is the one specific thought, feeling, or action you want to stimulate or inspire them to take?

• Writing effective email tip 4

Make it an easy read

Avoid writing your email copy so it goes across the entire screen and having big blocks of copy as they are harder to read. Keep the copy in your email in short chunks and use subheads to break up copy so it is an easy read for the reader.

Want  more effective email communications and increased business without the hard work, uncertainty and stress of writing them yourself?

Save Time, Money and Energy With This Email Template Library CD. Just Copy, paste and send

If your emails aren’t getting the results you want this is for you!

Consisting of some of the most successful email campaigns  I’ve ever written this email template library CD is sure to make your emailing easier, quicker and more profitable!

This fantastic library of email templates consists of:

• 2 different introductory email templates

• A 3 stage complete email campaign consisting of Stages 1, 2 & 3

• 2 different payment reminder emails and 2 thanks for your business emails!

And if these emails don’t improve your email process and conversion rates, I’ll give you your money back no questions asked and at just $5.50 an email for a total price of just $49.99 you won’t find better value anywhere else .

To order your email library template  CD today for just $49.99 email me at:  Email Library CD

Have a great day

Eddie

The Guy In Charge

Eddie’s Lead Generation Copywriting & Marketing Centre

“For Copywriting, Marketing Strategies and Marketing Collateral That Stick!”

Phone: 0412 288 339

Email: Eddie

Headquarters: Suite 1, Level 1, 18 Brendan Drive, Nerang, Qld, 4211

Eddie’s Lead Generation Copywriting & Marketing Centre

Eddie and his team have been writing lead generation copy for business websites, letters, Direct mail packages, video scripts, print ads, flyer’s, emails, sms campaigns and much more for business owners big and small all over the world since 2003. His passion for copywriting, group & private copywriting coaching, personal brand image techniques and infotainment help you reach more clients more effectively for increased return on your marketing spend without any hype, marketing jargon or advertising fluff.

Best Value Copywriting & Marketing  House Calls… Gold Coast only!

I had a lot of businesses telling me they were disappointed about missing out on Aprils V.I.P. Marketing challenge due to time constraints, so I’m hitting the roads of the Gold Coast and dishing out Copywriting & Marketing House Calls to Gold Coasts businesses!

What that means is you can have me in your office for a day to review, tweak and re-work any marketing material you have and give you some new marketing strategies to take your business and marketing to the next level!

Maybe you want to improve the conversion rate and results on an acquisition letter or follow up email you send out? Maybe you want new website home page copy, start a new marketing strategy or find out what the best way is to attract clients but you aren’t sure where to start?

Franks story – From $1,700 A Day To Almost $4,000!

“After feeling like my dream and business was coming to an end, fate stepped in and I met Eddie. This guy walked into my shop in the brightest orange suit I’ve ever seen bought a water and left. Next day he came in again so curiosity got the best of me and I asked him what he did! After that nothing was ever the same! Eddie spent a day in my business looked at my marketing and helped me develop some awesome marketing strategies. After one day he gave me some fantastic cost effective ideas and strategies that took my daily store earnings from $1,700 a day to nearly $4,000!

“Eddie’s honest and ethical. Another thing I liked about him is and although he doesn’t proclaim to know everything what he did for me has changed my business forever and the strategies he gave me didn’t cost me thousands of dollars to implement. Based on the results I’ve gotten over the last 6 months, I would have been happy to pay five times the $277 amount he charges for this service!”

Frank Bulger, Store Owner, Nerang Gold Coast

No Limits On The Day – Whatever your need, there are no limits. You can give me a sales letter to rework,a flyer, have me review and critique your website and pick my brains for 8 hours about marketing and copywriting strategies to bring you better business results! This really is a great opportunity for you to hone your marketing collateral and future marketing strategy by having me on-site in your business working on your marketing for one full day!

And the cost, a mere $311 + GST for the day which is tax deductible I suspect and should pay for itself many times over once you start using the copy and strategies I give you! Plus you also receive a free entry for your chance to win the $4,000 copywriting package I’m drawing January 2nd, 2011!

That’s why if you’re serious about your marketing dollars and your business success, do not put off your decision to contact me to take advantage of this.

Why?

Well, why keep sending out inferior marketing material and doing the same old marketing tactics hoping for different results for another six, seven, eight months when you could be making better money sooner than later – just like Frank and other clients of mine are doing?

To book your Copywriting & Marketing House Call for a day phone me on: 0412 288 339 during business hours or click here

May Marketing Results Are In!

Remember back in May when I threw out the challenge to help 10 business owners over 10 hours tweak and review their marketing strategy and any marketing copy? Well it ended up with me seeing 31 Gold Coast business owners over 3 days across a wide sector of businesses. There were professional services, trades, start ups, retailers, inventors and even a convenience store owner!

So, and as an avid business owner, I thought you’d like to know some of the general results, outcomes and solutions these business owners had.

• Systems – 39% of business owners I had one-on-one power sessions with said they struggled with having the systems in place to market their business consistently.

• Websites – 34% said they had a fair amount of traffic hitting their website but their conversion sales or enquiry rate was very poor.

“I recently had a “power session” with Eddie. In just over an hour I came away with sales headlines, promotional ideas and a campaign plan. All in just over an hour Eddie is more than just a copywriter – he sees the big picture and can assist with business strategies on how to make your copy work best for you.”

Sarah Allan, Marketing & Business Development Manager

Active Body Therapies

Where To Spend – 11% said they understood how important marketing is, but were not sure where it was best to spend their marketing (not advertising) dollars.

• Not measuring results and sounding all the same! And last but not least, 16% said they lacked the writing skills to attract attention, create offers and separate themselves from their competitors using their USP. They also expressed that they had spent thousands on marketing and never measured the results.

“I recently had a “power session” with Eddie. In just over an hour I came away with sales headlines, promotional ideas and a campaign plan. All in just over an hour Eddie is more than just a copywriter – he sees the big picture and can assist with business strategies on how to make your copy work best for you”.

Sarah Allan, Marketing & Business Development Manager

Active Body Therapies

Solutions

• Lack of Systems – For the 39% who struggled with not having the time to create and implement a marketing system or funnel my advice was to dedicate a marketing budget no matter how big or small and work with that.

Then automate as much process as you can and outsource or delegate other duties or tasks so you as the business owner can create and set up a marketing funnel that focuses on bringing in clients from your website, print, email and whatever other marketing strategies you use for the growth of your business. Keep testing keep measuring and moving forward. Oh and if it doesn’t feel right on first impressions, don’t do it!

• Poor Website conversion rates – For the 34% who said they had a fair amount of traffic hitting their website but they weren’t converting those visitors into prospects or sales although each case is different there were a few commonalities.

1) Some of the websites looked great but were confusing and slow to load. They had lots of reverse text (white words on coloured backgrounds), which makes the copy hard to read especially on a computer screen.

2) Slow loading websites makes people click away because people are time poor and impatient so keep the flash graphics to a minimum.

3) Other websites I reviewed had headlines, sub-headers and body content that didn’t attract, connect or motivate their audience to take any form of action or add anything of value for their visitor such as free report downloads, or offer.

4) And a smaller percentage of those websites I reviewed consisted of content that was more about how the good the business was instead of answering the “what’s in it for me?” as a potential prospect or consumer.

• Where To Spend Their Marketing Dollars – For the 11% said they understood how important marketing is, but were not sure where it was best to spend their marketing (not advertising) dollars so here’s what I shared with them generally as each business had different markets, different strategies and different budgets.

1) Find one basic strategy that works the best, then do it consistently.

2) Places ads (or banner ads) in publications and websites where your target audience reads, not where you think they read.

3) Keep all communications in language and tone that speaks to your specific target audience.

4) Focus your marketing efforts on your backend or existing clients. They know you, trust you, will refer you and can be a goldmine of new and repeat business.

5) Before spending a cent, ask the magazine, website or wherever your thinking of placing a print or online ad, what is the distribution and criteria of the people who read and receive the magazine, newspaper or online marketing you may be thinking of using?

6) Determine what the outcome is for your ad online or offline? Is it a brand image ad with Britney Spears scantily dressed holding a Pepsi can to drive the brand, or do you want people to phone, contact or buy from you and beat a path to your door or website?

Best wishes

Eddie

The Guy In Charge

Eddie’s Copywriting & Marketing Centre

“For Copywriting, Marketing Strategies and Marketing Collateral That Stick!”

Is Your Marketing Missing This Crucial Element?

There are many elements that make up great copy and marketing whether it’s online, radio, TV or print. However most marketing communication lacks this one and without it, chances are, it looks great, sounds great but you’re wasting your money.

Why? Because they lack a ‘call to action’

Okay so what is a ‘call to action?’

A call to action is copy, an image or verbal message that directs and motivates your audience to take a form of action you want them to take then and there.

So as countless clients always say to me I love the call to action you wrote Eddie and copywriting cadets ask me how to write stronger calls to actions for their own businesses, here’s a few calls to actions you can test for yourself on sales letters, print ads, radio ads and your website to help increase your conversion rates.

1)   For a free demonstration or test drive click here or phone us on: <88 8888 8888> or click here

2)   To experience the differences phone: <88 8888 8888> or click here

3)   To receive a FREE gift valued at <$88.88> visit <your website> (This is a classic lead generation strategy to drive people to your website and capture email addresses)

4)   For a FREE <widget> valued at <$888.88> phone or <click here>

5)   Order before <date> and receive a <widget> as our gift to you

6)   Act Now as stocks are limited for the special price of <$88.88>

7)   Remind them! Remember this <product/services> comes with a full <30,60,90 or 12 month> money back guarantee or

Remember this is tax-deductible service so order yours today.

A few other quick tips to consider

8)   Use words and phrases in your call to actions to motivate instant action such as: FREE, Register, Call, Buy, Subscribe, Donate, Join Now, Hurry, Limited offer, Order now, Don’t Delay, Don’t miss out

9)   Have a call to action on each page of your website/catalogue or magazine – make it easy for people to order and feel free to mix up your calls to action on each page. If you have more than one call to action, try mix them up a little, they don’t have to be all the same wording.

The take-away lesson here?

Go have a look at your sales letter, website or whatever right now and if it says the standard for more information please contact us at <88 8888 8888> which is about as motivating or exciting as watching mud dry, change it today!

Keep this in mind… Your call to action must Excite and motivate your audience to take the desired action you want them to take today!

Hope this helps, love to hear your own thoughts, experiences and feedback on this and have a great day.

Eddie

The Guy In Charge

Eddie’s Copywriting & Marketing Centre

For Copywriting, Marketing Strategies and Marketing Collateral That Stick

click here or phone: 0412 288 339 today!

Yesterday I was out surfing with a mate of mine who also owns a business who said to me “I’m sick of hearing about how I have to make more phone calls and keep spending money on advertising to stay competitive or to keep bringing new or repeat business in because none of its working for me?”

So, here’s a few strategies I shared with him that I use myself and that you should at least try out for yourself as well.

1) Your Mobiles a Goldmine – Go through your mobile phone ‘received’ call log and follow up everyone who contacted you in the last 3 or 6 months that you never heard from again.

2) Re-use a proven offer – Re-use a previous offer you had that worked really well

3) Use FREE – The old processes and mindset of selling people at the first point of contact are dead and buried! These days the consumers in charge, so use a FREEBIE to attract, qualify and convert leads into business. Remember, people love to try and buy, but hate to be sold.

Any questions you have feel free to contact me or leave a comment

Eddie

The Guy In Charge

Eddie’s Copywriting & Marketing Centre

“Your service partner for copywriting and marketing that stick!”

My next challenge, to help 10 business owners improve their marketing strategy or lead generation marketing collateral in one day! – On Thursday May 6th from 7:00am – 10:00pm, something really specials going to happen. I’m giving 10 business owners the chance to get a breathe of fresh air and new perspective into their marketing strategy and collateral by practically giving away 10  marketing strategy sessions!

We’ll discuss what you are doing now, map out a strategy about where you are now, where you want to go and how you can reach reach the clients you really want and much more.

Either way, as long as you take the notes or record the session, you’ll walk out of my office with a roughed out bullet point plan so you can move forward and achieve better marketing results, clearer direction and focus in business and marketing!

Plus every marketing strategy session holder gets a FREE BONUS of taking one of two e-books home with them as well which is valued at $39.95 as well and free entry for their chance to win $2,000 of copywriting & marketing from me in July.

Now these 75 minute sessions aren’t for the faint-hearted or for someone looking for magic bullet suggestions. And although I’m not a business coach, I do have 14 years direct response copywriting and 24 years of varied marketing hands on experiences under my belt. I also operate two businesses of my own and both have started from the ground up, so I have heaps of innovative and proven marketing and copywriting experiences to share and help you with, if you let me.

Okay, these are the terms if you want one of the 10 marketing strategy sessions with me for just $79.95  on Thursday May 6th 7:00am – 10:00pm

1. One session only per business –   you can bring more than one person from your business if you want

2. You take all the notes of our session, I’m happy for you to bring a tape recorder if you want.

3. Free E-BOOK Bonus – Every attendee gets a choice of grabbing a free copy of my “How to Promote Yourself For Low Cost” E-book valued at $39.95 or you can have a copy of my “24 DIY Copywriting Tips For Lead Generation And Sales On Websites” e-book valued at $39.95, your choice. That’s sent to you in PDF format after the session.

4. FREE entry for a chance to win my $2,000 copywriting and marketing package in July

5. Know your stuff. If I ask you what happens after someone downloads a free report or something off your website and you don’t know, you need to know. I can’t help you create new and repeat business if you don’t give me the full picture, so know your stuff and your processes!

6. Come prepared. Bring anything and everything! Any flyers, sales letters, emails you’ve written or whatever you use to acquire new clients or keep existing clients buying I want to see the main marketing pieces you use so we can discuss how we can improve them!

7. Each session is private and confidential and kept to 75 minutes exactly

8. Cancellation – If you book a session and you cancel or don’t show, you owe me $177 + GST for the inconvenience and for locking someone else out of getting a session with me

9. First in, first served. When you book your session give me your preferred time for our 75 minute session on Thursday May 6th between the hours of 7:00am – 10:0pm. I’ll confirm that time with you, but once the 10 spots are gone, they’re gone forever

10. Payment of $79.95 needs to be paid in advance

11. You come to my office at Nerang, Gold Coast Qld for the session.

So if you’re in a rut, are unclear or confused about how and who you could be marketing your business to or need a breathe of fresh air and new perspective into your marketing strategy, book your 75 minute exclusive marketing strategy session with me for Thursday May 6th for just $79.95 right now.

To book, just click here and complete the form or phone me on: 0412 288 339 during business hours

Thanks and until next time, be safe

Eddie

Seven ‘Must Have’ Strategies  And Systems For  Consistent Marketing Returns, enjoy Eddie

Hi. Friends and clients often ask me as a copywriter, marketing strategist and business owner, what do I consider the most important elements or steps are to keep your marketing machine turning over?  So here are just some of the strategies and systems I use and think work the best.

1) Devote at least two hours per day on lead generation

2) Have a system that can grow and bring in new clients without you falling into a lot of the high priced empty promises out there

3) Focusing on creating life long clients instead of finding them, flogging them and forgetting them

4) Being able to create and offer educational or informational products such as CD’s Video’s, e-books gives you another arm and even income in business

5) Focus  your efforts on capturing website visitors details, building relationships and rapport, then converting people into clients

6) Have auto-responder emails that engages people, create rapport, build trust and that save you time

7) Don’t rely on one marketing stream or channel

Marketing Brainstorming Sessions And A Chance To Win A $2,000 Copywriting & Marketing Package

Replace that old dead in the water lead generation, referral or  introduction letter with a new and exciting lead generation letter in April, and you’ll receive a BONUS 90 Minute Marketing strategy session and a FREE ENTRY for your chance to win a *$2,000 copywriting and marketing package.

Instead of this package costing $1,637 like it normally would, you’ll get your new letter and a 90 minute marketing strategy session with me for just $1,211 payable in two easy payments over two months as well.

So for a fantastic new brand awareness, charm or lead generation letter to generate new or repeat sales , a free 90 Minute Marketing brainstorming session and a BONUS FREE CHANCE to win a *$2,000 copywriting and marketing package, on me, contact me today. Have a great day, best wishes, Eddie!

Stuff about the draw – *$2,000 copywriting and marketing package draw starts April 1st, 2010, closes June 30th, 2010. Winner notified by phone or email and winner will win $2,000 in copywriting and marketing services for their business. You must have a letter or other copywriting project written by us and paid for to receive free bonus entry into draw.

Thanks and until next time be safe

Eddie

Your Friend in Lead Generation

The Benefits For Businesses Using A Professional Sales Copywriter…

For Copywriting & Marketing phone: 0412 288 339 or click here

1. Hiring An Outside Copywriter Means Quicker Turnaround For Your Business.

Why? Because you won’t have to assign the copywriting duty to a staff member who already has his or her other tasks to perform. It frees up time because it eliminates the strain on staff and business resources.

2. Level Of Experience – Using a staff member to write your copy means that staff member probably won’t have the same level of copywriting experience, focus or views an outside copywriter will have.

3. Experienced Objectivity – An experienced copywriter will be able to offer you truthful objectivity from a consumer point of view that many businesses fail to recognise. Marketing is not about you, it’s about getting your audience’s attention and getting them to take the desired action you want them to take.

4. Honesty Zero politics – Hiring an outside copywriter means there are no office politics. It creates an open and honest forum where criticism is easier to give than if it were a staff member trying to do their best with what they have and limited skills.

5. Helps Speed Up The Graphic Design Process – A large majority of copywriters also have design experience. That’s not to say they are graphic designers, but they do have a picture in their mind and some will supply a black & white mapped-out layout of how the finished design or project could look for your review.

6. We’re All Equal, However, You Don’t Go To A Lawyer For Heart Surgery. – All of us can write, however, writing headlines that attract people’s attention, copy that engages the reader and tells people what to do with a call to action are a different set of skills than writing an email. After all, you don’t go to a GP for heart surgery, so why not entrust your marketing copy with someone who writes sales copy every day to achieve a better result service, sales content and overall outcome.

7. Get What You Want – There are copywriters who specialise in specific fields such as the Health industry and those who are generalists. There is also confusion about what a copywriter is. For example: A journalist is not a copywriter. They are a writer that’s reporting or giving an opinion based on facts they have received.

8. Avoid Magic Bullets – Avoid any copywriter that says money is going to fall from the sky and that they can solve all your problems. Copywriters cannot control the world’s economy, people’s buying habits, watch over your marketing processes or guarantee results, as there are variables in life and business no- one can control.

To your business and lead generation copywriting success

Eddie

The Guy In Charge

creativecopywriting.com.au

Hi!

Had an interesting meeting last week with a new client last week and even though his business is quite successful, it seemed he was like a lot of business owners out there confused about the differences between marketing and advertising. Now I’m sure everyone has their own definition, which is fine, however this is basically how I understand the difference between marketing and advertising based on my own copywriting and marketing experiences that I hope will help clarify it for you, if you are confused about it.

The difference between marketing and advertising

Advertising –  are the messages and advertising channels you use to acquire new or repeat business, build your business and your brand. An an example let’s say I do a radio ad that’s advertising. A newspaper ad is advertising. Advertising is all about what channel or channels are you going to use to get your business name out there so people are aware of your business and what your business offers?

Marketing – Is the combined strategies of research, preparation and planning leading up to your campaign, the execution of your campaign and what’s required after your advertising has finished. You know, where are we placing the ad, who is going to see it, what do we want to achieve with this campaign, are we going to drive them to our website, how is the product or service fulfilled and so on? Marketing is basically everything you have to do ensure a smooth transaction between you and your customers.

Hope this help clarify the differences for you, have a great day and I’d love to hear your feedback

or summary on what you think the differences are below.

Until next time, best wishes, your friend and service partner in lead generation

Eddie

More about Eddie here

Generating qualified leads for your business using bait piece reports

January 5th, 2010

As more and more businesses focus on lead generation marketing over traditional Brand or image marketing a great way to generate qualified leads for your business is to have a bait piece free report. But before we get into what they are and how you can use them, let me explain for those who don’t know, what a bait piece report is.

A bait piece report is a free report you offer to people that contains information or tips that’s of use to your target audience. You can use them to capture qualified leads, as a call to action on your website, on a print ad and even in your generic company brochure. Remember direct everything in print back to your website.

Some of the advantages of offering a free bait piece report are

• You help position yourself as the ‘go to’ people in your industry or profession and build credibility

• By offering free tips or information in your free report you start building the relationship and trust between you and your prospect

• A large percentage of people who download your free report will be qualified prospects. Why? Well the majority of people won’t download your free report if the tips or information is not of interest to them will they? They’ll download it because it is of use or of interest to them.

• This also means a percentage of the people who download your free report will become clients. Yes your competitors may also download it, but based on my experiences in marketing and writing sales copy that percentage is very small and besides you don’t want to follow the herd in your industry, you want to lead the herd.

Okay so here’s a few quick examples of businesses who can use bait piece free reports to capture qualified leads?

• Motor Mechanics – 11 Things You Should Know Before You Choose A Motor Mechanic!

• Copywriters – The Difference Between Writing Web Copy And Print Copy.

• Telecommunications – How To Get A Phone System That Works And Grows With Your Business.

• Real Estate – 9 Guaranteed Tips To Help You The Price You Want When Selling Your Home

• Home Insulation – 12 Tips To Saving Up To $400 a Year On Electricity & Heating

• Graphic design - 17 Things To Consider Before Creating Your Business Logo

• Mortage & Finance – How To Slash $14,000 Off Your Mortage in The 12 Months Guaranteed!

And the list goes on. As you can tell, you can use a free bait piece report to capture qualified leads for nearly any business.

A few of the do’s and don’t’s when writing and offering your free bait piece report!

• Don’t make your free report 40 pages long unless you have to. The idea is to give people some free information to educate them slightly. People are time poor and will sort of feel of cheated if they download your free report and you give them 40 pages to read or print. General rule of thumb that I like to stick to when I write them for clients is keep your free report between 1 – 4  pages long.

• What to put in it? I generally stick with the report name, the business contact details and disclaimer on the cover sheet, a small introduction on next page, then small chunks of copy using a series of bullet points and sub heads to capture the scan readers eye. Then I’ll include a subtle call to action at the end of the report.

• Don’t sell, educate. Give them information or tips that are of value and use bullet points for the scan readers

• Keep it simple - Write your report in the language and words that your target audience uses and understands. If you’re a software development company and your audience is software programmers, talk in their language. If you’re a motor mechanic, keep it in wording your customers and prospects understand

• Do – make sure your website can capture the name, email, phone and address of the people who download your report

• Do – supply your free report in PDF format with automatic download so the second they complete their details, they receive their report

• Do - make sure you have all your contact details with your website address are on each page of your report, so they have your details in front of them at all times

• Do – make sure the content and tips or information you use is yours

• Do – use auto-responder emails saying thanks for downloading my free report

• Don’t - forget about the people who’ve downloaded your free report. They downloaded your report for a reason so keep them in your marketing funnel with your e-zine newsletters and other marketing strategies to keep your business in their mind and to keep building the relationship. They may not be ready to buy now, but by building on the relationship with marketing you grow your database, the trust and the relationship

So there you have it, just a few a the proven ways you can use bait piece free reports to capture qualified leads, gain more exposure and differentiate yourself from your competition if you want to in 2010.

Join The Discussion!

What’d you think? I’d love to hear your feedback so feel free to ask me a question, advice on a marketing challenge you may have or share your feedback. Have a great day, your friend in lead generation copywriting, Eddie!

More about Eddie here