You did know that you can achieve a $38 return for every $1 spent on email marketing, right? It’s a startling statistic when you see it in black and white, and it’s proof that email marketing is very much alive and well. With the meteoric rise of social media in the last 15 years, you’d be forgiven for thinking that email marketing has had its day, but the numbers simply don’t lie.
If you want to up your game and connect with an even greater share of your target market, you’re going to need to get inside their heads. It’s all about figuring out how they think, and what makes them tick so that you can reshape the offering so that it’s irresistible. To give you plenty of food for thought, we’ve put together a whole list of psychology tricks that you need to know about. Then all you need to do is use your new suite of Stripo tools, and you’ll be up and running in no time.
Make every word matter, and get rid of the waffle
Words matter, so use them the right way. If you want people to take notice of what you’re telling them, you need to create impactful writing. There’s no use talking about something for 2000 words when 50 would do the job.
People will soon get bored and click off somewhere else, and they’ll associate your brand with boring waffle. That’s certainly not the kind of image that you’re trying to portray.
Keep it simple, and cut to the chase so that every word adds something of value. In a few words, EmailonAcid explained what’s the use and the value of the guide.
Keep your language simple, and your offer crystal clear
You want to get into the minds of your customers, so speak their language. If you’re in the technical services industry, for example, the chances are that internally you have your own subject-specific language that you use to communicate with one another. It’s a really useful shorthand for you and your team, but your customers don’t really care about it. Not only that, but most of them won’t even understand it.
Kristin Lott, content editor for CV Writing service shares: “If you want your customers to switch off and go somewhere else, use as much technical language and jargon as you can. If you want them to engage, keep it simple and make your offer clear. Just because your final copy doesn’t read like an internal report doesn’t mean it`s vague and unclear. It means it’s speaking the language of your customers, rather than your employees.”
Unless these are the commonly used terms that each and every recipient from the segment will understand.
For instance, track spikes, the kind of shoes that are meant for athletes only (or cleats, that are meant for soccer players), do not need to be explained in simple words, as no one but the very athletes/soccer players will ever use them.
Make a statement or pose a question that challenges the reader
Challenging the reader is a great way to get them onboard.
The example below is worded in an empowering way. It’s pretty aspirational because it talks about things people want to achieve. Make them feel that with your help, they can achieve the change they want to see in the world.
If you know the answers to the questions that people’s minds are concerned with, ask them in emails. But be prepared to answer them right away or promise to do that at a conference/webinar.
Personalization always works best
By addressing by names, making personalized offers you tell a recipient this email was crafted for him or her personally. Hence, the email contains only relevant for the certain recipient information.
Empower the reader to change things
If you can empower people to improve things and give them the confidence to try, they’ll associate your brand and the core offering with positive emotions.
You describe a problem — you give a solution.
Use an aspirational style of writing that will make the reader empowered to take action. And work on the email design to make it conforming — no superfluous distracting elements.
This is a good email for B2B. In other words, B2B offers need to be rational, they need to improve or facilitate our lives.
Evoke emotions
As for B2C, 95% of all purchases are made subconsciously. Hence, we need to evoke emotions to persuade recipients to commit a purchase.
Emotional email banners evoke the desire to possess the product we offer (read: buy from us).
For instance, we can appeal to recipients’ vanity.
Spotted some products of yours on famous people — hurry to boast about it in your emails :).
Many fans or fashion girls would love to look like their favorite stars.
Teaser emails also appeal to our emotions — they build anticipation, which makes our next email awaited and desired. Btw, it improves our CTR :)
Focus on the benefits, not the features
The features of your products and services are great, but they’re not the primary reason people are buying from you. Whilst you spend all day immersed in detail, other people do not. They have their own myriad list of demands to get through during the working day, and they just want tools that allow them to get stuff done. This is why you need to talk about the benefits and leave the features in the background. Ask yourself these 3 questions to make sure you’re headed in the right direction:
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why did we make this product in the first place?
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what problem does it solve for the reader?
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are we focusing on how it will improve their lives?
Visual aids are a great way to do this, so why not add a few into your emails? You can even use Stripo email template builder to create custom banners with the click of a button. Just what you need when you want your latest campaign to really stand out from the crowd by focusing on those all-important benefits.
Start with a statistic that will make the reader sit up and take notice
Scroll back up to the start of this article, and tell us what you see.
In the very first line, there’s a startling statistic as we put it, that tells you exactly why need to read the rest of the wise words that follow. It’s surprising, memorable, and clearly referenced. These are the 3 things that you need to accomplish if you want to add a credible and impactful opening gambit to your email campaign.
Without them, your emails will simply come across like the dozens of spam messages we all receive on a daily basis.
Evoke the fear of losing out
Nobody likes to think they’ve missed out on a great deal. It’s uncomfortable to think that what you’re reading about may be gone if you spend too long making up your mind. So why not add a little bit of impetus to the decision-making process by creating the fear of missing out?
Simple techniques such as mentioning it’s available for a limited time only or is selling out due to high demand have been used for years. The reason? They work — countdown timers, for instance, improve revenue by 9%.
Sometimes all you need to do is keep the wording simple when you have the science of sales and marketing psychology on your side.
Play to the reader’s competitive instincts
If you can persuade the reader that you’re offering them something that will leave their competition in the shade, then you’re really onto something. The great thing about this is that you can subtly establish trust by getting them to focus more on how they can beat their competition, than on what you’re charging to make it happen. You’ve stirred their inner winner, and when people want to win, they’ll gladly hand over their money if they think they’ve found a way to gain an edge.
Apple in its emails successfully appeals to our competitive instincts.
Sell to the reader, not just the company they work for
When you’re writing a B2B email, you need to remember that you’re not necessarily going to be starting out with a direct line to the CEO. They’re probably busy with all sorts of other bits and pieces, which means your email will be read by someone else lower down the chain. They won’t make the final decision, but they will decide whether to pass your offering up the chain.
If you want to sell your services, you need to direct your email to the reader, not to the company they work for. Make them feel like they have your undivided attention and they’re important, and they’ll be far more likely to engage with you. It’s a simple psychology trick, but it makes a big difference.
Segment your mailing list, and speak their language
Start breaking down your mailing list so that you can target particular demographics and audience sectors. Each one will then have their own style, hopes, and desires. Which means you need to find the words to properly tap into it. If you can do it, you’ll be able to reap even more benefits as you establish stronger connections with the very people you want to do business with.
Split-run testing helps you home in what people want to hear
If you want to find out what people want to hear, you need to split-run test. It will take time, but after a dozen or so iterations you’ll be amazed at how streamlined and on-point your message has become.
James Daily, Head of the Content Department at FlashEssay emphasizes: “I can’t stress enough how important it is to learn from what your customers are telling you. It applies to every area of business, and that means it includes email campaigns.”
Create a subject line that makes the reader feel special
Last but not least, don’t forget about the subject line. It’s the opening gambit that will get your email noticed amongst a sea of other messages, so it really does pay to get it right. Be impactful, empowering, and intriguing. That way you’ll be able to increase your click-through rate and connect with as many people as possible.
Feel free to personalize your subject lines, to add emojis to it, to specify the amount of the discount that you are going to offer in emails. If this is a reminder email, say that in the subject line, as well.
Final thoughts
Here you have it — a set of proven psychology tips to make your email marketing more effective. Implements these tricks in email templates that you build with Stripo and you’ll see the rise in open rates and conversions.
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