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This one thing can increase email opens by 10%+

Posted byIan Brodie on January 27th, 2019.

There's a simple technique I use in a number of my emails that regularly gets my open rates to bump up by 10% or usually more.

You can't overuse it of course. But in the right place, it's very powerful.

The technique is to use a “demonstrative pronoun” in the subject line.

In other words, a word like “this”, “that”, “these” or “those”.

“Are you making this fatal marketing mistake?”

“Do you make these mistakes in English?”

“This one thing can increase email open rates by 10%+”

Using a demonstrative pronoun in the subject line (or the headline of an advert like the famous “Do you make these mistakes in English?”) allows you to state a benefit or problem and imply a very specific answer. But without stating what that answer is.

So it builds a lot of curiosity.

You want to know what “these mistakes in English” are and whether you're making them. You want to know what the “this one thing” is that can increase email open rates by 10%+.

You'll see similar techniques used in journalism a lot by publications that rely on clicks through to their website.

Look at the most read stories on a news portal (I use newsnow.co.uk for the sports coverage) and you'll see headlines like:

• “Shearer gushes over three Newcastle players on Twitter after stunning comeback” [which three players?]
• “It's his own fault really – Allardyce blames Everton man for Newcastle loss” [which player does he blame?]
• “This is how Man City could be punished for Financial Fair Play breaches” [how?]
• What Newcastle will promise Rafa Benitez to incentivise him to sign new contract [what will they promise him?]

In each case the headline tells you something interesting but leaves out a key piece of information. So out of curiosity, you click through to the website to find out.

It's powerful stuff, but easy to use.

You can often get to a demonstrative pronoun just by tweaking what you want to say. For example…

“How to improve sales conversions” –> “These 3 techniques will double your sales conversions”

“5 techniques for increasing leadership effectiveness” –> “Are you making these 5 critical leadership mistakes?”

Small changes, yet they have a big effect on opens, clicks and signups – wherever you use it. 

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When it feels unfair

Posted byIan Brodie on January 20th, 2019.

Ever feel that business is sometimes unfair?

I know I do.

When you see other people using what you consider to be unscrupulous practices and yet succeeding.

Or people who've succeeded because of money or connections or luck or all three.

Or a whole host of other factors that just don't seem fair.

I've done my share of wallowing in self-pity that I wasn't so lucky or that I'm too honest or that I don't have the contacts and family money they do.

But at the end of the day, jealousy doesn't get you anywhere, no matter how warranted. 

Feeling annoyed at them doesn't help me. In fact, it holds me back.

It's a natural feeling. And you kind of need to let it out rather than bottle it up.

But you need to move on.

Ask yourself what can I do to improve my situation?

I've asked myself that question many times over the years. I've always come up with something.

And it's never anything to do with “them”. Always to do with me and what I can do differently.

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Does this make you mad too?

Posted byIan Brodie on January 13th, 2019.

For the last few years, Kathy and I have been going to a few marketing conferences together.

I know, really romantic, right?

For the most recent one, we were looking through the agenda to see which sessions we should go to.

Because it was a conference for marketing people the titles were, well, a bit hypey to say the least.

“Follow the XYZ method to 5x your lead generation”

“How this one simple tweak can double your sales in 24 hours”

That kind of thing.

Drives me mad. You can never tell whether the session is going to be full of insight or just the same stuff you already know but hyped up to make it sound great.

In amongst all that Kathy said “let's go to this one”.

“It's the only one where I can tell from the description what the talk is actually about”.

Think about that for a minute.

The marketing for the session didn't need to make all sorts of wild claims in an attempt to shout louder than all the other sessions.

It just quietly told us what the topic was, what we'd learn, and what we'd get from that.

So we signed up.

I'm not saying everyone will flood into that session. Many, many people at marketing conferences are attracted by the hypey “quintuple your business overnight” type sales pitch.

But a significant number of people in all markets are just looking for clarity.

What exactly will I get from this?

When you're learning marketing it's all too easy to think that you need to do the hypey thing too.

And there are plenty of “marketing experts” who'll tell you that's what you need to do.

The problem is that they've only ever sold marketing to marketing people. They live in a bubble where that kind of hype works.

In the real world, there are huge numbers of people who are turned off by it.

My guess is a lot of your clients are just looking for clarity.

What exactly will they get from what you offer? What will it mean for them?

Your marketing should tell them straight. No need for hype.

Unless you're a marketing guru marketing to marketing people who sell marketing to marketing people of course.

In which case ignore everything I say, unsubscribe right now, and listen to the millions of marketing guru gurus out there :)

But for people who have real clients: keep it simple. Keep it clear.

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Get into the groove

Posted byIan Brodie on January 6th, 2019.

So I'm hardly Madonna, but “getting into the groove” is a crucial part of marketing.

If everything you do to try to win clients takes a monumental effort and a ton of thought then you'll get worn out pretty quickly.

Much better to have one or two “go to” marketing things you do week in, week out that make it easy for you to switch into marketing mode and get going with.

Of course, it's easy for me to say that. If you're struggling to get traction with your marketing and you spend most of your time staring at a blank screen or dreading the next event you have to go to it probably doesn't seem like “getting into the groove” is at all possible.

But it is.

The trick is to find one thing you're good at and enjoy (or at least don't dislike) and then schedule a fixed time to do that every week.

For me, it's writing my weekly email on a Saturday ready to go out on Sunday morning.

I schedule some nice quiet time. Have a think about something interesting I could say that you'd find valuable. And then tap away for a bit and it's done.

It takes a bit of effort to force yourself to do it every week until it becomes a habit. But like exercising or taking time out to read, or even learning to drive or play a sport – once you repeat it often enough it becomes much, much easier.

Once you have a successful marketing habit grooved-in you can start adding other activities, safe in the knowledge that if nothing else happens, you've still got your weekly email or blog post or social activity or whatever it is you choose to do.

It helps you be more relaxed about the rest of your marketing.

And it gives you space to get your next marketing habit in the groove. Then the next.

Pretty soon people start asking you how you're so productive with your marketing when all it took was a little habit to get going.

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Try one little thing

Posted byIan Brodie on December 30th, 2018.

Making to-do lists is supposed to motivate you to take action I think. But it often backfires for me, especially with marketing.

Marketing feels like a discretionary activity (it's only mandatory if you want to survive ;) )

So when I have a huge to-do list of marketing stuff it tends to overwhelm me and I end up doing nothing.

Maybe you have that challenge too? 

Something that almost always helps is just to do one little thing.

Doesn't have to be strategic or high impact.

The important thing isn't the result. It's the momentum.

So I might email an ex-client to ask how they're doing. Or write a quick post on Linkedin.

Just something to help me get back on track making progress.

And sometimes (more often than you'd think) those little things pay off too.

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The secret power of permission

Posted byIan Brodie on December 23rd, 2018.

I mentioned last time how important it is to ask permission before starting a regular follow-up campaign with someone. And I saw a great example of that in practice via Linkedin a couple of days ago.

I'd just connected with someone and they messaged me to say they like to send out a weekly message through Linkedin to their contacts with new ideas and insights on their field of expertise. They asked if I'd mind if they sent one to me too. 

I said no as the topic wasn't one I was that interested in.

But the important thing is that they asked, and I respected them for that.

A lot of the training you'll see on winning clients with Linkedin suggests you connect with people and then start sending them messages to “add value”. The problem is that if the person you're sending it to doesn't see it as valuable to them and they haven't asked for it, they'll see it as spam.

Usually they won't tell you to stop – people are too polite for that. They'll just get silently annoyed with you.

That's what would have happened if this person hadn't asked permission. But he did, and so now he's in my mental “good guy” pile.

And, of course, had I been interested I'd have said yes to the messages. And because I'd specifically given permission I'd have read them more intently than if he'd just started sending them.

That's the secret power of permission. It also creates a commitment.

If you ask if I want something and I say yes, it becomes a bit beholden on me to make more use of it.

If you just sent it to me, then even if I thought it was good, when the going gets tough and I'm short of time and looking for things to ditch it'll be high on my list.

In the back of my mind I'll be able to say “well, I didn't ask for it in the first place”.

But if you asked permission and I said yes, a little part of me feels as if I have to keep my end of the bargain and keep it.

Weird, but that's how it works.

It's why it can be good, every now and then, to confirm with people who haven't been reading your emails whether they want to keep getting them.

Some will say no. Most will do nothing. But the ones who say “please keep sending them” tend to really make the effort to read them in future.

Inside their heads, giving permission also commits them to read them more.

So not only is it polite to ask for permission, it's effective too.

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Could you do this?

Posted byIan Brodie on December 23rd, 2018.

I took up darts at the grand old age of 52.

It's not one of those sports that requires you to be at the peak of fitness.

But it is a lot of fun.

And the funny thing was, that within a month I was a better player than anyone I knew.

Two reasons really.

One is that most people don't play darts. It's easy to be better than people who don't play :)

And of those that do play, practically no one takes it seriously and practices properly.

I did.

Now obviously my marketing tip this week isn't that you take up darts Though it is a great game :)

What struck me from learning darts is how easy it is to become pretty good at some things rather quickly. Or at least to become better than the vast majority of people who either never try it, or never try to learn it seriously.

Sometimes marketing can seem quite daunting with a ton to learn.

But don't forget that marketing is a bit like darts. Or that old joke about escaping a bear. You just have to be that bit better than your competitors and often, that's not very hard.  

Take heart!

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Do this before following up

Posted byIan Brodie on December 16th, 2018.

I've been talking quite a bit in my Sunday emails recently about the importance of nurturing relationships with your contacts.

But there's something you MUST do first before following up with important contacts.

It's get permission.

It's something we don’t often think of for personal follow-up.

Obviously, we get permission for email marketing and other types of “mass” follow up because people sign up for it themselves.

But typically if we meet someone face to face and they seem like a great potential client, we tend to just go ahead and do it.

The same goes for connections on LinkedIn.

It's pretty standard advice these days to connect with your target clients and then follow up with messages that add value (like a link to an article), ask questions to see if they have a problem you can help with, and then maybe get on a call with them.

It all sounds great until you think about it from the perspective of the person on the receiving end.

They connect with you and exchange pleasantries. Then you send them a message with a link to an article you think they'd find useful and they think “Well, I didn't ask for it but sure, it looks interesting”.

Then you send another.

“Oh, OK then”.

Then another.

“What? Another one. I'm too busy for this”.

Then you ask to speak to them on the phone.

If they're not really interested it becomes uncomfortable for them.

And if more than a handful of people are “nurturing” them in this way they end up being bombarded with well-meaning messages. It ends up feeling more like spam than nurturing.

Here's the answer: if you're going to follow-up with people you'd like to have as clients in a structured and systematic way, ask their permission first.

It can be as simple as a PS in a message you send them after connecting or meeting face to face:

“By the way, I like to try to keep in touch with my new contacts by sending articles and other resources I think you'll find useful every now and then – would that be OK?”

Most won't turn you down. Those that do would have just got annoyed by your nurturing anyway (though they wouldn't have said – most of us are too polite).

And once they've said yes, they're more likely to pay attention to what you send.