I recently asked a group of marketers this question: “When you send an email to your list, what’s your #1 goal?” The answers I received were revealing.
Some of the answers I got were…
– To get readers to open it
– To get readers to READ it
– To give some useful info
– To build rapport
– To sell a product
Those are all good answers…
But they’re also all WRONG answers.
Of course you want them to open the email, read the email, build some rapport, maybe give some useful info, but none of these are your primary objective.
So what is?
To get the CLICK.
That’s it.
Everything else is simply in support of that #1 goal, getting them to click the link you send to them.
Ideally, you want to train your list to click your links like (pardon me here) mind-numb robots.
You want them to click automatically – without thinking – because it’s what they always do when they open your emails.
You don’t need to sell the product – the sales page or video you send them to should do that for you.
You don’t need to tell them everything about the blog post you’re sending them to – the post will do that for you.
Your job is simply to get the click.
So how can you improve your click-through rate?
1. Give great information. People will like you and TRUST you if you give them great info that helps them. Clicking the link is just a natural extension of that.
2. Show them the ‘what’ but not the ‘how.’ You might give them a really useful tip on what drives super targeted traffic, but to learn how to do it they need to click the link. And yes, that link goes to a product you want them to buy. You haven’t sold the product in the email, but you have sold them on the method. The product is simply an easy shortcut to using that method to get the result.
3. Don’t always send them to sales letters; send them to fun stuff, too. Show them your blog posts, your videos and even other people’s stuff now and then. Did you see a video on YouTube that taught you something really valuable or made you laugh out loud? Try sharing it with your list. Remember, you want to get them in the habit of automatically clicking your links. And giving them rewards when they do, like useful information or a good laugh, will teach them to do just that.
4. Now and then surprise them with a free product. Your email tells them a method to list build using Facebook. Then you send them to a link that will give them 5 more list building methods. And when they click the link, they see a very short sales page offering the product for FREE. How much do you think they love you right now? And what are the odds they will click more of your links in the future, just in case there’s another free product on the other side?
Of course, your list and your niche may call for slightly different methods. But bottom line, your primary, number one goal of email marketing is ALWAYS to get the click.
Because the more trained your list is to click, the more money you will make in the long run.
