Re: Emailing -measuring response

From: Jonathan Tascher <jont_at_learningannex.com>
Date: Wed 04 Jun 2003 09:47:19 -0500

I work for a company that offers courses, both online and live
for adults (including executives). I send out our emails daily
(about 150k). Here are the tips I can give you:

Personalize the emails. Don't make them seem like they're from a
corporation. Have them be from the same person everyday (a
director), and make them personal, IE "Hi, I'm John Smith,
programming director, and I wanted to tell you about my favorite
course that is being offered next week.." Don't make them flashy
or commercial looking. Make them seem like an email from a friend.

Include minor HTML--Bold dates, times, names of instructors,
locations, and other important information. Underline names of
books. Do not go overboard, just what should stand out. Include
HTML links twice for "Register Now" Once in the middle of the
email and once at the end. Have these links include some sort
of tracker, IE http://www.yoursite.com/index.html?myemail. This
will allow you to track how many people are clicking through your
emails and then you can modify them accordingly.

Include easilly memorable information that will allow a customer
to register once they have closed the email. For example, call
us at 1-800-MY-COMPANY and mention the coupon "EMAIL." This way
you can track the success of the email on people who don't register
immediately.

Include expiring offers (this goes hand in hand with the first tip,
personalization). For example: "This is my favorite course so I'm
willing to make a special offer for our loyal members. For the next
10 people to register, $15 dollars off. But hurry, because this
offer expires after 10 people register!" Or: "I promised this
instructor a big turn out, so I'm dropping the price.." Or "This
course is so important, I want as many people to be able to attend
as possible, so I'm dropping.." We make offers like this daily,
and they do not actually expire.

Let me know if you want to see some examples of the emails we send
out. Before I overhauled their style, we were getting a 2-3% success
rate (this is a list of our members, so interest is very high). Now,
we get between a 15 and 20% success rate. I know this very high by
industry standards, but our members are very loyal.

Hope this helps you out..

Jon Tascher
The Learning Annex
(212) 371-0280 x213
10:30 - 6:30 M - F


Visit Us Online
http://www.learningannex.com




Received on Wed Jun 04 2003 - 09:47:19 CDT