How To Create Compelling E-mail Offers That Sell Like Crazy

Almost every day we're barraged with an onslaught of promotional messages from marketers. The truth is, it's getting harder and harder to break through the noise and stand out from the crowd. That's why it pays to hone your strategy in order to make your marketing e-mail offers compelling enough to sell like crazy.

Here are 5 ways you can make your e-mail offers more compelling:

1. Use a Call to Action (CTA) as your headline. I'll admit it, I'm guilty of not using my headlines to their full potential. While I never laugh at how people get too anxious about what they call the "yeti" in their e-mail messages, it's a really good idea to use a CTA inside your title (which appears first in most mail clients) so that it's very clear what action readers should take from seeing your message. This makes your offer more compelling because it doesn't just ask for the sale, but helps readers take the action you want them to take. That's compelling!

2. Create a sense of urgency by offering a time-sensitive promotion. Today, most people are bombarded with e-mail messages from marketers that are vying for their attention in order to get them to buy their products or services. If you can create a sense of urgency with your offer, it will help persuade readers to act now rather than later.

3. Give 'em something for free . The power of giving is very strong and this applies to online marketing as well. If you can give something of value in exchange for an e-mail address, it's a win-win situation. It's especially powerful when you deliver on the freebie and surprise readers with its value (here are some ideas on freebies to consider).

4. Involve your readers by getting their feedback. In order to build a relationship with your customers, it's important to know them better and let them get to know you better. This is where getting feedback comes in handy because not only will you learn about their needs but also build trust with them.

5. Add video content that shows your product in action . There's no reason not to use video content in your e-mail messages. It's an excellent way to persuade readers to take action by showing them what your product actually does.

Remember, the main goal of a marketing e-mail is to create an offer which will compel readers into acting now so you can close the sale. While it might seem like a lot of work, it's well worth it to have a powerful campaign that will help you sell more products and services! [END ARTICLE]

And before anyone says it again - just because we have links in our email doesn't mean they're automatically affiliate links. We would never endorse anything that we wouldn't use ourselves.

Oki, and I still think you need to make them more compelling with a call to action inside the headline? Hmmm...that's a pretty interesting idea... (It's late here tonight)...

Interesting. I guess I'll be trying this the next time I write an email... ;)

In other news, a friend of mine just sent me this: How To Make Your E-Mail Offers More Compelling: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly... check it out if you haven't already. (I originally saw it at WebmasterWorld and thought it was pretty good. Then, I saw it again here and found the article funny!)

How To Make Your E-Mail Offers More Compelling: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - This post also via WebmasterWorld - October 13, 2004.

I've got some good news and some bad news for you. Let's tackle the bad news first. There's a company called wpbacklinks . They make backlinks using any domain and they claim to have 2 billion unique backlinks. No joke! And they come from real websites with real content.

So how do your e-mails get on these lists? Simple... you pay their $75/month for it. And apparently, I'm the only person I know who's ever used them before.

I've been trying to use their service for a while now but can't seem to get it working. It's either sent to my spam folder or just doesn't show up in my e-mail programs...which is annoying because I've subscribed my clients' e-mail addresses so that they appear on this list.

I've tried numerous times to get them to fix this, but they either ignore me or say it's my e-mail program's fault. I'm not an e-mail god over here, so there are only so many fixes that I can think of and have tried.

For example, some anti-spam filters block all bulk e-mails from being sent out. So in order to fix this, you need to find the header information for the list you're trying to send out to and insert a rule in your mail program that will allow the filter to see these mailings as non-bulk mailings. Instead of doing this with wpbacklinks , I did it with my own e-mail lists...although it took a bit of time and effort to figure it out.

And, now I have my own solution to this problem. So you could say that wpbacklinks has served their purpose for me. But, I'm not the only one who's had problems with them - there are numerous people who've tried and failed to get wpbacklinks to work for them.

But back to the good news... I do have a solution to this problem and a way for you to get your e-mail messages to hit the inbox and not the spam box. You just need to send out your e-mails in a special way.

To do this, you need a unique domain name for each of your lists. And you also need an IP address that's different from your own. If you're using an ISP, then this is easy if they let you use multiple IP addresses - most do nowadays, but some don't. Sometimes, even if they say it's available (and it may be technically), they may not let you use more than 1 case of the same IP address.

Conclusion? Here are some ideas:

a. Get an account with a dedicated server hosting company (like FatCow) and set up multiple domains. But this will cost you! I can't tell you how much I spent on my various domains and IPs. b. If you're not technically savvy, get someone to assist you in setting up a server at their house or your office. c. Use a virtual hosting provider like iPowerWeb, VPS4Sale or Bluehost for $20/month (it's only about $10/month with BlueHost if you have free hosting credit). d. If none of the above work...