Sneaky Email Tricks: The Biggest Wake Up Call Your Business Has Ever Received?
Evey day we get questions from readers asking how to improve email marketing campaigns. Sneaky Email Tricks is an informational product aimed at doing just that.
One of the biggest mistakes most people make when it comes to business these days is failing to take advantage of email marketing. Maybe the second biggest mistake they make is not taking advantage of it to its full potential.
While doing research we came across the website http://www.sneakyemailtricks.com/. It promised to help increase open rates and click rates and blah, blah, blah. One of the interesting promises it offers is to help you build a decent sized email list in as few as 5-7 days.
Their site promises to help email marketers:
1. Get More Email Addresses
2. Get More Emails Opened
3. Get More Click-Throughs
The following is a sample of the tips they promised to deliver:
#1 Video Fakeout – If you have a video as a lead generation offer, this is the perfect trick for increasing your email addresses. By placing a clickable screenshot of your video on your squeeze page (make sure the play button is also on the screenshot) visitors will click on the video. But instead of playing the video, a simple JavaScript code pops up a warning with a message that reads, “Whoa, easy there trigger. Enter your email address in the box and click the button that says Free Instant Access to watch the video.” Your visitors see the message and enter their email. Boom, that’s another person to sell to. And that’s exactly what you want.
#2 Eye Sliders – Don’t let your visitors decide where to look, direct them with subtle keys. This example with two arrows guides the eyes to the email form almost instantly. Most people won’t read your text (just your headline) and if they do read the text, they’re looking for a reason not to sign up rather than for reasons to sign up. Keep your content simple and help guide visitors to your form so you get their email address.
#3 Toon Opt-In – This might be one of the hardest tricks in this guide to believe. But animated videos actually raised the email capture percentage from 12% with text bullet points to 40% with a simple animated person stating the same points. Deiss and Belcher assume the novelty is the key that’s driving in more and more emails with this trick. Who really knows? But it seems to work.
#4 Bottom Ups – A simple form that slides up or pops up from the bottom of your site is a great way to get emails if you’re looking to take a more passive approach. For those who want to capture emails on their home page or other page on their site this is a great way to get your visitors attention without being intrusive or forcing annoying pop ups on your visitors that may drive away traffic.
#5 Reports vs. Video – While videos have become the rage when it comes to lead-generation offers, they haven’t proven to bring in the emails. All indications have shown reports or white papers bring in more emails than videos. Now this may be something to experiment with, but we won’t argue with the results (the ones we’ve seen or yours if a video is working for you).
#6 Ship Jumpers – Your best leads can be the ones who leave your shopping cart without ever finalizing their order or purchase. How can your capture them? With a 2-step checkout process you can turn those would-be customers into actual customers. This works by collecting their name and email address on the first page of the checkout process. After submitting that information, you send them to your shopping cart. Now you’ve got their email address whether they buy or not. If they don’t, you can send them an email apologizing for whatever it is you may have done wrong. You can even offer an added incentive to get them in.
#7 Dugg Up Subject Lines – Your subject line is most often the difference between an unopened email and one that is read all the way through. We know writing subject lines can be tough and that’s why we loved this trick using Digg.com. You can search on Digg.com to find what titles are getting the most attention in any subject. As long as you can tie the content of your email into your subject line, you’ve got a tested subject line that you know catches people’s interest.
#8 Throat Grabbing Subject Lines – What catches people’s attention?
1. Odd numbers: (Why he paid Google $524,838.71 . . .)
2. Question Marks: (Google Made Me Slap Proof?) This doesn’t always have to make sense.
3. Percentages (%): (99% of People Dieting NEED to do this)
4. [New Video], or [Video]: Putting these words in brackets just makes people open
5. (free report): Works in the same way as the [Video]
6. Re: Be careful with this one. Don’t overuse it or you’ll lose out with people unsubscribing.
7. Use Personal Pronouns (You and Your are the two best words for your subject)
And don’t forget to peak curiosity, confuse and shock your potential readers to get them to open. You may also want to use the local news technique by using negative subject lines.
#9 Timing Advantage – Timing is everything – yep that’s even true in email marketing. The best time: 4:30 a.m. CST. The Best Days: Tuesday – Thursday. And then there’s this big tip: Weekends are perfect for low-dollar offers and lead-gen offers.
#10 Green Mailing – You’re probably frustrated with the number of unopened emails you get. Send them again – and all you have to do is change the subject line. The content can stay the exact same and you can add to your bottom line by getting those who don’t open your first email. Email marketing services such as AWeber and IContact allow you to easily do this. You can contact your email marketing provider about this option.
#11 Avoid Pre-Mature Marketation – This one is simple: Don’t sell in your email. The point of your email should be to get the reader to click. Keep your email short and to the point – just one point. Make the sale on the page the click takes your reader to.
#12 Link Planting – This goes along with avoiding pre-mature marketation. Keep your emails simple with 3 or 4 links. A simple email with a few links gives your readers a way to quickly view what’s in it for them. Include a link in your Intro (a picture link is a great idea here), a link in your body and a link in your closing/p.s. (almost everyone will read your p.s., so don’t leave it out).
#13 Video Pics – Deiss and Belcher raved about this one. If you’re sending your email list a link with a video, get a screen shot of the page, with the video in it. Your click-through rate will jump dramatically as people click on the video. Make sure you take them to the page with the video and no one will complain. This one can be one of the most powerful, Deiss said.
#14 De-Personalize –I know #14, this was supposed to only be 13 tricks. Deiss and Belcher decided to throw another one in. The thinking in email marketing seems to be that including the person’s name is a great tool. So when most people collect emails, they ask for the name. That’s not necessary. All tests showed that impersonal emails worked better than those addressing the recipient by name. And it helps you collect more emails because you can ask for less information. People prefer to give up as little as information as possible in order to get what you’re offering.
All in all the guide looks interesting and if the rest of it is like these tips it may be worth the investment. If you’re interested in this guide for yourself, you can purchase it at www.sneakyemailtricks.com for $97. It comes with an instant access PDF report. You also get a video on the report and a demonstration on trick #10 Green Mailing. The company offers a 30 day money back guarantee.
Stream Send Email Marketing is more leanient than some as far as uploading email lists of unverified emails etc., but don’t mistake their leniency for neglect. They monitor spam reports very closely and take notice of abuse. Email marketers often ride a fine line when it comes to being flagged as a spammer. If you’ve found yourself in trouble with other services you may want to look into them. Visit their site for more info.
Constant Contact is known for their harsh spam policies and intense review process. Constant Constant contact is an excellent email marketing service as long as you have a good clear relationship with each of the members of your email list, but if you are wanting to use mailing lists who may or may not recognize emails from you then you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. Visit their site for more info.
