Creating an e-mail marketing document: The fundamentals

The most important thing to know is the basics of building a powerful marketing document. It doesn’t matter if you are writing a newsletter or you are writing an occasional sales update… or some other kind of email marketing content. Generally speaking, these are the things you will want to accomplish in every single outgoing marketing document.

Benefits versus Features

There’s an age-old adage in sales: “features tell, benefits sell.”

Features are the things that describe a product. The benefits are the good things that come from using a product. The truth is, people simply don’t buy products based on the features they offer. Instead, people buy products based on the benefit it provides them and on the way that product fulfills their needs.

Think of the last time you bought something. Did you buy it because it had a an inline locking mechanism or because it made your life easier?

Consider this example in which we compare two fictional advertisements for the same product:

XYZ Clocks

Traditionally designed gears turn at various speeds, based on your winding, and those gears turn other gears that ultimately move a second hand, minute hand, and hour hand around the face of a clock. The face of the clock contains 12 numbers. The gears are made out of metal. The clock itself is burnished and the face is white with black numbers.

Pretty boring stuff, isn’t it?!? Compare that to this ad:

XYZ Clocks

Never be late again with this accurate, easy-to-read clock. It’s also easy to maintain.

The second ad is simple and full of benefits. Write ads that are benefit laden and you will sell more products. People never buy something because of a feature. They will always buy something because of the benefit it brings them.

AIDA

AIDA is an acronym used in sales and marketing writing. Standing for “Attention, Interest, Decision, Action,” it provides a powerful technique to help you write great copy each and every time.

Attention. Your email marketing material needs to grab their attention effectively or else they will pass your message by as they scan their already-full inboxes. Typically this needs to occur in the subject line, since that is what people usually see first. Marketers try to use a variety of tricks to get people to read their messages. Some less-than-legitimate attention-getting devices include all caps, plenty of exclamation points, or a subject line that doesn’t seem to actually be from a business, but rather from a friend. Here are three examples:

~ BUY BLUE WIDGETS TODAY
~ Widgets. You want one!!!!!!!!!!!
~ It’s been a while, buddy.

While these methods may have been unique and attention getting long ago, they are now tired and old and often over-used by businesses that are more closely linked with spam. If you want to get someone’s attention today, here are two better approaches: ask a question or give the title of your article.

~ Want to live the good life?
~ 3 reasons why everyone needs a blue widget.

Be sure that your article answers the question asked in the subject line.

Interest. Once you have their attention – likely from the subject line – it’s time to keep it with your message. If you have a newsletter, you’ll want the first few paragraphs of your newsletter article to highlight a problem and then the second last paragraph should show how your product or service solves the problem. We’ll get more into writing newsletters in the next lesson.

Decision. Although you should provide helpful information in your email marketing newsletter or e-zine, there is nothing wrong with asking people to make a decision to buy your product. This should be done in the last paragraph of your message. Although they may have read some high quality, helpful information throughout the article, the last paragraph can bring home the point that they need whatever it is you’re selling.

Action. It used to be that marketers would have to put in a memorable phone number or address into their direct marketing in order to get people to respond. Now, you can simply put the words, “buy it here” (and “here” would be linked to your site) and people can click on it to be taken to your site if they want to purchase it. The Internet has made it so much easier! Even though it’s so easy, people still need to be told what action to take. It reminds them why they’re getting the newsletter in the first place. And, if they save the newsletter, it’s an easy visual reference they can use if they ever decide later to buy the product.

Summary

This lesson seems to be a fairly basic “marketing 101” lesson to remind you that the rules of marketing don’t change for email marketing campaigns. If you create great marketing content that is filled with benefits and uses the AIDA method, you’ll be sure to create strong, highly effective marketing campaigns each and every time. In the next lessons we’ll look at specific ways you can incorporate these principles into your marketing.

Keep Moving Forward!

–Dave