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How to Improve Your Solo Email Response Rates

Getting better responses out of your solo email messages doesn't have to take much time or money. But it does demand focus and commitment. Once you start down this road and gain better returns as a result, you'll be addicted to improving on an ongoing basis.

I've seen solo emails blow the doors off the proverbial barn, and I've seen them bomb. I've been doing it longer than most. Below are my top tips to help you improve your results on your solo email drops. Enjoy.

1. Provide a Lot of Links: Recent research reveals that people are clicking all over emails and Web pages, even on areas where there are no hyperlinks. People often click on graphics that aren't hyperlinked. I've done it, and so have you.

Needless to say, all graphics should link to something. If people are taking actions on parts of the screen where you're not asking them to do so, you're missing a big opportunity.

If you need to keep things very simple and have all your links go to the same place, fine. But if you can take the time and money to have each link tagged and going to a separate landing page, so much the better. This approach will give you much better insight into the response patterns of your audience.

2. Give Me Bullet Points: Here's why bullet points help:

• They chunk down the information into small, digestible nuggets.
• Bullet points make it easier to skim and are more inviting than paragraphs.
• Using bullet points forces you to be succinct.
• This allows you and your reader to advance more quickly to the call to action.

3. The Offer Is More Important Than the Copy: This is heresy coming from me, who came up in marketing as a copywriter. But the 60/20/20 rule pretty much does apply. 60% of your decision is which list to send to. 20% is the offer, and the last 20% is your copy (some direct marketers say it's 60/30/10).

In other words, if you've sent the right offer to the right audience, but it isn't perfectly worded, you should do OK. But you could very much better if you get the copy right.

If you find yourself writing solo emails and you are not a copywriter, at least be direct (never cute) and underscore the value proposition clearly. Use facts instead of hype. Infuse the copy with a sense of enthusiasm (if appropriate) and immediacy. People like news and announcements. Just make sure you have something newsworthy that is truly worth the attention of your audience.

4. Solo Emails Have a Long Tail: I just checked a campaign that went out two weeks ago before writing this tip. There were 100 more clickthroughs than the last time I looked, which was two days after that solo was sent. This underscores the fact that people don't necessarily look at your solo emails as soon as they come in. Many do. But over the years, I've noticed a growing number of clicks accumulate days, weeks, and sometimes even months after the original transmission of the email.

What this tells us is to leave those landing pages up for a good long while, unless of course you have a time-sensitive offer. In that case, you want to change the landing page at the appropriate time so that it says something different to those who came too late. Maybe you give them a "Johnny-come-lately" offer.

Tip: If you are offering a Webinar, be sure to put up a link to the archive of that Webinar after it's taken place.

5. Repeat Yourself on Landing Pages: This is one of the most frequent mistakes I see. It seems redundant, and it is. But it gives the person who responded to your solo email message the much needed confirmation that he or she has come to the right place on your website.

6. Match the Look and Feel of the Landing Page with the Solo Email Message: Not doing so is a common mistake. Often the landing page looks like every other page on the company's website, and nothing like the appearance of the solo email sent.

You want visual continuity between the solo email message and the landing page for the same reason you want to repeat the value proposition. It's to let readers know they are on the right path to getting whatever it is they came for.

7. From Field Branding: You know how important the From field is for determining how the rest of the email communication will be viewed. The From field gives context, and it is (or should be) of major important to the sender. It is of equally major importance to the recipients of your email.

The From field may be branded with a person's name, or maybe with a store or company name. Some of the most important branding nowadays is happening in the In box. If you're renting a third party list, it's important to know what the recipients think of the identifying name or brand in the From field. This is where the traditional list business is different from the online list business. One cataloger or list owner in the direct mail world might rent their list to another operation and the third party renting it will have their name in the upper right hand corner. Often there is no expressed affinity to the original list. This is acceptable practice.

But online, most list owners I know would never allow a third party to have a third party name in the From field instead of their own. It gives the appearance that you've compromised your list and privacy policy. Not good, and not well received, if and when it's found out.

8. No Bait & Switch: I recently had to shred a potential advertiser's check (for many thousands of dollars) because I refused to run their ad once I saw their offer.

The solo email message promised a whitepaper on some aspect of Internet marketing. They asked for no fewer than 24 fields of information, and in return one got what amounted to a warmed over, 2-page PDF sales sheet for the company's product. This does more harm than good for the list owner, not to mention for the advertiser making the offer. The end user is no dope and is only going to be ticked off for being misled.

I saw the offer run elsewhere. But it didn't run for very long, which told me it wasn't so successful. If it was successful, they would have continued the offer and practice. The lesson? Deliver on what you promise. Better yet, over deliver.

9. Enlarge Your Font: With screen real estate being at such a premium these days, the understandable inclination is to pack as much information as possible into that "first screen" or pane that readers see. But smaller type makes reading that screen/pane much more tedious and much less inviting.

A good copywriter can help you say the same thing in less words, which will have greater impact and offer you more space to increase the font size.

Think about it. There are many reasons to take this approach:

1. If the reader can relax a little because your copy is easier to read, he or she may well be more open to what you have to say.
2. It will force you to write brief and compelling copy, which is always a welcome thing online.
3. More and more people have less than perfect vision (read baby boomers). If they can't read your message without squinting or moving closer to their screens, you may have lost them.

Mark my words. Going forward, you'll see more copy getting bumped up in font size to accommodate those folks who don't see as well as they used to.

10. The Importance of Alt Tags: As you probably know, alt tags are those little containers of text that pop up when the user mouses over a graphic or a placeholder icon (when graphics are blocked). As you probably also know, a growing percentage of email programs and In box providers are preventing images from being downloaded when an email is opened, unless the user jumps through hoops to get said graphics to come in automatically. That's not likely. But those alt tags still function whether the graphics have been downloaded or not.

It amazes me how many email messages go out without the use of alt tags, when more and more they are really needed to do double duty. Convey in those alt tags what is being said in each graphic. Word each one so the text includes a valuable incentive or reason for readers to pay attention to that tag and to your overall message.

11. Post Your Solo Email to Your Website: At the top of each solo email you send there should be a Web address where the recipient can read the very same solo email message that appears thereunder.

Why? Because some people may be unable to view that message at that time and on the device they're using to read your message. Others just prefer reading a Web page.

12. Look Beyond Solo Clickthroughs: Clickthroughs are fast and easy to measure. But they only tell part of the story. Not everyone who clicks on your solo email will download your whitepaper, buy something from you, or what have you. Many marketers are pretty pleased if they can get 50% of solo email clickthroughs to convert some type of action on the landing page. You can always improve your conversion rates. I've seen many senders of solo emails put all their focus on the email itself, while paying little attention to improving the conversion rates on the landing pages.

There are so many easy-to-use landing page optimizers out there now. It costs you very little to track and improve upon your results.

But you know, it's not only about clickthroughs and how many people fill out your registration form. Whether it's a sales lead generation campaign or someone is actually buying something, it's all about lifetime customer value and how much you're willing to pay to acquire that customer.

13. Pay Attention To Your Subject Line: I operate in the B2B Internet marketing space and I've found that subject lines that are short and precise or that promise good value if the email is opened work best.

A good subject line often resonates with readers if you are using words that are on their minds right at the time the email hits their In box. Overstated subject lines shout "delete me". People are just too sophisticated in this market segment (and most others) to believe bombast. That went out with straw hats and cheap gas.

14. Start Testing Email Video: I am starting to see case histories about increased response rates for emails that contain links to full-motion video streams that are housed on a website. It's not a good idea to send the video file by email, for obvious reasons. But recipients, myself included, do get a bigger bang for the buck when they click on a link within an email that results in moving sound and pictures.

Of course, the propagation of broadband is making this possible. It's important to remember that not everyone has a connection that can support this functionality. It's probably a good idea to offer the reader alternative versions of your message that can travel more easily through narrower pipes. Make sure your videos will play on all popular video platforms – iTunes, RealPlayer and Windows Media. Also make sure that your website has enough servers and bandwidth to power hundreds or thousands of people viewing those video streams simultaneously.

The adoption rate of video via email will vary by industry and category. For example, auto manufacturers have been doing it for years, while the construction and diecasting industries might lag behind some.

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