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Your bonus chapterThis is the 13th chapter of the book Blog to Win Business—How to Enchant Readers and Woo Customers.

You're receiving it as a free bonus.

Enjoy!

PS Any comments or questions? Email me: Henneke [at] EnchantingMarketing.com

Copyright © 2014 by Henneke Duistermaat

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publisher at the address below:

Enchanting Marketing Ltd

4th Floor, Northern Assurance BuildingsAlbert SquareManchester M2 4DNUnited Kingdom

Disclaimer

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

Published by Enchanting Marketing LtdCover design by Bogdan MateiCover illustration by W. Gurinow and E. Pigurskaya

How to Woo Clients With Emails That Get

Opened, Read, and Clicked A restaurant without transport links struggles to find customers. How will customers arrive if there's no road—not even a cycling path?

Visitors may arrive at your blog via social media sharing or search engines. But the best way to guarantee that readers find their way back to your blog again and again, is to send them an email each time you publish a new blog posts.

When tempt readers to visit your blog on a regular basis, they get to know, like and trust you; and that's how you win an opportunity to sell to them.

In this bonus chapter we discuss:

● Getting your emails opened

• Writing seductive emails

● Making your emails more engaging and personal

● 4 examples of emails that work

How to get your emails openedBeing allowed in someone's inbox doesn't mean your emails get opened and read. Everyone is busy. And everyone's inbox is overflowing—filled to the brim with uninteresting and long-winded email.

So how do you make your emails get attention in an overcrowded inbox?

Subject lines are like headlines—they need to attract attention and arouse enough curiosity for readers to click through. The rules that apply to writing compelling headlines, apply to subject lines, too: First you attract attention with power words like stinky, seductive, or sleazy; and then you present a specific reason why readers should open your email—what will they learn? And how will you make them feel better?

Email provides you with an extra tool to gain attention and get your emails opened; and this special tool is your name in the sender address.

When you turn up each week and deliver useful time with every email you send, your readers start to expect your email. When you reward readers with inspiration and tips each time they open your email, they start craving your next blog update.

The opposite is also true. When readers feel you've wasted their time with a useless email or blog post, they're less likely to open your email next time.

Being helpful week in week out increases your open rates. Readers start looking for your name appearing in their inbox. When subscribers are so keen to read your next blog post, they'll even open an email with a subject line that sucks.

Rewarding readers for opening your emails and reading your blog posts is even more important than writing irresistible subject lines.

How to write seductive emailsYour subject line, of course should arouse curiosity, but how else can you arouse curiosity in your emails and increase click throughs?

When writing your emails think about your ideal reader and what action you'd like him to take. As you're sending a blog update, you probably want him to click through to read your blog post.1

How can you get him to take action? Each sentence and each word should support your objective of getting your reader to click through. The more you write, the higher your chances of losing your reader's attention. And when you're wasting your reader's time with lengthy emails, you might give him the impression that your blog post might be a waste of his time, too. Only present essential information that encourages readers to click through.

A few options for arousing curiosity:

• Mention a problem he's struggling with and promise a solution

• Introduce a curious concept that he's never heard of—example 2 below discusses the

breadmaker technique for writing blog posts

• Suggest you discuss common mistakes that you help him avoid

• Stress what he'll miss if he doesn't click through

• Hint at revealing a secret

If you're announcing something new, it's a good idea to use the word new or announcing in your subject line to increase your open rates. We all get excited by new things.

Lastly, don't forget a PS. As legendary British copywriter Drayton Bird has pointed out—in sales letters everyone turns to read the PS, and it's often the point that people remember most. With emails this might be the same. Especially when your emails are short, it's hard to resist the temptation to glance at a PS. An extra link in a PS might increase your click-

1 You could also have your full blog post in your email—some readers prefer this. But this will probably reduce the comments on your sites and number of social shares. If you're unsure what to do, ask your readers for their preference.

throughs further. Try it.

How to make your emails more engaging and personalWould you rather read an email from your best friend?

Or check an email from a big corporation?

It's an easy choice, isn't it?

To get subscribers to read your emails, you have to start treating them like your friends.

Start with considering your email design.

What does an email from a big brand look like?

A big, shiny logo at the top of the email, a large headline, a beautiful image, and a tempting call-to-action like Get a hefty discount if you click NOW.

As soon as I see a professionally designed email with a gleaming logo, I think: what are they going to sell me today?

My Enchanting Marketing emails are simple. No color. No logo. You might think it’s because I’m too lazy to get a nice design, but it’s a conscious decision—it looks less business-like, more personal.

To avoid a business look, consider minimizing design elements and stop wasting precious pixels with a big logo at the top. If you like to include your logo, put it at the bottom of your email.

And when you write your emails, don't think of readers as subscribers, because you start addressing them as a faceless crowd. Just like when writing a blog post, imagine writing your email for one person only. It'll instantly make your emails more engaging and personal.

When I started my own business, I thought I had to present myself as a “real” business. I used the word we on my site—even though I'm just a one-woman-band. In the past year, I've learned that people don't hire me because I sound like a business. They hire me because they like how I write or they like me.

In your business, YOU are the secret ingredient. Clients want to do business with you because of how you work and because of who you are. The more personal you make your emails, the easier it becomes to find clients that are exactly right for you—the kind of clients you love to work with and that energize you.

The more personal your emails, the easier it becomes to bond with your “subscribers” and to entice them to do business with you.

You can make your emails even more personal, more intimate than your blog posts.

Consider a quick remark of what you've been up to over the weekend—something that's not business related, but personal. As you can see in the examples below, I sometimes make an off-topic remark about the weather or my latest cycling adventure.

When you treat your “subscribers” as friends and email them like you would email a friend your emails become more engaging and personal.

4 Email examples that got opened and clickedShowing and discussing email examples is a little tricky. When you follow proven formulas you quickly bore your readers to tears.

One of our challenges, as email marketers, is to keep our emails fresh and to surprise our readers with each email. As soon as your emails become formulaic, open rates drop. People stop reading your emails.

So be careful. Don't treat these emails as must-follow templates. You gain most from these email examples when you understand why they worked.

Example 1: Do these stinky sentences sneak into your copy?

Why this email works:

The subject line arouses curiosity and makes people a little fearful. What are stinky sentences? And are they sneaking into my copy? A power word like stinky attracts attention.

The email reassures the reader that, of course, you're not writing stinky sentences on purpose, but you see them across the web. As a reader, you might start wondering whether they're on your website, too.

Curiosity is further increased by talking about two types of simple sentences—one type works and the other destroys your persuasiveness. You've probably never heard of two types of simple sentences, and you might wonder whether you should know the difference.

The link in this email provides a clear call-to-action—not only will you be able to learn how to recognize stinky sentences, you'll also find out how to write persuasive copy.

Link to the blog post referred to in the email: Do These Stinky Sentences Sneak Into Your Copy and Kill Your Persuasiveness?

Example 2: How to Write a Good Blog Post Super-Fast

Why this email works:

The subject line is a simple how-to including a specific benefit—not only will this blog post teach you how to write a good blog post, it'll also tell you how to do it super-fast.

This is the shortest email of the 4 examples, but it still manages to include three links to

the blog post without sounding pushy, because the email is informal and the links fit naturally in the flow of the text.

The body text of the email arouses curiosity with the idea of the breadmaker technique for fast-blogging. What would that be?

Note how the second PS tells a quick personal story, but the email still ends with a link to the blog post.

Link to the blog post referred to in the email: How to Write a Good Blog Post Super-Fast (and the Joy of Slow-Blogging)

Example 3: How to become a better writer (the simple truth)

Why this email works:

The subject line is a simple how-to again. Who doesn't want to learn how to become a better writer?

The risk of a simple subject line like this, is that the reader might start thinking that this post will be the same boring stuff about writing and reading more. That's why the body text of this email tells you that this is not about such standard advice.

The email PPS arouses curiosity by mentioning that the blog post will reveal a creative side-project and show how much I suck at drawing.

Link to the blog post referred to in the email: The Simple Truth about Becoming a Better Writer

Example 4: Why are you opening my emails?

Why this email works:

The subject line asks the reader a personal question, and continues with arousing curiosity by suggesting a high open rate. Credibility is added by using a specific percentage—not over 40%, not 43%, but 43.2%.

Two further details may arouse your curiosity:

• The suggestion of an approach that's perhaps too radical

• The inclusion of a bonus tip from a newly discovered blog

The last words in the email are a link to the post again and they stress that this is just a quick read. Everyone is busy. Mentioning that your post is a quick read can take away a potential objection to clicking through.

Further readingDid you receive this bonus chapter via a friend?

Would you like to learn how to write more engaging blog posts and win customers with your blog?

The book Blog to Win Business—How to Enchant Readers and Woo Customers is exclusively available from Amazon:

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Henneke-Duistermaat/e/B00DJXA7LW

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Henneke-Duistermaat/e/B00DJXA7LW

Other Amazon websites: http://www.enchantingmarketing.com/how-to-write-seductive-web-copy/

About HennekeHenneke is an irreverent marketer, speaker, and copywriter. She has worked as marketer at both large multinationals and small businesses before setting up her own business Enchanting Marketing Ltd. She’s on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook and to make boring business blogs charming.

Henneke is a regular contributor to popular marketing blogs like Copyblogger and KISSmetrics.

Find more writing and blogging tips at Henneke’s blog: http://www.enchantingmarketing.com