“Advertising is salesmanship mass produced. No one would bother to use advertising if he could talk to all his prospects face-to-face. But he can’t.” -Morris Hite

Morris Hite is in the Advertising Hall of Fame. He coined the word “slacks” and helped bring Elsie the Cow to life for Borden Dairies. He was a genius in the world of advertising who unfortunately passed away about fifteen years before the explosion of the Internet and email.

Not that he would have changed his thoughts above if he had lived during the digital age, but he might have looked at it differently.

That is the one true advantage of email. You get to speak directly to the people who most want to hear what you have to say. It is like bringing all of your best customers into one room for a brief presentation, but without the hassle of finding a room, without the hassle of meeting everyone’s varied and busy schedules, without having to pay for catering and getting an audio/visual person to handle sound and lights, without having to perform live with no edit button.

With email you can write it, edit it, proof it, and make sure it is exactly what you want to say before you hit send. It goes out to all your fans and friends who get to read it when it best suits them. And it is cheap, too. You can get an email service for a fraction of the cost of more traditional methods of advertising.

What’s the downside?

There are two downsides to email.

First, since sending out unsolicited emails is spam and turns people off, to do email well, you can only send your email to people who opt-in to being on your email list. In other words, you can only use email to advertise to your existing fan base. Unless you can convince people to share the email with their friends, you’re simply preaching to the choir.

Second, it takes time to build up a solid email list that bears fruit. Like any form of advertising, you’re playing a numbers game. How many people does the media reach? What fraction of those people actually see, hear, or read my ad? What fraction of that fraction takes action?

According to MailChimp, one of the email service providers, the open rate for a typical email ranges from 15-25%. So even if you have a good list of people who love you, three-fourths of the people on your list still don’t care enough about you to even open your email. Only a fraction that do will take action.

If you have a good list, though, it is still the most efficient, cost-effective way to advertise to your customer base and get that repeat business.

Here are my answers to some common questions about email marketing.

How often should I send out an email?

Some experts tell you to send them out daily, once-a-week, twice-a-week, or some other calendar-based number. They have data and stats to prove whatever number they are preaching is the most effective. My belief is that the optimal number is different for every business.

How often should you send out an email? As often as you have new, compelling content to share. If you don’t have anything new to say, don’t bore me with the details. The first time I click on your email with no compelling content will likely be the last time I click on your email.

(Note: the more often you have new content, the better. If you can do three emails a week, you are getting the frequency to keep you top-of-mind. Plus, you are sending a clear message to everyone on your list—including those that don’t open—that you are a hot, hip, new, current, growing business.)

Does the Subject Line really matter?

Absolutely! In fact, it is critical to your open rate. I was never good at writing subject lines. The best one I ever used was, “Toy House is Closing.” You need a subject line that compels people to want to read more. It can’t just be a tease, though. Many of your subscribers will only have time to read the subject line, so make sure there is enough info there to tell your customers what to do next.

Yes, click-bait is acceptable with one HUGE disclaimer … The first time I click on your email and the content doesn’t match the hype of the subject line will be the last time I click on your email.

One other tip is to make sure your subject line is searchable. If someone saw your email, didn’t open it right away, and planned to go back to it later, make sure there is something in the subject line that makes it easy for them to find it. I get about 100 emails a day. It doesn’t take long for emails to get buried in my inbox.

Do I have to offer a coupon or discount with each email?

No! In fact, I wouldn’t ever offer a coupon or discount in your email, otherwise you train your customer base to wait for the next email coupon or discount before they go shopping.

There are plenty of other ways to get people to read your email. Famed author and retail consultant Rick Segal always included a joke at the bottom of his emails. He said that way he knew everyone would read to the bottom. You can (and should) include pictures, stories of customers (and staff) using your products, success stories from your customers, interesting and obscure facts about your products, details about upcoming events, and/or fun, shareworthy information.

Although email should only be sent to people who have opted in to receive your blasts, you can reach some of their friends if you include content people want to share (and ask them to share it.)

How can I grow my email list?

Have sign-ups at the cash register. Have a computer on a display in the middle of the store that only goes to one page—your sign-up page on your website. Ask. Every. Single. Customer. Have a drawing each email for a gift card and announce the winner at the bottom of each email. (I know some stores that upped their open-rate big-time with this tactic.) 

Is long or short copy better?

Yes! Interesting, compelling copy that tells a story, makes only one point, speaks to the heart, and speaks to your tribe is always good copy, regardless of the length. People will read long email posts if the content is worthwhile. Fortunately for you, there is no extra charge for longer copy. Just remember the Make Only One Point principle for effective advertising. Unless you are a fantastic writer, the more you try to say, the less people will read.

How do I find time to write all those emails?

You can hire people to write your emails. Even if they are a contract worker, you need to interview them like you would any member of your staff. Ask for references and samples of work.

You can empower your staff. There might just be someone already on your team who has the chops for creating powerful content.

You can ask your vendors for content. Some of them already have created great content that just needs to be edited with your own spin.

As with most everything in life, there is usually a trade-off between time and money. Email won’t cost you as much of the latter, but you’ll have to spend a little more of the former.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS This is a series of posts to help you understand the upsides and downsides of the more common advertising media. Follow these links for my take on Television, Radio, Billboards, Newsprint, and Magazines.

PPS I know you probably have other questions regarding email. Either send me an email or comment on this blog and I’ll do my best to find you the answer.

I used to sell advertising for a local magazine. Every Thursday, on my day off from Toy House, I would hit the streets talking local businesses into buying ads for a monthly magazine my ex-wife and I published called Kids in Common.

We launched Kids in Common in 2000 as a weekly radio show designed to link families to the resources out there for them. On our radio show we interviewed a variety of guests including medical professionals, pet behaviorists, daycare workers, educators, and other professionals. We also highlighted family-friendly websites, upcoming family-friendly events, and parenting tips we received from our listeners.

Three years later we launched the monthly magazine. The highlight of the magazine was the centerfold, a full monthly calendar of all the events happening including recreation department sports sign-ups, vacation bible schools, special family events, educational programming, and other fun activities parents and children might enjoy. Many of our readers told us when each issue came out they would get a highlighter and circle all the events they wanted to attend. One parent even mentioned how it helped her son learn budgeting as he would have to add up how much money he needed to do all the things he wanted to do on the calendar.

The ads I sold paid for the printing and distribution costs of this free publication.

By the time we started publishing Kids in Common, I was well into my learning about how different ads work. I knew about the pitfalls of passive media like newsprint. I knew about the power of frequency and impact. Those are the two biggest arguments against magazine ads.

Not only is a magazine ad a passive one that only attracts those actively in the market, it has an incredibly low frequency. Two no-nos in the world of effective advertising.

We tried to overcome that by creating a publication people picked up several times in a month, a magazine they read more than once. The calendar in the centerfold was the kicker. On one side was the calendar, on one half of the other side was the “KIC Clipboard”—a handy reference guide of some kind. One issue it was all the local parks and their amenities. Another issue was Phil’s Top Ten Toys. The first issue, our “birthday” issue, had a list of all the birthday hot-spots where you could host your child’s birthday party. Even after the calendar ended people loved to save those clipboards. Therefore the premium advertising space was on the other half of the backside of the calendar. Page 14. I got a premium rate for that page and the back cover because they were the two pages most likely to be seen multiple times in one month.

So what are the upsides to magazine advertising? Almost everyone reading a niche magazine is actively in that niche market. You don’t read a magazine about model railroading if you aren’t already into trains. You don’t read a magazine about rock climbing if you don’t already own a harness. You don’t read a magazine about parenting if you aren’t a parent or grandparent.

The magazine is the easiest way to speak to your tribe because only your tribe are reading it. Sometimes, if your niche is narrowly defined, it is the only way to speak to your tribe all at once.

When is it a good time to use magazine ads?

• When you have a narrowly defined niche (or tribe) and the magazine is the best vehicle for reaching that niche all at once.
• When the magazine has built-in features that make it get picked up several times before the next issue or saved even after the next issue is released.

A lot of hobby magazines fit those two definitions.

As with other passive media like newspapers, your ad still needs an eye-grabbing picture and headline. It needs to make an emotional connection. And it needs to make people remember you. If you can do that, you can milk a lot of customers out of your magazine advertising.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For other best practices on other forms of media check out Television, Radio, Billboards, and Newspapers. Upcoming posts will include Direct Mail, Email, and Social Media. Look for them over the next couple weeks.

PPS The first issue of Kids in Common was only going to be 12 pages long. By the time I finished the first round of ad sales we had enough advertising to create a 16-page magazine. By the second issue we had enough to fill 24 pages with top-level content and enough ads to pay the bills. A few of my advertisers lamented the day we ceased publication as they found it the best bang for their buck.

When you’re too young to drive and born before portable DVD players existed, a trip from Michigan to Florida was a lot longer than it is today (not even counting the fact that the speed limit was 55 back then). I wasn’t the book reader in my youth that I am now, either. Mostly what I read on one of our trips south was road signs and billboards.

I think I counted 37 of these “See Ruby Falls” signs on one trip.

The billboard that blew my mind on one of these trips to Florida was a sign just outside Orlando for Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland, the famous Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

Yes, Michigan! In Florida!

I had seen their billboards all over Michigan. That made sense to me. You’ll drive across the state to go to this 100,000 square foot extravaganza of everything Christmas. But Florida? All in all, Bronner’s has over 60 billboards in seven different states.

Like Wall Drug in South Dakota and Ruby Falls in Tennessee, Bronner’s uses billboards for two reasons. Advertising is only one of them.

When you see a billboard in Florida for a store in Michigan, your first thought is this is no ordinary store. You would be right. You wouldn’t be surprised to see a Disney billboard near Frankenmuth, MI because Disney is a destination. Bronner’s put a billboard near Disney for the same reason. They believe they are a destination.

Unfortunately, it takes a lot of money (and courage) to put up billboards like that across the landscape. Plus, you have to be able to deliver when people follow the signs to your place. After seeing what felt like 543 signs for Mitchell’s Corn Palace while driving across South Dakota, I took the family on a detour to a tourist trap from hell. Wall Drug was actually a relief from the corn.

Billboards work well for reaching a lot of people. You don’t have to be on the highway in another state for them to be effective. Since we are creatures of habit, a well-placed billboard not only will reach a lot of eyeballs, it will be seen multiple times by the same people. Remember, frequency is a good thing.

The downside to billboard advertising is two-fold.

First, they are a passive media. You have to get people to look. In today’s distracted driving where even the passengers are looking down at their phones, getting anyone to look at your billboard can be a challenge.

Second, you only get about two seconds to make an impression. That’s one simple picture and six-to-eight easy-to-read words.

Can you tell a heartfelt, emotional story to your tribe in one attention-grabbing picture and six words? If you can, billboards are one of the best bangs for the buck for reaching a lot of people with a high frequency. One well-placed sign can move the needle. Buy as many signs as the budget allows and change out your boards at least once a month. (Or more, if they’ll let you. Even the good billboards lose effectiveness after about 2-3 weeks because they become familiar and blend into the background.)

If you can’t tell a heartfelt, emotional story to your tribe in one picture and six words, you’ve just added another boring, bland, meaningless blot to the mundane landscape everyone is already ignoring.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Pro Tip #1: When you create your billboard on your computer, it looks awesome. Before you submit that to your ad rep, print it on a letter-sized piece of paper and post it on the wall across the room. Does it still look good? Is it easy to read? Is the picture obvious? Computer screens distort what we see.

PPS Pro Tip #2: Your logo isn’t the “one picture”. Bury it deep in the bottom corner of your billboard so that it doesn’t detract from the message. If the message is good enough, they’ll figure out who said it.

PPPS Pro Tip #3: Humor is an emotion. Get people to laugh at your billboard and you may get some viral spreading of the word. Just make sure your humor is tied to the product or service you’re selling.