The hardest thing in email marketing is sending your very first email or newsletter.
The second hardest thing is restarting after you haven’t emailed for ages.
Nine times out of ten the barrier is the same for everyone. And it’s psychological.
It’s a desire to make a brilliant first impression. To not waste your one big chance.
Believe me: I’ve been there. Agonising over what to write that will make the impact I want. Rewriting and rewriting and rewriting then throwing it away because it wasn’t quite good enough.
And the longer you go without emailing the more you feel your next email needs to be amazing. So the problem gets worse and worse.
But it’s just not true.
Your first email doesn’t need to be amazing. In fact, none of your emails do.
It’s brilliant if they are. But emails aren’t really a medium of one-off brilliance.
Have a think about whose emails you read this morning. Or yesterday.
If you’re anything like me and most people you probably can’t remember.
That doesn’t mean email doesn’t work. Far from it.
There’s way too much evidence that says it’s the most powerful form of marketing. And it’s unlikely that you just aren’t subscribed to any decent emails.
Let’s try something different…
Think of someone whose emails you think are great. Helpful, insightful, interesting, fun.
Chances are you found that a lot easier.
That’s because email is a drip-drip-drip medium, not a big splash.
We remember the people in our inbox who send us useful, interesting emails over time rather than one big amazing blast.
Becoming a “go to” person via email is much more like being the close friend the heroine finally realises she loves at the end of the movie than it is being the handsome stranger she thought she fell for at first sight.
And that means you can relax. Your first or next email doesn’t have to “knock it out of the park”.
Just write something useful and interesting.
Don’t overthink it. Don’t worry about making a big impression. It doesn’t matter.
Impressions in email are made over time, not in one go.
Just write that email and press send.
Then get to work on the next one.
- Ian
PS want the best and fastest way to come up with great ideas for emails and write them with the minimum of fuss? Click here.