How To Get People To Actually Open Your Emails

I was thinking the other day of all the lists I've opted into. Every day my email is hammered with offers, tips, and that One Big Secret that supposedly will make you rich.

Here's my secret: I never open a single one.

Yep, not one.

Okay that's not quite truthful. I save them for later when I have time to open them and study them (a time which never comes by the way). Life gets hectic and before long it's months later and no longer relevant to the situation. Most of their links don't even work anymore.

There are the few that I have to open RIGHT NOW. One of those was an email informing me of a cash commission, I was not amused to open it and find out they'd been lying since there was no money in it. I unsubscribed immediately. The few others have been clever, witty, and absolutely interesting to me, but they weren't so far in that it became gimmicky. You've seen them, you know what I mean. In truth the ones that I pay the most attention to are the ones that actually provide me with free information not once but EVERY TIME.

Playing your prospects, telling them something that isn't true will get their attention but once they see through it you will lose people and those people will never trust you again.

So do not EVER send emails to your list that are outright lies.

Writing those clever witty headlines for your email increases their chance of being opened. People want to read things that are entertaining or pertinent to current events or what they want to know. Copywriters tend to spend a lot of time on this but you may not be a copywriter or want to spend hundreds of dollars on every email. So learning to build headlines for yourself is a must.

When you're writing to your list make sure the headline is pertinent to the information or product you want to sell.

Let's say I have an exercise tape I'm trying to sell. I'd start brainstorming.

What's going on around me?

What's the latest news?

What would catch my reader's attention and get them to open this email?

Why did they join this list in the first place?

What interests my reader?

Once you've answered these questions take elements from them and put them together.

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Also make sure you always use ACTIVE wording. No past tense. It isn't as compelling.

Sometimes the best headlines are the most straightforward.

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Things like that.

If you ask yourself these questions your headlines will be brighter and have life to them that catches more people's attention.  Be sure and check out Get Inside Michael Stanley.   "Enjoy Your Coffee"

Michael Stanl