I’m not writing this email to 2,000 people.
I’m writing it to you.
Which might sound slightly odd, given that around 2,000 people will receive it.
But when I sit down to write these mailshots, I don’t imagine a database.
I imagine one person opening their emails, probably with another 37 unread messages sitting underneath mine, deciding whether this one is worth a few minutes of their time.
That’s the person I’m writing to.
It’s only afterwards that I think about the 2,000.
How many opened it? How many clicked? Did anyone unsubscribe? Did anyone reply? Did it generate an enquiry?
Write to the individual. Measure the collective.
I think businesses sometimes get those two things the wrong way round.
They sit down to write to “our customer database” and suddenly we’re into:
“Welcome to our September newsletter.”
“Here’s what’s been happening at Smith & Co this month.”
The problem is that you care considerably more about what’s happening at your business than your customers do.
As you should.
But your customer has their own business, family, problems, deadlines and inbox to worry about.
You have to earn their attention.
And that starts with the subject line.
“September Newsletter” tells me what the email is but it gives me absolutely no reason to open it!
I’d much rather receive:
“The £420 toothbrush”
“September is the real New Year”
“What are people assuming about your business?”
They’re all subjects I’ve written about recently.
None of them sound particularly like digital marketing emails, but that’s kinda the point.
Get somebody curious enough to open the email, tell them a good story and give them something useful for the few minutes they’ve given you.
And don’t worry too much about unsubscribes – if a few people do this then it’s very easy to think you’re emailing too often.
But what about the person who replies?
The old client who’d forgotten about you?
The prospect who isn’t ready today but might be in six months?
Don’t let a handful of people who don’t want to hear from you determine how often you communicate with the people who do!
And then there’s AI.
I use AI to help me write these emails.
There you go. I’ve admitted it.
I use it to bounce around ideas, explore angles, help with structure and occasionally work out why something I’ve written isn’t quite working.
But I wouldn’t ask AI to “write me a weekly digital marketing newsletter”, copy what comes back and send it to you.
Because there’d be nothing of me in it.
The stories are real.
The opinions are mine.
The experiences are things that have actually happened.
AI can help me shape them, but it can’t experience them for me.
And as more AI-generated content fills our inboxes, the stuff that stands out is becoming remarkably simple:
A real person, with a real story, saying something interesting.
Email remains one of the most underused marketing channels I see amongst our clients.
Yet when it’s done well, it works.
Sometimes it generates an enquiry.
Sometimes it’s another marketing touchpoint.
Sometimes it simply keeps you on the periphery until, six months from now, somebody needs exactly what you do.
And they remember you.
So if you’ve got a mailing list sitting there gathering dust, don’t worry too much about creating a “newsletter”.
Find something interesting to say.
Write it to one person.
Give them a reason to open it.
Tell them a real story.
Be useful.
Then press send.
You might not get an enquiry that day.
You might not even get a reply.
But keep turning up with something worth reading and, when somebody eventually needs what you do, there’s a much better chance they’ll remember who you are.
And that’s a pretty good reason to send another email next week.
