A question I get asked from time to time is this one. "Do you
recommend using an email template to email my list with?" For starters,
for those of you who aren't quite sure what an email template is, I'm
going to explain shortly. After I've done that, I'm going to give you
the pros and cons of using such a template. As with anything else when
it comes to marketing, there is good and bad to everything we do. You
can decide, based on this info, what's best for YOU.
Let's start
off with just what an email template is. An email template is one that
has a general message for each one in the chain that is sent out. So if
you purchase a 7 email followup system, you'll get a message designed
for each step in that chain, starting with the introduction and
finishing with the final followup where you make your last sales pitch.
Okay,
so what's good about these? Well, the obvious thing is, assuming they
are well constructed, you don't have to think about the individual steps
in the email sequence. They're all laid out for you. Most email
marketers who have a lot of success with email marketing have this down
to a science. In fact, one of the things I do is write autoresponder
templates for people, though it's not a main part of my business. With a
well constructed template, there is very little that needs to be added
to it. Notice I said very little.
And therein lies the problem and
the biggest con of email templates. See, because they have to be
generic, unless you're going to custom design a followup series (in
which case it is no longer a template) the person using the template has
to modify it slightly to fit their particular product or service. For
somebody who has no writing skills or has never written an email before,
this can present a problem. Leaving the template generic will likely
result in few sales, if any at all.
It is for this reason that,
unless you really know your product, you're probably better off staying
away from templates and simply learning how to write emails yourself.
Otherwise, your offer will not stand out the way it should and you won't
make the sales that you're expecting to make.
To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim
