Lessons

Lesson Info

The Perfect Pitch

So a few tips for your email pitch you have to have a really relevant and interesting subject line and why do I mean by interesting and relevant? So what I want everyone listening to do is I want you to look at your email inbox and look at the e mails that you actually open and keep a spreadsheet off all of those subject lines because I don't know put every single email that I get, especially from looking at on my cell phone, I oftentimes will delete it based on the subject line all open it based on the subject line out there some e mails that I always open regardless of the subject line depending on who it's coming from but oftentimes if I don't know who it's coming from it's all about this subject line so what I want you to do is take a spreadsheet or start a spreadsheet and for the next week keep track of the e mails that are coming from someone who you don't know that you actually open and copy down the subject line and pasted into your spreadsheet and at the end of the week take a...

look and see what sort of subject lines piqued your interest and what sort of subject lines actually made you open that email I've done this and it's really fun and interesting oftentimes I will take a subject line and tweak it teo fit my knee it's and send it out to someone else and if it got me to open a chances are that it will get someone else to open it as well. So keep an eye on that but since we're you know still hasn't been a week you haven't really looked at your subject lines there are still a couple of things that you can do in your subject line so the first one is to personalize it so there is nothing better then hearing or seeing your name I think their studies that talk about what people respond to the most and their name is often the one thing that always comes up so if your if there's if someone subject line has your name and it you automatically think that it's for you and you're more likely to open it, so if the blogger you want to reach out if her name is linda right the name linda in your subject line it'll get it'll be much more likely that she'll open it if then if you're her name was in there and this happens to me all the time even when I know that there are some bloggers that I'm subscribed to their newsletters or companies and I know that they personalized every time they send out an email I know they put my name in there I still open it every single time just because my name is on there and I think it's personal and often times it is sort of more personal benefited and so using their name in the subject line is a great way to do that the other way that you could really get their attention is that you can ask them a question so in your subject line you can say linda, are you still doing a valentine's they give guide or linda are you looking for back to school products? So these are some ways where you are being really, really specific right away from the subject line and if linda happens to be working on a story that is looking for back to school products that is so relevant or she's off course she's going to open that right away and she's going to say yes, I'm looking for back to school products what kind of back to school products you have so she will open it hopefully there is other things you can do you don't always have to do that, but I've tested many different subject lines and often when I ask a question or I used your name or do both in the in the subject line it gets opened and I get a response as well and the other thing that you want to keep in mind when you're sending your email not in your subject line but in your email you want to keep your email short about three to four paragraphs off two to three sentences each, and I'll give you an example of what I mean by that. But what happens? I want you to think a little bit about when you get an email and the subject line was interesting enough for you to open it, and you click on that any open it and you see a whole bunch of text what's the first thing that you do, you skip over it and you go to the next email that's shorter than that one that you don't have time to read because you're so so busy, I do that all the time. Some of you are nodding your head, so sending long e mails is a definite way. Tio not on ly not get people to not read it because they don't have time, but also to get them to not respond to you because they're probably not even going to read it, so keep it short and keep it to the point and keep answering the question what's in it for them. Why should they do a product review for your readers with your product? Why should they offer a discount of your product to their readers? Why should they dio ah product review and give away? Keep answering the question what's in it for their reader, so I want to give you an example now. About a sample email I've you some sort of variation of this all the time when I used to reach out to blogger so the subject line you concede saying my are you looking for an organic face scrub for your scripts? Spring giveaway super specific I'm using her name, she knows exactly what's going to be in this email so I start off and saying hi, maya, I was reading your block post on the latest must have makeup products for spring love your suggestions, by the way, so I'm showing her that I am familiar with what it is that she does and there's nothing more that flatter someone, then when they know you're reading their stuff and flattery can get you a long way. But again, this is really sincere, like I've really did feel like I loved her products a josh is I'm not just flattering her, so I couldn't have to write about my product and read my email. I'm flattering her because I really mean it and then I say, and I wanted to reach out to see if you're looking for a few more products for your spring giveaway. If so, I'd love to introduce you two are x y z skin care brand face scrub, so I am telling her she knows from this first paragraph exactly what it is that I'll be asking her for but I still have to give her a little bit more information right? Because she's not familiar with my company it so I'll say I think your readers will absolutely love to win one of our natural face crabs because it will leave their skin smooth and ready for spring and summer it's made from organic ingredients and it's not toxic so it's better for them last two times longer than most face scrubs and you will save them money in the long run so I'm telling her one my product is so she knows but even more importantly I'm telling her how my product can benefit her readers and it's all about what's in it for her and what's in it for her readers because she's looking out for her reader she's not looking out for me when she starts her blawg she's looking out for her readers so I'm showing in my email that I care about her readers as well and my third paragraph I'm saying I started exercising skin care brand two years ago when I was frustrated with the lack of affordable and organic skin care and now our products which range in price from eight to twenty five dollars are in more than one hundred stores nationwide even x y z celebrity loves our brand you khun dreamed more at x y z skin care that calm so what I've done here is I've told her the price range of my brand I told her my story why started it in one sentence? I told her that my products have credibility because there are over one hundred stores and celebrities loved it, and I'm giving her my website where she can go for more information. So this is all just one paragraph off two sentences where I was able to get in all of that information and this is all she really needs to know for this particular email she might want to know. Ok, well, what kind of organic ingredients used to use organic? I don't know essential oils were they harvested like all of those things that she probably will want to know, too in the review, but the first email she doesn't really want to know any of majesty if she can go to the website and find out more information about all of that. And we were talking this morning about how do you fit in your story? This is usually where you would put it in and the fourth paragraph it saying, would you like a sample to review before you do the giveaway? If so, let me know which one and I'll get it to you right away, thanks so much in advance for considering x y z skin care brand for your upcoming spring giveaway, and I look forward to working with you, so I'm asking her if she wants a product I'm asking her a question to this is really important and your email with a question that warrants a response because if he's reading this she's probably going to say, oh yes, I'm totally interested I would love a sample and she's going to respond right away hopefully because my pitch was on topic and she really is looking for products for her spring give away so this is how you can sort of model your email short and to the point tells her nothing extra that she doesn't need to know just yet and it still has all the information that she needs to make a decision on whether or not this is a great product for her yes so this is all in one email or is this over? Correspondent this is all in one email it you'll see here the bottom it's the first paragraph second paragraph third paragraph and fourth paragraph so this is all that one email it really looks much shorter than this when you have it all on one page I sort of made it really large and just put each paragraph on on one page but when you have it all together it looks like a readable um not too overwhelming email because the more text you have, the more overwhelming you get oftentimes what I'll do here in the second paragraph I might even like make these bold to stand out or I'll bold some stuff so that some of my points will really stand out that you could sort of scan over but you could do that or not but you really keeping it short and to the point is exactly what you want to go for all right? So oh yes I'm inventing from images teo great question so yes, I totally forgot that so images go such a long way I'm going to talk about images in our next session about magazines but it goes with blocks as well so you do want to embed an image not more than one if you have let's say three pieces of your skin care line that you want to show what I usually do is I'll go toe pick monkey or photo shop or something and create a collage off those three images so that it's still a gist one actual image and you don't want to attach the image usually I'll put my image right here in my first email after in my first paragraph I'll put my image like somewhere right around here so it fits and I know some email marketing providers you can really put it like on the right side of text in that case I'll put it maybe between my first thing second paragraph but never as an attachment sometimes you can put it all the way at the bottom but I love tio have them see my product as soon as they open their email without having to scroll down so great question images are huge because remember, people look at images before they retek so if she sees my subject line, she'll obviously read acog's there's no images in the subject line and then she opens my email the first thing she's going to look at is my photo, so make sure that your photos are really great they reflect their branding and all of the other things we talked about so definitely sent images yes, so if if I'm wanting to do images at the top of let's say for jewelry, you don't want it too big, I'm assuming because you want to show that the email starting the correspondent can you do like a banner at the top with and just keep it like three or four images but a more of a thinner banner but so they can get an idea? Yeah, you couldn't do that as well. He also doesn't definitely would not recommend a huge amendment, right sometimes I get these images are like three hundred or three thousand pixels wide and I have to like, scroll to the side and scroll down to actually see, you know what I'm talking about? I definitely don't do that make sure you resize your images, I usually make sure that they're not bigger than like three hundred pixels if I'm putting it next to my text, but if you're putting it as a banner, maybe five hundred pixels would actually look ok, so okay, no three thousand pixels and logistic. Yeah, I'm so glad you asked that because I didn't put that on here, but images are really, really important. So what happens if you get a yes? First of all, you jump up and down into celebrating, but after you do that, you can send her what she needs right away, so right away means within twenty four hours, it doesn't mean that you have to stop everything you're doing pack, pack your products and run to the post office, although you can if it's, oprah magazine or someone that you really want to be in, and it has been on your dream list for a really long time. But usually, if you respond right away, sent her the package what she needs, the information that she needs, whether it's high resolution images or photos of you or your package, whatever information she needs, get it to her within twenty four hours and after you do that, follow up about a week later to make sure that she got it and, most importantly, to see if she needs anything else so often times. This happened to me where I will mail the package and I'll follow up a week later and she said, oh yes, I I got your package and I have a couple more questions tio so that way, if she still has questions, maybe she didn't get the answers on my website. I'm making good really easy for her to ask me questions, so follow up a week later ask if they got the package ask her if she needs anything else and then you are on your way to starting that relationship and getting your products featured. Now if you get a no, what happens if you get a no? All right, don't take it personally, I know we often times don't even put ourselves out there because we don't want to get that no, it sucks, right it's not a cool thing to always here no, but it's okay, don't take it personally just know that it's not about you, it's about the fact that your products were not a good fit for her at this time I've had bloggers who said no, I'm sorry not right now. Will he reach out to me a few months later and I've reached out a few months later and they said yes or I've even had bloggers who didn't respond and I reached out a few months later and they they said yes. So if you get a no reach out a few months later with a different story, so maybe now you pitched her for her spring giveaway. Maybe if you're doing a fall giveaway, you want to pitch her again six months later for her fault? Give away. So be creative there. Don't pitch something else right away the next week, wait a little bit of time and then pitch a different story. Now if you get no response, which is usually what might happen, what do you do if you get no response? Don't take it personally. Exactly so don't take it personally don't think all my products are terrible, she doesn't even want to give me her feedback don't don't even go there. I just know, ok, I didn't get a response that's totally okay, but still follow up. Getting no response doesn't mean you shouldn't follow up. You should still follow up a week later and mention your previous email and usually what I'll do in my follow up email is I'll use the subject line following up, and what that does is that it sort of urges them tio take action on that because she kind of knows I'm waiting for a response and when you are following up. Don't be rude, don't say I sent you an email and you didn't get back to me. What's taking you so long, right, don't do any of that. I often times will get those e mails from people who are being really accusatory that I didn't fight back to them, and that just leaves really a bad impression. So be really nice say I wanted to follow up from my not I'm just following up. We don't want to use the word justice, just that I'm following up from my previous email of regarding your spring giveaway. Are you still interested? Are still looking for products. Here's, the email that I sent you before, and then you can just copy and paste your previous email, but let her know that you are following up.