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Email Marketing Manual

The do's and how to's of email marketing

Sales messages that sizzle - just fill-in-the-blanks and go!

Here’s a great little formula you should apply to every single sales message you send out, long or short, email marketing or conventional print – even advertisements.

It’s been used by direct marketers for decades for the simple reason that it works. It also makes constructing your sales message easy. Just fill in the blanks and go!

AIDCA stands for:

A: Attention

I: Interest

D: Desire

C: Conviction

A: Action

ATTENTION

Grab your reader’s attention via the subject line and/or headline (sometimes called strapline). This should be a single-minded message that goes straight for the jugular. Pick out your strongest benefit and focus on that exclusively. Sound urgent and exciting. Instantly identify with the reader’s main problem and show how you’re about to solve it.

TIP: Keep it brief and always use the active tense i.e. “We do this” rather than “We are doing this”.

INTEREST

Okay, so now you’ve grabbed their attention, really make them want to buy your product or service. Get straight to the point. Briefly outline your main benefits and answer the 'what's in this for me?' question. And keep the urgent / exciting momentum going rather than slowing down the pace.

Don’t lecture. Involve the reader as if it was a face-to-face conversation. The aim is to have your readers nodding their heads in agreement with you. And all in no more than one short paragraph, two max.

TIP: When you’ve finished, go back and see if you actually need your first paragraph. Removing it may help you get to the point faster. You may find it’s little more than ‘setting out your stall’ waffle.

DESIRE

Go on to (briefly) demonstrate how your product or service makes their life easier, gives the reader more time or money, or makes them better business people. Tell them something they don’t know. Make things sound irresistible but DON’T go for overkill with lots of exclamation marks or you risk looking naff (!!)

TIP: This is the place for bullet points if you want to include them. Really work those bullet points so they demonstrate true benefits, not just boring features.

Wed, 03/04/2009 - 10:54 — Anonymous

Comments

I'm curious as to why you

Fri, 03/27/2009 - 17:06 — john (not verified)
I'm curious as to why you didnt use the achronym AID because I cant see any conviction or action? Perhaps the golden rule of ALWAYS READ YOUR PUBLISHED COPY was ignored?

Umm, this seems

Wed, 03/25/2009 - 18:55 — Marten (not verified)
Umm, this seems unfinished. There is a paragraph relating to each of the first three initials: A - Attention, I - Interest, D - Desire; but what about C - Conviction and A - Action? Maybe the author lost attention and thereby my interest.

Nice article

Tue, 03/24/2009 - 23:08 — Alrayes (not verified)
Nice article

Nice application of this

Mon, 03/23/2009 - 14:32 — Ricky Warren (not verified)
Nice application of this marketing principle to emails. You missed off Conviction and Action. Not sure about Conviction I haven't heard that one, but as for Action: You need to ensure you present a clear call to action for the audience, which directly addresses them. Make it one of the clearest things on the page, as the main purpose of an email is to generate traffic/responses towards something else, be it a phone number, an email address, or a website/other form of communication. Think about what will make the client want to carry out that action - have you covered it in Desire? Or do you need to say something extra to encourage a response like "Booking has never been more easier now that you can secure your place at www.xxxxxxxxx.com - purchase today and get an extra 15% off using code X09"? Also think about accessibility and how easy it is for the customer to follow through - are you asking them to click to a website and print off a form and then mail it to you? Or can you present a better option of a direct link to the form and ask them to email it to you? Better still, give them a choice of actions - telephone/fax/email/website etc give more accessibility to the client and allow them to respond in their preferred manner. Let them communicate with you in a fashion they are most comfortable with. Finally, choice is great, but if you have a specific action you want them to do, don;t give them too many choices, e.g. you want them to either ask for information or purchase - give them options for telephone/email/online. You want them to book as all the information is in the email and on the website and shouldn't require use of your sales team's time - just give them the website and maybe a promo code which automatically redeems a discount. Make sure on the website though that you have full details on how they can contact you for anything - that way you're covered. But the email doesn't have to give them all the options if you want to push them toward a specific action. Hope that helps! :)

Where have conviction and

Mon, 03/23/2009 - 13:01 — Anonymous (not verified)
Where have conviction and action gone??

Where have conviction and

Mon, 03/23/2009 - 13:01 — Anonymous (not verified)
Where have conviction and action gone??

I love this. I am curious as

Thu, 03/12/2009 - 17:28 — Avangelist (not verified)

I love this.

I am curious as to why the summary is suggested as being the last thing in the list (DESIRE - Go on to (briefly) demonstrate how your product or service makes their life easier, gives the reader more time or money, or makes them better business people.)

Surely this should be your lead message?

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