Lesson 7: Holiday Promotions – JV Emails

Welcome back, .

From now on we’re going to be focusing on the promotion of your holiday. And yes, we spend a lot of time on promotions because without it, you won’t get anyone to know about your holiday at all.

Let’s get started.

The first step in the promotion is writing emails for your JV partners to use to promote the giveaway to their own lists.

This is probably THE most important thing you will do, since essentially you are selling yourself to your target market, using the list of the JV partner. (That’s why it’s so essential to make sure your JV partner has a similar target market!)

Here are the basics in writing them great emails for your partners:

  1. You are writing in the voice of the JV partner. (Remember, it’s from them, not you.) So if that means you need to tweak the emails just a bit for each partner, do so!
  2. Create some excitement and anticipation. Part of the buzz that’s built is through the pre-promotion. Use it to make sure your prospects feel they will be missing out if they don’t participate.
  3. Write as if you are writing something for your perfect client or person in your target market. That is, write to just one person, not everyone.
  4. Talk  about the benefits (WIIFM? – What’s In It For Me?), not the features.
  5. Direct them to one thing: your special web page to get on your list and receive the holiday promotion giveaways.

How many emails should you write?

As many as you can, so you can give the option to your partners to use at least 3, or all of the emails you supply.  As part of this week’s bonus, I’ve included all five of the emails I gave my JV partners.

When I gave the partners these emails, I told them the requirement to participate was three emails, but I was including more, so they could use what they wanted, or completely write their own, if they so chose.

Most of my partners didn’t use all five of them. Many combined a couple of them –and ended up sending out three of them.  My feedback is that they liked having the option of five or more, but five was way too many for their lists.

Writing email promotions for partners that work

The key for these emails to build buzz and generate interest is for them to sound credible AND enticing. And a lot of that has to do with the words you choose.

For example, you may not be able to say that your product “has stood the test  of time,” but you may be able to describe it as “authentic,” which elicits  the same feeling of comfort in prospects. If you offer a service, you may not  be very “experienced”, but no doubt you are “talented” or “accomplished.”  And, rather than describing your business as “new,” you might say you are  “innovative” or “revolutionary.”

Now I don’t want you to worry that you don’t think you are a good writer, let alone copywriter.

Some of the worst copywriters are “writers” who enter the commercial copywriting profession. Why? Because they’ve learned the formal rules of writing so well, they can’t break free of the grammar and style shackles. They’re forever obsessing about what is correct rather than what is effective.

On the other hand, some of the best copywriters are salesmen or businesspeople or other folk who would normally have no credentials to write much of anything. They aren’t fixated on rules as much as they are on results.

To illustrate what I mean, here are some writing rule breakers that are often part of effective copywriting.

  • Write in the second person. Speak directly to the reader with words such as you, your, and yourself.
  • Keep most paragraphs short. Ideally, they should be no longer than 7 lines, especially in letters. If a paragraph gets too long, break it into shorter chunks. Forget standard paragraph development.
  • Drop in one-sentence paragraphs. They’re punchy and add variety.
  • Begin sentences with conjunctions. This includes and, also, besides, furthermore, likewise, moreover, or, else, otherwise, but, however, nevertheless, so, then, and therefore.
  • End sentences with prepositions. In ordinary conversation, do you say, “With whom are you going?” or “Who are you going with?” Allow yourself the freedom of putting of, for, with, and other prepositions at the end of a sentence. Strive to be natural, not slavishly correct.
  • Add occasional fragments. This helps add excitement. Urgency. Picks up the pace. And creates a firm tone. Don’t overuse this technique, though, or you’ll annoy readers.
  • Use intelligent redundancy. Free gift, actual fact, call anytime 24-hours a day, and other such constructions may get you poor marks in English class, but in the real world they help to emphasize your point and clarify your meaning.

Did you pick up anything from these tips? Essentially, I am telling you to write the way you speak. It really does make a difference on how you connect with your audience.

Assignment!

I’ll be checking in via email in a few days, with a bonus to help make sure your words entice! So be on the lookout for another email!