Answer: Write your emails like a memo and make sure it answers six questions in the first 70 words. Let us explain.

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Tested Methodology for Email Broadcast Online

That’s actually what it is; it’s like a Western Union memo. Make sure it answers six questions in the first 70 words. Here are the six questions. These questions answered is what Rudyard Kipling, the writer of Jungle Book, he’s one of the few writers who didn’t die broke.

He drove a Rolls Royce in England and any time he had writer’s block he would call upon his six servants to eliminate writer’s block and here they are. Investigative reporters utilize these servants as well.

Six Servants

These are the six things you want answered in your first 70 words in your email that’s written like a memo.

• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Why, and
• How

They’re not in any specific order, but that’s the order I’d like to write it in. Who is this from? What is it you want them to do? Where do you want them to go? When do you want them to take action and when are you mailing this? Why do you want them to do it? How are they going to do it?

How is it you came up with what you came up with and how are they going to do it? Clicking a link, making a call what is it…

How To

When you first start writing email communications what you want to do is write down vertically who: what: where: when: why: and how:, so vertically you’ve written who, what, where, when, why and how. This is your outline for writing an email.

I don’t care if you have 10 people on your list or 10,000 you want to make sure what you write answers these six questions in the first 70 words. Unless you do that you won’t have the same level of success.

Start with the Date (When)

Here’s how I do it. First, I write down the date, which is an unarguable truth. This is a truth that can’t be argued. If they’re receiving the email on a specific date and you write down the date then that’s an unarguable truth, you’re just one step closer to becoming and being perceived as a truth teller.

From Line (Who)

That’s the when right there, you’ve covered it immediately as far as the email is concerned. Then the who, who is it from? The from line is incredibly important, because that’s what they see before they open the email. In fact, the from line is the most important thing for emails and the subject line is number two.

Before they read your email they’re asking themselves who, not what? I’ll prove it. If I get an email from a family member I will read it no matter what, even if it’s about a what I don’t care for. Even if it’s from a business scam I’m going to read it because it’s from a family member. I love my family therefore I read it.

If it’s from someone I don’t recognize I may delete it. The reason spam is deleted is because it’s from people you don’t know. You don’t typically consider spam to be from people you do know. I don’t know whether you believe that or not.

The first question people ask themselves when they’re receiving is who? Who is it from? Make sure the from line or the who is recognizable and that you never change it; it always stays the same to the character. Why? There are many tips just in this one tip and question being answered, so listen carefully.

The reason you don’t want to change your from line ever is, because if someone has a spam filter oftentimes they’re tripped up by your from line. It could be a name or email address. Typically, it’s tripped up by your email address and many people like to get tricky; many I know.

They change their from line, but guess what it’ll get caught in the spam filter such as Spam Arrest then someone will have to go in there and uncatch it; they have to let it go, because not everyone checks their spam folder.

If you’re white-listed on someone else’s list, meaning if someone is receiving your emails or you’re white listed then you won’t go into their spam folder. You’re not black-listed you’re white-listed, so make sure you maintain that status and never change your from email address.

How many times have you changed your from email address when you’ve sent out emails, even if you’re sending it from Outlook that happens. You’ll get caught up in the spam filter, keep your email address the same.

It wasn’t like this in the beginning, but these days you must keep the from line the same. If it’s a name or physical email it doesn’t matter, keep it the same to the character. That’s before they even read the email.

Subject Line (What)

The second thing of importance is the subject line. People think that’s most important, but that’s not true that’s the what; what is this email about?

Once you’ve passed through the who filter, meaning they like you. The what filter is the next one; I like this person, but should I open this now or later? If a family member says check out the picture of my new baby you may open it now, but check out this business opportunity available in two months, so you may open it later.

The key is to open it from someone you know like and trust now. How do you get someone to do that?

• Have a subject line that’s useful, yet incomplete.
• Have a subject line that’s cognitively dissident.
• Have a subject line that’s not a headline or a complete thought.
• Have a subject line that’s begging to get open.

For example, have you seen this yet? That begs to get opened. Can you make it tonight? Can you receive this in your email? These are all subject lines I’ve utilized? Are you one of the first 13? Here’s your access code. Here’s what you requested.

This is the one and then sometimes all I do is put the person’s name with a question mark and say John?, Jane?, Frank?, click the link inside if this is you. These are useful, but incomplete subject lines. The single biggest mistake I see with people and marketers is they try to get clever with their subject lines.

First, a subject line should have less than 25 characters including spaces, otherwise it runs off if people are using Outlook or Gmail or anything else. Not everyone sees the same subject line, so why have a thought run off. I’ve seen entire emails in the subject line that’s a big mistake. Have the subject line very brief such as, have you seen this?

I’ve found that have you seen this isn’t as powerful as have you seen this yet? Others have done this, have you…? That gets opened, so the cool thing about subject lines is that you can use them for virtually any type of email and any topic, because the subject line doesn’t say anything.

It shouldn’t be claiming or declaring anything. All it should be doing is getting that email open. It got past the from filter so that means they’ll open it some time. The from filter is the filter in your recipients mind. I like and know this person, I trust this person.

The next thing they’re thinking and it’s within a split second they’re getting this in their minds is shall I open it now. I’m going to open this email, but should I open this now. Only the subject line can answer that questions and you have to give them something to get them to open it now.

Let’s go back now to Kipling’s six servants. They open up the email and see a date. Vertically they see a space and an FR: and that should be your name. If your name is John Doe it should say FR: John Doe. That’s saying who it’s from and what it’s doing is it’s edifying the from line they just looked at so there’s consistency and predictability therefore there’s trust.

Under the from line there’s a space with RE: meaning a reference to and you put the topic of your email and that’s the what. So far you’ve already covered the who, what and when in less than 10 words. Then I like to start with a one sentence opening, which I want to make a non-arguable truth.

Unarguable Truth

The reason I’d like to have an unarguable truth is, because they can’t be argued that’s why they’re called that. An unarguable truth is thanks for opening this email, I’m so glad you opened this or thanks for reading so far those are unarguable truths.

Here’s another, happy Wednesday it’s me or it’s Spring thanks for opening this those are unarguable truths. Why do you write an unarguable truth with the opening sentence and why is it only one sentence? It’s because one sentence is easier to read.

One sentence is also easier to consume and the point of the first sentence is to get to the second sentence.

The point of the second sentence is to get to the third, which could mean a paragraph, so two sentences put together. The point of the first sentence isn’t to answer anything other than defining an unarguable truth that you can decide on.

What can I say in one sentence that’s unarguable in the form of a question or using an elipse (…)? I don’t like using a paragraph with the first sentence, because that means stop.

Who, What, and When

Now you know about the from line and the subject line. You know about the who, what and when.

The Why, The How, The Where

In the body of the rest of the email you want to make sure in the first 70 words you answer the question why you’re writing them and how they’re going to take action in whatever they want you to take.

Make sure you answer the who, the what and the when you’ve already answered. The where, the why and the how is in the rest of the email and I hope you can do it a couple times in the email. The email doesn’t need to be less than 70 words, but in the first 70 if you answered those questions then you’ll get enough interest to have them continue.

20 'Ws'

A couple other tips, I believe in 20 ‘Ws’ at the top of your text pad or whatever email broadcast text writer you have. I like to use notepad. Don’t use MS Word, because that has rich text in it so you get these weird looking and goofy symbols if you decide to cut and paste that. Word has inherent programming inside whereas notepad or text pad doesn’t.

With the 20 ‘Ws’ across the top and rather than relying on my text editor to do carriage returns I’d like to when I get to the 20th ‘W’ or so. I do a hard return on my keyboard it’s enter, so a pipe then it goes to the width of what I’m looking at, at the top of the page for the text editor, which is about 20 ‘W’s’ then I hit enter and go to the next line.

Why do I do that? Because it’s easier to read. Isn’t a newspaper easier to read than some books, because they have narrower margins or the width of the copy is easier to read, the 20 ‘W’s’ rule is something I highly recommend, because if your emails are read they will be consumed.

If your emails are read that means you are getting stuff done and getting other people to get stuff done for you. If you’re emails are read you’ll become wealthier. The best way to get your emails read is to use the tips I just provided.

Use Notepad

I’d like you to write them directly in a notepad or textpad file and not into your broadcast system. This way you’ll have them available rather than writing directly into the autoresponder or into the e-business tool.

Sometimes you timeout, because you’ve taken so long to write it and then when you’re going to save it, it logs out and you’ve lost all your work. If you have an e-business tool like 1ShoppingCart, MarketersChoice.net or AWeber.com that could have happened to you it’s not their fault.

You took too long. The way to eradicate that problem is to write it directly into a textpad or a non-Word, non-rich text application. Go online you can get it for free that way you’ll have it and you can cut and paste that so you’re golden.

What’s critical is when you put all these things together these ordinary things consistently done produce extraordinary results and you make more money as a result.

If you want to test this theory, what I want you to do is keep changing your from line, keep changing your from email address for a year and change it every single day. Have long subject lines that run off the page and use block copy that doesn’t answer anything.

Do it non-memo style without any breathing space in between and make the margins go as far right as you can. Then do that for a year. If you still have money left and you’re not on a park bench, come back and try it the way I told you to do it and see what happens.

Better yet, do it the way I just gave you and then from all the money you made, test it with the way you think it may work, such as using block copy, regular returns from your text editor and having a from line you change every day. Test those too.

It's The Only Way

The way I gave you is not the way it is the only way I have observed and utilized that’s tested and true and it works. It’ll save you time. It’ll save you effort and it will save you a lot of wasted money.