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Contents

Legal Stuff ....................................................................................................... 3

Why You Must Know Demographics ............................................................. 5

Digging Deeper into Demographics ................................................................ 8

Down to the Nitty Gritty of Niche Research .................................................12

What is a Customer Avatar? ..........................................................................18

Empathy Maps ...............................................................................................24

Swipe Files .....................................................................................................28

Benefits, not Features! ...................................................................................32

Storytelling in Email Marketing ....................................................................36

Emotional Hotbuttons Must Read! ................................................................45

Cadence ..........................................................................................................54

Pattern Interrupts ...........................................................................................62

Pop Culture ....................................................................................................67

Conclusion .....................................................................................................70

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Legal Stuff

All contents copyright 2013 by Norma Rickman. All rights reserved. No

part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This e-book is for educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that

you will earn any income from the ideas presented in this e-book. There is

no guarantee you will make any sales from the ideas presented in this e-

book.

This e-book is not presenting a business opportunity.

This e-book is not making any claims to income that you might earn.

This e-book is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

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Emotional Hot Buttons—Part I Niche Research

What’s the secret to writing emails that connect emotionally with your

subscribers? It’s in knowing their problems, their questions and their goals,

of course! If you don’t know who the people in your niche really are, it’s

going to be extremely difficult to know what emotional hot buttons to push

to make sales.

Furthermore, by demonstrating that you know what their issues are, you

will become more trustworthy and authoritative in your subscribers’ eyes.

If your subscribers believe that you are not truly familiar with their

problems, they will tune you out, not bother to open your emails, or even

unsubscribe from your messages.

It’s not difficult to find these hot buttons, but you have to be willing to put

in some work. Ready? Let’s begin.

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Why You Must Know Demographics

It’s so critical that you know who your audience is. If you haven’t done

your homework, your subscribers will feel a disconnect with your email

messages. You need to use the kind of language they use themselves in

your messages. You need to be able to use the jargon they use within the

niche effectively for your words to ring true. Doing heavy niche research is

a step that you cannot skip if you want your email messages to resonate

with your subscribers.

For example, it should be obvious that you wouldn’t speak to someone

aged 25 in the same way that you would speak to someone who is 65. Their

speech patterns are different, and their life experiences are very different as

well. What might seem like a pressing problem when you are age 25 might

never enter your mind at age 65, and vice versa.

Also keep in mind that there can be a wide disparity in the problems and

goals within that are in the same age group, but are of different genders.

For example, the goal of a 26-year-old guy looking for a dating product

might be to easily pick up girls at a bar, while a 26-year-old female may be

looking for help to find a suitable partner for a long-term relationship.

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This is why it’s crucial to know the demographics in your niche. You can’t

craft messages that resonate with your audience if you don’t put in some

effort getting to know them first.

If you’re an affiliate in a niche, one of the best places to begin your research

is with your vendor’s official site. I’ll give you an example of what to look

for.

Let’s say that I’m interested in helping people in the panic/anxiety niche.

(By the way, that should be the way you approach your research, not

“What can I sell them?”) I decide that I’m going to promote a product from

Clickbank called Panic Away.

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One of the first things I notice is that the vendor has an opt-in form, so I

sign up for it and save the emails in a folder. Now, the reason that I’m

doing this is to get a feel for what kind of emails the vendor is using. Just

file these away for now; we’ll come back to these later.

Note: You don’t want to copy the vendor’s emails verbatim. What if your

subscriber is already on your vendor’s list? You don’t want to send out the

same emails, do you? Don’t you hate when it’s obvious that someone has

used a swipe file without modifying it?

Now, skim through the bullet points listed on the vendor’s sales page. This

will give you a quick overview of problems your target audience faces.

This allows you to be aware of some of the main issues of your prospects

when you are performing deeper research.

Lastly, glance over any testimonials that appear. People that give

testimonials presumably have had their problems solved by the vendor’s

solution. So, reading testimonials on the vendor’s sales page can give you

an idea of what the goals within the niche are.

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Now that you have completed a quick scan of the vendor’s sales page, you

are ready to get your hands dirty with some in-depth research.

Digging Deeper into Demographics

Next, let’s run the URL of the vendor’s home page through a couple of sites

that can uncover some further juicy details about our target audience. We

are going to use Alexa.com and Quantcast to gather some intel.

First, let’s look at Alexa. You can find a wealth of information about your

target audience at Alexa. Simple type the vendor’s URL into the search

field.

When we hit the “search button”, the following information comes up:

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Note the traffic rank. Any Alexa ranking under 200k indicates good traffic

volume. This ensures that we have a more accurate picture of our audience

than we would get from a site that has less traffic. Next, click on the “Get

Details” button. Here’s where we begin to find out some serious goods on

our niche.

As you can see, we are presented with a number of tabs that can reveal a

lot of information about the visitors to our vendor’s site. The tab we are

most interested in for research purposes is “Audience.”

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When we click the “Audience” tab, this information is revealed:

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At a glance we can see that most visitors to the Panic Away site are aged

55+, are male, have some college education and are browsing from home.

From this we can get a feel for the kind of language we should use when

we craft our emails. After all, an 18-year-old woman doesn’t talk the same

as a 55-year-old man, right?

Again, you want to make the language you use in your emails match the

kind of language that your prospect uses in real life. This makes your

emails to your prospects sound authentic and feel sincere about their

problems.

Another site where we can find out information about the visitors to Panic

Away is Quantcast.com. It provides very similar information to Alexa.com.

Sometimes, as the case is here, you can find out information about a site on

Alexa that isn’t available on Quantcast and vice versa. In this case, the folks

at Panic Away have elected not to provide their information to Quantcast,

so we will take what we can get from Alexa.

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Down to the Nitty Gritty of Niche Research

Now that we have completed some preliminary research, it’s time to dig

into the hearts and minds of our target audience. For this section, I’d like

you to prepare a spreadsheet with three pages:

1) Problems

2) Questions

3) Goals

Please leave the top two rows blank.

Next, your task will be to visit the following places to gather intel:

Twitter search

Facebook groups

Forums in your niche (I would stick with ones with an Alexa

ranking of under 200k. If a forum doesn’t have a lot of traffic,

it’s probably not worth your time searching through it.)

Amazon book reviews in your niche

Yahoo Answers

If you are interested in taking your target market research a step further,

another great site you can check out is The Experience Project. People share

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all kinds of stories and experiences there that can give you deep insight

into your target market. You may uncover some angles that give you even

more fuel for selling via email.

When you come across a problem someone is having, give it a title in the

top row, and paste their words into a column on your spread sheet (be sure

to leave the row under the title blank for now). For example, if you were

doing research in the panic niche, you might find out that one of the

problems is a racing heartbeat. Use that problem for the title, then paste the

exact words of the person describing the problem directly under it. Do the

same for other problems you come across.

Here’s a screenshot of a spreadsheet I completed in the panic niche. As you

can see, I cut and pasted the exact words of the people who are having the

issues. I can later use snippets of my research right in my emails.

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Complete the process for problems, questions and goals within your niche.

You want to capture the exact words people are using to describe their

issues and goals. Please note: You don’t have to go through and fill up a

sheet with problems, then move on to questions and lastly to goals. Just

insert your information as you find it.

Don’t be lazy here; really take some time with this step. This will actually

save you time in the long run if you spend the hours in research now.

Next, when you feel that you have enough information gathered to really

know the problems, questions and goals of your niche, count how many

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responses you have in each column, and enter the number in the row

beneath your title. Highlight the most pressing problems, questions and

goals with red.

Here is a video I made for some of my students outlining the process.

Please ignore the reference to “Ed,” as it’s not important to understand the

outlined process. I think this video will explain the research process a bit

more clearly.

Here is a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV4Z4GhX5Gg

I must give full credit to Daniel Levis for teaching me how to organize my

market research into a spread sheet in this manner. If you ever get a chance

to study under him, I highly recommend it!

Another benefit in completing this research is that you will have material

for sales and landing pages, blog posts and even ideas for your own

products at your fingertips after completing your in-depth research.

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Now that you know the most pressing concerns within your target

audience, you can focus on those concerns to craft your emails. Taking the

time to do some proper research will allow you to demonstrate empathy

with your prospects—you won’t have to guess what their issues are.

Demonstrating empathy with your subscribers helps you make a seamless

match between their problems and a product that will solve them.

Use the actual words that people are saying about their problems,

questions and goals in your emails. Of course, you don’t want to copy an

entire paragraph about a problem someone is having, but certainly use a

snippet or two of their sentences in your work. This makes your emails

have congruency with the concerns of your target audience. It will make

them feel that you truly understand their problems.

That is exactly how you build trust and create enough confidence in your

subscribers to purchase from you. If they don’t feel that you “get them”

there is no way that they will be willing to pull out their credit cards and

buy from you.

Now let’s take it a step further and create a customer avatar.

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Emotional Hot Buttons—Part II Creating a Customer Avatar & Empathy

Map

Now that you’ve conducted some in-depth niche research, I’m going to

teach you how to make your emails feel even more personal to your reader,

as if they were written to them alone. This will increase your subscriber’s

trust in you, and thus increase your sales conversions as well. We buy from

people we know, like and trust, not from some sketchy person sending out

emails telling us how to get rich quick.

To make our emails feel as if they are written to a friend, we will use two

powerful tools we have at our disposal. One is the customer avatar and the

other is the empathy map.

Using these two tools will allow you to truly understand the mindset of

your niche far better than if you follow the usual advice of “Find a

Clickbank product with high gravity” when entering a niche.

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Yes, creating avatars and empathy maps are probably a lot more work than

you are used to doing. The payoff is that you will gain deep understanding

into your customer’s pain points. You’ll know what kind of solutions they

are looking for to alleviate their pain and complete their goals.

This intimate knowledge of your prospect translates into more sales and

repeat sales from the same buyers. When you speak the customer’s own

language you’ll immediately understand how to push his or her emotional

buttons. Translation: You will get more sales and your customer will be

thrilled that you have provided a solution that fits their needs like a hand-

in-a-glove. It also makes it likely that they will purchase from you again in

the future.

How do we accomplish this feat? Let’s begin with creating a customer

avatar.

What is a Customer Avatar?

A customer avatar is basically a representation of who your ideal customer

is. To really be able to connect with your audience, and be able to match

solutions (products) to their problems, you need some background intel on

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them. Luckily, the research process I outlined previously gives you a head-

start on this. To market to your audience with laser precision, you need to

know things like what sex your ideal customer is; what his or her age is;

where they hang out online; what their income levels are likely to be; what

movies they watch and what books they read; what their level of education

is, etc.

According to Wikipedia, an avatar is “the graphical representation of the

user or the user's alter ego or character.” Many of you will be familiar with

avatars in gaming. This is a similar idea. A customer avatar is a

representation of your ideal prospect.

Let’s say that you’ve learned that your ideal prospect is a stay-at-home

mom, aged 34, who has two children and a college education. She makes

$75k per year from selling jewelry online. Her overarching goal is to lose

the extra 15lbs. that she gained during her last pregnancy.

First of all, we need to give our idea prospect a name. According to this

site, the most popular female name in 1979 was Jennifer. A popular boy’s

name was Thomas. Our avatar’s name is now Jennifer Thomas. By giving

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her a name, she seems more real to us. Now, when we craft our emails, we

can pretend that we are writing to her. It’s so much easier to write to a

friend than someone that you don’t know well, isn’t it?

What else do we need to know about our avatar?

How about: Where does she live? Rural or city dweller? Married or single?

What books does she read? What movies does she watch? What kind of a

car does she drive? What keeps her awake at night worrying about? What

does she fantasize about? What does she want more than anything? Does

she crave recognition? What kind of mistakes has she been making that

keep her from her goals? Who or what are her enemies?

Answer these questions about your prospect and put together a sketch of

who your prospect really is. Now when you sit down to write an email, it

will be so much easier, because you really know your prospect via creating

a customer avatar.

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For example, it may seem obvious that for our stay-at-home mom Jennifer,

her main pain point is her inability to lose the extra pounds post-pregnancy

pounds she is carrying.

But she may also feel frustrated that the weight hasn’t come off like after

the last pregnancy. She may feel ashamed of her extra pounds and feel like

she is not desirable to her husband anymore. She may have a vacation

coming up and wants to look good in a swimsuit. I’m sure that you get the

idea

There are always underlying issues underneath a larger issue like wanting

to lose 15 pounds and it’s your job as a good marketer to ferret them out.

Going through the avatar process will make these kind of underlying

issues crystal clear to you.

This kind of deep understanding allows you to zero in on your prospects’

and your subscribers’ desired outcomes and seamlessly match offers to

products. The beauty of it is that the product doesn’t even have to be

specifically designed for your audience.

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For example, you don’t need a dating product specifically designed for 40-

year-old virgin overweight who are balding male executives that live in

Cleveland if that indeed is your target audience. Instead, you have already

found out that one of their major problems is lack of confidence to go up to

an attractive woman at a party and start a conversation. Or you may have

found that being overweight is holding your subscribers back from asking

for a date because of being self-conscious about the size of their bellies.

Instead of focusing on a product custom-made for this audience, which

likely will not even exist, you can offer them a dating product that teaches

them how to start conversation, or a weight-loss product that will help

them lose those extra pounds and gain confidence in themselves.

The spreadsheet that you created in the last section gives you a wealth of

information to create your customer avatars. Take the time to do the

research and create an avatar for your customer and watch your emails

almost write themselves. You’ll never be at a loss for topics to write about

when you take the time and energy to complete the process.

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You can also interview people in the niche to build your avatar. This is

really powerful. Hang out in some forums in your niche. PM some people

and ask them for an interview so you can understand their problems better.

Nothing like getting your info straight from the horse’s mouth! You can

either do a Skype recording, or ask them to respond to questions that you

email them.

For more on creating customer avatars, check out these resources:

Customer avatars

http://brainsmartsuccess.com/2011/04/brain-smart-selling-tipcustomer-

avatar/

http://youtu.be/l6qm1aWk_ss

http://youtu.be/QnihpFQlbhw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfy0-HjqdcA

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Empathy Maps

Empathy maps are commonly used by corporations to understand their

customers, but they are invaluable to niche marketers as well. You are far

better off becoming an authority in a small, focused hyper-focused niche

than trying to cast your net too far and appeal to everyone.

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For example, do you think that a young lady trying to quickly lose pounds

before her wedding would have the same pain points as a woman over 50

who wants to lose weight would? Unlikely.

The bride-to-be is focusing on looking gorgeous in her wedding dress,

while the woman over 50 may just have been diagnosed with Type II

diabetes. She has been told by her doctor that she needs to lose weight for

health reasons. Both these women want to lose weight, but they have

entirely different motivations. Using the exact same kind of generic weight

loss messages won’t appeal to either lady.

This is why creating an empathy map of your ideal customer is so

important. You have to write the right messages that appeal exactly to your

target audience. Bland messages designed to appeal to everyone end up

appealing to no one at all.

An empathy map is a visual representation of the desired outcomes of your

ideal customer. In the avatar step, we created a persona that represented

the ideal customer, but an empathy map takes it one step further. An

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empathy map deals with your customer’s pain points, fears, frustrations

and obstacles to success.

It shows what the customers thinks and feels; what they see; what they say

and do; and what they hear. Basically, it takes what we have learned by

creating an avatar up a notch. It’s a little hard to wrap your head around

the concept at first, but this video gives a great explanation:

How to use an empathy map to understand your target audience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMN7vkE4csg

Here are another couple explanations of what an empathy map is and how

to create one:

http://glennas.wordpress.com/tag/business-model-generation/

http://skylance.org/2012/01/using-empathy-maps/

Here is yet another template of an empathy map.

http://blog.8thcolor.com/2011/08/who-are-our-posible-

customers/empathy_map/

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Finally, here is an empathy map generator:

https://innovationgames.com/game_view/instant_play/WYGGD2NRTVWX55P43

2UUFDKFLLHY23DD

Now that you have your customer avatar and empathy map created, you

will understand your target market far better than you ever have before. By

taking the steps to truly get inside your customer’s heads and understand

their fears, frustrations and obstacles, you will be poised to offer them a

perfect solution for their needs. This kind of insider knowledge will help

you craft better ads and creating highly-targeted landing, squeeze and sales

pages. And yes, it will also make you a more much more effective email

marketer.

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Emotional Hot Buttons-Part III-Putting Your Research to Work

Now that you thoroughly understand the pain points and goals of your

target audience, it’s time to get busy and begin to write your emails. Let’s

look at some of the tools and tricks of the trade.

Swipe Files

If you’re serious about becoming a good email marketer, there’s a lot of

value in keeping a swipe file. I’m not talking just about the pre-written

emails vendors give you to help you to promote their offers. They can be

valuable to help you find an angle for your emails, but I wouldn’t advise

that you use them as is.

I’m talking about keeping a file where you collect emails from marketers

you enjoy hearing from. To be perfectly clear, I am NOT advocating that

you rip off these marketers emails word-for-word. This can land you in hot

water for copyright infringement. Instead, I want you to think about why

you enjoy receiving emails from certain marketers.

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What is it about these marketers that make you always open their emails,

no matter what the subject line is? Success leaves clues. Study the work of

these marketers that you admire. What is the common thread that

resonates through their emails? How do they incorporate the emotional

benefits of purchasing the products as they are promoting as well the

features of the product?

Is it the way that they use language? Is it the way they incorporate

storytelling into their emails? Do they get personal in their emails,

providing little glimpses into their life? What makes their emails stand out

in the sea of emails you receive daily?

If you are reading an email sequence from one of these marketers, what

makes you want to open and read the next email in the sequence? Do they

create an emotional tension that makes you drop everything when you see

their name in your email inbox?

You probably feel that you are being written to by a friend when you

receive an email from a marketer who really resonates with you.

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This is because they don’t try to create a “broad” email that will appeal to

every interest under the sun. Instead of creating lukewarm interest from a

huge list, instead they hyper-target a particular segment of their list that

has a particular problem. Then they can provide their prospects and

customers with a solution that fits them like a hand-in-a-glove.

You should also keep a swipe file of email messages that make you want to

click “unsubscribe.” What pushes your buttons the wrong way? What

irritates you? Does the sender use the word “I” a lot, and forget about

“you”? In other words, do they brag a lot about themselves, but forget to

provide any kind of a personal benefit for you to invest in their product?

In the earlier section, I mentioned getting on the vendor’s list if you are an

affiliate marketer. What kind of emails is the vendor sending? You can bet

that the vendor has spent considerable time and effort into testing these

emails for effectiveness. What is the vendor doing well? What could be

better? Use these emails for inspiration, but put your own spin on them

based on your research!

Beware of the abuse of the word “I” in your emails.

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I thought it was really interesting that an add-on service I use for Aweber,

AWProtools, has an email grader that tells you if you are overdosing on

using “I” too many times in your emails. It’s really important to focus on

your reader, not on yourself, when you craft your emails!

Here’s a screen shot from AWProtools that nicely sums up why you need

to focus on your readers’ problems, questions and goals, instead of blowing

smoke for yourself! (By the way, this is NOT one of my emails!)

Your readers don’t care about your experiences per se. They care about how

your experience can help them achieve their goals. Of course, it’s alright to use

“I” in your emails, but don’t make the mistake of talking about yourself

much more than you talk about your subscribers’ problems.

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Remember, your subscribers are on your list because they felt like you had

something to offer that can help them with their problems. Otherwise, they

never would have joined your list to start with. Focus on them, not on you!

Benefits, not Features!

I see way too many marketers that can’t seem to understand that a feature

of a product is much different than a benefit of a product. You have to sell

the benefits of a product, not just the features of it, if you want to make an

emotional connection with your subscriber!

All your emails should present a clear benefit to your readers for buying

from you.

For example, what do they stand to gain in terms of saving time; saving

energy; saving-money; enhancing their prestige; getting clear skin; gaining

washboard abs, etc., by trusting you and your recommendations?

Will they have more time to spend with their families? Will they save

money they can use toward their next vacation? Will they have clear skin

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so they can go to the prom feeling beautiful? Will their washboard abs get

them attention from the opposite sex?

If you can’t answer how your target audience will benefit from your

product based on your demographic research, you need to go back to the

drawing board. You must figure out the real reason that someone would

want to buy your product!

All the bells and whistles in the world don’t necessarily mean a lot to

people unless they can clearly see how the features can help them. It’s your

job as an email marketer to draw your prospects a picture of their success

when they purchase your product.

Let’s look at an example of what a feature is and what a benefit is. Let’s say

for the sake of this example that the product you’re promoting is a new

piece of software.

Feature: Software scans Google Suggest finding LSI keywords for your

search query.

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Now if you sent out an email stating that feature, your reader may

very well say, “Uh yeah…so what?” Instead, you want to give them

of a benefit of the product— or how it will help them:

Benefit: LSI keywords help you to rank in Google and thus bring more

visitors to your site. More visitors=more sales & opt-ins.

To successfully capture a benefit for the reader, instead of a feature, I find

using the “So what?” tactic to be very effective. When I mention a feature

of a product, I immediately say to myself, “So what?”

For example, does this feature: a) Save time b) Save money c) End social

embarrassment d) Make you part of a cool crowd . . . you get the idea, I’m

sure.

Here’s a few more examples:

Feature: This vehicle is equipped with 4-wheel drive.

The So-What-Benefit: You’ll have better traction on icy roads and

stay safe driving in bad weather conditions.

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Feature: This information product teaches how to outsource your

graphic design on the cheap.

The So-What-Benefit: You’ll save tons money that you can spend on

other areas of your business.

Feature: This dating product teaches you ten ways to strike up a

conversation with a woman.

The So-What-Benefit: You’ll have the confidence to approach an

attractive lady at a party.

Feature: This fishing line is made from a new, ultra-strong polymer

The So-What-Benefit: No more having your fishing line snap just as

you get the big one up to the boat.

A key point to remember is while what a product’s features provide may

be obvious to you— but it may not be obvious to your reader! Don’t be

afraid of seeming too obvious. Spell it out for the reader in terms how they

will receive a pleasant pay-off for their investment in your product or

affiliate offer.

Here’s a few resources to help you keep benefits and features straight:

John Carlton on Copywriting: Features vs Benefits (Video)

The Difference Between Features and Benefits

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Copywriting Tips: How to Market Benefits vs Features

Storytelling in Email Marketing

A huge part of email marketing is obviously to convince the reader to click

on our links and follow through with a purchase. But we don’t our

customers to make just a one-time purchase. We want them to buy from us

over and over again. We can only do this if our subscribers stay subscribed

to us!

People don’t stay on your email list just because you’re good looking, or

because you offer the coolest stuff. Nope.

They keep reading your emails because you entertain them, as well as

informing them. They feel a connection to you. One of the best ways to

create this connection is via storytelling.

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The power of storytelling is ingrained into our psyches at a very young

age. Through storytelling, your subscribers feel that you are in their corner.

You can soft-teach your tribe what they need to know without hitting them

over the head with hard-boiled sales pressure.

In this day and age of short attention spans, storytelling will also help you

stand out from the crowd and entice customers to make purchases from

you again and again. Why? Storytelling makes you more likeable and more

human. We buy from people we like, sometimes even over others who

might be offering a slightly lower price, or are offering you a bonus with

purchase.

Stories let your readers know that you are on their side. Stories help you

build anticipation and desire for your products and services within your

readers. They help you say to your audience, “Yes, I have walked in your

shoes. You are not alone in your problems.”

Storytelling is all about engaging your customers and prospects before you

ask for the sale. This is where your research efforts really begin to pay off.

By knowing your customers inside and out, it enables you to write stories

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that incorporate hooks that speak precisely to your target audience’s fears,

frustrations and goals.

After doing some research for the panic and anxiety niche, I came across

someone saying that the panic attacks were making them doubt their own

sanity and even felt like their bodies were being taken over by an evil force.

Another common thread that I saw in posts about panic attacks was that

how people kept repeating was how tired they were at having their

symptoms brushed off by doctors. So I decided to take these pain points

and weave them into my email in the form of a story:

Subject Line: A Cure Worse Than the Symptoms?

In my last email, I told you about my first panic attack. I was totally

embarrassed to find myself lying on the floor of a pizza joint, gasping

for breath.

Panic attacks are not just embarrassing. They can make you doubt

your own sanity. It's almost as if your mind is taken over by some kind

of evil force.

Just thinking that I might have another one of these episodes in

public was enough to make me break out in a cold sweat. I wanted

to make sure that it didn't happen again.

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After the docs brushing my panic attack off as if it were nothing, I

decided to do a little research on my own. I had to find something to

help.

I looked into medications to ease my high anxiety levels. At the time

of my first panic attack, I was writing final exams at college. I thought

that maybe if I got some "chill pills" all would be well. So I did some

research into my options.

One prescription med that was supposed to help with anxiety was

Paxil. According to what I read, Paxil really can help with bad

anxiety. . . but it has horrible potential side effects:

*Weight gain

*Decreased libido

*Dry mouth

*Numbed emotions

*Increased risk of suicide

I thought, "Wow, the cure sounds almost as bad as the symptoms!"

I decided right then and there that medication was not going to be

my choice of treatment. So I began my quest for a drug-free solution

for my anxiety and panic attack problem.

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One of the first things I learned was that my student lifestyle of

smoking cigs, pounding back pots of coffee, late nights at the club

and not getting enough sleep wasn't helping my anxiety problem.

But the thought of giving up all of these vices cold turkey was

enough to put me into another panic attack!

I knew that I had to find a substitution for my favorite vices, stat. The

substitutions couldn't make my anxiety worse and they couldn't be

drug-based.

Next time, I'll tell you about how I made lifestyle changes to ease my

anxiety. Not cure it.

That came later.

Until tomorrow,

Zach

Using storytelling in email marketing it’s a bit like rehashing the fairy tales

we all loved as kids. In good storytelling, there is always a message with a

hidden deeper meaning.

For example, I wrote an email featuring David and Goliath when I was

promoting a product about email marketing. Why? Because I wanted to

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drive home the point that you don’t need a big email list to slay the

“Google giant”(meaning, losing out on commissions when your site drops

in Google rankings) without stating it implicitly.

Email marketing is more about being strategic and picking the weak points

of your competition so you can slay them. Instantly, my audience could

identify with David. This was because they see themselves in the face of

the giant Google as a little guy like David, with the odds stacked against

them. In my version of the story, the enemy Google comes disguised as

Goliath, the fearsome giant.

People relate can really relate their problems to your solution when you

offer up a common enemy for them. It might be Google; it might be your

lack of self-confidence; it might be a health concern; it might be “The

Man”—you get the idea.

If you can find a common enemy that causes woes, you can then offer up a

solution that slays this same enemy for them. This works for any niche. If

you’re in the dating niche, the enemy might be lack of self-confidence. If

you’re in the acne niche, it might be hormonal changes that cause

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outbreaks. If you’re in the weight loss niche, it might be a struggle with

plateaus. Once you dig into your niche with solid research, you can make

your offer seamless with your target audience’s goals.

One very effective way of using stories is to incorporate them within open

loops. An open loop is merely a story line that is not completed in that

email—in other words, it’s a cliff hanger. Creating an open loop is a bit like

making a child having to wait a number of days before he can open his

Christmas gifts. Every day that he has to wait to open his gifts builds his

anticipation and his desire for what’s inside that shiny package.

In the same way, every day that your subscriber is left hanging to find out

what happens next keeps him or her engaged and wanting to know more.

You can drop juicy tidbits about the benefits of your product or service that

in your open loops, but you’ll never have to resort to the hard sale once

you master the technique.

When you hint at something to come in an email, but don’t reveal exactly

what it is, your readers’ brains can’t quite come to terms with it. Here’s a

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quick example that demonstrates an open loop from a “PS” in one of my

emails :

PS-Tomorrow find out why being expelled from school set me up for

financial success.

Naturally, the reader is left in disbelief when he or she reads this. They are

thinking, “What? There’s no way that being expelled from school can set

you up for financial success! I have to see this!” And so, they will be eager

to open your next email.

Our brains need and crave closure. When they don’t get it, they will do

almost anything to end the suspense and get the relief they need. Why else

do cliff hanger episodes of t.v. shows get such high ratings? Because people

tune in to see how the story concludes, of course!

When you get the power of storytelling and open loops, your email

sequences will automatically become more powerful and engaging. Your

readers will look forward to receiving your next email transmission instead

of searching for the delete button.

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Reading an email is like reading anything else. If it bores you, if it doesn’t

entertain you and provoke some emotional reaction in you there is no

incentive to finish reading it. Quit boring your audience! Learn about

incorporating storytelling into your emails.

Here’s a few resources to get you started as a storyteller:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/storytelling-why-stories-

attract-more-customers/

http://labs.mrss.com/talking-storytelling-in-emails-with-mr/

http://pfa-blog.com/home/the-secret-to-skyhigh-response-rates/

http://youtu.be/TmQ_1WuMSlk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htun5khOJgg (This is an

interview with master email persuader and ninja at open loops

Andre Chaperon—don’t miss this one.)

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Emotional Hotbuttons Must Read!

If you haven’t already read the groundbreaking book Influence: The

Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, you must get your

hands on a copy. It will help you to be much more effective in your

overall marketing, not just in crafting emails. If you understand what

motivates people to get to “yes”, you can start implementing the

same tactics in your emails.

In Influence, Cialdini cites six principles of influence that get people

to say “Yes” to an offer:

1) Reciprocity

2) Commitment

3) Social Proof

4) Liking

5) Authority

6) Scarcity

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Here’s a few short primers on Cialdini’s Principles of Influence. I really

encourage you to read the entire book if you haven’t already. It will help

you immensely in understanding the triggers that make people buy.

Cialdini’s Six Principles of Influence from MindTools.com

Why Do People Say “Yes?” The “6 Weapons of Influence” by David

Palmer of Fripp & Associates.

Cialdini’s 6 Rules of Influence..Pick your weapon wisely by Dale

Pearson of SubliminalHacking.net

Here’s a quick overview of each principle, just in case you’re unfamiliar

with them.

Reciprocity—In a nutshell, reciprocity is “you scratch my back and I’ll

scratch yours.” If you do something for someone, they naturally feel

obligated to return the favor.

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How can this be applied to email marketing? If you occasionally give free

bonuses to your list, it creates a feeling of obligation to purchase something

from you in the future. You don’t even have to give out free bonuses to

make this work; just give some solid tips that help your subscriber advance

towards their goals.

Notice I said, “Help your subscriber advance towards their goals.” I didn’t

say to solve their all problems for them free of charge! Don’t give away too

much, or they won’t need to purchase the product(s) you’re offering.

Another way to create reciprocity in your subscribers is to warn them off a

really bad product. You have done your subscribers a favor by warning

them away from a bad deal that would have wasted their time and money

if they would have otherwise purchased it.

Don’t use this tactic very often. Make sure that the product you are

warning against really is a bad one and that you have your subscriber’s

best interests at heart. Don’t do this with the intention of creating

reciprocity just in order to sell your subscribers something more expensive

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a day or so later! That will create bad juju that will come back to bite you.

Yes, I really did just say bad juju.

Being unethical makes your readers lose their hard-earned trust in you,

quit buying from you and unsubscribe from your list. The short-term

increase in sales you might gain from an underhanded tactic like this just

isn’t worth it in the long run.

Commitment—Commitment doesn’t mean creating a high-pressure tactic

to get someone to buy! That’s not what it’s about at all. It’s about getting

someone to make a very small commitment, in order to make them more

receptive to making a bigger commitment later on.

For example, in your email, you could just ask a question related to a

problem your niche is having and end it with, “right?” Mentally, your

reader will nod, “yes.” That tiny commitment makes them more likely to

make a bigger commitment, such as opt-in to a newsletter or purchasing an

item from you at a later date.

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Here’s an example of creating a small commitment from a subscriber in the

panic niche:

There’s nothing worse than feeling like you can’t breathe, is there?

The person suffering from panic attacks can instantly relate to this

statement and will agree with you. Maybe even they’ll even nod their head

in agreement at this statement. You have just caused them to make a

simple commitment that will help them lead them into making a bigger

commitment such as a purchase or opt-in.

Social Proof—Straight forward. Everyone trusts something more if

someone else says that they like it. That’s why no one will jump into the

pool until one brave soul jumps in and says, “C’mon in, the water’s fine!”

This is why you see the Facebook and Tweet buttons everywhere. If

something has a lot of “likes” “+1’s”and/or “tweets” you are more likely to

trust the source the information comes from.

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You can incorporate this into your emails by sneaking a snippet from a

sales page testimonial or a customer testimonial into your email. If you are

promoting an affiliate product, and the vendor has included a case study,

you can report on a result from it.

Example: “After six weeks on the SuperFit Workout program, participants

averaged 5% bodyfat loss and two inches off their waists.” There’s no need

to report on the entire case study, just briefly mention a result or two. In

your reader’s mind, if someone else has proven success with a product, it’s

more likely that they will have success with it as well. No one wants to be

the first one to try out something in case it doesn’t work.

You should also know that if you incorporate social sharing icons directly

into your emails, that it can increase click-through-rate as much as 158%

according to a study from Get Response. It doesn’t necessarily mean that

your subscribers will share your emails; just having the buttons included in

your email seems to be enough to trigger a higher CTR.

Here’s how to incorporate social sharing buttons if you use Aweber:

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https://help.aweber.com/entries/21776966-How-Do-I-Add-Social-Media-Buttons-

to-My-Messages-

And here’s your guide to how to get it done with Get Response:

http://support.getresponse.com/uploads/2011/07/2FDB2d01.pdf

Liking—It’s 100% true that people are more likely to buy from someone

they already know, like and trust, right? (See what I just did there?)

As mentioned before, if you make your emails feel like they are written to a

friend, rather than written like a high-pressure pitchfest, you will have

better results. Get personal in your emails and let your readers know you.

If your subscribers like you (or even like a persona you are taking on in

your marketing) they will be more likely to purchase from you.

Admit to a few mistakes, to things you would have done differently in the

same circumstances and you will appear more human and likeable in your

email marketing.

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You don’t have to totally reveal all of the details of your life, but giving

your subscribers a little peek into it will up your likeability factor to the nth

degree.

Authority—Your subscribers already perceive you as a leader, or they

wouldn’t have signed up to receive your messages in the first place. How

can you build on your authority?

By adding more value for your subscribers. For example, you could create

a Facebook group where your subscribers can ask and answer each other’s’

questions. You could start a blog where readers can leave comments on

your posts. You could create some videos that answer subscriber’s

questions and post them on YouTube. It really doesn’t have to take up all

of your time to implement a few ideas like this, especially if you use some

social syndication tools like Hootsuite or IFTTT

When you create a new post or a new video, send a link out to your

subscribers. That’s a quick and easy way to boost your traffic and gain

respect and authority within your chosen niche.

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6) Scarcity—People want most what they can’t have. They also fear that

they may lose access to something they love. It’s just a fact of human

nature. What we can easily obtain just doesn’t hold as much value to us as

something harder to get. Having rarer things increases our prestige, if only

in our own minds. We wouldn’t have VIP sections in clubs if it weren’t the

case.

This is also why offers presented as a “limited-time special” can spur sales.

If people fear that they won’t have access to the product at a later date, it

will influence them to buy it now. They don’t want the feeling of having

had missed out on something valuable. This is especially true if they were

initially on the fence about purchasing the product in the first place. If

there is a scarcity element involved that limits access to the product you’re

promoting, be sure to mention it to whet buyers’ appetites.

Another way to imply scarcity is to mention an upcoming price increase for

the product you’re promoting. People hate the thought of paying full price

for something if could get it cheaper by taking immediate action.

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Cadence

Cadence is defined as “a rhythmic flow of a sequence of sounds or words.”

A well-crafted email uses cadence to create a pleasurable effect on the

reader. Language has its own rhythm. Learn to write in a way that

capitalizes on this rhythm, your readers will look forward to your next

email.

Think back to when you were a little kid. What kinds of books did you

love? Probably the ones that had their own quirky rhythm or beat. Think

back to Dr. Suess:

I DO NOT LIKE THEM,SAM-I-AM.

I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM.

WOULD YOU LIKE THEM HERE OR THERE?

I WOULD NOT LIKE THEM HERE OR THERE.

I WOULD NOT LIKE THEM ANYWHERE.

I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM.

I DO NOT LIKE THEM, SAM-I-AM.

Just because we are grownups doesn’t mean our love of cadence in written

language stops. Here’s an example of cadence from one of my emails with

the subject line, “The Red Pen of Justice.”

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Some of you may not know this about me.

I hold a credential in one of the world's

most dreaded, feared and despised

professions. Yes, it's true.

I can strike fear into the heart of grown

men with my instrument of terror.

Fear not.

I am not an assassin.

I am not an investigator for the IRS.

I am not a high-priced litigator.

It's worse than that.

I am a high-school English teacher.

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I can wield a red pen like a

mighty avenging sword over the

travesty of boring writing, mangled syntax

and unimaginative idioms.

Yes, it's just that terrifying.

But what is even more terrifying

than me and my Red Pen of Justice

is a blank piece of paper (digital

paper in our case.)

We sit down to write a blog post.

A Kindle book. An article.

A review. A sales page.

We see the looming whiteness

before us and feel as if we

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are a lone Eskimo enveloped

in the whiteout of a furious blizzard.

Writer's block. The icy cold hand

of fury that freezes our creative

juices solid.

Fear not, I have just the thing to

thaw that block of creative dullness.

It's called WP Semantic.

It's being packaged as an SEO plugin,

but I see so many uses beyond that.

Kindle. Sales pages. Blog posts.

Even autoblogs.

You input a keyword, let's say,

in this case, "Baby."

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WP Semantic spits back a list of up

to 300 semantically related keywords.

In the case of baby, we might

get back "crib", "bottle" "pacifier."

But it doesn't just bring back

single words. That wouldn't be

all that helpful.

It brings back two- and three-keyword

phrases to use in your writing. What's

even better, WP Semantic gives you

the option to export all these keywords

to a spread sheet.

While there is no doubt that semantic,

or LSI keywords have enormous

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ranking power in Google, the Big G

is notoriously stingy at providing them.

You can get them by typing a keyword

into Google search, going to the bottom

of the search page and finding them.

Slow and tedious work.

WP Semantic bypasses this need

to hunt and peck to find LSI keywords

altogether. You get them back instantly.

You can use them right then and there,

or export them for use in other projects.

You can also take one of those generated

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keywords, and turn around and search it

for even more keyword options.

Take that, Google.

In addition, the developer of WPSemantic

is providing lifetime access to a

web-based version of the tool.

You don't need to be logged into a

Wordpress site to use it, ideal for

the Kindle writers in the crowd.

Or use the LSI keywords as fuel

for your sneaky autoblogging tactics.

Either way, WPSemantic provides you with

great semantic keywords to spring board

your writing efforts.

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You can sleep soundly with WP Semantic

knowing that my Red Pen of Justice

won't be waiting to strike the next time you write.

Notice the repetitive “S” sound in the above sample? The ear is almost

waiting to hear another one. Also, notice that I break my sentences into

lines? Each line will end with a significant word and if I can, I will begin a

new sentence on a separate line.

Isn’t this more fun to read than something like:

“Hey {firstname}, you rockstar!

My good friend Bob just released a brand-new smoking hot widget.

It’s going to be a complete game changer! Bob shows how he

made $658735.01 with this widget in 10 minutes whilst getting a root

canal while his girlfriend gives him a pedicure. Watch this video of

Steve in his brand-new Porsche!

This totally rocks! If you want to be someone who thinks outside the

box, get this now!

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Signed,

Swipe File Steve”

Let’s all let out a collective “Yawn” now. We’ve all seen this stuff before

and it’s deadly boring.

Be creative and experimental in your emails. There’s just no excuse to be

boring! Your audience will be enthralled with your writing when you get

creative. They won’t even notice themselves reaching for their credit cards.

Pattern Interrupts

Go listen to this:

http://youtu.be/sy_Aje0hnac

Doesn’t that sound stop you from whatever you are doing dead in your

tracks? A pattern interrupt in an email does the same thing. It makes a

reader pause in their mind, and may even confuse them a little. That’s

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okay. That’s exactly what you want. You want your reader snapped out of

any complacency.

Pattern interrupts produce a particular emotional state in the reader. It’s a

bit like throwing a bucket of cold water in someone’s face to capture their

attention. It startles and shocks them a little bit, which primes them to pay

closer attention to what comes next.

The term “pattern interrupt” is part of the terminology used by

practitioners of Neurolingustic Programming (NLP.) Now, what I know

about NLP would fill a thimble and I would be the first one to admit it. I

don’t really have an opinion on its effectiveness in copy, as NLP was really

designed for use in therapy. But I do know that getting a certain rhythm

going in your email and suddenly interrupting it has a powerful effect.

Here’s an excerpt from one of my emails that used the technique and

converted at 29%:

Subject Line: What is a Dream Niche?

What's a Dream Niche?

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It's an untapped highly profitable niche.

It's a niche that not everyone

and their dog have already entered.

One that starts making you money in short order.

So . . .

How do you get the edge in a niche market?

How do you find the keywords everyone else overlooks?

How do you get lightning fast rankings?

In other words--How do you find a dream niche?

You stop doing what everyone else is doing

You stop relying just on keyword tools

to find great keywords.

You stop looking at sheer number of back links

as a ranking factor.

You start using your brain instead

You’ll notice that I start many of my sentences with the same word. Using

repetitive words creates a rhythmic pattern that is pleasing to the ear.

When you suddenly switch it up midstream, it makes the reader mentally

shake their head and say “Whoa! What’s going on here!”

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I use “How do you” in four consecutive sentences and end the sentences

with a question mark. To make the pattern interrupt even stronger, I put

the next line, “You stop doing what everyone else is doing” in italics and

end it with a period.

Next, I use the words “You stop” twice more. As soon as the reader starts

to expect the words “You stop”, since they have now seen them three times

in a row, I change it up and write “You start using your brain instead” and

emphasize it in italics.

This last line works on a couple of different levels. It interrupts the “You

stop” pattern, but it also uses another tactic called presupposition. If you

are an internet marketer, the expectation is that you need all kinds of

keyword tools to find great keywords. But instead of being told that you

need the latest whiz-bang keyword tool, you are told that what you really

need is to “. . . start using your brain instead.”

Speaking of “start using your brain instead. . .” that brings up something

else I did in that email. By using that particular phrase, I implied that if my

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reader was a “cool kid,” they’d purchase this product to get a leg up on

those using expensive keyword tools.

Summary: Try using pattern interrupts in your email marketing. You can

use repetitive words, punctuation and presupposition as part of your

arsenal to command the reader’s attention and get them hanging on your

every word.

Here’s some resources on pattern interrupts:

http://powercurvemedia.com/pattern-interrupt-marketing/#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abqIx_wVrFo

http://www.chadgoehring.com/shocking-the-prospect-through-pattern-

interrupt.html

Here’s a few on Presuppositon:

http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/Unit_02/presupposition.htm

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http://ezinearticles.com/?Persuasive-Language-Techniques---Internet-Marketing-

Gold&id=1318948

Pop Culture

Using pop culture references in your emails is an excellent way to push

some hot buttons. Using these can make your readers feel that they are “on

the inside” and part of the group of cool kids. Even if they are way past

being cool kids.

Everyone enjoys feeling that they are hip, privy to inside jokes and keeping

up with the culture of the times. When you put these types of references

inside your emails you promote these kind of good feelings on behalf of

your reader. You can use references to popular movies, music, books, or

t.v. shows in your email marketing—it really doesn’t matter.

It just helps emphasize to your readers that share common interests with

them. The more that your reader feels you are like them, the more they

will trust you and your recommendations for products and services.

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You can easily take this a step further and incorporate current trends or

world events in your emails. A great place to stay on top of trends is...wait

for it...Google Trends.

Just click on the “Hot Searches” tab to see which searches in the fields of

entertainment, sports, gaming, business, and news are currently trending.

For example, on the day I’m writing this, March 27, 2013, there is a news

article in Google Trends about Nick D’Aloisio, a 17-year-old genius who

sold his app Summly to Yahoo for $30 million. You think that wouldn’t

make a great story to weave into your email?

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If you know that your readership primarily consists of persons from a

specific geographic region, you can even drill down to find trending topics

from particular nations.

Here’s another idea. If you have a niche blog, you can email out a snippet

from one of these articles with a brief “yay or nay” analysis of the opinion

expressed in the article. Then you can invite your reader back to your blog

to read a more in-depth analysis, perhaps monetized in some fashion.

It’s all about making an emotional connection with your reader. That is the

foundation of being a successful email marketer.

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Conclusion

I hope that you learned enjoyed this information as much as I enjoyed

bringing it to you. Hopefully you learned a few things that you can put

into action in your own email campaigns.

Emotional triggers in email marketing is a huge, huge topic and I’ve only

begun here to touch on it. The most important aspect in email marketing is

making an emotional connection with your subscribers is in knowing their

fears, problems and goals. What makes them lie awake at night? What

frustrates them to no end?

There’s no easy button to research, but it’s crucial to your success as an

email marketer. Good research will even enable you to appeal to an

audience outside your own area of expertise.

Once you’ve thoroughly researched the needs of your subscribers you’ll

find it much easier to engage their emotions and create a desire for your

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product or service. They’ll stay subscribed for longer and become your

repeat customers. No better outcome than that!