Just one email

I’m an email junkie.

I chuckle when I hear people throw around baseless assumptions like “email is dead” because it’s 100% wrong.

Email is far from dead.

While inboxes may feel charmingly old-school, well crafted, targeted email is still sexy. And it’s a kick-ass mechanism for building relationships that lead to action…

Especially in longer sales cycles like, say, real estate.

From what I can tell, email masters rule modern business.

• Email marketing has an average ROI of 3,800%. That means for every dollar invested, the average return is $38. (!!!!!!!!) (Source: Salesforce)
  

• Email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences, behind colleague recommendations and industry thought leaders. (Did you read that, vendors?) (Source: Wordstream)
  

• By 2021, the number of email users is expected to hit 4.1 billion. (Again, !!!!!!!) (Source: Statista)
  

Let me pair these eye-popping statistics with a personal anecdote…

My inbox gets something like 100 emails every day. I stopped cleaning it out years ago. Now I just scan for the names I recognize that I know will excite me every time, and forget the rest.

I remember an email from several months ago that was so well written, so eerily insightful and relevant to my life that I had to look around to make sure the person who wrote it wasn’t sitting in the room with me.

The email was about time management and the experience of being overwhelmed. It was as if the sender knew exactly what I had been thinking and what I needed to hear right then and there. He even asked pointed questions I’d recently asked myself.

How did he know?

It wasn’t magic. He’d paid attention to which emails I opened and interacted with, and aptly tagged me in his platform so he could hit me up with just the type of custom messages I would respond to.

A few weeks later, this same guy sent another email on the same topic. After savoring every word, I clicked a link in his P.S. and hopped over to a long-form sales page for one of his courses.

I didn’t bother to read it all. I got about a third of the way down the page and hungrily searched for the “buy” button. I had never taken an online course in my life. And in personal development? So not me.

But the medicine he was offering described my pain so perfectly, I couldn’t look away.

He was that good.

After months of engaging content, he had me in his court long before that morning the sales email arrived. He knew exactly what I needed. And I trusted him to deliver it.

Sale over.

I get that he’s not writing these emails. He’s got a staff of world-class copywriters doing that. Point is: I make time for the emails I know will give me value. And apparently I also take action when an itch gets scratched. And given those fancy numbers I pulled above, it’s not just me.

Email is a workhorse of good marketing, and it all hinges on good writing and knowing the audience. So, what can we do to move the needle in this area of our business?

One email

I’m going to make a point of championing better emails in 2019 – both for you, our 1000WATT subscribers, and for our clients.

Personally, I’m committing to writing just one email each month that gives you something of value.

The inbox is a gift … one that we must nurture and not defy. One that should never be fully relinquished to software that automatically sends listings and market updates (though those things, too, are valuable at the right time).

Cuz if we do this right – treat our lists like royalty – they’ll listen to us. They’ll trust and advocate for us.

And, when the time comes, they’ll buy what we’re selling – whether that’s a piece of software, a service or simply an idea.

No, email is not dead.

Boring, cookie-cutter, thoughtless email that doesn’t bother to join the conversation the human on the other end is already having is what’s really dead.

The other kind is a goldmine waiting to be discovered.