Tip # 1 – Always remember the truth I just mentioned: the most important part of an email marketing message is the subject line. That piece of text is decisive. If all it says is something like “Delete this junk!”, then the rest is in vain. Your work and your money are wasted. Unfortunately so many advertisers think that buying a solo ad slot in an opt-in mailing list guarantees some kind of readership for their advertisement or otherwise it means that the publisher is some sort of scammer. That’s completely wrong! In order to get a good result, the first thing your ad needs (out of many others) is a good subject line.

Tip # 2 – Write an attention grabbing subject line. Common pieces of text like “It’s Ken here” (as if the reader knows who Ken is – she/he doesn’t!) don’t work. People don’t read all the emails they receive, but only the emails they have some of sort of interest in or the emails that arouse their curiosity.

Tip # 3 – Don’t grab the reader’s attention in a wrong way. Swearing, for example, for sure grabs the reader’s attention, but it makes her or him delete your ad instead of reading it.

“What kind of tip is this? No one will swear anyway.”

Well, claiming something even the advertiser doesn’t believe is common and is actually like swearing. Insulting reader’s intelligence is the no-no method I’m actually advising you to avoid.

Tip # 4 – Keep the subject line short. In some email clients, long subject lines are not readable without opening the email. Since many emails are opened only if the subject line is interesting, in case the subject line is not fully readable, you know what happens, right? How short should it be? If you make it very short (30-35 characters) it will be good for almost all email clients, but you may not be able to write an interesting subject line using so few characters. My recommendation is maximum 60 characters.

Tip # 5 – Write the subject line so that you can have the keywords very close to its beginning. If the subject line is not fully readable without opening the email and the keyword is at the end of the line … you know the outcome.

Tip # 6 – Ask the publisher not to personalize the subject line. Reader’s first name will “eat” characters from the visible part of the subject line. The longer the first name, the shorter the visible subject line. On the other hand, spammers already use first names too, and as a consequence more and more people are no longer naive. Their first name in the subject line doesn’t make them automatically open the email anymore.

Tip # 7 – Refrain from claiming big earnings. Within seconds the reader may say … “I don’t believe her/him”. It doesn’t matter if she or he is wrong. The result is that your advert is deleted.

Tip # 8 – Write more subject lines and test them in order to see which one works better. It’s hard to write the best headline from the very beginning. Be your first critic and then ask your friends what subject line they like.

Tip # 9 – Test the sujbect line (together with the whole ad copy) in order to be sure that it doesn’t trigger the spam filters. If these filters block your ad or send it to readers’ spam folders, all your work is ruined. Don’t let this work on publisher’s shoulders. Most of them don’t have a clue on how to deal with spam filters even if some of them are very good publishers. Don’t take this risk!

To Your Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. For more such interesting ezine advertising tips, you can subscribe free to Ezine Advertising Info newsletter.

P.P.S. Recommended reading: Ultimate Guide to Solo Ads

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Cut out the fluff

People are pressed for time. They don’t want to read a long email. In solo ads, people tend to go on and on and on. Making it incredibly difficult to the reader to stay focused on it because they have other things on their mind.

A lot of the ads floating around these days are full of what I call fluff. Non-essential information that doesn’t need to be there. You have to think first what an ad is supposed to do.

Deliver traffic with a desire to know more.

The reader doesn’t have to know everything from your ad. Leave a little bit for them to discover on their own. Get to the point of your and and let the sales copy, or landing page copy do the rest.

In some recent experiments with some willing clients, I have been testing out long vs. short ads. The shorter ads are receiving much more response than the long ads. Simply for the fact that they deliver a lot of emotion very quickly.

Write like you mean it

Some solo ads just make me sad.

I can tell that the person on the other side of the email could care less about anything else but to get me to buy something so they make money. Sure, that’s the ultimate goal but don’t be so blatant about it.

When writing a solo ad your very heart must be in it. You must be thinking about one person at a time. Not the thousands you want to reach. Create your ad so that when people read it they know that you are very involved with the product, opportunity, ebook, or whatever.

In an ad that was for a very saturated opportunity I tried this technique out. I wrote it in a voice that could be interpreted no other way but heartfelt. I wanted to get into the heart of the person reading it. I didn’t want their mind, I was after their heart.

People have been buried under so many ads that they are immune to the ones that are lifeless. These ads don’t even get a cursory look over. Delete.

What they are looking for, searching for, is someone to bring them something that is full of life, and excitement. Write your ad with that in it. Mean what you write and write what you mean.

Be link happy

If there is one place that you don’t want to be too conservative with you links it’s in a solo ad. Put them in every three to four lines. Just make sure they apply to what’s above them.

Don’t just stick them in there for the sake of it. Lead the reader into wanting to click on the link.

Remember, what is the sole purpose of a solo ad. It’s not to sell anything. But, to prime the reader into wanting more information. Trying to sell them in the ad takes too much time, too much fluff and too much hype.

By putting in your links every three to four lines you’re building up the anticipation of the reader. Each time you build into the link they are more apt to click on it.

Put a little more life into your ads with these three writing techniques and watch your response rates climb.

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David Ogilvy – known as the Father of Advertising – said, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

What is the simple conclusion that any email marketer should draw? Focus on the subject line of your ad because that is a key point for the success of your solo advertising campaign.

One of the winning strategies for grabbing readers’ attention and making them open your emails is writing emotional headlines. Warning: it’s not very easy to create a desired (by you) emotion and if you don’t take care you can create an opposite reaction. Actually there is a type of marketing where the marketer knows that the message will create opposite reactions to a lot of readers. It is called “insult marketing”, it is successful for some people but I don’t recommend you to try it. It is very risky and anyway I doubt that many publishers will accept such type of solo ads.

Now let’s get back on track and look for another type of emotions: the positive emotions. When you succeed to create such emotions, you’re one step forward and you don’t risk negative reactions (like someone trying to create a closer relationship between his punch and your nose, or even a trial).

Example of positive emotions: hope, happiness, enthusiasm, joy. Another feeling that can help you boost the open rate is “surprise”. Make the readers ask themselves, “Whaaat?” and they will open the solo ad in order to find out more and satisfy their curiosity. Combine more such emotions (example: joy & surprise) and the result of your solo advertising campaign is guaranteed!

To Your Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. Recommended ebook: Ultimate Guide to Solo Ads

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