Category: General

Words To Include Vs. Words To Exclude In Your Emails

Jon Olson Leave a comment

Writing emails can be a huge task for even the more seasoned email marketer. Creating great copy and messages that not only get opened but acted on is crucial for email marketing success.

And while there are a million and one words that seem to ‘trigger’ spam filters, what I wanted to focus on today was more of the format within the emails, rather than listing the 1001 words that MIGHT trigger a spam filter.

Over the past decade I’ve been writing emails for clients as well as my websites and have found obviously that we want to write as if we are talking to an individual, so that right there is the first piece of advice. Like I mentioned in previous blog pot, try to avoid big words and ‘corporate’ talk…But here are a few words you can use to get higher click throughs and some that might scare your readers away…

Words To Include:

Demo – This is great if you are promoting a specific tool or service that your readers can test drive. The word ‘demo’ is an action word that creates curiosity. I love putting this in my copy because there is no risk to the reader. It’s not asking them to ‘pay’ for anything, it’s asking them to try something out…And people LOVE to give things a test drive.

Opportunity – This word has to be used ethically. Without sounding like a pitch man, the word opportunity actually helps your reader see potential in what you are writing about. This pulls at their curiosity and is a very effective word to get action with your emails.

Connect – This should be used in your indoctrination emails (aka the first emails you send to your subscribers) We are always ‘pushing’ emails to people, this word helps PULL people back to us. Connecting with your readers is critical and using the word ‘connect’ helps bridge the communication gap between reader and sender.

Thanks – A simple but very effective words to use. And well, it’s the right thing to do. Remember to always thank your readers for their subscription, their business and their attention. In fact, I would argue that you can’t say ‘Thanks’ enough.

Words To Exclude:

Free – Not only is this one of the most spam filter happy words in history, you can find more creative ways to say ‘free’. Use words like ‘no cost’ or ‘doesn’t cost a dime’…Use some creativity because ‘free’ is just used so much your readers may become blind to it. And oh yeah, like I mentioned, spam filters LOVE to zap emails with ‘free’ pasted in the message. Not always, but it’s becoming harder for this word to be effectively used in your copy.

Confirm – Remember when we recommended that you use ‘Demo’ as a word to use in your emails, this is the opposite of that. Confirm might be a bold action word, but in an email it can look pushy. Remember, we want to PULL people to us not push them away.

Cash – This is another spam filter trigger but also, it just sounds…Kinda scammy! Anything that screams scam usually has something to do with ‘cash’ in the email copy. Avoid this word and while there is nothing wrong with letting your subscribers know that you might be offering them some kind of cash incentive, there are other ways to go about it. Remember, PULL people to you and continue the communication. Perhaps creating curiosity and getting them to connect with you first would be a better plan than throwing ‘cash’ at them right away…

These are just a few of the words we try to include and exclude in the emails we send and believe me, there are thousands of words that seem to trigger spam filters these days.

The best advice is to always talk as if you are talking to ONE person. And when you do that, you seem more human and that’s always the safest way to try to reach your readers.

6 Excuses You Tell Yourself To Not Build An Email List

Jon Olson 2 Comments

Email marketing is a no brainer. Building a strong and responsive list is usually ‘step number 1‘ for almost every affiliate marketer and online business.

Simply put, it’s not up for debate…You need to be building your list.

Somehow though, we seem to talk ourselves out of it.

We are our own worst enemy when it comes to talking ourselves out of practicing habits that could pay huge dividends down the road. Embracing email marketing is one of those fantastic habits we should be doing…Every day!

Here’s some of my observations over the years on how we talk ourselves out of embracing email marketing…How many do you see yourself doing?

1. I’m Not Good At Writing Emails – Guess what? Only a few select human beings are ‘born’ with the natural ability of being a great writer. For the rest of us, it’s a learned skill. And it’s done by trial and error. It’s done by actually WRITING more emails. I started writing emails in the early 2000’s and have been doing so since, and by no means am I what people would consider ‘a great writer’…However, I keep writing, I keep learning and I keep at it to be better every single day.



2. People Hate Getting Emails – Correction, people hate getting GARBAGE emails. They do appreciate a tip or two. They also enjoy hearing about your new content or services that you are offering. I know I appreciate hearing from the list owners I subscribe to when they talk to me like a real human being and not just another ‘name on their list’. Simply put – People LOVE getting the RIGHT emails!

3. Email Marketing Is Expensive – Well, that depends on what service you use 🙂 For example, email marketing here at Rocket Responder is about as affordable as it gets. And the best part, while other auto responder services start to charge you more as your lists grow, we are one fee, every month regardless of whether you have 500 people on your mailing list or 500,000. It’s the same price, every month. Email marketing doesn’t need to be expensive, you just need to find a good home that delivers the goods and doesn’t break your bank!

4. I Have Way Too Many Things To Worry About, Email Takes Time – You know what the best thing is about your email marketing and choosing a service like Rocket Responder? It’s powerful and can be 100% automated. The true power of an email marketing auto responder is found in the ability to set messages up to go out when you want. Anytime you want. To any list you want. You can tailor make your emails to go out when you need them to, and leave more time for you to focus on other aspects of your business. That’s actually what auto responders were originally designed to do, create automation for your email communication. Set up a solid autoresponder series and let the system do the heavy lifting for you!



5. I Have Nothing To Send An Email About – This could be the number one excuse. More marketers have told me over the years that they don’t know what to actually send their subscribers and don’t even bother trying to draft a message at all. Here’s just a few things you could write about and if you did some creative thinking, I’m sure the list would grow every day. You could write about content you have found online that is helpful. Maybe news about your product or service. Is their industry announcements that you feel they could benefit from learning about? How about an experience you had that translated into a life lesson everyone could benefit from? Did you make a new blog post? Are you having a sale or promotion? What about your plans for the month or quarter? You see, coming up with things to write about and let your subscribers know about is the easy part!

6. I Only Have A Few People On My List, It Barely Grows – I have maintained for years that you need to focus on 3 subscribers not 3000. And what I mean by that is the popular myth that you need a massive list to be considered a success is bogus. Here’s the truth, you need an ACTIVE list to be a success. And active lists are not limited to 3000 or 30000 people. Grow your list daily by engaging them and giving great content, the more they feel like you respect them, the more ‘active’ they become. And when you have active subscribers, the world opens up for you. I’ll take an active list of 100 over a dead list of 10,000 any day.

Don’t wait another day to start building your list! Be sure to test drive Rocket Responder today for a full month at absolutely no cost. Once you start seeing for yourself how powerful this form of communication and marketing can be, you’ll be hooked!

Are Your Headlines The Reason For Low Open Rates? Or Is There Something Else…

Jon Olson Leave a comment

It’s been a few months now since Rocket Responder launched White Label.

We create this solution for the email marketers that wanted a premier service that separated them from their competition but more importantly, added guaranteed delivery to their email messages.

White Label was a huge success and marketers around the internet raved at how easy it was to use White Label and of course how affordable it was.

We were stumbling around the internet this past week and found this article that highlighted the new truths for doing any kind of email marketing in 2017…

Here is a snippet email marketers should pay attention to…

email marketing

(Source: Lemon Consulting)

The question was asked…

Was it your headlines that were the cause of low email open rates or was there something else…

The article claims at the end, you MUST find another solution if you want to go ‘cheap’ on your email marketing. An autoresponder service such as Rocket Responder does NOT have your emails going out through budget servers. We spend top dollar to make sure your emails are read and opened.

But what about that extra guarantee?

Is White Label the solution in 2017 to maximize open rates and provide customers with a sure fire way to get their emails into the inboxes of their subscribers?

We think so!

White Label is only a few months old but the results are in…This is your perfect solution for high quality email marketing and management. And the guaranteed way to get your emails read by those that matter most…Your customers and clients!

When Best Selling Authors Start Talking About Building Lists…

Jon Olson Leave a comment

Email marketing and building a mailing list isn’t a new revelation for anyone in business. Savvy marketers and business people understand the importance of long term email marketing and relationship building. And while opportunities come and go like the wind, something as effective and important as email marketing gets over looked for the latest and great ‘way to communicate’.

I found two best selling authors that recently have been commenting and writing about how important it is to build your mailing lists…

The first was from Jon Acuff, author of the popular best sellers Do Over, Start and the upcoming Finish. Here’s what he had to say a few days ago on his Facebook wall…

email marketing

Imagine that….

Next was a book I recently read by Ryan Holiday, best selling author of The Obstacle Is The Way and Ego Is The Enemy. This was from his recently released book Perennial Seller. Here’s a snap shot of how feels about building your mailing lists…

email marketing

So we have just 2 quick examples of best selling authors, that not only understand the massive power of email marketing, but are telling their readers and followers that it’s critical to your success.

Obviously…We agree 🙂

And for good reason. Programs come and go. Platforms can come and disappear or change their terms in a heart beat, however what stays the course….Week after week, month after month and year after year.

Your email and customer list!

When you add a subscriber to your RocketResponder account, it’s yours!

You have full access to export that list at anytime so you always have those contacts. That is so important to remember because as long as you are growing your relationships with those lists, it won’t matter what happens in your industry, business opportunity or social platform of choice…Your list is there…Forever!

It truly is your greatest asset in online business and you owe it to yourself now to start building those relationships through email marketing.

Email Marketing 101: Use Lots Of Space

Jon Olson 2 Comments

Email marketing is not an exact science.

Sure there are plenty of stats and analytics that get thrown at you from every angle on what works and what doesn’t. So you have to always remind yourself this…Everything you learn and read about, take it as an example of something that MIGHT work for you.

The beauty of email marketing is that you can literally test things on the go and if something doesn’t work right away you can change it and see if it improves your results.

Writing emails isn’t an exact science either. A huge chunk of effective email marketing is yes, writing better emails for your readers so in this short blog post, we hope to give you some tips that has helped us over the years but should never be taken as gospel.

This works for us, and the only way you will find out if it works for you is to roll up your sleeves and press ‘Broadcast!’

When you are writing an email to your list, use lots of space!

And what we mean by that is….

“Don’t just write a huge block of text like I’m about to do here. Sure it might be proper formatting and proper english or whatever. But effective email copy breaks things up into easy to digest sentences and paragraphs. We are not trying to bore our readers and make them stop reading what we send. And unfortunately when we just use run on sentences and massive paragraphs, again like this example, you will bore your readers and it will not grab their attention at all. Are you getting tired of reading this paragraph yet? I know I would be if it was in an email. So please, don’t write to your lists using huge massive paragraphs like this. It’s the quickest way to get your email deleted….”

Phewwwwww….I’m glad that is over!

Do you see how that could just bore your readers to death? But how about using lots of space and breaking up your email into simple sentences and paragraphs like this!

– Use bullet points as well!

  1. Or maybe use numbered lists like this.
  2. This is very effective at grabbing attention in the body of your email.

Those examples above really help and the most important thing to remember is that…

People will scan emails, they won’t spend 15 minutes reading them.

So make your most important facts and messages stick out and easily found. You do this by using lots of space, new sentences, bullet points, numbered lists and simple short paragraphs.

Try this out in your broadcasts and see if it gets better results 🙂