Don't you hate it when it feels like you're just being funnelled through a system? When the company you're dealing with just couldn't give a crap? They send you through robotic switchboards; give you impersonal services and send you emails that could have been sent to just about anyone. It feels wrong, doesn't it? Like they're only there for your money. But, I've got some bad news for you… There are people who think that about your business, too. But don't worry, today I'm going to show you how to fix that. I'm going to teach you how to send emails to your customers – potential, existing and leaving – that come straight from the heart. And make them feel like they're dealing with a human every single time. Let's get started, shall we? When Do You Send Automated Emails? Anything that can be sent to a person without you actually typing it out and hitting send personally to them is an automated emails. Yeah, that includes all of your email newsletter blasts too. From this: To this: And everything in between. These are all automated emails. And these emails play a crucial part in your business – especially in a world that’s more and more online – because they’re often the touch point between your business and your customer. Which, brings us to the question this article is about… Why Is It Important To Send Emails From The Heart? Okay, ‘from the heart’ might be a little wishy-washy. But, it sounds good right? It does come with a more specific definition though. From the heart means that your emails are PERFECT: P ersonalised E ngaging R elatable F ormatted E ntertaining C orrectly Punctuated T argeted This isn’t just a nice synonym I’ve thrown together, either. These are all components based in the psychology of your customers, no matter what niche you’re in. Nobody likes to feel that they’re part of an automated process. If you’ve ever tried to make a query at your bank and gone through countless “If you have questions about your account, press four” switchboard menu’s, you know exactly how frustrating – and distant – it can make you feel. In the next section I’m going to show you the importance, and a breakdown, of each individual PERFECT principle. But, before I do, I want to show you a prime example of it in action. I’m a subscriber to Inbound.org (like a good little marketer) and I can’t resist clicking their emails. Why? Because whenever I get an email from Ed Fry, it feels like it’s been written just for me. Heck, in fact, it took me two months to figure out that they were automated emails. I mean, take a look at this one: Damn, the only way that could have felt more personal is if Ed had handwritten it on parchment and delivered it to me personally. It ticks all of the PERFECT boxes, too: It’s personalised because it’s got my name on it – which a tonne of mailing lists miss out on. I’ve been directly targeted as a writer, which is my main profession (and passion). I’ve been engaged with a question and made to think my opinion has value. It has Ed’s slight geeky, entertaining personality injected into it. And it hit’s the others subconsciously: it’s perfectly formatted, it’s correctly punctuated and the whole topic is relatable to me. Okay, so let’s look at what it is that makes each of these so important. Creating That PERFECT Email Personal The psychology of personalisation is a well written about topic. And, that’s because it’s proven that people love having a personalised experience . Even just remembering payment information to speed up a future purchase can be enough to make that interaction feel personal: And, as Marketing Land have reported in the past, personalised emails convert up to six times more effectively than others. But, 70% of brands still fail to do it. Heck, take a look at this email from Boost Blog Traffic, they’re big dogs in the field of blogging, even their emails miss out on simply using a name: There are elements of personalisation in there, but I know straight from the off that this is a bulk email and it I feel no warmth towards it. So, I don’t open their emails. Engaging Engaging comes a lot down to your branding. What could feel engaging to me, may not be engaging to you. It’s a fickle old thing like that. But, that doesn’t change that the content you write – and what you write in an email is content – needs to be engaging. So what makes up ‘engaging’ as a concept? It should be written in the same tone as your brand writing It should be focused on the reader – using a lot of I’s and You’s. It should be easy to read and understand. If possible, it should be interactive – questions etc. Relatable Relatable, for me, is an underrated concept in your emails. People buy from your brand because they relate to it in some way. For example, I like buying Moleskine Notebooks because they’re high quality, well put together and finished beautifully – how I feel writing should be. So when I interact with the brand, that’s what I expect. So with your business emails – even the smallest ones – there needs to be a hint of that relation by picking out the emotion they feel when they interact from you. If you’re writing emails for your blog the same applies. You’ve got to frame your emails in a way that your reader will relate to. The topic you’re sharing, or the interaction you’re looking for, needs to be driven from a place of emotion. Formatted There was a really interesting statistic that came out a few years back: Nearly 3 out of 4 people delete emails that format poorly on their mobiles. Which, is a heck of a lot. Especially if that leads to unsubscribes. But, I’d also argue that applies to some extent on desktop, too. People don’t like getting horrible, disjointed emails that they can’t read. It just looks like spam on first glance, and that visual information is processed 60,000x faster than any of the words you send. Entertaining Okay, I’m going to say you can let entertaining slide on your more serious emails. But, you should always aim to inject a little personality into all of your emails. It shows you’re human – and that they’re interacting with a human, at the least. Correctly Spelled Even the experts make mistakes, so be sure that you spell check every email before you put it in for automation. Other than that we don’t need to spend too much time here, do we? Targeted Targeted means that you’ve directed this email to a specific subsection of your mailing list. And, it means the content should be highly relevant to that person. For example, if you’re creating an email to someone who has just had a package released from your depot, it would be different to someone who has come to you with a query about your opening times. This can also be affected by your email list segmentation – a process we highly recommend here at Platform.ly – and is proven to decrease unsubscribe rates and increase open rates. Take a look at the email I received from Ed at Inbound once again. I must be on his list as a copywriter or blogger first. Because, it speaks directly to me as a writer. There’s no Social Media Managers in Connecticut receiving that email: Now you can’t always be this specific. I get that. But you can do your damndest to get as close as possible. It's Your Time To Send… There you have it the new way to send emails that your customers want to interact with, and make your business much more personal. Here's the acronym again, just so you can remember: P ersonalised E ngaging R elatable F ormatted E ntertaining C orrectly Punctuated T argeted Questions, comments or insights on how to create better emails? Let me know in the comments…