When you write drip marketing messages, should the copy be long and thorough OR short and to the point? Which gets you the most opens and clicks, do you think?
The knee-jerk reaction is to answer, “Short!” After all, we live in a 140-character world now, thanks to Twitter!
But, there’s a laundry list of considerations that contribute to the right answer, such as…
- Are you targeting prospects or customers (are you known or unknown?)
- What’s your message’s purpose: Website visit, opt-in or sign-up, download, take an order?
- Is your message urgent (to your reader), important (to your reader) or educational?
- Is your story new or original or familiar with a twist? (I truly hope you’re not just spewing product features and leaving it to your readers to see the value.)
- Is a typical sale conceptually easy or complex?
- Is your business transactional or a considered purchase?
(Did you ever notice how consultants answer a question with a question? Doesn’t it drive you crazy? 
)
The worst that can happen if you mess up the long vs. short decision is not that you’ll lose a sale. It’s that you’ll get an opt-out, and then the opportunity to sell via email is gone forever. This is not an “oh well” thing.
Drip marketing is a long-term strategy that leverages your one-to-one selling time. Every email address in your database is precious–it represents a future buyer. Even when someone does opt-out, it’s a cause for a follow-up to find out why. Opt-outs should never be given up without a fight!
Opt outs are one way to gauge whether your messages resonate. I’ve had success with both short (1-2 sentence) and long (like this one) emails. But I know before I sit down at the keyboard which kind I’m going to write. I’m deliberate. And consistently, over many years now, my email opt-out rate has been less than half of 1%. Which means my readers are engaged (or complacent…but not angry or bored!)
If you’re like most people, your biggest challenges to getting a drip marketing program off the ground are:
- What to write
- How to write it
- Finding time to write when you don’t know how to do 1 and 2
Left to the default, what most will do is:
- Nothing
- Continued sales harassment via printed word
- Rambling on with no point or purpose (barf prose, I call it)
Which is a shame because drip marketing is the most powerful marketing and positioning tool ever invented for small businesses–when done properly.
Here’s an example of drip marketing succes:.
Last week I got a new client, seemingly out of the blue, who told me, “OK, I’ve been on your list for 4 years, reading your stuff, and I finally decided, ‘I’m never going to do this on my own–I need to hire you to help me.’”
I had to go look her up in my database to remember who she was. I never would’ve followed up with her in my regular course of phone-call follow ups. She was too remote a prospect. But it cost me nothing in time or money to keep her on my drip marketing program all these years. And–note–she never opted out in all that time!
Sending consistent messages over the years cerainly played a part in the successful outcome of converting this drip-marketing prospect into a customer. My drip campaign to her over the years finally led her to a) realize she had a problem and b) realize she had a problem that only I could help her solve. But so did the combination of long and short copy keep her interest piqued and looking forward to the next installment.
Which do you thinks works better in marketing: long or short messages? And why? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
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Great question! We find that with our autoreponders, clients have had success with both short and long format – it really does depend on the audience, and what style of communication they prefer. You are right to point out that losing subscribers is to be avoided at all costs, so we recommend concentrating on making your message relevant valuable, rather than being too concerned with length.