“The danger of the Web is that you can go from idea to public announcement in under ten minutes.” —Seth Godin

 

We do much work to write an interesting blog post, article, or book. Yet our announcements to promote our work fail to draw people to it. We ignore the one thing that works. I say ignore, because experts are constantly encouraging us—begging us—to use this important bit of wisdom. 

Here are examples to show you what I mean.

What Many of My Incoming Emails Look Like

Set 1:

Subject: Jane Doe Is My Guest Today

First Line 1: Come by and see what Jane has to say.

First Line 2: Stop by and hear about her writing journey.

First Line 3: If you have time, come by and encourage her.

First Line 4: You don’t want to miss what she says about her writing journey.

In Set 1, even though the senders address the readers, using “you,” they don’t tell them anything. We need to find at least one thing in our content our audience will want to know. And lure them with that tidbit.

This is what experts keep telling us:

Tweetable

To lure people to read your words, tell them what’s in it for them. Click to tweet.

 

Might This Email Work Better?

Subject: How You Can Win Over Unsupportive Family

First Line: Author Jane Doe gives several successful ways she won over her unsupportive husband and children.

Set 2:

Subject: I’m on Jane Doe’s Blog Today

First Line 1: I talk about my characters.

First Line 2: I’d love to hear your thoughts on my post.

First Line 3: Novel Baby is available; hop by and meet my characters.

First Line 4: See what I went through last month with my characters.

In Set 2, notice the words “I” and “my”? Most people probably don’t care about us, the blog we’re on, or that another book is out. We must find something in our content that will make readers want to go to Jane’s blog.

Tweetable

Give people a reason to care about your spot on someone’s blog. Click to tweet.

Might These Emails Work Better?

Subject: Romance Readers: 3 Reasons Experts Say You Must Read Novel Baby

First Line: In Blogging Books today, you’ll learn why readers, such as you, endorsers, and reviewers, loved the characters in Novel Baby.

OR:

Subject: How to Rebuild Your Life After Losing Your Job

First Line: From character Drew Peters’ journey in Starting Over, Blogging Books lists 3 pitfalls and 4 successful efforts to handle the loss of you job.

Set 3:

Subject: Revamped Blog

First Line 1: Friends, I’ve revamped my blog. Check it out.

First Line 2: Fellow authors, I’ve got a new look! Tell me what you think.

In Set 3, when we write requests like this, we give people no reason to stop what they’re doing and go to one of millions of blogs to see our new look.

So, except for family members, this option may work better:

Tweetable

Instead of invitations to your new blog, write a great post & draw people to it. Click to tweet.

Which types of promotion emails do you seldom read?