In this article I’ll show you a simple but effective way to increase your reader’s psychological motive to forward your newsletter or e-zine.
OK, we’ve all by now included that little phrase “please e-mail this message to a friend” in our newsletters and with varying success but without a motive to forward the message we rarely do.Unless of course we personally know someone interested in a particular snippet of information.
What I’m about to show you, came to me while consulting on a B2C affiliate program for a small local publishing company who sell tangible cookbooks online.
If you’ve ever used the line “please forward this email to your friends” you’ll no doubt know just how ineffective this actually is… The reason is simple…..There is no motive!
When asked to forward an article or newsletter to a friend. In most cases you’ll ask … “what’s in it for me?” … Right?
In the rare case that you do forward an article or newsletter based on this simple request. You’re likely to have done so for your own personal reasons.
Either:-
a) to please the recipient
or
b) to please the publisher/author
Working with this understanding of why people forward an e-zine or newsletter we can easily intensify this motive of the desire to please an individual.
I simply replaced the line “Please forward this e-mail to a friend” with a different lines from the following, each day.
1) Please forward today’s email to the last person you had a great dinner conversation with.
2) Please help spread the word – just forward email to a dear friend of loved one
3) Forward today’s email to a person you truly believe in, but who doesn’t quite see themselves as you do.
4) PS. Every time you pass on one of these e-mails Lucy you are helping to support a small publishing company hidden away, above a restaurant, in the historical snickleways of York.
5) Please forward today’s email to the person you most enjoy being with in silence
6) Please forward today’s e-mail to the person who recently did you the smallest favour with the greatest impact
7) Please forward today’s e-mail to someone you’ve learned a lot from.
8) Please forward today’s e-mail to the colleague that you respect the most.
Obviously these were written specifically for a B2C audience however, once you understand the psychology, you’ll be able to dramatically increase your sales using this technique.
Paul Reilly, is widely recognised as a leading mind in Viral
Marketing and was the UK’s first marketing consultant to
specialise in viral marketing and is a founder member of
TheFreeAgentPath – http://thefreeagentpath.com/paulreilly
