An Email That's Not About Sales.

Have you ever heard the line 'you catch more flies with honey than vinegar'? It's time to pour honey into your email marketing because what you're currently doing is probably, accidentally reeking of vinegar.

Let me begin by assuring you that that -- the aforementioned vinegar problem -- is not your fault. You have been told and sold by marketing gurus/bros that more is more and hammer, hammer, hammer on the subscriber until they relent from sheer saturation and desperation of relief from the torrent of emails you've been drowning them in.

We don't subscribe (pun very much intended) to that school of thought here at Litir Marketing. That's why if you're already sending email to your subscribers, scrap whatever you have planned and try this instead.

The 'None Sales Email'.

Cast your mind back to a time where you didn't feel the need to sell your product or service every waking hour. We're going to go back to that mythical land before time and write an email this week which has 110% no sales in it.

I'm not talking secret hyperlinks to featured products. I'm not talking references to planning upcoming workshops or tutorials with CTAs (Call to Actions) to 'book your tickets'.

I am talking 110% -- 10% more than realisticailly available, that's how serious I am -- about telling your subscribers about your new kiln in the workshop. Full stop. Or about your hike at the weekend that reminded you no screen will ever reproduce the green of nature.

Challenge yourself to write an email for your subscribers that doesn't have a single drop of sales language or function. This isn't where I tell you that you're really tricking your audience and growing brand familiarity and convincing them to choose you over compettitors because you showed them your adorable cats, therefore they think you are human.

I am however asking you to remember what it was like to love your business so much before you had to sell it. Everyone is selling right now. And we're all feeling a pinch that's undeniable. But so are your customers and clients.

Yes, you sell a product. Or yes, you provide a service. They know that about you. What they don't know is that you make a mean oatmeal cookie and here's the recipe, no cost. Or that you are secretly an adrenaline junkie and here's a video to you jumping from a helicopter.

I hear you: I don't like to put my personal life into my business. Okay, adjust. If you're B2B, talk about a surprising, timely trend in the industry that you agree or disagree with. If you're B2C talk about hacks around your 'niche'. Fundamentally you want to leave you subscriber feeling like they've learned something.

And no, this won't result in magic overnight business saving sales. You won't become a trusted expert in an area by talking about your weekly run. But you will reconnect your humanity to your audiences humanity. You don't have to talk about the state of the world -- we're all living in it. But you also don't have to sell. You can just say hello. That's allowed.