How to Motivate Customers and Supporters to Read Your Company’s or Nonprofit’s Emails
The Opening Sentence: The Most Important Part of Your Email (TONS of examples included!)
Let’s get this out of the way:
Yes, the subject line seems like the most important part of an email. After all, if they don’t open it, they can’t read it. If you want help with that, here are 7 types of subject lines to get your emails opened.
Image by Nicole Miranda from Pixabay
Whether you’re accustomed to open rates around 10%, 20%, 30%, or even higher, you are probably fairly consistent at it. The more important question is, how many of the people who open them actually read your emails enough to be motivated to respond to your call to action?
This is what supporters and customers are asking from the moment they open your email:
Is this for me? Should I read this?
Opening without reading is no better than not opening.
So how do you get them to read your emails? Write a dynamite opening sentence that leaves them wanting more.
And I use the word ‘sentence’ deliberately, because most of the time, your opening ‘paragraph’ should be just a single sentence. Why? Because you can read one sentence in just a few seconds. People want to know, very quickly, if your email is giving them anything valuable, anything they care about, anything that matters to them.
This is the primary goal of your opening sentence. To get the people your email is targeting to keep reading. And to weed out all the others.
Here are eight ways to use your opening sentence to get your target audience to read the rest of your email.
1. Open with Shock and Awe
It could be an astounding statistic, a surprising claim, or a provocative fact. But give them something that gets their attention. This is the ‘slap you in the face’ version of email marketing.
Here are a few examples:
From 3DMail:
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
That is the one main, primary thing holding you back, keeping you from bigger money, more success, and faster growth.
From Kim Phillips at Powerful Professionals:
This note is to inform you that as of today, I am done.
From Genesis Project:
Did you know that every 24 hours, it is estimated that 6800 people search online to buy sex in the Seattle area?
From Equality Now:
Today is Mother’s Day in Lebanon. Currently mothers are being deprived of their basic rights as citizens.
From Lead Quizzes:
We’ve got 17 beta accounts left for LeadQuizzes 3 and they are going quickly.
2. Use a Cliffhanger
End your opening sentence with an unresolved conclusion. This can be as simple as not finishing the sentence. End it with a colon or an ellipses. That’s the three little dots we sometimes use to imply there is more to the story…
Some examples:
From Amy Porterfield:
I have a special treat just for you, Dan.
From Bill Glazer:
I just got off the phone with my friend Ed Rush and I have GREAT news for you.
From Shared Hope:
Imagine the sound of shackled feet, shuffling across the floor. Whose feet are they?
From Plan USA:
Dan, this story stopped me in my tracks.
From Friends of WPC Nepal:
Dan, there’s one thing that is common across just about every culture in the world:
From Moceanic:
Jeff Brooks here. Almost exactly a year ago, I did something a little bit crazy.
From Moceanic again:
It’s enough to make your head explode.
From Jordan Blackman:
Ok, this falls into the “things that make you go hmmmm” category… Check this out:
If you opened any of these emails and read those opening sentences, it would take extraordinary willpower – kind of like refusing to talk while being tortured – to not keep reading. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit. But only a bit.
Want proof?
Well, are you kind of miffed you don’t get to read what came after each of those opening sentences?
Case closed.
3. Just Be Upfront and Clear about the Purpose of the Email
Sometimes, there’s no reason to beat around the bush, obsess over arousing emotions in your reader, or make them care. Sometimes, straightforward clarity is all it takes.
And for all these tips, you can choose what seems like the best approach for the purpose of each email. Don’t use any of these tips all the time. Vary your approach, or people will wise up to your act.
Here are some examples:
From Seattle Aquarium:
Thank you for making Giving Tuesday a huge success! The Aquarium had 208 items purchased from our wish list.
From ProActive Content:
If your nonprofit doesn’t do a fundraising event with a silent auction, you can just file this email away (in case you ever start one).
From Washington Environmental Council:
A generous donor has come forward to support our membership drive and is going to match your contribution if you join in the next 48 hours.
From Shared Hope:
Shared Hope needs a miracle — so I’m turning to proven friends like you.
4. Use an Ultra-Short Sentence that Leaves Them Begging for Context
48 minutes.
The last time they heard her voice.
I couldn’t believe it.
Super-short, high-impact sentences like those cannot be read in isolation. Unless you’re a robot, if you saw any of those as an opening sentence in an email, you want to know what it’s talking about. You will keep reading. Unless you have developed an extremely advanced ability to deny your human impulses and curiosity. Few of us have.
This is what we could call ‘readbait.’
From 3DMail:
The year was 1998.
From Dan Kennedy:
You have been warned.
From Washington Environmental Council:
We cannot go backwards.
From Future Fundraising Now:
Wait.
That last one is especially good. Can’t get much shorter than that!
5. Use a High-Impact Quote
Your quote could be from a famous person. Or, it could be from a client, a customer, a volunteer, or a beneficiary of your nonprofit’s work. Either way, the quote functions in a similar way as the readbait ultra-short sentence.
It begs for context. Why are they giving me this quote? The quote should make them want to read more and see what this is all about.
From Kim Phillips at Powerful Professionals:
“People often say motivation doesn’t last, well neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily” – Zig Ziglar
Image by LillyCantabile from Pixabay
6. Clash with Your Subject Line
Your subject line got them to open it. Sometimes, you stoke their curiosity even more by writing an opening sentence that seems unrelated. This lethal combination can virtually guarantee at least a cursory read of your email.
Here’s an example of this from Future Fundraising Now:
Email subject: What Maximus the Cat teaches us about effective fundraising
Opening sentence: Did you know that enough Syrians have been displaced from their homes to fill 221 Yankee Stadiums? That’s 12 million people.
My comment: I as the reader am interested in Maximus, of course, because I want to be taught fundraising from a cat. Don’t you? So I opened the email. But then the first sentence is a huge statistic about Syrian refugees. Huh?
How can you not keep reading? And come on already, get to the cat.
Here’s another from ProActive Content:
Email subject: Is Giving Tuesday just a bully on the playground?
Opening sentence: Let me ask you a series of quick questions.
7. Ask a Question – But Make It Good
This is a common tactic, because it can work well. A question begs to be answered. But you can go off-target here too. You don’t want to ask questions nobody cares about. Like, “Do you know what I did last weekend?” Your email list doesn’t care about that. Unless you have a really passionate list.
From CallHero:
Are you overwhelmed with online marketing trends? Google, Facebook, and Instagram seem to be changing algorithms every week and it can be difficult to keep up.
From ProActive Content:
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
Does your nonprofit have a planned giving strategy to motivate your loyal donors to put you in their wills?
From Kim Phillips at Powerful Professionals:
Do you want more appointments that close into sales?
From No BS Inner Circle/Magnetic Marketing:
Can you relate to any of these?
From 3DMail:
Remember the Taco Bell Chihuahua?
8. Be Real
Finally, you can create an opening that doesn’t sound anything like marketing. These openings are genuine, personal, and earnest. They cannot be used too frequently or they would lose their effect. But you want these to feel different from the norm. As if a real person wrote it, just for you.
This is not the place for words like ‘urgent,’ ‘act now,’ and ‘last chance.’ Those have their place, but they don’t sound like real people. Who calls up their friend and says, “It’s urgent that we talk.”? Nobody talks like that.
From Equality Now:
We would be nothing without the support of people like you.
From Integrate Health:
In the coming month, I am going to deliver my first child.
From Moceanic:
I wanted to make sure you got this message so you can give your quick (very quick, I promise!) feedback.
From ProActive Content:
I’ve got a slightly different message to share with you today.
Go Write Some Emails!
There’s a lot more to writing emails, of course, but your opening is so critical, I felt it worthy of an entire article.
If you look back at these examples, you’ll notice a few powerful principles in play.
Almost all of them, in some way, arouse curiosity and intrigue. That’s the most essential task of your opening – to get the reader to keep reading.
Some of them highlight a specific slice of their audience. Like this one: “Are you overwhelmed with online marketing trends?” For a reader who doesn’t feel overwhelmed, they will skip that email. And that’s okay; whatever he’s offering in that email doesn’t really apply to them.
Most of all though, just remember to vary your approach.
If you open every email with an ultra-short sentence, the effect will wear off. Sometimes, work on being relatable and real. Other times, try to shock and surprise them. Other times, be direct and offer something they might want.
Use these eight strategies interchangeably, and your readers will continue to stay actively engaged. That eventually leads to more sales, more donations, more conversions, and more credibility and authority for you.
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