In order to connect with your Internet prospect, you need to develop an affinity with them – an understanding. As the saying goes, “You can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes,” - being able to empathize with people, relating to their needs, hopes, and motivators, will help you to understand them enough to successfully sell to them. Having successful email communication with your Internet prospects requires a high level of empathy and understanding. Having this connection will greatly enhance your ability to communicate with people via email.

In most cases, this is the first communication your Internet prospect will receive from you - an email. You only have one chance to make a first impression, so launching a successful email campaign is essential. Here’s Part I of “Creating Money-Making Customer Emails.” In this part, you’ll get some tactical examples of how to word attention-grabbing email subject lines.

Your Subject Line and Headline Should Be One in the Same

When it comes to the subject line of your email, there are two strategies that work well. When one doesn’t work, the other will as a follow up email. The first strategy is to have a bold, powerful, and assumptive message in the subject line. The second strategy is to be more low key.  

When using a powerful subject line, you need to fulfill the promise of the subject line in the email right off the bat.  For example, let’s say you use the word “personal” in the subject line with some related copy that is designed to make your prospect feel that you have something to tell them that is for their eyes and ears only. With this kind of teaser in the subject line, you need to follow through with something highly targeted and worthwhile for the customer in the body of the email. For example, you can provide a special financing offer in the very beginning of the message followed by a hyperlink to a “personal and confidential credit application.”   You might also provide a credit application that pertains to the stock number of the vehicle they’re interested in. If this does not yield the desired result, then your next message can be more subtle – “Thanks for your interest…”

Subject Lines that Get Results

How you emphasize your subject line, where you place your headline, and how you focus the rest of your email should depend on your ultimate objective.

Your subject line is as important, perhaps more so, than what you say in the body of your email. Your subject line is where you stick your foot in the door and buy yourself just enough time to melt your e-prospect’s resistance, create interest, and get on the road to another delivered vehicle.

Following are some examples of attention grabbing subject lines. Keeping subject lines short and to the point is the key, so some of these can be shortened with some creativity and longer versions used as headings in the body of your emails. They can be used in correspondences to new prospects, in follow up emails, or as part of an ongoing communication or newsletter to prospects who are still in your pipeline:

1.      Who Else Wants a Zero Hassle Buying Experience?

2.      How a “Crazy Stunt” Made Our Internet Department #1 in Customer Service

3.      How a Simple Idea Made Our Company the Region’s Premier Internet Dealership

4.      How Our Commitment to the Internet Has Saved Our Customers Over One Million Dollars a Year

5.      Are You Ashamed of the Old Smell Inside Your Current Car?

6.      Are You a Smarter Buyer Than Most of Your Acquaintances?

7.      Are You Prepared to Be a World Class Internet Car Shopper?

8.      How Our Internet Department_______________________

9.      How Internet Customers_________________________

10.  How the Internet Turned______________ Into______________

11.  For Car Shoppers Who Just Don’t Have the Time to Play the Game

12.  How to Get the Deal You Want in the Time You Have

13.  For Busy People Looking at Purchasing a New Vehicle

14.  How to Educate Yourself on the Car You Want in Half the Time

15.  For Savvy Car Shoppers

16.  How to Get the Most out of Your Investment by Purchasing a Vehicle through ABC Dealership’s Internet Department

17.  If You Know How to Navigate the Internet, You Can Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Vehicle Purchase at www.success-dealerships.com

18.  If You Like Simplicity when it Comes to Purchasing a Vehicle, then You Are a Welcome Guest at www.success-dealerships.com

19.  If You Are Planning to Finance Your Next Car, You Could Save as Much as $5,000 on a New Tahoe at www.success-dealerships.com

20.  The Secrets of Buying Your Next___________ Online at____________

21.  Secrets of a Well Organized Internet Department that Saves Customers____________ and ____________

22.  Thousands of Car Buyers Now Save Time and Money Using the Internet Even Though They’re Not Computer Savvy

23.  Over 3,000 Internet Customers Now Owe Their Car Shopping Sanity to www.success-dealerships.com Even Though They Thought It Would Never Work for Them

24.  Warning: During the Next 6 Months, 73% of Online Car Shoppers Will Fail to Get the Most Out of Their Online Buying Experience.  (Followed by a solution.)

25.  Give Me a Chance to Ask You ________________ and I’ll Show You that Purchasing Your Next Car through www.success-dealerships.com will be _________________

26.  Give Me 10 Minutes of Your Time and I’ll Give You _________________

27.  7 Ways to Speed Up the Time Required for You to Take Delivery of Your New Car at www.success-dealerships.com

28.  5 Ways to Get Pre-Approved Online Discreetly, While Saving Time and Money at www.success-dealerships.com

By using a little creativity, you can differentiate your dealership’s message from the multitudes of emails that get delivered to your prospect’s inbox on a daily basis. If, as an Internet salesperson, you can anticipate that your prospect may have an initial negative reaction to receiving so many emails, then address this in your subject headings and correspondences. With creativity, honesty, and if appropriate a little humor, you can get a warmer and faster response from your prospects.   

Look for Part II of “Creating Money-Making Customer Emails” next month.

Eddie Coleman is the CEO Hyperdrive Technologies, Inc., an automotive web development training and consulting company, and the author of the industry best seller Mastering the Art of Selling Cars Online. He can be reached by email at: eddie@hyperdrivetech.com or on the Web at www.masteringtheart.com.