1.    Who its from
2.    Subject

Out of these two, the “from” has by far the biggest influence on whether someone will open the email or not. Think about your own situation… When you open your Email software (Outlook or whatever), and you see you’ve got 100 emails sitting there, which ones do you open first? I’ll bet you open the ones where you recognize the names and you actually want to open their emails. Well, that’s the same situation you’ve got to aim for whether it be trying to make sales or whether its get to the attention of a potential JV partner. It doesn’t really matter what they wrote in the subject line – if the name’s not recognized then its far less likely the email will get maximum attention.

When it comes to the subject line, make it relevant and make it personal. Here’s what not to put: “This is amazing, you’ve just got to send this to your list!”. Write that, and your email won’t even get opened. Instead, it is far better to make the subject line related to something about them. You could refer to something you saw on their blog or one of the Social Networking sites or even a Forum. Just make it specific to them so as to grab their attention.

One tactic you see some marketers using is:

(personal) from Chris Freville

Another one, I’ve used is:

NAME, this is Chris Freville

The trick is you have to make it look like it’s been written as a one-off email to them and them alone. If they think its something just been broadcast from Aweber or Getresponse to hundreds or thousands of people they are far less likely to want to open it.

Of course, when you analyze it further there are other factors which come into play. One of these maybe which email address are you sending it to? Many marketers, including myself, have multiple email addresses, and because of this we group them in different priorities.

To give you a personal example, I use Microsoft Outlook for my main email and any emails sent to my main email addresses gets redirected to my Outlook account. I also use Mozilla Thunderbird for many of my newsletter / list subscriptions and I use a different email address for these. As a result, my Thunderbird account gets checked less frequently (about once per week) and typically I only scan the emails and certainly don’t open them all. I also have various Gmail accounts which I use for customer support of my niche products amongst other things. These tend to be checked either by myself or one of my support team. Therefore, before sending someone an email, make sure you’re using the email address which is most likely to reach them. Do your homework up front.

Now, just because the actual email body is not as crucial as the “From” and “Subject” fields, it doesn’t mean you should treat it any less important. Never start your email by saying how fantastic your product is and how much money they are going to make. That will not go down very well. Instead focus on, what it will do for their own credibility and how much their list is going to love them. Talk about which specific markets your product is aimed at. Further on you can talk about conversion rates (if you have any figures) and commission.

Don’t always expect to get an immediate reply. If they don’t reply, leave it for a few days before sending a follow up. Then, when you do send the follow up make sure it is courteous and follows the same strategy as the first one. Don’t ever say, “why haven’t you replied to me?” That is an instant turn off. Remember, you are trying to build rapport, so treat them the way you would like to be treated yourself.

Keep it short and to the point. The email should only cover the bare basics. Don’t try and say too much in this first email. It’s better to set up a JV invite page and provide a link in the email so prospective partners can follow the link to learn more.

Let me know what you think……..?