Email and the Art of Teaching

Inbox Ideas | Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

Posted by Marc Kline

Do you remember a favorite teacher? I know who mine was from college: my World Literature professor. He was a a big goof ball. I remember him breaking out into a “Socrates” dance for our class when we were assigned Greek Literature and how he’d always crack jokes maybe only half of the class got.

It was an expression not only of his eccentricity but also his passion for literature and teaching. It was infectious, and it may have been the first class I’d ever taken where most people actually did the assigned reading.

What Does Teaching Have To Do With Email Marketing?

Your subscribers have entrusted you with their email addresses in order to learn something from you.

A lot, really. If you’re writing messages designed to provide value to your subscribers as you should be, then you are a teacher.

Think about it. Your subscribers have entrusted you with their email addresses in order to learn something from you. But just like students in a classroom, they may have varying interest in what you have to say initially.

If we think of ourselves as teachers, we need to engage our subscribers as if they are students. But we don’t have a classroom as a platform — we have email.

An Effective Email Marketer is an Effective Teacher

Although we can’t perform dances, we still have a voice — the style and attitude we use to communicate with our subscribers. This has a very real effect on whether or email is interesting and appealing to our readers, which translates to whether or not they read our messages consistently or if our messages fade into the noise of other stuff they get but don’t read.

Considering the qualities of a good teacher can help us work on this voice and how we communicate with our subscribers. I’ve jotted just a few of the qualities of my favorite teachers down in addition to how I think they apply to email campaigns.

Your assignment is to read them, then think of your own favorite teachers and chime in on the comments.

A Good Teacher:

Is approachable and personable. Do you encourage your subscribers to ask you questions by email?
Takes complex subjects and engages students in ways that make them comprehensible. Are you a filter of information that sorts through the junk and tells subscribers what they need to know?
Is resourceful. Do you express your authority and show your awareness of what happens in your industry?
Is punctual. Like a good teacher returns papers promptly, do you send your messages at a schedule that conveys a sense of consistency?
Questions the status quo and challenges one to think. Do your emails read like text books? Or, do you take stands on issues that matter to your subscribers?
Has infectious enthusiasm. Do you have a zeal for your product or service. Does it clearly show?
Teaches the whole class. Do you respect the fact that your subscribers are different types of people with different levels of knowledge and interest?

What else would you add to this list? Please share!

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19 Responses

Carlo Selorio
September 28th, 2007 at 1:28 am

I really believe that Email Marketing is all about teaching your customers more about your product.

Really good insight with this blog post.
Arindam
September 28th, 2007 at 10:28 am

Good post once again. It is something I do for my newsletter subscribers: I try to TEACH them something. I may not be the best teacher in the world, but I try my best, and the testimonials are proof of it

Arindam
Marc Kline
September 28th, 2007 at 10:45 am

Carlo and Arindam,

I’m glad you agree. I mention the "voice" of the email marketer and its importance. We hear this a lot when it comes to writing, and its useful to any type of writer, whether you’re a novelist or a copywriter.

Let’s consider another example that can lend some insight for our emails. We often hear of a writer "finding his/her voice". What does this mean to us?

Well, it alludes to the fact that we aren’t all born as magnificent writers who compose works that will someday be classics. No, but we can develop our voices over time by learning from others and reflecting upon our own preferences about what makes an effective article, email, or whatever our medium is.

By finding our voices, not only can we defeat writer’s block but write messages that really *connect* with our readers.
Arindam
September 28th, 2007 at 10:50 am

I actually make it a point to write at least 100 words per day on just about anything, simply to get rid of my writer’s blog. One IM guru had given me this piece of advice sometime ago.
Beric Wickens
September 28th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

Hi I am a total newbie in the Internet biz, But I have just got to the stage with a site up, and now thinking about how I will present my information to anyone who subscribs to my list. ( only me so far testing) Amoungst other things I have a sales back ground in direct sales for 10 years so presenting my self and products to the public in general.

In my teaching to my sales people, I have always advocated to always, always, only be yourself. We are as people very seeing in others, and it is imposible to hide if one trys to be something that we are not.

Im sure that writing is much the same in as much that people buy people first and product second. I am not used to writing very much at all.

So my question to you all is.

Do you make a concious effort to write about what your audience needs, as well as well allowing them to see the real you.?
Anna Paradox
September 29th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

I recently worked on an editing project where the author chose to self-publish to have freedom of voice. It was great fun!

I think authentic voice is easier to write, and also gives a more remarkable result. All you Seth Godin fans know being remarkable pays!

So, I’m going to take a further step. I’m adding a new section to my life coaching newsletter. I’ll be adding a section about actions to take to help humanity return to space. We’ll see if my commitment to being authentic pays off!
PCUser
October 1st, 2007 at 6:56 am

Teaching is a truly human act; that ability to share our knowledge (even if it is incomplete or a bit faulty) is what allows the family of mankind to grow so rapidly (sometimes for good - sometimes for bad).

Getting into a mindset of teaching something is a great tip for newsletter writing - thanks for the thought!

I’m experimenting with storytelling blogging - fictional diary of life with a PC, which is OK but lacks a focus. Adding an element of teaching something is probably what’s been missing!

Time to dip my quill (probably rude in some languages) and begin lesson 1…
Marc Kline
October 1st, 2007 at 8:38 am

Anna,

Speaking of authenticity …

What may have influenced me to write this particular article is another I found linking back to a video of Fred Rogers (a.k.a. Mister Rogers, one of my first teachers on PBS) giving testimony to a committee about the value of non-violent children’s programming:

If you have a few minutes, take a look. I think you’ll find that his testimony speaks volumes about the authenticity and why it should be used in all of our communications.
Joe McNulty
October 1st, 2007 at 10:12 pm

The title of this string caught my eye as I am a computer teacher and I use aweber for my website where I try to use the power of email marketing to share basic computer knowledge with my fellow teachers and other professionals. Since starting with aweber in August of 2006 I’ve collected a daily email list of over 1,250 subscribers. For me email is the art of teaching.
Jose Alberto Velasco
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:08 am

Very relevant post Marc. I’m a newbie in the field of marketing but I find my experience as a trainor and educator very usefull in adding content to preselling. I have committed a lot of mistakes but I see to it that I don’t commit the same mistake twice. There are so many new mistakes to make so I try a different one each day.

Teaching is human nature. It requires dedication and practice to have those fine qualities to be effective.
Spiros Lambrinidis
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:43 pm

Very insightful article Marc.

I would also add, that communication is also a huge aspect of email marketing. A good teacher, is a good communicator, and perhaps why you still remember your favourite teachers.

Being able to properly connect with your reader is what will ensure that your "lessons" are properly absorbed. Will your email impart a pleasant reading experience, designed to stir emotions?

We humans are also very "graphical" by nature, and we do respond and absorb better to pictures over words. We also better commit to memory images rather than words. Which is why many good articles / emails utilise graphical and emotional descriptions to better entrench the text to memory.

I believe a good teacher would be able to stir your imagination with vivid, graphical, entertaining & fun depictions of the intended message.
Marc Kline
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:31 am

Spiros,

So true!

While I was with AWeber at the Philly Podcamp we attended not too long ago, I sat in on a session on community building with Mark Blevis, a dedicated podcaster and someone who focuses on education in his professional career.

He or someone in the session recommended two videos (one and two) of an interview with Ira Glass, the host of This American Life (a great public radio program). In them, he discusses the power of storytelling and how to effectively tell one.

I think you’d find them to be engaging and useful, so I’m going to recommend these in addition to the other I mentioned with Fred Rogers above.
Ann Albers
October 4th, 2007 at 10:31 pm

I started a spiritual newsletter years ago with the sole objective of sharing information. It has now become my biggest marketing tool as well as a way to inspire and uplift people in over 48 countries. I stumbled onto this philosophy by following my angels’ guidance and continue to teach and share every week. It is a great joy to connect with so many people in such a positive way.
Purple Rain
October 5th, 2007 at 10:00 pm

I think we can share our wisdom and experience in our newsletter to highly targeted audience/reader. After there are a lot of informations, we can pile them up and write an ebook for sale. I think the readers will mostly buy because it is so familiar and they want to have a whole picture of what you have been teaching along.
Richard Knapp
October 7th, 2007 at 11:20 am

A good teacher is responsible for instilling in his students the knowledge that, we can only give them a direction and the working of the tools to achieve their goals. It is their willingness and confidence in themselves that will attain the desired result. "SUCCESS"
Pete
October 8th, 2007 at 6:21 am

Hi, I want to setup an autoresponder sequence that delivers an entertaining and educational series of emails. Is it best to have the whole session’s teaching contained in the email or should you have an introduction in the email that then gets you to click a link, to visit the webpage that then gives all the ‘meat’ of the session? The latter has the advantage, that I can update the resources & content of the session on the webpage, so readers will always get the most up to date info. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Marc Kline
October 8th, 2007 at 10:26 am

Hi Pete,

That’s a great question. In response, I’d draw back to the analogy of the teacher. In some ways it’s like the difference in concentrating the lessons in take-home vs. in-class work.

Sometimes putting information in front of someone in an immediate way is appropriate, other times deferring to another source makes sense. Ultimately, it comes down to your "style" of teaching.

On the one hand, the advantage of sending people to your website includes the fact that you’re increasing traffic there, where people can browse other information and potentially purchase your product.

On the other hand, if you put too little information in your email messages, you risk the possibility of removing the value from them in favor of your website, which could hurt your campaign and its goals.

Ultimately, I’d recommend that you a) do what seems to be the better approach to you and b) test to see whether your assumptions match the actual preference / behavior of your subscribers.

You can always use our click tracking to measure response, and set up Google Analytics with AWeber to see what any test group tends to do once they hit your website (e.g. do they purchase?).

I hope this helps.
Immigrant
October 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pm

The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another. ~
Marva Collins
Fiona Allen
October 31st, 2007 at 3:34 am

I have been an English Tutor for many years and I believe I am a good Tutor. The hardest thing for me is that if I write something (by hand) for my student it is easy. When it comes to using a keyboard to get the message across it is a totally different matter and it doesn’t work.

This is primarily because I want to change it around when I’m typing it and it totally changes the whole message.

I also, for some reason, hold my breath when I’m typing so I have to concentrate on not blacking out as well! Any thoughts anyone?
Fiona.