Well – this past week has been a bit of a wild ride for people in the media/social media landscape. With the Facebook “news” stoush also wiping out non-news Facebook page feeds and updates from public view, it has 100%, absolutely, quantifiably rammed home the importance of not solely relying on Social Media to promote your business. Even my Social Media & Marketing Facebook page was inadvertently impacted in this crossfire.

So today I’m going to follow on from my blogs over the last few weeks about the importance of email marketing in your business strategy – these were the blog posts that have covered why your business email list can help buffer you from Social Media meltdowns.

If you haven’t already read these blog posts that go through email marketing, I’m going to link them here for you to read before you go any further:

• Email List Building For Small Business
• How To Get Your Emails Opened And Read
• The Power of a Direct Message

So to follow on from these previous posts, I am going to delve into why the PS (the postscript) in your emails and even your social captions can make a huge impact.

Yep, the PS – the Postscript.

You know that thing on the end of a letter that we put, saying “Hey, by the way PS” – and then we put a little extra in, despite the fact that the reader thought we were finished because we’d signed off!

Now stick with me here, because your PS can be the most powerful part of your ENTIRE email.

Hands up if, when you pick up a book, you read the last page first?

If you nodded or put your hand up WE ARE SO alike! That’s what I do every time (and no, I’m not sure what that says about me!).

But it translates into reading an email and scrolling right to the bottom to read the PS – what do they REALLY want me to read in this email – what’s the one thing they need me to know without reading the whole thing ….

It’s that attention grabbing juicy titbit at the end – which is often (and this is my point of this blog) the primary reason for the email.

It’s that one final push for the click – the click to the sale, the click to listen to the episode, the click to sign up for x.

Simple, the PS is a seriously powerful tool.  The PS brings all the things you said above it home to reinforce both the message and the call to action.

Here’s 6 effective ways to use your PS

1. The hook – that compelling copy with a call to action by using your PS as bait
2. Making a final plea for action
3. Create urgency – for example, the offer is only valid for x hours
4. The bonus or new offer – for the readers that read the PS!
5. Show some personality
6. To share a testimonial

So why do we love the PS so much?

1. People are overwhelmed with the information that’s coming to them every day – there’s just so much of it. We scroll, looking for useful information rather than reading all the content.

The PS is almost that pattern interrupt for us – it’s the bit that can stop the scroll, stop the mindless search for relevant information.

Did you know that only about 10% of readers will read your content word by word?  Most scan, looking for the point, something to catch their eye – it’s often the PS.

2. We know that the PS is going to tell us (if written well) exactly what we need to know about the stuff above – all the writing above, with a good PS is succinctly said in a few lines. Again, busy competitive world, this is what we are looking for.  Tell me what I need to know and what I need to do, quickly.

3. Habit – just habit. I read the last page of a magazine or book first, I’m just naturally going to scroll to see what your PS says. I’d also like to eat dessert first too, just to say!

So, how does your PS look?  Do you consistently use this marketing strategy in your emails – the PS?

Do you use it to summarise your point, for people like me who want to skip to the end, and provide the action you want me to take – in a short line or two?

If no, then this is your homework for the week – yep, I’m giving out homework!

If you don’t use the PS strategy – start looking at how you read emails or content from others.

Do you read PS? How many emails do you get that have a PS?

Then you can start to test and measure using it.

The PS can also work in captions for social media – the same principal applies – you are just reinforcing the message, and the action to be taken, perhaps creating urgency, scarcity, a final plea or a special offer to anyone who reads to the bottom!

(PS – I am also going to get the special PS offers – because that’s where I start!).

And mind you, if your PS doesn’t crab my attention, there’s little chance of me reading the whole email above!

So, to summarise this little piece of marketing, copy gold, there’s many ways to use the PS, including

• To repeat your CTA (call to action)
• To summarise your sales message
• To add new ideas
• Create extra emotion for dramatic impact
• To give a special offer
• Or to create urgency and scarcity

The trick is to incorporate lessons form a PS into the body of your marketing email – because the person who reads the PS first and wants to know more, is going to have to find the answers to their questions after reading your last paragraph, not before!

Remember the When Harry Met Sally… movie? The one where its protagonist explains why he reads last pages of new books first:

“When I buy a new book, I read the last page first. That way, in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side.”

Dark sides attract us with their permissiveness. They are about rule breaking, sense of liberty, and swim against the stream – feelings most people subconsciously experience when reading postscripts. So why not kill two birds with one stone: give them what they want and satisfy your marketing needs at the same time.

So, if you’re a PS or last page reader like me – welcome to the dark side baby!

But seriously, next time you are writing an email or a long caption on social media – think about summarising with a clear, actionable PS and watch your click through rate or insights for movement of the best kind – up!

Simple?  Sort of.  Work?  100%.  But I guess the lesson is, people are busy, the marketplace is crowded and if a simple, actionable, urgent PS can help us capture the attention of our reader – it’s SO worth it!

I actually start a lot of my PS’s with “if you’ve scrolled straight down here – then firstly we are SO alike and secondly here’s what you really need to know from up there …..”

A little H2H, human to human marketing – Conversational Marketing put at the end or the start – depending on how you are!

Got questions? Or wanting to share some of your PS gold? Then head into my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group and ask away (My group thankfully was not impacted by the social media blackout that affected my page!) – or send me a DM on Instagram or an email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au

ABOUT THE AUTHOR!

Jenn Donovan is a marketing strategist and social media extraordinaire, coach and mentor to savvy business owners.  Owner and Founder of Social Media & Marketing Australia.

With a passion for making business simple, because it’s isn’t easy but it should be simple or at least simpler, she’s built a reputation for helping other small business owners simplify their marketing and businesses so they can reach their goals, be more profitable and live the dream (finding the freedom they set out to achieve when they started … the illusive small business owner freedom dream …!)

Jenn believes in giving before asking and that’s why she’s the host of the popular Small Business Made Simple Podcast.