Author: Patrick Griffin

Patrick Griffin has been marketing online for 15 years. He's a serial entrepreneur and an avid email and content marketing enthusiast with a background in publishing and journalism, including a UK Press Award.

How To Win Over A Cold Email List

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common email marketing writing mistakes

Last time we mentioned some common email marketing writing mistakes people regularly make.

One was perhaps one of the greatest mistakes of all and that is allowing your list to grow cold.

So today it would be a good opportunity to discuss what can be done to best revive a relationship with such a group of subscribers.

A cold list in this context a “cold” list is one which you have not communicated with for so long that you have allowed your relationship with the people on it to grow cold.

The chances are that if you suddenly start sending out your emails to them again then many of them will have to scratch their heads to work out who you are.

The result – they may think it is spam mail and they will just unsubscribe or report you as spam (or both.)

Others may remember having signed up to your list but decide that having got along just fine for many months without you that they no longer need to hear from you again.

So how would I tackle a list like this.

Well the last thing I would do is wait until I had something to promote to contact them again…that is just adding insult to injury.

Instead I would use my RocketResponder account to try and gently rebuild bridges.

I would send a broadcast email to the entire list and cover the following points:

  • Reintroduce myself
  • Apologise for having ignored them
  • Offer a reason for having failed to do so
  • Tell them I will be in more regular contact from now on…if they still want to hear from me
  • Invite them to unsubscribe if they feel they no longer trust me or no longer want to hear from me.

Keep the email short and don’t make silly excuses for having lost contact. Just be open, honest and up front – remember you are trying to rebuild contact.

Also be aware that some people will take you up on the offer to unsubscribe – it is only to be expected after all. However some will really appreciate your honesty and some who might have unsubscribed may be willing to give you a second chance.

Now you have done the best you can to rebuild bridges, don’t make the same mistake again!

Five Email Mistakes To Avoid

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Email Mistakes To Avoid

Email Mistakes To Avoid: With a service like RocketResponder it is easier than ever before to send out emails to multiple people in just seconds.

Do it right and you will get the results you want but do it wrong and you could irretrievably damage your relationship with your list.

Some mistakes are worse than others but really you should not be making any mistakes at all when sending out emails so always to try to get things right every time.

Here are some mistakes you ought to be aware of so that you can avoid making them yourself:

  • Failing to check – There are few things more annoying than getting an email with dead links or other errors so take times to get things right before pressing the “send” button. Always use the RocketResponder feature which allows you to send a test email to yourself first.
  • Using misleading subject lines – We all want to get out emails opened but if you use misleading subject lines then you will really irritate your subscribers…so don’t ever be tempted to do this.
  • Adding far too many links – Including too many links in an email will just confuse people and could lead to them not taking any action at all. I have regularly received emails where I have counted a dozen or more links. That is far too many. Keep the email, short, focused and to the point.
  • Trying too hard to impress – Sometimes you really can try too hard and it won’t do you any favors at all. People know when you are overdoing it with the hype and flam and they generally hate it. If you have to use random capital letters, multiple exclamation marks and multiple colors then your message is sure to get lost.
  • Ignoring your subscribers for too long – If you ignore your subscribers then they will probably forget about you after a while. The result of this is that the next time you contact them, totally out of the blue, they may even forget that they signed up to hear from you. Therefore you can expect a higher number of unsubscribes than usual when you do eventually contact your list again.

 

 

A Great Example Of Communicating With Your Subscribers

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Communicating With Your Subscribers

Communicating With Your Subscribers: It is great to see an email where someone has got it so totally right that you drop everything to open it up.

This happened to me the other day and it really is a joy to see.

It was actually a rare example of an autoresponder email where you really do think the email was sent to you, and you alone.

If you can achieve anything close to this with your RocketResponder email series then you are well on your way to success.

Anatomy of a great email.

The email I am talking about had the following subject line.

Hey I need your help!

Thoughts on this:

Few of us could resist the urge to find out what the person needs help with, especially if it is someone you have built up a relationship with already.

If you are thinking of using this or a variation of this then make sure that you really do need help with something or other.

If it is just a ploy to get someone to open yet another marketing offer then expect a lot of people to hit “unsubscribe”

The email went on to say…

I’m not kidding, I actually NEED your help this time.

…it is pretty hard to know what to send you because you all may be on different stages, which leads to the following question:

Q. What do you expect to receive from me?”

Then the email went on to remind readers:

  • where they subscribed to the list in the first place
  • possible reasons for remaining subscribed
  • how to unsubscribe

It ended with a call to action which said:

I’d love if you could take a minute to reply to this email and let me know what’s the deal so I can give you more of what you want!…Thanks a lot and I look forward to your answers!”

Personally I don’t think you can get much better than that when it comes to connecting with subscribers and showing them that you care.

Valentine's Day

Don’t Be Afraid To Say I Love You

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Value your customers

Value your customers: It is Valentine’s Day and love is in the air.

But while your thoughts will naturally turn to loved ones at this time of year…don’t forget that your customers also need to feel loved.

They also want to feel valued, respected and appreciated.

In particular they will love to feel that you treat them as individuals…and how you use email can help you with all of the above.

So if someone has bought something from you then tell them that you love them…ok well maybe don’t go that far but send out an email to say how much you appreciate their custom.

An autoresponder like RocketResponder lets you do just that.

So now that you have got a customer why not use an email (or series of emails) to:

  • thank them for their purchase and explain how they can contact you
  • tell them how much you appreciate their custom (that’s the ‘I Love You’ bit by the way)
  • invite them to give you feedback on your goods or services
  • tell them something about you or your business to make the relationship between you more personal
  • inform them of any special offers you may have

You can set an autoresponder series to do that any time of the year, whether it is Valentine’s Day or not.

But, thinking about it, given that it is Valentine’s Day why don’t you sent out a special one-off email telling your customers that you really do love them?

If you include a special Valentine’s Day offer in that email too then both you and your customers could benefit from this special day.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.

 

 

Never Fear The Unsubscribe Factor – Part Three

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Dealing with email unsubscribes

Dealing with email unsubscribes: In our final look (for now at least) on dealing with unsubscribers we will talk about making it easy for people to leave your list.

Now there is one school of thought which says that you should make it as difficult as possible for people to leave your list.

In order to do this I have seen some of the following tricks being used:

  • failing to include any unsubscribe link on emails
  • inserting a whole load of white space between the end of the main body of the email and the unsubscribe link to hide it from view
  • not making the unsubscribe link active
  • directing the link to a random URL and
  • writing the link in a foreign language.

Here at RocketResponder we do not recommend any of that…quite the opposite in fact. Never try to hide or obscure your unsubscribe link. Ensure it is there in every email for the whole world to see.

If people want to unsubscribe then you should let them. If they no longer want to be on their list then why should you want them there?

All you will be doing is sending emails to people who either won’t even open them or have no interest in what you have to say.

So let them go, make it easy for them to go and don’t give them another thought.