Five Email Mistakes To Avoid

Patrick Griffin 2 Comments

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

Patrick Griffin 2 Comments

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.

Never Fear The Unsubscribe Factor – Part Two

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list building tips and tricks

List building tips and tricks – Previously we spoke about two common reasons why people may unsubscribe from your list fairly quickly – they either joined by mistake or they are just freebie seekers.

But the truth is that as long as you build lists using a program like RocketResponder you will always get people coming and going all the time.

Think of the list of people you have like friends – some will be friends for life, others will hang around for a few years, others a few months and some will decide they don’t want to be your friend after the shortest time.

Remember that you really only want people in your life (or on your list) who actually, genuinely want to be there.

People change over time, their needs change, their wants change and their plans for their lives change.

So it is therefore quite common for someone to be interested in what you have to offer at one time in their life and maybe not interested at all three, six or nine months down the line.

Therefore the message is the same – you really ought not to worry when people leave your list because it is something which will happen all the time.

I guess the only time to worry would be if the background trickle became a flood – that would surely signal that there was a problem.

Maybe your website went off line and you kept sending people to dead links – that is so annoying by the way – or perhaps you put out a really bad product which people hated and you failed to deal with the complaints in a timely or positive manner.

However that is a totally different issue and not really what we are talking about here.

Overall if you keep promoting what you have to offer then you should see your numbers continue to climb. Remember that it is the overall trend that you are interested in and not the day to day fluctuations so don’t get distracted by the wrong things.

Just keep providing good content, keep communicating with your subscribers and the people who stay – the ones who really count – should remain loyal and happy.