most important email

The Most Important Email You Send Will Be The First One

Building your list can be a very exciting endeavor. You’ve heard countless stories about how important building ones mailing list can be, but something most new list builders face as we addressed in previous blog posts is writer’s block. Knowing what to say to your new subscribers can be a daunting task.

And remember the old saying ‘the first impression can last a lifetime’…Well in list building that can truly be the case. So while we’re excited to add new subscribers to our mailing lists, the biggest hurdle will be to get your subscribers to know, like and trust you.

Here’s the skinny, having a list of 10,000 doesn’t mean a thing if you aren’t getting any ‘action‘ from those subscribers. So we need to start the relationship off on the right foot. Let’s get people to ‘know, like and trust’ us from the start.

know like trust

And it begins…With the first email you send your subscribers!

Here’s what I recommend. Some folks in the marketing world call the first email you send an indoctrination email. Basically, you want your readers to get a feel for who you are and what they can expect.

I want to really highlight this point! Who you are matters! And if you are getting ready to give your subscribers a boat load of content and great value while subscribed, it has to be stated early on in the email series.

Follow this formula for a great ‘welcome to my list’ email! first email formula

FirstSay thanks! It’s important that you let your subscribers know that you value them and are grateful for them signing up. This shows that you respect them and understand you now have to show and prove that you value their time.

 

SecondLet Them Know What To Expect! If you are going to be sending them content, let them know. If you plan on giving them more offers than content (while not always the best route…) regardless, let them know. If they can expect exclusive offers, discounts, live training, videos…Whatever you are giving them…Let them know! Be up front about what they can expect so there aren’t any surprises.

 

ThirdGet Them To Take Action. This is huge! What I recommend is getting them to follow you on Twitter, Like you on Facebook, watch a video you have for them, read a blog post…Anything to get them to ‘do something’ so they get into the habit of taking action in your emails. This is also a great way to build the relationship outside of an email environment. You want to communicate with your lists, and while email is a push marketing platform, we want to PULL them into other platforms where the conversation can continue.

 

Remember…The key is this indoctrination email is to get them to know, like and eventually TRUST you.

If you put your subscribers needs first and let them know you are there for them throughout their journey, you can expect a fantastic life long relationship with your list of subscribers.

Five Tips To Make Your Next Autoresponder Campaign Sparkle

sparkling lightsWhen you use an autoresponder service like RocketResponder you open up a whole new world of communication with your subscribers.

You have a powerful tool to ensure that your message, or series of messages go out exactly when you want them to and over the time period you want them to go out.

This leaves you free to concentrate on the message and to ensure that the information you are communicating is spot on.

Here are five top RocketResponder tips to ensure that your next autoresponder campaign (and every other autoresponder campaign after that) works out exactly as you want it to.

  1. Always plan in advance. This is a must. Take the time to work out what message you want to get across and what you are going to say. There should be a structure to every email campaign you put together whether it is a series of training steps, the build up to a launch or the ‘drip feed’ of information over a set period of time.
  2. How long will it last? There must be a definite start date and a definite end date for your campaign. Make sure you leave yourself long enough to plan the email campaign in advance so it is all ready to go and you are not leaving things until the last minute.
  3. What am I trying to achieve? The campaign must have some specific goal otherwise you will not be able to tell whether or not it has been a success. Work out what the goal is and how best you are going to achieve it.
  4. How frequently will I send emails? If it is a short campaign then it might be appropriate to send an email every day but if it is a bit longer then maybe one every other day or every three days might work better. Finally if you have not contacted your list for a long time and you plan to send them regular emails during this campaign then it might be worth warning them in advance that they are going to hear from you again.
  5. Make sure everything works. When everything is all queued up and ready to go then make sure everything works as you want it to. Send each of the emails to yourself first and read over them for any factual mistakes or grammatical errors. Also test that all your links work as you want them to and that any pages you send people to are the correct pages and the links or sales buttons on those pages are also properly set up.

Try putting these tips to work and see how well RocketResponder can work for you.

Keep Your Emails Short And To The Point

email writing tips

Email writing tips from RocketResponder

Think of the emails you get every day.

If you are like me, something like this will probably happen…

  • A percentage (perhaps a large percentage) will be immediately deleted without ever being opened
  • Others will get kept in your inbox to be read but will still end up being deleted because you decide you don’t have the time or the inclination to read them after all
  • Some (perhaps a small percentage) will actually get opened.

Let’s concentrate on the ones you actually open. Again, if you are like me, if the email looks overly long and complicated then you might read a sentence or two and then give up.

So to get the best chance of getting your message read keep it short and to the point.

Say what you have to say and nothing more.

Try and give the reader just one thing to think about and take action on and you will have the best chance of getting your message read and understood.

If you have lots of different points to make then it might be better to make a short mini-series with each point made in a separate email.

If you do this then you can refer to the next email in the last line of the one before. Say something like: “So now that I have introduced our exciting new product to you, tomorrow I will tell you three ways it will change your life for the better.”

Now go ahead and use your RocketResponder account to use these techniques for yourself.

Your Subject Line Has One Purpose And One Purpose Only

good email subject lines

There is one thing which seems to cause a huge amount of problems for anyone who writes emails for business…

What exactly makes a good email subject lines?

Some people agonize over this for far longer than it takes to write the entire body of the email itself.

Others have no idea what to say and others manage to mess it up completely.

Here is all you need to know about the subject line or header for your email message.

It serves only one purpose and that is to spark sufficient interest to get your email opened.

So when you write your RocketResponder emails remember that that the header plays a vital role…it can make the difference between whether your message is even seen or not.

Here are some tips:

  • Always remember that the header serves to get your email  open
  • Take time to get the header right – don’t just write the first thing that comes to mind
  • Don’t lie or be misleading in your header – it will make your subscribers angry
  • The header should relate to the main body of the email in some way, and finally one tip I never thought I would have to write…
  • Don’t drop the f-bomb in your header…honestly this has happened to me in the past. Do this and not only will I not open your email, I won’t ever take anything you say seriously ever again.

Subject lines are so important that we will be returning to this topic again and again so don’t forget to subscribe to the RocketResponder blog so that you never miss a single post.