Tag: writing better marketing emails

most important email

The Most Important Email You Send Will Be The First One

Jon Olson 1 Comment

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

First – Say 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.

 

Second – Let 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.

 

Third – Get 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.

Never Send An Email When You Have Nothing To Say

Patrick Griffin Leave a comment

Marketing email tips

Marketing email tips: There is only one thing worse than failing to communicate with your subscribers…and that is talking to them too much.

So here is one of my golden rules which you ignore at your peril:

  • Never, ever, send out an email to your list when you don’t have something useful to communicate.

This can be a mistake if you commit to send out weekly (or heaven forbid daily) emails to your subscribers so that takes us on to our second golden rule:

  • Never make promises that you are unable to keep.

So, therefore, don’t ever promise to send a weekly newsletter unless you know, for absolute certain, that you will have enough information to provide that content.

Your subscribers are fickle. Just because they have signed up does not mean they are yours for life. Far from it. It is good to assume that every time you send an email you may potentially lose a segment of your list – those that don’t like what you have to say and who can be bothered to hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button.

So even if you have written an email don’t automatically send it.

Read over it first and ask yourself this question: “Does this email contain useful information which would be of value to my subscribers?”

If the answer is “no” then don’t send it. Either rewrite it so that it does contain some information of value or just don’t send it at all.

 

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.