Nov 29, 2008, post by Lisa Wells
When someone signs up for my e-course or newsletter, one of the web pages that comes up during the registration process asks the subscriber “What is your biggest problem?” and one of the “biggest problems” that I read most often is “how do I get more people to subscribe to my list?”
I can tell you that list-building is not something that one can do overnight and attracting subscribers is a deliberate process as well as a work in progress. You can have milestones of course, but I’ve never heard “Well, I’ve reached 500 subscribers, I’m done.”
List-building is the action of building a subscriber list for the purpose of marketing and providing information, expertise, or advice. The main reason for building your “list” is that this group of people will become your clients or customers (you hope). Capturing these email addresses will allow you to market to these people over and over again. This is important because they may not buy what you have today or want to hire you tomorrow, but they may in the future or know someone else who may be interested in what you have to offer.
So what can you do to build your list?
* Write articles
* Hold teleseminars or webinars
* Public speaking
* Interview others or be interviewed
* Post on others’ blogs or forums
* Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
* Live networking
* Participate in joint ventures
* Add opt-in forms throughout your website and/or blog other than just the home page
I can hear some of you saying, “Yeah right, I Twitter all day long but no one signs up for my list.” Are you asking people to sign up? One of the first things I noticed when I started “following” people in Twitter is that I received a quick response ranging from “Thanks for the follow” to full-on marketing pitches. I thought to myself that these people were really on the ball and how nice of them to personally send me an e-mail. Seriously, I thought that.
But then I attended a Twitter Basics class and learned that it was actually a cool tool called “Tweet Later” which sends automated notes to new followers. All you need to do is register for the free program, set up your automated response, and finally add a “rule” to your e-mail program which sends the automatic e-mail. Don’t be afraid – the site provides you with directions and walks you through the process.
My automated response contains a “thanks” along with an invitation to sign up to receive my free e-book. This small change increased my list by 10 subscribers that first week! I also found a way to leverage a tool that I already use.
Others may be saying “I write tons of articles but I don’t get any traffic to my website.” Well, let’s take a look at your resource box (that short paragraph that follows the article). Does the resource box make you want to click on the link to find out more about YOU or what you have to offer? Does the page that the person link to display a prominent opt-in box? Do you offer something compelling for free, such as an e-course, e-book, or audio? Or do you offer a ho-hum “free newsletter”?
Something else to try is a joint venture, which is a great way to grow your list quickly in a short time.
Whatever list-building tactic you use, make sure you have a consistent marketing strategy. For example, don’t just write a short article once in a while. Instead, write articles and feature them in your newsletter, post them to your blog, and submit them to free and/or paid article directories on a regular basis.
Start building!
Copyright 2008 Lisa Wells, Coast2CoastBusiness.com
Lisa Wells is a Certified eMarketing Associate who partners with coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs, and small business owners, managing their many online marketing needs. Move your business to the next level and up your e-marketing game – sign up for her FREE e-course “e-Marketing Toolbox Essentials” at http://www.emarketingtoolboxessentials.com.
Oct 25, 2008, post by Lisa Wells
In email marketing, the use of subject lines is proba
bly one of the most important aspects of an email campaign and plays a big part in whether or not the email broadcast is a success. However, sometimes it seems that many of the emails I receive, the sender treats the subject line as more of an afterthought than a chance to engage the reader (me!).
In fact, according to a 2007 Jupiter Research report*, more than one-third of your readers will open your email based on what you write in your subject line.
Here are some more facts from the Email Stat Center regarding subject lines:
- Emails with shorter subject lines significantly outperformed emails with longer subject lines. – MailerMailer (2008)
- Emails that had only the subject line personalized (12.4% Open Rate & 1.7% CTR) did worse than those with no personalization at all (13.5% Open Rate & 2.7% CTR). – MailerMailer (2008)
- Seven in 10 US Internet users said they judged these “from” and “subject” lines when deciding whether to report an email as spam. – E-Mail Sender and Provider Coalition and Ipsos (December 2007)
- Including the company name in the subject line can increase open rates by up to 32 percent to 60 percent over a subject line without branding. – Jupiter Research (2007)
- Words that were identified as innocuous words that won’t trigger a spam filter, but will negatively affect your open rates. They are: Help, Percent off, and Reminder. – MailChimp (2007)
Because the subject lines are as important as the messages contained within the email, you should give them as much, if not more, attention. Going back through emails that I received and deleted or that ended up in my junk folder, I notice the same mistakes being made over and over again.
Uninspiring Subject Lines
Which one would you rather open?
“Trusty Traveler Newsletter: September 2008″ or “The Trusty Traveler: Insider tips on Machu Picchu”
Monthly newsletter blah — Machu Picchu, heck yeah!
Think about how many emails you get in the course of a day or a week. If the subject of the newsletter doesn’t pique your interest, it will most likely be deleted. Also, don’t think about what would interest YOU, but what would interest your readers.
Unrecognizable ‘From’ Addresses
After being a chamber member for about six months, I called the main office to ask if I was on their mailing list because I had not been receiving any emails about upcoming events. The woman told me that indeed I was on the mailing list and to check my junk folder. I soon figured out why I had not been getting the emails: the “From” address was the office manager’s name and that the Subject line read “Tourism News.” No wonder they got deleted.
Most of the list manager programs will let you customize the “From” section so that you can add a “display name” which can include your name, the company name, or the publication name. Take a little time to make sure these are set up correctly for each of your publications.
Hypey Subject Lines
Hypey, salesy, or the emails that promise untold wealth, tons of traffic, you know the drill, have lost favor and sometimes border on spam. “Open NOW” “Must Read!”… there’s a fine line between a “hypey” email and a legitimate one when it comes to creating a sense of urgency.
Of course everyone’s subscriber list is different and people respond differently depending on many variables, but the goal should be to engage the reader, create a connection, communicate a message… and a bad subject line can result in lost subscribers and, in turn, lost profits. You should know your subscribers and what is acceptable and what isn’t. (Hint: When people start unsubscribing in droves, you should pay attention.) And if you don’t know what your readers want, you can always ask them using a survey program such as surveymonkey.com.
If you want to test your email campaigns to see how different subject lines compare, try running a split-test. Instructions on how to run a split-test can be found within your newsletter list manager ‘frequently asked questions’ section.
*35 percent of email users open messages because of what’s contained in the subject line. – Jupiter Research (2007) as referenced in the Email Stat Center.
Copyright 2008 Lisa Wells, Coast2CoastBusiness.com
Want to publish this article on your site? You may, but please include the following resource information: Lisa Wells, virtual support specialist, publishes “Marketing Mindset in Motion,” a free monthly marketing e-newsletter for coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs. If you’re ready to move your business to the next level, sign up for her FREE e-course “e-Marketing Toolbox Essentials” at www.eMarketingToolboxEssentials.
