If you are new to internet marketing, then one of the first things people who have been doing this for a while will tell you is that… you need to build a list!
No, not a guest list for your next BBQ, or even the list for your daughter or son’s forthcoming birthday, communion, bar/bat mitzvah etc… but an email list!
And due to form, every blog, every site now features these pesky “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” forms, with offers of “free” this, and “free” that just so you might be persuaded to put your name and email down in exchange for all this free stuff!
Problem is that according to a survey:
- 77% of US online consumers say they’ve become more guarded about giving their email address over the past year
- 18% say they never open email from companies
Still, in spite of these numbers, a large number of visitors will subscribe to email lists adding their names to a growing data base worth its size in gold..
And gold is the appropriate way to characterize a well built and well run email list because quite simply, this internet marketing media is highly successful.
I subscribe to a number of such lists and I can tell you from experience that email marketing DOES work! I suspect you would agree as well!
Indeed, in spite of my so called “nous” I have personally been guilty of pushing the “Buy Now” button for a number of “must have” products or services “recommended” to me in frequent emails which the owners of those pesky lists I have subscribed to send me at regular intervals. I am so guilty in fact that some of these products are still waiting to be opened in my “TO DO” folder!
So to recap here is the deal:
- As the owner of a website, you create a must have product that you are willing to give “free” in exchange for an email.
- Visitors to your site find your offer simply exquisite and too good to turn down and duly subscribe to your list.
- After a confirmation process, you receive your very first email containing the product that you signed up for.
- You read (or not) said product.
- A few days later you receive a second email commending you for the first step you took and whilst at it, recommending that you might want to have a look at this “highly affordable, one in lifetime” offer and you decided to do… nothing!
- A few days later, you receive a third email telling you about success stories of people just like you who bought the product your passed on and how you should really, really reconsider. Still you do… nothing! After all you are not one to be swayed so easily by a sales pitch..
- After a few other email, you end up buying said product…
- There then ensues a period of quiet, during which you do not receive any email
- …
- …
- until…
- You receive one! With yet another product on offer.
This whole process is called “Email Engagement”. The key to “Email Engagement” is to nurture your subscribers so that they maintain their interest and “heaven forbid” do not decide to do the unthinkable which is of course to… Unsubscribe from your list!
You can have a closer look at email engagement in an excellent info-graphic put together by the folks at litmus.com or right here.
Hi Stevie
Thanks for your good blog, I just can see my self in it, some time i just subscribe to a list for the free stuff and then get out of there.
But it is 100% a mind game , the more you see something over and over again make you buy it on the end.
I just start building my list this year so my list is still very small compere to others but I am on my way.
I Enjoy your Blog THX
Theuns
Hi Stevie:
What a great list. I’m going to put in my operations manual. I sometimes struggle with my email marketing efforts. One more thing to do in an endless list. However, I’m going to make a better effort to grow my list. Thanks for sharing this information.
All the best,
Leslie
I to, get on a lot of people’s list/ Sometime I buy ans sometimes I don’t. But having a list is the only way the you will ever make any money on the internet. Thanks for you insight.
Knowing to engare the readers and subcribers for a long period of time having them open your mail is an art.
It’s about knowing what are theri pains and nurturing them with good stuff.
I do not like it when I receive hard selling e mails this is a red falg to me and I unsubscribe right away.
Selling to strangers is not something I feel confortable in doing, would you agree?
I know what you mean Patricia. However selling to strangers is part and parcel of a successful site and I think that most internet users know that. As you say, we have to be clever about it.
Hi Steve,
As they say, the money is in the list. My husband has been studying that and is applying it as I write. He is doing fine, but it is a lot of work. However, when marketing what isn’t work?
Email Engagement can be difficult, but as I look over his shoulder, I see him giving constant information to his list. Also, the variations of the title or content do count. I’ve seen people that have been on the sidelines for weeks, finally opt in to something that “grabs” them.
From what I’m observing, it is another way of never giving up.
Thanks for the info.
Donna
Very true Donna. I think a husband/wife team is a hugely powerful combination for anyone who is interested in running a home or online business. As for Email Engagement, here too, content is king.
I think, Stevie, that readers lose interest in our emails when we, as newsletter authors, lose interest in delivering valuable, quality and relevant content.
Sometimes, our interest is never there to begin with.
I’ve had many clients that created email lists with no intention of ever engaging their newsletter readers. They think of an email list as a classified ad space where they can just keep sending links to sales pages in order to grab quick commissions.
Surprisingly, this disengaged strategy actually works if it’s done consistently and introduces an endless flow of products and services that are relevant to the subscribers.
The best way to build a lasting and highly leveraged business, though, is to truly engage readers consistently and from day 1. This requires that the List author be sincerely interested in his/her readers and chosen niche. It’s not easy, but it’s well worth the hard work and diligent effort.
Excellent advice David. Thank you for sharing it with our readers!
Hi Stevie, You are giving some excellent advice in this article. I just started building my list and trying to learn how to keep my readers engaged and interested in my emails is what I’m going to work on. Thanks for bringing this important issue to light.
I am glad I could help! The money is in them lists they say! Not all of it, but enough all the same.
Hi Stevie, sometimes you come across a “list” where the owner give much more value than they do “selling”. Then, after they’ve built a relationship with the subscriber, they offer something for sale. Of course, then it might be too late, and the subscriber might’ve stopped reading. I used to subscribe to different lists, so I could learn from different people and watch what they do. However, I’ve been filtering so many newsletters to different folders in my email, and hardly ever get round to reading them.
Have a great week Stevie! regards from Julieanne