Communicating with Your Email Subscribers

So if you’ve been following along, you know that building an email subscriber list is a critical element of any internet marketing venture. But although many marketers focus heavily on building a base of subscribers, they don’t understand what to do with that list once it has been created.

Some marketers assume that, because subscribers have opted in, they will be receptive to endless sales pitches. This is one of the most common email marketing mistakes, but it is also one that will quickly erode your credibility. Turning every email into a product pitch will do nothing but drive your “unsubscribe” rate through the roof. What good is spending hours every day building your email list if you’re losing subscribers as fast as you’re gaining new ones?

So what should you offer subscribers via your email messages? Here are a few ideas that will keep your subscribers loyal, while building both trust and profits:

• Update bulletins. If you’ve written a particularly useful article or blog post, let your subscribers know about it. Some internet marketers even send out a weekly update, highlighting the core concepts of each article posted in the previous week. This is great for people who don’t have time to visit your site every day, and want to find relevant content quickly.
• Newsletters. These emails focus on new developments that will be of direct interest to your subscribers. They can also highlight new product offerings, giving you an opportunity to introduce readers to your products without “pitching” them.
• Links to audio/video podcasts. These simple emails boast impressive click-through rates, and they only take a few minutes to write. Just format your content as an audio or video download, and alert your email subscribers. Visitors can download and listen to podcasts at their leisure, so they’re a great tool for staying in front of your audience, whether they’re parked at their PCs or not.
• “Mastermind” tips. Really, these can be called anything – I’ve just adopted the “mastermind” term from working with professionals like Yaro Starak and John Chow. These are bits of semi-exclusive, in-depth information that go beyond what you offer on your website or blog. Because you don’t provide these informational pearls to the general internet-surfing public, subscribers perceive them as being highly valuable – and they learn to look to you as the authority in your niche market.
• Contests. Sure, it seems a bit dastardly to “bribe” your subscribers into loyalty, but the truth is, if you don’t do it… someone else probably will. Promoting the occasional contest, be it for a free t-shirt, the newest web-enabled gadget, or a complementary product or service, will do wonders for building subscriber loyalty.
• Personal insights. Many internet marketers frown on this tactic, but our clients have found that the occasional foray into personal emails builds the relationship side of internet marketing. While this might not produce immediate results, it lays the foundation for long-term business success.

These are just a few of the strategies you can use to increase loyalty, establish yourself as an authority, and increase your business revenues. Use these ideas as a springboard to launch your own unique email marketing campaign, and you will quickly position yourself ahead of 99% of the other marketers in your niche.