List Building Tips: Keeping Your Subscribers

Today we are going to look a bit deeper into keeping your subscribers. Autoresponders provide you with the ability to set up a series of messages that will be automatically sent to those that subscribe to your list.

These messages will go out to people in the same order whether they are the first to subscribe or the 199th.

I don’t know about you, but at one point in time I was totally impressed with the ability of some marketers to write to me almost everyday. That was very naive of me of course, but it also points out the magic that can be behind a good autoresponder series.

The messages you put together should not be thought of as one unending sales pitch. Always keep subscriber satisfaction in mind.

Most of us have been the recipients of an autoresponder series that was put together with only the sales pitch in mind. So we know from our own experience, that these messages can become highly annoying in a hurry and it does not take long for that annoyance to lead the mouse cursor to the unsubscribe link.

Think of your email message series as yet another opportunity for you to communicate with your list and build a deeper relationship with them. Those that subscribed did so as an expression of their interest in your niche and their desire to know more about it and about you as well.

The content you provided in your posts and other marketing efforts will have led them to believe that possibly you have something they would be interested in buying. Now they need to be comfortable with making that decision by learning more about you. People do not buy from a business, they buy from the person behind the business.

You will, of course, make mention of your products from time to time in your emails. But the strong, arm twisting emails of the past are rapidly disappearing amongst the more savvy marketers aiming for a high level of subscriber satisfaction.

What they will do instead is segment their list. Segmenting your email list occurs when a seperate autoresponder list is created for a more targeted audience. This method is often used when a major product launch is in the works.

These marketers will invite their list to join a product-centered launch list. Those that join are aware that they are expressing an interest in knowing more about the launch and they are prepared to receive emails that aggressively market the list product. Meanwhile, the sanctity of the original email series is maintained.

5 List Building Tips For Constructing Emails For Your Autoresponder

1. Never forget the SEO essentials. Create an eye-catching headline (subject line) using your targeted keywords. You want to stand out from all the noise your subscriber sees daily in their inbox and entice them to open your emails. Get straight to the point. Remember, online readers are skimmers, so tell them exactly what they will find when they open the email.

2. The most beautiful sound to anyone’s ears is the sound of their name, so address your subscribers by name. Generic greetings distance you from the reader. They look on it as a sign of indifference on your part or possibly that you have no time to be concerned with them. Of course there is always one joker in the bunch that subscribes to your list with a name that is not theirs, but that is out of your hands.

3. Remember the question or statement that you posed in your subject line? Repeat it in the opening of the email and then follow through with information that is pertinent to this question or subject line. Write the email as you would when addressing a friend so that you come across as focused on the reader. Keep the length of your emails between 300 and 400 words.

4. Ask the reader to take an action of some sort. No, this is not a sales hook necessarily and you need to think beyond the relationship of the words “take action” and sales pitch. If you would like to offer them some free information such as a report, discuss what the subscriber will receive in what is offered and provide a link for them to access it.

Some marketers use this tactic to increase traffic to their blog by introducing a blog post they have written with a link to the balance of the post and thereby encourage not only traffic, but also comments from their readers.

Another item that many people fail to think of is the promotion of their articles that they have written and published in article directories. While most article directories will frown on a PPC campaign pointing to your published articles, there is nothing wrong with notifying your list of articles (or even guest blog posts) that you have written. Providing an introduction to the article and a link they may use to read the remainder of the article.

5. Use your real signature along with a method for subscribers to contact you or your support desk. Show them that you are personally involved in what you are sending out to your list.

Keeping your subscribers has a lot to do with subscriber satisfaction. If they are satisfied that they are receiving value by being on your list, they will stick with you. Use strategies such as segmenting your email list for special promotions and also the 5 list building tips above to increase the value of your email series to your subscribers.

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com