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Comment posted on How to Build a List? See Beyond The List To Make The Real Money by Alexandru Petru
Hello Robert,
Thanks for the great tips and I am really watching this series and I want to learn more about list building.
But I wonder about your email frequency, for example, I put myself in the shoes of a subscriber and I honestly say that if I would signup to a certain email list and start getting an email every day for 7 days I would unsubscribe as fast as I could.
Although, telling them before starting the rain of emails starts might help, but I am still skeptical about people standing for an email everyday for 7 days.
Also, does the content provided in the emails will really have the time to sink in just one day. Many people don’t check their emails daily and they might have a shock when they log in and see a plethora emails from the same person.
By the way, this are only the points of view of a subscriber and a list builder 
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Hi Robert,
Awesome post. I agree that we shouldn’t get so hung up on building a huge following with our email list (Ana-I agree that twitter’s a different animal!) that building relationships with the people on our list is 100 times more important. My list is growing steadily, but it’s not huge and I love how many replies I get when I send out an email, from people who appreciated what I shared.
I think it’s okay to occasionally sell in your emails though, depending on how you do it. If your readers know that you only recommend things that you really feel will make a difference for them in their businesses, and you’ve already got the relationship with them, they will not mind.
We are in business to earn an income, and my readers know, because I remind them frequently, that it’s my goal to help them earn one too! Part of that comes with developing the confidence in yourself and what you’re recommending.
If I know of something that can really help people, it’s my self appointed responsibility to let them know about it.
What do you think?
Heather
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Hi Heather - to your point if you are suggesting products and services that can help your subscribers that’s one thing (and I think totally cool). Many times I get emails from people that is nothing but sales pitch after sales pitch, with perhaps a paragraph or two (spaced for text too - fail) that’s nothing but filler for the pitch.
Sounds like you’re on the right track, and if it’s working keep it going!
Thanks for the great point and the question.
Robert Dempsey@Internet Marketing Strategies invites you to read: Why You Don’t Make Money Blogging And What To Do About It
Hey Robert,
You made some excellent points in this post.
I really hate when you subscribe to someones list and all you get is a catchy headline and then just a bunch of links inside. With no good content, just sales pages.
People, if you want to keep your subscribers, don’t just send them links. Get personal, tell a story, your story, or someone else’s. It doesn’t matter, just make sure you are being honest. What does matter is your subscribers will feel a personal connection with you. If you don’t create a little trust, how can you ever expect someone to shell out their hard earned cash for your products.
Anyway that is my 2 cents, Great post Robert and as always, more great content provided on TGC.
Ian
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Yay Ian totally agree. That is the surest way to get people to hate you. There’s a reason why the big gurus play the big numbers game when it comes to email - they need to due to the tactics they employ. Great points. Thanks!
This is so true! Once upon a time I signed up on the email list of a man I really looked up to. I bought his book, and some of his audio programs. I bought the first in a series of very expensive products, and had financials been a little better, I would have happily forked over the four figures for the deeper levels. I loved his material!
But then something happened on his list: the content went away, the learning went away, and it became nothing but weekly (and sometimes multiple times a day) sales pages. And not just for his stuff, but he was peddling everyone else’s products now!
I was kinda misty-eyed when I finally unsubscribed. The great information that I loved was the entire reason that I held on. Once that left, I felt that I was just a number.
Delena
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Hi Delena I completely hear you on that one. There are a number of people I highly respect and are respected in the industry however I can’t deal with their daily sales emails, or the ones that send me to the same offer day in and day out. No content just crap and more crap. It must work on most people though as I imagine (or really hope) that they have metrics in place.
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This is so handy for me. I just started my email list and needed more info on how and why and what.
What really rang true is your quote, “The point of the email isn’t to sell, it’s to get that next action.” That is what needs to be remembered. For one, don’t just sell your your list. That is boring and people will see through your efforts. Two, these are the people that want to hear more from you, they are one of the best places to ask for favors or have them help you take action. If you give them great advice, they will take action for themselves and will remember who gave them the advice if it helped them.
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It’s all about the relationship Allie to be sure. And if you do nothing but send sales messages at someone, you’re telling them something. There is no need in my opinion to force a sale. Provide value and send them to a sales page for something that can help them additionally.
Hey Robert,
Wow, a very good article. You have covered great email marketing tips here.
The key is to create your own follow up messages to brand yourself and make communicating with your list very personal.
Your goal should be to educate, empower, enlighten, entertain and inspire your list instead of boring people with the information about your company, products and comp plan all the time.
I have been on several webinars/training where they don’t recommend the double opt-in option although Aweber recommends it. I don’t use it and many people I know of don’t as well. What’s your observation?
Thanks for sharing your insights, Robert.
All the best,
Mavis
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Hi Mavis - I’ve been added to email lists by other people and have had to unsubscribe from their list. That should be unnecessary. I believe in double opt-in because if you have too many complaints the email list service will kick you off their service as you could impact their entire operation. So using a double opt-in helps prevent spam at multiple levels.
I have the exact opposite experience you do - just about everyone I know uses a double opt-in. It’s one more check on the CYA side of things, especially if you’re making money by driving traffic to affiliate offers via email.
Great point, Robert. Thanks for that.
Have a great week!
Mavis
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Hello Robert,
Thanks for the great tips and I am really watching this series and I want to learn more about list building.
But I wonder about your email frequency, for example, I put myself in the shoes of a subscriber and I honestly say that if I would signup to a certain email list and start getting an email every day for 7 days I would unsubscribe as fast as I could.
Although, telling them before starting the rain of emails starts might help, but I am still skeptical about people standing for an email everyday for 7 days.
Also, does the content provided in the emails will really have the time to sink in just one day. Many people don’t check their emails daily and they might have a shock when they log in and see a plethora emails from the same person.
By the way, this are only the points of view of a subscriber and a list builder
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Hi Alexandru,
Great points and you can easily argue both ways. this is one example of many ways that you can do this.
I think it’s really niche specific, however I can say that people have not been mass unsubscribing to from my lists because of the 7 emails in a row.
What I find happening more is that people only want the PDF report and not any other emails. So they will subscribe, download, and then unsubscribe in less than 24 hours.
If you use an email service like AWeber you can check your stats and see when people start falling off your list. If it’s in the middle of a 7 day sequence, it’s time to reassess, IF it’s a majority of the people.
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#’s 4-5……On my first list set up, eons ago i was all excited to do these things. I was told not to spend much time on them though. Most folks know to just look for links and don’t read them much.
Thoughts?
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Those two things work for me and others I know. I get new Twitter and Facebook peeps this way. And for my niche sites, they add more personalization to the entire process. Just two more points to cover and ensure consistent branding and experience across all actions someone takes on your site. It’s the little things I find that make for the biggest impact. I know Moe at KeywordsBlogger.com got a crap ton of surveys filled out using this method as well. And from those surveys he created an online course that did quite well when launched.
I very much agree with your point on not to sell in emails. The emails should provide only value and increase your authority, expertise and accessiblity to people.
Emails should also be more friendly. Instead of just talking about the subject a couple of sentences on the top with some personal tint works great for me. Such emails convert more clicks and actions.
Thanks Robert for the great piece.
PS: Ana, what are you using to make the tweeting so easy at the bottom of the post? I love that!
Jane.
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Hi Jane that’s a really great point. Being friendly in your emails can go a very long way. Definitely make them personable, and add personalization as much as you can as well. Thanks for adding that!
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The next thing you need to consider is what you plan to do with that list. What I mean by this is do you plan to just keep the list idle for a while and wait until you have a product to promote ?
Hi David that’s what the lengthy autoresponder sequence is for, along with broadcast emails. Whenever I find something of value for my subscribers I’ll send them an email about it. As long as I don’t abuse their inbox with too many emails in a week they’re very receptive to it. Using segmentation can help ensure you aren’t hammering away at the folks.
“people like buying but they hate being sold to”
That sentence makes total sense and is making me redo everything.
I have the sign up form. I give to recieve. I do the follow up emails but i ALWAYS try to sell something.
Doing it wrong the hole time… I will track my results and compare them to my previous results and give you the data to come back to this blog post a few months down…
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Hi Eric - a lot of people teach that method so I’m not surprised. Reverse course on that and let your sales pages do the selling. Let us know how it works out for you. Thanks!
Robert,
Very nice! Very comprehensive look at creating an email list.
I am a big fan of Subscribers Magnet too. My list has really grown since I started using it. I like the auto fill feature, it rocks.
I agree with do not sell in your emails. You can educate, then send them to the sales page. (Learned this one the hard way.)
As an easy way to build my auto-responder, I use many of my broadcast emails and add them to the series.
Hi Sheila that’s a great idea on taking broadcasts and making them part of the auto-responder - thanks for that one. I’ve had much more success with Subscribers Magnet than pop-up domination. As with anything I think it depends on the niche, so you gotta try it and see.
Hi Ana and Robert,
When people sign up by giving you an email address. They are raising their hand letting you know they are interested what you have to offer. (Free lead) I don’t know why people pay for leads when they can use this model you describe.
The key ingredient once someone joins your list is to build trust by providing value, let them get to know who you are first. Once that is established people on your list will listen to what you have to say and recommend from time to time.
I believe the frequency of your emails all depends on what your goals for your list are. As a whole I wouldn’t email every day.
Always providing value is key.
Terry Conti
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Hi Terri you hit the nail on the head - it’s all about building trust over time. If you’re hammering away with sales messages you’re telling the person that all they are is a number and potential revenue source, not a person. Value, as you say, is the key.
This is a much needed post for me Robert because I just got started with building my list and I need all the tips I can get. I see your point on “Never, Ever, Leave Them Hanging. It’s definitely important to take the unsubscribe feedback in context. I will start letting my subscribers know in the first email what they can expect. Thanks a lot for the tips, because I really do need them.
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Fantastic John good luck with your list building. Definitely set the expectation and then follow through with it. Glad this post can help you out.
Robert,
An important article. I believe the old saying, “the money is in the list” is spot on. I make my living pretty much off of my email list. Your points are all good. Particularly not overselling.
It is my opinion that to keep people on your list you want to offer one hell of a lot more free information than you do any sort of sales pitch.
I do slightly disagree with back-to-back daily emails. Maybe every other day if you have a tight series, but I think it is important to give people some breathing room.
Remembering who you are talking to is a real “varsity” move. Never waste your lists on things that do not fit them. Even better if you have a product or offer that would address a specific portion of list only you can do some further list segmentation based on free offers.
For instance: if your list is generic “blogging” and you offer a new . free report to your list on “SEO” you can create a new list that is better targeted.
I also like your idea of giving lists “heads up” on things before your blog. It does generte a feeling of closeness and that is really the key. Of course in the long term your goal is to make money off your list. Bot for short term that should be forgotten and you should try to give a lot of unique content.
The more you defy the conventions of a “hard sell” email marketer I think the more you can stand out.
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Hi Steve,
Thanks for the additional insights and experience - greatly appreciated. With the back-to-back emails that is only for the first 7 days. Typically that is because I am offering a free e-course, and people hate waiting weeks to get those types of things. Heck, I hate waiting days to get the entire thing. But I’m not “usual” in that sense. Point taken though and it’s another great thing to test in your niches.
I was reading this post and I was thinking “It is right, to find many ways to let your readers sign for the newsletter”. And what about taking some surveys? Could be a way to interact with people and maybe let them sign in?
Could you recommend any surveys plugin for wordpress? thank you
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Hi Elena,
I use PollDaddy for my surveys. They are super easy to set up, you can easily create new ones by copying existing ones, and it does integrate with WordPress thanks to a free plugin. You can copy/paste a shortcode into your posts or pages to have the survey show up. 9 times out of 10 though I just embed it using the code they give me.
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Email marketing no doubt helps you to generate unlimited amount of money but it only works on if you have huge traffic and as mentioned by you never try to sell anything from it.
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Hi Vivek I must disagree that you need huge traffic to make email marketing work. The main tenant of my marketing efforts is to focus on attracting the right people. The “right people” for me are not the masses, rather it’s a very specific group. So in this case I don’t need huge traffic to have very good results, at least not with my methods.
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