As a blogger, you have to remember that it is all about building relationships; and email marketing is no exception. Just because you have someone’s email id in your email list doesn’t mean you “have” them.
Unless you have a “relationship” with your subscribers, those email ids have no meaning – they are just entries in the database.
First comes connection and then conversion. What most bloggers believe is that once they have added someone to their mailing list, they’ve succeeded with conversion. This is only partially true.
Of course we all talk about conversions mostly in the context of getting email subscribers, right? But the conversion actually doesn’t end there and you can’t declare yourself to have won unless you have a relationship with the subscriber.
Because, you have activities like “opening your email” and “clicking on your links” that you want your subscribers to carry out. That is where your “conversions” (as you measured when people signed up to your list) takes real meaning.
If you have a list of 100K subscribers and if only 100 of them are opening your emails and only 10 of those 100 are clicking your links, then there is no point in having 100K subscribers in your list!
Read this post for more info: Your email list size doesn’t matter. THIS does!
So, let’s talk about connection and conversion after people have subscribed! Let’s talk about the key elements or “best practices” that you need to follow so your conversions shine post subscriptions!
Add people to your list with their consent
This one is a biggie. No matter what effective methods you use to build your email list, if the people in your list didn’t have their consent or knowledge about joining your list, they are just going to be dead weight.
I get signed up automatically to a lot of email lists – this either happens when I visit a particular website, or when I sign up for one particular list.
When I get emails from those lists that I didn’t myself join, it is a lot irritating. I usually unsubscribe from such lists and report them as spam in wherever places possible!
Whoever added me to their list is essentially wasting their money and damaging their reputation by doing so.
For one, you have to pay for your email autoresponder service. And most services charge you based on the number of subscribers you have or the number of emails you send.
Now, by having a large number of people in your list who didn’t “join” your list by themselves, you are paying to “keep” them in the list – but they are not going to open your emails or click the links in them.
Second, most people just unsubscribe anyway but they mark your email as spam. Most email service providers also provide an option for subscribers to give a reason for their un-subscribing activity.
And if increasing number of people provide the real reasons like – I don’t remember joining this list, or The mails I received are all spam – you are going to damage your reputation a lot!
Above all, you cannot connect with people when you have already annoyed them! And so, let’s forget about conversion!
Provide value
I know – “create quality content” is something you hear all the time. It has become a mantra. I know it can be quite annoying to hear the same advice over and over again.
But unless you are practising it, there is no point in becoming annoyed over hearing this piece of advice. In fact, this is an awesome piece of advice, and let me say it again – “create quality content”!
The content you put out in the form of a blog post, or a newsletter is not merely pixels on the screen. It acts as a mode of communication. You communicate with your prospects and potential customers via your content; so you should take it seriously.
You cannot cook up something in a hurry and hit the publish button because it is that day of the week to publish blog posts! Similarly you cannot simply write a few lines of newsletter and hit Send, just because you send newsletter on Thursdays.
When I say “content”, it applies to all content you ever create – blog posts, newsletters, sales page content, your guest posts, your comments on other blogs and social media, your videos and so on.
Provide value wherever you go and people will easily resonate with you. It is because you can make an impact in people’s life if you continue to provide value.
Even if it is a 4 line email newsletter, be sincere and serious. Make sure you are delivering value, or else don’t send it, even if it is your regular newsletter day.
It is because of this reason, I don’t encourage bloggers to get too strict with their editorial calendar. While I am not encouraging the thought that you can be sluggish, and careless without sticking to your editorial calendar, you should not also become too strict about it.
If you don’t have content prepared for a particular day, you should rather skip the day and publish when you are ready with good quality content.
The more value you deliver, the easier it gets for people to connect with you. You can easily become a hero in your readers’ lives.
Stay in touch with your list subscribers
You remember the popular saying “out of sight, out of mind”? It works perfectly with email marketing; but obviously not for your good.
If you stop communicating with your subscribers, they will eventually forget you. Or if you allow too many days between your newsletters, they will not recognise you when you send the next email.
After all, they signed up because they liked you. You have to make sure that the bond is kept sealed.
Any relationship is bound to die when there is no communication. The same is true with the relationship between you and your prospects.
If you fail to keep the link live you will lose them forever. But it also doesn’t mean that you should be invading their inbox as much as you can.
The communication should be in moderation. Don’t send too many emails; but also don’t forget to email them.
Don’t send all too promotional emails; provide value and promote your products in moderation.
Staying in touch means a lot when it comes to maintaining a healthy relationship. So do it!
Do you connect with your email subscribers before thinking about conversion?
As I said already, you cannot expect to get any desired output from your email list if you don’t connect with them. By connection, I mean building a genuine relationship.
Not just for making that sale. Not just to make your subscriber click on that affiliate link of yours. But you should look to provide value. You should make an impact.
You should continue to serve your subscribers without expecting them to do business with you. I know this might sound ironical. But this works.
If you don’t run after the money, and if you are serious about truly helping people and connecting with them, you will be surprised by the amount of conversions you get!
