A few years back, the phrase “email is dead” began to circulate. What?! No, that can’t be true! I’m pleased to say email marketing is not dead but thriving. It has just evolved like any strategy should to meet our audience’s needs. We’ve shifted from focusing solely on metrics. Now, email prioritizes offering customer-focused experiences. Our communication needs to be more personalized and relevant to our readers.
Here are 9 tips to build a relationship with your list and make it profitable.
1. Don’t Fear the Unsubscribes.
The only way that you will not get unsubscribes to your list is to never send to them. Not everyone will like your personality or writing style. Those that don’t will never follow your recommendations and won’t become customers so it is not a great loss when they unsubscribe.
2. Be yourself.
Let your personality come through to your list. People will buy from you when they feel like you know them and they trust you. Try to be something you’re not and it will come through to your list. You’ll never develop that trust.
3. Be informative.
Make sure that you’re supplying quality information to your list. Even if you’re presenting a product for sale make sure that you’re also supplying information. Define the problem and explain why your product is the solution but also let your subscribers learn something about the topic even if they aren’t interested in the product.
4. Stay on topic.
If your list is about self care that should be the topic of your email. Don’t send marketing tips to your self care list or vice versa. Yes, there may be a few that have interests in both , but the person signed up for a specific topic and you are violating that trust you have worked so hard to create.
5. Only send one item per email unless it’s a newsletter.
Sending multiple items to your list can be extremely confusing to them and never get you the action you want. Make sure that you have ONE call to action in every email. Never leave your subscriber wondering what you wanted them to do.
6. Always have a reason for emailing your list
This tends to go with number 5. Make sure that there is a reason for the email that you sent. If you have a purpose then people will tend to keep reading. If they have no idea what your reason is for your email then they will quickly stop reading all of your emails.
7. Track what works – check your analytics.
Paying attention to your analytics is the only way you will know which of your emails work and which don’t. This will allow you to improve your emails to your list. Do remember that the only purpose of your email is to create the click through to a sales page. If it does that it is successful whether you sell a product or not. The sale of the product is dependent on the sales page.
8. Provide a way for list members to contact you.
You are building a relationship and that is based on trust. Let people know who you are and how to reach you.
9. Be responsive.
If you receive an email from a subscriber answer it. That goes a long way to building the trust that is necessary to create a customer. Once again, people buy from those that they trust.
These tips will go a long way towards helping you to build the relationship that is necessary to build a profitable list.