Managing Your List Building Activities

maraOnce you begin the process of list building and you have subscribers on your list you want to do your best to keep them there so they become loyal customers by buying your products or the affiliate products you recommend. The best way to do that is by being yourself, by being careful not to blast them with too many emails and by making sure that you are always providing quality content.

Be Yourself

Many bloggers feel as though they need to be someone else when they send emails to their subscribers. They take on a persona they believe their subscribers are expecting. This is a big mistake and it's a good way to get your emails thrown in the trash bin. Plus it means you always need to remember the stories you make up!
Make life easier on yourself. Just be yourself. Whenever you send out an email, or write an article, publish a newsletter, offer an e-book for download, or whatever, make sure you are being yourself. Use your own words, tell your own stories and just keep it real!

Always remember your subscribers joined because they believe you can help them with a problem or to solve a solution so give them what they want. Make it easy for them to make the decision to stay.

How often should you send out messages?

This is a tricky one for new bloggers and you will usually find what works as you continue to try different things. At least once a week is the minimum. Some marketers send out an email every day but I personally find this annoying. Start with three times a week and if that is too much for you reduce it to twice a week.  Once you find what works stick to it.

You may send out an email one week describing, "Ten Ways to Improve Your Golf Swing!" and then the following week you may send an email stating, "Five Mistakes Most Golfers Make". Assuming that your niche is golf, that's information your subscribers will actually enjoy reading.

On the other hand, if you keep sending messages like, "Buy X Product," or "Hurry, This Product is Almost Out of Stock!" people will probably delete your emails before they even open them. Soon, they'll just block you altogether and you'll never again get a chance to sell to them.

Don't risk annoying your target audience and instead have them looking forward to every communication you send out to them because of the quality information you offer.

Make It Easy To Unsubscribe

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get off a list and having to send an email, or click here, fill this in, do this, do that. Make sure you make it easy for people to get off your list if they want to. Thinking that if you make it hard they will remain is nonsense. They will simply flag your email as spam or set your email address to automatically go to their trash box and never read it.  Even if your email does hit their inbox chances are they won't waste their time opening it up. So make it easy and obvious for people to leave your mailing list.

Getting started with list building is only the beginning. Once you have your subscribers you need to work at managing your list building activities so you keep them happy for a long time. When all is said and done as long as you are providing quality information most people don't mind if you send out emails once a week or once a day. It is only when you insist on continually bombarding them with messages of "buy this" and "get that" that you may find your subscribers leaving quicker than you can say "unsubscribe!"

Posted in: Blogging