Unresponsive Email List

[Lornaf]

Hi there,

I have a small, but growing by about 10 every day, email list.

I'm sending them targetted emails every week, but they seem very unresponsive.

Any ideas on how I can get their attention a bit more please?

All suggestions very welcome!

Cheers,

Lorna

[Gregg Montgomery]

Hi,
Same position as me. I found that with a small list you dont want to be flooding them with sale letters right off.

I found that as I have been sending more free link to tools, tips etc that more of my sale stuff gets opened. Dont know what you are sending and how often but it is worth thinking about.

Build a relationship first.


Cheers
Gregg

[gbhomebuz325]

I agree with the free tools. The first thing to offer for opt in is free something.

[MasonRamm]

Do a poll or online survey with them...

Ask them what they would like from you etc

Basically get your subscribers feedback

[Jay White]

Might be your copy, or the way your series is structured. Got some free videos in the YouTube link at the left that might help.

[Lornaf]

Thanks for that guys - they do get a free report when they sign up, but maybe I'd better get more generous and frequent with my freebies.

Best,

Lorna

[LifestyleTrans]

Give away incredible, amazing value. It's about building a following and having raving fans! If you keep giving value, they will love you for it. Look at what the other guys in your niche are doing. In my e-course, I write amazing articles and give away audio clips from seminars, etc... and then at the end I have a small pitch. Every few e-mails or so it might be a more direct pitch like "why aren't you buying?" type of thing.

Also, the relationship is important. You want them to bond with you. Tell them stories, etc.. so they can relate to you and then look forward to reading your emails.

[ezine ads]

Originally Posted by Lornaf

they do get a free report when they sign up, but maybe I'd better get more generous and frequent with my freebies.

Besides other reasons, take into consideration also this fact:

There are people who will never be pleased no matter what emails you will send. They are the people who will NEVER give you the chance to please them!

Don't you know who they are? The people who subscribe to your "whatever you call it" only for the purpose of getting that free report. Usually they use throw away email addresses.

That's the risk of offering an incentive for subscribing: instead of subscribers you get also email addresses with no one behind them

[AndyBlackSEO]

Yes, if you offer them valuable information when you can they'll probs not mind the sales letters when you decide to send them. Build a relationship with them. Let them know that you know what you are talking about and offer them free tips and advice relating to their niche. If you do promote anything, buy it first yourself. Test it. Use the product yourself then if you like it promote it and offer tips on the product itself.

If I promote anything to my list it's usually my own products or a product or service I have bought and love. If a product works for me I like to tell my subscribers about it. I usually create a short video and supply screenshots to.

Andy

[JonMills]

Remember not all email reaches them, some does and is filtered into trash, not all email gets opened, and if it does, not all email produces action.

Its a work in progress. giving free stuff and asking for feedback can help,

[discrat]

Originally Posted by LifestyleTrans

Give away incredible, amazing value. It's about building a following and having raving fans! If you keep giving value, they will love you for it. Look at what the other guys in your niche are doing. In my e-course, I write amazing articles and give away audio clips from seminars, etc... and then at the end I have a small pitch. Every few e-mails or so it might be a more direct pitch like "why aren't you buying?" type of thing.

Also, the relationship is important. You want them to bond with you. Tell them stories, etc.. so they can relate to you and then look forward to reading your emails.

I agree with this only to a certain extent. If you are in the IM market this might go far for you. But if you are in the 'Cure Yeast Infection Niche' or other special Niches outside IM then you are dealing with people who are desperate and looking for IMMEDIATE results. You do not want to beat around the bush with these people. Give them the Solutions to help alleviate their problems.

I think IMers here at this Forum make the mistake that their email Lists consist of only Bloggers or Webmasters and they have this false notion that this Lists does not want to be bombarded with Offers but only expect and want good, quaility information .

In some respects, this could not be farther than the Truth on email Lists that are outside the IM niche. These people want something to help them. So I give it to them. Otherwise, they go somewhere to find their solution.

Lets just dont make it more complicated than it is.

[Aitor Astobieta]

Lorna,

What teaser did you use to get your subscribers? Did you just give them a free PDF report? Anything else, like videos or audio?

It tends to happen that freebie seekers are the lowest quality subscribers in the world. This is not a judgment on their quality as human beings, but rather on their responsiveness to your offers and content.

So you may have to wait for your list to grow bigger in order to see some responses from your list.

As has been suggested before, you have to find out what they want, not what you want to offer them. You can either use the Ask database, SurveyMonkey, or even easier: tell them to post their questions on your blog, if you have one. I highly recommend a blog to establish a relationship with your list.

Once you find out their needs and wants, you have to give them something that will satisfy their desires. This can either be an affiliate product or a product of your own.

I have noted that whenever I give good quality free information, subscribers become more responsive to my "sales pitches." Try to give them 2 days of free information, wait one day or two, and give them a "soft" sales pitch. Try to keep the hype down, and pre-sell your offer.

In fact, before you do all of this, try to sell your personality, or branding as has been mentioned before. You may want to tie in stories from your own life into your emails.

Just give it some time, and see how your list responds as it keeps growing. If you see that your subscribers aren't responding, then you should change the way you get subscribers.

You can do either of 2 things:

1. Entice them with a free teaser that acts as a presell for a product. Don't just give free info for the sake of attracting subscribers. Also, I recommend you give free videos because these have a higher perceived value.
2. Send people to a sales letter of your product, and once they buy, collect their email addresses. This is my preferred method because you are obtaining highly-responsive buyers onto your list, not freebie-seeking tirekickers.

[Clint]

Make your customers get excited about your
business and they will tell their friends. Give them a
free vacation certificate, a coupon, etc. For
example, you could say, "Get a FREE vacation to
(the location)! Another example would be, "You
will also get a $200 coupon to our next event!"


Give your prospects extra confidence so they
will order. Use endorsements, testimonials, a
strong guarantee or warranty, etc. For example,
you could say, "I'm going to allow you to try out
our product for a full 60 days without billing your
card!"


Build your opt-in list by allowing your visitors
to sign up for a free e-zine, e-books, software,
contests, sweepstakes, etc. For example, you could
say, "Subscribe to our free e-zine and get entry into
our weekly contest!" Another example would be,
"Sign up to our free newsletter and get 10 surprise
bonuses!"


Give your prospects or customers a breath of
fresh air. Don't be afraid to design your web site
and ad copies to be different from everyone else's.
For example, you could apply a circus theme to
your web site. Another example would be to design
your web site like an e-book with a table of contents,
title page, glossary, etc.


Allow your customers to get part of your total
offer right after they order. If you have to ship the
item, make one of your bonuses available online.
For example, if you are selling a printed book, you
could have an online version available for them to
read right after they order.


Write and submit articles to e-zine publishers
or webmasters. If you want it to be published, it
should read like an article and not like an ad. You
could also offer the publisher extra incentives like
giving them a freebie, affiliate commissions,
compliments, original content, etc.


Hope this can help//


To your success

Clint S.

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by Imran Naseem

BRAND YOURSELF

DO WHAT IMRAN SAYS!

Look, think about all the email lists you are on. Now, think about the ones you read religiously. I'll wager the ones you always read are from someone you think is a big deal in the market niche of your interest. They don't just give you good information, you truly believe they know what they are talking about.

You need to let your list know, day one, that you are a big deal and they are lucky they ended up on your list.

[Colin Palfrey]

I'll tell you a different possibility.

I recently found out over 3/4 of my list was useless because they were from country's were due to exchange rate etc... they would need to save for years to afford anything I offered. Literally. I got several emails recently from people telling me that while they wanted what I offered, did I realize how much it would cost THEM.

I gave them the info for free as I felt this seemed unfair to them but now I Geotarget.

The other 1/4 are pure gold and now I don't get distracted.

[radhika]

Reason 1:

Most of these emails could be free email accounts which are abondoned by subscribers after sometime. Or they just use them to get freebies.

Reason 2:

More freebie seekers might be in your list. They get their goodies and don't respond to other replies.

Reason 3:

The information /offers you are sending migt be out of their interest. Try to send information emails for a month and check clicks and try sending couple of sales pitch emails. Check clicks again. See which one gets more click thrus. Try to figure it out the offers they are interested by following click thurs.

Reason 4:

Are you using any kind of tracking software? Check it might not be recording.

Reason 5:

Are you sure all email are delivering to your list? Make sure you are using third party service like aweber or optimizing your site for email deliverability if you are using your own software.

.

[entrepreneurjay]

That's what im trying to do build up my list. Give away something for free, what was the reason they signed up with you in the first place? You prob offer valuable information that could benefit your readers a great deal. Give them something of value for free such as expert information that might be beneficial to your readers... related to whatever your business is about. Gain there trust, and down the road a little ways you can start pitching them your products!

[don15432]

Make sure you are using a double opt in when you drive people to your website. I found out that most of the time people would go through a double opt in process tend to be more responsive because they had to verify that they want the information. Sure your list may be smaller but your conversion rate will be higher and conversion is the name of the game.

[Josef_Benjamin]

Branding you as a personality.

If your newsletters, your report, or the way you present your offer
bores people, I don't care if it would make them billionaires, they
wouldn't opt in to your list.

Be intresting. Be funny. Poke fun. And be rude if that's what your into.

Just don't be typical.

Add INSANE value and work hard to deliver the most value upfront and
in your newsletters, and people will definitly respond.

I'm speaking from my own experineces as I speak, i'm not perfect, but I
find this works very well for me.

What other business or job in the world can you be who you want to be
or create a "persona" and get paid extremely well for it?

[mikeyman120]

While your list is small you can ask them how you can help them by hitting reply and emailing you with questions they have.

Mike

[Mark McClure]

Email them for what's driving them crazy.

Take the replies/qs as the topic for a 30 min free teleseminar - free for attendees from your list.

Hold the call, answer the qs and record the seminar.

Then run a 48 hour special to your list at 80% off the retail price. (the recording as an mp3 plus transcript and bonus... whatever your package is.)

Email them when the special's over and remind them you stuck to your promise and the price is now 'X'.

Go back to your regular email schedule

Rinse and repeat when you have a product or service to launch.

---

Check out how Jeff Herring, The Article Guy, uses free tele-seminars to both educate and warm up his list. He makes the offer at the end of the call and then others on the list find about it in a followup email - "Aw shucks! missed that one!"

Over time this builds an anticipation of great deals happening on those calls... 'love it!