So now that you’ve built up an email list, maybe you’ve run a successful viral contest, how do you get the most value out of your list? Here we’ll outline some best practices that will help you squeeze more revenue out of your email list.
Send an introductory welcome email
- Let them know how they got your email. In this first welcome email, let them know they’re receiving the email because they did X, whether this is signing up to your latest contest or adding themselves via your newsletter popup. This goes a long way to ensuring they know why they are getting the email.
- If they were part of your contest, let them know the winner of your contest. They probably didn’t win so this let’s them become aware of that fact.
- Sell them strong on the benefits of being in your newsletter. In this email you must completely sell them on the benefits of your newsletter. Let them know they’ll be getting free content, videos, exclusive discounts, and more as long as they’re subscribed.
- Offer something for free as a bribe for staying on your newsletter. Give them a coupon, a free e-book, or a free video so they can get value right from the first email.
- Then ask them to unsubscribe if they’re not interested in this kind of content. This will qualify each email you’ve just received, making sure that your open rates stay high and your list stays fresh even though you’ve just added a lot of new emails to your list.
Slowly onboard each email through free content
- The worst mistake you can make is to keep selling to them right from the get-go with every single email. Yes you have to sell, but make sure you’re giving away as much as you’re selling. I’d recommend the initial few emails to be free or fun content that they can consume without the hard-sell of a purchase.
- Think about jab, jab, jab, right hook. This is Gary Vaynerchuk’s motto – jab, jab, jab, right hook. Basically this means giving them engaging free content (jabs), then go in for the right hook (the sell) after multiple jabs. The right hook = the kill = the sale. A ratio of 3 jabs to one right hook is about right.
Prune the List
- If you find that your open rates are dropping, you should start segmenting out your list instead of just sending out broadcasts to the entire list. Chances are, some of the emails that came in through your contest just wanted to win and aren’t super ecstatic about getting your content. If that’s the case then only send to the people who’ve opened recent emails.
- Send a “do you still want to hear from me?” type email to users who haven’t engaged with you. If they don’t click or open your email, then delete them off your list.
There’s a lot more to it, and we’ll be adding more to this article over time. Thanks for reading!
