So What Do I Do With My Newsletter/Autoresponder Now?
Yesterday we looked at why you need a Newsletter list and where to get one set up. Today we’re looking at how to use it.
Ok, I have an autoresponder, now what do I do with it?
That’s easy:
1. You get subscribers to sign up to your list; and
2. You email them.
Finding Subscribers
So where do your subscribers come from? Anywhere you can legally and ethically find them…
Signup box on your website – have it clear, easy to see when people land there. For best results, ask for simply their First Name and Email Address. That’s all, just those two pieces of information.
Free Offering – give people a free gift for giving you their contact details. Offer a free report or ebook, related to your business. DON’T give away free consultations or anything that requires an ongoing time commitment!
Stalls, markets – have a signup form for people who would like to be on your list. If you do this, make sure you add them to your list within 24 hours of the stall and email them immediately to welcome them. Don’t leave it for long because they’ll forget they filled in the form and will delete your email or mark it as spam.
Promote on FaceBook – If you’ve got a fan page on FaceBook then you can add a tab or box with your signup form in it. Remember to let your fans know about it when you put it up.
Competitions – run a competition where people have to sign up to your newsletter list to join in. Check with your local government for rules and regulations concerning competitions first though.
Ask people – when you meet people at networking functions etc, and they express an interest in what you do simply ask them if they would like to join your newsletter list.
Joint Ventures – run a promotion or competition with an another business, complementary to yours,
What do I email them about?
Anything that is relevant or interesting for your subscribers. Unless you’ve set up your list to be very clearly a Sales list – like our VIP list, where people are told when subscribing that they’ll receive sales offers and it’s not a newsletter list – then you need to send interesting content to your subscribers.
I’m not saying you can’t market to them, that’s the primary purpose of having a newsletter list, I’m saying that you need to send them information that is interesting. And bring in the sales content in a nice way, without beating them over the head with it.
- A new product you’re releasing
- Product of the month special deals
- Case studies and testimonials
- New and interesting uses for a product
- Developments and new findings relating to your core business
- What’s been happening in your business
- Profile a client
- Answer questions from clients (be careful of confidentiality issues, ask for permission first before using a clients name)
- Profile one of your staff members
- Articles to help your subscribers
- Subscriber only discounts
- ????
What else can you add to this list?
Questions or comments about Newsletters and ezines? Please come and share your thoughts in the comments.
Why Do I Need a Newsletter List Anyway?
Over the last few weeks I’ve has several discussions with coaching clients regarding email lists, why they need them, how to collect names and how to use the list.
I’ve written about newsletter lists before, in The Money’s in Your Newsletter List and a guest post at IttyBiz on Putting the Permission Back into Marketing Take a few minutes and go read both those posts, then come back to this one. Go ahead, we’ll wait for you….
Why do I need a newsletter list?
You need it so you can market to people, so you can contact them again after the initial meeting. Statistics show that it will take up to seven contacts before a person is ready to buy from you. If you’ve met someone who is interested in what you do, what’s the best way to contact them again? Your newsletter list.
But I already have a blog and RSS
Yes, yes, I know you do. So do I. And I also have a newsletter list for our VIPs. (Are you a VIP? If you’re not already, go sign up now. We both know you ARE important so go join the VIP list) What’s the difference between having a newsletter list and RSS?
People on your newsletter list have asked to be there because they’re interested in what you’re selling. Most people on your RSS list probably don’t read your feed regularly. (Sorry for the bad news, but it’s true) When people are busy – and we all are – feeds are one of the first things to be dropped.
People often sign up for RSS feed if they’re unsure whether they like the site’s content and direction. They sign up to keep an eye on it without having to go back to the site. People who sign up for your newsletter have proactively indicated that they’re definately interested in hearing more from you. They’ve said they want to buy from you.
I have no idea how to set up a newsletter list
Autoresponders are brilliant. They take the hard work out of subscriptions, un-subscribers, setting up the list, emailing etc. Two of the best are MailChimp and Aweber. MailChimp is free up to 500 subscribers, Aweber is paid for.
Aweber has a higher delivery rate and more formatting options but is a a little harder to use (not much, just not quite as user friendly until you get used to it). MailChimp’s pricing increases as you get more subscribers and if you send more emails each month, Aweber’s pricing stays the same no matter how many subscribers you have or how many emails you send. It’s your choice which option is best for your business.
Best-practice – Single or Double opt-in
All autoresponders should give you the option to have either single opt-in or double opt-in. Single opt-in is where a subscriber fills in their details in the form, clicks ‘submit’ and they’re on your list. Double opt-in is where they fill in their details and click ‘submit’, your autoresponder sends them a confirmation email and they have to click on the link to confirm their subscription.
Single opt-in is not complicate with the CAN-Spam Act, however it’s still widely used. Double opt-in has a lower confirmation rate, which is why so many people stick with single opt-in.
Double opt-in is the best practice. It’s the safest option to use and helps give your subscribers confidence that you’re not going to spam them. If you’re taking care of them from the beginning then you’ll likely continue to do so.
Part 2 on using Autoresponders and newsletters will follow tomorrow.
Business Practices that Make you Look Bad
On my travels around the web and in real life I get to see and study a lot of small businesses. I admit that I look specifically for them, I study how they work, what they do, how their customers relate to them and vice versa. And along the way I take note of the business practices that don’t work and can cost you customers and give you a bad name. Here’s a couple that I’ve seen recently.
Forcing site visitors to sign up to your newsletter before they can see your site. Years ago this was touted as a way to build your newsletter list, these days it’s bad practice at best and rude at worst. The whole point of having a website is so people can see what you’re about, and decide if they want to come back and/or recommend you to their friends. Make it easy for them and they’ll come back. Put obstacles in their way and they’ll click off and you’ll never see them again. Subscribing to a newsletter (or rss) is a choice that people make after looking around and seeing if they like what you’re offering.
Harvesting email addresses from personal or business sites and using them to promote your business. This is a tricky subject, and it’s about knowing where the line is that your emails become spam. If you have an email address and you send them a link to your site with “I’m letting you know about this because it may be of interest or useful to you” that’s ok as a one-off email. However, if you use that email address and add it to your newsletter list so the person has to unsubscribe – that’s spam. If you send more than one email to a person who has not specifically requested you contact them – that’s spam. Your email address is likely to be blacklisted, and will result in your emails being trashed as spam before they ever reach your customers.
Ignoring customers at a stall or in a shop. Standing talking to a friend or on the phone when people are looking at your wares. I was at a Fair last weekend and there were approximately a dozen small business stalls there, my daughter and I wandered around looking and touching items at all of them. There was only ONE stall where the person behind the counter came up and spoke to me. Guess which one I bought something at?
More bad business practices coming up in the next few days! And if you’d like to add a few that you’ve seen, tell us about it in the comments.
The Money's in Your Newsletter List
“The money is in the list” is a really common saying among marketers, both on the internet and in bricks and mortar businesses.
Having a newsletter list, be it email or paper, is a really important factor in marketing for a Work At Home Mum business. Your newsletter list is your means to communicate directly with your customers, let them get to know you, to offer specials and sales and keep in touch with your target market. Without an email list, how do you do this?
You could use:
Blogging, Twittering, Facebook
Post details on your website
Pay for advertising
Advertise on forums and groups such as Yahoo or Google
Ask others to help promote you on their websites, blogs and newsletter lists
All these things are good and will help your business, however the drawback with them is that they are not necessarily directed at the people who are most likely to purchase your products. The information is broadcast out to groups who may or may not be in your target market and may or may not be interested in hearing about you.
Having a newsletter list of people who have asked you to keep in touch with them – by requesting to be added to your list – gives you a direct line to your most likely customers and people who have bought from you previously.
The easiest way to manage a newsletter list is using an Autoresponder. There are a lot of different services out there, including both free and paid for. I love using Aweber, which is a paid-for autoresponder, as it’s easy to use, has great deliverability (ie: is approved so it won’t get caught in spam filters) and is very flexible. You can set up multiple lists, connect it with your shopping cart, use it for downloadable products, customise it etc. Can you tell I love it? 
Every person on your newsletter list has actively requested to be there, preferably with a double opt-in selection (double opt-in – they request to be added to your list and then receive an automated email with a link to click on to confirm that they did indeed request to be added)
This means that they are interested in buying from you already! Most people on your list may have already bought from you, and that increases the likelihood of them buying from you again.
Your newsletter list is your most powerful tool in your marketing toolbox!
The magic of RSS, AKA How to keep people updated
RSS (Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication), one of the most wonderful tools of this internet age!
It’s a proven marketing fact that customers generally need up to seven contacts from you before they will consider buying. It’s part of the ‘Know, Like, Trust’ process. Customers need to get to know you, then they like you and finally they trust you enough to buy your product.
This ‘Know, Like, Trust’ is one of the reasons blogs have become so popular. When a business posts regularly on a blog, with relevant, interesting content, it gives multiple opportunities for clients to get to know, like and trust you. It provides a window into your business personality and style, gives the visitor a sample of your work and helps them get a feel for if they and your business is a ‘match’, if you are someone they could work with. When you update regularly, it shows that you’re actively working on and building your business and gives you credibility. For a Work At Home Mom, it helps build relationship with your customers and visitors to your site.
RSS is simply a means where a visitor to your site is automatically notified and updated every time you post to your blog. Anyone who knows how I work and my business systems knows what a fan I am of automating almost anything. If something is automated, then it can’t be forgotten and will occur regularly whether you action it or not.
RSS is also a great way for a visitor to maintain their privacy. They can receive the RSS feed without having to give you, the site owner, their email address for your newsletter. This can be important for someone who isn’t yet sure about your business and your site.
How to use RSS
There are a couple of different ways to use RSS. For blog owners, adding some simple code to the sidebar of your blog enables visitors to keep updated. www.feedburner.com is one of the easiest and most popular to use, and it’s free as well.
Other popular web and email based readers are FeedReader3, Newsgator, My Yahoo!, Bloglines and Google Reader.
While newsletters and ezines are an important way to keep in touch with your clients and email list, RSS provides a means to be in front of your clients more often. If you publish a newsletter once a month, your client ‘sees’ you only every 30 or 31 days. By providing a means for them to updated every time you post, making it convenient and easy for them, your clients and interested visitors to your site will ‘see’ you several times a week.
What if a site doesn’t have RSS?
If you want to keep updated on blogs which don’t have RSS feeds available on their site, have a look at www.feedblitz.com After signing up, you can enter the blog address, and from then on you will receive an email every day that blog is updated. If you’re like me and follow many blogs (fifteen and counting!), this saves buckets of time every day. The blog updates are consolidated into one email and include either the full post or an excerpt with a link to the full post. Feedblitz is great for keeping up to date on personal blogs as well as business.
Why your mailing list needs to be easy to unsubscribe from
How many times have you been on an email list that you wanted to unsubscribe from and had to jump through flaming hoops, hold your breath for ten minutes, walk barefoot across flaming coals, cross your eyes and roll your tongue, just to remove yourself from an email listing?
Over the past few months I’ve worked at simplifying my inbox. In the process, I’ve unsubscribed from over twenty different ezines! I’ve seen every type of unsubscribe method, from the wonderfully easy and simple to the excruciatingly painful.
There are a few legal issues relating to online ezines; under the Cann-Spam Act and ICANN laws the list-owner is required to include a current postal address and a means to unsubscribe and/or change subscription details on every mailing that is sent out. I am surprised at how many ezines and newsletters don’t include this information.
I was on one list from a fabric and craft supplier in the US. In order to change or cancel my subscription information, the newsletter said to ring them during business hours. Since I’m in Australia, there was no way I was going to phone the US just to request to be removed from their mailing list. Especially since I would have to first work out the difference in our times zones and have to get up earlier than usual in order to phone the US during daylight hours. Eventually I used their website contact page and requested that they manually remove me from the list.
Giving your subscribers control over their subscription is a really important aspect of customer service. If you are running an online business, you may never interact with your customers face to face. A negative online experience can mean that your business isn’t recommended to others, and may be spoken about negatively.
The major online newsletter and autoresponder services, such as Aweber, GetResponse, Constant Contact etc, have been set up to automatically comply with anti-spam laws. They also have policies in place to ensure that their users comply as well. If you’re running your ezine from your own computer and manually maintaining your subscription list, you are still required to comply with the relevant laws.
This can be as simple as always including your address -preferably a PO Box rather than your home address – and a sentence to the effect of “If you would like to unsubscribe from this ezine please reply to this email with ‘Unsubscribe’ in the subject line” .
And the final reason why you should make it easy for people to unsubscribe is because if they’re looking to unsubscribe then they’re probably not reading your ezine anyway. By unsubscribing they’re actually doing you a favour by freeing up your list from people who aren’t valuing the information that you’re offering. This keeps your list full of people who are interested in what you have to say and are more likely to pass your newsletter on or buy from you. And that’s a good thing!
-
Yours free - No email, No signup, No strings
Just click here to download WAHM Manifesto (828)
Meet Mel:
-
-
-
The web's business planning expert - just for work at home mums. Together we'll find the time for you to make money.