A man fell into a deep hole. After hours and hours of shouting and trying to scramble up the sides, he finally gave up, thinking he was destined to live in the hole forever.
Finally someone peered over the edge and looked into the hole. Seeing the man’s frustrations, the man on the surface asked, “Hey, do you need help?”
Excited that someone had finally came to his rescue he stood to his feet, looked up and said, “Yeah, I’m stuck!”
The man on the surface nodded his head and jumped into the hole with him.
“What in the world did you just do?” The man who was hoping to get rescued was appalled, “We can’t climb out, now we’re both stuck!”
However the other man that had jumped into the hole dusted himself off and said, “No we’re not. I’ve been in this hole before and I know how to get out!”
Email marketing is one of the best strategies that you can use towards your success online. But there are a lot of holes. I realize that you would take help from just about anyone that will help you, but I figure that you’d rather get help from someone who’s actually made the same mistakes as you and know how to remedy them.
Email Marketing At It’s Worst
Many new bloggers feel that once someone gives them their email then that gives them a right to send them any type of content they want. They don’t think about the relationship that they must build with the subscriber, all they want to do is what they’ve heard other people talk about, and that is “the money is in the list.”
There are plenty of holes that you can fall into with email marketing because it can be a quick way to monetization, however you have to understand the route to take or the bottom will fall out underneath you.
The Hole of Spam
You do not have a license to send sales copy every time you write an email. Just because you have 500 subscribers in your email list doesn’t mean that every one of them will buy something from you. Most people don’t understand this and therefore proceed to hit the subscriber over the head day after day with sales copy or ways for the email marketer to make money.
You’re not here to make me rich, I understand that. You’re here to get rich and become successful yourself. Guess what? That’s the same mindset that your subscribers have. People aren’t dumb. They will start to see what you’re doing day after day, and slowly you will start losing the power of your list if you don’t get out of this hole.
The Hole of the Disconnect
The military uses a term they call “the fog of war”. As a business person or marketer, you’re competing in an environment that could be deemed “the fog of communication”. You have to find some way to cut through the fog or your email list will suffer. It’s that simple.
Your list is not a strategy, it’s THE strategy
There is one thing that can set you apart from the majority of other people who are building email lists, and that can be summed up in one word.
That may sound like a funny word when we’re talking about your email going out to thousands of people, but the reality is that your email is landing in a lot of individual boxes. Every subscriber on your list is an individual. This is what can separate you from other email marketing professionals out there that claim success because most people forget about the relationship.
When you can understand that this individual is allowing you to enter a private space where they do business, that’s when you realize how powerful your presence can be to them.
That’s what Simon Grabowski understood when he started GetResponse, an email marketing company that is dedicated to the small business person.
So, if an auto-responder company feels that relationships are necessary to prevail at email marketing, then it must be top priority!
The Hole of Impersonalization
There is no bigger mistake you can make with your email list than to simply forget about the relationship. Because when you forget about the individual and the relationship, you become impersonal. When you become impersonal, people can’t relate to you.
How to make it personal
Stories are always a good thing to start with in emails. One of the things that has kept my email list successful is because I tell stories. Some like the one above and others are more about me so the subscriber can get to know me a little better.
The reason for stories, whether about you or otherwise, is going to help you create a stronger email marketing presence because it makes you or a certain situation relatable to people. They can now understand where you’re coming from because they know someone that has done the same thing, or perhaps have had it happen to them personally.
The Hole of Y-O-U
Of course when you’re thinking about relationships and connection with your subscribers, then this hole can be avoided. If you’re coming into email marketing thinking about how rich you’re going to be right away then you’re thinking about you.
If you find a new affiliate and it has a big payout, so you rush to promote it to your list without testing it first, then you’re thinking about you.
If you’re constantly wondering what product you can push over on your subscribers all the time, then you’re thinking about you.
You.
You have to get rid of the mindset of you. You have to escape you. You have to understand what it would be like to be on the receiving end of all of the emails you’re sending to your list and wonder if you would appreciate why you sent them.
You see, when you get rid of you, then you are thinking about them. This all comes hand in hand with building the connection and relationship, and, in time, you will see the subscriber grow more and more responsive because they are slowly taking down the wall they have built to keep YOU out.
When you think about them, how to help them succeed or meet their goals, it starts to show in your emails. Genuineness is easily seen. It’s never been that great at hiding and when you portray that quality, people can see it.
Try it for two weeks with your list. Don’t try to promote things just to make money, rather start researching things that can help your list do all of the things that will help them.
Go ahead. I dare you.
What you will see is more responsiveness and more engagement out of your subscribers. That’s the power that you will have when you throw “You” out the window and start thinking about them.
The Final Thought
Email marketing can be tedious work when all you’re trying to do is make money from your list. These people didn’t sign up to get spammed or to make you money all the time…they will, don’t get me wrong, but you have to learn the recipe for success with your list, and these ideas above will bring you faster results that you could ever imagine!
There was some reason that they signed up to be your subscriber. Find out that reason and put the tips above to work and you’re going to see what a stronger email presence looks like.