For all I like to talk about social media and how it’s a huge part of online marketing, there is some older technology out there that can also play a huge part in how you market your business. I speak of course of the good old fashioned email mailing list. I’m sure you’re all familiar with them. You only really need to take a look at your email inbox, and I’m sure you’ll see at least a few examples of this particular marketing tactic at work. I’m sure you’ll also probably stop and think, “But wait…I don’t actually read these.”
That’s actually very common. People often sign up for mailing lists for one reason or another, and then promptly stop paying attention to them, pausing only long enough to hit the “Mark All As Read” button. This is unfortunately the exact opposite of what you want to happen, so your goal is to try and avoid it. How? By making your mailing list emails something that people actually want to read, of course! Here are some tips:
Brand It: Proper, consistent branding is a big part of your business, and that extends to your mailing list. You want the emails to be immediately recognizable at a glance in someone’s inbox, lest they think it’s yet another spam email. The name on your account should be the name of your business, lest people think they signed up for one list and got another instead. A certain uniformity in subject lines (for example, Mailing List #1, though that’s boring, I’m sure you can come up with something better) wouldn’t be amiss either. Your email itself should also reflect your company. If your website and logo feature certain colors like say…purple and black, it will improve how recognizable they are by sticking to that color scheme, instead of using fuchsia and turquoise. As with anything else out related to your business that’s out there for the world to see, you want it easily recognizable as yours.
Make It Interesting: As with your social media pages, you want to provide content people will actually want to read. At the end of the day, you want to market your products, but you need to do so in an interesting manner to grab people’s attention. Get creative! Make it fun! Giving your emails a little personality will help you stand out in an inbox filled with other corporate emails.
Provide Useful Information: There are lots of ways to go about this. Does your site feature an FAQ or forum? Add hotlinks to it. Not only does this allow your readers easy access to more information, but it can save you from having to type out huge paragraphs, thus preventing the dreaded “Wall of Text.” You can also use it as a means to push people to your social media sites. Include links to your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and so on.
Be Consistent: Set a specific number of emails (say one a week, for example) and then stick to it. Send too many emails, and you risk venturing into the realm of spam. Send too few, and people may forget even signing up for your list in the first place. By sending out a consistent number of emails every month, you create an expectation in the minds of your subscribers, and if they’re expecting it to come, that means they’re thinking about it. Mission accomplished!
As always, there are scores of things you can do to really get the most out of your mailing list, and these are just a few. I will leave you with one final suggestion: get feedback! Involve your subscribers in the process, by asking them what they like about your emails, what they don’t, what they’d like to see, what they wish you’d never do again, and so on. Just like with your business, customer feedback is the best way to get a feel for what you need to improve. And just like your business as a whole, improving your mailing list is just one of the many steps you can take in order to maximize your Personal Independent Earnings.
