Are you destroying your relationship with subscribers?

So many times, we tend to misuse or under valuable important tools and resources that could make our business grow. A typical example is your  mailing list. So I ask, what does the mailing list mean to you? If you view your mailing list as a resource that you can use in order to promote your products and drive up sales, I’m sorry to say this, but  you are missing out on the real value of this asset.

In the actual sense of it, a mailing list possesses a lot more value than just being an avenue to advertise your products or services. With proper application, your mailing list can be the difference between your business being a small website or a very large international brand.

The long-term relationship is more important than short term sales

Why? The reason is quite straight forward. Your mailing list gives you an avenue to build a more meaningful and a more personal connection with your clients and readers than you stand to derive from any other form of marketing. This type of marketing allows you to reach out directly to your readers (subscribers) via their inboxes. Your messages come up side by side along with mails from family and friends, and the most interesting part of it all is that you have the opportunity of getting direct feedback and responses from people on your list.

Why should you trust me? I don’t claim to be the end all – be all authority on the subject, I just know that I’ve grown my email list of subscribers, fans, and friends from 0 to 13,000 in just 19 months. Once I started implementing more strategies for capturing subscribers, I’ve continued gaining over 1000 each month and have an unsubscribe rate below industry standards. I don’t this is by accident either. I just think it’s because I focus on those relationships.

How to think of your mailing list

In order to derive maximum value from your mailing list, your perception needs to change. The way you see, think about, and approach your mailing list has to change. In essence, what I am saying is that your mailing list has to be viewed as something that you use in order to gain direct access and establish a line of communication with members of your group. These are your closest allies and they have some sort of ownership right over your site. They are a part of the brand and as such contribute their ideas and suggestions and are also there to patronize your products and services.

The trick now is to communicate with your mailing list as you would with your friends or business partners. Inform them about new innovations to the brand and ask for their input and feedback. Also – don’t forget to ALWAYS RESPOND when they write to you.

When you do this, you are creating a personal bond with your mailing list, you make them feel how you really care about them and you thereby gain their trust. This ensures they buy from you in the long run, but also converts them to being “loyal” customers.

Here Are Some Ways You Might be Destroying Your Marketing Efforts

It can take a long while, sometimes months or even years to build a very robust mailing list or database. A list that would comprise of highly selected customers who are extremely engaged and interested readers.

As the saying goes, “It only takes a single message to destroy all your previous hard work!” Some errors are so fatal that they can spoil any chance you have of running an effective email campaign. Others may not be so unforgiving; notwithstanding, they could limit the level of progress you should be making.

A word of advice, go through the following and see if you are currently making any of the mistakes. If you are, it’s time to change.

Buying Subscribers / Email Addresses

You have got it all wrong if you want to use this strategy to build your mailing list. This is one of the worst strategies to employ when it comes to developing a large mailing list. Why do I say that? It’s simple – because a large portion of links bought are essentially still ‘cold’ leads. What this means is that they haven’t the faintest idea what your brand stands for and you probably didn’t get their permission to mail them. As a result, they would most likely ignore your messages or worse even report you as spam.

Avoid anyone and anything saying any different!

Selling or Promoting low-quality products

Selling low-quality products usually has an effect on the way we advertise and market such products. If you are into sales of a product and you don’t believe in the product 100%, there is very likely that it would reflect in the way you present your message. People usually can tell if you have a strong conviction in whatever it is you are trying to sell, and if you don’t, they will always sense that you are trying to be too smart.

In some cases where you eventually get to sell some products, you might never get a repeat purchase due to the disappointment the customer felt as a result of the sub standard product you sold. This usually has a negative effect on the CLV(customer lifetime value) of your contacts – and in turn drives profit down.

Going Silent

Irregular messages or a break in communication can have an adverse effect on your email campaigns. It’s highly destructive to forget about your mailing list for a long period of time. As unlikely as this may sound, a lot of people have made this mistake at one time or the other. Not updating your mailing list about your products and services gives your readers time to become uninterested in you and your brand. They may even forget who you are and why there were initially interested in you. So if they suddenly get a mail from you they won’t pay it too much attention.

Spamming

Spamming to some means sending too many messages or trying to sell a product or service no one asked for. In some cases it could also mean a simple unsolicited mail to the recipient. One of the most important practices in email marketing is to respect your audience. You have to take seriously the privilege that comes with you being able to access the customer’s inbox. Ensure you provide value to your readers always or else there is a high probability you could lose your hard-earned followers.