While your blog is a public platform for you to write on, your email autoresponder is a more private communication. You get to communicate with hundreds or thousands of people who specifically signed up to hear what you have to say on a regular basis.
That’s a pretty special relationship – they’re showing trust in you and admiration of your insight. So you want to treat that connection right so that they don’t unsubscribe.
There are many tools you can use to communicate with your subscribers. The most popular one is Aweber, but there are other paid options – and even some free ones (although it’s recommended that you start out on the right foot with a paid option so that you don’t have to switch everyone over later).
Creating a Broadcast Email
A broadcast email is an email that goes out once to your subscribers. It doesn’t get repeated for those who sign up to your list after you send out this email. But it’s great for timely items that you want to communicate to your list.
Offline writers don’t have this kind of access to their readers. They have to rely on print publications and hope that their reader picks up a copy. With an email autoresponder system, you get to reach out whenever you want to and open up the lines of communication.
You want to have an email title that conveys what the email is about. Some marketers try to use tactics that they’ve seen online where they trick the subscriber into opening the email. They might put things like:
- Your YouTube Account Is About to Get Terminated!
- I’m Giving Away My Business
- Answer This Question and I’ll Give You $1,000
Those kinds of email titles aren’t ethical if they’re what’s known as a bait and switch – where you get the email opened, possibly get the reader to click on your link, but the actual message isn’t at all what you claimed it would be.
Not only does this make your audience lose trust in you, but sometimes it could risk getting you in trouble with the law. Be honest about what your message is about in the subject line.
Open your broadcast with a friendly personalized greeting. You can put Hi {firstname_fix} and it will automatically insert the first name they used when they signed up.
Start off your email with something a bit personalized. Don’t just jump right into business. Say something friendly and conversational. It can be about the weather, pop culture – anything you want to mention.
Of course you’re probably better off avoiding politics and religion and all the normal topics that can cause people to get riled up (unless your niche is one of these topics).
Then go into your purpose for emailing them. If you have more than one item to discuss, then consider numbering the items so that they can quickly scan your email and find the ones they want to look into more.
End your message with something else friendly and conversational, such as, “Have a great weekend!” and then sign your name. Broadcast emails are great for sending out notices for:
- That day’s blog post
- Discount coupons that have an expiration date
- Launch details for a product coming out
- Something timely in the news
They’re perfect for anything that’s happening right now that your audience needs to know about – as opposed to an evergreen notice where it doesn’t matter if they hear about it today or a year from now.
Writing Your Follow Up Emails
Follow-up emails can be great if you are offering a series of tips to your visitors in exchange for their email addresses. It’s an attractive proposition – Sign Up to Get a 7-Part FREE Course on Curing Acne for Good!
The one problem with follow-up emails is that if you put links or messages in there that eventually become outdated, your subscribers will now that the list has been neglected.
One way to avoid this problem is to use broadcast emails except for your initial welcome email, which can be a follow-up. In it, you can offer a hyperlink to a downloadable freebie gift, such as an opt in report (which I’ll be teaching you how to write shortly).
This way they still get the free opt in gift, but you don’t run the risk of your series of emails becoming outdated. There’s another reason why it’s good to avoid follow-ups, too.
If you have a follow-up series set to go out Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and one of those days you need to send out a broadcast email, then your subscriber will get two emails in one day – and this might be seen as annoying, causing them to unsubscribe.
If you do opt for a follow-up series, you want to title and open the email the same way your broadcast emails work. You can create your article for the free series right in the body of the email or link to your blog if it’s housed there. Sign off the same way, but let them know that the second, or third part of the series will arrive in a few days (or however you have it timed to go out).
What Should the Frequency of Your Emails Be?
Frequency is different for everyone. There’s no one right or wrong answer for this question. But here are some things to consider:
- Only email out when you have something to say. That could be something ordinary like an announcement of your bog post for the day or something unusual like a major product launch. Don’t email just because you want to say hi and keep your name in front of your readers.
- Make sure there’s a good balance between the times you email to push products and services and the times you’re just sharing good information. Don’t follow the poor advice some marketers give about the “churn and burn” method where you promote heavily until the subscriber buys or burns out of your list.
- Email enough so that they remember who you are and why you’re emailing them. If you wait three weeks, then they may find it intrusive when you finally contact them.
- If you email frequently, like daily, then give them an option of getting on a digest email list.
Writing emails gets easier over time. You might feel intimidated at first, but eventually you’ll feel like you’re writing to an old friend.
