Ten Ways to Keep Your List Responsive and Growing

There are only 2 ways I know of to increase the profitability of your customer list or e-zine: (1) add more subscribers, and (2) increase responsiveness. But it's not an "either/or" situation. It's not a case of "pick which one you want to do". In fact, the same principles that will increase the responsiveness of your list will also increase the number of people on your list. How? Because you increase responsiveness primarily through one thing ... relationship. People like to buy from people. From people they trust. Especially from a trusted friend.

That same relationship that helps people to buy, also keeps them from unsubscribing. Think about this: if you have 1000 people on a list, and next month you work really hard and gain another 100, but at the same time 90 other people unsubscribe, your list is not growing very fast at all.

But when you keep a subscriber, and keep them happy, they might well refer their friends to you also!

So list building is not just about "recruiting" (although that is certainly very important), but it's also about "retaining".

With that in mind let me outline 10 cardinal rules of listbuilding that I've learned to follow:

1. Concentrate on building the relationship with your subscribers

Now listen very carefully. Your Number 1 goal in every contact you have with your customers is to cultivate the relationship. It has to be your priority even above selling any product! Every time you're about to hit the "send" button on a new email to your list, ask yourself whether what you've written is building your relationship with them.

Here are some practical things to watch out for:

• Use a conversational voice. Write just like you would speak to someone.

• Use humor. It's very disarming; it puts people at ease.

• Prove your integrity. Over time your customers need to find you truthful. If you exaggerate about a product, and your customers buy it only to be disappointed, they will not quickly take your recommendation next time.

• Answer when subscribers email you. If you have a lot of requests, you might set up your autoresponder to shoot back a quick automated reply acknowledging that you received their email, that you have a backlog to deal with, but you will respond as soon as possible. And then make sure you do. Don't ever view questions from your customers as an annoyance. They are a fantastic opportunity! I don't get to have personal exchanges with everyone on my list. So when one of them emails me, I get a chance to show them my respect and try to help them. Here's one thing I know - anyone that I've helped personally is highly unlikely to unsubscribe any time soon.

• Use personalization. All good autoresponder programs provide you with the ability to insert "personalization fields". Use them. That way your customer gets an email from you that begins "Dear Henry" instead of “Dear Friend”. Don't they realize it's just a computer programming device? Of course they do, but it still makes all the difference in the world.

2. Create the feeling of "belonging"

This is a universal truism - people want to "belong". It’s one of our most basic human needs. How do you do this? Keep looking for ways. Here are a couple to get you started:

• Use the language of "belonging"; words like “team”, “member” and “together”.

• Offer "members only" benefits. Perhaps a special members only web page, or a vault of past newsletters that you have to be a subscriber to be able to access.

3. Always overdeliver

Give them more content than they expected to get when they signed up for your newsletter. More freebies. Occasionally spend some money to get a quality resource you can give your members at no cost to them.

You always have to count on the question in a person’s mind being “what’s in it for me?” Make sure those on your list never have to spend more than 2 seconds searching for an answer to that question. Leave them in NO doubt – it’s good to be on this list.

4. Get the frequency right

How often should you send out an email to your list?

There really is no one right answer to that. To begin with, every list is different. It depends on what you’re selling. For example, imagine a niche market that is made up of enthusiasts of a particular hobby – let’s say "Chinese Kite Building". The members spend hours on their hobby, and quite a bit of money too! They love to interact with other hobbyists, and many of them are on very active internet forums. I would think that if you had a list made up of these folks you could probably send them something every couple of days, and they’d be trilled to hear from you!

On the other hand, if you’re providing resources for small business owners who are swamped trying to work their business plan, you might quickly become an annoyance if you overload them with too many contacts.

You’re going to have to work out what is the ideal frequency for your list. What you’re trying to do is “have them wanting more, but not have wait for too long!”  Too frequent, and you’ll annoy them. Not frequent enough, and you won’t build a relationship with them.

A rule of thumb to start out with is to email them once a week. That brings us to the next point:

5. Be like “Old Faithful”

You’ve probably heard of “Old Faithful” in Yellowstone National Park. A geyser that erupts without fail every 91 minutes on average. It’s so reliable that tourists gather to watch it, and it never disappoints.

My point is NOT that you should email your list every 91 minutes!  But do get the point about being as regular as clockwork. If you send out a weekly email, send it on the same day, at roughly the same time, every week.

This is especially important if you advertise your list as a "newsletter”. We are conditioned from the days when print media ruled the galaxy. If people opt in for a newsletter and start getting short little "notes" every day, you have probably pushed a subconscious button in their heads that says "I didn't sign up for this". Send them something substantial weekly or bi-weekly and they’ll think, “Oh cool, here’s the newsletter I ordered.”

6. Occasionally get excited

When you’re sending out your regular emails like clockwork, you can then occasionally send a “stop press” brief. You just came across something too good to wait! You wanted your readers to hear about this straight away.  When it’s not overdone, this can be very effective – it creates a delicious sense of urgency.

Remember this as well: “passion communicates”. If you’re not excited about the offer you found, why on earth would your customers get excited enough to place an order. So be passionate in ALL your communications, and then use a “stop press” to crank it up even higher.

7. Promote uniquely

A new resource is released by one of the big name internet “gurus”. What happens? Within 48 hours every affiliate marketer with a list seems to be on the bandwagon pushing the same product.  (Am I the only one who gets tired of hearing about the same deal 10 times in a week?)

It’s OK to try and capitalize on a fast-mover, but if you really want to stand out from the crowd, why not search out less publicized, but nevertheless excellent quality, products. Make them the focus of your newsletter review. Then you could always include a passing reference to the latest fad product in a “PS” line at the end. (Subtlety is underutilized in today’s marketing. Think about it.)

8. ALWAYS write your own copy

Many affiliate programs you can sign on with these days provide great support resources to help you market their products. Some even offer "templates" of what to write out to your list. You know the drill: “Dear X, My friend John has agreed to let me give you this exclusive deal.”

Do not be foolish enough to merely "cut-n-paste" this into your newsletter. At the very least rewrite it. Better still, start with a blank screen and write your own copy from scratch. Why? Many people out there subscribe to a number of lists. If they get an email from you promoting a product, and a week later they get the exact same wording from another list owner, you've both lost a lot of credibility. Every time you write something in the future, that person is going to be thinking "did she write this, or is it prepackaged spiel?" That’s assuming they stay with your list at all.

9. The #1 key to getting read - Always have something to say

What’s the key to getting traffic to your website? “Content is king”, right?

The same thing that will get visitors to come to your site will also get subscribers to consistently open your emails and read them through. Don’t let people get “bored”. If they do your emails will often be deleted unopened from the inbox. When they are read, they’ll be just “skimmed”.

You want your subscribers looking forward to getting your emails. Devouring them. How do you achieve this? Great content! Be known for it. No, be “famous” for it!

So, how do you consistently come up with all this good material? The answer is that you have to keep learning yourself. Read constantly in your niche. Keep a notebook with you and jot down ideas for your newsletter. Ideas are money in the bank – they’re too precious to risk losing.

10. Scratch 'em where they itch

Don’t be guilty of providing fantastic answers to questions that nobody’s asking. Find out what it is that your readers are really interested in. Provide answers and products accordingly.

What’s the best way to find this out? How about asking them! Select a sample of your list and send them a short survey. Invite feedback in every email you send.

Well, there you have it. Ten Ways to Keep Your List Responsive and Growing. Implement them and watch your list grow.

I wish you every success!