As an email marketer, you’re open with your audience, right? You don’t want to be just a faceless, nameless marketer who’s only out to earn a buck. If you want to succeed as an email marketer or use email marketing to boost your business in ways that will surprise and delight you, then you have to care about your audience and make it clear that you care about them.
Show people you care and they’ll care about you and open your emails. All people want is for someone to understand and connect with them. They want someone to help them solve their problems.
You’re a marketer, which means you’re selling people solutions. In your opinion, you have the very best solutions – ones that can really help people. But if they don’t trust you and know that you have their best interests at heart, they won’t give you the time of day. They’ll sign up for your freebie and then disappear, quickly clicking the unsubscribe button.
But they won’t do that if you are offering real solutions and show that you care. There is no complicated formula for making this happen. All you have to do is be a friend—a trusted, expert marketer they turn to time and time again. The two sides of that are not mutually exclusive.
When you write an email to your list, write it as if you were talking to a friend. Picture that customer or reader avatar at the other end of the screen and write to that person.
If people need help, help them. It doesn’t matter if you’ve answered the same question dozens of times, help them out. Realize that if you are getting the same feedback and the same questions then that means it’s something you should address because your audience needs it.
Maybe create a broadcast email or an autoresponder email that will go out to everyone because it’s a question people have or something that people need help with. You can even use these frequently asked questions as ideas for products you can create.
To these people, it can feel like they’re the only one in the world with these problems. Be patient, be kind, and remember when you were in their shoes. And that’s a big part of it. If people know that you can relate to their story, they’ll be a lot more likely to trust you.
Realize what they’re going through. Whether you’re helping them solve a problem or fulfill a passion or whatever it is, they have 1,000,001 other things going on in their life. Some of those things are good and some of those things aren’t so good.
But you can be a person that they come to really trust. If they trust you and know that you care about them, you’ll become the only marketer they’ll pay attention to. They’ll want to open your emails because that relationship is building and growing.
If you’re someone who cares and someone who’s willing to go the extra mile, word-of-mouth will spread. Your reputation is everything. You want to have a reputation of being someone who stands apart, gives the best advice, knows exactly what people are going through, and has products that are consistently incredible standouts in your niche.
If you have a great, rock-solid reputation in your niche, people will want to be on your list. You’ll start to get people asking how they can join. That might sound crazy to you right now, especially if you’re always clicking the unsubscribe button to get off of other people’s lists. It’s not crazy, though, because you’re going to be giving people exactly what they want and need.
I hear over and over again that people have unsubscribed from most lists they were on but they like to tell me that they’ve stayed subscribed to my list. That makes me feel really good and often causes me to stop and reflect on why that is. I think the reason is because that I truly do care about the people on my list. I don’t promote crap or create crap.
People know that if they’re opening an email from me, that it’s going to be something that I truly believe in. They know they’re going to hear a little bit about my day or about my story or about something I think is important. They know that I believe in what’s best for them and want to help in any way I can.
I won’t pretend that I always get it right. But I will say that I put a lot of focus on building a relationship with my list subscribers. It means a lot to me to be able to look at the names and emails on my now-substantial lists and to know that I’ve personally interacted with many of them. I know many of their stories, their struggles, their ups and downs… And they know mine. There’s the key right there.
I have thousands upon thousands of people on my lists and I make quite a bit of money with my lists. But what makes me smile more than anything is the fact that I can help people and I can make a difference in people’s lives.
Give 100 times more than you expect to receive, and you’ll likely receive 100 times more than you give.
Making Your Email the One They Open Every Time
Some email marketers have dismal open rates. I think that’s because they ignore all of the advice that’s given on building great relationships with list members.
Now you know that it’s important to put your main focus on building relationships. If you have a great relationship with the people on your list, then they’ll want to open your emails every time.
There are other things to think about when it comes to successful list marketing, including things like your subject lines. If the subject lines of your emails aren’t interesting, then people may not give you a chance and open your emails in the first place. With that said, a great and long-standing relationship trumps a great subject line every time.
If you want people to open your email every time you send one, make sure you have people’s best interests at heart. Care about them and develop that relationship with them.
Promote and sell products that will give them what they want and need so they trust you.
This is something that happens over time, but it can also happen more quickly than you might think. If you go into this with that kind of attitude then you’ll almost instantly stand out.
While it is a good idea to study marketers who are already successful, it doesn’t mean you have to blindly follow what everyone else is doing. Don’t promote something if it isn’t right for your audience. Don’t send out that carbon copy affiliate swipe email without making any changes to it to better suit your audience. People will see right through that.
And this is about people. Yes, it’s amazing to be able to earn hundreds or thousands of dollars writing an email in 15 minutes and sending it out to your list. It’s incredible to write an autoresponder email that took 15 or 30 minutes and have it earn for you year after year. But it’s people at the other end of that.
You’re writing those emails to help people. They are giving you money for some premium forms of that help, but that’s what it is.
People also have to know that they’re going to learn something new or feel something new every time they open your email. So it’s about providing an experience. It’s not just about sending an email or being nice to people. It’s about giving people an experience.
That’s one of the main reasons why you should definitely allow your personality to shine through in your emails. Will you make people smile? Will you make people think? Will you help people learn something? Will you help them solve a problem they’re desperate to have solved? Will you make people feel something else?
Think about emotions and the power of your words. Think about the experiences people will have when they open your emails. If you can set yourself apart by offering this unique experience, then they will want to open your emails.
With that said, it is important to have realistic expectations. No one is going to open your emails 100% of the time. A big chunk of your audience won’t open your emails hardly ever at all, even if you do everything right. But you will have many people who really do get excited when they see an email of yours come through.
This is something some email marketers don’t experience because they don’t pay attention to the things I’m teaching you here in this content. They just churn out email after email and forget that there are people on the other end of things. But that’s not what you’re about. Now, you know differently. Now, you know that the secret to success is developing a relationship, having people’s best interests at heart, and providing an experience that no one else provides.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download