Open The Doors
“People are strange when you're a stranger – Faces look ugly when you're alone – Women seem wicked when you're unwanted – Streets are uneven when you're down” The Doors
How many emails do you get a day? 10? 100? 1000? (If it's the latter I will suggest a support group or a personal assistant). I average between 100 to 300 per day. Most of them are my fault. I opted-in at a trade show, through an ad or because a client or friend I met asked me to. Increasingly, I find myself opted-in to emails I never agreed to. My email has been hijacked and now I am getting bra ads (dewd… not my thing), financial advice and press releases for companies so outside of my industry, that I have no fricken clue what they are selling and more importantly, why should I care?
Email Marketing, Facebook Marketing, Sales Funnel peeps feel like they are getting you to play “Let's Make A Deal”, while you end up playing “Storage Wars” where you open a storage locker and all you get is a bunch of old socks and used textbooks. I spend as much time deleting and opting-out of email as I do actually dealing with stuff I really need to address that propels my business and makes me money.
That got me thinking? I cannot be the only person with this problem? Is your email experiencing bloat and irrelevance? If you email people for your business, how do people on your email lists feel? Is your message(s), timely, relevant, and important to the end user? How can people treat you as more actionable as opposed to just another delete? You are not alone on the internet. Everyone is trying to do what you are trying to do… get attention! Those who know you, you are a hero… to those who don't, you are a stranger.
[box type=”note” size=”large” style=”rounded”]People Do Business With People They – Know, Like & Trust[/box]
There are certain things that you can do to help assure people really want to hear from you and are willing to continue the conversation both offline and online:
- Let Them Open The Door – When someone hands you their business card, it's not an invitation to add them to your email broadcast list. What you can do is email them and say “Nice to Meet You. Let me know if and how I can help you?” At that point you can give them a link to a really good blog or white paper and a link to opt into your email list. After meeting them once or twice more in person and offering them your assistance and the connection, you may be pleasantly surprised that they are a new found follower. I have tons of people on my opt-in email list that sign up on a first meeting and then never confirm (dead end), or simply unsubscribe after the first email.
- Greet Them at The Door With Warm Cookies – When the door is open and you are greeting them with treats, give them the good stuff. Make the content and concepts hot out of the oven, not last years Girl Scout cookies you were about to throw out. If you are going to entice them to come back, you have to give them your best and not just some old outdated content from last year or worse. Give them a reason to return.
- Don't Abuse Their Interest – A common marketing funnel technique is… once you get the opt-in email, you punch at them with a barrage of follow-up emails. If you call someone the same night and every day for seven days after your first date, you may be thought of as a clingy stalker. So why treat a new email opt-in that way? After the initial “Thank you for subscribing” email, give it a chance to breath. Tell them what to expect and make sure you are delivering actionable tips or ideas and not just a seven course sales pitch.
Are you rewarding people for their time and attention with great content in which they are really interested? It could take one, ten or a hundred emails before they take the step to buy, contact you or refer you. If you beat them down with a salesy sales pitch after salesy sales pitch, you will be rewarded with an unsubscribe, never email me again block, and maybe a poor reputation that will prevent others from ever signing up for your stuff.
I sometimes sign up for stuff just to see how others do it, and I often learn how not to do it. Treat connections and emails as an honor and a privilege. Continue to provide value for their time and they will reward you with their attention.
Do you have an comments or stories about email lists that you want to share with me and the trusting others who read this blog? Comment and Story away!
