3 Keys to Success with Email List Marketing

If you want to learn about email list marketing, this post will offer a few helpful tips. Using a combination of trust, specials, and short reports will quickly lead you down the path of success. Now I’ll cover each point in bit more detail.

Gain Their Trust

One thing you have to do is gain the trust of your subscribers. If your subscribers don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. The way to gain their trust is to give them valuable information. Don’t try to sell them something every chance you get. You actually have to make an effort to refer them to valuable content. And when you do recommend products, be honest. In the long run, your honesty will pay off because people like to buy from people they trust.

Offer Them Specials

Offer specials to your subscribers. When you give people special treatment and go out of your way to please them, they feel indebted to you and they like you more. When you list feels they owe you and when they like you, they will be more likely to buy. Also, a discount obviously makes your product less expensive, so that will increase the number of buyers. And the feeling of being in a special club helps as well, so be sure to mention that the discount is only for list members. And most importantly, make sure you mean it.

Create Short Reports

Another way to use email list marketing effectively is to create short reports to sell to your list. This is a little used method that gives you a taste of product creation without having to commit too much. You can create a short 15-20 page report and sell it your list for $10, or whatever price you think is appropriate. You can create a product a month this way pretty easily. As your list grows, this will be an easy way to make quick money. Once you have a number of reports completed, you can also offer a package deal to get them all for a significantly discounted price.

Borrow Copy from Top Email Marketers

There is a very good chance that you get a lot of emails from various Internet marketers.  As a quick aside, I recommend that you start unsubscribing from lists that aren’t providing valuable information to you.  Too many top marketers sale without giving you useful content.  Give your email inbox a break and unsubscribe from their lists.  Now on to my point about email copy.

The main reason for this message is to convey the importance of paying close attention to and studying the autoresponder messages of effective email marketers.  What do they say in their email copy and how do they say it?  How much personality are they using?  Do they provide you with valuable content?  Pay attention to all of these key points.

The reason you should pay such close attention to these points is so you can use their messages as a foundation to write your own.  Do you think you have something to learn from someone who makes $30,000 just by sending a single email?  Probably.  As is common in the copy writing industry, a swipe file is something you should have.  But this swipe file will be of emails, not sales letters.  Look at the email copy that made you purchase a particular product or service and use that as a basic model for some of your products.

I’m not advocating wholesale confiscation of emails, unless of course you have have been given explicit rights to do so.  I’m talking about ideas to use as a foundation.

For me, a few email marketers stand out from the rest.  One of them is Michael Rasmussen.  When he sends an email recommending an affiliate product, he doesn’t just send a two line email saying in so many words- “Buy this.”  He gives a thorough rationale for why he is recommending a particular product.  And some of the stuff he gives away for free is pure gold.  So Michael is alright with me.

Another marketer who is quickly building a name for himself and who impresses me quite a bit is Jason Fladlien.  He’s an interesting guy.  And in email marketing, being interesting sells.  He’s also a top class copy writer, which helps tremendously in writing emails.  I recommend you check some of his stuff out.  He makes like 20 products a year it seems- if not more.

Frank Kern’s stuff is some of the most “borrowed” stuff out there- particularly his email subject lines, like “bad news”.  He is a trend starter, so he’s definitely one to pay attention to.  If he starts to do something, expect others to follow soon.

I think my point is clear.  Pay attention to the Internet marketers who actually provide value in their emails.  Pay attention to the marketers who draw you in with their autoresponders, the ones who make you feel like you are being somehow compelled to buy. Then use some of their ideas in your own email copy.

The Most Important Element of Email Marketing

In order to have a responsive list, you have to have a good relationship with your list.  Building trust and value are key ingredients that must be present in your email marketing strategy.  So while it is smart to recommend products to your list that you genuinely feel will be helpful, your efforts will be much more effective if you build trust with your list.  Trust is built by providing valuable information to your list- information they can use and get immediate results with.

So whether you provide an e-course, free reports, videos, coupons, audios, or whatever else, make sure you provide it with the intention of actually helping your list.  That should be the primary goal.  If you prove to them that you are a trustworthy source of valuable information, they will trust you, and they will want to purchase what you recommend, whether it is an affiliate product or a product of you own.

On the other hand, if you abuse their trust, they will not buy from you and they will unsubscribe from your list.  Some especially spiteful customers may even report you for spamming them (even if it is untrue) because they are frustrated that you are constantly pitching to them without providing anything of value.

So don’t be that person.  Be the other guy- the guy the customers look forward to getting messages from.  Remember, building trust and a relationship is the central email marketing strategy needed to have a responsive list that buys the things you offer.

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