5 Tips For Crafting Compelling Subject Lines

Laura Olson-Oxley is an entrepreneur, coach, speaker, marketing and business consultant, and sales professional. She has over 25 years experience working with small businesses in a variety of industries, focusing on strategic business growth through effective marketing and advertising. Also a strategist, numbers nut, project manager, and life-long learner, Laura looks at the big picture to analyze and recommend the most effective tools to take businesses to the Next Level.

It’s also important to note that many countries have specific spam laws you must follow. If you don’t follow these regulations, you could be fined. If you live within the US, familiarize yourself with the CAN-SPAM Act.

Why Is the Money in the List?

Susan was an cosmetologist who had recently opened her own salon. She’d heard the expression “the money is in the list” several times but she wasn’t sure what it meant. What exactly was a list and why was there money in it?

Fortunately, Susan had a marketing coach (me) who answered her question. I explained to her that this expression refers to a “mailing list”. A mailing list is a list of people who have shared their email address with the informed consent that they will receive messages from you.

A mailing list can be quite profitable, which is why you may have also heard the expression that “the money is in the list”. But exactly how lucrative is having an email list?

According to Constant Contact, businesses typically see $42 in profit for every $1 spent on emails. This means that a mailing list is one of the most profitable business assets that you can develop.

Why Does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing is effective because an email address is similar to having an ID. It’s necessary to do almost everything online. From joining social media sites, leaving reviews, or even browsing Pinterest, an email address is required.

Many people have more than one email account. Often, people have email addresses for work, personal, and other projects.

Email marketing works because almost everyone has an email address, and they check it daily. Some people even check their email multiple times as a day as their device dings and sends a notification that there’s a new message.

Isn’t Social Media Just As Good?

You may hear some marketers and business coaches tell you that email marketing is dead. They will encourage you to be on social media.

The problem with this approach is that you don’t own the contact information for your followers on social media. This means that if you ever have your account cancelled for some reason beyond your control, you have no way to get in touch with your followers. You’re stuck rebuilding your audience all over again.

But with a mailing list, you have contact information for your subscribers. Even if you get kicked off a social media account or your website goes down, you still have a way to make sales and continue to bring in additional income.

One email address is more valuable than 50 likes on your Facebook page.

To get a mailing list, you need to sign up for a list service. This list service will store the names and email addresses of your subscribers. There are many good services out there. For the money, I recommend (and I personally use) Constant Contact because it is so much more than just email - it is also a complete marketing dashboard, where you can manage your social media and even your website! Click here for a free 60 day trial.

Can You Add Your Friends, Family, and Contacts to Your Email List?

Once you have an account and set up your list, you’ll need to get subscribers. You might think this is as simple as looking up email addresses online and adding them manually. You might even think you can take the email addresses of contacts in your address book and add them to mailing list.

However, the idea behind an email list is that subscribers are on there with informed consent, meaning they entered their email address in a form on your website or blog. This means you cannot simply import your address book to jumpstart your new mailing list.

How Do You Get Subscribers on Your List?

In the early days of the internet, you could put a form on your website or blog and ask visitors to subscribe for updates. But thanks to the creation of spam messages, many people don’t like to share their email address anymore. This means you need to find a way to get people on your mailing list by offering them something valuable in return.

Some websites offer exclusive discounts. Others offer free content such as an eBook, report, or video course. The important thing when offering a free gift is to make it relevant to your website.

For example, Stacy teaches art classes. For her opt-in gift, she could offer a report on pet care. But the problem is these subscribers who are looking for pet care tips aren’t looking for art classes.

You want to make sure that your free gift matches what you plan to offer later on. If you want to sell low carb cookbooks, then a short 3-day low carb meal plan is a great free gift. It’s relevant and it’s likely to attract the kind of visitors who will go on to buy your cookbooks.

What Is an Opt-In Page?

The best way to get visitors to share their email address is to have a dedicated opt-in page. This is sometimes called a “lead magnet page”. But don’t let the name confuse you—it’s still a free gift you’re offering subscribers.

Ideally, your opt-in page will be short with just a paragraph or two describing your free gift, a screenshot of the gift, and a place for visitors to enter their email address.

Remember that this page should not have your normal navigation area. In fact, the only option for visitors should be to sign up or click away. This distraction-free approach makes it more likely that you’ll get subscribers on your list.

What Makes for a Good Opt-In Gift?

A good opt-in gift is one that helps your visitors reach their goals and encourages them to explore your offers. For example, if you’re a money coach that specializes in helping entrepreneurs get their finances in order, then you’ll want to offer a worksheet to overcoming money blocks. The worksheet could then reference your low-cost webinar on the topic of healing money blocks.

When you have a good opt-in gift, it naturally leads your subscribers onto your next offer. This offer can be a free or paid resource, depending on what works best for your audience. Some people may need to consume multiple free resources from you before they’re willing to make a purchase.

Your opt-in gift will work best if it’s something short and easy to consume. Consider offering one of these gifts to your visitors…

A worksheet
A checklist
A planner page
A list of tips or hacks

Most of these gifts are easy to make and don’t require a lot of time to create. In fact, your worksheet could be as simple as 3-5 questions. Use a template from a site like Canva and you have your opt-in gift created in minutes!

How Do You Turn Subscribers into Customers?

Now you have an opt-in page with an amazing gift. You have a mailing list service and you’re starting to see a tiny trickle of new subscribers. You’d like to turn them into paying customer as soon as possible. But you’re not sure how to do that.

Start by helping them get to know you. Remember that people buy from people who they Know, Like, and Trust. A newsletter is a great way to nurture the relationship with those who have opted in for your freebie. In each newsletter, include some helpful information, show a little bit of your personality, and introduce your other product or service offerings.

Your email service will include insights and analytics that will help you to understand who your most engaged subscribers are and what your most popular products are. You can use this information to develop special offerings for those people and move them even further into your sales funnel. As you become a more advanced user, you can create ongoing campaigns using an auto responder segmented by where, when and how a prospect signs up for your list.

I firmly believe that the most important way to earn money, practically on demand, is to build a healthy email list full of hungry prospects. Make it your goal to fill your list so that you can market your products and services repeatedly to your audience in a more direct way. Your business WILL go to the next level!

To your success!

Laura

Email: Give Them What They Want - And How To Find Out What That Is

Effective marketing boils down to this: Find an audience, figure out what they need or want and then deliver it. Email is one of the best mediums to help you do just that. And it isn’t always about selling them on a product. In fact, that isn’t at all where you want to start.

First and foremost, you want to build a relationship with your readers. You want them to get to know you. You want to help them out so they start to like you and trust you. Only then will you be able to make an offer and have them pull out their wallet and buy it.

Secondly, pay attention to your stats. Programs like Google Analytics can give you a lot of information of where your readers came from, what page the landed on and where they were on your site when they joined your list. Your email service provider should also have statistics that show how many people opened your email (deliverability) and what link(s) they looked at (Click Rate). That data, along with your ideal customer demographics, will tell you a lot about your audience - who they are and what they are interested in.

Secondly, pay attention to what your customers are saying. As you start to email your readers, they will (hopefully) reply and get back in touch with you. If they are asking questions, it means that they want more information - and it also means that others probably have the same question. This is both a good buying signal and an indication that you may want to spend more time on this topic.

It can also be helpful to ask your readers for suggestions. Keep the questions open ended if you want a lot to work with. Consider having your readers fill out a simple little survey. It’s quick and easy to do with Google forms or a free service like SurveyMonkey. You get some good data and you get your readers to interact. Having them contribute builds a sense of community even via email.

Last but not least go back and look at the past emails you’ve sent. Pay attention to open rates, click through rates and unsubscribes. If a large percentage of readers opened the email, that’s a good indication they were interested in the topic. If they clicked links to additional content, that’s even better. If, on the other hand, not many people opened the email or clicked on your links, or if you got a lot of unsubscribes, that might be an indication that either the topic was wrong or your language and overall message didn’t click with your audience.

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools you can use to grow your business - both for attracting new customers and for building relationships with your existing customers. Implementing these tips can help you accomplish your goals. If you’d like some more tips for taking your email marketing to the next level, grab a copy of our FREE Blueprint for Success: Email. Get it here.

To your success!

Laura

If you are not currently using an email marketing program, I recommend Constant Contact. It's a great tool for small businesses - easy to use, great list management tools, and helpful metrics for tracking your results. Click here to get a free trial.

P.S. If you are a small business owner (or want to be one), whether you are just starting out, or have been in business for awhile, I hope you will become part of the Next Level family. Visit our Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/NextLevelAd) for tips, tools, and resources to help grow your business. We now have a Facebook Group, Next Level U, for those who are interested in joining a private community of small business owners and marketers.

3 Ways to Make Take Your Email List from Foe to Friend

“You need a list,” they said.

“The money is in the list,” they said.

“You need an autoresponder,” they said.

So you purchased an autoresponder; you added an opt-in box on your website, uploaded your current customers and have added new subscribers to your list. You have a sweet list of people who want to know more about you and your business. Now what?

Now, you sit down and plan out what you’re going to send to your list. The money is in the list ONLY if you stay in contact with the list. If you send out random emails every few months or every few years (yikes!) chances are you’ll have several unsubscribes and maybe even a few spam reports. Simply because you weren’t consistent in your communication and your subscribers probably don’t remember who you are or how they got onto your list.

Know Your Subscribers

Your subscribers should also be your ideal clients. You may have a few who don’t fit that ideal description and maybe they subscribed because something about your opt-in offer intrigued them but basically, speak to your ideal clients.

What do they need? What are their pain points right now, this minute? How can you help them? What kind of information can you share that will solve a problem they are having? What products or services can they use in their lives right now? Knowing the general details of your subscribers’ lives and their needs will naturally tell you what kinds of offers - both free and paid - to make.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions

In this social media age, people are gung ho to offer opinions on absolutely everything, so don’t be afraid to ask open ended questions about what your subscribers need. This is market research and shouldn’t be construed as an invasion of privacy. You want to fill their needs and guessing isn’t a productive way to use your time. Use a tool like SurveyMonkey (free for short questionnaires) or just ask people to Reply to your email with their answers.

Get Used to Planning

Consistency is key to developing loyal followers so plan your emails to correspond with your other content efforts during the month. Decide how often you will email your list then pick a specific day of the week. Mark it in your calendar so it’s official (yes, you should consider yourself a client). At the very least, tie in your weekly blog content with your email theme/offer or get adventurous and choose a monthly theme. Write it all down so nothing falls through the cracks.

Email is just one small part of a comprehensive marketing strategy for your business. If you’d like some more tips for taking your email marketing to the next level, grab a copy of our FREE Blueprint for Success: Email. Get it here.

To your success!

Laura

How Often Does Your Audience REALLY Want to Hear from You?

When it comes to relationship marketing and building solid business relationships with your audience, a certain amount of interaction is vitally important. But is there such a thing as TOO much interaction?

Let’s compare three different scenarios and audiences.

Almost everyone has a long lost cousin, friend, or acquaintance who you only hear from once a year in the form of a holiday card. Sure, it’s nice that they reached out, but communicating just once a year doesn’t give you a chance to stay up to date with their family news.

Then you have your college roommate, who lives out of state but you only hear from him/her when there’s drama in their life or they need to vent about something. These are the people who are in touch more frequently than your cousin, but only when they need something – not because they have an interest in what is happening in your life.

And lastly, you have the mother who dropped off her 18-year-old daughter at college for the first time and who texts and/or calls every day, just to check on how things are going. Did she get to class on time? How’s the food at the dining hall? Do you like your roommates? What do you mean your books cost $800? Do you want us to come visit for Parents’ Weekend?

Each of these real-life scenarios can translate to a business situation.

Small business owners or solopreneurs who don’t create and/or use their email list to communicate with their past customers more than once a year won’t create name recognition among their customers. Email is absolutely the best way to stay in contact with current customers and make them feel special. If you only email once a year, you run the high risk of getting your emails deleted or marked as spam. One possible exception: seasonal businesses.

Business owners who only use their social media accounts or email accounts to promote their products and sales are only interested in making money from their audience. They don’t necessarily care about what their followers need at that moment in time. Your emails should provide helpful information AND solutions to the problems your audience faces. One possible exception: big box stores who offer coupons and other discounts.

Companies who email every single day run the risk of annoying their audience and causing people to unsubscribe from their lists. This is the other end of the spectrum from emailing too infrequently. One possible exception: business owners who follow leaders in their industry or who look forward to daily tips and/or affirmations from these leaders.

The bottom line is: don't email if you don't have something valuable to say.

You must know your market to know how often you should interact with them to build a solid relationship. You must also know what is important to them and what will help them achieve their personal or professional goals. There are always exceptions to every rule, and even within the same industries different businesses will experience different responses to their communications tactics. Research your market, understand their pain points, and create a solution for them.

New! Blueprint for Success: Email

I have released the newest in my series of Blueprint for Success free downloads. In the Blueprint for Success: Email you will find 21 tips for taking your small business email marketing to the next level. Get it here.

To your success!

Laura