Previously, on “email from John”…
I did my absolute bestest to convince you to treat your subscribers better than your social followers.
Specifically, don’t blast every piece of content you ever create to your list, convincing yourself you’re ticking the email marketing box.
This idea is worth exploring further.
(If “exploring” sounds a tad energetic, don’t worry, I’ll be the one wearing the crampons)
“Oh yeah, well what about Seth Godin? He just sends his blog to his email list! What about him, huh? HUH?”
(I *may* have upgraded the hostile attitude to this genuine reply I got last week)
(Also: the word “may” in that sentence is TOTALLY superfluous)
Seth can send copies of blog posts to his subscribers, because… well, he’s Seth Godin.
You’re probably not Seth Godin.
Besides, he doesn’t JUST send blog posts. Subscribers get first notice of courses, books, and whatever other shenanigans he gets up to. Subscribers also get the perk of knowing the magic spot to click on his order pages to reveal the discounted price.
Even Seth Godin doesn’t JUST send out blog posts.
You don’t need to host a welcome parade and campaign for a national holiday for every subscriber you get. You just have to make them feel glad to be here.
(There’s another upside to this, that I’ll get to in a second. Please remind me if I forget)
A simple way to do this is not very well hidden in this email.
Look down. You’ll see I always include a link to the what-the-hell-do-I-have-to-do-to-make-this-world-famous GOOGLE DRIVE OF AWESOMENESS!!!! in most of my emails.
Even if there’s nothing in the GDOA!!!! of use to you at the moment, you get a reminder of the perks of being in this email club every once in a while. Maybe it helps convince you I’m not a totally terrible human being and – should the moon, stars, and Angel cards align – you’d trust me enough to hand over some money to write some emails for you. Maybe.
Either way, little nudges like this make a difference.
Oh, and there’s the other advantage of not blasting your list with every piece of social content (don’t bother reminding me – I remembered) – you can make your subscribers do some legwork to find it.
Making your subscribers work sounds like a negative, but it’s not. Here’s why:
Aside from the “Yay – I’m soooo glad I’m on this list” happy dance, you want your subscribers doing something else too.
Something that will help your cash register ring when you launch.
That thing?
Thinking: “Good things happen when I click [insert your name]’s links”
Let’s look a little closer at that…
Every time you click a link to the GOOGLE DRIVE OF AWESOMENESS!!!! you:
a) End up in the place you expected – building trust I’m not a colossal clickbaiter
b) Get a positive reminder of all the freebies – “what a nice guy that John is. I should buy him a house”
You might not experience waves of ecstasy as you rifle through my year’s worth of writing prompts, or learn my “Sniper Approach” to client getting, but every time you click, you add a support beam to the “Good things happen when I click John’s links” bridge.
(The wife and I watched three seasons of Grand Designs, so I’m reasonably certain this bridge analogy holds up)
Every time you ask your subscribers to do something – click through to your latest video, comment on a post, or have a look at the testimonials on your sales page – and you send them to the right place, you’re building the same bridge.
So when it DOES become time to send them an “Ahem… excuse me, I have something for sale. Fancy checking it out?” link, their brains “scam nodules”* aren’t firing up.
They trust you enough to take the first step.
(The wife and I were busy watching three seasons of Grand Designs, so I’ve no bloody idea if this analogy holds up)
Even if you don’t have anything for sale, get in the habit of asking your email club to visit cool places and click things.
Build that bridge.
Weaken those nodules.
Eat the fence.
Caress the gerbil.
Hose the pathway.
Stop the analogies.
John Holt