Good email marketing is about building trust and relationships with your subscribers while sharing your message so they’ll eventually purchase your products or engage your services.
At the end of the day, sales and marketing is about one human being at one end, communicating with another human being at the other end.
Respect your audience, and you’ll increase the effectiveness of your emails:
1. Respect Your Subscribers’ Inbox
They signed up to get your freebie; doesn’t mean you’ve earned your place in their inbox.
Besides making good on your promise and sending the freebie, set an expectation on what they’ll get from you going forward – and deliver on it.
What kind of content can they expect? How often? How’s your content valuable and relevant to them? Why would they want your content?
Every email you send is your way to make good on that promise – you either build more loyalty by delivering value, or you blow the trust by phoning it in.
Deliver value, instead of asking for it.
2. Respect Your Subscribers’ Attention and Headspace
They give you the time of the day to read/watch/listen to your stuff. Thank them for that. There are three dozen other things they could be doing and they choose to find out what you’ve to offer.
Don’t waste their time by delivering regurgitated content. Don’t insult their intelligence with canned copy.
Don’t make more noise. Don’t churn out stuff just because you were told to send a newsletter every three and half days.
Make it easy for them to consume your content – don’t serve up a wall of text. Don’t stroke your ego by writing content so dense that makes you feel smart but leaves your readers having to chew on it five times before they get it.
Understand why they come to you. Focus on how your strengths, superpowers and point of view can create unique values for them. Make their time worthwhile.
3. Respect Your Relationship with Your Subscribers
That’s just a more human way to say “lead nurturing.”
If your subscribers don’t like and trust you, they won’t open your email. They won’t read your content and engage with you. Not only is hearing cricket no fun, but your deliverability will also suffer.
Imagine you just met someone in real life… wouldn’t it be nice to spend a few minutes to introduce yourself and get to know each other? Wouldn’t you trust that person a tad more if you know something personal about her?
You might have an email autoresponder sequence set up – good for you! But wait…
Now honestly, are you squeezing them through a series of templates because you were told to do so, or are you showing genuine interest in building a relationship with your readers?
Are you delivering an experience that ties your lead magnet, the autoresponder sequence, your brand personality and your website experience into a cohesive journey?
(An incongruent experience can squander the trust you’ve built up. Watch this free website copy alchemy video to see how to craft a standout and coherent website experience.)
Following up with a quick introduction of yourself can make the difference between just being a yet another name in your audience’s inbox and building a personal rapport that can lead to a long and fruitful relationship.
Are you just throwing more content to your subscribers, or are you taking a few minutes to introduce yourself… and even ask them to hit reply and tell you a bit about themselves?
Don’t forget, if they do hit reply and respond, always, always, ALWAYS write back.
4. Respect Your Message
You’re here with a message to share. Don’t dilute it out of fear. Don’t dilute it because you think you have to sound a certain way. Don’t twist yourself into other people’s notion of what your email should look and sound like at the expense of how you honestly share who you are and what you stand for.
Expressing your unique perspective and point of view builds trust. Using purposeful storytelling and responsible vulnerability makes you relatable.
When you stand up for your conviction and give it a voice to cut through the clutter, you build thought leadership that accelerates trust and credibility.
5. Respect the Act of Writing and Communicating
If you crunch up your face when you write or create any kind of content or communication, the energy comes through.
Put the right energy behind your communication, and it will serve you well by creating connection and resonance with your audience.