So you gather emails through networking, attending conferences, your newsletter sign-up and contact forms your Web visitors must fill out before they download that ebook. Now you have a comprehensive list, but it’s just sitting there.
Using that email list to stay in touch with your clients, reach prospective clients, convert sales, and spread thought leadership – in other words, using your email list to grow your business – should be easy, right? After all, you already have the upper hand – all of those people willingly gave you their email address!
Just avoid the following three mistakes to keep that email list intact – and growing:
1. Don’t push your products or services.
If you turn your emails and newsletters into advertisements for your company’s products and services, you’ll lose subscribers at a fast clip. Yes, you can mention a product or service in the sidebar as a highlighted item, or maybe illustrate how you helped a client with a mini case study. You can also offer a special promotion; just be sure that the focus is not always on you.
2. Don’t discuss irrelevant topics.
While every waking minute of yours may be consumed with building your brand and company, your email list is not interested in the tiny matters that keep you up all night. Keep them interested by offering them industry news and trends that could affect them, tips and tricks, and other helpful advice that is relevant, interesting, and useful.
3. Don’t be boring.
Provide something interactive or engaging in your emails and newsletters, whether it’s a link to a video, a new webinar, a podcast, a game, or something else that is fun. In this technology age, when we are constantly bombarded by a zillion things trying to grab our attention, make the extra effort to bring something fun to your subscribers’ inbox.
Image by Flickr user Jason Rogers (Creative Commons)
