The Dangerous Truth About Email Marketing
In the past and even now, you’ve probably heard this before: “the money is in the list“. According to those people, the bigger your list, the more money you stand to make as an online marketer.
But actually, that’s the furthest thing from the truth. You can have a million people on your email database or list and only 3 or 4 percent of your entire list opens your emails, then it defeats the purpose of having so many people on your list.
It even defeats the purpose of having such a big list if only a small percentage of those subscribers that actually open the emails, actually click on the links that will lead them to the offers behind those links. You wouldn’t make too many sales when that happens.
On the other hand, other marketers can have a small list of lets say 1,000 subscribers and get a 25% to 40% open rate and 35% click through rate and end up having more success than marketers with larger lists where their open and click through rates are low.
Connect With Your List Like The Pros
The fact is: people hate to be sold to, but people love to buy. And the truth is that the money is in the relationship you have with the people on your list. It’s not about list size, but it’s all about RELATIONSHIP and the VALUE you provide to the people on your list.
The people on your list must trust you and value your content, products or services. That trust will influence commitment, and lets face it, without trust there can be no commitment.
Commitment is a key feature in a relationship and therefore, marketers that are committed to meeting the wants and needs of their list, gain greater trust and social bonding with that list and as result higher ROI.
When you realize that behind your email list there are living breathing organisms known as real people (with problems, pain points, dreams, and goals), and you continually put yourself in their shoes by providing quality service, in return they will also treat you well. That means that as long as you continue to meet their needs, they will look forward to opening your emails, clicking on your links, and in return buy more and refer others.
Continuing to meet their needs means that you train them for free, provide them with useful insights, entertain them, ADD value, it can lead to double, tripled, or quadrupled results in your business.
It’s like having a house that has great value. When you do the little things like improving the curb appeal around that house by maintaining the existing landscape, making sure things like the roof, water heater and furnace are in good order, improving energy efficiency, maybe adding some square footage to expand the house, or even adding smart devices like smart thermostats, fire detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, security cameras, door locks and lighting, will maintain and even further raise the value of such a house. But if you let the house deteriorate by not maintaining it, making no updates or improvements, the value of that house will go down and will result in a sale price below market.
The same thing goes for your list. If you maintain and improve your list by constantly updating them on things that will add VALUE to them, then your list will love you for it and you will be rewarded with a high percentage open and click through rates. But if you don’t value your list, then the people will do one of two things, they will either ignore your emails or unsubscribe.
It’s all about how you present it. Keep giving a great customer experience at the top of your things to do when engaging your list. Provide high quality valuable content and over time that value will lead to a sale when you present them with your offers (WIN/WIN). However, sell to your list all the time without value being added and eventually you will be knocked out of the game.
What do you think? Feel free to comment below.