Look at this blog and tell me one thing that you see missing (Well, apart from a professional design that is :)). It is this - no emails going out to notify users for absolutely anything.
As blog/website owners tell you putting content that is worth noting is only half the job. Making sure this content actually reaches the people who are interested to see that content is what makes you, or your website popular. The simplest way to do this is of course, pushing your website through your friends, colleagues and more through the social media sites.
Though this is a good start, people do not really arrive in hordes unless you are connected to the right people. So, the next easy channel is through social bookmarking. In addition to pushing the links to posts to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter you can now target bookmarking sites like Delicious and StumbleUpon, and hope others take it from there. Alternatively, you can use IFTTT to setup a few recipes and automate this whole business by publishing posts when your website is updated (not as effective, but works).
The idea is to spread the word, and that has to cascade for your blog to become popular and effective. Imagine the spread of virus, or let's tone down the metaphor to spread of humans on the globe.
Although the world has changed a lot and moved rapidly towards non-personal transactions that are pseudo-personal, there are just too many people who like to keep things separate and *like* a physical notification. And, emails are just the way to achieve that.
There are people out there including you and me, who just do not care about the messages arriving in their inbox. But, the right amount of incentive to actually open and read email gives you a loyal reader who is assured to have a look at your content every now and then (if not every time). You have to get this first - people subscribed to your emails because they are interested in the topic, and if you keep that interest going and get them to read the content, it is sure to spread like wild fire! If that is not great, what is?
But doing that is not easy, here are a few tips to get it right:
As blog/website owners tell you putting content that is worth noting is only half the job. Making sure this content actually reaches the people who are interested to see that content is what makes you, or your website popular. The simplest way to do this is of course, pushing your website through your friends, colleagues and more through the social media sites.
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| courtesy: wikimedia |
Though this is a good start, people do not really arrive in hordes unless you are connected to the right people. So, the next easy channel is through social bookmarking. In addition to pushing the links to posts to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter you can now target bookmarking sites like Delicious and StumbleUpon, and hope others take it from there. Alternatively, you can use IFTTT to setup a few recipes and automate this whole business by publishing posts when your website is updated (not as effective, but works).
The idea is to spread the word, and that has to cascade for your blog to become popular and effective. Imagine the spread of virus, or let's tone down the metaphor to spread of humans on the globe.
 |
| courtesy: wikimedia.org |
There are people out there including you and me, who just do not care about the messages arriving in their inbox. But, the right amount of incentive to actually open and read email gives you a loyal reader who is assured to have a look at your content every now and then (if not every time). You have to get this first - people subscribed to your emails because they are interested in the topic, and if you keep that interest going and get them to read the content, it is sure to spread like wild fire! If that is not great, what is?
But doing that is not easy, here are a few tips to get it right:
- Do not let your emails be the drones that summarize the website content and nothing else. People are smart - they can follow your website through RSS, through Social Media sites and what not. A more personal approach here in the email builds those relationships that are so important to have a reader base
- Emails also have to encourage response/feedback. Some kind of response mechanism for the user to react and provide feedback goes miles in establishing in their minds that they matter. And, believe me, they DO matter for you to rake in profits
- Emails must have a call to action. Either it can be that one interesting topic or conversation that they have to look at, or that one product they can buy and add absolute value to their lives!
- Emails have to offer something exciting other than what is found on the website (or can be found in a remote corner that users are sure to miss). This can be a discount to a new product, some exciting news about the website, or invites for candid feedback or surveys
- Get the frequency of emails right. Too many emails and your user base will move away, too less and they loose interest
- Finally, use tools to automate things so that you do not get stuck with managing lot of stuff and not creating enough
The last statement is so enormous that I have shied away from doing any kind of email communication on this site. But one way out I see is through the use of effective tools to maintain the email conversation. Let us look at the top three.
1. AWeber
AWeber gained my attention due to their low entry fee of $1 for the first month, and $19/mo afterwards. But man, was I impressed with the number of things they offer. The email lists are straightforward to maintain, you can choose to slice and dice the email subscribers for targeted communication, and the email templates can be customized to your heart's content.
However what impressed me the most was the Analytics and auto responders. You can not only target subscribers, but also measure how successful your email was. You can track who opened the emails, who read them and for what time and so forth. This gives a very precise understanding of whether your email communications are moving in a positive path or in need of any course corrections. The auto responders can be programmed to give that fuzzy feeling to your users that they are being listened to and acted upon. You can also automate things here - for example send a link to the program or ebook when they respond to a survey!
2. GetResponse
GetResponse is another great tool which does all the things mentioned above. Plus you get the first month free in the trial period. Starting at $15, the interface does look easy to use and colorful.
The emails are customized through a drag and drop interface, you can create landing pages for the email links and have powerful automation built in. Analytics is great and what is interesting is the mobile app and social media integration with the emails!
3. MailChimp
I started experimenting with MailChimp because it is free to start up. In fact you can continue to remain free if your subscriber base is small (<4000) and you send out not more than 12000 emails/month!
In fact I would say you can experiment with MailChimp while you are deciding whether email is your thing before you spend cash on it. But beware though, MailChimp does not spell out policies on your own affiliate links sent through emails. The reports are average, but pretty good for the price.
So, there you go folks - the why and how of maintaining email lists for your own blog or website. Go ahead and try it, and comment on whether it does help.
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