I have an email list in GetResponse and although it is not big, I treat my list seriously and had learned a lot since the day I started it.
There’s a saying where the ‘money is in the list’ and I strongly believe in that until today.
If you had signed up to my newsletter, you know how important an email list is and do if you don’t, do sign up to my newsletter now to find why you need a list as well.
So, here you go, my 7 terrible email list mistakes.
[Read: Aweber vs GetResponse]
#1 – No Auto Responder
Here’s the problem. I signed up for an auto-responder service and didn’t use the auto-responder feature.
What am I thinking?
To those who are new to email marketing, auto-responder is some sort of follow up email that you get your auto responder solution to send based on a configured number of days that you want.
It is a great feature because by following up, you actually build engagement.
By not doing so, I don’t engage and I don’t have my own blogging community.
What I had done to fix this is to send 5 parts of email right after someone subscribes to my list including the welcome email.
#2 – Not sending blog updates
I used to think that I should not spam my subscribers and only send them exclusive contents.
Hence, I don’t send blog updates because I believe RSS can do that job already.
But let’s face it. RSS is probably dead out there for many people.
Email will not on the other hand because it is something you use everyday.
First thing in the morning when I wake up is to check my mails and I believe many people as well is doing the same as me.
So, I started sending blog updates to my email list users on top of my exclusive contents.
[Read: 7 blogging lessons I learned from Men’s Health magazine]
#3 – Tried to automate too much
I love automation and I believe the road to a not-so-busy-life is to automate things.
However, this doesn’t work all the time.
I remember when I tried to configure my auto responder to automatically pick up RSS feeds and send to my subscribers, there are lots of things that I can’t manage.
After hours of configuration and researching on the web, I finally gave up.
Call me a loser if you want but I have a reason to give up because I am not alone.
Neil Patel from Quicksprout is not automating his RSS to email as well.
#4 – No Freebies
You can call this cheating but most importantly, it works.
Giving away freebies encourages your visitors to subscribe to your email list.
They could be unsubscribing right after getting your ebook but don’t be too stressed over it. If they find your ebook or whatever freebies is helping them, they will come back and subscribe to your list again.
Some of you might also think that it is an outdated trick to give freebies for email sign up but I am still buying it.
There is a saying in the Chinese where “it doesn’t matter whether the trick is old or not as long as it works”.
So, I write an ebook in 2 days and give it away for free to every new subscriber.
#5 – Not enough opt-in forms
I used to be scared of putting a lot of opt-in forms on my blog because I worry that my annoyance my chase my visitors away.
However, when I take some time to think it through, it is not an advertisement.
It is not suppose to be annoying and if my readers is already long on my site, it will be invisible to them.
As a result, I start spamming my opt-in forms on my blog.
I have few on my landing page, I have one at the top of my sidebar and I even have one at the end of each post just to ensure if my content somehow attracted my visitor and they can easily subscribe to my email list for more.
#6 – No landing page
What is a landing page? It is a page where you have a very specific purpose for your visitors to take action.
In the event of an email list, a landing page is where you put up the benefits of receiving your newsletter and a call to action to your visitors to subscribe to your email list.
I don’t have that and I don’t know where to link my visitors to whenever I want to ask them to subscribe to my newsletter.
Having a landing page is also a good thing because you can explained in details what your subscribers will get for subscribing to your list.
As a result to that, I build a couple of landing pages just to grow my email list.
[Read: Here are 10 quick tips to get started with Genesis Framework]
#7 – No pop up
Do you hate site that gives you a pop up every once in a while?
I hate them only if I can’t close them.
Blogging Fever used to be a very clean site without any pop up but that doesn’t work.
Pop up can be annoying but then again, it is something that works if you want to grow your email list.
Ever since I installed Optin Monster to this blog, my number of sign ups increased.
Numbers do not lie and I believe that with the combination of good freebies, your number of sign ups will skyrocket!
Conclusion
If you already have an email list with you and you are making these mistakes, start fixing them!
As been said, the money is in the list and every mistakes you made in your list will cost you money.
And if you still do not have a list yet, I strongly recommend you to start one.
You can start with Getresponse as it offers free trial.
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