10 Golden Rules of Lists

Once you have people on your list one of the most important things to do is to keep them on it, after - you've spent time and money getting them to sign up the last thing you'll want is for them to unsubscribe. There are a few things I'd say you can do to keep these out-outs to a minimum.

1. Don't sell to them too often. We all hate being sold to, so if you have a bunch of subscribers and you are constantly trying to sell something to them you can bet that you will have a high volume of people leaving you list.

2. Keep the information relevant, the content interesting, engaging and full of personality. Tell them a little about yourself (my professional blog at www.mindofkennedy.blogspot.com is full of personal experiences, stories and reports on what I've been up to. This makes readers feel like they know you and are a heck of a lot more likely to buy from you.

3. Give them exclusives, this could be announcing information before you put it out there officially on your site or blog, it could be a discount that only members are hearing about, it could be an additional product included for free such as additional report, audio cd or whatever - this is about showing how much value they are getting by just being a member that others aren't. It makes opting out a more painful thought.

4. During the opt out process have a box where they can type their reason for opting out. This way, when you DO have some people leave your list you can gain a better picture as to why they are doing this.

5. Make the content visually appealing. If you can use HTML in the updates or emails you send them this makes it a lot easier on the eye than just another plain text email.

6. Encurage participation. Ask for feedback, have the people you write to feel as though you are actually talking to them and they will feel personally involved, wanted and even needed.

7. If you're travelling it's nice to announce where you are going to be, this way if any of your subscribers are in that area, live near that place or are visiting they can identify with you (and even meet up for a coffee)

8. Have guest writers. This is something I haven't done too much myself, but has worked very well for other people. Have relvant and interesting people post as a guest on your blog. It is nice and refreshing to hear another voice and have an expert talk on their subject matter. It also adds to your credibility.

9. Post regularly. If you don;t send regular messages to your list they will forget about you and then when they DO hear from you they'll have forgotten who you are and unsubscribe.

10. Reference useful resources, websites and services that you have discovered. This shows that you are switched on and living in the real-life modern world.

There you have it, my 10 top rules for working with mailing lists. I do hope they are of use to you. Do you have a question about lists? What other rules would you say are Golden? Please do comment below this blog post.

All Aboard - 5 Tips for Recruiting Subscribers

Getting people to join your list is a struggle I read of and hear about all too often. People stick a sign-up box on their website saying "Join our mailing list" and then wait. They watch as the tumbleweed bounces past and no one comes. Their list is empty - their efforts of writing the content are wasted. So let's put a stop to that once and for all. Right here and now.

For anyone to share their information with you, they have to see something that you have that they want. Information such as a name and email address is precious - ever more so in the spam filled world in which we live. So before anyone will want to part with their email address you have got to sell them on the idea. It's just like making any other sale, but instead of their hard earned cash - you're after their details and that is where the struggle starts.

THE best way of getting people to sign up is make it look like it's an option, not to make it too hard sell. Today people are SICK and tired of being sold to. Take this blog as an example, I'm not selling a thing, I'm just providing you with useful information but is that enough to have you sign up for the updates?

Your job is to convince the reader that they will personally benefit as a result of being on your mailing list. Here are some great ways of doing just that:

1. Offer a free incentive. Something they can have such as a report, mp3 download and something that in order to send it to them you will logically need their email address. However if you're sending an e-mail product (mp3 or pdf e-book) you have no right to ask for their postal address. It's not relevant.

2. Ask for minimal information. To start just ask for first name and email address. Then after you build trust you can make offers that will require postal addresses that you can then use. The shorter time it takes for them to complete any transaction the less resistance you'll get.

3. Make it exclusive. Tell them that as a member of the list they will receive things that mere none members will not. E.g. notifications, discounts, an exclusive newsletter, a free gift.

4. Make it relevant and specific. If your site is about weight loss, make the sign up offer something relevant to weight loss. For example, "free e-copy of my book 'how I lost 14 stone in a day". If they want it they will enter their info.

5. Make it urgent. Adding the phrase "For a limited time only..." to the beginning of any offer creates a reason for them to do it right now. Remember if they don't act now - chances are they never will. They'll browse another site, read a magazine and get on with their lives all without you being able to trace them or contact them at all.

Much more on lists, coming next!

List Starting Blocks

As we've already established - lists are extremely important tools on the modern marketer's toolbelt. I say it's on his toolBELT and not in his toolCASE for a very important reason. A toolBELT is mobile, you're strapped in to it at all times and can use it anywhere in the world. That is something that is essential when choosing how to manage your list. The programme I use to manage my subscribers allows me access anywhere in the world via the web. If I have web access I have List Access and can send messages, special offers and sales letters from wherever I am.

The system I use is Aweber. This system is so cheap that it's unreal and it has given me more free time than I know what to do with. Seriously. If you look at any of my websites (including this blog) you will see a sign up form THAT is Aweber in action. The main reason I use this is because I LOVE automation. I am extremely passionate about having systems in place to allow me more free time to work on other areas. So for example, imagine you have a website for Jimmy the Parrot with all this cool information about Jimmy that kids can look at and play games etc. You also have a little box where they put their name and email address in to to recieve Jimmy's weekly news (straight from the Beak!). Now before Aweber you'd have to sit and write those e-newsletters every week and take up a ton of time. It's all changed.

I'll let you in to a secret, for all of my websites (this one is the ONLY exception) I wrote the weekly newsletters around 2 years ago. Yet if you put your name and email in there you will swear that I'm writing them each and every single week for you. When in fact the system is doing it for me so I never need to even think about it.

It's such a great system that it's easy to use yet when you recieve an email from the system, first of all it looks like its from me, it has my email address as the 'sent from' address, second it will have YOUR name in it at the top saying for example "Hi John" or "Good afternoon Marie" or whatever. It can also automatically have that day's date in it. So when you get your newsletter it could say "Hi John, here is your newsletter for September 13th I hope you enjoy it" even though I wrote it YEARS ago and I didnt do a thing.

The best thing about this is that it will take you perhaps 2 days to write a year's worth of weekly newsletters. The set it on autopilot and you dont ever need to do it again, yet each week you are staying in contact with your clients.

THE biggest use for this is that as well as the automated newsletters the system sends, imagine you have a special event coming up, a new product, appearence or whatever you can send that announcement to all of those people instantly!

I strongly urge you to pop over to Aweber right now by clicking here to check it out for yourself. I've used it for over 2 years now and love it.

I am going to show you how to get people to sign up. What to do and what NOT to do...coming next!

A Lesson From Santa Clause

Ho ho ho - it's a little early to be thinking of Christmas just yet but when we think of the festive season we think of a bearded man in a red suit slipping down chimneys at night delivering gifts to the boys and girls. The big question is, how does Father Christmas remember every single child's name, their address and their interests in order to be certain to include every single one of them?

There is an important lesson to be learned here - Santa Clause makes a list, he checks it twice and works out who's naughty and nice. That's what happens when Santa Clause comes to town and as business people and marketeers we can learn a lot from that.

The most important part of any business is your list. You don't have one, then you need to start putting one together. Perhaps you do have a list but aren't getting the best use out of it - maybe you are touting a list yet no-one is signing up or joining it. These are all areas we can improve on, and the great news is that the better we become at managing our lists - the more successful we become.

Over the next few days we'll discuss everything about list creation right from the start of putting a list together, where to get your list members from, all the way up to how you can manage and sell to these people and make good use of this incredibly powerful tool.

Before then, let me leave you with a thought. I wouldn't give my lists up for any amount of money, they are the single most valuable thing to me and my business. I literally couldn't put food on the table without them. That is how important these things are.

Ken