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6 Mistakes to Avoid When Emailing Your Subscribers

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Emailing Your Subscribers

In the early days of a blog’s inception, attempting to get people to subscribe to receive emails from you can be a bit like pulling teeth. But after a few months and a couple of thousand readers, you have a nice list of people who have volunteered to receive emails from you. The question is now what?

How do you ensure that those who have signed up to your email list actually read the emails that you send, let alone that they continue to subscribe? And how do you ensure that you benefit when people actually read it. Most problems that occur in email marketing for blogs are the result of a few key mistakes as I will now outline.

1- Too Many Updates

The biggest mistake of all is both the most obvious and the most frequently made. Regardless of how interested your readers are in your blog, they are unlikely to want constant updates about it. Not only does sending too many emails to your subscribers make you look like a spammer, do you really admire yourself to such an extent that you think that you have something amazing to say every single day.

The best way to ensure that your subscribers both read your email and continue to subscribe is to only send them the highlights. Therefore I recommend only emailing people once per week with extracts of your best posts.

2- Frequent Changes

Both offline and on, people don’t really like change and this is especially true when it comes to email inboxes.

When people open your email, you want them to immediately be familiar with the layout, style and colour scheme and therefore recognize that the email is from a trusted source that they have received correspondence from in the past. Decide on a particular style and quantity of content at the beginning and stick to it.

3- Patronizing Content

If you have signed up to enough email subscriptions, you are likely to be familiar with the whole “I love you” routine used by many internet marketers. Everybody knows that email subscriptions are sent out to hundreds if not thousands of readers, therefore don’t insult the intelligence of your readers by trying to sound like you genuinely care about them individually.

Your emails should encourage loyalty by illustrating the worth of your blog not by showering them with insincere compliments.

4- Broken Promises

One way of getting people to sign up to your mailing list is to promise specific updates on certain aspects of the niche you are writing in. Or perhaps, in one email, you promise to answer a particular question in the next email. Failing to keep such promises not only leads to a feeling of disappointment being associated with your blog, it also leads to resentment for being lied to.

Therefore only promise to include things that you definitely will include. Any advantages of undelivered promises are almost certainly short lived.

5- No Unsubscribe Button

Many people don’t bother with this and it is a significant mistake. Failing to include an unsubscribe button will never get you more readers.

People either want to read your emails or they do not, therefore not incorporating an unsubscribe option only leads to two things. The first is more unopened emails which benefits nobody and the second is significantly lower trust in your blog.

6- Recommending Poor Products

With so many products offering commissions nowadays, the urge to include them in your emails can be a large one.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with attempting to sell to your subscribers but you need to make sure that what you are selling is both a good product and one that you have reviewed and tested in detail. People enjoy being recommended high quality products and at times, this tactic can even increase the perceived value of your newsletters.

But sending out random product recommendations of poor products that you haven’t even tested is a sure fire way of losing both subscribers and respect.

In conclusion, my final piece of advice is to always ask one question when deciding what to send to your subscribers.

Would you like to receive this information in your inbox?

If the answer to this question is no, you are not only wasting your subscribers time, you are also wasting your own.

Image © NinaMalyna – Fotolia.com

About

Althaf Ahmed, the owner of Social Hacksis an organic marketer who specializes in Search Engines and Social Media. Althaf has helped dotcom companies, big and small make a positive difference in their marketing campaigns. He is also the author of the Twitter Marketing Guide for 2012.

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{ 25 Responses }

  1. Christa Joe says:
    Unsubscribe link has been made mandatory to use in Email marketing campaigns. It is even good to practice such thing as users finds it easy to trust an Email having unsubscribe button.
  2. Deimar says:
    I think there are many do's and don't s, but the key is to know your audience. If you want to engage them, you got to know what they are interested, what they are looking for and who are looking for it.
  3. Morgan Barnhart says:
    Awesome and valuable advice! I used to be subscribed to newsletters where they would email me daily to remind me about their product signup and to remind me that there's only a couple more days left to do "such&such". UGH. Give it up! They're not being clever and "reminding" me, they're just annoying me and I unsubscribe real quick. Once a week, I can handle, I even feel bad for sending one once a month. Hah. :) Thanks for the advice!
  4. Abhijit Saha says:
    Hi Althaf, Now a days I am concentrating on Email marketing. I am following a rules that is 3 helpful mail (free software or ebook download ) then a promotional mail and that is working fine for me. Thanks, Abhijit...
  5. Ricardus says:
    Yes, too many updates can actually frustrate customers.
  6. James says:
    Great article, the mistake that hits subscribers the most is when they cannot find the unsubscribe button, need to watch for that carefully.
  7. Eapen says:
    Very well said Althaf, especially the 1st and 6th points, they are the most critical ones that contributes to the increased unsubscribe rate. I think, the sending frequency and ignoring the quality of the promoted products are the most highly flouted rules by email marketers. I myself have hit the unsubscribe button many a times on such marketers who failed to adhere to that. No matter how informative or invaluable the message is, no one would like to get an email everyday.The frequency must go up along with the number of follow-up messages. Especially after the 2nd or 3rd messages the frequency must be higher. And also, every email that's being sent must provide a solution or answer one of their daunting queries even though it may be promotional in nature. The bottom line is to add some value to every email that's sent and give the subscriber a reason to remain subscribed. Every email marketer must read this post. Thank you !
    • Althaf Ahmed says:
      Very well said Eapen. Thank you for reading.
  8. Devesh says:
    Great stuff, Althaf. I think #6 is the most common mistake that many bloggers make. I've seen many bloggers/marketers recommending poor products to make quick money. If you really want to be a successful blogger or want to make good money, you need to build the relationship with your list. The best way to build relationship with the subscribers is by sending personal emails. -Dev
    • Althaf Ahmed says:
      Dev, In all honesty, if you want to push products to your readers, try to keep it at a minimum of 1 product per week. Have an edition called "weekend edition - Review Time" or something like that. Additionally, try and contact the product creator and ask him for a review copy a week earlier. Go through the product. Experience it. Feel it. First hand. Write what you think about it honestly. People will appreciate it. And if the product is good, then I guarantee you will have a higher CTR and potential sales.
  9. Anne-Sophie Reinhardt says:
    Great post and tips. Regarding the patronizing of your subscribers, I have to say that my opinion is that it depends on your business. My email list is not that big and I know most of those who subscribed to it through my blog and social media. I genuinely care for these people and I am not being insincere by showing or writing it.
  10. Sharyn Sheldon says:
    Hi Althaf, Thanks for the great tips. All so, so true. I'll just add one that is a pet peeve of mine. Along the lines of the "patronizing content", I really dislike it when people share a little too much of their personal lives. I know we're supposed to build a relationship and seem like real people, but if I'm in business mode, I'm not that interested in hearing about your new puppy. Unless, of course, I really do know you. However, I know some people who have the ability to create that kind of connection with their list, so more power to them! - Sharyn
  11. Shiva says:
    I most of the time unsubscribe from emails because they either sent too many emails or promote too many products for me to handle. And also on top of that the appearance of the newsletter email's title as well as body should look good and not spammy. You certainly have mentioned some good tips that email marketers should follow when doing email marketing. I have been thinking of stepping into email marketing and this will be a nice checklist of points to follow.
  12. Ann says:
    Hi Alphaf, Terrific points. These are definitely 'hit home' remarks that people really need to take to heart. I have seen all of these so many times, it is ridiculous. These are blogging words to live by for the seasoned or new blogger. That golden email list should be treated like treasure, just like you said. They are a lot hard to sell the second time around!
  13. Angie says:
    Excellent article. I would add an additional point or two to #5 though... There are some emails I used to get from a couple of companies that had a link to a page to unsubscribe (good) but that either made me fill out a couple of fields and then click unsubscribe (not so good), or they'd send an email confirmation (bad). If I unsubscribe, the last thing I want is *yet another* email from that company. :)
  14. Mark says:
    @Althaf Awesome! You nailed it with #6- Recommending Poor Products. My personal belief is: If I didn't buy it because it is great and the landing page sold me on it, then, more than likely, neither will anybody on my list. Good call, friend. Mark :)
  15. Steve says:
    Althaf, your make some great points. All of these are big reasons to unsubscribe from the email lists. IN a "general" fashion I think it is important to prove to also prove that you do a lot more in emails than "just" market. If ever single email is a push to buy some product, it gets old fast. It is important to sometimes (perhaps even 60% of the time) to be purely informational and not be trying to introuce a product link (even subtly) when you do it like this, many people will come to look forward to your emails rather than avoiding your sales pitch.
  16. Jamie Northrup says:
    Great list Althaf! The #1 reasons I unsubscribe is too many updates, also when the updates are just the blogs posts, I rather get those in my RSS Reader.
  17. Dennis says:
    Althaf great list you put up there. Isn't it illegal to remove the unsubscribe button from marketing emails? I learned that while the size is in your list, engagement also matters. How many people are actually opening your emails and clicking links. I have a fairly small list right now because my site is just a few months old but I cherish these moments when I check my open rates and have 40% and 50% sometimes. The biggest thing you can do to build rapport with your email list is reply as soon as possible when someone writes you. I've had people think my emails were sent out by a firm and when I responded back, they were in amazement. ;-)
  18. Kee G. says:
    Too many updates will make some or most of your readers unsubscribe to your blog. They might think that you or someone is spamming by creating a lot of updates. I'll also make your readers disappointed when they saw their email flooded with your updates. If I'll be in their shoes, I'll be disappointed to. I'll unsubscribe to your email list if you send updates and flood my email with it.
  19. Althaf says:
    You are welcome Abhiz. I am glad you liked the article.
  20. dave friant says:
    Thanks for the article Althaf. This is a very timely post for me. E-mail marketing is a area where I struggle. So a tips are helpful. I always wonder how often I should mail my list.
  21. Jeevan Jacob John says:
    Hey Altaf, Great tips here. I agree with you. People do commit a lot of mistakes when emailing their list. I did too. And I learned (and I am applying that to my new newsletter) :D My principle is to build a good relationship with my subscribers and provide value for them. Jeevan Jacob John
    • Althaf says:
      Jacob, Email list is gold. You should always treat it like one. It will reap huge rewards.
  22. abhiz says:
    Email subscribers can easily convert into customers, this is one of the best method for making lot of money! Thanks for this excellent article