List Building Basics – How to Persuade Subscribers to Read Your Emails!

I have often heard entrepreneurs complain, “Despite of subscribing to my newsletter, people aren’t reading it.” Subscriber aversion is something that every online business owner confronts sooner or later. Instead of worrying about the declining open rates, it’s essential to dig out the root cause of the problem, and thereafter, take measures to set it right. Here is a failsafe plan to persuade your subscribers to read your emails.

Why have subscribers stopped reading your emails?

First of all, let’s find out the major reasons for subscriber aversion.

• These days, people lead a very hectic life. They hardly have time to read each and every mail that comes in their inbox. Your email might also get lost in this jumble, if it doesn’t capture the attention of the reader instantly.
• Often, emails get blocked or filtered because of ill-defined subject lines, vague content or out-of-date email addresses. Your subscribers have stopped reading your emails, probably because they are also getting blocked or filtered.
• Different email clients display emails differently. Some show partial content through preview panes, while others automatically block images in HTML messages. In both the cases, it becomes very difficult to determine whether the email has been opened or not.
• As the time passes, a portion of your list will age, that is, some members will start using another email address, some people will unsubscribe and a small percentage of your subscribers will become inactive. In all these cases, the readership is bound to fall.

What all can you do to revive your open rates?

Here are certain things that you can do to boost up your open rates.

• Relevancy rules - Your subscribers have signed up because they believe that you would provide them invaluable information that will make their lives better. Hence, leave no stone unturned to make your email messages relevant. Segregate your list according to your subscribers’ preferences, and keep in mind their likings and choices while creating and delivering messages. From time to time, conduct regular surveys and polls to ascertain the true requirements of the members of your list.
• Make your message stand out - Your subscriber might be receiving hundreds of emails at one point of time. Help him to recognize your message instantly. Make the from line more meaningful by inserting your company name or brand name in it. Likewise, create a subject line that reflects the essence of your message.
• Check your messages - Always test your message on major email clients before sending them. Check out whether the images are properly displayed or not; whether the appearance of the format, layout and design is perfect or not; and whether the message is easily downloadable or not.
• Keep your list up-to-date - Remove all the unusable email addresses. Try to re-engage inactive subscribers with attractive offers and incentives. Respect the choice of unscribes, and delete their email addresses from your list immediately. Don’t send them any emails, and never sell or giveaway their contact information to anyone.

How can you improve your open rates?

Respect your subscribers; this is the best way to improve your open rates as well as build a strong relationship with your patrons.

• Your subscriber’s time is precious, therefore, respect it. Whenever your subscriber receives your email, he has to spend his valuable time to open it, read it, and after that, he has to determine how he can use the provided information. If you’re not delivering worthwhile content, you are simply wasting your recipient’s time and this is equivalent to showing disrespect to him.
• Always respect your subscriber’s permission. If your subscriber has given you the permission to email him a specific set of information, then always stick to doing only that. Anything different would bulldoze his trust and respect for you.
• Last, but not the least, respect your subscriber’s privacy. Never sell your email list to anyone. If a person has unsubscribed, then promptly remove his email address from your list. To gain the trust of your subscriber, create a foolproof privacy policy.

It’s very difficult to convince people to sign up, and it’s even more difficult to sustain their subscribership and persuade them to read your emails. With the above tried and tested techniques, you cannot only improve your open rates, but you can also win over your subscribers and build a lifelong relationship with them.

Tagged with: List Building • list building basics

Filed under: Internet Marketing • List Building

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