Email marketing is a great way to grow your business and make sales. Before that can happen you need to build a relationship with your readers and earn their trust. I’m sure you’ve heard that readers have to know, like, and trust you before they consider spending money with you. That’s why it is so important to create engaging emails that start a conversation between you and your target audience.
The best time to start that conversation is on day one. Not only will it help you build your business and learn more about your ideal customers, it also helps with email deliverability. I don’t have to tell you that spam filters catch more and more emails, particularly if you’re marketing a product or service in them. Add to that the Gmail promotions tab, and it’s a wonder anyone actually sees and reads your emails.
The key to much higher deliverability rates into the main inbox is to get your subscribers to hit reply and email you back. This starts a conversation and it the eyes of email providers makes you a much more legit and trustworthy contact. In other words, the chances of future emails landing in the main inbox are much higher if you can convince your readers to reply to one (or more) of your messages.
Can you take a guess what your most read email message is? It’s the first one you send to your readers after they sign up and confirm their subscription. This email is often called the welcome email and you usually than your readers for signing up and deliver your lead magnet or opt-in freebie. Because it is the most opened email and the first message your readers see from you, it’s the perfect place to start engaging with your readers.
If you can get them to hit reply to this email, your chances of getting the rest of your messages into the personís main inbox skyrocket. Making that happen is a lot easier than you may think. All you have to do is ask your readers a question. Seriously, that is it. What you ask them depends on your market, your niche, and what you plan on emailing them about.
Keep it simple. Ask them to hit reply and ask a question or share a little something about themselves. Make sure it is relevant to what your emails and lead magnets are about. For example, if you’re building a list in the weight loss niche and are teaching them about eating low carb, you could ask them if they have any experience eating this way, share their favorite low carb food, or email you their biggest question or concern about this diet and lifestyle.
In addition to helping with email deliverability and subscriber engagement, you will also be pleasantly surprised how much you will learn about your future customers in these emails. Pay attention to them and learn from them.
Photo credit: Bruno Girin via Foter.com / CC BY-SA
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