How To Avoid The Number One Pitfall In Email Marketing
Are You A Hard Seller? Think about email lists that you may be subscribed to or have been subscribed to in the past. Why are you subscribed or why did you subscribe to them? If you are not still on the list, why not? For many unsubscribers, one of the main reasons they unsubscribe is because of the fact that they are treated as little more than a source of income. For me personally, the fastest way to get me to unsubscribe from a list is to send a hard sell pitching some digital affiliate product that has a free and open source version available somewhere.
High Opt-Out Rate. The first thing that needs to be done to remedy this situation is to lower the ever-present opt out rate. This can only be done by doing one thing, providing value. Providing value is not something that comes easy for many just learning internet marketing methodology. Many internet marketers launch a website and begin building a list not as a means to support their existing business, but AS their business. This makes the temptation to hard sell very strong because for many, it is their only source of income.
Unfortunately, unless you are in a niche that allows that or have the experience to do so properly, you will continuously have a high opt out rate. This will negate your ability to build trust with your subscribers. For this reason, a list should only sold to on rare occasions. A relationship must be developed. Some experienced internet marketers suggest hard selling no more than ten percent of the time or one in ten emails.
Low open rates are the result of internet marketing hard sell methodology being taught to the masses. Subscribers these days are bombarded with so many hard sell emails that the majority neglect to even open them other than to unsubscribe. Internet marketer's reputations have been damaged industry wide by low quality content as newbies struggle to "live the dream" of passive income. One way to increase your non-unsubscription opens is to, in combination with constantly providing value, split test a variety of subject lines. This can be done without sacrificing your list but, rather, using social media in it's place. How exactly?