This guest post is by Michael Alexis of Michael Alexis.
Frustrated with unsubscribes on your newsletter?
You aren’t alone. Most of the metrics associated with our newsletters are fun to watch.
- Subscribe rate going up? Cool.
- Open rate rising? Awesome.
- Clickthrough rate skyrocketing? Yahoo!
Image by Bruce Berrien, licensed under Creative Commons
So, what is it about unsubscribe rates that is so darn frustrating? Maybe it’s the feeling of rejection that the reader no longer finds enough value in our work. Perhaps it’s the wondering whether they only ever signed up to get our download-bait. Or it could even just be the dissatisfaction of not knowing why all these people are unsubscribing.
Whatever the reason, wouldn’t it be nice if we could just put a stop to unsubscribes for good?
Ana Hoffman of Traffic Generation Cafe is pretty transparent about her blogging strategies. So, when earlier this year, I interviewed Ana, I wanted to find out how she builds and maintains her email list. This post is about the specific tactic Ana uses to drastically cut unsubscribe rates to her newsletter.
The problem isn’t what you are doing
Since you’re active in the world of blogging about blogging, you already know:
- How to Drastically Increase Subscriber Numbers to Your Email Newsletter
- How to Email Your Blog Updates Like a ProBlogger
- Write Epic Shit
- Don’t Write for Everybody
So you know all about how to get subscribers and engage your readers. And it’s a lot of work, right? But you are doing it. That’s why we have to look elsewhere for the underlying cause of email unsubscribes.
The problem isn’t what you are doing.
Read that again.
No. The problem is what you aren’t doing.
The problem is what you aren’t doing
The underlying cause of newsletter unsubscribes is that you aren’t building relationships with your readers. Sure, you’re writing content that is useful for them. Sure, you write with the voice you speak in. Sure, you share your strong opinions. Sure, you drop little snippets about your personal life. All of those things can help build relationships, but in the end they suffer from one fatal flaw: you’re broadcasting a message from one to many.
So, how often do you reach out to your subscribers, one by one?
Cut your unsubscribe rate
Hey, wow! Nobody ever did that, you are actually real and respond to your emails.
—Ana Hoffman
You will cut your newsletter unsubscribe rate by building relationships with your subscribers. You do that be reaching out to them one by one. By engaging subscribers in personal dialog, you show them you are a real person sitting behind a computer writing live emails. You show them that you aren’t just looking to flood their inbox with a series of canned autoresponses. And you show them that you actually care and appreciate having them around.
The key here is to change the perception of a one-to-many broadcast into a one-to-one conversation.
Sounds like the right approach doesn’t it?
How Ana does it
Ana uses a simple strategy to engage one-on-one with every subscriber to her newsletter.
She writes them an email.
Here’s her process. First, she sets aside 15 minutes at the end of the day to email her new subscribers.
Second, she opens up each of the “new subscriber notification” emails she gets from Aweber.
Third, she responds to that email (which goes to the subscriber) and changes the subject line to something like “good morning!” or “good afternoon!” Ana says this step gets her a lot of feedback like “Wow, either your responder is so good it knows the time, or you are actually there!”
Fourth, she writes the content of the email. Something like “Hello. Thanks for joining my list. Welcome. I’m here if you need help.”
Fifth, she customizes the email. If she notices someone’s email ends with “.au”, she’ll say “It’s evening my time, but afternoon in Australia, so good afternoon!” There is a free add-on to Gmail called Rapportive that shows you details of the person you are emailing, including their location.
Sixth, she presses send. And bam! With just a little bit of daily effort like this, you’ve built a relationship with every subscriber on your list!
How do you build relationships with your email subscribers?
Photo Credit: Bruce Berrien
Michael Alexis posts video interviews with the world’s top bloggers at WriterViews. The interviews cover strategy, tips and tactics for becoming a ProBlogger.
