Are Your Subscribers Missing Newsletters?

Inbox Ideas | Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

Posted by Marc Kline

If you’re only sending email newsletters, you’re missing opportunities to make your business more profitable.

In an earlier article, Justin gave a few reasons why newsletter publishers also need autoresponders.

I’d like to add one more to the list that could make a significant difference on whether your subscriber base is made up of engaged readers or dead weight.

Email is Different than Postal Mail

One of the goals of our Education Team is to help bridge the gaps between the traditional print marketing and the relatively new industry of email marketing.

” Despite some of the unique qualities of email, some marketers are stuck in the postal mail mindset. “

This is because despite some of the unique qualities of email, some marketers are stuck in the postal mail mindset.

Understandably, many are used to the manual process of sending mail and don’t immediately see the benefit of sending automatic, follow up messages. So, they’ll send only the scheduled newsletter. Does this describe you?

Well, it might be OK for the postal mail you send periodically, but it’s a major problem for your email marketing.

What’s the Big Deal?

The problem is pretty simple to explain.

You have a form on your site that says “Sign up for our free newsletter!”, and that’s what you send, on the first of every month.

But what if someone signs up on the second? The third? The fourth? How long do they have to wait to get the first copy of their newsletter?

What kind of first impression do they get when they don’t get a single message for up to a month? A bad one? No, they don’t get any at all. Instead they wait for it to come for up to a day or at very most, a few, then probably forget about you.

When it finally does come, it meshes in with the rest of their mail, and their interest has wained, so its going to the trash. You’ve taken a potentially engaged subscriber and let them become someone who won’t read your messages. Ouch!

The Autoresponder Solution

So, the importance of having the most recent version of the newsletter sent promptly is evident. But how do you do it? Your autoresponder feature! You can have it send immediately, or shortly after a welcome message giving them the heads up on it being sent a little while later.

If you’re using our service sending a newsletter, read over our Knowledge Base article on sending it automatically.

Regardless of your situation, if you’re not sending any autoresponder messages, take a few moments to add one. It will better your results.

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11 Responses

Marcel
June 26th, 2007 at 9:21 am

Hi Marc,
very good point! I always assumed this is clear to everybody. The power of email newsletter service is the "e" in front of the "mail"…! So to speak. Customers can be given AND expect immediate results in form of first information submitted to them automatically. Same goes if you sell ebooks (note the "e" again) or software or any other digital products for example. Customers buy these because they expect IMMEDIATE download after (online) payment verification. That’s just the game. Play it and you’ll win, ignore it and you’ll… You guessed it!
Chris
June 26th, 2007 at 11:37 am

I can understand someone not setting up a whole series of messages if they are going to be broadcasting, but it seems odd to not at least have a welcome message that says thanks for subscribing and where to read previous issues or other content.
Ruth
June 26th, 2007 at 11:58 am

Marcel,
How right you are. I am the first one to get a little hyper if I don’t have instant results after I sign up for something.

Even an email that says, "Hi, Welcome, Your requested info will be coming (whatever date)" will make me happy
Shirley
June 27th, 2007 at 6:05 am

My newsletter is Emailed every Wednesday, and a start-a-profitable-week edition is sent on Sunday.

However, I did not know this automated option was available and will put it in place immediately.

I’ve had 20 new subscribers added since last Wednesday. All of them could have received that newsletter had I known about the autoresponder solution. This oversight won’t happen again.
Marc Kline
June 27th, 2007 at 6:03 pm

Thank you for your always insightful comments. Your impulse of wanting some kind of instant material is matched by your subscribers. Let’s expand on this a little…

A subscriber’s attention to your campaign is often at it’s highest point early after they’ve signed up.

So, another idea I mentioned in our "How to Get Started" webinar today is to put a *whole series* of automatic follow up messages into your campaign to complement your newsletters.

That way, you cultivate a close relationship early on when they want to hear from you most. Otherwise you’re sending just an autoresponder, perhaps your recent newsletter, then nothing further for up to a month.

As time goes on, you can send just your periodical newsletters along with some special messages (offers, etc.) here and there.

Tapering off a bit helps to keep people from feeling overwhelmed with too many messages and unsubscribing as a result. But you need to cultivate the early interest in order to get this sustained interest.
Jim Cockrum
June 29th, 2007 at 12:53 am

After we mail our newsletter we always post our latest newsletter online at the same url and then in the first message that new subscribers get from us when they join our aweber list they see the link. It’s the same link that way and we don’t have to change our message on aweber - just post the new newsletter on our "most recent issue" page.

i.e. example.com/CURRENTISSUE is always our most recent issue.
David Travis
June 29th, 2007 at 4:52 am

I think this is a great tip Marc, but there’s a warning that you should give people.

I have a mailing list that I just use for monthly newsletters. After reading this tip yesterday, I set up my autoresponder so that now whenever someone signs up for the newsletter they get the issue that I sent out on the 1st of that month.

What I hadn’t bargained for was that this autoresponder message would be sent to everyone on my list, even those that received the original broadcast. It looks like when you set up an autoresponder for the first time, it goes out to everyone on the list even if they signed up months ago!
Marc Kline
June 29th, 2007 at 12:17 pm

David,

This is very true. If you add this follow up message and your subscribers are waiting for the next in the series, they will be sent it.

Fortunately, as long as you update that *same* message with the newest content of your newsletter every month (or however often you send), you will not have any future issues.

I’ve added this caveat to the knowledge base item I referenced in the article, and linked to a new item I just made on changing message numbers:

http://www.aweber.com/faq/questions/341/

Thanks for this invaluable feedback.
Justin Premick
June 29th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

Jim,

Thanks for the tip! Updating a page of your site with the latest issue and linking to that page is another great way to make sure that your new subscribers can see that issue as they sign up.
M. Lund
July 25th, 2007 at 11:12 am

We all make mistakes. Hopefully not to big. We just have to learn from those mistakes - and continue to be more and more competent and get more subscribers.
John
August 8th, 2007 at 12:27 am

I subscribed to some newsletters. In that period just to see how it worked It’s not that different from ads in RSS feeds BTW, apart from the clickable map.