Sorry to be so late but just saw this via link in Happy New Year 2007 newsletter!

EXCELLENT post.. thanks! I especially got the point re branding at the top.. I do that already but have been wanting to try something like that with the email notification my online newsletter is available. I’ll implement late January.

Thanks again

You bring up an excellent point: subscriber expectations vary, and you want to make sure that your messages, and the timing of them, are appropriate to those expectations.

If over time your subscribers have made their expectations clear, then you already have something to shoot for (and, of course, exceed). If they haven’t already set that target in front of you, then you have to set it yourself.

I’m not at all advocating the sending of “dirt clods” to fulfill a self-imposed obligation to yourself and your subscribers to send something to them each week. I agree that it messages that lack useful content can be counterproductive.

It’s up to you to set expectations, and if you set the expectation that you’re going to send out a weekly newsletter jam-packed with great content, it’s up to you to hold up your end of the bargain. If you don’t, your subscribers will let you know.

My post uses a newsletter as an example, and I did that because many of our customers send one, so it’s a relevant example. You can just as easily apply the concepts to other types of opt-in subscribers and campaigns as well.

Example: if you’re offering to keep subscribers informed on the latest “insider” developments in the U.S. political races, your messages aren’t going to go out every Thursday at 4:45PM. That’s fine; they shouldn’t. They should go out when you have something new to report.

Whatever it is that you’re going to be sending to your subscribers, tailor their expectations accordingly.

Thanks for the good information, I’m sure it’s all very relevant and true.

I do have an issue though when it comes to ’subscriber expectations’ (the words that attracted me to your article) and more pertinently the advice one tends to hear regarding such:

There are two kinds of marketers:

Group1 - Marketers who market to other marketers ( perhaps you and certainly Aweber and, my guess is, many if not most, subscribers to this blog - marketing consultants and such.)

Group2 - Marketers who market to end users ( for example, me, a guy who manufactures and markets a few products to a relatively small niche of just ‘ordinary people’.)

I suspect the ’subscriber expectations’ are rather different for the two groups. Although your article is pertinent in both cases, not all ’subscriber expectations’ are. For example, the number of communications one receives in a given period of time.

As Sue Melvin alluded to in her Aug 11 post. We marketers will tolerate a lot of “blah, blah, blahs” and even week to week redundant “blah blah blahs” in the hopes there will be a gem among the dirt clods, so to speak. (Because occasionally there is.)

I might be able to get away with one “blah” to my subscribers but it better never happen again else they jump my ship like a sailor who just got shore leave (unlike the sailors though, my subscribers won’t be back). Not only that they don’t leave via the ‘unsubscribe link’ in my email, they hit the ‘report as spam button’ on the browser. Ouch!

Anyway I think Sue is more than just a little correct with her ‘blahs’ vs ‘content’ comment and I also wonder if “less isn’t in reality more” in the Group 2 world, where ‘ordinary people’ live???? In other words, content, content, content but not very often (certainly not weekly).

Sorry for all the blah, blah, blah but I am talking to group 1 people here, so it’s ok, right?

You can certainly apply the branding tip to your subject line. We do this here at AWeber with our blog update emails. The subject lines all start with:

[AWeber Blog]

followed by the title of the post.

This isn’t the only possible approach you can take, of course, but it’s one that I’ve seen a number of senders use. The important thing is to be consistent with your subjects so that your subscribers learn to seek out your messages in their inboxes.

I wonder if this would work with the subject line.

Also, I have noticed that my subscribers want me to stick to the subject they signed up for. One or two times I have put a subject matter that is different and the open rates in that particular letter where aweful.

Thanks for the reminder.