How to keep your email newsletter database clean
By Karen Skidmore | October 1, 2008
Earlier this week I blogged about why it was so important to keep your email newsletter database clean and up to date.
But I know from my own experience, that going through your bounced emails and undelivered emails is a right royal pain in the .. well, I am sure you know what I mean! But after a few years of trial and error, here is the system that I use now which keeps me on the straight and narrow.
- 3 strikes and you are out. Once an email address has bounced back more than 3 times, then it gets removed.
- Don’t want to be so ruthless? If you are just starting out and every sign up is precious to you, then it is worth looking at each email address before you take it out of your database. If a common spelling mistake is used, for example btnternet.com, then edit it and move on. Top tip - as your database starts to grow, you won’t have time to do this so only be this particular if you are genuinely focusing on building smaller, more specific mailing lists where the return is high.
- Delegate the task. I now have a VA who manages my email newsletters and this is a monthly task that I have given to her. She now goes through once a month and ruthlessly takes anyone off who fits the 3 strike rule.
- Move email newsletter providers! OK, this may be a little dramatic but if you have been running an email newsletter for a couple of years and your business has developed and changed since first starting, you may find it easier to start again. Having done this just this summer, I know now that the people receiving my main newsletter at CanDoCanBe genuinely want to receive it (rather than the hundreds of email addresses I had collected in my first 2 years of being in business).
If you have any other practical suggestions on how you keep your database clean, then leave a comment! I know many others would love to read your thoughts.
Topics: Growing your subscriber list, Managing your email newsletter, Why are email newsletters so effective | No Comments »
How clean is your email newsletter mailing list?
By Karen Skidmore | September 29, 2008
Keeping your email newsletter mailing list clean and up to date is important.
Why? Well, there are 2 main reasons:
- A clean and up to date mailing list helps keep your deliverability high. When your list gets old and people’s emails start to bounce because they are no longer valid, it can affect the delivery rates of the rest of your emails. If, for example, you send out a mass email out that includes a number of AOL addresses and more than 50% of them bounce, AOL may start to reject the other 50% because they will assume you are spamming.
- A clean and up to date mailing list keeps you realistic. You may be delighted that you have reached 2,000 subscribers but when you check out your bounce statistics you may be reaching 30% bounce rates. What this means is that you may have 2,000 email addresses but only 1,400 actually work. If you don’t monitor and clear out your invalid email addresses you can’t give yourself accurate conversion rates on your emails.
Watch out later this week when I give you some practical suggestions as to how to keep your email newsletter mailing list clean and up to date.
For the latest practical advice on how to create your own email newsletter, subscribe today to our very own email newsletter ”How to do Email Newsletters”.
Topics: Growing your subscriber list, Managing your email newsletter, Why are email newsletters so effective | 1 Comment »
Are you laying out the welcome mat for your email newsletter subscribers?
By Karen Skidmore | September 26, 2008
When someone signs up for your email newsletter, that first contact is so very important.
Just imagine you walk in to a new boutique that you have never seen before and the sales assistant behind the counter ignores you. Or even worse, the sales assistant jumps out from behind a pillar and starts to sell the most expensive suit in the shop to you.
A welcome email with the right tone is critical to your long term success in building a relationship with your new subscriber. Here are some top tips to include in your welcome email:
- First of all, never, never send out the standard welcome email that may come with your newsletter system. Make sure you go in and edit it. “Dear Valued Subscriber” is so naff!
- Start by saying thank you. They have made the first move by parting with their email address so respect this trust and thank them for it.
- Offer a free goodie. It can be a downloadable report, access to a audio recording or video. As long as the delivery can be automated and gives value, then your subscriber will be very happy.
- Avoid selling anything but do point people in the right direction. Showing people what their first step could be and directing them to your latest event page or most popular product is more than acceptable. But don’t go all “double-glazing” on them.
- Explain how your newsletter works. If you write one fortnightly, tell them. Build their expectations and they will know how many and what sort of emails to expect from you.
- Ask them a question. Personally this is one my favourites and I use this a lot. “What is the biggest challenge you face when …?” is a great way of starting a conversation. It will also help you understand your market place better as products that solve your subscribers challenges are going to sell better than those which don’t!
If you are still unsure how to phrase your welcome note, then start collecting welcome emails that arrive when you subscribe to newsletters. Why start from a blank screen when you have inspiration all around you.
Topics: Converting Subscribers to Paying Clients, Getting started with email newsletters | No Comments »
Email Newsletters don’t have to be just one send wonders
By Karen Skidmore | September 25, 2008
An email newsletter is, quite obviously, a method of communicating and building a relationship with a potential client via email. You spend the time writing an article, a welcome note and coming up with the offer you intend to make in the newsletter.
You spell check, make it look pretty, add a picture if you are using HTML and test all the links before you send it again.
And then the next time, you start the process all over again.
It’s get a bit wearing after a while. I have to be honest here, once you start publishing a newsletter you need to be consistent and constant with your emails otherwise you lose the confidence of your subscribers. And after almost 4 years of writing my CanDoCanBe newsletter and now write and publish 2 others, it can be exhausting.
But what I want to share with you today is that what you write for your email newsletter does not have to be a one send wonder. The information you create for your newsletter can be used time and time again, packaged up in all sorts of ways. Here are a few ideas:
- Submit your newsletter article to online article directories - improve your google rankings, increase the number of links to your site and drive traffic to your email newsletter sign-up page.
- Turn your newsletter articles in to a product - what you write about once or twice a week builds up over time. Before you know it you have a 20 page e-book, 7 part e-course or even a draft for a soft cover book that ends up being a best seller on Amazon.
- Post your newsletter articles to your blog - build up your site and increase the opportunities for key words to be maximised by blogging your articles.
- Offer your newsletter articles to magazines and get published. And remember to include a by-line which directs interested readers to your email newsletter sign-up page.
Do you get the picture? Don’t write and send. Write once and benefit dozens of times.
Topics: Creating & writing content, Promoting an email newsletter, Why are email newsletters so effective | No Comments »
How do email newsletters work?
By Karen Skidmore | September 22, 2008
Quite often it can be the sheer amount of information one needs to learn about that stops us from taking the first step. And, yup - email newsletters can often fit in to this category.
So for those of you who want to start at the very beginning and want to understand how an email newsletter physically works, then here is a brief outline:
- Someone will stop by a website and see a sign-up box inviting them to subscribe to a newsletter. This sign up box isn’t physically part of the website - it’s just script that sits on the site as a photo or image would.
- When someone takes the time to input their name and email address in to the relevant boxes, they will be re-directed to a specific page on the website that hosts the email newsletter system. Their email address and name will be automatically added to your database hosted by your email newsletter system.
- The subscriber will then be sent a welcome email (or confirmation email depending on the system you have choosen to adopt) automatically to their email account.
- And they can also be automatically directed to a web page that you have set up which may give them a welcome gift or links to pages that you have promised as a thank you for signing up.
Now, isn’t that easy? There is no manual inputting, no waiting for you to send out an email, no delegating such tasks to a member of your admin team.
An automatic system that never sleeps 
Now, if there is anything else that you really don’t understand or you want to ask a “stupid” question (bearing in mind that there are never any stupid questions, just stupid people who don’t ask them when them when they need the answers!!), email me at Karen@HowtodoEmailNewsletters.com and I will do my best to send you a personal reply as quickly as I can.
Topics: Getting started with email newsletters | No Comments »