Let’s start with your first mail. This one should be fairly easy. A simple welcome message that includes your bonus (the one you created to get people to opt-in in the first place) and a thank you for signing up. And that’s it! I wouldn’t put any links or sales pitches in this mail at all.

The only thing I would do is put a signature link under your mail at the end like this:-

Dave B / Thad
AffiliateNicheClub

This gives them an easy option to re-visit your site if they wish.

(Note: I’ll cover more ground in the finished guide on how to structure double opt-in confirmation messages and what you can do with your ‘Thank You page’ after they opt-in.)

Now it gets more interesting…

One crucial thing to remember is that it’s all very well having a list, if they actually open your mails!

There are a number of key points to take into account here:-

You must add value. The content of your mail message series must obviously match what you have a promised. So, if it’s a five part course you give them that, if it’s a weekly newsletter or a series of tips you give them that. Provide your list with free valuable content and don’t try and oversell to your list. If you consistently add value your list will continue to open your mails.

Don’t spam! This may seem obvious but you may not always be aware that you are even doing it. You see the definition of Spam varies from person to person. We’re not going to debate that here but one thing you can do is make sure that your customer’s ‘email clients’ don’t think you are spamming them. Yes, that’s right. All the major email clients like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Windows Mail have their own spam filters. They look out for certain words and phrases and the presence of links in all incoming mails.

If you are using a good autoresponder like Aweber or Getresponse you can check each mail, as you set it up, for it’s ‘spam score’ and make adjustments accordingly. This is a very important test, don’t miss it out… otherwise you will have people on your list who simply never receive your mails.

A tip here is to add a brief note right under your opt-in form like this:-

(NOTE: Please add support@affiliatenicheclub.com to your ‘Contacts’ or ‘White List’ so you have no issues receiving the report.)

Don’t bombard your list with mails. Some of the ‘Gurus’ will tell you to send a mail out every single day. Unless you have promised a free 7 day course I would not do this. It does depend on the niche and what you are offering but I would think once a week would be a good rough guide. Remember, you may well be sending out the odd one-off broadcast message as well so don’t overdo it. At the same time, if you send out mails too infrequently your list will simply forget about you. Don’t let a list go cold!

Don’t hard sell to your list. I know it is incredibly tempting to stuff your mails with product links but this really is counter productive. People will get turned off and unsubscribe. For your mail message series just provide free useful information. Now, that information might be about a product that has helped you along the way. Fine… but pitch it like that… not ‘go here and buy this now!’

Again, it depends on the niche but try and and send at least 3 or 4 ‘informative’ type mails to every one ‘salesy’ mail.

Grab ‘em by the headlines! You should think of a mail subject head line in much the same way as you would an article title or even the first line of an adwords ad. Your subject headline must grab people’s attention and make them want to open the mail. You can use call to action phrases like ‘Grab this’ or ‘Sign Up’ . Using words like ‘bonus’, ‘limited’ or ‘free’ can work well. As can questions or implications of success.

OK, we’ve covered the basics of setting up your mail message series. That’s the regular series of mails that will go out on autopilot to everyone that signs up to your list. In the next post we’ll look at the unique case of sending out one-off ‘broadcast’ messages as these can, and should be, handled differently…

(You can get some free tips on List Building on the relevant Reaper lens here.)

Anyway,  it’s been raised quite a bit recently and is something that a most Internet Marketers don’t like discussing. Because it’s a bit negative… it can be a bit unpleasant… it can be downright destructive… if you let it be.

So, you’ve set up your campaign… you have a nice bonus offering in place to get people to sign up to your list… you have a nice non-spammy e-mail series set up… naturally you are hoping those on your list will become buyers of whatever you are promoting. That’s the whole idea, right?

Now, not everyone subscribes to your list… not everyone buys… some people unsubscibe… some people will even take the trouble of calling you rude names and flagging you as a spammer!

This is what happens when you have a list. Regardless of the niche you are in…

Here’s what Tiffany Dow had to say about the subject on a recent post on her blog. (If you have not heard of Tiffany, I’ll be very surprised but, if not, check the lady out. She’s a top notch marketer and one of the good guys.)

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Another Freebie Seeker Bites the Dust

Let’s say you’re on a list of mine. You’re a subscriber. When you first sign up to one of my lists, you will get something in return. It may be:

-a free chapter of my eBook as a preview

-a free report

-the opportunity to buy cheap lenses or PLR before anyone else

-the chance to learn something from someone else and supplement your own knowledge

Today I got the following unsubscribe message from someone on one of my lists:

“I subscribed to receive a free chapter to get an idea if the ebook might interest me.  I did not expect to receive so many soliciting emails and I don’t like it. I would have ordered the book, but I’m now upset about so many sales pitches, that I’m not going to now.”

Fair enough. Everyone has a different threshold for communications of any kind. But there’s a lesson I want to teach you in all of this.

You will never please everyone 100% of the time.

Since April 1, I have sent that particular list a total of 5 “promotional” emails. Other emails she got were educational in nature. So that’s a little less than 1 email of a promotional nature per week.

To me, it’s not a lot. To some, it’s far more than they can handle. I unsubscribe when I get daily or 3 x a week promotional emails – UNLESS – keyword to notice here – there is valuable stuff coming at me in between, which so many marketers do NOT do.

I used to feel sick to my stomach when I’d get an email like the one above. I would tear up even, wondering why I was such a failure as a marketer. Then I learned that it wasn’t ME, it was THEM.

It was her own permission settings that mattered here, not my marketing strategy. I was giving value – both upfront and in emails sprinkled in between. I had given this prospect a LOT for free, actually – including, and this is important – my personal recommendation for products I feel would truly help her.

I understand the cynicism. Most marketers promote based on an incestuous nature – who’s in bed with who. “You promote me, I’ll promote you. No, I don’t need a review copy.”

I don’t play that dirty game. I’ve had ghostwriting clients whose business I didn’t want to lose ask me to promote another of their products that I didn’t write, and I flat out said, “No.”

I turned down a girl’s JV proposal today who asked me to promote what I consider a spammy Squidoo backlink builder. She meant well, I’m sure.  I would have earned $25 per sale and being the original “Squidoo Queen” – people trust my judgment on Squidoo! But I didn’t do it.

I don’t recommend unless I would use it myself, end of story.

The lady who unsubscribed used a tone of voice that she believed would surely make me rethink my marketing strategy. But in reality, all she did was make me feel sorry for her. Because you see, she doesn’t “get it” yet.

This is truly sad to me because the list she was subscribed to was for Building an eBook Empire – she needed to learn how to build a list of prospects who hadn’t bought yet and convert them into buyers.  She even admitted she liked the first chapter so much she was going to buy the eBook.

To be honest with you, I don’t believe her. I believe she was a freebie seeker who didn’t like spending money on info products and didn’t like it when my free valuable emails were interrupted by a message that she might want to look into buying something. Her “I’m offended” needle was tilted far too much to the right in overdrive. She needs to cool down and look at this rationally. I’m not building a list of prospects to be a free mentor forever – the goal is to get them to become a customer. D’uh!

She won’t have that chance to learn from me now – and what she doesn’t know is that she’s the exception, not the rule. Most prospects love the free chapter, email me grateful as hell about my recommendations, and build loyalty to me for my advice I give freely via email when someone has a question.

Once you get going, don’t let any of your unsubscribe emails get under your skin. Evaluate your strategy and if it works out well most of the time and you don’t feel you’re in the wrong, don’t let someone with a different mindset change you!

Tiff”

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I’m on Tiffany’s list and I have posted a response to that post on Tiffany’s blog (along with 50+ other people). I won’t make this post overlong by reprinting my response here.

I’ll just add here that if this happens to you… do not let it deflect you!

Tiffany is not crying in her beer here or looking for sympathy… the message is simple… don’t let other people dictate your marketing strategy.

This is a business… YOU are in business… nobody works for nothing.

So (and the real reason for this post)… No Need To Run… And Hide…

ANY excuse to put that one up!

I’ve just added the third of my FREE Tutorial Lenses over at Squidoo. It’s on ‘List Building‘ and you can check it out here:-

Niche List Building Tips | Niche Reaper Lenses

Head on over there and let me know what you think, get voting, join in the debates…

List Building is all about strategy people. If you are not collecting leads you are missing a massive opportunity… an opportunity to foster a genuine long term relationship with your customers.

Head on over to the lens for tips on how to start collecting leads, which Autoresponder to use and how to get your message series off to a cracking start!

Niche List Building Tips | Niche Reaper Lenses

The next lens will be on ‘Websites & Landing Pages‘…

And then I’ll work my way through the list. So, don’t forget to keep voting on the ‘home’ Niche Marketing Reaper lens for what you want to see next…