What to do if you've ghosted your email subscribers

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:: 00:02

Have you been ghosting your email subscribers? It's been so long since you've been in touch. It's kind of embarrassing. And even if you were to send an email, you'd have no idea what to say or whether your subscribers would actually want to hear from you. I'm Janet Murray, I'm a content and online business strategist. And in this episode of the greatest content podcast,

:: 00:23

I share a simple strategy you can use to re-engage your email list. Even if you feel like the stranger. So is it possible to re-engage in email lists? You'd neglected. Absolutely, but you need to get started today because every day that goes by where you don't email your list. Well, it just makes it harder to wake up those email subscribers,

:: 00:49

the best way to be engaged with email subscribers. When you've neglected, your list is to you guessed it, email them. But if you haven't emailed your list for a while, or maybe you've gone to the trouble of creating a lead magnet and adding people to your list, but you haven't emailed them ever. Don't worry. You're not alone. It does happen.

:: 01:10

But if you hadn't been in touch for a while, or even at all, then you may be concerned. People won't open your emails or that's they'll unsubscribe from your list because they won't remember signing up to your list in the first place. These are valid concerns. If you haven't emailed your list for a number of months or a thought, people may not remember who you are or why they signed up for your list in the first place.

:: 01:36

And that's why it's even more important to send a sequence of emails as soon as you possibly can, that are specifically designed to reengage that list. This sequence of emails is one I generally refer to as a re-engagement or a resurrection sequence. And there's a template for this sequence in my courageous content large-cap which I'll link to in the show notes. If you haven't emailed your list for a while,

:: 02:02

this will almost certainly have impacted on the deliverability of your emails. That is the likelihood that your emails will actually hit people's inboxes. So if you need to wake up your email list, your priority has to be getting people interested in your content again, and reviving their interest in being on your list. So you don't just want people to open your emails.

:: 02:26

You also want them to take action that might be clicking the links in your emails, or just replying to your emails. That's why I recommend sending a series of three emails over the course of a week or so, that are specifically designed to get your subscribers, to click, to reply, to take some kind of action. If you haven't been emailing your list,

:: 02:49

it really is best not to gloss over and try and pretend it hasn't happened or make excuses. In fact, acknowledging that you haven't been in touch can be a way of breaking the ice and building a rapport with your audience. You can even joke about feeling like a bad friend or being embarrassed about not getting inside. It's actually best just to put the elephant in the room.

:: 03:11

Like I say, there's a template for the three-part email reengagement sequence. I'm going to describe in my courageous launch content kit, but here is a quick summary. In the first email, you need to acknowledge that you haven't been keeping in touch as regularly as you would have liked to unexplained that you want to change things and offer and give people a reason to stay on your list.

:: 03:33

So I would typically recommend offering a free download or it's or something they haven't had before. And as with any freebie content, it needs to be something that solves a problem for your email subscribers. So it might be a free template, a checklist, something that will save them, time, money, hassle, but it really does need to add value needs to be something that's going to make them want to click anyone who does download your Phoebe in that first email can be moved into a nurture sequence of emails.

:: 04:05

So that's a specific set of followup emails that's linked to that particular resource. And typically these will be designed to move people to some kind of paid resource. Now, at this point you might be panicking and thinking, I don't have the email automation or the know how to do that. Please don't panic. You don't need fancy email automation to do what I've just described.

:: 04:30

You could actually do that manually. As long as you're able to see whether somebody has downloaded a particular resource, even if that means asking people to email you back, if they would like the resource that's perfectly acceptable to do, as long as you can track who has requested that resource or download, and then move them into a different set of emails, that's all you need to be able to do.

:: 04:55

And although not as convenience and nurture sequence of emails can also be delivered manually. So unless you have a large email list already, I really wouldn't worry about this kind of stuff. And if you do already have a large email list, I'm guessing you probably also have the budget. I know how to find somebody who can help you with this and to pay them while it might seem like a lot of money to pay an expert,

:: 05:22

to come in and set up your automations and your funnels. An expert technician will almost certainly be able to do in a couple of hours, what would take you days, possibly even weeks to learn and to do so it's really worth looking at the bigger picture here in your second email. I would recommend trying another strategy to get people to click or take action.

:: 05:47

If you have the tech know-how or resources, then you can quite literally give people a series of five options that they can choose from. And in this type of email, typically, I would say something like, I'm just planning out my email newsletter for the next however many weeks. And here's five topics I'm thinking of covering which ones would be of most interest to you.

:: 06:11

Like I say, if you don't have the tech, know how to do that, you can simply ask people to email you back. The key thing here is the strategy. And what you're trying to do here is to get people to take action, clicking, emailing you back. It's all good in your final email for those who haven't opened, email one or two or have opened it,

:: 06:34

but haven't taken action. I would recommend inviting people to unsubscribe. You can share some of the topics you're planning to cover in the coming weeks or months in your email content and invite people to unsubscribe. If they are no longer interested in hearing from you, which might sound drastic, but every person on your email list who is not genuinely interested in what you've got to share.

:: 07:00

And as a result is unlikely to become a customer or client in the future. Well, they are harming your deliverability. That is the likelihood of your other emails, getting to your more engaged subscribers, depending on the email software you use and how many people you've got on your list. They may even be costing you money. So never worry about people unsubscribing.

:: 07:26

If you subscribe to my email list, you'll know that I not only give an option to unsubscribing every single email. I also give an option in every single email to subscribe from hearing about a particular topics. I say, for example, I'm promoting my business basics content kit in every email about that. I would have a opt-out at the bottom that says not interested in hearing about this topic,

:: 07:48

click here, and you won't hear any more about it. This won't completely unsubscribe you from my list, just from hearing about this topic. And the more that you can focus on making sure not only that you have the right people on your list, but you're sending the right content to those people. The better both your deliverability and your sales will be.

:: 08:10

So once you've completed this sequence of emails, it's really important that you don't sit back, take a deep breath and forget about your email list. Because if you do a few months down the line, you're likely to be in exactly the same boat. Again, it's up to you. What you decide to do at the end of your being engagement sequence.

:: 08:29

Personally, I would remove subscribers who haven't opened or engaged with any of the emails, but it is up to you just be aware that it's better to have a tiny list of people who actually engage with your emails than a large list of people who don't and make sure you put measures in place to avoid ending up in the same situation. Again, because building an email list can be costly both in terms of your time and the resources involved.

:: 08:52

And if you've invested in advertising cost can be even higher. So to ensure you're not wasting your time and money, here's three things I would recommend you do. Number one, set a regular time all day to email your list. Once a week is doable for most businesses, it doesn't have to be a long email. I'll talk more about email newsletters and upcoming episodes.

:: 09:16

But I think once a week is about right for keeping in touch. And if you're worried about emailing your list too much, here's a reframe for you. If you are emailing your list regularly, say once a week, when you do start emailing about a product or service that you have to sell, people are much more likely to open those emails and engage.

:: 09:38

If they haven't heard from you for six months and they suddenly get an email, they're probably not going to open it, which is going to harm your sales. So instead of worrying about bugging people, focus on keeping in regular touch because that will help you make more sales. When you do have a product or service to sell. If you're adding value in between people won't mind hearing from you and those people who do mind hearing from you,

:: 10:03

let them unsubscribe because they're not your ideal customers or clients. Second thing I would make sure that you do if you're not doing so already. And you really should be to make sure that you're compliant with data protection is make sure that there is an invite for your subscribers to opt out of every single email and on most email marketing software platforms, this is standard.

:: 10:28

However, I would consider adding something like I do, which makes it even more obvious that people can subscribe your philosophy should never be about keeping people on your list. It should be about encouraging people to leave. It should be about keeping your list lean and engaged and encouraging people who are not really that interested to leave. Finally, I would put list hygiene on your calendar.

:: 10:54

So once a month per an appointment on your calendar with yourself, or if you have someone that helps you with your email marketing software, get them to do it. But once a month, do your list hygiene, which means removing any subscribers that have not engaged up to you, what that period of time is, but removing anybody who isn't engaging, removing any emails that are bouncing,

:: 11:15

removing any dead emails, merging contacts, where you have the same person signing up under multiple emails, all of that will improve your deliverability and ultimately your sales. So I hope you found that useful. And before I finish up, I just wanted to let you know about something that you might want to get involved with. If you have found this episode useful and it's particularly relevant.

:: 11:39

If you're listening to this episode around the time it goes live. So it's going out in mid April 20, 22 and on and on Friday, the 29th of April, I am running a live online event, create your lead magnet in a day. It's a one day online event that will give you the accountability to get your lead magnet created in a day. You'll get content templates for your lead magnet and all of your promotional resources.

:: 12:09

So you know exactly what to create and when to create it, you'll get a ready to go launch strategy. So you don't waste time creating a lead magnet, but doesn't deliver results for you or your business. And you'll also get tech guidance and troubleshooting. So you can figure out the easiest way to deliver your lead magnet and follow up with your subscribers.

:: 12:29

And to know you do not need fancy email marketing software to have a lead magnet. Most people spend far too much time worrying about this at the expense of actually creating that lead magnet. But it's certainly something that we will cover at the event. And not only will you get the accountability to get your lead magnet created at the event, you'll also gets templates for your lead magnets.

:: 12:53

So you'll get editable Canva templates. You don't have to worry about the layout for a number of different styles of lead magnet. You'll get templates for a six-part email marketing campaign. You'll get a delivery, email sequence, nurture sequence, social media posts, both the copy and the visuals and a sales funnel mapping templates. So you can map out the journey from someone signing up for your lead magnet to becoming a customer or clients.

:: 13:21

All the templates are editable and should be edited and adapted for your business. But it's just about making things as easy for you as possible. I think one of the reasons people struggle with lead magnets is because there are so many moving parts. There's a lot of content to create. So this is just about making your life easier. This is actually an event for members of my creators club,

:: 13:43

which I am opening up to my wider community. And yes, there will be replays available, but if you can get along live, I think you will get a much better experience. So if you'd like to join me at the 2020 to create your lead magnet, and if they have them in April, then head to the show notes to register. If you're listening after the event and kicking yourself because you think the event would have been perfect for you,

:: 14:09

then don't despair you head to that link. Then you will either find the wait list, or you may even find an option to purchase the replaceable templates. So definitely worth heading over to that page and checking out what's available at the time we're listening.