When it comes to inbound marketing, it is essential that you send messages on a consistent basis to your customer lists. If you don’t, then your lists will decay even faster than they already are. Given that email lists tend to decay at a rate of about 2% a month (that’s 25-30% over the course of a year!), you certainly don’t want to lose more of your list than you naturally will, which is why inbound marketing messages should be send on a regular schedule.
One of my associates told me recently about receiving a marketing text from a restaurant over a year after he had moved out of the vicinity of the restaurant. And he hadn’t received any previous messages from them before that time.
That got me thinking, how often to do we sign up for mailing lists and then don’t receive anything for months after signing up, or just as bad, receive messages regularly until they randomly stop for six months? That lag time is deadly for your lists and will ensure that your list members unsubscribe. Here’s how to avoid that deadly lag time:
Welcome people when they first join your list. Do this right away. Any good email management service will have the functionality to automate this process. Regardless of whether you are actually clicking “send” or the email is sent automatically, welcome new people to your list. Besides confirming subscription, this allows you to get in front of them and reinforce whatever message you’re pushing (which is presumably part of why they signed up for your list to begin with!).
Give them something for joining the list. If you promised anything to people when they signed up (e.g. a discount, whitepaper, etc.) deliver it right way as part of your welcome message. If you didn’t promise anything, give them something anyway (an ebook, a coupon, etc.). After all, these people have just given you something—access to their inbox—so show them how much you appreciate it. The unexpected surprise will demonstrate that the little things are important to you and that you will go the extra mile for them if they buy your services. If you’re giving something away—like an ebook—this is a great time to use a custom landing page.
Keep up a regular schedule of correspondence. There’s a fine line between too much and just enough and sending too much is a surefire way to get unsubscribed. But, if you send too little, your list members are liable to forget who you are and why they subscribed in the first place. Or they may just decide that while they were interested in receiving your messages three months ago, they’ve since lost interest.
It’s like dating: If you try to call someone for a date three months after meeting them at a party, you’re likely to be shot down. They may not remember you, or if they do, the magic of your conversation is forgotten and they’ve moved on.
Make schedule that is sustainable. Each message you send out must be relevant, useful, and interesting for your customers. If a proposed message misses on any of those counts, don’t send it. Make a schedule for sending out high quality content that is realistic. If you can’t consistently create great content every week, then don’t send an email every week. Don’t use substandard content just to justify a more frequent email schedule.
Try making a regular schedule for your inbound marketing messages and see how much more your customers engage with your messages. Soon, email will be a lead generating machine for you!
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