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Your first email to your list is the ideal time to introduce yourself. You know what they say, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
You do know they say that, don’t you? Well, they do. And they’re right.
That’s what you’re doing with the first email in your autoresponder campaigns. You’re introducing yourself and making your one and only first email impression. Is it a good one?
If you start your series off with a killer welcome message, it’s likely that your readers will be impressed and more likely to open your emails in the future. Kick things off with a dud and that may be the last email from you they ever open. introduce-yourself If you start your series off with a killer welcome message, it’s likely that your readers will be impressed and more likely to open your emails in the future. Kick things off with a dud and that may be the last email from you they ever open.
So how do you go about creating an excellent welcome message instead of a stinker? Why don’t we look at some of the problems people often have with their welcome messages.
What Your Welcome Message Should Not Include
You don’t want to just say “Thanks for subscribing. I’ll write again soon”. That’s not the way to make a great first impression. That is, however, a pretty good way of making them forget about you. Come on, don’t waste your subscriber’s time like that. Write something that makes them feel good about joining your list. Or give them a free download that makes them feel good about joining your list. But by all means, make them feel good about joining your list!
Something else you should not have in your welcome message? A sales pitch. Do not sell in your first email. That can be a huge turn-off. Give it some time. Let them get used to you and get to know you. Later you’ll be recommending things to a friend instead of trying to sell something to a visitor. The first one is usually a lot more lucrative.
I’ve read (but can’t verify) that almost half of the welcome messages in some niches make one of the two mistakes above. They either send a useless welcome message, or they try to sell in their first email.
So, to be absolutely clear, I recommend you do not waste your first message to your new subscribers. Introduce yourself like someone with some manners. Let them get to know you. Secondly, do not sell in your welcome email. If you make an effort to make a good first impression, there will be plenty of time for selling. If you don’t make a good first impression there may be no time for selling. Your choice.
What You Should Put In Your Welcome email
Well for starters, butt-kicking content. You want this to be some of the best content you’ve ever written. Whether it’s your writing style that draws people’s attention or a fantastic download that the welcome message provides a link to. Something about your first email needs to be as outstanding as you can make it.
Understand, this is one of those places where doing real work and putting in the real effort will pay off for years to come. This is also a good candidate for A/B testing, if and when you are ready for that, and the sooner the better, but all things in order.
What else should your welcome message include? How about a preview? Tell them what they can expect. What kind of things are you going to talk about? If you are going to provide free downloads from time to time, tell them that. How often do you plan to send messages? You can set the level of expectation that your readers have.
Before you close your message, tell them what you have in store for them in your next email. If you don’t think there’s anything about the next email that would excite them, maybe you need to polish that content?
And when you are telling them what your next email will be about or what it will bring them, you want to try to come up with benefits they will receive from that email as well as just for being one of your subscribers. Try to get them at least a little bit excited about receiving your next email. If someone opens both your first and second emails, they will very likely be a subscriber for years to come.
Setting Expectations
Your first email sets the level of expectation your subscriber has for your upcoming emails, like it or not. So when you introduce yourself you want to do your very best to provide good content that is helpful or informative or both. You want your new readers to feel that they will benefit from opening your emails. And you should be ready to sweeten the deal with some good bonuses – ebooks, training videos, free membership, or free membership trials. You may not have access to these things at first, but if you keep your eyes open as you do research for your emails and posts, and go about your marketing business, you will come across places that make these available.
So when you get a new subscriber, knock their socks off with quality content when you introduce yourself to them. Get them to look forward to your upcoming messages by wowing them with the quality of your first message.
Grow your list and grow it big! I hope you profit handsomely.
‘Til next time,
Dave
Owner/President of DUH Web Media Group
Sites:
DUHWebMediaGroup.com
DUHWebMarketingInsight.com
DUHWebMarketingReviews.com
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