If you haven’t heard by now, Gmail is rolling out a major change to how its users receive emails. Basically Gmail will be sorting emails for its users and putting them in pre-determined folders.
Why would Gmail be doing this? I suspect at least part of the reason is because a common complaint from people who have an email address is “too much email.”
So, as an entrepreneur who uses email in your marketing, rather than worrying about which folder you end up in, I think a better use of your time is to take a look at how you use emails in your biz so this is not an issue for you and your subscribers will want to receive your emails.
And to help you with that, below you’ll find 3 tips to improve your email practices.
1. Start by taking a good look at how you’re using email now. Some things to look at include:
* How often are you emailing your list? Is it often (several times a week), is it moderate (several times a month), is it once in a blue moon? If you’re only emailing once in a blue moon, then unfortunately that list you worked so hard to build is probably pretty cold right now and when you do finally send an email, it will probably be regulated to spam.
Successful entrepreneurs typically send emails regularly to their list. That’s how you build a relationship with your list — you reach out and communicate with them. If you’re not reaching out, then you can’t expect to build a relationship with them.
* Are you sending content your subscribers find valuable so they WANT to receive your emails or are you just sending promotional emails? If all you do is send promotional emails, again you’re going to run the risk of your subscribers tuning you out. Sending out a balance of solid content with no strings attached (in other words they don’t have to opt in or listen to a pitch at the end) along with promotional emails for your subscribers who want to go deeper with your teachings is the way to build a strong responsive list.
* Do you encourage your subscribers to interact with you (clicking on links, submitting questions or comments, asking for their feedback)? Encouraging interaction is a great way for your list to feel like you actually care about what they want and it’s not just a one-way street with you pushing promotional materials down their throat.
2. So now that you’ve looked at how you treat your list, I want you to take a hard look at your results. Are your results what you want? Or do you think they could be better?
If you think they could be better, let’s look at what you can do to improve your results. Can you add an ezine? If you have an ezine, can you publish it more frequently? Are you sharing good content with your subscribers that they want to read or could THAT be improved? Can you find ways to interact more with your subscribers? Or maybe you’re someone who doesn’t really like to promote your products and services so while you happily publish an ezine, you not-so-happily send out promotional emails (so adding a few more promotional emails to your schedule may be your growth edge).
3. Now, put a plan together on how you’re going to improve your email practices and the IMPLEMENT it. Start small if that makes it easier but do start — because the sooner you do the sooner you’ll start seeing better results in your biz.
