Ethical list building: Tip 5 of 5

Today we address the 5th in our series of the Five Top Ezine Publishing Guidelines. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, please pick up the links from our archive in the sidebar on the right of the screen.

5. Communicate with a frequency your readers expect

How often you send your email newsletter depends on how much content you include. Perhaps you send a ‘daily tip’ that is short and to the point, or you send a longer article only once a month. Either way it is best to set the expectations of your readers upfront and then stick to it.

Why? So that you keep on the radar of your prospects (which your readers ultimately are), and so that they can look forward to receiving your emails and are more likely to read them. Whatever you do, be sure not to send emails so frequently that you get on their nerves, or so infrequently that they forget who you are!

There you have it.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this series – even adding any top tips that you follow as an email marketer.  And if you’ve enjoyed this series of short articles and would enjoy reading more like them, please sign up for our e-zine The Marketing Edge.  We practice what we preach – promise!

Ethical list building: Tip 4

Yesterday we discussed the third golden rule of email marketing. So far we have addressed ethical vs unethical ways of adding names to your mailing list, making it as easy as one click to be taken off a list (no haggling), and not using your own email programme or mail-merge to send your broadcasts.  Today, ethical list building tip number four is:

4. Only send relevant, useful information

Why? If the articles and information you send out are not directly related to your core business, it will do nothing other than damage your credibility rather than position you as an expert in your field. Sending information on dress and grooming are appropriate if you are an image consultant, not an accountant.

Also, if you make a habit of sending low value gumpf you will quickly irritate your readers, see your unsubscribe rates soar, and risk being marked as a spammer.

Not exactly rocket science, is it?

Tomorrow we’ll look at the 5th and final ‘top tip’ in this series.

Ethical list building: Tip 2

Yesterday we addressed the first and foremost rule that responsible e-marketers follow. If you do any form of email marketing (newsletters, ezines, mailshots – call them what you like) then you are in the right place: Read on!

2. Make unsubscribing easy!

Why? Because your subscribers are entitled to change their minds about receiving your messages, and should have their wishes respected. They should not need to explain why, nor have to beg or plead to have you honour their request.

How do you make the process quick and painless? By having a simple, one-click unsubscribe link in your message – that removes the email address completely from your database.

Dishonest e-marketers make it virtually impossible for subscribers to remove themselves. They do things like creating separate lists for each individual broadcast so that when a reader clicks the unsubscribe link they are only removed from the current mailing and not future ones. Or they insist that you log in to their system to change your preferences, but you have never created an account to log in to!

E-marketers with integrity will never employ such cowboy tactics.

Check back on Monday for our third tip.

Ethical list building: Tip 1

Over the next few days we’ll be exploring the top 5 ezine publishing guidelines that you need to follow as a reputable, ethical e-marketer. If you missed our previous post/s you can read them here. Today we look at tip number 1:

1. Only add subscribers with their permission!

Why? Well, a major reason for having an ezine or email newsletter at all is to position you as an expert in your field, to demonstrate your services, and enhance your credibility. You ruin it all by growing your subscriber base without their consent.

Additionally, people who actually want (and have asked) to hear from you are qualified prospects and are more likely to buy from you eventually. It is a complete sham to have a database of hundreds or even thousands of recipients that don’t want what you have to offer, never read your newsletters, and possibly even have your messages land straight in a junkmail folder.

How do you ensure you have their permission? By using what is known as ‘confirmed (or verified) opt-in’. This not only makes certain that every name on your mailing list has given you permission to send them your newsletters, serves to validate the email addresses you hold, and also prevents third parties from adding subscribers without their knowledge.

By definition then you would not add people to your mailing list simply because you picked up their card while networking. Neither would you mine the Yellow Pages or Chamber of Commerce member list to increase your subscriber numbers.

Responsible e-marketers regard this as standard practice.

Check back tomorrow for tip number 2.

Are you sick of spam?

Like almost every email user (and that’s prettymuch everyone these days!) you probably get plenty of email newsletters landing in your inbox on a daily basis. But how many did you actually sign up to yourself?

If you’re anything like us you are probably receiving a wide variety of newsletters, offers, sales pitches, and local business announcements that you never requested.

Worse still is that if you don’t actually appreciate receiving them you probably can’t even have yourself removed from the mailing lists, can you?

It’s bad enough when you are the victim… But what if you are the perpetrator?

Over the next few days we’ll be sharing five of the top guidelines that ezine publishers need to adhere to – check back tomorrow for tip number one and make sure that you start getting it right!

Call For Guest Authors

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• Blogging
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Please send your articles (maximum of 1000 words) to info @ zee2a . com together with a photo and brief author bio. If we like your article, we will run it in a future issue. 

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Three Pitfalls of Strategic Partnerships

Many small businesses spend far too much time chasing strategic partnerships that never get to the point of delivering referral business, and thus waste effort that would have been better used elsewhere.

What goes wrong?

And how can we ensure early success in our strategic partnerships?

 

If you’d like the answers to those questions, you need to read this week’s Marketing Edge which will be published by email first thing on Wednesday morning.

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Can You Sleep Through a Storm?

The feature article in this week’s Marketing Edge takes a look at the impending ‘storm’ of a recession, and uncovers two essential activities that will affect how your business weathers the storm.  If you want to ensure that your business remains intact whatever economic conditions give rise to, then be sure not to miss this week’s issue!

 

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Spam: Where it Came From, and How to Escape It

Written by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

• Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)
• Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?
• Stop The Flood to Your Inbox
• Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future
• Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.
• The Final Blow