Email subject lines - final selection for now

Here is the final look at email subject lines for the year – I thought I would give you a break next month with the holidays coming up.

I hope you have enjoyed this series and that your own RocketResponder emails have had improved open rates because you have been taking care with your own subject lines.

So here are the final six for now at least:

• WOW! This is HOT HOT HOT Right NOW! – Ok well maybe it is “hot hot hot” but it seems like you are trying too hard to convince me. Result: Very offputting and I will move on. Unopened and deleted.


• Mega Stoon – What is it with two word subject lines which make absolutely no sense at all? Stop doing it. This is driving me crazy. Deleted for the sake of my sanity.


• sanity – Seriously the very next email which caught my eye had the subject line “sanity” and nothing else. These people are testing my patience.


• Use this & get new leads instantly! – At last an email I want to open. Notice how I am not told what “this” is. The idea is that I have to open the email to find out. An excellent subject line. I knew there was one out there this month.


• Alphabet Soup: IPAS & PBAs – I am totally lost already. If the subject line is this confusing then I am highly unlikely to want to find out what the body of the email has in store. Not opened.


• Patrick Want to do us both a Favor? – Who doesn’t want to do a favor for someone? And who doesn’t like having a favor done for them? So this is an email I would certainly open. As an aside it came from the same person who sent the Alphabet Soup email, so for any given person some subject lines work and others don’t.

Let me know some of your favorite and least favorite subject lines and also let me know what you have thought of this series…and whether you would like to see some more of the same.

Email subject lines - final selection for now

Email subject lines - the examples keep coming

We continue our RocketResponder series on email subject lines with six more examples.

I was asked the other day if these examples are real or whether I have just made them up.

Well I can assure you that every single one of them is 100 per cent genuine.

So here is this month’s selection:

• Ganhe dinheiro visitando essa pagina – Well as I don’t speak Portuguese I would give this one a miss.


• Before you join a site you intend to join anyway do it through us… – The problem here is that I don’t know who “us” is and I am not given any real incentive as to why I might want to join a site through the people who sent the email. This just fails to grab me or capture my attention enough to open the email.


• stuck at start? – This is good. Anyone who feels that they are stuck at the beginning and have no clue what to do next would probably at least consider opening this email. Nicely done.


• Youve Found Gold $1000-$8000 Commissions: FREE Report – This might be true or it might not be. In any event I don’t believe it so I won’t be clicking on the link. Yes I do make snap decisions when reading a subject line…and so do you.


• Auto responders – What does that mean? You might as well say “Dog food,” Green paper,” or “Dirty shoes.” Come on you can do better than that!


• MULTY ONE – Yes that was the subject line. It makes Auto responders sound almost interesting. The point of a subject line is to get the email opened and not to confuse the poor reader.

We will be back next month with some more.

Email subject lines - the examples keep coming

Email subject lines - the examples keep on coming

Thanks to everyone who has said that they enjoy this series of email subject lines blog posts.

We enjoy putting together and we want all RocketResponder users to get the very best possible results out of the service we provide.

Here are six examples of other people’s subject lines to have a look at:

• Find the Hidden Promo Codes! Then Tell Others! – No! If I find them I am keeping them to myself. It does sound like too much hard work but if I had a bit of time on my hands I might have opened this email. A bit unsure of this one really. This is one of those subject lines where I want to hear your views.


• *LAUNCH*- HAPPENING NOW** Earn 75% Comm. PAID DAILY – What purpose the four asterisks actually serve is beyond me. And is it only me but does 75 per cent commission put any one else off? I just think that if a program owner has to give away so much of his income then something does not seem quite right. Not a chance of me ever clicking this email. Deleted.


• RE-LAUNCH! Cash JackPot Points! 2 Level Commissions Now @VLD! – I don’t have the faintest idea what this is about and I am not going to waste any time trying to find out. Terrible subject line.


• Patrick Join Us for Wonderful Wednesday Webinars – This just works. Wonderful Wednesday Webinars is the phrase which makes me open up the email. A winner.


• Ahhh F**K THIS! – This is, without doubt, the worst subject line I have ever read. It was so bad that I replied to the guy who sent it and told him never to contact me again. There is just no excuse for this kind of language. No matter how good your offer is or how ideally suited it is for me, if you put this kind of email in my inbox I will never want to do business with you.


• SafeList With a Twist – and a Cycler! – This was winning for me until the part about the cycler. SafeList With a Twist is all that was needed to capture my attention enough to open the email. Know to quit when you are ahead. Sometimes less really is more.

Meet back here same time next month for another look at this fascinating subject (if you excuse the terrible pun that is.)

Email subject lines - the examples keep on coming

Email subject lines - the real life examples continue

How are your RocketResponder emails coming along?

If you have been following this series you should really be thinking about your subject lines now.

How many of these people put enough thought into their own subject lines do you think?

• What can we do for you? – I like this as it puts the recipient of the email right at the heart of the message. It got the email opened and once inside the sender wasted no time in explaining what his program could do. I would only have changed it to read “Look what we can do for you…” just to avoid someone answering the question with the answer “nothing” and clicking delete. My change avoids the negative altogether and turns the subject line into a call to action which has the subtext – “Open this email to find out what we can do for you.” Good subject line. Liked it a lot.


• Patrick Here is an Extremely Simple Business Model that WORKS! – Love the message, hate the grammar. The mixture of capital letters and lower case letters is off putting and the random all capital word at the end is even more so. This detracts from what is actually a very powerful marketing message. I will forgive the grammar errors and open it any way. Works for me.


• LibertaGia – If your subject line looks like a spelling mistake I won’t open the email. Deleted already.


• ListJumper == High CTR! – I know what ListJumper is and I know what CTR stands for. However take a step back when you write a subject line. If I didn’t already know these terms then this would mean nothing to me at all. As for the two equals signs in the middle I have no idea what that is all about. Not a great subject line by any means but I have seen worse. I wouldn’t be tempted to use it.


• WARNING .. highly addictive! – That is all it would take to get me to open this email. Remember all you want to do is build up enough curiosity to get the email opened. In this case three words is all that is needed. Best of the month.


• Let Me Show You The Way – Yes, this works too. Hooked in six words this time. The internet can be a daunting, scary place, especially for the new and inexperienced. Why would you not want someone to show you the way? Opened.

I am off on the look out for some more now, see you back here in a month.

Email subject lines - the real life examples continue

Email subject lines - still more real life examples

Mastering email subject lines: It is the last Friday of the month which means it must be time for some more RocketResponder subject lines.

Here is another selection of genuine subject lines that people have thought fit to grace their emails.

As usual some work better than others:

• I had to read this twice… – This is a sure fire winner for me. You could use this about virtually anything and have a good chance of getting your message opened. Hints of something exciting, different, extraordinary…it has got me hooked.


• __________How_to_Make_50K_Monthly______No_Monthly_Fees____Pays_Weekly__ – Yes this is honestly how the subject line was written. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it before. What a mess. And, before you ask, no I didn’t open it.


• Patrick LUCK / KARMA do you BELIEVE? L@@K – If your subject line looks like it was written with a random word generator then I will give it a miss. Unopened. Dreadfully bad.


• Clixsense – Is that all you are giving me? I am all in favor of keeping things short but give me a bit better than that. What about this instead: “Want Cents. Make Cents. Clixsense.”


• No More Joining No Moere False Promises! – And no more spell checker by the looks of things either. Apart from the spelling mistake which should have been corrected, this is not a bad subject line. Anyone who has been online for any length of time will know that “false promises” are all too common. This writer knows their audience. Yes I would open this.


• Got a Minute? – No I am far too busy, go away. I think most of us could spare a minute or so if someone asked us nicely. Short. Catchy. Clever. It works for me. Best of the month (however the standard is particularly low this month.)

Let’s meet back at the same place in a month for some more.

Email subject lines - still more real life examples

Email subject lines - more real life examples

mastering email subject lines: The RocketResponder email subject line series keeps on coming…it is hard to believe that another month has passed already.

Just where has this year gone? Hopefully your email marketing campaign is working well for you but there is always room to improve.

See what you think of these half dozen subject lines which were randomly culled from our inbox:

• Buy 1 year of hosting get the 2nd year FREE! – This is from the ‘tell it like it is’ school of subject line writing. You know exactly what you will get when you open this email. If you don’t need a hosting deal right now then there is no need for you to look at the email at all but if you do then you might be very tempted to take a look inside. Don’t be afraid to try out this approach from time to time.


• INVITATION to EARN thousands of DOLLARS ! – Since when does anyone need an invitation to earn money? Also the random capital letters and the unnecessary apostrophe make the entire message sound a touch desperate. I would pass this one by. It fails to excite me at all. #Fail


• We Just Went Viral!!! We Took The Only Top Spot In The World – Really? How very nice for you but what has this got to do with me and why should I even care? Let me put it another way. I don’t care about you, I care about me, so make the subject line about me next time. I wouldn’t have opened this email.


• Hurry ! Scurry ! best EVA positioning NOW – This started off really well and then they only had to go and spoil everything. I don’t know what EVA positioning is and I don’t have time to find out either. This one can pass me by. I think this opening would have been so much better if it said: “Hurry! Scurry! Never Have to Worry!” instead.


• ~~fname~Well Save You From the Sharks! – Oops someone didn’t use the test email function before pressing send. So you got the personalization wrong; I assume you mean “We’ll
  
  Save You…” and not “Well Save You…” which makes no sense. Also if you are going to use every word in capitals then the lower case “the” stands out for all the wrong reasons. Finally an unnecessary apostrophe just to make this subject line disaster complete. 0/10 Dismal.


• V TEN Leverages Traffic of TEs Mailers Blogs & Popular Sites – It very well may do but this subject line sends me to sleep. I would enter it in the “worst subject line of the year” awards but that’s about it. Another poor effort but still miles ahead of the previous entry.

Let’s meet back here in a month’s time and do it all over again.

Email subject lines - more real life examples

Email subject lines - real life examples

Mastering email subject lines: Hopefully by now you are getting good with your RocketResponder subject lines.

Have a look at this latest selection and see whether you agree with our assessment or not:

• No Cost Leads – [Video] – Wow, someone really pushed the boat out with this one. So if I open this email I will have to watch a sales video of some sort. The only question on my mind is how much will these “no cost leads” really cost me. Totally off putting so I won’t be opening this one.


• Welcome to the Most Advanced Mailing System on This Planet! – I have been using traffic exchanges for long enough to know exactly what program this refers to. I would bet that this is copied and pasted from the “affiliate resource” section of the membership site in question. It is a good subject line but it is often a good idea to use something unique rather than a subject line which is shared with the entire membership. On the other hand if a subject line is good enough to get the job done then there is no harm in giving it a go. I like this subject line.


• This Little Ebay Selling Trick Blew My Mind… – I love this, absolutely love it because if you are the least but curious you will want to know: “What trick is this, tell me more. You must tell me more now.”
  
  Note that this could work with a variety of different subjects because it follows this formula: “This Little [insert subject here] Trick Blew My Mind…” So you could say somerthing like “This Little RocketResponder Tip Blew My Mind…” or “This Little ListNerds Secret Strategy Blew My Mind…”


• Patrick Joe Freyaldenhoven reveals the secret of his success – Maybe I am missing something here but who is Joe Freyaldenhoven? Also personalizing the message is confusing here unless the guy who is revealing his secrets is actually called Patrick Joe Freyaldenhoven. I would prefer something like: “I Am Ultra Successful: This Is My Secret…”


• A Must Have Tool for ANY Affiliate! – Seven short words and every one a winner. Would I open this? Of course I would. I really want to know what this email is promoting. #Winning.


• No Recruiting No Cost No Kidding – The repeated use of the word “No” gets a big “Yes” from me. It is catchy and has me asking what it is all about so I want to open the email and find out more. You can also use this for yourself. Just add your own subjects. No [x] No [y] No [z]

Don’t forget there will be another selection next month.

Email subject lines - real life examples

Email subject lines - another six real life examples

Choosing email subject lines. You should know by now that at RocketResponder we love our subject lines.

Get them right every time to get your emails opened. Put at least as much thought (if not more) into your subject line as you do to the main body of the email.

Here are another six subject lines which caught my eye this month…

• Sunday – take a rest breath deep in your chest – Ok well I have no idea what any of that means but on this occasion it doesn’t matter. Rhyming “rest” with “chest” means some thought has gone into this and I am wondering what it is all about. I would open this. Well done.


• CLIXSENSE AWSOME PTC!!!!! – Three words and three huge red flags for me. All capitals – wrong. Spelling mistake – wrong. Five apostrophes – wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Awful subject line – worst of the bunch this month without any doubt.


• Disappointed with ListNerds? Have you tried.. – This is the “ask a question, then leave them hanging” approach to subject line writing. Highly effective. Works very well. Try this technique for yourself. Best of the bunch this month.


• You upgrade… you get your ads seen on me! – The opposite of the example above but not in terms of effectiveness. This tells you exactly what you can expect to find in the email. I would expect this to be a cool incentive to upgrade in a program from either an owner or a switched-on affiliate. Either way I would open it to find out more.


• Internet marketing with a cube. Get free UNLIMITED traffic for ever!!! – I am actually unsure what I think about this one. It is a bit long, I hate the three apostrophes (only ever use one, and even then only if you really must) but the use of capitals works. It sounds as though it may be a bit complicated or gimmicky (what is marketing with a cube all about?) but I probably would open it to find out more. What do you think of this subject line?


• My Favorite Promotion Product – This is good. If I have signed up to someone’s list then it follows that I have at least some interest in what you have to say. So by telling me you have a favorite promotion product and leaving it at that I am going to open the email and find out more. A real winner. Excellent subject line.

Look out for more subject lines next month.

Email subject lines - another six real life examples

If You Make A Major Change Tell Your List In Advance

Email Marketing Tips: Imagine if you had a standing arrangement with a good friend of yours that you would show up at their house every other week.

You would enjoy each other’s company, pass the time and share interesting news and gossip and then arrange to do the same thing in a couple of week’s time.

Now imagine if you suddenly thought it would be a good idea to turn up every other day instead…and just started to do so without a word of warning to your friend.

It would first seem a little odd and then it would begin to put a real strain on your relationship as you would quickly begin to intrude too much into your friend’s life.

In all likelihood your friend would probably ask you not to show up at his house at all…and that it wouldn’t take too long for them to reach this conclusion.

You can probably see where I am going with this already.

If you send out regular emails to your RocketResponder list then your subscribers will have become used to the frequency with which they hear from you.

If you make a slight change – especially if it is for a limited time – then that is ok but if you are going to dramatically change the frequency at which you send out emails then you should warn your list in advance.

Just a note to explain the change and the reason behind it could save you a lot of unhappy subscribers and a lot of unnecessary unsubscribes.

 

If You Make A Major Change Tell Your List In Advance

Take Your Time With Your Email Campaigns

You may have heard the expression “more haste, less speed” or “act in haste, repent at leisure,” but what has any of that got to do with email marketing and email campaigns?

Well here at RocketResponder we think quite a lot really.

Sometimes, sadly, it is all too clear that people spend a lot of time and effort in building a list of subscribers and then put hardly any time or effort into actually interacting with them.

You need to put the same care and dedication into dealing with the communication side of your business as you out into product development, marketing or sales.

Here are some silly mistakes you really must avoid:

• thinking that your email campaigns are not really that important


• thinking that you can leave the writing of emails to the last minute


• rushing through your autoresponder series because you have “much more important” tasks to be getting on with or


• adding a last minute email marketing campaign for a product launch because you have run out of time and the launch is just a few days away

Customers are getting increasingly sophisticated and they will know if you have just rushed out some half-baked email campaign at the last minute.

Doing so will give the impression that you just don’t really care at all; that you don’t care about your customers and that you don’t care about your products.

So always build in your email campaigns into your product launches, upcoming promotions and overall marketing strategy.

Use the power of email communication to show that you do really care and, in the process, give yourself a jump start over the competition who use email badly.

Plan what you want to say in advance and take as much time as is necessary to get the job done properly. You should reap the rewards in better customer retention and increased sales.

Take Your Time With Your Email Campaigns

Subject Lines Don"t Need To Be Personalised

Sometimes people agonize over whether they should personalize their email subject lines.

I am not sure that adding the recipient’s name to the subject line generally adds very much value, if any at all.

Of course it is good to add the name to the main body of the email but do you really want to do so in the subject line as well?

The danger of adding a name so the subject line is that makes the email have too much of a marketing feel to it.

It can put the thought in the recipient’s mind: “I am going to get pitched here. I don’t want to know,” and that is is exactly the opposite effect you want it to have.

Remember that the only purpose of the subject line is to get your email opened in the first place, so spend your time in making it captivating and engaging instead.

But if you really want to personalize a subject line then go ahead and try it. Do some split testing and chart the results to see how your open rates are effected.

 

Subject Lines Don"t Need To Be Personalised

Learn From Others When Sending Email Newsletters

It might be that you are sending email newsletters to your list of subscribers.

If you do this, as already mentioned in a previous blog post, you must be certain that you have enough content to make this work.

There is absolutely no point in promising a monthly newsletter if you only have enough content for two months and then it all fizzles out.

So if you are starting a newsletter then you could start out by being ultra conservative.

Maybe start off with a three-monthly newsletter to begin with.

This would not eat into too much of your time and it would not give you a massive headache of having to find acres of content to fill it. (If you can’t find enough content for a three monthly newsletter, then you should not really be considering writing an email newsletter at all.)

If you are considering sending out your own newsletter then you might like to check out this resource – newsletterarchive.org – where you will find a huge archive of newsletters from a wide and varied group of organisations.

Even if you are not considering sending out your own newsletter it is certainly worth taking a look at the different styles of newsletters people are already sending out.

Basically you should take every chance you can get to see how other people communicate with their customers and subscribers.

 

Learn From Others When Sending Email Newsletters

Email subject lines - six more real life examples

Subject line tips: Continuing our look at real examples of email subject lines, we discuss a new batch of emails.

Remember it is the job of RocketResponder to get your emails delivered but it is your job to get them opened.

Use a good subject line and you will get your emails opened and read.

Here are six more real life subject lines:

• Almost like having an ATM at home… – This is one that I wouldn’t open because the suggestion is that it is promoting a program where you don’t really have to do anything to get lots of cash. Look, earning a living requires time and effort. I can see why many people would open this email though so I would not be surprised if it didn’t get a decent open rate.


• Famous program. – I can’t help thinking that absolutely no thought has gone into this subject line at all. If the subject line reads like a crossword clue than I am not going to waste my time trying to work out what it might mean. (On the other hand if you make your subject line deliberately look like a crossword clue then you will certainly get my attention.) “Famous program” just does not do it for me though I am afraid.


• BRAIN ABUNDANCE presents BRAIN FUEL PLUS – Every word is in capitals except for one. Why? What is brain fuel plus? How would it be different to brain fuel?  What even is brain fuel anyway and who or what is brain abundance? A subject line which prompts you to ask questions is generally good. The trouble here is that I have no desire to know the answers to any of these questions.


• Command Control Cash In… – Alliteration works. Using the same letter to start each word can capture the reader’s attention so well. I would have used a commas to separate the words (Command, Control, Cash In…) but that is just a minor point. Great subject line.


• Dont Be Ordinary Be Awesome – Yay for being awesome. I would open this just to find out what is in the email. The subject line has sparked my curiosity enough to open and read it and that is all it ever has to do. Awesome.


• Do NOT build an email list – I hate random capital letters in subject lines but I love this subject line. Why? Because the use of capitals for the word “NOT” is both deliberate and highly effective. It is not just a random capital word thrown in for effect. This is a subject line which would stop a lot of people in their tracks…including me. Already opened. Best of the bunch this month.

Look out for more subject lines next month.

Email subject lines - six more real life examples

Never Send An Email When You Have Nothing To Say

Marketing email tips: There is only one thing worse than failing to communicate with your subscribers…and that is talking to them too much.

So here is one of my golden rules which you ignore at your peril:

• Never, ever, send out an email to your list when you don’t have something useful to communicate.

This can be a mistake if you commit to send out weekly (or heaven forbid daily) emails to your subscribers so that takes us on to our second golden rule:

• Never make promises that you are unable to keep.

So, therefore, don’t ever promise to send a weekly newsletter unless you know, for absolute certain, that you will have enough information to provide that content.

Your subscribers are fickle. Just because they have signed up does not mean they are yours for life. Far from it. It is good to assume that every time you send an email you may potentially lose a segment of your list – those that don’t like what you have to say and who can be bothered to hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button.

So even if you have written an email don’t automatically send it.

Read over it first and ask yourself this question: “Does this email contain useful information which would be of value to my subscribers?”

If the answer is “no” then don’t send it. Either rewrite it so that it does contain some information of value or just don’t send it at all.

 

Never Send An Email When You Have Nothing To Say

Email Subscribers Value Information Especially Insider Information

I recently watched a television program about an upmarket London department store and the way sales staff treated their highest spending clients. Learn how email subscribers value information.

The part that stood out for me was that the top sales people had their own lists of clients and they would contact them whenever something new came into the shop.

Now the point is that they did not contact just when any old stock item was updated, but when something they knew their clients would like came into the store.

The upshot was that the customers loved to be “in the know” with the very latest information and many of them could not wait to come into the store and buy the items which were recommended to them.

This can work brilliantly with your email marketing campaigns too.

For the very best chance of getting the best results you will need to:

• know exactly what your subscribers want to know


• have timely, up to date information that your subscribers value


• be seen as authoritative and, above all, trusted by your subscribers and


• have goods or services that you can recommend and sell to your list.

Tell people what’s new, what they will love and where they can get it and use your RocketResponder account to do just that.

Email Subscribers Value Information Especially Insider Information

Email subject lines - another six real life examples

Email marketing tips and tricks: At RocketResponder we know how important email subject lines are, which is why we want you to give them some careful thought.

Here is another selection of real-life email subject lines and some thoughts about how effective they actually were:

• I am giving away $100 just to join a free program! – Ok well it does sound a bit too good to be true but it is also rather intriguing at the same time. I would have most certainly opened this to see what it was all about. Good subject line.


• Hi there Patrick – Take a look at this – Personal, informal, engaging and with just a hint of mystery. “Take a look at what?” I am asking. Now I am curious enough to open the email and find out more. It works. Excellent subject line.


• DR.CLIX !!!! D0ctor that treat dead traffic the right way..000h yeah!! – Ok so I know what Dr Clix is but if I didn’t then this subject line would be totally confusing. I also hate the way that the sender uses zeroes instead of the letter “o.” It does have me thinking “What is the right way to treat dead traffic?” and also “What does the term ‘dead traffic’ even mean? However as I don’t expect to get the answers in the email I wouldn’t open it.


• How I Went From 0 to 150 Leads in 30 Minutes.. – Apart from the fact that the ellipsis (…) is a series of three dots and not two, this is almost perfect. Yes of course I want to know how you did what you say you did. Opened. Success. Well done.


• goldline – Seriously? That’s really it. Without context this is just a random word. It does not make me think of anything. Woeful. Deleted already.


• Launched in 2013 with custom script – Probably just a bit too random and meaningless for my liking. I really can’t be bothered to open it to find what launched in 2013 with a custom script. Failed. Deleted.

Look out for another selection of email subject lines next month.

Email subject lines - another six real life examples

How to Harness The Emotions Of Your Subscribers

Email marketing and emotions: We are creatures driven by our emotions.

Emotions help us to bond with others, can influence the decisions we make in our every day lives and you want to appeal to the emotions of your subscribers.

We have already seen how you can use RocketResponder emails to communicate with those who have subscribed to your list.

You will get the best results from your emails (and from the content you put on your website and every advert you place) if you can appeal to people’s emotions.

But choose the emotions you wish to trigger carefully…get the wrong ones and you will get the opposite of what you have in mind.

Here are some emotions you want to avoid triggering…

• boredom – if you send out dull emails then you will send your subscribers into a coma and they will never want to listen to anything you have to say ever again.


• distrust – if you make promises you fail to deliver on or promote programs which don’t live up to the hype surrounding them then you will lose the trust of your list and once that happens it is almost impossible to recover.


• anger – it is very easy to make your subscribers angry by misjudging their needs and requirements. Bombarding them with marketing emails every day is one way to really make them angry with you.

Here are some emotions you really want to trigger…

• empathy – you want to build up a rapport with your list. People want to know that you are “just like them” and not some distant person looking down on them from your ivory tower.


• desire – there is so much out there which we want to have but which we do not really need to have. Your job is to make people feel an overwhelming desire to want to have the goods or services you provide above the goods or services of everybody else targeting them in your niche.


• passion – get your subscribers passionate by showing how passionate you are. This passion will make itself known by more return visits to your website, more of your emails getting opened and more of your offers being bought.

How to Harness The Emotions Of Your Subscribers

How To Win Over A Cold Email List

Last time we mentioned some common email marketing writing mistakes people regularly make.

One was perhaps one of the greatest mistakes of all and that is allowing your list to grow cold.

So today it would be a good opportunity to discuss what can be done to best revive a relationship with such a group of subscribers.

A cold list in this context a “cold” list is one which you have not communicated with for so long that you have allowed your relationship with the people on it to grow cold.

The chances are that if you suddenly start sending out your emails to them again then many of them will have to scratch their heads to work out who you are.

The result – they may think it is spam mail and they will just unsubscribe or report you as spam (or both.)

Others may remember having signed up to your list but decide that having got along just fine for many months without you that they no longer need to hear from you again.

So how would I tackle a list like this.

Well the last thing I would do is wait until I had something to promote to contact them again…that is just adding insult to injury.

Instead I would use my RocketResponder account to try and gently rebuild bridges.

I would send a broadcast email to the entire list and cover the following points:

• Reintroduce myself


• Apologise for having ignored them


• Offer a reason for having failed to do so


• Tell them I will be in more regular contact from now on…if they still want to hear from me


• Invite them to unsubscribe if they feel they no longer trust me or no longer want to hear from me.

Keep the email short and don’t make silly excuses for having lost contact. Just be open, honest and up front – remember you are trying to rebuild contact.

Also be aware that some people will take you up on the offer to unsubscribe – it is only to be expected after all. However some will really appreciate your honesty and some who might have unsubscribed may be willing to give you a second chance.

Now you have done the best you can to rebuild bridges, don’t make the same mistake again!

How To Win Over A Cold Email List

Five Email Mistakes To Avoid

Email Mistakes To Avoid: With a service like RocketResponder it is easier than ever before to send out emails to multiple people in just seconds.

Do it right and you will get the results you want but do it wrong and you could irretrievably damage your relationship with your list.

Some mistakes are worse than others but really you should not be making any mistakes at all when sending out emails so always to try to get things right every time.

Here are some mistakes you ought to be aware of so that you can avoid making them yourself:

• Failing to check – There are few things more annoying than getting an email with dead links or other errors so take times to get things right before pressing the “send” button. Always use the RocketResponder feature which allows you to send a test email to yourself first.


• Using misleading subject lines – We all want to get out emails opened but if you use misleading subject lines then you will really irritate your subscribers…so don’t ever be tempted to do this.


• Adding far too many links – Including too many links in an email will just confuse people and could lead to them not taking any action at all. I have regularly received emails where I have counted a dozen or more links. That is far too many. Keep the email, short, focused and to the point.


• Trying too hard to impress – Sometimes you really can try too hard and it won’t do you any favors at all. People know when you are overdoing it with the hype and flam and they generally hate it. If you have to use random capital letters, multiple exclamation marks and multiple colors then your message is sure to get lost.


• Ignoring your subscribers for too long – If you ignore your subscribers then they will probably forget about you after a while. The result of this is that the next time you contact them, totally out of the blue, they may even forget that they signed up to hear from you. Therefore you can expect a higher number of unsubscribes than usual when you do eventually contact your list again.

 

 

Five Email Mistakes To Avoid

Never Fear The Double Opt In

At RocketResponder we don’t fear the double opt in of subscribers to a new email list. In fact our members rather like it.

In double opt in when somebody signs up to your list they are sent an email with a link which they must click to confirm that they actually do want to be on your list.

The thing about this which some list builders don’t like is that it is a two step process and having to click on the link is an extra hurdle that people must navigate before they are actually on your list.

Typically you can expect some people to sign up for any given list and then not go on to click the link to fully opt in. The main consequence of this is that your list would be smaller than it would be if only single opt in was used.

In the single opt in process there is no confirmation email and the subscriber is on your list as soon as their email address is entered into the opt in form.

Here are some reasons why you might prefer the double opt in approach:

• all of your subscribers have already taken action in order to be on your list. Sometimes we enter an email address without really giving it any thought. With double opt in the subscriber has had to physically check their email account, look for the confirmation email and click on a link. This suggests that they really want to be on your list.


• it prevents malicious sign ups. Some people might sign up their friends or colleagues to lists as a prank. This is bad for the person who has the list and for the “victim” who ends up signed up for information they don’t want in the first place.


• you weed out tyre kickers. If someone signs up to a list and can’t be bothered to confirm then they are probably not worth having on your list in the first place. It they were on your list then they would most likely never even open your emails so you are better off without them.

What do you think about the opt in process and what are your experiences of the issue?

Never Fear The Double Opt In