There are many ways to get more from your list, including increasing open/read rates, increasing sales, etc. In this section, you’ll learn some valuable ways to increase the overall profitability and responsiveness of your list.
A/B Split Testing
One thing most people neglect to do is to use A/B split testing to find out which offers generate the best response and gain the most exposure so you can duplicate it again in the future. Part of segmentation is splitting people into multiple groups in order to test various offers and ad types.
Some email services have this testing built right into their system. In this case, it’s very easy to use split testing in order to find out which version of a message or offer gets the best response.
If you don’t have this option built in, you can use a separate split testing software and simply segment your list and send one version out to each segment.
Changing your Offers & Messages
If your messages aren’t getting a good response in general, you may want to tweak your offers and messages to get a better response. Split testing will help you figure out which versions perform best, but how you change your messages or offers is purely up to you.
If people aren’t opening your messages often, you should work on your subjects. Don’t use anything that could be misleading, such as “You’ve received a payment”, or “Personal message from me.” This will upset people and you’re likely to see your unsubscribe rates shoot through the roof.
Instead, use subjects that are intriguing enough on their own to get people to open your message without resorting to anything misleading.
Mailing More or Less Often
How often you mail is often as important as what you mail when it comes to getting people to open and read your messages. If you don’t mail often enough, people will forget who you are or that they opted in to receive your messages. If you mail too often, people will get upset, tune you out, unsubscribe, or even start reporting your messages as spam.
Finding a good balance may be tricky, but as a rule, you should never mail more often than every couple of days unless a major promotion is going on, and even then don’t mail more than once per day.
Ideally, you don’t want to go longer than a week or two without mailing your list, either. You want to keep them “warmed up”.
Offering More Incentives
The more often you give your subscribers special incentives, the more often they will open, read and respond to your emails. They will even come to look forward to your messages, because they’ll know they could be getting something special anytime they do.
Here are some ideas for incentives:
· Deep discounts on your products
· Free reports, videos, or other freebies
· Articles, tips and advice
· Offers only for list members (not the general public)
Holding Contests
One great way to get more people to read your emails is to hold regular contests in which you give away prizes. You can send out emails to announce the contest, remind people of contest deadlines, update the contest, and announce winners.
Some things you could give away:
· Discount codes for your products
· Free copies of your products
· Gift cards to popular online merchants
You can also add a social element to your contests. You can give subscribers additional entries into the contest if they share a link to the contest via Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Each share gets them additional entries.
Ask What Subscribers Want
One quick and easy way to get a boost from your subscribers is to outright ask them what they’re looking for. You can set up a survey at a place like SurveyMonkey.com to ask subscribers what they are looking for. This could be questions about what type of training they are seeking, what format they want things in, etc.
Here are some survey ideas:
· What kind of training or help do you need?
· Do you prefer video or written training?
· How much would you pay for this?
· What is the most difficult thing you struggle with in (niche)?
Customize Messages
There are endless ways to customize your email messages in order to increase response, but the sad fact is that many people neglect to use even the simplest customization or personalization.
Most people know how to insert the subscriber’s name into the body of their email, but did you know you can also typically insert their name into the subject, as well? That grabs a lot of attention quickly.