It's been said that for every subscriber of a newsletter, there's a potential to earn at least $1. Whether or not this holds true for your business model will depend on a variety of factors. Email marketing is as old as time and will continue to be a viable marketing method for years to come.
Why?
Because from an ROI standpoint it's still a pretty cheap way (when compared to other avenues) to market your brand. However, it's easy to burn out your audience or bore them to death with newsletters that simply don't cater to them. Here are a few ways to avoid losing your engagement with your subscribers.
Stop Talking About Yourself
Talk about more than just your offerings. So many online marketers have a "me me me" mentality when it comes to engaging their audiences. What you should be doing is finding the best ways to build a relationship with your subscribers by focusing on their needs. Only then, when you truly understand their pain points can you discuss the right solutions that will make them interested in what you have to say.
Don't Give Them Everything Too Soon
Giving away too much free information isn't a bad thing necessarily. However, giving away too much valuable information can sabotage your newsletter engagement rates. Why? Because now readers have no reason to continue subscribing to your newsletter since giving them all the information that they need upfront. Learn to space out valuable information in order to keep them engaged.
Use Social Media
Social media can be a great place to test potential topics for your subscribers. Consider using Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to see what type of subject matter gets the most engagement. Sometimes it can be hard to gauge how subscribers will respond to your topics without testing the waters, and social media can give you the audience to see how people react to your new information.
Double Down on Problem Solving
We are all afraid of something. As a marketer, one of your main goals is to uncover the fears of your target audience. What are their problems? What's keeping them up at night? People are always looking for ways to solve their problems. And as you know, fear and scarcity are some of the best sales motivators that you can use. Try crafting some of your newsletters around problem-solving.
Pose Reader Questions
Some of the best content that you can create is user-generated content from your subscribers. A good way to do this is to pose questions to your readers about things that they may need help with within their business or personal lives. Ask them to send in their questions and concerns, and then create a newsletter addressing 4-5 concerns. Chances are there are several other readers with those same concerns. This is a perfect example of "giving the people what they want".
Be Consistent
Remember, people have lives. On a daily basis, they are not concerned with your products or services, they are concerned with getting through the day or through the week. Statistics show that the majority of sales are made on anywhere from the 4th to 10th contact with a prospective customer. This number can be even higher when it comes to email marketing. It's important to stay on your subscriber's radar, don't let them forget about you. Even during the times where you may feel like you don't have any relevant content to post, consider creating curated content just to keep your brand in their mind.
Having a subscriber list of 50,000 is useless when no one is engaging in your newsletter. Always pay attention to your analytics and find the sweet spots for the subject matter and frequency to ensure that your subscribers stay engaged with your newsletter.