Hello! Hopefully by now you’ve read Chapter Eight – The Sign-Up Process and you completed last week’s mission. If you forgot here it is again:
Your mission is to sit down and think what experience you want the new reader to have, and the impression you want them to have of you. Rough draft your sequences (I use note cards so I can physically move them around) and once you have the gist, open up your word processor and start writing them out. Depending on your provider, you may be able to start setting up the sequence now, or you have have to hold it until you have a sign up form. If you can, go ahead and load them up and test them.
If you haven’t done that yet, there is still time. These posts are not going anywhere, so you can jump in whenever you need to. If you did complete the mission, how did it go?
We’ve just read Chapter Eight, which cover the sign-up process for your readers. I really like that she talks about how the sign-up is a contract between the author and the reader. They entrust us with their email address, and in exchange we provide them with goods/services (whatever we’ve promised) and a time schedule of when they can expect those items to be delivered. I think that setting up and managing expectations is hugely important so we’re in complete agreement there.
I’m still working on my newsletter “voice” but my overall goal remains the same regardless of the platform (email, social media, etc)—I’m building community over sales or email open rates. Which is why my welcoming sequence asks them a question and invites them to reply back to me with the answer (and I always answer those replies as fast as possible.) The people who take the time to read the things I write—whether it’s a book, an email, or a post—are important to me, and I’m hoping to make sure they feel important every single time we interact (even in an automation sequence!)
That being said, not everyone wants that sort of interaction, and so they might unsubscribe and I’m glad she addressed that, too. It’s not personal, and they may still like your work, they just don’t want emails in their inbox.
But back to the sign-up form. I personally just ask for am email for most things, but sometimes I’ll ask for a first name, if I think it’s likely I’ll get it. I personally get suspicious when a clothing company wants my birthday (honestly, I don’t think parting with personal info is worth the 5% coupon they’ll send me in exchange for it) and I’m likely to just abandon the form right there.
Tags & Segments: Mailchimp as WAY better tagging capability than Sendfox. Sendfox has lists, and I have to be careful when using them because you can accidentally send the same email to multiple times to a reader who many have have landed in two different lists. Poor segmentation is probably my biggest complaint about Sendfox, and one of the major reasons I’m thinking of moving to Mailerlite (plus the shiny polls options!)
But I LOVE tagging. Especially if you’re writing multiple genres. Being able to send out an email about your new release and sending it to JUST the readers who have expressed an interest in horror, is the bees knees. (For real, Sendfox, catch up.)
I also like to use tags to keep track of how someone came into my list in the first place. If I run a successful giveaway, and those readers stay subscribed and are actively opening my emails, I know I want to run that exact promotion again.
Your assigned reading is Chapter Nine – Your Perfect Subscriber by April 27th.
Your mission is to sit down and create your sign up form. Where will you put it?
Do you use lists, tags or segmenting? How has it worked for you? If you haven’t tried them yet, can you see yourself using them? How will you use them?
See you next week!