Getting people to sign up on your list is an important first step, but it’s only the beginning of a successful sales funnel. Now you have to successfully market to them and transform them from prospects into customers. The point of an email list is to build relationships with your subscribers and qualify them. You need to keep in touch with them by continually offering a steady flow of new content and offers

The Sales Funnel Explained

Fulfilling Your Promises

What should you give your subscribers? You should give them everything you promised them on your opt-in page. This may seem obvious, but it’s a very important point. Your opt-in page makes bold promises that you need to deliver on. You should be continually sending your subscribers helpful hints, news on current events, exclusive content, special offers, and any other valuable information that will help them.

Keep Your Messages Relevant

Once you have subscribers on your list, you may be tempted to send them a variety of promotions. However, you really need to stick to only content that’s relevant to what you initially promised. In other words, give them only what they signed up for.

If you send people content that’s not directly related or that seems like it is coming out of left field, it could cause people to become disconnected and you’ll most likely lose that prospect. This is especially true regarding promotions. Your promotions need to be laser-targeted to your audience. If you promote things that are irrelevant, your customer may feel as if you’re trying to take advantage of them.

Content vs. Promotions

As a rule of thumb, you should be sending out a higher volume of valuable content relative to promotions. Over-promoting may feel like spam to them, even if you’re offering good deals. It will seem like you only keep in touch when you want something from them. Think of your email marketing campaign as a way to help your subscribers gain information, with occasional promotions being thrown in less frequently (with the purpose of eventually leading people to your back-end offers).

Listening to Your List

What kind of helpful content should you send out to your list of subscribers? You can find out by listening to them and paying attention to their needs. Your prospects and customers will tell you exactly what they need if you know how to do this correctly. Research your market by connecting to them on social media sites, participating on forums, and reading blog comments. You can also come right out and survey your email list directly.

Further Freebies

As you market to your list, keep the freebies and good deals coming. Like your promotions, mix them in with the regular content you’re offering. It’s important that you continue giving your subscribers valuable content as you are nurturing the relationship. If you build strong relationships now, it will translate to sales later. This is what’s called the ‘wow’ factor – exceeding people’s expectations so that they absolutely love you and can’t help but come back to your site.

How Much Is Too Much?

It’s tricky to know how often you should email your list. Different niches, as well as different lists within a niche, respond differently. Emailing every day may be a bit too much for some markets. Two or three times a week is usually the minimum frequency. The only way to know for sure is to experiment. Try different frequencies as well as different times of the day in order to monitor your response rate.

Moreover, make sure you stay consistent in the frequency with which you email your list. Don’t mail 5 times one week, then forget to email for then two weeks. People will forget who you are and might think they’re suddenly getting spam emails.

Planning Your Follow-ups

Use all of the tools available to plan your follow-ups. It is best to have your entire email campaign mapped out before you launch it. Use mind maps, spreadsheets, and other tools to create a long-term plan. Never attempt to wing it, except for the occasional time-sensitive content.