Keep Your List Engaged
At this point in your list-building journey, you have either set up your first list or rejuvenated your current list, created a lead magnet, integrated opt-in forms on your blog, and written and scheduled an automated welcome email or autoresponder series.
You’ve made great progress!
So, what now?
Well, this final step is probably the hardest part - you need to keep the list you’ve collected engaged. Whether you only have a few people on your list or are on your way to triple digits, you need to send them emails.
You can't just collect someone's email address, disappear for months, and then reappear when you want something from them. Plus, if you're looking to use your list as leverage when negotiating sponsorships with travel brands (yes, you can do that - I do), you can't be like:
“Here's my list of 1000 subscribers that I've never emailed. My open rate is 100% though because everyone opened the first welcome email I sent them.”
That doesn't count!
Along with getting your opt-in pages in front of new eyes, keeping your list engaged is an ongoing task.
Here’s how you do it:
Consistency
You've got to stay in front of your audience and keep them excited about what's coming next. That happens partially through setting the expectations of when they will hear from you (in the welcome email) and then delivering on that promise. Decide on a schedule that you can realistically maintain and then stick to it. If you only publish blog posts twice a month, you don't need a weekly newsletter (unless you have other content to share). A monthly newsletter would be fine – but don't let one month become six.
Moderation
There's a limit to how often I want to see someone’s name appear in my inbox. While there's no magic formula for how often you should send e-mails, I'll dare to say that more than once a day is ridiculous, and even a daily e-mail is only beneficial if you're providing daily value. I don't think any of us bloggers fall into the daily email category (but don't let me stop you if you do). I think most of us will fall into the weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly categories. The frequency of your emails will often correlate with the frequency of your new blog posts, but it doesn't mean you have to send an email for every post. A weekly or bi-monthly digest could suffice even if you're publishing multiple times a week.
VIP Treatment
Don't treat your email subscribers the same as everyone else, and don't send them the same exact thing you post on social media. Provide MORE to your email subscribers. Or rather, provide the MOST to your email subscribers. Go behind the scenes. Tell a story you haven't told everyone else already on social media (because they probably follow you there already). Subscribing to your email list is the highest form of permission someone can give to hear from you, so don't abuse the privilege by sending them the same thing they see on your Facebook Group.
Make it Personal
Don’t write your emails for everyone, write them for ONE person. Use the word “you” liberally. If you want to learn what works, sign up for other travel bloggers’ email lists. Or forget everything that everyone else does and write to your list as you would to a friend in your own style. The main takeaway here is that your tone should transcend from your blog into your emails. Don't feel obligated to exaggerate in your e-mails to get someone to open, read, and click.
Subject Line
Creating an interesting subject line is very important to your open rate, and we could spend another week JUST on this one part of email marketing, but my main message to you here is to be considerate. Consider everything you hate about other people's emails and do none of that. Use subject lines that are interesting, but also that correlate with the subject matter of the email. Personally, I could probably do a lot better with my subject lines, but I favor simplicity and transparency. What you read is what you get.
CTA
If you know me and you regularly read my emails, you know brevity is not my strong suit. But generally short and sweet emails perform better (no one has the time to read essays). However, whether you write short on long emails, you want to make sure you create a clear call to action (CTA). If you want them to click a link, put it near the top (unless you share multiple links like in my newsletter). You can add the CTA again at the bottom. As long as it clearly states what you want readers to do (“click here”, “grab this”, etc.) it should convert.
And there you have it!
You’ve made great progress!
So, what now?
Well, this final step is probably the hardest part - you need to keep the list you’ve collected engaged. Whether you only have a few people on your list or are on your way to triple digits, you need to send them emails.
You can't just collect someone's email address, disappear for months, and then reappear when you want something from them. Plus, if you're looking to use your list as leverage when negotiating sponsorships with travel brands (yes, you can do that - I do), you can't be like:
“Here's my list of 1000 subscribers that I've never emailed. My open rate is 100% though because everyone opened the first welcome email I sent them.”
That doesn't count!
Along with getting your opt-in pages in front of new eyes, keeping your list engaged is an ongoing task.
Here’s how you do it:
Consistency
You've got to stay in front of your audience and keep them excited about what's coming next. That happens partially through setting the expectations of when they will hear from you (in the welcome email) and then delivering on that promise. Decide on a schedule that you can realistically maintain and then stick to it. If you only publish blog posts twice a month, you don't need a weekly newsletter (unless you have other content to share). A monthly newsletter would be fine – but don't let one month become six.
Moderation
There's a limit to how often I want to see someone’s name appear in my inbox. While there's no magic formula for how often you should send e-mails, I'll dare to say that more than once a day is ridiculous, and even a daily e-mail is only beneficial if you're providing daily value. I don't think any of us bloggers fall into the daily email category (but don't let me stop you if you do). I think most of us will fall into the weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly categories. The frequency of your emails will often correlate with the frequency of your new blog posts, but it doesn't mean you have to send an email for every post. A weekly or bi-monthly digest could suffice even if you're publishing multiple times a week.
VIP Treatment
Don't treat your email subscribers the same as everyone else, and don't send them the same exact thing you post on social media. Provide MORE to your email subscribers. Or rather, provide the MOST to your email subscribers. Go behind the scenes. Tell a story you haven't told everyone else already on social media (because they probably follow you there already). Subscribing to your email list is the highest form of permission someone can give to hear from you, so don't abuse the privilege by sending them the same thing they see on your Facebook Group.
Make it Personal
Don’t write your emails for everyone, write them for ONE person. Use the word “you” liberally. If you want to learn what works, sign up for other travel bloggers’ email lists. Or forget everything that everyone else does and write to your list as you would to a friend in your own style. The main takeaway here is that your tone should transcend from your blog into your emails. Don't feel obligated to exaggerate in your e-mails to get someone to open, read, and click.
Subject Line
Creating an interesting subject line is very important to your open rate, and we could spend another week JUST on this one part of email marketing, but my main message to you here is to be considerate. Consider everything you hate about other people's emails and do none of that. Use subject lines that are interesting, but also that correlate with the subject matter of the email. Personally, I could probably do a lot better with my subject lines, but I favor simplicity and transparency. What you read is what you get.
CTA
If you know me and you regularly read my emails, you know brevity is not my strong suit. But generally short and sweet emails perform better (no one has the time to read essays). However, whether you write short on long emails, you want to make sure you create a clear call to action (CTA). If you want them to click a link, put it near the top (unless you share multiple links like in my newsletter). You can add the CTA again at the bottom. As long as it clearly states what you want readers to do (“click here”, “grab this”, etc.) it should convert.
And there you have it!