Welcome Stranger! Wanna Be Friends?

What are you doing with those brand new subscribers who cause that positive bump in your weekly report? Are you making them feel welcome and providing easy-to-use engagement?

You love your subscribers, right? And if you’re like me, you hang on their every word and get a little giddy when you see that your subscription numbers are on the rise. But what are you doing with those brand new subscribers who cause that positive bump in your weekly report? Are you making them feel welcome and providing easy-to-use engagement for their email savvy fingertips? I hope so!

Picture your new list subscribers as (very welcome) houseguests. Did you lay out a clean towel in their bathroom, stock their fave snacks in your cabinets, and maaaybe even put a little chocolate on their pillow? Or do they arrive to find a dirty towel slumped in the bathroom corner, a half-eaten bag of stale chips in the kitchen, and a musty old pillowcase (sans chocolate)? What kind of experience are you providing for the people who want to get to know you?

Engaging your email subscribers with your content is really no different than the above scenarios. Ask yourself how you want to be treated by companies that you like. If you haven’t already, make sure that you have a welcome series in place that launches automatically to your brand new subscribers as they engage with your website for the very first time. My research has shown that providing just one email (instead of several follow-ups) is the most compelling way to reach your readers. If you have more than one email coming to them post-sign-up, the numbers drop off exponentially and then you’ve lost them somewhere in the email abyss. If you have just one short, well-branded, designed, vibrant email that can get their attention in a couple seconds and relay a consistent message on how to continue engaging with your content, then you’ll be sure to win them over and they’ll be more likely to become long-term subscribers.

When people first sign up to receive your emails, those first 24 hours are when they’re most likely to engage, so make sure you’re hitting them with your best content and reinforcing what it is they already love about you. This could also be an optimal time to share a coupon, special offer, or other exclusive content to leave them with a good feeling about signing up to receive your future content. This is your only opportunity to nail a first impression, so make it count!

Welcome Carpet image on home page via Shutterstock.

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