You know that having an email list is vital to the success of your blog. That’s why, you have subscribed to a good email newsletter service provider.
Aweber Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Email List
But is it enough to go with the default settings? Can you do something to enhance the performance of your mailing list?
Yes, you can! Here are some tricks that would help you squeeze out the maximum out of your newsletter provider / autoresponder service.
Please Note: This post talks about Aweber, but these tips can be applied to most email services.
1. Use The Right Opt-In Forms
The very first step in growing your email list (and subsequently profiting from it) is to ask for people’s email IDs. If people are not exposed to offer, how can they subscribe?
Therefore, you need to choose the right opt-in or subscription forms. Here are a few tips.
Design
The design of the form needs to be professional & clean, yet eye-catching. It needs to draw people’s attention to it, and should list the benefits people would get when they subscribe to your newsletter. If you are offering a freebie, it should be properly highlighted too – possibly with an image.
You can see the opt-in form on my site at the top of this page.
Form Type
Use lightboxes, period. They have proved to greatly increase opt-in rates.If you are not using a lightbox from to get emails of people, you are really leaving money on the table!
Newbie Corner: A lightbox is a JavaScript based form that can not be blocked by pop-up blockers.
The process for creating a lightbox form is no different from creating any other form. Just select “Lightbox” in the “Type” dropdown while creating it in Aweber. Here is a screenshot:
Creating a Lightbox Opt In Form in Aweber
Use Tools to increase Opt-In Rates
The subscription forms that you can create within Aweber are good, and are a great option to begin your email list.
However, you can use third party tools like Popup Domination to:
- Present the information in a much more professional way
- Showcase your offer in formats that have proven to increase conversion rates many fold
- Differentiate yourself from the 1000s of other blogs using Aweber’s built-in forms
I personally use Popup Domination to gather emails for all my blogs, and have found that it increases the opt-in rate by as much as 300%!
It is a paid tool, but involves only a one-time cost that would help you generate a lot of money down the line. I definitely recommend making this investment – you can find out more about Popup Domination by clicking here.
2. Have a custom “Thank You” page
As soon as people put their name and email ID in your opt-in form and click “submit”, they are taken to a page called the “Thank you” page.
Aweber comes with a standard “thank you” page that looks like this:
Aweber's Default Thank You Page
Now this is fine, but you can do better by having a custom “thank you” page. Why?
- You can specify your own message – you can use your own voice and tone to guide your readers about the next step
- You can differentiate yourself from the 1000s of other blogs that use the standard page
A custom “thank you” page has proven to increase your subscription rate. There is a one-time effort to set this up, but it would keep paying you for a long time!
What should you have in the custom “thank you” page
Remind people about your free bonus
Remind people why they opted-in to your email list in the first place. We have very short term memory, and it is a good idea to remind people about the goodies you promised them!
Show them what the next step is
What might seem obvious to you might not be that intuitive to others! So show them what they are supposed to do next.
This is where you tell them that they need to click a confirmation link in an email that they would receive. Better still, show them a screenshot of the email and the link they are supposed to click.
Example
You can see my “thank you” page here.
How to set a custom “thank you” page
This is extremely easy! Just set up a page on your blog that has the above mentioned things.
Then, log into your Aweber account, and go to the “Web Forms” tab. Click on the web form for your email list, and go to the “Settings” tab. This is how it looks:
Setting Custom Thank You Page in Aweber
In the “Thank You Page” section, select “custom page” from the drop down, put the URL of your page, and click on “Save Web Form”.
That’s it!
PS: If you have multiple subscription forms for your list, you would need to do this for each of them individually.
3. Set a “Confirmation Success Page URL”
Once people click on the confirmation link, they get subscribed to your double opt in email list. This is the time when you have their full attention, and this opportunity ca be used to present your marketing message to them.
What you should have on this page
Reassurance about the free bonus
Remind people about the free gift you are giving them, and also tell them how & when they would be getting it.
Your marketing message
People subscribe to your blog only when they like your blog and what you talk about. So this is the time when you have their full attention. This is the time when you can earn some money while helping your subscribers!
You can tell your new subscribers about a product that you have. If you don’t have your own product, you can also promote an affiliate product.
Please keep in mind that if the product is closely related to the free bonus you are offering, the likelihood of someone buying it is more! A “one time offer” with a discounted price also converts well.
Example
You can see my confirmation success page here.
How to set a custom “confirmation success” page
This is as easy as the last one! Again, you would need to set up a page on your blog that has the above mentioned things.
Then, log into Aweber, go to My Lists > List Settings, and go to the “Confirmed Opt-In” tab. It looks like this:
Set a Custom Confirmation Success Page
Now go to the section named “Success Page”, put the URL of the page you just created, and save.
The best part is that you have to set this up only once per list (unlike the previous tip where you would need to change the URL for every opt-in form).
4. Carefully Draft the 1st Follow Up Email
The 1st follow-up email is the one that is sent to someone immediately after they subscribe to your email list. You need to use this email effectively to ensure that the subscriber stays interested in your list.
Things You Should Have in the 1st Email
- Gratitude: Thank the person for subscribing to your list! They have taken a big step by sharing their personal information with you, and this is the least you can do to start a long lasting relationship.
- Remind them about the freebie: If you have offered a bonus for signing up, remind them about it and clearly state how & when they would receive it.
- Tell them what to expect: This is also the time to set expectations – tell your new subscriber something about the contents of the emails they would be receiving, and their frequency.
5. Personalize Your Emails
Do you like reading emails that don’t to you directly? I don’t! When I am giving my time and attention to someone, they better talk to me directly!
That’s why you should also write emails that address individuals. Don’t talk to your subscribers as a group – write your emails as if you are talking to just one person.
Example – instead of writing:
Try Popup Domination – it is designed for bloggers who want to increase their opt-in rates
you should write:
If you are looking to increase your opt-in rates, you should definitely try out Popup Domination
You get the point, right?
Also, use names in your emails. We all love our names! Don’t you like hearing yours? The same is true for your subscribers!
So instead of writing generic emails that start with “Hi”, write emails that start with “Hi <first_name>”. If possible, try to use your subscribers’ names in the subject of the emails as well.
Using names increases the reader engagement – it will increase the open rates for your emails, and result in more clicks & sales.
While composing an email in Aweber, clicking on “Personalize” would open up the personalization options for you.
Personalizing Your Emails
6. Brand Your Email Messages Appropriately
When people open your emails, they should not wonder about who the sender is and why they are getting that email. Confusion like this leads to people unsubscribing from your email list – not something you want!
Therefore, brand your emails well – make them look like an extension of your blog, so that your subscribers immediately connect to your emails.
Here is what you can do:
- Email Template: Choose a template that is similar to your blog – choose similar colors, fonts, etc.
- Logo: Put your logo at the top of your emails. This would result in immediate recognition.
- “From” Name: Use the right “From” nae for your emails. This should be either your name of your blog’s name.
You can set the “From” name for your emails by going to My Lists > List Settings > Basic Settings, and putting it in the “From” Name field.
Using the Right "From" Name
7. Send Emails at Appropriate Times
You need to send your emails at a time when your readers can read them! And this is easy with Aweber.
I am sure you know that you can send emails at specific times using Aweber. However, did you know that this time can be defined based on the user’s local time zone?
Internet is very international, and my 3.00 pm can be your 3.00 am! so defining a local time for sending emails really helps boost your open rates.
This is a great option, and is thoroughly under-used! This option can be set on a per-email basis. Here is how its done:
- While composing your email in Aweber, scroll down and go to a section called “Interval”.
- Tick the box that says “Only deliver this message on certain days and times”.
- Select the days and times when the email needs to be sent.
- Tick the box that says “Send messages based on each subscriber’s local time”
Sending Emails On Certain Times Using Local Time Zone
Voila – now the emails would be sent based on your subscriber’s local time zone!
BONUS TIP: How To Stop People From Unsubscribing From Your Email List
There is a cool way of stopping people from unsubscribing from your list. If you can find out the main reason why people are unsubscribing, you can present them with an alternative and retain them as subscribers!
To know how to do this and where to present this option, please read “A Ninja Trick for Stopping People from Unsubscribing from Your Mailing List“.
Are You Using Aweber?
I use Aweber on all my blogs, and am greatly benefiting from its numerous features. As you can see from this post, it is very easy to tweak and configure Aweber to maximize your list building.
I definitely recommend using Aweber over the many other service providers. You can take a look at my detailed review of Aweber and see if it is right for you.
Alternatively, you can try it out for FREE by just providing your name and email ID below:
Can You Have More Sales, Too?
Helping over 102,000+ businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber's opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.
Happy list building!
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