On more than one occasion, one of my readers has suggested to me that I publish two versions of my e-newsletter.
The first would be the regular edition I offer now—a monthly online newsletter with pure content, supplemented by additional e-mails mixing content and product offers.
The second would be an “advertising-free” edition. You’d get the monthly content e-newsletter, but none of the e-mail marketing messages between monthly issues.
Well, I’m never going to offer an option to get the e-zine only—advertising-free and without the supplemental e-mail marketing messages.
And if you’re an Internet marketer, neither should you.
Why not?
Think of it this way…
As an online information marketer—a “micro publisher”—you spend time and energy creating your e-zine.
Your time, ideas, and information are valuable to others. Or at least they should be. If your content isn’t valuable, why would you bother creating it…and why would your subscribers read it?
As with everyone else who works for a living, you—a content creator—need to earn money by charging for what you produce.
Electricians get paid to splice wires together. Plumbers bill you for fixing leaky pipes.
Why does the world seem to think content creators and owners of intellectual property should give away their creations for free?
As for me, I charge for my e-zine. Not money, mind you. But I do charge a fee.
And the “fee” I charge is that the subscribers agree to receive my e-mails. All my e-mails. Not necessarily to open or read them. But just to receive them.
Usually I send a 50/50 mix of sales messages and content messages.
But even the sales messages offer ideas, solutions, and resources I believe my readers will benefit from.
No one is forced to buy the information products I am recommending. You can go years without spending a dime with me…and still get my e-zine at no cost.
No one is forced to open or read the e-mails. If you are a subscriber to my e-zine, you can simply delete any or all of them.
No one is forced to receive my e-zine. I am not abusing anyone by sending it against their will.
The right to send my subscribers e-mail marketing messages is simply the price I charge for my publication.
If you wish to stop paying the subscription fee, you can unsubscribe with a single mouse click in about 3 seconds. No need to make a phone call or waste a stamp on a letter.
When you unsubscribe, you will no longer receive the e-mails.
But you won’t get my free e-zine either. You take all or none. That’s the deal—non-negotiable.
Amazingly, online subscribers argue with us Internet marketers about this issue from time to time—something they rarely do with a traditional publisher.
After all, if you called Newsweek and told them, “Send me the magazine, but take out the ads first,” what do you think they would do?
Yes, I could offer an “advertising-free” edition of my e-newsletter, but what would be the point? Or as we copywriters say, “What’s in it for me?”
Yes, as an Internet marketer, you can send too many e-mails or have a disproportionately high ratio of sales to content.
But your subscribers will tell you what they consider too much or just right.
For instance, I recently signed up for the e-list of an entertainer I like.
After I got 3 e-mails the first day, I decided his arrangement was not for me, and I opted out with a single click.
But I did not send him an e-mail with obscenities in it.
I did not petition him to put me on a special e-list…or change his publishing model.
I simply unsubscribed.
How do you know when you are sending too many e-mail marketing messages to your e-list?
Just pay attention to the opt-out rate, which is the percentage of subscribers who opt-out after you distribute an e-mail message to your list.
Each time you distribute your e-newsletter or an e-mail message to your subscriber list, a few will opt out. That’s okay.
But if too many are unsubscribing per e-mail—say, more than 2 out of every 1,000 subscribers on the list—you may be selling to your list too much, too hard, and too often.
Solution: cut back on frequency…make the content more educational, less hard-sell…add more content and do less selling…until the opt-out rate drops to below 0.2%.
Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.
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