How to warm-up your email list -- after not emailing them for awhile
Channel: George Kao
Date: 2017-05-19

If you have email subscribers that you haven't emailed in a long time, how do you "warm up" your list again so that you can start sending regular newsletters, or promote a launch?

In this video I show you how *not* to do it, as well as a good example of how to do it.

Here are the steps:

1. First, if you have 3-4 weeks before you have to send your warm-up email, that would be great. This would allow you to test some content on social media first.  Each week, post 1-2 different articles (or videos), that you've created, on your Facebook page and/or profile.  It can be older articles, or new ones.  Then after 4 weeks, you'd have 4-8 tests.  See which of those posts got the most engagement from your ideal clients.

2. In your warm-up email (the first email to your list subscribers in a long time), use this approximate format:

* How they got onto your list

* If they don't want to keep receiving your regular content, please unsubscribe (give them the link to do so).  

NOTE: If you have an email list larger than 500, you may want to break up your list into segments of 500 and send separate warm-up emails to each segment. This way, your email subscriber service (e.g. Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign) is less likely to suspend your account for having too many unsubscribes.  Generally you want to keep each email's unsubscribe ratio to under 1%... but if you're sending it to 500 people at a time, they are usually more lenient with that percentage.

You *do* want the people who don't want to be on your list, to unsubscribe themselves. This helps you keep only the folks who are actually going to keep engaging with you... and not eventually click "spam" for your email!

* What you've been up to... share an interesting story (and keep it short!)

* Then, share snippets of your recent best 2-3 posts, with links to read the full post (or watch the video).

* Finally, share a pargraph or two about what to expect from you going forward, how often they'll get your emails, and about what.

* Of course at the bottom, have the usual footer with unsubscribe link again.

IMPORTANT Note about how to write emails to your subscribers... my recommendation is to write as if to a friend-of-a-friend... 

Imagine that your respected (and supportive) friend Mary is recommending you to her respected and supportive friend John.  How would you write to John?  

You would not write with "persuasion copywriting" in mind, as if you are trying to manipulate John, because then he would tell your mutual friend Mary about that negative experience.  

No. You would write with a hope for connection, an assumption that he already respects you in some way and would like more information from you, and you'd write from a place of service. 

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After you send this warm-up email, I would advise sending emails every 3-4 weeks, that are content rich, again with snippets then links to the full posts.

After a few months of warming up, you are ready to email more frequently, e.g. a launch!

In this video I show you a bad and good example...

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