How Do I Get My Subscribers to Pay Attention?

Here’s a question I received recently from one of my blog readers.

“I know everyone says the money is in the list, but I’ve been building my list and I feel like my subscribers just aren’t paying attention. There is a lot of competition in my market and I can’t seem to figure out how to stand out.

Melanie”

This is certainly not an uncommon problem. People are so inundated with email in general, it’s tough to get attention in an overflowing email inbox. Now, there are plenty of things you can do to get more attention (ex. testing your subject lines, teasing readers about your next email, etc.), but I’ve grabbed an excerpt from the Email Marketing Reform School that goes right back to the beginning and might help.

Before you even start a list, it’s important not only to define your target market, but come up with what makes your list unique - often called USP (Unique Selling Position) in terms of your overall business.

AND NOTE: You should define this your target & uniqueness for each and every list because each list serves a different purpose, even if the target markets are similar. This is what helps you relate to your audience more specifically and what makes them feel like you understand them, offer them value and that they can’t get enough of you!

Here’s the excerpt from the Reform School:

“UEP (Unique Emailing Position): UEP is an acronym I made up for our purposes (you won’t find it in any copywriting or marketing guide that I know of) and it stands for Unique Emailing Position. I have chosen this name so that you can really try to imagine your USP in the terms of your email marketing.

In short, your UEP is what sets you apart from others in your market using email to reach their prospects and customers. Put another way, a UEP is some unique thing you offer to your readers that competition is not. It’s the reason your subscribers sign up to your list, stay subscribers, open and act upon your email.

Here are just a few examples of a UEP. Your UEP will likely be very different as these examples won’t necessarily be appropriate to all types of lists. These ideas is just to help you start thinking about your own UEP.

o Do you offer more in-depth information on specific topics?
o Do you provide the honest reviews other people are afraid to do?
o Is your list attractive because you provide easy-to-understand condensed information?
o Does your mailing list motivate people into taking action?
o Is your list a humorous look at your topic?
o Do you send more frequent up-to-the-minute information?
o Are you dedicated to answering your readers’ questions and engaging in dialogue with them (Mind your time on something like this and look at the tips in the “Asking” section a little later in this lesson)?
o Do you offer exclusive interviews to people of influence in your target market?

UEP (or USP) is a concept that is often difficult for people because every business and mailing list is different. You need to really sit down, brainstorm and figure out your UEP because if you don’t, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd and compete in your market.

Here is one of the most important questions you’ll ask yourself when formulating your UEP:

“Why would my subscriber sign up for my list, instead of someone else’s? Why would they continue to stay subscribed?”

Take a look at other mailing lists / newsletters in your target market. What are they doing that you can do even better? If you’re on any customer lists (if not, try to get on some), see how your competitors treat their customers via email.”

It’s a small starting point that can make a big difference in your email marketing. Once you have your UEP down, you can more effectively market for new subscribers and get your existing ones a whole lot more responsive.

By the way, Reform School starts Monday, so be sure to book your spot now.

Fricken Frecken Frackin - How Do I Find a VA?

Here’s an email I recently received from a long-time blog reader of mine. I think his problem is something MANY online business owners face, so I thought it’d be helpful to answer it here.

(And by the way, if you do have this issue…solve it once and for all by joining us as a Platinum Member at Outsourcing Sweetie and get your biz stuff taken care of without the headaches)

Here’s the email:

Hi Alice, please excuse the language in the following request

You have given some superb advice and tips regarding different aspects of Virtual Assistants. It seems you were truly blessed in that area with the one(s) you have.

I must ask though, was that just pure luck?! Please advise me (or post about), how in the heck does one fricken freckin frackin find a VA that actually wants to WORK!

Jiminy Crickets I tell ya what. I stopped even searching after a small handful that seemed the equivalent to the secretary that files her nails and sneers every time she’s asked to write a letter.

How do they stay in business…or more to the point, why start the business in the first place? To top it off, 3/4 of them weren’t what I would call economically priced…

I’m sure you get my point. I don’t mean to sound sexist, but I can’t work with other men on a lot of other levels. LOL

Rant over - any guidance? PLEASE.

Thanks much,
Dennis

Well, first of all, thanks for the kudos. I feel your pain and have had my share of contractors / VAs who seemed to fall in this category. BUT amongst the truly professional VAs out there, I’ll tell you that this is not the norm. Problem is, how do you find them? And more importantly, how do you keep them?

(Disclaimer: I am using “she” to describe VAs generally. I, of course, now there are male VAs who do a great job too. )

Let me start by answering your question about whether or not I was lucky. I don’t know that I’d call it luck. Certainly, I have been blessed with a handful of great people who are dedicated to their work and I work well with, but there are other factors involved. Here are a few things to look for:

• References. It doesn’t matter if she’s a housewife looking for extra pocket money or if it’s a full-fledged VA service, find someone who has references that indicate reliability, efficiency and a good work ethic. But of course, how do you know if you can trust a reference? That’s why it’s always best to get a referral from someone you know…someone who will tell you the truth.
• A VA Who Services Clients…Period. I might get myself into hot water with some VAs who don’t fit this profile, but generally-speaking, a VA with other aspirations may not be as reliable. For example, a hopeful affiliate marketer who decides to offer services to tide her over until the commissions start rolling in. When a VA spreads herself too thin like this, she is often distracted by her own projects and may not dedicate herself to providing good client service.

• A VA Who Charges What She’s Worth. We’re all looking for a good deal (and I have an upcoming blog post about this in the next couple weeks), but a VA who under prices herself ends up having to take on too much work and service to each client suffers. Sometimes it’s worth paying a little extra for the quality and dedicated service of a true professional.

• Be a Good Communicator. Often it’s not the VA that’s the problem…it’s US! If we don’t communicate well, give clear instructions and constructive feedback, VAs just won’t want to work with us. If you have a high VA turnover, this might be something to look at and communication is something we cover in our Gold Membership.

• Nurture and Develop Your Relationship. There’s a learning curve for everyone, so dedicate yourself to improving the way you work with your VA (i.e. being organized, assigning tasks in a timely manner, etc.). This is part of communication, but I want to stress the importance of getting even better over time to keep your VAs working with you on a long-term basis. The longer you can keep a VA, the more she’ll understand your needs and your company - meaning you get better and better service all the time.

• Give Regular Raises. The longer a good VA works for you, the more valuable she becomes, so reward her monetarily for it. Keeping a VA happy means you don’t have to train a new VA, she can work more independently and can even advise you on where you can improve things in your processes.

I hope that helps a little. Start by taking recommendations from a trusted colleague (my recommendation is here) and go from there. Reliable and qualified help IS out there and when you find it, never let it go!

Update on Mini-Site Giveaway - Site is Live!

A couple of weeks ago, we gave away a custom mini site from Silicon Post. Our lucky winner April Jones from Nebraska. Her and Robert worked together and the mini-site is now complete.

Here’s what April had to say:

“Hey Alice,

I just wanted to thank you again for hosting the giveaway of a mini-website from Silicon Post. I was so excited when I found out I won!

After months of debating whether or not I wanted to start my own Virtual Assistant business, I finally decided to go for it on June 1st of this year. The first thing I did was try to set up my website. I did an okay job using some free templates I found online, but it just wasn’t enough. And I knew it would be a while before I could teach myself how to design a website or pay someone else to do it. So your giveaway came just in time.

My “grand opening” is July 1st and my brand new website is up and running thanks to you and Robert Mesa of Silicon Post

Robert has been such a pleasure to work with. He made sure I got the professional look I wanted for my website. As a VA, my website will be the first impression that a majority of my potential clients get of me and my business. So the design and content is very important to me.

Not only did Robert make sure everything I needed was on there, he even made some suggestions and added features that had never occurred to me that will really help my website (and my business) stand out. He was completely patient, even when I messed some things up when trying to edit, and he was both professional and friendly.

I hope you’ll do another Silicon Post mini-website giveaway so that someone else out there will have the same opportunity that I did to work with Robert and Silicon Post.

Thanks again!
April
Advantage Virtual Assistant

And on April’s last comment - if Robert’s up to it, we’ll certainly host another one soon.

Working Weekends is A-Okay!

Here’s Twitter comment from Dewald Pretorius that got me thinking about just how lucky we at home entrepreneurs really are. Dewald was having a fun evening, goofing off on the ‘puter (and sampling some wine…lucky guy) and he wrote:

But hey you know what? Who cares if it’s Friday night? Who cares if it’s the 3 AM on Wednesday or the middle of a Sunday afternoon? This is the BEAUTY of being your own boss and setting your own schedule.

Now, I don’t recommend working every single day all day…so I absolutely get Dewald’s point. But if someone skips work Tuesday - Thursday and decides to catch up on a Friday evening, I think that’s AWESOME.

I think it all comes down to responsible scheduling and balance. Use this amazing freedom to your advantage and work proudly whenever you decide to do so.

Dude, He’s Got a List

Yep, a second edition of Wednesday Words from You today. This is a great quote from Product Launch Expert, Jeff Walker.

The power of the list cannot be underestimated…and of course, I’d love to give you a hand to realize the same.

Could This Be the Problem?

One of my Twitter friends, Chele Neisler recently used 140 alloted characters to post a very poignant observation. For the record, I don’t know precisely what made her post this.

But in working with online entrepreneurs and really trying to give them the PUSH to actually do stuff - her comment illustrated perfectly what holds a lot of people back:

It seems like a lot of people want everything laid out for them when it comes to this online marketing stuff. If they receive general step-by-step instructions, they get tied up on one detail and can’t just come up with a solution for themselves.

Here’s just a couple of the things I see people get bogged down with, but I see similar brain farts like this all the time.

“I have written an ebook and want to sell it, but not sure if I should use ClickBank, PayPal or something else.” - Ummm…your ebook is written, pick a processor and get on with it. Sure, you can get opinions from people, but people use questions like this as a crutch to do nothing.

“I am not sure if I should post other people’s articles on my site because I hear conflicting things about duplicate content.” - If you like the article, post it. It’s that simple…and seriously, since when is a search engine allowed to dictate how you run your website? Besides, who cares what other people argue endlessly about?

Sure, it’s good to get advice from other online entrepreneurs, pick up some how-to information, but taking action and getting results is YOUR responsibility. If you run into something you don’t understand search Google. It’s really easy and you can find information to help YOU answer your questions there IMMEDIATELY, instead of waiting for someone to come to your rescue.

Making decisions and deciding what will work for you and your business is up to YOU only. Sure, some decisions will result in some errors, but correct them and move on.

No Traffic, No Conversions - What Do I Do?

Here’s a question from Pam Rathlou of LusciousPlus.com (plus-size lingerie if you click that link )

“Hi Alice - I have a plus size lingerie website. I have a blog and I write articles. I am trying to get buying traffic to my site but the only way seems to be through google ads and I just plain can’t afford it. I’ve done all the seo stuff, free directories all kinds of things but my traffic is low and conversions non existant - HELP! Thank you.“

Well Pam, I think you’re not alone in your frustration and that’s why I thought addressing your question here will hopefully help you and others in the same boat. Here are a few things for you to think about:

Blogs & Articles: You mentioned you are doing these. Have you been tracking the results of these efforts and ensuring that your time is well-spent? Although, these are very viable promotion methods, you want to make sure that your efforts are paying off. Do more of what is working and none of what isn’t (or tweak it so it does work).

Google Ads: A well-run Google campaign should be designed to make you money, rather than cost you money. That said, I don’t know how competitive the plus-size lingerie market is and if your profit per item isn’t large enough, the click costs could make a good campaign difficult…but probably not impossible. One of the most important keys to a Google Adwords campaign is relevancy - from your advertising text, to your landing page and offers - being relevant is crucial. Start with this free tutorial if you need help.

Traffic & Conversions: Without the traffic, your conversion rates will be hard to figure out. Still, if you think conversion is an issue, there is plenty you can do to get more out of the traffic you do receive.

I took a quick look at your website and noticed a few things:

-> The site loads rather slowly. You may be losing visitors before they even see your website. It could be due to large images, your web host or a number of different factors you might want to look into.

-> There is a lot of seemingly wasted space above-the-fold of your website, plus you’re lacking an attention-grabbing headline. I’d invest in a nice professional-looking logo for your store and really get to the point in this important part of your virtual real estate.

-> The navigation on the left is really small and the white text is lost on the red background. Upon visiting the site, I’m not 100% sure what I should do right away. Make sure to guide your visitor to find what they are looking for.

But back to traffic - keep working on it:

There are many ways to build traffic. Try a press release campaign and tweak your blog and article marketing tactics. Or go back to the basics and go through the free Truth about Traffic course to help you really get things going.

Just a few ideas to get you started. Take it one step at a time, track your results and improve based on your findings.

Real Work at Home Women Don’t Need Makeup

Another Wednesday Words from You as heard on Twitter. Today, I asked:

“Working at home ladies…do you wear make up?”

Here are a few of the responses:

Tomorrow’s question, “As a work at home MAN, do you wear make up every day.” Now THAT should get interesting.

How about you? Man or woman who works at home. Does make up work for you?

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