When does "opt-in" mean "free to shill"?

Ilise and I have been hammering away at the presentation she's giving (and I'm ably assisting with giving, I hope!) at the Creative Freelancer Conference in Chicago on August 28.

It's really, really fun working on it, and at the risk of bringing doom down upon myself, I think it's really going to rock, the combination of our different but complementary skill sets and presentation styles, even without the excessive cursing I'm usually given to, but have sworn off for the duration.

It's also been eye-opening in a lot of ways: combing through examples from my files, both physical and electronic, to see what sticks and what doesn't, what shines and what feels kind of lame upon closer examination. For sure, I'll be making some major adjustments to my own sites once I get back and things calm down a little.

But I came across one example of egregious fouling-up from a usually astute self-promoter (and someone very, very good at his chosen profession, which is marketing-related), so I thought I'd throw it out there in advance of the presentation, to get some real-time feedback: when someone opts-in to your list, what's the first thing you send? I don't know, but had better not be an ad for yourself!

I know what happened, because I know how some email marketing programs are set up: to send out the very next missive in the pipeline. I'll make a humble suggestion, though: when you set up your program, make the first thing a "goodie", not a "me! me!" I was so disgusted that the first communication I got from this incredibly talented person was a pitch for an upcoming workshop, I almost unsubbed on the spot.

Am I nuts, here? Is it out of line to think someone should earn my trust a bit before trying to sell me something?

What do you do with your list? And what would you do if you'd gotten a Big Fat Ad as your first email from a signup?

Comments

[Judy Dunn]

Hi Colleen,

I have very, very strong feelings about this. Our opt-in subscribers get a great deal of free, useful content on marketing for the solopreneur before we even think of sending a pitch for our membership subscription services. Our feedback from our subscribers is telling us that they view us as as helpful, almost in the way a friend would be.

It's slower this way, but I truly believe that the people you convert are going to stay with you. I myself have unsubscribed from several lists for the very reason you have articulated. I just don't have the patience for it.

Best of luck with your and Ilise's presentation at the Creative Freelancer Conference. I look forward to hearing about your experiences there!

[Bob Dunn]

Hey Colleen, Judy beat me to this posting, but I did have to add something. We have a customized "thank you" when someone signs up for our free e-tip, and then of course, they have the option of downloading a free report that comes with signing up. No ads, no sales.

That would be a killer if the first thing they see is "now buy this!" Our number one goal is to gain trust with our subscribers and not hardsell them. We even go as far as to make sure we don't ask a "free" subscriber to upgrade to a paid subscription until they have at least been on our list for a couple of months.

Great post, thanks!

[Colleen Wainwright]

Well, clearly I'm with you guys. In his defense, the person whose list I'm talking about probably has thousands of subscribers. I'm sure it gets more complex handling things with that many people.

But it does seem like it would be worth it to set up a separate funnel for new subs. If you've got that big of a list and are making that much money, it's a reasonable expense to pay for more sophisticated handling.

[Boris Mahovac - Your Ezine Coach]

My auto-responder sequence has 7 messages spread over 45 days.

The most I "ask" of my subscribers is to add me to their address book, create a folder for my emails, and comment on the free special report I offer as a sign up bonus.

Only after 15 days do I send them links to my Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Additionally, I only send "email offers" to people who have been on the e-newsletter list for at least a couple of months. In the meantime, I only send them the newsletter.

If I subscribe to a list and get an offer in the first week I usually stay subscribed until the second "offense." If the offer comes in the "welcome" email I unsubcribe on the spot.

If I may offer a more subtle way to have offers available to new subscribers: create a "thank you for confirming" page with a link to the bonus (report, white paper, etc) but also have a set of links to your products or services discretely to the side or at the bottom of the page -- I am yet to implement this myself, though :-)

[Dani Nordin]

I'm really not sure, to be honest - there's proponents on both sides of the equation. Some places offer a free report or mp3 something as an incentive to sign up, and swear by it; others just say "thanks" and move on. I honestly get a bit put off when anyone starts off with a schill - whether it's e-mail or a phone call.

I tend not to view my newsletter as an ad anyway - I just send it out once a month, letting folks know what I'm up to, and say "thanks for listening - if you want to work together, call me sometime." It seems to work well for me - I get very positive feedback on the newsletter.

[Mark Silver]

I've been pondering this myself, Colleen. We ran into this problem a few years ago, and realized that the very first email in the autoresponder had to be a past issue of the newsletter, which we now send out.

I've also sometimes, when I've done promotional emails, sent them out excluding anyone who has subscribed in the last 7 days, 14 days, something like that.

Except that then I heard that people had subscribed because a friend told them I was running a promotion for an event, and they had signed up to hear about it... and then didn't.

So, I don't think there is an easy answer. I'm sticking with the first auto-email is a past issue. And then just letting them live wild in list, and hope they like it.

I would add, in response to Bob and Judy, that it doesn't pay to be toooooooo slow with offering offers, because if someone really needs your help, they are probably dying to know how to hire you, and if you play too coy with them, well, there's something not entirely honest about that, either. At least it would bother me, as a subscriber. If I sign up, I know your offering something- tell me about it!

[Amrita Chandra]

I had something similar happen to me and unsubscribed on the spot.

For people that sign up for my gallery mailing list, I simply tell them 1) thank you
2) how often they can expect to get the newsletter and what sorts of info will be in it
3) link to my blog if they want more info right away
4) how to unsubscribe