List Building: How Important is Your Welcome Email?

When people come to your squeeze page, they give you something very valuable---their names and email addresses. Not all of them will buy from you, but when you're collecting names and email addresses, it's inevitable that some will buy from you. Did you ever stop to think that YOU are what will influence that outcome? You can have no sales and then, you can have an incredible response rate!

And it all comes down...

To one thing---

Your welcome message.

Yep. People sign up for your list because they like your squeeze page. They're interested in what you have to deliver, and in some respect, they like you. Otherwise, it's certain that they wouldn't have signed up. I mean, think about it. If you don't like someone, are you bound to sign up to do business with them? No. Of course not.

So, these people like you, if only just a little, because they don't know you.

That's where your welcome message comes into play. Make it great! Seriously, tell them something about yourself. What you're doing online and bring them into your life, if just a little. If you have kids, let them know that. If you're into a completely different profession, like maybe you're a Pediatrician or you train horses or whatever. People want to know you, and the more you let them know about you, the closer they will feel to you.

Now, I'm not saying that you should tell list members everything. Don't give them your bank account and social security number. Of course, that would be stupid. But there's no sense in being in this business if you're paranoid. There are bad people out there, but you can't worry a whole lot about that. You just have to be cautious, not afraid to show your picture, for instance. People like to know you're a real person. You can't hide in your rabbit hole.

So, don't go on for days, just tell them a little something about yourself--a story, and welcome them to your list.

Then, carry on business as usual. This entire email should be the same tone and composition as any other mail you send to your list, actually. By that I mean, it should contain the same type of information. If you always put three links in your email, put three links into this one. If you provide tips on your particular niche, then, give readers some tips. And if you always sell something, and you should, then sell something.

This sets up a pattern. Readers will always know they'll find a story from you, some tips, and an offer of something to buy with a link that you instruct them to click. You're training them to click. But more than that, you're going to do the same thing in each and every future email you send to them. You're being consistent. That's important in the trust issue. You want to be consistent, which helps deepened trust.

Don't worry too much about writing your welcome e-mail to start. Just get it written and get it out there. But once you're list building, you might want to think about going back and making that email a bit more interesting, more profit-pulling, and a tool of bonding with your audience. That's very, very important.

Tellman Knudson is CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc. Learn how to build a powerful and responsive list quickly through his premiere list-building course, MyFirstList.com