With email marketing, the money really is in the list.

But only if you do it right.

If you relate to your list well and come across as helpful and human then people will be more likely to buy.

If you relate to them badly then they won’t.

Of course, not everyone reacts the same – the phrase “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” springs to mind – so you won’t please everyone.

But the more people you do please, the better.

It all starts before you even send your first email.

You may sign people up to your list via a squeeze page or a signup box.

Or you may add them when they buy a product.

Those are the two most common methods nowadays although you may still come across the option that was used early-on in the internet where people ask you to send a blank email to a particular address. There are still some resource boxes on sites like EzineArticles where that was done when the article was originally placed.

Depending on how you’ve set up your list, your subscriber may or may not need to confirm that they’ve asked for the information.

That confirmation is called a double opt in and supposedly gets a better class of subscriber.

Personally, most of my lists are created without that option.

I don’t like the extra hurdle when I join a list and I suspect most other people don’t either.

Generally I find that people know what an unsubscribe link is, what it does and how to use it.

Once someone has joined your list, the relationship between you starts.

It’s a bit like courting except you will almost certainly never meet and you won’t really ever know much about each other.

So maybe it’s closer to speed dating or even one of those apps where you swipe the screen to say you like the person or not.

Your first message is sent as soon as someone joins.

It sets the tone for every other message you send.

Of course, you’ll need to deliver on whatever promise you made when they first joined – send the link to the report or product or whatever. But in my view you should have taken them direct to a page with that on anyway, so the email is a backstop in case something went wrong.

Then you start messaging them.

Or not.

Some people don’t.

They just ignore their list or stop sending messages soon after you join it.

You might have noticed that happening with lists you sign up to.

Or, with the amount of clutter in your inbox, you probably don’t notice until you get an email months later explaining why they haven’t emailed and why you should have missed them.

In my view, regular emails are better.

That could mean daily, every few days or weekly. It could even mean more than once a day.

Whatever you choose will be like Goldilocks.

There will be too many emails for some people, not enough for other people and for others it will be just right.

The “others” group is the one you want to relate most to.

They are the people who will read most or all your emails.

Even when the subject line is a bit “off” and doesn’t quite resonate as well as it should.

Treasure them!

And do your best to get into their mindset.

Some of the top marketers in the world – not just in internet marketing but in other industries – develop an avatar of their target customer.

They’ll go in depth – age range, sex, socio-economic group, where they live, what they own, what they do, other preferences.

You may not have the resources to do that fully but you could sit down with a piece of paper or a blank Word document and write things down for a few minutes.

Even that small exercise will give you a better idea of your list.

Then craft your emails to resonate with them.

Your subject lines should ring a bell in their head.

The main message should almost mind read what’s going on in their life.

That way, your emails will get read more and you’ll get a better response.

It’s tempting to use short term techniques to boost response.

That can work but it can often backfire.

A meditation product I thought about promoting does that. Actually, I did promote it once but that was before I went through their email sequence. Now it’s on my “avoid” list with regard to promotion.

The product is good, maybe even excellent.

I’ve known the product owner for some time and normally respect their marketing.

But this sucks (sorry Karl).

The discount voucher has “expired” so often it’s crazy.

Because a day or so later it’s been given CPR and it’s available again.

Not just once or twice.

Seemingly every other day.

Which means the offer isn’t believable.

And, for me, means I won’t promote the product.

Incidentally, that’s a tip for you: if you can, sign up to the list before you promote a product. See how they treat their list and whether or not you want to be associated with that method.

Because somewhere at the back of their mind your list will remember that you suggested they sign up to the product.

And somewhere at the back of their mind they’ll associate you with the practices of the new list. Whether or not you’re using those practices.

If you’ve ever unsubscribed from a list because you don’t like some of the products they’re promoting, you’ll know this happens.

You need to make sure that your emails don’t alienate your subscribers.

Pay attention to the emails you get in your inbox.

Maybe subscribe to more lists for a while (yikes!). Possibly with a different email address so you’re not swamped.

Spend more time on these messages than the average subscriber will.

Which probably just means reading every word in the subject line rather than skimming it.

Our attention spans are incredibly short and getting shorter.

Any subject lines that stand out, save them somewhere.

Direct mail people call these a swipe file and they are just that. Subjects you can swipe and then modify when you send out your messages.

Put them in your own voice.

Again, that will help you stand out from the crowd.

Especially if you’re in a competitive market such as internet marketing, self help or weight loss.

Because most marketers are lazy and will use the swipes provided by the product creator.

Which in case you hadn’t already realised explains why you get so many near-identical emails with every product launch.

If you’d like some help with your email marketing, take a look at these products:

• Email Income Hacks – a 90 minute video & PDF transcript designed to push your email marketing further, faster
• Power Words – over 11,000 words and phrases that you can use to boost your email response rates
• Sales Funnel Commando – a real world guide to creating profit pulling sales funnels
• Goofball System – not the best product name I’ve ever come across but written by someone who consistently appears high up on product launch leaderboards so he’s doing it right.

Any one of those will take your email marketing up a notch.

Implementing all of them will make you close to unstoppable.

And feel free to add your thoughts and experience on email marketing below.