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Question of the week:
Let me know your thoughts and comments!
Please leave a comment below.
Note that I don’t reply to all comments, but I do read them all. If I don’t reply to your comment, it most likely means that I agree with what you say and don’t have anything meaningful to add, myself. I appreciate and read all comments and your comments play an important part in what I write about, so keep them coming.
Spammy comments are always filtered or removed. No surprise there.
Great idea Shane! I like the way you do business…Top Notch!
Chris
Triple opt-in? Sounds like Windows Vista.
Are you sure?
Are you really sure?
Are you absolutely sure you want to do that?
Seriously though, it makes sense to have different opt-in lists ONLY if the content is going to be sufficiently different to the existing lists.
Personally I wouldn’t particularly want to sign up to a dozen different IM Impact lists that all deal with IM (more or less), when I already have an existing interest in that field.
Thanks Shane for a frank and sincere thoughts a rare breed in the IM world where $ is the prime consideration.Have been a subscriber for a while and appreciated what you did.
Hi Shane
In a way it’s quite refreshing to be asked,usually the problem is the other way round that you opt into one list but get put onto about 6 lists from the clickbank spammer from hell
I would have thought being serious for a moment that your audience wants to see your new products and ideas because if it’s bad you say it like it is and if it’s good you say so and we trust that judgement
Thanks for sharing Tony
Hi Shane,
Thanks for your great product. I guess its okay to offer the triple opt-in as an option, but I personally think its overkill. All we as marketers need is for “our betters” in Washington to get a whiff of this idea and they will make it mandatory. Double opt-in is bad enough. Just my two cents. But having said that, I think you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work
Jim
I would prefer a two click process. One click in the email invitation that subs me in, then one click in the confirm email.
Easier than hitting landing pages every time and filling in name and email.
Also, ensure there is a simple global optout. I am still trying to get off some marketers’ radars but they have me on so many lists they keep finding ways into my inbox.
Both given.
The confirmation is done through a simple link click in an email. The form is only on this page for anyone who did not click to confirm in the last email I sent, but still wants to get the updates.
Also, it’s all just one list, not multiple lists, the way I’ve set it up.
The point here is not that it’s an actual triple opt-in. That’s meant to be a joke.
The point is segmentation and sending more narrowly targeted emails to the right people.
What you are doing Shane with your list is something we all should be doing with our lists.
It means our lists will be much more responsive and the readers will only get what they really want.
Our subscribers needs change over time as they progress through their business and we need to allow for this.
That’s why the Infusionsoft way of tagging subscribers is a great idea… but I’m hoping that Aweber will eventually get around to implementing something similar.
Cheers
Ian McConnell
Western Australia
Agreed – the tagging approach is so much better than lists for this kind of stuff.
Hey Shane,
You guys are just doing great, I was thinking about doing something similar and now that you have given me a kind of “Sure, give it a go” I am going to implement and see what happens.
Thanks and I’m waiting for Thursday and Sunday now.
Trevor
Hi Shane,
I definitely think ‘smart’ list segmentation makes a lot of sense.
I wouldn’t necessarily segment an IM list by IM topic (e.g. paid traffic, free traffic, video marketing, email marketing etc…), except when someone has bought something from me which is related to a specific topic.
I would segment buyers, because my messaging could then be a lot more targeted (e.g. “You bought PPC product XYZ a while back. Now that you have had a chance to get to grips with it, I know you will find this FREE Expert Training course really useful. It shows you how to quickly identify the keywords that are costing you money, so that you can strip them out of your campaign, and reduce your CPC.”)
The more targeted your messaging => the stronger the relationship => the greater the likelihood of your subscriber becoming a true fan (i.e. regularly recommends you to others, and buys most of your stuff).
As Seth Godin says (paraphrasing) – “You don’t need many true fans to build a solid business.”
I would definitely segment an IM list by ‘related’ topics that I would like to share information about (e.g. self improvement, time management etc…). That way, every subscriber to my IM List would receive all of my IM emails, but a subscriber would only get the additional ‘related’ stuff if they have raised their hand to say they were interested.
I hope the ramble above makes sense :o)
With regards to finding where to make contact with your audience, I think there is a crucial step before that, which is identifying the right audience for your message/product. This is something I am passionate about, because I don’t think this topic gets enough coverage.
You can do everything right with your sales funnel (targeted traffic, great landing page, great copy etc…), but if you haven’t taken the time to identify who would be really interested in what you have got to say/sell, and to understand what their problems and wants are, and matched your message to providing solutions to those problems/wants, then you will have wasted your time.
Anyway, time for me to shut up. This comment has gone on far too long – it was only meant to be a couple of lines!
Keep up the good work Shane. I always look forward to reading you stuff. You have obviously taken the time to understand your audience ;o)
Cheers, Gary.
Shane I like your new concept! Giving back to the subscriber the control of his/her Inbox as it should be and not invading their space. Awesome real Marketing showing your integrity shines through.
Thanks, Martin
Hi Shane, I totally agree with what Gary said.
This make total sense, you are talking about the concept of “list segmentation” but calling it “triple opt-in”.
There is a nice plugin that does that http://www.surveyfunnel.com/
Maybe this can be the next update of hybrid connect?
Thanks for your comment!
Adding a survey option to Hybrid Connect would not make much sense, IMO. It’s usually a bad idea to “go wide” and build many features into one product, when those features are only loosely related.
Instead, we like to go deep and have one product that’s the best at doing one specific thing (in the case of Hybrid: opt-ins).
The survey funnel thing has some functionality that Viral Quiz Builder 2.0 also has. We are aiming to re-open Viral Quiz Builder in February, so you’ll see what it’s capable of fairly soon. :)
Hey Shane,
Looking forward for Viral Quiz Builder : ).
Take care
Well…Personally I read all of your emails so you can make a 10X opt-in…it won’t matter!!
Thanks, Tom! That’s good to hear. :)
Shane, I very much like your idea of asking first and letting us decide what we want to listen to. I love the new idea of the app of the week. Found the first one, actually two excellent and have put them to work. Thank you. Really like your way of approaching business. Will try to emulate some of it in mine.
Thank you, Bill!
I like this idea a lot.
I’ve been annoyed by some other product vendors. You buy their product and then get bombarded with offer after offer that you have no interest in but you don’t want to unsubscribe because you don’t want to miss out on any information about the product you’ve bought. Too much noise! I have actually stopped using a couple of products because of this approach (they probably weren’t that good anyway). It’s a total turn-off.
Conversely, I love your approach Shane. You tell us right up front what to expect, only make us aware of highly relevant and useful information and ask if we want other information. This is how it should be done. Total integrity and a great lesson for us to apply to our own businesses.
Thank you :-)