commitment and reward.

This relationship with your subscribers starts from your very first impression with them: your landing page.

To become a trusted resource, you need to solve a real problem with your opt-in incentive and then follow up to see how it went for them. Then ask if you can do anything else for them. Provide supplemental resources, or recommendations of other great places they can find more info. Be as helpful as possible every time you reach out to your list.

Following up in such a way sets an amazing tone for your relationship.

Some people are also going to be highly annoyed that you send them so much email, and are constantly asking for feedback and other ways to be of use.

encourage them to unsubscribe.Explain what you expect from the relationship, in terms of their attention and interest, and what you intend to provide. Frame the relationship as you want it to go: with you providing tons of useful value to them, and them responding when they can.Those who aren’t willing to accept that are no loss.

this is the cycle of commitment and reward.

You ask a subscriber (or would-be subscriber!) for a small commitment, like signing up to your mailing list, and then you reward them with tons of fantastic value – far more than they expected.

Once they’ve had time to enjoy the rewards, offer them another chance to commit to something small – maybe tweeting one of your blog posts – and reward them again with thanks and more great content and offers of help.

This gets your list into the habit of responding positively when you offer something.

It works like a charm, IF you’re genuine and sincere in your desire to be of use. People have an uncanny ability to sniff out insincerity, and will not hesitate to ignore you completely if they sense it on you. Start small, start carefully, and always provide more than you ask for.

Keep the Cycles Coming

when you have an active, engaged listyou are ready to get them to buy something from you! as you notice that (20-30% of your list is responding positively to your “small asks” for engagement, Start to offer bigger things like products, services or consultation in exchange for larger actions – like attending live events or signing up for special interest lists.

Reward them and repeat with a bigger ask: one that involves them taking out their wallet and paying you.

There will always be people who won’t; paying for things is a real limit for some people. But if you’ve done a good job proving your value, and demonstrating that you have an earnest desire to provide good, useful service, more people will be happy to pay you than you might expect.

Notes from Engaenent from Scratch by Danny Iny