Why Email Subscribers?
A couple of people emailed me to ask why my big birthday competition was only open to email subscribers, why did I want email subscribers in particular?
Well first of all I love all my subscribers
There are just things you can do for email subscribers that you can not for RSS (currently).
As many guessed, the first advantage of email over RSS is email subscribers are not anonymous. Being able to personalize and identify who you are talking to is very useful.
The other advantages are:
- You can send attachments to email lists more easily. With RSS you post a download link and the link gets shared around (even now people are linking directly to my free PDF)
- It is possible to email subscriber-only alerts outside of your regular blog posting schedule
- Email lists can be segmented so you only communicate your message to people who want to hear it
Now you know this you might be forming guesses as to what my special email subscriber treats are going to be, but you will only find out for sure if you subscribe by email
By Chris Garrett. Posted in Blogging







Interesting, This is good to read as I was thinking of launching an email campaign in the near future. What tip[s would you have for someone developing an email campaign? Should I design the email, offer something free to subscribers anything like that?
I blog on blogger. I can make a list of 100 email recipients. But I do not know whether, or how, readers can sign up for email delivery.
This would be very useful for my blog.
If anyone knows, please let me know at ljwaks@yahoo.com
I use email currently and tie into the US National/Regional Food Shows. I get my leads at the Food Shows(Distributor, Buying Group, Chain Restaurant, Local Food brokers, Key Independents). Email works well for this target marketing, but I would still like to setup a Blog for a more general overall market. Currently I break down the email list into various customer segments: Suspects, prospects, current clients, lost clients, as well as, jerks: hard to deal with accounts that hold good potential. The suspects take the vast amount of time to contact, while the prospects have been pre-qualified through email or phone contact. The suspect category is where I would like to start blogging + bulk emailing. Ideas are always appreciated. Thanks, Joe EOR
hiya, Chris, you forgot a few extra advantages:
1. Emails are saved by default – meaning you can read them again & again.
2. Emails can & will be forwarded at the click of a couple of buttons.
3. You can track every open/forward/click on an email if you need to.
4. If someone unsubscribes you get simple, instant visibility & you can track it back to the exact email you sent.
5. You can ‘push’ info to people through email, whereas you have to wait for them to ‘pull’ it otherwise (even through RSS depending on the reader)
I hope life’s good,
daniel
Thanks for clearing it up Chris. Now I have to figure out how to avoid reading your stuff twice whilst not missing your special offers
Daniel, points 1 and 2 are covered by Google Reader, although I think someone needs to be aware of your shared links for you to forward them. Great additional points though.
Chris, Thanks!
… of feeds, I’ve always preferred email subscribers for the very reasons you and Daniel list.
Despite the fabulociousness..
I don’t like sending attachments but do use email to give download links and especially like #’s 3,4,5 of email marketing…
Thanks again!
Can you answer this question? In case, you are holding a contest and you wish to randomly pick an email subscriber, how do you whether a particular person has subscribed to your feed. Is there any tool to know their emails so that the prizes or notifications can be mailed to them?