Web Traffic Tips: Email Groups

I’m going to take a guess and bet that you are not using this traffic strategy ~ in fact, I’d be willing to bet you’ve never even thought of it!

Email groups ~ remember those? Yahoo groups, and now Google groups. Those email lists you can join where the entire conversation is held via email messages?

OH MAN!! I love Yahoo groups. Don’t get me started.

Ok, in case you are not familiar with email groups ~ and you may not be, they seem to have gone by the wayside with Facebook and Twitter being all the rage these days, but … they are still alive and well, and will bring you traffic if done right!

Email groups: A group of people who have a common interest join a group and have conversations and discussions about the topic via email.

If you’ve never seen these before let me show you how to find them, because there is literally a yahoo or google group and ANY topic you can imagine!!

I like Yahoo groups a little better, but that’s probably because I’ve been using them longer ~ Google groups are fine too.

Go to Yahoo (you’ll have to have a yahoo account)

Once you have an account go to http://groups.yahoo.com. (you can click it ~ it opens in a new window)

If you’re not signed in you will have to sign in.

Once you’re signed in you’ll see the groups homepage and be able to search the groups for any topic you want. YAY.

Go ahead, search something related to your topic or to the market that uses your topic. If you have a location specific blog this is a GREAT place to find others to connect with in that area.

When your search comes up here’s a few things to look at before you decide to join a group.

How many members? It will tell you how many members belong to this group. You want to find a group with some members ~ the number is up to you, but this is about leveraging your time ~ a group with 5 members can bring you no more than 5 visitors.

Email traffic? How many emails is this group generating? When you find a group you like, click on the title and it will take you to the group home page. If you scroll around you’ll see a chart of the group message activity. It will show you how many messages get sent through the group each month.

Here’s the chart for the group in the picture above:

What is an acceptable level will depend on YOU, your email habits, how you handle email coming in. I personally LOVE email andI don’t really care how much comes in. There have been some groups I’ve opted out of though because there was a lot of email ~ and I wasn’t responding to any of it. So for this group you’re going to get 10 or 15 emails a day from this list. But remember you can possibly reach 10 THOUSAND people each time you respond to a message (on this group).

So think about it. You can always change how you read messages in your group settings ~ you can have your messages come as a daily digest ~ where all the emails are in one email, or you could read them on the web only ~ however, I find the groups I’ve set to web only, I never read.

Group policies? You want to read through the group policies and make sure you’re clear on what their policies are. Of COURSE there is a no spam rule,but you also want to check on the policy regarding signatures. Most groups allow them, but some don’t. If the group you found doesn’t allow signatures, then don’t join.

Found a good related group?

Go ahead and join. There will be a message that says “join group”. Click that button and you will be given some options you need to fill out.What email address you want them sent to etc. Some groups will ask you to answer a few short questions about yourself and why you want to participate. Don’t tell them it’s for marketing please. lol.

How is this going to get me traffic?

As you may have guessed it’s your email signature that is going to get you traffic. You already have a signature file in your email right?

Your signature file in your email is just like the one you use in forum marketing, except it will be in your email.  Setting up a signature file is really easy but there are so many different email programs out there it would be impossible to explain everyone.  If you’re using Gmail ~ find the settings (usually in the top right hand corner) and then scroll down. You’ll see  a box that allows you to put your signature in there. Just remember most email programs strip out html so I usually just use a line of text and then the url ~ which will be clickable in most cases.

How do I get started?

Once you’ve applied and been accepted to the group you’ll begin to receive emails from the group. If you want to respond all you have to do is click the reply button in your email! It’s so simple. Type your message and then click send. It will automatically go out to all the members of the group who are receiving emails, and your signature will be attached as well.

If your website is well aligned with the topic of the group you will find some people will click the signature link and go to your site.

Does this really work?

When I first started my site Road to Bike Across Kansas I joined some Kansas Bike yahoo groups. Not because I was trying to get traffic to my site, but because I wanted to talk about how to get ready to do Bike Across Kansas! I had quite a few people not only click through to my site but become regular readers. They also decided to follow me at twitter and facebook which really allowed me to get to know them and them me as well. Yes, it really works if you do it right.

How do you do this right?

This really should just go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway because… well you know.

DO NOT SPAM THE GROUP!!

What is considered spam?

Any messages that are not directly related to the conversation at hand.

Any messages you send just to tell people about your website.

Any messages where you solely just try to get people to go to your website.

DON’T DO IT. It will not be tolerated and you will be kicked out of the group.  Again, let your signature do the talking and you just participate in the conversation. Be helpful, give suggestions, answer questions. Interact and participate.

What if one of my blog posts answers a specific question?

well… how long have you been in the group and how much have you participated?

Have you built up some credibility with the group? Have you participated? Have you answered questions? If you’ve done that then I say it would be ok ** in the context of your answering a specific question ** you could link to your blog post for more information.

Be judicious with it, and only do it when your blog post specifically answers the question/problem going on in the conversation.

How am I going to do this without wasting the whole day?

Good question. I personally use email for my “breaks”. lol. (I told you I love email). So when I need a 5 minutes break between tasks I’ll read my latest emails and respond if necessary. This includes my yahoo group emails.

If you don’t want to do that, you could create a folder or a rule and have the emails from the group go directly into a folder so you could set a timer and check them and reply for 15 minutes a day.

Either one of  those options would work ~ or you might come up with something unique to yourself. If you have a unique system that’s working for you I’d love to hear it.

Have you used email groups to drive traffic to your site? I’d love to hear your success stories, feel free to share them in the comments section!