Whether or not someone decides to actually read your incoming message (let alone LOOK for it in ANTICIPATION) depends largely upon how well you train them. That’s right, the ball is in YOUR court.

You call the shots here.

We’ll get to that in a moment.

The important thing I want to talk about in “adjusting your subscribers expectations” is that of consistency.

Consistency.

Say that out loud with me. Con – sis – ten – cy.

All training revolves around consistency. Around repetition.

If you want to become a good free throw shooter, you shoot free throws over and over and over again.

If you want to be the best burger flipper down at the local fast food joint, you gotta flip burgers over and over and over again.

If you want to become a mediocre burger flipper (maybe you just aren’t that motivated), you still gotta flip burger after burger to learn how to do it well enough to keep your job!

The point is: all training requires consistency.

And if you really want folks to read your mailings, you gotta train them. You gotta be consistent with them.

Let’s talk about that.

There are a couple of different ways to accomplish this.

First, there is consistency in QUANTITY. That is, you publish content on a regular, consistent, dependable, predictable schedule.

Every Tuesday your subscribers can expect a new 5-page downloadable report.

Your newsletter is always available on Friday nights.

A new post at your Blog shows up every weekday morning.

Your subscribers can download a weekly audio training message to start their week off on Mondays.

The point is to be consistent in when you publish your content (and even your offers) Adjust your subscribers’ expectations. Train them to know when and how you’ll be making information available to them.

Secondly, there is consistency in QUALITY. That is, you publish content that is far superior to any “competition” out there.It can be superior in “substance.”
If you consistently share more useful information than your competition, then you naturally can expect folks to read your mailings. John Reese is a prime example at Income.com . When he publishes his newsletter, I guarantee you the overwhelming majority of his subscribers STOP what they are doing to read it. (I know I do!) It’s that good and it’s that far ahead of the pack. Enough said.

It can be superior in “style.”
Maybe you can blow away your competition in your writing style. While Paul Myers’ Talkbiz News certainly blows away competition in substance, I read it because of his style. Paul is super-witty and I find myself not only being educated, but also being entertained. That’s a rare combination and one that will get you some attention if you can pull it off. Tell stories, be personal, get motivational, share Bible scripture, get creative. Your delivery – your presentation – can be just as powerful a motivator to get folks to read as the information you share.

It can be superior in “story.”
You can also have your own unique FEATURE or COLUMN to share in each publication that folks will automatically flock to each time you release a new issue. I’m going to give you a quick example below to hopefully get your creative juices flowing. The idea here is to have some regular feature of your publication that is so unique, so interesting that folks will want to read each issue just to see what’s next in the feature.