Aweber - Thank You: Another Critical Opportunity to Create Subscriber Expectations

This post is #2 in a three-part series on expectations. Read part 1 here.

Your thank you page is a critical stage in your email marketing because it links two types of interactions your subscribers have with you.

Immediately before they sign up, they’re interacting with you on your website, with their web browser. They’re 100% in charge of the situation. They can leave at any time and you’ll never even know who they were.

After they subscribe, however, they’ve agreed to interact with your business in a whole new way you pushing information to them when you choose), in a whole new environment (their email software instead of just their web browser).

To effectively transition new subscribers between those interactions, good email marketers set expectations using the thank you page.

Aren’t Subscribers’ Expectations Already Set Before They Sign Up?

If you’ve properly set expectations in your opt-in form, you might feel like your work is done.

After all, you’ve already told them what they’ll get and how often - and you obviously sold them on your emails because they signed up. There aren’t any other expectations to manage.

Right?

Why You Must Create and Reinforce Expectations Right After The Opt-In

Here’s the trouble with thinking that expectations are all set before the opt-in: you’re assuming that the minute they subscribe, all of your new readers are immediately…

being transported to their email inboxes to fef read your first email.
adding your “from” email address to their address books.
doing whatever you want/need them to do with that first email.

If you’ve figured out how to make all of that automatically happen for one of your subscribers, let alone all of them, please tell me how

Upon signing up to your list, new subscribers have a few questions that you need to answer right away:

“What just happened?” (Did that form thing-a-ma-jig do what I wanted it to? Am I subscribed?)
“What happens next?” (When do I get my first email? Who’s it coming from? What’s it going to look like?)
“What do I do now?” (Do I just sit back and wait? Do I have to do anything else?)

Answer These Questions With Your Thank You Page.

This first “post-subscribe” experience is a chance to reaffirm subscribers’ decision to share their email addresses with you.

Spell things out for them! Tell them:

What Just Happened (they have subscribed successfully)
What’s Happening Next (that you’re sending them an email - what the subject line is - what from name and email address it’s coming from - and what’s inside the email)
What They Should Do (go to their inbox, open that email, possibly click on something in it—like a confirm link—and also add your email address to their address books)

P.S. Remember to thank them for subscribing!

Creating expectations on your thank you page is especially important because they help your new subscriber “connect the dots” between the time they spent on your website and the emails they’ll receive from you days/weeks/months later.