Are your new subscribers downloading and dashing off?

Download dashers are people who unsubscribe immediately after getting something for free, either by intent on doing so before they even sign up for your email list, or by non-intent by being displeased with something they experienced in the process of starting to receive communications from you.

Not going to lie here – I have unsubscribed from brands and other creators immediately, but only after being sorely disappointed (expectations of download didn’t match the hype) or after receiving three (3) emails in a row from them. And, now that I think about it, I’ve unsubscribed from email lists I joined off of Instagram after discovering that they all had the same email subject line as the second email. [Seriously – who is teaching the Stepbrothers “Did we just become best friends?” subject line for the 2nd or 3rd email subject line because c’mon… not original and all your emails look the same!]

Hey I get it, you have a lot of information you might want to share, and I know you’ve probably been told to strike while the iron is hot, because that’s when your subscribers are the most interested in your brand. That’s correct. But what they didn’t sign up for is a bombardment of emails and a frequency of rapid-fire emails. And they certainly don’t want to stay on your email list if you’re delivering disappointing documents.

Things with Download Dashing You Can Control

Some of the issues with download dashing you can actually control. But there are other behaviors, like no intent of ever doing business with you, that also contribute to download dashing in general. These are things that can wreak havoc on your email list metrics, so if there’s a problem that you can fix or somehow control and curb some bad behavior in the process, that’s the goal with this particular challenge. Here are a few things you can absolutely control:

• The welcoming / onboarding experience and how impressive your introduction is
• The frequency of your welcoming / onboarding emails
• The curiosity you pique when you leave your reader lingering and wanting more at the end of an email
• Self-segmenting to help people identify what they are most interested in
• The kind of solutions you provide and your price points
• The audience demographic you attract
• The copy and visuals in your emails

Things You Cannot Control with Download Dashing

Nine times out of ten, you’re going to have issues related to above topics that are causing an immediate unsubscribe. But what about the other 10%? Guess what. Bad news. There’s probably some negative behavior happening, especially if you’re in a competitive market or one that is oversaturated. [I get it – I work in a saturated market where a ton of stay-at-home moms create templates and automatically call themselves graphic designers with absolutely zero professional training or higher education in my field whatsoever].

Here’s some things you can’t control about that:

• Being so awesome people want to copy you (must be doing something right?)
• People lacking creative skills who think downloading and dashing with your materials is okay, and do so with no intention of supporting your business or giving you the credit you deserve for your ideas
• VAs who are unscrupulously scraping for content ideas and “recreating” your work with a few modifications. Voila. They have a new product for their client, your competitor, who is probably unaware of it.

Customer Apathy – a Big Factor in Download Dashing?

But sometimes, people download and dash due to apathy. They’ve been conditioned into knowing that some flashy sales pitch for a $1000 course is just a few emails away, because guess what: the sender (you) sounds just like everyone else they’ve heard from. Apathy. Disinterest settles in. Immediate unsubscribe. Nothing about you sounds remotely different from all the other gurus and experts. And that’s why a lot of your immediate unsubscribes happen.

But there are also other reasons and issues you might not even be aware that you have, which I cover in The Story Your Email List Tells, which is a unique document that I put together with a TON of words that explain the situation of 10 specific email problems, including download dashing,

Ideas to Combat Download Dashing

Let me help you out a little bit on this download dashing thing with three key questions to ask, and a few ideas. Plus, I’ll share a few things you absolutely need to know about download dashing.

Here’s what you need to start with in asking yourself some hard, beautiful questions:

• Are you introducing your brand to your new reader with a bad impression due to messaging or email frequency?
• At what point do you see the most amount of unsubscribes in your welcome funnel?
• Do you have competitors who you suspect have been downloading and copying your work… or even using their VAs to do it [yes, this happens all the time]?

So again, there are some things you can control here, and even with the competitors, there are some beautifully humiliating ways to combat competitors from using your hard work and creativity for unethical purposes. [Because you want the behavior to stop, right?]

Here are some things you absolutely need to know about download dashing:

1. Anytime you have download dashing behavior, there is something terribly wrong happening. There’s nothing good that comes out of this unless you check it and fix it. It could be a competitor harvesting your materials or you could have some messaging / visuals that are absolutely NOT slaying it for you. Think of it as money hemorrhaging from your pockets or leaving it on the table carelessly.
2. Over 50% of the time, in working with clients who have reached out to me to fix their email sequences and funnels, I discover that the “freebie” or lead magnet being offered is generic information that can be attained elsewhere, or lacks substantive value. Being skimpy with your lead magnets is not ideal when these are the primary drivers of your email list.
3. About 25% of the time when I’m asked to look at someone’s email funnel sequence system, I find out that they’re emailing WAY too much initially, and promoting WAY too early. Asking for a high amount for a product or service without giving your newly-acquired reader to get to know you first.

Going to level with you here – all the great ideas and initial questions posed above are not going to fix your download dashing problem alone. When I was working out download dashing problems, there were a bunch of things and behaviors with my list that I had to figure out. So I put together “The Story Your Email List Tells” as a way to help you identify, diagnose, and figure out what your specific problem or challenge may be for a lot of different email list and marketing-related problems.

Plus, it gives you tasks and goals to work on and attain as you improve your email list situation. This is something I wish I had when I started with a fresh email list. Hindsight is 20/20 on this! But you don’t have to struggle like I did. I lay it all out so you can see what I did, what I struggled with the most, and what I did to take care of each issue.

This is a 160+ page interactive guidebook that walks you through specific email list challenges and provides 10 solutions/activities to work on for each situation. Plus, you’ll learn metrics you can work on and what to look for, how to encourage more sales from those lurking & downloading, but never buying, and how to set up workflows that combat inactivity, low open rates, download dashers, and more. And finally, you’ll learn an easy to implement system to get your funnels organized, and create a smooth transition from one to the next.

10 challenges with tactical & strategic solutions for the creative email list marketer. A 100+ page interactive guidebook to help guide you through 10 different email list challenges, including:

• Not enough subscribers (list isn’t big enough – I need list-building help)
• List never grows and shrinks with every email (list growth doesn’t outweigh unsubscribe rate)
• Unsubscribe right after freebie (download and dashers)
• Downloads all freebies and resources but never buys (lurking but never investing)
• No sales from emails (no one is buying)
• Low open rate (are my emails boring or lack value?)
• Low email to blog rate in nurturing sequence (no one reads all my helpful tips and added value content)
• My email sequences are all out of whack and unorganized
• I’m not telling any stories in my emails (not relating to my audience)
• I’m not selling unless I’m emailing (need help with nurturing and nudging)

Inside you’ll receive activities, tactical solutions, and a larger strategy to make your email list building and management effective and easy.

You’ll learn:

1. What the problem seems to be (the cliche response) versus what the problem actually is
2. Tactical steps to improve each scenario
3. Strategies to implement that will align your brand with a bigger picture result
4. Metrics to shoot for at various stages (beginner, advanced, intermediate)
5. Goals (both long- and short-term) to work on each month
6. My own story with each challenge and what I did to correct them (a behind-the-scenes look at my funnels, stats, and more)
7. Workflows to set up to conquer download dashers and set up rewards-based system to give favor to your most loyal readers
8. What to check in diagnosing any of these challenges
9. How to test and measure results
10. Quick fixes (for the short-term results) and long-term solutions (for achieving those big dreams of yours)
11. Other thoughts and suggestions I’ve given clients I’ve worked with and implemented myself that have been helpful

Ready to finally solve your email list growth challenges once and for all? Download the guidebook today!