Empire Avenue shareholder mail is a topic of much debate on the Avenue. Many people say it’s a waste of time. Some people never read the mail so they assume nobody does. Others have tried sending shareholder mail and didn’t get the response they were looking for. In my experience: Empire Avenue shareholder mail works. To quote @SharonHayes :

I’m impressed.

Sharon played Empire Avenue but deleted her account to focus on a major project. When she finished the project she returned. To help her get even more momentum I sent out a shareholder mail telling everyone she was now back and available. I told my shareholders about her numbers before she quit and that I expected them to double their money by the end of the week. She gained 22 new investors in less than 10 minutes. Her price went up almost 2 eaves in about 20 minutes. Fortunately she kept me honest and more than doubled by the end of the week.

The first thing you must have is a goal. There are many things that can be accomplished. Here are some goals I have gone after with my mail:

• Get traffic to a blog post.
• Get comments on a blog post.
• Help a friend promote their ebook or other product.
• Help a friend sell shares.
• Get people to join your #EAv community.
• Get people to tweet out a link to an event or something special.
• Get people to follow/friend/like etc. on other social networks.
• Create new partnerships for guest blogs and affiliate promotions.
• Simply get likes/comments on the mail
• Enhance engagement with your shareholders

The trick to a successful shareholder mail is simple: provide value. A while ago I started the #EAv lottery. I give away up to $50 to Amazon every 2 weeks based on the number of shares they own. Of course people love to win money so they bought me up. When the first Empire Avenue Lottery winner was drawn I actually posted who it was in a blog post so I could get traffic to my blog. Then I wrote a mail that was titled Lottery “Winner and Tips.” I started the mail by telling people a few things I do to increase my dividends and connect on #EAv. People clicked on the link because they wanted to see if they won. I got traffic by A)providing tips and B)giving away money.

Not everyone is doing this for a business though so giving money doesn’t make sense for most players. I continue to conduct the lottery but I have done several other incentives to create a successful mail.

• Ask people to leave a link to a blog post, video, or photo they would like a comment on.
• Commit to buying shares if someone comments, tweets, or does something else you would like them to do.
• Ask people to leave links to a social network sites so you can make sure you are following them.
• Simply provide tips for playing Empire Avenue or links to articles that you find helpful.