Quick A-Z of Email Marketing

Quick A-Z of Email Marketing

Authority

People have no interest in following weak leaders. That’s why you want to show confidence and authority in every email you send. Here’s how:

• Offer great content. Give your readers something they can’t find anywhere else, and they’re sure to start viewing you as a niche authority.

• Write with confidence. Don’t create content that makes it seem as if you’re wishy washy and second-guessing what you’re sharing. In addition, don’t give your readers a lot of options (as that will confuse them). Instead, guide them to the best option for their needs.

• Provide tools. Another way to establish your authority in a niche is to offer tools that help people get great results. These tools include checklists, worksheets, cheat sheets, process maps and similar items.

Buyer Persona

Before you write a single word of an email, you need to know as much as possible about your audience. That means you’ll want to research your audience and then create a buyer persona, which is a profile of your ideal buyer.

Here are questions you’ll need to research and be able to answer in order to draft this buyer persona (which may require surveying your market):

• What are your buyers’ demographics? (E.G., age, location, income, gender, etc.)

• What sort of solutions have your buyers tried in the past?

• Why haven’t those solutions worked?

• What are their biggest challenges in the niche?

• What motivates them?

• What sort of solutions do they want?

• What would make it easier for them to get good results?

Once you know the answer to these questions, then you’ll have a better understanding of your reader, and that means you’ll be able to create content that really resonates with them.

CTA

Every good email should include a CTA (Call to Action) at the end. This CTA instructs your reader to take a specific action, such as watch a video, buy a product, join another list, register for a webinar, or something similar. Ideally, you should give readers a good reason to take action now.

E.G., “Click here now to register for this free webinar – and hurry, because the limited seats will fill up fast!”

Deliverability

When you’re researching email service providers, be sure to look for a company that values deliverability. This means they work hard to ensure your emails land in the intended recipient’s inbox, rather than in a spam/bulk folder.

Evergreen

If you want content that works for you over the long term, then be sure your autoresponder emails are evergreen. Here’s how:

• Avoid references that date the content. For example, don’t talk about events that just happened or are just coming up, and don’t mention specific years, seasons, months, or dates.

• Share evergreen strategies and content. In other words, don’t promote fads. Instead, stick with “tried and true” content that was good advice last year, is good advice now, and will remain good advice.

Freemium

One of the keys to growing your list is to offer something enticing – a freemium (lead magnet) – in exchange for a prospect’s email address. In order to be effective, this freemium should have the following characteristics:

• Make sure it’s something the audience really wants. (Do your market research if you don’t know what your audience wants.)

• It should be valuable, something you could easily sell.

• Ensure it naturally leads to your paid offers. E.G., If you’re selling a meal planning app, then offer a “lite” version for free.

Goals

Before you sit down to craft any specific email or even a series of emails, you need to be clear about your goal for that email. Examples of common goals include:

• Generating a sale.
• Getting people to download a freemium.
• Building your brand.
• Establishing your authority/expertise.
• Promoting a partner’s business.
• Getting event registrations.
• Building anticipation for an upcoming sale.

And similar goals.

Here’s the key: choose just ONE primary goal before you start writing. If you try to achieve too many goals, your email won’t be effective at helping you achieve any of them.

Hard Bounce

A hard bounce is when an email bounces because the email address is invalid. It’s a good idea to clean hard bounces out of your sending list, as it can harm your reputation to keep sending emails to an address that doesn’t exist. What’s more, you often pay for every email on your list if you’re using a third-party service, so cleaning up your list makes room for valid addresses.

TIP: Using double opt in (e.g., confirmed opt in) ensures you’re sending emails to valid addresses for new subscribers.

Inactives

Inactives are the people on your list who have valid email addresses, but they’re not opening, reading, or clicking on your emails anymore. In other words, they’ve grown cold.

The solution? Start a re-engagement campaign to entice these inactive subscribers to start opening their emails again. You’ll need to write exceptional subject lines that promise something enticing, such as a juicy freemium.

E.G., “Others pay $100 – for you it’s free (see inside)…”

Joint Venture

One way to grow your list is to do joint ventures with others in your niche. For example:

• Co-promote each other from within your emails.
• Recommend your partner’s list on your newsletter confirmation page.
• Swap newsletter articles with your partner.
• Trade solo email ads with your partner.

K.I.S.S.

If you’re just getting started building an email list, you may realize there are a lot of pieces and parts that go into creating a profitable list. But before you get overwhelmed, just remember K.I.S.S.: keep it simple, stupid.

How? By employing the bare minimum to get your list up and running. This means:

• Create one lead magnet.
• Craft one initial autoresponder series.
• Choose one product to sell in this series.
• Choose one source of traffic.

Get these pieces up and running, and then you can start adding additional pieces (more emails, more traffic sources, etc.).

Lead Page

One of the first steps in creating a big and profitable list is to create a compelling lead page. This is a page that dangles an enticing lead magnet (free product) in front of your prospects in exchange for their email address.

Follow these tips:

• Create a benefit-driven, attention-getting headline. This is the single most important part of your lead page, so be sure to create something that gets attention. E.G., “Discover the secrets of [getting some result]… FREE!”

• Use a bulleted list of benefits. Let prospects know how it benefits them to join your list and receive the lead magnet. E.G., “You’ll discover a simple trick for turning back the hands of time 10 years – you won’t believe how well this works!”

• Test and track this page. A service like LeadPages.net not only makes it easy to build an attractive lead page, it also makes it easy to test and track changes so you can boost your conversion rate.

Mobile Friendly

Most of your prospects are viewing your lead page and reading your emails on their phones. That means that both items need to be mobile friendly. Be sure to:

• Use responsive designs that look great on devices of all sizes.
• Space links out so that they’re easy to tap on a small screen.
• Test your lead page and emails across multiple devices and platforms to make sure everything looks good, and the opt-in form works well.

Nurture

People do business with those they know, like and trust. And that’s why you need to nurture your relationships with your list, so you become the publisher that everyone knows, likes and trusts.

Follow these tips:

• Provide a mix of content and pitch. Too much advertising, and your readers will turn away. Too much content (with no comprehensive solutions in the form of a product), and your readers will also turn away. Find a balance, such as 80% free content and 20% pitch in every email.

• Promote honestly. This means promoting based on what’s best for your readers, rather than what’s best for you.

• Stay in touch. For a good relationship to grow, you need to email your list at least weekly.

Outsourcing

Email marketing may sound like a pretty big task, especially when you consider all the content you need to create in order to build relationships with subscribers. The good news is that you don’t need to do it all yourself. Instead, you can outsource this task to skilled writers by posting projects on sites like Upwork.com or searching Google for ghostwriters.

Just be sure to do your due diligence so that you end up with freelancers who produce quality work on time.

Personalization

With most autoresponders, you have the option of getting personal information during the opt-in process, such as the prospect’s name. Use this option, because simple personalization – such as addressing the subscriber by name in the subject line or the beginning of the email – can have a positive impact on conversion rates.

Qualified Lead

One of the keys to creating a responsive list is to make sure you’re attracting qualified leads. These are people who are interested in what you’re selling. Here’s how to attract these types of leads:

• Use targeted traffic sources, such as joint ventures and pay per click ads with tightly related keywords.

• Offer a targeted lead magnet. If you offer something too general, you’re going to end up with an unresponsive list.

• Send targeted content. This ensures you have a good open rate.

Re-engagement Campaign

Sometimes a list grows cold, such as when you haven’t written to your subscribers in a while. That’s when you need to create a re-engagement campaign. This is a series of three to seven high-value emails that you use to get your subscribers opening and reading your emails again.

For example, if you have a weight loss list, you might start out with giving them a freemium (such as a meal planning app), and then sharing the five secrets of rapid weight loss (with each “secret” revealed in one of the five emails).

Segmentation

One way to boost your conversion rates is to segment your list. This means separating it into targeted groups. That way you can send content and offers that are ultra-targeted to each segment.

The most obvious way to segment your list is to separate prospects from buyers. However, you should take it a step further. For example, segment lists based on:

• Specific products your customers purchase.
• Specific freemiums your prospects claim.
• Who attends your webinars.
• People who join your contest.

You may even ask new subscribers to check which topics interest them the most, and then segment your list based on their self-identified interests.

Triggers

Many autoresponders let you automate certain email marketing tasks. The activity with starts the automation is called the trigger. Making use of triggers and automation is a great way to create more of a hands-free list.

For example:

• When someone subscribes to one of your lists, you may unsubscribe them from another.
• When someone clicks on a link, it triggers a follow up email.
• When someone opens (or doesn’t open) an email, it triggers a follow up email.
• When someone expresses interest in a topic (such as by clicking a link), they get segmented or subscribed to a new list.

USP

Ever notice there are a lot of other people in your niche who are all selling similar solutions and publishing similar newsletters? If you want to carve out your fair share of profits in your niche, then you need to find a way for your newsletter, products, and your business as a whole to stand out. This is referred to as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Basically, your USP tells prospects how you are not only different but better than your competitors. It gives your prospects a reason why they should do business with you.

For example:

• You provide a unique guarantee.
• You have unique qualifications to teach the material.
• You pioneered a strategy or product in your field.
• You offer the lowest or highest price.
• You offer something that no one else in your niche offers.

… And similar things that set you apart.

Once you figure out what makes you different and better, then be sure to express your USP in every email you send.

Viral Content

One really good way to grow your list is by encouraging existing subscribers to share your newsletter with their friends. To encourage this sharing, you need to create viral content – something that’s truly shareworthy. Shareworthy content includes these characteristics:

• It’s easy to share, such as when people can do it with a click of the mouse or tap of the finger.
• It’s novel, so people are more inclined to share because no one has ever seen anything like it.
• It evokes an emotional response.
• It’s extremely useful.

Welcome Series

Whether you’re welcoming new subscribers to your prospect list or developing a relationship with customers who just made their first purchase from you, it’s a good idea to create a welcome series (AKA onboarding sequence). This is a series of emails that introduce the reader to what you offer and helps them get the most benefit from your offer.

For example, if you’re onboarding new customers, then you want to walk them through the main benefits of your product and encourage them to start using it. That’s because people who use the product are going to be satisfied customers, which in turn leads to referrals and repeat purchases.

X-ray

To create a responsive list, you need to take an x-ray of your campaigns. This means taking a close look by testing and tracking your campaigns to see what’s really working.

Here are the main components to test and track:

• Subject lines, which is the factor that tends to have the biggest impact on open rates.
• The product you’re promoting.
• The overall offer, including price.
• Calls to action.
• The day and time you send your emails.

Most email service providers offer built-in tracking tools so that you can randomly split your list to determine which variable creates the best conversion rates for you.

Just be sure to test only ONE variable at a time so that you can say with confidence whether a particular variable affected conversions.

For example, if you test subject lines, then ONLY test subject lines (don’t also change the calls to action or any other part of the email, otherwise you’ll muddy your results).

You

One of the keys to keeping your readers engaged is to create reader-oriented content. Simply put, this means that you create content that includes the word “you” (and similar) a lot more than it includes words such as I, me, and mine.

Simply put, readers don’t care about you (the author). They only care about you to the extent that they want to know how you can help them, and how it benefits them to do business with you. They’ll lose interest if you talk about yourself too much, so keep the focus on your reader by using the word “you” often.

Zip Code

Do you know where your prospects live? If yes, you may consider segmenting your list based on geography. That way, you can send emails out during prime reading time (rather than when your subscribers are asleep).

I hope you found value in my Quick A-Z of Email Marketing post and can start to implement some of the strategies to improve and increase your results.

But so far, you’ve seen just the tip of the email marketing iceberg. If you want to learn how to grow and monetize a list of ready-to-buy customers who want what you are selling then you need to check out Email Marketing Profit Principles.

To Your Success!