Let’s cut to the chase:
If you want to nurture leads and turn them into raving fans who will shout your virtues from rooftops (as well as buy whatever you’re selling), you need to learn the ins and outs of email marketing.
In this simple, easy-to-digest guide, you’ll learn:
When we’re done, you’ll have all the info you need to become an email marketing master.
Let’s dive in.
A guide this detailed needs easy-to-follow navigation, so we’ve broken everything down into different sections.
Click a link to jump to that section:
Up first, a quick definition:
Email marketing is a type of digital marketing strategy where emails are sent to nurture leads and convert them into customers. Email marketing forms a level of familiarity and trust with your subscribers through a series of automated emails, segmenting, tagging, and funnels.
You begin by creating a system that converts readers of your website into email subscribers. Typically, this system involves an incentive of some kind.
These incentives are known by many names…
…but whatever you call it, its mission is simple:
Convince readers to provide their email in exchange for the incentive.
The reader gives you his or her email, you give them your free bonus. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
With your email service provider and lead magnet, you can create a series of automated emails like a welcome series, newsletter, or a promotional campaign. These emails act as a brand builder to nurture subscribers and help them get to know your brand, message, and products.
When you compare an email campaign to social media, there’s really no contest:
Plus, you own your list — you don’t own your social media followers. If Pinterest or Facebook decided to close their doors forever, your social media followers would go too.
No other marketing channel lets you do this.
To begin, you will need two things:
There are both free and paid options but, to make your choices easier, I’ll go over the most recommended tools so you can pick from the one that better suits your needs.
An optin form is a place on your website that allows you to capture emails.
Here are a few of our favorites:
Having a call to action above the fold is an easy way to present an attention-grabbing signup form and alert new readers to what you’re offering.
It’s attention-grabbing because there are no other distractions.
Content upgrades can be additions to a certain blog post, a summarized version like a checklist or a more comprehensive walkthrough of the blog post topic.
This is a must for list building. By having a dedicated landing page for your optins, you can promote that page all over social media and even to your list.
Pop-ups are signup forms that unexpectedly appear, or “pop up,” while a user is on your website. You may think pop-ups are annoying but they do a darn good job at converting more so than traditional forms.
Bloggers would think placing an optin form on a blog’s sidebar would scream amateur, but here’s the thing…
Your readers are expecting to see a signup form on your sidebar.
Free recipes — Not one, but THREE eBooks?! Yep!! Signed up, got them and will be using them!
With your About page being one of the most read pages on your site, it’s no wonder that having an optin form is a given.
Jenn and Sam of This Tiny Blue House use a general optin incentive but make the signup form pop by using their brand colors.
To take advantage of email marketing strategies like segmentation, automated emails, tracking click-through rates, and open rates; you need a comprehensive email service provider.
There are lots of well-known email marketing services (ConvertKit, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, GetResponse, Sendinblue, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Infusionsoft by Keap), but we’re going to focus on only a few.
Here are four excellent email marketing services you can get started using today.
And “free” gets you a lot with MailerLite, which features a wide variety of graphical email templates and a drag-and-drop email designer. They feature automations, tags, segmentation, landing pages, beautiful popups, and more.
You’ll find all the usual features like tagging, segmentation, a visual automation builder, impressive deliverability, and strong integration with most of the popular internet marketing tools.
Their original, simple autoresponder functionality has given way to automations, powerful analytics, drag-and-drop email creation and more features that make it easy for beginners to set up campaigns.
They have the most complete feature sets including tags, segments, and a visual builder.
One factor to consider when choosing the best email marketing service for you is email deliverability.
Not all email providers are created equal.
To ensure your subscribers are receiving your wonderful, effective emails, they need to hit the inbox — not the spam folder or Gmail’s dreaded Promotions tab.
You’ve found your email service provider and lead capture tools.
Now, it’s time to focus on your audience and deliver a top-notch lead magnet to grow your list.
A lead magnet is a free offer — an optin bribe — and it’s usually:
Your free offer should help your reader save time, money, and/or energy.
While a cheat sheet or checklist seems too simple for people to get excited over, the fact that it IS easy is what makes it one of the best types of optin offers.
And successful bloggers know this.
To get the most out of your cheat sheet, you can monetize it by placing links to your affiliate products or your products inside the cheat sheet.
Templates are a step up from cheat sheets and checklists.
They are more applicable because they can pinpoint a problem and solve it quickly.
Kristin of Applecart Lane has got design-challenged bloggers covered with her free Pinterest templates.
If a checklist and template had a baby, they would make a worksheet.
Worksheets allow you to mark off progress from a framework. It’s also highly visual.
The best use of a worksheet is when you can help your audience go from point A to point B.
An easy way to create a little buzz around your products is to offer a sneak peek. From a free lesson to a free course, using a sneak peek as your lead magnet can boost conversions and sales.
Empower your audience by challenging them.
Lauren and Alex of Avocadu are killing it with their free motivational 21-day fat loss challenge. It ties in beautifully with their fat loss products.
Creating a challenge can take different forms — from video to email to even using a Facebook group.
But the easiest way to deliver a challenge is via a drip campaign. You can set trigger links to help segment your email list and nurture those into email funnels for your products.
Webinars are perceived as more valuable than other forms of freebies because they feel exclusive.
Allison from Wonderlass uses an optimized landing page to promote her free webinar.
What types of emails do you send now that you have a list of subscribers?
The email campaigns you set up will form an email nurture sequence that will help develop a relationship with your subscribers, forming a bond of trust and engagement with you.
Let’s look at four types of emails to send to your email list that builds trust and boosts conversions.
So, you better make it count!
A welcome email is simple enough — you welcome your subscribers to your business, why you’re the best person in your industry, and how you can help them.
Think of your welcome email as getting to know someone for the first time. What do you want them to know about you and what you do?
Your welcome email should also have links to any products you have, social media links you want to promote and, above all, a curiosity loop to nudge your new subscribers to open up your next email.
Something like, “Tomorrow I’ll be sending an email on how I got my strong-willed toddler to listen the very first time. You won’t believe this ridiculously simple parenting hack!”
This is what Elephant Journal did when they collaborated with Aspiration.
Newsletters work great if you let your subscribers in on exclusive email content you don’t publish anywhere else.
You can make each newsletter optimized for your products by using a call to action (CTA). Paul Jarvis lets his subscribers know about his new podcast season at the beginning of his email.
You can create a playlist of sorts and share interesting stories and resources you’ve found.
Take a page from Tailwind’s newsletter and share with your subscribers what you’re reading by curating content from around the web.
Email list segmentation occurs when you split your email list into sub-lists based on criteria you set.
For example, you can create a condition that whenever a subscriber clicks on a certain link in one of your emails, they are segmented into a new list for those interested in your eBook.
When you segment your email list, it allows you to provide relevant information to groups of subscribers rather than sending the same emails to an untargeted email list.
Now Melyssa can provide her new subscribers with the information they want.
There are several smart ways to segment your list. For example, a popular segment is by location.
If your business relies on events, you can use your subscriber’s location to send a targeted email of an upcoming event you are hosting in their city.
A person who takes the quiz will receive targeted emails based on their quiz results.
If you have multiple optin offers, you can set up segments based on your subscriber’s actions.
This is what Meera Kothand does by sending a breakup email to her list with one link in her email.
And one other way you can segment your list is by preference.
You can ask your subscribers if they want more information, less information, or new information.
Teachable created a new podcast and asked their subscribers if they want weekly emails about upcoming shows.
Giving your subscribers the option to be notified of new Facebook Lives, YouTube videos, or podcast episodes is a sure way to lower your unsubscribe rate and retain engaged subscribers.
While segmenting and keeping your list engaged can help improve your email open rates, there are other effective strategies you can use to see massive results.
When you email your subscribers, your message is competing with every other email in their inbox. If your subject lines are boring, your emails will get ignored.
The teeny-tiny thing I did to explode my Instagram followers!
Sounds more like an open-and-click email than one with this headline:
How I grew my Instagram followers
Sometimes all you need is a little flamingo and thumbs up emoji to brighten up your day.
You can give that feeling to your subscribers by using emojis in your subject lines.
However, use them sparingly, and only if they fit your brand and audience.
If you have a new product or offer, you probably want your subscribers to know about it, right?
To boost your overall open rates, resend your email to those who didn’t open it the first time.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a magical day or time to send your emails to get the best open rates.
You have some leeway on when you want to send your emails. I suggest you find your best time and your best day.
Personally, when I send emails on Thursdays at 2 pm, I get my highest open rates (and a boost in traffic).
Don’t leave email automation to large companies and businesses. Bloggers, solopreneurs, and savvy small business owners can also take advantage of this powerful email marketing feature.
Automation allows for specific targeted emails that are sent automatically once a condition is met.
For example, once someone signs up to someone’s lead magnet on organizing secrets, they are sent a series of automated emails about organization and time-saving hacks.
Using automation provides a better experience for your subscribers, which translates into a lower unsubscribe rate. Plus, automation frees up time — instead of sending real-time emails over and over, you set up an automated sequence once and let it do the rest.
Automating your emails is an excellent way to nurture your list.
You can help your subscribers move to the next course of action — grab your eBook offer, “like” your Facebook page, or listen to your podcast — through a series of email messages.
Each email has a purpose with the intent of educating your subscribers:
To give you an example of a simple automated email marketing campaign, let’s look at a “welcome” series.
Each welcome series is different, but this will give you a blueprint to follow and tweak:
A common welcome email series starts with giving the free download to your new subscribers.
Since welcome emails have the highest open rates, you need to make the most of this email.
If you don’t have any products to sell, that’s okay. Use this email to mention where your subscribers can find you on social media. Or, give them a second freebie as a token of appreciation.
The next email in your welcome series can be educational — help unaware subscribers learn what they’re struggling with and how you can help them.
Her masterclass is filled with actionable advice as well as case studies — like the one below from Julie Naismith — for email list building:
Your third email in your welcome series can be nurturing — help new subscribers get to know who you are and how your content can help them.
Focus on one tactic that is a huge pain point for your subscribers.
This is what I do for my third email in my welcome series. I share one easy way to get more people to your blog:
It’s up to you how many emails you want to automate for a welcome series.
Simply building a list of email leads isn’t enough…
You need to nurture those leads. You need to convert them into customers. And you need to turn them into true, dedicated fans.
In short, you need to embrace the power email marketing campaigns.
Thanks to this guide, you have the know-how.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Are you ready?
The post Email Marketing: The Simple, Definitive Guide [2022] appeared first on Smart Blogger.
