Tips, steps and strategies to email like a true professional.
Today, there are more than 400 million Twitter users. Over 800 million people take to Instagram to share pictures every day. More than 2 billion humans have profiles on Facebook. If you think that these are huge numbers, you might want to take a seat for the next one… There are more than 3.8 billion email users on a global scale!
With such premises, it is quite easy to see why email marketing is still the number one way to reach out to people.
This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer for more details.
Email marketing has been around for quite some time now. Even after so many years, it remains one of the most effective ways to promote products and services. You can reap some incredible benefits from an email marketing campaign.
Yet, you need to know what you are doing if you are want to get the best results over time. With a bit of extra effort, you will notice a true return on your investment, and time. Keep reading to learn more about our best email marketing tips for beginner bloggers and creative entrepreneurs!
Understanding your target audience
Before you even start composing your email, take a step back and look at the broader picture. Your first concern should be your audience. Who are you trying to reach? What are your readers interested in? Will they respond better to a casual slang, or a more formal tone? The key to writing a killer email is to do so with the readers in mind.
You’ll have to send a few emails and do some testing to figure this out in the beginning.
Start with a solid headline
A good headline is one of the most important elements to consider when composing an email. It should be catchy, and thought-provoking, prompting the audience to read your email. A great subject line can entice the reader, and tease the content of the email itself, without giving away too much.
The ‘trick” is to tickle the curiosity of the reader, possibly with an intriguing “clickbait.” You must find a way to grab your readers attention and pique their interest. This is where effective copywriting comes in.
For some people, this term is quite frowned upon, but there is nothing wrong with clickbait headlines if you back them up with content that will deliver on your promise and hold valuable, informative content. An example?
“Become a social media manager from home“ Discover how you can do it in 30 days.”
This headline is very effective because it appeals to readers in many ways. It’s offering a valuable solution to a problem, as well as teasing content effectively.
In this particular example, readers who are eager to start a potentially lucrative and flexible career as a social media manager from home, but don’t want to take an exorbitant amount of time to do it because they don’t have the time or resources to spend on a 4-year marketing degree.
A lot of response is triggered by this headline and the information and promise that it holds.
Here’s another:
50 Proven Email Headlines That Convert
Or: How to Earn 6 Figures as a Freelance Writer in 6 Months
Tailoring the text to appeal to your reader.
The headline is absolutely essential to appeal to your audience, but the text/body of your email is just as important. You might be able to attract people with a solid headline, but you need to deliver the promise and back it up with content that will actually bring some value to your readers.
Otherwise, a clickbait won’t lure them in the next time you send them an email.
If you have a fancy headline, but there’s no “meat” to the text, you are doing something wrong. Writing a great email is a little bit like painting a portrait.
The main subject needs to stay in focus. In spite of that, the surrounding details also matter, such as the color of the background, or the landscape in the distance.
This means that great text needs have a clear direction, and it has to put its focus into the right context.
The best way to achieve this is to follow a simple routine for your email texts, as follows:
- PROBLEM: Describe a problem that your audience might be experiencing.
- SOLUTION: Present your solution to the problem.
- CALL TO ACTION: “Ask” your readers to do something, such as purchasing a product, downloading a free opt in or reading an article.
This simple 3-parts outline is easy to follow, and it will help you come up with great email texts. Here’s an example!
“Tired of letting your friends have all the fun? Falco, is the only alcohol-free wine that tastes like the real thing, so you can hang, without the hangover! Try it now”.
As you can see, the above paragraph channels the 3 steps as discussed above.
Firstly, it highlights “the problem” readers might be experiencing. They feel left out of the fun times if they can’t drink, and don’t want to miss out on socializing. The solution comes in the form of a product description. The short sentence tells the reader what “Falco” is, and how it can “solve the problem.”
Last, but not least, the body of the text ends with a short, but effective “call to action,” inviting the readers to try the product. The above example features a short paragraph, but the same concept can be applied to longer texts as well.
| [convertkit form=1198770] |
Emphasize the Call To Action
As mentioned earlier, a “call to action” should be a really important component of any email marketing campaign. Yet, you would be surprised to learn how many marketers seem to overlook that!
Sending an email without a call to action is like telling someone the first half of a joke, without telling them the punchline!
You went through all the effort of telling the story, but you forgot the bottom line, which is to get the reader to take action, whether it is buying something, subscribing to a mailing list or clicking on a link.
Don’t underestimate the importance of a proper call to action. Always add links and contact details at the bottom, so readers can immediately be redirected to your content.
How to Promote Your Blog to Get the Most Traffic Online
Don’t overstay your welcome.
It’s always nice to have a guest visiting you for a day or two, but having a person crowding your place for longer than expected could be a true nuisance.
Remember the old saying, visitors are like fish – they start to stink after 3 days 🙂
In much the same way, your reader’s won’t appreciate your emails constantly flooding their inbox. Learn to know when enough is enough, and don’t send emails to your readers too often.
Overexpose could be perceived as spam, and it could drive people away.
Download 25 Proven Sales Email Templates Here
Use quality email marketing software
Email marketing software can be extremely valuable. There is a wide range of tools and service providers out there, enabling you to accomplish different tasks quickly, and effectively. Sending emails can be very time-consuming, especially if you need to dispatch and edit emails to large groups of users.
Dedicated automatic email marketing services can make mass-mailing easier, and more effective in the long run. Some programs like MailChimp are free up to 1,000 subscribers.
I recommend using a simple software such as ConvertKit which makes it easy to send customized, automated emails, sequences, templates, and forms all with the click of a button.
This is the best platform I’ve found for Creators. You can even sell your products online through them!
There are numerous others like Aweber, Mailerlite, MailChimp, and others so just make sure you do your research into one that works the best for you and fits into your budget.
Here’s a review of 2 of the most popular ones for entrepreneurs:
Convertkit VS Aweber For Automated Email Marketing
Be flexible and don’t rely on a single formula.
This article focused on giving you a few different formulas and suggestions. While it is important to become aware of proven standard practices in the industry, it is also vital to know when to think outside the lines.
Some of the most successful media campaigns out there is the brainchild of forward-thinkers. They aren’t afraid to use their creativity and break all the rules, if necessary!
When preparing for an email marketing campaign, allow yourself to be a visionary. Follow your instinct, rather than a preset formula, if the situation calls for it!
Email marketing is one of the most impactful ways of delivering your marketing message as well as growing the list of potential customers. Email marketing also helps increase your website traffic and connect with the audience.
When starting a business, it might be daunting to get people interested in your product/service and get them subscribed to receiving emails. But once you’ve made the first steps and have the people subscribed to your email list, it’s time to think about how to grow your email list.
So, we have gathered seven ideas that you might find useful in growing your email list.
Run a giveaway
If you want to extend your email list and attract new quality subscribers interested in your product, you should run a giveaway at some point.
Organizing a contest or a lottery is a great way to attract new people who would want to further receive emails from you. Create a contest related to your business and offer an attractive prize for the winners.
The prize could be a significant discount for buying a product (or even the possibility to get the product for free) or a free license. It can be anything you can give away.
Besides, you can ask people to share posts related to the contest or lottery or even include it in the rules of participation. In such a way, you’ll be able to spread a word about the contest quickly and even double the number of your followers.
But remember: always include a prize and be honest and transparent about it. People need to see that it’s truthful, and everyone has equal chances of winning. And the more attractive prize is, the more people you will attract.
It’s always better to include an email signature when you write an email. Such signatures add a personal touch to the letter as well as establish a more trustful relationship.
You can create an email signature at any point by using the intuitive email signature generator. Skillfully done, a signature acts like a ‘face’ of the company or the person showcasing all the relevant information.
But if you would like to grow your email list, you should also add a banner to your signature. You can use this banner as a platform, where you can include all other relevant information (except a phone number, an email address, and a job title that are included in the email signature).
A banner in the email signature can be used to promote an important business event. It can include a link to your website or blog. You can also add buttons like ‘Follow us on Instagram,’ ‘Follow us on Facebook,’ and so on. A banner can also be used as an extended CTA, where you can ask to ‘Subscribe for a newsletter’ or ‘Schedule a meeting now.’
Provide free tools and resources
If you write an email just to sell something or offer paid services, at some point, people will get irritated. No one likes to be manipulated and pushed into spending money, especially if they don’t clearly understand whether or not they need this product.
But if you give something for free, your audience will appreciate it a lot. People want to get some value from your emails, so if you provide it, it will be a win-win situation for both of you. Your audience will get valuable information, and you will grow your email list and, thus, the potential customers.
You can provide free resources, such as useful and helpful materials for users, ‘How to…’ guides, etc. Don’t forget to ask users to subscribe to get those free resources. In such a way, you can get users’ emails.
Giving free tools is also a great way to increase your email list significantly. Share any free online tools with your audience, and you will surely get the rewards later. It can be a free email marketing tool or any other important online tool that you can share with the audience.
How to Build Your Epic Online Business
Create custom call-to-action for each page
It is advisable to create a custom call-to-action for every landing page and even every blog post. In such a way, you are more likely to increase your email list and attract new people.
Take into account that personalized calls-to-action have a much higher view-to-submission rate than the ones created for all the visitors. It’s very logical, as different people with various interests read your blogs and landing pages. So, to cater to specific needs, you need to create a customized call-to-action.
For example, if you’ve noticed that a specific blog post attracts a lot of attention, why not include at the end of this post a CTA like ‘Download a free e-book (or a free tool)’ and ask the people to subscribe to your email list.
Constantly monitor what people are mostly interested in, what kind of articles they read, and so on. If you provide content the readers find interesting, and it meets visitors’ needs, they will want to subscribe to your email newsletters.
Run lookalike campaign on Facebook
If the list of your email subscribers isn’t that long, you might find new subscribers using social media. If your network on Facebook is big, then why not use the connections you have there to grow your email list?
Try pitching an email newsletter on your business Facebook page and see how it goes. People who follow you on Facebook are already interested in what you are doing, so give them also an option to subscribe to your email newsletters.
Try to share the most interesting posts from your blog on Facebook as well and then ask for an email subscription. Always stay in trend, see what people like, what they share the most, and how it’s related to your business. It can help you come up with new ideas and create content that people will read.
Also, participate in some discussions (relevant to your business area) on Facebook to stay in line with the trending topics. And don’t forget to encourage people to visit your blog (or any other channels) where they can sign up for your email list.
Provide subscription options
A very traditional way to ask people to subscribe for the newsletter is by merely including the option with the text ‘Join Our Email List’ or ‘Subscribe to Our Newsletter.’ Sounds familiar? You’ve probably seen it yourself several times. Sometimes it works, but very often, it sounds too boring and might take people away from actually subscribing to the list.
So, instead of saying ‘Sign Up,’ you can write ‘Download this free e-book and include your email,’ or ‘Access our offer with your email,’ etc. In such a way, you describe some value while asking people to join your email list.
Another variant is to offer ‘subscribers only’ encouragement. It’s a great way to make your current subscribers feel valuable. You can share some coupons or free content with your subscribers. And to attract new subscribers, you can offer discount for first-time users.
Partner up with somebody
To increase your email list, you can partner up with someone so that the partners reference each other and ask to subscribe to each other’s email list.
Each partner runs a campaign that will be relevant to the audience and mention each other and put a note on the email that anyone who clicks will be added to your email list.
You can partner with local businesses that can share the customers’ base with you. You can also promote each other’s specials via email, offer one another’s email list, and indicate all the advantages of subscribing.
You might also partner with some online businesses that are directly or indirectly related to what you are doing. You can promote each other’s products as well as encourage customers to subscribe to one another’s email lists.
We hope that all these ideas are beneficial and useful and will help you to grow your email list significantly.
In conclusion
Email marketing offers an ocean of possibilities. If you are able to navigate these waters with confidence, you will be able to travel far and discover new connections, customers and a profitable return on your investment.
Remember that success might not happen overnight and that you need to be consistent to enjoy the fruits of your hard labor. Building a solid customer base means first building trust.
How To Build Trust with Your Readers
If you think that your emails aren’t working, don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board, and rethink your strategy.
Always learn from your mistakes, and each new iteration of your email campaign is a step closer towards perfection. Keep an open mind, and embrace evolution, an absolute hallmark of a fast-paced industry, which often never stands still and motionless.
The best email marketers know how to evolve their strategies and keep refining their vision over time.
15 Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List
Please comment, like and share on social!
And don’t forget to sign up for the ultimate ways to drive traffic to your site, promote your blog posts, and build an epic business online!
[convertkit form=1193486]
Leave a Reply