10 Little-Known Email Marketing Tips for Bloggers
Who has a list in the hundreds of
millions, only mails once a year, and maintains a 100% open rate?
Santa.
That “stat” shouldn’t surprise you.
Of course kids are going to open their presents. If only people opened their
emails the same way.
Taking a closer look, I came up with
four underlying reasons why all presents are opened and gathered ten relevant
tips to help you improve the email marketing strategy for your blog.
The
Likely Extent of Your Email Marketing Strategy
If you’re like most bloggers, you
have an opt-in at the top of your sidebar. You have a couple dozen subscribers.
And you consistently get a 20% open rate/8% click-through rate with emails that
you send out sporadically every few weeks.
This is because you’ve focused on
building a list without having a strategy for once you have one. I want to help
you with that.
People
Need to Expect and Anticipate Your Emails
Li’l Johnny is excited on Christmas
morning because he expects to find a pile of presents. More importantly, he
knows that those presents contain gifts that he’s been wanting for months.
1.
Set Expectations in the Opt-In Area
Too many bloggers trick people into
opting-in with a free gift only to barrage them with unrelated emails later. I
don’t know about you, but I don’t open those emails.
If, however, you make it clear in
your opt-in area that they’re also requesting to receive blog updates, then
they’re going to expect and anticipate your emails.
Sure that might discourage people
from opting-in, but there’s no value in having a list full of people who don’t
want your emails.
See example:
2.
Remind Them Why They’re Receiving Emails
Once they’re receiving your emails,
it’s important to remind them why they’re receiving them. Otherwise you run the
risk of them unsubscribing or marking your emails as spam.
A good way to do this is to put
their signup date and signup URL in the footer of every email that you send.
These two reminders will jog their memory to answer the question, “why am I
getting these emails?”
See example:
Pat Flynn, from
SmartPassiveIncome.com, reminds his subscribers when and where they subscribed
to his list in the footer of every email.
3.
Send Your Emails Regularly at Consistent Times
What’s the best day and time to send
an email to people around the world?
I schedule the emails for 6am EST so
they’re at the top of the list when people open their inbox first thing in the
morning across the US.
I find that posting content at 9am
West Coast time is best, because it’s lunch time on the East Coast and just
after work in the UK, which are the biggest markets for my traffic.
People
Need to Receive Your Emails Easily
All Johnny has to do to get his
presents in the morning is wake up, climb down the stairs, and walk to the
living room.
4.
Create a Squeeze Page that You Can Direct People To
Having opt-ins in all of the popular
areas (i.e. top sidebar, bottom sidebar, top of homepage, footer of post,
etc.), is a good start.
You also want to have a page on your
blog that’s dedicated to getting subscribers, also known as a squeeze page.
How come?
Because you and your readers can
link to that page when you or they are recommending it to other people.
5.
Link to Their Email System on Your Confirmation Page
After they fill out your opt-in
form, they need to confirm their subscription.
This is the point where you
typically say, “Before I can send you the information you requested, I need you
to click the link in the email to confirm your subscription … yada, yada,
yada.”
This page has one goal: Get them to
open the email and confirm their subscription. Yet, few people ever optimize
this small but pivotal step in the process.
How do you do that? Convince them to
check their email immediately.
See example:
The confirm your subscription page
on my blog, 14clicks.com, directs people to check their email immediately so
they don’t forget.
6.
Mobilize Your Emails with a Simple Text-Focused Email
According to Litmus.com, as of April 2012, 36% of email is
opened with a mobile device and that number grew 80% in the previous six
months.
You might fancy your 2-column, HTML
email newsletters, but people who open them with their phones don’t.
To keep your emails mobile-friendly:
- Use a 1-column layout.
- No more than 550-600 pixels wide.
- Limit slow-loading images.
- If you link somewhere, try to make sure that the webpage is mobile-friendly.
The DIYthemes email is HTML-based
but simple enough that it appears to be text-based so it shows up well on
mobile devices.
People
Need to Feel a Personal Connection
The moment Johnny unwraps a Barbie
Doll, he’s going to be forever skeptical about whether or not Santa really
knows him. He’ll think twice about opening the next one. Around the third or
fourth Barbie Doll, he’ll stop opening them altogether.
7.
Segment Your Lists by Interests and Activity
How do you personalize a
mass-communication channel?
Every email marketing service lets
you create multiple lists. Create different lists based on the interests and
activities of your audience.
Consider segmenting lists for:
- General blog subscribers.
- Weekly blog subscribers.
- Potential customers.
- Paying customers.
- Etc.
See example:
Syed Balkhi, from WPBeginner.com,
gives his readers six different subscription options based on their interests.
8.
Use Your Welcome Email to Learn About Them
Aside from sending targeted emails
based on interests, you also need to know who your audience is in order to
build a personal connection with them.
One of the best ways to do that is
to ask them to introduce themselves by replying to the first welcome email.
Here are a few questions you can ask in that email:
- What are you struggling with right now?
- How do you expect me to help you?
- What types of content would get you to open every email?
See example:
This is Derek Halpern’s Welcome
Email for SocialTriggers.com. Many of his subscribers reply to this email with
their #1 struggle. This let’s him meet his new subscribers and gives him a
better understanding of how to help his audience.
People
Need to Value Your Emails
In the weeks leading up to
Christmas, Johnny circles his favorite toys in the catalogs, creates a list of
his favorites, and even visits Santa to tell him what’s at the top of his list.
All of this to ensure that he gets exactly what he wants.
9.
Include Subscriber-Only Tips through an Autoresponder
What reason does somebody have to
subscribe if they can get all of the same content by regularly visiting or
following you on Twitter?
To treat your subscribers to
something special, set up an autoresponder series that gives them a
comprehensive guide for information that they want.
See example:
10.
Offer a Weekly Email Option
I don’t know about you, but I have a
tough time keeping up with reading the posts from all of my favorite blogs.
To get around this, consider
offering a weekly subscription option to your readers. That way they can get
one email with summaries of that week’s posts and choose to read the ones that
are relevant to them.
See example:
You’ll also notice that Syed Balkhi
gives people the “WPB Daily” and “WPB Weekly” options because he understands
that not every post is relevant to every subscriber.
How
to Use Email Marketing
Email marketing has two functions.
- To get to know your audience.
- To send people your message.
Too many bloggers put too much focus
on building their lists. Once they have a list, they don’t know what to do with
it. So that list sits there and costs money.
I hope I’ve shed some light on this
all-too-common problem and given you some ideas on how to improve your email
marketing strategy. If I have, let me know in the comments.
As always, if you need help with
implementing any of these tips, leave a comment and tell me which email
marketing service you use.
By Akshay Indalkar
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