email marketing demystified: build a massive mailing list...

EmailMarketingDemystified

PraiseforEmail

MarketingDemystified

"I've done email marketingfor over a decade and haveinterviewed over 1,000entrepreneursabouthowthey

built their businesses, and Istill learned a lot aboutgrowing an email list fromEmailMarketingDemystified.What sets it apart is thatMatthewdoesnotgiveemptytheories.Heshowsactionabletechniques that he used tobuilda200k+mailinglistandincludesexamplesofhowheusedthosetechniques."

AndrewWarnerFounder and CEO,Mixergy

Mixergy.com

"Matthewhasalreadywalkedthe walk with emailmarketing, and now he'scommitted his knowledge topaper.Recommended."

RobWallingCo-Founder,DripGetDrip.com

"Matthewprovidesastep-by-stepprocessthatmakesemail

marketing approachable andaccessible to entrepreneurs atall levels. If you are justgetting started with email oryou already have a mailinglist of 10,000 subscribers,EmailMarketingDemystifiedcan help grow your businessthrough the power of emailmarketing."

JaimeTardyFounder, EventualMillionaireEventualMillionaire.com

"Email marketing is anincrediblyvaluablemarketingchannel. I do it in mybusiness, but I know I couldbedoingitalotbetter.EmailMarketing Demystified is adeepdiveintothetrenchesofeffectiveemailmarketingthatshowswhatactuallyworks. Ifound thebook to be easy todigest and came away withsomegreattakeawaysthatareimmediatelyapplicabletomy

business."JohnT.MeyerCo-Founder,LemonlyLemonly.com

"With so many new optionsin social media, it seemssome current marketers putmoreemphasison techniquesfor selling rather than oncreating value and trueservice. In this book,Matthew gives step-by-step

practices to growexponentially by givingmassivevaluewhilehonoringthe time proven principles ofintegrity and wowing ourcustomers. Iexpect thisbookto add $1 million in newrevenue to our business thisyear."

DanMillerNew York Timesbestselling author of 48Days to the Work YouLove

48Days.com

"Ifyouhaveanydoubtaboutthepowerofemailmarketing,EmailMarketingDemystifiedwill quickly dispel them. Inthe book, Matthew lays outaneasytoimplementstep-by-step plan to create your ownemail marketing system thatactuallyworks!Thisbookisamust-read for anyentrepreneur that runs anonline business and is

preparedtoIGNITE!"JohnLeeDumasHost,EntrereneurOnFireEntrepreneurOnFire.com

'I've known Matt for severalyears now and watched himbuild several semi-automatedbusinesses that createdhundreds of thousands ofdollars (and now into themillions) quickly. A littlestory: I shared with Matt an

email "having a sale"sequencethatIthoughtwouldquickly add 30% or more inrevenue when one of hisbusinesseswasstillundersixfigures. Instead of 30%growth he turned it intoaround 300% growth in ayear. Listen to Matt when itcomestoemailforbuildingacompany fast. Read EmailMarketing Demystified andfollow Matt's step-by-stepplan and you too can grow

yourbusinessrapidly."TimConleyTimConley.co

"Email MarketingDemystified is packed withreal-world-tested strategies,tipsand tricksonlyaveteranof email marketing wouldknow.Ifyouarenewtoemailmarketing, Matt's detailed,step-by-stepmethodswillcutyour learning curve by years

and allow you to startmonetizing that portion ofyour business immediately.Evenasanexperiencedemailmarketer, I found gems Iimplemented into my ownbusiness that have help megrow my subscribers morequickly.Matthasaknackforthinkingofwaystogrowandmonetize an email list thatyou probably neverconsidered!"

TimBourqui

Co-founder,AfterOffersAfterOffers.com

EmailMarketingDemystified

BuildaMassiveMailingList,

WriteCopythat

ConvertsandGenerateMore

Sales

byMatthewPaulson

Email MarketingDemystified:BuildaMassiveMailingList,WriteCopythatConvertsandGenerateMoreSalesCopyright © 2015 byMatthew Paulson. All rightsreserved.

No part of this bookmay beused or reproduced in anymanner whatsoever withoutwritten permission except in

the case of brief quotationsembodied in critical articlesor reviews. Please do notparticipate in or encouragepiracy of copyrightedmaterials in violation of theauthor'srights.Published by AmericanConsumerNews,LLC.Firstedition:October,2015.ISBN:978-0-9905300-1-5

Coverdesign:EllenJesperson

(ellenize.com)Editing: Craft Your Content(craftyourcontent.com)BookDesign:JamesWoosley(jameswoosley.com)Printing: AmazonCreateSpace

Dedication

To my son Micah, I loveyoumorethananythingintheworld.Youprovideallofthehope,inspiration,andjoythatI need to get up early everydayandcontinuetogrowmybusinesses.

TomywifeKarine, thankyouforcontinuingtosupport

and encourage me ineverything I do. Thank youfor not shaking your head atmewheneverIcomeupwitha crazy new business idea,and thank you for allowingmetheopportunitytoprovidefor our family in unique andcreative ways. Mostimportantly, thank you forbeingmybestfriend.

Foreword

byJohnMcIntyre

“But John, isn’t emailmarketing dead?” Daveasked.

Isighed.Itwas11:30amonasunny

Tuesday, and Iwas checkingmy email at SuvarnabhumiInternational Airport inBangkok,Thailand.

Iwasen route to theU.S.to speak at a conference onthe power email marketinghastomakesalesandrevenueexplode.

Ihadtolaughattheirony.I had built a profitable

business with emailmarketing, which generated

100% of its profits fromemail marketing, yet I wasrepeatedly being told bypeople like Dave that emailmarketingwasdead.

These people were smartbusiness owners who justdidn’t get it. They thoughtemailmarketingwas awasteoftime.

Thatitdidn’twork.That it made people want

topunchtheircomputer.

Whocouldblamethem?We’ve been told “email

marketingisdead”foryears.According to the

“experts,” no one checksemail anymore. They’ve allmoved over to Facebook,Twitter,Pinstagram,Instarest,or whatever the latest socialnetworkiscalled.

Plus, most of us considerchecking email to be a“necessary evil.” We don’t

checkemailbecausewe loveit. We check it because wehave to. We’d rather becheckinghowmanylikesourlatest post on Facebookreceived.

But as business owners,ourpersonalrelationshipwithour inbox isnot indicativeofwhether email marketingworksornot.

Likeeverygreatmarketer,Matt cares more about datathan human emotion, and

that’s why he begins EmailMarketing Demystified bydescribingwhatthedatasays.

As it turns out, the datatells a very different storythanwhatwe’veallheard.

Didyouknowthatastudyfrom the Direct MarketingAssociation found thatbusinessesearnanaverageof$43.00 for every $1.00investedinemailmarketing?

In other words, email

marketing is proven toproduce a 4,300% return oninvestment(ROI).

Inthesamestudy,notonlydidemailmarketingdeliverawhopping4,300%ROI,butitalso beat every single otheradvertisingchannel,includingsocial media, search engineoptimization,anddirectmail.

Email marketing is notdead.Notevenclose.

Butthat’snotall...

If marketing channelswere cars, even the bestsocial media and SEOcampaigns would be like aMercedes Benz—fast andluxurious, but certainly notthebest in their class—whileemail marketing would be aMcLaren F1 or aLamborghiniGallardo.

Email marketing doesn’tjust beat everything else. Itleavestheminthedust.

And so, I have a question

foryou:Have YOU implemented

an email marketing strategyyet?

If you have, are youoptimizing it, improving it,andalwaysstrivingtomakeitbetter?

If you aren’t, you aremakingahugemistake.

Depending on the size ofyour business, you could beleaving hundreds of

thousands of dollars on thetable.Maybeevenmillions.

All because you haven’ttaken the time to implementan effective email marketingstrategy.

Well, it’s time for that tochange.

When it comes to emailmarketing and learning howto generate a 4,300% ROI, Ican’t think of anyone I’drather learn from than Matt

Paulson.Why?Because unlike other so-

called “experts,” Matt livesandbreathesemailmarketing.Heisabonafideexpert.

One of his businesses is afinancial newsletter whichgoes out to more than250,000 investors on a dailybasis.

Marketing books usuallypresent ideas from some “fly

bynight”wantrapreneurwhohas never achieved anythingsubstantial.

But that’snotwhatyou’regoing to get with EmailMarketingDemystified.

Instead, you’re going togetemailmarketingstrategiesfrom someone who knowshow to apply them to wildlydifferentbusinesses in totallydifferentmarkets.

As a successful serial

entrepreneur with a growingmultimillion-dollar empirebuilt largely on the back oftheemailmarketingstrategiesyou’reabouttolearn,Mattistherealdeal.

By now, I’m hoping thatyou’re ready to generate a4,300%ROIinyourbusiness(and you’re ready to letsomeoneassmart,successful,and savvy as Matt help youdoit).

Solet’stalkspecifics:

What are you going tolearn in Email MarketingDemystified?

First, you’ll get the low-down on the best emailservice providers for yourbusiness, including whichcompanies offer the bestfeatures for the best price(andwhichwillburnaholeinyour pocket without offeringyoumuchinreturn).

Next, you’ll discover the

art and science of gettingpeople to sign up for youremail list on your website,including how to create akiller lead magnet that stopseven your coldest prospectsdead in their tracks andmakes them sign up. Plus,you’ll also find out exactlywhichtypeofopt-informstoadd to your website formaximum conversions (andhow to craft the perfectmessage that communicates

to your ideal prospect’sdeepestdesires).

Now comes the part mostpeople dread... creating theemail campaigns. However,you have nothing to worryabout because Matt explainshow writing amazing emailscanbeeasy,simple,andfast.Thisiswhereyou’lllearntheinsandoutsofcreatingemailcampaigns that are opened,clicked, andbought time andtimeagain.

Plus, Matt even does adeep-dive on copywriting(one of my favorite topics)and shows you how to writeblockbuster emails oncommand.

Onceyouhaveyouremailsoftware, lead magnet, emailopt-ins, and variouscampaigns, you’ll get to themost exciting step in thebook: Monetization (in otherwords, how to make moneywithyouremaillist).

In this section, Matt goesintoall thevariouswaysyoucan generate revenue fromyour email list (he evensurprised me with a fewmethods ofmonetization thatIwasn’tawareof).

When it comes tomonetizing your email list,selling your own productsand services is the mostcommonmethod,but it isfarfrom the only method. Mattalso covers co-registration

advertising, selling anothercompany’s products, andrunning newsletter ads. Healso explains how you canrent out your email list toother companies (this isperfectforabusinessthathasan email list but no productsoftheirowntosell).

After monetization, you’lljump into the dark, murkyareaofthelegalsideofemailmarketing. When does emailmarketing become spam?

How can you avoid breakingthe law while also servingyour customers by sellingyourproductsandservices?

Once you’ve made itthrough the boring-but-totally-necessary legalaspects of email marketing,Matthitsyouwithsomekillertipsonhowtoavoidthespamboxandpromotionstab;howtomaintainagoodreputationwith Gmail, Yahoo!, and theother email companies; and

how to ensure your emailcampaigns get deliveredevery single time you sendthem.

The final section of thisbook delves into cold emailoutreach, also known asoutbound email marketing.This topic is particularlyimportant to my company atthemomentaswearedoingalot of cold email outreach. Iwas glad to find several tipsand tricks in this section that

I’m sure will improve ourresults. If your business sellshigh-ticket products andserviceslikemine,coldemailoutreach is the strategy foryou.

Sothereyouhaveit:Email Marketing

Demystified is the completeguide to email marketing—fromgettingpeopleontoyouremail list, converting theminto customers with amazingcampaigns, managing the

legalsideofthings,andusingcold email outreach to sellhigh-ticket products andservices.

If you’d like to seebreakthrough growth in yourbusiness, read this book andfollow Matt’s advice to theletter. It will transform yourbusiness. You will end upwith more money than ever,withmoretimethanever,andyou will finally be able tocreate the lifestyle you’ve

wantedsincethedayyougotstartedinbusiness.

I’ve personallyexperienced the amazingbenefitsofemailmarketinginmy own business. I’ve alsoseenitagainandagaininmyclients’ and customers’businesses.

Email marketing workslike rocket-fuel forbusinesses... but only if youimplementwhatyoulearn.

So please, please,PLEASE:don’t just read thisbook...

...takeactionandenjoytheincredible results (becauseyou deserve no less than thebest).

Email marketing is notmagic, but it certainly startstofeelthatwaywhenyouseesuchincredibleresults.

When you implementthese strategies and discover

that they work splendidly,please email me and let meknow how it worked out foryou.

Iwould love to hear fromyou.

Bestofluck,

JohnMcIntyreTheAutoresponderGuyjohn@themcmethod.com|TheMcMethod.comBest-sellingauthorofEmail

Marketing:63Money-MakingInsightsFromTheWildlyPopularMcMethodEmailMarketingPodcast.Medellín,ColombiaJuly23,2015

Introduction

Email is one of the mostpowerful and mostunderutilized marketingchannelsavailableonearth.Ithas been the primary meansof electronic communicationsince the 1970’s. Since then,numerous bulletin boardservices, instant messaging

services, chat services, socialnetworks, and other “emailkillers”havecomeandgone.Yet email continues to serveas the core communicationplatformof theInternet—andit’s only growing. Between2014and2018,thenumberofemail accounts in existenceworldwide is expected togrow from 4.11 billion to5.23 billion. Currently, morethan 2.5 billion people, or35% of the world’s

population, have access toemail, and more than 100billion emails are sent andreceived every day of theyear.1

Despite the widespreaduse of the digital juggernautthat is email, manyentrepreneurs have yet toimplement an effective emailmarketing strategy in theirbusiness because they don’tknowhowtodoitorhaven’t

recognizedhowpowerfulofamarketing channel email canbe. Email MarketingDemystified hopes to changethat by providing a step-by-step guide for any business(ornonprofit) to leverage thepowerofemailmarketing.

WhyEmailMarketing?

Email provides you theopportunity to send amessagetoyouraudienceforanypurposeonanydayoftheyear at effectively no cost toyou. This is an incredibly

powerful communicationchannel.When you do emailmarketing well and send theright messages to the rightpeople at the right time, youare certain to build anaudience of highly-engagedfans that can’t wait for yournext message to hit theirinboxes. Additionally, theyare ready to buy wheneveryouhaveaproductorservicetopromote.

There are several

compelling reasons that yourbusiness should adopt emailasamarketingchannel:

EmailMarketingGeneratesMassiveROI–AstudyfromtheDirectMarketingAssociationfoundthatabusinesswillearnanaverageof$43.00for

every$1.00investedinemailmarketing.2InastudyfromGigaOm,marketershaveconsistentlyrankedemailmarketingasthesinglemosteffectivestrategyforgeneratingawareness,acquiring

leads,generatingsales,andcustomerretention.3

EmailMarketingGeneratesLong-TermResults–MarketBeatfirststartedcollectingopt-insinlate2010.Fiveyearslater,agoodnumberofoursubscribersthatsigned

upduringthefirstmonthcontinuetoreceivecontent,engagewithourcontent,andbuyproductsandservicesfromourbusiness.Whenyoustartbuildinganemaillist,youarebuildingalong-termassetthatwillgenerate

revenueandsocialcapitalforyourbusinessformanyyearstocome.MostCustomersWantEmailfromBusinesses–AstudyfromMarketingSherpafoundthat72%ofU.S.consumerssayemailistheirfavoritewayto

communicatewiththecompaniesthattheydobusinesswith.61%ofconsumersreportedtheyliketoreceiveweeklypromotionalemailsfromtheirfavoritebrands,and28%ofconsumerswanttoreceivepromotionalemailsmore

frequently.4Additionally,70%ofconsumerssaytheywillalwaysopenemailfromtheirfavoritecompanies5,and95%ofpeoplewhooptedintoreceiveemailfrombrandssaythatthemarketingemailtheyreceiveiseither

somewhatusefulorveryuseful.6

EmailMarketingDramaticallyOutperformsSocialMediaMarketing–AstudyfromMcKinsey&Companyfoundthatbusinessesare40timesmorelikelytocreatea

newcustomerfromemailmarketingthantheyarethroughsocialmedia.7Anotherstudyfoundthat66%ofmarketersbelieveemailmarketingdeliversa“good”or“excellent”ROI,whileonly41%ofthemsaidtheyfeelthe

samewayaboutsocialmediamarketing.8

EmailisUbiquitous–Nearly87%ofthepopulationintheUnitedStateshasInternetaccessintheirhome9,and95%ofconsumersuseemail10.Youjustdon’thavetoworry

whetherornotanyofyourpotentialcustomershaveanemailaddressornot.EmailisaResilientTechnology–Emailhaseffectivelyexistedinitscurrentformatsincetheearly1980s.Thatwas15yearsbeforemosthomes

hadapersonalcomputerandInternetaccess,and25yearsbeforethefirstiPhonewasreleased.Despitetheworld’smassiveamountoftechnologicalprogressandtheproliferationofpersonalcomputers,smartphones,and

tablets,thetechnicalspecificationsforemailhaveonlybeenupdatedahandfuloftimesinthelast30years.Whileothercommunicationtechnologieshavecomeandgone,emailcontinuestowithstandthetestoftime.When

youinvestinemailmarketing,youknowthatthemediumwon’tbereplacedbyabiggerandbetterthingafewyearsfromnow.EmailMarketingisFederated–WhenyoubuildanaudienceonFacebook,Twitter,or

Pinterest,youaretotallyatthemercyofthewhimsofacompanywhosebestinterestsarenotalignedwithyours.Youcouldputalotoftime,energy,andmoneyintobuildinganaudienceonaparticularplatformonlyforthat

platformtochangetherulesinsuchawaythatkillstheprofitabilityofyourcampaign.Thatwillneverbethecasewithemail,becausenoonecompanyhascontrolofthetechnicalspecificationforemailorcontroloverthe

technologyinfrastructurethatallowsemailtobedeliveredtotheworld’sfourbillioninboxes.

Emailmarketingcontinuesto be one of the mosteffective and most resilientmarketing strategies for bothdigital businesses and brick-and-mortar companies. It’shard to match the potential

ROI offered by emailmarketing, and you can restassured that your emailmarketing efforts willcontinue to generate revenueintothefuture.

ButIsn’tEmailMarketingDead?

Every now and then, atechnology expert or ajournalist will come out anddeclare the demise of email.

In 2009, technologycolumnist John C. Dvorakargued that email is deadbecause of spam, competingsocial media platforms,security problems, and anumber of other issues.11 InJanuary 2014, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitzdeclared that the world hadreached “peak email” andsaid that the business worldwould quicklymove to other

platforms.12 Inc.comContributing Editor JohnBrandonwrote inApril2015that emailwould be obsoleteby2020.13

While claiming that emailis deador dyingmakes for agreat headline, such claimsaren’t in line with reality.Email serves as the corecommunications platform ofthe Internet, and email usageisonlygrowing.Thenumber

of worldwide users isexpected to grow from 2.5billion in 2014 to 2.8 billionby 2018.14 Radicati expectsthe number of worldwideemail accounts to grow by26.8% between 2014 and2018. Every major onlineservice in theworld, rangingfrom social media serviceslike Facebook andTwitter toe-commerce stores likeAmazon and Overstock,

requires you to provide anemail address to do businesswith them. Email is deeplyingrained into the fabric ofthe Internet and won’t bebrushedasidebyacompetingserviceanytimesoon.

Isn’tEmailMarketingSpamming?

Some people who areunfamiliar with emailmarketingthinkthatall typesof commercial emails are

spam. “Spamming” issendingthesamecommercialmessageindiscriminatelytoalarge number of recipientswithout their permission.Modern email marketing isbasedalmostentirelyon firstreceiving someone’spermission to email them.When you provide news,updates, and productinformation to someone thathassigneduponyourwebsitetoreceivenews,updates,and

product information, that’snotspam.

While there are a fewunscrupulousemailmarketersthatuse spamasamarketingstrategy, most emailmarketers only send email topeople that have opted in totheir mailing lists and havespecifically asked to receiveemail from them. Savvyemail marketers know theycan generate much betterbusinessresultsbycultivating

an audience that actuallywants their content than byindiscriminately spammingtheir marketing material tostrangers.

IHateMarketingEmailand

PopupOpt-InForms.Why

WouldIWantto

SendMarketingEmailtoMyAudience?

Many tech savvy peoplehave a natural aversion toadvertisements and othermarketing materials. Theythink they are immune tobeing influenced byadvertising and think

advertisements justget in theway of their experiencesusing the web. They use ad-blocking plugins to removeads from their web browserand use strict spam filters tokeep unwantedmessages outof their inboxes. Theyabsolutely hate popup opt-informs, because they thinkthey are annoying. If it wereuptothem,theywouldneverreceiveanykindofmarketingemail,becausetheythinkthat

itjustclogsuptheirinboxes.Ifthissoundslikeyou,you

may initially feeluncomfortable with many ofthe recommendations in thisbook.Rememberthatyouarenot your audience. Justbecause you don’t like toreceive email from brandsdoesn’tmeanyour customersfeelthesameway.WhileItryto stay offmostmailing listsandensuremypersonalinboxis empty at the end of every

day,mywife,Karine’s,inboxis full of promotional emailfrom every major clothingretailer, andshe loves it.Sheloves getting coupons anddeals and seeing what newstyles are coming out. Shereceives at least 20 emailseach day from brands, and itdoesn’tbotherherabit.

Noteveryoneusesemailinthesameway.Youmightseeyour email inbox as a work“to do” list that needs to be

clearedout.Otheremailuserssee it as a stream ofinformation where they canpick and choose what theywanttoreadandignore.Ifanemail user loves the contentthat you produce, of coursetheywillwanttohavethataspart of the email influx theyreceiveeveryday.Theentireprocess of list building,setting up an autoresponderseries, and sending broadcastemails is just away for your

audience to better engagewiththecontentandproductsthat you are alreadyproducingthroughtheiremailstream.

Every now and then, I’llhear someone that runs awebsitesaysomethinglike,“Ihate popups and I hatemarketing email. I wouldnever use them in mybusiness.” What they’rereally saying is, “I hatemaking money,” because

email marketing is anincrediblyeffectivemarketingstrategy. They just can’t getpast their personal biasesagainst advertising torecognize the opportunitythat’s before them. If one ofyour audience memberswants to get your latestcontent and productinformation through email,you should allow them to doso despite any personalmisgivings you might have

againstseeingadvertisementson the web. If someonegenuinely doesn’t want toreceive email fromyou, theywon’t fill out an opt-in formonyourwebsite.

MyStoryDuring the last fiveyears,

I have built four differentbusinesses that rely heavilyon email marketing. Mylargestbusiness,MarketBeat.com(formerlyAnalyst Ratings Network),publishes a daily investment

newsletter to more than250,000 subscribers.MarketBeat is on track togenerate $2.5 million inrevenue in 2015, and morethan $1 million of that isdirectly attributable to emailmarketing. The companysends out more than 10million permission-basedemails monthly and attractsmore than 20,000 neworganic opt-ins each month.The company generates

revenue through subscriptioninformation products,newsletter ads, displayadvertising,email list rentals,and co-registrationadvertising.

ThesecondbusinessIbuiltwas called LightningReleases(lightningreleases.com),which is a press releasewriting and distributionservicethatusesemailasoneof its primary marketing

strategies. I started thisservice in2012asa low-costalternative to some of themore expensive press releasedistribution services. For$99.00, the service allowsindividuals, businesses, andnonprofits the opportunity tohave their press releasefeatured in news portals likeGoogle News, Bing News,and Topix, as well as thewebsites of many majornational newspapers. The

businessgeneratedmore than$200,000in2014.Isoldittoacoupleof investors inearly2015sothatIcouldfocusonmyotherprojects.

The third email-drivenbusiness I helped launch iscalled GoGo Photo Contest(gogophotocontest.com),which helps animal sheltersand humane societies raisemoney through donate-to-vote photo contestfundraisers. Ico-founded this

company in 2013 with acouple of good friends ofmine, JasonandStevieShea.GoGo Photo Contest usesoutbound email marketing tocontactexecutivedirectorsofanimal shelters and educatethem, thenmake them awareof how we can help theirorganizations raise money.The company works withapproximately 150 animalwelfaregroupseachyearandhas helped animal shelters

acrossthecountryraisemorethan$1.5millionindonationsbetween October 2013 andOctober2015.

Finally, I’mapartner in acompany called USGolfTV,which is a digital publishingcompany that produces aregionally-syndicatedtelevision show that’savailablein12millionhomesand25states.USGolfTValsoproduces premium videotraining courses that help

golfers improve their game.USGolfTV was founded in2010byToddKolbandTylerPrins. I acquired an equitystake in the company inAugust 2014 andwas taskedwith helping the businessbuild an email list and growitsadrevenue. In thefirst12months, USGolfTV grew itsemail list from 5,000subscribers to 52,000subscribers using thestrategies outlined in this

book. The company alsodoubled its monthly averagerevenueinthelastyear.

There are many differentresources that teach emailmarketing thatareofvaryingdegrees of quality. Some ofthem are written by peoplethat don’t have a lot ofexperience and don’t reallyknow what they’re talkingabout. You can rest assuredthat this is not the casewithEmailMarketingDemystified.

The information and advicewritten in this book comesdirectly from my personalexperiences buildingMarketBeat, LightningReleases, GoGo PhotoContest, and USGolfTV.None of the information inthisbookistheoretical,made-up, or unproven. Every tip,trick, and strategy in thisbook has been tested andproven in at least one ofmybusinesses.

WhatYou’llLearninEmailMarketingDemystifiedEmail Marketing

Demystified is acomprehensive work

designed to teach you everyaspectofemailmarketing. Inthe first chapter, you’ll learnabout thenecessityofhavinganemailserviceproviderandthe different types of emailservice providers that exist.You’llalsolearnwhattolookfor in an email serviceprovider and decide whichserviceisbestforyou.

In the second and thirdchapters of this book, youwill learn how to collect

email sign-ups. I will showyou how to create a leadmagnet to attract more sign-upsonyourwebsite.Youwillalsolearnwhichtypesofopt-in forms work best and howto craft your messaging tomaximize thenumberofopt-ins you receive. Thesechapters will also help youdiscover other creative waysto grow your mailing listindependently of yourwebsite.

In the fourth and fifthchapters of the book, you’lllearn about welcome emails,autoresponders, broadcastemails, and other types ofmessages you will send toyour list.These chapterswillshow exactly what types ofemail you should send toengage your audience andgenerate revenue. There isalso a deep dive into emailcopywritingsothatyouknowexactlyhowtowritedifferent

typesofmessagestoyourlist.The sixth chapter focuses

entirely on monetization, orhow to make money withyour mailing list. You willlearn six different ways togenerate revenue throughyour email list, including co-registration advertising,selling your company’sproducts and services,promotinganothercompany’sproductsasaservice,runningnewsletter advertisements,

renting your email list, andgenerating traffic for yourwebsite. If youwant to learnhow MarketBeat generatesmorethan$1millionperyearthrough email marketing,readthischapter.

The seventh and eighthchapters of Email MarketingDemystified focus on thelegal aspects of emailmarketing and making surethat your messages actuallyget delivered to your

subscribers’ inboxes and notin their spam folders. Youwill learn about the UnitedStates’ CAN-SPAMlegislationandCanada’santi-spam legislation (CASL) andwhat you need to do to staycompliantwithboth.Youwillalso learn about the bestpracticestofollowinordertomaintain your reputation asan email sender and keepyour domain name and IPaddressoffblacklists.

The ninth (and final)chapter of this book explainsgenerating sales throughoutbound email marketing,also known as emailprospecting.Mostofthebookfocuses on attractingsubscribersandkeepingthemengaged with your mailinglist. This chapter focuses onidentifying prospectivecustomers, introducing yourbusiness to them through acold email, qualifying them

as customers, and generatingsales. If your business has arelatively small set ofpotential customers and sellsrelatively high price pointproducts with an averageorder size of $500.00 ormore,readthischapterfirst.

In the appendix, there arelinks to a number of otherresources that will help withyourefforttobecomeabetteremail marketer, includingbooks, blogs, podcasts, and

educational products that areworthcheckingout.Therearealso four different casestudiesplaced throughout thebook to show youwhat kindof results and successes arepossible through emailmarketing.

This book references anumber of specific emailmarketing tools, plugins, andservicesyoucanutilizetogetstarted quickly with youremail marketing efforts,

ensuringyoucanbeconfidentin using reputable productsand services. There arecomparisons of the featuresand benefits of specificproducts. I also have a fewpersonal productrecommendations within thebook, sokeep an eyeout forthem.PleasenotethatneitherI nor my company receiveany payment or any form ofcompensationofanykindforrecommending these few

products. I will onlyrecommendaspecificproductorserviceifItrulythinkitisthe best solution for myfriends, business partners,acquaintances, and otherreadersofthisbook.

ACalltoActionEmail marketing is an

incredibly powerfulmarketing channel that willgenerate massive long-termresults. Youwon’t become amillionaire overnight byimplementing emailmarketing in your business,

but you will see steadilyimproving returns as youremail list grows and yourstrategiesmature. If you hadstarted gathering emailaddresses on your websitefive years ago, you couldhavehadamailinglistoftensof thousands or hundreds ofthousands of subscriberstoday. Youwould have builta long-term asset that couldcontinue to generate revenuefor your business even if

everything else implodes,because you can alwayscreateanewproduct,service,orotheroffersandpromoteitto your mailing list. Whileyoucan’tgobackintimeandstart your mailing list fiveyears ago, you can do thenext best thing and startgrowingyourmailinglistandimplementing emailmarketing in your business(oryournonprofit)today.

ChapterOneSelectinganEmailServiceProvider(ESP)

The first step in building

your emailmarketing empireis to put the technicalinfrastructure in place inorder to handle the type andvolume of email you willsend.Ifyouweregoingtosetup a call center, you wouldnever try to run itusingonlyyourpersonalphonenumber.You would hire an expert totell you what you need, getdozens of phone lines andother telecommunicationshardware,andputsoftwarein

place specifically to handlerouting calls. Likewise, youshould never try to run anemail marketing campaignusing your personal emailaccount.

A standard email accountwith Gmail, Outlook, orYahoo is simply not capableof organizing and contactinglarge numbers of peoplethrough a mailing list.Instead, you would want towork with an email service

provider (ESP) that providesspecialized software andinfrastructure that can helpmanageyourmailing listanddeliver email to yoursubscribers.

WhatEmailService

ProvidersDoAn email service provider

is a company that providesemailmarketingsoftwareanddelivery infrastructure to

businesses, nonprofits, andindividuals.

Here are some commontasks that your ESP willhandle:

ListManagement–YourESPwillstorethelistofactivesubscribersonyourmailinglist(s).Theywillalsoautomaticallyaddnew

subscriberstoyourmailinglistthatsignupthroughyouropt-informs,processusersthatwanttounsubscribe,andremoveoldemailaddressesthatarenolongervalid.Templates–YourESPmayofferpre-made

HTMLtemplatesthatwillprovideyouremailwithauniquelookandfeel.MostESPsalsooffertheabilitytouploadacustomHTMLtemplatecreatedbyyouorawebdesignerthatyouhired.Itmayalsooffertheabilityto

ensureyourHTMLtemplateiscompatiblewithmostmajoremailclients.AutorespondersandMailScheduling–YourESPwillletyousendapre-writtenseriesofemailstoallnewsubscribersoveraperiod

ofseveralweeksormonths.Thisisknownasanautoresponderseries.YourESPwillalsoallowyoutocreateacalendaroffuturemailingsandschedulemailingstosendoutataparticulardateandtime.

DeliveryEngine–Sendingalargevolumeofemailrequiresasignificanttechnicalinfrastructureandknowledgeofhowemaildeliverabilityworks.YourESPwillprovidetheserversandsoftwareneededtoactually

deliveryouremailtosubscribersandcanhelpifyoueverrunintoadeliverabilityissue,suchasbeingblacklisted.Tracking–YourESPwillbeabletotrackimportantmetricsrelatedtotheperformanceofanygivenemail,

includingthetotalnumberofsends,opens,bounces,clicks,andunsubscribes.Someemailserviceprovidersmayalsoprovideatrackingpixelthatwillallowyoutotieanygivensalebacktoaparticularemail.

SpamTesting–YourESPcangaugethecontentofeachemailthatyousendagainstcommonly-usedspamfilters.Youwillreceiveanautomaticwarningifyouuselanguagefoundinmanytypicalspammessagesormakeother

technicalmistakesthatmaycauseanemailprovidertoblockthemessageordeliverittoasubscriber’sspamfolder.MarketingAutomation–SomeESPswillallowyoutosendaseriesofmessagesinresponsetousersthattakeaspecific

action,suchasoptinginforanewoffer,purchasingaproduct,orabandoningtheirshoppingcartonane-commercesite.Thisfunctionality,knownasmarketingautomation,allowsyoutosendmoretargetedemailtoyour

subscribersandwilllikelyimprovethelong-termsuccessofyouremailcampaign.PleasenotethatthequalityofmarketingautomationtoolscanvarywidelyfromESPtoESP.Ifmarketingautomationissomethingthatyouwant

totakeadvantageof,selectanESPthatwasbuiltwithmarketingautomationinmind.DynamicMessages–Youremailserviceproviderwillallowyoutodynamicallycustomizethecontentofeachemailtotailoritto

eachsubscriber.Themostcommonuseofthisfunctionalityistoopeneachemailwith“Dear[FirstName]”insteadofagenericgreeting.HTMLandTextFormatting–YourESPwillbeabletocreateemailsthatareformatted

asbothHTMLandplaintext,whichmayimproveyourdeliverabilityrates.

TypesofEmailServiceProviders

Not all email serviceproviders (ESPs) provide thesame tools and functionality.There are three categories of

email service providers thathave different strengths,focuses,andlevelsofservice:email infrastructureproviders(EIPs), general email serviceproviders (GESPs), andmarketing automationproviders(MAPs).

EmailInfrastructureProviders

Email infrastructureproviders (EIPs) focusprimarily on the actualdelivery of your email. They

provide the networkinfrastructure and emaildeliverability expertisenecessary to make sure thatyour email actually getsdeliveredtoyoursubscribers’inboxes. EIPs generally donot provide list managementservices, templates,marketing automation, oremail scheduling tools. Theyare primarily used bysoftware developers that dotheir own list management

through custom software.Oftentheycanalsobeusedtosend transactional emails,such as welcome messagesand order confirmationmessages. EIP users willoften schedule messagesusing an SMTP server or anAPI provided by the EIP inlieu of a web interface.Generally, you would onlyselectanEIPoveraGESPifyou are writing custommarketing software or are

using a piece of third-partysoftware that requires anoutsideemailserver.

Here are some commonlyused email infrastructureproviders:

AmazonSES–aws.amazon.com/sesElasticEmail–elasticemail.comMailjet–mailjet.com

Mandrill–mandrillapp.comPostMark–postmarkapp.comSendGrid–sendgrid.comSocketLabs–socketlabs.com

It is important tonotethatthequalityofservicecanvary

substantially between EIPs.In my experience, you getwhatyoupayfor.Ihadalessthan desirable experiencewith a low-cost EIP about ayearago,andhavesincethenmovedallofmyEIPmailingover to a more expensiveenterprise plan withSendGrid. I haven’t had anymajorissuessince.

GeneralEmailServiceProviders

Like EIPs, general emailservice providers (GESPs)provide the necessarynetwork infrastructure and

deliverability expertiseneededtomakesurethatyouremail actually makes it toyour subscribers’ inboxes.GESPs will also provide allof the list management,templating, mail scheduling,performance tracking, andspam testing that ESPcustomers expect. If you arebuildingageneralmailinglistfor the purpose of sendingnewsletters and other contentto your audience, a GESP is

yourbestbet.Here are some commonly

used general email serviceproviders:

Aweber–aweber.comConstantContact–constantcontact.comCampaignMonitor–campaignmonitor.comDrip–getdrip.comiContact–icontact.com

GetResponse–getresponse.comMailChimp–mailchimp.com

MarketingAutomationPlatforms

Marketing automationplatforms (MAPs) cater to asuperset of the functionalitythat general email service

providersoffer.Inadditiontoproviding email deliveryinfrastructure and listmanagement services, MAPswillprovidespecialtoolsthatallow you to send a specificemail series to an individualsubscriber based on anyactions they take or tags thatyou assign them. Forexample, if a customerpurchases a certain product,youmightwant tosendthemaseriesofemailsthatprovide

instructions to use thatproduct. With a MAP, newcustomers will automaticallybe tagged as a purchaser ofthat product and will receivethe email series that you setup ahead of time. When setup properly,MAPs can sendmore targeted and relevantemail to your subscribers,which will dramaticallyimprove the effectiveness ofyour email marketingcampaigns.

The line between generalemail service providers andmarketing automationplatforms has blurred duringthe last several years. Someolder GESPs have addedmarketing automationfunctionality tocompetewithservices that were built fromthegroundupwithmarketingautomation in mind. At thesame time, MAPs haveworked to make sure theyoffer the same level of list

management and emaildelivery services offered byGESPs.

Here are some commonlyused email marketingautomationplatforms:

ActiveCampaign–activecampaign.com/automationDrip–getdrip.comOntraport–ontraport.com

Infusionsoft–infusionsoft.com

PurchaseConsiderationsWhen selecting an email

service provider, there areseveral factors to consider.Herearesomethingstokeepinmind:

TypeofESP–Determinewhetheryouneedanemailinfrastructureprovider,ageneralemailserviceprovider,oramarketingautomationplatform.Unlessyouarewritingcustomsoftwareandneedtosendemail

throughanAPIcall,yourbestbetistochooseonethatoffershigh-qualitylistmanagementservicesandadvancedmarketingautomationtools.Whileyoumightnotusemarketingautomationfunctionalitywhenyou

aregettingstarted,youwillwanttohaveitavailableforuselateronduetotheincrediblevalueitcanprovidetoyouremailmarketingefforts.Functionality–Mostemailserviceprovidersofferasimilarbaseline

offunctionality,includinglistmanagement,emaildelivery,templating,spamtesting,andmessagescheduling.Listanyadvancedfeaturesthatyoumightwanttoleverageinyouremailmarketingstrategyand

compareandcontrastcompetingservicestoseewhichmightofferthebestcombinationoftoolsandservicesforyourbusiness.AgeofSoftware–Emailserviceprovidersdonotagewellbecauseofavarietyofsoftware

anddatabaseissues.SomeolderESPslaunchedbetween10and20yearsagohavesimplynotbeenabletokeepupwiththefunctionality,userinterface,andqualityofserviceofferedbythoselaunchedmorerecently.

OlderESPshavetodealwithmassivedatasetsofcustomerinformationandwithlegacysoftwarecode,whichmakethemdifficulttoupgradeovertime.Cost–PricingbetweenESPscanvarysignificantlybasedon

yourusageandthelevelofserviceprovided.UseanESP’spricingpagetocalculateyourcostnowbasedonyourcurrentsendinglevel,andconsiderwhatusinganESPwillcostyouasyourmailinglistgrowsovertime.

CustomerService–SomeESPsoffermuchbettercustomerservicethanothers.Ifyouinadvertentlygetaddedtoablacklistorhavesomeotherdeliverabilityissue,youaregoingtoneedanESPthathasyourbackandcanstep

intohelpalleviatethesituation.UseGoogletosearchforcustomerreviewsoftheESPyouareconsidering,andalsosearchforthecompany’snamefollowedbytheword“sucks”toseehowmanyusersaredissatisfiedwithagiven

service.TermsandConditions–SomeESPswillsuspendyouraccountwithoutwarningiftoomanyusersmarkyouremailsasspamorifyouhavetoohighofabouncerate.Makesureyouactuallyreadthe

termsandservicesoftheESPyouareconsideringandunderstandwhatcircumstancesaregroundsforshuttingdownyouraccount.

Takeaconsiderateamountof time to research andcompare email serviceproviders before selectingyour ESP. After you have

startedbuildingamailinglistwith an ESP, it can be verydifficult to switch to anotherprovider. A new ESP mightrequireyoutoreconfirmyourentire mailing list, whichcould cause you to lose amajor portion of yoursubscribers. You will alsoprobablyloseallofyourpastmessage history andperformancedataaswell.

APersonalRecommendation

In the previous section, Iprovidedaframeworkforyouto evaluate and comparemultiple email serviceproviders. There are manygood email service providers

that will serve your emailmarketing efforts perfectlywell. But if you have donesome looking and just can’tdecide which email serviceproviderisrightforyou,Icanwholeheartedly recommendDrip(getdrip.com).

Drip is amodernplatformthat offers all of thefunctionality that you wouldexpect from an email serviceprovider, including listmanagement, templating,

performance tracking, mailscheduling, and marketingautomation. The service isintuitive and easy to use,makes the process of addingan opt-in form to yourwebsite very easy, and thecompany offers greatcustomer support. Finally,Drip offers a number ofhelpful tutorial videos thatwill help you learn theirsoftwarequickly.

There are only twominor

downsides to be aware ofwithDrip. First,manymajoropt-in form plugins andservices do not yet integratewith Drip. While Drip doesoffermultiple typesofopt-informs that you can add toyourwebsite, they are not ascustomizable or feature-richas other dedicated plugins.Second,Dripdoesnothaveafree tier for low-usage usersand is a bit pricier thanMailChimp and some other

competitors at lower tiers.However, Drip is still afantastic service that willserve every email marketerwell.

Please note that I do notreceive any affiliatecommissions or any otherform of compensation forendorsingDrip.

EmailServiceProviderCostsTheongoingmonthlycost

of using an email serviceprovider will be basedprimarily on the size of yourmailinglistandthefrequencythat you email your list.

When you are first gettingstarted, several email serviceprovidersofferafreetierthatallow you to build amailinglist of a few thousandsubscribers before you haveto start paying an ongoingmonthlyfee.

For example, Mailchimpallows you to build a list of2,000 subscribers on theirfreetier.Asyourlistgrowsto10,000 subscribers, you canexpect to pay $50.00-$75.00

per month with mostproviders.

Your monthly fee willcontinue to grow as your listgrows,butdonotletthatbeamajorconcern.Payingalargemonthly email serviceproviderissimplythecostofsuccess. I am currentlypaying about $2,000 permonth to SendGrid for apackage that allows me tosend 10 million emailsmonthly. While the monthly

fee is a big number, it is asmall price to pay given thatemail marketing generatesmorethan$1millionperyearinrevenueformycompany.

Wrap-UpYour email service

provider will become thefoundation of all of youremailmarketingefforts.Theywillprovidethesoftwareandnetwork infrastructureneeded,soyoudonothavetofocus on the technical

intricacies of sending outemail at scale. With a high-qualityESPinplace,youcanfocus on growing yourmailing list, writingmarketing content, andgeneratingrevenuefromyourlist.

ActionSteps

Researchandcompareemailserviceproviders.Selectanemailserviceproviderandregisterforanaccount.

Becomefamiliarwithyouremailserviceprovider’ssoftwareplatform.

CaseStudy#1

MarketBeat

MarketBeat.com(formerlyAnalyst Ratings Network) isa digital publishing companythat provides financial

informationtoinvestorsatalllevels that I founded inJanuary2011.Prior to that, Ihad been running a financialnews website calledAmerican Banking andMarket News, whichgarnered more than onemillionpageviewspermonthandwas generatingwell intofive figures of advertisingrevenuepermonth.

While the business wasdoing well, it was very

dependent upon referraltraffic from Google. Theysent traffic to our website,and we sent traffic back totheir advertisers throughGoogle’s AdSense program.This is a great strategy aslong as Google continues tosend traffic, but as everyentrepreneur that uses SEOhas learned in the last fiveyears, that’s not always aguarantee. I wanted mybusiness to stick around for

thelongterm,andinordertodo this, I knew we wouldneed to cultivate a loyalaudience and sell themproducts and services thecompanyproduces.

Atthetime,Iwasn’tquitesurewhat kind of product orservice the company wouldsell,butIknewthatwewouldneed to communicate withour audience in some wayotherthanhopingtheywouldcome back to the website at

somepoint.Itquicklybecameapparent to me that weneeded togrowanemail list.We added a popup opt-inform, an opt-in form belowevery article on our website,andstartedpublishingadailyfinancial newsletter thatcontains a wrap-up of thelatest stock recommendationsfrom equities researchanalysts.

MarketBeat’s dailynewsletter ended up getting

quiteabitoftraction.Itturnsout investors tend to getemotionally invested in thestocks they own andwant tohear the latest news andfinancial data about them.The company was able totake those tidbits ofinformation and make themavailable to investors in aconvenient and real-timeformat.

After running ournewsletterforsixmonths,we

had attracted about 10,000subscribers.Atthesametime,we were receiving a numberof requests to add additionalfeatures and data to ournewsletter.Wethentookthatfeedback and made apremiumversionof thedailynewsletter calledMarketBeatDailyPremium.

For $15.97 per month or$159.00peryear, subscriberscould get their newsletterdelivered earlier in the day,

receive SMS or email alertsfortheirstocks,customizethelook and feel of theirnewsletter,andsetupawatchlist to get more informationabout the companies theyhaveinvestedin.

Our free daily newslettercontinuestoserveasthecorecommunication pointbetweenthecompanyandoursubscribers.Itistheonlyleadmagnet that our companyuses and serves as an

effective tool to keep oursubscriberbaseengagedwiththecontentthatweproduce.

MarketBeat’s subscriberslove the up-to-the-minutefinancial news andinformation that are includedinour newsletter. In additiontokeepingourusersengaged,we also use our dailynewsletter as a way to sharenews and announcementsfrom our company. It evenhelps generate revenue

through cost-per-click (CPC)ads.

We launched aweb-basedinvestment research tool in2012calledRatingsDBthatisavailable for $19.97 permonth or $199.00 per year.RatingsDB allows investorstoaccessour fulldatabaseofmore than 250,000 stockrecommendations andprovides performancerecommendations forindividual brokers and

analysts.By adding a secondproduct to our lineup, wewere able to get one-third ofour paid subscribers to signup for a second recurringmonthlysubscription.

Wealsorecently launcheda product called the All-AccessPass,whichcombinesMarketBeat Daily PremiumandRatingsDB—alongwithafew other features—for$34.97permonth.

Furthermore, we have

been able to dramaticallyimprove MarketBeat’s opt-inrates over the years bycontinually split-testing ouropt-informs.Weattractmorethan 20,000 organic opt-inseach month through ourpopup opt-in form, oursidebar opt-in form, and anopt-in form below each poston our website. We use alightweight and simple formthat automatically identifiestyposandhasasinglecall-to-

action.Thebiggestwininthelast

couple of years was tocustomizeourpopuponaperpage basis to reference thename of the companydiscussed in the article. Youcan view MarketBeat’scurrentpopupopt-in formbynavigating within your webbrowsertoMarketBeat.com.

MarketBeat utilizes anumber of email marketingautomation techniques. The

company has a 60-dayautoresponder series thatevery new subscriberreceives. We also sendspecific campaigns tosubscribers based on theproducts and services theyhaveorhavenotpurchased.

For our paid products,wesend out an engagementcampaign to new customersthat shows them how to usethe product they purchased.For subscribers that haven’t

opened a message in sixmonths,we send a campaignto try and get them re-engagedwithourmailinglist.

We utilize cartabandonment, which sendsemail discounts to customersthat have previouslypurchased our services buthave since cancelled. Thesespecificcampaignshavebeenincredibly effective atgenerating more sales andincreasing the lifetime value

ofeachcustomer.MarketBeat generates

revenue in a number ofdifferent ways, includingdisplay advertising, co-registration advertising,recurring monthlysubscription products,newsletter advertising, andemaillistrentals.

More information aboutMarketBeat’s revenuestreams is included in themonetization chapter of this

book. As of October 2015,more than 250,000 investorssubscribe to MarketBeat’sdailynewsletter,andwesendmore than 10 millionpermission-basedemailseachmonth.BetweenMarketBeat.comandits sister websites, wegenerate more than 3.5million page views on amonthly basis. In 2014MarketBeat accrued $1.56million in revenue and is on

tracktogenerate$2.5millioninrevenuein2015.

ChapterTwoBuilding

YourMailingListThroughYourWebsite

If your organization is

goingtodevelopasuccessfulemail marketing campaign,you are going to need aconsistent strategy to buildandgrowyouremaillist.Oneof the foundational elementsof every list-buildinginitiativeshouldbecollectingemail sign-ups on yourwebsite. People who areinterestedinyourbusinessornonprofit are probablyalready visiting your websiteonaweeklyormonthlybasis.

It makes a lot of sense,therefore,touseyourwebsiteasoneofyourprimarymeansofgatheringemailsign-ups.

LeadMagnetsYou should offer your

subscribers something ofvalueinexchangeforsigningupforyouremaillist,suchasa discount coupon, a freereport, or a resource list. Intheworldofemailmarketing,this is known as a lead

magnet. Many websitevisitors are hesitant to entertheir email address into anopt-in form on a websitebecauseof theperceived riskof receiving more unwantedspam email. You need todevelop a compelling andvaluable offer so that yourpotential subscribers willdesire your lead magnetenough to outweigh anypotential fear of receivingmore unwanted email. Your

subscribers know that theiremail address is valuable toyou, and you need to offerthem something of equalvalueinreturn.

A good lead magnet willhelp your website visitorslearn a specific skill, solve aspecific problem, oraccomplish a specific task.Theleadmagnetonanygivenpage of your website shouldbe directly related to thecontent on that page. This

mayrequirecreatingmultiplelead magnets for differentparts of your website overtime, but the additionalworkwill significantly improveyouropt-inrates.

TypesofLeadMagnets

Here are a few commonvarietiesofleadmagnetsthataretypicallyofferedinopt-informs:

FreeReportorGuide–Freereportsarethemostcommontypeofleadmagnet.Itshouldhelpyouruserslearnaboutsomethingtheyareinterestedinorhelpthemaccomplishaspecificgoal.Forexample,ifyouhada

websiteaboutmarketing,youmightofferafreeguidethathelpspeoplecreatetheirfirstFacebookadcampaign.Thecontentofyourfreereportshouldnototherwisebeavailableonyourwebsite.

ResourceList–Aresourcelistissimplyalistofproducts,services,tools,andworksheetsthatwillhelpyoursubscribersgetstartedmorequicklywithwhatyouwanttoteachthem.Ifyouhadapersonalfinanceblog,youmight

offeryoursubscribersalistofsoftwarebudgetingtoolsandworksheetstokeeptrackoftheirdebt,ensuretheyhavetherightkindsofinsurance,anddeterminewhethertheyaresavingenoughforretirement.

FreeTrial–Ifyourunasoftware-as-a-service(SaaS)company,youmightconsiderofferinga30-daytrialofyourserviceasaleadmagnet.OfferingafreetrialwillgetusersengagedinyourSaaSapplicationandgiveyouthe

opportunitytosendthem

marketingcontentviaemail.EducationalVideos–Ifyouaregoodinfrontofacamera,youmightrecordaseriesofinstructionalvideosusingyourwebcam.Youcanalsorecordascreencastofan

application,likeAdobePhotoshoporMicrosoftExcel,toshowusershowtoperformaspecifictasklikeremovingscratchesfromaphotoinPhotoshoporcreatingapivottableinExcel.

DownloadableSoftware–Ifyourcompanyororganizationproducesanykindofdownloadablesoftware,youmightconsiderrequiringausertoentertheiremailaddressinordertodownloadyoursoftware.

DiscountsorFreeShipping–E-commercestoresoftenofferaone-timeusecouponfor10%or20%offacustomer’sfirstorderastheirleadmagnet.Whileofferingadiscountmightlowerthetotalpriceofacustomer’sfirstorder,it

willsignificantlyincreasetheprobabilitythatawebsitevisitorwillbecomeacustomerinthefirstplace,becausetheywillbereceivingemailaboutyourcompany’sproductsandservices.

CatalogorSalesMaterial–Ifyourcompanysellsbusiness-to-businessservicesoroffersaproductwithahighpricepoint,sendingaproductcatalogoradditionalsalesmaterialscanserveasaneffectiveleadmagnet.

PhysicalProducts–Ifhavingasubscriber’sphysicalmailingaddressisimportanttoyou,youcanofferaninexpensive-to-producephysicalproductasyourleadmagnet.Smalltoolssuchasflashlights,knives,andscrewdrivers

areoftenusedasphysicalproductleadmagnets.Inordertomakeupthecostofproducingandmailingaphysicalproduct,youcanalsochargeasmallshippingandhandlingfeethatwillgenerallypayforboththeproduct

andtheshipping.DigitalMarketer’sSurvivalLife.coma“free”creditcardknifefor$4.95shippingandhandling.Whiletheylikelybreakevenontheirleadmagnet,theyacquiretheemailaddress,phonenumber,andfullmailingaddress

ofeveryonethatcompletestheiropt-inform.

LeadMagnetExamples

AtMarketBeat,weuseourfreedailyemailnewsletterasourprimaryleadmagnet.Weset the expectation to oursubscribers that they aregoing to receive emails

containing up-to-the-minutefinancial news and stockrecommendations on a dailybasis. By setting thisexpectation in advance,userswill not be surprised by therelatively large volume ofemailswe sendout.Throughthis daily interactionwe alsohave the opportunity topromote our premiumproducts in our newsletterand insert cost-per-click(CPC)adsforadvertisers.We

have tested other types ofleadmagnets in the past, butour daily newsletter hasoutperformed everything elsewehavetested.

At USGolfTV, we useweb-based training videos asour lead magnets. A websitevisitormightoptintoreceivea series of five videos abouthow to improve their puttingorhowtofixtheirslice.Theyhave to verify their emailaddress to receive the first

video and will receive anadditionalvideoeachdayforthefollowingfourdays.Afterthe video series is complete,the subscriber will begin toreceive our weekly emailnewsletter and marketingcontent for USGolfTV’spremium video trainingcourses. The content in ourleadmagnets is often closelyrelated toourpremiumvideoproducts, which makes for asmooth transition between

sending our free videocontent and promoting ourpaidproducts.

Filly Flair (fillyflair.com)and Chelsea’s Boutique(chelseasboutiqueonline.com)usediscountsastheirprimarylead magnets. These twoonline clothing boutiqueshave recognized that theircustomerslovegettingagooddeal and have leveraged thatreality in their leadmagnets.Chelsea’s Boutique offers a

generousdiscountof20%offtoeachnewsubscriber’snextpurchase. Filly Flair offers acoupon that provides a $5.00discount regardless of ordersize.Byofferingacoupontonew subscribers, theseboutiques are increasing thelikelihood that a customerwill place another orderquicklybecause theywant tomakeuseoftheircoupon.

MoreLeadMagnetIdeasIf you are not sure what

lead magnet will work bestfor your website, there are alarge number of resourcesavailable online that offerspecific ideas for lead

magnets.AGooglesearchfor“lead magnet ideas” willreturn dozens of pages ofarticles that contain leadmagnetsyoucanmodel.Youcan also check out thewebsites of some of yourcompetitorstoseewhatkindsof lead magnets they areoffering and get some moreindustry-specificideas.

Do not agonize over thetask of creating a leadmagnet. It does not

necessarily need to be long,complicated, or take a lot ofwork to create. You may beable to repurpose a piece ofcontentthatyouhavealreadycreated as your leadmagnet,orevenuseapieceofcontentthat someone else has made.For example, I once used afree guide produced by theFinancialIndustryRegulatoryAuthority (FINRA). Yourleadmagnetcanbeassimpleas a one-page report or a list

of your favorite tools andresources.

Regardless of what youchoose as your lead magnet,remember that it should be apiece of content valuable toyour readers. It should beclosely related to the contenton your website and shouldteach your readers how toaccomplish a specific task,learnaspecificskill,orsolveaspecificproblem.

MessagingandCopy

After you have createdyour lead magnet, you willneed to identifywhatkindofmessaging you are going touse to get your potentialsubscribers to sign up for

your mailing list. Thelanguagethatyouuseonyouropt-in forms will have adramatic impact on thenumberofemailsign-upsyoureceive. By creating acompelling and relevantoffer, and using stronglanguage with clear calls-to-action, you will get muchhigheropt-inrates.

Before looking at opt-inform software, you will firstneed to write the actual text

(or copy) thatwill appear onyour opt-in form. You willneedtowriteashortheadline,which will be the first pieceof text that a potentialsubscriber reads. Then youneed a description thatprovides more detail aboutwhat the user can expect toreceive when they give youtheir email address.Youwillalsoneedtodecidewhatkindof information to collect onyourformandwhatyouwant

on the text of your clickablebutton.

WritingYourHeadline

Theheadlineonyour opt-in form is the first piece ofcopy that your potentialsubscriberswillsee,andmaybe themost important wordsthat you write in your

business. A good headlinewill create desire for yourlead magnet and encouragepotential subscribers to readyouropt-indescription.

Incontrast,abadheadlinewill be quickly passed overand ignored. It should beshort, engaging, and brieflycommunicate what yourwebsitevisitorswillreceiveiftheysignupforyourmailinglist.

Typically, the best

headlines are between fiveand ten words in length andwill ideally fit into a singlelineoftext.

Herearesomeexamplesofheadlines I have personallyused:

ReceiveAnalysts'UpgradesandDowngradesDaily

[CompanyName]–ReceiveNewsandRatingsDailyFrustratedwithYourPuttingSkills?LearntoEliminatethe"Blow-UpHole"(freevideo!)Add20+YardstoYourDrivesToday!

WritingYourDescription

The description on youropt-in form is themain copythat explains your leadmagnet, sets the expectationfor the type of email yourrecipients will receive, and

provides an overall valueproposition forwhy someonemight want to be on yourmailinglist.

Yourdescriptionshouldbebetween 20 and 50 words inlength,and it shouldbeclearand concise. Avoidunnecessarywords, and keepyour description as short aspossible while fullyexplaining your valuepropositionandsettingahighexpectation for the emails

they will receive. Finally,includeacall-to-actionwhichinstructs readers to completetheopt-inform.

Here is the current opt-indescription we are usingonMarketBeat.com:

Enteryouremailaddressbelowtoreceiveaconcisedailysummaryofanalysts'upgrades,downgrades,andnewcoveragewithMarketBeat.com'sFREEdailyemailnewsletter.

SelectingYourButtonText

The text on your sign-upbutton will be the shortestpart of your opt-in that youwrite. Your button text mayonly be two or three words,but having the right text on

your sign-up button canimprove your opt-in rates by10-30%.Mostwebsitesuseavery generic button text like“Submit,” “Get InstantAccess,” or “SubscribeNow.”Becausewebusersareused to clicking on buttonsthat say “Subscribe” and“Submit,” using a genericbutton text will workreasonably well. I amcurrently using “Sign-UpNow (Free)” as the text on

my buttons, which hasoutperformed more than adozenothervariations Ihavetried.

Youcanalsotrycreatingaunique button text that tiesintothecopyinyourtitleanddescription. At Microconf2015, a conference forsoftware entrepreneurs,copywriter Joanna Wiebeshared how she testedchanging the button text ononeofDressipi.com’slanding

pages.Dressipi is a service that

helpswomenfindclothesthatlook nice and fit well,regardless of a woman’sshape or size. She changedtheir button text from “SignUp Now” to “Show MeOutfitsI’llLove”andsawanincreaseof123.9%intheratethat the button wasclicked.15BytyingDressipi’sbutton text into the copy of

the rest of the opt-in form,she immediately saw higheropt-inrates.

TypesofOpt-InForms

Opt-in forms come inmany different shapes andsizesandcanbeputonmanydifferent places in yourwebsite’s layout. Some aresmalland less intrusive,such

as in a sidebar or below thefoldofawebsite,butarelesslikely to be seen by users.Others are larger, well-placed,andhardtomiss,andwillgenerallygetmuchbetteropt-in rates. As the use ofopt-in forms onwebsites hasexpanded in the last decade,several broad categories ofopt-in forms have beencreated by the Internetmarketingcommunity.

Here are some common

typesofopt-informsthatareusedonthewebtoday:

EntryPopup–Thisisarectangularopt-informthatappearsatthecenteroftheuser’sscreenwhentheyfirstnavigatetoyourwebsite.Typically,therestofthewebpagewillbe

dimmedtoplaceanemphasisontheopt-inform.Entrypopupswillalsousuallycontainan“X”or“close”buttonthatallowsuserstoexittheopt-informsotheycanviewtherestofthewebsite.Toavoidbeingoverlyintrusive,many

webmasterswillonlyshowapopuptotheirusersthefirsttimetheyvisittheirwebsiteeachweek.Entrypopupsareanextremelyeffectivetooltogatheremailopt-insandoftenhaveratesthreetofivetimeshigherthananopt-informina

sidebaroratthebottomofanarticle.Youcanviewanexampleofanentrypopupopt-informontheMarketBeatwebsiteatMarketBeat.com.ExitPopup–Anexitpopupoperatesverysimilartoanentry

popup,butonlyappearswhentheuserhastakenanactionindicatingtheyaregettingreadytoleaveawebsite.Ifauser’smousecursorleavesthemainwindowofyourwebsiteorifauserclicksonalink,anexitpopupwillappear.

Webmasterssometimeschooseexitpopupsoverentrypopupsbecausetheyareperceivedaslessobtrusive,buttheyarealsolessvisiblethanentrypopupsbecausenotallusersleavingawebsitewillseeanexit

popupbeforemovingontoanotherwebsite.WelcomePage–Awelcomepageisanentrypopuponsteroids.Awelcomepagewillcovertheuser’sentirescreenwithalargeopt-informandrequirethemtoclickaclosebuttonor

scrolldowntoseethewebpagethattheyaretryingtoaccess.YoucanviewanexampleofawelcomepageonSpencerHawes’website,NichePursuits.comFooterOpt-In–Afooteropt-inissimplyanopt-informthat

appearsatthebottomofanarticle.Afterauserisdonereadinganarticleonyourwebsite,theyarenaturallyreadytoreadanotherarticleortakeanotheraction,suchassigningupforyourmailinglist.Footeropt-informscanattract

highlyengagedsubscribers,becauseeverysubscriberthatcompletesafooteropt-inhasprobablyalreadyreadatleastonearticleonyourwebsite.Footeropt-insarealsoveryunobtrusive,becausetheyappearbelowthe

foldandonlycommandauser’sattentionaftertheyarereadinganarticle.Youcanviewanexampleofafooteropt-inbyreadinganyarticlelocatedonAmericanBankingNews.comSidebarOpt-in–Asidebaropt-inissimply

anopt-informthatappearsinthesidebarofyourwebsite.Theseoftengetloweropt-inratesthanothertypesbecausetheyarenotinthemaincolumnofcontentthatauserisreading.Thisdoesn’tmeanthatyoushould

avoidsidebaropt-insaltogether,becausesidebaropt-inscancomplementotherformsonyourwebsite.Youcanviewanexampleofasidebaropt-inbyvisitingAmericanBankingNews.comHelloBar–Ahellobarisawide,rectangular

opt-informthatsitsatthetoporbottomofyourwebbrowser.Ahellobarwilltypicallybeabout50pixelstallandspantheentirewidthofyourscreen.Becauseoftheirrelativelysmallsize,ahellobarwilltypicallyonlyhavea

headline,atextboxforyouremailaddress,andasubmitbutton.YoucanseewhatahellobarmightlooklikeonyourwebsitebyusingthedemotoolprovidedonHelloBar.com.ScrollBox–Ascrollboxisasquareor

rectangularboxthatappearsinthebottomrightcornerofyourwebsiteafterauserscrollsdown.Ascrollboxwillfloatabovetherestofthecontentonyourwebsiteandisgenerallyviewedasunobtrusivebecause

theydonotcoverupthemaincontentofyourwebsite.YoucanviewademoofascrollboxoraddonetoyourwebsiteusingthepluginproducedbySumoMeatsumome.com/app/scroll-box.

WhichOpt-InFormsWork

Best?While there are several

typesofopt-informsthatyoucan place on your website,some work much better than

others. As a baseline, Irecommend implementing anentrypopupandafooteropt-informonyourwebsite.Theentrypopupwillbevisibletoeveryone that visits yourwebsiteforthefirsttime.Thefooter opt-in will catch theattentionof readers thathavefinished reading an article. Ifyou want to be moreaggressive, you can also addasidebaropt-in form toyourwebsite in addition to the

prior two suggestions. Usingmultipleopt-informsonyourwebsitewillgenerateahigheropt-in rate than using anysingle opt-in form becauseusers that miss your entrypopup may sign up throughanother opt-in form on yourwebsite.

Keep your opt-in formssimple in order to maximizetheir effectiveness. Use theminimum amount of copynecessary in your headline

and description to ensureyour potential subscriberswill readall ofyour copy.Asimple and consistent valueproposition is the best route,because it lets users knowexactlywhat they are gettingin exchange for their emailaddress.While it is temptingto try to collect a lot ofinformation about your usersup front, such as their name,gender, and interests, yourbest bet is to only ask for

their email address on youropt-in form. Asking foradditional informationbeyondauser’semailaddresswillmake them less likely tocomplete your opt-in form.You can always ask foradditional personal detailslater in your autoresponderseries.

Your opt-in forms shouldhave a good validation scriptto make sure users areenteringvalidemailaddresses

into your form. If a userdoesn’t enter an emailaddress and tries to click thesubmit button, they shouldreceive an error messagetelling them they didn’tcompletetherequiredfield.Ifauserenterssomethingthatisnot in the format of a validemail address, they shouldreceive a different messageinforming them of such. If auser makes a common typo,suchasindicatingtheiremail

address is from“@gmial.com” or“@hotmial.com”, your opt-inform should automaticallywarn the user that they mayhave typed in their emailaddresswrong.

Ideally, your plugin willdo these validation tasks foryou. If you are using a formthat you created yourself orone a developer made foryou, you can use a scriptcalled MailCheck.js to

automatically check forerroneous emailsat:github.com/mailcheck/mailcheck

While I recommend usingan entry popup, a footer opt-in form, simple and cleancopy, and minimal formelements,whatworkswellformycompaniesmaynotworkequally well for yours. Yourwebsite will have a differentstructure and audience thanmine, so your mileage mayvary with the

recommendations listedabove.

For this reason, it isimportant to regularly testdifferent messaging, leadmagnets, and opt-in formplugins to see if you canimprove your opt-in rates.Consider therecommendations listedabove to be a good baselineuntilyou find something thatworksbetterforyourwebsite.

WorriedaboutAnnoyingYour

Users?Some webmasters will

refuse to place large andhard-to-missopt-informslikepopups and welcome pages

because they believe thosetypes of opt-in forms areobtrusive, annoying, anddegrade the user’s overallexperience. Do not let anypersonal feelings or opinionsyoumighthavestopyoufromusing large opt-in forms.Remember that you are notyourusers.

Many technologyenthusiasts think that all adsare annoying and should beavoided, but that doesn’t

mean that your potentialsubscribersthinkthesame.

Your subscribers may beglad that you have a largeopt-informthatappearswhenthey first visit your websitebecause they want your leadmagnet and other emailcontentthatyouproduce.

If you truly believe that alarge opt-in form or a popupis too annoying for yourusers, let the data do thetalking. Run a split-test with

half of your website visitorsseeingtheopt-informandtheotherhalfnot seeing theopt-in form at all. If the userswhosee theopt-in formvisitthe same average number ofpages on your website thatuserswhodonotseetheopt-informdo,youknowtheopt-in form is not driving anyvisitors away from yourwebsite.

CommonOpt-inFormPluginsandServicesIn order to design and

place opt-in forms on yourwebsite, youwillmost likelyneedtomakeuseofanopt-in

formpluginoracloud-basedopt-informservice.Asemailmarketing has grown inpopularity over the years, anumberofhigh-qualityopt-inform plugins have beendeveloped for all majorcontentmanagementsystems.They will provide templatesthat allow you to customizethelook-and-feelofyouropt-in form and generate theHTML, CSS, and JavaScriptnecessary for your opt-in

forms to run. These pluginswill also integrate with youremailserviceprovider(ESP),so new sign-ups areautomatically funneled toyourESP.

Herearesomeofthemostpopularopt-informplugins:

OptinMonster–OptinMonster(optinmonster.com)isa

widely-usedservicethatcanplacemanydifferenttypesofopt-insonyourwebsite.Thisserviceintegrateswithallcontentmanagementsystems,hasintegratedsplit-testingfunctionality,andenablesyoutouse

custommessagingonaperpageorpercategorybasis.OptinMonsterworkswithnearlyallemailserviceprovidersincludingMailChimp,AWeber,Infusionsoft,ConstantContact,and15others.WhileOptinMonsteris

incrediblyflexibleandfeature-rich,itisoneofthefewservicesthatchargeanongoingmonthlyfeeforitsuse.Ifyoureceivemorethan500visitorspermonth,itmaybeworthwhiletopaythe$9-$29monthlyfeetousetheirservice.

OptinCat–OptinCat(fatcatapps.com/optincat)isaWordPressplugincreatedbyFatcatApps.OptinCatallowsyoutoaddpopups,sidebarwidgets,postboxes(formsthatcanbeplacedatthebottomofapostorinsideanypostor

page),and2-stepopt-informstoyourwebsite.OptinCat’spopupshaveextremelycustomizabletargetingoptions(basedontimeonpage,numberofpageviews,scrolleddownpercentage,category,exitintent,etc.).OptinCatalso

allowsyoutocustomizethecontentofyourmessagesonaper-categorybasis.Thepluginisavailableforaone-timefeeof$59.00.SumoMeListBuilder–SumoMe(sumome.com)offersahighlycustomizablelist-

buildingscriptcalledListBuilderthatcanbeaddedtoanywebsite.ListBuilderworkseitherasanentrypopuporexitpopupandworkswithmostmajoremailserviceproviders.SumoMeisafreemiumservicethatallowsyoutousetheir

basictoolsforfree,butmoreadvancedfeatures,suchassplit-testing,costasmuchas$99.00permonth.HelloBar–HelloBar(hellobar.com)isaservicethatallowsyoutointegrateahellobar,entrypopup,scrollbox,

orwelcomepageonyourwebsite.Thelookandfeeloftheirformsarehighlycustomizableandaremobilefriendly.HelloBariscurrentlyafreeservice,butitdoesn’tintegratewithanyemailserviceproviders.

OptinRevolution–OptinRevolution(optinrevolution.com)isaWordPresspluginthatwillcreateentryandexitpopupsonyourwebsite.Itworkswithallmajoremailserviceprovidersandhasintegratedsplittestingtools.It

differentiatesitselffromotherpopuppluginsbyallowinguserstointegratevideoandotherrichmediadirectlyintoyouropt-informs.OptionRevolutionProisavailableforaone-timefeeof$77.00.

PopupDomination–PopupDomination(popupdomination.com)isaWordPresspluginthatwillallowyoutocreateentryandexitpopupsonyourwebsite.ItfeaturesintegratedA/Btestingandanalyticsandallowsyoutoshow

differentpopupsonaper-pageorper-categorybasis.PopupDominationoffersveryvisuallyappealingopt-informtemplatesthatareastepabovemanyotheropt-informplugins.PopupDominationworkswithallmajoremailservice

providersandis

availableforaone-timefeeof$47.00.Bloom–Bloom(elegantthemes.com/plugins/bloomisanewerWordPressopt-inplugincreatedbyElegantThemes.Bloomcanaddanentrypopup,footeropt-inform,orsidebaropt-informto

yourwebsite.Itboastsmorethan100customizabletemplates,hasintegratedA/Btesting,andworkswithnearlyallmajoremailserviceproviders.BloomisavailableaspartofElegantThemes’membershipprogram,

whichcosts$89.00peryear.

WhichOpt-InPluginIsBest?There are dozens of

different opt-in form pluginsthat you can choose from.While it would be nice torecommend an opt-in formpluginthatisideallysuitedto

everyone,there’sjustnoone-size-fits-allplugin thatworksfor everyone in everysituation. Some opt-in formplugins and services arespecific to a single contentmanagement system, such asWordPress or Drupal. Otheropt-in plugins only createcertain typesofopt-in forms,such as landing pages, exitpopups,orentrypopups.

I recommend looking atthemarketingmaterialforall

of the opt-in pluginspreviouslylistedandfindonethat meets your specificneeds. If your website runsWordPress, you will have anumber of different opt-informplugins tochoose from.Ifyourwebsiteispoweredbyanotherplatform,youcanusea cloud-based opt-in formservice such as SumoMe,OptinMonster,orHelloBar.

SpecialConsiderationsforOpt-inForms

Youshouldmakesurethatthe opt-in form you selectdoesn’tnegatively impact the

load speed of your website.Some opt-in plugins arewrittenmuchmoreefficientlythan others. If your opt-inpluginnoticeablyslowsdownhow fast your website loads,you should probably switchto a different plugin orservice.

Youcantesttheimpactofyour opt-in form plugin onyour website’s load speedusinga toolcalledGTMetrix(gtmetrix.com). Test your

website first before installingyour opt-in form, and test itagainafterputtingyouropt-inform inplace. If the additionofyouropt-insoftwareslowsdown your website’s loadspeedbymorethanasecond,it probably wasn’t writtenveryefficiently.

In special situations, itmay be better to have acustom opt-in form createdbyafront-endwebdeveloper.I personally do not use any

third-party opt-in plugins onmywebsites.Awhileback,Ihired a developer to create alightweight, custom opt-inform on my website thatwould work as an entrypopup, a footer opt-in form,andasidebaropt-inform.Byhaving a custom scriptwritten, Iwas able to reducethe file size of the opt-inscript from about 150K toabout 12KB. Thissignificantly improved my

website’s load speed. I wasalso able to integrate betterform validation throughMailCheck.js than wasavailable with the off-the-shelf plugin I was usingpreviously. However, it willnot make sense for you tohave a custom opt-in scriptcreated by a web developerwhen you are first gettingstarted because you need asimpleroption.

Many large websites still

use off-the-shelf opt-inplugins. However, if youhave a very popularwebsite,need some customfunctionality added to youropt-in form, or are veryconcerned about the loadspeedofyourwebsite,itmaythen make sense to use acustom opt-in form createdbyawebdeveloper.

HowManyOpt-InsCanIExpect?

Asking howmany opt-insyou should expect to receiveonyourwebsite isoneof themost common questions I

hear from new emailmarketers. The volume ofopt-ins that you can expectwill be totally dependent onhow much traffic yourwebsite receives, the qualityof that traffic, and theeffectiveness of your opt-informs.

If you are getting 20,000page views per month onyour website, you areprobably going to receivetwice as many opt-ins than

you would if you only had10,000pageviewspermonth.Ifmostofyourvisitorscometo your website from searchengines and other websitessimilar to yours, you arelikelygoingtogetbetteropt-inrates,becausepeopledoingsearches and looking atwebsites similar to yours areeither doing research or aregenerally more engaged thanpeoplethatwanderontoyourwebsite fromsocialmediaor

unrelated websites. Workingto attract a steadily growingstream of high-quality trafficis the single best way to setyourself up to build a largemailinglist.

The size, number, design,content, and placement ofyouropt-informswillhaveadramatic impactonyouropt-in rate. When you are firstgetting started with emailmarketing, youwill not haveanyideawhatcombinationof

leadmagnets,messaging,andopt-in forms will yield thehighestopt-inrates.

Your best bet is to startwith the practices I haveoutlined earlier in thischapter, and do a largenumber of split-tests overtimetodetermineif thereareways that you can improveyour opt-in rates from thebaselinethatIrecommend.

A highly effective set ofopt-in forms on a website

with good traffic sourcesmight yield an opt-in rate of4-5%.A less effective set ofopt-in forms on the samewebsitemightonlycommandanopt-in rateof0.5%.Thereis no industry standard forwhat opt-in rates you shouldexpect, so do not beatyourself up if you get lowrates for thefirst fewmonthsof your email marketingefforts. Instead, focus onwhether or not your opt-in

rates are improving everymonth.

Let’s say that during thefirst month of your emailmarketing initiative that youget 20,000 page views and200opt-ins.Youhadanopt-in rate of 1%. During thesecond month, your websiteattractsabitmore trafficandreceives 25,000 page views.Yousetupahighlyeffectivepopup opt-in form, and youreceive500opt-ins.Youropt-

inrategrewto2%duringthesecond month. During thethirdmonth,yourtrafficstaysflatat25,000pageviews,butyou identify a highlyeffectiveleadmagnetandyouattract750newopt-ins.Youropt-in rate just grew to 3%.By making a series ofimprovements and running aseriesof split-tests,youropt-in rates will slowly improveovertime.

WhatIfMyWebsiteDoesn’t

GetMuchTraffic?

If you are just gettingstarted and your website isnot getting much traffic yet,

you should still place opt-informs on your website. Ittakestimetocreateapopularwebsite and build a largemailing list. You may onlyget 50 or 100 opt-ins permonth for the first severalmonths of operating yourwebsite, and that’s okay.Your total list size willcontinue to grow as weeksand months go on. As newsubscriberssignup,yourlistwill grow in size like a

snowball rolling down a hill.Beforeyouknow it,youwillhave a few thousand peopleonyourmailinglistthatwantto receiveemail fromyouonaregularbasis.

Whilegrowingtheamountof traffic your websitereceives is beyond the scopeof this book, there are anumber of great resourcesavailable that can teach youhow to build a popularwebsite. The book Traction

by Gabriel Weinbergprovides an overview of 19different marketing channelsyou can use to grow yourbusinessandgetmorepeopleonto yourwebsite. There areanumberofbooksinthe“ForDummies” series that teachtraffic generation concepts,such as search engineoptimization, social mediamarketing, and Facebookmarketing.DigitalMarketer.coma number of resources that

showyouhowtoattractmoreweb traffic. If you are notsurewhatmarketingchannelsyou should pursue initially,you can use SimilarWeb(similarweb.com) to seewhere some of yourcompetitors are currentlygettingtheirtrafficfrom.

SplitTestingYourOpt-in

FormsThe key to getting great

opt-in rates is regularlyrunning tests to determine ifmaking changes to your

forms will increase thepercentage of people thatcompletethem.Inordertodothis, identify one change toyour forms that mightimproveyouropt-inrates.

Show half of yourwebsite’svisitors theoriginalversion of your opt-in form,and show the new variationyoucreated to theotherhalf.Your opt-in form software’ssplit-testingcapabilitywillbeabletohandlethe50-50split

for you without having towrite any code. Wait untilabout 300 more peoplecompleteyouropt-inform.

If the two versions areequallyeffective,theyshouldboth receive about 150 opt-ins.Ifyourvariationgets175opt-insandyouroriginalopt-in form only gets 125, youknow that the change youmade likely improved youropt-in rates. On the otherhand, if the original opt-in

form gets more opt-ins thanthe variation, you know thatthesplit-testdidn’twork,andyou should stick with youroriginalopt-inform.

Every aspect of your opt-in forms can and should betested.Youmightfindthatanentrypopupworksbetterthanan exit popup. You mightfindthataddingasecondopt-in form to your websiteimproves your opt-in rates.You can test changing the

language in your headline,description, and button text.You can test a different leadmagnet to see if it betterresonates with yoursubscribers.Youcaneventrychangingthecolorsandfontsin your opt-in forms.Remember,however,thatyoushould only test one changeon yourwebsite at a time. Ifyoumakemultiplechangesatonce, you will not knowwhich changes are helping

your opt-in rates and whicharehurtingthem.

If your website doesn’treceive a lot of opt-ins on amonthly basis, it may take awhile for you to run astatistically valid split-test. Ifyou only receive 100 opt-inseachmonth,itisgoingtotakeyou 3-4months to identify aclear winner. Because youcan’t run as many split-testswhen you are first gettingstarted, you should put

significantly more thoughtinto the changes that youevaluate. Start with bigchanges, such as re-writingyour headline or trying adifferent lead magnet. Onlytest smaller changes likecolors and button text afteryou have thoroughlyexhausted the more visibleaspectsofyouropt-inform.

You will eventually reacha point where your opt-informs are honed in and you

start to see diminishingreturns on your split-testingefforts. This does not meanyou should stop testingaltogether. The effectivenessof different types of leadmagnetsandopt-informswillchange over time as webusers’ behaviors change. Ifyou had a highly optimizedsetofopt-informsthreeyearsago and haven’t done anysplit-testing since then, it isprobably time to start testing

new lead magnets, newmessaging, and new types ofopt-informs.

CreatingYour“ThankYou”

PageThe page that users are

redirected to after they signup for your mailing list isoften referred to as a “thank

you”page,because itusuallycontains a message thatthanks a subscriber forsigning up for amailing list.A“thankyou”pagewillalsooften contain next steps thatthe user should take, such asclicking a link in aconfirmation email orchecking out other contentproducedonyourwebsite.Onmost websites, theregenerallyisnotmuchcontenton a “thank you” page other

than a brief messagewelcoming people to theirmailinglist.

Many webmasters do notrealize that their thank youpageisanincrediblyvaluablepieceofadrealestate.Auserthat lands on your “thankyou”pageafteropting inhasalready indicated they areinterestedinyourcontentandhavetakenaspecificactiontoreceive more of it. They aremuch more likely than other

users to take another action,such as signing up for a freetrial of a premium service,clicking on a banner ad, oropting into another mailinglist through a co-registrationadunit.

While you might make$10.00 in ad revenue forevery 1,000 people that readan article on your website,you can make between$100.00 and $750.00 forevery 1,000 new subscribers

that land on your thank youpageand takeanotheraction.For specific informationabout how to monetize your“thank you” page, read themonetization chapter of thisbook.

Wrap-UpImplementing good opt-in

formsonyourwebsiteisyourfirst step to building a largeand profitable email list.Collecting opt-ins from yourwebsiteshouldbethecoreofyour list-building efforts.While other list-building

strategies might require anupfront cash investment,subscribers that opt inthrough your website areeffectively free. Spendsufficient time writingcompelling copy, create ahighly-desirable leadmagnet,andimplementanopt-informplugin, and your mailing listwillgrowsteadilyovertime.

ActionSteps

Developaleadmagnettooffertonewsubscribers.Writethemessaging(copy)thatyouwantto

useonyouropt-informs.Pickwhichopt-informpluginorserviceyouwanttouseonyourwebsite.Setupyouropt-informpluginandconnectittoyouremailserviceprovider(ESP).

Placeyouropt-informsonyourwebsiteandverifythattheyareworking.Setupasplit-testtotrytoimproveyouropt-inrates.

CaseStudy#2

Bidsketch

Bidsketch (bidsketch.com)is a software-as-a-service(SaaS) company that helpsfreelancers and other client

service businesses createproposals for their clients.The company’s valueproposition is that theirservice can help businessescreatebetterproposalsinlesstime.Theservicecomeswitha number of proposaltemplatestheircustomerscanuseandalsoallowsclients toaccept proposals usingelectronic signatures.Bidsketch’shomepageboaststhat its clients have earned

morethan$250millionusingproposals generated by itssoftware. I had theopportunity to interviewBidsketch founder RubenGamezaspartofthisbook.

Emailmarketing is oneofthe primary tools thatBidsketch uses to turnwebsite visitors intocustomers. While most SaaScompanies try toget users tosignupforafreetrialoftheirservice, Bidsketch focuses

primarily on getting users tosign up for theirmailing list.The company uses a widevarietyofleadmagnetsonitswebsite to attract sign-ups,including free sampleproposals,marketinge-books,andother educationalguides.Once a user signs up forBidsketch’smailing list, theywill receive a 30-day dripcampaign focused onacquiring more clientsthrough their proposals. The

educational emails thatBidsketch sends also includecalls-to-action for thecompany’s subscriptionservice. After a usercompletes the 30-day dripcampaign, they will getemails promoting new blogcontent thathelpssubscribersgrowtheirbusiness.

Gamezsaidthatsurveyinghisuserstogetideasforleadmagnets has been anincredibly effective strategy

for growing his company’smailing list. By asking userswhat specific issues andproblems they are havingrelated to sales andmarketing, and creating leadmagnets that address thoseissues, Gamez has been ableto significantly increase thenumber of opt-ins hiscompany receives eachmonth. “We do this bysurveying people and havingthem vote on different lead

magnets,” Gamez said. Headded, “Formstack worksgreat for larger surveys, andQualaroo is what we use todo micro-surveys withvisitorsonourwebsite.”

Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD)interviews are anotherstrategy thatGamezhasusedto identify ways to grow hiscompany’s mailing list andhis business. JTBDinterviews help a businessunderstand its customers’

needs, motivations, and thespecificsconcerningthetasksthey are trying to complete.He said JTBD interviews“focus on a single story,where customers gave upusinga tool, foundout aboutour product, and eventuallydecidedtoswitch.”Headded,“You'dbeamazedhowmanygreat list-building ideas youcan get from the discoverypart of those interviews.”Bylearning what problems

customers have with otherservices, how they found outabout Bidsketch, and whattheyaretryingtoaccomplish,Bidsketch has been able togetmoreopt-insandimprovethe quality of service that itscustomersreceive.

Gamez said using a “yesor no” question on an opt-inform that asks the userwhether or not they want afree trial of their service hasworked surprisingly well on

somepartsoftheirwebsite.Ifa user answers yes to thatquestion, they will receive asecond email that pitchesthemBidsketch’s serviceandtellsthemhowtosignup.

Bidsketch uses Drip(getdrip.com) as its emailservice provider. Gamezcommented that Drip has“beenahugehelp for settingupmultipleleadmagnetsandexperimenting with all sortsofinterestingworkflows.”He

has also used Drip to testmultiple autoresponder seriesandtostreamlinesubscriptionmanagement. In a blog postonDrip’sblog,GamezcreditsDriptoincreasingthenumberof trials that his servicereceivesby30%.16

Bidsketch currently has80,000 email subscribers andis attracting about 9,000newemailsubscriberseachmonthas of August 2015. Gamez

says that he can attribute athird of the company’scustomers directly to emailmarketing. He closed bysaying, “While it's tough totrackwithanalytics,I'veseenthe impact of not havingemail in our funnel, and it'snotpretty.Emailmarketingisone of the most importantparts of our marketingstrategy.”

ChapterThree

14WaystoGrowYourMailingListIndependently

ofYourWebsite

Building your mailing listthrough your website willallow you to steadily collectopt-ins and grow your listover time. If you want toaccelerate how fast your listisgrowing,youcanmakeuse

of some of these alternativestrategies that workindependently of the trafficyour website normallyreceives.

While sign-ups throughyour website will happenautomatically once pluginsaresetup,thestrategieslistedbelow will require either afinancial investment or asteady investment of yourtime and energy. Do not letthis scare you off. Paid

acquisition strategies can besome of the most consistentand profitable ways ofmakingmoney throughemailmarketing.Forexample, let’ssay that you canmake $5.00from each email sign-up onyour mailing list and couldpay $2.00 to get someone tosign up for yourmailing list.You would buy as many ofthose leads as are availablebecause it is better than anyother investment you can

possibly make. If you put$2.00 in the stock market,youwillbeluckyifyougeta10% return on thatinvestmentinoneyear,anditturns into $2.20. If you pay$2.00 to acquire an emailaddress and can make $5.00off it over the course of thefollowingyear,that’sareturnon investment of 150%. Ifyou have a well-honedconversion funnel, spendingmoney toacquireemailsign-

ups can be one of the mostprofitable investments youcanmake.

TryCo-RegistrationAdvertising

Co-registration advertisingnetworks allow you toadvertise on other websites’“thank you” pages. After

someone signs up for amailing listonawebsite thatisrunningaco-registrationadunit, theywillbepresentedalistofoffers from third-partyadvertisers (like you). If thesubscriber selects your offerandpressesthesubmitbutton,the advertising network willprovide you the subscriber’scontact information toadd toyour mailing list through anAPI call or by periodicallysending you a spreadsheet of

newsign-ups.Youcanexpectto pay $1.00-$4.00 per sign-up through a co-registrationadnetwork.

Youcanseeanexampleofa co-registration ad unitbelow:

Thequalityofthesign-upsthat you receive from co-registration advertising willvary depending on the sitesthat your ad is running on.When working with a co-

registration ad network, Irecommend asking for a listof sites that they haveavailable foryou toadvertiseon.Only agree to place yourads on websites that aresimilar to yours or are in thesame industry. Subscribersthat come from unrelatedwebsites are less likely to beengaged with your contentand will be less likely topurchaseanythingfromyou.

The quality of leads can

also vary among multiplesites in the same industry.One site may sendsubscribers that connect wellwith your content, andanothermaysendsubscribersthat are not engaged withyour content and are of novaluetoyou.

Given theongoing cost ofrunning a co-registrationadvertisingcampaignand thedisparityof leadqualityonasite-to-site basis, you will

want tomonitor performanceonaper-ad-networkandper-website basis every month.Arethesubscribersthatcamefrom a particular website’sco-registration ad unit asengagedasusers thatsignupthrough your website? Arethey opening emails at thesame rate as othersubscribers? Are theyclicking on links? Are theybuying products and servicesfromyou at the same rate as

other subscribers? Whilerunning a co-registrationadvertising campaign can beincredibly profitable, youmust monitor yourcampaign’s performanceregularly to weed outunderperforming websitesandadnetworks.

Co-registration advertisingis more prominently used insome industries than others.Youwillfrequentlyseetheseunits on financial websites,

sports websites, travelwebsites, businessopportunity websites, anddisaster preparationwebsites.While you can run a co-registration advertisingcampaignforawebsiteinjustabout any niche, it worksbetter for some industriesthanothers.

Here are some of thelargest co-registrationadvertisingnetworks:

AfterOffers–AfterOffers(afteroffers.com)workswithadvertisersandpublisherswithtravelwebsites,financialwebsites,Internetbusinesswebsites,andsurvival/disasterpreparationwebsites.

CoregMedia–CoregMedia(coregmedia.com)isageneralco-registrationadvertisingnetworkthatworkswithpublishersandadvertisersinalargenumberofindustries.CoregMediaadvertisesthatitworkswithmany

majoradvertiserslikeKohl’s,Nokia,Gap,DishNetwork,RedLobster,andWal-Mart.InvestingMediaSolutions–InvestingMediaSolutions(investingmediasolutions.comworkswithadvertisers

andpublisherswithfinancialwebsites.InvestingChannel–InvestingChannel(investingchannel.com)alsoworkswithpublishersandadvertiserswithfinancialwebsites.

Opt-Intelligence–Opt-Intelligence(optintelligence.com)isoneofthelargestco-registrationadvertisingplatformsonline.Opt-Intelligenceworkswithmanymajoradvertisersandpublishersinawidevarietyofindustries.

TiburonMedia–TiburonMedia(tiburonmedia.com)isageneralco-registrationadvertisingnetworkthatworkswithanumberofmajorcompaniesincludingMicrosoft,Adobe,Cisco,Dell,Disney,andToyota.

SwapEmailSendswith

OtherMailingListOwnersIf you have built up a

mailinglistofafewthousandsubscribers, swapping email

sends with other mailing listowners can be an extremelyeffective way to grow yourmailinglist.Whenyoudoanemail swap, you will send amarketing email to yoursubscribers on behalf ofanotherwebsite,andtheywillsend an email that youwritetotheirmailinglist.

Theemailthatyousendtoyouremailswappartner’slistshould attempt to get theirsubscribers to sign-up for

your mailing list. The emailshould contain some kind ofoffer or lead magnet andcontain multiple links to apageonyourwebsitethathasanopt-in form. Ifyoudonothave a page dedicated tocollecting email sign-ups onyourwebsite,createonenow.Thisiscalledalandingpage.

Notethatyoushouldneversend your actual mailing listto your email swap partner,and they should never send

their actual mailing list toyou. Your swap partner willsend out your email to theirsubscribers,andyouwillsendout your swap partner’smessage to yours. Yourmailing list shouldbe treatedlike classified information. Itshouldneverbegiven toanythird party under anycircumstances. You do notknow what kind of spam anunscrupulous partner mightsend toyour list, so it isbest

to keep that informationundertightwraps.

Inordertofindemailswappartners, make a list of asmany websites as you canthat are similar to yours.Reviewyourlist,andremoveanywebsitesthatdonothaveopt-in forms on them. It isunlikely that a website has amailing list if they are notactively soliciting opt-ins. Ifpossible,trytomakealistof100 different websites that

you could potentially swapemailsendswith.Gothroughyour list and send anintroductory email to eachwebsite’sownerthatprovidessomebackgroundinformationabout you and your website.Tell them that you areactively seeking for otherwebsites to do email swapswith. Ask if they have amailinglistandiftheywouldbeinterestedindoingaswapwith your list. Since email

swapsaregenerallyano-loseproposition for both parties,youwillfindthatmanyotherwebmasters are more thanhappytodoemailswapswithyou.

If you want to streamlinethe process of finding emailswappartners, you can use aservice called Safe Swaps(safe-swaps.com) to locatewebmasters who areinterested in doing emailswapswith othermailing list

owners.SafeSwapsisapaidservice that costs $29.95 permonthtouse.

EmailListRentals

If you have a sizableadvertising budget to growyourmailinglist,youcanpayother mailing list owners toemail their list on yourbehalf.Emaillistrentalswork

similar to email swaps.Instead of repaying the listownerbymailingyourlistontheir behalf, you will paythemanegotiated fee for theprivilegeoftheirmailinglist.Afterwards, you will createan email that contains anoffer for some kind of leadmagnet and a link to signupforyourmailing list.The listowner then sends thepromotional email to theirmailing listona setdateand

timefortheagreed-uponfee.Email list rentals are

typically sold on a cost perthousand(CPM)basis.Ifyouwanted to email 10,000subscribersonsomeoneelse’smailing list and theychargeda $25.00 CPM, you wouldpaya$250.00 fee.Prices foremail list rentals can varydramatically depending onwhat industry or niche themailing list is in. Forexample, emailing a list of

investorswillcostmuchmorethan emailing a list ofcomputer gamers, becauseselling products to investorsismuchmore profitable. Forlower-end categories ofmailing lists, you might beable to rent an email list for$10.00-$20.00 CPM. Forhigh-end categories ofmailing lists, you might pay$50.00-$100.00 CPM toemailsomeoneelse’slist.

In the Internet marketing

space, you might see emaillistrentalsreferredtoas“soloads.” In other spaces, youmight see email list rentalsreferred to as “dedicatedemail sends.”Do not let thisthrowyouoff.“Soloads”and“dedicated email sends” arejust another name for emaillistrentals.

There are a number ofonline databases thatadvertiseemail listsavailablefor rent. NextMark

(nextmark.com) is probablythe largestonlinedatabaseofemail, phone, and snail mailmailing lists with more than60,000mailing listsavailableforrental.Unfortunatelytheirsearchtoolisabitantiquated,so you may have to combthrough several pages ofresults to find a list that youwanttoemail.

A wide range of qualityexistsamongemail listrentalproviders. Since you never

actually see the provider’ssubscriber list, there is noway to independently verifythe size or quality of theirmailing list. While manyemail listrentalprovidersareprofessional and completelyabove board, there are someunscrupulous providers thattrytopassoffcompiledlists,purchasedlists,andunrelatedmailinglistsasahigh-qualityandrelevant listavailable forrental.Becauseofthelevelof

trust involved, you shouldonly work with veryreputablemailinglistowners.Ifpossible,considerusinganagency that works withadvertisersinyourindustrytodo email list rentals.A goodemailadvertisingagencywillalready have relationshipswith mailing list owners inyour industry and canmitigate the possibility ofworking with dishonestmailinglistowners.

DoNotBuyaMailingListWhilerentinganemaillist

is a commonly acceptedpractice in the emailmarketingindustry,buyinganemail list is not advisableunder any circumstances.

When renting a list, you arepaying a list owner to emailtheir listonyourbehalf.Youare effectively borrowing thepermission that theirsubscribershavegiventhelistowner to email them. Whilethere is nothing that’snecessarilyillegalorimmoralabout purchasing a mailinglist,generally it’sabad idea,because individuals on apurchased listhavenotoptedin and haven’t given you

permissiontoemailthem.Using purchased email

listsinordertogetcustomersisusuallynotaveryeffectivemarketing strategy. Mostemail lists available for saleare low-quality, out-of-date,and are not maintained verywell. People on these listswon’t find your contentengaging and won’t want toreceive your emails. Moreimportantly, they are veryunlikelytobuyanythingfrom

youorrespondtoanyofyouroffers.

Many email serviceproviders (ESPs) will not letyouuseapurchased listwiththeir services because of thedamage that mailing apurchased list can do to thereputation of your domainname and IP address.Emailing purchased listsusually results in anunacceptablylargenumberofspam complaints and

undeliverable emails. Thisruns the risk of your domainname and IP address beingadded to a blacklist, whichcausesyourfuturemailingstoend up in subscribers’ spamfoldersornotbedeliveredatall. Inorder tomaintainyourreputation,yourbestbetistoonly email people that havedirectlygivenyoupermissiontodoso.

MakeYourEmailContentShareable

If you publish an emailnewsletter,placesocialmediasharing buttons and a“forward to a friend” link in

each of your newsletters.Thesebuttonswill encourageyour current emailsubscribers to share andforwardyouremailcontenttotheirfriendsandotherpeoplein their social networks,giving you new connectionsand access to potential newsubscribers. You can alsoconsider placing a call-to-action at the bottom of yournewsletter with a link tosubscribe, which will

encourage anyone whoreceivedaforwardedcopyofyournewslettertosignupforyourmailing list.Mostemailservice providers includetools to make your emailcontent shareable, so itshouldn’t requiremuchworkto add social sharing and“forwardtoafriend”linkstoyouremails.

ArchiveEmailContentonYour

WebsiteWhenever you publish an

email newsletter or anotherpiece of informational oreducational content, post a

copy of that email into anarchive of newsletter contenton your website. If you areusing WordPress, this mightmeancreatinganewcategoryfor newsletter content andpublishing any newnewslettercontentasapostinthat category.Whenever youaddanewemailnewslettertothearchive, share itonallofyour available social mediachannels. This will broadenthe reach of your email

contentandmakeitvisibletofollowersnotalreadyonyouremaillist.Itwillalsoprovidea second way for yoursubscribers to see your newcontentiftheyhappentomissyouremail.Googleandothersearchengineswillalsoindexthe archive of newslettercontent on your website,which may also increase thequantity of organic searchtrafficthatyoureceive.

OwnaPhysicalStore?

Ifyouownaphysicalstoreor have any other kind ofretail location, ask everycustomerif theywant tosignup for your email list atcheckout. You can ask each

customer something like,“Would you like to sign upfor our mailing list andperiodically get coupons inyour email?” If the customersays yes, have them writedowntheiremailaddressonasign-up sheet on a clipboard.At the end of the day, addthese customers to yourmailinglist.

LeverageYourEmailSignatureAdjust your and your

employees’ email signaturesso they contain a call-to-action and a link to sign upforyourmailinglist.

Here’s a simple email

signaturewithacall-to-actionthatIhaveusedinthepast:

RunaContestorGiveaway

Find something of high-perceived value that you canuseasagiveawayoracontestprize, like an iPad or aniPhone. Require everyoneparticipating in thecontest to

sign up for your mailing listin order to enter the contest.Promote the contest throughyour personal and companysocialmediachannels,aswellas any other marketingchannels you might haveavailable. Remember to addsocial sharing buttons to thecontestpageonyourwebsite,soitiseasilyshareable.

SocialMediaOffers

Developahigh-value leadmagnetoranotheroffer,suchas an ebook or free report,and share it on all of youravailable social mediachannels. Require that users

enter their email address inorder to access the leadmagnetorotheroffereditem.

Make sure you use everysocial media channel youhave available, includingFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr,and other social mediaprofiles thatyouhavesetup.Share the offer through bothyour personal social mediaaccountsandanyprofiles foryourbusiness.Sharetheoffer

multiple times over thecourse of a few weeks formaximumexposure.

YouTubeAnnotationsand

LinksIf you or your company

haveaYouTubechannel,addcalls-to-actionandhyperlinksinyourvideostosubscribeto

your mailing list. Includehyperlinks inannotationsandyour video description thatdirect viewers to a landingpage on your website whereusers can opt in to yourmailing list or respond toanotheroffer.

To learn how to createannotations inyourYouTubevideos, HubSpot has puttogether a quick guide thatdemonstratesthisprocess:

blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-annotate-youtube-video

SetUpGoogleAdWords

If you have money toinvest in your list-buildingcampaign, you can useGoogle AdWords to drivetraffic to a landing page,where users can enter their

emailaddressinexchangefora lead magnet or anotheroffer.Make sure you use theconversiontrackingpixelthatGoogle provides in order toidentifywhich keywords andads aredriving themostopt-ins.

After your campaign hasbeenrunningawhile,youcanuse Google’s cost-per-action(CPA) bidding to optimizefor email sign-ups.AdWordsalso has an extension that

allowsadvertiserstoplaceanopt-informdirectlyinsearchresults, but that feature iscurrently only available to aselect group of publishers.While creating a GoogleAdWords campaign isbeyond the scope of thisbook, I recommend readingUltimate Guide to GoogleAdWords by Perry MarshallandMikeRhodesifyouwantto learn how to create aGoogleAdWordscampaign.

PresentingataTradeShow?If your organization is

presenting at a trade show,youhaveaprimeopportunitytogathernewemailsign-ups.Run a giveaway and offer ahighly desirable prize. New

electronic gadgets such asiPads, Kindles, and videogame systems work great asprizes. Allow attendees toenter your drawing bydropping their business cardinto a fishbowl. You willneed to make it clear thatcontest participants aresigning up for your mailinglist.

At the end of theconference,pickawinnerandthen add all participants to

your mailing list. Send awelcome email to every newmailing list member. Yourwelcomeemailshouldremindthem about the contest, whytheyhavebeenaddedtoyourmailing list, and provideinformation about yourproducts and services. Youshouldalsoincludeanopt-outlink in your welcome emailso that anyone who doesn’twant to receive email fromyoucaneasilyunsubscribe.

PutQRCodesinYourPrintMarketingMaterial

Ifyourbusinessmakesuseof print marketing material,addaQRcodethatuserscan

easilyscanwiththeirphones.Usethecodetoredirectusersto a mobile-friendly landingpage on your website whereyoucanaskthemtooptintoyour mailing list. You caneasilycreateaQRcodeusingany number of websites thatoffer free generators, suchas qr-code-generator.com.AlsoincludeashortURLthatredirects to your mobile-friendlylandingpagedirectlybelow the QR code. Not

everyone has a QR codescannerontheirphone,anditmay be easier for them tosimply typeaURL into theirsmartphone’swebbrowserorwriteitdownforlateruse.

AddaFacebookPageCall-To-

Action

If your organization has aFacebook business page setup, you can add a call-to-actionbuttonontheheaderofyourFacebookpagetoattractemail sign-ups. In order tocreate a call-to-action button

on your organization’sFacebook page, navigate toyour page, and click the“Create Call to Action”button in the header of yourpage. You can choosebetween a number of buttontexts including “book now,”“contactus,”“useapp,”“playgame,” “shop now,” “signup,” and “watch video.” Ipersonally recommend using“signup”because it’ssimpleand it tends to convert well.

You will also be asked toprovidetheURLwhereuserscan then add themselves toyour mailing list. The URLshouldbealandingpagethatprovides an introduction toyour mailing list and a formsouserscaneasilysignup.

HowtoCreateaLandingPagetoCollectOpt-InsThroughout this chapter,

there are several strategiesthatdiscusssendingtraffictoa landing page to collect

email addresses. A landingpage is a single purposewebpage that exists solely topersuade users to take aspecific action, such ascompletinganopt-in formorpurchasing a product. Whilethe process of building alanding page is beyond thescopeofthisbook,Idowantto provide a couple of basictips and point you to someresources that can help youcreate landingpagesforyour

business.Don’t try to create a

landing page using rawHTML or have a landingpage created by aprofessional designer. Thereare several great toolsavailable includingLeadPages (leadpages.com),Unbounce (unbounce.com),and InstaPage(instapage.com) that makecreating landing pagessimple. Most of them have

drag-and-drop interfaceswhich allow you to put agreatlandingpagetogetherinashortamountoftime.Theseservices will also integratewith your email serviceprovider (ESP) so your sign-up form works without anycodingonyourpart.

Remember that the onlything on your landing pageshould be your opt-in form.That means no sidebars,navigation, or any other

extraneous content. It shouldhaveatitle,abitofsalesandmarketing content, maybe avideo, and your actual opt-inform.Always keep the focusonthesingleactionyouwantyour subscribers to take.When you add additionalcontenttoyourlandingpages,users are more likely to bedistracted and are less likelytotaketheindicatedaction.

For more tips andrecommendations about how

to put a landing pagetogether, Unbounce hascompiled a resource titled“101 Landing PageOptimization Tips”17, whichprovides detailed instructionson how to create landingpagesthatwork.

TheImportanceofContinuallyGrowingYour

ListEven if you have a large

mailing list with tens ofthousandsofsubscribers,you

should continuouslywork ongrowing your email list. Asmall percentage of yourusers will unsubscribe fromyourmailinglisteverymonthbecause they lose interest inthetopicareayouwriteaboutortheysimplynolongerwantto receiveyouremails.Therewillalsobesomesubscriberswhoseemailaddressesarenolonger valid, because theyswitched ISPs ormoved to anewemailaddress.

You will need tocontinually attract newsubscribers to your mailinglist to replace those thatdropoff over time. Additionally,userstendtobemostengagedwith thecontentofamailinglistwhentheyfirstsubscribe.Over time, their open ratesand engagement rates willnaturally decline. Keepgathering new subscribers toensure there is always apercentage of your

subscribers that are highlyengagedwithyourcontent.

Wrap-UpWhile the bulk of your

emailopt-inswilllikelycomefrom your website, there aremany other ways to growyour mailing listindependently of yourwebsite. Not every strategylisted in this chapter will be

appropriate for everyorganization, so take time toconsider which of the 14strategies presented in thischapter you can use to growyourmailinglist.

Whether you want toleverage social media, dopaid advertising campaigns,or run a contest, there arealways more ways toaccelerate your list growthbeyond getting opt-ins onyourwebsite.

ActionSteps

Makealistof100potentialpartnersthatyoucandoemailswapswith.Leverageyoursocialmediaprofilestobuild

yourmailinglistandpromoteyourexistingemailcontent.Determinewhetherpaidlist-buildingstrategies,includingco-registrationadvertising,GoogleAdWords,andemaillistrentals,areappropriateforyourmailinglist.

Addsocialsharingand“forwardtoafriend”buttonstoyouremailcontent.Makeashareablearchiveofpastemailcontentonyourwebsite.Considerwhatotherwaysyoucangrowyour

listindependentlyofopt-insfromyourwebsite.

CaseStudy#3

GMBFitness

GMB Fitness (gmb.io),foundedbyAndyFossett,isawebsite that offers home-based training programs that

combine gymnastic andmartial arts exercisemovements for fitnessenthusiasts at all levels ofstrengthandexperience.Ihadthe opportunity to interviewFossett as part of this book.The company began byoffering DVDs, but quicklytransitioned to offering videotraining courses andmembership programs. Theircontentteacheswhattheycall“physical autonomy” and is

deliveredthroughavarietyofexercise tutorials and onlinecoaching.

GMBFitnessusesemailasone of their primarymarketing channels. Fossettsaid that email marketing isthesinglemostimportantpartof their business after thevideo content they produce.They have developed avariety of different opt-informs and relatedautoresponder sequences

basedon specific goals, suchas handstands and stretching.They also have a generalautoresponder series thatteaches their philosophy ofexercise and publishes aweekly newsletter tosubscribers that havecompleted theirautoresponder series. Theyhave also created onboardingsequences that help newcustomers engage with theirwebsiteandtheproductsthey

purchase.Fossett told me email is

also an invaluablecommunication tool betweenhiscompanyanditsaudience.Hecommented,“Itgivesusachance to help them andincreases their trust in us,which increases thelikelihood of a beneficiallong-term relationship. Wealso get feedback andintelligence that helps usknow what our audience

wants to buy and what theythinkofourcurrentproducts.We can use that to improveourprogramsandmarketing.”

In order to attract opt-instotheirwebsite,GMBFitnessuses a variety of mini-programs that teach aboutspecific fitness topics theiraudience is interested in.Theirfreesubscribersreceiveaccess to a “members area”that contains about a dozenfree video resources that are

tightly coupled with theirpaidproducts.

Fossett informed me thatthe most effective opt-insscratch a specific itch. Forexample, their customerscouldn’t care less aboutcontent that teaches themhow to stretch properly.However, if they packagestretching instruction videosaround an ailment thatstretching solves, such aspainfulmobility, readerswill

sign up for those opt-ins inmuchgreaternumbers.

As GMB Fitness hasgained a reputation forproducing really greatcontent, they have had theopportunity to publish guestposts on major fitness sites,whichhavegeneratedalotofopt-ins.Fossettsaid,“Wehada series of five postson artofmanliness.com thatdrove a couple thousandsubscribers.We’ve since had

a couple of large websitesfeature us for a series on atight theme, and each hasperformedreallywell.”

WhenIaskedFossettwhyhethinkshisbusinessdoessowell, he said there are nosecrets. If anything, the onlysecret is to “work your buttoff making great content forseveralyears.”Fossettandhisteam have worked hard tobuild a professional,graphicallyappealingwebsite

that contains great content.Hecommented, “Wemake itveryclearthatweareexpertswithqualitymaterials, so theother stuff works easily.Without the foundation, allthebesttacticscanfail.”

One piece of adviceFossett has to offer is: payattention to what yourmessageslooklikeonmobiledevices. A study fromMovable Ink finds that asmany as 66% of all emails

opened are done on asmartphone or tablet.18 Hesaid, “If your emails don’tlook good on an iPhone,you’remissingout.Youneedto make sure that yourmessagesareeasytoreadandclick on using mobiledevices.”Headdedthat thereare simply no excuses forsending emails that don’trender correctly on mobile,because nearly all major

ESPs includemobilepreviewtools.

Another tip that Fossettgave was to consider re-sending an email tosubscribersthatdon’topenit.He said, “A few days afteryou send an email, create asegment of people who didnot open it. Then change thesubject line, and send it tothose people again. It’s asimple way to get a 10+%increaseinpeopleseeingand

clickingyourmessages.”Fossett also reiterated the

importance of testing. Headvised that you should testmultiple subject lines,multiple from-addresses, andmultiplecalls-to-actiontoseewhat works best. He alsosuggested testing thefrequency of yourautoresponder series bycreating two differentversions of an autoresponderseries with the same

messages sent at differentsending frequencies to seewhich generates the mostengagementandsales.

GMBFitnesshasgrownamailing list of nearly 60,000subscribers. Fossett informedmetheyareadding1,000newsubscribers each week andhope to hit 100,000subscribers within the nextyear.

The most impressive partofGMB’semailstatisticsare

its engagement numbers. Hesays it isn’t uncommon forthem to have 60% of theirrecipients open any oneemail. Nearly 80% of hiscompany’s sales come frompeoplethatareonatleastoneoftheiremaillists.

Heclosedbysaying,“Themain point is that email is agreat tool that can generatelotsofsalesandsubscriptionsifyouuseiteffectively.It’satoolthatreachesalmost100%

of the people online, and it’srelatively inexpensive to use,so the ROI on learning toleverage email effectively isprobably higher than anyotherformofpromotion.”

ChapterFourMailingYourList:How,What,and

WhentoSendtoYour

Audience

As you begin to build amailinglist,youwillbefacedwith the challenge ofregularly sending educationalandmarketingcontenttoyourmailinglist.Youwillneedtodecidehowoftenyouwanttoemailyourlist,whattypesofemail you want to send to

your audience, and whetheror not you want to leverageadvanced strategies likemarketingautomationandlistsegmentation. You will needtocreateaseriesofwelcomeemails in an autoresponderseries that will help newsubscribers get engaged withyour content. You will alsoneed to create a schedule ofmailings so subscribers thathave completed yourautoresponderseriescontinue

to receiveemail fromyouonaregularbasis.

TheFirstEmailYour

SubscribersReceive

The first email that everynew subscriber will receivefrom your mailing list is

called the welcome email.Sending a well-writtenwelcome email to each ofyour subscribers is the firststep in nurturing long-termsubscribers that will alwaysbe happy to receive youremail. This email shouldaccomplish a number ofdifferent tasks, includingthanking subscribers forjoining your mailing list,setting expectations for thetype and quantity of email

they are going to receive,getting your subscribers towhitelist your email address,andencouragingthemtotakefurtheraction.

At the top of yourwelcome email, include apersonalmessage that thanksthe subscriber for signing upfor your mailing list. Ifappropriateforyourindustry,use personal language as ifyou were writing to a newfriend that you just met for

coffee. Next, you should tellyoursubscriberswhatkindofemail they are going toreceive and how often theyare going to receive it. Thiswillhelpyoursubscriberssetamentalexpectationforwhatkind of emails they shouldexpect. You should also askyour email subscribers towhitelist your email addressor add you to their safesender list so that yourmessages never go to their

spamfolder.FeelfreetocopyMarketBeat’s whitelistinstructions page locatedat marketbeat.com/safe-sender. Finally, you shouldconsider what action youwantyourusers to takenext.Youmightwantthemtoreada particular piece of contenton your website, persuadethemtocheckoutoneofyourproducts, or ask that theyrecommend your mailing listtoafriendoftheirs.Includea

hyperlinkwithaclearcall-to-action at the bottom of youremail and thank them againforjoiningyourlist.

Here is the copy for theactual welcome emailcurrently being used byMarketBeat:

CreatinganAutoresponder

SeriesAs mentioned previously,

an autoresponder series is aseries of pre-written emailsthat every new subscriber

receives in sequential orderafter signing up for yourmailinglist.Anewsubscribermight receive your welcomeemailonthefirstdayoftheirsubscription, another emailon the third day of theirsubscription, another on thefifthdayoftheirsubscription,etc. The purpose of anautoresponder series is tosend a consistent set ofcontent to every newsubscriber, so they can

become familiar with yourwriting and your company’sproductsandservices.

There are six differentways that you can use theemails in your autoresponderseries:

Promotingyourcompany’sproductsandservices

ProvidingadditionaleducationalcontenttoyoursubscribersAskingthemtoaddyouremailaddresstotheirsafesenderlistPromotinganothercompany’sproductsasanaffiliate

HighlightingexistingcontentonyourwebsitetoyournewsubscribersAskingsubscribersforfeedbackaboutyourcontentandyourcompany’sproducts

Creating an autoresponderseriesismoreofanartthanascience. There is no perfectlength for a series, and there

is no perfect number ofemailstoinclude.Youwillbeabletotracktheperformanceofanyparticularmessage,butit’s notoriously difficult tosplit-test an entireautoresponder series. Irecommend sending outmessages anywhere fromthreetosixdaysapartinyourautoresponder series andhavingatotallengthbetweenthree and five months. Thismay mean that you are

including as many as 30emails in your autoresponderseries, but it doesn’t have tobe a daunting task if yousimply write a new emailevery4-5daysasyouroldestsubscribers near the end oftheseries.

Everymajor email serviceprovider (ESP) includes theability to create a series ofautoresponder messages thatnew subscribers will receiveautomatically over time on

the dates that you specify.Typically, you will simplyneed to enter the subject lineandbodyofyouremailintoaformprovidedbyyourESP.

You will also need tospecify when a newsubscriber will receive aparticular email, such as onthe 10th day of theirsubscription. Some emailserviceproviderswillalsoletyoupushanemailtothenextday when an autoresponder

message is scheduled to goout on aweekend or holidaywhen someone is unlikely tochecktheiremail.

Ifyouwant toseehowanautoresponderseriesworksinpractice, consider creating anewemail accountandusingit for the sole purpose ofwatching autoresponderemailscomeinfromliststhatyou have signed up for. Usethe single-purpose emailaccount that you created to

sign up for mailing lists ofsomeofyourcompetitorsandwell-known marketers to getideas for your autoresponderseries.

You can see all of theautoresponderemailssentoutbyMarketBeatorUSGolfTVjust by completing an opt-inform on either website. PatFlynn(smartpassiveincome.com)also has a particularly goodautoresponder series that’s

worthcheckingout.Here’s a sample layout of

what an autoresponder seriesmightlooklike:

Day1:Sendyourwelcomeemail.Day5:Highlightsomeofyourwebsite’s“best-of”content.Day9:Provideanintroductiontoyour

company’sproductsandservices.Day13:Asksubscriberstoaddyouremailaddresstotheirsafesenderlist.Day17:Provideapieceofeducationalcontentortrainingmaterial.

Day21:Promoteoneofyourcompany’sproductsorservices.Day25:Asksubscribersforfeedbackaboutyourcontent.Day29:Promoteanothercompany’sproductsasanaffiliate.

Day33:Providemoreeducationalcontentortrainingmaterial.Day37:Promoteoneofyourcompany’sproductsorservices.Day41:Providelinkstohelpfulstoriesandresourcesaroundtheweb.

Day45:Reintroducesomeoldercontentonyourwebsitetoyournewsubscribers.Day49:Promoteanothercompany’sproductsasanaffiliate.Day53:Promoteoneofyourcompany’sproductsorservices.

Day57:Providemoreeducationalcontentortrainingmaterial.Day61:Asksubscribersforfeedbackaboutyourcontentagain.Day65:Promoteoneofyourcompany’sproductsorservices.

The biggest mistake that

you can make with yourautoresponder series is nothavingoneatall.Ifyoudon’tregularlyemailyourlist,theywill becomedisengagedwithyour content and will forgetthattheygaveyoupermissionto email them in the firstplace. If you try to email amailing list that you haven’tcontacted in six months,invariably some subscriberswill forget who you are andaccuse you of spamming

them.Sending regular emailseverytwotofivedaysforthefirst several months of auser’s subscription isarguablythebestwaytokeepthem engaged with yourcontentandinterestedinyourcompany’s products andservices.

BroadcastEmails

In addition to yourautoresponderseries,youwillwant to regularly sendmessagestoyourentireemaillist. These messages areknown as broadcast emails

because you are effectivelybroadcastingasinglemessagetoyourlist.

Broadcast emails are one-timemessagesthatgetsentataspecificdateandtimeforaspecific purpose. Theygenerally don’t get reused orresent again to any part ofyourmailinglistinthefuture.Typically, these are sent inorder to make anannouncement or to get yoursubscribers to take a specific

action,suchasengagingwithapieceofcontentorbuyingaspecificproduct.

Broadcast emails servethreeprimarypurposes.First,they keep users who havecompleted yourautoresponder series engagedwith your content. Byregularly sending neweducationalandinformationalcontent to your mailing list,they will continue to receivevaluefromyou,willbemore

likely to stay engaged withyourcontent,andwillbelesslikelytounsubscribe.Second,sending broadcast emails isthe best way to makeannouncements to your listand keep them informedabout what’s going on withyour business. Finally,sending broadcast emails topromote products andservices will be one of yourkeymonetizationpoints.Youcan use broadcast emails to

promote your company’sproductsandservices,oryoucan use them to promoteanother company’s productsandservicesasanaffiliate.

PlanningYourBroadcastEmail

CalendarYouwillwanttodevelopa

schedule of the emails thatyou plan to send to yourmailing list inagivenmonth

prior to the first day of thatmonth. By creating a planaheadof time,youcanspaceoutyouremailsappropriatelythroughoutthemonthandcancreate a good rhythm ofeducational and contentemails, then sales andmarketingemails.Ifyousendtoo many sales emails in arow or don’t take a day offfrom mailing your list forseveral days, you may upsetsomeofyoursubscribersand

cause them to unsubscribefromyourlist.

I recommend printing outa calendar from theweb andphysically writing down theemails that youwant to sendout.You don’t need towriteout theentire emailyouplanon sending—just the broadcategoryofthemessage,suchas “newsletter,” “marketingemail,” “product launchannouncement,”“tip/resource,” or “content

promotion.” By putting yourbroadcast email schedule onpaper, you’ll be able tovisuallysee ifyourmessagesare spread out equally andaren’t too focused on anysingletypeofemail.

Creating your broadcastemailcalendarisalsomoreofanartthanascience.Thereisno ideal number of emailsyoushouldsendatanygivenmonth. There is no perfectfrequency that suggests you

shouldemaileveryday,everyotherday,oreverythirdday.There are no hard rules thatsuggest you should send atleast one educational emailforeverysalesemailthatyousendout.Themostimportantthing is to consistently sendrelevantemailcontenttoyoursubscribers to keep themengaged with your mailinglist.

The frequency at whichyou send broadcast emails

will be somewhat dependentupon the niche of yourmailing list. For niches thathave highly-committed andhighly-engagedfans,youwillwant to email morefrequently. Sports fans,investors, and news junkiesmay want to receive emailfrom you daily because theinformationinthosenichesisconstantly changing. Nicheswith hobbyists and casualfans probably won’t want to

receive email from you on adaily basis. The general ruleof thumb that I use formailingfrequencyis thatyoushould never mail your listany less than once perweek,and you should never mailyour list anymore than onceperday.

WritingaBroadcastSeriesIfyouarelaunchinganew

product or running apromotion to generate salesfor an existing product, youwillwant to send a series ofemails over the course of

several days.Whenyouonlysend one email about aproduct or service that youwant to promote, yoursubscribers might miss theemail altogether or mightsimply not have enoughinformation to make adecision.By sending a seriesof emails over a fewdaysoreven a couple ofweeks, youare keeping the product orservice fresh in their minds.You also have the

opportunity to use differentselling techniques in thevarietyofmessagesyousendtoyourlist.

Here is anexample layoutofhowaseriesofemailscanwork:

AnnouncementEmail(Day1)–Youfirstemailshouldserveasanofficialannouncement

fortheavailabilityofyournewproductorforthepromotionthatyou’rerunning.Describewhattheproductdoesandhowitcanhelpyoursubscribers.Ifyouarerunningasale,youshouldincludethediscountedpricing

informationaswellashowlongthesalewillbeavailable.FAQEmail(Day3)–Thegoalofthesecondemailistoprovideasmuchinformationaspossibleabouttheproductorpromotiontoyoursubscribers.Think

ofallofthemajorquestionsasubscribermightaskaboutyourproductorthepromotionandanswertheminanemail.Thisemailcanbe1,000wordsinlengthorlonger.Peoplethatarereallyinterestedinyour

productwilltakethetimetoreadallofit.VideoTourEmail(Day5)–RecordaYouTubevideothatshowshowyourproductorserviceworks.Ifit’sasoftwareprogramordigitalinformationproductthatyou’reselling,doa

screencastthatshowsitoff.Youremailshouldbelittlemorethanalinktowatchyourvideoandalinktopurchasetheproductifthesubscriberisinterested.Thevideothatyourecordwillhelpvisuallearnersconnectwithyourproductmore

thantheymighthaveotherwise.FeaturesandBenefitsEmail(Day7)–Inthisemail,youwillremindyoursubscriberswhatyourproductdoesandhowitcanhelpthem.Writeaboutthespecificproblemsthatyour

productcansolveforthem.Includealistofallofthemajorfeaturesoftheproductsandhowitcanbenefitthem.SocialProofEmail(Day9)–Collectafewtestimonialsfromyourexistingcustomersandsendthemoutasaway

todemonstratesocialproof.Subscriberswillbemorelikelytobuyyourproductiftheyknowthatotherpeoplelikethemhavealreadypurchasedyourproductandgottenvalueoutofit.

WarningEmail(Day11)–Inthesecond-to-lastdayofyourcampaign,youshouldtrytocreateasenseofurgencyandwarnsubscribersthattomorrowwillbethelastdaywhateverdiscountorbonusyouareoffering

willbeavailable.Youcanalsousethisemailasanotheropportunitytoremindyoursubscribersofthefeaturesandbenefitsinyourproductorservice.LastChanceEmail(Day12)–Inyourfinalemail,youshouldtell

yoursubscribersthatit’stheirlastopportunitytotakeadvantageofthediscountorbonusyouareoffering.Beclearthatthepricewillbeincreasingorthebonuswillbegoingawayaftertonightandthattheyshouldactnowifthey

wanttotakeadvantageoftheoffer.Thisemailisgenerallyveryshortandcontainslittleotherthanthe“lastchance”warningandalinktoyoursalespage.

ASampleEmailSeriesfromMarketBeat

Inordertoprovideabetteridea of what an actualbroadcast email series canlooklike,I’vemadethecopy

thatIusedforanentireemaillaunch available online forfree for readers of EmailMarketingDemystified.

The email series belowwasforthelaunchofthenewversionofourpremiumdailynewsletter thatwereferredtoas “MarketBeat DailyPremium5.0.”Thecampaignwas sent inApril 2015whenour mailing list was justunder 200,000 subscribers.The campaign generated a

total of 91 sales with anexpected lifetime value of$299.25 per sale, or$27,231.75inrevenue.

Please note that thiscampaignwassentbeforewechanged thenameofAnalystRatings Network toMarketBeat, so MarketBeatDaily Premium is referred tobyitspreviousnameofARNDailyPremium.Toaccessthefree sample broadcast series,visitmattpaulson.com/sample-

campaign.

TrackingYourResults

Some of the broadcastemails that you send youraudience will be much moreeffective than others. It maynot be immediately apparentwhyoneemailreceivesbetter

engagement than others,because only by consistentlylookingatyournumbersovertimecanyoubegintoidentifycommonalities betweenemails that work and thosethatdon’t.

Here are the numbers thatyou should track in everyemail:

Sends–Thisisthenumberofpeoplethat

youremailwassentto.Yournumberofsendsshouldequalthetotalsizeofyourmailinglist.Bounces–Thisisthenumberofmessagesthatwerereturnedasundeliverable.Ifyourbouncerateishigherthan2%,youmayneed

tocleanupthemailinglistoryourdomainname,oryourmailingIPaddressmayhavebeenblacklisted.Opens–Thisisthenumberoftimesyouremailwasopenedbysubscribers.Notethatanopencanonlybetracked

whensomeoneenablesimagesonyourmessages,soyouractualopencountwillalwaysbehigherthanyourreportedopencount.OpenRate–Thisisthepercentageofsubscribersthatopenedanemail,outof

everyonewhoreceivedthemessage.Openratescanvarydramaticallybasedonyourindustryandtheengagementofyourmailinglist.Forwell-maintainedlists,openratestendtorangefrom15%to35%.

Clicks–Thisisthetotalnumberofsubscribersthatclickedonalinkinyourmessage.ClickthroughRate–Thisisthepercentageofpeoplethatopenedyouremail,outofeveryonethatgotmessaged,andclickedonalink.A

goodmarketingemailwillhaveaclickthroughrateofbetween5%and10%.Unsubscribes–Thisisthenumberofpeoplethatunsubscribedfromyourlistbyclickingontheunsubscribelinkinanygivenemail.Seeing

ahigher-than-usualnumberofunsubscribescanindicateamessagedidn’tengagewellwithyourmailinglist.

There are additionalmetrics thatyoushould trackin sales and marketingemails:

Conversions–Thisisthenumberofsalesorothersign-upsthatoccurredasaresultofanemail.ConversionRate–Thisisthepercentageofpeoplethatclickedonalinkinyouremailthatpurchasedaproductor

serviceasaresultoftheemail.Revenue–Thisishowmuchmoneyyouactuallymadeinsalesfrompeopleclickingthrough.Attheendoftheday,therevenuethatyouremailgeneratesistheonlymetricthat

matters.However,youshouldstillpayattentiontoothermetricsbecausetheywillimpactyourrevenuenumbers.

Wheneveryousendoutanemail toyourmailinglist,goback and review how themessage performed 72 hoursafteritwassent.Bythistime,most of the people that are

evergoingtoreadyouremailwill have done so. Comparethe open rates, clickthroughrates, andconversion rates toprevious emails. Were thenumbers significantly higherorlower?Ifso,trytoidentifyhow your current email isdifferent from any previousmessages you sent. Askyourself what you can learnbased on the performance ofyourmostrecentemail.

CreateaWeeklyorBi-WeeklyNewsletter

One of the best ways tokeep your mailing listengaged with your contentover time is to publish a

weekly or bi-weeklynewsletter containing contentthat is interesting to yourreaders. By consistentlysending a newsletter on aspecificdayoftheweek,yoursubscribers will begin toexpect and look forward toyourweeklynewsletter.Theywill get in a habit of readingit on a specific day of theweek and are more likely tobeengagedwithyourcontentovertime.

Your newsletter shouldcontain five to ten stories ornews items that users canscan through and click on tolearn more if they areinterested.Thisdoesn’tmeanthatyouneedtowritefivetoten original articles for yournewsletter, though. In fact,you don’t actually need tocreate any new content foryour newsletter. You cansimplyrepurposecontentthatyou have recently published

to your website for yournewsletter.

If you aren’t creatingoriginal content, you cansimply act as a curator andlink to interestingstories thatyour subscribers will beinterestedin.

For example, Hiten Shahpublishesaweeklynewsletterfor software entrepreneurscalled SaaS Weekly(hiten.com),whichcontainsaround-up of stories that are

interesting to softwareentrepreneurs. He doesn’tpublish any original contentinhisnewsletterbuthasbuilta following of more than11,000 subscribers based onhis ability to find interestingstories to share with othersoftwareentrepreneurs.

HubSpot has put togetheran article titled “15 EmailNewsletter Examples WeLove Getting in Our

Inboxes”19 that shows offseveral particularly high-quality newsletters. If youneed ideas about how tocreate a newsletter, this is agreatplacetostart.

MarketingAutomationfor

EmailIf your company or

organization sells a numberof different products or hascustomers with multiple

divergent interest areas, youmight consider usingmarketing automationtechniques,socustomersonlyreceive email content that isrelevanttothem.

Email marketingautomation is the process ofsending targeted emailcontent to a certain set ofsubscriberswhohavetakenaspecificactionorexpressedaspecificinterest.

In other words, email

marketing automation issimply sending the rightemail to the right person atthe right time. By sendingmore targeted and relevantcontent to your subscribersbased on their interests andactions, they are more likelyto stay engaged with yourmailing listandbuyproductsand services from yourcompany.

Forexample,ifacustomersigns up for a 30-day free

trialofaproduct,theyshouldreceive a series of emails(called a campaign) thatteaches themhow touse thatproduct and sells them oncontinuing with the productafter their 30-day trial iscompleted.

Obviously, only users thatsignupforafreetrialofthatproduct should receive thoseemails, because they wouldbe irrelevant to anyone else.When you send email to

people not relevant to them,they will be confused as tothe purpose of the messageand will likely becomedisengagedwithyourcontent.

There is a lot of upfrontwork involved with creatingmarketing automationcampaigns. Most emailservice providers will do theheavy technical lifting foryou, but you will need towrite an entire series ofemailsforeachcampaignthat

you create and will have tofigure out how to trigger acampaign for a specificperson when they take anaction.

Ifyourmailing list is in aspecific niche and yougenerally only send outcontent about one or twotopics, marketing automationmaynotbenecessary.Ifyourcompany doesn’t sell anyproducts or only sells one ortwo products or services,

email marketing automationmightbeoverkill.

Marketing automation canbe an incredibly effectivetool,but itmaynotbeworththe effort for smaller andmorefocusedlists.

Here are some types ofemail marketing automationcampaigns that can be veryeffective:

ProductEducationEmails–Wheneveranewcustomerbuysaproductorservicefromyourcompany,sendthemaseriesofemailsthatteachesthemhowtouseit.Thiswillincreasethelikelihoodthattheywillactuallyuseandget

valuefromyourproduct.Byincreasingthepercentageofyourcustomersthatactuallyuseyourproduct,youarelesslikelytogetrefundrequests,andcustomersaremorelikelytobuyfromyouagaininthefuture.

OrderConfirmationEmails–Wheneversomeonebuysaproductorservicefromyourcompany,sendanemailthankingthemfortheirorderalongwiththeirorderdetails.Youshouldalsoprovideacall-to-actioninthis

emailthatwilltrytogetuserstoreturntoyourwebsitetore-engagewithyourcontentortoviewrelatedproducts.SubscriberRe-EngagementEmails–Whenasubscriberhasn’topenedanemailfromyouorvisitedyour

websiteinacoupleofmonths,sendthemsomehighlyvaluablecontenttotrytogetthemre-engagedwithyourcontent.Youcanalsosendanemailaskingforfeedbacktoseeifthere’ssomethingyoucanadd

orchangethatmightengagethemmore.AnniversaryEmails–Sendsubscribersavirtualanniversarycardaftertheyhavebeenonyourmailinglistforeithersixmonthsoroneyear.Youcanalsoincludeatime-limited

couponforyourcompany’sproductsorservicestoencouragethemtotakeactionandbecomeacustomer.FreeTrialEmails–Ifyouofferaservicethathasafreetrial,youshouldsendanyonecurrentlyinatrialsome

informationabouttheproducttheyareusing,aswellassalesandmarketingemailstopersuadethemtoupgradetoapaidsubscription.FormerCustomerEmail–Ifyourunasubscriptionora

recurringservicebusiness,considercreatingacampaignthatremindsformercustomersaboutthefeaturesandbenefitsofyourserviceandallowsthemtore-registeratadiscountedrate.Theseemailsworkextremely

wellifwrittencorrectlyandcanpreventyoufromlosingcustomersforever.CartAbandonmentEmails–Ifacustomeraddsaproducttotheirshoppingcartonanecommercewebsitebutdoesn’tcompletethe

purchase,sendtheminformationabouttheproductsintheirshoppingcartoverthenextseveraldays.Thiscanbeaveryeffectivewaytosavelostsales.UpsellEmails–Ifyouhaveamulti-tiered

pricingplan,sendanemailtocustomersaskingthemtoupgradetothenextlevelorservicewhenevertheyareabouttoreachthelimitationsoftheircurrentplan.

ListSegmentationAnother aspect of email

marketing automation issegmentation. Segmentationis simply the process ofbreakingupamailinglistintosmaller lists—known as

segments—basedoninterests.Ifyouuseanemailservice

provider with marketingautomationfunctionality,youcansendanemailthatallowsusers to express interest inlearningaboutvarioustopics.Users will click on one ormore topics they areinterested in, and they willautomaticallybeaddedtothesegments or sub-lists theyselect. Granted, you mayhave to email your mailing

list multiple times to get agood portion of yoursubscribers to self-select intodifferent segments. Whensegmentingyourmailing list,you will be sending a largernumber of emails in a givenmonth, but each email willonly be sent to a specificportionofyourlist.Thiswillincrease the relevance of theemails that you send to anygivensubscriber.

For example, if youhada

blogaboutbuildingwebsites,you might have some usersthatareinterestedindifferentcontent management systemslike WordPress, Drupal, andConcrete5. Users that areinterested in WordPressmight not be interested ingetting email about DrupalandConcrete5. Ifyouhaveapiece of educational contentaboutWordPressyouwanttosendtoyourmailinglist,youmight only mail it to the

segmentofyouraudiencethathas expressed interest inlearningaboutWordPress.

Segmentation works bestfor large mailing lists thathave more than 25,000subscribers and for listsrelated to broad topics withsmaller interest areas. If youhaveasmallerlist,itmaynotbeworththeefforttosegmentyouraudienceiftherewillbeonly a small number ofpeopleinanygivensegment.

Ifyourmailinglistisveryfocused on a single topic,segmentation may not benecessary. You shouldidentifybetweenthreeandsixinterest areas to use assegmentsofyourmailinglist.Ifyoutrytocreatetoomany,you may end up with verysmallsegmentsthataren’tbigenough to be worth mailingindividually.

Wrap-UpWhiledevelopingaplanto

regularly email your mailinglist through yourautoresponder series andthroughbroadcastemailsmayseem like a big chore, itdoesn’t have to be. Startsimply by writing your

welcome email and the firstfew emails in yourautoresponder series.Continue to addanewemailto it every couple of daysuntilit’scomplete.

As your first subscribersbegin to complete the series,start sending periodicbroadcast emails to your listto ensure that all of yoursubscribers are regularlygettingemail fromyou.Overtime,considermoreadvanced

strategies like listsegmentation and marketingautomation to maximize theeffectiveness of your emailmarketingefforts.

ActionSteps

Writeyourwelcomeemailandenteritintoyouremailserviceprovider.Writeyourfirstthreeautoresponderemails

andaddthemintoyouremailserviceprovider.Createascheduleofallofthebroadcastemailsyouwanttosendtoyourlistnextmonth.Considersendingaweeklynewslettertoyoursubscribers.

Tracktheperformanceofeveryemailthatyousend.

ChapterFiveWriting

EmailThatInspires

UserstoTakeAction

You have undoubtedlywrittenthousandsofemailsinyour life. You probablyregularly send and receiveemail from friends, family,coworkers, and evencomplete strangers on aregular basis for any numberof reasons.While writing anemail to any one person is astraightforward proposition,sending an email to a largegroupofpeopleisanentirely

differentskillset.Youneedtocraft a message that attractsthe attention of a diversegroup of individuals, clearlycommunicates a singleobjective, and inspires themto take a desired action. Ifthat doesn’t sound hardenough, you have to do thiswithout the use of video,audio, images (sometimes),and other dynamic content.You also have to deal withthe technical peculiarities of

email,avoidspamfilters,andmaintain compliance withyour country’s anti-spamlaws.Writing effective emailis both an art and a science.This chapter will show youhow towrite email copy thatengages users and convincesthemtotakeaction.

UnderstandingYourAudienceIn order to effectively

write to your audience, youfirst have to understand whothey are. How old are yourtypical subscribers?What dothey do for a living? What

gender are they? Are theymarried?Wheredotheylive?What are their interests?Whatproblemsdotheyface?Why did they sign up foryourmailinglist?Ifyoudon’tknow these things, conduct asurvey and ask people toshare information aboutthemselves, so you have abetter ideaofwho isactuallyreceivingyouremail.

I recommend creating afictional character that

epitomizes your typicalcustomer, known as anavatar.Thecharacterthatyoucreateshouldhaveaname,anage, a gender, a job, ahometown,personalinterests,and problems that they faceon a daily basis. The avatarthat I created forMarketBeatis named Bill. He is aboutfiftyyearsold.He’smarried,is a homeowner, and hassomemoney to invest in thestockmarket.Helikestopick

his own stocks but isn’t surewhoseadviceheshouldlistento. He can live just aboutanywhereintheUnitedStatesor Canada and loves to keepup with the day-to-day newsin the stock market. Bycreating an avatar, you willhaveabetterideaofwhoyouaremarketingtoand,inmanyways, can get inside themindsofyoursubscribers.

When you write an emailto yourmailing list, write as

ifyouare sendingapersonalmessage to your avatar. Askyourself what your avatarwouldneedtohearinordertotake action based on youremail.Whatkindofhopesdothey have that you canencourage? What kind offears do they have that youcan assuage? If you write toyour avatar and use lots of“you” language, subscriberswillsubconsciouslythinkthatyour email was written to

them specifically andwill bemore likely to engage withyourmessage.Keepthefocuson your subscribers as muchaspossible.Makeyouremailsaboutthem,notaboutyou.

Here’s an example of anemail that uses personallanguage:

PartsofanEmail

Whengetting ready toputtogetheranemail,itwouldbeeasy to think that the onlythingyouhavetowriteisthemessage body. However,there are actually several

differentcomponentsofeverymessagethatyousendtoyourlist.Youneedtoputasmuchthought and effort into theother parts of your email asyou would in the mainmessagebody.

Here are the keycomponentsofanemail:

SubjectLine–Thisisthesubjectofyourmessage.Itisthefirst

thingyoursubscriberswillseeandwilldeterminewhetherornottheyopenyourmessage.Preheader–Thepreheaderisthepreviewtextincludedafterthesubjectlineinsomeemailservices,suchasGmail.Itcanserveasa

secondsubjectlinethatwillfurtherencourageuserstoopenyouremail.Ifyoudon’tintentionallyaddapreheader,mostemailserviceswillusethefirstsentenceortwoofyouremailasapreheader.

“From”Name–Thisisthenameofthepersonsendingtheemail.Useyourpersonalnameinlieuofthenameofyourcompany,becauseemailusersaremorelikelytoopenanemailfromanactualperson.

MessageBody–Thisisthemaintextofyouremail.Call-to-Action–Thisisahyperlinkatthebottomofyourmessagebodythatpersuadesuserstotakeaspecificaction,suchasclickingonahyperlink.

Signature–Keepyouremailsignaturesimple.Longemailsignaturescanbeadistractiontothemaincontentofyouremail.Ipersonallyjustusemynameononelineandthenameofmycompanyonthefollowingline.

Postscript–Considerperiodicallyusinga“P.S.”belowyouremailsignaturetoserveasasecondarysalestoolafteryourmainemail.Forexample,youcouldincludesomethinglike,“P.S.Rememberthatourservicecomeswitha30-

daymoney-backguarantee.Ifyou’renotsatisfiedwithourservicewithinthefirst30days,justletusknow,andwe’llprovideyouafullrefund.”Footer–Yourfooterusuallycontainsyourunsubscribelinkand

otherinformationthatyouneedtoincludetostaycompliantwithanti-spamlaws,suchasyourmailingaddressandthenameofyourcompany.Yourfooterwilllikelybethesameforeveryemailthatyousendtoyourlist.

TypesofMessages

Everyemail thatyousendto your mailing list will besent for a specific purpose.You might have anannouncement to make orwantyoursubscriberstoread

a piece of content yourecently posted. You maywant them to check out oneof your company’s productsor keep them engaged bysending them helpfulinformation.

Herearesomeofthemainreasons that you will emailyourlist:

Announcements–Wheneveryouhave

somethingbigtoannounce,youshouldannounceittoyouremailsubscribers,sotheyknowtheyarevaluedmembersofyourcommunity.SalesandMarketing–Youwillperiodicallywanttosendsalesand

marketingemailstoyoursubscribersaboutyourcompany’sproductsandservices.Makesureyouonlyemailsubscribersaboutaproductorasaletheyhaven’talreadypurchased.AffiliateMarketing–Inordertogenerate

additionalrevenue,youcanpromoteanothercompany’sproductsandservicesasanaffiliate.Readthemonetizationchapterofthisbookformoreinformationabouthowtodothis.WeeklyNewsletter–Considercreatinga

weeklynewsletterforyoursubscribersthatcontainsusefulandinterestingcontent.Yourweeklynewsletterwillhelpkeepusersinterestedandengagedwithyourcontent.UserEngagement–Youwillwantto

regularlysendyoursubscribersvaluabletips,resources,andotherhelpfulinformationthatwillkeepthemengagedwithyourmailinglist.Feedback–Wheneveryouneedfeedbackaboutanidea,emailyouraudienceandaskthem

forit.Asktwoorthreequestionsandrequesttheyrespondwiththeirfeedbackbyreplying.ListManagement–Youmayneedtoperiodicallysendmessagestousersrelatingtothestatusoftheirsubscription.You

mightneedtoreconfirmtheirsubscriptioniftheyhaven’topenedanemailfromyouinawhile,oryoumightwantthemtoidentifyspecificinterestsaspartofasegmentationcampaign.

Give,Give,Give,Ask

Whileyouwillemailyouraudience for many differentreasons, you need to keep ahealthy balance betweensending emails that providevalue to your audience and

emailsthattakevalueaway.Emails that contain

information helpful to yourreaders at no cost to them,such as tips, educationalcontent, resources, andtrainingvideos,providevaluetoyouraudience.Emails thataskyouraudiencetopurchasea product or take action thatbenefits youmore than themwill take value from youraudience.

I recommend sending at

least two emails that providevalue to your audience forevery one email that takes itfrom them. Ideally, you willprovide so much value toyour audience that theyrespond to your sales andmarketingemailsoutofsheergratitude for the value youhave already provided. Thisprinciple is outlined in detailby Gary Vaynerchuk in hisbook, Jab, Jab, Jab, RightHook:HowtoTellYourStory

inaNoisySocialWorld.

WritingGreatSubjectLinesYour subject lines are the

most important words thatyouwillwriteaspartofyouremail marketing strategy. Ifyouwriteasubjectlinethatisuninspired and doesn’t grab

the attention of yoursubscribers, they probablyaren’t going to open yourmessage.

AccordingtoareportfromChadwick Martin Bailey,64% of people say they willchoose to open an emailbecause of the subjectline.20 If you write a greatsubject line, you’ll receivehigheropen rates,whichwilllead to more clickthroughs

and more sales. A well-written subject linecanoftenreceivedouble theopenratesof a poorly-written one,which will in turn doubleyour clickthroughs anddoublethesalesgeneratedbyanemail.

Herearesomeexamplesofa few different types ofsubjectlinesthatyoucanuse:

Confrontation:QuitWastingYourTimeWithOptionsTradingCuriosity:StrangeQuestion…?Howto:HowtoDoubleYourRevenueWithOneLittle-KnownEmailMarketingTechnique

Humor:ForgetBlackFriday–EnjoyWineWeekendNumbers:What83%ofGolfersScrewUpontheCourseReply-To:RE:YourSubscriptiontoMarketBeatDailyPremium

Shocking:HowILost48PoundsinONEWEEKTestimonial:“MarketBeatmademe$12,384.32inonetrade”TimeSensitive:Tonight’sDeadline(LastChance!)

Tips:3WaystoDoubleYourFacebookFollowingWarning:Don’tMissOut!

Here are some of thesubject lines that havereceived the highest open-rates in the history ofMarketBeat:

Animportantreminder...(40.8%openrate)RE:CleanWaterProject(27.6%openrate)I'mSorry:\(27.1%openrate)BadNews(25%openrate)GoodNews!:-)(24%openrate)

Clearingupsomeconfusion(24.6%openrate)Important(pleaseread)(23.9%openrate)BlackFriday...inJune?(21.9%openrate)WeirdQuestion?(21.4%openrate)

Therearealsoanumberof

techniques that can modifysubject lines to emphasizewords and to make unsaidpromisesaboutthecontentofyour message. If you aregoing to use any variationtechniques (listed below),switchthemupfromemailtoemail, anddon’t use anyonetechnique more than twiceeachmonth. Subscriberswillnotice these patterns if usedtoo often, rendering themineffective.

Herearethetechniques:

MakeanEmailAppearPersonal–Makeyourentiresubjectlinelowercasetoimplythatthemessageispersonalinnature,becauseindividualsdon’talwaysputthesameeffortintowritinganerror-freeand

correctly-capitalizedsubjectline.Forexample,“howIbeatthestockmarket”soundsalotmorepersonalthan“HowIBeattheStockMarket.”ImplyStrongEmotionandImportance–Youcanuppercaseyour

subjectlinetoimplystrongemotionorimportancetoyouremail.Forexample,“IBEATTHESTOCKMARKET”impliesurgencyandimportance.SpecificNumbers–Youcanusespecificnumbers,like23.6or

29%,toimplyaccuracyofyourdata.Peoplearenaturallywiredtothinkthatnumbersarelesslikelytobefabricatediftheyaremorespecificorhaveadecimalpoint.Forexample,“HowIBeattheMarketby7.8%in2015”wouldimply

thatthere’smoremathshowinghowIbeatthestockmarketbythatexactnumber.Emphasize–Youcanemphasizeaparticularwordbyuppercasingonlythatwordorbysurroundingthatwordwithasterisks.For

example,“HowIBEATtheStockMarketby7.8%WhenOthersFailed”drawsattentiontotheword“beat.”MoreInformationInside–Youcanaddellipses(threeperiods)attheendofyoursubjectlinetoimplythatthere’s

muchmoreforusersinsideofyouremail.Forexample,“HowIbeatthestockmarket…”impliesthatIwillsharedetailsinthebodyoftheemail.CommunicateTwoThingsatOnce–Usebracketswhenyouneed

tocommunicatetwodifferentthingsaboutanemail.Forexample,“HowIBeattheStockMarket[FreeVideo]”impliesthatuserswillbothlearnhowtobeatthestockmarketandgetafreevideointheirinbox.

Don’t believe that youhave to write every emailsubjectlinefromscratch.Feelfree to use the subject lineslistedinthischapter.Youcanget good ideas for subjectlines by searching for“subject line ideas” in yoursearchengineofchoice.

I also recommend signingup for the mailing lists ofwell-known Internetmarketers like Frank Kern,EbenPagan, andRyanDeiss

so that you can see howentrepreneurs that makemillions of dollars each yearperformtheircraft.

WritinganAnnouncement

EmailPeriodically,you’llhavea

new project or some othernews that you want to sharewithyourmailing list. Itwill

be very tempting to write anemailthatcommunicateshowexcited you are for yourprojectandhow it’sgoing tochange your business.Rememberthatyouraudiencecares about themselvesmuchmore than they care aboutyou, so always makeannouncementsinsuchawaythat keeps the focus on yoursubscribers.

Your announcement emailshould also attempt to

generate excitement andenthusiasm in yoursubscribers by suggestinghow your announcement canchange their lives. Finally,don’t write something vaguethat’sfilledwithalotofhypeanddoesn’tactually tellyoursubscribers the specifics ofwhat you want to announce.Be clear and concise aboutthe details of yourannouncementinyouremail.

Here’s an example of an

announcement email I mightsend to MarketBeatsubscribers:

WritinganAffiliateMarketingEmail

If you are promotinganothercompany’sproductorservice in exchange for an

affiliate commission, you arepersonally endorsing thatproduct or service, and thatshould be reflected in youremail. When writing anaffiliate marketing email,communicatethefeaturesandbenefits of the product youare promoting.Make it clearhow the product can helpyour subscribers specificallyand always disclose that youare getting paid to help thecompanygeneratesales.

Here is an example of anaffiliate marketing email Imightsend:

WritingContentPromotionEmails

If you create a newresource, suchasavery longblog post, a new podcastepisode,oranewebook,send

an email to your audienceletting them know it’savailable.Don’t assumeyoursubscribers will read everyblog post on your website,because that rarely happens.When you have a great newpiece of content for them toconsume, let them know viaemail, so they won’t miss itand will stay engaged withyourmailinglist.Ifyouwantyour subscribers to promoteyourcontent,useabitof the

social capital you have builtupwiththem,andaskthemtoshare your content.Remembertoincludelinkssothat a subscriber can easilyshare your post on Facebookaswell.

Here’s an example of acontent promotion email Imightsend:

WritingFeedbackEmails

Market research is one ofthebestusesforyourmailinglist. Nobody knows moreabout what your subscribersactually want than yoursubscribers themselves.

Whenever you are thinkingabout launching a newproduct, a new service, orcreating another resource forthem, always ask forfeedback ahead of time.People love to share theiropinions with strangers, soyou’ll probably receive a lotof responses if you take thetime to ask for feedback.Onlyaskafewquestionsatatime and leave the questionsopen-ended, so they have

room to tell you what theyreallythink.

Here is an example of afeedback email that I mightsend:

WritingSalesandMarketingEmailswith

AIDAIn order to write an

effective sales andmarketingemail, you need to take your

subscribers through a seriesofstepstogetthemtotakeadesired action, such aspurchasing a product orservice. You first have tograb their attention, createinterest in your product orservice, instill a personaldesire for your offer usingyour subscribers’ hopes andfears, and convince them totakeaction. These four stepsmakeup theacronymAIDA,which was first penned by

advertising pioneer E. St.Elmo Lewis in 1903. Whilethe concept AIDA wasdeveloped in the print era, itcontinues to work well as aframework for emailcopywriting.

Thefirststepistograbtheattention of your readers. Intheworldofemailmarketing,this means getting yoursubscribers to see and openyour email. Your subscribersmay receive as many as one

hundred emails every day.They probably do not readmost of the emails theyreceive and may only openfive to ten messages on anygiven day.This iswhy someof the most engaged emaillists in the world only haveopen rates of 30-40%. Inorder to actually getconsumers to open youremails, you need to standapart from the crowd bywriting a compelling subject

line and using a personal“from”name.After someonehas opened your email, keeptheir attention by telling aninterestingstory,fact,joke,oranything else that someonecan’thelpbutread.

After getting asubscriber’s attention, youwill need to smoothlytransition to the actualpurposeofyouremail,soyoucan generate interest for theproduct or service you’re

promoting.You canoftendothis through an analogy thattiesthecontentofyouremailbackintotheintroductionyouused to grab their attention.After the transition, youwillextolthefeaturesandbenefitsof what you are selling youraudience,andshowthemhowit can solve a particularproblem for them or maketheirliveseasier.

The next step is to createan emotional desire in your

subscribers. Try to get yourusers to think about theemotions they feel wheneverthey face the particularproblem that your product orservicecansolve.Also,painta picture of a desired futurestate that subscribers canachieve when they purchaseyour product or service. Byhelping them remember thenegative emotions caused bythe problem and showingthem what their life can be

like if they purchase yourproductorservicetosolveit,youwillhelpyourcustomersbecome emotionally ready topurchase.

The final step is to callyour subscribers to take aspecific action, which isusually purchasing yourproduct or service. Tell yoursubscribersexactlywhat theyneed to do to purchase yourproduct,andfinishyouremailby reminding users of the

picture you painted of adesiredfuturestate.

Here’s an example of amarketingemailthatwassentout by USGolfTV that usesAIDA:

TheSixStepstoGeneratinga

SalefromEmailMarketing

In order to generate salesfromamarketingemail,thereare six different steps that

people need to take insequential order to become acustomer:

1. Acustomermustsignupforyourmailinglist.

2. Acustomermustbecomeengagedwithyourcontentandreadtheemailsyousent.

3. Acustomermustreceiveandopenamarketingemail.

4. Acustomermustclickalinkinyourmarketingemailtoyoursalespage.

5. Acustomermustreadthesalesmaterialforyourproductorserviceonyourlandingpage.

6. Acustomermusttakeactionandpurchaseyourproduct.

Asemailsubscribersworkthrough the six steps ofbecoming a customer, manyofthemaregoingtodropoffthe map and will neverbecome customers.Furthermore, they will likelydrop out at different pointsalong the way. All of your

subscribers will make itthrough step one.Halfmightmake it through step two.Around 15% of yoursubscribers might make itthroughstep three,5%mightmake it through step four,while3%ofyoursubscribersmight make it through stepfive. Finally, 2% of yoursubscribers might make itthroughstepsix.

Thekey is togetasmanysubscribers as possible from

one step to the next. Ifsubscribers drop off at anyparticular point in these sixsteps,theywillneverbecomecustomers. You should workonoptimizingallsixof thesesteps to ensure the highestpercentage of subscriberspossiblemakeitfromanyonesteptothenextstep.Thebestmethodiscontinuallyrunningsplit-testsateverystepoftheprocess. By trying differentopt-informs,emailmarketing

copy, subject lines, calls-to-action,andlandingpagecopyover time, you’ll identify thelanguage that will help drivemoresales.

BestPracticestoFollowWithYourEmail

There are several otherbestpracticesthatyoushouldfollowwhensendingemailtoyourlist:

Don’tRelyonImages–Between10%and30%ofyouruserswillneverclick“enableimages”onyouremails.Neverrelyonimagestoconveykeypointsinyourcopy.UseclearanddescriptiveALTtextonanyimagesthatyoudoinclude.You

canalsoconsiderusingCSSstylingtomakeyourALTtextlargerandmorevisibletosubscribersthatdonotenableimages.AvoidGrammarandSpellingErrors–Poorgrammar,capitalization,andspellingcanbea

hugeturnoffformanyofyouremailsubscribers.Ifyouwanttospeakwithexpertauthoritytoyouraudience,youneedtodosowithproper,clearwriting.Noonewillbelieveyouareanauthorityonanythingif

youcan’twriteacompletesentence.Double-checkeveryemailyouwriteforgrammarandspellingmistakes,andconsiderhavinganotherpersoncheckoveryourmessagesbeforetheyare

sentouttoyoursubscribers.IncludeMultipleHyperlinks–Ifyouhaveaspecificlinkyouwantuserstoclickon,addatotalofthreehyperlinkstoeachemail.Hyperlinkyourmaincall-to-actionatthe

bottomofyourmessagebodyandjustaboveyouremailsignature.Alsohyperlinkafewrelevantwordsinthefirstparagraphofyouremailtothepageyouwantuserstogoto.Finally,includeafinalcall-to-actionbelow

youremailsignatureandinany“P.S.”thatyouincludewithyouremail.AvoidDesign-HeavyEmailTemplates–Subscribersaremorelikelytoactuallyreademailthatcomesfromanindividualpersonthanafacelesscompany

ornonprofit.Whilecompaniesfrequentlyusetemplatesintheiremail,peoplealmostneverdo.Ifpossible,avoidusingadesign-heavytemplatesothatyouremailsappearmorepersonaltoyoursubscribers.

LimitEachEmailtoOneCall-to-Action–Don’ttrytogetyoursubscriberstodomultiplethingsasaresultofanyoneemail.Eachemailthatyousendshouldhaveonesinglepurposeandasinglecall-to-actionthatyou

wantthemtotake.Usersarelesslikelytorespondwhentheyhavetoconsiderwhich,ifany,ofyourcalls-to-actionthattheywanttotake.HaveaClearUnsubscribeLink–Don’ttrytohideorobscureyour

unsubscribelink.Haveaclearunsubscribelinkthatsays“ClickHeretoUnsubscribe”inanormalfontsize.Ifyoutrytoobscureyourunsubscribelink,yoursubscribersmayreportyourmessagesasspam,whichcanputyouin

jeopardywithyouremailserviceproviderifyouraccountgeneratestoomanyspamcomplaints.

ShouldIHireaProfessionalCopywriter?There are many

professional emailcopywriters that you can payto create email marketing

campaigns on your behalf.However, you probablyshould not hire one,especially if you are justgetting started. Learning tobecome an effectivecopywriter takes experience.Whensomeoneelseiswritingcopyforyou,youwon’thavethe opportunity to practiceand learn how to write yourcopy for yourself. Goodcopywriters can be veryexpensive to hire,whichwill

make it much more difficultto run a profitable emailmarketingcampaign.

There are two instanceswhereitmightbeappropriateto hire a professionalcopywriter towrite email foryou.

Ifyourbusiness isalreadygenerating more than sixfigures per year when youstart emailmarketing, itmaybe more cost-effective foryou to hire a copywriter. At

$200,000peryear,your timeis worth about $150.00 perhour. If it takes you threehourstowriteanemailandacopywritercandoabetterjobthan you at $150.00 permessage, go ahead andwriteachecktothecopywriter.

The other instance is forcreating your autoresponderseries, but only if you don’thavemuchexperiencewritingemail, and you can easilyafford the fees. By having a

professional copywritercreate your autoresponderseries, you’ll have relevantemail copy that you canrepurposeasbroadcastemailsdowntheline.

Wrap-UpIn this chapter, I’ve put

together a basic overview ofemail copywriting and a listof best practices to followwhen writing email to yoursubscribers.Copywriting is askill that will take a lot oftime and practice to master.

Most of the email that yousend for the first severalmonths won’t be very good,and that’s okay. Continuelearning and practicing emailcopywriting by followingexperts like John McIntyre(themcmethod.com), readingmarketing email sent out byyour competitors, andconsuming educationalcontent about copywritingfromplaceslikeCopyblogger(copyblogger.com/blog).

Over time, your copywritingskills will improve andmature, and you, too, willbecomeAmerica’snextgreatemailcopywriter.

ActionSteps

Createanavatarthatepitomizesatypicalsubscriber.PracticewritingsalesandmarketingemailsusingAIDA.

Knowtheeightpartsofeveryemailandthesevenreasonstoemailyourlist.Identifyadditionalcopywritingresourcesthatyoucanlearnfromandrelyoninthefuture.

CaseStudy#4

USGolfTV

USGolfTV is a digitalpublishing and televisionproduction company basedout of Sioux Falls, South

Dakota. It was founded in2010byToddKolb,whoisaPGA teaching professional.Todd is responsible forcontent creation and generalbusinessstrategy.TylerPrins,another equity partner, is thegeneral manager of thebusinessandhandles itsday-to-day operations. I acquireda stake in the company inAugust 2014 and amprimarily responsible formarketing and revenue

generation.Thebusinessismadeupof

three primary components:theUSGolfTVTV show, thecompany’s video trainingproducts, and the company’swebsite (usgolftv.com). Thetelevision show, USGolfTV,is a regionally syndicatedprogram that is available inabout12millionhomesin25states through a variety ofcable channels, includingCox, Time Warner, and

MidcoSportsNet. The showprovides golf tips, productreviews, and industry trends.It makes a minor profit, butitsrealvalueisthatitgivesusa substantial amount ofcredibility whenever weapproach a potentialadvertiser. Because we cangive advertisers exposure ontelevision, in our emailnewsletter, and on ourwebsite,advertisersaremuchmore likely to entertain an

initialconversationwithus.The second major

component of thebusiness isthe company’s video trainingproducts. USGolfTV hasproduced three web-basedvideo-training courses thathelp golfers improve aspecific part of their game.We promote these productsprimarily through emailmarketing and working withaffiliates.Onourwebsite,weuse a popup opt-in form to

getnew subscribers toopt intoa5-dayvideocoursewhichwill teach them about aspecific part of golf, likeputting.Aftertheyreceivethefivevideosintheseries,theywillreceivemarketingemailsfor the full premium videocourse associatedwith the 5-day course. When you buyone of the premium videocourses,you’llgetaseriesofvideos featuring Todd inaddition to written

instructions to help youimplement what you’relearningonthecourse.Thesevideosaresoldanddeliveredthrough a piece of softwarecalled ClickFunnels(clickfunnels.com), whichserves as both as a landingpage service and a productdelivery service.Thesevideotraining products costsbetween $27.00 and $235.00dependingonwhichprogramyoubuy.

Thefinalcomponentofthebusiness is the USGolfTVwebsite, which serves as theglue that brings all of theother parts of the businesstogether.We have a team of5-7 writers that publish golfnews, product reviews, andother contenton USGolfTV.com. Wereceive traffic fromallof theusual sources, includingorganic searches, socialmedia, and news portals like

Google News. We generaterevenue on the websitethrough Google AdSense,throughprivate sponsorships,and by gathering email sign-ups, so we can promote ourpaidproductstoouraudience.Theeconomicsofsellingourownproducts onourwebsiteare astonishing. We knowthat 5%-10% of visitors willsign up for a free course onthewebsite, and3%of thosepeople will buy one of our

premium courses that has anaveragesalepriceof$100.00,sowecantakethosenumbersand say we expect to makebetween$200and$250fromevery 1,000 visitors on ourwebsite through emailmarketingalone.

USGolfTVhasdoneafewthings with email marketingparticularly well. Thecompanyregularlydoesemailswaps with a number ofdifferent partners in the golf

industry to promote ourmailinglistandourproducts.We also periodically pay tobe featured on anotherowner’semaillisttogrowourownmailing list and sell ourproducts. USGolfTV haseventradedcommercialspaceon our television show inexchange for email sends.The golf industry is verymuch built on relationships,and our team has leveragedthat reality by using our

existing relationships toattractaffiliatesanddoemailswaps.

USGolfTV uses a popupopt-in form on its websitesimilar to the one used byMarketBeat. We know thatcustomers are more likely topurchase our paid videocourses if they opt in tomultiple free video series, sowerotateourleadmagnetsona daily basis. If one videoseriesisn’tusefultoareader,

the series that gets promotedthe next day might be moreinteresting to them. Thewebsite also includes anumberof in-post leadformsto promote specific leadmagnets that are tied to thecontentofthepost.Wedonotrun a co-registration ad onour “thank you” page,however, because co-registrationadshaven’t takenoff on sports websites yet.We do place a display

advertisement unit on our“thank you” pages, whichdoesquitewell.

The USGolfTV websitereceives about80,000uniquevisitors and 125,000 pageviews each month. As ofOctober 2015, the companyhas a mailing list of about50,000 subscribers and isadding between 4,000 and5,000 new subscribers eachmonth. While I’m notpermitted to disclose exact

revenue numbers for thisbusiness,itwillgeneratewellinto six figures in revenue in2015.

ChapterSixMonetization:SixWaystoMakeMoneywithYourMailingList

Building a mailing listdoesnotserveanypurposeifit does not also accomplishbusiness objectives. If yourun a for-profit company,your ultimate goal is togeneratenewrevenueandgetmorecustomers throughyouremailmarketing efforts. Thischapterwillteachyouhowtosellmore of your company’sproductsandservicesthroughemail marketing and how to

generate additional revenuethrough email advertisingnetworksandthroughaffiliatemarketing.

SellYourOwnProducts

Most companies use theirmailing lists to market theirownproductsandservices.Ifsomeone comes to yourwebsite and completes anopt-in form, they have

already expressed interest inyourcontentandareprobablyapotential customer foryourcompany’s products andservices. Send emails thateducate and inform yoursubscribers about yourproducts and servicesregularly. Don’t assume thatyour subscribers alreadyknowaboutwhatyouhavetooffer, because not everyonepays equal attention to all oftheemailsyousend,andnew

subscribers are being addedtoyourmailinglistregularly.

Ifyoudohaveproductsorservices that you can sell toyour mailing list, you areprobablybetteroffpromotingyour own products thananother company’s products,eventhoseyouwouldreceivean affiliate commission forpromoting. When you sellyour own products andservices, you get to keep100% of the customer’s

payment. When you arepromoting someone else’sproduct, you may receive aslittle as 10% of the revenuegeneratedbyasale.

If you don’t have anyproducts or services that youcan sell to your audience,considermakingacoursethatteaches something to yoursubscribers or helps themachieveaspecificgoal.Whilethe product creation andlaunch process is beyond the

scope of this book, read myearlier book, 40 Rules forInternetBusinessSuccess,foradvice on how to create andmarket your first product.You can also read JeffWalker’s book, Launch, foradditional guidance on theprocess of launching yourfirstproduct.

Here are some strategiesthat you can use to generatesales for your company’sproductorservice.

UseYourAutoresponderSeries–Sprinkleinformationaboutyourcompany’sproductsandservicesinyourautoresponderseries.Subscribersareoftenmostengagedwithyourmailinglistsoonaftertheyfirstsubscribe,

sodon’twaitmorethanaweekortwobeforesendingthemsalesandmarketingmaterial.RunaSale–Periodically,considerofferingatime-limiteddiscountononeofyourcompany’sproductsorservicestogenerate

additionalsales.Offera20-30%discountonwhateveryouarepromoting,butonlymakethatdiscountavailableforafixedperiodoftime,suchasthree,five,orsevendays.Sendmultipleemailsduringthesale

thatextolthefeaturesandbenefitsofyourcompany’sproductsandservices.Onthelastdayofthesale,sendyoursubscribersanemailremindingthemofthedealandmakingitclearthesaleisendingthatnight.Byhavingahard

deadlineforyoursale,potentialcustomerswhoareonthefencewillbemorelikelytotakeactiontoavoidmissingthesale.OfferSpecialBonuses–Anotherwaytoaddurgencytothepurchasingprocessis

offeringaspecialbonustocustomersthatpurchasebyaspecificdate.Itcanbeanotherofyourproductsorasmalladd-onproductthatyoucreatetoservespecificallyasabonus.AtMarketBeat,wefrequentlyusea50-page

investmentguideweputtogetherasabonusthat’snototherwiseavailable.Aspecialbonuscampaignwilloperateverysimilartoasalecampaign,becausesubscriberswillbegettingsomethingtheywouldn’totherwise

normallyreceiveandhavetotakeactionbyaspecificdateandtime.RelaunchExistingProducts–Ifyouhaveaproductthatyoulaunchedmorethanayearago,consideraddingsomenewfeaturesandbenefitsand

launchingittoyourmailinglistasa“newandimproved”versionofyourproduct.Thenewversionofyourproductwillprovideagreatexcusetoexecuteanemailmarketingcampaignasifyouwerelaunchinganew

product,andsubscriberswilltakeasecondlookataproducttheymighthaveotherwiseignored.Makesureyougiveallofyourexistingcustomersafreeupgradetothenewversiontoavoidanyhardfeelings.Youcanmakea

relaunchcampaignmoreeffectivebyofferingasaleoraspecialbonusduringthelaunchperiodtoyoursubscribers.GroupProductsTogether–Ifyourcompanyofferscomplimentaryproductsandservices,consider

creatingacampaignwherecustomerscanbuytwoproductsatonceforasingleprice.Youshouldofferaslightdiscountforthecombinedproductoffering,andconsideraddingabonusthat’sonlyavailabletopeople

whopurchasebothproductsinapackage.CreateNewProducts–Ifyourexistingproductsandservicesaren’tgettingthesalestractionwithyourmailinglistthattheyoncewere,youcanalwayscreateanewproduct.AtUSGolfTV,

weregularlylaunchnewpremiumvideotrainingcoursessothatwehavefreshproductsandcontenttopromotetoouraudience.Whenyouhaveanewproduct,youcancreatebuzzwithapre-launchmarketingcampaignandgeneratea

levelofinterestthatyouotherwisemightnotbeabletowhenmarketinganexistingproduct.

AtMarketBeat,weuseourmailing list to sellsubscription informationservices to our subscriberbase. Specifically, we sell apiece of investment researchsoftware called RatingsDB

and a premium dailynewsletter calledMarketBeatDailyPremium.

Through our dailynewsletter,ourautoresponderseries, and broadcast emailsthat we send to our mailinglist, we are able to generatemore than $500,000 per yearin recurring annual revenuefrom the subscriptionproducts we sell. We alsoregularly launch newproducts, relaunch existing

products, and offer time-limiteddiscountsandbonusesforcustomersthatbuyduringcampaigns.

PromoteThird-PartyProductsandServicesasanAffiliate

There are thousands ofcompanies that will pay youcommissions for any sales

that you generate on theirbehalf, an arrangementknown in theonlinebusinessworld as affiliate marketing.Promoting other companies’productsandservicestoyourmailing list can be anextremely effective way togenerate revenue if you canfindonethatisagreatmatchforyouraudience.

Even if your companyproduces its own productsand services, you should still

consider promoting othercompanies.Youcanonlytalkaboutyourproducts somuchbefore your audience getssickofhearingaboutthem.

FindingProductstoPromote

Finding products andservices to promote as anaffiliate is an incrediblystraightforward process.

There are several largeadvertising networks thatfocus exclusively on creatingaffiliaterelationshipsbetweenadvertisers and publishers.These networks will handleany necessary paperwork,provide banners and othercreative tools to use on yourwebsite, serve as anintermediary in therelationship, and make sureyougetpaidforyourefforts.

Affiliate networks also

make it very easy to findproducts and services topromote. They will listadvertisers by category andshowwhich advertisers otherpublishers are currentlyhavingthemostsuccesswith.

Commission Junction(cj.com), a large affiliateadvertisingnetwork,currentlyhas nearly 3,000 differentadvertisers listed. Keep inmind that you will have themost success promoting

productscloselyrelatedtothecontent that youwrite about.If you had a website aboutinvesting, you wouldprimarily want to promoteinvesting-relatedserviceslikestock brokerages and stockresearch tools.Youwouldn’tget good results promotingunrelated services like webhosting and domain nameregistrationservices.

Here is a list of some ofthelargeraffiliateadvertising

networks:

AmazonAssociates(affiliate-program.amazon.com)ClickBank(clickbank.com)CommissionJunction(cj.com)eBayPartnerNetwork(ebaypartnernetwork.com

FlexOffers(flexoffers.com)LinkShare(linkshare.com)ShareASale(shareasale.com)VigLink(viglink.com)

Ifyouareoverwhelmedbythe sheer number ofadvertisers that list theirproducts on affiliate

networks, you can simplifythe process by looking atwhat products and servicesyour competitors and othersimilar websites arepromoting. If several otherwebsites are all promoting aspecific advertiser and theyhavebeenforseveralmonths,there’s a good chance theyare making good moneypromotingthem.

Toidentifywhichnetworka particular advertiser is

using,simplydoawebsearchforthenameoftheadvertiserfollowed by the word“affiliate program,” and thesign-uplinkwillappearmoreoftenthannot.

HowDoesanAffiliateMarketing

EmailActuallyWork?

After you have found an

advertiser that you want topromote and have signed upfor their affiliate programthrough an advertisingnetwork, you will be givenhyperlinks to use that willtrack any sales you generate.They may also provide animage tag that serves as atracking pixel to include inyouremail.

Youwillwriteasalesandmarketing email to youraudience as you normally

would for your company’sproducts and services. Thenuse the hyperlink theyprovidedyouasthehyperlinkin your call-to-action so thatsales are properly tracked. Ifthey provided a trackingpixel,placeit inyourHTMLat the bottom of your email,so the number of times theoffer was viewed can beproperly tracked by theaffiliateprogram.

HowMuchCanIMakeThrough

AffiliateMarketing?

With affiliate marketing,payments aremade based onthe actual sales that you

generate. The amount ofmoneyyoucanmakethroughaffiliate marketing dependson a number of factors,includingthesizeofyourlist,the relevance of the productorservicetoyourlist,andtheeffectivenessofthemarketingcopy that you use to write aproduct. If you have a smalllist and are ineffectivelypromoting a product that’snot relevant to your list, youprobably won’t make

anything through affiliatemarketing.

Ifyouhavealargerlistofhighly-engaged subscriberswho trust yourrecommendations and youcan promote a product orservicethat’sveryrelevanttoyouraudience,youcanmaketens of thousands of dollarspermonth. If you have a listof a few thousandsubscribers, you willprobably earn $100-$200 per

month through affiliatemarketingforthefirstseveralmonths. Your revenue willsteadilyincreaseovertimeasyour list grows and as youidentifyproductsandservicesto promote that are a goodmatchforyourlist.

WhatBestPracticesShouldIFollowasanAffiliate?

There are several bestpractices that you shouldfollow when promoting

productsandservicestoyouraudienceasanaffiliate:

BeTransparent–Youshouldalwaysdisclosetoyoursubscribersifyouarereceivingacommissionforpromotingaproductorserviceforhonesty,transparency,andeven

legalreasons.IntheUnitedStates,theFTCrequiresthatyoudiscloseanypaymentthatyoureceiveforendorsingaproductorservice.YoucanreadtheFTC’sendorsementguidelinesat1.usa.gov/1FRMynQ.

PromotionEqualsEndorsement–Ifyouarepromotingaproductasanaffiliate,youarepersonallyendorsingthatproductassomethingyoursubscribersshoulduse.Ifyouwouldn’tpersonallyuseaproduct

orservice,don’tpromoteittoyourmailinglist.Yoursubscriberswilllosetrustinyouifyoupromotelow-qualityproductsandareonlyconcernedwiththeaffiliatecommissionsyougenerate.

Don’tOver-PromoteOneProduct–Youwillseediminishingreturnsafteryoucontinuetopromotethesameproductovertime.Rotatetheproductsandservicesthatyoupromotetoavoidoverexposinganyone

advertisertoyourmailinglist.IncludeaBonus–Toensureasubscribersignsupforsomethingthroughyouraffiliatelink,createabonusproductthat’sonlyavailabletothosewhosignupthroughyour

affiliatelink.Youcanuseoneofyourexistingproductsorcreateaneducationalpieceofcontenttoserveasyourbonus.Havesubscribersforwardyouthewelcomeemailorthereceiptthattheygetfromtheadvertiserin

exchangeforthebonusproductyoucreate.FollowProgramRules–Eachaffiliateadvertiserwillhavetheirownsetofprogramrules.Theymayplacelimitationsonthelanguagethatyouuseandthewaysthatyou

promotetheirproductorservice.Takethetimetoreadtherulessetbyeachadvertisertoavoidhavingyourrelationshipterminatedthroughinadvertentlybreakingoneoftheirprogramrules.

Pat Flynn

(smartpassiveincome.com) isa great example of someonewho does affiliate marketingproperly through email, hiswebsite, and his podcast. Hehas established himself as anonline business expert andrecommends tools, products,and services to his audiencethatcanhelpthembuildtheironline businesses. He onlypromotesproductsthathecanpersonally recommendand isalways transparent when he

receives an affiliatecommission for promotingsomething.Hehas built sucha large audience, and hisaffiliate marketing is soeffective that thecommissions he generatesthrough his promotions havebecome far larger than theactualrevenuehemakesfromhis other online businesses.It’snotuncommon forFlynnto generate between $50,000and $100,000 each month

through his affiliatemarketingefforts.

RentYourMailingListIf you have grown your

mailing list to more than25,000 subscribers,advertisersmay be interestedin paying you to send anemail to yourmailing list on

their behalf on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis. Ifyour mailing list is smallerthan25,000subscribers,yourlistmay not be large enoughto attract the interest ofadvertisersyet.Let’ssayyouhave amailing list of 30,000subscribers,andanadvertiseragreestopay$40.00CPMtoemail your list. They wouldpay you a total of $1,200 tosendanemailpromotingtheirproduct or service. Renting

yourlisttoadvertiserscanbevery profitable if you havebuiltalargemailinglist.

FindingAdvertiserstoRentYourListThebiggestchallengewith

rentingoutyourlistisfindingadvertisers. Unless you arealready established as a

reputable mailing list ownerwith advertisers in yourindustry or are working witha reputable advertisingagency that sells dedicatedemails,youmayhavetroubleletting advertisers knowyourlist exists and is worthrenting. There aredisreputable publishers thattry to sell mailings to low-quality, stolen, or scrappedmailing lists, so to avoidtrouble advertisers primarily

want to work with largerpublishers that have built agoodreputation.

If you are just gettingstarted renting out yourmailing list, your best bet isto findanadvertisingagencythat works with mailing listsinyourindustry.Youwillbeable to get a lot more listrentals if you can get areputable agency to endorseand promote your mailinglist. While an agency may

take a 30%-50%commissiononanything theysell,agoodagency will make you farmore than they cost you.Their sales teamwill be ableto get you in front ofadvertisers that normallywouldn’t talktoyouandwilleven make deals on yourbehalf.

At MarketBeat, wecurrently work with a digitaladvertising agency out ofChicago called Investing

Media Solutions. InvestingMedia Solutions sellsnewsletter sponsorships anddedicated emails through ourmailing list to theiradvertisers in exchange for apercentageofeachsale.Theyhave been able to sellplacements in our newsletterto advertisers that we couldsimplynevermakedealswithdirectly, because they haveexisting relationships withsome of the largest financial

advertisers in the country.Investing Media Solutionshandles all of the sales andbillingwork.MarketBeatjusthas to place the ads andcollect checks at the end ofeach month. We generatebetween$15,000and$25,000each month through thenewsletter sponsorships anddedicated emails thatInvesting Media Solutionssells on our behalf.We havehad a great experience

working with a digitaladvertising agency andbelieveit’sdefinitelythewayto go if you can find one ofhighquality.

The other option is tovirtuallypound thepavementand try to findadvertisersbyapproaching them directly.You can identify advertisersby looking for them on yourcompetitors’ websites andmailing lists. If you arerunningGoogleAdSense ads

onyourwebsite,youcanseewhich advertisers arefrequently showing up onyour website and canapproach them directly. Youwill need to put together amedia kit which willhighlight the size anddemographic nature of youraudience and will contain alist of various types ofadvertisements an advertisercan purchase. Approachingadvertisers directly can be a

lot of work but may be aneffectiveway to generate listrental deals if you are anaturalseller.

TheProcessofRentingYour

ListWhen you make an

agreement with an advertisertorentyourmailinglist,thereare several steps involved.

You and the advertiser willagreetosendanemailtoasetnumber of subscribers at aspecific date and time.Severaldaysbeforetheemailis scheduled to be sent, theywill send you a copy of theemail. You will then send atest email to the addressestheyprovideandwillapprovethe message after they makesure everything looks rightand the links are workingproperly.Ontheagreedupon

day and time, you will sendthe email to your list.A fewdaysafter theemailhasbeensent, the advertiser willgenerally requestperformance informationabout the send, such as totalsends, total deliveries, totalopens, and total clicks. Youshould provide thatinformation to them in atimelymanner.At theendofthe month, you or youradvertising agency will

invoice them, and they willmail you a check 30 dayslater.

RunCo-RegistrationAdvertising

UnitsInthelist-buildingchapter

ofthisbook,wediscussedco-registration advertising from

the perspective of anadvertiser. As a mailing listowner that collects organicopt-ins from your website,youcanalsogeneraterevenueby running a co-registrationadvertisingunitonthe“thankyou” page that subscriberssee after signing up for yourmailing list. After the usersignsupforyourmailinglist,theywillbepresentedwithalist of additional offers theycanalsochoosetooptinto.If

a new subscriber selects anyof the offers listed, you’llreceive a small commissionfrom the advertiser, and thesubscriber’s name and emailaddresswill automatically bepassedontotheadvertiser.

Co-registration advertisingunitscanbewildlyprofitableif you receive a sizablenumber of opt-ins eachmonth. On a normal page ofyour website, a displayadvertisement from Google

AdSense or another networkmight yield between $1.00and $10.00 for every onethousandpeoplethatviewthead. A co-registrationadvertising unit can makeanywhere from $200.00 to$750.00 for every thousandviews on your “thank you”page. Users that have justopted in to your mailing listare extremely likely toengage with anadvertisement, because they

have already demonstratedtheyarewillingtotakeactionby signing up for yourmailinglist.

Theamountofmoneyyoumake from co-registrationadvertising will varydepending on the niche ofyour mailing list and thenumberofpeoplethatsignupfor your email list on yourwebsite every month.Advertising networks thatoffer co-registration ads will

often provide an estimate ofwhat they believe yourwebsite can make for everynew subscriber. For lower-value and general-interestmailing lists, you might beable to make an average of$0.15-$0.25 for every newsubscriber that sees your co-registration advertising unit.Forsomespecificniches,likefinance and investing,publishers make between$0.60 and $1.00 for every

subscriber that sees their co-registrationadvertisingunit.

To calculate how muchmoney a co-registrationadvertising unit could makeyour business in a givenmonth, simply multiply thenumber of website opt-insyou get each month by theestimated amount of revenueyou canmake per viewwithyour co-registrationadvertisingunit.

While adding display ads

to your website from anetworklikeGoogleAdSenseis a straightforward process,getting started with acompany that offers co-registrationadvertisingcanbemore involved. There areonly a handful of advertisingcompanies that offer co-registration advertising units,and you generally can’t signup for them by filling out aform on a website like youcan with some networks.

Typically, you will need tocontact a number of co-registration advertisingcompanies and provide theminformation about yourmailing list and thedemographics of yoursubscribers. They will giveyouanestimateofwhat theythink you can make perimpressionwithyourmailinglist and will typically wantyou to sign a 12-monthagreement to run their unit.

Placing ad code on yourwebsite for a co-registrationunit is also a bit moreinvolved than putting up adisplayad,becauseyouhaveto pass the subscriber’sinformation back to thenetwork throughyourad tag.You can find a list of co-registration advertisingcompaniesinthelist-buildingchapterofthisbook.

If you aren’t collectingmany opt-ins per month and

co-registration advertisingcompaniesaren’tinterestedinyou, you can also monetizeyour“thankyou”pagewithadisplay advertising unit fromGoogle AdSense or anotherdisplay advertising company.Your “thank you” pageshould be a relatively emptypage with little more than athank you message and thedisplay ad centered on yourpage. While a “thank you”page with a display ad unit

won’t perform quite as wellas a co-registrationadvertisingunit,youwillfindthat the ad unit on your“thankyou”pagecanearntento fifteen times more thandisplayadsonotherpages.

At MarketBeat, we workwith two different co-registration advertisingcompanies, After Offers(afteroffers.com) andInvesting Media Solutions(investingmediasolutions.com),

to run co-registrationadvertising units on our“thank you” page. We alsoplace co-registration ads oninterstitial pages in front ofspecial reports that wepromotetoourmailinglistinorder to generate additionalad revenue from these units.Through the networks wework with, we are able togenerate between $20,000and $30,000 monthly fromthe 20,000 organic opt-ins

that we attract on a monthlybasis.

RunBannerAdsinYour

NewsletterIf you regularly publish a

newsletter to your mailinglist, there are advertisingnetworksthatwillpayyouto

insert banner advertisementsin your newsletter similar tothose that might appear onyour website. These ads areeithersoldonacost-per-click(CPC)or cost-per-impression(CPM) basis. With theseadvertising networks, youwill be given an HTMLsnippet to include in yournewsletter.Theywillthensellad placements in yournewslettertotheirnetwork.

Here are some advertising

networks that work withnewsletterbannerads:

BuySellAds–buysellads.comLaunchBit–launchbit.comLiveIntent–liveintent.com/platformNewsletterDirectory.Conewsletterdirectory.co

Remember to keep ahealthy balance betweencontent and ads in yournewsletter. The amount ofeducational and informativecontent should take upsignificantlymore space thantheads.Agoodruleofthumbistoplaceanadatthetopofyour newsletter and at thebottom of your newsletter,leaving the rest of the roomfornon-advertisingcontent.Ifyou have too many ads in

your newsletter, subscriberswill be less likely to engagewith your content in thefuture.

At MarketBeat, we use acombination of text ads andbanner ads in our dailynewsletter.Weworkwith anadvertisingnetwork that sellstext-based, cost-per-clickadvertisements in ournewsletter to a number ofdifferentfinancialadvertisers.The ads match the look and

feel of the rest of ournewsletter and are randomlyrotatedonadailybasis.

DriveTraffictoYourWebsiteIfyouhaveawebsitewith

a lot of content, chances areyou are already runningdisplay advertisements fromnetworks like GoogleAdSense, OpenX, Tribal

Fusion, Taboola, and others.Whenever visitors come toyour website and view andclick on ads, you generaterevenue—so the morevisitors, the more money.Consider using yournewsletter and other emailsthat you send as a trafficgeneration strategy for yourwebsite.Ifyoucansendyoursubscribers back to yourwebsite over and over again,they will likely view and

click on more ads than theywouldotherwise.

Wrap-UpWhile there are only a

handful of different ways tomonetize your mailing list,therearedozensofvariationsandtwistsonthesixmethodslisted in this chapter. Thereare any number of ways topromote your own products

and promote othercompanies’ products as anaffiliate to your list. Severalco-registration advertisingnetworks are available thatyoucanrunonyourwebsite,andanumberofwaysexisttogeneraterevenuebyincludingadvertisements in your emailcontent.

To get ideas for specificstrategies to implement thesix monetization methodslisted in this chapter, learn

from other mailing listowners that are alreadysuccessfully monetizing theirlists. Tim Bourquin, founderof AfterOffers.com,interviewed 42 differentmailing list owners to seehow they monetize theirmailing lists in an epic blogpost titled “42 BloggingSpecialists Explain How toMonetize Email Newslettersand Turn Autoresponder

MessagesintoProfit”.21

Conclusion

Runaspecialbonusorsalecampaigntopromoteyourcompany’sproductstoyourmailinglist.

Findtwoorthreeproductsthatyoucanpromotetoyourmailinglistasanaffiliate.Considerplacingaco-registrationadvertisingunitonyour“thankyou”page.Trytoidentifyanadvertisingnetworkthat

canplacebannersinyournewsletterandhelpyourentyourmailinglist.

ChapterSevenEmail

DeliverabilityandList

Maintenance

When you send a letterthrough theU.S.mailwith astampandadeliveryaddress,youcanbefairlycertainyourletterisgoingtoarrivesafelyin a few days. This isn’talways the case with email.Whileyoushouldn’t run intomany issues if you arefollowing the best practicesand sending high-qualitycontent to your mailing list,there’s always the possibility

of being added to a blacklistor facing some otherdeliverability issue that willprevent a percentage of themessages from beingdelivered or redirect them tosubscribers’ spam folders.Forthisreason,it’simportantto follow the best emailpractices and proactivelymonitor yourmailing list forany issues that might hinderthe deliverability of yourmessages.

UseanEmailServiceProvider

(ESP)To ensure every message

possible makes it to theinboxes of your subscribers,you should always use an

email service provider likeMailChimp,Drip,orAweber.

If you run your ownmailserver,youarelikelytomakeconfiguration mistakes thatwill reduce your deliveryrates.Itwouldrequirefindingyour own mailing listsoftware and activelymonitoring the reputation ofbothyour sending IPaddress(theInternetaddressthatyouremaildeliversfrom)andyourdomainname.YourESPwill

handle all of the technicalinfrastructure and make sureyou are following bestpractices to ensure yourmessagesactuallygettoyoursubscribers’inboxes.

Ifyouarepayinglessthan$250.00 per month for youremail service provider, knowaheadof time thatyoumightnotbegettingthebestsupportintheworld.ESPsmaketheirreal money from sellingenterprise plans to large

customers. They aren’talways concerned withkeeping people that have$25.00 or $50.00 per monthplans happy with theirservices. You will typicallyreceive the level of servicethatyoupayfor.Ifyouareona lower cost plan, know thatyouwillneed to takeamoreactive role inmonitoringandmanaging your emaildeliverabilityrates.

It canalsobeagood idea

to have a backup emailservice provider in place.ESPs can shut your accountoff without notice if theybelieveyouare spammingorif you inadvertently breakanother one of their rules.While this is a rareoccurrence for most emailservice providers, it’s alwaysgood to have a “Plan B”ready to go if your accountgetsblocked.Havealow-tieraccount set upwith a second

email service provider thatallows you to import yourmailing list from anotherprovider. Finally, make sureyou regularly backup yourmailing list from your ESP,so you can move them toanother provider if youraccountgetssuspended.

SetUpDNSVerificationRecords

Email is a technology thatwas first developed in the1970s. At the time, spam,viruses,andfraudulentemails

weren’t an issue. Thetechnical specifications foremail makes it very easy tofake the email address anddomain name that sends anygivenemail.

As the volume of spamand other fraudulent emailhasmushroomed,theInternetEngineering Task Force(IETF) has developedadditional protocols that useyour domain’s DNS recordsto verify the origin of an

email. The three majorprotocols include SenderPolicy Framework (SPF),DomainKeys Identified Mail(DKIM), and Domain-basedMessage Authentication,Reporting, and Conformance(DMARC).

Internet service providersand other mail providersactivelylookforDNSentriesthatcorrespondtotheseemailverificationprotocols.Ifyourdomain name does not have

SPF and DKIM records setup, or if they are not set upproperly, mail providers willoften put your messages inyour subscribers’ spamfolders. If they find otherthingswrongwithyouremailor see that the IP addresssending your email is on ablacklist, they may notdeliveryourmessagesatall.

YoumayormaynotneedtosetupSPFrecordsforyourdomain name depending on

how your email serviceprovider functions. ManyESPs will send email usingone of their domains, whichallows them to automaticallyadd SPF, DKIM, andDMARCrecordswithoutanyintervention on your behalf.You will want to read youremail service provider’sdocumentation about them todeterminewhetherornotyouneed to manually add SPFand DKIM to your DNS

records.Ifyouarepayinglessthan

$100.00permonth,yourESPis probably sending mailusing one of their domainnamesonyourbehalf. Ifyouareusingahigh-endplanandyour ESP supports what’sknownaswhitelabeling,youmay need to add SPF andDKIM records to yourdomain’sDNSrecords.

Here are some domainauthentication guides put

togetherbymajorESPs.Readthe guide associated withyouremailserviceprovidertoget the information mostrelevanttoyou:

AWeber–help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/204026716-What-s-Email-Authentication-How-Does-It-Apply-To-Me-

CampaignMonitor–help.campaignmonitor.com/topic.aspx?t=88ConstantContact–support2.constantcontact.com/articles/FAQ/1556Drip–getdrip.com/faqExactTarget–help.exacttarget.com/en-US/documentation/exacttarget/resources/sender_policy_framework

GetResponse–support.getresponse.com/uploads/2011/09/9048Dd01.pdfiContact–icontact.com/static/pdf/Email_Marketing_Best_Practices_iContact.pdfMailChimp–kb.mailchimp.com/delivery/deliverability-research/set-up-mailchimp-authentication

SendGrid–sendgrid.com/docs/Glossary/spf.html

SPFRecordsSenderPolicyFramework,

better known as SPF, is anemail validation technologythat detectsmail spoofing byallowingISPsandotheremailservices to verify whether ornot any given email from adomain name has been

authorized by theadministratorsofthatdomain.Adomainownerwillpublisha list of IP addresses andother domains authorized tosendmailontheirbehalfasaspecially-formatted textDNSrecord. Whenever a mailserver receives an incomingmessage, they can use adomain’s SPF records toverifythattheemailwassentbyaserverwithpermissiontosend email on behalf of that

domain.If your email service

providersendsoutmailusingits own domain, you don’thave to worry about settingupSPFrecords.Ifyouremailservice provider sends outmailusingyourdomainnameor supports white labeling,then setting up appropriateSPF records foryourdomainismandatory.

While there’s a lot oftechnical jargon surrounding

SPF and other DNSverification tools, settingthemupisn’tallthatdifficult.For example, I use SendGridas my primary email serviceprovider. In order to tell theworld that SendGrid haspermissiontoemailonbehalfofmydomainname,Iwouldneed to use “v=spf1include:sendgrid.net ~all” asthe text in my SPF record.The “include:sendgrid.net”indicates that SendGrid can

sendemailonmybehalfandthe“~all”indicatesthatothersources claiming to besendingmailonbehalfofmydomain may not betrustworthy.

To find the appropriateSPF record for your emailserviceprovider, simplydoaweb search for the name ofyour email service providerfollowedby“SPF.”Onceyouhave identified theappropriate record, you will

needtologintoyourdomainname registrar and add theappropriaterecord.

Many email serviceproviders will walk youthroughthisprocessaspartofyour initial setup withspecificinstructionsandstep-by-step guides. If that’s notthe case, there are dozens ofvideos on YouTube whichwill show you how to addSPF records to your domain.Youcanusea toolpublished

byMXToolboxtoverifytheplacement of your SPFrecords, which is locatedatmxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx.

DKIMRecordsDomainKeys Identified

Mail (DKIM) is anotheremail validation technologythat verifies a sender haspermission from a domain’sadministrators to send emailon behalf of a particulardomain. Additionally, DKIM

allows messages to beindividually signed usingpublic key encryption so arecipient mail server canverifyamessagehasnotbeenmodified during transport.Any DKIM enabled emailwill include a digitalsignaturethatanemailservercan use, along with adomain’s public DKIMencryption key to ensure themessage received is identicalto the message that was

originally sent. Like SPFrecords, DKIM records areplaced in a domain’s DNSrecords. Most major emailservice providers sign theiroutgoing mail with DKIM,including Gmail,Outlook.com, Yahoo, andAOL.

If your email serviceproviderusesitsowndomainname to send mail on yourbehalf, DKIM keys willalreadybesetupwithoutany

work on your part. If youremail service provider sendsmail using your domain(sometimes known as whitelabeling), you should set upDKIM records in yourdomain’s DNS records tomaximizedeliverabilityrates.Unlike SPF records, whichareusuallythesameforeveryuser of an email serviceprovider,DKIMkeysmustbegenerated on a per domainbasis. You will need to

acquire DKIM DNS recordsdirectly from your emailservice provider and copythem intoyourDNS records.You can use a separate toolpublishedbyMXToolbox toverify the placement ofDKIM records, which islocatedatmxtoolbox.com/dkim.aspx.

DMARCRecords

Domain-based MessageAuthentication, Reporting,and Conformance (DMARC)isanewerprotocolthatbuildsupon the DKIM and SPFrecords used to detect mail

spoofing. Placing aDMARCrecord in your domain tellsmail providers that yourdomain is protected by SPFand DKIM authentications.DMARCrecordsalsoprovideinstructions to mail serversrelatingtohowmessagesthatcan’t be properlyauthenticated should behandled.Adomainownercanuse a DMARC record toinstruct mail serviceproviders to either put

messages that failauthentication into a user’sjunkmailfolderornotdeliverthematall.

In most cases, it’sprobablynotnecessarytoaddDMARC records to yourdomain. While SPF andDKIM records validate thatan email comes from yourdomain name, DMARCmerely provides instructionsregarding what to do withmessages that can’t be

authenticated. They probablywon’t positively impact youremail deliverability, and canalsocauselegitimateemailtoberejectedif theyarenotsetupproperly.

SingleOpt-Invs.DoubleOpt-InWhen a subscriber first

signsupforyourmailinglist,you may or may not requirethe subscriber to click on alink in a confirmation emailto confirm their subscription.

Amailing list that requires asubscribertoclickthroughonaconfirmation isknownasa“double opt-in” mailing list,because users first opt-in onyour website and then opt-inagainthroughthelinkinyourconfirmation email. Mailinglists that simply add newusers to its subscriber listwithout sending aconfirmationemailareknownassingleopt-ins.

Some email service

providers(ESPs)requiretheircustomers to operate doubleopt-in mailing lists and willnot add a new subscriber toyour mailing list unless theyclicka link inaconfirmationemail. Other ESPs are moreflexible and allow you tochoose between requiring asingleopt-inoradoubleopt-in. If your ESP requires adoubleopt-in,youdon’thavemuchofasayinthematter.Ifyou have a more flexible

ESP,youwillhave todecidewhether a single opt-in issufficient or if you want torequireadoubleopt-in.

For many years, requiringadoubleopt-inwasseenasabest practice for emailmarketers. By requiring adouble opt-in, youknow thatevery subscriber signing upfor yourmailing list actuallywants to receive messagesfrom you, because they haveto click a link in a

confirmation email that’sspecifictotheiremailaccountto verify they want yourmessages.

Statistics show thatconfirmedopt-inmailinglistsreceive better than averageopen rates, fewer bounces,and fewer issues withdeliverability, primarilybecause bad email addressesdon’tgetaddedtodoubleopt-inmailinglists.22

With a single opt-inmailing list, a bad actor caneasily subscribe other peopleto your mailing list byenteringtheiremailaddressesinto your opt-in forms. It’salso possible that people areinadvertently added tomailing lists when a newsubscriber accidentally entersa typo into an opt-in form.While these inadvertent opt-ins are pretty rare, they havebeen used as a reason for

someESPstorequiremailinglist operators to use doubleopt-ins.

During the last few years,the tide has been shiftingamong marketers to favoronlyrequiringasingleopt-in.Single opt-in proponentsargue that it’snot in thebestinterestofmarketers tomakeit harder for subscribers tosignupfortheirmailinglists.Opt-in confirmation rateshave been falling during the

last fewyears,whichhas leddouble opt-in mailing listoperators to wonder if theyare losing subscribers thatwould otherwise be engagedand interested in theircontent.

Single opt-in mailing listsgenerally grow much fasterthan double opt-in mailinglists. While they might havelower open rates and higherbounce rates, single opt-inmailing lists tend to have a

higher total number ofengagedsubscribers.

For more informationabout why marketers aremoving away from requiringdouble opt-ins, read the blogpost, “Double Opt-In IsDestroying Your List andYour Business”23 on theAfterOffersblog.

AtMarketBeat,wedonotrequire a double opt-in. Webelieve we would lose too

manysubscribersbefore theyhave a chance to decide iftheylikeourcontent.Instead,we include a very prominentopt-out link in our welcomeemail and use data providedbyouremailserviceproviderto automatically removeinvalid and spam-reportingemail addresses from ourmailinglist.

We also use engagementmetrics to automaticallyremove inactive subscribers.

If we can’t confirm that auser has opened an emailfrom us within the last sixmonths, we remove themfrom our mailing list. Eventhough we don’t require adoubleopt-in,wemaintainanaverage deliverability rate of99.5% and an average openrate of 21%, because weautomatically clear outinvalid and inactive emailaddresses from our mailinglist.

UserEngagementMatters

Major email providers,including Gmail, Outlook,Yahoo, and AOL, areincreasinglyfocusingonhow

users are engagingwith yourmessages to determinewhetherornotyourmessageswill appear in yoursubscribers’ inboxes or theirjunk mail folders. If a useropens an email, replies to anemail, or clicks on a link inan email, an ISP knows thatthe user is engaged with themessageandprobablywantedto receive it. If a subscriberregularly deletes or simplyignores an email, it’s

probably a spam message oranother email that asubscriber didn’t want toreceive.

Email providers will lookat the aggregate engagementdataofalloftheirsubscribersover time to determine thequality and relevance ofemailsentbyagivendomainnameandIPaddress.

For example, if you sendanemail to1,000peopleataparticular ISP and only five

of them actually open yourmessage, the ISP is likely tobelieve their users probablydon’t want your email andmay put future emails thatyousendintheirusers’spamfolders.On theotherhand, ifyou send an email to 1,000people at an ISP and 400 ofthem open the message andclick on a link in the email,the ISP will know that theirusers are engaged with yourcontent and that future

messagesyousendshouldbeplacedintheirusers’inboxes.

Inorder tomaximizeyourdeliverability ratesover time,youwillwanttotryandwriteemail in such a way thatencourages users to beengagedwithyourcontentasmeasured by themetrics thatmail providers use to trackengagement--opens, clicks,and replies. Use engagingsubject lines to persuadeusers to open your email.

Include several links in eachemail with a clear call-to-action.

Most importantly, try togetuserstoperiodicallyreplytoyourmessages.Youcandothis by asking yoursubscribersfortheirfeedbackandhavingthemprovidetheiranswers by replying to yourmessages.

You should also activelyremove invalid, inactive, andspam-reporting email

addresses from your mailinglist in order to keep yourengagement rates high.Remove users that reportyourmessages as spam fromyour mailing list. Theyprobably don’t want toreceive your messages, andreceiving too many spamreports can jeopardize yourrelationship with your emailserviceprovider.

If a subscriber’s emailaddress gets returned as

invalid(sometimesreferredtoasahardbounce),youshouldremove their email addressfrom your mailing list,because theyarenevergoingto receive your messageregardlessofhowmanytimesyoutry.

Finally, you shouldremove any subscriber fromyourmailing list that hasnotopenedanyofyourmessageswithin the last 12 months.Having extremely inactive

subscribers on your mailinglist will hurt your averageengagement rates. Plus, it isnot worth paying your emailservice provider to emailsubscribers that are nevergoingtoopenyourmessages.

YourESP’sRoleinDeliverabilityThe level of assistance

your email service providerwill offer regardingdeliverability is generallyproportional to the monthlyfeethatyouarepaying.Asan

enterprise customer ofSendGrid, my dedicatedsending IP addresses andmydomains are automaticallychecked against blacklists ona daily basis. If they see anyissues, they willautomatically file a removalrequestonmybehalf.

Ihaveadedicatedaccountrepresentative that canpersonallyintervenewithanyissues I have, and Iwill alsoreceive email notifications if

my deliverability rate dropsbelowacertainpercentagesoI can take remedial action.While having additionaldelivery monitoring andblacklist remediationservicesarenice,theyareusuallyonlyavailable to very high-endcustomers thatsendhundredsof thousands of messageseachmonth.Ifyouarepaying$25.00-$50.00 per month toyour email service provider,youwillneed to takeamore

proactive role in thedeliverability of your emailby regularlymonitoring yourdeliverability rates andcheckingforblacklistissues.

CheckforReputation,Blacklist,andDeliverability

IssuesThe most important thing

that you can do to ensureyouremailscontinuetomakeit into your subscribers’inboxesoverthelongtermisproactivelymonitorforissueson a regular basis. Yourdomain name or the IPaddressthatsendsyouremailcanbeaddedtoablacklistatanydateandtimewithoutanykind of notice. For thisreason, it’s important to setup a weekly or bi-weeklyplan to verify that your

messagesaregettingproperlydeliveredtoyoursubscribers’inboxes.

Herearetherecommendedstepsyoushould followeachweek to monitor yourdeliverabilityrates:

ReviewStatisticsProvidedbyYourESP–Youremailserviceproviderwillgenerate

deliverystatisticsforeachemailthatyousend.Reviewthestatisticsforalloftheemailsyousentinthelastweek.Ifyouraveragebouncerateincreasesbyonepercentormore,orifyouraveragedeliveryrates

fallbyonepercentormore,yourdomainorsendingIPaddressmayhavebeenaddedtoablacklist.UseMultiRBLtoCheckforBlacklistIssues–MultiRBL(multirbl.valli.org)cancheckyourdomainname

ortheIPaddressthatsendsyouremailagainst224knownblacklists.Thereareseveralotheronlinetoolsthatcheckforblacklists,butMultiRBLisbyfarthemostcomprehensive.IfyourISPhasassignedyouadedicatedIP

address,youwillneedtocheckbothyourdomainnameandtheIPaddressassignedbyyourESPfordeliveryissues.Ifyoudon’thaveadedicatedIPaddress,youwillonlyneedtocheckyourdomainnameagainstMultiRBL,

becauseyourESPwillautomaticallymonitortheirsharedIPaddressesforblacklistissues.NotethatsmallerESPserviceplansgenerallydonotincludeadedicatedIPaddress.ReviewYourRecentBouncedMessages–

YourESPshouldprovidealogofrecentbouncedmessages,alongwithamessagefromtherecipient’semailserverastowhythemessagecouldn’tbeproperlydelivered.Youshouldscanthroughthislisteveryweekto

identifyanypotentialblacklistissues.Ifyouseeasimilarerrormessageappearseveraltimesinarow,youshouldtakethetimetoidentifyandaddresstheissue.Ifyoufindthatyourdeliveryratesaredropping,yourbounced

messageslogwillusuallyhelpyouidentifytherootcause.CheckYourSenderScore(Optional)–SenderScore(senderscore.org)compilesamassiveamountofemaildatafromISPsandothermail

providers.TheirfreereportingtoolcanwarnyouaboutanumberofdeliverabilityissuesrelatingtoyoursendingIPaddress,suchasspamreports,blacklists,andspamtraps.Ifyouhaven’treceivedadedicatedIPaddress

fromyouremailserviceprovider,youcanskipthisstep.CheckforEmailProviderSpecificIssues(Optional)–ConsidercreatinganewaccountwithGmail,Outlook.com,Yahoo,andAOLforthesole

purposeofsubscribingtoyourmailinglisttoseeifanymessagesshowupinyourspamfolder.Ifyouregularlyseemessagessenttoacertainemailprovidershowingupinaspamfolder,youprobablyhaveadeliverability

issuethatneedstobeaddressed.Ifyouwanttoautomatethisprocess,youcanuseaservicecalledMailMonitor(mailmonitorapp.com),whichwilltellyouwhetherornotyouhaveanydeliverabilityissueswithspecificISPsand

emailproviders.At$79.00permonth,MailMonitorisprobablyonlyworthpayingforifyouhavealistof25,000subscribersormore.

Place a recurring note inyour calendar on the sameday everyweek to check fordeliverability issues. Theprocess only takes five

minutes but can be easy toforget if you don’t set acalendarreminder.

WhattoDoWhenYouGetBlacklisted

Ifyouhavealargemailinglist, you are inevitably goingtolandonablacklistatsomepoint. There are hundreds of

blacklists maintained on theweb, and each has its ownspecificsetofguidelines thatcancauseyourdomainnameor sending IP address to beblacklisted. Invariably, toomany users will click a“report spam” button, or youwill send too many bouncedmessagesandyourdomainorIP will get added to ablacklist.When thishappens,don’t let it ruin your day.Mostblacklistsareonlyused

by a very small number ofemail services, and it’susually pretty easy to getyourself removed fromblacklists.

In order to get yourselfremovedfromablacklist,youtypically need to complete ashort form on the blacklistoperator’s website. You canusually find the link to theremoval form in your log ofrecent bounced messages orthroughMultiRBL’sblacklist

scanner.Ifyoucan’tfindthelinkto

the removal form or can’tseemtogetyourselfremovedfrom a blacklist, email yourservice provider’s supportaddress and ask for help.Sometimes, an ESP can getyour domain or sending IPaddress removed from ablacklistwhenyoucannotgetthejobdoneyourself.

ReduceSpamComplaints

Most ISPs and other mailproviders include a “reportspam” link that allows theirusers to mark an email asspam.Whenauserclicksthatbutton, the message will be

moved into the user’s spamfolder, and yourESPwill benotified of the spamcomplaint.

Your email serviceprovider will want you tomaintain a spam complaintrate of less than 0.1%. Thatmeans for every 10,000emails you send, you shouldreceive at most 10 spamcomplaints.Ifyourcomplaintrate is consistently higherthan0.1%,youremailservice

provider may intervene andshut down your account, orask you to make changes toyour sending practices andreduce the high complaintrate.

In order to keep yourcomplaint rate below 0.1%,you shouldmake theprocessto unsubscribe from yourmailing list as easy aspossible.Makesurethereisalinktounsubscribefromyourmailing list in every email

and that the link worksproperly.

If your complaint rate ishigh, you can reduce thenumber of spam complaintsyou receive by placing anunsubscribe link in both theheaderandthefooterofyouremail.

Ifsupportedbyyouremailservice provider, add anunsubscribe header whichwill allow email providers toadd their own unsubscribe

button near the “ReportSpam” button. Anunsubscribe header is ahidden field in an email thatprovides technicalinstructionsrelating tohowasubscriber can request to beremoved from your mailinglist. Using an unsubscribeheaderisquicklybecomingabestpracticeandcanhelpyouavoidmanyspamcomplaints.Tolearnhowtoimplementanunsubscribeheader,visit list-

unsubscribe.com.

CheckOutgoingEmailsforIssues

Whenever you are gettingready to send a broadcastemail to your mailing list,you should check themessage for any potentialissues by using your email

service provider’s spamcheck tool. If yourESPdoesnot provide a spam checkingtool, there are a number offree services including MailTester (mailtester.com) andContactology’s SpamChecker(info.contactology.com/check-mqs). These tools will serveas an early warning systemand let you know if anyquestionable content orformatting exists in your

messagesthatarelikelytosetoffaspamfilter.

For example, messagesthat promise users they canmake a lot of money ormessages that referenceerectile dysfunctionmedications are almostalways spam. Spam filtersknowthisandwillfilterthemout accordingly. If youinadvertently put too manydollar signs in your email ormake a joke about Viagra,

spam checking tools willwarn you that the content inyour email may be an issuebefore you press the sendbutton.

ScheduleYourMessagesforOptimal

EngagementWhensendingabroadcast

email message to youraudience, you may be

naturally inclined to send itimmediately after you finishwriting it regardless of thetime or day. However, therearespecificdaysof theweekandtimesofdaythatyoucansend a message in order tomaximize the number ofpeople that see and openthem.

Many email marketersbelieve that Tuesdays,Wednesdays, and Thursdaysarethebestdaysof theweek

to send email. Yoursubscribers are generally atwork on those days and willbe actively checking theiremail. During the weekend,they are less likely to be attheir computers and are lesslikely to open messages. Ifyou send an email on aSaturday morning and asubscriberdoesn’tchecktheirmessages until Mondaymorning, your message maybe buried below 100 other

receivedemails.Youwill want to do your

own testing to verify whichdays of the week work bestfor your mailing list. I havepersonally had greatengagement rates by sendingemail on Saturday andSunday mornings, whensubscribers aren’t receivingmuchothermarketingemail.

If possible, try to sendyour messages at thebeginning of the work day

(around 8:00 AM) or towardthe end of the work day(around4:00PM)whenyoursubscribersaremorelikelytobe checking their email. Ifsupported by your ESP,segment yourmailing list bytime zone, so that yoursubscribers will receive yourmessage at 8:00AMor 4:00PM in their local time. AtMarketBeat, we don’t havethe capability to segment bytimezone.Wegenerallysend

messagesat9:00AMEasternTime, so most of the UnitedStates will receive ourmessages at or near thebeginningoftheworkday.

DealingwithGmail’sMultiple

InboxesIn 2014, Gmail began

separating its user’s inboxesinto three separate tabs. Inaddition to a user’s primary

inbox, messages from socialnetworking sites are gettingput into their own tab, andmessages that Gmailconsiders to be marketingmaterial are sent into a tabcalled“Promotions.”

Because users don’t seeemails that are put into thepromotions tab by default,some email marketers havenoticed that their open ratesamong Gmail users havedeclined significantly after

this change was rolled out.Some email marketers havepanicked over this changebecause they fear they aregoing to lose sales due toloweropenratesandbecausethey believe their messagesare unfairly landing in thepromotions tab. WhileGmail’s multiple tabs are aconcern for email marketers,there are a couple of provenways that marketers can gettheirmessagesback inuser’s

primary inboxes. The firstthing thatyoucando is sendan email to your Gmailsubscribers and ask them todrag your message from the“promotions” tab to the“primary” tab, so theywon’tmiss out on any of the greatcontent you plan on sendingthem.Youmightalsowanttoinclude a quick YouTubevideo that showspeoplehowtodothistomaketheprocessdeadsimple.

The second thing that youcan do to get back in yoursubscribers’ “primary” tab isto get them to reply to yourmessages. If a subscriberreplies to your messages,Gmailwill bemore likely tobelieve your messages areimportant and will put themin the subscriber’s “primary”tab.Thebesttimetoaskusersforareplyisinyourwelcomemessage. Simply include ashort message like, “Could

you reply to this message tolet me know that you’vereceived it? I want to makesure that there aren’t anyissues with yoursubscription,” in your firstwelcome email. While noteveryone will reply, manywill.

Gmail and other emailproviders will continue todeveloptheiremailinterfacesover time.Don’t panicwhena major email service

provider changes how emailis presented to theirsubscribers.Marketersalwaysfind ways to adapt to newfeaturesandinterfacechangesthat email providersintroduce.

Wrap-UpWhileitcanbeeasytofeel

overwhelmedbythetechnicalcomponents of emaildeliverability,youdon’thaveto become an expertovernight.

Many deliverability issueswon’t surface until you have

built a large subscriber listandyoubegintosendalotofemail. Follow the basicmonitoring recommendationsoutlined in this chapter, andyou’ll know right away ifthere’s a problem that needstobeaddressed.

There are a number ofresources available, such asSendGrid’s DeliverabilityGuide24, which can help youlearn about the intricacies of

email deliverability and helpyou solve any deliverabilityissues you run into. If youcan’t figure out how to fix adeliverability issue on yourown, your ESP can alwaysstepintohelp,too.

ActionSteps

Useanemailserviceprovidertosendouteverymessagetoyourmailinglist.SetupappropriateSPF,DKIM,andDMARC

recordsifrequiredbyyourESP.Decidewhetherornotyouwanttorequireasingleopt-inoradoubleopt-in.Createaweeklyorbi-weeklycalendarremindertocheckfordeliverabilityissues.

UseMailTesteroranothertooltocheckforpotentialissuesbeforesendingbroadcastemailstoyourmailinglist.

ChapterEight

LegalAspectsofEmailMarketing

While email marketing

and other aspects of Internetbusinesses can sometimesfeel likeyouareoperating inthe Wild West, emailmarketing is actuallyregulatedintheUnitedStates,Canada, and in some otherdevelopedcountries.Youwillwant to learn about yourcountry’s specific regulationsregardingemailmarketing,soyou can stay in compliancewith the law and avoidgetting hit with hefty

penalties for unknowinglycommittingviolations.

CAN-SPAMActof2003(United

States)Congress passed the

Controlling the Assault ofNon-Solicited PornographyAndMarketing Act in 2003,

better known as the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAMestablishesabasicsetofrulesfor all commercial email.EachseparateviolationoftheCAN-SPAMActcanresultinpenaltiesofupto$16,000,soit’s important to make sureyourmessagesstaycompliantwiththelaw.

The Federal TradeCommission has put togethera guide for businesses titled“CAN-SPAM Act: A

Compliance Guide forBusiness,” which is locatedat1.usa.gov/1wftWeD.

The guide outlines themain requirements of CAN-SPAM and provides a seriesof frequentlyaskedquestionsthat clarify differentcomponentsofthelegislation.

I recommend everymailing list owner in theUnitedStatesreadthisguide.

Herearesomeofthemain

requirements of CAN-SPAMlistedintheguide:

1. Don’tusefalseormisleadingheaderinformation.Your“From,”“To,”“Reply-To,”androutinginformation—includingtheoriginatingdomainnameandemailaddress

—mustbeaccurateandidentifythepersonorbusinesswhoinitiatedthemessage.

2. Don’tusedeceptivesubjectlines.Thesubjectlinemustaccuratelyreflectthecontentofthemessage.

3. Identifythemessageasanad.Thelawgivesyoualotofleewayinhowtodothis,butyoumustdiscloseclearlyandconspicuouslythatyourmessageisanadvertisement.

4. Tellrecipientswhereyou’relocated.Yourmessagemustincludeyourvalidphysicalpostaladdress.Thiscanbeyourcurrentstreetaddress,apostofficeboxyou’veregisteredwiththeU.S.PostalService,ora

privatemailboxyou’veregisteredwithacommercialmailreceivingagencyestablishedunderPostalServiceregulations.

5. Tellrecipientshowtooptoutofreceivingfutureemailfromyou.Yourmessagemust

includeaclearandconspicuousexplanationofhowtherecipientcanoptoutofgettingemailfromyouinthefuture.Craftthenoticeinawaythat’seasyforanordinarypersontorecognize,read,andunderstand.Creativeuse

oftypesize,color,andlocationcanimproveclarity.GiveareturnemailaddressoranothereasyInternet-basedwaytoallowpeopletocommunicatetheirchoicetoyou.Youmaycreateamenutoallowarecipienttooptoutof

certaintypesofmessages,butyoumustincludetheoptiontostopallcommercialmessagesfromyou.Makesureyourspamfilterdoesn’tblocktheseopt-outrequests.

6. Honoropt-outrequestspromptly.

Anyopt-outmechanismyouoffermustbeabletoprocessopt-outrequestsforatleast30daysafteryousendyourmessage.Youmusthonorarecipient’sopt-outrequestwithin10businessdays.Youcan’tchargeafee,requirethe

recipienttogiveyouanypersonalidentifyinginformationbeyondanemailaddress,ormaketherecipienttakeanystepotherthansendingareplyemailorvisitingasinglepageonanInternetwebsiteasaconditionforhonoring

anopt-outrequest.Oncepeoplehavetoldyoutheydon’twanttoreceivemoremessagesfromyou,youcan’tsellortransfertheiremailaddresses,evenintheformofamailinglist.Theonlyexceptionisthatyoumaytransferthe

addressestoacompanyyou’vehiredtohelpyoucomplywiththeCAN-SPAMAct.

7. Monitorwhatothersaredoingonyourbehalf.Thelawmakesclearthatevenifyouhireanothercompanytohandleyour

emailmarketing,youcan’tcontractawayyourlegalresponsibilitytocomplywiththelaw.Boththecompanywhoseproductispromotedinthemessageandthecompanythatactuallysendsthe

messagemaybeheldlegallyresponsible.

TherehavebeenanumberofcriminalindictmentsundertheCAN-SPAMActof2003since its passage. To date,only a handful of large-scalespam operations have beentargetedbytheFederalTradeCommission.

Most small marketersprobablydon’tneedtoworry

much about the FTCknockingontheirdooroveraviolation,butyoushouldstillensure your mailings are incompliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. The rulesoutlinedbytheFederalTradeCommission arestraightforward and are veryeasy to follow. Be honestabout who you are, whereyour business is located, andthecontentofyourmessages.Provide clear opt-out

instructionsandhonoropt-outrequest promptly. Do thesetwo things,andyouprobablywon’t have much to worryabout.

Interestingly enough, theCAN-SPAM Act of 2003doesn’tactuallyoutlawspam.The legislation does notrequire commercial emailsenders to get permissionbefore emailing someone.Whenthelegislationwasfirstpassed,somereferredtoitas

the “You Can Spam” Act,because it didn’t actually doanything to limit the amountofspamthatpeoplereceive.

TheCAN-SPAMAct alsogenerally only applies topeople living in the UnitedStates. Many spammers arelocated in developingcountries around the globe,which makes it extremelydifficult to take any legalaction against them.Becauseof the limited jurisdiction of

the CAN-SPAM Act and itsrelatively light regulatoryburden,spamcontinues tobeamajorproblemintheUnitedStates and the rest of theworld.

FTCEndorsementGuidelines

(UnitedStates)If you are going to

promote another company’sproducts as an affiliate, you

need to be aware of theFederal Trade Commission’spaid endorsement guidelines.Generally, you need todisclose whenever you aregetting paid to promote aproductorserviceforanothercompany. Your disclosuremust also be “clear andconspicuous” and as close tothe endorsement as possible.This means that youshouldn’t try to hide yourdisclosure in the footer of

your messages or in someotherinconspicuouslocation.

The Federal TradeCommissionissuedaguideinMarch 2013 that outlinesdisclosure rules andrecommendations for paiddigital media endorsementstitled, “.com Disclosures:How to Make EffectiveDisclosures in DigitalAdvertising”.25

Here’s a great example

email from marketer PatFlynn about how to properlydiscloseaffiliaterelationshipsinanemail:

Canada’sAnti-Spam

Legislation(CASL)

The Canadian Parliamentpassed the Fighting Internetand Wireless Spam

Act (FISA) in December2010. The legislation, betterknown by the nickname ofCanada's Anti-SpamLegislation (CASL), wentinto effect on July 1st, 2014.CASLrequiresthatmarketersonlysendemailtoindividualswho consent to receivemessages, with a fewexceptions.CASLisarguablyone of the most stringentpieces of anti-spamlegislationintheworlddueto

its consent requirements andother restrictionsput inplacebythelegislation.

Under CASL, you canonly send email tosubscribers that haveexpressly opted in to yourmailing list or to recipientsthat have passively agreed toaccept email through someformofimpliedconsent.

For example, you canemail anyone that’spurchasedaproductfromyou

or has done a business dealwith you within the last 24months under the guise ofimplied consent. There arealso a variety of exceptionsfor recipients that you havean existing personal orbusinessrelationshipwithandforrecipientsthatyouneedtonotify of a product recall,court order, or updates andchanges to an existingproduct or service theypreviouslypurchased.

CASL also puts a numberof other restrictions onmarketers. The legislationrequiresmailinglistoperatorsto have a working opt-outmechanism. CASL alsomakes it illegal to harvestemail addresses usingsoftware and installingcomputer programs withoutconsent. The legislationmakes it illegal to altermessages in transit andmakesitillegaltousefalseor

misleading representationsonline in the promotion ofproductsorservices.

Thelegislationisenforcedby theCanadianCompetitionBureau, the Canadian OfficeofthePrivacyCommissioner,and the Canadian Radio-television andTelecommunicationsCommission (CRTC).Individuals that violate thelegislation can face fines ofuptoonemilliondollars,and

businesses in violation canface fines of up to $10million.The lawwill go intofull effect in 2017 whenprivatecitizenscan takecivilaction against spammers thatviolate the provisions ofCASL.

If you don’t live inCanada,youmight think thatthe provisions of CASLwon’tapplytoyou.However,if you live in the UnitedStates or another jurisdiction

and have subscribers inCanada, you need to payattentiontothelegislation.

CASL applies where "acomputer system located inCanada is used to send oraccess" an electronicmessage.26 This means thatCASLwill apply if a senderin theUnitedStates sendsanemail to a Canadian citizenwho opens it on a computeror smartphone located in

Canada.While it remains to be

seen if Canada will try toenforce theCASL outside ofits borders throughextradition, it’s probably agood idea to stay incompliancewithCASLifyouare going to have anyCanadiancustomers.

The American BarAssociation has published anarticlethatcontainsadditionalinformation about CASL’s

implications for citizens inother countries titled“Canada’s Tough New Anti-SpamLegislation:BewareItsExtra-TerritorialReach”.27

For more informationaboutCASLandhowtostaycompliant,visitfightspam.gc.ca.

Wrap-UpWhile regulations that

surround email marketingwill vary depending on whatcountry you live in, youprobablywon’t have a lot toworry about if you followwhat I refer to as the threegolden rules of email

marketing:

1. Onlysendemailtopeoplethathaveoptedintoreceivingyourmessages.

2. Onlysendcontentthatyouwouldactuallywanttoreceiveifyouwereasubscribertoyourmailinglist.

3. Don’tbedeceptiveinthecontentofyourmessages,anddon’ttrytohideyouridentitytoyoursubscribers.

If you only send high-quality, relevant, and honestcontent to your subscribersand you only email peoplethat have expressly opted into your mailing list, it’s

extremely unlikely thatanyone is ever going to getupsetwithyouenough to trytohityouover theheadwitha civil suit for failing tofollow anti-spam legislation.Youshouldstillpayattentionto your country’s anti-spamlegislation and try to followits provisions, but youwon’thavea targetonyourback ifyou follow the three goldenrulesofemailmarketing.

ActionSteps

IfyouliveintheUnitedStates,verifythatyouremailsendingpracticesareincompliancewiththeCAN-SPAMActof2003.

IfyouliveinCanada,verifythatyouremailsendingpracticesareincompliancewithCanada’sAnti-SpamLegislation(CASL).Ifyouliveinanothercountry,researchyourowncountry’santi-spamlawstomakesureyou

areincompliancewithyourcountry’slawsandregulations.Followthethreegoldenrulesofemailmarketing.

ChapterNine

OutboundEmail

Marketing

Themajority of this book

hasfocusedonusingemailasa means of building anengaged audience andgeneratingrevenuebysellingor recommendingproducts tothataudience.Whilegrowinga community surroundingyourcontentcanworkwellinmanycategories,itisn’tidealin others. You can easilybuild amailing list in nichesthat cater to hobbyists andgeneral consumers, but it’smuchmoredifficulttogrowa

mailing list if your companysells a very specific productto certain types of people orbusinesses. If your companymakes a very niche productwith a relatively high pricepoint and only has a fewthousandpotentialcustomers,you are much better offapproachingyourprospectivecustomers on a one-on-onebasis rather than doingtraditional list building andtryingtoattractanaudience.

For example, if I ran afarm implement dealer thatsold tractors, balers, andcombines to local farmers,there might only be a fewhundred farms that wouldever purchase equipmentfrom my business. Mypotential customer basesimply would not be largeenough for building asubscriber list outside of myexisting customer base to beworthwhile. This doesn’t

meanemailmarketing isn’tavalid marketing strategy forthis business, but it doesmean Iwould need to take adifferentapproach.

I would still send emailwith news and productinformation to my currentcustomers, but that wouldn’tbe my only email marketingefforts.Insteadofwaitingforlocal farmers to sign up toreceive email from me, Iwouldneedtouseemailasan

outreach tool and try toschedule appointments withfarmers or invite them intomydealership.

This marketing strategy,known as email prospecting,involves sending personalemail messages to certainmembers of specificorganizations in hopes ofaccomplishingaspecificsalesobjective. When you send aprospecting email, theprospective customers that

receive the message won’thave opted into yourmailinglistandgenerallywon’tknowwho you are prior toreceivingyouremail.

Atmyfictionalimplementdealer, I might try to getreferrals from some of myexisting customers. I wouldthensendacoldemail to thereferralandaskifthereisanyequipment they plan onbuying in the next 12-24months,andshowthemwhat

the dealership has thatmightbeabletomeettheirneeds.

Email prospecting won’tnecessarily replace the needto collect opt-ins on yourwebsite, build an email list,andsendamixofcontentandmarketing material to yoursubscribers in hopes ofgenerating sales. Even largeB2B companies withextremely high price pointspublish white papers thatrequire a reader to opt in to

their mailing list beforegetting access to the whitepaper.

Thinkofemailprospectingas a complement to yourexisting list-building efforts.While traditionalautoresponder messages andbroadcast emails will engagesubscribersthatcompleteopt-in forms on your website,emailprospectingwillengagepotential customers that havenever heard of you or your

business.Bothwork togetherin a complementary mannerto generate new business foryourcompany.

InboundMarketingvs.OutboundMarketing

Inbound marketing refersto marketing activities thatdraw customers into your

business by creatingcompelling content andearning your potentialcustomer’s attention.Gatheringopt-insandsendingautoresponders andbroadcastemailstoyourmailinglistareboth inbound marketingtechniques. Outboundmarketing techniques involveactively identifying potentialcustomers through listgathering, social networks,and going out and getting

their attention. Cold calling,cold emailing, runningcommercials, placingadvertisements,andattendingtrade shows are examples ofoutbound marketingtechniques.The remainderofthis chapter will focus onoutbound email marketing,also known as emailprospecting. Emailprospecting is the process ofidentifying potentialcustomers for your

company’s products orservices and sending them acoldemailinhopesofgettingtheirattention.

Isn’tEmailProspectingConsideredSpamming?

Throughout the firstseveralchaptersofthebook,Irecommended that you only

email people that haveexpressly opted in to yourmailing list. However, I alsosuggest that sending a coldemail introducing yourself toprospects can be an effectivemarketingstrategy ifyouruna certain type of business.These two statements canseemsomewhatcontradictoryat face value, but sendingsomeone a personalized coldemail introducing yourself isverydifferentthanspamming

them.Spamming occurs when a

marketer sends a largevolume of unwantedcommercial email over aperiod of time. Sending oneor two targetedmessage to aspecific person at a businessfor a specific reason is notspamming. It's the differencebetweensendingafewpeoplea single, personal letter andincessantly sending 5,000people mail they don't want.

Sending cold emails forbusiness developmentpurposes is a generallyaccepted practice in mostindustries.

IdentifyingPotentialCustomers

Amidst your inboundemail marketing efforts,potential customerswill self-identify themselves by

signing up for your mailinglist. When doing outboundemail marketing, you willneed to go out and identifypotential customers that youcanapproach.

You probably alreadyknowwhattypesofpeopleorbusinesses are your potentialcustomers. You just need tofind the specific prospectsthatmeetyourcriteria.

There are several waysthatyoucanidentifypotential

customers:

LinkedIn–LinkedInhasbecomeanincreasinglypopularwayforsalespeopletoidentifypotentialcustomers.Auser’sLinkedInprofilewillprovidedetailedinformationabouttheir

careerandpersonalinterests,whichmakesitaperfecttooltofindpotentialcustomers.LinkedInhasadvancedsearchtoolsthatletyouhoneinonspecifictypesofpeopleeasily.Whileitisagreatwaytoidentifypotentialcustomers,you

shouldn’tuseLinkedIntocontactyourpotentialcustomers,becausemanyusersdon’tchecktheirLinkedInmessages.Yourmessagemaythengetlostamongthemanyless-targetedmarketingmessagesthatsubscribersreceive.

FacebookFanPages–IdentifyFacebookfanpagesthatarerelevanttoyourpotentialcustomers.Peoplewillfrequentlyself-identifyasneedinghelptosolveaparticularproblembypostingtothatfanpage’swallandasking

forsuggestions.Ifyouseesomeonethathaswrittenaboutaproblemthatyourbusinesscansolve,sendthemamessagethroughFacebooktointroduceyourselfandtellthemhowthatyoucanhelpthem.

TwitterSearch–Peoplewillalsofrequentlyself-identifyproblemstheyneedhelpwithbytweetingaboutthem.Forexample,ifyouareawebdesigner,youmightdoaTwittersearchforaphraselike“recommendaweb

designer”tofindpeoplewhoarelookingtohireawebdesigner.OnthedatethatIwrotethischapter,tenpeoplehavespecificallyaskedifanyonecanrecommendawebdesignertothemwithinthelastweek.Searchformultiple

phrasespeoplemightusetoindicatetheyhaveaproblemyoucansolve.Onceyouidentifyapotentialcustomer,tweetthem,andyoumightbeabletohelpwiththeirproblem.Trytogettheiremailaddress,soyoucansendtheman

introductionemailortheirphonenumbertosetupacall.LeadScoring–Ifyouhaveanexistingmailinglist,youcanuseaprocessknownasleadscoringtoidentifythesubscribersmostlikelytobecomeyour

customers.Leadscoringissimplytheprocessofcalculatinganengagementscoreforyoursubscribersbasedontheactionsthattheytake,suchasreadingemails,clickingonlinks,requestingfreereports,followingyouonsocial

media,etc.Ifsomeoneishighlyengagedwithyourcontent,theywillbemuchmorelikelytobecomeacustomerofyourbusiness.Bycalculatingaleadscoreforeachofyoursubscribers,youcanseewhichofyourpotential

subscribersyoushouldputthemosttimeandeffortintotoacquirethemasacustomer.CompileaList–Considerhiringavirtualassistant,anintern,orarelativelylow-costemployeetohelpidentifybusinessesand

peoplethatmeetyourcriteria.Havethemcollectallofthekeyinformationyouwouldneedtosendacoldemailandputitinaspreadsheet,includingthenameofthebusiness,thelocation,theowner,thebusiness’sphone

number,andtheowner’semailaddress.Forexample,ifyouwantedtocreatealistofchiropractors,youcouldhaveaninterndoawebsearchforchiropractorsinspecificcitiesinthegeographicregionyouaretargetingandadd

themtoyourspreadsheet.Alistthatyoucompileyourselfwillgenerallybemoreup-to-dateandaccuratethanalistyoupurchasefromalistbroker.TradeShows–Considergettingaboothatthetradeshowsthat

arefrequentedbyyourpotentialcustomers.Whileyourfirstthoughtmightbetogetaboothatanindustrytradeshow,rememberthatindustrytradeshowsgenerallycatertopeoplethatworkinanindustryandnotcustomersthat

buyproductsfromthatindustry.Ifyouwereachiropractor,youwouldwanttogetaboothatatradeshowfrequentedbypeoplethathavebackpainandnotanindustryshowforotherchiropractors.Whileatashow,collectasmany

businesscardsaspossible,soyoucanfollowupwithpotentialleadsviaemailaftertheshow.AskforReferrals–Wheneveryougetanewcustomer,askthemwhetherornottheycanrecommendanyoneelse

thatmightbenefitfromyourcompany’sproductsorservices.Bygettingreferralsfromyourexistingcustomers,you’veinstantlyidentifiedanewwarmleadthatyoucanfollowupon.

FindingaPotentialCustomer’s

EmailAddressWhen you identify a

customer through socialmedia channels such as

Twitter, Facebook, andLinkedIn, their email addressmay not be listed on theirsocialmediaprofile. In somecases,youcangetapotentialcustomer’semailaddress justby asking them. If this isn’tthecase,youwillneed todosomesleuthingonthewebtoidentify a person’s emailaddress, so you can sendthemanintroductionletter.

Here are some ways tofind a potential customer’s

emailaddress:

GoogleThem–Googlethenameofyourpotentialcustomerandthenameoftheirbusiness(ifapplicable).Youmayfindotherwebsitesorothersocialmediaprofilesthatapersonhascreatedthat

docontaintheiremailaddress.Makesureyougothroughthefirstseveralpagesofsearchresultsinordertofindallpotentialwebsitesthatmaycontainpertinentcontactinformation.Formoretargetedresults,consider

doingasearchoftheircompany’sdomainname.Forexample,youcouldsearch“site:marketbeat.comMatthewPaulson”tofindreferencestomeonmycompany’swebsite.MakeanEducatedGuess–Most

companiesuseastandardizedformatfortheiremailaddresses.Forexample,allBankofAmericaemployees’emailaddressesareintheformatoffirstname.lastname@bankofamerica.com.IfIwereaBankofAmericaemployeeand

youweretryingtoguessmyemailaddress,matthew.paulson@bankofamerica.comwouldprobablybeagoodplacetostart.Ifyouguesssomeone’semailaddressincorrectly,theworstthingthatwillhappenisthemessagewillgetreturnedas

undeliverable.Youcanfigureouttheformatofaparticularcompany’semailaddressesbydoingawebsearchforthecompany’sdomainnamefollowedbywordslike“contact’and“email.”Forexample,Ifoundtheemailaddressesof

severalBankofAmericaemployeesbysearchingfor“@bankofamerica.comemail.”MakeanUneducatedGuess–Ifyoucan’tfigureouttheformatofacompany’semailaddresses,youcanalso

useaservicecalledEmailAddressGuesser(guesser.email)togenerateprobableemailaddressesforapersonbasedontheirnameandtheirdomainname.YoucanuseaGmailplugincalledRapportive(rapportive.com)to

figureoutifanyoftheprobableaddressesareaccurate.AftersettingupRapportiveinyourbrowser,openaGmailaccountandcopyandpastealloftheguessescreatedbyEmailAddressGuesserintoanewmessage.Hover

overeachaddress,andtheuser’sothercontactinformationwillappeariftheemailaddressisvalid.Formoreinformationabouthowtodothisindetail,UsersThink.comhasputtogetherahelpfularticletitled“HowTo

FindSomeone’sEmailAddressInUnderAMinute”28,whichoutlinestheprocess.UseaPaidService–Thereareanumberofpaidservicesthatwillhelpyouidentifysomeone’semailaddressbasedontheirname,

geographiclocation,andthecompanytheyworkfor.Intelius(intelius.com)andSpokeo(spokeo.com)aretwopaidservicesthathavelargesearchableemailaddressdatabases.Youcanalsousebusinessspecific

searchtoolslikeData.com(formerlyjigsaw.com)andToofr(toofr.com)tofindthecontactinformationforaspecificpersonatabusiness.

WarmUpYourProspectiveCustomers

Beforeyoubeginwritingamessage to someone, try tofind a personal connectionwiththepersonyouaregoing

to approach. People that youhave no connection to at allare known as cold leads.Prospects that have someconnection to you or havebeen referred to you by amutual acquaintance areconsidered warm leads. It’smucheasiertoselltoawarmleadthanacoldlead,becausepeople have a harder timedismissingthosetheyhaveanexisting personal connectionwith. If you can turn a cold

lead into a warm lead byidentifying a mutual friend,acquaintance,or interest, youaremuchmorelikelytohavesuccess from yourintroductionemail.

In order to identifypotential connections withyour prospects, look at theirFacebook and LinkedInprofilestoseeifyouhaveanymutual friends orconnections. If you find amutual connection, ask the

connection if they would bewilling to introduce you totheprospectthroughemail.Ifthe connection doesn’trespond to your request, it’sstill worthwhile to mentionthe names of your mutualconnection in yourintroductionemail.

Ifyoucan’tfindapersonalconnection, try to create onethrough an organization thatyou are both a member of,such as a university or a

service club. If that’s notpossible,youcantrytocreateapersonalconnectionthrougha common interest or hobby.Regardless of what kind ofconnectionyoucreate,havingsomekindofcommongroundwithaprospectwillgetyoualot further than having noconnectionatall.

WritingEffectiveColdIntroduction

EmailsAfter you have identified

someone’s email address andhave figured what kind of

personal connection you canmakewith them, it’s time tosend them an introductionemail. Your introductionemail should identify anycommonbondsthatyouhavewith them, let them knowhow you became aware ofthem, identify what potentialproblems they might havethat you can help with, andprovide a clear call-to-actiondetailingwhatnextstepsyouwouldlikethemtotake.

Here’s an example of anintroduction email I mightsend if I were offeringconsultingservices:

There are several things

that you should take note ofinthisemail:

FocusontheProspect–Thecontentofthemessagefocusesprimarilyontheprospectandtheirneeds.Starttheemailbyusingtheperson’sfirstname.Uselotsof“you”languageto

makethemessagemorepersonal,andfocusontheirspecificneeds,notwhatyouhavetooffer.KeepItShort–Theaboveemailislessthantwohundredwordslong.Keepyourfirstintroductionemailshortsothatit’seasyforthe

recipienttoread.Youcandiveintodetailonhowyoucanhelptheminaphonecallorinafollow-upemail.CreateaPersonalConnection–Atthebottomofthisemail,Imentionedthatwehadtwomutualconnections

onLinkedIn.The“P.S.”sectionofyouremailisagreatplacetotellsomeonehowyouareconnectedtothemwithoutinterruptingtheflowofyourmessage.AskforaNextStep–Atthebottomofmyemail,thereisaclear

call-to-actionforwhatthenextstepwouldbe.Inmostcases,yournextstepshouldbegettingyourprospectonthephone,soyoucanbetterqualifythemandseeiftheyareagoodfitforyourservices.

UseaRelevantandPersonalSubjectLine–There’sagoodchanceyourprospect’semailinboxisalreadyfullofothermessages.Youneedtowriteanintriguingsubjectlinetogetyourmessagenoticed.Subjectlines

withaquestionmarkworkparticularlywell.Alsouseuncommonlanguagethatwillinstillcuriosityintherecipient.Anexampleofasubjectlinethatfollowstheseprinciplesis“Strangequestion?”Thesubjectlineisshortandwill

coerceaprospectintoopeningyourmessageoutofcuriositymorethananything.

If you are looking formore resources about how toeffectivelywriteacoldemail,SteliEftiofClose.iocreatedaresource titled “5 cold emailtemplates that will generatewarm leads for your sales

team!”29, which providesseveral great examples ofcold emails that get greatresponserates.JohnCorcoranhasputtogetheranothergreatresource that providesguidanceoncoldapproachingpeople on the OkDork blogtitled “How to Connect withVIPs: 5 Tips for ColdEmails”.30

FollowingUpwithaPotential

CustomerDon't be surprised if you

don't receivea responseafteryou send someone a coldemail. Some of the most

effective cold emails onlyyieldaresponserateof35%.Sometimes people just aren'tinterestedinwhatyouhavetooffer, and that's okay. Notevery prospect is going tobecome a customer. Thatdoesn't mean you shouldimmediately give up on aprospectiftheydon'trespondtoyourfirstemail.

It'sworthwhiletosendoneortwofollow-upmessagesinthe event that the prospect

missed your firstmessage. Ifyou don't receive a responseafter the follow-ups, yourprospect probably just isn'tinterested, and you shouldmoveontothenextone.

Don't send an endlessstream of messages askingprospects if they receivedyouremailor if theywant toget in aphonecallwithyou.When you’re emailingsomeone that hasn't optedintoreceivingmailfromyou,

you're really crossing overintotheterritoryofspammingif you haven't gotten apositive response after thefirstcontact.

SystemizingtheProcess

In order to effectivelydevelop your businessthrough email, you are goingto need to construct systemsandprocessestofacilitatetheprocess of sending cold

emails.Youwillprobablybedealing with many differentprospects at once, and manyof them will be in differentstages.Youmighthaveadealin place with one customer,while at the same time, youare pre-qualifying severalmore leads and arenegotiating contracts withtwo others. It's important tokeep track of where you arewith every prospect, sopotential customers don't fall

throughthecracks.Herearethefivestagesof

turning a prospect into acustomer:

Pre-qualification–Youthinkthepersonhasaneed,buttheyhavenotyetconfirmedyoursuspicions.Prospectsthatyouhaveemailed

buthaven'trespondedareatthisstage.Qualification–Youhavemadecontactwithaprospectivecustomer,andtheyhaveconfirmedthattheyhaveaneedyoucanmeetoraproblemyoucansolve.

TheOffer–Youmakeaspecificwrittenproposaloroffertoaddresstheprospect’sneed.Yourproposalshouldcontainpertinentinformationaboutwhatkindofworkyouwoulddoforthem,includingscopeofworkandpricing.

TheContract–Prospectsatthisstagehaveacceptedyouroffer.Theysignoffonyourproposal,completepayment,andbecomecustomersofyourbusiness.DeliveryandFulfillment–Afteryou

signanagreementandthecustomermakespayment,youdelivertheproductorserviceyousoldthem.

Thesystemthatyouputinplace should be able to keeptrackofwhereeveryprospectisatinthesefivestages.Eachprospect should have a nextaction associated with them,

soyouknowwhentotakethenext step. You can use anadvanced contactmanagement system likeContactually(contactually.com) orsomething as simple as anExcel spreadsheet to keeptrack of where all of yourprospectsareat.

GettingStartedwithProspectingThroughEmailWhenyoufirststartdoing

emailprospecting, commit tosending five to ten coldemails each week. You can

even send these emailsthrough your personal emailaccount because of the lowvolume outbound ofmessages.

Each message that yousend should be personalizedto the recipient and theirbusiness.Neversendaformalletter. Prospects canrecognize generic emailsfromamileaway.

If someone respondspositively to your

introduction email, try to setup a phone call or meetingwiththemtoseeifyoucandobusiness together. If aprospect says they're notinterested, move on to thenextone.

If someone doesn'trespond to your email afterfourorfivedays,sendthemafollow-upemail.Iftheydon'trespond to your first followup, you can send one finalmessage if they are a

particularly good prospect. Ifthey don't respond to yourthird message, you shouldmoveontothenextprospect.

Therearetoomanyfishintheseatogethungupononepotentialcustomer.

Wrap-UpEmail prospecting can be

an incredibly effectivestrategy for certain types ofbusinesses. If your companysellshighpricepointproductsand services and you have arelatively small customerbase, you should seriously

consider whether emailprospecting can complementyourlist-buildingefforts.

ActionStepsDetermine whether

inbound email marketing oroutbound email marketing isthe best approach for yourtype of business. If youdetermine that outboundmarketing is ideal, completethestepsbelow:

Identifythefirsttenprospectivecustomersyouwanttoapproachandfindtheiremailaddresses.Writeasampleintroductionemailthatyoucanusetoserveasatemplateforfuturecoldemails.

Developasystemtokeeptrackofwhichstepeachpotentialcustomeriscurrentlyinandwhatyournextstepswiththemare.Sendyourfirsttencoldemails.

CaseStudy#5

GoGoPhotoContest

GoGo Photo Contest(gogophotocontest.com) is acompanythatwasfoundedby

JasonShea, Stevie Shea, andme in July of 2013. Thecompany helps animalsheltersandhumanesocietiesraise money by runningdonate-to-vote photo contestfundraisers. GoGo PhotoContest provides software tomanage the contest andexpertise to promote andmarket the content inexchange for a percentage ofthecontestproceeds.

The fundraiser that GoGo

Photo Contest helps animalshelters run is a pet photocontest where participantsupload pictures of their petsdirectly to the shelter’scontest website. Participantsand their friends purchasevotes for a donation amountset by the animal welfaregroup,whichisusually$1.00per vote. Participants willshare and promote theirentries with their friendsthrough social media and

email to get additional votesfortheirentries.Attheendofthe contest, the entries thathave themostvoteswillwinthe contest and get whateverprizes the animal shelter setsforbeinginthetopspot.

GoGo PhotoContest doesnot rely on traditionalinboundemailmarketingasamarketing channel.Trying toorganicallygrowanaudiencethrough traditional list-building methods would not

beeffectivefor thisbusiness.First of all, GoGo PhotoContest is a relatively newconcept, and most decisionmakers with animal welfaregroups aren’t searching forphoto contest fundraisingsoftware. Sincemany animalwelfare groups aren’t awareof the concept,most of themwould probably never findtheir way onto our mailinglist. Second, there are onlyapproximately 12,000 animal

shelters in the United States.This just isn’t a big enoughset of potential customers toorganically grow a mailinglist.

It simply wouldn’t beeffective to use traditionallist-building strategies andhope that a meaningfulnumber of animal shelterswill sign up for our mailinglist and eventually becomecustomers. While inboundemailmarketing isn’t a great

fit for GoGo Photo Contest,the company has had greatresults by doing outboundemail marketing and usingemailasaprospectingtooltoidentify and market topotential customers. We usemany of the principles andstrategies outlined in theoutbound email marketingchapterofthisbooktoattractcustomers for GoGo PhotoContest.

Our strategy involves

identifying the executivedirectors of as many animalwelfare groups as possibleusing a variety of differentmethods. Then, we send acold email introducing themto GoGo Photo Contest andshowing them how ourplatform can help theirorganization raise money.Our outreach emails educateour potential customers onthe concept of GoGo PhotoContest and suggest they

consideritastheirnextemailfundraiser. We will typicallysend one email permonth toananimal shelterdirector fora fewmonthsbeforewestopmailing them. If a shelterdirectly respondsand tellsusthey’re interested, our teamwilltrytosetupaphonecallwith them in order to sellthem on the concept andpersuade them to run acontest.

Interestingly enough,

GoGo Photo Contest alsohelps animal welfare groupsgrow their own email lists.Thecontests thatshelters runare inherently social innature,andmanyparticipantswill promote their entriesthrough social media, email,and other word-of-mouthstrategies. As a result, manyofthepeoplethatvoteintheircontestarenotpartofanyoftheir constituent lists prior tothe beginning of the contest.

Inadditiontothefundsraiseddirectly through the contest,the animal shelters have theabilitytosendfollow-upmailand email in the future tosolicitadditionaldonations.

GoGo Photo Contest hashelped more than 250different animal shelters rundonate-to-vote photo contestsprimarily because of itsoutbound email marketingefforts. GoGo PhotoContest’s only revenue

stream is its share of theproceeds from each contest,whichworksouttoabout9%of the fundraising total. Thecompany has helped sheltersraise a total of $1.5 millionsince the first contestlaunchedinOctober2013andis expected to generate oversix figures of revenue in2015.

FinalThoughts

At the beginning of thisbook, I argued that emailmarketing is one of themostpowerful marketing channelsthatcompanieshaveavailabletothem.Investinginemailasa marketing channel will

result in a substantial return-on-investment and willgeneratedividendsfora longperiod of time. Given theDirect MarketingAssociation’s statistics thatthe average businessinvesting in email marketingwill receive an ROI of4,300%, any business shouldsalivate over the potentialresultsof incorporatingemailmarketingintotheirbusiness.

After I heard those

numbers the first time, myfirstthoughtwas,“HowcanIget this incredibly effectivemarketing strategy in thehands of my friends andbusiness acquaintances?” Idid some digging to findcomprehensive resources thatwould teach all aspects ofemail marketing, but thatbook just didn’t exist. So, Iset out to write one, andEmailMarketingDemystifiedis the result. By reading the

book,youhavelearnedaboutall of the key components ofemail marketing, includinglearning about email serviceproviders, building amailinglist, creating a lead magnet,setting up an autoresponderseries, sending out broadcastemails, writing effectivecopy, monetizing your list,staying compliant with bestpractices and governmentregulations, and doing emailprospecting. Now, it’s your

turn to take the practicalknowledge outlined in thisbook and implement it inyourbusiness.

If you haven’t alreadysigned up with an emailservice provider, that’s yourfirst step.Thenext is to startcollecting opt-ins on yourwebsite using one of manypopular plugins. Then, youface the challenge of writingthe first few emails in yourautoresponder series. In the

following several weeks andmonths, you’ll finish yourautoresponderseriesandstartwriting your first fewbroadcast emails in hopes ofgenerating some new sales.Over time, your mailing listwillgrow,youwillbecomeabetter copywriter, and yoursales funnel will becomemuch more effective aftertryingoutdifferentthingsandseeing what works. If youcontinue down this path and

keep practicing the art ofmarketing, you will havedeveloped an incrediblypowerful skillset that willgenerate massive results foryourbusiness.

Appendix

AdditionalEmail

MarketingResources

If youwould like to learn

more about how you cangrow your business throughemail marketing, there areseveral other resources thatareworthcheckingout:

AutoResponderMadness(autorespondermadness.com–AutoResponderMadnessisanemailtrainingcourseproduced

byAndreChaperonthatteachesmarketerstouselistsegmentationandstorytellingtocreateincrediblyeffectiveautoresponderseriesthatdriveengagementandsales.IhavenotpersonallygonethroughAutoResponder

Madness,butitishighlyrecommendedbyotheremailmarketersthatIknowandtrust.EmailPlayersNewsletter(bensettle.com)–BenSettle’sEmailPlayersNewsletterteachesemailmarketershowtowrite

dailyentertainingandconversationalemailstoyourmailinglist.WhilethestyleofemailmarketingthatSettlepromotesisn’tperfectforeveryone,it’shardtorecommendanexpertthatknowsmoreaboutemailmarketingthanhe.

GetResponse’sEmailMarketingTipsBlog(blog.getresponse.com)–GetResponsepublishesadailyemailmarketingtiponitscorporateblog.Ihavepersonallygottenanumberofusefulideasbykeepingupwiththecontentontheirblog.

MailChimp’sBlog(blog.mailchimp.com)–MailChimpregularlypublishesemailmarketingnewsandadviceonitscorporateblog.Theirteamregularlywritesaboutnewwaystoattractopt-insandpublishescontent

abouttrendsintheworldofemailmarketing.McMethod(themcmethod.com)–HostJohnMcIntyreinterviewsexpertlevelemailmarketerswhosharetheirbesttipsonhisweeklypodcast,theMcMethodEmail

MarketingPodcast.McIntyrealsooffersprofessionalcopywritingservicesandamembershipprogramthatprovidestrainingvideosandsampleemailswhichyoucanuseasthebasisfor

messagestoyourmailinglist.TheRebel’sGuidetoEmailMarketing–Duringthelastfiveyears,I’vereadmorethanadozendifferentbooksthatcoveraspectsofemailmarketing.Thereareanumberof

mediocreemailmarketingbooksthathavebeenwrittenandacoupleofgoodones.TheRebel’sGuidetoEmailMarketingbyDJWaldowandJasonFallsisoneofthebestprintresourcesthatdiscussesemailmarketing(other

thanEmailMarketingDemystified,ofcourse).Vero’sEmailMarketingBlog(blog.getvero.com)–Veropublishesweeklycontentaboutmarketingautomationontheblog.Thisblogisfocusedonmoreadvanced

strategies,suchaslistsegmentationandcreatingtriggeredemailseries.

Here are a few otherresources that I haveproducedthatyoumightwanttocheckout:

40RulesforInternetBusinessSuccess–40

RulesforInternetBusinessSuccesswasthefirstbookIpublishedinJuly2014.Itoutlinesthe40principlesandstrategiesthatI’veusedtobuildaseven-figurebusinessfromscratch.Youcangetyourcopyof40RulesforInternet

BusinessSuccessthroughAmazonat40RulesBook.com.MyPersonalBlog–IregularlypublishnewbusinesstipsandadviceonmypersonalblogatMattPaulson.com.MyPodcastInterviews–WhileIdon’thosta

podcastofmyown,Iamregularlyaguestonanumberoftopbusinesspodcasts.IfyouwouldliketolistentointerviewsthatI’vedone,visitmattpaulson.com/interviews

EndNotes

1.Radicati,Sara."EmailStatisticsReport,2013-2017."TheRadicatiGroup,Inc.April2013.http://radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Email-Statistics-Report-2013-2017-Executive-Summary.pdf

2.Clark,Brian."Email

MarketingEssentials."Copyblogger.RainmakerDigitial,LLC.http://copyblogger.com/email-marketing/

3.Deal,David.“Workhorsesanddarkhorses:digitaltacticsforcustomeracquisition.”GigaOMResearch.January25,2014.http://go.extole.com/rs/extole/images/Gigaom%20Research%20-%20Work%20horses%20and%20dark%20horses.pdf

4.“Emailisnotdead.ButemailISchanging.”

MarketingSherpa.LastmodifiedSeptember2015.http://emailisnotdead.com

5.Lacy,Kyle.“50EmailMarketingTipsandStatsfor2014.”ExactTarget.Salesforce,Inc.August14,2013.http://exacttarget.com/blog/50-email-marketing-tips-and-stats-for-2014

6.Beechler,Drew.“75DigitalMarketingStatsfromSalesforceMarketingCloudResearch.”SalesforceBlog.

Salesforce,Inc.November26,2014.https://salesforce.com/blog/2014/11/75-digital-marketing-stats-from-salesforce-marketing-cloud-research.html

7.Aufreiter,N.,Boudel,J.,&Weng,V.“Whymarketersshouldkeepsendingyoue-mails.”Insights&Publications.McKinsey&Company.January2014.http://mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_marketers_should_keep_sending_you_emails

8.“SEMPOStateofSearchMarketingReport2013.”Econsultancy.Econsultancy.comLimited.January2014.https://econsultancy.com/reports/sempo-state-of-search

9.“UnitedStatesInternetUsers.”internetlivestats.internetlivestats.com.LastmodifiedJuly1,2014.http://internetlivestats.com/internet-users/united-states

10.Lacy,Kyle.“50Email

MarketingTipsandStatsfor2014.”ExactTarget.Salesforce,Inc.August14,2013.http://exacttarget.com/blog/50-email-marketing-tips-and-stats-for-2014

11.Dvorak,JohnC.“9ReasonsE-MailIsDead.”PCMagonline.March16,2009.http://pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343209,00.asp

12.Wohlsen,Marcus.“TheNextBigThingYouMissed:Email’sAbouttoDie,ArguesFacebookCo-

Founder.”TheNextBigThing.Wiredonline.January21,2014.http://wired.com/2014/01/next-big-thing-missed-facebook-co-founder-says-email

13.Brandon,John.“WhyEmailWillBeObsoleteby2020.”Vision2020.Inc.comonline.April16,2015.http://inc.com/john-brandon/why-email-will-be-obsolete-by-2020.html

14.Radicati,Sara."Email

StatisticsReport,2014-2018".TheRadicatiGroup,Inc.April2014.http://radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Email-Statistics-Report-2014-2018-Executive-Summary.pdf

15.Wiebe,Joanna.“IstheSeeminglyHumbleButtonMorePowerfulThantheHeadline?.”Copyhackers.https://copyhackers.com/2014/09/buttons-vs-headlines

16.Jacobson,Anna.“How

RubenGamezofBidsketchUsedDriptoIncreaseTrialUsersby30%.”Dripblog.TheNumaGroup.http://blog.getdrip.com/tips-and-tactics/how-ruben-gamez-of-bidsketch-used-drip-to-increase-trial-users-by-30

17.“101LandingPageOptimizationTips.”Unbounce.http://unbounce.com/101-landing-page-optimization-tips

18.“USConsumerDevicePreferenceReportQ12014.”MovableInk.http://info.movableink.com/device-report-q1-2014

19.Stec,Carly.“15EmailNewsletterExamplesWeLoveGettinginOurInboxes.”Hubspotblog.Hubspot,Inc.May8,2015.https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-newsletter-examples-list

20.Meher,Jessica.“TheUltimateListof2012Email

MarketingStats.”Hubspotblog.Hubspot,Inc.December14,2012.https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33901/The-Ultimate-List-of-2012-Email-Marketing-Stats.aspx

21.Admin.“42BloggingSpecialistsExplainHowtoMonetizeEmailNewslettersandTurnAutoresponderMessagesintoProfit.”AfterOffersBlog.AfterOffers.com.October2,2014.http://blog.afteroffers.com/42-

blogging-specialists-monetize-email-newsletters

22.Matthew.“DoubleOpt-invs.SingleOpt-inStats.”MailchimpBlog.TheRocketScienceGroup.September23,2011.https://blog.mailchimp.com/double-opt-in-vs-single-opt-in-stats

23.Bourquin,Tim.“DoubleOpt-InIsDestroyingYourListandYourBusiness.”AfterOffersBlog.AfterOffers.com.April20,

2015.https://blog.afteroffers.com/double-opt-destroying-your-business

24.“SendGridDeliverabilityGuide:EverythingYouNeedtoKnowAboutDeliveringEmailthroughYourWebApplication.”SendGrid.SendGrid.com.http://go.sendgrid.com/rs/sendgrid/images/SendGrid_Deliverability_Guide.pdf

25.“.comDisclosures:HowtoMakeEffectiveDisclosuresinDigitalAdvertising.”FederalTradeCommission.March

2013.https://ftc.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/press-releases/ftc-staff-revises-online-advertising-disclosure-guidelines/130312dotcomdisclosures.pdf

26.“Canada'sAnti-SpamLegislation.”GovernmentofCanada.LastmodifiedJuly9,2014.http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/00258.html

27.French,VioletA.“Canada’sToughNewAnti-SpamLegislation:BewareItsExtra-TerritorialReach.”BusinessLawToday.AmericanBarAssociation.

January2014.https://blog.afteroffers.com/double-opt-destroying-your-business

28.Turner,John.“HowToFindSomeone’sEmailAddressInUnderAMinute."UsersThink.http://usersthink.com/find-email

29.Efti,Steli.“5coldemailtemplatesthatwillgeneratewarmleadsforyoursalesteam!.”Close.io.Elastic,Inc.February13,2014.http://blog.close.io/5-

cold-email-templates-that-will-generate-warm-leads-for-your-sales-team

30.Corcoran,John.“HowtoConnectwithVIPs:5TipsforColdEmails.”OKdorkblog.NoahKagan.July8,2014.http://okdork.com/2014/07/08/how-to-email-a-busy-vip-5-tips-for-connecting-with-a-cold-email

ThankYou

Thank you for purchasingEmailMarketingDemystifiedandtakingthetimetoreadit.Reading a nonfiction bookcan take quite a bit of time.Thank you for choosing tospend some of your valuabletime digging through all theinfoIhavetooffer.

If youwould like to shareyourthanksforthisbook,thebestthingyoucandoistellafriendaboutEmailMarketingDemystified or buy them acopy. I do not have a majorpublisher or any outsidefinancial backing for thisproject. The proceeds fromevery copy sold will go tohelp my wife, Karine, and Iraise our son andpay for hiscollegeeducation.

You can also show your

appreciation for this book byleaving a review where youbought it. To leave a reviewonAmazon,visittheAmazonproduct page atMyEmailMarketingBook.com.Please be honest with yourreviewandhowthisbookhasorhasnothelpedyouonyourpath to building an Internetbusiness. I want everyone toknowhoworifthisbookhaschanged your life in anysignificantway.

Youcan followmeonlineat my personal blog,MattPaulson.com. You canalso follow me on Twitter(@MatthewDP).

Ifwehavemetinreallife,feelfreetoaddmeasafriendon Facebook(facebook.com/matthewpaulsonIf we have not met in reallife, you are stillwelcome to"follow"meonFacebook.

I am also on LinkedIn(linkedin.com/in/matthewpaulson

and AngelList(angel.co/matthewpaulson).

If you would like to hearme talk about various topics,feel free to check out theinterviews I have done atmattpaulson.com/interviews.

Thanks again and GodBless,

MatthewPaulsonOctober1,2015

Acknowledgements

Iwouldliketoexpressmysinceregratitude tomymanyfriends, familymembers, andbusiness acquaintances thathave encouraged me while Ihave pursued variousentrepreneurial adventuresoverthelastdecade.

I would like to thank my

wife, Karine, for beingincrediblysupportive,puttingup with my unusual workschedule, and trusting me toprovide for our familythroughmybusiness.

I would like to thank mythree-year-oldson,Micah,forthe many smiles he puts onmyfaceeachday.

I would like to thank mybusiness partners and teammembers, including DavidAnicetti, Donna Helling,

ToddKolb,DonMiller,TylerPrins, Rebecca McKeever,JasonShea, Stevie Shea, andToiWilliams.Without them,my companies would not bewheretheyaretoday.

Finally, I would like toexpress my gratitude to themany talented people thatworkedonthisbook.

IwouldliketothankJohnMcIntyre for writing theforewordofthisbook.

IwouldliketothankElisaDoucette and her team forediting this book and fixingmy many grammar andspellingerrors.

IwouldliketothankEllenJesperson for designing thecoverofthisbook.

I would like to thankJamesWoosleyfordoingthisbook’slayout.

I would like to thank StuGray and Toby Lyles for

putting together the audioversionofthisbook.

IwouldliketothankTomMorkesandPerrinCarrellforhelpingpromotethisbook.

AbouttheAuthor

Matthew Paulson is aserial entrepreneur if thereever was one. His largestbusiness, MarketBeat.com(formerly Analyst RatingsNetwork), publishes a

financial newsletter to morethan 250,000 investors on adaily basis. He is also apartner at GoGo PhotoContest,acompanythathelpsanimal welfare groups raisemoney through donate-to-vote photo contestfundraisers. Finally, he is apartner at USGolfTV, whichis a digital publishingcompany that produces aregionally syndicatedtelevision show and other

contentforthegolfindustry.Matthew holds a B.S. in

Computer Science and anM.S. in Information SystemsfromDakotaStateUniversity.He also holds an M.A. inChristian Leadership fromSiouxFallsSeminary.

Matthew’s first book, 40Rules for Internet BusinessSuccess,sharedtheprinciplesand strategies that he’s usedto build a seven-figureInternet business (and

multiple six-figurebusinesses) from scratch.Matthew’s second book,EmailMarketingDemystified,providesa step-by-stepguidefor any entrepreneur toimplementemailmarketingintheirbusiness.

Matthew resides in SiouxFalls,SouthDakota,whereheliveswithhiswonderfulwife,Karine,andhisadorableson,Micah.

ConnectwithMatthewat:

Matthew'sPersonalBlog–MattPaulson.comAngelList–angel.co/matthewpaulsonFacebook–facebook.com/matthewpaulsonLinkedIn–linkedin.com/in/matthewpaulsonTwitter–twitter.com/matthewdp

Email–matt@mattpaulson.com