email marketing demystified: build a massive mailing list...
TRANSCRIPT
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,
[email protected]|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–[email protected]