The highest return for the least amount of time and money in online marketing comes when you send an email to your list.
You take 30 minutes to write an email, another 10 minutes to format it and insert your affiliate link. You upload it to your email system, test to make sure it looks good, and then send it out to your list.
- 20 or 30 minutes later, you get a sale.
- An hour later you have 5 sales.
- Two hours and you’ve got 20 sales.
- Twelve hours and you’ve got 60 sales.
Your numbers will vary but this is exactly how email marketing works. It’s like spending an hour of work to watch money fall into your account the rest of the day.
In fact it’s just about the closest thing I’ve ever seen to magic, and I love it.
What – no email list?
It was only when I built an email list that I finally started making an income online.
Social media is OK, but SO time-consuming…. and what happens if they shut you down? (I was shutdown once, never found out why, and no ides. All I know is that I had made paid adverts with that platform to get the followers I lost.) OUCH
Learning how to build an email list is one of the core messages in the training I follow. Click >> here << to learn how to get started.
Here then are 12 powerful email marketing tips that everyone should know:
1: Build a quality email list
Your email marketing campaigns will only be as effective as the quality of your email list. Focus on building a high-quality, targeted list of subscribers.
What do I mean by high-quality? Ideally your list will be composed of buyers or people who will become buyers. Offering an irresistible offer at a super low price is one way to build a list of buyers. Another is to offer a free product or membership to people who purchase a related product.
As to the term ‘targeted,’ consider these two examples…
- You hold a social media contest with the prize being a laptop or an iPhone.
- You hold a social media contest with the prize being something directly related to your specific niche, such as a book or course.
In the first case you’re going to get a lot of sign-ups but the vast majority will have no interest in your niche and your products – they just want the prize.
But in the second case, you’ll get fewer signups but of a much higher caliber. These are the people looking specifically for the solutions you offer.
2: Segment your email list
You can segment your email lists based on factors like age, locations and interests, making it much easier to write emails that appeal specifically to each list segment.
For example, if you’re in the internet marketing niche, you might have lists of people interested in social media, in video, in traffic generation, in content creation and so forth, allowing you to personalize your messaging and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.
If you’re in weight loss, you might segment your lists based on age or gender. And if you’re in travel, you might segment your lists based on locations.
3: Use a clear and attention-grabbing subject line
As you know, your subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see and it will be the determining factor on whether or not they open and read your email.
Make your subject clear and attention-grabbing and give a preview of the content inside.
4: Personalize your email content
Personalization can sometimes significantly increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.
People respond to seeing their own names, their locations, interests and anything else you can use to make your emails more relevant to them.
5: Keep your email content short and to the point
People are busy. If they know your emails are short and to the point, they are more likely to open them.
For longer content, make a blogpost and then use the email to send them to the post rather than placing the entire blogpost within the email. This will also increase traffic to your site.
By the way, this is not a hard and fast rule. If you write truly captivating emails, then you can always test longer emails on your list and see if they are more effective than shorter ones.
6: Be entertaining and informative
Subscribers are much more likely to open and read your emails if you make the content entertaining or informative.
Use stories and humor whenever you can to pique interest. Give them the latest news and let them know how it affects them. Or tell them how to get a result they are seeking.
7: Use a clear and compelling call-to-action
Tell them in your email exactly what you want them to do.
“To keep reading, click here.”
“To see this shocking photo, click here.”
“To find out how to triple your traffic in 72hours, click here.”
8: Make your emails mobile-friendly
With more people using their smartphones to check email, it's important to ensure that your emails are mobile-friendly and easy to read on smaller screens. Always send a test email before you send it to your entire list to see how it appears on your own phone and in your email browser.
9: Test and optimize your campaigns
Test different subject lines, content, and calls-to-action to find out what works best for your audience. If you have a large list, you might send two different test emails to two small segments of your list to see which one works best, and then send the winner out to the entire list.
Also keep careful records of what works and what doesn’t so that you can adjust your future emails accordingly.
10: Optional: Include social sharing buttons
When appropriate, you might encourage your subscribers to share your content on social media by including social sharing buttons in your emails.
But don’t do this if it will distract them from, say, going to your sales letter. I prefer to have one day a week when I send out a breezy newsy email that specifically asks them to share on social media.
11: Use images and visuals when appropriate
Including images and other visuals can make your emails more engaging and help to break up long blocks of text.
Then again, if I have a long text I prefer to get them on the website to read most of it. Also, some super successful emailers never use visuals in their emails, so it just depends. When in doubt, test.
12: Track and analyze your results
Use analytics to track the success of your campaigns and adjust your strategy accordingly. Most good auto-responders will include a way to do this.
13: Provide value to your subscribers
Ultimately, the success of your email marketing campaigns will depend on how much value you provide to your subscribers. Focus on providing useful and relevant content that meets their needs and interests.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to providing value: One says that you should give away a lot of valuable information because readers will think, “If she gives this away for free, then her paid stuff must be absolute dynamite.”
The other school of thought is to provide value through entertainment – stories and humor – and save the valuable information for paying customers.
Both are correct, and which one you choose will depend on your niche and your own personal style.
13.5: Have fun in your emails
If you enjoy writing them, then your readers will enjoy reading them. Write as though you are talking to a friend, and you’ll do just fine.
