Showing posts with label email marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label email marketing. Show all posts

Friday, November 22, 2019

Why You Need To Build a Proper Email List To Make Money On The Internet

Making money on the internet requires a proven plan. One way many have procured money through the internet is by developing an email list. This list consists of persons that subscribe to receiving information about the products you are selling. These people are already interested in the information or product you are selling. Thus they subscribe to receiving further emails from you. This is important that they want to receive emails from you. They may never buy your information or product, but many of your subscribers will continue to show interest and eventually purchase your product. This requires an autoresponder. There are a number of companies that provide this type of technology. 
They will often provide their service free of charge for the first month. This is to their benefit because if you like their service paying for this service becomes a possible course of action. These services will also help you to build your email list, with expert advice. Remember they want you to succeed because this is income down the road that they will receive from your continued relationship with them.
When selling something on the internet your product will have to be of value to your potential customers. One way to get potential customers interested in your product is to offer a free eBook. There are a number of places on the internet that will help you develop an eBook that will be of interest to potential customers. These will have to be targeted to people who need this advice. There are many people searching the internet for advice on a never-ending list of topics,. This could be advice about relationships or how to improve their dogs' behavior.
Developing an eBook will take some time. The proper process of making one involves creating a platform that people will be engaged with. Your eBook must help people solve issues that are personally involved with. You can often find information on the internet that will help you add content. However, it is best to be original and speak from your experiences and intelligence. When writing the information you want your audience and potential customers to review, be original. Remember your potential customers want honesty in the information you are providing them.
When it comes to the time when a possible sale is closed, the customer must trust the webpage that sale will take place on. There are a number of reputable affiliate marketing ventures that you can sign into which will provide ample security when it comes to various credit card transactions. Security is very important to you as the vendor, and every customer you interact with.
Best Regards
Making money online requires a plan. One method to make money online requires monetizing your website. This requires learning how to build an email list with thousands of subscribers. 

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Your 2019 Guide on How to Use Video in Email Marketing

It's not news that video is at the forefront of marketing these days.
From creating videos for your website to hosting Facebook Live sessions, this marketing tool has transformed from a nice-to-have to a must-have if you want to effectively engage with your audience and build a loyal following who will be more apt to purchase from you.
Video-based marketing is a great way to stand out from the multiple messages people get in their inboxes every day, not to mention how effective it is on social media.
This article focuses on using video in your email marketing. Keep reading for the technical parts of utilizing video in your email marketing and the creative aspect for some inspiration.
I've talked about using video many times in the past, but in case you're still not convinced or didn't think to use video in your email marketing efforts, it's time to pay close attention. According to a study done by SuperOffice, including video in emails led to open rate increases of six percent (the average open rate across industries is about 25 percent).
Some other benefits of video marketing:
• It saves time. You can create short, engaging pieces of video much more quickly than it will take you to write an 800-word blog. It also gives info to your viewer in an easy-to-understand way.
• It can help SEO. Your Google search ranking can improve if your footage is viewed and shared by enough people.
• It's cost-effective. You don't need CGI effects or animation to make something great. A video can be much more affordable to produce than a blog or ad.
• It grabs attention. Especially when added into your newsletter, a video captures your audience's attention and compels them to want to watch.
First, the Technical Part of Video Email Marketing
Before you start brainstorming ways to use video in an email, you need to know how it plays in different email clients.
There are over 30 major email clients, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Yahoo Mail, and some of them don't support the requirements for using an email with a video.
Traditionally, marketers would use HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language) to code HTML video directly into an email, but recipients with certain email clients aren't able to play it. Many popular email providers will only show a fallback image, and your marketing message will be lost in the crowd.
Fortunately, some of the popular services like MailChimp, Constant Contact and AWeber make it easy to share across all providers by using a screen capture image of your video and linking it to your original content on your blog, YouTube, Vimeo or similar sites.
This gives the appearance there's actually video in your email and avoids technical issues with your email provider.
Instead of having to learn HTML5, there are also 3rd party services that can create a video snippet for you to include right in the body of your newsletter. In fact, I did this in a recent newsletter of ours!
Check out Playable to embed a short video in your next newsletter. Playable will replace the video with an image of your choice if the email service provider doesn't support the video technology.
>> Learn more about the features of our favorite email providers.
No matter what eNewsletter tool you use, it's crucial to test your campaign before you send it out. You'll need to have accounts on all of the popular email platforms so that you can see how your footage works in each of them.
Sound like a lot of work? Trust a professional marketing company that's been helping clients create successful eNewsletter campaigns since 2003.
Next, Make Sure You're Mobile
According to Hubspot, mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens. That means you have to ensure you're keeping smartphones in mind when you're email marketing with video.
Fortunately, eNewsletter providers such as MailChimp and Constant Contact let you test and see how your messaging will look before you send it out.
It's still important to keep the file size as low as possible so the video doesn't need to buffer to start playing. Mobile devices don't have the fastest download speed.
A good tip is to take a 10-second snippet of your video to use in the newsletter. That snippet can then link to the full feature on your blog.
Also, always make sure the autoplay is off, especially on mobile. Most people don't appreciate having something start playing (often noisily) as they sit in the office or on a bus; they prefer to click on Play themselves.
Now, On to the Creative Part
With the technical stuff out of the way, let's look at how you can actually create content that will engage your viewers and get you more visitors to your website.
You need a plan with clear objectives or else you're just sending content out into the world and hoping it will be seen and loved.
Why are you creating this campaign? To generate leads, brand awareness, followers...?
Once you've identified your objectives and goals, you can start thinking about actual email, and the content you want to produce.
As mentioned, host the full-length video in a blog post, landing page or even on social media and then plan to incorporate a "sneak peek" of that video in your email marketing campaign, linking to the full-length version.
Here are six tips and inspiration to get you started:
1. Use the word "video" in your subject line to make your message stands out.
2. Promote an event. Let's use a law office as an example. We created a short video using Wave. Video for one of our clients, A Family Law Firm, to promote an upcoming seminar they were hosting.
3. Offer tips. When it comes to email marketing with video, users want short, digestible clips. A "Top 5" or "4 ways to improve" will get more attention than a 2-minute creation of you trying to explain a product.
4. Create a series. This is a great way to keep people engaged with your expertise, as long as what you're providing is valuable to them. Stay away from a five-part series on your latest offering. Instead, solve a problem.
Using the law firm video marketing again as an example, you could set up a list-building campaign and do a four-part video series on ways to prepare for a separation or divorce:
• Part 1: DIY or hire a lawyer?
• Part 2: Filing the necessary paperwork
• Part 3: Dividing assets
• Part 4: Supporting your children
5. Make tutorials. Your product or service solves a problem, so how can you showcase this to your clients? Educate your viewers with a short explanation of how your product or service will improve their lives, using real-world examples.
6. Think outside the box. Now, we don't all have the budget outdoor company Patagonia does; however, look at how they've integrated amazing footage into their email campaigns. It doesn't focus on their surfing gear, but it's relevant to their customers.
Whether you're a life coach shooting some footage while you're on vacation or a wellness provider offering viewers a glimpse of your dinner prep process, get creative, and get shooting!
Email marketing with video can be incredibly powerful, increasing your open rates, engagement, leads, and sales substantially.
However, not every email should contain one. If you start using this marketing tactic every time you send out an e-newsletter to your subscribers, they'll stop paying attention. Think of it as one way to stand out from the crowd, but don't neglect your other tactics.
Crafting an eNewsletter campaign with video (or without), choosing the right email provider, testing and monitoring open rates and engagement is a tough job. And, it needs to be done well or else you'll end up alienating and losing subscribers.
Susan Friesen, the founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having a lack of knowledge, skill, and support needed to create their online business presence.
As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way.
Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and download your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results".

Friday, November 1, 2019

5 Surprising Cold Emails Subject Line Tips to Increase Open Rate by 93%

What Really Matters When Measuring Email Marketing Results


It's important to pay attention to the numbers in your email marketing. But there are some things that are more important than others. Your email marketing will work better each time you fix any problems discovered via the types of data listed below.


Open Rate
Not only should you know your open rate, but you should also know some specifics about your open rate. For example, what time and date get more opens? What topics get more opens? This information can help guide you going forward if you pay attention to it.
Engagement
Do people respond to your email? What do they say? You should definitely use an email where your list members can simply hit reply. This is going to leave you open to getting your audience's opinion on the spot, and you're more likely to hear from them this way.
Click-Through Rate
How many people open the email, then click through to your offers or calls to action? This is important because if you have a high open-rate compared to a low click-through rate, or a high click-through rate and low conversions, you can analyze this information to figure out why.
Conversions
How many conversions do you get on average for all your offers? How many conversions did you get on a specific offer? What is the difference between the emails that convert compared to those that don't? All this information can help you improve.
Bounce Rate
This is very important to pay attention to because if you have a high bounce rate, your email autoresponder solution may punish you by ending your account. This is a good way to ensure you have good list hygiene.
Complaint Rate
Most people don't realize they can look at complaints and reports on their analytics for their autoresponder to find out if they've been reported. Plus, you can look in your email too. If you're getting a high number of complaints about anything, it's important to pay attention. It's hard to look at complaints but it can help you improve. You can't please everyone all the time, but you can improve to get close.
Spam Percentage
Before you send an email, your autoresponder will alert you to your spam percentage. It uses words, subject lines, and the information in the email to determine your spam rating. Try to keep this very low so that spam filters don't get triggered and send your message to spam.
Email marketing still works and works great. But, you do have to stick to the basic rules of engagement. Send information with subject lines that aren't tricky, don't spam your audience, and make good offers that solve problems, and you'll get better results every single time. Use the analytics so that you can improve.
Are you struggling to boost your income with email marketing? Do you feel like you're stalling out? Many entrepreneurs and small businesses hit income plateaus, but there are ways to push beyond them. Download my free checklist,12 Ideas For Making More Money In Your Business at https://jonallo.com/money

Friday, October 25, 2019

7 Habits of Great Email Marketers

If you want to get your email marketing off to the right start, it helps to think like the pros. There aren't many rules with email marketing and it's important to find your won approach. That said, if you start with these ideas in mind, you'll skip a lot of pain.
Habit 1: Always Add Value
Assume your reader is busy. Also, assume they're annoyed and looking to take it out on someone. If you do this, you'll write emails in the right way.
You'll be entertaining.
You'll be useful.
What you won't be is annoying, long-winded for no reason, insulting or a waste of time.
Every email you send should be valuable. It should offer a unique insight or provide something useful.
I know one marketer who hadn't quite figured this out. She would send a weekly email talking about what she's up to and the latest offers. The problem was this only changed every month or so, meaning she sent the same email - word for word - three times in a row.
Sometimes you need to say the same thing more than once. That doesn't mean you have to say it the same way. Keep it fresh and reward the reader for opening your email.
Habit 2: Focus On Success and Forget About Losers
Let's say you create an amazing bribe to entice subscribers onto your list.
Then you see someone subscribe, download your bribe and unsubscribe 20 minutes later.
You might be tempted to get upset and start rethinking things.
Don't. You can forget about people like that. Freebie-seekers won't buy from you anyway, so who cares?
Focus on making sales. If a bunch of subscribers opt-out of your list but you make record sales, that's a win.
Focus on building the relationship. Someone might be on the fence now and that's okay. Give them time, keep offering value and they'll probably buy later. And if not, who cares, right?
If your readers are trusting you more and more over time, then email marketing is working. If you're making sales, then it's working. Forget about individuals who just want your free bribes - they're not worth thinking about.
Habit 3: Learn From the Best
Who are the best email marketers in your niche?
Who are the best on the planet?
Have a read of their emails. Subscribe to their list. Notice what they say and how they say it. Compare their bribe to yours.
What can you learn from them?
What shouldn't you learn from them, because it won't work for you?
Trust me - the best marketers ask themselves this a lot too. Marketing always changes, so even the best know they need to keep learning.
Habit 4: Find Your Unique Voice
I said learn from the best. I didn't say imitate them.
When you study the best marketers, you'll notice a lot of amateurs imitating their style. I don't recommend it.
For one thing, it doesn't work.
For another, it's harder than figuring out your own voice.
Pay attention to how you speak in person. What's your energy like? Are you upbeat or crotchety? What strange phrases do you like to use?
Write your emails like this.
Yes, you want to come across as a professional. Definitely, do that. You also want to come across as human, though.
Habit 5: Be Reliable and Consistent
If you say you'll email five times a week, then email five times a week.
If you imply you'll add value with every email, then do so.
Consistency is key. Is it the most important thing? I don't know, but if you're consistent and you live long enough, success is guaranteed.
Habit 6: Sell
Your email marketing exists to sell. This is part of the value you add to the world. If your product or service helps people, then you owe it to them to convince them to buy.
Yes, you get something out of it.
But so do they. If there's mutual benefit and you're transparent about it, then it's the most ethical thing you can do.
Some people sell with every email they send. Others like to break it up with useful content. That's up to you to figure out - though you'll notice I sell with each of these. No matter what you choose, though, don't let a week go by without selling something to your list.
If they don't like it, they can leave. Say good riddance, as per Habit 2.
Habit 7: Keep Growing Your List
Over time, people will opt-out. It doesn't matter how good you are or how amazing your emails are. It happens.
This means you keep needing new subscribers, even if you want to keep your numbers stable.
You need to keep growing just to stay in the same place.
Some parts of your marketing efforts need to be dedicated to capturing subscribers. In between writing sales letters and emailing your list, you need to go out there into the world to find new readers.
Put your ethical bribe in front of them. Wiggle it enticingly until they can't resist anymore.
But remember, not all subscribers are equal. Go to where your ideal clients live - haunt their forums and Facebook groups and, if it's not against the group's terms, invite people to subscribe.
Want to get in on the email action?
If you want to keep learning about what email can do for your business, then sign up for this simple training for beginners here:
https://skl.sh/2JTgdps

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Your Greatest Email Marketing Asset

If you're planning on using email marketing to grow your business and make a greater impact in the world, you'll have to think about a lot of things.
Your brand.
Your offer.
If you're using one, your funnel.
Your messaging.


It can get a little overwhelming. Improving one thing might harm another. How do you juggle all these moving parts?
Like with anything else in life, if you're overwhelmed, then go as simple as you can.
In this case, focus on your greatest email marketing asset.
Which happens to be...
*drumroll*
... your list of subscribers.
This is your greatest asset because it's the thing that leads to sales.
If you focus on making sales by improving your list, you won't get sidetracked. What messages should you send? Whatever improves your list and makes sales. How often should you send them? However, often makes the most sales.
Keep this in mind and you'll avoid a lot of common mistakes.
For example, some people have hundreds of thousands of people on their list. These readers open and devour every message they send. But, when it comes to making sales, the list barely pays the bills.
Bigger lists are generally better.
But having the right people on your list is even more important.
What an amazing Email Marketing list is like
Think of your list as a community. It's an odd community, sure, since its members don't talk to each other. But you talk to all of them, so that makes you the leader.
And like all communities, leaders go a long way towards setting the tone.
So think about what sort of people you want in your community.
You probably want people who'll buy your products or hire you for your services. But is that all? Would you be happy with people who buy your product but never use it?
Or do you want people who whisper 'yes! finally!' when they see your offer?
People who use it, rave about it to their friends, write you glowing testimonials and let you know you've improved the world?
And forget purchasing decisions for a moment. Do you want people who are ambitious? Caring? Struggling entrepreneurs who are hungry to succeed? People with chronic pain who are ready to live as fully as they used to?
In other words, who is your ideal client or customer?
Who did you make your offer for?
Imagine a community of these people - that's what you want your email list to be like.
How do you do it?
Well, you attract the right people by offering them the right sort of bribe to subscribe to your list. This will be something they want - something they need, ideally - that they can start using immediately.
Then you keep them thereby sending the right sort of messages. Messages they find useful, entertaining or, ideally, both.
And you talk to them as if they're your ideal client or customer.
Talk to them as if they're ambitious entrepreneurs, what it's like to be one, what you honestly admire about them...
If it doesn't ring true to them, they'll leave. If it does, they'll feel like you're speaking in a way no one else is, which you will be. And if they're almost like this - maybe entrepreneurs with a bit of a dream - you might just inspire them to become the person you're describing.
Want to get in on the email marketing action?
If you want to keep learning about what email can do for your business, then sign up for this simple training for beginners here:
https://skl.sh/2JTgdps

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Build an Email Marketing System You Can Be Proud Of

I know a lot of you are curious about email marketing. What it is, how to do it, does it still work in 2019. I figured instead of my little articles, I'd put together a more complete resource answering all your questions.
This article will focus on what it is and why you want to do it.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is using simple, plain old emails to sell your products and services. It can be as simple as emailing people about your offer, or a complex, multilayered, finely tuned system. For now, let's keep it simple.
Let's say you have an offer. How do you use email to get it to people who might want it?
You could send unsolicited emails to people. It's tricky - people don't like being spammed - but it can work.
Or you could get people to come to you. On your website, ask people to sign up for your email list. You can then send them emails about your offer.
Both have pros and cons.
And both need to be done well - otherwise, you'll be spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.
But that's okay. After all, that's why you're here.
Does Email Marketing still work in 2019?
Short answer: yes.
Longer answer:
Plenty of people will tell you email is dead. They'll say Facebook killed it off or whatever. They've been saying stuff like that for decades, though, and the stats don't back them. Despite all these new platforms, email is not only surviving, but it's also thriving.
There are more than 3.8 billion email users today. By 2022, this is expected to grow to 4.3 billion. That's a tasty market - bigger than any social media platform.
Email volume also trends upwards. In 2017, 269 billion emails were sent a day. By 2022, that's expected to reach 333 billion. So, yes, people are still emailing each other.
But most importantly:
The return on investment for email marketing is rising, too. In 2018, every dollar spent on email marketing yielded $32.28, an increase of $2.25 over the year before. Not only does it pay off, but that payoff is also increasing.
But why?
The Secrets behind Email's rise
An email has many advantages over social media:
It's personal. On Facebook and Twitter, you're bombarded with ads you don't want. With email, any ad you don't want probably heads straight for your spam box. You control your inbox and who can send messages to it, something social media tends to lack.
Your email list is yours. Social media can shut you down without notice. Think that only happens to racists? Think again - enough outrage (real or manufactured) against you will see these platforms shrug and abandon you. If that happened, you'd have to start over. But with email, even if you're banned (which is highly unlikely) you could take your list to another provider.
It's useful. Sure, we probably receive too many emails these days. It still remains one of the best ways to stay informed and stay in touch.
Want to get in on the email action?
If you want to keep learning about what email can do for your business, then sign up for this simple training for beginners here:
https://skl.sh/2JTgdps

Saturday, October 19, 2019

How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Lead Magnet Ideas)

How to Use Lead Magnets for Attracting More Email Subscribers

Lead magnets let you build your email marketing list more quickly and with more targeted prospects. Learn what lead magnets are and how to use them in your small business.

Email marketing has been around for many years, and it is one of the most cost-effective lead building and lead nurturing techniques available. But getting people to sign up for an email list can be difficult. Depending on whose statistics you read, average email list signup rates hover around 2 percent and many businesses have even lower rates. One way to boost those opt-in rates (and improve the results of your email marketing) is to use a lead magnet.





What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is something of additional value you provide every new subscriber in exchange for them providing you their email address on your opt-in form. Typically, it’s a discount or unique content that can be useful for your audience. Marketers often call lead magnets ethical bribes and they are proven to significantly boost signup conversion rates for any website.
In this article, we’ll show you the nuts and bolts of creating lead magnets and using them to build an email list. We’ll also provide a few incentive ideas that should help you get started.

How to Implement Lead Magnets: a Quick Step-By-Step Guide

If you are skeptical about the ROI of lead magnets, here are two facts that will convince you.
First, lead magnets convert website visitors into subscribers more effectively than generic “Subscribe to updates” calls-to-action, and you’ll find enough evidence of that online. Take the famous case study shared by an SEO expert Brian Dean who was able to increase subscription rates from .54%. to 4.82% using a lead magnet.
Second, implementing this tactic consumes less time than it may seem at first. Even if you decide that content is the only value you can offer in exchange for a subscription, it doesn’t mean you have to produce it from scratch. There are several formats we’ll talk about in this post allowing you to create a decent lead magnet in less than a few hours.
For you to get a better picture of potential time investment, we’ve broken down the entire process into specific steps.

1. Choose an incentive for your audience

For e-commerce websites, discounts, free shipping, and special deals might be the first, the most obvious, and the most effective idea. But what should you offer if you have a completely different business model not related to selling physical items?
Think from the perspective of your customer persona. As a business owner, you must have a good understanding of your audience’s pain points and the solutions they are looking for. When starting, you can use several sources of inspiration: comments on your blog queries your support team receives, user feedback, niche forums. If you’re still hesitating, a short website survey might provide valuable insights and be a great help. For example, many bloggers use the simple “What is your biggest business struggle right now?” to gather ideas for future blog posts and lead magnets.

2. Decide what the right format for your lead magnet is

Although eBooks used to be the most popular type of lead magnet, today people tend to be more incentivized by shorter forms of content. You can blame the infamous attention span or the volume of content available on the Internet, but chances are, a piece of information that can be consumed fast and applied instantly will be more popular than a multipage report.
And this is good news because you don’t have to allocate too much time and effort to lead magnet creation. Once you decide on the problem you’ll be helping your subscribers to solve, consider such formats as a checklist, a cheat sheet, a toolkit, a video tutorial. Given that you probably have all the required knowledge and experience to prepare it, creating a lead magnet should not take you longer than a couple of hours. Bryan Harris, the founder of Videofruit, even suggests creating lead magnets on the basis of your popular blog posts as a time-saving technique.
Depending on your business, other options may include access to a webinar, a series of video lessons, a free email course, a short consultation, and more.

3. Offer it proactively on your email subscription forms
Popups and slide-ins are the best way to promote a lead magnet and get new subscribers. They provide enough real estate to create an eye-catching call-to-action, and they are simply proven to be more effective at collecting emails. Even without any special offer, popups tend to drive at least two times more signups than an embedded opt-in form.
If you don’t know how to add a popup opt-in form to your website, there are quite a few apps available on the market. GetSiteControl subscription forms might be a good solution for you to start with. It allows for easily creating classic models, slide-ins, time-delayed, scroll-based, and exit-intent popups. Plus, with the $19/month price tag, it’s also quite affordable even for small business owners.
All you need to do is include the offer of a lead magnet on the most visited (and ideally the most relevant to the content of your lead magnet) website pages and set up the conditions under which a popup will appear.

4. Think through the delivery process

The most common way to deliver a lead magnet is through an email that follows a subscription confirmation message sent to every new subscriber.
Using your email marketing software, you can set up an automated email that will include a coupon code or a link leading to the promised piece of content. The latter can be a link to a PDF stored in your Dropbox and available for download – no reason to overthink this part.
Another way to deliver a lead magnet is through the subscription form itself. Once someone fills it out, right on the popup, you can display a “Thank you for subscribing” message along with the link for downloading the content.

7 Lead Magnet Examples From Various Business Niches

Now that you have the idea of what it takes to create a lead magnet in practice, let’s look at real-life examples: lead magnets that help different businesses collect email subscribers and don’t require creating new long-form content from scratch.
  1. Discounted or free shipping. Naturally, these are the most obvious and probably the most popular options for e-commerce stores willing to build an email list. You can offer coupons a couple of seconds after a visitor lands on a webpage or right before they leave it – using the exit-intent technology. Both moments are when the visitors’ attention is at its peak.
  2. Guide. Guides can be created based on the queries from your audience or your best-performing blog posts. Ideally, you want a guide to be relevant to the page it is offered on. For instance, in exchange for a subscription, Business Know-How offers a free guide with 33 ways to build an email list. It’s promoted on the pages relevant to the topic of email marketing and you get the link to download it via email once you confirm your subscription.
  3. Toolkit. A “toolkit” is an umbrella term used for curated lists of helpful resources: tools, formulas, templates, and insights. For example, Semrush, a well-known SEO platform offers a toolkit for creating a successful PPC campaign. What makes their lead magnet offer truly tempting is a brief summary of what exactly is included to the toolkit and how long approximately it will take you to implement the tips shared there.
  4. Cheatsheet. A cheat sheet is just a concise set of notes for quick reference conveniently summarizing lengthy and often technical pieces of content. People love cheat sheets because they are time savers and typically provide complex information in a digestible format. You’re likely to see them on IT-related blogs offering cheat sheets for using a specific technology.
  5. Checklist. This is another great opportunity to repurpose some of your popular blog posts into a lead generation incentive. WPBuffs, a WordPress Website Support and Maintenance Company, offers 2 checklists to achieve high page loading times and make sure your WP website is secure as their lead magnet. When you download them, each one is literally a 4-page PDF with 12 checkboxes you can even conveniently print out if you want.
  6. Templates and spreadsheets. If your audience includes beginners at any niche, templates can be a winning format of a lead magnet for you. We’ve seen these incentives offered by bloggers teaching social media, photography and videography, realtors, web designers, and even healthy lifestyle magazines.
  7. Webinar access. If you’re planning to run a webinar on the topic you have unique expertise in, that could be a strong incentive for people to subscribe. Announce the date and time of the event and ask your website visitors to subscribe if they want to receive the access link. Jon Morrow, the founder of Smart Blogger successfully uses this technique to share his knowledge and attract new email subscribers.
Bottom line
As of now, email shows the highest ROI of all marketing channels. Therefore, even a 1% increase of your subscriber base will bring significant value for your business, and using lead magnets is one way to achieve that level of growing fast.
Our advice? If you’ve never tried using incentives to increase signups before, don’t go for perfection. For starters, pick a lead magnet you can create over a weekend, place it on the subscription popup, and A/B test the copy. Then optimize your offer until you see the desired conversions rates. Good luck!

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

How to Write Attention-Grabbing Email Subject Lines

A good email subject line is the key to getting your prospect's attention and getting your email opened. The more subscribers that open your emails, the more exposure you'll get for your products, services, or website. Here are four things that you should keep in mind to write email subject lines that get your messages opened and read.

Are you happy with the results of your recent email campaigns? Are they getting opened and acted on? If you are sending to a list of people who have asked to be on your mailing list and you're not getting good results when you send out mailings, the culprit could be your email subject line. The subject line of an email has the same function as a headline on an ad: Its purpose is to entice the viewer to read more. With a print headline, the headline merely has to encourage the reader to glance a little further down the page they are already reading. In an email, however, the subject line has to work harder. It has to be powerful enough to get the recipient to take the decisive action of clicking on the email so they can preview it or read it in full.
What kind of email subject lines will get your readers to click? Here are several guidelines to make your headlines more commanding:

Put Yourself in Your Reader's Shoes

Although there are a lot of variables, the most important one is that the subject line needs to appeal primarily to the recipient's self-interest, not yours. In other words, the subject line should focus on the reader and a goal he or she wants to achieve. For instance, suppose you are a web hosting company and you have an opt-in mailing list of web developers. You've started a new program where you'll pay a referral fee for new web hosting accounts and you want to make the developers on your mailing list aware of the new program. If you send out a mailing with a subject line that reads, "Partner with OurCompanyName and Succeeds," your open rate and response rate is likely to be low. The reason: Even though you include the word "succeed" at the end of the subject line, the focus of the subject line is what you want to happen -- partner with you. Change the email subject line to, "Earn Top Commissions on Web Hosting Referrals," and your open rate and response rate will increase because you'll be focusing on what your readers want to do - make more money. (The text of the email would obviously need to back up that claim and include a call to action that would get readers to call you or fill out a web form to sign up for the program.)

Make Your Subject Line Interesting

To get your email opened, your subject line has to make the recipients think "This is something I want to know more about now." To accomplish that, the subject line has to hint at the contents of the email and do so in a way that piques the reader's curiosity.
Bland subject lines, even if they have some relevance to the reader, won't cut it. There are just too many emails constantly vying for their attention. 
Yes, this is the monthly newsletter you promised to send, but using "MyCompany Monthly News - Issue 10" as your subject line offers no hint at what's inside or why it's worth reading. Instead, make your subject line read "Convert More Leads - Free Workshop," or “Get more vacation for less money," Or, "What's killing your lawn?" Make your business name or your name - if that's what people expect to see - show in the From line so the email is identified with your business.

Appeal to Their Emotions

Although most people like to think that their decisions are made logically, emotion usually plays an important role, too. That's especially true when the decision involves which emails to open in an inbox and which to delete. When time is an issue - and it almost always is when someone's weeding through emails--subject lines that trigger emotions are more likely to get opened than those that don't. Here are some of the most common emotional triggers.
  1. Avoidance
  2. Belonging
  3. Competitiveness / one-upmanship
  4. Convenience / simplicity
  5. Curiosity
  6. Ego enhancement
  7. Exclusivity
  8. Fear
  9. Financial gain
  10. Financial loss
  11. Guilt
  12. Indulgence/ personal gratification
  13. Power
  14. Needs
  15. Peace of Mind
  16. Scarcity
  17. Self-Improvement
  18. Social influence (social proof)
  19. Stress Reduction
  20. Time-Saving Ability
  21. Trust
  22. Value
Find a way to incorporate words that trigger emotions related to your subject matter, and your response rate will improve.

Keep Subject Lines Short

Your entire subject line doesn't always show in your recipient's inbox. The smaller the screen the person is using to read their mail, the fewer words will be displayed. Thus, if the subject line you write says, "Our new back pain therapy kills patients' need for drugs," what the reader may see is:
"Our new back pain therapy kills patients"
So, put the important words at the beginning of your subject. Remember, a large number of the people on your email list are probably opening your email on their phone.

Email Marketing Best Practices - 9 Tips

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Simple But Effective Steps To Increasing Your Email Open Rate

Are you an email marketer losing nights on how to improve your email open rate? If you answered yes to this question, then grab a glass of chilled water and read this piece to the end.
To many, email marketing is plummeting but that's a pure lie. If you own a business and you are yet to start building your list, is a time you start.
Why build a list you may ask?
It is simple: the email list gives you full control of your prospects and leads. If you depend on Facebook or any of the social media platforms, the owners could just wake up and set a new rule that might take you some time to implement in your business.
With an email list, no one makes and changes rules for you. You have your subscribers and sends broadcast whenever you want.
But the problem often associated with email marketing is how to increase email open rates and this can be done without losing nights.
Yes, you heard that right.
Follow these simple steps to increase your email open rate.
Write Engaging And Valuable Content
Your subscribers subscribed to your list because they are interested in the information that you promised delivering to them. And to keep them continuously interested in you, you have to consistently deliver on your promise.
In delivering your promise, you have to focus on delivering value to your list first before pitching - deliver more valuable content.
And remember, creepy content will cause your subscribers to lose interest in you. So strive to always deliver quality content at all times.
Clear, Concise And Compelling Headline
The subject headline is where you make your first impression, the first thing your subscribers see whenever they receive your email is your headline, and their decision on whether to open your email or not is in a way determined by your headline.
You must always strive and dedicate ample time to crafting a clear, concise and compelling subject headline which by merely skimming through it will let them know what is in it for them.
Nobody wants to waste his/her time on what doesn't add value to his life. If you are really dead serious about increasing your open rate, you must try as much as you can to stop using a vague headline. Always ensure that your headline is relevant to the body of your email.
There's not as annoying as tricking someone with your headline to open your email, and the entire content is totally different from the headline.
Desist from such as it will only have one effect on your open rate - reduce your email open rate as a result of subscriber losing interest in you.
List Segmentation
This is another way of increasing your open rate but it has to be done with care. You could decide to segment your list in many ways. For example, it could be based on niche interest, purchase, opened messages or time since your last interaction. Splitting your list into segments helps you deliver high-quality content, high-quality blasts and by so doing, improve your email open rates.
Personalize Your Email
Just like every other marketing copy, your email is much more likely to be opened and engaged if it sounds like it is written to a particular person.
Write as if you are talking to a person sitting before - write to a person and not persons.
If this sounds difficult, get a picture, place it before you and write as if you are talking to the person on the photo directly.
This level of familiarity will engage the subscriber and encourage him to keep opening your emails in the future.
Optimize Your Email For Mobile
Many have actually neglected this aspect in their email marketing. But it is actually one thing you mustn't joke with because 41% of email opens now happen on mobile.
And for you to grab your own share of this number, you must optimize your emails' layout on mobile so that it renders very well on mobile.
If it doesn't render well, it will cause people to lose interest in opening your emails since they can't read it and this will result in a low open rate.
Subject Headline Length
Hitting the right number of the subject headlines is important because some email programs cut off some characters from a lengthy headline.
It is advisable that your headline should contain 50 characters. But it doesn't still mean that 40 or 60 characters won't work. But for you to achieve the maximum result, 50 characters is the general rule of thumb.
Send As A Person, Not As A Brand
If you are observant you will notice that most of the big brands send out their emails as a person and not as a brand.
They are not stupid for doing that. They actually understand the effectiveness of sending emails as a person and not as a brand.
People want to get in touch with real people and not inanimate objects.
Email marketing is not dead; it is still one of the best marketing strategies out there with its results speaking for it.
Always strive to make your emails stand out because you are competing with a very busy inbox, full of work, marketing, and promotional emails.
And once your emails stand out from others, your email open rate will skyrocket.
Thanks for stopping by to read this piece; we would love to hear from you via the comment section.
Website URL: http://onlinebusinesspool.com
Facebook page URL: https://facebook.com/onlinebusinesspool

5 Ways To Increase Your Email Open Rates

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Your 2019 Guide on How to Use Video in Email Marketing

It's not news that video is at the forefront of marketing these days.
From creating videos for your website to hosting Facebook Live sessions, this marketing tool has transformed from a nice-to-have to a must-have if you want to effectively engage with your audience and build a loyal following who will be more apt to purchase from you.
Video-based marketing is a great way to stand out from the multiple messages people get in their inboxes every day, not to mention how effective it is on social media.
This article focuses on using video in your email marketing. Keep reading for the technical parts of utilizing video in your email marketing and the creative aspect for some inspiration.
I've talked about using video many times in the past, but in case you're still not convinced or didn't think to use video in your email marketing efforts, it's time to pay close attention. According to a study done by SuperOffice, including video in emails led to open rate increases of six percent (the average open rate across industries is about 25 percent).
Some other benefits of video marketing:
• It saves time. You can create short, engaging pieces of video much more quickly than it will take you to write an 800-word blog. It also gives info to your viewer in an easy-to-understand way.
• It can help SEO. Your Google search ranking can improve if your footage is viewed and shared by enough people.
• It's cost-effective. You don't need CGI effects or animation to make something great. A video can be much more affordable to produce than a blog or ad.
• It grabs attention. Especially when added into your newsletter, a video captures your audience's attention and compels them to want to watch.
First, the Technical Part of Video Email Marketing
Before you start brainstorming ways to use video in an email, you need to know how it plays in different email clients.
There are over 30 major email clients, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Yahoo Mail, and some of them don't support the requirements for using an email with a video.
Traditionally, marketers would use HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language) to code HTML video directly into an email, but recipients with certain email clients aren't able to play it. Many popular email providers will only show a fallback image, and your marketing message will be lost in the crowd.
Fortunately, some of the popular services like MailChimp, Constant Contact and AWeber make it easy to share across all providers by using a screen capture image of your video and linking it to your original content on your blog, YouTube, Vimeo or similar sites.
This gives the appearance there's actually video in your email and avoids technical issues with your email provider.
Instead of having to learn HTML5, there are also 3rd party services that can create a video snippet for you to include right in the body of your newsletter. In fact, I did this in a recent newsletter of ours!
Check out Playable to embed a short video in your next newsletter. Playable will replace the video with an image of your choice if the email service provider doesn't support the video technology.
>> Learn more about the features of our favorite email providers.
No matter what eNewsletter tool you use, it's crucial to test your campaign before you send it out. You'll need to have accounts on all of the popular email platforms so that you can see how your footage works in each of them.
Sound like a lot of work? Trust a professional marketing company that's been helping clients create successful eNewsletter campaigns since 2003.
Next, Make Sure You're Mobile
According to Hubspot, mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens. That means you have to ensure you're keeping smartphones in mind when you're email marketing with video.
Fortunately, eNewsletter providers such as MailChimp and Constant Contact let you test and see how your messaging will look before you send it out.
It's still important to keep the file size as low as possible so the video doesn't need to buffer to start playing. Mobile devices don't have the fastest download speed.
A good tip is to take a 10-second snippet of your video to use in the newsletter. That snippet can then link to the full feature on your blog.
Also, always make sure the autoplay is off, especially on mobile. Most people don't appreciate having something start playing (often noisily) as they sit in the office or on a bus; they prefer to click on Play themselves.
Now, On to the Creative Part
With the technical stuff out of the way, let's look at how you can actually create content that will engage your viewers and get you more visitors to your website.
You need a plan with clear objectives or else you're just sending content out into the world and hoping it will be seen and loved.
Why are you creating this campaign? To generate leads, brand awareness, followers...?
Once you've identified your objectives and goals, you can start thinking about actual email, and the content you want to produce.
As mentioned, host the full-length video in a blog post, landing page or even on social media and then plan to incorporate a "sneak peek" of that video in your email marketing campaign, linking to the full-length version.
Here are six tips and inspiration to get you started:
1. Use the word "video" in your subject line to make your message stands out.
2. Promote an event. Let's use a law office as an example. We created a short video using Wave. Video for one of our clients, A Family Law Firm, to promote an upcoming seminar they were hosting.
3. Offer tips. When it comes to email marketing with video, users want short, digestible clips. A "Top 5" or "4 ways to improve" will get more attention than a 2-minute creation of you trying to explain a product.
4. Create a series. This is a great way to keep people engaged with your expertise, as long as what you're providing is valuable to them. Stay away from a five-part series on your latest offering. Instead, solve a problem.
Using the law firm video marketing again as an example, you could set up a list-building campaign and do a four-part video series on ways to prepare for a separation or divorce:
• Part 1: DIY or hire a lawyer?
• Part 2: Filing the necessary paperwork
• Part 3: Dividing assets
• Part 4: Supporting your children
5. Make tutorials. Your product or service solves a problem, so how can you showcase this to your clients? Educate your viewers with a short explanation of how your product or service will improve their lives, using real-world examples.
6. Think outside the box. Now, we don't all have the budget outdoor company Patagonia does; however, look at how they've integrated amazing footage into their email campaigns. It doesn't focus on their surfing gear, but it's relevant to their customers.
Whether you're a life coach shooting some footage while you're on vacation or a wellness provider offering viewers a glimpse of your dinner prep process, get creative and get shooting!
Email marketing with video can be incredibly powerful, increasing your open rates, engagement, leads, and sales substantially.
However, not every email should contain one. If you start using this marketing tactic every time you send out an e-newsletter to your subscribers, they'll stop paying attention. Think of it as one way to stand out from the crowd, but don't neglect your other tactics.
Crafting an eNewsletter campaign with video (or without), choosing the right email provider, testing and monitoring open rates and engagement is a tough job. And, it needs to be done well or else you'll end up alienating and losing subscribers.
Susan Friesen, the founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having a lack of knowledge, skill, and support needed to create their online business presence.
As a result of working with Susan and her team, clients feel confident and relieved knowing their online marketing is in trustworthy and caring hands so they can focus on building their business with peace of mind at having a perfect support system in place to guide them every step of the way.
Visit http://www.ultimatewebsiteguide.ca and download your FREE "Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Website's Profitability - 10 Critical Questions You Must Ask to Get Maximum Results".