Email marketing is still one of the most vital tools available for online marketers.
It doesn’t matter what kind of online business you run, if you are not doing marketing by sending out emails, you are missing out big time.
I checked in multiple sources – I didn’t get the precise number.
But the projected stats say that there were roughly about 4.1 billion email accounts that were in use in 2014.
And, that the number will increase to 5.6 billion by the end of the decade.
That’s quite a big number isn’t?
I will not go much deeper into the stats of how many emails are sent per day and so on.
But the point is this – if you are ignoring doing marketing via emails, you are failing to make the most out of your marketing efforts.
And not just that! Email marketing has various other benefits added to it.
One of the main things I like about it is that you have the privilege to land on someone’s inbox to deliver your message.
This is unlike other modes of communication.
For instance, when you write a blog post or a social media update, it is for the masses. It is not for one person.
You put it on a common platform that is accessed by many people (visitors on your blog or on a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter).
However the message you send to your reader’s inbox is something special.
It is read by that person in a personalised environment. It is a very personal experience for you both – to you and to your reader.
And this “personalised” bond makes the messages you send very effective.
Both in terms of relationship building and in terms of marketing, email is a great way to make it work.
Now, coming to the topic of this post – I’m someone who loves to do things strategically.
Of course you can just jump in to do something based on the tips you read from various blogs.
But devising a strategy that would suit your blog, your business and your audience is the best way to go about it.
It is because not all tips that work for other bloggers will work for you as every business and its audience are unique.
I am going to discuss 5 crucial aspects that are necessary to devise a killer email marketing strategy that will suit your business and your audience.
Here we go!
Oh what is “establishing authority” doing here – in a post that talks about email marketing? I see that most bloggers relate authority to content marketing.
They assume that they just have to create good quality content for the sake of content marketing.
But building authority and establishing your expertise is something that helps you in various aspects of your business.
People don’t simply read blogs, do business or even give their email address to some unknown guy or girl.
In order to accomplish a wide variety of stuff from attracting traffic to your website to selling your product to one of those visitors you need to have established authority in your field.
I hate to repeat this – but people simply won’t read your blog and/or buy stuff from you if you are Mr/Ms. someone.
What are YOU known for in your industry? How much of an expert you are in your niche?
What problems of people can you solve? How experienced are you with something?
Does your blog/website display your authority very clearly?
You might be an expert in “X” but does your website bring out your expertise? Do you share authoritative advice/tips on your website?
[clickToTweet tweet=”Do your visitors know who you are?” quote=”Do your visitors know who you are?” theme=”style4″]If not, your visitors won’t be able to understand your authority! That’s plain simple. If you don’t put it out, they won’t know it.
Examine your website and your content strategy. Does all the content on your website align with your level of authority?
Does your website clearly lay out your expertise? If not, its time to do a make over.
Be it your about page, or a widget on your sidebar or the copy on your landing page and/or your blog posts – do they actually tell your visitors about your authority?
If not, you cannot expect them to give you their email address!
Let’s assume you have a beautiful website.
Say, that website of yours establishes your authority – your blog posts are top notch, packed full of valuable information.
Let’s assume you’ve got solution for every possible problem in your niche.
Congratulations.
But that is NOT enough. You have to make the bond – Tsaheylu! Otherwise all your efforts might go useless.
Without a connection, your visitors will hesitate to give their email to you. If they don’t join your list you cannot do email marketing, right?
You have to infuse your personality in your site. Does your site have an About page?
Are there any pictures of you in your website? Do your visitors know who is behind your blog?
Here’s an example of yours truly in this website’s home page:
How personalised are your blog posts? Do you share your own personal experiences, successes, failures, case studies, etc.?
Even though you don’t have to share too much personal information on your blog, sharing a little bit of personal stuff helps make the bond very quickly.
When people can clearly see who is behind the blog and what that person’s personality is, they can easily connect to you and relate to what you are saying!
OK. Assuming all goes well up to this point. Let’s assume that your reader has fallen for your authority and that he/she has bonded with you. Tsaheylu is done!
Now he/she wants to give you his/her email address. Have you made it easier for him/her?
I am SO surprised to see, even in this era, that there are many blogs which don’t even have a sign up form in one of the most prominent places.
What are those prominent places?
These are a few examples.
If you make your visitor to do 5 clicks before they can find out the optin form where he/she can submit the email address, you cannot be surprised if they don’t sign up!
Coz they won’t!
The internet is a place for busy people and your site is not the only place where they can get the information they want; even if they like you, it doesn’t mean they should do all the stunts to get on your email list.
Take a good look at your website and see if you have all the conversion elements in place.
Is there at least one optin form on your sidebar?
Do you have an optin form at the end of your blog post (so people can subscribe as soon as they have finished reading your post)?
Here’s an example:
These two are the very basic places where you can put up optin forms and make it easier for your readers to subscribe.
There are other places as well! Your About page, your Home page, as a strip just below your header, a sticky form at the end of your sidebar, a slide in form, a sticky form at the end of your site – these are some of the other options!
Now the story doesn’t end soon after you have managed to collect the email addresses of your readers.
You think that’s an achievement? That’s right!
You think your job is well done? That’s right too!
You think you can live happily ever after? Yup that’s right! But the story doesn’t end there!
You managed to impress your reader with your awesome content and with your authoritative voice.
You managed to impress your audience with your high quality content on your professionally designed website.
And now you have made the bond and you have started a relationship with your casual reader.
Your casual reader is now your loyal reader! Now, you have to continue providing value.
In fact you have to “UP” the value after they have joined your email list. You have to offer them highly valuable, exclusive content.
More importantly, don’t make them regret for joining your email list!
This is one of the most crucial, yet one of the most ignored aspects of email marketing.
Many bloggers think that they can simply ignore their subscribers as soon as they join their list.
They think that once they have received the email address, their subscribers have become “theirs”.
While this is true to some extent, it doesn’t mean you “own” your subscribers until you contact them regularly.
There is no point in having their email address if you don’t communicate your message to them.
Heck! There is no point in having a relationship if you do not communicate, right? So what is the point?
If you don’t stay in touch with your subscribers, your email marketing strategy is a #FAILURE.
You can simply forget about email marketing altogether if you don’t care to email your subscribers every now and then.
Now, I am not going to give you a specific frequency with which you should be contacting your subscribers.
It depends on your business and your audience.
Some businesses require that they send out emails everyday – say, in the case of coupon or deal sites – they would want to email the deals of the day to their subscribers.
For some businesses once or twice a week is the mark.
I’d say, a minimum of once a week should be fine – but I leave it to you. Nevertheless, be consistent.
If you don’t contact them often enough, you will be forgotten!
And people might even mark your messages as spam or unsubscribe simply because they don’t remember if they signed up for your newsletters!
That’s pathetic, right?
Here are the main points/message of this post:
1. First of all don’t ignore email marketing. If you do, you are missing out many goodies in the marketing department.
2. Second, do not just randomly follow some tips and go with the flow when it comes to email marketing.
Rather, devise a killer email marketing strategy that is tailored for YOUR business and YOUR audience.
3. Don’t miss out the 5 pillars I have discussed in this post when you are devising your killer email marketing strategy.
Let me know about your email marketing strategy.
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Hi Jane,
Great tips and I actually went back and improved my about page. I hadn't made any changes to it since my blog went live a year ago. I think it's important to go back and make changes as over time your blog will improve and need changes.
I agree email marketing is a huge part of building an online business. I've been trying to improve mine for a while.
These tips will definitely help me out. Thanks for sharing them and I hope you have a great one :)
Susan