Lesson Category: Email Marketing

Actionable takeaways for successful email marketing

• Start building a list once you’re getting ~100 visitors per day
• You don’t have to do everything perfectly; just test & pay attention to results
• Start simple. You can always iterate & expand down the road… take things a step at a time
• Don’t give too little, but don’t give too much either
• Once you have a basic sequence that’s doing alright, iterate!
  • “Don’t deactivate… iterate!”
  • Begin segmenting, building out add-on sequences, getting better at copywriting, etc.
• You will not become a boss email marketer overnight… but you don’t need to be a boss at it to make it very worthwhile

• How often should I email?
  • Some people swear by daily emails… I try to be more respectful
  • It really depends on your target audience, and requires testing
  • You want to find a balance between too much and too little
    • Never email just for the sake of emailing
    • But also don’t let your list “go cold”
  • NOTE: Open rates should be somewhere between 10% – 20% minimum
• How to write effective emails
  • Keep your value related to your offering/conversion event
  • Don’t make the mistake of adding TOO much value
  • The moment you give away too much for free… you lose
  • General rule of thumb: Is everything you do mutually beneficial?
    • This is how you will maximize your revenue
    • They should never lose, but neither should you
  • Copywriting will be covered down the road, but some quick rules of thumb…
    • Better results from story-based emails than feature-based
    • Research “Seinfeld” sequences and “Soap Opera Sequences” (SOS)
    • Read a bit about “open loops” in regards to copywriting

Is it okay to purchase an email list instead of building one from scratch?

• This is basically the worst possible thing you can do as an email marketer.
• Just flat-out: Don’t do it. It’s not a shortcut… it’s a PITA.

When & how to do this:

• Make sure you’re getting at least 100 visitors/day
• Create a “lead magnet” that’s impossible-to-refuse by your target audience
• Cast multiple “nets” on your site to lead them to this lead magnet
• Aim for 8% – 10% site-wide opt-ins minimum (based on unique visitors)
• Let’s take a look at my sites for demonstration purposes…

• Really good autoresponder features that you want, even if you’re not using them immediately:
  • Tag subscribers based on links they click, pages they visit, and other actions
  • Trigger emails based on conversion events, pages visited on your website, timing, etc.
  • Automate the sending of multiple “phases” of messaging, depending on time & conversions
• Small sample of cool things you can do with all of the above
  • Segmenting your subscribers based on experience level to “choose their own adventure”
  • Stop sequences once conversion events take place; jump the subscriber to the next sequence
  • Supplement your email marketing with other forms of marketing using integrations

Pretty much all autoresponders can do all of the following:

• Build opt-in forms & integrate with landing page software
• Store subscriber information
• Allow you to send email blasts to some or all of your list (broadcasts)
• Allow you to build out an automated “drip” sequence where you control messaging & timing

• Most important factors to consider:
  • Mission critical: Deliverability
  • Automation features & integrations
  • Thought leadership & innovation
  • Customer support
  • Reporting
  • Ease of use
  • Pricing (cheap ≠ good)
• Other important notes…
  • Mailchimp doesn’t allow affiliate marketing
  • Aweber was a leader for years, but many recommendations for them are outdated
  • Personally, my choice based on the criteria just shared is Drip (stoppingscams.com/drip)
    • ActiveCampaign is also good, but I think Drip will win out in the long run
  • DO NOT VIOLATE your autoresponders TOS… you’ll have a bad time

• The Focus of Email Marketing is profiting from relationships
  • But if you want longevity, relationship should ALWAYS come before profit
• Component #1: Relationship
  • Ideally, your relationship with the subscriber will never end
    • Impossible to achieve universally, but it should be your “touchstone”
  • This requires a great deal of nurturing and attentiveness, just like any relationship
  • Requires regularly bringing value and new perspective
  • The more “aha” moments you provide, the higher you’ll boost your credibility
• Component #2: Profiting
  • Email marketing’s superpower over any other medium: maximizing lifetime value (LTV)
  • Amateur internet marketers stop at the initial conversion… pros maximize LTV
  • The higher your LTV per subscriber, the more of a “heavyweight” you can become in your industry
    • “The business that can pay the most per conversion wins.”