A7.8 Wrapping up 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

A7.7 Creating an effective email sequence

  • 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

A7.6 What about buying an email list?

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.

A7.5 How to build a list from a website that has traffic

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…

A7.4 Advanced autoresponder features & automation

  • 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

A7.3 Basic overview of autoresponder features

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

A7.2 Which email marketing/autoresponder platform should you use?

  • 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

A7.1 What email marketing REALLY is

  • 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.”
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