In this post I will be giving you the how to email marketing for beginners guide to profitable campaigns so you can expand and grow your business to the next level.
In the next 5 minutes, you will have a firm grasp of email marketing and be able to get started and build your first list so you can form deeper relationships with your customers and expand your business.
There are only 3 main components needed to get your e-mail marketing campaigns up and running.
How To Get Started With E-mail Marketing – The 3 Component Parts Explained
Introduction To E-Mail Marketing
Why You Should Build A List If You Want To Grow Your Business.
Put in simple terms, if you send a new customer to a sales page the conversion rate can be as low as 1%, if however you send the same customer to a sales page after you have built a relationship with them through e-mail marketing the conversion rate can be up to 40%. This stark fact alone should be enough to motivate you to get started with e-mail marketing.
The money is in the list!!
You may have heard this statement before from marketers and web masters alike, the truth is a little more complex.
The money is in the relationship that you build with your list.
If your intention is to build an e-mail list so you can send them endless messages with affiliate links and sales pitches in them, you are going to be very disappointed with the results you get for all your efforts.
When it comes to e-mail marketing, the money is in the back end of your business, not the front end.
At the front end of e-mail marketing you can make a few dollars but at the back end you can make thousands of dollars.
The 3 Massive Advantages To Building A List.
1. The most important reason to build an E-mail list, is that it will become your most valuable long term asset for your business, once you have people on your list and providing they do not unsubscribe, then you can build a loyal following, who will actually want to buy your products. Its not hard to sell to people who are eager to buy what you have.
2. The second really important reason to build a list if your a webmaster or online marketer, is that you don’t want people to visit your website and then leave without ever hearing from them again,
A lot of people who rely solely on SEO to get traffic to their blog are taking a huge risk with their business, as Google is constantly changing the goal posts and websites that were once making money suddenly drop off the chart.
3. If you don’t build a list you are effectively handing control of your business to Google, but if you have a list, then what Google does no longer matters to you, as your list becomes your property and no one else’s. This is the main reason list building has become the most essential marketing tool in recent years and will always remain so.
Part 1 – An Introduction To Autoresponders.
There is, among many new online marketers a strong urge to do everything on the cheap or for free.
When deciding on which autoresponder to use, I would strongly urge you to avoid this type of mindset, unless you absolutely have to.
If you own a website, it’s advisable to treat your website as a real business and invest a small amount in it, to make it profitable.
Compared to offline businesses the set up costs of an online business are tiny in comparison, I spent $30,000 to set up my electrical installer business, and that is not including all the ongoing costs which are endless.
To set up this online business I only have to invest in a domain some web hosting and an autoresponder, all in all about $300 per year, I think would agree this is incredibly cheap in comparison.
You get what you pay for and if you are trying to build an online business, it’s much better in the long run to pay for a professional autoresponder, there are free ones but they always come at a price, free is never really free.
The good news is that even the very best autoresponders like Getresponse are really cheap to get started and come with free 30 day trials for you to try them out first. There are about 5 big main autoresponder services out there, my own preference is Getresponse.
What Exactly Is An Autoresponder, And How To Get Your Message Heard.
An autoresponder is an online cloud based service that handles all your email marketing campaigns, it’s where you can create your opt in forms and write your email messages.
Autoresponders allow you to have pre-written emails set up in a sequence, so when someone opts in to your list, they receive a confirmation and welcome emails automatically as well as any other e-mails that your have set up for them to receive, commonly known as an e-mail sequence.
The really big benefit of setting this up is that you don’t need to be there when someone opts in, its all done automatically, so your business is effectively running 24 hours a day even when you are asleep, there are few business models that can boast of that kind of automation and efficiency.
You can also send, what are called “broadcasts” to your list, this is an e-mail that is not in your sequence, that you can send to multiple people on your list at once at any time you wish to.
One of the really great functions of Getresponse is that they allow you to send your emails at the time of your choosing, so if you send e-mails in one time zone, you can set these emails to arrive at the appropriate time in the recipients time zone.
Having the ability to set when your emails arrive at the recipients inbox will give you a definite advantage as your open rates will increase if your email arrives at certain times of the day and go down at other times.
Studies have shown that the optimal arrival time for your emails is about 11:am in the recipients time zone.
E-mail Open Rates
The beauty of using an autoresponder is that it automates to some degree you’re marketing, if someone signs up to your list at 3 am, your autoresponder will be activated and the pre-prepared campaign that you have already built will begin to send your messages, without you needing to be there.
What To Look For When Choosing An Autoresponder.
- Deliver-ability
- Functionality
- User Friendliness
- Price
- Training
- Support
Like all services online, you really do get what you pay for, the free autoresponders may seem tempting, but there is always a downside to free online services, the main benefits of choosing one of the really top autoresponder services is they have been around for a long time, and done lots of testing.
It’s in their interest and yours to make their service perform at the highest level. The one I use has a really good level of support and training, which is essential when using any online software, the big autoresponder companies are always improving and innovating their software.
There is nothing more frustrating than struggling with software that is complicated to use and hard to figure out, many of the free services, lack the support and functionality needed for you to build effective e-mail marketing campaigns.
10 Winning Strategies For Building Profitable E-Mail Marketing Campaigns
Part 2 – Opt-In Forms And Landing Pages.
In this section I will explain the simplest ways for your potential subscribers to opt in to your list, the first thing to understand is that you need to give visitors to you website a really compelling reason to opt in to your list. Creating an opt in form is normally done inside your autoresponder and is relatively simple.
The opt in form is created by first setting up a campaign in your autoresponder and then creating an opt in form that will be associated with it. The opt in form is built using a simple visual drag and drop editor which will then generate a code snippet for you or your web designer to insert into your website. This will then connect your site to your autoresponder.
The opt in form is crucial as it connects your website to your specific pre-written autoresponder campaign, it is in effect an API (Application Program Interface), in plain English that mean a digital access key to your autoresponder service.
There are certain types of page building software’s that allow you to build an opt in form on your website and you will need to insert the API key into the software to connect your website to your autoresponder, I use thrive architect to build all my landing pages and forms, all autoresponders provide you with an API Key, this is just a short piece of code which you can copy and then past into the appropriate section of the software.
Thrive architect is highly functional and I use it to build many of the working parts of this site, I have been using it for many years and would now not be without it as it makes creating landing pages easy.
How To Create An Effective Opt-In Form- Every Little Detail Matters
I design email marketing campaigns for clients and the simple fact is, that the more fields that are in your form the lower the opt in rate will be, just use one extra field and your opt in rates may go down.
The words on the submit button really mater, using the second one implies that your potential subscribers will not have to wait for what you are offering, the online world is changing and so are peoples expectations, and most expect instant access without any delays.
So the words used in your submit button will make a significant difference in your opt in rates, every little detail really does matter.
Your opt in form can be placed anywhere on your website, on any page or post or in the side bar if you wish, depending on what your are offering as a reason to sign up to your list.
If you want people to sign up to receive notification for your latest published content, then the most effective place for your opt in form would be after your content.
If someone has read all of your article, you can be quite sure that they are interested in your niche and will make much more responsive subscribers, as the main aim of building a list is to create a highly responsive list not just a big list, more subscribers does not equal more profits.
Small and highly targeted lists are what you really want to aim for so when you decide to promote any offers, the response you get from your list will be significantly increased if the people on your list are really interested in your niche and want what you are offering and so will be motivated to take action.
Using Landing Pages To Build Your List.
A landing page is a page built for a single purpose and in this case the purpose is to get people to opt in to your list, by offering them a free gift, usually this is a free report or any sort of information product, that solves a specific problem within your niche market.
The type of landing page needed for building a list is actually very simple, the whole focus is persuading people to opt in for your list by offering them a free gift in return for their email address, and so the product you give away is often called a lead magnet, or an ethical bribe.
How to Create And Set Up Effective Landing Pages.
There are a number of solutions for building landing pages, what ever type of website you are using, most people are using WordPress to build their websites and so you can use one of the many landing page plugins out there to create your landing page.
Your landing page should be simple in design and and be very tightly focused, in addition to this you will need a “thank you” page as well.
If you do not want to build your own landing page then use a web designer to create them for you, however these days its quite simple to build them your self.
One of the benefits of using Getresponse is that they also have their own drag and drop landing page builder which you can use to create and host your landing pages
The thank you page is the page your subscribers land on after they opt in to your list.
Building Effective Landing Pages That Convert Highly.
The design of your landing page will be instrumental in how high your opt in rate is, so it is essential to get it right first time, the reality is that there are thousands of different designs for landing pages and lots of conflicting advice on which design works best.
SIGN UP FOR MY NEWS LETTER
The Battle Of The Inbox
Asking people to sign up for your news letter is not going to work any more, because your news letter is about you, those days are over, you really need to give away something of high value and that’s in demand.
News letters still get used in e-mail marketing after people have opted into your list but its no longer effective to try and get people to sign up to get your news letter, most people have inboxes creamed full of emails and if you are just another one of those emails then your chances of building a profitable business with emails is close to zero
Don’t fall into the trap of ME Marketing!!!
Me marketing is without doubt the most common mistake I see online, remember no one is interested in you, they are only interested in what you can do for them. Who ever you are trying to market to, remember that there are two things that will appeal to almost any body no mater what the niche, and they are “saving time and saving money”. This is commonly called marketing to circumstances.
Part 3 – Creating Your Lead Magnet Or Free Giveaway
This is the most important part of your email marketing campaign and getting it right will mean the difference between success and failure as it will be the first experience your prospect has of your whole campaign and if you don’t deliver something of value then the chances of the people on your new list engaging wit you will be massively reduced
The Right Mindset To Have When Building Your List
The greatest mistake that marketers make when building a list is that they set out with the purpose of making money immediately from their list, this leads them to try and sell straight away and then sell all the time to the people on their list. They send offer after offer and wonder why no one responds or buys their products.
I strongly urge you to avoid this mindset as it will only bring you frustration and very little sales if any at all, remember you are not the only one in their inbox and most people are receiving constant offers from email marketers most of which are ignored. You need to stand out in the inbox and be remembered.
The Primary Purpose Of Building A List Should Be To Achieve Three Things
People buy from people that they know, like and trust!!!
If you set out to achieve these three things you will not make any money immediately but in the long term you will beat all your competition hands down every time, and people will open your email and engage with your brand. The sales will then follow naturally once your known and trusted by your customers.
If you do this right you will be in the top 3% of marketers that make all the money and not in the 97% of people who make only a few dollars if any at all. It does not take much to achieve this you will be surprised to hear, almost all your competition will be trying to sell all the time so if you implement a few simple things then you will be miles ahead of everybody else.
The SED formula for successful product creation
Simple
Effective
Desirable
- Give something away of great value.
- Send you leads to a thank you page with a video of you in it welcoming people to your brand
- Don’t try and sell anything in the short term.
- Use branding in your e-mails, picture of you, logo, background style, don’t just send plain white text, because that’s what everybody else is doing.
- Research your potential audience and find out what their frustrations and pain is, put your self in the mind of your customers
Give something away of high value, create something that saves time and money
Understanding And Getting To know Your Audience, Or Marketing To Circumstances.
What does marketing to circumstances mean?
There are two fundamental metrics that you need to pay attention to when marketing online.
Demographics
Circumstances
Example of someone’s demographics
- Age
- Location
- Sex
- Salary
- Occupation
- Interests
Example of someone’s circumstances
- In debt
- Frustrated
- Overwhelmed
- Time poverty
- Confused
- Lonely
- Low self esteem
- Anxious
- Depressed
- Afraid
Demographics are things that you are.
Circumstances are things that your in!!!
When deciding what to use as your free gift, think about their pain points and what it is that they are desperate to do, I can tell you without any doubt that if you create a simple product that saves them time and money your conversion rates will skyrocket. What ever product you create it needs to solve a problem quickly and easily.
The biggest mistake people make is trying to create a “solve all product” that takes them weeks and weeks of hard work, trying to write an information product that shows people how to solve a massive problem or gives them the every step from start to finish.
Discover The Awesome Power Of Resource Lists Or Nano Products.
Resource lists are easy and quick to create and solve a specific problem, they give instant gratification and are valued highly, you can create a resource list in a few hours, which means you don’t have to write a massive e book which I promise you most people will not read.
Example of resources lists
- The top 37 free online marketing tools
- The top 20 highest converting affiliate programs
- Ten top converting landing page designs
- Top 10 free iPhone photography apps
- Top 10 Free image creation and logo design websites
- The 5 must avoid foods when building muscle
- Top 10 Free wordpress plugins for marketers
Resource lists or Nano products get people on the first few steps of a ladder rather than trying to get them to climb the whole thing at once, small steps are what people desire, it avoids information overload which is a big problem in today’s world of information technology.
All of these types of lead magnets are easy and quick to create, and they will save your list time and money, all you have to do is perform a Google search to find the information that you need to create a high value and highly desirable resource list, that you can use as a product to give away on your landing page. All you need is a spread sheet or word document to create a resource list and your in business.
No one wants 6 week courses any more, they want instant gratification and a quick win, all the products listed above achieve this.
In Conclusion
The purpose of this article was to give you an insight into successful email marketing, while there are lots of people doing this, few are doing it successfully.
Please tell me in the comments below if there is anything else that you are struggling with. This is a new blog and I would love to know what else you would like to learn and if there are any specific things you are struggling with.
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