Ever wondered how to make your email marketing messages a big success? Look no further. In this article you’ll discover 5 important tips to build your list, generate high quality leads and grow your revenue with compelling content.
#1 Use email marketing for long term success
Did you know email marketing is highly effective if you do it the right way? Don’t go for the quick sale, but keep sending messages with a consistent and frequent pace to help your subscribers grow their business. Think long term and build a relationship with your audience ready to buy your products and services. Make sure your new subscribers know what to expect. Tell them that you offer them help with tutorial content and occasionally offer them a great tool to support their business. Manage their expectations and be patient.
#2 Attract your audience with cookie content
Start building your list by generating web traffic. Make sure your audience doesn’ t miss your opt-in form. Start attracting your audience with cookie content (a term used by Sonia Simone; Co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger). Cookie content is the type of content that makes your receivers begin salivating the moment they see it. Just like Pavlov’s classical conditioning with dogs and cookies.
Think of content like your own blog posts, guest posts, videos, audio or content shared via social media. If you don’t have your own blog site, start writing for other people’s blogs. The secret power of guest blogs are twofold: increase your reach and generate backlinks (links from other blog sites to your site). These inbound links improve your search engine ranking. This will improve your visibility and increase your number of opt-ins!
Create amazing tutorial videos on YouTube – max. 3 minutes- to make your content stand out. Use screen recording software to create simple but highly effective how to tutorials.
If you want to avoid 13 big mistakes with content marketing, read ”How to avoid 13 big mistakes with content marketing“.
#3 Increase your reach via social media
Social media thrive by sharing content. To make sure your content gets noticed, you need an audience. Use all major social media channels -Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ and YouTube to increase your reach. Don’t forget to connect with key influencers in your niche market.
Start by following other Twitter accounts, connect via Facebook, add people to your Google+ circles and invite people via Linkedin. Enter smart keywords in the social search engines to get the best people search results.
As soon as others start following you, you’ll improve your reach. Approach others with a sincere intention of building a relationship first. Selling to your list comes next. Share other people’s content. If your content is any good, they’ll soon start sharing yours too. Build your reputation and be consistent with what you share and how you do it. Plan what you publish, when you share and with whom. Create a smart promotional strategy with a multi-channel and cross-channel approach. Use an editorial and promotional calendar to manage this all.
#4 Lead your audience to your landing page via Google Adwords
Besides ‘free’ traffic -like blog posts, Facebook shares or retweets- consider paid traffic via Google Adwords (Pay-per-Click / PPC).
For successful PPC marketing you need 3 things: sufficient budget, laser targeted keywords and an inviting landing page (single webpage) with high conversion. Write your landing page as an attractive and persuasive sales-letter. Write personal, step in your audience shoes. Add a lot of value and offer a bonus like a free multi-media e-book or an expert interview via a podcast or video.
Follow these guidelines to create conversion content on your landing page. For every benefit you include in your offer, ask yourself: so what? Tell your audience what each benefit means for their business. Always follow this simple structure: define the problem, offer the solution. End your landing page with an offer they can’t resist. Lead your audience to your opt-in form, ask for their name and email first. Don’t use your landing page to sell them something. Use your email list to offer them your special tools under the radar. Always relationship first, the sale follows later!
To receive more tips on Google Adwords, read this article: “7 Tips for effective Google Adwords campaigns“.
#5 Help your audience make a decision
Build a sense of urgency. Help your audience make a decision. Tell them exactly what to do. Explain the next step. Tell them what they can expect. Stress the unique and limited offer. Use clear calls to action and compelling headlines. Make it personal with adding your profile picture or your personal success stories. If possible – add recommendations by others.
This blog post is part of a series to share my special ins and outs on email marketing. Come back, next week, to learn more on how to create persuasive landing pages and how to use autoresponders to grow your business 24/7. Subscribe to one of my special start up packages to learn more on list building and lead generation via the social web. Oh yeah, don’t forget, in less than 2 weeks it’s Christmas time!
I love to hear more from you. Please leave your reaction or question in the comment box below.
Juan is also the senior editor and contributing author of Nieuwe Media Gids. An online magazine to support Dutch entrepreneurs and marketers with new media marketing.
Juan writes for one of the 4 major magazines in the US, fb&business, where he shares his latest insights on Facebook for business.
