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Community Connect -Current Trends in Email Marketing [video]

By Denise Wakeman

In this free Community Connect call, I share one of nine current trends in email marketing. The 7-minute clip is an introduction to the full one hour call focusing on 9 current email marketing trends. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Marketing Trends Tagged With: email list, email marketing, email newsletter

Six Ways to Boost the Visibility of Your Email List

By Stephan Hovnanian

Guest post by Stephan Hovnanian
6 ways to boost the visibility of your email list.You know that your email list is the most important marketing asset you have, even more so than your website (coming from a web designer that’s a big statement, but I believe it to be true).

Let’s say you agree, and let’s say that you have a really awesome email newsletter yourself. In this era where everybody under the sun is telling you to ditch the email newsletter in favor of social, how do you grow that list? I have some ideas for you…

Best practices

An important thing to remember when incorporating any new marketing idea is to test, test, test. But before you start testing, you should have the foundation of best practices in place. This way, as you test, you know that your newsletter, signup forms, and other fundamental pieces of your email strategy are rock-solid and will be there to help close the deal as you promote your list.

1. Make your email awesome

If your newsletter stinks, no amount of promotion is going to hold a subscriber for long. Be sure to have the entire signup process set up properly, with your welcome email, a clean,mobile-friendly design, and most importantly, content that will keep your subscribers wanting more.

2. Have a standalone signup page

email-list-subscribe-page

Nearly all of us use a signup form on our websites, either in the sidebar, a pop-up (we’ll talk about that in a minute) or near the bottom of our web pages. But those forms are all “passive intent”, meaning the visitor came to that page for another reason (the content itself) and decided after the fact to sign up for your newsletter. Why not have a “sales page” dedicated to capturing signups?

3. Use your signup page as a funnel

The sidebar/footer/pop-up form is great to have, and important, but you should include links in your copy dedicated to drive people to that signup page, where you can make a better pitch. You can also track conversions this way.

4. Put a subscribe link in the email itself

If your email is forwarded or shared, the new set of eyes viewing it has no way of signing up for their own copy of awesomeness…unless you have a link in your email to that dedicated signup page.

5. Include social sharing buttons (if appropriate for the message) in the email. 

They’ll link to your web version which, you guessed it, includes a signup link to your newsletter!

Boost your signup form’s visibility

Now that you have the essentials in place, it’s time to drive traffic and messaging to your email list signup page. Here are some ideas to test out:

1. Pop-ups, pop-overs, pull-downs oh my!

Love ’em or hate ’em, those pop-ups that ask visitors to sign up for your email list work. Instead of giving you research and examples, I’ll point you to this blog post by email marketing consultant DJ Waldow who already did the work for me here.

2. Post teasers before your newsletter drops, with a signup link

Post teasers on Facebook and Google+

Give your followers a heads-up that you have some exclusive content coming out in about 60 minutes (then 30, then 15), with a link to your signup form. [pullquote position=”right”]On Facebook and Google+, post an attention-grabbing photo that announces your upcoming newsletter.[/pullquote]

3. Set your list to “send last campaign” after your newsletter drops, then tweet/post the link

IMPORTANT: Don’t post a link to the actual newsletter on social, then you give your audience no incentive to sign up. You also dilute the exclusivity for your existing subscribers, who have given you their email address, only to find you posted the newsletter to everyone on the Internet. Not cool.

Instead, ask your Email Service Provider (ESP) if you can set your list to send the last campaign (your newsletter) to new signups, then you can promote the heck out of the fact your newsletter just dropped.

4. Do a Vine, Instagram or YouTube video about why people should sign up 

Video can invoke a level of trust for people who are hesitant to give out their email address, because we see people “face to face” and can read their human emotion in the video. Talking about what their email address means to you as a marketer is a fantastic way to bridge that gap, plus you’re taking advantage of a very hot part of online marketing today: VIDEO!

5. Create a pin on Pinterest that promotes exclusive content and links to your signup page 

Pinterest is fantastic for driving traffic to websites, and pins have a long life span compared to other posts that get pushed “down stream” in your followers’ news feeds. Bonus points: pin your YouTube video! 

6. Encourage audience participation 

DJ Waldow does a fantastic job with this (I’m a fan, what can I say). In his weekly newsletter, he has calls to action to tell him you’re interacting with his email (check out an example). This does three things: first, it makes the email fun and deepens his relationships with his subscribers. Second, it gives him valuable data to use when evaluating his campaign’s performance. Third, he can use those tweets and shout-outs to cross-promote his subscriber list AND his signup page.

Always Be Testing

Hopefully you’ll get some cool ways to boost the visibility of your email list. Some might work, some might bomb. But you’ll only know if you test! If you use any, I want to hear about them, so tweet me @stephanhov or +mention me on Google+.

Filed Under: List Building Tips Tagged With: email list, listbuilding, Stephan Hovnanian

Zero to Email List in 10 Days [review]

By Denise Wakeman

How to build an email list

Hot on the heels of the four part series on list builiding, this guest post by Sarah Arrow seemed appropriate to feauture. Sarah posted a comment in one of the list building articles and mentioned a WordPress plugin she had been using to quickly build a list on her blog. I checked out the plugin, WP Subscribers, and was impressed with the depth of options. It's now on my list to get and test.

Then, Sarah submitted this guest post, reviewing several pop-up list builiding plugins and I decided immediately that you could benefit from this information. Now before you get crazy on me, I know that pop-ups are controversial, and they work, so read with an open mind, check out the different options and then decide. Some of the plugins can be used in multiple ways and you do not have to implement the pop-up option.

Zero to Email List in 10 Days

If you are just starting out blogging or waking up to the the power of having an email list then this post is for you. Back in the summer I realised that my personal blog was growing fast and I actually needed to have an email list to support my blogging and maintain relations with my readers.

I did a little research and decided that as blogging is a business – it costs me time and effect to create useful blog posts.  I needed to grow my email list with more than a half-hearted effort. I decided that I would use a pop-up to capture the data as I had read that they were the most effective list building tools. I know not everyone likes them and some people are Pop-Up blind and just automatically close them but they still work, so I'd give them a try. At the very least I'd have enough research and testing to be able to write blog post about them.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: List Building Tips, Marketing Trends Tagged With: build a list, email list, list building, pop-up

Expert List Building Tips – Part 4

By Denise Wakeman

How to build an email list

Expert list building tips concludes with a final installment with seven more ideas you can implement to to build your list and increase the number of people you can serve. If you missed the first three posts, you can catch up here:

Expert List Building Tips – How to Build a Responsive and Lucrative List

Expert List Building Tips – Part 2

Expert List Building Tips – Part 3

The question: What's your #1 tip for building a responsive and lucrative list?

The answers…

15.  A master at building community by offering tremendous value…

Video transcript:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, List Building Tips Tagged With: email list, list building, listbuilding

Expert List Building Tips – Part 3

By Denise Wakeman

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List building tips continue with seven more ways you can build your list. If you missed the first two posts, catch up here:

Expert List Building Tips – How to Build a Responsive and Lucrative List

Expert List Building Tips – Part 2

Onward with the answers to the question: What's your #1 tip for building a responsive and lucrative list?

8. More proof that giving away high-value content pays off, from an Internet marketing legend.

My most successful list-building effort, in terms of the size of list built and profit, was achieved by offering something of extremely high perceived value.  An offer they couldn't refuse.  It should hurt to give it away – that's the test.  We ended up selling over $750,000 to that list a few months after we built it.
 
Look around your market and check out what everyone is offering for free and paid, and "simply" capitalize by offering something truly unique and irresistible.  Opt-in rates for an irresistible offer should be around 60-70% or more.  Settle for nothing less!  You don't have a winning offer until you are at those rates or above, in my opinion.  Also look for the hottest trends that haven't totally taken off yet in your market and get something together related to that trend to capitalize when it hits big.
 
~ Jack Humphrey,  Bending the Web

[Read more…]

Filed Under: List Building Tips Tagged With: email list, list building, listbuilding

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