Tag: email list

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Marketing Sense

Do You Really Need to Use Email? (Part Two)

Marketing sense

In Part One we discussed how very valuable email is to our platform, and why using an email provider such as Aweber, MailChimp, Active Campaign, or others, was the best way to experience continued growth. Let’s continue the discussion in this article.

Is There a Charge to Use an Email Provider?

Virtually all bulk email providers offer a free level to start. Fees are based upon how many subscribers are on your email list.

The more subscribers–whether they open your emails or not–the higher your monthly fee. But don’t fret. For most of us, it takes years to get enough subscribers to warrant a significant monthly fee. (NOTE: It’s relatively pain free to move to another email provider if you so desire.)

Though free, don’t use Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo to send emails to your subscribers. In the early Internet years, these services were safe and free. They were the cool kids in town. 🙂

Years ago the marketplace, weary of spam, made room for better options. Along came MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, and Active Campaign, among others.

Email regulations became stricter as the decades added up. The latest round of regulations, released in February of this year, tightened email requirements even further, in part to reduce spam, which is rampant.

So…Is It Hard to Learn How to Use Email?

The Big Dog email companies like Active Campaign, Constant Contact, etc., offer free training, usually via video, which I prefer. You, too? 

As you research these companies for yourself, consider not only their cost but also their customer support. Sooner or later, you’ll need help. So find out what each offers before you sign up. This will reduce frustration ahead of time.

Is their support available 24/7 or only Monday-Friday? Can you reach them by phone day or night? Is there an additional charge for one-on-one assistance? Or do they only offer help via email? This information could make the difference between email success or failure.

Also be aware that some email providers only offer help via text on FAQ pages, so it’ll be up to you to dig through their documentation to figure out how to use their service. I don’t care for that approach. I’m guessing you don’t, either.

After choosing a provider, don’t let your new account lie fallow. The majority of these companies offers a free 30-day trial period. Take advantage of that time to learn the basics.

And conduct trial runs during this time. Ask up to 6 friends to be Test Subjects (guinea pigs). 🙂  Go through the full process of writing, uploading, scheduling, and sending perhaps 3 emails over a week’s time to these volunteers, to get comfortable with the process.

You’ll experience glitches here and there. We call that “learning.” 🙂 Give yourself grace, keep moving forward, offer great content, and your audience will grow.

Last step?

Close your computer and take a well-deserved break. Happy emailing!

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

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Marketing Sense

Welcome Email Series Example: Part 1

Marketing sense

When a new subscriber signs up for a Lead Magnet (those 3–10-page free resources we offer in exchange for a subscriber’s first name and email address), we’re wise to send them a Welcome email series.

Why?

To connect with them person-to-person instead of digitally “tossing” them the promised resource and then returning to whatever we were doing.

Below you’ll see the first of the four actual emails I sent when delivering–in this case–a free resource titled Titles That Fit. It coordinates with a workshop I delivered by that same name at a  conference.

Watch for the remaining three Welcome emails over the next three months.

(Notice the red asterisks and their coordinating, strategic comments after the email content.)

***

Email #1 Title: Do You Write Titles or Craft Them?

Content: Hi, [first name]! Good to (digitally) meet you at (insert conference title here ’23)!

I enjoyed serving you via my workshop, Titles That Fit.

Thanks very much for requesting my workshop’s Slide Deck. It will arrive *tomorrow. I pray you find it a valuable reference.

** For now, let’s chat about you, shall we? 🙂

What’s the difference between writing a title and crafting one?

The first seems simple. We begin our project with a working title then invest hours, months, or years writing our content. We know it well. Tweaking our title’s final version should be a cinch, yes?

Strangely, that familiarity can keep us from writing our best title. Why?

Because when we’re so close to our content, we often come up with a title that’s generic without realizing it. Trying to capture the overall concept, we may go too broad.

Imagine attending a party when a new acquaintance asks why you do / did love your spouse. How can you choose The Perfect Answer in only 30 seconds?

In such situations, we go wide instead of deep, weakening our answer at the very moment we want to be precise.

It’s like that with our titles sometimes.

On the other hand, great titles are crafted. Let’s talk about that next time.

Watch for my email ***tomorrow (unless today’s Sunday–then it will be sent out Monday).

It will include the link to my Slide Deck for Titles That Fit.

Till next time,

Patricia

**** P.S. I usually attend (insert name of conference here) but could not this year, so be sure to give me a hug at next year’s conference. Deal? 🙂

————————————–

Strategies for Email #1

In the Strategy List below, you’ll find a duplicate of every sentence above shown with an asterisk, then my strategy, so you don’t have to scroll up and down the page constantly. You’re welcome. 🙂

#1: It will arrive in your Inbox *tomorrow.

(Why not just send the Lead Magnet’s link with this first email or attach it to the email? Because I want a valid reason to connect with them again very soon after my initial contact.)

#2: **For now, let’s chat about you, shall we? 🙂

(The first three sentences in this paragraph contain our “business.”

In this fourth sentence in my first Welcome email, I turn the conversation fully upon the reader by sharing an awkward story describing a situation we’ve all suffered through. Writing in a conversational manner, I hope my choice of words creates a sense of “you and I are in this together” mindset for my reader.

If they’ve been in an awkward situation–even if it’s not the one I shared–we have an additional point of connection. That’s a good thing. 🙂

#3: Watch for my email ***tomorrow (unless today’s Sunday–then it will be sent out Monday).

(This is a casual, non-aggressive reminder that I fully intend to deliver the promised free resource, but not today. It’s bolded so it will draw their eye–they’re more likely to read it. And it’s above my signature instead of randomly placed in a paragraph “somewhere” on the page.

The italicized text lets my reader know I don’t send emails on Sundays.

This is a personal choice and not a typical one, so it needs to be mentioned. No need to explain how or why I made that decision; that’s not the point.

The point is if they subscribe on a Sunday, they can expect the promised information on Monday.

#4: **** P.S. I usually attend (insert name of conference here) but could not this year, so be sure to give me a hug at next year’s conference. Deal? 🙂

(This is a subtle way to let my subscriber know I’m familiar with the conference mentioned. I’m a member of the same group, so I’m part of their world, not just “the world at large.”

I’m inviting them to connect with me in person without using those words.

See how it can work? 🙂

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission

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The Intentional Writer

Boost Your Author Platform with Newsletter Ninja

The intentional writer

Authors need to grow their platform. Authors want to sell books. One thing the marketing experts usually agree on is that an email list is a powerful way for authors to grow their platform. And writers usually grow their email list through offering a newsletter. That’s where the helpful book, Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque comes in. As the subtitle explains the book will teach you “how to become an author mailing list expert.”

One of the first topics in the book is explaining why email lists are powerful. Here are two reasons:

  1. You don’t own your relationship with social media followers. You must work through the social media platform to interact with them, and the platform can change its algorithms whenever it pleases. If you quit the platform, those contacts are lost. In contrast you own your email list. You have the ability to contact those people directly, whenever you want. And you can take your email list with you if you choose to switch email services.
  2. Email marketing converts better than social media marketing. In marketing, “convert” means getting the customer to complete a goal. In the case of author marketing, this is usually clicking a link or purchasing a book. You will bet more conversions with 1,000 emails than you will with 1,000 social media followers.

Based on that information, it makes sense that an intentional writer would want to become an email list expert. This book will help you. As the back cover explains:

Newsletter Ninja is a comprehensive resource designed to teach you how to build and maintain a strongly engaged email list—one full of actual fans willing to pay for the books you write, rather than free-seekers who will forget your name and never open your emails.

What does Newsletter Ninja teach?

The author does a good job of clearly and simply explaining the steps an author must take to create an email list, grow the list, and maintain a healthy list. (Newsletters are not do-once-and-forget-it sort of task. The goal is to be consistent and build engagement between the author and recipients.)

Topics cover everything from choosing an email service provider and writing your first newsletter, to creating engagement and purging dead weight. (Why would you want to get rid of email subscribers after you’ve spent all that effort to get them? Read chapter 18 to find out.)

In addition to step-by-step explanations, I appreciate how the author explains the why behind email lists. As the author explains, a great newsletter isn’t salesy or annoying. Rather the goal is to create newsletters that the recipients want to open, because they have content that is interesting and useful. That concept alone will help you rise above the crowd.

In addition, I appreciated the author’s engaging and humorous style, and her ability to explain these concepts clearly and in plain English. At 136 pages, the book is short and to the point. I found it an excellent resource for understanding the basics of how to utilize email lists to build your author platform and engage with your audience.

Check out Newsletter Ninja today

Newsletter Ninja: How to Become An Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi Labrecque

For more helpful information, visit the author’s website, NewsletterNinja.net

Other resources to help you build your email list

The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Authors from Written Word Media

The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Grow Your Audience from Kindlepreneur

How to Grow Your Fiction Email List Subscribers from The Creative Penn

Lisa E Betz

Lisa E. Betz is an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, entertaining speaker, and unconventional soul. She inspires others to become their best selves, living with authenticity, and purpose, and she infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her Livia Aemilia Mysteries, set in first-century Rome, have won several awards, including the Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021).

She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in her novels. Lisa directs church dramas, hikes the beautiful Pennsylvania woods, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit lisaebetz.com.

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Guest Posts

Why You Should Try Email Marketing

Guest posts

Email marketing is a tried and true practice in the marketing space and has been for a long time. This practice is used to attract and generate a list of potential customers. While some think it is a dead practice, it is hard to ignore its relevance. It is a cost-effective strategy that can lay a framework for an entire campaign or business plan. 

Email marketing is an umbrella term for two main categories of emails. Cold emails are prospecting emails to help introduce your business and engage the reader. Warm Emails are Marketing emails designed to build relationships with contacts and increase website traffic and conversions. 

The use of marketing automation goes hand in hand with an effective email campaign. Understanding the benefits of using emails and using marketing automation in your campaigns will give you an edge against your competitors. 

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is an important part of digital marketing, especially when it comes to emails. Marketing automation is the use of software to automate repetitive tasks with email marketing campaigns. The process of marketing automation usually begins when the customer provides their contact information when purchasing a project or signing up for a newsletter/updates. 

The implementation of marketing automation can help capture new leads, turn leads into customers, and help potential clients develop an affinity for the brand. You can tailor which emails are sent to which clients based on if they put items in their cart, or if they continuously spend more time on one page than another. This personalization that can be created by marketing automation helps your potential customers through the buying process all autonomously. 

The Benefits of Using Email Marketing 

Email marketing campaigns can have a lot of valuable benefits for your business. They allow you to easily communicate with a large audience and make sure everyone on your list gets updated on your business. It also gives you the ability to personalize your emails with the individual names so they are more likely to open their emails. Like previously mentioned, when used with marketing automation you can tailor your emails based on what page they spend time on.  

Email marketing has a great ROI (return on investment). For every $1 you spend, email generates a $42 return on average. The ROI is one of email marketing’s biggest advantages, and that return is only growing as time goes on.   

The importance of quality

The source of the email campaign is the quality of the email you are sending. If you are sending an email that is poorly worded and does not have a strong call to action your campaign will yield negative results. You want to make sure that you are providing relevant content for the reader. Having a strong/compelling subject line with beneficial content only increases your chances of converting prospective clients or buyers. 

Working in content from your website into your emails is also a great way to keep your brand cohesive through your various networks. You can benefit from natural link growth and brand visibility from having a strong and consistent brand narrative in your email campaigns. 

Off to the Races  

Now that you have an idea of how email marketing campaigns work, it is time to go on and start your own! Using carefully crafted emails and a little bit of help from marketing automation you can create a very strong email campaign to get your name out there and convert prospects into sales.  

A true digital nomad, Emma Davis spends her time writing and traveling the globe in pursuit of her next great adventure. From travel guides to career advice, she hopes to help readers see the world as she experiences it—helping others craft a life where they can work hard and play often.

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Marketing Sense

How to Reactivate A Dormant Email List

Marketing sense

You never thought it would happen to you. One minute, you were ecstatic to hear that special “bing!” when a new reader signed up for your email list. Hooray! The next minute, it’s been months since you sent them an email, so that “list” has gone silent. Dormant. Almost dead.

What to do? Should you delete all those names and email addresses and begin from scratch again? Heavens, no!

Instead, reactivate that list. (An e-mail “list” is a collection of names and email addresses of readers interested in a specific topic within your message.)

When sending their first email after being silent for a while, some people fall on their sword, crying, “Mea culpa!” repeatedly. Multiple apologies are unnecessary and make readers uncomfortable.

Others simply begin sending emails again, without acknowledging they’ve been gone for weeks or months. Readers find that insulting, suggesting, perhaps, that they’ve been taken for granted.

Find a balance between the two extremes above. Acknowledge your absence, assure your readers you value them, and move on, offering them great resources or content in that “reactivation” email. (Of course, don’t use that marketing term in your email.)

Won’t It Feel A Bit Awkward to Reach Out After All That Time?

Highly likely. But it must be done. Email readers are too hard to get, and keep, to simply let them go. Prove yourself worthy of their time. You did it before. Now do it again.

Approach the conversation just as you would with any friend with whom you’ve lost touch. Be yourself. Be honest about your absence without sharing too many details. Apologize once. Don’t ramble on.

Then dive right into the good part…what’s in it for them. Serve them well, sharing content they’ll find irresistible. What did they sign up to learn? Choose a great teaching point and share that. Simple. Easy. Done!

What to Say Before Segueing Into “Regular” Email Content

Like other difficult tasks, getting started is the hard part. Here are three idea prompts to spur your imagination as you consider the title and first paragraph of your reactivation email. Write with your voice, your personality, and your words.

Option #1

Title: The rumors aren’t true!

First paragraph: I have not enrolled in the Witness Protection Program. It just felt like it, due to (identify the issue in a short phrase). Has your world turned upside down, too? Let’s start over…together.

Then move directly into your teaching content.

Option #2

Title: I’m baaaack! or I apologize (choose one of those two-word phrases).

First paragraph: You haven’t heard from me in a while. I apologize. Life interrupted my regular schedule. That issue has passed. I’m able—and eager—to serve you again. Let’s get busy…

Then move directly into your teaching content.

Option #3

Title: Still want to learn about (fill-in-the-blank)?

First paragraph: I took an unscheduled break, had a slight meltdown (not really!) and now I’m back, rarin’ to go! I’m sorry it’s been a while since you heard from me. Let’s dive into (topic) again, shall we?

Then move directly into your teaching content.

What Response Should You Expect?

Some readers will undoubtedly unsubscribe, depending upon how long you were silent or how valuable your content was before you went missing-in-action.

Others will be glad to see your name in their Inbox again. That’s what we work toward.

Remember to include fantastic content in your reconnection email. That will help readers remember why they subscribed in the first place.

They took a chance on you when they signed up. Take a chance on them by sending this reactivation email. You’ll be glad you did!

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: https://marketersonamission.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarketersOnAMission