What is Email marketing?
Email marketing is a great way to grow a blog.
Email List is a list of names, email addresses and other information about people who have signed up for your updates and promotional emails. You will collect emails as a blogger by using opt-in form on your blog. Email marketing is when you send emails to your list of email subscribers to promote your blog or services.
Why should you use email marketing for your business?
Entrepreneur.com reports that the Direct Marketing Association estimates email marketing to have a ROI of 4300 percent.
Many new bloggers hesitate to use email marketing, believing it takes too much time. They would be more open to it if they realized that email marketing is the best way for them to reach and retain customers. No other medium can give your business greater visibility than email marketing. They may not be checking their social media every day, but they are sure to check their email. People tend to check emails multiple times per day, especially with the popularity of smart phones. It is probably the first thing that people check in the morning.
You have to compete against other posts on social media websites to get your content seen. Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can alter their algorithms at any time. This could limit your reach.
Neil Patel, for example, mentions in his website (neilpatel.com), that Organic Reach of a page on Facebook fell to a mere 2% on June 2016. This update had a major impact on my friend’s DIY Blog. Her traffic dropped dramatically overnight. Only 10,000 of her 500K Facebook fans would see each post she made, and only 200 clicked through to visit her blog. She then began to concentrate more on building an e-mail list. She has now built a 50K-strong list. She sends an email every time, and 30% of people open it. 15% click to visit her website. One email, for example, brought 6300 visitors to her Crochet Baby Blanket Roundup and she earned $150 in advertising revenue in one day. Your list will generate more revenue the larger it is.
Never put all of your eggs in one basket. This is true not only for your finances but also for your marketing. You will not lose your email list to sudden changes in ranking systems.
How To Build An Engaged List
If you do not have a list that is engaged, your email marketing will fail. Your list must be warmed up and a relationship formed. This can be done by writing on a more personal level. Keep your emails short and start with a story. They are more likely buy from someone that they trust and know. Be that person. As an example, by sharing my struggles with my audience during this pandemic I was able to strengthen our relationship. You should write to them as if you were a friend, not a salesperson. Don’t sell in every email. Only 20% of emails should be promotional emails, and the other 80% should offer value to readers.
Asking a question is another way to engage an audience. I asked my audience to tell me what was their biggest challenge with money management. Your open rate can be increased if people reply to your email. They are also less likely to put your emails in spam folders.
Ask them questions to help you create content for your blog. You can also ask them to tell you what they want to see in your blog. You can use the responses to inform future blog posts. You will be able to create a stronger relationship with your readers when you post the requested content.
The success of an email campaign is dependent on the formatting. Make sure your links are large, bold, and easy to click. A tiny font makes it difficult for people to click on their mobile devices, where most people check emails. Link to only three related articles when you link to your article. It is bad marketing to overload your emails with links.
How often to email your list
If you don’t email your list regularly, they will forget why they signed up in the first place. Do not make this mistake. Email your list every two weeks at the very least. Most bloggers find that a weekly email is the best way to reach their audience. You can use old posts, roundups or valuable tips to engage your audience if you don’t always have fresh content. If I haven’t had a post to share in a week, I simply resend the email I sent a year ago. You can save time by doing this and keep your audience interested. In a single year, you would probably have gained a large number of subscribers and some old subscribers may not remember the posts that were shared. Just make sure that the topic of your blog is still relevant.
It can take some time to build an email list, but the effort will be worth it. This can be a valuable asset for your company.