A Step-by-Step Guide to Learning Email Marketing

“The money is in the list“, says some of the world’s most famous and successful marketers. Despite significant advancements in the field of marketing and the emergence of various new channels and tools, email marketing remains at the forefront.

Email marketing is a powerful channel relied upon by many marketers across different niches worldwide. If you think email is no longer relevant, you’re mistaken, and I’ll demonstrate that shortly.

As a marketer, it’s crucial to leverage all available tools and resources. If you want to market your website, service, online store, or build a mailing list for affiliate marketing, you’re in the right place.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the essential strategies and tools you need to harness email marketing effectively and increase your profits step by step.

Understanding the Importance of Email Marketing

Before we delve into the strategies and tools, it’s vital to emphasize the importance of email marketing. Many marketers believe that email is dead or that it’s no longer reliable, but that’s not entirely accurate. While email marketing may not be as lucrative as it was years ago, it remains a crucial channel that every marketer should utilize.

Similar to other marketing channels, SEO has become more challenging over time. Does that mean we should stop relying on it? Facebook’s organic reach was significantly higher in the past, but things have changed. Should we stop using Facebook pages for free?

New marketing channels like messenger bots and WhatsApp have emerged, but successful marketers don’t solely rely on new methods. Email marketing stands out as an effective and profitable channel for several reasons. It allows easy and cost-effective growth of your mailing list, and you can even get started for free.

Unlike other social media platforms, email provides a focused environment. When someone opens their email, they tend to pay more attention to what they are browsing. That’s why email marketing is vital.

Defining Your Email Marketing Goals

Before you take any action, it’s crucial to determine your goals. What do you want to achieve through email marketing? Your answer will guide your next steps.

Do you aim to boost sales for your online store or digital products like courses and books? Or perhaps you want to acquire more clients for your freelance services?

Maybe your objective is to drive traffic to your blog and build a mailing list to easily promote new content. Traditional SEO may not guarantee visibility, so an email list can be invaluable.

Alternatively, you might want to increase profits through affiliate marketing and establish trust with your subscribers, leading to their purchase of recommended products and services.

To clearly define your goals, consider two important factors:

1- The nature of the content you provide
The quality and type of content you offer will dictate your email marketing approach. If you own an online store, you might send discount coupons and product offers. For a blog, you could share tips or links to new articles.

2- The nature of your audience
Understanding why visitors and followers subscribe to your mailing list is crucial. What problems do they want to solve by receiving information from you? Tailor your content to their needs and preferences.

Carefully consider these factors to establish a clear goal before proceeding with the following steps.

Building Your Mailing List Effectively

Building a successful and profitable mailing list requires effort, but it’s achievable. Even beginners can implement the right email marketing methods by following this step-by-step approach.

1- Creating a Compelling Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a valuable incentive that motivates visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. It functions like a magnet, attracting people’s attention and enticing them to sign up. For instance, if you mention exclusive information and tools available only to subscribers, this can be a compelling reason for someone to join your mailing list.

The goal of this step is to think of a strong incentive that will make people visiting your site or store want to subscribe. You can offer a free course, a PDF ebook, or exclusive discounts if you run an online store.

There are various tools available to create effective lead magnets and present them appropriately. For example, you can use pop-ups that appear when visitors read an article or a bar that appears at the top of the page. Widgets placed on the sidebar can also be useful. These tools are user-friendly and adjustable, especially if you’re using platforms like WordPress or Shopify.

Here are some popular lead magnet tools for websites:

• Free Hello Bar tool
• Free Sumo Tool
• Paid Optinmonster Tool

While there are other tools available, these are among the most commonly used ones. They allow you to design attractive lead magnets and include links to books or free gifts you want to offer to your audience. You can also specify when and how these pop-ups appear, such as when a visitor is about to leave your site or after 30 seconds of visiting a page. Each tool provides settings that are easy to understand and configure.

The most popular Lead Magnet tools for Shopify:

• Justuno (offers a free version up to a certain limit)

Justuno is an excellent application that I highly recommend. It allows you to create pop-ups with discount coupons for visitors who register in your mailing list. You can also create spinning wheels that offer gifts to visitors and other useful tools to capture their emails. Justuno is easy to use, and you can leverage it effectively.

Email marketing tools also provide some lead magnets, but they might not be as efficient as the aforementioned tools. The following images provide great examples of lead magnets.

All the tools mentioned above collect email addresses, which you can easily link to popular email autoresponders. These autoresponders enable you to send specific emails to your entire mailing list, a topic we’ll cover later. They work seamlessly with WordPress and Shopify platforms.

2- Fulfill Your Promises to Your Audience

The first email you send to new subscribers is crucial. It’s essential to deliver on the promises you made to them. Be sure to provide the free gift or discount you offered. This is the second step towards building a successful mailing list.

In email marketing, there’s a golden rule: “Always Over Deliver“. This means you should provide more than what you promised. For instance, if you pledged a 20% discount, consider offering a 25% discount instead. By providing additional value, you build trust with your audience more quickly.

3- Send Emails That Benefit Your Audience

Many marketers neglect this point, causing subscribers to leave their mailing lists. It often feels like the list owner is exploiting them for personal gain. While customers expect stores and websites to market to them in some way, it’s important not to make every email about making money by promoting products or services.

Instead, focus on helping and solving your audience’s problems. When you send emails, think about how they can benefit your audience. Shift the focus from yourself to your subscribers and how you can assist them.

4- Leverage Your Best Content to Grow Your Mailing List

This is particularly important for blogs or content websites. Constantly promote your mailing list to expand it. The best approach is to promote it on your most popular blogs and pages that attract visitors.

5- Utilize Various Social Media Channels to Expand Your Mailing List

Social media platforms are powerful tools for reaching a wider audience and growing your mailing list. Leverage platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to promote your lead magnet and encourage people to subscribe to your mailing list.

Here are some effective strategies to use social media for list building:

a) Create Compelling Social Media Posts

b) Offer Exclusive Social Media Promotions

c) Run Contests or Giveaways

d) Collaborate with Influencers

e) Utilize Social Media Advertising

How to Send Effective Emails

You may be asking yourself, “How can I send effective emails to my audience?” Don’t worry, I will guide you through the steps to ensure that everyone who subscribes to your mailing list eagerly awaits your emails. Here’s a comprehensive guide on sending professional emails.

1- The Subject Line

The subject line is the first thing recipients see, and it plays a crucial role in capturing their attention. To create an effective subject line, consider the following tips:

• Use longer headlines that suggest the content and benefit of the email. For example, “Discover How to Properly Follow a Diet and Be among the 25% of Women Who Succeed“.

• Incorporate numbers or names of famous people in your niche to add importance and spark curiosity.

• Use personal words like “you“, “can“, and “be” to make the reader feel connected to the content.

These techniques can help increase the open rate of your emails, build trust with your audience, and encourage them to take action.

2- Email Content

The content of your email should deliver on the promises made in the subject line. Consider the following tips when writing your email:

• Tell a compelling story that engages the reader and makes them relate to the content.
• Provide valuable and useful information.
• Keep the language simple and easy to understand.
• Personalize the email using tools that allow you to include the recipient’s name and other relevant details.
• Create coherence between your emails, motivating the reader to anticipate the next message.

3- Visuals

Incorporating images and videos can enhance the impact of your emails. Consider the following:

• Include relevant visuals such as images, gifs, or video links to make your content more engaging and enjoyable.
• Use interactive elements to increase reader participation and encourage desired actions, such as redeeming a discount coupon.

4- Timing and Frequency

The timing and frequency of your email sends are important factors to consider. Here are some guidelines:

• Online stores should generally limit their email frequency to no more than one per week, especially after the first week of subscription.
• For regular websites or blogs, daily emails can be sent, with breaks during holidays and official holidays.
• Utilize email analytics tools provided by your email sending service to test and determine the best times to send emails for optimal engagement.

5- Mobile Responsiveness

Since a significant percentage of emails are read on mobile devices, it’s essential to ensure your emails are responsive and display properly on different devices. Most email marketing tools offer responsive design features, but it’s important to verify this for yourself.

6- Call to Action (CTA)

The purpose of the CTA email is the most important part of the email you send to your audience, as it determines the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

There is no use in sending numerous emails if the recipient doesn’t take the desired action (Call To Action) that you want. Whether it’s clicking on a link to read your latest articles, watching a video, or making a purchase, it is essential to make your desired action clear in the email. To achieve your goal, it is recommended to mention the desired action multiple times in the email text.

Key Tools for Email Marketing

Before introducing the most important email marketing tools, known as Autoresponders, it’s important to understand some crucial features that make these tools indispensable for marketers.

1- Email Sequencing The ability to prepare and schedule emails in advance using an email sequence is a critical feature offered by these tools. For example, you can create a series of five emails that are sent to new subscribers in their first week.

You can also set up promotional campaigns with multiple emails to promote specific offers or services. Additionally, you can pre-plan emails for specific seasons or events, such as New Year’s Eve.

2- Mailing List Segmentation Another important characteristic is the ability to segment your mailing list. For instance, you can divide your subscribers into segments or specific sections based on their interests. This allows you to tailor your emails to specific groups.

Moreover, advanced features like creating specific email series for subscribers who click on a particular link or those who don’t can be beneficial.

These features enable you to make the most of email marketing by leveraging the available advanced technology.

3- Email Data Analysis Email sending tools provide valuable data for analyzing and optimizing your marketing campaigns. Although detailed analysis will be covered later, it’s essential to highlight that these tools offer crucial data to assess your email marketing efforts.

Best Email Autoresponders

While there are numerous tools available in the market, I recommend the following top three tools based on their price and capabilities:

EmailOctopus: The marketer team relies on this tool, as it is free for the first 2,500 subscribers on your mailing list.

Mailchimp: One of the oldest email marketing tools, Mailchimp is free for the first 2,000 subscribers on your mailing list.

GetResponse: Personally, I consider GetResponse the best tool due to its powerful capabilities and utilization of artificial intelligence. However, it can be somewhat expensive. It is recommended to start with the first two tools and upgrade to GetResponse as your profits increase. All three tools can be easily integrated with WordPress, Shopify, or even Blogger platforms.

Analyzing Results

Analysis and data collection are crucial for marketers to modify and improve their results. As mentioned earlier, all the aforementioned tools provide important data for analyzing your email marketing campaigns. Here are the key metrics to focus on:

Mailing List Subscription Rate: Monitor the number of new subscribers joining your mailing list daily. A higher number indicates the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, emails, and lead magnets.

Deliverability: Pay attention to the percentage of emails that successfully reach the recipient’s inbox. Encourage subscribers to whitelist your email to ensure proper delivery.

Open Rate: Evaluate how many recipients open your emails. The open rate varies depending on the niche and content. For many areas, a 15% open rate is considered good.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measure the response of subscribers to your call-to-action by tracking the click-through rate. A higher percentage indicates the effectiveness of your email content.

Unsubscribe Rate: Monitor the number of subscribers leaving your mailing list daily. While it’s natural to have some attrition, ensure the rate is not excessive and strive to increase the overall number of engaged subscribers.

Email Marketing Tips

To maximize your sales and profits on the Internet, regardless of your industry, follow these essential tips:

Clean Your Mailing List Regularly: Keep your mailing list relevant by removing unengaged subscribers. It’s better to have 2,000 engaged subscribers than 10,000 non-responsive ones. Remove subscribers who haven’t opened your emails for 45 days or longer, as well as those who open but don’t click on links.

Avoid Spam Filters: Contact your hosting company to ensure your emails avoid being marked as spam. Minimize the use of words like “offers” or “deals” in your emails.

Conduct A/B Testing: Take advantage of A/B testing features offered by email marketing tools. Test different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, content, calls-to-action, and images, to determine what yields the best results.

By implementing these strategies, you can effectively grow your mailing list and establish a valuable communication channel with your audience. Remember to always provide value, engage with your subscribers, and consistently deliver on your promises to maintain a strong and engaged mailing list.