Effective email marketing is one of the secret ingredients in your business. In this article I’m going to walk you through every single step of running an effective, profitable email marketing campaign; including what’s working now and all my best proven tips, secrets and strategies.
Is Email Marketing as Profitable as It Used to be?
Yes! Yes it is, in fact it’s as strong today in 2022 as it’s ever been before.
So, the latest stats show that for every dollar that the average business puts into email marketing; those kinds of returns from facebook or instagram or even tick tock ads.
Sure email is not the shiniest new toy in the box but it’s a work horse so saddle up. I’m going to show you exactly how to make email marketing work for you and your small business in 2022.
I’ve got you amazing email marketing tips and secret strategies; that are working really well right now and aren’t likely to go out of style any time soon.
Now let’s just move into marketing first. In order to use email as a marketing tool you need a growing healthy email list. And the way you get that list has definitely changed quite a bit in the past few years.
So you used to be able to get people to sign up for your newsletter on your website; or even for an ebook or a white paper if you’re in a more b2b niche.
But people don’t really opt in for that kind of thing nearly as often as they used to. Your potential customers are much more savvy than that now and they aren’t addressed. Which is why you need to use an upgraded lead magnet to build up your list in 2022.
What Lead Magnets Work Best Today?
I’m talking about something that’s irresistible that promises a real tangible result or positive outcome, not just extra information.
So I want you to start with what you charge money for. What problem does that solve for your clients?
I want you to brainstorm the best way to help them achieve a similar result; in a more diy way. How you can help them get a quick path toward eventually working with you.
Effective Lead Magnet Example…
So let’s say you’re a dietitian.
You could turn your knowledge into an online quiz that asks some of the same questions you would normally ask; to your full service clients. Then in the end it’s going to give them a rough diet plan; that’s semi-customized based on the answers that they provided.
That’s more of a diy version of what you do in a broad sense or you could go more narrow in focus and show them just one advance with a meal prep starter kit type lead magnet.
So see how much more actionable both of those lead magnets are than just you know an ebook called five things to know when planning your diet; something like that promises information not transformation.
Think of the overall topic and title that promises an outcome and then give it a really irresistible title so then you’re going to figure out the results for that content.
Some of the lead magnet types that I’m seeing the best results right now are tool kits. A few different elements packed into one zip file templates. People can just customize to get a finalized version of something that’s ready to go. Or an online quiz that gets them moving in the right direction based on their answers.
And then once you have this new lead who’s opted in for your new lead magnet what happens next is to automate the delivery of that lead magnet and ask for a response back.
Biggest Hurdle in Email Marketing..
One of the biggest hurdles to effective email marketing is getting your emails to actually show up in your subscribers primary inbox.
Right, most email providers really want to separate out the marketing emails from the more personal ones. So they have things like gmail’s promotions tab for that purpose and as you can imagine if your email ends up here, it’s a lot less likely to be seen.
The best thing you can do to make sure that your emails are delivered where you want them to be; don’t make the mistake of simply linking directly to your lead magnet once people opt in for it.
It’s really easy to set it up. Instead automatically redirect them to the lead magnet once they fill their name and email and press that submit button; you should set up a little email automation magic, so you’re going to keep your list cleaner.
Since people won’t be putting in fake emails as often; because they know that it’ll only be emailed to them. Also something really interesting happens when they open that first email from you. It does a pretty good job of training their email system that they actually want emails that come from you.
Do this extra work..
This is not a foolproof guarantee that all your future emails are going to be routed to the primary inbox; but to help you out even more, I want you to actually encourage them to respond back to that email.
Close your emails with a question and a call to action to respond back with an answer. So when the email providers like gmail start seeing that your emails aren’t just being opened; but they’re being responded too, it’s another huge signal that your emails are not just spam. They aren’t just promotions, they’re truly important enough to go directly into primary inbox.
So my next tip is all to do with what exactly you should be sending out to your list; so what’s gonna end up being your most profitable strategy.
What to Write in Email Marketing Subject Lines?
First let’s talk about what won’t work. Just spamming your list with offers and promotion after promotion. It’s really the thing that people think about when they think about email marketing and it’s annoying.
So just don’t do it. What you should do instead is send something that’s packed with value. I’m talking about advice, tips and actionable strategies. In other words you’re helping them not selling to them and you’ve got some options here in terms of what you’ll actually send in these emails.
This does work best if you pair it with some type of content marketing strategy like; if you were creating weekly blog articles or podcast episodes or videos. In that case you’d probably want to use your weekly email to drive them to that new piece of content.
Explain how it’ll help them. Then you’re just going to link over to the content itself over on your website; or if you don’t make your own regular content you can do the same thing but with someone else’s content.
So in this case you’d be acting more as a curator pointing your subscribers to helpful content that you found from around the web and then in the emails itself.
Do this extra work..
You just know you’d introduce the content and again you let them know why it’s important. Maybe you even give your two cents on it; or deliver one quick tip or a piece of advice or action item right in the email itself; without having to link to anything. A combination of all these things is perfectly fine too; and just like with any email you ever send you want to pay really special attention to the subject line.
So a good subject line is going to get your email open. It’s really important that you get it right. There are a ton of ways you can optimize your subject lines. What I feel tends to work best is either exactly what they’ll learn inside, the instant fix; or using a bit more curiosity and mystery.
That one works really well because it creates some kind of a curiosity in the mind of whoever reads it; and a lot of people just can’t resist closing that open loop in their brain. They want to know what that failure is.
You can play into that. you’re probably going to get some extra clicks out of it.
So once you’ve gotten people to open your email, these next few tips are all about properly engaging with them.
How to Engage with Your Leads?
So my first engagement tip is all about the writing style; that almost always works best and it’s actually the easiest to pull off.
I’m talking about casual fun copywriting. When you’re writing your emails, write more like the way you would speak out loud to a friend; and less like you’re writing a term paper or a cover story.
Don’t care if you’re a dog trainer or a lawyer. Your potential clients will always prefer being spoken to like a fellow human being not a faceless, nameless number. So be conversational and use short paragraphs and personalize it.
Almost every email platform out there like Aweber, Getresponse, Mailchimp, Convertkit or Sendsteed; has the functionality built into it to actually be able to use your subscribers first name in your emails.
Do this extra work..
It’s a really small tag can start your email with a personalized greeting; that first little bit of text is actually going to show up in the email preview. And when they can see their name peeking through there; open rates can go up by about 20 percent.
I use first names in the actual subject lines of certain emails; and that can work even better and by the way personalization can go beyond. Just using your subscribers name and your email right you can personalize emails based on how they react.
For instance, if someone’s on your list because they bought something from you in the past. You can send very different campaigns to that list; versus the people who just opted in for a free lead magnet.
That is what we call email segmentation and it can be very powerful; because you’re really just catering the content to people at different stages of your sales process.
How to Get More Opens, More Engagement and More Sales with Your Emails?
Now my next tip seems super counter intuitive; but trust me this is going to help you out from helping your emails go to the primary inbox; to open rates, to higher engagement, click-throughs and finally sales.
Every email provider out there like Aweber, Getresponse, Mailchimp, Convertkit or Sendsteed for instance; has these really pretty, really polished, really professional looking email templates that you can customize really easily.
But my tip here is not to use any of them and opt for a minimal, no design instead. So why wouldn’t you want to jump at the chance to make it professional?
Simple polished emails like those are trying to sell you something; and people look at them as nothing more than promotional; possibly even as spam. So by formatting your emails in simple text; they actually stand out by blending in with the rest of your more casual personal emails.
Remember, the name of the game isn’t to sell, at least not directly. So don’t tip your hand too early by making your emails look like ads for your paid offers; to make lots of money for your business.
More on that in a minute but for now you’re just trying to be memorable; helpful and earn lots of trust. By using plain text emails doesn’t mean there’s not room for some visual punch and personality.
How to Use Video and GIF Images with Your Emails?
This next tip is going to help with both and that’s to use video and gifs in your emails. So if your email is linking out to a video that either you’ve produced; or even if it’s from somebody else, I really recommend not to link it directly.
Instead, make it more enticing with a video thumbnail that actually has a play button on it; not a real play button. Unfortunately most email providers don’t actually let you embed in a real playable video in your emails; like you could if you just sent it to a friend with gmail.
But you can use your video thumbnail. Using canva or photoshop you just add a play button graphic in the middle of it; then you’re going to link that whole image to the page where they can go and your video.
It helps your click-through rates go way up. If there’s no video link I love using animated gifs in my emails. If you know your ideal customer pretty well you probably know the kinds of shows they watch; what they’re into and that really helps build on that connection if you can use gifts from those shows; or movies or you know pop culture that’s gonna help you make your point.
Benefits of Using GIFs in Email Marketing
It just brings that extra punch of personality in and makes you and your business seem much more human; and a lot less corporate. I’ve actually got another great way to use gifts that I’m going to get to in a minute.
So up till now we’ve been using your emails to create a connection; and build trust but how exactly does that lead to profits for your business? It’s all been leading to these next few tips. So pay real close attention to the next…
How to Use PS to Drive More Sales?
Want to drive more sales with your email? Then learn to use the full power of the PS & PPS. So in all the emails we’ve covered up till now you’re delivering value and tips and advice; but what I didn’t mention is that you can actually use a soft sell technique at the end of all; or atleast most of those emails in the PS line.
After you’ve signed your name you say something like PS to help not as a promotion; but to use it as a recommendation. Pitch how you can help them one-on-one with the program you’re promoting or by buying things that you sell; and one of my secret weapons that I’m using with emails is to sell with stories.
The way this works is rather than just laying out what you’re selling; which can honestly sometimes just sound like a sales pitch and fall pretty flat. Instead tell the story of a current or past customer who got a particularly great result; or outcome based on buying what you’re trying to sell.
Benefits of Using Stories in Email Marketing
When you tell a story people will latch onto what you’re saying much better; and they’re going to remember it better too. Because as human beings our brains are just more wired to remember stories more than facts and figures.
Then I linked to email because I know getting them to click through to watch that video; is gonna do a better job selling my program; than me just talking about it in the email. Along those lines I did promise you a cool way of using those animated gifs in your emails.
So what I’ve started doing is making these stories come alive by choosing the best little short snippet for video testimonials; then adding captions to them then embed inside the email.
This not only breaks it up and adds some visual interest; but it makes the story much more believable. Because now they can actually see the person saying it in their own words; rather than just having to take my word for it. That it’s a real story and a real success; and they get the benefit of that without having to click through to a video either.
Okay this next tip is super important even though again it seems simple.
How to Keep Your Email List Clean & Responsive?
It is equally important to keep your list clean. So wait a minute you spend all this time trying to build your list. Now you’re telling me I need to make it smaller?
Unfortunately it’s part of the process and it’s critical that you do this and I’m gonna explain why.
So as you build up your list, you’re gonna have people who are super engaged; and open most of your emails and even maybe click through to a lot of them; but then you’ll get those people who just wanted to sit there and never open up another email after that.
The problem with those people is they’re dragging your metrics down. Not only do those unopened emails make your numbers look bad; but they actually send a powerful negative message to the email providers out there.
So gmail starts seeing that your emails aren’t being opened by most of your subscribers; and they make the decision for you that your emails aren’t good; and they shouldn’t land in the primary inbox anymore.
And this is the reason you want to keep anyone off your list who hasn’t been engaging.
Are You Ready for Email Marketing?
So in this article we have seen how little twisting in subject lines; using gif and video thumbnail can improves your email marketing campaigns.
In the next article I’m going to share all the best tips for creating the right kind of lead magnet that’s going to get lots of signups.
So stay tuned for the next article. Hope you gained something new here. If you have any questions, just comment below…
Thank you!