I asked two pros to come on and spill their best advice on the three biggest email marketing questions we get here at Copyblogger.
DJ Waldow joins me and Sonia Simone to discuss:
- The best way to build an email list
- The 2 reasons why people open an email
- The most important element of an email that sells
- How to write emails that get opened
- How to stay out of your reader’s spam filters
- Sonia’s secret weapon of email marketing that works
This one’s fast and useful, so keep your ears on …
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The Show Notes:
- Internet Marketing for Smart People Course (free)
- Email Marketing 101
- We left the building with Girl Talk …
About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.
Love the tips on how to get an email opened. My top tip is to keep a swipe file of emails that have gotten your attention and that you opened right away. Those are the types of subject lines you want to model your own versions after.
LOVE THIS. Thanks for adding.
Never fail to learn something from these podcasts. Thanks!
@Susanne Myers has it spot on… Note the subject lines that grabbed you caused you to open. The next challenge is to get your prospect to click the link which is your real objective…
Is there a transcript of the podcast? Or did I miss it?
Let me check to see if we’re still doing them. They do take time to prepare, so they’re not available for the day the show releases.
The question you didn’t answer: Why don’t otherwise professional copywriters use good grammar?
You said, “DJ Waldow joins Sonia Simone and I to discuss…”
Ugh!
‘Makes your teeth ache.
I didn’t notice the mistake and I still clicked “play”. Looks like good copywriting to me.
Mistakes happen. We’re all human!
Fixed. You have to understand, Robert is rarely sober. Give the guy a break.
And that explains it all. Ha!
What a fun podcast to be a part of! Thanks to Robert and Sonia.
When is the next one? (serious question)
Sensational content. Really. Keeps me honest with my own content. This also reinforced my plan to switch a couple of my blogs over to the Generate theme, which I know I’ll feel a lot better about than traditional popups.
In the Generate theme, it looks like the newsletter signup header is just on the home page.
What do you think having it as your header on every page?
Also, have you ever spotted or experienced an effective signup referral program? The ones I’ve seen ask you to surrender the emails of one or more victims to get a bonus of some kind.
Right now, I just ask subscribers to forward to a friend in my siggn-off each email. There must be better ways of handling referrals and incentives?
Great podcast thanks for sharing! Always love getting useful and informative information and learning something new everyday!
Okay fine, I’ll start building an email list. I’ve been putting it off for years (I know, I know), but I’m finally going to do it, mostly because this episode gave me some really great ideas. Thank you, guys!
Quick question: I know services like Constant Contact and AWeber have contracts in place that lower your chances of being blacklisted, and was wondering whether you knew if MailChimp has anything similar, or if it’s worth spending the extra money with one of the big guys.
MailChimp has similar agreements. We use Mailchimp for our customer lists and Aweber for everything else. Either will treat you well.
Perfect, thank you! Running off to get started now!
Liz –
Just want to clarify something re: “lower your chances of being blacklisted” …
Most (nearly all, actually) Email Service Providers will work with your to lower your chances of being blacklisted. However, the best way to lower your chances? Send email to people who have opted in. Set proper expectations upfront. Deliver killer content. One of the things most ESPs do automatically remove bad email addresses after one or two deliveries. This ensures that you will be sending to valid email addresses, thus increasing your chances of email getting delivered. Does that make sense?
Happy to explain more!
Thanks for the explanation
Hey Brian, Robert, Sonia, DJ, et al,
Great podcast! You’ve really coerced me to put my own email marketing campaign under the microscope.
Quick question: I’ve found that only a third of those who opt-in at my website actually open the confirmation email. What advice would you have to increase that statistic?
Thanks, Adam. Appreciate that!
To be clear, you are sending a double opt-in email, right? Is your confirmation email asking them to click a link to actually be opted in? If so, why not try single opt-in with a “thank you” email instead of making them take an action?
The #1 problem with a double opt-in process is that you are now asking someone who said yes (opted in) to now take another action. That email can get marked as spam, can be undelivered for some reason, ignored, etc.
My advice: Try single opt-in with a thank you email!
Thanks DJ, I appreciate the advice of a seasoned vet like yourself. I’ll implement the single opt-in and see what happens.
If/when you do, please share the results! Love to write about it…
‘Twas a really helpful podcast, but the one point which most astounded me was the idea to put a huge, in-your-face sign up button on your blog. Now, I have not tried that simply because my target market is a big squeamish with everything online, and I am not even sure how often they pull down the elevator. But it would be very interesting to test it for a week or two, and observe. Inasmuch as you all were the guinea pigs yourselves, along with Chris Brogan, I would believe it works for you. But I am still a wee bit hesitant because I am catering to the over 40 crowd, not folks hwo know much about internet marketing or even the web in general! On the other hand, I can laugh to think if I make it a big huge button, everyone in my market could read it easily (even without glasses)!
Diane –
Certainly worth testing, right? And if you can save potential subscribers from having to get up to grab their reading glasses … even better! Ha ha.
Sonia is the bomb! Tips about being personal and emailing from a human perspective instead of a more corporate perspective is simple but really right on the money. But the short answer to building an email list is such a golden nugget. She didn’t try to cover it broadly but gave a very specific tip that can be immediately implemented. I am going to literally take that idea and implement for my homepage. She called out my homepage slider for providing no value lol.
-Tom