Email Marketing Guide

Updated: May 6, 2022

Looking for a helpful email marketing guide to get you started? This article should help you understand the basics and beyond. Even with the explosive growth of social media, people are still connected to their email inbox. Most people end and start their day checking email for updates, special offers, training, etc…

This is one of the reasons email marketing is still such a powerful tool and should be used by every business. The key is to use email marketing effectively. This email marketing guide is designed to show you how to get things started right and keep things moving in the right direction.

Our goal with this email marketing guide is to help you get a solid grasp of the basics and build a solid email marketing strategy from the ground up.

Step 1: Get Permission Shoving your message in to someone’s email box without permission is like showing up at their home without an invitation. The key to building a large targeted list is to get permission from your best prospects. The way to do that is to entice your web site visitors to give you their name and email address in exchange for a free guide, a demo, a sample, a trial account. The method you choose will depend on your business, your products or services, the cost of delivering your offer, etc… You may need to test a few offers to find what works best for your business.

Bear in mind that, whenever somebody comes to your web site, they are already looking for something and they are asking questions like:

What’s in it for me?
Why should I give you my email address?
Are you going to spam me?
How often are you going to email me?
Will I get any sort of discounts?
Will you send me relevant offers or more junk?

Your copy on your web site or capture page needs to address these questions right up front. Just having a form and “enter your name and email address” are not going to get it. Be clear with what you are offering your visitors and make sure your call to action tells them how to get the offer.

When you use the TrafficWave.net system to deliver your email marketing message, your subscription requests will go through a double opt-in process to protect you from spam complaints, verify that they have entered their email address correctly, and verify that they actually check that email address.

We highly recommend using a custom landing page after the form is submitted so that you can give clear instructions on how to confirm their request and have an opportunity to reinforce your branding.

Step 2: Manage Expectations Successful email marketing is all about expectations. You get to set the bar and it is up to you to set the bar where you want it. If your call to action is strong and your follow-up is consistent you have every right to expect a positive outcome to your campaign. However, if you promise to send one email per week and instead you send daily emails, then you are setting yourself up for failure. On the contrary, if someone is expecting daily updates or critical product updates and you simply don’t deliver, then they are likely to be just as upset in that case too. End result: You lose subscribers and sales.

This email marketing guide is designed to help you avoid the mistakes and improve the profits.

Your initial confirmation message and/or your first followup message are great places to welcome your new subscriber, set those expectations, and tell your subscribers what they can expect from you as a subscriber to your list.

If you see a lot of opt-in requests but few confirmations, your message may be off target. You will need to adjust your offer, your call to action, your confirmation message, or all three to get your confirmation rate up.

No email marketing guide would be complete without including information on the importance of making your list as profitable as you can. So let’s talk a bit about segmenting your list.

Step 3: Segment Your Lists Once you begin building your list, you are going to see patterns begin to develop among your confirmed subscribers. You will be able to see how many of your subscribers are opening your messages, how many are clicking your links, which links are getting clicked, how many are unsubscribing, etc…

Let’s start with that first one: The Open. It just makes sense that in order for your message to be effective, it must be opened. If you have a low open rate, you may need to work on your initial offer, your call to action, and/or your subject line. Are you providing strong value? Is your subject line addressing the reader by name and reinforcing your message? Is your web site or capture form presenting your offer in a way that solves a problem for your subscriber?

We see users with an open rate in the 20% to 30% range meaning that their copy and offer are appealing to their visitors, the confirmation letter is clear, and the subject line reinforces the message. This results in a very targeted and responsive list.

Now let’s look at the Click. Once the message is opened, are your readers taking action? This is discovered by checking your click rate. If readers are opening your message but not clicking through to the next step, you may need to work on the copy within your message.

Maybe you click stats show you that subscribers are responding very strongly to offer 1 but you may need to work on the offer or the call to action on offer 2 in your email.

What about the Removals? Sometimes, subscribers remove themselves because their plans have changed, they’ve gone in a different direction, or they just aren’t interested any more. This is normal. But if you see one of your broadcasts or your follow up letters with a higher than normal removal rate, you may need to look in to that letter to see if your message can be improved.

Having all of this information gives you a number of options for how to segment your list and decide on more targeted follow up options.

You may want to create a letter specifically for those subscribers who did not open a message within the past 60 days. Or maybe they opened a message but didn’t click any links.

Or you may want to follow up with a specific option for those subscribers who did open and/or clicked a particular link.

All of these options are available to you in the TrafficWave.net autoresponder system and should be used to help you target and segment your lists for maximum effect. Segmenting your list helps you target your subscriber list for maximum interaction which translates to sales for your business.

List segmentation requires a bit of work and has a very high payoff. If you can mentally assign a sales dollar value to your subscribers such as each subscriber is potentially worth $5 per month you will begin to see the value of building your list well, keeping your list engaged, and maximizing your sales potential.

The time you spend testing your copy, your call to action, your landing pages, and your followup messages will pay off in more sales and that is why you started email marketing to begin with.

Was this Email Marketing Guide helpful to you? Share your thoughts, comments, and questions in the comment section, below.

If you are not using email marketing yet and you are ready to learn more, we would love to send you our free report on how email marketing can help you grow your business. Just fill out the form below, confirm your request, and the information will be rushed right to your inbox.

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