Why You Need Email Marketing

Shweiki Media teams up with Alicia Lawrence, content coordinator for WebpageFX, as she conducts an interview with expert email marketer Dan Shaffer on why businesses should start using email marketing today.

The Benefits of Email Marketing:

There are many benefits to email marketing that should motivate businesses and websites to start building their email lists.

  1. It is very cost effective and has a high ROI (Return on Investment). For every $1 spent, you will receive $40 in return.
  2. It helps keep the brand top of mind for the customer and continues to build customer loyalty.
  3. Email marketing targets specific consumers with key messages.

Common Mistakes Businesses Make When Trying to Grow Their Email Lists

It’s important to remember that when it comes to email marketing and building a good newsletter list, businesses need to have their subscribers back them up. If there are no subscribers or readers then all of the results will not amount to anything.

Therefore, the first big mistake many people make is not actively growing their email list.  If it is stagnant or if businesses are not even working to build the list in the first place then that is a huge mistake. Even if only one email is being sent out a year, one should still have list to come back to.

A lot of people will come to WebpageFX and say “We don’t have an email list, but I want to start e-mail marketing today. Can I buy an email list?” This is the second big mistake people make. Buying email lists is not recommended because generally the people on those purchased lists do not appreciate being emailed like that and will unsubscribe.

Ways to Build an Email List Quickly

One way to build an email newsletter list quickly is to use Twitter advertisements. This requires a lot of paid advertisements therefore it is only a good option if one is willing to spend money to compile a list.  Twitter allows businesses to place ads that let people sign up for the newsletter with a click of the button.  It may not be as cheap as some of the lists available for purchase but it will be much more relevant to the people who subscribed because they will know what they signed up for.

If one goes to many trade shows and conferences, then that is another way to build a strong email list.  One can bring along materials to provide a way for people to sign up for the newsletter and you can get a lot of interested parties this way as well.

One of the biggest ways one can build an email list is through his or her own website. Therefore, there should always be a way for people to sign up for the newsletter on the website whether it be a sidebar or a pop up.  A lot of people might complain about pop ups but if done correctly, they can be very effective.

Best Practices in Email Marketing

The best thing to do whenever presenting someone with an offer to sign up for the company newsletter is to give them something back in return.  Why would anyone sign up for an email newsletter that does not indicate the value he or she would get from it after doing so? Therefore, one should provide some type of value for signing up such as coupons or a free guide.

It is important to remember to be clear about what it is you are communicating to them and what they are signing up for. If people are not clear about what they will be getting in their inbox, they will quickly unsubscribe.  Therefore, be clear as to what is actually in the newsletter and how often they will be receiving it.

If the topic is a little different than what was communicated on the website then people will be more likely to unsubscribe as well. Being clear and giving readers what they want are the the two things that will generally generate a good email list and guarantee readers will remain loyal for a long time.

There are several different ways WebpageFX gathers emails for their site.

  • One way that has proven to be successful is asking people for their information and in return they will receive a free marketing guide.  Generally, these guides are very informational and provide many useful tips about how to build a company and a website.
  • The next effective method that has given WebpageFX subscribers is the use of pop ups. However, we do not try to blast the readers screen with a lot of different things flashing around their screen because that does not make them happy. Thanks to pop ups, about 3% visits are converted to subscribers.  If one is below that in terms of pop up conversion, then one can assume he or she is ticking off a lot of readers.
  • Content upgrades are a recent strategy that has a high conversion rate and has generated a lot of email addresses. When someone has a popular blog post or a high traffic article, WebpageFX will write a supplement article, such as checklist or another guide that goes into more detail than the blog did, and post the link at the bottom of the original page. So readers will read this awesome post and will get to the bottom and read “Free bonus: 10 more ways…” However, in order to get this free bonus article readers have to give their email address.

The Best Pop Up Programs to Use

There are several pop up programs out there that are great at getting readers attention effectively.

  • One paid program that is really great is OptinMonster because the pop up appears whenever someone is about to leave a page instead of when one is right in the middle of searching on the website.  It has some recording features, gives what pages readers converted on and can even do A/B testing to test the different headlines on pop ups to see which one converts the best.
  • SumoMe is a great free program used for building an email newsletter list. It does not provide as many features as OptinMonster but it is a good starting point and it is free.

And Remember

When it comes to email collecting, make sure to only ask for readers’ essential information.  If people have to fill out a whole bunch of questions in order to get the newsletter they will eventually lose interest and then you will get a lot of incomplete forms back. Second, do not forget to make it easy for consumers to share the email newsletter with their friends.  The more people that see it, the more subscribers you will have.

 

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Alicia Lawrence

Alicia Lawrence is a content coordinator for WebpageFX. Her work has been published by the Association for Business Communication, Yahoo! Small Business, and Advanced Web Rankings.

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