SEO Hosting Blog

Email newsletters can be a powerful tool for marketing your business. With an ongoing email newsletter campaign, you can build relationships with your customers, nurture leads, educate clients on your products and services, drive traffic to your website, run special promotions to drive sales, and much more.

Of course, you can’t run an email marketing campaign if you don’t have any subscribers to your list. So what can you do to get more email signups through your website?

• Place the form in a prominent spot—Make sure the signup form is clearly visible on every page of your website. It’s preferable to place it in a spot above the fold, so that visitors see the form as soon as they land on your page. For best results, test out placing your forms in different spots on your pages. This will help you identify the best spot for placing your form to maximize sign ups.
• Sell the benefits of your newsletter—Just because you are offering a free email newsletter doesn’t mean people will automatically sign up for it. You still need to sell visitors on the value of your newsletter. Let them know how they will benefit by becoming a subscriber. A few simple bullet points highlighting the benefits of your email newsletter (e.g. “Receive exclusive weekly offers available only to subscribers!”) should suffice.
• Post examples of past newsletters—Let visitors take a look at a few of your old newsletters so they can get a better idea of the type of content you’ll be sending their way.
• Guarantee privacy for subscribers—It’s a good idea to reassure visitors that their personal information will always be protected and that it will only be used for its intended purpose. A simple statement, such as “Your personal information will never be sold or abused” can go a long way to earning trust and earning more sign ups.
• Make it easy to sign up—The easier it is to sign up for your email list, the more subscriptions you’ll get. Ideally, your signup form should just require an email address. In some cases, you may also ask for a name, but remember that the more information you require, the fewer the number of people will be who take the time to complete the sign up process.

What are some of your best tips for getting more email opt ins? Share them by leaving a comment below.

When sending emails, your first priority is to make sure your messages get read, not deleted. You can’t achieve any bigger goals without first overcoming this major roadblock, and while it sounds simple enough, the truth is that most companies struggle with low open rates.

What can you do to make sure your emails don’t get deleted? Here are 3 quick tips that will help you write better emails.

1. Lure them in with an irresistible subject line—The subject line is the first thing the recipient sees. It determines whether they’ll open your email or delete it, so it has to be good. Your subject line needs to create intrigue. It needs to be so compelling that the recipient simply has to click it to find out what’s inside. It should speak to their needs and give a clear, interesting preview of what awaits in the email. Check out this list of 7 tips for writing better subject lines.
2. Tighten up your message—Email length matters. Your readers don’t have the time, patience, or desire to read any email for more than a few minutes. Keep your message tight, and don’t try to discuss too many different things in a single email.
3. Give them content that speaks to their needs—What do your recipients care about? What are their biggest needs and goals? What are they looking for from you? If your emails don’t align with their needs and goals, they’re going to get deleted. It’s that simple.

What are some of your best tips for writing emails that don’t get deleted? Share them by leaving a comment below.

Testing out new things is the key to running a successful email marketing campaign. When you test certain variations side-by-side, you can identify which changes you can make to improve open rates, increase click-throughs, and run a more profitable email marketing campaign.

So, what are some of the things you can test out?

1. Personalization—The jury still seems to be out on email personalization. While some studies have found that personalizing your messages with the recipient’s name can actually cause a decline in open rates, others have shown that personalized emails are more effective. Regardless of the outcome, when personalizing your emails you have to make sure to get the recipients’ names correct. Also, don’t overdo it with the personalization. Mentioning their name too many times can make your email feel awkward and spammy. Test it out and see how it works for you.

(more…)

About a year ago, I wrote a post asking the question: How often should you email your subscribers? It’s a question that almost every company involved in email marketing asks themselves on a regular basis. In that post and after discussions with other marketers I respect, the general consensus was that anything more often than every 4 or 5 days will likely be seen as an annoyance and as spam.

In fact, there was a study done by DoubleClick that found 49% of consumers say spam is “email from a company I have done business with but that comes too often.” So, just because someone subscribes to your list doesn’t mean they won’t think you’re a spammer.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because my inbox has been going crazy the past couple of weeks. Why? Because Mother’s Day is just around the corner. We all know that billions of dollars are spent by consumers each Mothers Day. So, it makes sense that companies are frantically trying to outdo one another so they can get their grubby little hands on my hard-earned dollars, but things have gone way too far.

Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, and From You Flowers are 3 email lists that I’m on because I bought various gifts for my girlfriend and my mom several months ago. The first 2 companies already email way too often as it is, regardless if there’s a holiday coming up or not. Not a day goes by that I don’t get an email from at least one of them…usually both. The only reasons I haven’t unsubscribed yet are because I always just delete the message without opening it and I’m also interested in email marketing, so it’s fun to see how some companies approach it.

But now that Mother’s Day is almost here all 3 companies have stepped up the frequency of their emails. I agree that it’s a good tactic to do this when you have a time-sensitive message, but there’s a thin line between urging me to get my mom something nice and pestering me every hour with another “last minute sale” that I need to take advantage of before it’s too late.

That’s the danger of emailing too often. What motivation does someone have to take action if they know you’re going to be emailing them with another offer (usually a better offer) the next day? It’s like the story of the boy who cried wolf. Sooner or later, people just stop paying attention to you when you’re constantly screaming at them.

By the way, I didn’t make a Mother’s Day purchase from any of these companies. Instead, I’m taking my mom out to dinner, and I’m making a donation to her favorite charity under her name.

Over the past few months, I’ve talked quite a bit about how to write effective email marketing messages, how to grow your email list, and other similar topics. Today, I want to talk about the different types of email marketing messages you can send to your subscribers. Below, I’ve outlined the 4 basic types of communication.

•    Newsletter—Typically sent once a month, the email marketing newsletter does a few things. It usually contains a brief update on company news, a helpful how-to type article, and an offer. To get the best open rates and responses from your newsletters, you need to write great email marketing subject lines and keep the content interesting, scannable, and brief.

•    Sale alerts—If you’re subscribed to any email lists, you probably receive sale alerts on a fairly regular basis. These are the messages you send out when you’re running a 25% off sale or you have a great time-sensitive offer that requires immediate action. One word of advice: don’t overdo it with these sale alerts. I’ve seen some companies who literally send these out every day, and it: 1) seems desperate and 2) makes the sales seem unimportant since there are new sales every day.

•    Press releases/breaking news—This communication type is used to send out the latest company news, such as new product announcements, company stock information, important events, etc. For those of your subscribers who don’t sign up for this feed, you should try to briefly highlight the important press releases in your monthly newsletter.

•    Service reminders—Service interval reminder emails are all about generating repeat business by contacting your customers at exactly the right time. For example, suppose you run a local oil change shop. A customer comes in, gets an oil change, and signs up for your email list. It would make sense to send this customer a service reminder (preferably with a special discount offer) in about 3 months when he’s due for his next oil change. This keeps you in the customer’s awareness just when he’s ready to make a purchase.

Rather than sending all of your email marketing messages to every subscriber on your list, you should ask subscribers to choose which types of communication they’re interested in receiving. You can do this by simply having a few check boxes they can choose from upon subscribing. This will help make certain your subscribers remain interested in what you’re sending them.