How and Why Start an Email Marketing Program: A definitive guide to launching and growing your email program & subscriber list
First, let’s talk about why every blogger & business needs an email program:
I have worked in digital marketing (and very focused on email!) at companies valued at over $550M as well as startups, run my own businesses, and have run my blog for almost a decade. I can tell you that there is always one constant: a good chunk of revenue and/or site traffic always comes from email. Here are some key reasons why it’s imperative to have an email program.
This is just a summary of the lowest-hanging fruit in email. If you want to get down and dirty, I have a segment: “All about email” in my business & marketing video course here.
Ready to skip ahead and start your email list? CLICK HERE.
1.Email will keep your blog or brand “top of mind” to your readers.
Chances are your reader found you on Pinterest or while they were googling something. They have probably never heard of you before and the odds are not very high that they will remember you or come back to visit on a regular basis…unless you can capture their email address! By sending out consistent emails to your list, you will convert those people into brand-loyal followers. With the consistency, you will ensure that they’re constantly reminded of your brand, and will think of you first as the “go-to” next time they need to get beauty advice or buy a t-shirt.
You cannot get in front of someone on any other platform as easily as you can with an email list, including social media (it’s a fact!) Which leads me so perfectly into my next point . . .
2. Email actually delivers your message
We are all frustrated with the new Instagram/Facebook algorithm and our posts not being seen by our followers. According to Forrester Research, if you have to choose between adding a subscriber to their email list or gaining a new Facebook fan, you should go for the email subscriber 100% of the time.
Why?
First off, 90% of email gets delivered to the recipient’s inbox, whereas only 2% of your social media fans see your posts! Stupid algorithm. Out of the 90% delivered, about 20% of people open, and 3-5% click. That’s still more than your post’s reach!
Second, your email subscribers have explicitly told you they want to hear from you when they signed up for your email list. Now think about your social media posts – did your followers specifically put in their personal information in order to follow you? N0. More than likely, they found you on the discovery page or tagged in a post somewhere and mindlessly followed you! Chances are that next time you post, they will have forgotten who you are and either unfollow you or give you another chance to win them over – then the cycle begins again.
The point is that email subscribers are much more engaged with you and your brand than your followers/readers on any other channel!
3. Email will get people to your site!
You know the saying “If you build it, they will come”? Well, it really doesn’t apply to the internet world. You could have the best looking website with the best product, or write the most amazing blog post and have absolutely z e r o page views. You can push your content on social media, but only 5-10% of your followers will see it and less than that will go to your site because of it. Pinterest takes a few days (or weeks) to start to see any traffic if it’s even something that people are searching for, and even then it’s a gamble! But with email, you have a guaranteed audience and your blog post will be in the inbox of people that are already interested in your brand or blog.
Once you get to a good list size, it will even help your SEO score because the more traffic you have on your site, the more Google thinks you have a legitimate website and they want to rank you higher on their search pages. But, SEO is for another day!
4. Email makes you money!
Even if you don’t have a product to sell right now, you just might down the road. And it’s best to start growing your list now so that you have people to sell to by the time you start.
As a business, with some great email campaigns like abandoned cart, browse abandon, and targeted product promotions, selling products via email is easy! I have a segment: “All about email” in my business & marketing video course here.
5. Email will be around forever
MySpace, who?
I don’t know about you, but I would sit there and obsess over my Top 8 and my profile song on the daily! Can you believe that MySpace was the largest social networking site in the world between 2005 and 2008, and in June 2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States? And where is MySpace now? All the Top 8-obsessed MySpace users moved on to Facebook, then Instagram…and it kinda just died after that.
Imagine if you’d invested so much time, money, and effort growing an audience, only to find it completely gone shortly after. Catastrophic!
But that is why we can trust email! The first promotional email campaign was sent in 1978 to a total of 400 people, and it has been growing consistently since (keyword is consistently! Not even a sign of decline). Even better, the email industry itself has evolved from a time where it was difficult to send a promotional email….you needed a developer to code and build out your email! To now today, where tools like Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact give people the tools to create and send beautiful, targeted emails.
The point is that building your email list is so much more of a stable investment than building a social media following, because we don’t know what the next “latest and greatest” social platform will be.
6. People prefer email
A study from Marketing Sherpa (infographic below), reports that 72% of consumers prefer to receive promotional messages through email over any other form of communication – and by a landslide! Why? It’s convenient, personal, and instant. But best of all – they can save it for later and come back to it…it’s not all up in their face like an advertisement or even a social media feed.
7. Email has high ROI
Email is close to free. All it takes is a little bit of time and effort on your end, no money spent on advertising. Out of every type of marketing I’ve done for any company, email was always the highest ROI channel even over organic social media. This is because people on your email list are more engaged in you and your brand than on social media, they’re there to get your alerts…they didn’t just follow you mindlessly one day scrolling!
STEPS TO STARTING A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM – and my tips on how to do it right the first time
1. Sign up with an email provider
There are four that I highly recommend, and they are all very different and suited for different types of businesses or blogs. The great thing about all of them is that they all offer clean, mobile-responsive drag-and-drop templates as well as list segmentation. The two most important things in email (other than deliverability) are content and targeting, so these are very important! They also all offer great email form options for your website to collect emails and grow your list size (probably THE most important thing in email is having a list!).
I recommend going through each tutorial to see which would best suit your business or blog’s needs, but I put some notes for each email provider below:
Constant Contact: for the brick & mortar or service-related business
Great for events, brick and mortar, and service related businesses. They also offer amazing customer service who can help you with anything and everything…so if you have no idea what you’re doing, Constant Contact is great! Very inexpensive, $20-$45 per month depending on level of service. I gave an example below of their templates (not my favorite design-wise), and they don’t have the most robust automations. However they have great pop-up/sign-up options and their list management is very easy to use! Sign up for a FREE 60-day trial of Constant Contact here.
Campaign Monitor: for the small & mid-sized e-commerce or technology business
They have amazing templates and examples you can choose from as you can see below. It’s definitely my favorite email marketing platform design-wise. It also has a great preview tool where you can see desktop vs. mobile versions (see my notes in the next section on why mobile-optimized is very important!) and some awesome automation ideas and templates (also shown below) based on your industry and goals, so it’s pretty easy to set up. And the best part, it’s FREE! Up to a certain amount of sends and subscribers. Sign up for your free account here.
MailChimp: for the blogger or small e-commerce business
MailChimp is probably the easiest to use out of all of these because it’s very user-friendly and easy to navigate! You can create simple lists, it integrates with big e-commerce platforms, and has drag-and-drop email template functionality! They have some awesome templates to start with (shown below), or empty layouts that you can add your own content into. It also has easy automation flow templates to use as well. You can also create ads, marketing materials, signup forms, and landing pages with their tools!
The plans start at F R E E and then get tiered once you hit a certain level of subscribers. It will be more cost effective to move platforms once you outgrow MailChimp, but I think it’s the best starter platform as a blogger or small e-com business because of it ease of use.
Klaviyo: for the experienced email sender with a team behind them
Klaviyo is very robust. Very great for segmenting and automations, and integrates with a lot of e-commerce platforms, but can be very complicated and intimidating if you’re just starting out. Their interface can also be clunky and can be confusing if you don’t know what you’re doing in email yet. It also has great integrations with big e-commerce providers and an open API.
They do have a “drag-and-drop” functionality and some templates to choose from, but I would honestly only use your own designed emails – which is why I say it’s great if you work on a team, so someone can manage the complexity of Klaviyo and someone else can design and/or come up with campaign strategy.
So, what email service provider do I choose?
It’s best to choose what is best for your blog or business right now. If you are thinking about “well will this work for my business in 3 years?” and the service provider is too complicated or expensive for you, you will become intimidated and feel pressure to make the most of your investment…and probably quit email altogether! Remember that when you outgrow an email service provider, you can always switch! Yes it may be a headache at the time, but gives you peace of mind that nothing is permanent!–
2. Make it mobile friendly!
48% of emails are opened on mobile devices, and 69% of mobile users will delete emails that aren’t optimized for their device (see infographic below). This means that if you’re not optimizing your emails for mobile devices then you are missing a huge opportunity!
3. How to Grow Your Email List
Giveaways:
Scour social media for relevant influencers and brands that would be interested in doing an audience swap for a giveaway. Bundle up all the goods to give something away in exchange for the customer’s email. Just remember to create a special sign-up form for the giveaway so you can track the entries. Also remember the legal terms! You will need to make sure people are aware of what’s happening. I like using CorpNet for all my online legal needs.
If that all gives you a headache…DojoMojo is a full-service giveaway and content swap platform, and great and inexpensive way to seamlessly partner with other brands. I’ve connected with some huge brands on that platform and it has really opened up a lot of opportunity!
Pop-Ups
So you got the user to your site, now what?! Take advantage of the fact that they are there and get their info to get them back again another time! It’s best to incentivize with an offer (if you’re a brand) or a free added value like an e-book if you’re media. 10 out of 10 times you will have a higher subscriber sign-up rate if you have something to give them in return for their email. It’s also very helpful for sign-ups as well as to help your unsubscribe and spam complaint rates to let people know what they can expect. An example below from one of my brands:
During Checkout
If you’re a brand…always, always, always (can’t stress always enough) have the option to sign up for email during checkout. If you’re not doing that, you’re missing out on soooo much opportunity to cross-sell other items and get feedback.
