Email Marketing 101 for Bloggers

Email marketing is dead, social media is now the best way to get traffic to a blog, right? This is what many bloggers think, but it’s not accurate. What is right is that thanks to social media, email is more powerful than ever.

Think about it; how often do you check a blogger’s Twitter feed or Facebook page? Now, compare that to how often you check your email inbox. Which one wins? Email, of course.

This doesn’t mean that as a blogger every email you send out will convert to more traffic to your site, and therefore, more revenue. However, when used with the tips we’re about to give you and in conjunction with social media, your email marketing efforts as a blogger truly can pay off.

Using the Right Email Platform

The first thing you need to do is to decide which email service you’re going to use to deliver your valuable content. To do this, you want to explore the email platform you’re considering and see what tools or services they provide. Here’s a sampling of what to look for:

• Social Media Cooperation: Since social media is an important part of email marketing, the email service you choose should include a way to easily share content in your emails. One thing to look for is if it includes an easy way to add share buttons to the email itself.
• Responsive Emails: Having an email platform that has a responsive design included means that your users can view your email with any device, large or small screen, desktop or mobile. With an estimated 60% of people now using their smartphones to check their emails, a service that offers responsive emails is not just a plus, it’s a necessity.
• Testing or Analytics: One of the most important things an email service should include is a tool that you use to analyze and test your email marketing With such a tool you want to be able to analyze a multitude of things, such as which template, call-to-action, or even delivery time is best. With that kind of knowledge you will be able to perfect your email marketing strategy and deliver what works.
• Newsletter Specialties: Most bloggers share newsletters through email, that’s why it’s important to check that the email provider you’re looking at has newsletter campaign options. Themes, social share buttons, a newsletter directory and a way to add your logo are a few important options to also consider.

Content is King

As a blogger, you’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “Content is King,” and you’ve heard it because it’s true. This is not only true though of the content on your blog, it’s just as true when you’re a blogger that’s using email marketing. Here are a few tips for writing good email content that will get your subscribers to read what you took the time to write and not click “unsubscribe.”

• Consider your audience: Thinking about who your audience is, is why it’s so important that your email service provides some type of analytical tools to measure clicks and other interactions. Consider how they’re visiting your site. If they’re mostly mobile, keep the content short and sweet. Also look at things like median age (if available), and female vs male so that you know who is visiting and can better target your information for them.

• Sharing what you know: You may wonder why on earth you’d give away your valuable tips on any subject for free, but consider the trade off, which is that you’re getting something of equal value for free: their time, and hopefully, their referrals. Keep in mind that while you share what you know, you should also let your followers know you’re not some spam-bot by sharing yourself and expressing yourself as a real personality. Share from the heart, not just the mind and your drive to earn more. Be human.

• Integrate your perspective and experience: Consider what it is that caused you to open and read an email in your own inbox. If you opened the email but didn’t end up really reading all of it, that’s not all bad, perhaps they had a good subject line that you can learn from and they just needed to work on content. On the other hand, if you didn’t even open an email and instead sent it right to trash land, why didn’t you open it? There’s a lot to glean from your own email box and your behavior, so explore it to identify some good ideas of the do’s and don’ts of email marketing.

To conclude, email marketing is a great tool for bloggers, especially those with a particular knowledge or know-how of a subject worth sharing. Once you’ve found the service you’re going to use to create, send and monitor your email campaign, go into your own email inbox and consider what it is that gets you to click on an email and, first: open it, then: read it, and then: share it. Once you have that formula, all that’s missing is your great content, which after all, is king.