Email Marketing Secrets for Beginners: Here’s What’s Working NOW!

in this video i'm going to walk you through every single step of running an effective profitable email marketing campaign including what's working now and all my best proven tips secrets and strategies but let's get real for a second is email marketing as profitable as it used to be yes yes it is in fact it's as strong today in 2022 as it's ever been before so the latest stats show that for every dollar that the average business puts into email you get 42 dollars back try getting those kinds of returns from facebook or instagram or even tick tock ads sure email's not the shiniest new toy in the box but it's a workhorse so saddle up i'm going to show you exactly how to make email marketing work for you and your small business in 2022. i've got 11 amazing tips and secret strategies that are working really well right now and aren't likely to go out of style anytime soon and before we get into all this i do want to address the biggest change that just hit us and that's apple's ios 15 update so just like the ios 14 privacy update kind of screwed over facebook marketing this newer update kind of did the same thing for email but not nearly as bad so long story short anyone on an apple mobile device who uses the apple mail app is gonna skew your numbers basically so that mail app is going to basically open every email on the user's behalf and store it on apple's own server why you ask i've got no idea and that honestly seems to be its own privacy issue there if you ask me but in any case they open the email for their user and what that's going to do is make it look like your email open rates are going through the roof and that's going to make it much harder to measure the effectiveness of things like your subject lines because they're basically screwing with all your data so that's the bad news but the good news is this update really only affects your emails reporting not its performance so this will come into play a little later on in this video but for now let's just move into what's working really well now for email marketing first up in order to use email as a marketing tool you need a growing healthy email list and the way you get that list has definitely changed quite a bit in the past few years so you used to be able to get people to sign up for your newsletter on your website or even for an ebook or a white paper if you're in a more b2b niche but people don't really opt in for that kind of thing nearly as often as they used to your potential customers are much more savvy than that now and they aren't nearly as willing to give up their email address which is why you need to use an upgraded lead magnet to build up your list in 2022 i'm talking something that's irresistible that promises a real tangible result or positive outcome not just extra information so i want you to start with what you charge money for right what problem does that solve for your clients then i want you to brainstorm the best way that you can help them achieve a similar result in a more diy way or how you can help them get a quick win and get them started on the right path toward eventually working with you so let's say you're a dietitian right you could turn your knowledge into an online quiz that asks some of the maybe some of the same questions you would normally ask your full service clients and then in the end it's going to give them a rough diet plan that's semi-customized based on the answers that they provided that's more of a diy version of what you do in a broad sense or you could go more narrow in focus and show them just one thing right how to prep their meals in advance with a meal prep starter kit type lead magnet so see how much more actionable both of those lead magnets are than just you know an ebook called five things to know when planning your diet something like that promises information not transformation so think of the overall topic and title that promises an outcome and then give it a really irresistible title so then you're going to want to figure out the best format that makes the most sense for that content so some of the lead magnet types that i'm seeing the best results with right now are tool kits which just package up a few different elements into one zip file templates that people can just pop in their own unique details to get a finalized version of something that's ready to go or an online quiz that gets them moving in the right direction based on their answers and then once you have this new lead who's opted in for your new lead magnet what happens next right that leads us right into tip number two which is to automate the delivery of that lead magnet and ask for a response back one of the biggest hurdles to effective email marketing is getting your emails to actually show up in your subscribers primary inbox right most email providers really want to separate out the marketing emails from the more personal ones so they have things like gmail's promotions tab for that purpose and as you can imagine if your email ends up here it's a lot less likely to be seen much less opened and clicked on so here's the best thing you can do to make sure that your emails are delivered where you want them to be first of all don't make the mistake of simply linking directly to your lead magnet once people opt in for it it's really easy just to set it up so that once they fill out their name and email and then press that submit button to just automatically redirect them to the lead magnet but what you should do instead is set up a little email automation magic so you're actually emailing it to them instead so this is going to keep your list cleaner since people won't be putting in fake emails nearly as often because they know that it's going to be emailed to them right but also something really interesting happens when they open that first email from you that does a pretty good job of training their email system that they actually want emails that come from you now this is not a foolproof guarantee that all your future emails are going to be routed to the primary inbox but it's a good signal that's going to at least help you out there and what's going to help you out even more here i want you to actually encourage them to respond back to that email so end it with a question and a call to action to respond back with an answer so when the email providers like gmail start seeing that your emails aren't just being opened but they're being responded to it's another huge signal that your emails are not just spam they aren't just promotions they're truly person to email is important enough to go directly to the inbox okay so you've automated delivery of that first email but that's really just the beginning so my next tip is all to do with what exactly should you be sending out to your list and when so what's gonna end up being your most profitable strategy first let's talk about what won't work just spamming your list with offers and promotion after promotion it's really the thing that people think about when they think about email marketing right and it's annoying so just don't do it what you should do instead is be sending out one weekly email that's packed with value i'm talking advice tips actionable strategies in other words you're helping them not selling to them and you've got some options here in terms of what you'll actually send in these emails so this does work best if you pair it with some type of content marketing strategy like if you were creating weekly blog articles or podcast episodes or videos in that case you'd probably want to use your weekly email to drive them to that new piece of content with the email simply telling them why it's important how it'll help them and then you're just going to link over to the content itself over on your website or if you don't make your own regular content you can do the same thing but with someone else's content so in this case you'd be acting more as a curator pointing your subscribers to helpful content that you found from around the web and then in the emails itself you just you know you'd introduce the content and again you let them know why it's important and maybe even give your two cents on it or you could go even simpler and just deliver one quick tip or a piece of advice or action item right in the email itself without having to link to anything and by the way a combination of all these things is perfectly fine too and just like with any email you ever send you want to pay really special attention to the subject line so a good subject line is going to get your email open so it's really important that you get it right so there are a ton of ways you can go with your subject lines but what i feel tends to work best is either going super direct letting them know exactly what they'll learn inside like this one that i recently used slow website here's the instant fix or using a bit more curiosity and mystery like another one i sent out recently that says my big fat fail and what it means for you and that one works really well because it creates some kind of a curiosity in the mind of whoever reads it and a lot of people just can't resist closing that open loop in their brain and they want to know what that failure was right people love some drama so if you can play into that you're probably going to get some extra clicks out of it so once you've gotten people to open your email these next few tips are all about properly engaging with them so my first engagement tip is all about the writing style that almost always works best and it's actually the easiest to pull off so i'm talking about casual fun copywriting when you're writing your emails write more like the way you would speak out loud to a friend and less like you're writing a term paper or a cover letter when you're applying for a job i don't care if you're a dog trainer or a lawyer your potential clients will always prefer being spoken to like a fellow human being not a faceless nameless number so be conversational use short paragraphs and segueing right into the next tip personalize it almost every email platform out there like mailchimp convertkit or drip has the functionality built right into it to actually be able to use your subscribers first name in your emails it's a really small gesture that can go a long way if you can start your email with a personalized greeting that first little bit of text is actually going to show up in the email preview and when they can see their name peeking through there open rates can go up by about 20 percent and i've actually been so bold as to use first names in the actual subject lines of certain emails and that can work even better and by the way personalization can go way beyond just using your subscribers name and your email right you can personalize emails based on how they entered your list in the first place for instance if someone's on your list because they bought something from you in the past you can send very different campaigns to that list versus the people who just opted in for a free lead magnet that is what we call email segmentation and it can be very powerful because you're really just catering the content to people at different stages of your sales process now my next tip seems super counterintuitive but trust me here this is going to help you out in just about every way from helping your emails go to the primary inbox to open rates to higher engagement click-throughs and finally sales so every email provider out there like mailchimp for instance has these really pretty really polished really professional looking email templates that you can customize really easily but my tip here is not to use any of them and opt for a minimal no design design instead so why wouldn't you want to jump at the chance to make your emails look really slick and professional it's simple polished emails like this are trying to sell you something and people look at them as nothing more than promotional possibly even as spam so by formatting your emails in simple text they actually stand out by blending in with the rest of your more casual personal emails remember the name of the game isn't to sell at least not directly so don't tip your hand too early by making your emails look like ads for your paid offers and by the way don't worry we're going to be using your emails to make lots of money for your business more on that in a minute but for now you're just trying to be memorable helpful and earn lots of trust but just because you're using plain text emails doesn't mean there's not room for some visual punch and personality so my next tip is going to help with both and that's to use video and gifs in your emails so if your email is linking out to a video that either you've produced or even if it's from somebody else i really recommend not just using a simple text link but let's make it more enticing with a video thumbnail that actually has a play button on it not a real play button unfortunately most email providers don't actually let you embed in a real playable video in your emails like you could if you just sent it to a friend with gmail but you can use your thumbnail and then using canva or photoshop you just add a play button graphic over the top of it and then you're going to link that whole image to the page where they can go and watch your video so this is going to help your click-through rates go way up but even if there's no video link i love using animated gifs in my emails if you know your ideal customer pretty well you probably know the kinds of shows they watch and what they're into and that really helps build on that connection if you can use gifts from those shows or movies or you know pop culture that's gonna help you make your point you know i use a lot from you know curb your enthusiasm or seinfeld or the office because i know my general customer avatar probably enjoys a lot of those shows it just brings that extra punch of personality in and makes you and your business seem much more human and a lot less corporate and i've actually got another great way to use gifts that i'm going to get to in a minute so up till now we've been using your emails to create a connection and build trust but how exactly does that lead to profits for your business it's all been leading to these next few tips so pay real close attention to me here the first way you can use your emails to drive more sales is to use the full power of the ps so in all the emails we've covered up till now you're delivering value and tips and advice but what i didn't mention is that you can actually use a soft cell technique at the very end of all or at least most of those emails in the ps line so after you've signed your name you say something like ps if you need any help with this strategy or if you have any questions about it click here to set up a quick call with me i'm happy to walk you through it so see what i did there i couched what's essentially a call to action to set up a consultation as an offer to help not as a promotion but i'm not saying that none of your emails can be much more direct in fact i recommend that one-fourth of all your weekly emails have more of that direct sales focus so you help them out three times then you pitch them on how you can help them even more by working with you one-on-one or by buying this thing that you sell and one of my secret weapons that i've started using recently in my sales emails is to sell with stories the way this works is rather than just laying out what you're selling which can honestly sometimes just sound like a sales pitch and fall pretty flat instead tell the story of a current or past customer who got a particularly great result or outcome based on buying what you're trying to sell and as an example of that i have an email campaign that's selling my paid program called the profitable website launchpad and within that email campaign i actually feature four different client stories that each hit on a different result or objection that i know lots of people have when they're considering enrolling for instance i tell the story of colin here who landed the biggest client he ever had within the first week of his new website launching so when you tell a story people will latch on to what you're saying much better and they're going to remember it better too because as human beings our brains are just more wired to remember stories more than facts and figures and then i linked to his video testimonial inside of that email because i know getting them to click through to watch that video is gonna do a better job selling my program than me just talking about it in the email and along those lines i did promise you a cool way of using those animated gifs in your emails so what i've started doing is making these stories come alive by choosing the best little short snippet for my video testimonials then adding captions to them then turning those into animated gifs that i embed right inside the email this not only breaks it up and adds some visual interest but it makes the story much more believable because now they can actually see the person saying it in their own words rather than just having to take my word for it that it's a real story and a real success and they get the benefit of that without having to click through to a video either okay this next tip is super important even though again it seems really counterintuitive you gotta keep your list clean so wait a minute you spend all this time trying to build your list now you're telling me i need to make it smaller unfortunately it's part of the process and it's critical that you do this and i'm gonna explain why so as you build up your list you're gonna have people who are super engaged and open most of your emails and even maybe click through to a lot of them but then you'll get those people who just wanted your free lead magnet and then they never open up another email after that so the problem with those people is they're dragging your metrics down not only do those unopened emails make your numbers look bad but they actually send a powerful negative message to the email providers out there so gmail starts seeing that your emails aren't being opened by most of your subscribers and they make the decision for you that your emails aren't good and they shouldn't land in the primary inbox anymore so for that reason you want to clean house at least quarterly and scrub anyone off your list who hasn't been engaging now this does mean something different in 2022 than in the past because remember how in the beginning of this video i brought up ios 15 and how they're going to be skewing those open rates so we used to scrub people based on those open rates you didn't open any of my last emails we're kicking you off the list nothing for you but now that metric isn't reliable anymore so what i'm about to say may be controversial and this is completely up to you if you want to do it this way but what i'm going to be doing is kicking people off my list based on a combination of how recently you joined my list and how recently you've clicked a link inside my emails so if you're less than three months old on my list you get an automatic pass you can stay but if you've been on longer than three months and you haven't clicked a single link in those pat in the past 90 days you're out now i'm aware this is going to dramatically cut my email list because click-through rates are just way lower than open rates but ultimately i'm okay with this because if i've sent you 12 emails and you have not clicked through to watch any of my videos in that time what are the odds you ever will meaning i'm paying my email program good money by the way to keep people on who i know are never going to watch my content or buy my offers when the time comes for that now the obvious first step for making all this work is to start building your email list so if you click this video i'm going to share all my best tips for creating the right kind of lead magnet that's going to get lots of signups so you'll have lots of eyeballs on your emails followed by lots of paying customers and clients so click right here and we'll get you set up the right way the first time see you over there

Channel: Wes McDowell

Views: 97,685

Keywords: email, email marketing, how email marketing works, email marketing 2022, email marketing tips, email marketing strategy, email marketing strategies, digital marketing, email marketing formula, email marketing tutorial

Id: xirKgZTFRQY

Length: 20min 52sec (1252 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 11 2022