Simplified Email Marketing for Beginners

Email marketing is a very broad field. There are actually websites talking about email marketing only, so I’m not even going to pretend that I can explain everything in this short post. However, I can give you some simplified advice on how to get started, and on what the most basic principles of email marketing are. So here goes:

Rule #1: No Spamming

Sorry, I just had to mention this in order to keep the message complete. I’m sure you get the idea – spamming is bad, we don’t take part in it. Only send messages to people who have subscribed to your mailing list in person. Which brings me to:

Rule #2: Sign Up to an Email Delivery Service

Sounds serious but it’s simply an online tool/service that lets you send emails to your mailing list. In my opinion, the best tool around is MailChimp. Its main advantage is that it’s free for small to medium sized lists. This is great when you’re just starting out because you can get an account, set your campaigns, and earn your first money without spending a dime. Also, MailChimp provides an email signup form which you can use to get people to subscribe to your newsletter in the first place.

Rule #3: Landing Page and SEO

The best way of convincing people to subscribe to your newsletter is to show them a custom landing page focused on getting the signup only. Such a page should contain no distracting elements. Only things that can encourage your visitors to give you their name and email address. The main idea is this: You should get rid of the sidebar, get rid of the footer, and use a simplified header (or no header at all). So all you’re left with is the main content block. Inside of it you should place some copy and convince people why they should subscribe (offering a bribe works well, more on which later). You end the text with an embedded signup form, which you can get from MailChimp.

Rule #4: Use the Sidebar

On every page of your site/blog you should use a sidebar widget to display a signup form along with the most basic info about your newsletter and the bribe you’re offering. Almost every main stream blog does this, so I invite you to look around. I’m sure you’ll get a load of great examples.

Rule #5: The Bribe

People like to bribed into doing something. It’s just the way it is. But hold on, it’s nothing negative. Here, by bribing, I mean to offer the reader something valuable in exchange for their name and email address. This all depends on the niche you’re in, but here’s an example: If you’re in the guitar niche, you can offer a free e-book on learning guitar chords as your bribe. Beginner guitarists are very likely to take action on such an offer. Of course, there’s still the problem of actually creating this free product, so it’s up to you to select something that won’t require that much work on your part, yet it will still be valuable to your readers.

Rule #6: Content Driven

The main mistake marketers make is making their newsletters promotion-driven. This means that they’re sending mainly promotional emails pitching various affiliate products. After a short while subscribers get a grasp on what’s going on and they decide to leave the list. And this shouldn’t be a surprise because no one likes when people try to sell them stuff all the time. The lesson here: Make your newsletter content-driven. Focus on providing quality information first, and then try to promote something every now and then. A nice approach is to send one promotional email every 9 non-promotional ones. That way people know that you’re still providing good value, so they’re not that likely to leave your list when they see a promotional message. If you don’t have time to provide custom-made content for your newsletter, you can simply create an RSS-driven campaign. MailChimp lets you use your blog’s RSS in a way that every new post gets sent as an email message … very handy.

There you go … 6 simplified rules of email marketing. Do you have an idea on what would look good as the rule #7? Feel free to share.

About the Author:

Karol K. is an online entrepreneur, blogger, and writer. Visit him at ThemeFuse.com – the home of premium WordPress themes.