Some people would like to believe that email marketing has reached its expiration date. That argument has been thrown around for several years.
Yet, when it comes to results, email marketing consistently outperforms other forms of automated follow-up.
Fair enough, email marketing techniques have improved along the way, and AI opened up even more possibilities. But marketing to a list of prospects remains the preferred method for some of the biggest marketers on the planet.
Why email?
Well, unlike some other forms of communication, there are not limits on the number of words or characters in an email. Not to mention that, with freely available templates, it is easy to turn any email into a professional looking piece of content.
In addition to that, email is still a very “intimate” form of communication. Once someone has opened your email, there is very little that gets in the way in terms of distractions.
It also helps that it has evolved to the point where it offers – for now – more functionality for split testing and conditional logic than anything else.
So let’s talk about…
The best way to build a prospect mailing list:
1. Collect confirmed email addresses. Or “double optin” as old school marketers call it. Yes, by not requesting confirmation of signup you reduce the friction, and thus increase the optin rate.
But you could also be leaving yourself vulnerable to spam complaints, which can destroy the deliverability of your emails.
If you allow people to subscribe to your mailing list by just providing an unconfirmed email address, any misspelling can result in a spam complaint. And anyone adding a friend’s email address because they believe the friend will be interested, leaves you wide open to spam complaints.
Besides, as you read on, you will see why it helps your conversion rates (if done right).
2. Use a system designed to maximize your exposure, while ensuring that as few people as possible drop off along the way.
This is how you do it:
a. Ensure you have a hard-hitting hook in your signup offer. The visitor must be able to see the value in what you offer, and how it will help them.
b. On the thank-you page (where they are sent to right after signing up), start with the following message:
A confirmation email has been sent to the email address you provided. It should arrive shortly.
Then, in a slightly larger font after that, you can use a phrase like:
While you are waiting for your email to arrive, you may want to have a look at “this” (your “one time offer”, which they will never see again – which increases conversions). Not the whole offer – just a good hook, and a button labeled “click to continue”.
c. In the confirmation email is a link they need to click on – but instead of taking them directly to what you offered them, you send them to a page where you thank them for confirming their email address, and state the following:
Your freebie/download/resource/discount code is on its way. While you are waiting for that email to arrive…
In case you missed the one time offer you saw recently, you may want to view it again.
Again, just a call to action and a button.
d. Instead of sending them the requested freebie/resource/etc. via email, send them a link to the page where they can retrieve it.
Once again, at the top of the page, you will have a message saying “here is the ‘ABC’ you requested.
If you haven’t already had a look at XYZ, this is your last chance to do so (again, a call to action and an action button leading to the sales page/booking page/etc.
Setting it up this way gives you THREE exposures to your offer while they are still in the process of accessing the freebie/discount/etc. you offered them.
And yes, some of them will require more than three exposures – many of them will require seven exposures to the offer before they decide.
However, you have now completed three of those exposures in a matter of minutes. If you send one email per day after this, you will be three days closer to the magical 7th exposure.
In addition to that, you have already started programming your new subscriber to click on links in your emails.
3. Provide value first. From time to time it will make sense to send a pure marketing email. However, for the rest of the time, try to pack some value into your emails. If you give first, many people will be more inclined to consider what you offer afterwards.
Also, if you don’t have conditional logic set up (if this then that – which allows you to send emails based on user actions, and not just a timed sequence. Typically you would not send follow-up emails to people who have already bought from you), leading with value will still give your readers a reason to open your emails. And getting your emails opened regularly is critical.
4. Ensure that your SPF and DKIM records (authentications for sending emails from your domain email) are in place. If you have cpanel hosting, you can just navigate to the email admin section, and select “deliverability”. From there, just follow the prompts to generate both records, and have them added to your domain’s advanced settings.
These settings are critical to ensure your emails don’t end up in spam folders everywhere.
5. Of course, it goes without saying that you need to use your domain email address as the “from” address on your emails to your mailing list. Using a free email address is a sure way to end your emails in spam.
In conclusion:
Yes, there are other ways of getting people on a prospect list. You can build a social following – and you should – but your new posts are only shown to a small section of your following.
You can use a push notification provider like OneSignal, but then you limit the length of the messages you can send.
You can use a WhatsApp system like Wati.io – but then you cannot schedule follow-up messages.
At the end of the day, each of these have their strong- and weak points, but email still seems to outperform all over channels.
For now, at least.