Email Marketing: How and Why to Use It?

Let's talk about email marketing for bloggers.

Whether you're brand new to blogging or you've been slowly building your traffic (and email list) for years, it's never too early to take your email marketing efforts seriously. -mail. Here's my guide to email marketing for blogging this year.

We are here to dissect theemail marketing as it applies to bloggers, so let's dive into it. One of the questions frequently asked by readers who new to blogging is: “When should I start building my email list? "

My answer to this question is still today. As a blogger, it's never too early (or too late) to start building your email list.

There are many ways to monetize your blog, but the possibility of generating a significant income increases dramatically with the size of your email list.

The more readers your email list gets, the more likely you are to recommend or sell them relevant (useful) products or services.

7 Smart Ways to Gain Email Subscribers

There's even an old proverb in the blogging world that sums up the importance of growing your email list from day one of your blog… “There's always money in the email list. e-mails from the banana stand”.

Kidding aside, before we dive into this guide, let's talk about what an email list is (and isn't) in the context of blogging.

What is a mailing list for bloggers?

Your mailing list refers to the community of email subscribers that you collect from the group of readers who visit your blog. These email subscribers are people who signed up (by submitting their email addresses in an embedded form on your blog).

They have opted in to receive regular updates, notifications of new content, recommendations and/or offers from you, straight to their inbox.

While blogging can be the best way to build an online presence, drive traffic, and establish yourself as an expert in your field, email marketing is how you can personally connect with your target audience .

Unlike social media and search engines, nothing can stop you from reaching everyone on your email list.

Email marketing is so powerful for bloggers because it's a direct channel between you and your readers – one that you personally own and control.

Blogging and email marketing are one of the most powerful combinations for generate regular traffic to your content and make money with your blog .

It's a symbiotic relationship that, when done right, can pay off.

In this guide, I'll help you understand the tools, set the right goals, create your email marketing strategy, measure your results, and earn more money by effectively monetizing your list.

Now, let's dive into this guide and my email marketing tips.

The benefits of email marketing for bloggers

Email Marketing Guide How To Monetize Your Blog With Email Marketing

The blogging tools and techniques available to marketers today are constantly evolving, which has caused some to lose interest in email. But the latest data is clear: email is here to stay. The number of mail users is expected to increase from 3,7 billion to 4,1 billion users.

Email has one of the highest ROIs of any digital marketing channel, generating $44 for every dollar spent. Social media can grab headlines, but email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.

Obviously, email marketing can be a powerful weapon in a blogger's digital marketing arsenal.

Here are four key ways email stands out from other marketing techniques for bloggers:

It's personal : email marketing allows you to personalize messages for each person on your email list. By collecting information about your readers during signup, you can create segmented lists (using an email marketing tool like ConvertKit ). This allows you to adapt your message in all sorts of creative ways.
It is measurable: Although most digital marketing channels include some sort of analytics to gauge results, email is one of the most easily measured. The impact of each email marketing campaign can often be measured in real time across a wide range of behaviors, allowing you to accurately determine the ROI of your efforts.
It is scalable: Email is arguably the greatest one-to-many communication tool ever invented, especially for bloggers. No matter how big you grow your email list, email allows you to provide a consistent experience for everyone on your list.
It can be automated: not only can email campaigns be written and planned in advance, they can also be triggered by all kinds of user behavior to give your audience the right message at the right time.

Alright, clearly email marketing is a major channel you need to be careful about as a blogger.

But beyond its benefits from a marketing perspective, email marketing can also help you monetize your blog much more effectively.

How Bloggers Can Benefit From Email Marketing

Whatever the subject of your blog, you probably ask yourself these kinds of questions on a daily basis…

How do I increase traffic to my blog?
How do you get more readers to come back each week?
How can I monetize my blog?

Well guess what… email marketing can help you with all three of these goals.

Email marketing can increase traffic to your blog

Even your most enthusiastic fans won't see every new piece of content you post. Most of us just don't have time to revisit our favorite blogs every day to see if there's anything new.

As work and other things continue to compete for our time, it's easy to lose interest.

Email gives you the ability to let everyone on your list know exactly when you post new articles. This keeps you at the top of the list for potentially thousands of people.

When combined with a consistent posting schedule, email marketing can help you drive large amounts of traffic directly to your newest, best-performing content on a regular basis.

You can even use automated drip campaigns (when using one of the best email marketing tools) to send some of your old posts to new subscribers, exposing more people to your best articles and extending their lifespan.

Email Marketing Can Increase Your Blog's Regular Readership

Readers who voluntarily subscribe to your mailing list, by providing their email addresses, have demonstrated that they have more than just a passing interest in your content.

They are real fans and potential leads that you can turn into paying customers.

By leveraging the personalization of email marketing services, along with smart content, you can turn your subscribers into your own personal marketing team.

Not convinced? According to recent statistics on blogs, blog posts are 3,5 times more likely to be shared on social media by your email subscribers.

This helps you increase your brand awareness and grow your email list even further.

Email also gives you the ability to give people special bonuses like e-books, white papers, templates, or video courses as incentives to sign up and join your list.

These enticing offers can attract more people to your site and, in turn, increase your blog readership as more people discover your content.

Email Marketing Can Help Monetize Your Blog

Email marketing allows you to truly connect with your audience and personalize your content to better match their interests.

By building trust with your email list, you will be in a better position to eventually sell them a product or service. Here are some examples of ways you can monetize your blog.

Examples of products to monetize your mailing list:

Paid eBooks
Virtual summits
Online course
Digital media
Software and applications

Examples of services to monetize your mailing list:

Consultant
Personal Coaching
Independent services
Promotional Services
Premium subscriptions

Sponsors and Affiliate Marketing

If your list gets large enough or is targeted to a specific group of people, you may even be able to get sponsors and sell ad space in both your newsletter by email and on your blog.

Some advertisers are willing to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on ads, endorsements, product reviews, or links in popular newsletters.

You can also take advantage of affiliate marketing opportunities. These allow you to sell other people's products and services in your emails for a share of the profits.

Advice to the wise: if you choose to go this route, don't just load up your emails with a bunch of ads and sacrifice writing meaningful content.

Too many advertisements or advertisements that have nothing to do with the topic of your newsletter will undermine your credibility and cause people to click the " Mark as spam"

This gets you in hot water with your ESP and destroys any trust you have established with your audience. It may also affect the delivery of your emails.

Instead, try to find sponsors whose products and services are a good match for your content and tactfully direct your users to them.

14 Key Email Marketing Terms (Explained)

Email marketing services sometimes seem to speak a whole different language. Like any discipline, theemail marketing has its own vernacular.

Here is a glossary of some of the most common words and acronyms you will come across.

Rebound rate : the percentage of email addresses in your subscriber list that did not receive your message. An email is classified as a bounce when it cannot be delivered and is rejected by a subscriber's mail server. So a high bounce rate means your email deliverability is low. Rebounds are divided into two categories, hard and soft rebounds. A hard bounce indicates a permanent reason why someone couldn't receive your email. Invalid email addresses, domain names that no longer exist or are stuck can all cause hard bounces. A temporary bounce usually indicates a temporary delivery problem, such as a full inbox or an offline server.
CTA (call-to-action): an image or line of text that encourages your audience to take action, such as making a purchase, clicking a link, enrolling in a course, etc.
CTR (Click Through Rate): the percentage of people who clicked on at least one link in your email.
Delivery rate: the percentage of emails that were successfully delivered to recipients' inboxes. This is the total number of emails sent, minus hard and soft bounces, divided by the raw number of emails sent.
Double opt-in: a two-step process by which subscribers must confirm their opt-in. This is done by clicking on a link in a confirmation email or by responding to the confirmation email in some other way.
Drip Campaign: a type of email marketing campaign. They involve a sequence of emails that are triggered by a specific user action or timing and are delivered in a specific order.
ESP (Email Service Provider): a company that provides email marketing or bulk messaging services. Also referred to as "email marketing service" or "email marketing software".
The opening rate : the percentage of subscribers who opened your email. Open rates vary wildly from industry to industry, but in general you need to see at least 20% or better.
Preheader text: small amount of text displayed to preview the content of the email.
Customization: refers to adding personalized elements to your email message based on the information you have collected about that specific user. This may include use of the recipient's name, reference to their location, order history or other data.
Segmentation : consists of dividing your list into different categories based on your subscribers' location, interests, purchase history, etc.
spam: illegitimate or unsolicited electronic messages.
Transactional email: automated messages triggered by specific user actions. Some examples are welcome emails, shipping notices, order confirmations, password reminders, and purchase receipts.
Unsubscribes: the number of your subscribers who have opted out of your mailing list.

These are the basic terms related to email marketing that you will need to familiarize yourself with. Expect to see many more come into play as you continue to use email marketing software.

How to keep your emails out of the spam folder

In 2003, a law was passed to regulate commercial e-mails: the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act , or CAN-SPAM.

The law has a few things in it as it affects your email marketing efforts, but it can be boiled down to three main rules:

Each email must allow the recipient to unsubscribe clearly and easily
Opt-out requests must be honored within 10 business days
Organizations must maintain a list of people who have unsubscribed

Here are ten simple rules that can ensure your emails stay out of the spam folder and comply with CAN-SPAM regulations:

Use real, active email accounts for your From, To, and Reply To addresses
NEVER buy a list of email addresses
Consider using a double opt-in registration
Use a reputable email service provider (like ConvertKit)
Keep your files small for all images, GIFs or videos
Avoid attachments, especially .exe or .swf files
Include your business address or PO Box in every email
Avoid unwanted words and phrases in your subject lines and in the main body of your email
Be sure to include a link to unsubscribe your readers at the bottom of your emails
Honor unsubscribes and stop messaging people if they no longer want to receive them

Next, in our discussion of email marketing regulations, let's (quickly) talk about GDPR.

GDPR: what it is and why you should care

On April 14, 2016, the European Parliament voted in favor of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which established a set of data privacy laws across Europe.

Some of these regulations govern the use of email marketing in a way that all marketers should be aware of, whether you explicitly do business in Europe or not:

Consent by e-mail must be given freely: users must actively give their consent. Pre-ticked boxes and similar mechanisms are not GDPR compliant. Email consent should also be separate from any other terms or conditions. Under the GDPR, you can't force people to subscribe to your mailing list in exchange for a free e-book you've written, a white paper, or a download.
Records of this consent should be kept: the GDPR requires companies to keep accurate records of consent when people sign up for mailing lists. Your ESP should be able to help you with this.
You may need to obtain consent from existing subscribers: if you have no record or proof that you received consent, you may need to initiate a re-authorization email marketing campaign to document consent.

GDPR is not limited to these 3 rules, so be sure to read the regulations yourself to ensure that you are in compliance.

How to Build an Email Marketing Strategy for Your Blog in 7 Steps

To be successful with your blog's email marketing (in terms of driving traffic and monetizing your content), you'll need a clear strategy.

1. Identify your email marketing goals

The best in everything from sports to business set goals to focus their performance and prioritize their time and resources. Succeeding in email marketing is no different.

Here are some goals you may need to consider for your own email marketing efforts:

Get more followers: the money is in the list. A healthy and growing subscriber list will allow you to accomplish all the wonderful things I mentioned in this article. But it's important to realize that lists are shrinking by about 22% every year as people change their email addresses, unsubscribe, and even lose interest. You need to constantly work on growing your list if you want to leverage the power of email marketing.

Increase engagement: you may have already started collecting email addresses and sending out newsletters. Now you need to focus your efforts on increasing engagement. After all, having a massive list is worthless if your audience doesn't take action. Engagement can be in the form of opens, clicks, social shares, or even email replies.

Increase traffic and increase conversions: As you progress through the email marketing game and develop products and services to sell to your audience, you are naturally going to focus on increasing conversions. Email is a great tool for nurturing leads and converting them into paying customers.

2. Create a strategic action plan

Now that you've determined your goals, you can start building your messaging strategy.

This plan doesn't need to be overly complex or lengthy – think of it as a general outline of how you'll create and plan your content so you can stay focused and achieve your goals. A good email strategy has 4 main elements:

Identify your audience

All good content starts with having a clear idea of who your audience is.

Who are you talking to ?
What are they interested in?
How does this align with what you offer?

If you have already started your blog, you probably have a good idea of your audience, but depending on how you've captured emails on your blog, your subscriber list may have narrower interests.

For example, if you've placed email capture forms on blog posts with a specific goal or topic (like cooking), you know that subscribers who entered through those forms are interested in that topic. .

The better you know your readers, the easier it will be to write compelling content to keep them hooked.

Separating your audience into different categories based on their interests, location, or behaviors will allow you to develop different versions of your content that can be tailored to each group.

Define your content

Now that you know exactly who your audience is and what your blogging goals, you need to figure out exactly what you're going to send them.

In addition to sending your audience your latest blog posts, think about other ways to leverage email to deliver more personalized and targeted messages.

For example, you can submit content that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the blog post outline that fueled your last post.

You can write holiday or special event themed posts. Maybe you want to send surveys or polls that ask for feedback and share the results. Another alternative is to curate content from other blogs or websites.

Additionally, you can create different versions of your content based on the segments you create. The more segments you have, the more you can tailor your content to your audience.

Keep in mind that it takes time to create multiple versions of your content, so plan accordingly.

Determine your email cadence

Most new bloggers send out a monthly newsletter to help maintain brand awareness, but there are no hard and fast rules here.

You may need to experiment to figure out exactly what the right cadence is for your audience. As you start posting more content, it will make sense to provide more emails to your list.

Some bloggers have had success sending weekly or even daily emails to their list, especially if their business revolves heavily around their mailing lists.

If you choose to send frequent emails, make sure they are high quality and provide value.

If you ever have to choose between taking the time to write a quality email or just sending something to readers to fit your schedule, go for quality.

Opening up your email marketing software and sending a low value email just to maintain consistency will do more harm than good.

To start, stick to a monthly schedule, then adjust it as you get into rhythm with your content.

You will also need to choose the day and time you will send your email marketing campaigns.

Mondays and Fridays generally have lower opening rates than other days of the week. This is because most people come back from their weekend or start it.

According to latest blog data, Tuesdays are your best bet. Again, experiment to find what works best with your particular audience.

Create a schedule

With your content and cadence in mind, it's time to set a production schedule to ensure you're producing great emails.

Being consistent with your email marketing is one of the best ways to grow your list.

Your production schedule will be unique depending on your personal circumstances and methods. Start by estimating how long it will take you to gather ideas, write your content, and design your email or template.

Try to set a realistic schedule that you can stick to.

You can even think about writing a few email campaigns ahead of time and scheduling them into your email marketing software to give yourself a little leeway.

Once all these elements are in place, the last thing to do is to press send!

Sending your first email can be a little nerve-wracking, but remember that email marketing is about continuous improvement.

Leverage analytics provided by your ESP to iterate and improve your emails with each send.

Do's in email marketing:

DO: Grow your email list by providing valuable content
DO: Write eye-catching preheader text
DO: Segment your list and use personalization
DO: Write emails that contain valuable or entertaining content for your readers
DO: Use analytics to refine your content and your overall blog strategy
DO: Try A/B testing on multiple designs and formats to see which works best

Email Marketing Don’ts:

DON'T: Buy a list of email addresses.
DON'T: Use spammy words or phrases
DON'T: Send the same email to everyone on your list
DON'T: Spammer your readers with low value posts
DON'T: Ignore the statistics of your emails
DON'T: Copy someone else's content

Now let's talk about how to choose the right ESP (Email Service Provider).

3. Choose your email service provider

Email Service Providers (ESPs), also known as email marketing services, are companies that offer bulk email services. They are essential partners in your email marketing campaigns.

Here are the 3 best email marketing services for bloggers in 2023:

ESPs like these three above provide a wide range of services that are essential to your email marketing efforts – including tracking, list management, email deliverability as well as ensuring that your emails are -mails are CAN-SPAM compliant.

Besides these basic features, you may want to evaluate which advanced features will be important for your email marketing campaigns.

Understand and Choose Key Email Marketing Features

Automating : drip campaigns, transactional emails, and other forms of email marketing automation can dramatically expand your email marketing capabilities and allow you to send the right messages at the right time. Most of today's popular ESPs offer the ability to automate and schedule messages in advance, but ConvertKit is by far the leader in this category today.
Email templates: Although plain text emails still serve an important service, you'll want to send eye-catching emails that display well on all email clients and operating systems. Coding HTML emails is notoriously difficult. Flexible templates can help you create beautiful emails that make your content shine. It can also help with brand awareness, as readers will recognize your emails at a glance.
Advanced analytics: Understanding how well your campaigns are performing is an essential part of email marketing. Unlike print, radio, or TV marketing, email is extremely trackable. Your ESP should offer you a variety of analytics in an easy-to-use dashboard so you can constantly improve your email campaigns.
Mobile friendly: according to Hubspot, 46% of email opens occur on mobile devices. It's essential that your emails display well on a variety of screen sizes and operating systems. A good ESP should offer tools to create and test your email designs so you can be sure they look great no matter what devices they're viewed on.

Besides these key features, your biggest priority should be finding an ESP that fits your budget.

Luckily, most major ESPs offer a variety of very low-cost (and free trial) plans for bloggers and solopreneurs, which can still help you maintain your blogging costs very low.

As your list grows and your needs grow, you'll either need to sign up for a paid monthly plan or pay a fee for each email marketing campaign you send.

Free Email Marketing Tools and Resources

All of these tools and resources are free and can help you with your advertising campaigns.email marketing.

TestSubject : The three factors that most influence email open rates are the sender's name, the subject, and the pre-header text (the small preview of an email's content displayed in some email clients). Smart marketers optimize these three factors to give their email a better chance of winning an open. TestSubject is a free tool that lets you preview how your sender name, subject line, and preheader text look on a variety of popular mobile devices. It also helps you avoid the potentially goofy effects of truncation that can happen to some poorly written subject lines (see below).

ISnotSPAM : The vast majority of email accounts use sophisticated spam filters to prevent malicious emails from reaching the inbox. The problem is that many of these spam filters could mistakenly mark your message as spam if it has certain characteristics. When your email lands in the spam bin, your message doesn't reach its intended audience and your time and effort is wasted – it's a blogging mistake to avoid. Additionally, your ESP could be flagged, which could put your account at risk. ISnotSPAM is a free service that will scan your email for any spam characteristics and highlight any changes you should make. Simply send your email to the address listed on their site and view your report.
Hemingway : The best emails are bold and clear. They are not loaded with unnecessary jargon or overly complicated words. Even great writers benefit from a second set of eyes to make sure they aren't too talkative. So what can you do if you can't afford the services of a professional editor? Try Hemingway, a free web and desktop app that will analyze your writing and offer suggestions on how to ensure your writing has greater impact.
CoSchedules Email Subject Line Checker: A good subject line is one of the most powerful ways to influence someone to open your email. CoSchedule's Email Subject Line Checker is an easy-to-use tool that categorizes your subject lines and gives specific, data-based suggestions for optimizing them.

4. Optimize your blog to get more email subscribers

You collect email addresses by placing email capture forms on your website.

ESPs usually provide a snippet of HTML/CSS code that you can copy and paste into your website or template code – and ConvertKit integrates directly with all major WordPress themes and WordPress plugins .

Where you place your email capture form and what information you collect can have a big impact on how quickly you grow your email list. Additionally, you can choose to use a combination of slots for maximum effect.

Here are some pros and cons for each:

In your header: Putting your email capture form in your site's navigation header is a solid choice. It's easy to see, displayed on all pages, and can be integrated seamlessly into your site design.
In your footer: The footer at the bottom of your website is another good choice for your email capture form. It's not too noticeable on the page, which is great for the user experience, but some may miss it if they don't scroll far enough.
On a separate landing page: a separate landing page for your email capture form may not drive as much traffic as the other pages on your site, but it will give you a chance to sell people why they should sign up for your list and all the benefits they can expect to receive. This, in turn, can result in less fickle subscribers and more invested in receiving your emails.
At the bottom of each blog post: This is a great strategy because it allows you to adjust your copy for each article and also segment your list by topic based on the articles each form is attached to. This can be a bit cumbersome to implement, but it's a great tactic that will help you uniquely personalize your message.
In an exit pop-up window: an exit intent popup uses smart code to display a popup when someone tries to leave your website. It's an attention-grabbing method that can be really effective, but it can also irritate some users. Use in moderation.

In addition to the placement, you need to think about the information you will ask for in your form.

The less information you ask for, the easier it will be for people to sign up. Although it sounds appealing, you will have very little information about your audience to go on when writing your content.

It is therefore more difficult to target them with personalized content and attractive offers.

If you ask for too many details, it creates more friction and you'll see fewer people sign up for your list. Writing compelling content will be easier, but fewer people will complete the process and join your list.

Experiment to find a healthy balance that will work best for you.

5. Increase your email open rates

In addition to the trust and goodwill you've established with your audience, the top three factors that influence your email open rate are your subject line, the name/email of the sender and pre-header text.

Here are some best practices and suggestions to improve the efficiency of each:

Subject line:

Keep it short and sweet
Do not use unwanted words such as free, limited time, special offer, etc.
Include personalization
Use emoticons
Be descriptive while appealing to curiosity
Use numbers
Avoid all capitals

Sender Name/Email:

Use a familiar name that your audience will recognize
Avoid a “no reply” email address
Make sure your email address matches your URL

Preheader text:

Write a subject line that conveys an exciting message
Include a call to action
You usually have about 100 characters at your disposal, use them all
Be concise
Use emoticons

6. Boost your email click-through rates

People open your emails…but you don't see a click. This could signal issues with your email design, content, or the CTA you're using.

Here are some proven email marketing tips for driving higher click-through rates in your email marketing campaigns:

Design:

An email with a lot of text, long or visually unappealing will prevent users from clicking.

Focus on being able to digitize your emails. Use eye-catching images to make your emails interesting to watch.

Use responsive email templates (like the ones included in ConvertKit ) to make sure your emails look great on all types of devices.

Content:

When it comes to emails, whether in the context of messaging your mailing list or outreach to bloggers, brevity is usually the name of the game.

Nobody wants to read an email that's too long, so keep your thoughts concise and organize your thoughts into scannable chunks.

Pay attention to your analytics to ensure your content resonates with your readers. Ask readers for feedback and apply their suggestions to write more compelling content.

Call to Action (CTA):

Sometimes the problem is just your call to action. An unclear or unattractive CTA will be ineffective – focus on making your CTAs clear, attractive, and simple.

Use large text, buttons or bright colors to attract people.

Also, try to have only one CTA in your email. For example, you can add a single call widget and it will be more efficient and won't confuse your readers. Multiple CTAs will be confusing to your readers and hurt their effectiveness.

7. Monetize your mailing list

Email marketing is a great way to inform and entertain your audience, as well as build relationships and nurture leads.

You can even get excellent new blog post ideas by listening to what your readers have to say.

But in the end you will have to monetize your list by offering paid products or services.

To successfully monetize your email list, you need to build a strong relationship with your subscribers by delivering real value.

Pushing offers too hard or too soon will only irritate your readers and shrink your subscriber list.

Instead, focus on delivering high-quality content regularly and only include offers that are relevant to your readers once trust is established.

It takes time, but a healthy list can pay off for years to come.

Conclusion

Email marketing and blogging go together like peanut butter and jelly. They complement each other and can help dramatically amplify your blog results.

A solid email marketing strategy will help you grow your blog and build real relationships with your readers – just ask these blog pros and they all agree.

In turn, these relationships will help you cultivate an audience of potential buyers who are excited about the products and services you can offer them.

So start building your email list today, commit to writing amazing content, and see how powerful email marketing can be.

Email marketing: How and why to use it for a blog?