Tag Archives: grow email list

How to Create an Ebook as an Opt-In Offer

How to Create an Ebook as an Opt-In Offer
When building your email list, the best way to increase subscribers is by offering something in exchange for their email address. This needs to be more than a basic “Sign up for our newsletter!” call to action. People have no idea what to expect from your newsletter. So even if it’s full of valuable content, you need to offer more to get their email address. Create an ebook opt-in offer.

There are many different options for an opt-in offer, eBooks, white papers, free video webinars. But an ebook is a very powerful option. Typically it’s around 25 pages and covers a single topic your audience is interested in.

If you’re ready to create your first ebook, check out our tips below.

1. Pick your a Relevant Topic.

Pick a topic that’s relevant to your business. What’s something your target market would be interested in learning more about? What question do you get asked most? That’s a great topic for your eBook.

For a digital marketing agency, an ebook about Facebook ads or creating a social media strategy. A contractor might have an ebook about minor fixes homeowners can do themselves. A credit union might have an ebook about repairing your credit.

It’s important to give away valuable information in your opt-in ebook, but not too much information that they don’t buy from you.

2. Outline your ebook.

Since ebooks are much longer pieces of content than a typical blog article, the best way to get started is by creating an outline. Write the main points you want to make and include a few bullets about each one.

The best way to outline your ebook is by dedicating a separate chapter to each subtopic, then cover each subtopic thoroughly.

3. Flesh out your points.

Now write your ebook! Take the outline you’ve created, write your introduction, and flesh out each of your chapters, subheadings, and bullet points.

Include a call-to-action to your products/services in your conclusion to let each of your new email subscribers know what next steps to take after reading your ebook.

4. Proofread and edit your ebook.

Proofreading and editing anything you write is always crucial. Sentences that may have made sense when you initially wrote them might need some cleanup after rereading them. Once you’ve finished writing, set it aside for a few days before coming back to edit. It’s always a good idea to let it stew before revisiting it.

5. Design your ebook.

This can be one of the most difficult parts. You want your ebook to be engaging and compelling. It requires more design than a regular blog post. You want to make it easy to read and aesthetically pleasing. Don’t slap a bunch of words onto a Microsoft Word document and export it as a PDF.

Here’s a great tool to create your own eBook, https://MyeBookMaker.com.

Once you’ve finished your design, export it as a PDF, and you’re ready to get started increasing email subscriptions with your new ebook opt-in offer. Create a pop-up on your website and a landing page that includes a thank you and link to download the eBook for new subscribers.

Why People Unsubscribe from Your Email List

Why People Unsubscribe from Your Email List
It’s challenging enough to get people to subscribe to your mailing list, so when they start unsubscribing at a noticeable rate, it’s hard not to worry. Are you doing anything wrong? The likely answer is yes. But don’t fret! The usual reasons people unsubscribe can be addressed in the following ways:

Reason: You send too many emails

Whenever people access their inbox, they have several messages from you.  If this happens too often, they start feeling overwhelmed. Tired of deleting emails, the only other way out is to unsubscribe.

Solution: Give delivery options.

Let people choose how often they hear from you. Some prefer weekly; others want monthly. Some want to be updated right away, while others just want a summary of highlights. Different strokes for different folks, so provide several options they can choose from. And stop sending messages several times a day!

Reason: You send too few emails.

Not sending enough emails is just as bad as sending too many. When people hardly hear from you, they don’t remember they subscribed, so they unsubscribe or even worse, report you as spam. As expected, balance is important.

Solution: Stick to a consistent schedule.

Life can get in the way of email-writing, but try to follow a publication schedule. Even if you send emails twice a month, it establishes a pattern people can recognize, and they know when to expect to hear from you.

But what if it isn’t you, it’s them? There’s still something you can do:

Reason: They signed up by mistake.

It’s easy to click on the wrong buttons on smartphones and tablets. The result is people subscribing to newsletters they never intended to join in the first place. They only realize what happened when they get messages from you.

Solution: Use a double opt-in form.

These people aren’t major losses because they won’t become conversions, but they skew your marketing data. To prevent accidental signups, use a double opt-in form that confirms their subscription.  This ensures that all members of your mailing list are either potential or existing customers.

Reason: They canceled by mistake.

Again, we can blame the small screens of mobile devices for the increasing number of accidental cancellation.  People who don’t plan to unsubscribe still leave your email list because they didn’t realize what they’ve done. They’ll just wonder why they haven’t heard from you and assume you’re too busy.

Solution: Use a double opt-out form

If you ask people to confirm their subscription, then it makes sense to confirm their cancellation. Otherwise, you’d lose a good lead, and that’s a shame. Only those who intend to leave your mailing list will go through the whole process of opting out.

Reason: Your content is too sales-y.

People who knowingly joined your mailing list did so because they want to get relevant content from you. So if you bombard them with ad after ad and not much else, they’ll unsubscribe.

Solution: Deliver content your subscribers find useful.

Soft sell is the way to go when communicating with your subscribers. They’re more likely to respond positively if you give them what they want first, which is information they’ve been looking for.

Building your mailing list is not just about getting new subscribers. It’s also about retaining the ones you already have. Work on both, and you’ll see considerable growth in your subscriptions.

Never Buy an Email List

Never Buy an Email List

Everywhere you turn, you hear email marketing gives you the best returns of any digital marketing method. However, attracting subscribers to your email list takes time and effort.

You may think that buying a list would save you time and effort. It’s tempting to shortcut the process of building your own list. But buying an email list brings a lot of trouble your way.

Poor Data Quality

10,000 records might sound like a great foundation for your email marketing efforts. The reality is that you end up with a list filled with data quality issues. Inaccurate emails, missing names, and other problems make the information practically useless for your company.

Failure to Comply with CAN-SPAM

Do you know how the list provider got the emails that they’re selling? If they put together the list without getting an opt-in from all parties, then they’re not following the CAN-SPAM act. If you use this list for your emails, guess what? You’re on the hook for any violations as well. It only takes a few fines from CAN-SPAM to ruin your day and your marketing budget.

Email Deliverability Problems

One element that spam filters look at when determining whether your mail is spam is the deliverability. If you have a lot of people marking your message as spam, the email filter is going adjust its behavior accordingly. You don’t have a preexisting relationship with the paid lists; it’s unlikely you’re going to offer something relevant to their needs. All the people marking your emails as spam adds up. It will be hard to get your message out there.

Violating Email Service Provider TOS

How closely did you read your email service provider’s terms of service? Many of the top companies specifically state that you can’t use a list that was paid for. After all, it’s their email servers on the line if you start taking actions similar to a spammer.

Poor Conversion Rates

Even if you get a paid list with a specific niche, you can’t truly know if you have a targeted audience at the other end. When you have a mismatch, you see poor conversion rates. Your organization also takes a reputation hit, which can further impact your conversion ratio.

List Saturation

Nothing stops an email list provider from selling an “exclusive list” as many times as they want. After all, how likely is it that you’ll find out someone else is using the same list? This list oversaturation results in a lot of people who are tired of their inboxes getting filled up with junk.

Need help building your list? Contact Digital Hill, we can help you develop a strategy using Waftio to do it right.

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Get the Maximum ROI From Your Email List

Get the Maximum ROI From Your Email List

Email marketing has the potential to, directly and indirectly, improve your revenue and growth rate. However, you may not be getting the maximum ROI out of your efforts. Use these suggestions to optimize your strategy, find new ways to grow email lists, improve conversions and increase your brand awareness.

Improve Your Sign-Up Form

Don’t skimp on your user experience. Put yourself in their shoes and go through the sign-up process. Is it clear what information the visitor needs to provide? Eliminate any ambiguity and find technical issues with your email subscription form before anyone uses it. Go short and simple!  Name and email are key and use a pop-up form to get more visibility.

Email Marketing Automation

Manually emailing your list might work when you have a few dozen people, but not when you have hundreds or thousands. Automate your workflow and scale your efforts no matter how many subscribers you have. Drip campaigns, transactional emails, and other triggered events can happen immediately upon subscription.

Give Subscribers a Signup Incentive

Want to give visitors a compelling reason to give you their email address? Put a signup incentive in place. The exact form takes depends on your industry and audience, but discounts for e-commerce shops and ebooks for B2B companies are 2 examples of ways to encourage interested parties to add their name to your list.

Keep It Simple

How much information do you ask from subscribers? For a basic B2C mailing list, stick with a name and email. In general, eliminate as many fields as possible to overcome any signup resistance.

Use Segmentation

Don’t treat your email list like a one-size-fits-all entity. Align your email subscribers with your buyer personas, specific demographics, the form they filled out or other differentiating information. When you have a segmented list, you can customize the messages going out to these users. They get more relevant emails, and you get better opportunities for conversion.

Deliver Value

Are you giving subscribers emails that they look forward to reading? If they’re ignoring your messages or rolling their eyes and sighing whenever you land in their inbox, you’re not going to get much out of your email marketing efforts. Make sure the content you include is relevant, timely, and the value is clear to the subscriber. Ask yourself if you would be happy to receive this type of email in your own inbox.

What’s your key next step from the above to improve your email marketing ROI?

How to Grow Your Email List for the Holidays

How to Grow Your Email List for the Holidays

For most retailers, the holiday season is extremely important. In many cases, the uptick in sales may be the difference between success and failure for the entire year.  Is your online marketing ready?  Here are a few key ideas to help you improve this holiday season.

Expanding Your eMail List for the Holiday Season

Finding ways to add potential customers to your email list is a practical and relatively inexpensive way to reach customers with your targeted message. According to Hubspot.com, email lists tend to degrade by about 22.5% each year as people move, change email addresses or opt out. With this degree of attrition, you’ll need to increase your list by 50% annually to increase your outreach.

So, with this in mind, your objective should be to increase your holiday email list and improve customer retention by planning interesting content to hold their attention.

Strategies to Gain Prospective Clients Through Email

Each new email customer opens the door to a new sale and the potential for long-term profitable engagement. Targeted emails allow you to focus your message to specific groups to entice them to visit your website or your brick-and-mortar store. But learning where you need to focus does require some interaction. Ways to attract email addresses and specific information about the prospect may come from a number of activities.

Trade Shows

Face-to-face is the best way to gather information. Encourage all potential customers to fill out a very short info form that includes an email address and a simple check of specific areas of interest.

Offer Giveaways

Conduct an online or in-store drawing to win a valuable gift. The customer fills in their email address and a bit of information regarding their preferences that allows for better targeting.

Frequent Buyer Program

Offer a discount on the next visit after the buyer has reached a certain threshold of spending. Application for the frequent buyer program should include an email address and information about specific interests.

Holiday Season Sign-up

Around mid-October, ask customers to sign up for your Holiday Special that gives them a percentage discount for all products purchased between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. This signup should include email and other pertinent information.

New Products Roll-out

Offer discounts to the first 50 people who purchase a new product or service. You should sign these buyers into the Frequent Buyer Program for future information.

How to Retain Current and Future eMail Lists

Dress Up Your Website

Interactivity is the key to developing new business through your website. Any activity which causes the consumer to visit your website and remain is positive. Consider developing an ongoing educational blog for your visitors. It will provide useful information and entice a return visit, and a well-written article will demonstrate your depth of knowledge of the products or industry you represent. Blog posts should include an embedded email subscription form.

Online Contests

Include a contest on your website or social media. Each time an entrant wishes to participate, an email address must be given for the vote to count.

Webinars

Identify and develop webinar events to demonstrate specific products and services. An email address should be exchanged for a webinar “ticket”.

Joint Promotions

Establishing a joint promotion with a nearby company can improve your image and produce additional email addresses.

eBooks

If you are feeling particularly creative, a useful and practical eBook offering tips regarding your industry or products can draw interest. For example, if you own a pet store, an eBook about puppy training would be a great incentive.

With the holiday season impacting a business’s bottom line so heavily, it’s always a good idea to step up your email marketing to bring people through the doors.