Feb 12, 2018
“Email gets the least amount of credit but does the most work
for a business,” said this episode’s guest, AWeber’s Chief
Marketing Officer Erik Harbison. And we couldn’t have said it
better ourselves. You can build and nurture relationships, engage
and successfully sell to your audience for next to nothing. Email
marketing makes sense. Not using email marketing — well…
doesn’t.
In this episode, Erik and Adam give a high-level view of email
marketing as well as some specific actionable tips you can
implement to boost your bottom line and improve your results.
Episode Discussions:
- What is valuable content?
- Building trust with your audience
- How to choose the right email service provider
- How emails drive sales and ROI
- Effective email copywriting tips
- Tools and resources for high-quality emails
- How often you should be sending emails
- Email sequences and conditioning subscribers
- When to keep it short and sweet and when to use long-form
- Direct selling vs relationship building email strategy
- The truth behind those massive email ROI statistics
- Business benefits of email marketing
- How to structure emails so they get read
- Deciding price points for products and services using audience
feedback
- Conditioning your audience over time to take action
- Why you should welcome unsubscribes
- 4 main levers for max email deliverability and spam
triggers
2:27
Erik's story:
Has worked at AWeber for the past 4 1/2 years
Spent 20 years in digital marketing agencies
3:31
Why you should be using email marketing in your business
"Imagine if Facebook and Google disappeared
tomorrow, how would you connect with your audience?"
- Recession-proof channel that enables you to connect with your
audience no matter what’s happening.
- One of the most productive channels in generating return on
investment for brands, businesses, and marketers.
- Generate sales from your database in addition to building
strong relationships.
5:15
Just how realistic are those massive email ROI statistics?
7:34
How emails drive sales and ROI
Build trust and nurture relationships with your audience by
providing valuable content, allowing you to ask for the sale
later.
10:19
Direct approach to sales
Comes down to the context of the ask.
If the sent email asks for a sale, the audience has already
exchanged dollars prior to the email being sent.
10:54
Relationship first approach
- Look for feedback
- Include direct links to surveys
- Promote complementary tools
- Ask might occur in the first link in email or in the P.S. Find
which resonates with you most.
12:40
Deciding price points for products and services using audience
feedback.
14:04
Email copywriting tips
- Write like you're writing to one person.
- Focus on their needs and the "you" and "your."
- Use personalization beyond the subject line and weave into the
body content.
- Focus on the benefits of what you're offering as opposed to
features (outcomes, pains, pleasures, emotional benefits).
17:36
Short simple vs long-form
- Depends on context.
- Challenge yourself to write a longer-form storytelling email
about something important to your audience.
- Break up walls of text into shorter digestible sentences.
19:11
Email sequences and conditioning subscribers
If you're just getting started or just launched a
product:
- Cadence should be more frequent in the beginning and trail off
over time.
- Every other day for the first week and every 3rd or 4th day
after the week.
- Provide great content. Subscribers won't realize you're
conditioning them to look for your email in their inbox.
Established brands or marketers
- Focus on consistency.
- Pick the day that you'll condition your audience to expect your
emails.
- This helps increase open rates and engagement.
21:24
Test your market
Ask your audience for feedback about email frequency then give
them what they want.
23:34
4 main levers for email deliverability
Spam triggers: erratic volume, spam complaints,
dragging email directly into the trash without opening.
- Set the right expectations.
- Choose the right ESP (email service provider)
for your business and make sure it has strong reputations with all
ISP’s (internet service providers)
- Prompt your audience to whitelist your
emails.
- Make sure you have the right subscribers on your list
by doing your due diligence.
"One of our philosophies is that an
unsubscribe is much better than a spam complaint."
27:59
The importance of cleaning your list.
29:12
Tools and resources
Getting started: Write down the top 5 qualities
most important to you in an ESP and research them. (Hint:
check out their Twitter feeds)
For transparent reviews: Email Vendor
Selection, G2 Crowd
Preview your email before you send it:
Litmus
Editing: Grammarly and Hemmingway
Health check your emails: Sender Score and
Kickbox.io to check for hard bounces and soft bounces.
33:14
“Don't underestimate the power of asking your
audience for feedback.”
Know anyone who could benefit from this episode? Please feel
free to share!
Connect with Erik:
Email: ErikH@aweber.com
Twitter: @ErikHarbison
LinkedIn
Mentioned in this episode:
G2 Crowd
Litmus
Grammarly
Hemmingway
Email Vendor
Selection
Sender Score
Kickbox.io
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