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6 Ways To Get More Blog Traffic With Your Email List

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Get More Blog Traffic From Subscribers

Have you ever heard of the saying, the money is in the list? Not only is the money in the list, but a stable increase in blog traffic is also in your email list. By interacting with your subscribers in an effective manner, you can potentially double or even triple your blog traffic depending on how many subscribers you have. Your email list consists of many of your best supporters who appreciate what you do and enjoy reading your blog posts.

Getting these subscribers on your blog will lead to more traffic for your blog. I look at all of my blog posts’ engagement, and I notice that when I send an email blast about my latest blog post, that blog post gets more social engagement, social shares, and comments than the blog posts that I do not promote to my email list. When I look back at my WordPress statistics, I can easily tell which days I sent an email based on the spike in traffic.

I will assume at this point that you use a service like iContact, Aweber, Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, or something similar for your email marketing. You must use one of these services because they provide many capabilities that free emailing services do not provide. In addition to providing various capabilities, the top tools for email marketing (i.e. Optimize Press) require that you use one of these popular emailing services to get the best experience possible. Optimize Press is responsible for the bulk of my subscribers in the form of landing pages and other tactics I use to build my list.

As you continue to build your list, it is important to interact with your subscribers in a way that would entice them to visit your blog more often so your blog generates more traffic from the initial email and generates more traffic indirectly because of the email blast. Here are six ways that you can get more blog traffic with your email list:

 

#1: Send Out More Email Blasts

One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they do not communicate with their email lists enough. You should send an email blast to the people on your list multiple times every week. The most successful bloggers appear in your inbox at least two times each week. Why do the most successful people send multiple email blasts every week? The answer is that these people want you to remember them. The moment these people stop sending emails, the more difficult it will be for subscribers to remember that person. Although you should avoid being excessive, you should definitely send out more than one email blast to your list every week.

 

#2: Use The Same Link Twice

In all of my email blasts that promote blog posts, I include a link to the blog post at the very beginning of the email and towards the end of the email. After running multiple split-tests, I discovered that when I included the second link at the beginning of the email, my email blasts got a higher percentage of clickthroughs.

It makes sense for an email to generate more clicks when a second link is added. Some of your subscribers who read your email won’t need to read the entire email to know they want to read your blog post. The title of your blog post may be convincing enough to get some people to read it. For these people, you want to include a link towards the beginning of your email. These people want expedited access to your content in the same way that people want Amazon expedited shipping—the only difference is that an email blast, your version of expedition is free. Some people won’t be convinced right away and will read the rest of your email to get an idea of what your blog post is about before clicking on the link and reading the content. I entice people to continue reading my blog post with a quick introduction of the blog post and a clickable link at the end of the quick introduction that leads to the actual blog post.

 

#3: Utilize Email Segments

Some people want specific advice more than others. There are some people on my email list that only want blogging advice while others only want social media advice. I occasionally send email blasts to individual segments for their individual desires based on which email list they signed up for. If you signed up on the landing page that promoted my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter, then you will occasionally get emails containing Twitter tips that are exclusive to the people within that segment. I rarely do this, but I see a higher percentage of engagement when I send an email that specifically relates to one of my email segments.

 

#4: Promote Your Blog In Your Autoresponder

In all of my autoresponders, I send a series of emails that contain past blog posts that still provide value. These types of blog posts are referred to as evergreen content, and the engagement that the blog posts generate to this day show that people still appreciate them. By sending these types of emails to the people going through the autoresponder sequence, the relationship between me and that individual is strengthened. Many of the people who get my autoresponder end up visiting my blog numerous times. With an autoresponder that sends emails several times before its completion combined with frequently emailing your subscribers, it will be easier for people to remember you, your services, your products, and what you do.

 

#5: Look At What Works For You

When I send an email blast to all of the people on my list, I analyze that email to see how it did. Then, I compare that email blast with some of the email blasts I sent in the past. When I see an email blast perform particularly well, I use the same form in my next email blast to see if it produces a similar result. There are countless ways to test your email blasts to see what leads to more engagement. You can change the subject line, where the links show up, how you start your email, and how you finish your email just to name a few of the methods you can use to enhance your email blasts.

 

#6: Look At What Works For Others 

I am not the only marketer with an email list who writes about the wonders of a large email list. No matter how large my email list becomes, I will continue reading other marketers’ articles and analyzing their results. When I read an article that indicated remarkable results that came from making a few small changes, I test out those methods and see if I get an increased clickthrough rate, open rate, or any other metric that I may be looking for at the time. Just because something worked for someone else does not mean it will always work for you, but when it does work out for you, you will know how to create a more optimized email blast designed to generate a massive amount of traffic.

 

In Conclusion

Your email list is a secret weapon that allows you to build a loyal audience of readers who come back to your blog often. I learned about building an email list late in the game, and because of this, I would have some really good months of traffic and then some really bad months of traffic. An email list gives you a platform you can use to consistently increase your traffic over a long period of time, and if you grow your email list large enough, you may get thousands of daily visitors to your blog just from your email list. Imagine the implications of getting all of those initial visitors. Some of them would share your blog posts on their social networks which would mean more social media traffic, and good social media engagement helps out with SEO. The email list is the not-so-secret to success.

What are your thoughts about using an email list to get more blog traffic? Do you find better uses for it? Do you have any tips on optimizing email blasts so clickthroughs and open rates increase? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Why You Need To Have A Pop-Up On Your Blog [Tips Included]

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Pop-Up Tips

About a year ago, I stumbled across Steve Scott’s blog. He is a successful self-published author who makes a full-time income from his Kindle books. On one summer day, I remember reading one of his articles explaining that the key to his success was his email list. As someone with 100,000 Twitter followers, 150,000 blog visitors, and no email list whatsoever at the time, this absolutely blew my mind.

I made one of the biggest mistakes any marketer could ever make. I ignored building my email list. With those numbers I mentioned before, I only got 300 subscribers which means 0.2% of my blog visitors were subscribing. Talk about a reawakening. Just as I read articles about getting more Twitter followers, I started to read more articles focused on getting email subscribers. This is when I went over to iContact and created landing pages.

Some of the articles I read discussed how pop-ups lead to a massive increase in subscribers. Initially, I was skeptical. I saw pop-ups as annoyances that block content and encourage people to go somewhere else. However, so many people recommended pop-ups that I decided to give them a try. After looking at multiple options, I ended up using Pop-Up Domination for the pop-up. My thinking was that worst case scenario, I would keep the pop-up on my blog for a few weeks, and if it didn’t get enough conversions, I could always take it down.

Sure enough, the pop-up got subscribers, and it exceeded my expectations. It accounts for more than 20% of all of the subscribers I get on my email list. There was no catastrophic drop in the amount of time people spent on my blog.

However, I didn’t just write this blog post to tell a cool story. I also want to share with you how to optimize your pop-up so it gets more subscribers.

One thing you must do in your pop-up is let people know they get a free prize for entering their name and email address. Some people call it the irresistible free prize, offer, or bribe. Regardless of what you want to call it, you must let people know that they get free value that is not available anywhere else. The exclusivity of the free prize will entice people to enter their name and email address. This free prize must be directly related to your niche. That’s why my pop-up shows my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter. This free eBook fits my niche because I am a Twitter expert and have written hundreds of blog posts about Twitter on this blog and guest blogs.

After you introduce the free prize, let people know a little more about the free prize. For my pop-up, I include three benefits associated with the free eBook:

  1. Spread Your Message On Twitter
  2. Grow Your Audience
  3. Get More Blog Traffic From Twitter

Including benefits associated with your free prize will further entice your readers to subscribe to your blog. On the right side of my pop-up is a description, form, and button. It is very important to let people know that this is a free prize. I make it a point to use the word “FREE” twice in all caps. Using all caps make something EASIER TO NOTICE, and making that word easy to notice will increase the percent of conversions your pop-up gets.

Then came the button, and I experimented with that on my landing pages and through my pop-up. I use different text for the buttons as part of the A/B Split Testing I do with Pop-Up Domination, but here are some good ones that I use:

  1. Free Instant Access!
  2. Get Instant Access!
  3. Download Now!
  4. Get Your Copy Now!

The colors you use for the text and the button are also important. Use bright colors so it is easy for your visitors to see the buttons, and either use white text. You want it to be as easy as possible for your readers to see the button because few readers will subscribe if they can’t see the button clearly. I use bright green button with white text for my pop-up and orange buttons with white text for my landing pages. If you are deciding which colors to use for your button, I have compiled a list of good colors with their functions:

  1. Blue: trust building
  2. Green: works well for call-to-actions if it stands out
  3. Orange: inexpensive products (works well when you offer your free prize)

Of course, these are not the only three colors on the color spectrum, but these are the three colors you should choose among for the pop-up button’s color. One reason I decided against a blue button was because the free eBook I offer has a blue cover, there is blue text next to the picture of the eBook, and a blue box surrounds the form on the right. I use the a blue button for the HelloBar message that shows up on the top of my blog.

My recommendation for the description is to make it as clear as possible. Moreover, the description should only be 1-2 sentences. Remember that your readers are just getting an idea of what your free prize is all about. If you write a long description above the form, you won’t get as many conversions. Remember that pop-ups are initially annoyances that block out content. In order for your pop-up to convert, your reader should understand what your pop-up says from start to finish in 2-5 seconds. Anymore than that, and most of your readers will click on the “x” and continue reading your blog post or leave your blog.

 

In Conclusion

It was a year ago when I realized that I needed to take action. Now, my email list is growing at a healthy rate, and pop-ups are one of the benefactors that brings in a massive number of subscribers. Many people are quick to judge pop-ups as ineffective annoyances, but you can’t judge something until you do it. When I finally decided to put a pop-up on my blog, I was blown away by the results.

If you are looking for an easy way to get more subscribers, then get a pop-up on your blog. Creating a pop-up with Pop-Up Domination takes as little as 10 minutes once you buy the product.

Do you have a pop-up on your blog? If not, do you plan on getting one? Do you have a success story about growing your email list? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

6 Reasons Why Your Success Is In Your Email List

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I am sure you have heard of phrases like, “The money is in the email list” and “Your blog must have a way to collect email addresses.” When I was a new blogger, I did not fully understand the power of an email list. I initially thought it was just a strategy surrounded by too much hype. I did read the types of phrases I mentioned before, but few articles with those phrases would go deep into why growing an email list is important.

It was just “understood” that a blog must have a way to collect email addresses. Few articles went deeper than that when discusses how important it is to grow an email list, and that resulted in me not taking my email list seriously for a long time (big mistake).

Other than me saying that not growing my email list was a mistake and that the money is in the list, here are six reasons why it is important to grow your email list.

 

#1: Higher click through rate.

If you craft your emails effectively, you will get a much higher click through with an email list than with a social media audience. Based on the number of tweets I send out, the number of followers I have, and the number of visitors I get from Twitter, my tweets as a lump sum get a click through rate lower than 1%.

Although my Twitter presence does equate to hundreds of daily visitors, my email list is proving to bring forth a greater click through rate. For the typical email, at least 10% of the people on my list end up clicking the link in the email. The higher your click through rate is, the more traffic your blog will get, and emailing your list is a great way to produce a high click through rate.

 

#2: Scalar traffic

Touching upon higher click through rates, scalar traffic is another great reason to grow your email list. If you get 10% of the people on your list to click on the emails you send, then you would get more clicks as your email list grows.

If you have 100 people on your email list, that mathematically means you are getting 10 clicks. If you have 1,000 subscribers on your email list, that mathematically means you are getting 100 clicks. Just keep on adding the zeroes, and you will quickly realize how powerful an email list is.

One of the most successful marketers in the world is Brendon Burchard, and he achieved a big portion of his internet fame through a big email list. Burchard boasts an email list of over 1 million people, and if 10% of those people are clicking on the links he sends out, he is getting 100,000 visitors each time he sends out another link.

 

#3: More sales

In order to effectively utilize your email list, you need to interact with the people on that list. One of the ways you can do this is by promoting one of your products. My recommendation is to only have one promotional email every month and make sure the rest are informative, but sending out that one promotional email every month has the power to bring in more sales.

Since your subscribers are seeing you often and reading through your content, it is quite possible to promote one of your products and expect to bring in more sales. All you have to do is send them emails before that point.

Another great way to get more product sales is by creating an autoresponder that sends out a series of emails that are several days apart from each other. Your autoresponder sequence has the power to entice people to buy your products and let them know about your story. Here is the order that you should create your autoresponder to bring in more sales:

  1. An email about an aspect of your story that relates to something your readers may be facing.
  2. An email that provides value such as a lengthy report or blog post for free.
  3. An email about the product itself and what it is all about.
  4. An email that pushes for the sale.

In the first three emails, you should reference the product but not push for the sale. Just include a P.S. here and there about your product and what it has done for others.

The reason the autoresponder sequence takes four emails to pull off is because you want potential customers to be in the right mindset when buying your product. Imagine how likely you would be to buy a product if the salesman rushed over and said, “Buy my product.” Then imagine what would happen if another salesman told you to buy his product who you felt related to and recognized as an expert. You would be more likely to buy from the second salesman than the first one.

 

#4: Powerful product launches

The product launch is one of the most important phases, and some would argue that it decides whether a product becomes successful or not. Your email list is a great way to get more sales which also means it is a great way to have powerful product launches.

For training courses that you create, this can mean a massive amount of customers quickly buy it, and that means you will quickly get new testimonials. For Kindle authors, a powerful product launch means Amazon will start to promote your book more throughout their site. Having lower sales ranks for their books allow Kindle authors to get more sales.

 

#5: Word of mouth

In a world filled with the internet, social media, and mobile phones, word of mouth marketing still emerges as a great way to get noticed. High school gossips still go around, and as a student myself, I know that most of those gossips still take place through word of mouth.

In addition to still existing and reaching out to a variety of people, word of mouth marketing is an extremely valuable form of marketing. When someone tells their friend about you, it’s not in Facebook post that can easily get overlooked. Instead, these people are talking to friends, and when these types of conversations take place, each friend is paying more attention than they would be to a social media post.

Sending emails to an email list will allow you to develop the type of bond with your subscribers that results in word of mouth marketing. Think of word of mouth marketing as something similar to click through rate. Although you cannot track word of mouth marketing statistics, it is possible to create an estimate.

Let’s say that 10% of the people on your email list will tell their friends about you. Then, you can play around with the numbers I mentioned when referring to scalar traffic to determine how many people would tell their friends about you. If you have 1,000 people on your email list, 100 people are going to tell their friends about you. That is 100 extra people who know about you and may end up on your email list. Then, some of these 100 people will tell their friends and some of those friends will tell their friends. It is an infinite loop of people telling their friends about you, your email list growing larger, and you getting more traffic and sales.

Growing an email list helps word of mouth marketing and word of mouth marketing helps your email list.

 

#6: People will remember you

Just because someone reads your blog and enjoys your blog posts does not mean that person is going to be a returning visitor. Some people may forget about your blog while others may get preoccupied by other things. The reason is that there are few visitors who have an extraordinary desire to visit your blog every day, let alone once every 30 minutes.

Since most people do not have this strong desire to visit your blog that frequently, it is possible to see a blog visitor one time and never again. However, if you get a visitor to subscribe to your email list, that person will be able to remember you.

The people will not automatically remember you by subscribing to your blog. Instead, you will remind people of who you are by sending emails to them. If you are someone who cannot remember to all of the blogs you have subscribed to over the years, then you are not alone. I do not remember all of the blogs I have subscribed to since the beginning of my journey, but each time I get an email from that blogger, I am reminded of the following:

  1. Who that person is
  2. Why I subscribed to this person’s blog
  3. The desire to revisit this person’s blog so I can read what I missed

Being remembered is an important way to build an authority on the web, and an email list allows more people to remember you. We are obsessed with our emails. Most of us check our inboxes multiple times every day while some of us are even checking our inboxes once every 15-30 minutes. Insane? Yes, but having your message in other people’s inboxes will almost ensure that numerous people read that message and go to your blog.

 

In Conclusion

Your email list is where the money is, and it is essential for any blogger who wants to make it big on the web. You may have known that already, but now you also know why growing your email list is important.

Just to know that something is important is not convincing enough to take action. I learned that the hard way by not taking my email list seriously for a long period of time. I only took my traffic numbers seriously, but that also meant some people were visiting my blog and not coming back. Some people didn’t come back simply because in their busy worlds, they couldn’t remember me. Being able to send an email to these people’s inboxes would have resulted in them remember who I am and visiting my blog more often.

There are free emailing options available such as WordPress’ Jetpack option, but growing a big email list requires an investment. That is why I invested in iContact which I use to grow my email list.

Are you taking your email list seriously?