What is Email Marketing? Ultimate Guide for Beginner Bloggers

Want to know what email marketing is, what makes an email great, and why almost every blogger uses it? Welcome. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll talk about all things email marketing, with a simple and easy-to-understand approach so you can stay relevant.

You’ll learn ahead all about email marketing, examples of great emails, tools you can use, insider lingos and abbreviations – and a step-by-step guide on launching your first-ever campaign.

There’s a lot more – so make sure you stick around for a while. In the end, I’ll tell you the most valuable 11 tips to make your email marketing campaigns effective.

Let’s start with the basics:

What Exactly Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is communicating with customers or subscribers who share their email addresses with you.

You can send them various emails, and talk about your posts, products, services, or anything for mutual interest. You continue doing this as long as you want and to as many email addresses as possible.

This is one of the most effective marketing strategies since someone who chooses to share their email with you is already interested in you or your blog or wants to buy from you. This is part of the reasons why email marketing is lucrative: More than 50% of customers buying decisions are influenced by email advertising and marketing.

But, there’s more interesting stuff to hear, which tells why you as a blogger need email marketing as a part of your growth strategy. Keep reading.

3 Reasons Why You as a Blogger Need Email Marketing

Here are three things suggesting that email marketing is a must for you as a blogger:

1. Email marketing can you build a loyal fan-base

It’s all about the genuine loyal connection. Otherwise, you’re a random internet blogger. With email marketing, you talk to them over and over again, help them, listen to them, and build a powerful community around your blog. The presence. It matters in the online world.

2. Email marketing can help you make more money out of your blog

After all that hard and smart work of building a loyal relationship with your audience, you can monetize your blog through your email list.

Simply start sending them offers that will help them or add value to their lives. It could either be your affiliate products or services or your own products or services – at the end of the day, they get what they need help with, and you get to earn a living.

However, it’s a long journey to walk; it takes time and patience to reach that stage.With an average return of $36 for every dollar spent, investing in email marketing essentials can have some serious payoffs, making the journey all the more rewarding in the end.

3. Email marketing gives you more freedom

Don’t get me wrong – there are some rules and limitations you must follow when sending emails. (Talk about them later below)

But when you compare them with tricky social media algos, and social media networks’ advertising terms and policies, email marketing feels a lot more relaxing.

There’s no targeting required, you know who’s reading your emails, you know their exact demographics, problems, and concerns – and most importantly, you’re not under control by any super strict algos or SEO best practices.

Instead, you’re in control of everything. Also, keep in mind that this ‘bossy’ freedom comes with more responsibility. (I mean, doing all things on your own consistently)

15 Common Email Marketing Terms You Must Know

Here are common terms and phrases you’ll encounter on the way:

1. Bounce Rate

When an email is rejected by a subscriber’s email server and remains undelivered, it is classified as a bounce. That may happen because of these reasons: the receiver has blocked you, unsubscribed, their server is down or offline, or their storage is full.

A good bounce rate is below 2%, which means if out of a hundred, 2 emails remain undelivered, that’s considered ‘okay’. Anything above is a concern. Two types of bounces to keep in mind:

Hard bounce: Emails that couldn’t be delivered because you’re blocked, the receiver email doesn’t exist, or the server won’t receive them.

Soft bounce: Emails that couldn’t be delivered because the receiver’s server is temporarily offline, storage is full, or anything temporarily.

2. CTA (Call to action)

CTA refers to an image, button, or text that asks readers to take some kind of action. Whether it is ‘Buy Now’, ‘Subscribe Now’, clicking on a link, or anything per se. The main goal of it is to encourage readers to take action. Usually, CTA is placed at the end of the email.

3. CTR (Click through Rate)

The percentage that clicked on at least one link in your email is referred to as the CTR. As the name explains, clicked through.

4. Delivery Rate

The percentage of emails sent successfully to recipients’ inboxes. It is calculated by dividing the total number of emails sent, minus hard and soft bounces, by the total number of emails sent.

5. Opt-in twice

This is a two-step process in which subscribers must confirm their opt-in by clicking a link in a confirmation email or responding in some other way to the confirmation email.

6. Drip Campaign

An email series that is delivered in a certain order and/or triggered by a specific user action or date is called Drip Campaign. For instance, a welcome email when a new subscriber joins.

7. ESP (Email Service Provider):

An ESP offers email marketing services where you can send bulk emails, set up different lists, schedule emails, and have lots of different customization options. The popular network everyday user uses is GMAIL, but that’s not nearly enough for marketers because it lacks all those insider features.

8. Open Rate

The percentage of subscribers who opened your email is the open rate. Open rates can vary from niche to niche, business to business, or even audience to audience.

Generally, you should have at least 20%, which means out of 100, at least 20 people should open your emails to read. Catchy subject lines play an important part here. (More on the subject lines later below)

9. GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation)

GDPR crime is one of the strict lawsuits you can get yourself into. In simple words, it means protecting your subscriber’s personal data.

Here are key terms to remember:

• Readers must give you free consent to use their email addresses or other personal information for communication or marketing purposes. (This is obvious when they subscribe to your newsletter).
• You must not share that data with anyone.
• If there’s been a breach or your email list gets hacked, you must tell them.
• The tools and methods you use must be safe.

Read the official full text here: GDPR.

10. Preheader text

An excerpt or snippet preview of inside text appears when you scroll down the notification panel to see the new email notification. Strategically, it should be something exciting to increase the open rate.

11. Personalization

Adding personalized components to your emails depends on the information you’ve gathered about that unique subscriber. This could involve addressing the recipient by name, citing their location, order history, or other information.

12. Segmentation

When you categorize your email list based on your subscribers’ geographic location, interests, purchase history, and other factors. So you can send them more personalized emails.

13. Spam

Spam is defined as unsolicited or illegitimate emails – that often land in spam folders. (Read below how to avoid it)

14. Transactional Email

Transactional emails are automated emails prompted when users perform certain actions. Which can be welcome emails to newly subscribed readers, delivery notices, order confirmations, password reminders, and purchase receipts.

15. Unsubscribes

The number of subscribers that have voluntarily unsubscribed from your email list might be because they’re not interested in you anymore.

10 Tips on Avoiding Your Emails Landing In the Spam Folder

Here are some best tips to never land in that ‘spam prison’:

1. Always get their permission first, and that’s obvious when they subscribe to your letter. Don’t take any random email and send them your offer – your domain email gets flagged by the email service providers.
2. Don’t write spammy headlines. For example, ‘100% Legit Unlimited Free Resource to Make Money While Doing Nothing’. Or, ‘Order Now This New Product with Free Shipping Worldwide’. These headlines already look far-fetched and malicious – might even trigger the spam filters and as well as instantly scare away the readers.
3. Include the unsubscribe button clearly at the end of the email.
4. Ask them to add you to their contact list.
5. Use popular and credible email marketing software. If the IP address of your email already got too many flag complaints, you’ll more likely always land in the spam folder.
6. Be a real human being there looking to build connections, and deliver value in the subscribers’ lives. The salesy hasty man will more likely get you nothing but flag complaints. When it comes to connecting with your audience and building relationships, the use of emojis in your communication can be a powerful tool. Emojis add a human touch to your messages, making them feel more personal and relatable to your subscribers. However, it’s important to use them appropriately and in moderation.
7. Make sure you don’t have grammar mistakes in the emails.
8. Remove email addresses that are inactive in your email list. Spam filters use this matrix to decide whether you should land in the spam folder or Inbox. If the number of inactive subscribers in your list is too high, chances are the destiny of your emails would be the spam prison.
9. Use a clear, human-like sender address. Such as your name or your blog’s name. Some random computer-generated numbers already look like they come from a scammer.
10. Email them regularly, with powerful headlines and valuable stuff inside. That way your emails get opened often and read, making your email address a credible domain.

Spam filters are getting more and more powerful and effective. From 2012 to 2019, there has been a 14% decrease in global email spam traffic, Statistica’s report says.

As long as you’re looking to build genuine connections with your subscribers and they’re willing to hear from you, you don’t need to worry too much about spam filters. Instead, focus more on making your email marketing campaigns effective. How? Let’s discuss!

Step By Step Guide On Building An Effective Email Marketing Strategy For Your Blog

Here’s everything you need to know to launch your first-ever email marketing campaign.

You must have an active email list. The more active subscribers, the better. But, how do you build a mailing list? Here’s a brief guide:

There are some tactics, which almost all bloggers use to collect emails from readers.

1. Build a mailing list

First, you need to research the core problem of your audience. Then, create an ultimate solution for that problem in the form of an eBook, a video course, or a report. Market that solution on your social media and/or on your website. Send it for free to whoever wants that on their email addresses.

Remember, the offer or solution must be irresistible so that readers will be instantly willing to give their email addresses to get that. (More on getting subscribers later in the steps below)

Here, you’ll need to at least have a couple of hundred subscribers in your email list so you can test your campaign.

2. Define your campaign goal

Having a crystal clear goal will make the rest of the process go smoother and possibly, make your campaign a hotshot.

Do you want to:

• Increase your engagement rate?
• Get more sales through your list?
• Only build a deeper and warmer connection?
• Only say hello and get them to add you to their contact list?
• Create hype about your next product launch?
• Increase your number of subscribers?

These were a few possible examples – but remember whatever goal you may have, keep that in mind, and write all your emails accordingly. Each goal will have its own unique plan of action and execution. Let’s discuss a few popular strategies in the next step.

3. Choose the right campaign strategy

Depending on your goals, you can send the following emails:

a. Newsletter approach

This is a news email from your website. Websites that rely on ad revenue usually take this approach. If you fall into this category, a newsletter is a good way to build steady traffic to your blog or website. For instance, WSJ’s newsletter about market insights that can help in making the right decisions.

The newsletter can be a summary of your new posts, stories, or anything extra that you want to send out every week or daily. The goal is to send anything relevant to your blog that your audience cares for and will get value from it.

b. Increase awareness

This is usually a list-wide invitation. If you simply want to communicate your blog’s values, tell interesting stories, or tell them about your new epic plans with your blog – this can be it.

This also might be about a new offer you’re going to run or a course – and you’re simply sending emails to tell them how it’s best, how it can help, and all things around it. This type of campaign kind of lies in the middle of running an offer and newsletter emails.

c. Announcement

This approach is ideal for customer retention. If you sell a service to your subscribers, this is the best way to inform them of new features. Make an announcement about your new tool, product, service, or anything new that they’d care about.

For example, you can promote a new software tool in your suite by emailing your list.

d. Triggered Emails

A trigger email campaign is a response to certain actions subscribers perform. It’s fully automatic once you’ve set the trigger conditions, written emails, and selected the segmented people.

For example, if someone abandons a shopping cart. An automatic email will remind them they have yet to complete their purchase. Or a welcome email to new subscribers. These triggers need to be set in the email marketing tool.

4. Design a strategic plan

Your email strategy can now be built around your goals. Think of it as a general outline for how you will create and schedule your content, so you stay focused and meet your goals. Write down everything that will go into the execution.

For instance:

• Researching the audience.
• Brainstorming ideas.
• Writing the email.
• Designing the template.
• Segmenting the right list.
• Testing.
• Launch.

Think of them as checkboxes. You can either write them down on paper, Excel Sheet or anywhere safe and easily accessible.

5. Choose an email marketing service provider

The right tools can make a lot of difference. Choose a reliable ESP that fits within your budget and gives you insider features to successfully launch your campaign. A few popular options today on the market are ConvertKit, AWeber, and Mailchimp. (More on the tools later below).

6. Designing your first-ever campaign

Here’s how you can design an email marketing campaign. Understand the following factors, things, or whatever you want to name them that go into creating an email campaign. Let’s see what each is and how it can affect the final draft and results.

a. Title

The single most crucial thing: Title lets readers decide whether your emails are open-worthy. Spend time, be creative, create customized and really interesting titles to get them to click and open.

Include the subject matter that they would most care about, really hit that ‘sweet spot’ that will make them think, “oh, that’s interesting, maybe I should just click on it, and see what’s inside”.

Mastering this can take time, so be patient, practice, try different things, and see what’s working best for your audience.

Have a look at the examples, and tell me which one will get you to open the email:

• Best dating tips for guys and girls.
• Discover 7 cutest dating secrets to make him/her all yours.

Most probably second. Here’s the science behind it:

• It feels more exclusive and curiosity-driven (Discover).
• It’s more specific (7 secrets).
• It injects a specific emotion (cutest secrets), moves us as we read.
• It introduces a hook or benefit (Make them all yours), which drives the reader to: ‘I kinda need to see this’.

The science behind the second headline I just explained is the proven knowledge marketers have gathered after experimenting billions on sales and advertising.

Certain elements like specificity that gives a clear picture, offering the benefit right in the headline, injecting curiosity, and saying things that grab attention, work a lot better. Because the main goal of the subject lines is to get the click. Read more about proven email subject lines that work here.

b. Email length

Emails are usually no longer than 200-250 words, which is because stats show that most readers give responses to this length. This makes sense as it only takes 3-5 minutes to read that many words.

But that doesn’t mean you cannot write more or less. Test things out, and see what works for your audience, and ultimately, you.

c. Language

Simple, easy-to-read language is ideal. Why confuse them with overly sophisticated words and phrases? Sure, use slangs and puns that your audience can relate to.

The simpler your message gets, the more effective and understandable it is, and the more conversions or click-through rates it can bring.

d. Include visuals

Images pique people’s interests. Include relevant, exciting images that support your offer. Remember to keep the image dimensions smaller, as most of us read emails on our smartphones.

e. Unsubscribe button

This gives your subscribers a choice to opt-out if they no longer want to hear from you. Do include this feature because it prevents you from being placed in the spam bin.

f. Include a call to action

The email recipient should already understand what your email is about based on the subject line and a brief description. Based on that, include a clear, straightforward, and simple CTA.

Mostly it’s clicking on a link to a new page for a purchase or reading your new blog post.

7. Optimize your blog to get more subscribers

Here’s how you can optimize your blog to get more subscribers:

a. Exchange a value in return for their email

For example, offer a free eBook that can help them with something in exchange for an email address. Or, create subscriber-only offers and promote them on your website and social media channels – so that more people can see and get excited to join your email list.

b. Ask visitors to subscribe

Invite them. Display that anywhere possible on your blog. Not only on one page but almost every page and every post.

For example, include a banner, a widget on the side, add a subscription button on the header. Promote your email list via other marketing channels.

c. Optimize the subscription button

Clearly display the subscription button. Make it obvious. As more visitors see the button, more of them get to join.

If your website has a dominant color, use the opposite color for the button, so it gets attention. And if they’re already inspired by your content or a freebie, they will be excited to join your newsletter.

d. Make it easy and seamless to join

Your email list should be simple to join. Forget long forms. A simple two-block form with the option of an email and name should suffice.

Avoid asking too many personal questions like their gender, age, country, profession, and more. They will be immediately concerned about their personal information being used somewhere – and that’s a turn-off for them to join you.

e. Add welcome and exit pop-ups

Poptin is one of the plugins that will help you add welcome and exit pop-ups. Whenever new visitors land on your page, welcome them and offer them a freebie you created, delivered to their email address.

The same goes with the exit pop-up. Taking these steps will increase the chance of getting more subscribers.

8. Increase your email open rates

Track email campaign open rates to see what works and what doesn’t. Open rates are directly affected by the subject lines. You might be surprised to learn that 47% of emails are only opened because of the exciting, well-sorted subject lines.

You don’t have much room to play with words – different mobile companies show different lengths. The best is to have your emails within the length of 15-25 characters. Spend time there, choose wisely, and choose words and bits that are most exciting or infuse curiosity.

Curiosity is by far the biggest human emotion that drives us almost anywhere – even to Mars or to the midst of the forest in a horror movie. Be a little mysterious with your subject lines or open a knowledge gap (pro tip).

You tell me which subject line is likely to get more clicks from the two below:

1. Email marketing is beneficial for your business.
2. A hot-new report reveals email marketing is the future of your business.

Which one do you think is hotter and will get more clicks? Correct. #2.

And, again, a pro tip: call them by their name in the subject lines if it’s possible; it makes them feel special – and it boosts the open rate by 18%.

9. Boost your email click-through rates

Several factors come into play when it comes to click-through rates. Let’s discuss them one by one:

1. Improve your template’s content readability. Make it unique yet simple. A redesigned blog email increased click-throughs by 127%. And remember visuals? Engaging images increased clicks by 42%.
2. Visual CTAs and button styles can boost conversions and click-throughs. Plus, CTAs should be strategically and contextually placed at the end or in the middle. Make them clear, stand out, and exciting. Split test campaigns with varying CTAs.
3. Offer is the biggest factor here. If what you’re offering is not exciting, no matter how good the design and subject lines are, everything can fall apart. Make sure the value you deliver in your offer is unbeatable.
4. Send at the right time. Different studies show different results here. Most of them agree on sending marketing and sales emails on Tuesday morning. But keep in mind your audience, where they live, and schedule your emails accordingly. Again, do split tests, and see what’s working – these stats may not be true for every industry.
5. Segment them differently based on critical criteria to send more personalized emails. This can boost your click-through rates.
6. Finally, another important factor, effective copywriting. Lousy, lazy, or writing that doesn’t follow the principle of sales and persuasion will get you fewer clicks. If you can’t write on your own, you can hire an email copywriter from Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer.

10. Measure the results of your campaign

Email marketing is 100% measurable, as opposed to other forms of marketing. You’ll know exactly what’s working when it’s working and why it’s working. A/B testing can determine which approach works best.

Few examples:

• Compare the performance of several email templates.
• Compare the performance of different landing pages.
• Compare the performance of different email automation software.
• Compare the performance of different CTAs.
• Compare the performance of different images.
• Compare the performance of different subject lines.

But remember to test one thing at a time so you’ll know exactly where to improve.

11. Monetize your email list

Email marketing is a great way to inform, entertain, and nurture leads. You can talk to the same people over and over again. You can listen, get ideas from them, and answer them more personally.

Ultimately, you’ll need to monetize your email list so you can make money out of your efforts. But, before even thinking about making money, make sure you’ve established a great meaningful relationship based on trust, credibility, and mutual interest.

Find the right time to sell your courses, products, services, or affiliates. Offering too early will annoy them, making you nothing but a salesman looking to make money out of their subscribers. It takes a lot of time, patience, and the right tools and techniques.

Make money by:

• Sending links to your affiliate products or services.
• Sending links to purchase your own products or services.
• Sending links to your posts to increase your ad revenue.
• To a really advanced level, you could make joining your newsletter a paid subscription.

Email Marketing: 3 Examples (and why these are good)

1. BuzzFeed’s Newsletter’s Welcome Email

Why it’s best:

• This email provides value by thanking newly subscribed users.
• This email is super-creative; the clear goal behind this welcome email is also to confirm whether they’re an actual person. And this is done well by a great touch of humor – showing that they’re a real person behind this email laughing while writing, and they also want their subscribers to laugh and have a good time. Humor is a great way to engage the audience with you.
• The CTA button is bold, gets attention, and clearly states what it’s about.
• The subject line is accurate and on-point – anyone newly subscribed would want to confirm their subscription first, so they can receive a newsletter.
• BuzzFeed clearly shows the readers a way out if they don’t want to receive a newsletter – always great to let them feel that they have the choice to leave anytime they want. What’s done smartly is that BuzzFeed started the sentence from the condition; ‘if you’ve accidentally,…’, well, there’s hardly anyone who’ll “accidentally” subscribe. By saying accidentally, BuzzFeed is giving an option, but at the same time, implying that they don’t want their subscribers to leave.
• Extra points from me for using that cute cat picture in the header.

2. Shutterstock’s Weekly Free Image of the Week Email

Why it’s best:

• It’s based on value – why do you think people will go to Shutterstock? For HD photos, of course. Shutterstock is paid. Having a weekly email that gives subscribers Free HD photos is the best way to always keep them on the list.
• It also offers similar photos to scroll – and those premium links go directly to the website, increasing the chance of more viewership and probably, more sales.
• It’s designed well – simple interface, with Shutterstock’s logo, and a bold headline giving the offer to download free HD photos.
• On the header, you’ll notice there are more links that invite to the ‘blog’, ‘images’, and more. Great way to invite them to the website without actually asking them – because you don’t want to ask too much. The goal is to deliver value and keep them on the email list.
• A simple, clear headline that provides what it says.

3. VeryGoodCopy’s Newsletter’s Welcome Email

Why it’s best:

• Irresistible value – Eddie gives his 6 powerful micro-courses specifically where his target audience needs help, for Free – in return for their email address. When you give this much value, your readers will already be impressed.
• Look as Eddie, after thanking, asks for a 10 seconds favor, so in the future, his emails won’t land in the spam folder. 10 seconds is no big deal, and also, he’s already providing great value, who will want to miss his emails?
• The designed template is unique.
• He already sets the pace for what to expect in future emails to keep them hooked.
• The person behind those written words feels very humble – it’s a nice approach when you meet somebody for the first time and look to be friends with them.

Use the Right Tools: 9 Popular Email Marketing Service Providers to Choose From

Without a reliable EMS, it’s nearly impossible to successfully launch email marketing campaigns. Here are some:

1. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a WordPress plugin to create high-converting opt-in forms, to collect email addresses. You can integrate it with a lot of email marketing software as well, such as Mailchimp or Convertkit. The plugin makes the whole process easier and seamless.

Key Features:

• Provides captivating capture forms
• Provides access to powerful conversion tools
• Gives frequent testing results
• Personalize your campaigns on the basis of visitor’s interests

Basic plan starts at $9/month, then $19, $29, and $49. As the price grows, more cool features get unlocked. See the details here.

2. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is an email marketing software that aids you in importing email addresses, setting up opt-in forms to collect email addresses, dozens of templates, and real-time tracking of campaigns.

Key Features:

• Offers many themes to design newsletters.
• Generates traffic for your website.
• Promotes your website to social networks.
• Reach people in their inbox to grow your brand.
• Tracking of campaigns.

For beginners, $20/month, and for more advanced bloggers, it’s $40/month. With more price, the more insider features are unlocked. See them here.

3. AWeber

Just like any other ESP, AWeber helps you launch email marketing campaigns, set different auto-responders, track results, and use hundreds of drag-and-drop templates. In short, it keeps you connected with your subscribers.

Key Features:

• Automated email campaigns
• Tracking software
• Tool-based integration
• Import email lists stats of your competitors.
• 700+ templates.

Start for Free with all the features unlocked as long as you have less than 500 subscribers. Pro plan starts from $16, and the price increases as the number of subs increase. See it here.

4. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is rather an affordable EMS especially designed for small startups or beginner bloggers. It gives almost everything you need in an email marketing software to launch automatic campaigns but at a lower cost.

Key Features:

• Flexibility to create a variety of email marketing campaigns.
• Easily segment your emails.
• Schedule them in advance, or automate them.
• A/B testing.
• Take the view of workflow.
• Instantly reply to visitors while browsing your site.

The free plan offers 300 emails per day. Paid Lite plan at $25/month allows 10K emails/month. Premium paid at 65$ allows 20K emails/month.

5. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an all-in-one ESP that allows you to do everything and all things: you can create automatic email marketing campaigns, opt-in forms, landing pages, and a lot of other stuff to help you increase your subscribers and get more out of your email list. And depending upon its rating and reviews, it’s quite the popular one currently.

Key Features:

• Create one-click opt-in forms that generate subscribers and build your mailing list
• The library of email templates in ConvertKit can be used to send any type of email that you desire
• Personalize each campaign based on the recipient’s actions
• Helps increase the traffic to your website.

Free plans for up to 300 subscribers. $9/month for 300 subscribers, along with other features. $25 for full stack features for up to 300 subscribers. (Don’t be confused by the 300 subscribers limit. I used it as an example. Their pricing increases as that number increases. See the full chart here.)

6. GetResponse

GetResponse is an all-in-one marketing software with 30 tools built-in. Use them for creating landing pages, opt-in forms, launching drip campaigns, track results, and a lot more stuff.

Key Features:

• Allows you to import your subscriber data in bulk and handle it with ease.
• Lets you select particular messages to be sent in sequence without composing separate messages for each person.
• Can easily test different source languages (e.g., automatic email responses, abandoned cart notifications)
• With complete marketing webinar software, you can get powerful results in a short period of time.

It has a free version with up to 500 subscribers along with other limited features. Paid plans are $15 and $25/month for full-stack features. See pricing here.

7. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is also an all-in-one email marketing software that lets you do everything you need to stay in touch with your subscribers and scale your blog.

Key Features:

• Saves time automating email sequences
• Stops the extra time needed for reporting and tracking
• Saves your money and efforts on managing your email lists
• Increasing your audience can be accomplished through the use of precise targeting.
• Use messages that resonate with your audience’s personality to draw them in.

They have several prices and plan options, starting from Lite to all the way to Enterprise. The more subscribers you have, the higher the price of each plan will be. See here.

8. HubSpot

HubSpot is a world-class sales and marketing platform. Its email marketing software is a combination of all the tools required: from creating landing pages to collecting emails, and all the way to sending drip campaigns and tracking real time results.

Key Features:

• Nurture leads more effectively with forms that help in securing visitors’ email addresses.
• Offers marketing automation and sales CRM to generate more leads, make more sales, and grow your blog.
• Provides a complete set of inbound marketing tools that you can use for all of your campaigns.

Get started for Free, or you can upgrade to premium plans to unlock more useful features. See here.

9. iContact

iContact gives you the tools and insights to design, send, measure, and track your email marketing campaigns. Design beautiful templates in a drag-and-drop editor and create forms specific to your audience profiles.

Key Features:

• Displays your message at the top of a customer’s Inbox instead of being diverted to the Spam folder.
• Keep you connected with your audience and cultivate leads.

You can start for Free and pay later as you grow with your email list. See here the detailed price plan.

3 Key Points: How to Automate Your Email Marketing

Email automation works by determining certain triggers, making different segments or lists, and designing unique emails.

The step-by-step process may vary for each email service provider. Here are basic tips you need to keep in mind.

1. Decide segments

So, the first step of automating your emails is to segment audiences based on certain criteria. For instance, you’ll have new subscribers coming frequently, and you’ll also have your old regular subscribers. It’s critical to segment them to make sure you’re sending the right emails to the right people.

Once you evaluate that in your email marketing tool, here’s what you’ll do next:

2. Design unique emails

For different audiences, use relevant templates, write emails accordingly, and include relevant CTAs.

For example, if it’s a welcome email, maybe the next thing you want to send them is a free welcome gift, or you want them to click on a link inside and read your next post. It can be anything. But you want to make sure you’re using the right email templates with the right goals in mind.

Doing this will also help you track the whole process, i.e., how many new subscribers are opening your emails and how many are clicking through.

You can segment more frequent readers in a new list as people who are more likely to buy from you. In the salesmanship lingo, this is also called ‘targeting the hyper-active buyers’.

3. Update triggers in the tool

Once you’ve segments and emails done, now determine the right triggers for the right emails to the right segment. This is important to understand.

A few examples:

• An immediate welcome email for a new subscriber
• A birthday wish email for the selected event date
• New post notifications for regular readers

Make sure you get things right because once the triggers are set in the tool, emails will be launched all in bulk to all the selected subscribers. (Like an arrow from a bow). F

Read below the best practices to get more out of your email automation marketing campaigns:

Here’s the List of 6 Email Automation Best Practices

Here are 6 tips on getting better results with email automation:

a. Use the right trigger emails

Trigger emails are reaction emails when the subscriber performs a certain action. Triggers, actions, or conditions can be subscribing to your newsletter, downloading an eBook from your site, or making a purchase. Send them relevant automated trigger emails so they can feel you’re a credible blog or brand.

For example, welcome emails. Even though it’s not a rule, you’ll be surprised to know that welcome emails get five times more reads than regular marketing emails. People do notice subconsciously – so leave no stone untouched.

b. Segment them

Create different segments of subscribers based on the similarities they share. For instance, the same age group, the same reading or purchasing history, the same problems, or the same gender. This will help you customize emails in better ways, to achieve better results for whatever goal you may have.

c. Milestone/Events emails

Send specific emails on special days like their birthdays or any important event date for them. This is the chance to get relevant and build a deeper connection.

d. Bring them back who have lost interest

You’ll realize some subscribers will stop opening emails from you and will lose interest. Segment them, and make a separate email list of them. Send them specified emails to bring them back – i.e., to create interest in you or your blog again.

e. Cross-selling and upselling is a genius tactic

Whenever they make a purchase, use either or both of these methods to increase your conversion rates. Here’s what these mean:

Cross-selling: Offering a relevant product or service – for example, if they buy a mobile phone, a phone case, or even headphones are relevant products they might be interested in.

Upselling: Offering a better or upgraded version of products – for example, if they buy an iPhone 12, you can offer them an iPhone 13. Or, if they get a free trial or free version of something, offer them premium or paid products/tools/services with more features.

f. Measure results and perform A/B tests

Keep track of what’s working and what needs to be improved. Launch different unique templates and designs to test what brings the most results.

Read Goods and Bads of Email Marketing

Although email marketing is lucrative, there are downsides as well. Let’s look at the overall goods and bads of it:

Goods

1. Permission-based

You only send emails with the permission of readers – they gave you permission because they’re interested in your products, services, or whatever that is you’ve to say.

This whole phenomenon boosts the chances of selling more: Exactly opposite of an entirely cold audience who doesn’t know about you, so you’ll need to introduce yourself first, then do some convincing, and at the end of the day, it’s still unsure whether they’re the exact audience you need to talk to.

2. Direct and personal access

You have access to their smartphones – almost like sending a text on WhatsApp, talking to them, and inviting them to buy something that would help them.

3. More Control

You can customize, segment, schedule, use different templates, and do a lot of things to achieve better results. That’s barely possible with social media marketing, and you’re also bound with their algorithms.

4. More Personalization Options

This is probably the best part about email marketing – you can go so much deeper while personalizing emails. Talk to a specific segment having almost the same problem, and position your products or services as a solution.

Or make different lists, do split tests, analyze what’s working, and get accurate results. When it comes to salesmanship, connection at a deeper level is one of the most important factors – and emails help you build that.

5. Accurate graphs

You can measure your email stats better as compared to social media marketing. You know exactly how many people are on your list, how many emails got delivered, how many got read, how many got clicked-through, and how many purchases you got.

That’s a lot more insightful than social media – and it helps in split testing different CTAs, subject lines, and pre-headers so you can achieve greater results.

6. Scalable

As the name explains, email marketing is scalable. The more subscribers you get, the more money you can make out of your list. It’s that simple. And you can have as many subscribers as you can possibly get.

Also, what makes it less of hard work is that you only need to write one email for a specific list, and tools do the rest of the work. (Of course, you have the option to get more personalized, given how deeper you know your audience).

7. Low-cost

If we compare email marketing with social media marketing, paid ads, or SEO, it’s definitely low-cost. All you need is email marketing software to do everything, which comes at a fair monthly or annual subscription.

Bads

1. Tough

Email marketing is competitive. Almost every brand, blog, or whoever has an online presence uses email marketing. And your audience doesn’t only follow you – they have other interests, and chances are, they’re subscribed there as well. That makes getting attention difficult.

2. Time Consuming

Email marketing is definitely not a quick-rich strategy. It takes a lot of time, patience, hard and smart work to finally achieve a point where you’re making something noticeable out of your list. Take email marketing as a long-term success strategy.

3. You need subscribers

This is not specifically true for emails – you need followers to sell on social media or visitors to sell on your website. But getting email subscribers is fairly a difficult game as it takes a lot of credibility to get personal information like emails.

4. Spams and Bounces

Sometimes emails don’t get delivered at all or sometimes end up being in the spam folder. That’s a problem. Spammy words and titles like FREE, Unlimited, or $ signs may cause this issue.

Avoid these clickbait titles and words as much as you can. Poorly designed emails may also cause them to bounce back.

12 Tips for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign.

1. Avoid spam or ‘looking-like-scam’ at all costs.

This should be your first bit. Avoid spammy subject lines; words like ‘FREE’ ‘Unlimited’, ‘Act Now’, and more like this. Read 200 more here. Why? Because these words automatically trigger spam filters, and your emails will more likely land in spam folders. Besides, users might also immediately recognize you as one of those ‘hasty salesmen’.

Subject lines should gracefully and accurately describe what the content of the email is about. Your “From,” “To,” and “Reply-To,” information must be correct and reachable. In short, the goal is, to be honest with your subscribers and build real and meaningful connections.

2. Tell them it’s an ad or affiliate if it is.

They have the right to know whether the products you’re promoting are affiliates or an ad. Sometimes it’s obvious, and sometimes it isn’t.

The best is to always mention it as a one-liner at the end of the email, whether it’s just a newsletter, an ad, an affiliate, or anything per say. Don’t think it will affect your conversions negatively – but in fact, in reality, this will boost your credibility and trust.

3. Give your studio’s or office’s physical address, if there is one.

No, you don’t need to give your personal home address. What this means is that if you have a separate studio, office, or building for your blog where you and/or your team sit along and work – it’s best to include that location in your emails. It might be a Street Address, P.O. Box, or even a private mailbox. What does it do? Again, credibility and trust.

4. Give them an easier way out

The law states you must give them a clear way out. And it’s a good thing. Let me explain.

Don’t think you’re losing subscribers, even after doing your best. Sometimes subscribers can choose to leave because they’re no longer interested. So, technically, the people left on your list are the ones that are interested. And let me tell you, it’s a lot easier to sell to people who are genuinely interested in your products or services or in you.

The Unsubscribe button or link usually comes at the end – and you must include that there with clear, easy-to-read fonts and language.

5. Be consistent with the taste in your emails

This is about branding – remember your brand’s personality. Funny? Sarcastic? Bold? Professional? Sensitive? Empathetic? Regardless of your personal biases, keep the taste consistent that always align with your brand’s voice.

6. Maintain Your Email List

Over time, people change their email addresses or remain inactive for a really long time. That’s a sign of having a weak email list. Remove inactive domains. That will help you prevent it from landing in the spam folder, so you can get the most out of your efforts.

7. Be frequent – and regular

Sure, nudging their mailbox every single day may not sound ideal – but at least show up once a week. We tend to forget things we’re not connected to.

You always need to be in their subconscious for effective marketing – and that’s why brands spend millions on advertising on billboards and TV. So, show up consistently, whatever day you schedule.

8. Don’t go overboard when writing emails

Huge email content might result in a soft bounce. Also, stats show most emails are between 200-250 words – because they work. Short emails are easier and faster to read, saving the readers’ time.

9. Avoiding sending large-size files

Videos, embedded forms, and attachments of large sizes may make loading difficult. Mobile-size screens might not display as you intend. Videos are not supported, as you’d embed them on your website. Links and customized buttons, and optimized images are always the best options.

10. Proofread and test before sending

It’s always best to proofread, do a last-minute check, and test how your email will look when it gets delivered to the list. You can easily do this in whatever ESP you’re using.

11. Remember: it’s human-to-human marketing

I love this quote by a modern-day marketer, William Wang, ‘it’s human-to-human marketing’. Believe in this, and you’ll make email marketing less of a burden.

Consider your new subscribers as strangers interested in talking to you. When a new person approaches you, you welcome them and talk nicely to them, and slowly, a day comes when you’re buddies hanging around Starbucks. Put relationship-building first, and things will seem easier.

12. Take advantage of scraper APIs

Using scraper APIs can be a powerful addition to your email marketing campaign. With the right one, you can extract valuable contact information from online sources, allowing you to reach a wider audience and increase the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. Plus, scraper APIs can save you time and effort, freeing you up to focus on creating compelling email content that resonates with your target audience. Just be sure to use them responsibly and ethically. With the right approach, scraper APIs can be a game-changer for your campaigns. Some websites use protective tools to ensure that their data is not accessible to the public. For example, it is important to know how to bypass Cloudflare, a service that restricts access to a website's content.

Wrapping Up: Email Marketing for Bloggers

That’s it. That’s the whole thing – not a LOT, right?…ahm.

Reading this on the screen may make you feel overwhelmed, and you might wonder how you, on your own, will be able to launch email campaigns and build a massive email list. But I tell you what, always trust the process. You’ve got the knowledge.

You now know what to do and how to do it – if anything left it’s the execution. Save this guide as a bookmark on your browser, and you can come back any time if you wish to rewind this ‘tape’.

Going by, I hope this has been helpful. Do tell me in the comments. Or, you can read expert advice on boosting your blog’s subscribers.