Introduction

Welcome
00:04 Welcome to Effective Email Marketing Strategies!
00:07 This course is designed to give you tips and advice for growing your bus
iness or
00:11 organization with email marketing.
00:13 This course begins by showing you how to get your email marketing progra
m off
00:17 the ground and how to build your email list while complying with regulat
ions and
00:21 consumer preferences.
00:22 Then I'll show you which types of email content and designs are most
00:26 effective, and I'll give you tips for coming up with good content and ma
king
00:30 your content more valuable.
00:32 I'll also show you how to adapt your emails for mobile devices, how to c
ombine
00:36 emails with social media, and how to automate your emails to save time.
00:42 Tracking your emails and avoiding bounces, spam filters, and blocked ema
il is
00:46 also important, so I'll show you the best practices for getting more ema
il
00:49 delivered, opened, and read.
00:52 All of this and more is just a few clicks away, so let's get started wit
h
00:56 Effective Email Marketing Strategies.
1. Email Marketing Basics
Using email in your marketing mix
00:01 You don't have to be in business for very long to realize that you need
to
00:04 communicate with lots of people to attract customers.
00:08 Of course, your business also needs to make sure that your marketing
00:10 communications bring in revenue over and above the cost of those communi
cations.
00:15 Email is a great solution for building customer relationships
00:18 affordably, because it's a familiar communication standard and because
00:22 it's so cost effective.
00:24 The fact that email is a cheap way to communicate isn't the main reason
to use email however.
00:29 Email also has a very high Return On Investment or ROI.
00:33 In other words, an effective email marketing strategy can generate a lot
of
00:37 sales for a relatively small investment of time and money.
00:41 In order to get the highest possible return on your email marketing inve
stments,
00:45 you first need to understand where to use email in your overall marketin
g plans.
00:50 The first thing to understand is the fact that sending email to total st
rangers
00:53 does not work. You're more likely to get spam complaints than interest f
rom
00:58 prospective customers unless you send to a permission-based email list.
01:01 Now, I show you how to build a permission- based email list in another s
ection of this course.
01:06 Instead of spamming people, use email to help convert current prospects
into
01:11 customers and current customers into loyal customers.
01:15 Use email to educate people about the features and benefits of your prod
ucts
01:18 or services, differentiate your business from your competition, and to a
sk for the sale.
01:24 You can also use email to help increase customer loyalty and referrals b
y
01:27 sending emails that strengthen your customer relationships.
01:30 Send them thank you emails, holiday greetings, and offer special privile
ges to
01:35 make your customers feel like they're appreciated.
01:38 As you watch the rest of this course remember that all the tips and idea
s I
01:41 share can be adapted to your specific type of business or organization,
01:45 because no matter what kind of business or organization you have, keepin
g your
01:49 customer relationships at the center of your strategy will put you on th
e road
01:53 to email marketing success.
Getting the job done
00:00 You'll need at least two technologies to execute your email marketing st
rategy:
00:05 an authoring technology to create the content of your emails in HTML and
a
00:10 delivery technology that has the ability to deliver and track emails sen
t to
00:14 a large email list.
00:15 In order to do literally everything on your own, you're going to need to
own
00:19 your own email server.
00:21 You'll need extensive programming knowledge and database skills.
00:25 I don't recommend doing absolutely everything in-house, even for a large
company
00:29 with lots of technical resources.
00:31 Instead use an email marketing provider or EMP to help you run your stra
tegy.
00:37 An EMP is a company that offers a suite of tools to help you create, sen
d, and
00:42 track your own marketing emails.
00:44 Most EMPs allow you to create emails without the need to know any HTML o
r the
00:48 programming languages.
00:49 And you won't need to set up and manage your own email servers and deliv
ery
00:53 gateways, because EMP is sending email from their servers on your behalf
.
01:00 Your customers will never know the difference and you'll probably get
01:03 better delivery rates too.
01:05 EMPs give you tracking reports and database tools to manage your email l
ists and
01:10 some EMPs even provide support and educational resources to help you gai
n
01:14 expertise in marketing and the use of the EMP's tools.
01:17 Enterprise-level EMPs give you access to advanced features, such as
01:22 point-of-sale integration, email automation, advanced segmentation, and
01:27 behavioral targeting.
01:29 Remember that one of the most important assets of your email marketing s
trategy
01:33 is your email database.
01:35 Make sure you use a company that secures your email database properly an
d
01:38 protects the privacy of your email list subscribers.
01:41 In the next section of the course, I show you how to protect your databa
se in
01:45 another way: by avoiding unsubscribes and spam complaints.
Becoming an appreciated email sender
00:00 There are laws against unsolicited email or spam because people hate it.
00:06 Since hate is not a buying emotion and the government makes the rules, h
ere's
00:10 what you need to know to become an appreciated email sender.
00:14 Let's start with the law.
00:15 Now, what I'm about to say is not legal advice in any way, shape, or for
m.
00:20 It's just a summary of possible issues.
00:22 Use a licensed attorney to make sure you follow the law when it comes to
email marketing.
00:27 And the main law governing commercial email is known as the CAN-SPAM Act
.
00:31 You should read and comply with all parts of the CAN-SPAM Act, but here
are
00:35 the major guidelines.
00:37 First and foremost, you need a relationship of affirmative consent betwe
en your
00:41 business and anyone to whom you send a marketing email.
00:44 You also need to provide a simple and free way for your subscribers to o
pt out
00:48 of receiving future emails.
00:51 The industry standard is one or two clicks to unsubscribe.
00:55 Also, make sure the information in your email is true and accurate.
00:58 You are not allowed to fake your from line, use misleading subject lines
, or
01:03 send emails from a false email address.
01:05 Finally, make sure you include your physical business address in every e
mail.
01:09 A post office box is okay.
01:12 Keeping your emails legally compliant will keep you out of trouble with
the
01:14 government, but your job as an email marketer isn't to make the governme
nt
01:18 happy; your emails need to impress prospects and customers.
01:22 Here are three tips to make sure your email marketing is well-received a
nd
01:27 appreciated by your subscribers.
01:29 First, ask for explicit permission before sending marketing emails.
01:33 I talk about permission and building a permission-based email list in th
e next
01:36 section of the course.
01:38 Second, ask your subscribers to share their preferences when they join y
our
01:42 email list and send only the information your subscribers request.
01:46 Third, make sure that you send emails with the proper frequency and rele
vance.
01:52 In general, people will tolerate almost any email frequency as long as y
our
01:56 email content is valuable and relevant.
01:58 For example, weather is a daily occurrence, so weather information is li
kely to
02:04 be appreciated on a daily frequency.
02:06 If you send a daily email asking people to buy something however, you'd
better
02:10 be pretty sure that your subscribers are interested in daily deals.
02:15 Now that you have a basic understanding of becoming an appreciated email
02:18 sender, let's leverage your knowledge by moving to our next topic, build
ing an email list.
2. Building an Email List
Asking for permission
00:01 Email marketing without permission can spell disaster for your marketing
emails.
00:06 You can't legally send emails to total strangers and even if you could,
you
00:10 wouldn't make very many people happy by sending them emails they didn't
ask for.
00:15 Therefore, an email list without permission isn't very valuable.
00:18 However, when an email list includes the email addresses of prospects an
d
00:22 customers who have explicitly asked your business to send them emails to
stay
00:25 informed, you have a very valuable asset for your marketing strategy.
00:30 In this part of the course I am going to show you how to include permiss
ion in
00:33 your email marketing plans so that your email list is full of people who
want to
00:37 receive your emails.
00:38 The first step in the process of building a permission-based email list
is
00:41 deciding on a permission level.
00:42 Now, there are three basic types of permission.
00:46 The lowest permission level is implied permission.
00:49 For example, when someone hands you a business card and says let's stay
in
00:53 touch, you could assume that means sending a few emails.
00:56 But be extra careful with implied permission, because people may be unpl
easantly
01:00 surprised if you start sending marketing emails without first confirming
the
01:04 content and the frequency of those emails.
01:08 It's a good idea in the case of implied permission to send an email conf
irming
01:12 your decision to add someone to your email list and include a link for o
pting
01:16 out if you're new implied subscriber doesn't want to be on your marketin
g email list.
01:21 The second permission level is explicit permission.
01:24 For example, when someone fills out an online form to join your email li
st,
01:29 that person has given you explicit permission to send the emails your em
ail
01:32 sign-up form specifies.
01:34 Explicit permission is the industry standard for email marketing and the
01:38 recommended level of permission for most email marketing providers.
01:42 The third permission level is confirmed permission, also known as double
opt-in.
01:48 Confirmed permission works like this: when someone explicitly opts in to
your
01:52 email list, you send an email asking the new subscriber to confirm their
01:57 decision to join the list.
01:58 Usually this happens by clicking a link or replying to the confirmation
email
02:02 with a specific message.
02:04 Confirmed permission ensures that your email list subscribers are highly
02:07 interested in receiving your emails and confirming permission generally
improves
02:11 your delivery rates too.
02:12 Now let's go over a few forms of permission that actually have the poten
tial
02:17 to get you in trouble.
02:18 You should avoid building your email list based on someone else's permis
sion.
02:23 For example, don't send marketing emails to people on email lists belong
ing to
02:27 your vendors, your colleagues, your partners, or trade organizations.
02:32 If you want to reach people on other email lists, ask the owner of the l
ist
02:37 to send the emails to their list on your behalf and ask them to explicit
ly
02:42 opt in to your email list.
02:45 Some email lists are sold or leased out by list brokers and permission-b
ased
02:49 quality is very important if you decide to use a broker to send your ema
ils.
02:53 If you decide to use a list broker anyway, make sure the list broker you
use is
02:57 completely compliant with all laws and industry best practices.
03:01 Since your email list is valuable, protect it like an asset.
03:06 Don't share your email list with anyone and don't violate your permissio
n
03:10 standards by sending emails your subscribers didn't sign up for.
03:14 In the next section of the course I show you how to collect email addres
ses from
03:18 people so that you can build a list with quality and quantity in mind.
Collecting information
00:00 In this section of the course I show you how to collect email addresses
to
00:04 build your email list.
00:05 If you haven't already, make sure you first view the previous section on
00:09 permission before watching the rest of this section.
00:11 Now, when it comes to actually collecting emails, there are five basic w
ays to
00:16 ask people to join your email list.
00:18 The first way to collect email addresses is by providing an online sign-
up form
00:23 to your website visitors.
00:25 You should put the sign-up form or a link to the sign-up form on every p
age of
00:29 your website, not just the homepage, because you never know when someone
will
00:33 enter your website or exit your website.
00:37 The second way to collect email addresses is to collect email addresses
00:41 from people in person.
00:42 When someone calls your business on the phone, ask if he or she would li
ke to
00:46 join the email list to receive information about the topic of the call.
00:50 When you attend networking events or trade shows and when you meet peopl
e for
00:53 appointments, ask everyone to join your email list.
00:57 I call it the 5 Foot Rule.
00:59 If someone is within 5 feet of you, ask for his or her email address.
01:05 Thirdly, all printed marketing materials should describe a way to join y
our email list.
01:11 You can provide a sign-up form by asking people to write their informati
on
01:14 directly on the form, and you can use printed advertising to promote oth
er
01:19 methods of joining, which brings me to the fourth way to collect email
01:23 addresses: mobile devices.
01:25 You can ask people to scan a mobile barcode, like the one this poster.
01:29 This one actually works. Give it a try right now on your screen to join
the
01:32 email list at lynda.com.
01:35 You can also ask people to text their email address to join, and you can
provide
01:40 mobile sign-up forms that can be filled out on a smartphone or a tablet
device.
01:44 You can use mobile devices for collecting addresses in person as well.
01:47 Simply hand your device to someone so he or she can fill out a form on t
he screen.
01:52 The fifth way to collect email addresses is through social media network
s.
01:56 Place sign-up links to your email sign- up form on all social media site
s you own
02:02 and promote your email list in your social posts.
02:04 Some social sites such as Facebook allow application plug-ins, so you ca
n embed
02:09 forms directly into your page.
02:12 Remember that an email address is more effective when you combine it wit
h other information.
02:16 You may want to collect a first name for personalizing your emails ora Z
IP code
02:20 for targeting local offers.
02:22 But don't ask for too much information the first time you sign up or
02:26 you'll reduce sign-ups.
02:28 You can also ask for additional information once you've established a
02:31 relationship of trust with the members of your email list.
02:34 Collecting email addresses and other personal information isn't always e
asy, so
02:38 stay tuned for the next section of the course where I show you how to cr
eate
02:41 incentives to help you increase the number of email list sign-ups you ge
t.
Offering incentives to increase signups
00:00 It's a common misconception that people aren't willing to share their em
ail addresses.
00:05 Actually, they are willing to share.
00:07 You just have to communicate the value of your email list effectively.
00:10 The idea is to exchange value for information.
00:13 The more valuable your emails, the more people will sign up to receive t
hat value.
00:17 Now, there are three basic ways you can maximize the value of subscribin
g
00:22 to your email lists.
00:24 The first way is to make the information you put in your emails valuable
in and of itself.
00:28 For example, a consultant could offer free advice via his or her email n
ewsletter.
00:34 You can also give your subscribers immediate incentives for joining the
email list.
00:38 Immediate incentives are usually provided to subscribers in the form of
an
00:41 automated email sent to the email address used for the subscription.
00:46 Use your automated emails to send a coupon or discount, a valuable downl
oad,
00:52 access to a special video, a free product or service, or anything else t
hat has
00:57 immediate benefit to the new subscriber.
01:00 For the best results, offer something related to your products or servic
es as
01:04 opposed to offering a free gift unrelated to your core business.
01:08 That way you'll gain a prospect who is just as interested in what your b
usiness
01:12 is as what you're giving away.
01:13 For example, a restaurant could offer a free dessert to anyone who joins
the
01:18 email list by sending a coupon to everyone who subscribes.
01:22 In addition to immediate incentives, you can also offer the same benefit
s in the future.
01:27 The benefit of future incentives is the fact that you can send new subsc
ribers a
01:30 few emails before they receive the incentive.
01:34 In the next section of the course, I am going to show you how to design
an
01:37 effective marketing email so that your content and your incentives look
good,
01:41 function properly, and represent your business as professionally as poss
ible.
3. Designing an Effective Marketing Email
Deciding on a format
00:00 When marketers refer to the format of an email, it means that the layout
, the
00:06 content, and the purpose of a particular email work together visually an
d
00:09 functionally as a unit.
00:12 For example, a newsletter is an email format. So is a promotion, an even
t
00:16 invitation, and a holiday greeting.
00:19 This section of the course explains the email formats that you can choos
e from
00:23 to run a successful email marketing strategy.
00:26 It's important to use a variety of email formats in your strategy for tw
o reasons.
00:30 First, people respond to different formats in different ways.
00:34 For example, many people wait to read an email that looks like a newslet
ter,
00:39 while an email that looks like an urgent announcement is more likely to
get
00:42 immediate attention.
00:43 While getting immediate attention from every email might sound like a go
od
00:47 strategy, the reality is that urgency wears off if you use the same emai
l
00:52 formats for all your communications. Which brings me to the second reaso
n to use
00:57 a variety of formats.
00:58 You need as many formats as you have reasons to communicate.
01:02 For example, if you send promotions, event invitations, news, informatio
n,
01:07 greetings, and appointment confirmations, you should utilize enough emai
l
01:11 formats to appropriately categorize your information into logical groupi
ngs.
01:16 Now, here are the most popular email formats and some tips for making th
em effective.
01:22 Email newsletters are typically focused on information rather than promo
tion.
01:28 Newsletters can have columns to give them the appearance of a paper news
letter
01:32 and are great for sending loosely related information in a single email.
01:37 Newsletters also should have a periodic frequency, such as weekly or mon
thly,
01:42 rather than an event or date driven frequency.
01:46 For best results, minimize the amount of promotional content in your ema
il newsletters.
01:50 No more than 20% of your email newsletter content should contain promoti
ons.
01:55 If you need to promote more than that, use a promotional email format.
02:00 Promotional email should focus on a single promotion, such as a single p
roduct,
02:05 a group of related products, or a theme such as a sale.
02:09 Promotional emails are usually date driven or they are triggered by spec
ific
02:13 actions, such as a recent purchase or an inquiry.
02:17 When using promotional emails, it's best to put some but not all of the
02:22 details about the promotion in the email itself.
02:25 Put the rest of the details on a website to invite a click so that you k
now how
02:30 many people were interested in learning more about the promotion.
02:33 Another type of promotion is an event invitation.
02:37 Event invitations can focus on one event or a series of events.
02:41 Events are highly date driven and usually require a series of emails in
similar
02:46 formats to get a good overall response.
02:49 Make sure you plan out your event invitations on a calendar to avoid
02:53 over-communicating.
02:55 An email announcement is a format that's sent when no specific response
is
03:00 expected on the part of the recipient.
03:02 Examples include greetings, thank you messages, press releases, and
03:07 order confirmations.
03:09 Send these email formats when you want to focus on relationship building
as
03:12 opposed to generating immediate sales or leads.
03:15 Sometimes it's nice to receive an email that doesn't ask you to do anyth
ing.
03:20 Email formats are most effective when your email designs and layouts are
a good
03:24 match for the formats you choose.
03:26 That's the topic of our next two sections: branding your emails and
03:29 creating effective layouts.
Branding consistently
00:01 You need to pay attention to the way your emails look, because your audi
ence
00:04 pays attention or not depending on the design choices you make in each e
mail.
00:09 The first rule of email design is to make sure your email designs are a
good
00:13 match with your other marketing media.
00:15 For example, when someone visits your website and signs up for your emai
l list,
00:20 they might not recognize your emails if they look completely different f
rom your website.
00:24 To ensure a good match between your email designs and your other marketi
ng
00:28 designs, follow these guidelines.
00:31 Include your logo in all your emails.
00:34 Use colors that match your logo for backgrounds, borders, and fonts.
00:38 And when you send a promotion that suggests the use of colors outside yo
ur
00:42 brand, such as of running a Halloween promotion with black and orange, j
ust make
00:47 sure to work the promotional colors into your brand instead of replacing
your
00:51 brand with the promotion.
00:54 Also, use the same type of images in all your emails.
00:57 For example, there's a big difference between the look of stock photogra
phy and
01:00 the look of graphics and clipart.
01:03 Choose the image type that fits the personality of your business and the
n stick to it.
01:07 When choosing email designs, it's important to brand each type of email
01:11 format consistently.
01:12 For example, make sure your email newsletter looks similar, but not iden
tical,
01:18 to your email promotions.
01:19 That way people will recognize your brand and the purpose of each email.
01:24 One of the best ways to ensure brand consistency with all your emails is
to
01:28 design your emails based on similar looking email templates.
01:32 What's an email template?
01:33 That's the topic of our next section.
Creating a layout
00:01 Laying out your content in an email usually requires building tables in
HTML and
00:06 using Cascading Style Sheets or CSS to tell your recipient's computer ho
w to
00:10 display your content.
00:12 If you're not interested in programming your own layouts, you can use
00:15 pre-designed email templates that are ready to receive your text, images
,
00:19 links, and other content.
00:21 Email templates are available from email marketing providers.
00:26 Many providers include templates that are ready to use as is, as well as
00:30 templates that can be highly customized without any knowledge of HTML.
00:35 Content that draws the eye to a specific section of your email are calle
d visual
00:39 anchors, because the content acts like an anchor that causes the eyes to
stop on
00:44 that content while scanning through the email.
00:48 Visual anchors include the following types of content:
00:51 images, headlines, links, icons, divider lines, background colors, and b
orders.
01:02 When laying out your content, the most important content should reside i
n the
01:05 upper-left quadrant of your email, because most people start scanning an
01:09 email in the upper-left.
01:10 Also, most mobile devices display emails beginning with the upper-left,
if the
01:14 whole email doesn't fit on screen.
01:18 One word of caution.
01:19 It's important not to place too many visual anchors in all four quadrant
s.
01:23 Doing so makes your email difficult to scan, because the eyes can't deci
de what
01:27 is the most important section of the email.
01:30 Organizing your content into columns is another great way to make your
01:33 email easy to scan.
01:34 And columns make it easy to organize related groups of content so your a
udience
01:38 can scan each column as if it's a mini version of your email.
01:41 There are three basic choices for laying out columns effectively in your
email.
01:46 You can use columns of equal width to avoid emphasizing the content in o
ne
01:50 column over the other.
01:52 You can put a narrow column on the left side of your email to emphasize
the
01:55 content and a larger column to the right.
01:58 You can also put a narrow column on the right side of your email to emph
asize
02:01 the content in a larger column to the left.
02:05 If you feel like you have so much content in a single email that you nee
d to
02:07 organize your content into more than two columns, you may want to consid
er
02:11 breaking up your content into multiple shorter emails and sending with a
higher frequency.
02:17 That way your emails won't be so daunting when your subscribers receive
them.
02:21 Speaking of email content, the next few sections of the course show you
how to
02:24 make your content valuable and effective by including links, information
,
02:28 offers, and a call to action.
4. Making Your Email Content Valuable
Including links
00:00 A good test of an effective marketing email is whether or not the email
00:04 generates immediate sales or moves people closer to a purchase decision.
00:08 In short, your email should invite action and decision making.
00:12 Actions in emails usually involve clicking on links, which may include t
ext
00:16 links, images, buttons, and other graphics.
00:19 This section of the course explains how to get the most out of the links
in your emails.
00:23 Email links come in two varieties,
00:25 external web links and internal navigation links.
00:29 External links open up a browser window so the person who clicks on the
link is
00:33 directed to a webpage.
00:35 You can also create links to files stored on a server and links can open
up an
00:39 email program installed on your subscriber's computer.
00:43 Emails received on a mobile device could also interpret a phone number o
r
00:47 an address as a link.
00:48 Phone numbers in the text of your email dial the phone number when touch
ed and
00:52 addresses can automatically link to an online map or a map application.
00:56 There is no need to program these types of links.
00:59 Mobile devices can detect them automatically.
01:02 Internal links, also known as anchor links, point to content within the
email.
01:07 Use internal links to help the person reading your emails to skip to con
tent
01:11 below the screen from the top of the email and to skip back to the top o
f the
01:15 email from the bottom.
01:17 You can also use groups of internal links like a Table of Contents to li
st the
01:21 articles or sections of your email and allow someone to quickly jump to
that
01:24 section of your email without scrolling.
01:27 When creating text links, the best practice is to avoid using the phrase
Click
01:31 Here as the link. Instead use an action word or a phrase as the link.
01:36 For example, a link to add an item to an online shopping cart should say
Buy
01:40 this item, instead of To buy this item click here.
01:44 The more descriptive you can make your text links, the better chance you
have
01:47 of inviting a click.
01:48 For example, a link that reads More information isn't as descriptive as
a link
01:53 that reads Download the 50 page catalog.
01:56 When creating image links, the best practice is to include some text in
the
02:00 image inviting the click and explaining what the image link points to.
02:04 Some images are intuitive as links so text isn't necessary.
02:08 Examples include pictures of products that link to more information abou
t the
02:11 product, company logos pointing to the homepage of a website, audio icon
s such
02:17 as a Play button that looks like a speaker, or screenshots of videos poi
nting to
02:21 a streaming video file.
02:23 Speaking of videos in other files, use links to deliver files and videos
to
02:27 your email subscribers.
02:28 Never attach videos, pictures, documents, or other files to your emails,
because
02:34 email filters and blockers are notorious for stripping attachments, boun
cing
02:39 emails with attachments, and filtering emails with attachments to a junk
folder.
02:44 Creating links and including them in your email is an important step tow
ard
02:47 making your emails actionable, but links all by themselves won't be too
inviting
02:51 to your email subscribers.
02:53 That's why the next section of the course shows you how to include valua
ble and
02:56 relevant email content to go along with the links in your emails.
Creating valuable information
00:00 The information you send in an email has to be valuable on a consistent
basis or
00:05 your subscribers will quickly become un-subscribers.
00:09 While it's great to send offers and incentives to make your emails more
00:12 valuable, some of your email content needs to be inherently valuable as
well.
00:17 That's because typically only a small portion of your prospects and cust
omers
00:21 are ready to buy when they receive one of your emails.
00:23 If you limit your email content to promotions and offers, your emails wi
ll be
00:27 irrelevant to the majority of subscribers.
00:29 Now, here are some examples of content that can add to the inherent valu
e of your emails.
00:35 Information about products, services, or your company can be valuable,
00:39 especially for new prospects or people who are interested in learning ab
out new
00:42 products or the latest trends.
00:46 Tips and advice can be valuable if buying your products and services inv
olve
00:49 research, expertise, or sound reasoning.
00:53 Tips and advice can come from you or your employees or you can feature t
ips and
00:57 advice from your satisfied customers or product suppliers.
01:01 Instructions and directions can tell your customers how to get the most
out of
01:05 your products or services before a sale and after a sale.
01:09 Instructions and directions can also help your customers feel smarter ab
out the
01:13 purchases they make.
01:15 Entertaining content can include humor, engaging stories, and even
01:19 professional performances.
01:21 If you use entertaining content, make sure it has something to do with b
uying
01:25 your products and services; otherwise your email subscribers won't be as
likely
01:28 to recall your brand as the source of the content.
01:32 Facts and research are a good idea when your audience needs more than an
opinion
01:36 to make a purchase decision.
01:38 Coming up with valuable content can be handled in-house or through exter
nal
01:42 sources such as copywriters and agencies.
01:45 If you decide to use content from other sources in your emails, always a
sk for
01:49 written permission so you don't violate any copyright laws.
01:52 Assume all content is copyright protected and consult a licensed attorne
y if you
01:57 aren't sure if you have permission to use someone else's content.
02:01 Hopefully the information in this section has been valuable to you, beca
use now
02:04 it's time to explore all of the ways to include valuable offers in your
emails,
02:09 to help turn your readers into buyers.
Sending valuable offers
00:00 In this section of the course I explain which types of valuable offers t
o send
00:05 to your email subscribers.
00:07 Valuable offers are incentives that help to overcome purchase hesitation
00:11 and decision avoidance.
00:13 The first rule of valuable offers is to know your customers, because dif
ferent
00:18 groups of people may respond differently to the same offers.
00:21 For example, some people love to know about a discounted product because
00:25 they like to save money.
00:26 However, some people associate the word discount with words like discont
inued,
00:31 cheap, or out of style.
00:33 These two groups of people require very different offers.
00:36 The former may respond positively to an email announcing a sale, while t
he
00:40 latter is more likely to value an email announcing a sneak preview of th
e newest
00:44 and most expensive product line.
00:46 For the best results, conduct a survey or watch your email tracking repo
rts to
00:50 discover what your subscribers value. Then divide your email list into g
roups
00:55 based on the types of offers that motivate each group.
00:58 Here are some of the best forms of valuable offers for emails, along wit
h some
01:03 advice for matching the incentive to the type of buyer.
01:06 Coupons included in an email can be printed out or shown on a mobile dev
ice for
01:10 in-store redemption or linked to an item in an online store.
01:14 Use coupons when your prospects or customers want to be rewarded with pr
ices
01:18 that aren't available to the general public.
01:20 To add a personal touch to your email coupons use a Mail Merge to includ
e your
01:24 subscribers name on the coupon.
01:26 Giveaways are free products or services offered in exchange for informat
ion or a purchase.
01:32 Use giveaways in combination with another product purchase when you want
to
01:35 offer more value without discounting the value of the featured product.
01:39 For example, if a car dealer offered a car at 50% off, people might wond
er
01:44 what's wrong with the car.
01:46 If however the car was offered at full price with a giveaway worth 50% o
f the
01:50 value of the car, the same value is perceived without discounting the ca
r.
01:55 If you decide to offer giveaways, make sure to check your local laws to
make
01:59 sure your giveaway doesn't qualify as a sweepstakes, contest, or lottery
.
02:03 If it does, you'll need to comply with local laws for these types of pro
motions.
02:07 Loss leaders are another form of giveaway.
02:09 A loss leader is a promotional price that results in a loss to the busin
ess when
02:14 the product is purchased.
02:15 Why would you offer a product in an email at a price that loses money? B
ecause
02:19 you want to acquire a new customer with an extremely low price so you ca
n
02:23 realize profits through repeat sales generated by additional emails afte
r the
02:27 initial loss leader purchase.
02:30 Use loss leaders when you want to attract new customers to your business
and
02:33 away from the competition.
02:35 Once you have an offer that gets people to respond, it's time to help th
em take
02:39 the next step by suggesting one or more actions.
02:42 That's called a call to action and it's the subject of our next movie.
Writing an effective call to action
00:00 A call to action is a statement that prompts your audience to take one o
r more
00:04 specific actions in favor of your objectives.
00:07 Calling for action isn't as simple as including a phone number in your e
mails or
00:10 giving people lots of links to click on, you need to give people a few h
ints so
00:14 they know exactly what you want them to do.
00:17 Contrary to what you see in a lot of emails, "click here" is not the bes
t way to
00:21 call for action in an email.
00:23 Instead of click here, begin your call to action with a word that descri
bes the action.
00:28 Examples include visit, call, download, read, or print.
00:35 You can turn your call to action statements into links or combined them
00:38 with phone numbers or specific instructions to make the next steps as cl
ear as possible.
00:43 Sometimes the main reason to call for action is to ask for an immediate
00:46 purchase, but there are lots of other reasons to include a call to actio
n in your email.
00:50 For example, you can use a call to action to ask people to read your ema
il,
00:55 by beginning your email with a statement like "Read this email before yo
u buy online."
01:01 You can also use a call to action to highlight a specific portion of you
r email
01:05 as in the statement "scroll down for a valuable coupon."
01:09 Sometimes it's appropriate to ask people to save your email for later in
stead of
01:13 deleting it if they aren't ready to take advantage of an offer in your e
mail.
01:17 You can also ask people to show the email by printing it out or showing
the
01:20 email on a mobile device.
01:22 And don't forget to ask people to share your email with a friend or coll
eague
01:27 when they find the content to be of value to someone they care about.
01:31 You may decide to focus on one call to action in your email, but sometim
es
01:34 including multiple calls to action in one email can actually increase th
e number
01:38 of responses you get.
01:40 One of the best ways to increase responses using multiple calls to actio
n is to
01:44 ask for three different levels of commitment from your readers.
01:47 For example, a chocolate company might send an email promoting a new gif
t basket
01:52 with the following three calls to action:
01:55 order this gift basket today, download our gift basket catalogue, and li
ke this
02:00 gift basket on Facebook.
02:03 Each of these calls to action result in a positive action, but two of th
em are
02:07 still options even if the person reading the email isn't interested in m
aking a
02:10 purchase right away.
02:11 Of course, every email requires the act of opening the email in the firs
t place.
02:18 Next I'll show you how to get more emails opened by including a familiar
from line.
5. Creating Effective "From" Addresses and Subject Lines
Setting up the "From" address
00:02 Creating a familiar from line is critical to getting your emails opened
and
00:06 read, because people don't like to receive emails unless they know the s
ender,
00:10 especially when the email comes from a business.
00:13 Unfamiliar email from lines can also result in spam complaints, even whe
n people
00:17 have explicitly signed up for your email list, just because they don't k
now you.
00:22 To make your from lines familiar, ask your customers how they know you a
nd
00:26 include that information in your from lines.
00:28 If you or your employees have personal relationships with your customers
, use
00:33 your first and last names in your from lines.
00:37 If your business is a local branch of a larger organization, make sure y
our from
00:41 line includes your location to differentiate your emails from the other
branches
00:45 and the main corporate emails.
00:47 If your business uses an acronym, such as ABC Company, make sure your
00:51 customers also know you by your acronym. Otherwise it's best to use your
full business name.
00:56 It's also important to make your address familiar.
00:59 For example, the ABC Company could send their newsletters from the email
address
01:03 newsletter@abccompany.com.
01:06 Once you decide on a from line strategy, stay consistent. Then get to wo
rk on
01:10 your subject line strategy by watching the next section of the course.
Writing effective subject lines
00:00 Your subject line is the part of your email that prompts your recipients
to
00:04 hopefully open your email and start reading immediately.
00:08 Subject lines get cut off after about 40 or 50 characters, so the best w
ay to
00:12 utilize the subject line in an email is to describe the immediate benefi
t of
00:17 opening your email with the fewest words possible.
00:20 Subject lines such as July newsletter or News from ABC Company may be to
o
00:26 generic and they're not strong enough to prompt an immediate open.
00:29 Instead of generic words, choose value words for your subject lines.
00:34 Value words are words or phrases that describe the benefit your readers
will
00:38 receive by opening the email.
00:40 Here are a few examples.
00:44 If the benefit of your email is financial savings, you can use the word
savings
00:48 as the value word in your subject line, as in over $50 in savings in thi
s email.
00:53 If the benefit of your email is valuable information, you should use wor
ds
00:58 in your subject line that describe the immediate benefit of reading your
information.
01:01 For example, if your information helps someone to compare the competitio
n, your
01:06 subject line may read "compare the competition in under two minutes."
01:11 If the benefit of opening your emails is basically the same in a series
of
01:14 emails, you can work off of a theme by creating a brand for your emails
and
01:18 including that brand name as the subject line.
01:21 For example, instead of using the word newsletter in the subject line fo
r
01:25 every newsletter you send, you can create a name for your newsletter, su
ch as
01:30 Smart Shopper Weekly if you're a retail store or 5-Minute Sales Tips,if
you
01:34 offer sales consulting.
01:37 Coming up with good subject lines consistently isn't easy.
01:41 If you're unsure about whether a particular idea for a subject line will
work,
01:45 try testing one idea for a subject line against another idea using a sma
ll
01:49 sample of your email list.
01:51 Remember also to avoid subject lines that look like spam.
01:55 Using all capital letters, excessive punctuation, or extreme urgency can
be
02:01 off-putting and cause spam complaints.
02:04 Take a few minutes to periodically check your own junk or spam folder to
see
02:08 what the spammers are using in their subject lines and then avoid copyin
g their techniques.
02:13 I hope this section of the course helps you to create a lot of profitabl
e
02:16 subject lines for many emails to come.
02:19 And now it's time to move on to deepening your relationships with the pe
ople who
02:23 open your emails by adding social media features to your emails.
6. Combining Email with Social Media and Mobile Devices
Adding social features
00:01 In this section of the course I show you how to combine email and social
media
00:05 to increase the number of social interactions your emails receive.
00:08 Emails can be forwarded, shared, liked, tweeted, rated, and reviewed.
00:15 You can use basic social media features to promote your social media con
tent
00:18 to your email subscribers and you can use more advanced social media fea
tures
00:22 to allow your social media followers to view your emails without receivi
ng
00:26 them in an email inbox.
00:28 Here's how it works.
00:29 To promote your social media content to your email subscribers, simply i
nclude
00:34 links to your social media sites in the body of your emails.
00:37 For example, you may want to add a Facebook icon to your email linked to
your
00:41 business page on Facebook.
00:43 Posting your emails to social sites is easy with email marketing provide
rs,
00:47 because they can automatically send your emails to inboxes, Facebook wal
ls, and
00:51 Twitter pages when you schedule your email to go out.
00:54 That way you can create the email content once and publish it everywhere
as one campaign.
01:00 When it comes to publishing your emails to multiple places, don't forget
to
01:03 include mobile devices.
01:05 To learn how to optimize your emails for mobile devices, watch the next
movie,
01:09 "Creating a mobile friendly email."
Creating a mobile-friendly design
00:00 Lots of people check and read their emails on mobile devices such as
00:04 smartphones and tablet devices, so it's important to consider these devi
ces
00:08 when creating marketing emails.
00:10 Specifically, there are three things to consider when you send emails to
people
00:14 who are likely to read them on mobile devices.
00:17 First is the fact that most people access the same email inbox with smar
tphones,
00:22 tablets, and computers, so you shouldn't design emails for smartphones w
ithout
00:26 thinking about how the designs will work on computers and tablets.
00:31 Second is the usefulness of your email content to a person on a mobile d
evice.
00:36 When people are using mobile devices to read email, they are more likely
to be
00:39 sorting through emails and deciding what to open now, what to save for l
ater,
00:44 and what to delete immediately.
00:46 The more useful your email is in a mobile context, the more likely your
email
00:50 will be opened immediately or saved for later use.
00:53 For example, if your email contains a coupon that the recipient can show
in a
00:58 store to receive a discount, it's more useful in a mobile context than a
n email
01:02 that asks your recipient to go through an online order process that invo
lves a
01:06 lot of typing. That may be easier on a computer keyboard.
01:10 The third thing to consider is how the email will look and function on a
mobile device.
01:14 Smartphones have much smaller screens than computers and it's often frus
trating
01:18 for people to scroll around to find links, text, and images.
01:22 The most effective mobile email designs take advantage of the upper-left
01:26 portion of the email.
01:27 That's because most mobile devices either display emails beginning with
the
01:31 upper-left portion of the email, or they display the whole width of the
email
01:35 on the screen, requiring the recipient to zoom and scroll to specific se
ctions of the email.
01:40 When people zoom and scroll, they often start in the upper-left of the e
mail, at
01:44 least in countries where people read from left to right.
01:46 Here are some examples of the types of content that can be effective whe
n
01:50 positioned in the upper-left of your email.
01:54 You can place your logo or the name of your business in the upper-left.
01:57 You can begin your email message with the main headline at the top of yo
ur email.
02:02 Images in the upper-left can be effective too, but you might want to mak
e
02:05 sure it's small enough for some text to fit next to it or below it to
02:10 encourage people to scroll.
02:12 You can place navigation links in the upper-left so people can quickly s
croll
02:16 and click to the content in your email or onto a website.
02:21 Remember that navigation links are necessary only when your email has lo
ts of
02:25 content that your audience has to scroll to view.
02:28 If you decide you need a table of contents because the amount of content
in your
02:32 email is so large, then take a moment to think about whether you're send
ing too
02:36 much information in a single email in the first place.
02:39 Cutting down your content and increasing your frequency might be a bette
r
02:43 solution to making your emails easier to navigate on a mobile screen.
02:47 Hopefully your email content drives people to take action and when they
have a
02:51 mobile device in hand, those actions need to be as mobile friendly as po
ssible.
02:57 I hope you'd join me for the next section of the course where I show you
how to
03:00 create mobile friendly calls to action for your mobile friendly emails.
Including a mobile call to action
00:00 When people read your emails on mobile devices, they are more likely to
respond
00:05 if you include a call to action that makes it easier or more interesting
for
00:09 people to take action using the device.
00:11 Here are some of the capabilities that give mobile email so much potenti
al.
00:16 Smartphones allow people to touch or click on a phone number to immediat
ely dial the number.
00:21 So you may want to include your phone number in your emails to make it e
asy for
00:25 people to contact you.
00:27 Some smartphones and other mobile devices also allow an address to autom
atically
00:31 link to maps and directions.
00:33 So include your physical address in your emails if you have one or more
00:36 physical locations.
00:38 Before including links to your website in an email meant for mobile devi
ces, you
00:42 may want to optimize your website pages.
00:45 Mobile webpages have simplified navigation and content that's easier to
read
00:49 on smaller screens.
00:51 A good web designer can help you to detect mobile device visitors and se
rve up a
00:56 version of your website that's friendly to each type of device.
00:59 Links to videos also work well in smartphones and mobile devices.
01:03 For the best results, post your videos to a public site, such as YouTube
, to
01:07 make sure your videos will play on all types of devices.
01:11 In addition to links in your email content, you can also use your email
content
01:16 to suggest mobile friendly actions such as taking a picture and attachin
g it
01:21 when replying to your email,
01:23 visiting a social media site to follow your business or write a review,
01:27 checking into a location on a check- in site like Foursquare or Gowalla
or
01:31 Facebook, or showing the email to someone else.
01:35 Showing the email works great for coupons and other offers in your email
if you
01:39 have a retail store, because you can tell people to show the email to a
company
01:43 representative to receive the discount or the offer mentioned in the ema
il.
01:48 Mobile technology is rapidly advancing, so the future is sure to unveil
even
01:52 more exciting mobile email potential.
01:54 Until then, I hope this section of the course has helped you to develop
an email
01:58 strategy that really mobilizes your email subscribers.
7. Maximizing Your Email Campaign Results
Managing bounced and blocked email
00:01 Email isn't delivered a 100% of the time, but undelivered email isn't
00:05 necessarily void of opportunity.
00:07 This section of the course shows you how to deal with bounced and blocke
d email
00:11 so you can turn as many negative results into future positives.
00:14 Bounced and blocked emails are returned to the email sender's email addr
ess with
00:20 code that tells you why the email was blocked or bounced.
00:23 Of course, email servers don't exactly have a way with words, so I recom
mend
00:27 using an email service provider that can categorize your bounced and blo
cked
00:31 emails into reports that are easier for humans to interpret.
00:33 Bounced reports show you which emails bounced and why they bounced so th
at you
00:39 can take the appropriate action.
00:41 Emails that are permanently undeliverable are called hard bounces.
00:44 A hard bounce means that the email address does not exist, so it's eithe
r
00:49 misspelled, the email address has been changed, or it's been abandoned b
y the owner.
00:53 When you see a hard bounce on your bounce report, you should either cont
act your
00:58 subscribers via another method to obtain a new email address or simply d
elete
01:02 them from your database.
01:03 When your email bounce report shows an email return as mailbox full, tem
porarily
01:08 undeliverable, or blocked, these situations are known as soft bounces.
01:14 Soft bounces may be temporary or permanent, so check your bounce report
to see
01:18 how often a particular email is bouncing.
01:21 If you notice three or more consecutive soft bounces for an email addres
s, you
01:25 should treat it just like a hard bounce.
01:28 If you notice irregular soft bounces, you can try resending your email a
t a later date.
01:33 Remember, the best way to reduce blocked emails is to make sure your ema
il list
01:37 stays up-to-date in the first place.
01:39 Send an email once every three months or so, reminding your subscribers
to
01:43 notify you or update their subscription profile if they change email add
resses.
01:47 That way you have a better chance of catching some of the email address
changes
01:51 before they show up on a bounce report.
01:53 Another preventative measure is avoiding email filters that deliver your
email
01:58 to junk and spam folders instead of bouncing the emails back as undelive
rable.
02:02 In the next section of the course I show you how to reduce filtered emai
l and
02:06 get more email delivered to inboxes.
Avoiding getting caught by filters
00:00 In this section of the course I explain email filters and how to avoid t
hem
00:04 as often as possible.
00:06 Actually, email filters aren't always negative.
00:09 Some people set up filters to sort emails into different folders to keep
00:12 their emails organized.
00:14 The filters you want to avoid are the types that sort emails into a junk
or spam folder.
00:20 Some junk filters are set by users who want to block attachments, profan
ity,
00:24 or specific senders.
00:26 But most filters are set by email companies that want to protect their c
ustomers
00:30 from malicious content, spam, and other unwanted emails.
00:34 To steer clear of as many automatic spam filters as possible, you should
00:38 first check your email content for anything that shares the characterist
ics
00:42 of a typical spam email.
00:44 Examples include subject lines with all capital letters, attachments, an
d
00:50 profanity, or certain words that are common in spam emails.
00:54 Spam emails and legitimate emails often share similar characteristics, s
o I
00:59 recommend using an email service provider with a spam check feature that
scans
01:03 the content of your email for spam-like content.
01:05 If you don't use an email service provider with a spam check feature, ch
eck
01:10 your junk or spam folder once in a while to see what techniques the spam
mers
01:15 are using to get their emails delivered and then avoid copying those tac
tics in your own emails.
01:21 Avoiding spam like content is an important part of avoiding filters, but
it's
01:25 even more important to make sure you establish a good sender reputation
with
01:29 email companies like Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.
01:33 Your sender reputation is made up of three things:
01:36 the length of time you've been sending email from a particular server, t
he
01:41 number of emails you've sent from a particular server, and the number of
spam
01:46 complaints you've received from your subscribers.
01:49 One of the best ways to make sure your sender reputation is well-establi
shed
01:53 is to use a well-established email service provider to send your emails
on your behalf.
01:58 Email service providers with established reputations have earned their
02:02 reputations through close working relationships with the email companies
and by
02:07 sending high volumes of emails to permission-based lists.
02:11 When you sign-up for an email service, you also sign-up to adhere to the
ir best
02:15 practices and permission policies.
02:17 So make sure your email list is permission-based and compliant with all
of the
02:21 email service provider's policies before you sign up and pay for a subsc
ription
02:25 or a software package.
02:28 Now that you know a bit more about maximizing your email delivery, it's
time to
02:32 take a look at maximizing the responses you receive from your emails, na
mely
02:36 opens and click-through responses.
Evaluating click-through data
00:00 Email marketing doesn't end when your email gets delivered.
00:03 In fact, that's when things really start to get interesting.
00:06 In this section of the course I explain how to know who is opening and c
licking
00:10 on your emails and how to use the data to improve your email marketing r
esults.
00:16 Email tracking requires some serious HTML programming, or you can just u
se an
00:20 email marketing provider with built-in tracking and reporting to show yo
u who is
00:24 opening and clicking on your emails.
00:26 Once you have tracking capabilities in your emails, you need to understa
nd what
00:30 it means when your reports show opens and clicks.
00:33 An opened email, according to an email tracking report, means that the p
erson
00:38 who received the email enabled the images in the email to display or cli
cked
00:43 a link in the email.
00:44 No images? No open counted on the tracking report.
00:48 This is important to understand, because a lot of people read emails wit
hout
00:52 enabling the images or clicking on any links.
00:54 Use your open right as a guide to see how many people were interested en
ough in
00:59 a particular email to enable the images or click a link, and then assume
the
01:04 people who are not listed in your open report noticed your email and jus
t chose
01:08 to scan the email content without clicking or enabling any images.
01:13 When it comes to your click report, things are a lot more straightforwar
d.
01:18 Your click report shows who clicked on which links and how many people
01:22 clicked on each link.
01:24 Your click report gives you two great insights.
01:27 First, clicks are indications of interest on the part of your email subs
cribers.
01:31 For example, if 20 people click on a link to watch a video about dogs an
d 20
01:37 people click a link to watch a video about cats, you can determine which
people
01:41 are interested in dogs and which are interested in cats.
01:44 That way the next series of emails you send can be customized for either
the dog
01:48 people or the cat people.
01:50 Second, your click report also tells you whether your email content is v
aluable
01:54 and interesting to your readers.
01:56 When people click to view a web site, read an article, watch a video, or
download
02:01 a picture, they are engaging and that helps them to remember your busine
ss and
02:05 your message when they're ready to buy.
02:08 For this reason, it's a good idea to leave some of your email content ou
t of
02:13 your email and link it instead.
02:15 That way you can tell who is interested and who is not.
02:19 When analyzing your click reports, it's also a good idea to compare your
email
02:23 data with your website visitor data.
02:26 If your email drives a lot of traffic to your website but nobody takes a
ny
02:30 action from there, it's an indication that your website content or your
user
02:34 experience may be in need of attention.
02:36 Of course clicks and opens aren't the only email actions worth tracking.
02:41 It's also possible to track non- click responses, and I'll cover those i
n the next movie.
Tracking non-click responses
00:00 Email links that drive traffic to a website can be tracked electronicall
y,
00:04 but non-click responses have to be tracked with a little human interacti
on and creativity.
00:09 Here are some common non-click responses that are worth tracking.
00:12 First, it's a good idea to track in- store purchases resulting from your
emails
00:17 if you have a physical store.
00:18 To track in-store purchases, you can ask people to show your email eithe
r by
00:23 printing it out or showing it on a mobile device screen.
00:26 You can also track in-store purchases by including a special promotion t
hat
00:30 isn't advertised anywhere except your emails.
00:32 That way, when someone asks for the special promotion, you know the only
way
00:36 they found out about it was through one of your emails.
00:39 Including a special promotion also works well if you want to track phone
calls
00:43 generated from your emails, because you can attribute any callers who me
ntioned
00:46 a special offer to your emails.
00:49 You can take that concept one step further by including a unique phone n
umber
00:53 in your emails, so that anyone who calls the number is identified as som
eone
00:56 who received an email.
00:58 Another non-click response worth tracking is event attendance.
01:01 Of course you can track event registrations electronically, but sometime
s it's
01:06 good to know how many reminder and invitation emails contributed to incr
easing
01:11 actual physical attendance, especially if your events are free.
01:15 In the case of events, you can use your emails as tickets, and you can a
sk
01:19 people to show or print the emails for admission. Or you can include off
ers in
01:23 your reminder emails that people can show or mention at the door.
01:27 If the fact that tracking non-click responses require some manual interv
ention
01:31 has you worried about spending too much time, don't worry. The next sect
ion of
01:35 the course shows you how to automate the most mundane components of your
email
01:39 marketing program, so you have more time to keep track of all those happ
y
01:42 customer interactions.
Automating your email marketing
00:00 One of the best features of email marketing is the ability to automate y
our
00:04 marketing communications.
00:06 This section of the course shows you two ways to send automated emails t
o
00:09 prospects and customers.
00:12 You need an email marketing provider or a really good programmer to help
you
00:16 with email automation.
00:17 Some automation scenarios are simple and some are simple conceptually, b
ut
00:22 they're very sophisticated technically.
00:24 After viewing this section of the course, you'll know what type of autom
ation
00:28 features you need from a provider to run the automation programs most he
lpful to your business.
00:34 The first type of email automation is called an autoresponder.
00:38 An autoresponder is a single email sent automatically in response to a
00:42 specific event or action.
00:45 Examples include an email triggered by a specific date such as a birthda
y,
00:50 holiday, or calendar date, an email triggered by a specific time such as
00:54 lunchtime, or a few hours before an event, an email sent in response to
filling
00:59 out a form such as ordering something online, or joining an email list,
or an
01:04 email sent in response to a click such as a click on a link to a website
page or a video.
01:11 To set up an autoresponder, you need to create an email with content tha
t will
01:15 be the same for everyone who triggers the autoresponder email.
01:18 Once you've created the email, you can use your email marketing provider
to
01:22 assign it to one or more triggers or events.
01:25 Sometimes it's appropriate to send multiple emails automatically in resp
onse
01:29 to an action or event.
01:31 An automated series of multiple emails is called a sequence.
01:34 Sequence is perfect for targeting email content to individuals with diff
erent
01:39 behaviors, interests, or contexts.
01:41 For example, when a new prospect joins your email list, you may want to
set up a
01:46 sequence that automatically responds with the following four emails:
01:50 a welcome email thanking the person for joining the email list sent imme
diately
01:54 after joining; a follow up email with links to a product catalog, compan
y
02:00 information, or other helpful resources sent three days after the welcom
e email;
02:07 an email newsletter with the best articles and advice sent one week afte
r the
02:11 follow up email; and a promotional email offering a special discount as
a thank
02:17 you for joining the email list sent two weeks after the email newsletter
.
02:22 Sequences make your emails more relevant, because you can base them on a
variety
02:26 of relevant events and triggers such as clicks, dates, and periods of ti
me since
02:31 a prior action or event.
02:33 When it comes to planning more sophisticated email sequences, you'll nee
d an
02:37 email marketing provider that has the ability to automatically stop or c
hange a
02:41 sequence based on multiple triggers or events.
02:44 For example, you create a sequence for new prospects and one of those ne
w
02:48 prospects becomes a customer in the middle of your new prospect sequence
,
02:52 you may want to switch that person to a new customer sequence and stop t
he
02:56 new prospect sequence.
02:58 To automate sequence changes, your email marketing provider needs to int
egrate
03:02 with your database and link tracking to identify changes in a customer p
rofile.
03:08 So switching someone from one sequence to another may be as simple as
03:12 allowing the system to track someone's clicks or purchases and adjust ea
ch
03:16 sequence accordingly.
03:17 You can also manually add someone to a sequence or stop a sequence by ch
anging
03:22 the data in someone's database record.
03:25 Email automation takes a little extra time to set up, but I hope you see
the
03:29 potential for making things more productive in the long run and I hope t
his
03:33 email marketing course has helped to make your email marketing strategy
more
03:37 productive than ever.
Conclusion
Goodbye