Do businesses email their customers too often? According to a recent article on Business Insider, the answer is yes. But not for the reason you may think.

It’s not because customers loathe getting emails from companies. Or because frequent emails are considered spam. It’s actually because most brands nowadays email like this:

They use discounts as their main strategy to persuade customers to buy. But what happens when your customer’s whole inbox looks like the picture above? The inevitable: they stop paying attention to your emails.

Because here’s the thing.

Why would they open your emails if they can already predict the content inside? Why would they buy now when they can clearly see you’ve got discounts all the time? And, most importantly, why would they pick your brand over your competitors?

If you want to stand out in someone’s crowded inbox, you need to do the one thing that everybody else avoids doing: building strong relationships with your email subscribers. Here’s how:

How Storytelling Helps Your Brand Shine Bright in a Crowded Inbox

Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate. That’s not me saying it. It’s the countless studies (such as this one, this one, and this one) that prove it, time and time again. Why?

Because storytelling helps you form positive emotional associations with you and your brand. The emotions you evoke with your stories go a long way in defining how people perceive you, creating a stronger connection in your audience’s mind between you and the problem you solve for them. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. 

The truth is, writing story-based emails makes you more than just a brand that sells a solution to their pain: it makes you an entertainer, too. And as a marketer, being able to entertain while selling is like having a superpower. People hate being sold to. But they love being entertained (ever binge-watched a Netflix show? I know I have). 

Plus, with story-based emails, you can easily add more variability to your email calendar. As a result, customers will no longer be able to predict what your next email will be about: a fun story? A new product? Maybe even a discount? Curiosity translates to increased engagement. And increased engagement translates to stronger relationships with your customers. 

So by choosing the right stories to tell in your emails (which we’ll discuss in a bit) and by writing them in an engaging way, you’re guaranteed to keep your audience hooked and excited to read your next email. As opposed to adding yet another sales email to their already crowded inbox.

Here’s How to Supercharge Your Email Strategy with Stories That Sell:

1. Pick the Right Story 

The storytelling approach will give you little to no results if the stories you’re telling are flat to begin with. No matter how engaging your writing is. 

So the first thing you need to do is to make sure you select story ideas with potential. Okay, but where do you find these ideas? And what does a good story idea look like?

If you’re anything like me, your life isn’t that exciting or eventful. And yet, you may still have a funny conversation with your next-door neighbor. Or your team may geek out about wild adaptogen mushrooms at a team-building event. Or your spouse may accidentally spill coffee on your laptop (true story!). 

Any of these can be turned into fun story-based emails that tell your audience a little bit more about who you (or your team) are as a person. Most business owners assume their customers don’t want to know what goes on in their personal and business life. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

In fact, customers want to know there are real people behind brand names. According to this report from Sprout Social, 70% of consumers report feeling more connected to a brand when its CEO is active on social media. 

And depending on how much you’re willing to share about your life, you can then select the types of personal stories to write about. When in doubt, think about what you’d want to tell your friends/family at the dinner table. More often than not, that’d make a great story for your email list too.

Related Articles

• How Standardizing Your Sales Process Boosts Overall Conversion

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

2. Write a Strong Hook

Let’s face it. 

Nowadays, attention spans are short. And no matter how good your story is, if how you write it isn’t engaging enough, your email subscribers aren’t going to read it. 

So the very first thing you want to do is to make sure the first three sentences of your story hook the reader into the action. Once someone reads that much into a story, it’s incredibly difficult for them to stop. 

So how do you do it? Any of these hooks have proven to work again and again whenever I write stories for myself or my clients:

• Start in the middle of the action (and explain the context later). For example:

“RUN!”, the police officer yelled at me.

“Okay, thank you!”, I yelled back, running out of Paddington Station and trying to find a cab.

Except, it was 4 in the morning. And I had no idea where to look for one.”

• Start with ‘x time ago’. Recalling a past event hooks people instantly into your story. For example:

“A few months ago, Joanna Wiebe (the original conversion copywriter) slid into my DMs on Slack completely out of nowhere…”

3. Segue to Your Sales Pitch Seamlessly

By the time you get to this part, your readers are entertained and primed to purchase your solution to their problems. Your brand is no longer just another brand in their busy inbox. It’s someone they now know, trust, and like. And so, buying from you feels just right.

But you can’t just end your story abruptly so you can sell your products/services. That’d feel intrusive. In the same way that, when you’re engaged in a YouTube video, an annoying ad interrupts your stream.

So you must find a way to tie your story to your product or service so seamlessly that your readers won’t even notice they’re now reading a sales pitch. Sounds difficult. But you’ll see how easy it actually is. In fact, what most people get wrong about this part is that they try to find the moral of the story and tie that to their sales pitch. 

For example, let’s say your story is about how your team went to a team-building event and someone accidentally broke a bunch of glasses. And if you’re selling a service, you might be able to spin that incident into saying something like: when you hire our software developers, your app stops breaking.

But that’s a predictable way to transition from your story to your sales pitch. Plus, not all stories will end with a moral. Most stories will be fragments of conversations you have with someone or something ridiculous that happened throughout the day (like forgetting your keys at the office). There’s no moral in that and there’s no need for one.

What you can do instead is to look back at your entire story and find one or a few phrases/words that could help you build that segway. Here’s an example of a full story-based email. Pay special attention to the part where the story ends and the sale begins.

Example of a Full Story-Based Email

“SUBJ: Hacker threatens to destroy my reputation in 72 hours straight

This morning, I was at my laptop reading my emails when suddenly, I came across an unread email from… 

Me.

What in the world…?

Out of confusion, I open it without reading the subject line. 

And once I go past the first sentence, it becomes pretty clear:

I’m being hacked.

“You may have noticed we are using your company’s servers to send you this email: we have hacked into your website, kaleidocopy[dot]com.”

Oh.

Okay… They did send this email from my email address. 

Still, I can’t help but wonder… could this be a hoax?

“This is not a hoax.”

Ah! Well, that settles it then.

“We are willing to forget about destroying the reputation of your site and company for a small fee. The current fee is at $2500 in bitcoin.”

I mean… at least they are nice about it, you know? Their willingness to forgive and forget says a lot about a person’s character.

In the following lines, they take me through exactly what they’re going to do to ruin my company and reputation, step by step.

Then they teach me how to buy Bitcoin (I already know how, but I appreciate their thoughtfulness!).

And finally, they assure me that my Bitcoin payment will be anonymous and that no one will know that I complied with their master plan.

Mmmmkay. 

GET CERTIFIED. Discover the proven plan for effortless, automated email marketing. Click Here

Now that is a bit suspicious, Mr. Hackerman (or Ms. Hackerwoman — it’s 2022, what the heck.)

I’m willing to bet the $2500 on the fact that I’m not the only person they sent this to.

So if the payment is anonymous, how will they know it was ME who sent it? It just doesn’t make sense, y’know? 

Jokes aside, I’ve got to admit: seeing that the email came from my address made me panic a bit. 

But then I checked my Sent folder and the email wasn’t there.

I also checked to see if there were any alerts or logins from different devices on my Google account. There were none.

I also checked with my hosting provider, who reassured me no one has broken into anything. 

Soooo… hoax? Hopefully, lol. 

But if it isn’t, it means you’ve got 72 hours left to get Email Story Alchemy, my mini-course on turning boring day-to-day events from your life into story-based emails that build your fandom and help you stand out. 

After that, my business will supposedly disappear from the face of the Earth. And you’ll no longer be able to buy it. Everrr.”

Conclusion

Story is a structure, not a tale. Which means that you can apply it to anything, including email. And when you do it right, amazing things happen. 

Like building strong relationships with your customers. And turning a casual customer into a die-hard fan who wants to buy from you because they just can’t get enough of your brand.

Sure, discounts work too. But they work when used strategically and in moderation. So if you’re ever unsure about what to email your customers next, consider story-based emails. They’ll make your brand shine bright in anyone’s crowded inbox.

The post Storytelling: The Secret Sauce to Making More Sales With Email Marketing appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

“Email marketing is DEAD!”
“AI is taking over the inbox!”
“Why hire a copywriter when I can just use email templates?!”
“Who needs an email list when I have a large social following?”

Um….. stop right there and listen up, because I’m going to let you in on a little secret…

THREE little secrets to be exact. 

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of misconceptions floating around the cyberspace when it comes to email marketing. So in this blog, we’re going to talk about the three biggest Email Marketing Myths & Misconceptions… 

AND I’m going to fill you in on the SECRET WEAPON that’ll give you a massive advantage and leg-up over any competition. 

Alright, now let’s get started with myth-busting. 

Myth #1 – Email Marketing Is DEAD

This is a myth that I’ve been hearing ever since I got my start in the online marketing industry… over a decade ago! And guess what?

The rumours were wrong back then and they’re STILL wrong today. 

No matter what you heard at the latest online summit you attended… Email Marketing is STILL alive and well—and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon!

In fact, Email Marketing is the single best way to market your brand or business, increase your revenue, and cash in on more conversions.

That’s right. It’s better than ads, better than social media, and better than organic traffic…

I said it.

In fact, I did my FIRST launch back in 2020 and made almost 6-figures by sending just 8 emails to my list of 2300 subscribers. Yup.

But don’t just take my word for it, here are some stats to prove it. It is estimated that there are 4 BILLION active email users right now (and that number is projected to go up, btw).

Email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI of all marketing channels – earning on average $42 for every dollar spent… and in case you don’t want to do the math on that…

That’s an ROI of 4200%!! I don’t know of a single brand or business that wouldn’t love to see numbers like that. 

And just in case gaining a massive ROI isn’t enough to convince you… this probably will:

According to MarketingSherpa, email is STILL the most preferred marketing channel that most consumers want businesses to communicate with them through. YES, even Millennials and gen-Z-ers prefer email to social media.

And not only is email your consumer’s favorite way of communicating… it should be your favourite too! And that’s because your list is YOURS. It belongs to YOU. Not Facebook, not Instagram. YOU. 

And when you use Email as your preferred method of communication, ALL you have to do to get your message heard is make sure your emails aren’t landing in the spam folder. You’re not held captive by the algorithm Gods, “platform rules,” or having to keep up with the latest trends to get your content seen.  

When you take just a moment to step back and look at the facts, it’s crystal clear.

While I still love and use other marketing channels…

My girl Email Marketing reigns supreme.

Myth #2 – Templates Work Better

This is another myth I’ve been hearing over and over again lately.

Why hire a copywriter when I can just use email templates?! 

Now for the sake of clarity, in this context, I’m referring to fancy and impersonal emails that are all show and no substance. You know those fancy-looking HTML emails you commonly see from e-commerce sites or big corporate businesses…

Listen – they work for brands like Sephora or Apple, well, because they are Seophora and Apple…

But as a personality-based brand (or as the real PERSON behind the brand), you don’t want to get too fancy in your emails. 

Why? Well, because facts: Extensive A/B testing has shown that the overwhelming majority of consumers prefer simple, text-based emails (you know, just like those emails you send to your friends and family).

Not only do consumers prefer plain jane text-only emails, but templates come with a whole list of other cons to consider.

Downsides of Email Templates

• They take a long time to load, depending on your consumer’s internet connection.
• Customization can be difficult and unreliable. You can spend hours finicking with a template, where your time would be better spent just writing and personal, empathetic email.
• HTML templates often get all funky on mobile if not coded correctly.
• They are WAY more likely to end up in the Spam or Promotions folder because of heavy images and design features
• These kinds of emails focus on imagery, not on brand voice or actually connecting with the audience.

On the other hand…. While copywriters might not be able to design a “pretty-looking email”…

They are specially trained to WRITE WORDS THAT WORK. They understand how to craft powerful subject lines that hook your reader and get them to open your email. They know how to open a loop with engaging content to get your consumers to keep reading…

And they know the psychological triggers that get people to CLICK and BUY your offer…

And when you’re a business that RELIES on having a strong, powerful, and intimate relationship with your consumers… 

These factors are absolutely essential to your Email Marketing success. 

Alright, now onto the last—and most controversial—myth on this list… 

Myth #3 – AI Is Taking Over

Look, we’ve all heard it… AI is replacing copywriters at the speed of light—and especially in the Email Marketing world. 

Because I mean, who needs to shell out a bunch of money for an experienced copywriter when they could just spend a quarter of the money on some fancy automation software that “does just as good”?

Right? NO!!! 

Listen, I know AI software and done-for-you templates are becoming more and more prevalent in the email marketing space – there’s no doubt about that. 

But with that said, there’s a whole lot more to the story than what the internet would have you believe…

I’ve said it before, and I say it again and again until the day I die…

A.I. is a tool, not a takeover. 

And as a TOOL—there are certain things A.I. CAN help us to optimize, streamline and improve…

Things like: research, ideation, email automation, personalization, and segmentation. You know, the left-brain, back-end, logistical stuff. The truth is that A.I. can actually make an Email Marketers job A LOT easier. 

But when it comes to replacing the CREATIVITY & EMPATHY that a human copywriter brings to the table…?

It’s just not going to happen anytime soon.

And while it’s true that there ARE going to be some brands and businesses that will choose to get by with A.I… Their emails will be mediocre, at best.

I mean it’s just like anything else that’s being “replaced” by technology…

If you want mediocre results, then sure – go with a plug-and-play tool. If you want exceptional results, hire an expert. 

Mediocre accountants are being replaced by do-it-yourself software like Freshbooks, Honeybook & Quickbooks… but that doesn’t mean we don’t pay a LEGIT PROFESSIONAL when it comes time to file taxes. 

Mediocre graphic designers are being replaced by tools like Canva… but that doesn’t mean we don’t pay a GREAT DESIGNER to design our websites.

And if you want to optimize your email list, increase your revenue, and cash in on more conversions… then you HIRE A COPYWRITER. 

It’s as simple as that. And it’s never going to change. 

So here’s my advice to the copywriters who are worried about A.I. takeover and the other Myths on this list… 

Don’t be mediocre. Position yourself as an expert. 

Do that, and you’ll be INVALUABLE to any brand or business that wants to optimize their Email Marketing strategies. 

THAT’S your secret weapon. 

THAT’S how you make yourself A.I. proof. 

THAT’S how you position yourself as an expert in the industry and get clients banging down the door for your talents and services. 

But now the question is… HOW?! HOW do you become a damned good copywriter and email marketer? One who understands the audience, knows the power of connection, and has mastered the art of conversion?

Well… you develop the skills, techniques, practical EXPERIENCE, and knowledge needed to make yourself an expert! 

And after months and months of listening to this community ask me question after question about email marketing… I decided it was time to do something about it. 

Now up until recently, I never really thought this was needed. Mostly because I already teach an entire module all about Email Marketing inside my 8-week Copywriting Coaching Program.

But the truth is, not everyone has the time, money, energy, or desire to invest in a two-month coaching course…

And that’s why I created a FREE email guide—to help you cut through the B.S. 

My Ultimate Email Marketing Cheatsheet will help you future-proof your biz from the throes of unpredictable algorithms and the never-ending threat of A.I. takeover by teaching how to master the art of impactful inbox messaging. 

• You’ll discover the 7 must-have emails to build and monetize your list (with real-life examples straight from the Posse’s private vault)…
• Discover the right way to build and monetize your email list, without relying on templates or standardized messaging. 
• Get the secret to sending engaging emails that won’t drive away subscribers or lose you any brand loyalty.

Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!

The post Is Email Marketing Dead? appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Here are five examples of graphics that you SHOULD NOT include in any of your email marketing campaigns. Trust us, we’ve made plenty of email marketing mistakes. We found this out the hard way so that you don’t have to.

Avoid Using Graphics That Don’t Fit Your Brand Colors

It may sometimes be a little tempting to use just any eye-catching image. While it may catch an eye (or two), it won’t keep the subscriber engaged long-term. It won’t catch an eye for your brand. Graphics are a GREAT way to portray your brand and message. This is definitely something you don’t want to miss out on when sending emails!

Using your brand’s color scheme within a graphic is a great way to spark brand recognition, which is very important in this day and age. Doing this (in every campaign) keeps an ongoing connection between your emails and the minds of your viewers. Using any old run of the mill stock image/graphic may catch an eye for a second. But if you don’t jazz up your email template with branded, professionally executed images, viewers may lose interest and you may lose that ongoing connection with them.

Customers Can Spot Boring Stock Photos a Mile Away

In the world of digital marketing, you need to avoid being or becoming boring. And that means that using boring stock photos is a no-no. Using low quality images is not the best look either. There are two main ways to avoid this.

1. Take your own original images.
2. Invest in purchasing higher quality images.

At the end of the day, both of these options will end up being an investment in the overall quality of your email newsletter. And like most investments, this one will definitely pay off. Whatever you may choose, just remember that high quality images are crucial to email marketing graphics.

If you don’t have the capacity to take your own images quite yet, here’s a short list of high quality image sites we recommend checking out.

• Unsplash
• Deposit Photos
• Pixabay

Graphics That Never Feature Animations Don’t Stop the Scroll

While there’s not much wrong with standard email graphics (besides these five points to avoid), there can be faults in lack of variety. One way to add variety to your email content is to add animation every once in a while. Animation can be used to catch the viewer’s attention. And on top of that, they can be used to direct viewers to email elements such as a CTA button.

Graphics That Never Feature a CTA Don’t Earn Clicks

As your overall/main goal should always be at the forefront of your mind, it should also be at the forefront of your email design. If you want to include a call to action in your email, don’t just add it in the footer. Create a CTA button (whether that be a link to your shop or course, etc.), and add it into the graphic in some shape or form.

If you don’t have a call to action, how will your subscriber know what action to take? By not using a CTA, you are missing out on the chance to direct your viewers to viewing more of your content as a brand.

Graphics That Don’t Convert to Mobile Platforms Well Make Your Newsletter Look Amateur

Creating marketing email graphics that convert to mobile platforms well is important. Avoid sending emails with graphics that don’t convert. Half of all email opens come from mobile devices. Make sure your graphics convert well. Otherwise, half of your viewers could potentially lose interest or be unable to view your graphic at all.

It is essential to always preview your email marketing campaign on a mobile device before clicking that send button. Your subscribers will view your email newsletters from a variety of devices. Make sure your graphics are adaptable to all devices equally.

Avoiding these five email design mistakes will ensure that your road to success in email marketing is a smoother one. It will save you a heck of a lot of time and money down the road.

The post The Worst Types of Graphics to Use in Email Campaigns appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

We’ve created these 8 fundamental points to make writing effective email marketing subject lines quick and easy.

The Self-Interest Email Subject Line

These are your bread and butter subject lines—you should be using them most frequently.

They are usually direct and speak to a specific benefit your audience will gain by opening the email.

Self-interest subject lines also help pre-qualify openers by giving them a clue about your email’s body content.

Pique Curiosity

If self-interest subject lines work because they communicate a direct benefit, curiosity-based ones succeed for the exact opposite reason.

They pique the interest of subscribers without giving away too much information, leading to higher opens.

Be careful though, because curiosity-based subject lines can get old fast and are the most likely to miss their mark.

The Offer

Do you like free stuff? Do you like to buy things when they’re on sale?

So does your email list.

When you are giving something away or selling something your subscribers would be interested in, directly stating that in your subject line is a great way to convince them to open the email and learn more.

GET CERTIFIED. Discover the proven plan for effortless, automated email marketing. Click Here

Urgency/Scarcity Subject Line

This is the most powerful type of subject line you have at your disposal.

Subject lines that communicate urgency and scarcity tell readers they must act now.

But too many of these can lead to list exhaustion, so use sparingly and, of course, only when there is truly a deadline, limited quantity, or limited availability.

Humanity Email Subject Line

Don’t forget to remind your list about the person or people behind your products.

Sometimes you need to thank your subscribers, tell them a story about yourself, or make a human appeal for their attention.

Breaking News

Keeping your audience informed about new developments in your field builds authority and keeps your open rates high.

These subject lines often work well when combined with a curiosity element.

Social Proof Email Subject Line

A fundamental characteristic of humans is that we look to the behavior of others when making decisions.

You can leverage this in your email subject lines by mentioning individual’s success stories, familiar names, or highlighting how many people are already using a product or service.

The Story Time Subject Line

Telling a story, or at least teasing the beginning of one in your subject line is a unique way to highlight benefit and get the open rate you’re looking for.

The post 8 Tips For Writing Effective Email Subject Lines [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

With the rise of social media and digital technologies, marketers and businesses were expected to evolve from email marketing. 

However, email marketing is still a reliable tool. Various researches show that email will become some of the most widely used and popular communication platforms in the future.

But before you utilize these free email marketing tools, find out how email marketing is used to interact with users and if it will remain a viable strategy in 2022.

The Data Behind Email Marketing

Here are a few stats to prove email marketing’s dominance in marketing strategies globally:

• In 2021 alone, the number of worldwide email users was about 4 billion, which is expected to increase to 4.6B users worldwide in 2025
• More than 300B emails are forecasted to be received and sent every day in 2022

But if you want to derive maximum benefits from email marketing campaigns, you have to take an all-inclusive approach towards making the right and fitting email marketing strategies. 

Luckily, there is a range of credible, effective, and free email marketing tools you can use to organize and schedule various email campaigns. 

What’s more, they even provide analytics to ensure success. 

GET CERTIFIED. Discover the proven plan for effortless, automated email marketing. Click Here

5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Still Vital In 2022 

And if you needed more convincing, here is why you should stick with email marketing:

1. Email Marketing Allows for Personalization

Email marketing enables marketers to create customized content for customers according to their buying patterns, journeys, behaviors, and other factors. 

Utilize data trackers and analytics to know what interests consumers have. Plus, what sort of products or content do they like most. 

For instance, if your consumers like a particular clothing design from your catalog, you can personalize emails by including related products. 

Essentially, you can use email automation software tools to view where your consumers lie in a sales funnel stage and create content accordingly. 

2. It Produces Better Outcomes Than Most Other Marketing Channels

Believe it or not, email marketing gives the highest ROI (return-on-investment) than several other marketing means. 

So for every one dollar spent, email marketing produces more than $40 in ROI. 

In addition to that, it provides improved conversion rates. Various studies show email generates 66% of conversions. It’s 40-times more efficient and successful than other social media channels.  

To get the best results, regularly monitor the metrics of your email marketing campaign, such as click-through rates, engagements, bounce rates, etc. 

3. Email Marketing Cuts Costs

Compared to conventional marketing approaches, email is both cost-effective and straightforward. 

To begin with, you don’t require a huge budget to advertise, produce, or print the ad. Therefore, it avoids the associated expense of hiring a digital and video production crew. 

In email marketing, all you’ve got to do is hire a professional graphic designer to create appealing visuals along with excellent content, and you’re all set. 

Additionally, as people increasingly rely on mobile phones now, email is an effective way to connect with potential customers. 

4. It Creates Brand Loyalty & Connection

Email marketing campaigns are among the most effective ways to boost brand awareness among customers. 

For example, you could send informational content regarding brands’ mission, products, values and interact in a much healthy debate with your targeted groups. 

When your potential customers better understand what your business stands for, chances are, they can engage and connect with it much better. 

So to form a steady connection with users, create consistent, long-term email marketing strategies to keep consumers anxious for your next email. 

5. Email Marketing Amalgamates with Other Marketing Means Seamlessly

One of the best things about email is that you can integrate it seamlessly with various other social channels such as:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn 

For instance, businesses can put social platform icons in emails and request readers to follow. 

In addition to that, you could display a collage of Instagram posts in your emails to show consumers a sneak peek of your business’s Instagram profile. 

Many marketers place “Pin it” options in emails to enable consumers to directly save images to their accounts. 

Related Articles

• How Standardizing Your Sales Process Boosts Overall Conversion

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2

• 2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

Takeaway

Email marketing strategies are a winning way to communicate with potential customers and collect valuable insights.

And these resources will help you create a cohesive buyer journey and build brand awareness among the audience. 

The techniques mentioned above will help you create robust email marketing strategies that compel new customers to engage with the brand.

The post Why Email Marketing Is Still Crucial In 2022 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Creating an email strategy feels like you’ll need a whiteboard, 5 different colored pens, your entire team, and 4 cups of coffee each.

It feels like a *big* task—something that your team needs to work on at *just* the right moment. 

We have some news for you…it’s actually the opposite. An email marketing strategy is less about an over-the-top, “started from the bottom now we’re here,” type of strategy and more about taking one step forward. Then, another. And, another.

There are 5 steps to creating an email strategy that encompasses your organic, newsletter content (that isn’t overly promotional), and your promotional content (that sells products).

And each one can be situated within a week (maximum!).

Your email marketing strategy doesn’t have to wait until things slow down, you “know more,” or you’re finally ready. It just requires taking the first step…choosing your type of newsletter.

Step 1: Choose Your Type of Newsletter

Our favorite part of email marketing is the relationship we can build with our audience without selling them anything. Using a weekly newsletter, we can create 52 touchpoints a year with our subscribers with the goal of giving them useful marketing information that helps their launches, campaigns, and business endeavors.

There are 4 types of newsletters to choose from:

#1: “Letter-from-the-editor” or “Featured Article” Style

This type of newsletter is best suited for: 

• Brands with something to say and/or points to make
• Companies wanting to take a stance on something happening in their industry (have an opinion, provide tactical advice, etc.)
• Businesses willing to dedicate more resources and time to create a valuable newsletter

#2: “Link” or “Curated Content” Style

This type of newsletter is best suited for: 

• Brands and businesses who want to provide quick value to their customers
• Companies strapped for time and people power

#3: “Blog” Style

This type of newsletter is best suited for: 

• Brands with a dedicated blog and/or content repository
• Companies that want to drive A LOT of traffic to their content

#4: “Hustle” Style

This type of newsletter is best suited for: 

• Brands with a dedicated content team that can really put pen to paper
• Companies that are big on the affiliate side of marketing
• Businesses that want to establish themselves as THE AUTHORITY in their industry

Action: Choose the type of newsletter you’ll send out on a regular basis (1-3x per week). If you’re having trouble deciding what your audience would like most, ask them!

Step 2: Create an Editorial Calendar for Promotional Content

Your promotional calendar is a big part of your email marketing strategy. We’re not saying you need to have your entire year planned out without any room for flexibility. You just need at least 3 months of a *decently* solid idea of what you’ll be promoting. Of course, as those weeks play out and if anything needs to shift, you can. But, your promotional calendar shows you what you have coming up and where your organic content can help you with campaigns.

Not only will our promotional content (email campaigns with copy specific to purchasing the Digital Mastery Certification) cover the offer, but we can also add it into our organic content.

The DigitalMarketer Insider newsletter can support this promotion by talking about the importance of being a T-Shaped marketer and linking out to our article explaining what it is and why marketers should care.

Action: Create a promotional calendar, so you know when offers and products are launching. Then, use that calendar to correlate your organic content with those offers and products to help support your campaigns.

Step 3: Schedule When Your Emails Will Go Live

Remember, your email marketing strategy is just as much about nurturing your audience as it is about selling your products. Here’s the rule of thumb we like to follow: publish a newsletter consistently (1-3x/week) and only run 3x promotional offers per month. If you run more than that, you’ll “fatigue” your email audience. This means they’re so bombarded with promotions and offers that they start to delete your emails the second they show up in their inbox.

Your open rates decrease, your click-through rates are minuscule, and your profits suffer. 

Since this is the worst-case scenario in email marketing, you need a plan to avoid it. That’s why you’ll schedule when your emails go live for your newsletter and promotional content.

For example, let’s say you have a weekly newsletter that goes out every Monday. You have 3 offers you’ll promote between November 29th-December 31st, and you have 3 emails per offer for a total of 9 promotion emails. 

These are general numbers, though. You can send more (or less) promotional emails depending on how many promotions you’re selling, when the final purchase date is, and how your campaign is doing (poorly = send more emails).

Action: Create an email calendar that shows when each email you plan to send each month will go live. You can also use this calendar to figure out when to have newsletter content, and promotional copy written, edited, and uploaded to your email platform.

Bonus Tip: Make sure you have someone on your team dedicated to email. It’ll be their job to make sure newsletters go out on time and promotional copy is written and scheduled for campaigns. This is the *only* way to avoid email falling through the cracks and reaching Q3 of 2022 and wondering what happened.

Step 4: Use Email for Market Research

In 2021, we lost a lot of data thanks to Apple’s iOS 14 privacy changes. This isn’t a bad thing (people should be aware and able to choose where their data is shared), but it did require a pivot in marketing. Instead of relying on third-parties to capture and use data in our campaigns for us—we need to start doing it ourselves.

And email marketing is the perfect place to start. Your email audience is more than hot leads. They’re a direct connection to your customer avatar and what they’re thinking, feeling, and looking for when it comes to your brand and products. They can tell you what type of newsletter they’re looking for, the products they want you to create, and how they feel about your current email strategy.

But, you have to ask them first.

Use your email platform to ask your subscribers market research questions. Now, here’s where we create an email marketing strategy out of this. Tag the subscribers based on their answers, build funnels for your specific products related to their interests, and send subscribers down funnels for products they actually care about. 

Or, as your promotional calendar starts rolling out, you now have lists of subscribers interested in those products or topics. Let’s say we surveyed our email subscribers and asked what they were struggling with the most and one of the answers was SEO. Every subscriber who answered SEO could be sent a DigitalMarketer Insider personalized to help them learn more about SEO, with content like this:

Action: Personalize your email strategy by surveying your audience to see what they’re most interested in and sending topic/product-specific content and funnels based on their answers.

Step 5: Test, Optimize, and Stay Flexible

If there’s one piece of overarching marketing advice that any business could take and apply, this is it. Marketing is all about testing, optimizing, and staying flexible. Great marketing plans aren’t written in stone. They’re adapted as needed based on the story the metrics tell them.

For example, if you start sending out an email newsletter with 4 curated links every week and your open rate goes from 30% to 10%—there’s a problem. Your audience doesn’t want curated links…they’re looking for something else. This is your sign to ask them what they’d like to see more of and integrate that into your upcoming emails.

Every year we take a look at our best performing email subject lines to figure out where we could do better and which subject lines to leave behind in the new year.

Action (Test): Try out different sections in your newsletter to see what your audience loves the most (keep tabs by looking at open rates and click-through rates on links in that specific section).

Action (Optimize): Ask your subscribers what they’d like to see more of through market research and tags, and pay attention to what topics get the most opens and clicks.

Action (Stay Flexible): Don’t take it personally if the marketing strategy you created doesn’t work out the way you’d hoped. Stay flexible and change it based on the new data you have. 

Email Strategy is a ‘One Step at a Time’ Game

Each step of creating your email strategy takes a week—maximum. That assumes your team is completely bogged down with other work and only has a minimum amount of time to put towards it. 

If your team has remotely a decent amount of time to allocate to your email marketing strategy, you’ll have it live in less than a month. And you don’t even have to feel overwhelmed by the process, because email strategy is a ‘one step at a time’ game. 

Step 1: Choose Your Type of Newsletter

Step 2: Create an Editorial Calendar for Promotional Content

Step 3: Schedule When Your Emails Will Go Live

Step 4: Use Email for Market Research

Step 5: Test, Optimize, and Stay Flexible

Once you’ve gone through these 5 steps, the next step is creating an Email Indoctrination Series that introduces your brand to your subscribers, tells them what to expect from your emails, and gives them a free gift. 

Ryan Deiss, CEO of DigitalMarketer, teaches the 10-Point Indoctrination Email Playbook: How to Welcome New Email Subscribers inside of DigitalMarketer Lab. Get access to the 10-Point Indoctrination Email Playbook, and Insider Trainings, Workshops, and Playbooks covering marketing topics like:

• Email marketing
• Building out your agency
• Copywriting
• And more…

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