Email Marketing: The Definitive Guide

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the digital marketing practice of communicating with leads and customers with email. Common email-based marketing messages include email newsletters, promotional campaigns and event announcements. Email marketing typically has a significantly higher ROI than many other marketing channels (like social media).

The #1 thing that makes email marketing more effective than SEO and social media is that you have a direct line to your audience.

But with new platforms like Tik Tok and LinkedIn Live on the rise, does old-school email still work?

Let’s find out…

Why Email Marketing Still Works

Why does email still work so well?

#1: With Email, You Own The Distribution

This is a big one.

When a new subscriber signs up to your list, you have a direct line to that person’s inbox.

That’s simply not the case with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… or any other social media platform.

In fact, a study found that Facebook organic engagement plummeted to less than 1% (RivalQ).

Contrast that number to the engagement rate you get from email.

The average newsletter open rate is 21.33%… 20x higher than Facebook post engagement (MailChimp).

#2: People WANT to To Get Marketing Messages via Email

People don’t go on social media to see ads.

In fact, 45% of consumers report that social media ads are annoying (AdWeek).

On the other hand, people don’t mind marketing messages in their inboxes. In fact, they expect them.

For example, one study found that 86% of consumers prefer to get email-based marketing messages over Facebook ads, TV commercials and display ads (HubSpot).

#3: Email Converts REALLY Well

Sure, email has a better reach than social. But does that translate into more sales?

Yup!

In fact, when it comes to turning browsers into buyers, nothing beats email.

Email converts 40x more leads into customers than Facebook and Twitter combined (McKinsey).

These stats are nice and all. But you’re probably wondering:

“How do I get started with email marketing?”.

Well, that’s what our next chapter is all about…

Optimize Your About Page for Conversions

If you’re like most people, your about page is one of the most-visited pages on your website.

Even better:

The people that go to your about page usually like you.

Which means they’re PRIMED to subscribe.

So I recommend putting at least one email sign-up form on your about page.

For example, my friend James Clear (who has over 500k subscribers) includes a form at the bottom of his about page.

My about page is on the long side… so I use two forms:

Create Compelling Lead Magnets

Lead Magnets are the lifeblood of any list building campaign.

Why?

It’s REALLY hard to get someone to sign up for a “newsletter” or “21-day email course”. Instead, you need to offer people something they can use right away.

I’m talking about:

• Checklists
• Ebooks
• Swipe files
• Case studies
• Templates
• Videos

In other words:

The more valuable your lead magnet, the more signups you’ll get.

For example, 100 Days of Real Food offers up a full meal plan as a lead magnet:

Exit-Intent Popups

I’ll be the first to admit it:

I HATE popups.

In fact, I hate them so much that I swore I’d stop using them.

Then one day I realized something:

Not all popups are created equal.

In other words, there’s a BIG difference between a popup that attacks you the second you land on the page…

… and one that offers something of value as you leave.

So a while ago I decided to try popups again.

This time, I’d ONLY use exit-intent popups. And I’d ONLY offer super valuable stuff.

That way, I’m not annoying people with crap nobody wants, like this:

Here’s the popup my team came up with:

Not only does it offer something cool, but this popup only appears if you’re leaving the site anyway.

That way, you’re not distracted from the content on the page.

So, how did the new popup do?

Before the popup, my site’s overall conversion rate was 3.55%. After the exit-intent popup, it shot up to 6.14% (a 72.9% increase).

Very cool.

The Content Newsletter

The Content Newsletter is a newsletter that provides 100% pure value.

The value can be in the form of a handful of tips. Or links to helpful resources. Or a personal story.

The exact type of value doesn’t really matter. As long as you don’t pitch anything, you’re good.

In fact, pure value newsletters are so rare that your subscribers will LOVE you for them.

For example, I sent out this Content Newsletter a while back:

(A handful of copywriting tips.)

And dozens of people replied to my email to thank me.

With that, here’s the template:

Intriguing Subject Line

Use a subject line that will make someone curious about what’s inside your message.

For example, I used the subject line “How I Got 45.5% More Traffic (In 7 Days)” for one of my Content Newsletters. And that email got a 32.3% open rate.

Bold Opening

Start your newsletter off with something SUPER compelling.

That way, you hook your reader right off the bat.

Personally, I like to kick things off with a mini-story.

But you can also use a straightforward intro that previews what’s coming next.

Either way works.

Valuable Content

Now it’s time to deliver the goods.

If you’re not sure what to write here, I recommend going with a list of 3-5 actionable tips that people can use that day.

Otherwise, you can teach your subscribers an important lesson in the form of a story.

Or curate links to content that will help your reader achieve a specific outcome, like this newsletter from Ramit Sethi.

CTA

Nope, you’re not pitching anything in your Content Newsletter.

But that doesn’t mean you should skip your call-to-action.

So:

How can you use a CTA if your email is 100% value?

Well, when I send out a story to subscribers, I use a CTA that asks people to reply with their opinion or take.

Or let’s say you just sent out a list of links to Paleo breakfast recipes.

Your CTA could be to try one of the recipes this week.

The type of CTA you go with isn’t that important.

The important thing is to always include a CTA in your newsletters.

That way, when you DO pitch something, your subscribers aren’t caught off guard.

The Announcement

With “The Announcement” email you’re not pitching a “10% Off Sale”. That type of thing works best with The Marketing Offer template I just showed you.

Instead, you want to save this template for BIG announcements, like:

• Brand new product or service
• Live event
• New version of a popular product
• Limited-time product release
• Important features added to an existing product

Here’s the template:

Subject Line=”Introducing” or “Announcing”

You want to make it clear that your announcement is a big deal.

After all, you’ll probably only send one or two Announcement emails per year.

So don’t be afraid to use terms like “Introducing” or “For the first time” in your subject line.

For example, here’s the subject line I used when I launched a new version of my flagship course:

Compelling Lead

You have a few different options here.

You can jump right into your product announcement:

Or you can build up a little bit of anticipation, like Marie Forleo does here:

The Big Reveal

Now it’s time to outline what exactly you’re announcing and why it’s important.

For example, in this announcement email BuzzSumo quickly outlines what makes their new feature unique.

Clear CTA

Now that your reader is pumped about your announcement, let them know the next step.

If it’s a product, your CTA should tell people to head over to your sales page and sign up.

If it’s a new service, you might ask people to fill out a form.

Either way, let your subscriber know EXACTLY what to do next.

Optimize Your Send Time

You want to send emails…

• When people are awake
• When people’s inboxes aren’t crowded

That’s why I DON’T recommend scheduling newsletters for first thing in the morning.

Otherwise, your message gets buried in someone’s crowded inbox.

Instead, send your emails out when your subscribers’ inboxes are empty. This is usually late morning or early afternoon.

That way, your newsletter will pop up at the top of their inbox.

That said:

There’s no “best time to send an email” that works for everyone.

You need to test different send times to see which times get the highest open rates for you.

For example, after testing a dozen different send times, I found that 11am Eastern works best for our subscribers.

11am Eastern is perfect because people on the east coast and in Europe are at work. And by 11am they’ve already cleared out their morning inboxes.

That said, Backlinko is B2B.

If you’re in B2C, it might not make sense to send to people’s personal inboxes while they’re at work.

Again, it’s different for every business.

That’s why I recommend testing a bunch of different times to find the best one for you.

Follow “The 80/20 Rule” of Email Content

The 80/20 Rule of Email Content is simple:

80% of your emails should provide value.

And 20% should pitch your products and services.

For example, I usually send about 10 pure-value messages for every sales email.

That way, I don’t burn out my list.

And my subscribers know that when I send something, it’s worth opening.

(Which, at the end of the day, is the real secret to increasing open rates.)

To be clear:

“Value” doesn’t have to be in the form of content.

For example, let’s say you run an eCommerce site that sells paleo protein bars.

Well, a 25% off sale for your new line of bars is valuable to people that are in the market for them.

Even so, it’s not a bad idea for eCommerce sites to send value-packed newsletters too.

For example:

Ruthlessly Delete Non-Openers

A few years ago I had a MAJOR deliverability problem on my hands.

My open rates went from 40% to 30% to less than 20%… within a few months.

It got so bad that some of my newsletters were getting 15% open rates:

And lots of subscribers were telling me that my newsletters were going to spam.

No matter how many different subject lines I tested or how many tweaks I made to my content, nothing seemed to help.

But there was one thing I hadn’t tried yet. Something I’d been putting off for months:

List hygiene.

In other words: deleting unengaged subscribers.

I had to try it. I couldn’t let my open rates continue to freefall.

So I logged into Aweber and deleted any subscribers that hadn’t opened an email in the last 4 months.

This meant deleting 28,018 subscribers from my email list.

Did it hurt to delete those hard-earned subscribers?

Yup.

Did it work?

Heck yeah!

A few weeks later my open rates shot up like a rocketship.

Today, I delete any subscriber that hasn’t opened or clicked on an email in 4 months.

And it’s one of the main reasons that I have an outstanding deliverability rate.

Test Short Subject Lines

Here’s something I recently noticed:

Newsletter with super short subject lines gets the best open rates.

For example, the subject line “Great Content” got a 42.7% open rate:

This could be due to the simple fact that short subject lines get more opens than long subject lines.

But I have another theory:

Short subject lines help deliverability.

Here’s why:

Spam filters flag messages that contain certain words and phrases. And they put lots of emphasis on the subject line.

So the more words you use in your subject, the more likely one of them will get flagged:

But when you use short subject lines, you’re much less likely to get caught in the filter.

Again, this is just a theory. I have no concrete proof that short subject lines get through spam filters more often.

But if you’re having deliverability issues, it’s something worth trying out.

MailChimp

You can use MailChimp to send simple newsletters. Or it can be a full marketing automation platform that taps into behavior-based messages and cart abandonment emails.

It’s one of the few platforms that lets you keep it simple. But if you do want to dig into more complicated stuff, you can.

Pricing is free for up to 2k subscribers (with limited features). Their pro plans start at $10/month.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit came out of nowhere to become one of the most popular email marketing platforms on the planet.

One thing that makes ConvertKit unique is that 100% of its features are focused on helping “Online Creators”.

(Like bloggers, artists and musicians.)

So if you fall in that category, you can’t go wrong with ConvertKit.

Like most ESPs, pricing is based on subscriber numbers. Pricing is free for up to 1k subscribers (with limited features). A full-fledged plan at 1k subs or less starts at $29. They also offer a 14-day free trial.

Aweber

Aweber is the king of simplicity. Which is why I use it.

Sure, they have some marketing automation stuff. But it’s pretty basic compared to most other ESPs. And their reporting leaves a lot to be desired.

But if you want simple and reliable software for sending newsletters and autoresponder emails, you can’t beat Aweber.

Paid plans start at $19/month. And you can test out any plan with a 30-day free trial as long as your list has fewer than 25k subscribers.

How to Create Awesome Autoresponder Sequences

Autoresponder sequences are like marketing automation training wheels.

So if you’re brand new to automation, I recommend getting your feet wet with a simple autoresponder sequence.

Now:

The content of your autoresponder will be completely different for a blog vs. an ecommerce site vs. a SaaS company.

But they all have the same basic structure:

Once you get the hang of creating a basic autoresponder, you can try using different autoresponders for different people.

For example:

Let’s say you run a SaaS company that helps people make doctor’s appointments.

And you have two types of people that visit your site: doctors and patients.

Does it make sense to put a doctor and a patient in the same autoresponder?

Nope!

Instead, you want to create a different autoresponder for each group:

You might be wondering:

“How do you know if a doctor or a patient is signing up for my list?”

Well, you can go by the page they sign up on. Anyone that signs up from “register for a doctor account” page is probably a doctor. So you can automatically put them on that autoresponder.

You can also ask people which group they belong to during the signup process:

Test Full Marketing Automation Campaigns

Let me be clear about something:

Marketing automation has a ton of potential.

But the downside of automation is that things can get REALLY complicated REALLY quickly.

Before you know it, you need a Ph.D. to understand what’s going on.

So if you’re new to email marketing, focus on building your list and sending subscribers AWESOME content.

And once you have a handle on that, set up an autoresponder.

And once you have a handle on that, use tags to segment your list into 2-3 different groups.

Then, once you feel like you’ve completely mastered tagging, try full-on email automation.

This means hyper-targeted messages based on opens, clicks, pages visited, past purchases, demographics, time on site, and lots more.

For example:

Let’s say you run an eCommerce site that sells grain-free dog food.

And when a new subscriber signed up they chose “Dachshund” from your “What breed of dog do you own?” question.

A few days later that person put a bag of dog food into their cart… then closed the page.

Well, with marketing automation, you could go beyond the generic “You forgot something” abandoned cart message.

Instead, you can send them a “new customer discount” for 20% off their first purchase. And you can mention the fact that Dachshunds LOVE the product they had in their cart.

Pretty cool.

Try Text Email Layouts

Nathan Barry said it best:

“Beautiful email templates are bad for business.”

And he’s 100% right.

The fancy design does nothing but distracts people from the content of your message.

Instead, I recommend sending emails that look like they came from a friend or coworker.

Here’s a great example from Dan Martell:

This email could EASILY have a logo, header and other nonsense.

But Dan decided to send a newsletter that’s super simple.

Nice.

One CTA Per Email

Want to improve your email click-through rate?

Use ONE CTA per email.

In fact, WordStream reports that emails with a single CTA can boost clicks by 371%.

In other words, don’t send emails with a million options.

Instead, give subscribers ONE crystal clear option.