Email marketing is not only to create newsletter, but also to bring bloggers traffic and income. So, it is essential for both seasoned and new bloggers. However, new bloggers always feel it hard to start. In below, we will guide new bloggers how to start email marketing.
Email Marketing Guide for New Bloggers
Start Creating Newsletters
As a new blogger, you could only have a small subscriber list to send newsletters. Good news is that you can send newsletters to all your subscribers just by using free or cheap email marketing service. While your subscriber list grows, you need to purchase email marketing but meanwhile you will get better services, resulting in more traffic and incoming. There are a variety of email marketing providers around the world. Some of the best email marketing services are here.
After confirming who you are to send newsletters and which email marketing service you use, now you can create newsletters. The simplest way is to use templates and put RSS feed of your articles into templates. But it is much possible that your readers would not even open your newsletter, especially when they receive a large number of newsletters. So, be unique and be attractive.
Here are some tips to guide you how to do that:
- A unique or interesting subject could attract readers to open your newsletters;
- You can add giveaways related to your niche into newsletters;
- How-tos content to their interests could be helpful;
- Adding old posts but meeting for current events or season is recommended.
In addition, when you create newsletters, keep it in mind that you need to build good list engagement to leave your readers a solid reputation. So, you need to personalize your newsletters with their first name to start and with “we” to present in the body. Moreover, in top lines, try to use engaging content, but avoid typical messages like “can’t see this email?” You can also add a welcome message, in which new subscribers could find out what they expect.
Delivery Timing and Frequency
When you have finished newsletter creation, it is time to send it to your subscribers. A question comes. When should you send? This is a question that many new bloggers ignore. But it has its own rules and affects open rates we talk about below.
In general, we would recommend delivery timing on Friday rather than Monday. However, delivery timing also depends on habits of your subscribers. So, before sending, do some surveys on your subscribers.
Delivery timing affects open rates of that newsletter while delivery frequency has an influence on relationship between you and your subscribers. If you send them newsletters every day, they might be get tired of you and unsubscribe of your blog. However, if you do that once a year, it is much likely that your subscribers have no idea of who you are and what you are doing.
So, a proper delivery frequency is important. There is not a unified answer. It depends on frequency of your posts published. In other words, if you post 4 to 7 blog posts, then monthly delivery is proper. If you do that once a week, then month delivery is your option.
Open Rates, Click Rates and Bounce Rates
In this email marketing guide post, we also want to introduce 3 technical terms that new bloggers are often confused.
Open rates – it is a rate showing you how many subscribers open your newsletter. In general, email marketing providers offer you tools to track and record open rates. However, the rate is based on invisible image pixel of the header. So, open rates are not fully accurate.
Click rates – the figure refers to how many subscribers click links in your newsletter. Click rates are more accurate than open rate since click tracks work as email provider puts tracking information onto the URL. Link number in your newsletter affects click rates while link shown forms, link correct rates, and others also have an impact.
Bounce rates – the rates tell you how many email are returned to you. When the email inbox of a certain subscriber is overfull, or email addresses are not correct, or email accounts are close, bounces happen. Bounce rates could not be high, or else, your ISP would block you. But don’t worry. Many email marketing service providers have solutions to lower bounce rates.
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