Email Marketing Blog

One question that comes up frequently is where to find content for your newsletter. Most people are not natural-born writers and coming up with content on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis becomes a torturous game of writers block.

If you write a blog or constantly add/update articles on your web site, why not send out a recap as your newsletter? This might include a brief synopsis of the posts you’ve made since the last email, with a link to click and read the entire article.

I subscribe to a number of RSS feeds and have my favorite blogs to visit, but let’s face it; most of us have a business to run and don’t have the luxury to surf the web all day. Getting daily RSS feeds or updates becomes more aggravating than intriguing to me.

Here are some pointers:

Unless you are an overactive writer, a bi-weekly or monthly newsletter is best. I actually take the time to read these newsletters because I’m not constantly inundated with emails from them.

All that’s needed is a sentence or two for each post/article you want to feature. Provide just enough to tease your reader into clicking and reading the full story.

Rather than clicking to an individual article, consider linking to the same recap on the first page of your newsletter. This provides additional exposure to your other content, as well as advertising, if you are monetizing your site.

Your newsletter now provides additional SEO bait for the spiders, so be sure to scatter around the right keywords.

Since it is possible that your subscribers also read your blog/web site regularly, always include something in the emailed version of your newsletter that is available ONLY for subscribers. After all, if they can read everything in your newsletter on your blog, they may not see the need to sign up for it.

The special addition could be a subscribers-only article, free resource, a podcast or video only for subscribers, or even a discount code if you are promoting one of your products or services. Just be sure it is exclusive and only available to your subscribers.

Don’t forget to ask for comments and feedback. This way you can refer to readers’ replies in your next newsletter edition…which gives you a chance to give it additional publicity!

Do you have a favorite newsletter tip you’d like to share? Post it below and maybe you’ll be featured in a future article here!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

I read an interesting article by Denny Hatch the other day, in which he talks about his experience with emailing Sen. Barack Obama’s office. If you’re not aware, Obama was able to fundraise $55 million in February…the majority through the Internet.

In addition to Denny’s article, be sure to click and read the complete text of all the emails received by him from Sen. Obama’s office.

Lastly, have a look at the landing page. Originally, it reflected an excellent example of a simple site and good use of video. Today, as I publish this, the video is gone and a picture with a simple opt-in form has replaced this. So, it may be different when you arrive there.  (Unfortunately, I was disappointed that no privacy policy was stated…guess once you read all those emails, you’ll know why!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

In Part 1, we discussed how to use an initial opt-in form to segment your list. In Part 2, we covered a few more ideas, including the use of segmented landing pages.

Today, in the last of this series, I’ll talk about some final segmentation ideas, continuing with the theme of segmenting a list for an active adult community in Orlando, Florida.

Merging Direct Mail with Landing Pages

Yesterday I talked about creating segmented landing pages, using real pay-per-click advertising as examples of areas we may wish to segment.

But you can use many lead generation systems to drive traffic to these opt-in pages. And offline methods - such as advertising or direct mail - often work just as well. Some examples are:

• AARP
• Where to Retire
• ELDR
• 50 Plus Lifestyles

In addition to national publications, there are also many regional periodicals available. In fact, here is a list of almost 200 age 50+ publications.

In the above cases, we were searching specifically on 50+ magazines, but there are lists, just like this, available for almost every niche imagineable.

Editorial Calendars

There are additional avenues to explore as well. Again, using our active adult community as an example, I also want to research general readership magazines. These publications can provide me with an editorial calendar that outlines the emphasis of the magazine for future issues.

In this example, you’ll notice that Smart Money’s Editorial Calendar is going to have a feature on retirement in April. If your community was in one of the lowest cost-of-living areas of the country, you might want to consider advertising your free report here.

While most magazines don’t post an online editorial calendar, you can always get one by going to their web site or calling their offices and requesting a media kit. The majority will include an editorial calendar for advertisers.

(Hint: If you’re an accomplished writer - and are aware of the editorial calendar far enough in advance, you can always submit an article for consideration in that month’s publication. Cost - free! Exposure - Priceless!)

Direct Mail Lists

Lastly, we could set up an offline campaign to drive readers onto our landing page to opt-in for a free report. There are tens of thousands of list brokers who can help you with this. You can see from this sample page that you can get pretty specific about the people you want to reach.

If I am looking for leads to send to my adult community web page featuring golf, I could request:

• Geography
• Gender
• Age
• Income or Net Worth
• Home Owners
• Special Interests / Hobbies: Golf
• Magazine Subscribers: Golf Digest, etc.

While each “select” adds to your cost, they can help you build extremely targeted lists. This is one reason it’s important to learn as much as you can about the people who have already purchased from you. For instance, if I knew that 63% of my buyers had a net worth of more than $1.2 million and resided in Florida, Georgia and New York, selecting that criteria should definitely improve my conversion rate for this direct mail campaign.

If you are generating offline leads, your goal should be to have them register for something at your web site. This adds them to your email list for follow-up purposes.

I hope this series has been helpful in giving you some ideas on segmenting your own list. Now it’s your turn! Do you have some great examples of segmented landing pages that you are using in your business or have seen at sites owned by others? Do you have questions or comments about this series and how it relates to your business?

Don’t be shy! Post your questions and/or comments here!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

In Part 1, we talked about how to use an initial opt-in form to segment your list.

For this series, we are using an 55+ active adult center as the example. Today, we’ll cover a few more techniques to segment your email list.

Choice of Reports from One Web Page

Another idea you can use on your main page is to offer several reports from a drop-down box. Each report would speak to a group as outlined above. Or perhaps your reports would be driven from the activities you offer, so readers could sign up for the newsletters from the golf pro, activities director, etc.

While segmenting your list by ages is one example, you may wish to further segment that list’s interests. Let’s assume that you developed a list of people 55+ who are looking for an active adult community. Here are some things they could be interested in:

Golfing
Fishing
Activity Center and Daily Activities
Maintenance Free Living
City vs. Small Town

Can you see how effective it is to have an email list of readers who are 55+, are interested in retireing to an active adult community now and whose primary interest is golf? Your emails can go into detail about who designed the course, the features, tournament activities, etc. Perhaps you can allow them to opt-in to the golf newsletter if one is available.

Can you also see how NON-EFFECTIVE that would be for someone who was primarily interested in fishing during their golden years and had no interest in golf?

That’s why we want to segment!

Creating Segmented Landing Pages

In the above examples, we’ve talked about driving traffic to one web page and then separating it into segmented lists.

A segmented list can also be developed using various opt-in pages, each related to a different area of interest or segmented group. You’ll see this done quite often with those using pay-per-click advertising.

I’ve entered “active adult community” into a search box and found these pay-per-click listings. Let’s discuss these in relation to landing pages:

Locations: Rhode Island, Florida, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Tennessee

Amenities: Luxury, Country Club, Golf, Boating

Lifestyle: Acreage, Escape the City, Mountains

Let’s assume my property is in Orlando, is situated on a ski-able lake, 20 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean, with an award-winning golf course on the property.

How about an ad that read…

Orlando Lakefront Retirement
Fresh and Saltwater Fishing In a
Resort 55+ Atmosphere
www.yourdomain.com

Someone who opts into this list is interested in hearing about the retirement lifestyle where (s)he can fish all day! Your email series will concentrate on fishing.

Retire on the Golf Course
Orlando 55+ Community
Unlimited Golf Fees Included!
www.yourdomain.com

In this case, you’ll feature the villas available on the golf course, tidbits on the par, golf course designer, matches held there and so forth.

The important thing is to have specific landing pages for each ad. If I click on “Orlando Lakefront Retirement”, I shoud see a guy at the community lake holding up his prize bass. Likewise, the email series they opt into should concentrate on fishing, although you’ll obviously mention all the other features and amenities.

In my next post, I’ll explore how to use an offline technique to build your online opt-in list.

Questions or comments? Post below and I’ll be sure to answer them for you.

In Email Segmentation: How to Talk to Your Reader, we defined email segmentation and discussed why you might want to incorporate it in your email marketing.

Over the next few posts, I’ll share some simple ways to segment your lists and cover common segmentation categories to consider.

To quickly review, the reason for segmenting lists in the first place is to be able to speak more specifically to a particular reader - whether a prospect or customer. This generally increases response to and conversion of the products and services you promote to this list.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Initial Opt-In Form.

If there is an important qualifier for potential customers, you should include it in your opt-in form.

As an example, I live in Florida which is a huge retirement state. There are a number of “active adult” living centers being built here. If I were developing an opt-in list for a center, an important qualifier would be whether or not my readers were 55+; if not, they couldn’t live on my property.

Now, there may be others who are interested in my housing. There may be people who are 50-54 and are beginning to research properties. There may be the children of seniors, who are researching properties to present to their parents.

But the people who are going to put money in my pocket quickly are those who are 55+.

In my general opt-in box, I could have a drop-down box with age ranges or a check box that would be checked if someone was 55 years of age or older. Then I could broadcast a message only to this group offering them an additional product or a coupon for a free weekend at the property. They would get it by opting into a different list - one that is only available for those 55 or older.

Note: You’d want to set up your offer (such as the free weekend) to verify that they are 55+ when they redeem their coupon. For this reason it would make little sense for someone younger than 55 to opt-in.

Another way you can segment your list is from the initial information you gather at sign-up. Keep in mind that the number of opt-ins is inversely proportional to the amount of information you require from those opting in. Also, your potential subscribers don’t know you well yet, so this is not the time to ask for a lot of personal information.

Personally, I like to include zip codes (or other area designations in my forms. This is a pretty non-invasive request to which most people will comply.

On Friday, I’ll give you a few more ways to develop a segmented list. In the meantime, post your questions or comments below…we always love to hear from you!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse