Email Marketing Campaigns

Introduction

If you have an email address you will probably receive marketing emails every single day. There’s a very good reason for that which is that email marketing campaigns work – period. They work well because we can curate an audience intelligently which we can then target with thoughtfully crafted emails which allow us to promote directly to people’s inboxes. 

To put this into perspective we can get an open rate of between 40-50% per email quite easily and build audiences of tens of thousands of people. We can then drive traffic to our funnels which we know will convert. Quite simply it is a tried and tested method of targeting and retargeting which has a track record of getting conversions. It is something we must be doing as part of our broader strategy if we are to be successful. 

This guide will explain everything you need to know to do this successfully – step by step.

Contents

Define your audience
Build your audience
Establish your email marketing platform
Craft your email campaign
Monitor the data and optimize
Repeat
Summary

Define Your Audience

The very first thing we need to do is define our audience. This involves research and thought to determine what audience we wish to target. Your funnel is designed to be appealing to anyone who requires web design and development work so what you will want to think about is a vertical which we know converts well. Here is a list of the sales verticals Top Web Experts have specific landing pages for:

  • Generic Small Business Owners
  • Tradesmen – eg. Builders, plumbers, roofers, carpenters, etc
  • Beauty and Aesthetics – eg. Beauticians, nail technicians, hairdressers, etc
  • eCommerce 
  • One-on-One Service Providers – eg. Music Teachers, Tennis Coaches, Tutors, Life Coaches, Business Coaches
  • Taxi Drivers & Chauffeurs
  • Food Industry – eg. Personal Chefs & Caterers, Restaurants & Food Trucks, Delivery & Take Out
  • Mechanics & Auto Repair
  • Courier & Delivery Services
  • Lawyers, Accountants, Professional Services
  • Personal & Hobby Websites

Take a moment now and consider it against the above criteria giving it a score of 1 to 5:

  1. Relevance
  2. Search Volume
  3. Competition
  4. Keyword Difficulty
  5. Searcher’s Intent

Look through this list now and consider which are the best verticals to target. You will want to think about the following factors:

  1. What is the size of this vertical?
  2. How great is their need to purchase a website?
  3. What is the value add to their business of having a website?
  4. How big are the businesses likely to be and what effect will that have on the conversion rate?
  5. How easy/difficult will it be to specifically target this vertical?
  6. What experience do you have with this vertical? What knowledge can you bring to the table to assist you with your campaign?

Having answered these questions, which vertical are you going to choose?

Let’s look at an example of how this might work in practice:

Case study

The affiliate trying to make sales is a 25 year old female who currently works as a hairdresser. She works in a salon but also has her own clients for home visits etc. She has her own website which she built herself on a platform – she has never had a conversion via the website. How might she answer the questions above?

Given her experience she is going to focus on Beauty/Aesthetics. Here is an example of how she might answer the question set:

1. What is the size of this vertical?

The vertical is very large and growing. Aesthetics treatments are particularly popular currently as are other beauty treatments which are always going to be popular. Further most of the people working in this industry work both for themselves and for a company giving extra opportunities.

2. How great is their need to purchase a website?

Their need is very high. Not only do they need to have a marketing platform to attract new customers as self-employed individuals, their livelihood depends on successful marketing. Additionally there are various functionalities which a website can provide which will make their businesses much easier for them to manage.

3. What is the value add to their business of having a website?

We can already see that the website will bring in extra clients and potentially life changing revenue for them personally. It will also enable them to use functionalities to reduce their admin burden and increase the number of clients they can service. Investing in a website could very feasibly mean that they no longer have to work for other companies and could even establish their own company if they are successful.

4. How big are the businesses likely to be and what effect will that have on the conversion rate?

The businesses are typically small enterprises or self-employed individuals. They do, however, have good turnover and the acquisition of just one client would make a website purchase profitable. Due to their small size the sales cycle is greatly

5. How easy/difficult will it be to specifically target this vertical?

It will be extremely easy to target this vertical as they are very active and easy to identify on social media. The result is that we can very quickly establish our audience.

6. What experience do you have with this vertical?

What knowledge can you bring to the table to assist you with your campaign? Working in this industry means that I have great experience in the vertical and I completely understand the specific issues that people in this vertical face. I can speak the exact same language as the people in this vertical as I have personal experience in it.

So as we can see we have thought through the vertical in detail relating the information to our personal experience. Clearly from the exercise above it would be a very good idea to target this vertical. 

Top Tip – start with a vertical you know as it will be far easier for you to succeed. If you do not know any of the verticals then choose the one you have the most experience with. 

We have now systematically thought through which audience we should be targeting. Now it is time to build this audience. 

Build Your Audience

Clearly in order to build our audience we need to collate email data in order to send out emails to begin with. There are a lot of ways to do this. Here is a list of the various ways to collate email data:

1. Build your own email list:

You can build your own email list by asking people to sign up on your website or landing page. You can offer a lead magnet, such as a free ebook or a discount code, in exchange for their email address. You can also collect email addresses at events, trade shows, or other in-person interactions.

2. Purchase email lists:

You can purchase email lists from third-party providers. However, it's important to note that buying email lists can be risky and may not yield the desired results. Many email providers prohibit the use of purchased email lists, and recipients of your emails may mark them as spam or unsubscribe.

3. Use social media:

You can use social media to collect email addresses by promoting your lead magnet and asking people to sign up for your email list. You can also create custom audiences on social media platforms and target people who are similar to your existing subscribers.

4. Use referral marketing:

You can incentivize your existing subscribers to refer their friends or family members to your email list. This can be done by offering a discount or other incentive for each referral.

5. Use co-registration:

You can partner with other businesses or websites to include a sign-up form for your email list on their website or in their email communications.

You do however have another option available to you. Heroic Partners can provide you with leads on an ongoing basis for either $99 per month for 2,000 general leads or $299 per month for 2,000 vertical specific leads.

Establish Your Email Marketing Platform

Now that we have the relevant email data ready to go it’s time to start reaching out to your audience. Remember that we have to use the right service otherwise we run the risk of having our account shut down if too many emails are marked as spam. Here’s how we can achieve this:

Here’s how we do it step by step:

  • Choose an email marketing platform: There are several email marketing platforms available. Do your research and ensure that you are working with a platform which will not block your account. You must also ensure that you get good data from the platform. 
  • Set up your account: Once you’ve chosen your platform, create an account and follow the setup prompts. You’ll be asked to provide basic information about your company and to set up your email list.
  • Create your email list: Your email list should include the email addresses of people who have opted-in to receive your emails. You can import your list from a spreadsheet or add contacts manually. Make sure to segment your list by interests or demographics to ensure that your emails are targeted and relevant.


Once this is done you are ready to actually craft your email. 

Craft Your Email Campaign

Now for the most important bit – making an email that people will open and which gets people to click through to your funnel. This is where you need to embrace your inner psychologist in order to maximize the open and click through rates. So what are some of the tricks of the trade?

First of all we need to have an intriguing subject line. The subject line and meta description are the first things people will see when they receive your email. If they are wrong then you will get a poor open rate and this will be a wasted exercise. Here are some top tips for crafting your subject line:

  • Make it pithy – short and sweet is what we are aiming for
  • Provoke curiosity – don’t give the game away up front. Think about what sort of email you would open. A subject line like ‘The best place to buy a website’ will get a very poor open rate because people are conditioned to ignore obvious sales emails. So instead try something which makes people curious so that they open the email. Use your experience in the vertical to your advantage
  • Use one emoji but no more – emojis can be a great addition to a subject line but never use more than one
  • Make it appear personal – sometimes we may be able to give the impression of this being a personal email which people are much more likely to open. You could try something like ‘Hey saw you on Insta’ if your email data came from Instagram
  • Be surprising – doing the same thing as everyone else will get you ignored. Use surprising and unexpected subject lines to get more opens

Now that we have a hook in the subject line we are going to get people opening the email. So the next task is to ensure that the contents of the email provoke people to take the desired action which is going to be to visit the funnel. Here are our top tips for writing your email:

  • Make it short and to the point – if you have great blocks of text nobody will read it. Remember that most people will see the email on mobile devices so it must look easy to read on small screens
  • Have a hook up front – the first line is where you need to set another hook. Follow the same rules as the subject line and ensure that the first line makes you want to read on. If you frame the email in a positive way upfront then it will be much easier to get your point across in the subsequent paragraphs
  • Be direct – don’t beat around the bush tell them what you want which is for them to go to your funnel
  • Be instructive – don’t ask them to go in your funnel tell them to go on your funnel
  • Provide some value upfront – we need to demonstrate that our funnel will give value to the reader so we need to give some upfront value which makes you want to find out more
  • Use a consistent approach – you can use many different methods when sending out your emails in terms of the look and feel of the email. It can be very professionally branded and sleek in its design or you could go the other way and make it very personal and seem as though it was an email you specifically wrote and sent for that reader alone. Both work so consider your vertical and which will work best then stick to that approach throughout the email
  • Ensure the CTA is clear – if your call to action is unclear then you will not get a good click through rate

So we have the email written and the subject line completed what next?

  • Schedule when the email will be sent – use the tools on your platform to tell you what the best time to send your email will be. If your platform does not have such tools then generally speaking the best times are as follows:
    • Monday – Friday – 12.00 to 14.00 and then 18.00 to 20.00
    • Saturday/Sunday – 09.00 to 10.00 and then 16.00 to 18.00
    • When thinking about this consider your vertical – is this something that people will open while at work for their work or is this something people will be looking at outside of working hours? If you are targeting Taxi Drivers, for example, they are clearly not going to be looking at their emails while they are driving so send it outside of working hours. 
  • Send a test email – this email will be sent to you and gives you a final opportunity to check that everything is correct and as it should be. If you are going for a personal email approach then ensure that you remove any references to the platform it is being sent from. 
  • Start the campaign

Monitor the Data and Optimize

Once the email has been sent you must keep an eye on the open rate and the click through rate. Bear in mind that you won’t get the final picture for the campaign until 3 to 4 days after you started it so wait until then to make any decisions. Here is a step by step on how to analyze and interpret data from your campaign:

1. Review the metrics

Most email marketing platforms will provide metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, conversion rate, and unsubscribe rate. Review these metrics and compare them to industry benchmarks or past campaigns to determine how your campaign performed.

2. Analyze the open rate:

The open rate measures the number of recipients who opened your email. A low open rate may indicate that your subject line wasn't engaging or that your audience isn't interested in your content.

3. Analyze the click-through rate:

The click-through rate measures the number of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. A low click-through rate may indicate that your content wasn't compelling or that your call-to-action wasn't clear.

4. Analyze the conversion rate:

The conversion rate measures the number of recipients who took the desired action.

5. Analyze the bounce rate:

The bounce rate measures the number of emails that were undeliverable. A high bounce rate may indicate that your email list needs to be cleaned or that your email was flagged as spam.

6. Analyze the unsubscribe rate:

The unsubscribe rate measures the number of recipients who opted out of your email list. A high unsubscribe rate may indicate that your content wasn't relevant or that your frequency was too high.

7. Identify patterns and trends:

Look for patterns and trends in your data to identify areas of improvement or success. For example, if you notice that a certain subject line or call-to-action resulted in higher engagement, try to replicate that in future campaigns.

8. Make data-driven decisions:

Use the insights from your data to make data-driven decisions about your email marketing strategy. For example, if you notice that your open rate is low, try testing different subject lines to see which ones perform better.

Now that we have the data from the initial email the approach you have designed is either validated or invalidated. Depending on what the data suggests you may need to start again. If the campaign has been successful then do not change it – you will now want to set up a journey with similar emails which are sent at regular intervals which should usually be every few days. Most platforms give you the ability to build a journey which your audience will be placed on. Continue monitoring the data and optimizing as the journey continues – you should expect to see results and if you are not it is because you have not taken the correct action that the data is pointing you to take. 

Repeat

You now have a successful email campaign set up and you are getting results but the work does not stop there. Now you must repeat the exercise and continue optimizing. You can also improve your success by doing things like devising a new approach and segmenting your audience to analyze the differential in the success of the two approaches. You can set up points in your journey where there is a divergence depending on what action a user has taken. You can retarget those who opened your email but did not click through. There are a lot of possibilities and you must keep working at it to get to the optimal point. Keep repeating the steps and you will yield big results. 

Summary

By now you can probably see the far reaching effect that your email campaigns can have and are ready to try this for yourself. If you need any assistance in establishing your campaigns visit the Heroic Partners shop where you can access all the resources you require to make yourself successful.

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