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By Syed Balkhi,

Did you know that email marketing is the most profitable channel to drive sales and revenue?

According to a study, email marketing has the potential to drive about 4400% ROI. That means with the right strategy, you can generate $44 for every $1 you spent.

If you’re wondering what holds you back from driving a high email marketing ROI, it could be lack of email personalization.

It’s been found that on average, more than 13 emails are hitting the inbox of an average subscriber on a daily basis. If your emails aren’t personalized and tailored to the preferences of individual subscribers, likely they’ll get ignored, making your entire campaign less effective.

Now, almost every marketer personalizes their emails by inserting the first name tag in the subject line or intro. However, if you want to make your email stand out in the inbox, you need more than just that.

Let’s take a look at a few ways to personalize your emails and boost your email marketing ROI.

1. Segment your email list

It goes without saying that email segmentation is the best tactic to send personalized emails to your subscribers. Sadly, many marketers overlook the importance of email segmentation. Email segmentation allows you to send personalized emails to each individual. It classifies every lead into distinct groups based on the common interests such as customer personas, user demographics, onsite behavior, etc.

By segmenting your emails, you can send laser-targeted emails to each group addressing their common interest. And when an email addresses the interest of recipients, it easily grabs the attention, which increases the likelihood of boosting open rates and engagement.

According to a study published on Marketing Sherpa, email personalization on the basis of segmentation can boost the email revenue by 50%.

To ensure your emails aren’t annoying your leads, you might want to understand the email frequency preferences of your subscribers, especially if you’re sending too many emails.

By understanding frequency preference of subscribers, Bonobos has retained 25% of subscribers in their list.

2. Behavioral triggering

Setting up an automated behavioral trigger email campaign is another great strategy to send emails that people want to engage. The behaviorally triggered emails have 152% higher open rates than traditional emails.

In order to send automated trigger emails, you might track every user interaction in real time on your site. After collecting the data, you can create richer profiles of your leads that enable you to send automated emails you know your customers will engage with.

Let’s take a look at a few ways to send automated triggered emails to your subscribers.

  • Send onboarding emails to welcome new customers upon registration.
  • Recommend complementary items based on past purchases.
  • Send transactional emails like invoices, shipping details, etc.
  • Entice users to take an action by reminding them of a recent activity. For example, if a cart is being abandoned, you can encourage them to complete the order.

3. Match your landing page with emails

Sending personalized email is only one part of the equation, ensuring that your emails match the landing page is another, equally important part of email marketing success.

When your subscriber clicks on a promising offer in your email, they’ll be expecting a landing page that matches the message and design of the email.

For example, if your email promises 20% off on a product, make sure to highlight the same message on your landing page as well. For the best ROI, you might want to customize the landing page tailored to every email you’re sending.

Strong message match improves engagement because it reassures recipients that they’ve landed on the right page.

When creating a landing page, stick to the basics without overcomplicating it. Add social proof like testimonials on your landing page and reinforce your subscriber’s decision to take action.

Wrap Up

You can’t manually personalize every email you send to each individual subscriber. To send custom tailored emails to each individual, segment your leads into distinct groups based on their common interest.

In addition, set up an automated behavioral trigger campaign to boost your email marketing ROI. Make sure to match your landing page with your emails to reinforce subscribers to take action.

By following the above tips, you can personalize the emails tailored to the interest of individual subscribers and boost your email marketing ROI.

By Syed Balkhi,

Sourced from HUFFPOST

By

When it comes to making money online, the most powerful tool in your arsenal isn’t social media or SEO or paid search ads . . . 

It’s email.

Email marketing has the highest conversion rates of any marketing channel. In fact, sixty-six percent of online consumers made a purchase after receiving an email marketing message — which is more than social and direct mail, according to the Data & Marketing Association. And transactions from email are three times more profitable than those made on social media, reports the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Want to start cashing in on the emails you’re sending out? Then follow these seven proven ways to monetize your email marketing.

How to monetize email marketing

1. Sell something!

Already have a product or service to sell? Awesome! Skip this section.

If not, this is your very first step. Find a physical or digital product or service to sell. Without a product to promote, it’ll be extremely difficult (dare I say, impossible) to make money with your email marketing efforts.

Not sure what to sell? Here are some ideas to get you started:

2.  Sell other people’s products

You don’t always have to sell your products or services to monetize email marketing. Instead, you can be an affiliate for other businesses’ products or services. As an affiliate, you get commissions from a business to send traffic to their site and generate sales. 

Here’s an example of a great affiliate connection: An online business coach offers planning and operations advice to her clients. To help them turn her advice into reality, she recommends affiliate tools — like website hosting services and landing page providers — to serve her clients’ marketing and sales needs.

Many companies have affiliate programs you can join — like AWeber! You can sign up for our affiliate program here

One important note: Make sure you have a strong relationship with your subscribers and that you recommend products and services that clearly align with their interests. Otherwise, they may unsubscribe.

3. Upsell premium or exclusive products

In my opinion, one of the greatest opportunities for increasing revenue with email marketing is increasing your average transaction amount at the time of purchase a.k.a. upselling.

Say you’re a life coach. Your main product is an online monthly membership that includes access to a community of users, webinars and a database of resources.

A potential upsell: exclusive one-on-one coaching sessions. A participant can pick the topic they want you to focus on and ask questions they may not feel comfortable asking in a live webinar in a virtual room filled with other members. Many people will pay top dollar to get this individualized attention.

Or it can be much simpler than that. If you’re an online personal trainer, you could offer a free downloadable upper-body workout. When someone requests it, they receive an automated email with the download — plus an upsell to a comprehensive 12-week program that guarantees them results.

Here’s an example from the company Moo. The email tries to upsell customers on their new premium rounded corners feature.

make money email marketing
source: http://reallygoodemails.com/promotional/featured-product/success-is-rounded-corner/

4. Cross-sell related products

Every purchase a customer makes gives you insight into their likes and interests. You can use this info to entice them with other products they may also enjoy.

In fact, you probably have an email in your inbox right now that reads, “Because you bought this, you might be interested in this.” That’s because online shoppers who get targeted messages based on previous shopping decisions may be more likely to purchase again.

Here’s an example of a great cross-sell: A digital marketer offers a paid online course called “Learn How to Become a Master at Facebook Advertising.” Once a person completes the course, they’re automatically sent an email that cross-sells another course — this time about Facebook video marketing.

I recommend sending an automated email with additional recommendations approximately one to three weeks after a customer’s initial purchase. It’s super easy to set up targeted, automated email sequences like these in AWeber. Give it a try! Create your FREE account today.

5. Get repeat purchases

Along the same lines as cross-selling, you may have a product or service that calls for repeat purchases. Sometimes a friendly reminder email is an effective way to keep bringing in a steady stream of sales.

This method to monetize email marketing works extremely well for businesses that rely on recurring, seasonal or perishable goods. For instance, a window cleaning service may email a client at the end of every season to remind them to schedule their next appointment.

Another tip: Throw in a coupon. Offering a person 15 percent off their next cleaning may give them the boost they need to book another session.

6. Have a cart abandonment plan

We’re all a bit forgetful, so it’s no surprise that buyers often get distracted or step away from a purchase because they weren’t ready to buy at that moment. But if you’re using an e-commerce platform like WooCommerce, you know what they left behind.

Now, you can automatically send highly relevant emails encouraging them to buy the product or service they were considering. Customers who received multiple abandoned shopping cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to complete the purchase than those who receive only one followup email, according to Experian. Try sending the first message one day after, a second message 48 hours after, and possibly a third message within three or four days of abandonment.

Keep cart abandonment emails short. It doesn’t hurt if you inject some humor or personality to catch the reader’s eye. Check out this example from the clothing company Chubbies.

Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/12522201-13-amazing-abandoned-cart-emails-and-what-you-can-learn-from-them

And this example from the Dollar Shave Club that quickly reminds the person of all the benefits they’re missing out on by not joining.

monetize email marketing
Source: Really Good Emails

You can even offer relevant information to help address questions or concerns they may have, or highlight your great customer service team. Many companies will throw in a discount to tempt you even further or create urgency with a limited-time offer.

7. Ask people to spread the love!

The last tactic I’ll write about is also one of the oldest marketing strategies: word of mouth!

According to a Nielsen report, 84 percent of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about goods and services. That makes personal recommendations the highest ranked source for trustworthiness when it comes to making a purchase.  

So if you have an engaged, loyal customer base, send emails encouraging them to recommend your products and services to their friends and acquaintances. You can also go a bit further by asking them to give you positive online reviews and to “like” and share your social feeds.

Think about implementing referral links to incentivize your subscribers to spread awareness about your brand, too. Referral links allow your current customers to promote trackable links for your business. In exchange for sending new paying customers your way, you can give them incentives like discounts, coupons, vouchers, cash, prizes or redeemable points.

How to close the sale with email

While all of these tactics are excellent ways to make money using email marketing, they’ll most likely fall flat without some killer email copy or content to win over your potential buyers. Check out our FREE What to Write course. You’ll learn how to craft the perfect email for every layer of your funnel, and get 45+ email content templates to copy and paste. 

By

Sourced from AWeber

By Neil Patel.

Email marketing is an essential component of every business.

But it’s even more important for your ecommerce website.

Why?

It’s one of the best ways to communicate with your customers.

As an ecommerce business, you don’t have the luxury of seeing your customers face to face like you would if you were a brick-and-mortar company.

Sure, there are other ways you can communicate with your customers.

They can call your customer service department or reach out to you on social media.

But marketing experts agree that email is the most effective digital marketing tactic.

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With that said, your strategy is only as effective as your message.

If your previous campaigns aren’t getting much of a response, you might need some help writing your emails.

Luckily for you, I can coach you through that.

No more bad emails.

I’ll show you how to write an ecommerce email that won’t leave your readers shaking their heads.

Start with a goal

Before you do anything, you need to establish a clear objective for your message.

What do you want your reader to do once they receive the email?

If you can’t figure that out ahead of time, there’s no way the recipient will take the action you want them to take.

Here are some examples of goals you may want to consider:

  • launch a new product
  • promote a special event or sale
  • upsell on a previous purchase
  • send shopping cart abandonment messages

The list goes on and on, but this is a good place to start.

Make sure each message focuses on one goal.

Don’t overwhelm the reader.

If you give them too many options, they may get confused and end up doing nothing.

The message should have a clear call to action.

Here’s an example from Fab:

image5

This message has a clear and concise goal.

Fab is trying to get their subscribers to download their mobile application.

That’s it.

They aren’t offering a discount. There’s no special event.

The reader won’t be confused by this message.

Obviously, Fab wants to start promoting sales on their app.

That may be an undertone of the company’s overall marketing campaign.

However, the email doesn’t need to get into all that.

It’s short, sweet, and actionable.

A 2017 report on mobile usage found that 90% of mobile media time is spent on apps, which means Fab’s campaign is smart.

Ultimately, I’m sure they believe this will help increase conversions and revenue.

But for the time being, the message is strictly to drive downloads.

Start with a goal, and make sure your message represents that objective.

Your message needs to deliver value to the reader

Don’t just send an email because it’s been a week since your last message and you think it’s time to send another.

While sending a message once a week may be a viable strategy, each email needs to offer value to the subscriber.

If you’re not offering any value, the reader may consider your message as spam.

Here’s an example from Huckberry:

image11

This message encourages the subscribers to invite their friends to the Huckberry community.

Why would anyone do this?

Because their campaign adds value.

Huckberry is going to give away prizes to people who share this message with friends and family.

If the message just said “invite your friends” without offering an incentive, the subscriber wouldn’t see any value. The email would be useless.

Can you promote your product while providing value?

The answer is: it depends.

For example, DODOcase was able to hype their product before launching it by promoting it to potential customers. As a result, it sold $7 million worth of products within 90 days of their first product launch.

What else offers value to your customers?

Look again at our first example of Fab.

Even though they were promoting their mobile app, the message still provided value. It offered:

  • free shipping
  • free returns
  • best price match

We know that 87% of Americans say price is the most influential factor in their purchasing decisions.

And 80% are influenced by the cost of shipping and delivery speed.

Discounts influence 71% of American shoppers.

What do these three statistics have in common?

Value.

That’s what your customers want, so that’s what you need to give them.

Make sure your ecommerce email focuses on the value you’re offering.

Your subject line is important

What’s the first thing your subscribers see when they get an email from you?

The subject line.

Your subject line is one of the top reasons why people would open your message:

image2

You have to put just as much thought into your subject line as you put into the rest of the message.

If your subject line can’t hook the recipient, they will never see the content of your email.

Here are some guidelines for writing a subject line that will increase your open rates:

  • create urgency
  • use breaking news
  • tell a story
  • stimulate curiosity
  • personalize it
  • send an offer

Those of you who struggle with catchy, creative, or actionable subject lines can refer to these points for inspiration.

Look at how Eddie Bauer creates a sense of urgency with this email:

image4

It’s the last day to get 50% off your fleece purchase.

If the customer doesn’t act now, they will miss out on the deal.

Use this technique for your subject line.

  • Sale ends tonight
  • 48 hours left
  • Limited quantity remaining

You can use these phrases when creating a subject.

I also highly recommend using storytelling in your email subject line:

“Here’s how I did XYZ…”

Say something to that effect.

Stories engage the reader.

Creating engaging content is a top priority for marketers in 2017.

image12

Content marketing experts recognize the importance of stimulating the customer’s curiousity.

Accomplishing this in your subject line puts you on the right track to converting the reader with the rest of your message.

Focus on your call to action (CTA)

Earlier, I talked about the importance of establishing a clear goal for your campaign.

The CTA needs to mirror that objective.

Use words like:

  • Buy now
  • Save today
  • Claim your reward
  • Become a VIP member
  • Choose the style you want
  • Reserve your seat
  • Earn rewards
  • Click to reveal my coupon
  • Upgrade my service

Don’t overwhelm your customers with the CTA.

Pick one and go for it.

Use a button instead of a hyperlink.

Buttons can increase conversion rates by 28% compared to a hyperlink.

Check out this CTA button from De Beers Jewelers:

image8

It’s clear, unique, and creative.

It doesn’t just say something boring like, “Click here.”

You can use bright colors to draw attention to your CTA like Pizza Hut does:

image3

Green has nothing to do with the Pizza Hut logo or brand, but it makes for a perfect CTA button.

This message also adds value, addressing the topic disccused above.

Pizza Hut sends a coupon code with an expiration date to create a sense of urgency.

The campaign encourages their subscribers to order food online.

Utilize drip campaigns

Drip campaigns make sense for ecommerce companies.

They are also known as marketing automation, lifecycle emails, or autoresponders.

Focusing on automation can make your life a lot easier.

What’s a drip campaign?

A drip campaign is a series of emails that get delivered in a predetermined order to your subscribers.

This is a perfect opportunity for you to contact your customers.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say someone makes a purchase on your ecommerce platform.

The first message of your drip campaign can say something like, “Your order is confirmed.”

Try something similar to this template from Fitbit:

image6

The message assures the customer that their order has been placed.

You should always send a confirmation email to your customers.

People are cautious when they enter credit card information on the Internet.

Over the past 5 years, 46% of people in the United States have experienced credit card fraud.

If they don’t get a reassurance that their order went through safely, they could feel uneasy about your website.

Not everyone who orders from your site is an email subscriber.

But you should still ask for their email address to send them this information.

For those people, you can include a CTA button that encourages them to subscribe to your emails.

“Join our email list to receive 20% off your next purchase.”

The second and third phase of your drip campaign will be:

  • Order shipped
  • Order delivered

Again, both of these emails make sense to the recipient.

What will make your readers want to scratch their eyes out?

If they don’t know why they received a message.

Nobody will question this drip sequence.

Finally, you can send a fourth email in the drip campaign to follow up with the buyer.

Include a customer survey in the message to see if they are happy with their purchase.

Surveys help create loyal customers, increase retention rates, and grow profits.

image10

Using the drip campaign method allows you to email a customer four times for just one purchase.

All these messages will be informative and valuable to the recipient.

Don’t forget to send shopping cart abandonment emails

Similar to the last point, shopping cart abandonment messages make sense to the reader.

They won’t be asking, “Why did I get this message?”

The customer was shopping and was just a click or two away from finalizing the purchase until something stopped them.

A number of things could have caused this:

  • unexpected costs like taxes or shipping
  • they were just browsing
  • website crashed or slow loading time
  • didn’t feel comfortable submitting credit card information

These are just a few common responses.

But you still need to send the email to remind your customers to check out.

Sending this message will improve your conversion rate.

image7

You need to include this strategy into your email marketing arsenal.

It’s essential for ecommerce websites.

The message has a clear goal: to finalize the sale.

If you want to add value for the customer, send a promotional code to discount the order.

Embed a video in your message

If you’re worried your readers might be scratching their eyes out because of your current email campaign strategy, I’ve got a solution: mix things up.

Turn your readers into viewers.

Don’t make them read anything. Instead, send a video message.

Your customers want to watch videos.

Don’t believe me?

Well, the numbers don’t lie.

In fact, 43% of people want to see more videos from marketers.

If you’re launching a new product for your ecommerce site, send your subscribers an informative video message.

SproutVideo improved their click-through rate by 60% when they added videos to their email marketing campaign.

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Your ecommerce site can do the same thing.

It’s a great opportunity for you to do a product demonstration or a tutorial.

Conclusion

It’s great you’re utilizing email marketing campaigns for your ecommerce site.

This can’t change, but the content of your messages may need some improvement.

You don’t want your readers wondering why they received a message.

If you’re not adding value to the customer, they might unsubscribe, block you, or mark your message as spam.

How can you write a killer ecommerce email?

Start with your goal.

What’s the purpose of the message?

Once you define an objective, keep the message short and focused on that goal.

Emphasize your call to action.

Your CTA button should be big, bold, bright, and not boring.

Give the customer a reason to click.

Your subject line matters.

Customers won’t bother opening the message if the subject line is weak and doesn’t grab their attention.

If you’re unsure when to email your customers, set up a drip campaign that automatically sends updates after an order is placed.

Send out shopping cart abandonment emails to help improve your conversion rates.

Videos are a great way to turn readers into viewers.

Try to include videos and other interactive emails into your campaign.

Following these tips will help you keep your audience engaged instead of frustrated.

How will you alter the subject line of your next email to increase open rates?

By Neil Patel.

Neil Patel is a New York Times best selling author. He is the co-founder of Crazy Egg and Hello Bar and he helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 online marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 by the United Nations. Neil has also been awarded Congressional Recognition from the United States House of Representatives. Continue reading

Sourced from QUICKSPROUT

By Tiffani Allen

Predictive Analytics: Predicting Customer Behavior to Improve ROI
As marketers, we’re always trying to stay ahead of the curve. But, does that curve factor in what customers or clients are looking for? This infographic shows us how predictive analytics can help do just that. Business 2 Community

IAB sets up Blockchain Working Group for advertising
Does blockchain have a place in marketing? According to recent reports, blockchain is no longer only for those trading bitcoin, it can provide a highly secure and transparent way to manage funds. MarketingLand

2017 Email Marketing Industry Report
Marketers are feeling overwhelmed. They don’t have the resources needed to do the marketing they’d like to do. This is evident in email marketing particularly because many marketers surveyed say email marketing drives ROI but it’s not integrated with their marketing strategy overall. Digital Marketing Depot

[REPORT] The State of Social Video 2017: Marketing in a Video-First World
“According to Cisco, video will make up 80% of consumer online traffic by 2020, and Mark Zuckerberg said he sees video ‘as a mega trend on the same order as mobile.’ Animoto set out to shed light on the video-first landscape.” Animoto

Apple’s New Animojis Are the Latest Sign That Brands Need to Embrace Augmented Reality
Tailing on the news of the release of Apple’s new iPhones, there is an exciting new development. What happens when you mix artificial intelligence and a leading technology company? You get, animojis! Apple’s version of the Snapchat’s Lens, this feature enables brands to connect with younger audiences in a meaningful way. AdWeek

Email Marketing To Total $22.2 Billion In 2025: Study
MediaPost reports: “The total dollar volume of email marketing will hit roughly $22.2 billion by the end of 2025, for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.60%, according to a study by Transparency Market Research. Last year, the annual total was U.S. $4.5 billion.” MediaPost

Google Offers Olive Branch to Publishers by Relaxing Policy on Subscription Sites
According to The Wall Street Journal – but not yet confirmed by Google – Google is ending their ‘First Click Free’ policy on paywall gated articles through SERPs. This could reportedly help publishers boost subscriptions. The Wall Street Journal

Google Search App to Suggest Related Content
Content creators rejoice! Google is reportedly now showing related content in Google searches based on what content other searchers have viewed based on their related searches. Search Engine Journal

By Tiffani Allen

Sourced from Top Rank Marketing

By Amanda Abella 

I’ve spent years only sending a weekly blog post to my list. In 2017, I’m experimenting with using more email marketing strategies in my business. After all, it’s time to make money from products like digital courses and group coaching programs. The result so far is that more email marketing has led to more money in my bank account.

That being said, there’s a right way and a wrong way to use email marketing strategies. Here are some of the strategies that are currently working for me.

Actually send out emails.

I’m currently working with a group of seven women entrepreneurs on their marketing. Many of them let their email lists go completely cold earlier this year. It’s no wonder the money isn’t coming in.

They aren’t alone either. So many of the business owners I speak with on a regular basis aren’t communicating with their email list – at all. Many have fallen victim to thinking that social media has taken over email, which I’ve recently proven is false.

And so the first of these effective email marketing strategies is to actually use email. Start sending out on a regular basis and you’ll soon see your market starting to react more.

Use things from your daily life in your email marketing.

In his book, “Dot Com Secrets” Russell Brunsun talks about sending daily emails to your list. Essentially, you just pick stuff out from your life and find a way to connect it to a service or product.

I’ve been experimenting with this the last few months and I’ve made some observations. First, people like to know what’s going on in your life. Second, it makes it easier to come up with content and stay consistent with email. And finally, it works! I’ve significantly increased my digital course sales since using this strategy.

Here’s an example I recently used which was effective. I sent out an email where I announced I had my first launch that brought in nearly $10,000. At the end of the email readers had an option to apply for a consultation with me. Needless to say the applications wouldn’t stop rolling in!

There are tons of other elements that make these emails effective. For more insight on those I highly recommend checking out Russell Brunsun’s books.

Always have a call to action.

A lot of the emails I see in my inbox each day don’t actually have a call to action. Or, the call to action is a banner ad that has nothing to do with the content of the email.

Each email you send should somehow relate to a service or product. For instance, if I want to make sales for my online writing course, I send a series of emails over a course of a few days. All of the emails have to do with writing and all of them link to my course.

Scarcity.

The idea of scarcity is by far one of the most effective email marketing strategies I use. If someone feels like they are going to lose out on something, they will jump on an opportunity.

That’s why I occasionally send out coupon codes for my products depending on what’s going on throughout the year. Most of the sales for those happen on the last day the coupon is being offered.

Final Thoughts

These four email marketing strategies are extremely effective in earning more revenue. If you’re looking to scale by selling more products, you need to be using email marketing.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/4-email-marketing-strategies-actually-work-01911200#mUofzZIAxklZ57cT.99

By Amanda Abella 

Sourced from Business 2 Community

By Hurera Sheikh, 

For decades, businesses have relied on telemarketing, walk-in meetings and print ads to generate leads. Despite their utility, many companies are shifting towards a combination of both online and offline lead generation techniques to maximize their reach. According to Webbiquity, overall B2B marketing budgets are expected to increase by 5% on average in the coming year with spending on digital marketing programs projected to rise three times as fast. These astounding forecasts mandate a swift revision of your B2B lead generation methods and here are the bleeding-edge online lead generation tools that can help you get there.

1. Virtual Event Marketing

Virtual events have seen a hockey stick growth in the past decade with no signs of stopping and there are several sophisticated virtual event platforms out there, like vFairs, that can help you deliver a stellar virtual event. With Market Research Media stating that the virtual event market will grow from $14 billion in 2018 to $18 billion in 2023, we can see how pivotal a role this avenue has to play in online lead generation and here’s how to make the most of them to generate leads:

Develop a Killer Registration Page: Incorporate a simple signup form, informative yet concise content and good visuals on your registrations page.

Optimize Virtual Booths and Help Desks: By having someone present at each booth 24-7 when the event is live, you can maximize the contacts exchanged over the booths and follow up with these leads when they’re still warm.

Host Stellar Webinars: These are the front-running lead generation tools in content marketing which is why you should include live or pre-recorded webinars in your virtual event.

Leverage Your Resource Center: Add a sense of exclusivity to your event by either charging for or having visitors sign-up for downloading premium content from the virtual event.

Integrate With Ecommerce: With a virtual event, you’re attending visitors, demonstrating products and negotiating prices in real time which makes online transactions a lot more easier, quicker and likely. Use paypal or debit/credit card integrations to make sales during the event and maximize on the shortened sales cycle.

2. PPC (Pay Per Click)

PPC is a digital marketing formula where the advertiser pays an amount (as per suggested bid) each time someone clicks a link on Google SERPs. With PPC, you select the keywords in Google AdWords that you want your website to show up whenever a relevant search is performed which allows you to advertise to people who are genuinely interested in what you are offering.

Here are 4 pro tips to nailing your PPC Campaigns:

Identify What You’re Selling: Run some google searches to find out what words your competitors are focusing on.

Research Your Keywords: If you’re new to PPC Campaigns, it’s best to go for broad keywords that yield wider results. Shift to more specific keywords once you’ve gained deeper insights and also incorporate negative keywords to further specify searches.

Be Specific: If you have categories within a product or service, focus on them by creating themed ad groups. For instance, ‘premium male colognes’ is far more relevant to a buyer looking for a purchase versus a generic phrase like ‘colognes’.

Build Specific Landing Pages and Monitor Them: Don’t land all your ads on the same page. Make separate landing pages for each keyword to maximize your chances of conversion. The idea is to match your site copy with the initial intent.

3. Content Marketing and SEO

With SEO, you can reach leads and route them to your website without paying for the top spot in search results. However, it’s not a lead generating strategy on its own and must be coupled with great content to seal the deal. This marriage of content marketing and SEO, known as Search Engine Marketing, relies largely on a concept called ‘user intent’ that is, the real meaning behind a person’s search that explains what they’re looking for. When someone keys in a certain keyword for search, the pages that rank highest in search results are the ones that best serve its user intent.

For instance, a quick search for ‘content marketing’ shows search results on ‘how-tos’ which show that the phrase serves an ‘inform’ intent. Alternatively, type ‘content automation’ and you’ll see companies that enable content automation which signals a purchase intent. This is valuable information for your SEO campaign because it allows you to develop content to meet the audience’s needs.

Using SEO for Lead Generation:

Enlist Relevant Keywords and Research Them: Use Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to identify terms that are relevant to your industry and put them to the search test to identify the user intent behind each of them..

Segment Keywords According to Sales Funnel: Keywords predominantly showing an inform intent are likely to be used by people at the top of the sales funnel whereas those more used for purchase intent are likely to be used by people further across the sales funnel. Use these insights to develop relevant content and ascertain conversions.

Optimize Existing Content: Review existing content and rephrase parts of it to match keywords with user intent. Go over your eBooks, blog posts, listicles, tutorials and press releases to modify them with keywords according to the sales funnel they are catering to and develop additional content to fill any gaps.

According to ReadyTalk, inbound campaigns generate 3 times more leads than outbound campaigns at 62% the cost. With search engine marketing providing an astonishingly lower cost per lead, it’s about time that you start exploring it to up your lead generation game.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media is a powerful channel to disseminate content and engage audiences at a personal level. It’s a place to sense sentiments as well and develop the “voice” of the brand. Persistence in social media eventually leads to discovery and a boost in incoming leads. Last year, social media channels were the third leading source of website visits for businesses and with 72% internet users engaged with social networking, the platform has immense potential to bring you business. Here’s how:

It Enables You to Publish Varied Content: Social media allows you to express yourself in a variety of mediums from infographics, articles and videos. With repurposing, you can drive a lot of value out of the same material too.

Run Active Q&A Sessions to Become Thought Leaders: Position yourself as a thought leader by adding value in LinkedIn discussions, taking questions on Quora, creating informative posts and responding to comments.

Paid Campaigns: You can run sponsored campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn to grab a more targeted audience. These campaigns allow you to create target audience profiles in great detail based on their demographics, income levels and interests. For instance, LinkedIn you can post an ad in front of C-level execs in your industry if you throw enough spend on it. You’re already creating great things, it’s important that it reaches the right people too and these campaigns facilitate this.

5. Email Marketing

According to Neil Patel, leading author and online marketer, email campaigns surpass social media by 20% in customer retention. With 73% marketers citing emails as crucial to their marketing plans, it becomes clear that they are a formidable source of generating solid leads.

Email marketing can be used to promote your blog content, upcoming events, sales and promotions and quite simply to stay in conversation with your followers and guiding them to a specific call-to-action. This two-way interaction lends emails the edge of being far more personalized which brings a lead another step closer to converting. According to HubSpot, companies that nurture leads through email generate 50% more sales-ready leads on average at 33% of the cost.

There’s no denying the centrality of digital marketing in today’s day and age but investment in its different techniques is only as good as the returns they bring. With the rules of marketing changing fast, it’s crucial to keep pace. Employ these bleeding-edge techniques so that you stay connected with your audience in a meaningful way and allow them to naturally transition from being consumers to paying customers.

Sourced from Huffington Post

By 

Email marketing, despite being the most seasoned type of advanced marketing, is yet a continually developing procedure and what works at this moment presumably won’t work for an additional 5 years.

As of now, when you get some information about the fate of email marketing, one of the huge subjects at the forefront of everybody’s thoughts is man-made brainpower. As of late, we’ve made some long ways in all parts of AI and keeping in mind that we as of now get emails from bots (for the most part in our spam envelope), we’re moving toward the day when we won’t have the capacity to recognize talking with a robot and a genuine human on the web.

To start with, the impediments of email measures and customer programming mean we don’t frequently get the chance to redefine known limits, in fact talking. Besides, we’re an observationally disapproved of the pack, so we tend to emphasize and tweak what’s worked for us before.

Furthermore, perhaps a large portion of all, we realize that any radical change to our sending and content hones presents a genuine danger of deliverability challenges. At the point when our organizations rely upon remaining on the great side of the inbox, it’s justifiable we regularly default to the state of mind “once nibbled, twice modest.” So, a considerable measure of email marketing adheres nearly to the set-up playbook. Why might somebody need to shake the reliable? You’ve seen these down-the-center battles on numerous occasions, and it may appear like their conventional methodologies wouldn’t change at any point in the near future.

In the meantime, even the stodgiest email marketer among us has turned out to be enchanted, regardless of the possibility that only for a minute, with the shiniest new specialized accomplishments: video implanted in email! Live content! Content to-join! In-mail exchanges! Virtual reality select ins!

There’s a proverb that the fleeting effect of innovation changes regularly is slighter than we envision, while their long-haul impacts are more inescapable that we understand. So, while fly packs and flying autos are yet the stuff of space-age dream, it’s anything but difficult to underestimate how drastically a time of web-based social networking has changed the matter of how we devour news and data. The ground has moved underneath our feet while we were gazing at the stars.

By 

Sourced from iamwire

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There are endless marketing channels available to small businesses. These channels range in cost, from nothing to a lot. Small Biz Trends takes a look at 50 of the most effective marketing channels small businesses can use to reach customers.

Marketing Channels for Small Businesses

Facebook

Facebook is free, easy to use and offers a great way for small businesses to reach customers. Simply create a business page on Facebook and start posting relevant content to build awareness of your brand.

Twitter

Twitter is another marketing channel small businesses would be foolish to ignore. Set yourself up with a Twitter account and start attracting followers and ultimately customers by publishing engaging tweets.

Pinterest

Being an inherently visual social media site, Pinterest is great for posting inspiring images and visual content to generate interest in your brand and reach out to customers.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another great marketing channel for small businesses looking to optimize marketing efforts. Join LinkedIn groups to help establish yourself as a leader in your field.

TV Ads

If your marketing budget will stretch that far, why not market your wares on a TV ad? Television adverts are still one of the most effective ways to help brands and business sell their products and services.

Newspaper Ads

Who said print was dead? Placing an advert in a national or local newspaper (depending on your budget) is an effective marketing channel for drawing attention to your business and reaching out to customers.

Radio Ads

Advertising on a local radio station can be a cost-effective way to reach out to customers and build your business’s community presence.

Websites

Does your website really sell your business and its products or services? If it doesn’t, now’s the time to redesign your website so it shows your business to its optimum.

Flyers

People can rarely resist reading a flyer or leaflet that lands on their doorstep. Design a colorful and eye-catching flyer of your business, sit back and expect an influx of phone calls!

Google AdWords

Use Google AdWords as a marketing channel to help your business appear on the search engines when people type in keywords relevant to your business and niche.

Blogs

Start a blog and provide it with fresh, original and thought-provoking content on a regular basis to help improve your website’s SEO and make you be seen as a leading figure in your industry.

Infographics

Another effective marketing channel is to create and publish an engaging infographic. Such visually intriguing content can attract visitors to your site with the view of turning them into customers.

Guest Posts

Making guest appearances on other people’s blogs is a marketing channel that small business should not overlook. Guest blogging is a great way to build authority in your niche amongst customers and peers.

Reddit

Submitting content onto Reddit will help it be viewed by a wider audience. Featuring a news aggregator and discussion boards, Reddit is an effective channel for interacting with your audience.

Email Marketing

Customize personal and bespoke personal messages to your customers through email marketing. This marketing channel is great for communicating discounts and offers with customers.

Local Marketing

The likes of YellowPages.com and Google+ list local companies, alongside their contact details. Get your business visible on local listings so you don’t miss out on customer conversions.

Trade Show Displays

Again, if your marketing budget can stretch this far, get yourself a stand at a trade show relevant to your business. Displaying your products and services at trade shows will help build your brand and customer base.

Trade Show Attendance

If you can’t afford to display at a trade show, make sure you attend them, with a barrage of business cards in your pocket. Trade shows provide a great opportunity to mix with other peers and potential clients.

Quora

Quora enables you to interact with other members by submitting questions. You can also answer already submitted questions, an effective way to heighten your status as an expert in your field.

Networking

Do a quick search of any networking events in your area and attend them! Networking is an effective way to put your business in front of like-minded professionals and potentially reach new customers.

Coupon Sites

Another marketing channel your small business shouldn’t disregard are coupon sites. If you’ve got a discount, offer or deal on, let people know about it by listing the deal on coupon sites.

Skype

Another often overlooked marketing channel is Skype. Skype allows users to add connections and send instant messages, meaning you can find and reach new customers from your desktop or mobile device.

Instagram

Instagram is another inherently visual social media channel savvy small business owners should be active on. Grab yourself an Instagram account and start posting inspiring photos and videos to promote your business.

Public Speaking

Market yourself as an authoritative figure in your industry by offering to speak at important events. If your audience is impressed with your speech, they could be a lot more willing to become loyal customers.

YouTube

There’s no channel quite like YouTube to publish engaging videos related to your products and services. Widen your customer base by posting video content on YouTube.

Case Studies

Customers simply love to read case studies about a business that give them reassurance about using a specific brand or company. Create and publish case studies about your satisfied customers to help attract new ones!

Local Business Groups

Another effective way for small business owners to network and build up some effective business contacts is to join local business groups. There’s bound to be some niche-specific business groups in your area.

Webinars

Drive interest to your company and turn webinar guests into paying customers by hosting informative and engaging webinars.

Testimonial Pages

If your website doesn’t yet have a testimonials page, now’s the time to create one. Testimonials and word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective forms of marketing there is.

Forums

Industry-specific forums can be an effective place to search for individuals who may be interested in your products or services.

Facebook Advertising

As well as being active on Facebook, make use of Facebook advertising. More than two million SBEs advertise on Facebook, which is an inexpensive marketing channel for small businesses.

Product Freebies

Staff can be fantastic marketing assets. Giving your staff company freebies will help them spread the word of just how great your business and its products are!

Flickr

Interacting with other users in groups or comments on Flickr can be an effective way for a small business to reach out to potential customers.

Newspaper Columns

If you’re good at writing, creating regular columns in a newspaper can do your brand’s image a world of good. Readers of your inspiring column could quickly turn into paying customers.

Direct Mail Marketing

Yes so-called ‘snail mail’ does still exist and shouldn’t be underestimated. We rarely ignore a letter through our doorstep, particularly in the envelope is designed in an eye-catching and intriguing way.

Google’s Local Offerings

Ensure your business appears on Google Maps by taking advantage of Google’s local offerings. Create a Google My Business account to help your business be seen online.

Vimeo

Upload company-related videos on Vimeo and give your services or products the publicity they deserve on this popular video-sharing site.

Google+

Google+ is another marketing channel small business can benefit from. By creating a Google+ account, small businesses increase their chances of received highly targeted visitors from organic searches on Google.

Other Social Tools

Sign up to use social tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer. Link the tools to your social media accounts and you can start scheduling posts for the future, meaning your business can exploit the marketing opportunities of social media more efficiently.

Search Engine Marketing

Obtain higher rankings on the search engines by researching the most relevant and effective keywords for your industry and business.

Content Marketing

Without going overboard on keyword saturation so you’re seen as spammy by the search engines, aim to scatter the keywords naturally throughout your online content to help boost your rankings.

Your Own Networking Event

If you can’t find a networking event in your local area, why not host your own? Advertise the event to get as many people there as possible and to give your business optimum publicity.

Business Awards

There’s nothing quite as effective in marketing a business than entering business awards, especially if you win!

Landing Pages

Creating landing pages, which drive visitors to land on the page, are a great way for businesses to generate leads by enticing interested visitors to carry out the call-to-action highlighted on the page.

About Us Pages

Ensure your small business stands out from the crowd by creating an eye-catching ‘About Us’ page. This is your opportunity to inform prospective customers about what makes you special.

Snapchat

Snapchat allows users to share photos and videos for 24 hours before the content disappears. This social media channel is starting to catch on in the world of business marketing.

Meetup

Meetup can be an effective marketing channel as it allows you to share events and meetings to broaden the reach and gain interest in your events.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is another potential marketing channel that often goes overlooked. This mobile messaging app allows you to create groups and communicate with other members via voice, text or video.

Magazine Ads

If your marketing budget is big enough, placing an advert in a magazine or brochure that’s specific to your niche is an effective way to reach new customers.

Billboard Advertising

Another traditional marketing channel that should not be ignored is billboard ads. Place your company on a billboard in a busy area and don’t be surprised if you get an influx of new customers knocking at your door.

Tablet Photo via Shutterstock

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Sourced from Small Business Trends

With all the buzz around Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, not to mention mobile marketing to smartphones… it’s tempting to think that, as an online entrepreneur, you don’t have to use email marketing (which is basically direct mail brought into the internet era). Some pundits even say email marketing has fallen by the wayside… but they’ve been saying it for the last 10 years or more.

But email marketing should still be a major part of most online businesses because it’s still very effective.

  • According to Campaign Monitor, an email is six times more likely to get a click than a tweet.
  • McKinsey says email is much more effective than Facebook or Twitter at landing new customers — about 40 times more effective at that.
  • Direct Marketing Association data shows that email marketing has the highest conversion rate (66 percent) when it comes to purchasing from marketing messages — more than social media, direct mail, and other channels.

You’ve seen email marketing before. Think about when you buy something at an online retailer. Soon after your order, you start receiving emails about upcoming sales and promotions for similar items, right

Or perhaps you were reading a blog about investing and saw an ad offering a free report on a certain stock play, along with a free daily email newsletter on the stock market.

You gave them your email address and soon started getting messages from them in your inbox. Those are just two of the thousands of ways companies doing business online use email marketing.

Yes, all those new social platforms and marketing channels are important. And they can be part of your marketing efforts — in fact, they should and can work together.

But email marketing does something they can’t do and it’s why it should be a major part of your business.

Why Email Marketing Works

Many website visitors aren’t ready to “pull the trigger” and make a purchase when they first visit your website or e-commerce store. Email marketing helps you build a relationship so that the prospect comes to know, like, and trust you. It familiarizes them with your product(s) or services(s).

The vital part of this strategy is that you must provide valuable free information. You can’t just send them sales offers all the time. You must also position yourself as an expert in your niche and show the reader how you are different and better than your competitors. You can let your personality come through here — that will also set you apart from other companies in the same or similar niches.

This is why “buying” email lists of random people is not a good idea. It could get you flagged as “spam” and, at the very least, you’ll be ignored because those people never signed up for your list… why should they read your emails if they don’t know you?

Instead, it’s best to grow your own email list from the ground up because you know the source of those emails — you’ve set up your lead generation campaign.

And when those people sign up they do so because they are interested in what you have to offer.

From Sign Up to Sale: How Email Marketing Works

Let’s walk through the process of email marketing.

One of the first things you have to do is start building your list of email subscribers and put a system in place so you can add new subscribers consistently. Yes, that can seem daunting. But you can do this, and, in many cases, you don’t have to spend much, if any, money.

You could have an ad or post on Facebook, a pay-per-click ad, a banner ad, a video on YouTube…. Whatever it is, you’ll have a compelling message that, hopefully, convinces the prospect to click your link to get more information… and often a limited time offer of some sort to create urgency. You should include a link on whatever type of ad you use.

When they click on the link they are taken to a landing page that has strong copy that reveals the biggest benefits of your product or service. Show the prospect how their life will change. You want this landing page, also called a signup page or squeeze page, to be short and to the point.

It is possible to send them to your main website. But it could be distracting with all the links and different pages. With a landing page there is only one message and one action to take: submit your email.

The box to include their email address and name should be prominent on the page — with something like a big button that says Sign Up. You don’t want your visitors to miss it.

You could even have multiple signups, say another one at the bottom of your landing page. At least one should be “above the fold” so the prospect does not have to scroll down to see it. Many experts say the best spot for a signup box is near the top right corner of the page.

To incentivize the prospect to sign up, it’s important to offer them some sort of bonus – something free – like an ebook, access to a webinar, or whatever attractive freebie you can give them that is related to your business. But you don’t have to bust your but to put this bonus together. You could collect together past blog posts into one PDF, for example.

Once, they’ve signed up, you send your new subscribers an initial email with access details for the bonus or an attached download. This is done automatically in your email system. This type of email is called an autoresponder.

Now they’re on your list and you can start marketing to them in earnest.

Using Automated Email Marketing Systems

It’s important to note that you won’t be collecting names or sending out emails by hand, one email at a time. You’d soon be overwhelmed by the volume! You can use systems like Constant Contact, Get Response, AWeber, and Campaign Monitor to manage your email lists and broadcast your emails.

Systems like this can also track leads, opt-in rates, sales, open rates, click-through rates and other important stats. You may have heard of Infusion — this is a very powerful system in this regard. It’s something to keep in mind for the future as your business — and your need for more sophisticated marketing efforts — grows.

It’s important to note that these systems make your job a whole lot easier through automation. The leads can sign up, be added to the list, and start getting emails, even making sales… while you sleep. With these systems, you can send the same email to thousands of people at the same time, automatically. You could potentially set up a schedule of emails going out for weeks or more at a time. You can even manually send emails if you want to run campaigns or send out messages on the fly.

There is a flipside — any mistake you make is multiplied by thousands and could mean a bunch of lost subscribers or lost sales.

So make sure an email is just how you want it before you hit Send! Look for typos, make the information is correct, and the links to any sales offers work.

You can usually do a test mailing to just yourself to confirm everything is good to go. So make sure you do so. And, even if you have everything automated for weeks, it pays to check in every once in awhile to make sure everything is running smoothly.

What You Should Email Your List

Once you have your leads on your list, you often send them an introductory series of emails to get to know you. And, because you want to strike while the iron is hot and they’re interested in your products, you can also include some offers for low-cost items.

This series of emails is often called a gauntlet. Again, all sent automatically. And every new subscriber goes through it.

A gauntlet could be three emails, five, 10… whatever works or your niche and business. Figure out what’s best for you through testing.

Once they’ve gone through the gauntlet, your leads are added to your regular email list. You should have a consistent schedule, sending around the same time, usually daily.

Now there are different approaches to marketing to your new audience by email.

  • Email newsletters packed with useful content.
  • Short emails — quick to read. Remember people are busy and get dozens of emails daily.
  • Links to videos with useful content.
  • Announcements of product launches.
  • Industry news and your commentary.
  • Sales offers.

What you send should be a mix of useful “editorial” content and sales offers, product launches, affiliate offers, and similar.

The editorial content is easy to put together. It could be your take on trends in your industry. Lists of top 10 best practices in your niche. If you’re in the weight loss niche — diet and exercise tips. An inspirational story of one of your past customers. Advice for something related to your niche. For example, if you sell a dog training course — you could give a way a free tip.

You get the idea. This free information is kind of a “tease” for your paid products. To get the full story, so to speak, they have to become a paid up customer. That’s why you throw in the sales offers in your emails too — to give them a way to buy while they’re excited about your products and your business.

Turning Your Email Leads into Valuable Customers

Just by signing up, the people who have signed up for your email list, called “names” (a holdover from direct mail) or leads, have shown an interest in what you’re offering. This makes them valuable. You want to treat that list of names of well and not miss the opportunity to turn that interest into sales. There is a specific course to follow.

Offer a low-cost introductory product first. This is known as a front end. Then you can start offering the buyers of that low-cost product steadily higher priced products.

Fewer people on the list will buy the “expensive” products. But the idea is that through your name collection/lead generation (often shortened to lead gen) efforts, you will be constantly brining new names on to your file, or list. Out of those, a certain percentage will buy. A smaller percentage will buy higher priced products. And the smallest percentage will buy your most expensive offerings and many of your products in all… think of them like the “whales” in a casino.

You want to cultivate your back end buyers by offering good products and great customer service. They’re VIPs.

Also, important for the growth of your business is that you’re always adding new customers. That’s what’s going to grow your revenues and make your business profitable. You can never stop generating new leads because old leads will fall off the list or start ignoring your emails… and many will never buy. So, it’s key to not let your list stagnate. Keep it fresh with an infusion of new names — potential buyers.

Email Marketing Best Practices: How to Maximize Your Profits

In the old “Wild West” days of email marketing, you could send out just about any message and make money. But as email marketing has matured and become more sophisticated, so has the audience. And you need to keep that in mind as you prepare email campaigns.

Here are some best practices for pulling a profit from an email list:

  • Use engaging subject lines that grab attention and compel the reader to click.
  • Get whitelisted. You don’t want to be considered spam and then banned. Each service like Gmail has a way to do this. In your first email to them, send the instructions to the subscriber.
  • Mix in sales offers with useful content — you can’t pitch every day.
  • Find the best times of day to send messages to your list — determine by testing what your open rates are at different times. Then run with the winner.
  • And with so many people reading their email on their smartphones — of all email sent 56 percent are opened on mobile devices, according to Litmus Email Analytics, it’s important that your emails be mobile-friendly. This is a basic option in most email delivery programs you might use.

Through all this offer good customer service. Make sure products, whether are physical or digital, are delivered on time. Respond to customer questions in a timely manner. If a customer brings up a problem, try to solve it.

Taking Your Email Marketing to the Next Level

You might be pulling in some nice revenues from your email marketing based business using the techniques above. But there are ways to improve your results.

You shouldn’t set up a campaign once and then try to let it run forever. You never know when your copy, your offer, or your product will just stop resonating with the marketplace. So the key is to always try to be improving, which you do through testing.

  • Test by offering different copy in the lead generation ads and on the landing page.
  • Offer different bonuses for sign up for your list.
  • Change the price of the products you offer in sales messages.
  • Try to advertise in different ways in different channels.

For effective and actionable results, you should do A/B, head to head tests. For example, you could send half of your list one piece of copy, then the other half pretty much the same copy — with one major change — like a new headline, for example.

You send out both messages at the same time and see which got the best results. Then you run with the winner. This is a constant process. And this way you’ll maximize your profits.

Because you’ll be doing so much testing, tracking is so important. You should always know:

  • How many people visit your page
  • How many of those folks sign up
  • How many people open your emails
  • How many people buy
  • How much each individual name on your list has bought
  • The average lifetime value (how much people buy while on your list)

Your Next Steps

To be sure, this is a lot to take in. Email marketing has a lot of moving parts. But at its heart is a simple process.

So start simply. Set up some basic email campaigns to get practice in writing copy, setting up landing pages, using automated email system, testing offers, and creating content to create a relationship with your prospects and customers.

Over time, you’ll get experience and practical skills so you can take your email marketing business to the next level.

Sourced from the balance