LizTomey.com

You’re sitting at your computer trying to think of an email to send to your list, and absolutely nothing comes to you.

How many times has that happened to you?

I’ve been using email marketing for a very long time, and to this day I still time struggle with what I should send to my list other than a promotional offer or my latest blog post.

Today I looked through my email stats and picked out what emails have done the best for me over the years and I came up with 8 winners. You can use any of these 8 ideas to create your own email to send to your list.

Let’s get started…

Email 1: The Q&A Email

Do you have questions that come in from your readers? Take a question, answer it, but send the question along with your answer as an email to your entire list.

Put in some serious effort answering the question because if one person has that question there are probably a lot of people who have that question or a lot of people who don’t even know they need to know that information.

You could put a call to action in this email, invite your readers to send you questions, etc.

Email 2: The Tools Emails

Are there a few to several tools that you use in your niche? List them out, describe what each one is used for, and create an email to your readers with your list of tools. You could make this a profitable email by getting your affiliate link for the tools if the tools you use have an affiliate program available.

I do this and send out the same email (I update it if there are any changes.) once every 6 months. This is an email you can use over and over as you use new tools, change tools, and get new readers.

Email 3: The How Can I Help Email

People joined your list for something. Maybe it was a discount for your store, maybe it was to get a free cheatsheet, or 1 of 1,000,000 other things. But there is something you can do to help your readers. Don’t know what it is? Then ask them!

Create an email to check in on your readers and ask them if there is anything you can do to help them. This shows you care and establishes trust with your readers which is a HUGE key to getting them to buy from you.

Email 4: The Quick Tip Email

Can you think of something quick you could tell your readers that would help them? Type up a short email with your tip in it and send it out.

I recently did this with a new Facebook friend’s list manager I found. It’s free to use, I loved it, so I did a very short video on how to use it, and sent out an email to my list with why they should be doing it and a link to the video. Super easy and they loved me for it.

Email 5: The Featured Content Email

Do you have a blog or a place on the Internet where you create and post your content? Then take your top 3-5 pieces of content, create an email briefly describing each piece of content with links to them, and send it to your list.

You could also do it by topic. I’m currently working on an email that will point my readers to my best email marketing blog posts. My blog posts always point to something that make me money so the email should bring some sales in, AND show my people my deep knowledge.

Email 6: The Preview Email

If you’re currently working on a product or service that you want to launch or if your network marketing program has some updates you could send out a preview email to your list.

Talk about what’s coming, take pictures or videos if you can, and send out a preview email.

Email 7: The Rate Me Email

You need to keep your finger on the pulse of your email list and the best way to do that is… ask them what they think.

You can put together an email telling your readers that you’re trying to help them with XYZ, and then ask them to rate their experience with you.

You could do that with a simple feedback form, or any of the hundreds of tools out there that will allow you to do that. This is a great way to work with your list and make sure you’re meeting their needs!

Email 8: The Success Story Email

Do you have a success story about yourself that is related to your niche? Maybe it’s related to your product or maybe it’s related to a product you’re an affiliate for. Type up your success story and email it to your list. This could encourage them to buy what made you successful or simply inspire them. Either way you’re helping them!

Okay so there you go… 8 different emails that you can use to send an email to your list. Pick one and email your list right now!

Need more help with writing emails? Then I highly recommend you pick up the My Email Templates package that has 101 fill-in-the-blank email templates in it to help you to start creating emails that get people to open up their emails, read them, and click on the links inside. These will help you create any kind of email you want and quickly! You can grab access to the My Email Templates package at http://www.MyEmailTemplates.com

Good job! If you’re reading this then you’ve done the work! You’ve created something to get people on your email list. Now what do you send them?

Well the first thing you need to do is create a “Welcome Email Sequence” that will allow you to on-board your new prospects.

Getting everything set up is only 1/3 the battle.

Another 1/3 of the battle is getting your people to know, like, and trust you.

Side Note: So you’re not wondering what the other 1/3 is, it’s getting traffic to your email list building page and getting prospects to actually opt-in to your email list. 😉 

Why do you want them to do that?

So they will do the things you want like open your emails, click on your links, signup for things you want them to signup for, buy your products, and anything else you want.

If you get your welcome email sequence right you can have a tribe of people who love you and do what you want them to do.

Don’t abuse this new super power. 😉

Okay so you might be asking what an email sequence is?

It’s exactly what it says it is. A sequence of emails that a prospect gets in an order of your choosing to welcome them into your business.

Side Note: You’ll need an autoresponder to pull this off. If you’re building your list you probably already have one of these. 🙂

You write your emails and then you load them into your autoresponder.

There are all kinds of email sequences you can create (you can find templates for a different email sequence templates by clicking here), but today I want to talk specifically about a welcome email sequence.

Let’s go over the must have emails…

Email 1: The Welcome Email

If you promised your prospect something for joining your email list then this is the email where you want to give it to them. Be it a download page or a link directly to what you offered.

I also recommend giving a little blurb about what they should expect from you going forward.

You can state how often you’ll email, content you’ll cover, other free things they’ll get etc. Your blurb needs to make them WANT to stay on your list and NOT unsubscribe once they’ve gotten what they were promised. You want them to read the rest of your email sequence and any other emails you ever send them.

Next…

Email 2: The Reminder Email

In the second email I send to my new prospects I usually send it 24 hours after they have gotten the first one and I use it as a reminder email.

I remind them of whatever they signed up for and tell them how to get it again. I then tell them I’m doing this just to ensure that they got what they were promised. I do care that they get what they were promised and this shows them that I care. That helps with the trust aspect.

In this email I also give a little blurb about how I can help them which will make them again want to stay on my list and open my emails.

Hot Tip: You don’t have to write pages of content for these emails. “Blurbs” or “chunks of information” is all you need. They don’t have all day and unless you’re REALLY entertaining they’re not going to read a big long email anyway. Keep it short and simple. You can send these people multiple emails with your multiple “blurbs” in them. To get people to know how you can help them and get to know you.

Email 3: The Know You Email

Okay this is when it gets tricky because people really don’t want to know anything about you. All they care about is what you can do for them. There’s nothing wrong with that.

So we have to get creative and slip in a blurb here and there about our life while also giving them what they want. Although they don’t want to know your life story really, slipping in relatable information about you will get them to know and like you. Those are key things, remember?

I recommend you start off your email with a little blurb about you.

What were you doing right before this email? What are you going to do after this email? How has your day gone (keep is positive)?

Example:

Hi there!

So before I head off and go pick up my son from school I wanted to send you this quick email. You gotta love sitting in the car line at school, said no one ever. 🙂 I can’t wait for this kid to get his drivers license. Can you relate to being a busy parent, too? I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but some days. Whew!

Anyway I wanted to send you (this thing to help you with this thing).

/End Example

There’s a short example for you.

The formula here is a small blurb about you + something to help your prospect = Your prospect starts to know and like you which is going to lead to making you money. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. I might have mentioned that a few times now. 😉

Next email…

Email 4: The Story Email

Now it’s time to really get into the mind of your prospect. Bring in a short story that is about you and related to what you’re helping them with.

For example in one of my “story emails” I talk about losing my mom and how having my own business allowed me to take care of her while she was sick. A very true story, but I use it to really hit people with how having your own online business can give you freedom when you NEED it and you want it. This is all related to my niche. You need to use this tactic for your niche.

Something I want to mention before we continue on. You don’t have to use email 5 right away. You could do a couple of Email 3 and Email 4 in a row, and then incorporate Email 5 from below.

Email 5: The Trust Email

In this email you need to get your prospects to trust you. As they get to know and like you they will start to trust you, but you need to do more to get them to really trust you.

This is the last key in getting them to spend money with you or signup for things you recommend.

So, how can you establish trust in this email?

* Do you have social proof to backup your expertise or your offers? Then take screenshots and share those in an email. Do this in a conversational way and not in a “oh look at me” tone.

* Always tell them how to get in contact with you and be prompt on replies. People want to deal with people they at least “feel” they can contact. By having an easy and fast way to contact you, that will make your people trust you.

* Create an email that talks about mistakes you’ve made related to the topics you talk to your prospect about and be very transparent with them about the mistakes. They need to see you’re a human too.

* Do a “behind the scenes” email. Show pictures and videos of your life that is related to the topics you talk to your prospect about.

Anything you can think of to create trust needs to go into your trust email, but only use one option per trust email you create.

I do recommend you do at least one more Trust Email here before ending your welcome email sequence.

A few more tips before we wrap things up here.

There is no hard and fast rule for how many emails should be in your “Welcome Email Sequence”. Maybe it’s 5 or 10 or even more. Create a “Welcome Email Sequence” that WORKS. That’s what matters. I want to give you some more ideas of other things you can mention in your “Welcome Email Sequence”:

1. Tell them to create a folder in their email to keep all of your emails in. This will have them looking for your emails and keeping them to go back to.

2. Introduce your social channels to your prospects and encourage them to follow you on the ones they use.

3. If you have a page that has all of your products and services listed you could mention it to introduce them to your products and services.

4. Create a “recap” email after your last email in the sequence. This email could include what they signed up for, what to expect from you, how to keep up with you, etc. It’s simply a recap email of all the emails you’ve sent them in your welcome sequence.

This kind of email works well because things you tell your prospect don’t always stick with them. You’ve got to talk about them repeatedly.

5. Unexpected freebies that are related to your niche. Everyone loves a good surprise! What can you give your prospects to help them?

By the time your prospects get through your welcome email sequence they will know, like, and trust you and be ready to do the things you want them to do.

The “Welcome Email Sequence” is the secret sauce that so many miss in their email marketing. Make sure you create the best one you can and review it from time to time as you become more knowledgeable and edit as needed.

I wish you much success in your email marketing journey. If you’d like save a tone of time and use fill-in-the-blank templates for every email sequence you’ll ever need I highly recommend the My Email Templates package at http://www.MyEmailTemplates.com 

Every Internet business owner looks for ways to generate more income from their email campaigns. Well here’s where it all starts: you need to get people in the habit of opening your emails. 

If your subscribers are not opening your emails, then they’re obviously not going to see your awesome content and strong calls to action.

So how do you get people in the habit of tapping open your emails the second those emails hit the recipients’ inboxes?

Take a look at these seven proven ways…

1. Send Emails When Your Audience Can Take Action 

Since so many people have mobile phones, most folks are almost always connected and monitoring their inboxes. However, just because they’re monitoring emails doesn’t mean they have time to take action on them.

If they open your email and don’t have time to take action, then it’s unlikely they’ll remember to take action later. By that time, their inbox will have filled up with your competitors’ emails. Yikes!

So what you need to do is figure out when your readers are not only online, but they also have time to respond.

Here are four steps you can take to figure out the best time to email your list:

1. See when most of your subscribers originally joined. For example, if a lot of people seemed to join on Tuesday morning, then that’s probably a good time to send emails.

2. Think about your audience. Where do they live? Do they work? If so, what are their work hours? What kind of hobbies do they have and when do they do them? Answer these types of questions, and you’ll get a better idea of when your prospects have time to read emails.

3. Look at when your audience is otherwise active. For example, when are they commenting on your blog or social media pages?

4. Test and track. Ultimately, this is the best way to figure out exactly what days and times are best for mailing your subscribers.

Next…

2. Broadcast Emails Regularly 

The idea here is to get your subscribers used to receiving your emails on certain days at certain times. Indeed, you want your subscribers to look forward to your regular emails.

For example, you might create a regular feature, such as offering a new freemium every Friday. You can bet your readers will eagerly open every email they get from you on Fridays!

3. Offer Your Best Content and Deals 

Sometimes email marketers figure that since they’re offering their newsletter for free, then they can offer content that’s worth zero dollars. That is just the opposite of what you want to be doing. Instead, you should be offering your BEST content to your readers.

Learn this…

You want your readers to be thoroughly impressed every time they open your emails.

That means you should be consistently sending out high-quality content. Every. Single. Email.

You should also be offering your best deals to your subscribers. Reward them for staying on your list by offering bonuses and discounts that they can’t get anywhere else.

4. Build Anticipation 

The idea here is to use your current email to boost response for an upcoming email. You do this by building anticipation, as well as telling readers exactly when to expect the next email.

For example: “Stay tuned, because tomorrow you’ll discover a surprising way to save thousands of dollars on your taxes this year. You won’t want to miss this, so keep an eye on your inbox…”

5. Use Relevant Subject Lines

You can get away with using irrelevant subject lines… once. But once you do one “bait and switch” where the subject line doesn’t match the content, your readers are going to lose faith in you. And that means they’re not going to open your future emails.

Let me give you an example…

Subject line: Here’s your $5487 affiliate check…

Email: If you join my affiliate program today, you could be receiving emails like this every month!

See how that works? You get people thinking they’re getting money, and then you pull a fast one on them. They’re going to be disappointed. They’re going to trash your email. And they might even unsubscribe.   In other words, use only relevant subject lines … not “clickbait” type subject lines!

6. Format For Mobile

More and more people are checking their emails on their mobile phones, which means you need to be absolutely sure your emails look good. Of course if you’re sending text, it’s generally no problem. Just be sure to have plenty of white space, and put links on separate lines so they stand out and they’re easy to tap/click.

And what if you’re sending HTML emails? Then you need to be sure you’re using a responsive design template. This means the design, images and columns should naturally grow or shrink to best fit the user’s device and screen size.

7. Resend Unopened Emails

Most every major email service provider (such as Aweber) provide tools for you to track how many people are opening your emails and clicking on your links. Better yet, these service providers also give you the tools to segment out the people on your list who didn’t open your last email. And that means you can send a follow-up emails to those folks.

Heads up…

Don’t send out same email with the exact same subject line and pre-header (preview) information. It’s possible the recipient decided to simply not open your last email because it didn’t grab their attention. So offer something new—a new benefit, and/or a pinch of curiosity to persuade recipients to open this second email.

Okay so… You just discovered seven proven-effective ways to get your subscribers in the habit of opening your emails. If you apply AT LEAST one of these tactics, you’re bound to see an increase in your open rate and overall conversions. But don’t just choose one method. Instead, put them all to work for you as soon as possible to see what they can do for your response rates!

Need email marketing help? The Email Marketing Kickstart Workshop is ready for you to enroll! If you want to learn how to use email marketing in your online business, get people to open your emails, click your links, and buy then you NEED to grab your spot right now at http://www.LearningIM.com/email-marketing-kickstart-workshop

It’s a problem as old as old as email marketing itself: a poorly responding list. Sometimes marketers struggle to get clicks, they struggle to get people to open their emails, and they struggle to get readers to take definite action (such as purchasing a product).

Why does this happen?

There are actually quite few mistakes that can kill your results. Are you making one or more of these mistakes too?

Read on to find out…

Mistake 1. Setting Incorrect Expectations

From the very moment someone lands on your lead page or even reads the very first email you send, you should be telling them what to expect with regards to your list.

Specifically, this includes:

What kind of content they can expect to receive. Promos? Special discounts and other deals? “How to” instructional content? Freemiums? Curated content? Some combination of these? Whatever it is, let your readers know upfront what they get.

How often they’ll receive content. People don’t mind getting frequent content, as long as they know to expect it. However, what is a problem is if you email infrequently, such as less than once per week. If you don’t get in touch on a regular basis, your subscribers are going to forget about you. That means they’ll do business with your competitor who reaches out to them more frequently.

Related to this…

Mistake 2. Repurposing Your List

Some email marketers don’t see much of a response from their lists, so they repurpose it. In other words, they start sending content that violates their readers’ expectations. This is a mistake that will kill your results.

For example, maybe you’ve told your list they’ll receive “content and tips” once a week. But then you start hammering them with promos once a day.

Or maybe you have a bodybuilding list that started off focusing on specific lifts, but now focuses almost exclusively on nutrition. You’re likely to see your conversions drop, because current subscribers primarily signed up to get lifting info, not nutrition info.

So how do you fix this?

Obviously, the first step is to plan your list strategy carefully so that you don’t end up repurposing it midstream.

Secondly, if you DO make a major change, then warn your readers. Let them know what’s coming for a few weeks before you make the change. Be sure to also change your lead page and welcome emails to reflect these changes.

Mistake 3. Sending Untargeted Emails

There are actually two parts to this mistake:

The first part is making the mistake of simply not understanding what your market wants.

There are three ways to fix this mistake:

Do your market research. Find out what your market is already buying, and then put similar offers in front of them.

Survey your list. Find out what their problems are and find out what kinds of solutions they’re seeking.

Test your offers. If they don’t perform, find an offer that does produce high conversions with your list.

The second part is making the mistake of not segmenting your list.

You can fix this problem with these steps:

Separate your prospect lists from your customer lists.

Separate customer lists according to what they purchase.

Offer freemiums to your prospects to help you segment by their interests.

Once you have these micro-targeted lists, you’ll be better able to send out targeted content and offers that produce high conversion rates.

Next…

Mistake 4. Crafting Poor Subject Lines

Your subject lines can make or break the success of each email you send. If they’re boring, overhyped or irrelevant, people won’t even bother to open your email.

You can fix this mistake by applying these tips:

Offer a big benefit. Let readers know what’s in it for them if they open the email. (E.G., “Here’s the #1 way to get more traffic…”)

Don’t overhype. It’s okay to make a bold promise if you can deliver big-time within the email, but don’t exaggerate and hype things up. (Here’s an example of what NOT to do: “How To Make $1 million in 48 hours!”)

Use social proof. People are more likely to do something if others are doing it too. (E.G., “Find out why so many smart marketers love this app…”)

Next…

Mistake 5. Ignoring the Pre-Head

The pre-head is that little bit of text that is shown in the message preview, which is accessible before the recipient actually opens the email. If the subject line gets their attention, then they’ll often look at the preview. If the preview doesn’t hold their attention, they’re not going to bother opening the email to read the rest.

Point is, you need to make the first 100 characters of your email absolutely gripping. Tell a story. Present a big benefit. Build anticipation for what’s coming. Make people curious. In short, give people a compelling reason to open your email.

Mistake 6. Making The Email About You

One of the best ways to lose your readers’ attention is to make the email about you. It’s one thing to tell a relevant story about yourself, but it’s another thing entirely to make the entire email about you. When that happens, readers bail out. You can bet they won’t see your calls to action.

So how do you avoid or fix this mistake?

There’s actually a simple “quick and easy” way to ensure you’re making your email about your readers and not yourself. Simply take a look at how many times you use words like “you” versus how many times you use words like “I” or “me.”

HINT: You should use the word “you” MUCH more frequently than words like “I” or “me.” You should be using the word “you” about three times more often than self-referential words.

And finally…

Mistake 7. Offering a Weak Call to Action

Your subscribers can be hooked and engaged throughout your entire email, but you can still blow it at the end by offering a weak call to action (or, worse yet, NO call to action).

You see, people don’t click on a button or link just because it’s right in front of their face.

You need to do two things:

#1: tell them specifically to click on that link.

#2: give them a good reason to click now.

For example: “Click here now to take advantage of this special 50% off pricing – but hurry, this offer ends tomorrow!”

Okay so those are the basic mistakes… I’m sure there are a ton more. 😉

Did you discover that you’re making one or more of the mistakes you just learned about? The good news is that you also learned how to fix these mistakes or avoid them altogether. You can even use this as a checklist of mistakes to avoid the next time you send out an email. Here’s to better conversion rates!

Need email marketing help? The Email Marketing Kickstart Workshop is ready for you to enroll! If you want to learn how to use email marketing in your online business, get people to open your emails, click your links, and buy then you NEED to grab your spot right now at http://www.LearningIM.com/email-marketing-kickstart-workshop