Part Two – Broad Cast Emails
Now we’re going to switch gears and focus on your outgoing broadcast messages. Since you’re working on and sending these emails in real time, there’s a little less work to do, but thinking through some things and doing a bit of testing is some time well spent.
Review Your Schedule
Start by taking a fresh look at your current email marketing schedule. Evaluate what’s working and consider changing it up to take better advantage of your list and your messages. For example, if all you’re doing is sending a monthly email newsletter, consider breaking it up into shorter, weekly messages. If you’re spending a lot of time and effort putting together a weekly newsletter, without profiting much from it, consider simplifying your broadcast emails. Continuing to do something out of habit or because that’s what you’ve always done and what your subscribers are used to, isn’t a good enough reason to keep going. Adjust and tweak your schedule as needed to work for your and your bottom line.
Does The Content You Share And The Format You Share It In Still Make Sense?
Let’s go back to the newsletter example for a bit. Many of us who have been in the email marketing business for a few years started out publishing electronic newsletters. Some of them were quite extensive, or the equivalent of a small digital magazine sent out to our readers on a regular basis. While this has worked well in the past, times have changed. In general readers’ attention spans have gotten much shorter and most of us are seeing better results with tightly focused, shorter emails sent more frequently.
Take a look at the format you’re sending your messages in right now and consider your options. This could include things like newsletter or short emails, but also using a template, sharing images, plain text vs. html etc. Take a moment to evaluate the format you’re using and considering other formats you could try. Find out what works best for your market and your business right now.
Now is also a great time to think about the type of content you share in your emails. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and share the same or similar stuff over and over again. Maybe it’s time to mix things up and make sure you’re still serving your market to the best of your ability.
Ask Your Readers For Feedback
When you’re out of fresh ideas, or are considering trying something new and different, it can be helpful to ask your readers or feedback. Don’t be afraid to email them and ask them to share their opinion.
If you’re starting to run out of content ideas, or just want to add a few fresh ideas, as you subscribers what they would like to learn more about. Another option is to have them share their best tips, ideas, and recommendations that you can then share with the rest of your readership. It’s a great way to add more content without a lot of work on your part.
If this interaction with your readers isn’t yet a regular habit of yours, it something well worth developing. Not only do you get lots of great ideas and suggestions, it also strengthens the bond you have with your readership as they feel more involved and more part of your online community.
Testing And Tracking
As you start to try new things, don’t forget to test and track your broad cast emails. Then go back and review the test results. This could be as simple as going back and reviewing the emails that got the biggest open rates, or as involved as tracking what emails ended up being the most profitable ones.
Get in the habit of collecting as much data as possible and using it to make smart decision going forward. Do more of what works well and stop doing the things that don’t give you results. Over time you’ll not only improve your bottom line, but you’ll become a much better email marketer.
Bonus Tip – Redirecting Links
Here’s a quick tip that will come in handy in all your email marketing, and elsewhere. Instead of sharing links to other people’s content and offers with a straight link or your raw affiliate link, redirect it. There are quite a few different ways to do this. I recommend using a plugin like Pretty Links if you’re running a WordPress blog for your website. Not only will it redirect, it will also give you some basic stats that will help in the testing and tracking I mentioned earlier in this report.
This also allows you to regularly go back and check on those redirected links. If the link no longer works, or it points to something (be it content or a product) you no longer support, you can quickly and easily change it out. For example, let’s say you recommend website hosing to your readers. When you decide you like a different hosting company better, you simply switch out the target URL on the redirected link and that change will be reflected across all emails and other content where you’ve shared this redirected link.
This also means you don’t waste valuable links in older, archived email content when the target URL no longer works because a product has been taken off the market, or affiliate linking structures were changed. Start using redirected links whenever possible and don’t forget to add checking on the redirects you’ve created regularly. Put it on your calendar every few months.
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