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Email Marketing Articles and Advice

The latest email marketing articles and advice from Copyblogger. For an introduction to email marketing, check out Email Marketing 101.

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A Quick Copywriting Lesson Taken Directly from an Email Marketing Fail

"Reveal the details that compel your prospect to take action immediately." – Stefanie Flaxman

Ten years ago, a tattoo shop I went to subscribed my email address to their email newsletter.

They didn’t send updates very often, so I never unsubscribed. However, new owners recently acquired the business — and apparently their email newsletter list — because lately I’ve been getting not very good emails more frequently.

I should have unsubscribed after receiving the first few, but I kept forgetting. I’d just scroll through an email quickly and delete it.

And I’m glad that was my routine, because today I have a copywriting lesson to share that I took directly from a mistake they made in an email they sent last week.
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How Strategic Content Converts to Email Subscriptions and Sales

"Content marketing is broader than email marketing, but your email list remains your core focus." – Brian Clark

When we talk about content marketing strategy, all the discussions of heroes, journeys, and maps can seem a bit esoteric.

What does it look like in real life? And how exactly does it relate to email marketing?

Content marketing is a broader discipline than email marketing, but your email list is the core focus. In fact, the primary purpose of content that is distributed in other ways (social, search, ads) is to begin the email relationship.
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Try These Useful Suggestions to Build Your Audience

Try These Useful Suggestions to Build Your Audience

On Monday, our good and wise friend Andy Crestodina showed the difference between optimizing for search engines and optimizing for social shares. He also gives us a nice piece of advice about how you can get really crafty and do both.

Proofreading might not seem exciting, until the day you publish a post with the headline Making that Shit into the Next Phase of Your Career. Don’t let that happen; read Stefanie’s Tuesday post.

On Wednesday, Brian Clark reminded us that search and social get all the attention, but it’s email that pays the bills. He explains why email is the most important content distribution platform you have … and reveals that my favorite analogy for how to treat your audience has always given him the jitters. (Do you agree with him? Let us know in the blog comments! …)
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A Surefire Way to Get Constant Traffic to Your Content

"Not all aspects of your audience are equal." – Brian Clark

Two weeks ago, my side project Further had one of its highest traffic days ever.

If you’re not familiar, Further is a personal development email newsletter in which I curate content from around the web. It’s basically whatever I find useful and interesting related to health, wealth, wisdom, and travel.

So what sparked the traffic? After all, the newsletter’s primary function is to send traffic to other websites.

  • Was it a significant social share from a relevant influencer?
  • Did I spend a fortune on a pay-per-click advertising campaign?
  • Had I caught a link in another personal growth newsletter?

It was indeed a link from a personal growth newsletter. Only thing is, the link was from me, in the Further newsletter itself.

Here’s what happened.
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Get More Clients With Smarter Email Marketing

Get More Clients with Smarter Email Marketing

Are you a freelancer, consultant, or other provider of professional services to clients?

If so, smarter email marketing strategies will get you more clients, and more importantly, better clients.

You know, the ones who value your expertise and effort and happily pay your fees.

Before I began Copyblogger in 2006, I started and ran three successful service businesses. And I used online marketing exclusively to attract clients, with email at the center of my strategy.

Things have certainly changed since those days. The fundamentals remain the same — but the sophistication and ease-of-use of the current technology allows you to do so much more.

That’s the focus of the free course I’m teaching. What may surprise you is that I won’t ask you for an email address to get the lessons.

More on that in a second. First, let’s look at what we’ll be covering.
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5 Simple Touches that Deliver a Warm Welcome to New Email Subscribers

usher in prospects with a warm welcome

You know the old adage: you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

That maxim is certainly true in the email marketing world. Your email welcome message is the first message new subscribers receive when they register for a free account with your site or subscribe to your email list.

A well-crafted welcome message creates an initial connection with a new subscriber. It’s the first step toward establishing a solid long-term relationship with that person.

But all too often, content marketers treat their email welcome messages as afterthoughts — notes they write as quickly as possible so they can get to more important tasks.

That’s a huge wasted opportunity. Read on to discover five essential elements of effective welcome emails. At the end, I’ll also share three optional elements you can try.
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