Send With Confidence
Partner with the email service trusted by developers and marketers for time-savings, scalability, and delivery expertise.
Time to read: 6 minutes
Few people understand the power of communication as well as bloggers. Each post you create tells a story, building deeper connections with followers. As long as you consistently publish quality content, you’ll maintain these connections. But absence doesn’t necessarily make the heart fonder in the world of content. Stop writing and people will inevitably stop reading, causing them to move further away from your brand. It’s impossible to maintain your following without actively nurturing it.
Email marketing shares many similarities with your blog, as each message is an opportunity to build trust and draw people closer. You might already be using social media to grow your audience, as this is one of the most popular channels for bloggers, but that’s an incomplete strategy if it isn’t complemented by email.
For starters, social media is a cornucopia of content. With so many posts, videos, and ads competing for your followers’ attention, it’s hard to grab their attention. Even if someone reads your content, the stickiness is limited by all the distractions.
Perhaps even more concerning is the lack of control you have on a social media platform. Algorithms change constantly and your ability to reach your audience is dictated by a third party. It’s bad enough when your visibility is reduced, but in extreme cases, your account could even be deleted.
Email marketing, on the other hand, puts you firmly in the driver’s seat. You know when your messages are going out and who they’re going to.
Email marketing is the art of sending the right email to your followers at the right time. Thanks to the dialogue that often exists in blog comments sections, you’ll have more insights into your audience than marketers from other industries. So your email messages should be tailored to their preferences, pain points, and motivations.
As you’re keenly aware, there is no shortage of communication channels these days. But when compared to text messaging, social media, and other options, email stands out for its high engagement. One of the key reasons for its exceptional performance is that modern consumers view email as their favorite channel for interacting with a brand.
Using email marketing, you can build new connections, expand your storytelling, activate your followers for a cause, or express your appreciation. By talking to them through their preferred channel, it’s no wonder that you’ll get better results. For example, email offers one of the highest returns on investment available to marketers, with $35 coming back to you for every dollar spent.
Every blogger has unique goals and challenges, but there are some universal benefits that can be claimed if you effectively use email in your marketing. Let’s look at five key ways that emails can elevate your brand:
Think of the last time you posted on a social media platform. Did you target the message to a specific segment of your followers? Probably not, because social media content typically goes out to your entire audience. The limitations of the platforms simply don’t allow for as much personalization.
With emails, you can divide your audience into segments of people who share similar characteristics, habits, or demographical details. Once these segments are created, it’s easy to deliver personalized messages that resonate on a whole new level.
Thanks to the predictability of email, you can create touchpoints with your followers at specific times. This is particularly important for new subscribers, as you can send out a drip campaign that welcomes them to the fold, informs them about what to expect, and creates the kind of familiarity that leads to conversions in the future.
Consistency is key when it comes to audience engagement. Your email campaigns draw followers closer and make them feel like valued members of a like-minded community. Even if your posting schedule falls behind on the blog, you’ll maintain a follower lifeline thanks to your emails.
Let’s say you have a new blog post or product landing page to promote. It’s difficult to share these types of links on some social media platforms, as they’re designed to keep users where they are, rather than sending them somewhere you want them to go.
With emails, you have complete control of the content. You can draw attention to relevant links by bolding the text or adding a button. People are more likely to notice these calls to action within the safe confines of your email, rather than being distracted by other content on a social media platform.
With email marketing, you can create a series of messages and then automate the rest of the work. The best email marketing tools for bloggers make it easy to designate your recipients, create the sending schedule, and track all the results on the back end.
With technology handling all the manual work that used to consume marketers’ time, you’ll be freed up for more impactful things to help you scale your efforts.
Everything we’ve talked about so far is dependent on having a robust email list. As with most things in life, there’s a good way and a bad way to go about this. The bad way is to purchase the contact details of people who didn’t sign up to receive your emails. While this might sound like a convenient way to build your list, it actually destroys trust and hurts your brand.
The good way starts with a choice on the recipient’s part. Your goal should be to share value that compels them to sign up for more. They’ll understand who you are and what you stand for. And they’ll be on the lookout for content. Your email signup forms should be strategically placed on your blog sidebar, below blog posts, on your social media channels, and anywhere else that will be noticeable without being annoying.
You’ll find that people are more likely to sign up when you give them something in return. What should this incentive be? Think of something relevant to your readers that also aligns with your brand. If you have a financial advice blog, your lead magnet might be a free whitepaper that offers investing tips. A family blog could offer access to an exclusive webinar on sleep training your baby for those who sign up for emails.
As your list grows, segmentation becomes more important. Find the commonalities amongst your followers and then target your emails to them. For example, if you had a blog post that focused on finding joy in the retirement years, send it to recipients aged 55 and up. You’ll find that enhanced relevancy always builds engagement and trust.
Finally, don’t forget to clean your lists. At least once a quarter, go through all the contacts and remove any erroneous, duplicated, or inactive contacts. Doing so improves your deliverability rates and potentially saves your messages from being sent to the spam folder by email providers.
Here are some final tips to help you get the best results from the email lists you’re working so hard to create.
Finalize your plan: Identify your overall marketing goals and how your email campaigns will support them. Once you’ve identified those elements, it will be easier to figure out details like the sending cadence, audience segments, and calls to action.
Choose an email platform: You’ll save time and avoid headaches with the help of a reliable platform. The best email marketing software for bloggers will provide user-friendly templates, list management resources, automation tools, and tracking features.
Maintain your lists: Your email lists are constantly degrading. People enter incorrect information, change their emails, stop engaging with your content, or simply unsubscribe. Never stop building your lists and also taking the time to keep them clean and accurate.
Continue refining: Even with a marketing plan in place, there will be plenty of discoveries along the way. So keep an open mind and never stop updating and improving. The best marketing campaigns start with a strong plan but remain a work in progress.
Include clear CTAs: Readers should never wonder what to do next after reading your emails. Make sure the calls to action are clear and compelling, directing your followers to the actions that provide the most value to both parties.
Track important metrics: Use software tools to monitor campaign performance and find opportunities for improvement. The more you know, the more you’ll be able to make things better the next time around.
You understand your unique brand better than anyone else. So you’ll inevitably compile your own list of essential strategies for email marketing. Stay close to what you know works, while also testing new ideas to find the optimal ways to deliver a great experience for your followers and the business results you’re seeking.
Your brand deserves the best email marketing software for bloggers. Twilio SendGrid is an ideal solution, thanks to an array of user-friendly resources and our industry-best deliverability rate of 99%. You get end-to-end support, with professional templates, automation tools, lead gathering tools, and campaign tracking tools.
Ready to see what Twilio SendGrid can do for your business? Take a free test drive (no credit card required) by creating your account today. You’ll get all the resources needed for top-notch email campaign performance.
Partner with the email service trusted by developers and marketers for time-savings, scalability, and delivery expertise.