Like many successful entrepreneurs, Emma Johnson saw an opportunity with her blog, Wealthy SingleMommy.
“Nobody was speaking to me or my peers,” Emma said. “We have our own stories and challenges. I started a blog and I didn’t know what I was doing. It was a personal project. I thought I’d talk about money, but it went way beyond money.”
Today, Emma has a loyal fanbase with an email list of over 25,000 and over 32,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter combined. She also makes regular appearances on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, and NPR, just to name a few.
But growing that fanbase took hard work, dedication, and a strong email marketing campaign. When starting out, Emma tackled one of the biggest challenges that many entrepreneurs face when growing a business — getting email signups in order to promote her blog.
Emma relied on email marketing to better connect with her readers and keep her audience growing.
But what did Emma do to increase her email sign up and how can you apply that strategy to your business?
The Trick that Tripled Her Email Sign Ups
For Emma, growing her subscriber list gets her content in front of more people, which in turn grows her blog audience. To grow her list, Emma relies on one ridiculously smart sign up form tactic.
First, she keeps a close watch on how each of her blog posts performs. When she sees a post gaining tons of views and shares, she makes sure to feature it at the top of her website, where it’s bound to get maximum exposure. That way, when people visit Emma’s blog, the first thing they see is that high-performing blog post with an opt-in freebie incentive.
“Every month or so, I’ll write a blog that goes bananas,” Emma said. “Five hundred people will share it. Whenever I see that happening, I make sure that post goes to the top of my site.”
Even if a post was written a year ago, Emma will still feature it on the top of her website to take advantage of the post’s views and gather more sign ups. Then, when she shares that post on social, one of the first things a person will notice in the blog post is her opt-in form with her freebie.
And just in case they miss it, there’s a sign up form at the end of each blog post too. There is no shortage of opportunities to sign up for Emma’s email list on her website.
Value-Added Email Sign Up
An incentive offer is more than a clever business tactic – it helps people get to know you better.
Emma offers a free guide, “15 Steps to Thriving as a Single Mom” as an incentive to her new subscribers.
“It’s a snapshot of the advice I give all the time,” she said. “It’s my manifesto for single moms. People find me when they’re desperate and in need of practical and emotional advice. The guide sets the tone for their relationship with me going forward.”
The free guide helps new readers get familiar with Emma, her writing style and what they can expect to see on her blog and newsletter. Since it’s a compilation of tips, it also helps new subscribers get caught up on any great advice they may have missed.
Emma’s incentive guide helps grow her email sign ups – but more importantly, it creates loyal, long-time readers who feel part of a real community.
Her target audience sees value with the email sign up offer. When you provide something your audience finds valuable, they will not hesitate providing you with their email address.
To help the sales of her best selling book “The Kickass Single Mom,” Emma has an email sign up form at the bottom of each blog post which provides a free chapter once someone provides their email address.
The Community That Helps Her Business Grow
Expanding your business is something that lots of bloggers and entrepreneurs dream about. One way to get there is by creating a community where your audience can gather and make real connections.
If you click on any one of Emma’s blog posts, you may see comments from women all over the world, as well as heartfelt replies from Emma herself. By being proactive in her comments, Emma’s audience gets a chance to have their voices heard.
Early on Emma took it a step further by creating a free forum for single moms.
“When I went through my divorce, I was fortunate to have a best friend,” Emma said. “I wanted my readers to have that too.”
An added bonus of the forum is the opportunity for Emma to better understand her readers – their biggest challenges, their day-to-day struggles and what makes them tick.
Again, these are all value added incentives which help Emma grow her email list. The relationship with her subscribers isn’t one dimensional, there is value in signing up to receive email updates from Emma.
See how AWeber can help grow your Email List
Our mission is simple: to deliver powerfully-simple email marketing tools to help small business owners and entrepreneurs — like you — grow your business.
AWeber Free is our completely free email marketing, forms and landing pages plan — perfect for those who are just getting started or kicking off a passion project. We’ll give you everything you need to start building your audience today.
With the COVID-19 pandemic limiting travel and crowded in-person gatherings, virtual conferences and events have replaced their in-person counterparts. Rather than these disruptions slowing planning down, it seems like there are more events than ever, between webinars and launch events and industry conferences.
Because of how common these virtual events are now, preparation and an established strategy are key to standing out from the crowd. Virtual events are not a new concept. Direct-to-consumer businesses often have digital-only product launches and social media features only make these easier and easier.
If you’re hosting a virtual conference or event for the first time, arm yourself with these tips for a successful experience.
Types of virtual conferences & events
A good deal of in-person events can be converted to digital experiences as long as you put in the necessary planning ahead of time. Industry conferences that are heavy with presentations and speakers work in a virtual setting but you’ll also have to give some thought to how the usual networking piece of an in-person event will work virtually. People go to these types of events partially for impromptu conversations and satellite networking events that arise.
Beyond industry conferences, we’ve seen plenty of examples of virtual events including festivals, concerts, product launches, company gatherings and even happy hours. There’s a virtual alternative available for almost every type of event out there.
1. Budget, budget, budget
Just because it’s a virtual event now doesn’t mean you can throw out your budget. Yes, you’ll be able to save on the printing, in-person tech support, venue reservation and signage but don’t scratch out marketing entirely. Virtual events do have a lower overhead than in-person ones but the more activity and attendance you have, the more you’ll need to budget for, especially for the supporting technology.
Replacing an event venue is the software or app you’ll use to host the event. The number of participants, both speakers and attendees, and your desired level of interaction will determine the type of management platform you’ll use. Some events have taken place entirely on Instagram Live while others are pre-recorded videos that are released at scheduled times.
Sponsorship is a major part of event planning so if you want to still send swag out or host virtual happy hours, be sure to tweak your sponsorship plan to what a virtual event might need. That in-person store that was going to be at the event? It can now be an online dropship store with special deals or offerings for attendees..
Other budgeting items you’ll need to consider that are related to virtual events include: heavy social media promotion, live captioning, comment moderation and hosting videos and documents after the event is over. Smaller events like webinars and all-day live streaming won’t need all of these, so review what you should prioritize and what you can cut from your budget.
2. Mix live streams & prerecorded videos
Deciding on your schedule and heading to talks you don’t want to miss are important parts of a conference. The benefit of a virtual event is that you’re usually able to watch talks that you miss. But then, what’s the point of attending if you’ll just be able to watch later? Beef up your events and make them more appealing to live attendees with fun live streams, virtual breakout rooms or discussion chats and other interactive material.
Prerecorded videos let your speakers off the hook for any technology issues and also allow for editing if needed. At the end of each of their sessions, you can have the speakers join in either on a live video or in the chatroom to answer questions, just like in an in-person event.
The California Academy of Sciences used to have a weekly NightLive event. Each event had a topic and included relevant speakers and demonstrations. During the pandemic, the museum converted these weekly events into Virtual NightLife and NightSchool, which are both live streaming events that mirror their in-person ones. Having these on Facebook Live encourages comments and also saves the video for future participants to watch.
Livestreams, whether on Facebook Live, Instagram or another streaming platform, are a lot more interactive for everyone and a value-add if attendees need to pay to attend.
Mixing the two types of videos up in one event makes it fun and memorable, overcoming the staleness factor that strictly prerecorded videos can have.
3. Prepare your speakers
For an entirely virtual event, make sure your speakers are fully prepared. Larger events should do test runs for internet speed, comfort level with the technology and mic checks. Livestreaming and using whichever event platform you choose might be a new experience for your speakers so it’s best to prepare them for what they might encounter. Will they be required to moderate the comments themselves? Do they need to share their screen for a slide presentation?
Some common scenarios to prepare for include:
Finding the best physical environment for your speaker to minimize interruptions and have clear sound. Test, practice and prepare equipment to ensure that all speakers will be broadcasting at about the same sound level to avoid surprise volume changes for viewers.
If sharing a screen or live stream, tips on what to turn off on your computer, such as putting all notifications on hold.
To comment or not to comment? Ideally, you’ll have a separate person who is moderating the comments so the speaker can focus on their talk. Either way, make sure they’re familiar with the event’s code of conduct and how to handle offensive commenters
Technology woes. What happens if the speaker’s tech fails them or the software glitches or their slides aren’t working? Have backup plans ready for all these possible issues.
Lastly, speakers are another source of promotion for your event. You want them to advertise their talk so their current audience will feel like the event is worth attending. To make this easier on speakers, prepare several promotional materials in ideal social media sizes and suggested captions. This way, all they have to do is schedule the content and paste in the captions.
4. Set expectations for attendees
Whether it’s a large industry conference or a single topic live stream, you need to effectively communicate what attendees should expect. It stinks to set aside time to attend an event only to realize that the topic is too broad or geared for a different audience. Be clear in what the event is and who it is for. How does it stand out from all the other virtual events out there?
If you’re converting an in-person event to virtual, then you should talk about how the major features will look online. What does a welcome reception and keynote speaker portion look like for attendees? Just like any event, publish a schedule. Let them know if it’s prerecorded, if comments are available, if the presentation will be saved and what interaction will look like. Will attendee videos be on or off? Are hashtags available so live-tweeting or supplementary Twitter chats are possible?
The #ComicConAtHome watch parties powered by @Scener continue with today’s featured watch party, ‘Battle Beyond the Stars’ at 6pm PT / 9pm ET. Join your fellow Con-goers in watch parties all throughout the day! See the full watch party schedule here: https://t.co/XtL6Wt1keb. pic.twitter.com/ovOauK5ozc
Comic-Con, an event that has historically attracted more than 130,000 attendees, went all virtual in 2020. To replicate the in-person experience, the event scheduled competitions, plenty of talks, an online exhibit hall, watch parties and more.
Make it very easy for attendees to build an event schedule and have the right links to head to when it’s time to attend. If an event platform is being used, send out guides on how to use it and if downloads are necessary. Accessibility features like live captioning and translations should also be taken into consideration. With a virtual event, you have the option of expanding your attendance base and effectively generating more potential leads and meaningful engagement. Those who couldn’t travel to the event can now attend the virtual one.
Lastly, set aside networking time, especially if it’s an industry conference that usually has this component. Sponsor-hosted happy hours, one-on-one speed conversations and topical breakout rooms are ways to encourage networking. For whichever platform you decide to host the event on, encourage attendees to fully fill out their profile so they can more easily connect with industry colleagues.
5. Plan the promotion: Before, during & after
Marketing, especially on social media, will be a big portion of your preparation. Paying for social media ads are a must-have for digital events but don’t forget about event landing pages and newsletter sends. Events like Sprout Sessions Digital 2020 have a full promotional schedule that starts before the event. The effort doesn’t end with the day of the event either–virtual events supply plenty of opportunity to repurpose livestream and digital content for weeks after the fact.
Luckily for you, virtual events make it easy to track your ROI. Between social media listening, keyword and tag analytics reports and digital advertising analytics, you’re set on knowing how well your campaign is performing.
#MozCon Virtual featured some of the top industry leaders in PR. @ShannonMcGuirk_ challenged the desire for virality over consistency in her presentation about digital PR campaigns.
MozCon, an in-person event, went digital in 2020. The landing page is clear in what attendees can expect from the virtual aspect. Even better, their post-event promotion includes a paid video bundle that you can purchase if you missed out on attending.
Hosting virtual events that have video sessions means you now have a treasure trove of content available to you. Repurpose the content into other formats like podcast episodes, quote graphics and longform articles.
After the event is over, thank everyone involved and use followup surveys to understand what you can work on for next time. These survey results can also become testimonials for next year’s event promotion.
Conclusion
Planning and preparation are pillars of hosting a successful virtual conference or event. When everyone involved–speakers, attendees, moderators–know what to expect and how to participate, it makes for a much smoother experience. Virtual events have the benefit of being lower cost, wider audience attendance and easy to track analytics but it doesn’t mean you should skimp on other necessary items.
The field of virtual events is getting more crowded by the year so you need to effectively communicate why yours is the one to attend and not the others. Extra features like live streams and live Q&As will increase attendee participation.
Excited to host your own virtual conference or event but need some inspiration? Use social listening to see what topical gaps can be filled.
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia have developed an algorithm that detects misogynistic content on Twitter. The team developed the system by first mining 1 million tweets. They then refined the dataset by searching the posts for three abusive keywords: whore, slut, and rape. Next, they categorized the remaining 5,000 tweets as either misogynistic or not, based on their context and intent. These labeled tweets were then fed to a machine learning classifier, which used the samples to create its own classification model. The system uses a deep learning algorithm to adjust its knowledge of terminology as language evolves. While…
Consumers play a major role in shaping the public perception of brands, influencing their actions and holding them accountable—and it’s a double-edged sword for brands. On the one hand, a vocal audience can help brands shape their offerings and content. On the other hand, a brand misstep can be costly.
Over the last several years, call-out culture has become a pervasive part of social media. Honestly, it’s hard to think the last time there wasn’t a trending hashtag to boycott a brand or public figure.
In 2020, we’ve seen boycotts in response to brands voicing public support for social justice organizations like Black Lives Matter. Conversely, we’ve seen brands get called out for not being vocal enough in the fight for social justice. Brands with out-of-touch ads risk being “cancelled” and even seemingly benign campaigns can trigger waves of criticism.
Take Mr. Peanut, for example. The 104-year-old anthropomorphic legume met its fiery death in an advertisement ahead of the brand’s Super Bowl LIV spot. But the proximity of the ad’s release to Kobe Bryant’s death left a bad taste in people’s mouths, forcing Planters to apologize and pause all campaign promotions. Just over seven months later, Peanut Jr., the evolved version of Baby Nut who was born from the ashes of Mr. Peanut, celebrated it’s 21st birthday, to the shock and confusion of consumers on social. While some fans “shellebrated” the event, some (like me) wished the adorable Baby Nut didn’t age so quickly. Others were so salty that Planters kept pushing the Peanut Jr. storyline even after the initial backpack, that their calls to #BlockMrPeanut began trending.
Why is this still going like im legit wondering like if yall want to write a fan fic go ahead but dont blast it on Twitter
— insane stuff on the internet (@slayerofstrange) August 19, 2020
Mr. Peanut and its parent company, Kraft-Heinz, will emerge unscathed following this rather confusing ad campaign, but other brands that don’t generate billions of dollars in yearly revenue like Kraft-Heinz might be so lucky.
No brand is immune to call-out culture and social media managers may feel part of their job is navigating land mines just waiting to explode. The permanency of what’s said or shared on the internet means there are no take-backs in this day and age. But brands can recover and regain consumer trust. If you find yourself defending your brand after being called out, incorporate the following steps into your social media crisis plan and get back on the road to redemption.
Be proactive: Move quickly and listen closely to your audience’s reaction
When your brand has been called out, being proactive is essential. Even a single, seemingly small or isolated issue can turn into a flurry of memes, Retweets, comments or a trending hashtag, so it’s important to move quickly and respond ASAP.
Social media managers may be able to address some comments on their own. However, depending on the nature and scale of the issue that’s being called out, you’ll need to involve your public relations team, your boss and your legal team.
Let them know what your audience is saying. Are they demanding action? What are they most concerned or upset about? Consider building a social listening topic centered around the issue at hand to measure sentiment, track the scope of the conversations and provide further insights for your leadership. Listening can ultimately help you shape a public response that directly addresses your audience’s feedback.
Be authentic: Collaborate with your team to craft a humble, human response
If a brand ignores complaints on social, some consumers will try contacting them on another channel—but 35% of consumers will boycott a brand altogether. But a poor response can actually be more damaging than no response at all and increases the chance of consumers boycotting by 43%.
There’s nothing worse than a passive stance, vague language or a “fauxpology.” Suppose a food brand is taking heat for consumers getting sick after eating their products. If that brand leads with “We only source the freshest ingredients and take food safety seriously,” you feel the “but” coming to deflect blame.
As individuals, we’re taught to apologize and own up for our mistakes. As brands, it’s important to do the same, but there are sometimes broader implications. For legal reasons, brands sometimes can’t say outright that they take responsibility online (especially if an accusation hasn’t been verified or needs to be internally investigated). That’s why getting your legal and PR teams involved quickly is essential. However, as the social media manager, you’re the voice of your customers and the person who sees brands get called out on social every day. Bring your recommendations to the table to help your brand develop the most authentic and human response possible.
In some instances, an apology will be the right move. One of the earliest examples of a social media apology that is widely recognized as a proper response came from JetBlue. Back in 2007, the airline had to cancel hundreds of flights due to a massive snowstorm, which left thousands of people stranded. Instead of blaming the weather, the CEO humbly explained the brand’s promise to customers with specific examples of what they were doing to make it right and how they would be prepared, not if, but when they failed next.
If a brand responds well, they stand a chance of winning over consumers who initially shared complaints.
Be vocal: Bring forth your deep understanding of your audience and their expectations
Transparency goes a long way in recovering from a crisis or call-out. In a Sprout Social survey, we found that 89% of people say a business can regain their trust if it admits to a mistake and is transparent about the steps it will take to resolve the issue. Chances that consumers will forgive a mistake are even better if your brand already has a history of being transparent.
While it’s part of a social media manager’s responsibility to help come up with short or long-term solutions, it’s not something you should be doing by yourself. Bring your intimate knowledge of your brand’s audience and insights from their conversations on social to leadership to help determine next steps.
If your ad campaign draws negative attention and is deemed insensitive, you probably need to pull it from circulation. But it’s hard to part ways with creative campaigns that so many people have invested time, money and effort into. If your leadership is hesitant or resistant to remove a campaign from social, but you know your audience wants it gone, make your voice heard. Report comments, sentiment analysis, trending keywords, and other relevant social data to leadership to help them make that final decision to pull a poorly received ad. Not only that, but you can also foreshadow the consequences of leaving that campaign up and running.
If the issue is larger, like your brand being called out for lacking diversity, failing to take a stance on major social movements or fostering a toxic culture, your brand will need to do more than just make a statement on social. In a recent survey on social media activism, we found that people expect real change. There’s little tolerance for performative allyship and more than half of consumers expect brands to announce new initiatives, goals and involvement in industry-wide coalitions.
As the social media manager, you’re responsible for telling the story of your brand’s commitments and sharing details about the progress that’s being made. What consumers want to see most is that your brand is following through on those promises. When brands fail to uphold their commitments on social issues, 42% of consumers will shop elsewhere, 29% will boycott altogether and 19% will continue to share their negative opinions on social. The stakes are high, and you have the power (and social data) to hold your leadership accountable.
Be patient: Track your brand’s recovery over time
Recovering from a brand blunder will not happen overnight, so be patient and persistent in keeping your brand’s promises. Use sociallistening sentiment analysis to track your recovery over time and continue to inform leadership about insights like spikes in positive or negative sentiment, engagement stats or anything that you believe might derail you from the road to recovery.
But also, be kind to yourself! You may be managing the messages and telling the story, but ultimately, certain decisions are out of your control. If your brand becomes embroiled with more serious scandals, it’s critical to escalate the situation and get someone in leadership involved. If hateful messages come through the inbox, don’t take them personally. Brand crises are a natural accelerant to burnout, so it’s important to rest, recharge and re-engage with the things that make you happiest whenever possible.
Feeling burnt out? Step away.
🎧 Listen to your favorite playlist
👟 Take a walk
🍵 Make yourself a cup of coffee or tea
And if your brand is getting boycotted for taking a progressive stance on an issue that you and your company leaders truly believe in, don’t sweat it too much. The consumers that share your values and have big love for your brand will double down on their support for your company. They’ve got your back.
These days it’s not enough to assume you know what type of email your audience will want to open — let alone read through it entirely.
Creating great emails requires a lot of hard work, researching, and strategizing. The best emails are crafted not only with goals in mind, but also with the target audience at the forefront.
So how can you be sure which email will be more successful than others?
You’re not the first person to ask that question.
What if there was a way to be sure that one version of an email would generate more engagement, lead to more landing page views, and/or provoke more sign ups?
Well . . . there is.
Email A/B testing is a brilliant way to determine what resonates with your audience and what sparks their interest. With email A/B testing, you can gather data-backed proof of the effectiveness of your email marketing.
And by the end you’ll know how to set up a successful email testing strategy.
But before we get started, it’s important to know what email marketing A/B split testing is.
What is Email Marketing A/B Testing?
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method that lets you scientifically test the effectiveness of your email marketing.
When split testing, you create two versions (called variants) of an email to determine which email statistically performs better. Once you find which email variant performs best, you can update your email strategy based on what you learned about the winning email.
This allows you to identify what emails engage your subscribers best, which can ultimately help you increase conversions and revenue.
Why You Need to Split Test Your Emails
Split testing is an effective way to find out what’s working and what’s not in your email marketing. Rather than assuming your customers would prefer one kind of email over another, you can run a split test to find out in a methodical way.
The more you split test, the more information you’ll have on hand for your future emails. And while a once-and-done test, or even an occasional test, can yield information that will expand your marketing knowledge, regular testing can provide you with a successful email marketing strategy.
Setting Goals for Email A/B Testing
Like anything in digital marketing, having a clear goal and purpose for testing is essential. Sure, you can run a quick email A/B test and obtain useful results, but having a more precise testing strategy will yield more powerful data.
Email A/B testing is a great tool to use at any time, but it can be especially useful if you want to gain insight on a new campaign or email format. Before you begin your test, first establish what you are testing and why.
A few questions that can help guide you at this stage include:
Why are we testing this variable?
What are we hoping to learn from this?
What is the impact this variable has in relation to the performance of this email?
In theory, you could test any element of an email, but some variables will give you more insight into your subscribers’ minds than others.
The beauty of split testing is that no variable is too small to test.
What You Should A/B Test
It can be tricky to identify what variable test can help you improve key metrics. From subject line strategies to sound design principles, there are many components that make up a successful email. Understanding each email key performance indicator (KPI) and the email components that impact those KPI’s helps identify what you should be testing.
Open Rate
Your open rate is the percentage of customers who opened your email. It’s calculated by dividing the number of unique opens by the number of emails delivered.
If you have a low open rate you should be testing your subject line or preheader (the preview snippet of text that is next to your subject line or below it (on mobile) in your inbox).
Subject lines are crucial because they’re the first things people see in their inbox. Split testing your subject lines can help make for more successful emails.
The better your subject line, the more likely your subscribers are to open the email and read through. Having a solid subject line is like getting your foot in the door.
In addition to testing subject lines, try sending the test emails at different times of day and see if that has an impact on your open rate. Your subscribers may be more inclined to open an email in the morning or at night after dinner instead of during the middle of a workday.
Click Through to Open Rate
Your click through to open rate is the percentage of unique clicks in an email divided by the number of unique opens.
There are several elements within the body of your email which you need to look at if you have a low click through to open rate or if you’re looking to improve an already strong email.
Keep subscribers interested throughout the email by providing eye-catching, engaging content. If it’s your click-through rate you want to improve, make sure you create clickable content. Consider how interactive content, information gaps (missing pieces of info that spark a reader’s curiosity), or contests could boost your in-email engagement.
There are also many variables you can test to optimize for click-through rate — a strong call to action, intriguing anchor text, personalization, spacing, or bold imagery. Just remember to test one at a time to ensure you know precisely why subscribers are clicking more (or less).
This is why testing is so important. You can look at an email and make some assumptions as to why your performance is low. But if a change is made without testing and that theory is wrong, then you’re setting your email efforts back even further.
Email body test ideas:
Different color call to action button
Image vs no image
Email message length
Soft sell vs hard sell
GIF vs no GIF
Personalization vs no personalization
Design elements like colors, fonts, images, templates, and spacing are just as crucial to an email as the copy and links.
Did you know that 46% of emails are opened on mobile devices? With this in mind, think about how your email visually appeals to subscribers and what they need to get the best reading experience.
Email A/B test different templates, layouts, and formats to see which yields the best results for your email campaigns.
These two emails have the same copy and messaging, but are presented in very different ways. One puts a bit of written copy up top, while the other relies on a central hero image as a visual cue. This simple tweak in formatting could yield wildly different results.
Opt-out (or Unsubscribe) Rate
Your unsubscribe rate is the percentage of customers who opt-out of receiving future emails from you.
If your unsubscribe rate is high, then you may be sending too many emails or the email content isn’t relevant.
So make sure you test the frequency of emails and the relevancy as discussed above.
Conducting an email A/B test is simple. Create two identical versions of the same email, but change one variable like the subject line, the lead image, or the CTA button. You can test variables as distinct or as nuanced as you see fit.
If you think that creating multiple versions of the same email with a tweak or two sounds tedious or time-consuming (and wonder how much insight can you gain from changing the text on a CTA button), consider this.
Split Test Example Success Story
AWeber customer and photo sharing community Light Stalking split their email subject lines to gauge the success of one versus the other.
Longer Subject Line - Did Not Beat Shorter Subject LineShorter Subject Line - WINNER
As a result, they were able to increase their web traffic from the winning subject line email by 83%.
How’d they do it?
Light Stalking wanted to run an email A/B test on the subject line of their weekly challenge email, which asked subscribers to send in a photo of a silhouette.
The test was simple: they created two identical versions of the same email, changing only the subject lines. The first email used a straightforward subject line, “The Weekly Challenge is Live!” and the second email was just one word and hinted at the nature of the challenge, “Silhouettes.”
The email with the shorter headline (“Silhouettes”) was the winner. The email yielded an above-average click-through rate, which drove more people to the Light Stalking website and increased overall engagement levels.
Impressive, right? And simple. This is a perfect example of how email A/B testing helps you make data-backed decisions.
It is, but like any experiment, if you don’t solidify the details and ensure your test is valid, your results may turn out to be useless.
Keep these things in mind when creating your split test:
1 - Identify each variable you want to study
Prioritize your tests. Run split tests for your most important and most frequently sent emails first. And know what you want to fix about your emails before you run tests.
Create a split testing plan where you conduct one email split test a week or one email split test per month.
2 - Test one element at a time
Never test more than one change at a time. Have a control email that remains the same and a variant with one change — like a different color CTA button, or a different coupon offer — you want to test. If you have multiple variables, it’ll become difficult to identify which one caused a positive or negative result.
3 - Record the test results
Keep records of the email split tests you’ve performed, the results of those tests, and how you plan to implement your learnings. Not only will this keep you accountable for implementing changes, it will allow you to look back on what did and didn’t work.
4 - Use a large sample to get as close to statistically significant as possible
Achieving statistical significance means that your finding is reliable. The larger the sample pool for your test, the more likely you are to achieve statistically significant results. You can be more confident that your findings are true.
5 - Make sure your sample group is randomized
Tools like AWeber’s split testing make sure that your sample group is completely randomized.
Email A/B Testing Set Up
You have the basics of email A/B testing down, so let’s next discuss how to set one up properly.
Determine your goals
First things first: Identify the intentions behind the campaign you want to test.
Your goals will act as your compass when figuring out the details of your email A/B test. Every component of your campaign should trace back to your end goals.
Establish test benchmarks
Once you have defined your goals, take a look at your current email data and examine how your previous email campaigns have fared. From there, use your findings as benchmark numbers.
These numbers will be significant when it comes time to analyze your email A/B test data so you can gauge early success. These numbers should also help you decide on the variables you want to test moving forward.
Build the test
You have your goals and your benchmark data; now it’s time to build your test. Remember to test only one variable at a time.
You want your test list to be large enough that you can gauge how the rest of the subscribers will likely react without using the entire list, but just small enough that you can send the winning version to a large portion of your audience. The goal is to get accurate, significant results, so bigger lists typically work the best.
However, keep in mind that you should be using a sample that represents the whole list, not just a specific segment.
There are many ways to approach this. You can figure out a generic sample size with a calculation that factors in your email list confidence level, size, and confidence interval.
Or, if you’re an AWeber customer, you can manually select the percentage of your list that will receive each version of the split test.
Either way, make sure you select a viable percentage of your list to send your test emails to so you have enough data to analyze. Often this is in the 10% to 20% range.
Tracking and Measuring Email A/B Testing Success
With so many elements to test, you might be thinking, “How can I verify that a campaign is successful or that a test yielded helpful data?”
The answer: Think back to your goals. Your goals will tell you what metrics you should pay the most attention to and what you should work on improving - open rate, click rate, delivery rate.
For example, if generating more leads from email campaigns is your goal, you’ll want to focus on metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and form fills.
It’s also important to look at your metrics as a whole to see the big picture of how an email performed. Being able to track that data and refer back to it will also help you optimize future campaigns.
How long should an email A/B test run?
The answer to this question depends on your list size. If you have a large list, then you may only need to send a single email marketing campaign. Bottom line is you want to make sure that you receive enough opens or clicks (depending on the goal of the email campaign) to ensure the results are statistically significant.
You want to make sure that your test results are at least 90% statistically significant in order to confidently conclude that your test is a winner or loser.
Run your test results through an A/B testing significance calculator to determine the percentage of confidence your test results will hold when you implement your test in future campaigns.
Once your test has ended and as you begin analyzing your data, keep detailed notes of your findings. Ask yourself:
What metrics improved?
What elements of the email flat-out didn’t work?
Were there any patterns that correlated with past tests?
Maintaining records and tracking results will help guide future campaign optimizations.
Put together a testing roadmap or a detailed record of what you’ve tested, the results, and what you plan on testing in the future. That way, you’ll have a detailed account of your tests and won’t leave any stone unturned in the process.
Get Started with Email A/B Testing Today
Email A/B testing is imperative to the success and optimization of any email campaign. It allows you to gain real insight that can help you make decisions about existing and future emails.
Email marketing is always changing, and as subscribers’ attention spans seem to get shorter, it’s vital to know what will yield the most success.
The important thing to remember when it comes to creating an email A/B test is that it doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Email A/B testing is designed to deliver powerful, straightforward insights without a bunch of confusing variables.
Not sure about what font to use for the body of the email? Test it. Going back and forth between a few colors for the CTA button? Test it.
The bottom line: You can and should test different variables of your email campaign before launch so you can optimize for success. Just be sure you’re testing only one variable at a time to get the most accurate and useful results possible.
AWeber is Here to Help
Already an AWeber customer? Start executing your A/B testing strategy today. Our email A/B testing tool allows you to test just about any element of your email (subject line, calls-to-action, colors, templates, preheaders, images, copy, and more!).
When Heroes of the Dorm, a collegiate-level Heroes of the Storm tournament, made its ESPN debut in 2015, the nerd jokes and sarcastic Tweets that followed were pretty much inevitable.
Was there NOTHING scheduled to air on ESPN2? No way a video game tournament was option No. 1, right?
Fast forward to today, esports is no laughing matter. It’s one of the fastest growing industries worldwide, with an audience of over 500 million viewers and revenue expected to hit $1.1 billion by the end of 2020. By 2023, it’s estimated that 15.5% of internet users will be watching esports events at least once a month. Esports is also a lucrative career for professional gamers and teams; in 2019, the prize pool for The International 9: Dota 2 championship was $33 million. For context, the prize pools for the 2019 NBA Championship and the 2020 PGA Championship were only $22 million and $11 million, respectively.
So, yeah. You could say esports is having a moment.
But despite the rising mainstream popularity of esports, marketing to the esports audience is far from easy. For starters, we’re talking about a fragmented, hyper-social group of consumers who span the globe and have opinions on teams like 100 Thieves, Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses. Fans can sniff out when brand partnerships aren’t in the best interest of the game, like in 2016 when fans questioned the legitimacy of Bud Light’s All-Star program which included nominees who retired from competitive play. Not to mention, the esports space is crowded. There are multiple professional teams, hundreds of annual tournaments and thousands of streamers worldwide.
This is where social—or, more specifically, social data—comes in, as esports marketers look to deepen their understanding of their target audiences and what drives fans loyalty. In this article, we’ll discuss the role social plays in the esports ecosystem and why social data is the key to success for your esports marketing strategy.
Grow your fanbase
When you understand who you’re targeting and why, you can deepen your relationship with fans and reach an entirely new group of gamers. The diehard fans playing Fortnite are not the same people playing NBA 2K—understanding what makes each group unique is key to growing your audience.
With tools like social listening, you can break down your audience by gender and age data, and tailor your strategies accordingly. You can also use listening data to pinpoint where in the world conversations around your game are taking place. League of Legends, for example, predominantly attracts players in Western Europe and Korea, with North America only accounting for 10.8% of their total player pool.
In addition to growing your existing fanbase, you can use listening data to uncover new audiences you might not have thought to reach out to. Within the Sprout listening tool, you can segment social conversations into themes to identify what other interests your target audience may have. Almost half of esports fans are interested in traditional sports like basketball, soccer and motorsports and, in recent months, we’ve seen cross-promotional efforts push traditional sports fans towards esports. NASCAR, for example, pitted its professional drivers against gamers in the first ever iRacing Pro Series and drew more than 1.3 million TV viewers for its March 29 race.
We’ve worked on this since yesterday. Short notice but should be fun! Hope you will check it out! https://t.co/ZhSALR0pw7
Lastly, identify key streamers with a highly engaged following to help introduce a brand new esports game using listening data. When PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) debuted in 2017, the marketing team turned a budget of $0 into one of the most popular stand-alone battle royale games with over 400 million total players worldwide. Instead of reaching out to the most popular streamers, PUBG’s team gave mid-tier streamers exclusive access to the beta version of the game so they could provide feedback and generate hype.
Another popular esports title, Valorant, rolled out a similar strategy for its title launch earlier this year. Instead of paying streamers to promote the game, publisher Riot Games worked with the industry’s top influencers to provide gamers with exclusive viewing access to the beta version. Streamers like Pengu were given beta keys to drop to random viewers in their chats, giving fans who had both a Riot and Twitch account a first look at the game. By the time Valorant officially launched, it had racked up 470 million hours viewed on Twitch and inspired several tournaments around the globe.
Oh yea, heres a DANK photo, smoke main in Siege, Viper main in Valorant? I will very likely be streaming this game during closed beta & release.
Twitch drops will be enabled so that if YOU are watching you have a chance to get a closed beta key yourself 🙂 pic.twitter.com/wZ5HnMEs6r
What makes social an ideal platform for esports fans is that, like them, social is always on. The esports audience spans the entire globe, meaning the social conversation around tournaments, match ups and more never stops.
When fans aren’t watching esports matches, there’s a good chance they’re online talking about said matches, teams and players. This is an opportunity for your brand to experiment with different types of social content to see what draws the greatest engagement from your audience. With Sprout’s Premium Analytics post-performance report, you can measure the performance of your social content and double down on the content that inspires the strongest engagement.
To further keep their audience engaged and interacting with the account, LEC also hosts an interactive quiz testing fans’ knowledge of LEC trivia and memes.
Do you even LEC? 🤔
Show off your #LEC knowledge and win exclusive prizes, starting August 17th!
Effective community management also means keeping an eye out for when problems within games arise—and players aren’t shy about letting publishers know when servers are down. While it’s helpful to receive immediate feedback from players when problems arise, the fact that esports caters to a global audience means you have to be prepared to address issues at any time of the day.
Valorant going down is the most the game has been talked about since it came out pic.twitter.com/e2jEwrvfOs
Listening data can help you stay ahead of growing problems before they spiral out of control. Consider creating listening queries for your brand with keywords like “login” or “outage” to monitor for situations like gamers unable to access their accounts or a downed server. That way, as soon as an issue arises, your team is able to address it immediately on social.
Going one step further, some publishers have established support Twitter accounts to keep an eye on gamer complaints and to share updates when servers are back online.
We're actively investigating an issue where some players in LATAM are experiencing connectivity issues with Modern Warfare and Warzone servers. We’ve implemented some fixes and are continuing to monitor and implement more to provide a better experience for players in the region.
Brand sponsorships aren’t limited to NBA or NFL teams; they apply to esports teams and streamers too. But esports fans—and especially players—are picky. Relevance is key when identifying new partnerships, and quality is top of mind for any serious gamer.
Here it’s helpful to lean on listening data to uncover your audience’s interests and identify which brand partnerships make the most sense to your fanbase. Gamers, obviously, need the right equipment to perform at their best. On Twitter, Call of Duty League recently held a giveaway for a gaming headset bundle from pro-gaming equipment brand, ASTRO Gaming—a perfect match.
Gear up like a pro in the @ASTROGaming “Road to Champs” Giveaway: Enter for a chance to win one of 50 Call of Duty League Edition ASTRO Gaming headset bundles! https://t.co/Am7oZYCNEa
Another way to grow the game is by partnering with popular streamers outside of the esports ecosystem. The reason for this is two-fold: for starters, working with popular streamers not in esports generates fresh, new content for your brand. And secondly, you can tap into the unique audience an outside partner brings to the table. Steelers’ wide receiver, Juju Smith-Schuster, is an avid Fortnite player when he isn’t running routes for Ben Roethlisberger, and he attracts both gamers and football fans alike on his social profiles. In 2018, he actually moved into the widely popular FaZe Clan’s house and documented his experience on YouTube to his one million subscribers.
Few fans are as loyal or committed to an organization as esports fans. There’s a reason why games like Dota 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare average millions of players year over year.
Unlike other B2C consumers though, esports fans are incredibly niche—they stick to their preferences and belong to a global community that has its own unique culture. Connecting with this market requires in-depth knowledge of who your audience is, what they like and dislike and who they consider influential figures.
Social data empowers esports marketers to deepen their understanding of their players and leverage those insights to both strengthen their gaming community and grow their fanbase worldwide. But social listening can do more than help esports marketers better understand their audience. Listening also enables publishers to identify new market opportunities, unexpected collaborations and content inspiration to differentiate themselves from the competition. As esports marketers look to elevate their social strategies, consider the 40 unique ways listening can impact esports from community engagement to product design to live tournament events.
So you’re ready to bring on a new social media manager to help your brand or agency’s marketing efforts.
It’s exciting to grow your team, and you want to help your hire succeed in their new position as much as you can. This is why it’s so important to know how to train social media managers and properly onboard a new social media team member.
We’ll run through essential qualities to look for in a new social media manager and our recommended best practices for giving them the best shot in their new job.
What to look for when hiring a social media manager
Social media management isn’t for everyone – it can be a fast-paced, high-creative, research-heavy, data-driven position, and can come with unique work-life balance stresses that both team members and managers must navigate.
While you might not always get all of these qualities in one really awesome social media team member, here are a few great skills and qualities to keep an eye out for in your hiring process. Many people are creatives while others are more analytical, and social media positions often require a bit of both.
Creative copywriting
Writing social media captions is an art form in itself, and finding a new team member who can find the best words to perfectly capture your brand voice and your post’s objective is essential. A highly creative team of social media experts who can regularly bring new ideas to the table will make your brand’s content unique and stand out from the rest.
Social media expertise
This one is a given, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t still mention it. You of course don’t want to have to train your new social media manager on basic practices of all the social platforms you market on. Depending on the specifics of the role, knowledge ranging from how to post successful content to familiarity with analytics are a must.
Customer service
As we found in the Sprout Social Index Edition XVI: Above & Beyond, the top two reasons consumers message a brand are either due to a great experience (59%) or customer service issues (37%). That means much of social media management is responding to opinionated followers, whether they’re happy or not. Finding a new team member who is well-versed in handling any customer service situation will be a huge asset to your team.
Design sensibility
Many social media teams and agencies have designers on staff, but many others don’t, and the responsibility falls on the social media manager creating content. Plus, it’s always a perk if your social team has an eye for design and can help direct the design team or request necessary changes to ensure the final result is perfect.
Flexibility
Social media platforms and marketing tactics are ever-changing, so finding a team member who is flexible and can easily adapt to new strategies is important so your content is always top-notch.
Organization
Social media managers have many job duties on their plate, especially when managing multiple clients at an agency, and it’s important to find someone who is extremely organized and can ensure that everything gets done–from planning, to content creation, to analyzing posts and more.
How to train a new social media manager
Now that you’re sure you’ve hired the best person for the job, it’s time to start training them and setting them up for success. Ensuring that this process goes smoothly for everyone often means creating documents and guidelines that your brand or agency will want to have on hand in an onboarding folder.
Let’s dive into a few essential guidelines to help your new hire learn how to be a social media manager for your specific brand or client.
Introduce brand voice guidelines
Your new social media manager needs to know how exactly to speak for your brand, from the type of personality you show off in captions to how to speak to customers and audience members online.
Having a full brand style guide documented helps every member of your team, not just new hires. For onboarding, you may want to put together introductory brand voice guidelines to give team members something to follow along with as they grow more accustomed to your brand and the way it presents itself.
Creating and approving content in Sprout Social
Sprout Social can help make approving content, responding to customers on social media and communicating with your team easier.
In Sprout, you can set up workflows in your content creation process so that more junior team members can create the content, then immediately notify other team members to approve or modify the content before publishing.
Senior team members can easily add comments providing feedback, reject content that simply isn’t relevant or on par with your brand standards or approve for posting.
Practice messaging scenarios
Conversations and engagement are constantly happening on social media, and you want your new team member to feel prepared. While any major red flags should be sent up the chain of command to a more senior social media manager (and your onboarding document should help delineate what these red flag situations are), basic conversations and messaging scenarios a new social team member should familiarize themselves with handling include:
Common support questions
Unhappy customers
Compliments, thanks and praise
Obvious spam messages
Vulgar language (including when to disengage with trolls)
Create a document filled with potential issues, whether positive or negative, that could pop up while someone is managing your brand’s online presence, and showcase the proper ways to respond so your new hire can easily follow along.
Saved replies in Sprout’s Asset Library
Want to make it as easy as possible for social media managers of all levels to respond to comments and messages? While you always want to add a personal touch to each message you send, you can still use Sprout Social’s Asset Library to save replies for various scenarios.
This could include drafting support message templates to ensure they always use the right product terminology, customer support messages that link to the best resources on your site, or responses about current promotions with the right campaign hashtags already included. Your team can use these as a starting point to ensure consistency while adding their own voice and content relevant to the specific situation.
Sprout’s asset library can be used for even more than just customer service replies, from saved directions to special menus and more. It can also be used to store pre-approved images and video, including those you’ve already perfectly sized for social platforms through a tool like Sprout’s free resource, Landscape.
Use onboarding templates and worksheets
Give your social media manager a chance to try things out before they’re actually sharing content and conversations with the public.
By providing practice worksheets for various conversations, you can test and train on customer service skill, content creation, brand voice practice and more. This sets new hires up for success and gives them the best shot at wowing you and your audience.
Try creating a template with actual messages your account has previously received. Set up columns for your new hire’s drafted response, notes about any additional next steps they might take such as tagging the message or marking it complete in Sprout, and a column for your own feedback on their proposed response. This will let them practice realistic response scenarios and build their confidence to actually publish to your brand account.
Internal messaging and notes in Sprout
In Sprout, team members can collaborate with notes on profiles and tasks, which makes it easy for new hires to get feedback on complex situations. These features are especially useful for remote teams as well as to streamline communication about social media content and management. Summarize past conversation history so new team members can get up to speed, note past customer care resolutions, or discuss ongoing tasks to finalize post ideas and responses, all through your team’s Sprout dashboard.
Onboarding checklists
It’s a great idea to generate some kind of checklist as well to make sure you’ve covered all your bases and trained new social media team members on all the essentials they need to know to succeed in their jobs.
Social media is a complex practice that balances customer interaction, creativity, and marketing insight, so even your most senior team members know there’s always room to learn and improve. Set reasonable expectations for your new team members through a checklist that indicates when training is done, but be ready to continually support their efforts to refine and grow their experience.
Start onboarding new social media managers successfully
Give new team members the best possible training you can so they’re ready to take on anything when it comes to representing your brand or your clients online. Schedule a demo to learn more about how Sprout Social can help make this process even smoother.
That’s because you’ve already done the hard part: you’ve convinced someone of your value. Once they get to experience your product or service for themselves, they don’t need as much convincing to buy a second time.
As an Etsy seller, you leave money on the table if you aren't following up with previous purchasers — who are already interested in your products.
But, when you combine Etsy + AWeber, you have the power to take your business to the next level.
Connect Etsy to your AWeber account so you can easily start sending personalized emails to your Etsy customers right after they purchase.
Creating an email series specifically designed to convert your customers into repeat customers is smart. You’ll get more sales while saving time.
What Is Etsy?
Etsy is an online marketplace for handmade items and vintage art. If you don't want to worry about designing, managing, and promoting your own ecommerce site, Etsy handles running your website for you, giving the visibility of your products within its marketplace. This allows you to spend more time creating your products and less time maintaining an ecommerce site.
Although Etsy provides the platform to build your Etsy store, you are in control of customizing your Etsy store to your brand, from naming your store to stocking your shop to setting prices. To get started, just take photos of your products, write your product descriptions, and then publish your products to your Etsy store.
Once a prospect buys a product on your Etsy site, Etsy will deposit the transaction money directly into your bank account, and all you need to do is ship the buyer their purchase.
On top of that, because Etsy integrates with AWeber, your customers will be added to the email list of your choice once they purchase and confirm their subscription.
Get more repeat customer with Etsy and AWeber
When it comes to your email marketing strategy, writing relevant email content personalized based on their interests is one of the best ways to convert your customers into repeat customers.
The purpose of your email series is to introduce your customers to other similar products on your Etsy site and compel them to purchase again.
With Etsy and AWeber, your customers are added to the email list of your choice when they purchase and confirm their subscription, which makes setting up your email series a breeze. You even can choose to have customers added to a specific list when they buy a particular product.
Imagine you have a successful greeting card store on Etsy. Let's say the most popular product in your Etsy store is a red panda greeting card. To convince your red panda card customers to purchase from you again, create a dedicated email series for your red panda card customers.
When your customers buy your red panda greeting card, you send them an automated email series that tells them about products similar to your red panda greeting card.
Here's an example of what your red panda greeting card email campaign series could look like:
Email 1: Thank You for Your Purchase
This email thanks your customer for purchasing, tells them when they can expect to receive their red panda card, and introduces your company.
The goal is to start building a relationship with your new customer.
Email 2: Love Your Red Panda Card? Check Out This Red Fox Card
This email contains a picture and product description for one of your other best selling cards: your red fox greeting card.
The goal is to introduce your red panda card customers to similar products.
Email 3: 20% Off This Week Only: Wildlife Greeting Card Assortment Pack
This email gives your subscribers a 20 percent discount on your assortment of ten greeting cards.
The goal is to create a sense of urgency to convince your subscribers to purchase your greeting card assortment.
Drive more sales with AWeber Tag Support
Once AWeber's Etsy integration is installed, any time a shopper buys your product and opts-in to receive content, they are added to your subscriber list in AWeber. That means any time you want to contact your customers, all you have to do is email your subscriber list in AWeber.
Personalization is even easier with Tag Support. A Tag consists of a keyword or phrase that is associated with a specific product. Here are a few of the cool things you can do with AWeber's Etsy integration with Tag support:
Easily manage your Tags. Apply single or multiple Tags based on subscriber behavior or purchased products. View a particular product's unique Tags at a glance.
Turn first-time buyers into repeat customers. Email new customers an incentive — like a coupon, discount code, or free content they may like based on their first purchase — when a new Tag is applied.
Deliver emails based on a person's purchase history. Tag support gives you the flexibility to enter a unique set of Tags for a product. That way, you can follow up with more relevant, personalized content and increase revenue opportunities.
Automate your campaigns. Easily add subscribers to different lists based on their purchases. Use advanced settings to automate campaigns that trigger when a particular Tag is added to a list.
AWeber’s Drag-and-Drop Editor makes it easy to create emails
AWeber makes it easy to introduce new products to your customer list in a few minutes. Set up the Tags you want to use in your AWeber account. Drag over the element called a "product block" right into an email, and up pops the option for you to select from the products in your Etsy shop. The details of your product will load directly into the email.
https://ift.tt/34wCFyZ
We built Esty-inspired email templates for you to use
There are two new email templates specifically for Etsy shops ready in your account:
Store
In “Store,” the top image is the exact size of an Etsy shop banner – just click it and upload your shop’s banner image for maximum customization. Add in your products and signature, and you have a perfectly branded template.
Etsyspired
The “Etsyspired” template resembles Etsy’s color scheme and layout, keeping things easy and familiar for your readers. It also gives you the ability to add or delete columns as needed without interrupting the design.
You’ll find both in your AWeber account, ready to load into the message editor.
Why this entrepreneur switched from MailChimp to AWeber for her Etsy shop
Frankie Croker is a mother of two little ones and a lover of crafting. It started as a hobby and turned into a business with her handcrafted bows at Little Wonders Co. She also helps Etsy entrepreneurs start their business and turn their creativity into profits.
Why she left Mailchimp for AWeber
When she started her Etsy shop, Croker needed a powerfully-simple platform that made connecting with her growing subscriber base easy and enjoyable.
"I left Mailchimp because I felt like it was such a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. I did not enjoy it. I simply wanted to send aesthetically pleasing emails, yet provided substance to my subscribers.
More importantly, I had no idea about email marketing. Working with Mailchimp I felt out of my depth. It's not user friendly, and the platform left me feeling more confused than when I started.
Additionally, the cost sealed the deal for me to leave. It's enticing to start with them for free, which is why most people tend to choose them because of the affordability. But as you grow, the cost grows significantly and pushes you to consider other feasible options.
AWeber was the obvious choice since they have direct integrations for my Etsy shop and my Shopify website. It ensures that every individual that subscribes is added to my email list within AWeber. There, I can keep track of my number of subscribers, emails that I send out and what emails resonated with them the most based on my analytics," says entrepreneur Frankie Croker.
AWeber's comparison chart highlights why AWeber is the better alternative to Mailchimp for small businesses.
7 Emails to Send Your Email List for Your Etsy Shop
There are seven types of emails that Croker recommends Etsy shop owners send out to their customers.
1.Welcome Series
A welcome series is a sequence of emails for new subscribers to get to know you and your brand. These emails help to build deep relationships with your subscribers early on, and allows you to introduce them to your products.
AWeber includes an automated pre-built email sequence that includes a fill-in-the-blank copy template that you can customize. You can also customize the timing of the email series.
Welcome Series Email Examples
This content is a great starting point. Let it inspire you to write your own welcome email, or plug in your details. This is how Croker wrote her welcome email.
2. Exclusive Content
Send your subscribers exclusive content. It could be something that you create just for them, or a product that you no longer list on your Esty site. When you send exclusive content to your email list, it makes them feel valued and gives them an extra incentive to remain a subscriber.
3. ‘Behind the Scenes’ Looks at Your Business
If you're struggling for fresh new content to send to your subscribers, consider a behind the scenes look at your business. Take one part of your business and show how it works. It could be your product creation process, your shipping process, or even a day in the life.
4. Product Launches
Create some buzz about a new product you are about to introduce to your list. Consider a series of emails: when it will be available, another email of its features, and a quick reminder on the day it can be purchased. Don't forget about landing pages that you can share on your social media channels or host on your website.
5. Special Offers
Consider a special offer that is exclusive to your email list. Some popular options include flash sales, bundle deals, coupons or discounts. Your subscribers will appreciate that you value them, and some may even forward it to others.
6. Surveys
Surveys are an awesome way to get to know what products your customers want and need. They may let you know about a product that you didn’t even think of creating.
Google forms make it easy to ask questions and get instant answers from your customers. Your audience will also appreciate that their opinion matters to you.
7. Loyalty Emails
Recognize significant anniversaries with your subscribers. Sending out special emails for a milestone lets your subscribers know you value their support. You can also send out loyalty emails whenever you reach a business milestone, number of subscribers, number of products, or followers on social media.
Best free email marketing software
Our mission is simple: to deliver powerfully-simple email marketing tools to help small business owners and entrepreneurs — like you — grow your business.
AWeber Free is our completely free email marketing and landing pages plan — perfect for those who are just getting started or kicking off a passion project. We’ll give you everything you need to start building your audience today.
