Introduction to Email Marketing

My previous two training tutorials covered setting up the MailMunch plug-in and then the SumoMe plug-in. After a great response on the training, I was hit up with several questions on how to setup the newsletter or autoresponder services to incorporate with the respective free plug-ins.

MailMunch: FREE Pop-Up Email Subscribe Optin

SumoMe: FREE Combo Sharing & Email Opt-in - SumoMe

MailMunch is great if you already have a favorite Social Sharing plug-in installed and simply wish to begin incorporating an email submit form for email marketing

SumoMe is really cool, because it offers BOTH a Social Sharing Plug-in AND email submit form. It also provides many cool variations that you can quickly setup.

So, you can decide which is a better fit for you. Both are FREE!

Update for clarification:

GetResponse and AWeber (and likely MailChimp) give you the ability to create a form that you can simply put into your WordPress Post, Page or Sidebar --- No Plug-in required.

BUT, they do the neat things that SumoMe and MailMunch can do, like the pretty animations and easily adding in an image.

So, the plug-ins such as SumoMe and MailMunch help with presentation.

Also, please understand that the autoresponders and newsletters aren't created within WordPress. Theses are all kept on the servers of the respective email marketing services - MailChimp, GetResponse, AWeber, etc.

Email marketing can seem like a huge task when you are just starting. And, I DO NOT recommend setting this up until you have a decent amount of content already on your website and you have finished your Wealthy Affiliate BootCamp training. It's not that this is so "advanced", it more about what's important for the search engines and gaining traffic.

So, if you're new to us, Welcome, but please simply bookmark this and return to it down the road.

"Okay Peej, so what's the big deal about Email marketing?"

Firstly, let me throw this at ya:

There’s plenty of data to back up the benefits of email marketing.

For example:

• 91 percent of US adults like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with (MarketingSherpa, 2015)
• Email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business acquire new customers. (McKinsey, 2014)

As you may have heard, being a successful online entreprenuer includes conveying trust and building relationships. Sure, you can likely market to the random visitor and reel in a sale or two, but for a long-term loyal client, creating trust and relationship building will keep that client coming back for more and seeing you as an authority.

Email Marketing is the perfect tool for this. It has worked for years and STILL works today. Visit some of the largest websites in your chosen niche and I'll bet they have an opt-in form ready, waiting and upfront - you likely can't miss it!

Here are some quick reasons to use email:

1. Build credibility
   
2. Generate Calls
   
3. Increase Donations
   
4. Strengthen Relationships
   
5. Begin and Improve Communication
   
6. Branding
   
7. Boost Sales
   
8. Discover What Works
   
9. Reach People on Any Device
   
10. Look Professional
    
11. Increase Website Traffic
    
12. Market with a More Personal Touch
    
13. Lead Generation
    
14. Build Excitement
    
15. Promote Services
    
16. Grow Your Audience
    
17. Stay Organized
    
18. Increase Your Value
    
19. Attract New Clients
    
20. Save Time
    
21. Improve Visibility

You may have heard this phrase among marketing communities:

While this can be debated if you take the standpoint of using ONLY email marketing, I feel that a mature email list that is cultivated and grown correctly IS indeed like GOLD! Once your list is built (and it need not be a huge list) you can just about make immediate sales with the right promotional email, newsletter or autoresponder.

Autoresponders VS Newsletter

Okay, that being said. Let me first explain the difference between a Newsletter and an Autoresponder. There are times to use one or the other or even both.

A Newsletter is something you send out to your email subscribers periodically. It can provide snippets of your recent posts to get traffic to your website, weekly or monthly promotions or company updates with tips and tricks for your readers. The main takeaway here is that a newsletter is like a church bulletin sent periodically when you decide and generally sent manually (you create it and blast it out to your readers.)

An Autoresponder is a series of emails that is triggered upon sign-up. The initial email is referred to as Day 0 - sent immediately. Typically this is a Welcome email that introduces yourself and elaborates on what the subscriber will learn from your upcoming email series. Then, you set a frequency for the upcoming emails. I like the 7 day approach, so that my readers only receive one email per week. Some marketer go with more, some less. So, I have a Day 7 email, a Day 14 email and so on. I have a myriad of subscribers in differing stages of this email series, because it all depends on when they signed up. The beauty of this is that it works while I do other things - or even if I'm sleeping.

Either option can be real work setting up. But, once it's done you really don't have to touch it again!

Additionally, you can cross-promote with both platforms. Let's say you have a newsletter that goes out monthly. You can include a link to your autoresponder sign-up for an email series related to a specific niche, embedded with affiliate links. With the next newsletter, you can have a totally different link to another short training series with different affiliate links sprinkled throughout.

And, obviously you can provide links to your website within the signature file of each email of the different series'. And, with the HTML versions of email, they are great to embed clickable images, coupons, and a variety of other promotional items.

Lastly, with the services I'll show you shortly, these messages can be kept on the email marketing service's servers and seen via an HTML link - generally in decent email marketing, you'll see a wee blurb like this:

"If you're having trouble reading this email, please click the following link to read it online"

So, what does that tell you?

Yep, it's available to be picked up by the Search Engines and is good for SEO.

Opt-in, Single Opt-in, Double Opt-in

Okay, there are a few terms used in email marketing that can be quite confusing, so please bear with me while I discuss a few of them for those that are new to this type of marketing.

First of all, no one likes Spam Email. Second, if you Spam someone you risk losing your hard-earned email marketing account with your respective service.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 16, 2003, establishes the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce its provisions. All the major email marketing services take this VERY seriously.

So, most of the major services implemented and REQUIRE the "Double Opt-in" method of sign-up. Now, allow me to explain how this works and how it differs from Single Opt-in

Opt-in: Someone takes the option to join in your list.

Single Opt-in: Someone signs up through your email form and immediately begins receiving emails from you.

Double Opt-in: Someone signs up through your email form, but FIRST must check their Inbox and click on a link to CONFIRM they wish to receive emails from you. Only then will they receive the very first email.

Okay, cool - that's enough about the background of Email Marketing and the difference between Newsletters and Autoresponders. Now that you're equipped with this knowledge, we can dive into three services I've used personally, how to set them up and how to interface them with the SumoMe plug-in from your website!

In Progress Note:

I will be creating a quick outline here of links to jump ahead to the email service of your choice and integrate with the 3 major services that I plan to cover. I'm going to publish this for now and return and update shortly. A dear friend and fellow WA member needs the SumoMe-GetResponse setup instructions immediately.

QUICK LINKS

GetResponse:

GetResponse Autoresponder setup:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Integrating SumoMe Email Opt-in Form with GetResponse:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Integrating MailMunch Email Opt-in Form with GetResponse:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv

AWeber

AWeber Autoresponder / Follow Up Series setup:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Integrating SumoMe Email Opt-in Form with Aweber:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Integrating MailMunch Email Opt-in Form with Aweber:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

MailChimp

MailChimp Automation Setup:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Integrating SumoMe Email Opt-in Form with MailChimp:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Integrating the MailMunch Email Opt-in Form with MailChimp:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Mad Mimi

Mad Mimi Drip (Autoresponder) Setup:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Integrating SumoMe Email Opt-in Form with Mad Mimi

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/definitiv...

Mad Mimi doesn't support Mail Munch Unfortunately!