Introduction Online marketing is comprised of many different aspects, but each of those aspects is not equal. Posting on social media sites can give you instant recognition; some likes and shares or retweets. They may even give you a small amount of immediate website traffic and sales. But just as quickly as you post, the surge is gone and you to have to post again and again, perhaps many times a day, to keep the flow going. While you should include social media in your overall marketing plan, it s not the best option for building and growing a solid business. For long term success, the best marketing strategy for a business is email marketing. Building and nurturing your mailing lists will allow you to profit over and over again with little effort. You may be thinking that building a mailing list takes a lot of time and effort. And you are right. But if you invest your time now, you ll reap the rewards for many years to come. The old saying the money is in the list is absolutely true. When people subscribe to your mailing lists, they are interested in what you have to say. They are giving you permission to communicate with them. They are excited for you to build a relationship with them so they know they can trust to buy from you. With this in mind, this 15 day email challenge is going to help you grow your mailing list subscribers and get better results from each email you send to them. How This Challenge Works Every day for the next 15 days you will be given a 2-part challenge. Part one will consist of writing something, mostly emails. Part two will be focused on building your list. This doesn't mean you'll be emailing your list every day (unless that is the schedule you like to keep), but you will be getting into the practice of creating emails that you can broadcast, add to your autoresponder or schedule for a later date. Just schedule your completed tasks to your autoresponder accordingly. At the end of this 15 day challenge, if you ve completed all of your assignments, you will have:
15+ emails that you can use in your email marketing A growing mailing list & the ability to continue to build it using the tools and methods shared in the challenge The knowledge and ability to drive more traffic and increase sales, using email I encourage you to go at your own pace but do try to complete at least one day's challenge each day, taking weekends off. Never sacrifice your family or personal life, no matter how much you want to grow your business. A successful business is nothing without those things. To help keep you on track, we ve created a 15 day calendar so you can see at a glance what you need to be working on. Download the calendar here. Let s Get Started!
Before We Begin - To Make The Whole Process Easier... Sign up for Aweber - one of the top autoresponder services out there. You can try your first month for just $1! This will make each of the following steps simpler - and easier to follow - because you can actually DO them! Now... On To Building Your Email List!
Planning and Freebie Today, you will begin planning the emails you will send during this challenge. Many business owners plan their email topics as they get ready to write them; however, I want you to get in the habit of planning your emails in advance. This is important for several reasons: You will accomplish more in a shorter period. When your topics are preplanned, writing them is much easier and you can breeze right along. You can tailor your email marketing efforts to target the specific products you want to sell. Rather than adding a promotion willy-nilly, there will be more of a flow to your mailings. Your list will be warm and ready to buy, practically before you mention a product. This leads to much better sale conversions. If you ever have an emergency or a technical glitch with a product, it is much easier to rearrange your emails. If you plan to get help with your email writing, it s easier to assign tasks to writers, pick up the PLR you need, etc. Writing Assignment: Start Brainstorming Before you begin writing email messages for your list, it s important to have a clear idea of the products you will be selling. When you know what you want to sell, it s much easier to decide how to sell it. Later, you will come up with the topics you want to include in your emails. Make a list of the products you plan to promote through your emails. These might be your products or products you promote as an affiliate. Think of your ideal customer for each product. Make a list of topics, which would appeal to those customers and compel them to buy. Consider howtos, case studies, reviews, etc. Types of Emails
Keep in mind the kinds of email messages you might write. Note which message types your customers seem to prefer (read) and to which ones they respond best (click-through or buy). Here are some ideas to help you get started: Autoresponders: These pre-scheduled emails go out to subscribers usually at regular intervals. Ecourses: This type of series emails usually focuses on a particular topic and is often restricted to a specific number. Follow ups: This kind of email follows up on a previous product/offer promotion. Reviews & Case Studies: These informative emails give subscribers more information about the product, help to show them the possibilities and inspire new ideas for the products use. Relationship Builders: These emails may ask for your reader s thoughts, ideas, and opinions. They may also offer a no-strings gift as a thank-you for their time. Types of Subscribers Although you will focus on your main newsletter for this challenge, keep in mind the other types of lists (and subscribers) you may already have or could develop. These can include: Newsletter subscribers Ecourse subscribers Lists related to a freebie offer Customers Since these people have already purchased from you, this list is very valuable. Affiliates Potential affiliates and partners These people help your business grow and are the ones with whom you want to continue to connect. Consider what they need, how you can make their job easier and how you can encourage them.
Now that you know more about email list types and the options available to you, it should be much easier to plan the tasks you d like to complete during this challenge. If you are new to email lists or email marketing, keep it simple by building one list type at a time. Still not sure what to write about? Email marketing can be a bit overwhelming at first, especially if you are new to the concepts. The key is to do your best each day and follow through with the challenge. We all learn as we go so don t worry. I ll include some thoughts as we go along to give you some additional ideas. List Building Assignment: Make/Update Freebie You want to make sure everything is in place to maximize your opt-in success before you start encouraging people to sign up for your lists. One of the first and easiest things you ll need is a freebie or valuable gift offer to sweeten the prospect for potential subscribers and customers. Seasoned online marketers, who already have a freebie in place, will have a slightly different challenge than someone who is just starting out. I ll leave it up to you to decide which route to take based on your level of knowledge, understanding, experience or need. In this activity, you will want to either: Create a new freebie or offer Update and increase the value of an existing free-gift or offer. Possible types of free-gifts or offers: A Free Report A report that contains information about a specific topic and is usually based on a common question or problem. Ecourse On a specific topic, create an email series with a limited number of messages. Software Have a developer make a simple but useful piece of software specifically for your market. Practical Tools Examples of these would be helpful spreadsheets, worksheets, patterns, etc.
Audio This may include an audio of you speaking on a topic of interest or a recording of a live teleseminar. Video Create an instructional, informative or entertaining video based on your market s interests and/or needs. Coupons or special offers In order for this to be effective, you should have existing products, which customers already buy with little encouragement. These coupons and offers work best with items people are already familiar with but are just waiting for a deal to buy. Remember to include niche specific items of interest. For example, in the food niche, this may include things such as recipe cards, a cookbook, or other printable, informative items. Apply this niche-specific kind of thinking to your own niche and its unique items. The key to creating a freebie or gift is to offer something that compliments and creates interest in the product you want to sell. The more closely your freebie/gift is related to the product, the more sales you will make.
Welcome Message, Opt-in & Finish Your Freebie There is a great deal to learn in this challenge. To ensure you get maximum results from this course, we are squeezing in a lot of information into the next 15 days. You may be asked to do more than one thing within a writing assignment or list building assignment in a single day. I know it can be overwhelming and my goal is not to cause excess stress. The key is to do as much as you can while staying on a schedule. Not everyone is the same so if it takes you a little longer or a little less time to complete, that s okay. The daily challenges are designed to help those who are newer to email marketing and may need a little more direction. In the challenge it s important to work on an email and a list-building activity each day. If you are a more experienced marketer, read through each day's suggestions and make note of any new or forgotten things that you can use to challenge yourself. Writing Assignment The Welcome Email If you're creating a new list, you can start by writing a welcome email or tweaking an existing welcome message. If you are beyond this point, write an email from the plan you made earlier. What to Include in a Welcome Email Obviously, to a point, the things you include will depend on the product as well as your niche but here are some things you will likely want to do: Thank them again for signing up. Remind them what their subscription includes. Make a special offer or give a special subscriber's only discount. If you're writing an autoresponder (a pre-scheduled series of emails), tell them what they can expect in the next email. It's that easy!
List Building Assignment There are two parts to this assignment in case you finished your freebie yesterday. Part 1: If you haven't quite finished your freebie or offer, try these tips. Use quality PLR as a basis for your freebie. Add your own branding, your own voice and promotions and you're ready to go. Try All Private Label Content for a variety of topics. Create a Q&A audio recording for a quick high-value free product. Ask a colleague to ask you a series of questions, record it and load it up to your server. Look at previous content and products you've created. What can you use to create an awesome freebie for your readers? Write a quick script and take a video. Figure out your talking points, turn on the camera and load it up. Easy! You want to create a valuable freebie, but it shouldn t take up a lot of time. The key is to offer something related and useful that establishes your credibility and warms up your prospects to buy your product. Part 2: Create Your Opt-In Page An opt-in, sometimes called a squeeze page, is a must have for building your lists. Simply put, this type of page has one purpose, which is to encourage people to sign up to receive your newsletter. Adding a freebie or special offer that they can t resist helps them decide. When trying to generate leads for your business, this opt-in page is the one you want to link to. For example, you can link to it from article bylines, advertising, and other places where you are trying to generate leads. Since this page is so laser-focused, the opt-in conversion rate is much higher than it would be if you sent people to your home page. What to Include in Your Opt-in Page:
Your opt-in page should include only the things that are needed to convince the reader to sign up for your newsletter, get a freebie or an offer of some sort. The key is to avoid including anything that will distract the reader from signing up. It s not necessary to include any other navigation. If you feel you must, it s best to include it in the footer and keep it to a minimum. The items that help to encourage people to sign up include: Headline: This should be to the point as well as attention getting and benefit-driven. Focus on words that express your reader s emotions pain or desire, if possible. Then show them how your offer can help. Description: Be sure to add a compelling description. Highlight the benefits of your freebie AND the advantages of being on your mailing list. You can focus solely on promoting your freebie, but if they see the benefits of the subscription, they will be more likely to open the emails you send them. Graphic: Add a graphic of your freebie or a screen shot example of your newsletter. This will help draw the eye in to your offer and a sharp graphics increases the perceived value Instructions: Include step-by-step instructions on how to sign up. Spell it out for them, so there s no confusion. If people get confused, they will likely get frustrated and give up before they sign up. Tell them: Enter your first name and email address, then click Sign me Up Anti-spam Statement: People are concerned about spam and may hesitate to give out their email address. Include a brief statement about what you do / don t do with your readers personal information. Those are the basics of getting an opt-in page together. Opt-In Box The opt-in page is where you want your traffic to be directed; but, much of your traffic may come from a variety of sources. Organic traffic from search engines is a prime example. This traffic may never see your opt-in or signup page, because they are directed to a content page unless you help them along a little. What to include in your opt-in box:
An opt-in box is much smaller than an opt-in page, so you need to grab the visitor s attention and interest quickly. Add these items to make the most of this small area. A short, benefit-driven headline A small graphic of your freebie A short statement on why they should claim the freebie Code for the opt-in box. A bold, bright headline and graphic can really help draw the attention and get that sign up. Capitalize on popular site locations & pages To raise the odds that visitors will find and sign up for your newsletter, you ll need to add an opt-in box on the top/side navigation of all of your pages. This small promotion for your freebie/newsletter signup should be visible no matter where traffic enter your site, be it post or page. In addition, you probably already have some website traffic on which you can capitalize. Use your website statistics to find the most popular content on your site. For now, focus on the top 5 to 10 pages/posts. To each of these top pieces of content, add a small paragraph or note that suggests the reader can get more info like this by signing up for your newsletter. If you use Google Analytics, you can find your popular pages by going to the left menu under "Content" and then choose "Top Content". Analytics will then provide you with a list of your most popular pages for the specified time period. If you use Awstats, you'll also find this option in your left menu under "Navigation" and then choose "Full List" to see a list of your most-viewed content. If you use a different statistics program, you can probably find a similar feature to determine where to focus your efforts
Content Email & Thank You Page Your persistence with the challenge tasks should be paying off soon. If you need to get caught up, don t give up before you get to the finish line. Just keep pushing forward and you'll get there. It s time for your next email writing and list building activity. You can decide what to write and build on your own or if you need more direction, your challenge/tasks for today are below. Writing Assignment - Content...with a Plan Today, you re going write a purely informative content piece for your list, but you ll need a plan because you ll also be writing a follow up on this content piece with a product promotion. Remember that product you planned to promote earlier? Keep it in mind as you write. Part 1: For today s informational email, think about these questions to help you get started. What does a consumer of this product need to know? What problem do they have? How can you help them start to solve it in today's email? In Word or Notepad, just write the email without really thinking too much about mistakes. You re just trying to get your initial thoughts down. Then go back and edit the message to tidy it up. But your writing assignment isn t done yet; you still need to write your follow up email for tomorrow. Part 2: While the thought is still fresh in your mind, it s important to go ahead and write your follow up message. When writing the content follow up email, think about how you can build on the content piece you wrote in part 1 and incorporate it into an informative promotion. Say you wrote some fitness tips for a fitness video you planned to promote. In the follow up, tune in to your reader s emotion and empathize by saying that you know it's easier said than done. Tell them, "You can read about fitness and
exercise, but seeing it in action is what makes all the difference. And luckily, I have a fitness video that illustrates the concepts and exercises. Perhaps, make a special offer on the video or add some bonus goodies to the usual offer. If it's a limited time offer, you'll probably get more results. In short, make it a very attractive and relevant offer for your readers. Keep in mind that this follow up email doesn t have to be sent out the following day. Depending on your personal business goals and preferences, it may be sent 3 days later, 5 days later or even a week or more after your first email. The goal is to write the email and schedule it so you have one less thing on your plate later. So write your main email and the corresponding follow up and load them into your email program to be scheduled for a time of your choosing. List Building Assignment - Create a Thank You Page Yesterday, you made an opt-in page. Now it's time to create your thank you page. On a thank you page, you have the perfect opportunity to make a special offer. Because people have already said YES to a subscription, they are more likely to say YES to an additional offer. Thank you page contents: Thank you message: Thank your subscriber for signing up. Additional requirements: Tell them about any additional requirements (confirmed opt-in, etc.) Special offer: Your special offer can be a one-time only offer, a special discount for new subscribers, etc. Limit Distractions/Navigation: Limit navigation and other distractions, just as you did with your opt-in page. Keep their focus on your message and the special offer for a higher conversion rate.
You can use this thank you page for your opt-in page and your regular subscription box, if appropriate. Make sure you track your offer links. This allows you to make changes as needed.
Write a Promotional Email & Check Your Signatures Now that your key list-building tools are in place; your opt-in box, opt-in page and thank you page, you can maximize what you already have to grow your list by writing your next email & follow up. Writing Assignment - Write a Promotion Only Email Today, your task is to write a purely promotional email. Previously, you focused on keeping the content more informational and while all promotions should INFORM, you ll make a stronger sales pitch in this email. Many business owners shy away from the sales pitch because they are afraid that potential customers will unsubscribe or complain. While you don t want everyone up in arms about too many promotions, you won t make the sale if you don t ask for it. People who highly object to a sales pitch will probably never become a customer. If they are never going to buy, they are only weighing down your list. Put your fears aside and SELL that product! Follow up promotions (or reminders) are powerful. Your first promos may produce a nice number of sales; however, the follow up can add the icing on the cake! A follow up can be short, reiterating some of the points of the first email. However, you will want to add a few new benefits or points to ponder as well. So today, write a totally promotional email and a corresponding follow up. List Building Assignment Check your signatures Email signatures may be the most overlooked and cost-effective marketing tool at your disposal. Yet a well-executed email signature can literally bring in hundreds of extra dollars to your business. Your link building assignment today is to check your forum signatures, email signatures, social media profiles and anywhere else you may have links to your website. Update your signatures and other areas to include a link to your new freebie and opt-in page.
Create A Goodie & Distribute It Today, you are going to maximize your time by combining your email writing and list building efforts. Writing Assignment - Give a Goodie Your challenge today is to put together a quick goodie for your existing readers. Don t spend much time on this. You just need something quick and dirty that is also useful to your readers. It can be a video, report, worksheet, tool or anything you think your readers might like. TIP: In the goodie, include a special offer that complements your product. Once it s finished, write an email telling your subscribers about the goodie. Give them a link to access it. It's that simple. The objective here is to create goodwill with awesome value so don t make the readers jump through hoops to get it. List Building Assignment Distribute That Goodie Now take the goodie, that you just created and repurpose it slightly. Use it as a list-building tool. You may want to do one of the following: Add a promo for your opt-in page at the bottom of the new goodie. Then distribute it to your affiliates and others so they can distribute it as well. Set up a second opt-in page & require new subscribers to opt-in to get the goodie. Submit it to directories and anywhere applicable. Add a link to the goodie s sign up page in your signatures and byline. Create a few Facebook ads to draw new people in.
Goodie Follow up & Guest Blog Post Congratulations! You ve completed the first 5 days of the 15 day email challenge. Are you ready to keep going? Moving along, it's time for another email writing and list building activity. As always, you can decide what to write and build on your own...or if you need more direction, your challenge/tasks for today are below. Writing Assignment - Content Follow up Today, you will promote your goodie by writing a follow up email. Include some additional thoughts, helpful tips and a link to the goodie. The key to a good follow up is to ensure your subscribers get something out of it, even if they've already downloaded your free gift. Keep in mind, you don t want to bombard your readers with emails for things they have already gotten. Try your best to omit sending an email to those people who have already taken action from your email. If your autoresponder can track what links have been clicked or products ordered, use that feature to your advantage here. List Building Assignment - Write a Guest Blog Post Do you know of a website or blog whose audience you'd like to reach? You may be able to do that with a guest blog post. The site owner gets an original piece of content (from you), while you (and your linked byline to the opt-in page) get additional exposure when the owner puts the post on his or her site. Make a list of blogs where you would like to add a post, for future reference. Today, you're just going to write one guest blog post. Before you start writing, do a little research. Most places that will accept guest posts also have guidelines about submissions. Look around the site for those and get a feel for the type of content the readers are looking for. This will help you shape your approach and the blog post s content.
If they do have submission guidelines, follow them to the letter. If they don't have guidelines, write the blog post first. This post should be highly relevant to their audience. Send it to the site/blog owner (or submission area), saying that they may publish it and ask them to notify you when they do. Having a ready-to-go blog post is the key. You don't want to waste the owner s time with a bunch of emails. Even if the blog owner doesn't publish your article/blog post, you still have a great piece of content that you can modify and publish elsewhere.
Write an Article, Tips & Pay With a Tweet To this point, you've had the opportunity to create several emails, which can be used to build a relationship with your subscribers and boost your sales. Remember; ALWAYS add your most successful email promotions to an autoresponder, so they can keep working over and over for you. Now, here are two more tasks to help make your email results even better Writing Assignment Write an Article Related to Your Goodie Today your writing assignment has two parts but don t worry, the first part will be super quick. Part 1: Your readers are with you because they want two main things - updates and to learn from you. Think of a problem your readers have and give them 5 tips to solve it. HINT: If you have the time, you may want to make a list of problems you can address in the future. Part 2: Write an article on a topic related to your goodie. You may already have one that will work for this. Promote your goodie in your article byline. Make sure to ask for the opt-in to access your goodie. Submit the article to an article directory; create a HubPage or Squidoo lens for the article. Just do something to get the article out there. Caution! If you re using PLR articles, keep in mind that they cannot be submitted to article directories. List Building Assignment - Create a Social Payment Opportunity Today s activity is about building awareness. Since social media is so popular right now, it s important you take advantage of it. What I d like you to do today is to create a custom landing page for your free goodie specifically for Facebook and Twitter (one landing page for each).
A quick way to do this is to take the opt-in page you originally created for the goodie and modify it some. You can add a special welcome message such as Thanks for following me on Facebook. I m glad you decided to check out my free goodie. Now typically, even when giving away a freebie, you are asking people to buy it by giving you their name and email address through an opt-in form. So while they are not paying with cash, they are paying with something. Today your sign up pages are going to ask visitors to pay with a social promotion. They can pay with a Tweet, a Like or a Google +1. There are a few methods for doing this but the easiest is to use one of the following services to create your buy button. https://premium.wpmudev.org/project/pay-with-a-like/ http://www.soclock.com/ Once you have your page set up, promote the freebie on Facebook and Twitter, linking to their specific page.
Make a Connection & Post 5 Comments Although we send daily challenge suggestions, remember that this is your challenge. As long as you work on (and hopefully complete) one writing and one list building task each day, you are on target. Here is your task/challenge suggestion for today Writing Assignment Make a Connection Today, you ll concentrate on writing an email for the purpose of making a new connection. This person will go on your potential affiliates or partners. This list is very valuable because they are the people who promote you or collaborate with you to create a new product/offer. When you reach out to grow this list, you are indirectly growing your other lists and maybe even your product line. In the big picture, you are extending your reach beyond your existing audience. Tips for Approaching Someone New: Keep the message brief and to the point. Make sure that it includes information that will grab their interest. Mention how you know them and how they may know you. Mention what you admire about their work but don t gush. Mention something you d like to do for them. This could include promoting one of their products, linking to one of their posts or spotlighting them in some way. Ask a question that doesn t involve a favor in return. You simply want to open a dialogue to build a relationship. Once your relationship develops a bit and you are officially on their radar as a potential, you can ask for a small favor. Just because you send a message, doesn t mean you will get the response you d like or even a response at all. If the person you write to doesn t answer, don t worry. You can re-try with a follow up message or use a different method
of contacting them. Even if you still don t get a reply, you are perfecting your emails and fine-tuning them as you go. It s worth it in the end. Keep at it. List Building Assignment Making connections is so important to growing your list so today s list building assignment is a continuation of your writing assignment. Refer back to the list you created when writing your guest blog post. Visit some of the sites on your list and make an engaging, thought provoking comment. Make at least 5 comments on different blogs today. Keep in mind when commenting If you ve had a similar experience as the original post writer, share your experience to entice people to learn more about you. Make your comments at least 4 sentences long and do not add links in your comment as they could be rejected. Don t link to your main website URL. Instead, link to a relevant article on your website. Try to be one of the first few commenters on a post. If your comment is number 270, you ve lost out on the first 269 people reading your comment and offering a link back to you.
Promotional Email & Advertising Getting into a daily routine of writing is important. The more consistent you are, the easier it will be. If you have gotten behind, try your best to catch up. Trust me...it's lucrative. Writing articles, creating tools, reports and blog posts is important to an online business. But giving priority to the email tasks is what will help make your business profitable. If you create content and products, yet fail to contact your potential buyers, your sales will be significantly lower or maybe even non-existent. With that in mind, it s time to write another promo Writing Assignment Write Another Promo & Follow Up Today's task is to write another promotional email. To recap a bit, promotions can be informative. They can review products (positives and drawbacks); show case studies; provide valuable advice and more. Although you may think a product is great, you don t want to sound like a used car salesman. Avoid over-hyping, which may lose you sales in the end. You may be wondering about the number of promotional emails you are writing. Shouldn t there be some purely informational emails sent as well? Every list is different and so are your business goals. The key to opening that door to better email results is getting into the habit of daily writing and promoting in emails. Many people have found that combining information with a promo brings better results and fewer unsubscribes. When readers come to expect both to be in an email from the word go, they aren t as likely to unsubscribe on the second promo they see. So start as you plan to go and you ll have fewer bumps in the road. Don t forget to write your follow up while the information is fresh in your mind. What extra incentive or additional helpful information you can provide? Can you add a bonus? Do you have a case study? Do you have feedback from other customers?
List Building Assignment - Swap or Buy an Ad It's time to start advertising. If you have the funds to buy an ad, that s great! Check out "ezine" and "newsletter ad" directories (ex. ezineadvertising.com). Also, try advertising on Facebook, Google Adwords or other highly targeted advertising opportunities. If you aren t able to buy an ad, there are other ways to get the word out. One great way to bring in new subscribers is through other mailing lists. Search for the sites and lists you think would be a good target (similar audience). Then approach the owners of that list directly and ask if they would swap email promos or ads with you. Keep in mind that you must be willing to return the favor!
Ask an Opinion & Taking Stock At this point in the challenge, you're starting to see some results. Keep in mind that this is an ongoing process and the things you do will continue to work, far into the future. For example, a guest blog post continues to bring traffic to your opt-in page. You're not just completing tasks here; you're building something! Make sure the emails you write continue to give you value. A few ways to do that include: Keep a well-organized archive of your newsletter on your site (like an FAQ section.) It helps generate traffic. Keep a copy on your computer too. It makes a great swipe file you can go back to if you get writers block. Add evergreen broadcasts to an autoresponder for new subscribers that come onto your list. Repurpose some content-rich emails. Turn them into blog posts, articles, etc. Publish them on your site or allow others to publish them. Take a series of emails and turn them into a special report. Give it away to your list or let your affiliates brand it to give away. Now that you have some ideas of how your emails can help you beyond the initial mailing, you can continue with today s tasks Writing Assignment Ask an Opinion When your readers feel valued and appreciated, you ve made a connection with them and that s what turns potentials into loyals. Today, you re going to make them feel valued by asking their opinion on a subject, creating a short survey, or asking them to submit questions to you. The key is to encourage some kind of interaction. They can post their opinion on a blog or if you want it to be confidential, you might use a submission form. If you're creating a survey, you can use a free tool like Easy Internet Survey to easily create your survey and store the responses.
Make sure you create a follow up. If you do a survey, you may want to allow a little extra time for people to finish it. However, plan your follow up now and schedule it when the time is right. Here are a few questions you ll want to consider as you plan: Will you share the results? Will you reply to those who answered your question? Will you answer some of the questions that were submitted? Make sure your subscribers feel appreciated and valued by giving them something. Keep in mind what your reader wants to get out of their participation and deliver! So today, you re going to ask for an opinion and plan your follow up. List Building Assignment What s Working & Do More Today, you ll be looking at your statistics, specifically those of your website and your autoresponder. Here s what to look for. For each opt-in page, find out where the majority of the traffic is coming from. Also, make note of which opt-in pages are working best. Which guest blog post is driving the most traffic? Can you do another one for that site? Look for 5 or 10 hot pages on your website. Add a promotion for your mailing list to the bottom or within the content of these pages. What affiliate is sending the most traffic to your opt-in page? Can you sweeten the offer for that affiliate to get them to promote more? Always do more of what works. In fact, do one of those things that works, today.
Get Inspired & Start a Conversation Now that s dedication! I m glad to see you re back working your way towards better email results. If you ve had trouble keeping up with the daily challenges, here are a few tips for you: Emails can be short. An email can simply be sharing something of interest. You can share a few quick tips, a link to a blog post, video or report. You can provide a little motivation or ask for feedback. Stick with one topic at a time, though. It's less work for you, it keeps your readers more engaged and when sharing a promo, conversions are more likely to be higher. Schedule email marketing time daily. This daily time is important. Nothing has the power that a well thought out email does. It s emails that sell products, create bonds, and even drive traffic. Dedicate at least 30 minutes each day to improving your email marketing in some way. Get help, as needed. One person can only do so much. Hire a ghostwriter, guest writer, use PLR, get a Virtual Assistant to take care of the administrative tasks like setting up mailing lists, adding autoresponder messages, etc. Get a business manager to manage people and projects. Free up your time so you can spend more time forming the master plan and get even better results from your efforts. Your time here is limited but if you stick with it, you will see results. The amount you see depends on where you started. Keep in mind that it's all a learning experience. The more you practice, the better you ll get and the easier the process becomes. Now, it s time to practice and progress Writing Assignment Get Inspired! While you may see some beneficial results early, look at this as a long-term plan to develop relationships and grow your business. Start by scanning headlines through your RSS reader. Scanning is the keyword here. If you don't have an RRS reader, get one! The info can help when generating ideas, studying subject lines and more. The goal is to find an article
or post on a topic that s of interest to your readers. Remember those people you wanted to make a connection with? Check their site feeds first. Once you find a topic, write down your own thoughts on the subject. For example, if you found a post with ideas for controversial ways to keep troubled teens in school, consider sharing your original ideas in an email. But don t stop there. You can pull triple-duty on the topic. First, make a useful and meaningful comment on the blog post that inspired you. By doing this, you are opening the doors to a connection with that website owner. As you know, connections can go a long way to help you grow your readership, lists, profits and business, in general. Second, you can write a follow up email letting your readers know about the post you read & commented on and share the link so they can see your opinion. Ex. "Yesterday, we talked about controversial ways to keep troubled teens in school. I know it's an important topic for many of my readers and I hope some of the ideas I shared helped in some way. Well, I have also found an interesting article at thiswebsite.com. I've also shared my opinion in the comments area as I think the article has some a very unique perspective that might help you too Check it out at thiswebsite.com/article." Try to get as much mileage as possible out of every topic you write about. List Building Assignment Start a Conversation After a number of your readers have had a chance to visit, contact the website owner. You could further discuss the comment on your blog and let the other website owner know you shared their thoughtful post with your mailing list. To take it further, consider writing a blog post that is related to their topic. Then ask if they'd like to publish it. Remember to link to your opt-in page in the byline of your post. For example: "I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your post on keeping troubled teens in school. It really opened my eyes to new ideas on communication. As soon as I read it, I knew it would be useful to my
subscribers, so I emailed them about your post and I've received some great feedback from them so far."
Content Follow Up & Incentives Up to this point, you have written quite a few emails and completed a nice amount of list building activities. You should also have in place an opt-in page, thank you page and an opt-in box on every page. Today, you ll add something new into the mix. Get ready to make more progress. Here it comes Writing Assignment Content Follow Up You ve probably noticed a pattern to the writing strategy you follow up on EVERYTHING. Your efforts work efficiently because your readers have time to absorb what you ve said, consider your offers, and appreciate your content. Today, do one or more of the following: Write additional tips Offer some encouragement Help your readers make the most of what you wrote yesterday, the day before or sometime in the past week. Did you remember to send a follow up after asking for an opinion? If not, do it today. If your inspiration topic inspired more emails or content ideas, go for it. Writing this email, keep in mind the products you promote and how you can work it into a follow up email. One way is to include a post script (P.S.) You can say something like: "P.S. And oh, by the way, if you're having trouble unclogging your drain, here is a product that I keep on hand at all times -> http://draindraindrain.com" P.S.'s can be very powerful and are easily worked into most emails. Use unique tracking links in your P.S.'s to get an idea of how well your P.S. is working for you. Use them often, but for today, start practice writing just one.
List Building Assignment Provide Incentives You've created a few freebies, so let's use them again. Ask yourself what incentive will encourage your affiliates, subscribers or social media followers to help spread the word about one of your freebies. You could: Create an affiliate contest give the affiliates, who send the most leads, a valuable prize. Ask subscribers to share your offer through social media and give them a valuable coupon or another free item. Include a hashtag so you can keep track of the shares. Keep in mind that nobody ever said you had to do everything yourself. Having a team on your side is a winning approach. If you have an assistant or an entire team at your disposal, make use of their skills. Your ultimate goal is to work on planning your email marketing as much as possible and let someone else do the other work. You could: Hire ghostwriters or copywriters to write for you. Purchase PLR you can brand, monetize, and publish. Let an assistant set up your opt-in pages and emails. If you haven t made it to that business stage yet, you may have a friend who can do some of the non-planning tasks for you. Better yet, consider hiring a person or two just for a short-term task or project. Most qualified people will already have a basic knowledge of how to do the associated tasks so you wouldn t need to do much, if any, training. It s a great way to get ahead.
Product Review & RSS by Email You've seen quite a bit about relationships in this course; but, their importance can t be stressed enough. The more connections you have in your niche, the faster things grow for you. Your connections knowledge, advice and cross-promotion are invaluable. If you skipped ANY of the relationship building tasks, march your behind right back to those tasks and complete them. If you're ready to move on, let's get started... Writing Assignment Product Review Today, you will write a product review. Choose a product that you've used regularly and like. This will make it easier to write. If you can review the P.S. product that you recommended in yesterday s writing task, this will be the perfect follow up. A good product review will include: Overview of the product and details Who the product is suitable for (no product is right for everyone) Potential drawbacks and solutions Optional: Compare to other similar products likenesses and differences. Overall thoughts TIP: Once the review has been sent to your subscribers, add it to your autoresponder, and publish it on your site. Distribute the review where you can. In addition, if the product has an affiliate program, you may also want to add the name and affiliate link to your list of recommended items. This particular document is often in pdf format and is distributed with product downloads. It may also be available to download on the site or linked at the bottom of review pages, depending on your strategy. List Building Assignment RSS by Email
If you offer an RSS feed on your blog, try adding an email option to subscribe to your RSS feed. Email options are available through Feedburner.com. Some autoresponders, like Aweber, provide similar options as well.
A Contest & Promotion Partner Oh yeah, the last days are finally here. Today, you're going to focus on contests and sweepstakes. Important: Please note there are varying legal requirements for contests and sweepstakes, depending on the country, state or province in which you live. Research those before starting because I offer no legal advice whatsoever. The basic idea is to create a contest or sweepstakes where new subscribers enter their personal details for a chance to win a valuable prize. Many people find the quality of the subscriber tends to be lower than through other methods. You may have heard some business owners refer to these subscribers as freebie-seekers. What they mean is that many of these people are not interested in what you have to say. All they are interested in is the free prize. It is not uncommon for this group of people to forget who you are or even the fact that they entered your contest! Of course, if you approach this the right way, you may get a good response. You may also find some people who are glad they found you through the contest promotion and stick with you. Here are some tips to help you navigate through the process: Your prize should be something that is very relevant to your business. The people who enter should be part of your target market. Make the opt-in to your list optional. Rather than automatically adding all entrants to a mailing list, tell them what freebie they can get instantly from the opt-in. If they like the information in the opt-in freebie, they may sign up voluntarily. You'll get far fewer opt-ins, but they are more likely to stick with you and you re less apt to receive complaints. Follow up quickly with your new opt-ins and let them get to know you. Time is of the essence. Contest entrants often move on quickly to the next contest and forget where they've been. Put yourself in a better position by setting up an autoresponder series to develop a relationship. Group contests can be overwhelming for the business owners and certainly for the people entering. These are contests where multiple people add a prize or a freebie to a huge package and everyone builds a list from it. On
the other hand, many business owners have found that donating to contests for the PUBLICITY to be a beneficial thing. Note: The difference in going the group route is that you shouldn't treat the entrants as if they are on your regular opt-in list. Treat these people as prospects that you still need to convince and get to know. With those things in mind, it s time to write those emails and build that list. Writing Assignment Email for Your Contest Setting up a contest will require a number of emails. Write some emails to: Tell your current list about the contest. You don't need them to opt-in, but you certainly want to tell them about this opportunity to get some great free stuff! Follow up with entrants to thank them for entering A second follow up to share a gift or special offer that warms them up so they can soon become your customer Ask affiliates to promote your contest and perhaps offer an incentive Follow up with affiliates List Building Assignment Get a Promo Partner Secure at least one place that will promote your giveaway for you. If you don't expect this will draw in a lot of new entrants, make sure to secure a few places for today. You want to ensure what you're working on has an impact on your list building. TIP! When your contest ends, make sure those links coming to your contest are still useful. You can do this by offering an ongoing contest or swapping out your contest offer with another freebie offer. That way, you can keep getting opt-ins from that ongoing traffic
How are Your Customers? Well holy smokes...here we are - the final day. It would have been really nice if you could just take today off like the kids do on the last day of school but, you have a little work to do today and every week from now on. Now, let's get on with today's tasks... When you first started, you learned that your customer list is your most valuable list. Satisfied customers are much more likely to buy more stuff. You don t have to work so hard convincing new people to buy when you have a solid group of loyal repeat customers. Today, you will focus on your customer list. Here are your tasks... Writing Assignment What Can You Do for Your Customer? One of the keys to good customer relationships is to treat them special. Give them little goodies, special discounts and incentives. Send them information about products before they are publically released. Make them glad to be your customer. Think about what you can do for your customer today and write an email to do that. As always, you will want to follow up on the customer email. If you made an offer, think of more benefits or sweeten the deal. If you sent them a free item, remind them to download it and give them some more thoughts on the subject. Keep in touch with your customers and keep them happy. List Building Assignment Low Cost Offer One of the easiest ways to build a customer list is to sell a low-cost hard-toresist product. Even as an affiliate, you can create (or purchase PLR) an info product that you can sell. Just make sure the low cost product is highly relevant to the higher ticket items you are going to sell and you have a follow up system planned in place.