Hello and welcome to the Spring Edit.
At the end of each season I will be sharing some of my best tips, tools and finds around email marketing that I’ve sent out to the wonderful people on my email list.
If you’re interested in getting these nuggets + more in your inbox twice a month then you can subscribe right here 👇🏼
You can catch up with the Winter Edit here: The Winter Edit
Lead magnets for email marketing.
Social media algorithms are a tricky beast and it can be so disheartening watching something you created, that you know your ideal client wants to hear and see that it just doesn’t reach.
With a lead magnet, you will not only be able to create a captive audience, but you’ll also be able to showcase your knowledge and authority on what it is you do best.
But what is a lead magnet?
🙋♀️🙋♂️ Lead: a person who is interested in the product or service you sell.
🧲 Magnet: a thing that attracts.
A lead magnet is something that you can offer for free that attracts a potential client for the purpose of gathering contact information. In this case, an email address.
Building your email list on ‘subscribe here’ will only take you so far. You need to add value and prove your worth. We’re all very protective over our inboxes these days!
A lead magnet will help you:
👉🏼 Build a targeted email list: your subscribers are telling you exactly what they are interested in depending on the lead magnet they sign up to. Using groups & segmentation on sign-up enables you to send targeted emails depending on what they subscribed to.
👉🏼 Increase brand awareness and credibility: by offering valuable information or resources, you can demonstrate your expertise and provide value to potential clients.
👉🏼 Generate leads and sales: provide a compelling offer or valuable piece of content and you can encourage potential customers to take action and make a purchase.
There are so many creative ways to create a winning lead magnet. You could offer a discount code; product sample; webinar; checklist; guide; templates & subscriber-only content on your website.
If you have an idea for something that your potential leads need to know, you have a lead magnet!
Understanding your email metrics.
Do you look back and analyse your email marketing metrics? If it’s all jargon to you, here’s a quick rundown of click rates & how you can use them:
📈 Click-through rate (CTR) measures the number of people who clicked on a link in your email divided by the number of people who received it. Let’s say, your email was sent & delivered to 100 people and 8 people clicked – that gives you a CTR of 8%.
📉 Click-to-open rate (CTOR) also tells you how many people clicked on a link in your email, but it’s measured against the number of people who opened the email rather than the number the email was delivered to.
Let’s go back to those 100 people who received your email. Keeping it simple, say 50 people opened it. Your CTOR would be the number of people who clicked divided by the number who opened your email, that’s a CTOR of 16%
What does this mean for you and how do you measure an email campaign’s ‘success’?
👉🏼 CTOR tells you how well your content resonates with your subscribers and how effective your call to action is.
👉🏼 CTR however gives you a wider view of your email performance as it disregards the open rate. This can help you see how effective other aspects of your email are such as the subject line and when (time and day) you send it.
Using these figures together can inform changes you may want to make to your email marketing strategy.
👉🏼 If you see a large difference between CTR & CTOR this could indicate that you need to make changes to your subject line, when you send it and perhaps the frequency in which you send them.
👉🏼 A smaller difference between the two indicates your content and/or call to action isn’t speaking to your subscribers in a way that makes them want to engage.
Opting out.
Rather than run the risk of losing subscribers, it can be a good idea to give your audience the option of opting out of certain groupings or segments.
The best example of this is Mother’s Day. It seems to be one of the most marketed days of the year, after Christmas and Black Friday. However, there are many reasons why someone might not want to be bombarded with Mother’s Day messaging. For example, they may be struggling with infertility, their child or mother may have died, or they may have strained family relationships.
It can be triggering and it’s important for us to approach occasions like this with sensitivity and empathy. Happily, there are an increasing number of businesses that are giving their subscribers the option to opt out of Mother’s Day emails.
This is the very sweet email I received from Sasha at Cheeky Zebra (excellent cards – they are a bit rude).
This is a great idea for any type of seasonal or special interest campaign you want to run. You can send targeted emails your audience wants to receive without the risk of them hitting unsubscribe.
Five legit reasons to unsubscribe form emails.
1. It’s no longer relevant to you or your business.
2. You don’t find the content engaging.
3. Too many, too often.
4. It doesn’t interest you right now.
5. It is not helping the person whose list you are on.
It can be hard clicking the unsubscribe button – what if they send an amazing offer next week, how will you ever find them again? You may also feel obliged by a small business code to stay on the list.
And of course, it can be hard to lose email subscribers, but trust me, it’s for the best. Think of it as that toxic friendship where your ‘mate’ rings you up out of the blue demanding your attention only to ditch you as soon as something shinier, newer, fancier comes along.
If you haven’t opened, clicked or replied to any of the emails, then why are you still subscribed? If you need to find them again one day, you will. And if not them, another small business that offers the same or similar product or service.
When people remove themselves from your list, it boosts your open rates, click rates and has a positive impact on your email deliverability.
When you unsubscribe from other people’s lists that are no longer serving you, you are opening yourself to content you really want to see and creating a little more headspace.
Top notch ad campaigns.
Not email specific but it’s worth sharing these 3 fabulous adverts that have been on our TVs and radios recently. It demonstrates what you can do with a little ingenuity and in one case, a big budget!
The World’s Greatest Thief
This Casillero del Diablo ad stars the man who seems to be the current world favourite – Pedro Pascal. It’s not the quality of the advert, it’s not Pedro, it’s the scheduling, the placement. This ad was played during the breaks of the Last of Us series.
If you don’t know the Last of Us, starring Pascal as one of the main characters, it’s set in a post-apocalyptic world. Pascal usually looks like hell (hot hell). Dirty, covered in blood, tired, shot, stabbed, all of it. Break to the ad and in saunters Pascal looking all suave chatting about wine, it’s jarring seeing him in a luxurious smoking jacket and pristine wine cellar! The World’s Greatest Thief
The Caterpillar Party
Aldi continue to taunt M&S about Colin, or should I say, Cuthbert the Caterpillar. This ad follows a ‘caterpillar’ party hosted by Cuthbert. Cuthbert is there with Wiggles (Sainsbury) & Morris (Morrisons) by a table showcasing both Colin & Cuthbert cakes, then Colin arrives… Aldi continues to deliver and win on this old battlefield. The Caterpillar Party
The Inconvenience Store
Selling inconvenience. You probably know Abel & Cole, they sell organic veg boxes delivered to your area once a week. Sounds convenient, except, it’s a set day, you can’t choose your veg, it’s usually seasonal and it costs more than supermarket veg.
Their new radio advert opens with an old-school sounding supermarket announcement of ‘Welcome to Abel & Cole. Where inconvenience is a good thing.’ What Abel & Cole offers is pesticide-free produce, reduced packaging, lower emissions and a fair price to farmers. These are their key selling points, and it works for me, except they don’t deliver round my way! The Inconvenience Store
“Stop trying to be amazing and start being useful.”
Jay Baer
Enjoying the edit?
If you found this useful and would like to have content like this dropping into your inbox twice a month, then sign up using the big shiny button below!