Whether a blogger is new or seasoned, email marketing is an important part of the blog’s growth strategy.
Many bloggers wonder why they need an email marketing strategy when they have social media and the blog itself. The answer is simple—email marketing is the top channel for direct interaction with your target audience.
My consistent email marketing efforts have resulted in a consistent 40% open rate.
In this guide, I’m sharing all the email marketing that has helped me grow my blog.
Ready to dive in? Let’s go!
The Benefits of Email Marketing for Bloggers
How audiences interact with your content differs greatly depending on where they engage. Social media followers and search users are less active than email subscribers.
The audience on your email list has willingly opted to receive updates, recommendations, notifications, etc from you. On the other hand, thanks to the pesky algorithms, only part of your social media and search audiences actually see your updates.
Your email list is a dedicated section of the audience you handpick with whom you can connect directly. Social media channels can shut down, and search engines can become unfavorable, but your email list doesn’t do any of that.
When done right, email marketing has a massive ROI for bloggers, and it’s the only channel that allows you to connect one-on-one with your target audience without any hindrance.
Here’s the scoop on why email marketing is so effective for bloggers:
1. Direct communication: You have a direct communication channel with your audience because your emails arrive in their inboxes.
2. Greater engagement: Email subscribers are more likely to interact with your material because they have voluntarily opted to receive emails from you.
3. Establishes relationships: Sending regular emails to your readers will help you cultivate a relationship that converts casual visitors into devoted followers.
4. Increases traffic: Email effectively increases pageviews and interaction on your site by directing readers back to it.
5. Monetization Opportunities: A robust email list can help you advertise goods, services, or affiliate offers more successfully.
Pretty impressive, huh?
Now that you know the effectiveness of email marketing, let’s explore how to apply it to your blog.
Specifics Of Making A Profit Using Email Marketing For Your Blog
Increase blog traffic
Even if you have die-hard fans, they won’t always remember to check out the new post right after it goes live. Some readers might even forget the posts for long after it’s published.
Email marketing helps you notify your regular readers about new blog post updates. It also helps get that early spike of traffic, which signals to search engines that your blog is important and worth ranking.
Promote services
Every once in a while you can promote your services, new offers, or launches directly to the targeted group of readers.
Since email marketing helps you tag and segment your audience, you know exactly who will be interested in an offer. So, you no longer speak in the void. Your message is heard and brings positive ROI.
Remember, don’t overdo promotional content. No one wants a salesman knocking on their door every day. Use it sparingly and see the results unfold.
| Suggested reading: How to promote blog posts for free
Affiliate marketing
It’s another monetization model but slightly different from promoting your services. Here, you promote the offers and services of your sponsors and affiliates.
Many successful bloggers use this method to earn extra income from their large audience pool.
Once you’ve reached a significant number of subscribers (ideally 1000), you can seek out sponsors or affiliate partners whose products and services will be advertised in a section of your newsletter.
It can be a product you use yourself and trust or a service in the same niche as your audience. You add affiliate links in the newsletter, which pay you when someone clicks them and takes the desired action.
Make sure you only feature those who can benefit your audience. Otherwise, it’s a bad move that will dampen your email marketing efforts.
Dedicated readers
These are not just a passing audience but dedicated readers who showed genuine interest in your content by sharing their email IDs with you.
It’s a sign of trust they put in you and your content. This trust goes further as many of these readers become your personal cheerleaders.
They share your email newsletters, blog posts, and other content on social media and other platforms more often than you thought. According to a study, email subscribers share blog posts 3.5 more likely on social media. Isn’t that enticing?
Paid Community
A section of this fan base of readers (if you will) can lead to a paid community. By offering exclusive content like sneak peeks of community, special offers, paid consultations, etc., you can build a paid community of a select few email subscribers.
This community creates a sense of exclusivity while offering more insights than the free newsletter.
Cross-Promote Other Income Streams
If you have other content creation channels, like a podcast or YouTube channel, successful email marketing can drive traffic to those channels.
You can promote speaking engagements, webinars, events, and more to your email list while expecting a high turnout rate.
Choosing the Right Email Marketing Tools
There are many good email marketing tools available. Choosing the right one for you depends on the most needed features and your goals.
Here’s a list of must-have features you should check before finalizing an email marketing tool:
- Drag and drop editor
- Multiple templates
- Easy automation
- Personalization
- Landing page templates
- Pop-ups and forms
- A/B testing
- Advanced segmentation and tagging
- RSS-to-Email Functionality
- Analytics and Reporting
Now, let’s break down some popular options for email marketing tools:
Picking the right ESP is like choosing the perfect pair of shoes – it needs to fit just right and support you every step of the way. Let’s break down some popular options:
1. ConvertKit
- Pros: Designed specifically for bloggers and creators. Supports powerful automation. Offers easy segmentation. Has a creator network to gain subscribers through a creator recommendation system. Integrates with tools and apps to save time creating content. Offers a free plan till 10000 subscribers.
- Cons: Limited template options. It can get costly after a threshold of subscribers is reached.
- Best for: Beginners or bloggers with smaller lists who prioritize automation (with the main goal of increasing blog growth).
- Pros: Easier to use with a more intuitive interface, especially for beginners. Offers a free plan for up to 2,000 contacts. Provides a drag-and-drop email builder with over 100 design templates
• Cons: Pricing can escalate quickly. Basic CRM Functionality
• Best for: Beginners and advance level bloggers
- Pros: Offers advanced marketing automation with over 850 automations. Provides a sophisticated CRM system for sales pipeline management.
- Cons: Steeper learning curve. Limits user seats to 1 on Lite plan, scales up with higher tier. Social posting requires third-party integration.
- Best for: Experienced bloggers and marketers with big teams.
Building Your Email List
Now that you’ve chosen your email marketing tool, it’s time to start building that list. Even if it doesn’t cost anything, audiences don’t easily hand over their email addresses to you. You need to convince them enough.
How?
Three ways: Opt-in forms, Lead magnets, Social media promotion
Creating Opt-In Forms
All email marketing softwares lets you create opt-in forms that you can strategically place on your website.
Building an email list takes time, but with opt-in forms, bloggers can cash on their blog visitors by delivering great content.
Some common types of opt-in forms are:
1. Pop-ups: These appear over your content and are hard to miss.
• Pros: High visibility, can be triggered based on user behavior
• Cons: Can be annoying if not used strategically
2. Slide-ins: These slide into view from the side or bottom of the screen.
• Pros: Less intrusive than pop-ups, still eye-catching
• Cons: Can be overlooked on mobile devices
3. Inline forms: These are embedded within your content.
• Pros: Non-intrusive, contextually relevant
• Cons: Can be easily skipped over
4. Header/Footer bars: These stick to the top or bottom of the screen.
• Pros: Always visible, don’t interrupt reading
• Cons: Limited space for copy
Best Practices for Opt-In Form Placement
- Place forms at natural breakpoints in your content
- Use exit-intent pop-ups to catch leaving visitors
- A/B tests different form types, designs, and placements
- Add an inline form at the end of every blog post as a CTA
- Place opt-in forms at strategic places in between content where they make sense (for example, lead magnets related to a subheader in the blog)
Remember, the key is to find the right balance between visibility and user experience. You want to capture emails without annoying your readers.
Creating Compelling Lead Magnets
The secret to an ever-growing email list? Offering consistent and great value. But you can’t keep doing it day in and day out. That’s why we have lead magnets.
They are a collection of your “wow” content packed inside an ebook, guide, PDF, templates, etc., and are delivered to the blog visitors in return for their email addresses.
Here are some high-converting examples of lead magnets:
1. Checklists: Quick and actionable, perfect for busy readers
2. Cheat sheets: Compressed data on a particular subject
3. Ebooks: In-depth guides on a subject your audience cares about
4. Mini-courses: A series of emails teaching a specific skill
5. Templates: Ready-to-use resources that save time
6. Swipe files: Collections of proven formulas or examples
People love quick, actionable resources!
Lead Magnet Creation Framework
1. Identify your audience’s biggest pain point
2. Brainstorm a resource that addresses that pain point
3. Create an attention-grabbing title
4. Outline the key points or steps
5. Flesh out the content, focusing on actionable advice
6. Design an attractive cover or preview image
7. Format the lead magnet for easy consumption
Social Media Promotion
You can do this every week on a certain day before you send newsletter issues. Promote your latest blog post issue like you’d promote an event.
Tell your audience what’s in store for them and tease them about the topic you’ll be sharing. Make the social media post enticing enough to get them to click the subscription link. You can do this by using the PAS framework.
State a problem your audience often faces. Agitate the problem by showing the consequences of not solving it. Then, offer your newsletter as a solution. Tease the solution and prompt them to subscribe to get the complete picture in the newsletter.
You can use any social media platform such as LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Pinterest for promoting your newsletter.
I asked Anirban Das, an email marketer, to explain different ways of using social media to increase newsletter subscriptions. Here’s what he had to offer.
Expert Quote
Offer freebies more than a paid item: If you don’t give users a solid reason to subscribe, they will never do so, as people don’t give emails easily. So, how can you do that? By offering exclusive content, discounts, or giveaways available only to newsletter subscribers. This could include sneak peeks of new products, behind-the-scenes content, or special offers.
Leverage Social Proof: Showcase the perceived value of your newsletter by stressing subscriber testimonials, social shares, or the number of subscribers. This helps build trust and encourages others to join.
Optimize Signup Forms: Place signup forms prominently on your website and social media profiles to make it easy for users to subscribe. Use clear calls to action and keep forms straightforward and to the point without any fluff to increase conversion rates.
Engage with Your Audience: Social media is more about engagement. Ask your followers certain questions that might be their pain points, and then interact and provide value in the comments. This helps build relationships and makes users more likely to subscribe to your newsletter.
Iterate and Optimize: Check your social media and newsletter performance KPIs to identify what’s working best. Test different messaging, visuals, and strategies to optimize your newsletter subscription rates over time.
Effective techniques and examples
Giveaways and contests: Giveaways work the best; you can run social media contests where users must subscribe to your newsletter to enter. Offer prizes relevant to their pain points, which can lead to long-term solutions.
Collab: To get the maximum subscriber rate, collaborate with a peer, or it will be better if he or she is an influencer or expert.
Countdown campaigns: Build anticipation for your newsletter by running a countdown campaign on social media. Tease exclusive content or offers coming in the next issue to drive signups.
Writing Engaging Emails
You’ve got subscribers—now what? It’s time to write emails that keep them open, click, and return for more.
It’s achieved through writing engaging emails. Key elements of an engaging email are:
Effective Subject Line
Your subject line decides whether readers open the email or not. I like to make my subject lines fulfill one or more of these:
- Curiosity-inducing
- Valuable
- Educational
- Showing urgency
- Stating a benefit
Here are a few examples of my email subject lines with the highest open rates:
- Save your website from algorithm fluctuations with E-E-A-T
- How I took my blog content from YUCKY to Enjoyable
- Have GREAT SEO with this one thing
Ensure you don’t use any of the words that trigger spam. Some common examples of such words are Free, cash bonus, 100%, #1, etc.
You can find a complete list of words triggering spam here >>>
Compelling opening
Start with a hook that draws the reader in. Ask a question, share facts, or tease what’s coming.
I like to open by explaining what the topic is and why reading about it is important for my audience.
Valuable Content
First off, ditch broad and go specific.
I know, the cliche. But it’s a cliche for a reason.
Don’t write about anything and everything under the sun. Narrow down your newsletter topic to one single niche.
Now, most newsletters follow a niche. But they aren’t specific. They go broad and talk about many things related to the niche. It leaves the readers confused.
Pick 2-3 sub-topics for your niche and only write about them.
Why it works: You don’t leave any guesswork before someone subscribes to the newsletter. They know what they’re getting themselves into. Automatically, you don’t increase the unsubscription rate.
Make the newsletters a guide, not a love letter.
Of course, your readers don’t have the time to read your newsletters as love letters. You’ve to fight many distractions to capture their attention. And most importantly, retain it.
Always make your newsletters a guide. Share:
- Tips to get the results you got
- Frameworks
- Cheatsheets
- Research
Don’t just write for the sake of it.
Don’t make it a Maze.
Format the newsletters to make them skimmable. Have a writing template.
- Use a header image.
- Use brand colors to highlight important sentences.
- Break the content into different sections.
- Use headers to make a new point and add dividers.
- Start with an introduction, the topic’s importance, and then actionable content.
- Add a CTA at the end.
Tip: Use the subscribers’ first name not just at the beginning but whenever you’re making an important point. It increases their involvement and makes them feel valued.
Strong Call-To-Action (CTA)
What do you want the reader to do next? Make it clear and compelling.
I often include what subscribers can expect in the next issue and share a link to my 1:1 consultations.
A strong CTA is a complete loop that helps close the newsletter with a bang.
Types of Emails to Send
1. Welcome emails:
Introduce yourself and the niche of your newsletter in this email. The main purpose of welcome emails is to set the expectations for your newsletter and ask your subscribers to share what they’d like to read.
It also works as a confirmation for the subscribers to get on your email list. Below are some snippets of the welcome email my subscribers receive.
Asking these questions helps me understand what my subscribers expect, and it also creates a repository of topics for future issues.
2. Blog post digests:
Use these emails as a round-up of your weekly blog posts. This works well if you publish around 4-5 posts every week.
Instead of creating a separate email promoting each post, create a weekly blog post digest. This will help avoid overwhelming your subscribers.
Below is an example of a round-up email by ConvertKit.
3. Behind-the-scenes updates:
Email marketing is also a crucial part of your personal brand, which is incomplete without some personality.
Use the behind-the-scenes updates to showcase your and your business’s personality. Schedule these emails every 2-3 months to show your subscribers what you’re working on.
It helps them connect with you better, and the relatability helps them remember your brand for a long.
Here’s an example of ConvertKit sharing behind-the-scenes information about their rebranding.
4. Tips and tutorials:
This will make up the biggest chunk of your email newsletters. People subscribe to get value, and the tips and tutorials offer the most value.
Use these emails to provide value beyond your blog posts.
5. Promotional emails: Promote your products or services (use sparingly)
Use these emails to promote your services, new events, early bird offers, etc. But ensure to use them sparingly. Use an 80:20 ratio for creating promotional emails.
Mix it up to keep your subscribers engaged and looking forward to your emails.
Keeping Your Emails Out of Spam
All your hard work won’t matter if your emails are in the spam folder. To ensure you don’t end up in spam, understand how spam filters work.
Spam filters look at various factors to determine if an email is legitimate:
- Sender reputation
- Email content
- User Engagement
- Technical factors (authentication, IP reputation, etc.)
Since, I’m not an expert in this area, I’ll let the expert do the talking. I’ve linked to an article by Lemlist that goes in-depth on email delivery best practices.
Finally, aim for:
- High open rates (20%+ is good)
- Low bounce rates (under 2%)
- Low spam complaint rates
If you notice issues, address them quickly to maintain good standing with your subscribers.
Measuring and Improving Your Email Marketing
No strategy is complete unless you track your performance. After you’ve built a strong email marketing strategy, the next step is to analyze your performance and improve the weak areas.
Key Email Marketing Metrics include:
1. Open rate: Percentage of subscribers who open your email
2. Click-through rate (CTR): Percentage of recipients who click a link in your email
3. Conversion rate: Percentage of recipients who complete a desired action
4. Unsubscribe rate: Percentage of recipients who unsubscribe
Strategies for Improving Email Performance
1. A/B testing:
Test subject lines, time to send emails, content types, and CTAs. Don’t go for all changes at once. Make one change at a time to see the impact.
2. Segmentation:
Group subscribers are based on interests, the forms they sign up for, and the products they buy. Send more targeted content to each segment to improve the open rate and conversion rate.
3. Re-engagement campaigns:
Identify inactive subscribers and create an email sequence to win them back. Go for those subscribers who haven’t opened emails in three months. If nothing works, remove them from the list.
It’s better to remove inactive subscribers than to have a big list with low open rates.
Here’s a post by Jason Feifer on the joy of losing subscribers that I liked a lot. It’s better to lose people who don’t align with what you share.
Steps Ahead: Success of Email Marketing for Bloggers
After you implement all the strategies shared above, you’ll see massive ROI on your email marketing efforts.
Here are some quick wins and long-term strategies to keep your blog growing through email marketing:
1. Optimize your blog posts with inline opt-in forms
2. Create a “Start Here” page with a prominent opt-in offer
3. Add social proof to your opt-in forms
4. Set up a basic 5-email welcome sequence
5. A/B test your most popular lead magnet’s opt-in form
6. Develop a content calendar for your email marketing
7. Regularly survey your subscribers to understand their needs and preferences
8. Develop a signature email style that reflects your brand personality
Now it’s time for you to go build a long list of fans one email at a time!
| Suggested reading: Best blogging tools in 2024