The Questions You Should Be Asking on Your Email Signup Form

Our focus now is what to make sure you’re harnessing the full potential of the email sign up form.Related Articles

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How to Get Your Customers to Buy Again with Etsy + AWeber

When it comes to your email marketing strategy, writing relevant email content that converts prospects into customers is probably one of your top strategies. Who doesn’t want more customers?

But besides your prospects, you have another type of subscriber who is just as important to your email marketing strategy and often easier to connect with: your customers.

Since you’ve already convinced your customers of the value of your product and the expertise of your company, convincing them a second time is easier. And this is especially true if you have amazing products or services and excellent customer service.

This means that creating an email series specifically designed to convert your customers into repeat customers is smart. You’ll get more sales while saving time. And if you sell your products on Etsy, this is easy to do with the Etsy and AWeber integration.

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 site for you, giving your products visibility 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 upon which 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.

Turn Your Etsy Customers into Repeat Customers

Imagine you have a successful greeting card store on Etsy. One of your business goals for 2016 is to get more repeat customers by sending your customers an email series after they purchase a product on your Etsy store. 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 certain product.

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, you decide to send them an automated email series after they purchase.

Since you want your email series to be contextual (because contextual emails engage your subscribers best), you create a dedicated email series for your red panda card customers. When your customers purchase 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 series could look like:

Email 1: Thank You for Your Purchase
Email Content: This email thanks your customer for purchasing, tells them when they can expect to receive their red panda card and introduces your company.
Goal: To start building a relationship with your new customer.

Email 2: Love Your Red Panda Card? Check Out This Red Fox Card
Email Content: This email contains a picture and product description for one of your other best selling cards: your red fox greeting card.
Goal: To introduce your red panda card customers to similar products.

Email 3: 20% Off This Week Only: Wildlife Greeting Card Assortment Pack
Email Content: This email gives your subscribers a 20% discount on your assortment of ten greeting cards.
Goal: To create a sense of urgency to convince your subscribers to purchase your greeting card assortment.

Use Etsy + AWeber to Get More Repeat Customers

Connect Etsy to your AWeber account today to start sending personal emails to your Etsy customers right after they purchase.

Not an AWeber customer yet? Start your free trial today!

The post How to Get Your Customers to Buy Again with Etsy + AWeber appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

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If you like email marketing because it connects you with your customers, you’re gonna love mobile apps. You may have thought you have to choose one or the other, but there’s good news – you can (and should) take them as a pair. The two go together – like PB&J, peas and carrots, or Jay-Z and Beyoncé. They’re each great on their own, but you’ll be amazed to see how stellar they are as a couple. They’re quite different but in many ways the same. And they complement each other quite nicely.

Email marketing – the steady one

Email marketing is familiar and comfortable. Nearly every consumer or business you serve uses email. In fact, by the end of 2016, there will be over 4.6 billion inboxes worldwide – and growing.  And individuals are sending and receiving over 215 emails per day.

You’ll find your audience is receptive to your messages once you’ve been invited into their inbox. Provide a good reason for them to join your list, make it easy to sign up, and you’re in business. Results are predictable, and it’s easy and affordable to reach, engage, and convert subscribers into loyal customers.

Here’s what you can do:

• Communicate the value of subscribing – offer “VIP” status with members-only offers, including the instant gratification of a “welcome” deal
• Build your audience – add a signup form to your website, promote it on social media, collect signups at the point of sale
• Send valuable content regularly – including news, product announcements, events in mobile-responsive templates to look great on every device
• Surprise & delight them occasionally with special “members-only” offers

Mobile apps – young, sexy

A bit younger and definitely sexier, mobile always has people talking. Mobile apps are where the action is – U.S. consumers spend 2.8 hours per day on smartphones and the majority of that using apps. Consumers are finicky, though, using only about 26 apps in an average month. Yours should be one of them! Mobile apps offer great branding on the home screen and push notifications allowing you to reach out to customers and rise above the chaos of the inbox, so you’re not competing for attention with hundreds of other emails.

Here’s what you can do:

• Communicate the value of downloading your app – offer “VIP” status with members-only offers, including the instant gratification of a “welcome” deal
• Build your audience – promote your app in email, in-store, on the web, through social
• Send valuable content regularly – post text, photo, and video updates (or pull the feed from your website), send push notifications to get your audience’s attention
• Surprise & delight them occasionally with special “members-only” offers which can be tracked by a loyalty program in-app and transactions can take place in the app

Hmmm… does this sound familiar? We’ve got a perfect match for mobile apps!

Email + Mobile apps = Better Together
As a busy small business owner or group organizer, should you take on both email marketing and mobile apps? The answer may surprise you – yes! Though it may seem daunting to add another channel to your marketing strategy, remember these easy tips for email and mobile app marketing and you’ll be on your way to mastering your own multi-tier marketing program!

Like every compatible couple, both email marketing and mobile apps share a number of similar characteristics – listed above. But also like every perfect pairing, each is unique and has complementary, but different strengths. Use email and mobile apps the following ways to support your marketing to all audiences on all devices:

Email marketing

• Send weekly or more often, predictably, and reach people on PCs, tablets, and smartphones
• Send emails to promote your mobile app and encourage downloads
• Link email content to a responsive website OR your mobile app with for videos, loyalty punchcards, scheduling, or e-commerce on every device

Mobile app

• Land on the home screen for valuable branding to stay top of mind with customers
• Offer the same rich content text, images, and videos, and transactions all in one experience
• Reach your most loyal customers more often with push notifications, even refine your focus to nearby customers with geo-fencing

Conclusion

You could settle for just one of these great marketing tactics, but you’ll be much better off offering both. Like Jerry says to Dorothy, “You… you complete me.” By bringing email marketing and mobile apps together on an ongoing basis, you can ensure that you’re reaching your customers whether they’re at their computer, on the go, or anywhere in between.

Ready to share the love and get started on mobile apps to complement your email marketing? We’ve launched a brand new service that makes building mobile apps scalable and affordable.

Learn More

© 2016, Jaime Borschuk. All rights reserved.

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Phelps Agency: Integrated Marketing & Unique Corporate Structure

Joe Phelps saw a need to create an integrated agency to house marketing and PR under one roof and The Phelps Group was born.Related Articles

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Benchmark Email To Live Blog MarketingSherpa Summit 2016

We’re excited to bring a bit of MarketingSherpa Summit 2016 directly to all of you.Related Articles

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[Podcast] Episode 009: Live from Traffic and Conversion Summit 2016

What’s the future of digital marketing?

Over 3000 like-minded marketers convened in San Diego last week at Traffic and Conversion Summit to discover the answer. The host, Digital Marketer, educated the crowd on what’s working today, and where they believe the industry is heading. The content was enlightening and inspiring.

Podcast-hosting service Buzzsprout had a mobile recording studio on hand to capture some audio. I took to the booth with my colleague Meghan Nesta to dish out the main themes that we knew email marketers could benefit from hearing.

.@AWeber's Ask Me About Email Marketing podcast is coming to you from #TCS2016! Thanks @buzzsprout and @mjnesta!! http://pic.twitter.com/1Sp6xtvm7N

— Tom Tate (@tnrt) February 10, 2016

Listen to this episode below:

Here are a few things we discussed:

• Why you shouldn’t propose to cold traffic on your first date.
• How to build relational equity with your subscribers.
• How generic lead magnets could be hurting your lead quality.
• Why its not always about you (but always about your customer.)

What do you think the future will bring?

Thanks @buzzsprout! Fun w/ @tnrt talking all the #TCS2016 things & #emailmarketing. Podcast soon from @aweber iTunes http://pic.twitter.com/cHTLfhkKWw

— Meghan Nesta (@mjnesta) February 10, 2016

Have a question about email marketing?

Want to be on the show? Here’s how you can participate:

• Use the widget below to record and send us a question about email marketing.
• We’ll select a question from the submission pool and track down one of our in-house email marketing experts to provide an answer.
• We’ll record their response, package it up with your question and release it as a new podcast episode each week. Plus, each episode will include bonus resources to help you level up your email marketing.

There are so many topics to explore in email marketing. So if you struggle with design, content, analytics or just getting started, leave us a message with a specific question and we’ll start answering!

A few notes on submitting:

• Introduce yourself, and your business/email marketing venture. Please don’t share any spammy URLs.
• Keep your question brief. Anywhere between 60-90 seconds would be ideal. Two-part questions are okay, too!
• Keep it clean. We won’t accept any submissions with disrespectful or vulgar language.

If we select your questions, we’ll air it. By submitting a question, you are agreeing to allow us to use your full, submitted audio clip on our podcast and in marketing the podcast and AWeber.

Ready to ask a question? Click the green button above!

The post [Podcast] Episode 009: Live from Traffic and Conversion Summit 2016 appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

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New Features: Preview Text, Comparison Report, and Add Contacts

The newest release of VerticalResponse is live and ready for you to check out its newest features:

Hidden Preview Text

Sometimes referred to as snippet text, or a pre-header, the Preview Text is the short line of copy displayed in your subscriber’s inbox along with From Name and Subject Line. Watch this two-minute video to learn more.

This text is typically pulled from the body of the email if not specifically defined. Think of the preview text as an alternative subject line. It’s another opportunity to convince subscribers to open your email which is why you want to use the space wisely and avoid repetition.

When creating your email in VerticalResponse, now you can designate the preview text under the Header Settings.

This customized text will display in your subscribers inbox only, not in the body of the email. Note: Preview text is not supported by all email apps. Depending on browser size and subject line length, the amount of preview text displayed varies.

Add Contacts

If you’ve collected contacts from an event or a paper list at the register, you can now quickly add these names and email addresses on the Contact page. Simply add your new subscribers information, select the list you want to add them to, and then click ‘Save.’

Another new feature allows you to quickly fix invalid emails. Once you upload a list, VerticalResponse will display any contacts not added. Here you can easily correct the addresses and click ‘Save.’

Comparison Report

Easily see how your email campaigns are performing compared to one another. To view this comparison, choose a sent email campaign and scroll to the bottom of the results page. Here you will now find a bar graph of up to seven of your most recent campaigns including open and click rates.

To view more campaigns, click the ‘Download Reports’ button to get a comparison of your past 50 campaigns and stats.

To read more about new features and updates, check out the Product Updates category.

© 2016, Linzi Breckenridge. All rights reserved.

The post New Features: Preview Text, Comparison Report, and Add Contacts appeared first on Vertical Response Blog.