The most frustrating part of any SPAM prevention strategy is trying to figure out how to handle the non-compliant portion of your e-mail list. Inevitably, some subscribers will fall through the cracks and slip through the cracks again. The good news is that there is a way to leverage a bulk emailing service to bypass spam filters and get the messages out. So long as you follow a few guidelines, you can take advantage of this free service to send massive amounts of marketing emails with little to no effort.
How Do I Use a Bulk Emailing Service?
Let’s say that you have a list of subscribers who are currently in the middle of a buying phase and are receiving a lot of marketing emails from you. Maybe they signed up for your email list in connection with a webinar that you conducted or a major retailer that you represent. Regardless of the reason behind their subscription, they are now in the middle of a buying phase and are likely to hear from you frequently. That’s exactly when you want to use a bulk emailing service.
Ideally, you want to send your bulk emails at the end of the buyers’ journey. When they reach the end of their buying journey and make a purchase, you’ll be able to send them a follow-up email to celebrate their new business and to continue the relationship. This is important because you don’t want to bombard them with a ton of unsolicited emails if they’ve never given you their permission to do so. They might not want to do business with you simply because they’ve received so much unsolicited content from other marketers in the past.
Now that you understand the context in which you’ll be using a bulk emailing service, let’s take a look at how to actually send the emails.
Step 1: Find the Opt-in Form
The very first step is to locate the opt-in form. You can find this in a number of places, including the sidebar of your blog. Look for the very first opt-in form that you come across; this will be the form that the reader used to Subscribe to your list. If there is more than one opt-in form, the reader will have to confirm their interest in your list multiple times.
The confirmation of interest happens when the subscriber either clicks the confirmation button or enters their email address into the opt-in box. On some sites, such as ConvertKit, the confirmation happens automatically upon subscribing. Once you have the opt-in form, you’ll want to collect the email address.
Step 2: Create the Email
After you’ve collected the email address, you’ll want to create the email. Make sure that you write a compelling subject line, that is, a subject line that will make the reader want to open the email. The subject line should not be more than six words and should be concise yet descriptive enough for the recipient to understand what the email is about.
The next step is to craft the actual content of the email. You don’t want to overload the reader with information; instead, you’ll want to keep it short and sweet. When writing the content, you want to make sure that you include calls to action (CTAs) for the reader to take the next step. You may want to include a link to the products that the subscriber is in the middle of purchasing so that they can get the most value out of your email.
Step 3: Test the Email
After you’ve written the email, you’ll want to test it. Open your inbox and, if you’re feeling extra creative, play with the wording a bit to see how it sounds. Once you’ve found a version that you like, you can move onto the next step.
Step 4: Apply the Templates
Applying the templates gives you the ability to quickly create emails with pre-written content that you can simply modify. It is a time-saving feature that makes creating emails much easier. When applying a template, you can either paste in the content or you can click to edit the content as you type. The advantage of using a template is that you don’t have to worry about the content being approved by a human before it’s sent out. Most of the time, the templates are automatically vetted by the service before they are sent out.
The disadvantage of using templates is that the content is not necessarily unique and the recipient will most likely receive this exact same email from you in the future if they are on your list. This is why it’s important to write individual emails for your subscribers instead of using templates. If you want to ensure that you’re meeting legal requirements for unsolicited commercial email (SPAM), you can’t use templates.
Step 5: Design the Email
Now that you have the basic email structure and you’ve tested it, it’s time to design the email. Take the time to craft a unique design that will make the email stick out. Remember, this is an email designed to solicit business so it’s important that you use a fitting header and footer as well as include a compelling image of either yourself or your product. You can find a small business email marketing template in the themes sections of most design platforms.
Designing the email takes time, but it’s a necessary step in order to ensure that you’re not sending out poor-quality emails. Once you have the design, you can start moving around the email marketing software that you’re using to send the message to ensure that the header, footer, and style all match up correctly. This is something that you can’t do if you’ve rushed through the design process.
Step 6: Setup Autoresponders
One of the most useful tools that you can use to further streamline your digital marketing efforts is autoresponders. Autoresponders are automated emails that are triggered by specific actions or specific criteria. For example, if you set up an autoresponder to send an email to new subscribers who sign up through your site, you can easily identify new subscribers and, as a result, can send them valuable content regularly. You can also set up autoresponders to send out regular emails to subscribers who haven’t opened a specific email communication from you in a while. By doing this, you’re ensuring that they do not forget about you and that you stay top of their mind even though they haven’t heard from you in a while. You can find a lot of pre-made autoresponder templates online or in the WordPress plugins section of most design platforms. Just remember that you can’t use automation technology to send spam. Legitimate marketing emails that you send will be unaffected.
Step 7: Setup A Campaign
Once you’ve set up the autoresponder, it’s time to setup a campaign. A campaign is a collection of emails that you’ll be sending to your subscriber base. The term campaign tends to be used interchangeably with the more commonly used term email marketing campaign, however, a campaign can exist independently from an email marketing program. You can have a campaign that you use for SEO purposes or you can have a campaign that you use to send out regular emails to promote your business.
When it comes to email marketing, it’s important to understand the difference between a campaign and an email marketing program. A campaign is a collection of emails that you’ll be sending out; a program, on the other hand, is the entirety of your email marketing strategy. They are not the same and you must understand the distinction. Once you’ve set up a campaign, you’ll want to be sure to use the same email provider as before. Make sure that you’ve also reviewed the terms of service and understand what is and is not allowed. You should also look into whether or not you should include the recipients’ physical address in your headers and whether or not you should disclose that you’re an advertiser; for more on this, check out this blog post from the Anti-Spam Alliance. Setting up this kind of formal relationship with an email marketing service is necessary if you want to be able to take advantage of their tools and set up automated emails.
Step 8: Track The Results
Once you’ve sent out your emails and you’ve waited for Nature to do its thing, it’s time to track the results. Logically, you’ll want to start by checking the spam folder to make sure that your message did not end up there. If it did, then you’ll have to start over from the beginning and take the time to find a different way to get the word out. This is particularly frustrating when you’ve spent so much time creating an email list and have worked so hard to get the word out about your business.