In the last year, marketers have witnessed a significant shift in the way people are consuming content.
While social media and traditional websites like Facebook and Twitter have proved to be fertile grounds for content, especially in regards to consumer generated content, marketers have shifted their focus to capturing audiences in the form of email lists.
As a result, email marketing has become a popular choice amongst marketers, and with good reason as email list management Platforms (ELM) like AWeber continue to emerge as the defacto standard for email marketing.
The Rise In Opt-In Email Marketing
It’s no secret that consumers have an active role to play in determining the kind of content that appeals to them. Thanks to the power of the internet and social media, people are becoming more knowledgeable about the brands and products that they love and more vocal about their passions. As a result, marketers must now take into consideration how to integrate consumer feedback into their strategies.
In the world of email marketing, the trend is towards ‘opt-in’ emailing. With this method of email marketing, marketers will send messages to consumers who have given their express permission to receive them by actively opting-in to the email newsletter or asking them to take part in a webinar or survey. In general, marketers prefer to work with these email list segments because they’re more likely to respond to marketing messages, and therefore more valuable to the business.
Why ClickFunnel Over AWeber
When it comes to lead generation for businesses, marketers have a variety of platforms from which to choose, including landing pages, website forms, and even social media platforms. However, the most popular choice amongst marketers is undoubtedly email. Why?
Because of its versatile nature. For years, marketers have used email to conduct online surveys, gain support for a cause, or simply to provide occasional marketing messages.
However, with the evolution of email marketing, the channel has become more sophisticated, allowing marketers to target individuals based on a variety of criteria, analyze email campaigns’ performance, and optimize the content that is being delivered to their audience.
As a result, email marketing has moved from a broadcast platform to a targeted engagement tool, making it suitable for use across all verticals and industries. To learn more, check out this informative blog post by HubSpot on the future of email marketing.
How to Effectively Use ClickFunnel
If you’re new to the world of email marketing, putting together a plan of action can be pretty daunting. That’s why we’ve gone ahead and curated this comprehensive guide. We hope this guide will assist newbies and veterans alike in setting up their email campaigns, analyzing their performance, and optimizing the content that is being delivered to their audience.
In case you’re wondering, here are the main things that you need to know:
Setting Up Your Email Marketing Platform
As we’ve established, email marketing is a popular choice amongst marketers. To make the most of this trend, you’ll want to set up an email marketing platform. AWeber and ClickFunnel are two of the most popular choices amongst marketers because of their ease of use and robust features.
For years, AWeber has been the go-to platform for small businesses and marketers who want to gain control of their email lists and grow their business via email marketing. In 2016, Marisa Goodman, CEO of FoundriX, Inc., stated that AWeber is the #1 choice amongst non-profit organizations for campaign management because of its flexibility.
On the other hand, ClickFunnel offers an all-in-one solution for marketing operations including email marketing, lead generation, and landing page creation. Not to mention that they also provide analytics, so you can track the performance of your campaigns objectively.
Whether you’re a business owner or operator, digital marketer, or tech blogger who wants to gain some extra income, establishing an email marketing platform is an easy way to make money online.
Choosing The Suitable Email List Segment
While we’d love to provide you with a one-stop-shop for all of your email list needs, that’s not reality. For a business to be sustainable, it needs to grow its email list over time. That’s why you want to make sure that you’re keeping up with the latest trends in email list management.
Currently, the two most popular list segments are based on a consumer’s interests. For example, if you’re an eCommerce business, you may want to consider using a shopping list, as these consumers are more likely to have an interest in your products. Similarly, if you’re a services business, you may want to consider using a leads list to segment your contacts.
On the other hand, if you’re a business that’s attempting to gain influence in a cause-related community, you may want to use a social media list.
In terms of the latter, let’s say that you’re attempting to raise money for a charitable cause, and you decide to use a’support list’ for your marketing efforts. This is a type of email list that is derived from social media connections. If you’ve ever raised money for charity by participating in a Facebook or Instagram campaign, you’ll know exactly what a’support list’ is.
By using these lists, you can ensure that you’re reaching your ideal audience, which is more likely to be interested in your product or service.
Setting Up Campaigns Using The AWeber Commander
After you’ve set up your email platform, the next step is to create your first email campaign.
As we mentioned, AWeber and ClickFunnel offer an all-in-one solution for marketers, allowing them to launch their email campaign effortlessly and set up automated email messaging based on triggers and actions.
If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the process, don’t worry. The AWeber team is here to help. In fact, the platform offers a variety of step-by-step guides that can help you set up and run your email campaign successfully.
Let’s look at how to set up an email campaign using the AWeber commander tool. First, you’ll want to navigate to the General Settings page. Here, you can configure a variety of settings relating to your email campaign, including the name, description, and even the icon that will be used to represent your campaign. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll paste in an image of a girl waving a flag.
Once you’ve entered the description and selected the girl image as the icon for your campaign, you’ll be presented with the option to add a logo. While you could add a company logo or a mascot, you’ll want to keep the flag icon to represent your campaign.
Next, you’ll want to upload an HTML or Attachment. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ve decided to go with the HTML method. To do this, click on the ‘HTML’ button towards the top of the General Settings page. A new screen will pop up, confirming the HTML of the content that you’ve uploaded. You can either keep the default HTML or enter the content that you wish to send out.
Designing An Email Newsletter That Converts
Once you’ve set up your email campaign, the next step is to design an email newsletter that converts. As we noted at the beginning of this article, capturing the attention of online consumers based on appealing to their interests can be a useful strategy when trying to generate leads for a business.
The problem is that once you’ve designed a compelling email newsletter that appeals to a consumer’s interests, it can be difficult to replicate this success across different email platforms and devices. To do this, you need to incorporate two elements:
Content That is Useful And Interesting
If you’re creating educational content like an eCommerce store that focuses on selling clothing, accessories, and travel, you may want to consider what types of content users are most interested in. That is, you could design an email newsletter that consists of only product information or you could include engaging content that teaches users something new about your industry.
An interesting approach is to use a mix of both: educate your readers on the fundamentals of your industry while also encouraging them to take action by providing useful tips or tricks that can assist them in operating your business. To design an effective email newsletter, you need to make sure that the content that you’re using is both useful and interesting to your target audience.