Chances are, you could be getting a lot more value from your email list.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few ways to put those email addresses to work for your business, tips on what to say in your emails, and best practices for getting more recipients to open your emails and click-through to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n The people on your list have already said yes to hearing from your business. It\u2019s usually easier to sell to an existing or interested customer than to sell to someone who doesn\u2019t know you or your business, because existing customers already trust your brand. That\u2019s part of the reason it also costs less to earn a new sale from a current customer than it does to earn the first sale from a brand-new customer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not to say that everyone on your list will take you up on an offer, of course, but you stand a better chance of converting email list members as you get better at creating offers, segmenting your list and formatting your emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main thing to remember about growing your email list is that members need to opt in. Not only is it unprofessional to add people to your list without their express permission (for example, by adding everyone in your Contacts list), but it can also cause you to run afoul of spam rules. Once your emails are flagged as spam, you\u2019ll have a harder time reaching the legitimate members of your list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As long as you\u2019re following the rules, you can extend the opt-in invitation in as many different ways as you wish. For example, you can'\u00a6<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out this article<\/a> for more creative list-building suggestions you can adapt for your business and audience. For example, you may not have a business that operates joint ventures with other companies, but you might be able to collect email addresses from participants in a webinar you host, social livestreams where you demonstrate your products, and community events where you\u2019re a vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ultimate DIY is to simply BCC your list recipients from your professional email address, but this is not a great idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, you\u2019ll have no way to track how many recipients get your email, open it, and click on links inside it. This is crucial information you need so you can keep using the tactics that work and replace the tactics that don\u2019t with something else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, unless you make sure to include unsubscribe information in each email, you risk getting your email account flagged as a spam sender by recipients who want to opt out but don\u2019t know how. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, without an email platform, you won\u2019t be able to set up the automated drip campaigns that are the core of successful email marketing. (More on drip campaigns in a minute!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n To get the tracking tools you need to measure your email campaigns\u2019 performance, and to give recipients a way to opt out without flagging your emails as spam, HostGator recommends Constant Contact<\/a> for email marketing services. For small businesses, a basic subscription starts at $20 per month, and there\u2019s a free trial period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With an email marketing platform, you can store your contacts, note the date that they opted in, collect demographic and customer-specific information (like ZIP code and birthday), and collect data on which topics they\u2019re interested in so you can segment your list and target your emails accordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also segment your list<\/strong> so you send members only<\/em> the content they\u2019re interested in. They\u2019ll appreciate your respect for their time and be less likely to unsubscribe. For example, when I ran a dancewear business, I segmented my list into customers who were interested in products for adults, products for kids and products for both. That way I didn\u2019t bother the customers who wanted women\u2019s products with promotions for kids\u2019 products, and vice versa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your email platform should make it super easy to set up segments, update them as customer preferences change, and create content for each segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what should you send to the folks in each segment on your list?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sending a 'welcome to the newsletter'\u009d email confirms your new member\u2019s subscription and makes them feel, well, welcome. One of the best welcome email examples out there is from beauty retailer Sephora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It starts off with a greeting and then gets right to the point free and fun stuff:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exclusive items:<\/p>\n\n\n\n An explanation of subscriber benefit levels: And it wraps up by letting readers know what\u2019s coming next:<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the end of the message, the reader\u2019s probably excited about all the perks they just signed up for, ready to shop, and looking forward to the next email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Promotions are always popular. If you\u2019re running a sale, offering a limited-time deal, or introducing a new product, email your list. For example, new subscribers to this wine subscription service\u2019s newsletter get an introductory discount offer via email if they don\u2019t place an order during their first visit to the site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cool, useful, and entertaining information can help keep warm leads interested in your business, even if you don\u2019t have an offer. Just keep the content relevant to your audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, business and technology news site Quartz regularly sends exclusive collections of stories to its subscribers, organized around a timely theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Product recommendations based on your subscribers\u2019 past purchases and items they looked at on your website. This helps create a personalized experience<\/a>, which customers now expect from stores of all sizes. Your email platform\u2019s segmentation tools will help you sort and automate your product recommendation emails so that you\u2019re matching recommendations to people who want them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surveys and requests for input from current customers can give you ideas to improve your products, pricing or service. We have an entire post for you on using customer surveys to grow your business<\/a>, including tips on creating email surveys that your customers will actually want to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019d rather get the executive summary, here it is: Pick one or two things you want to find out from your customers. Keep the survey short and let customers know about how long it will take. Thank your customers and give them a reward for participating, like a coupon code or loyalty points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shipping updates so customers know when their orders will arrive-especially if the order is running late. For example, this discount retailer sent several updates after a shipment was delayed. This reassures they customer that you haven\u2019t forgotten their order and that it hasn\u2019t been lost in transit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remind your list members about upcoming events like webinars, social livestreams, live chats and virtual conferences. For example, this nonprofit\u2019s newsletter lets subscribers sign up for multiple webinars in their series:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seasonal buying guides help your subscribers start planning for big events like graduations, Christmas, Valentine\u2019s Day and back-to-school\/back-to-college. Feature your gift baskets, popular items, zippy shipping, gift wrap options, and whatever else your customers need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Want more email marketing details and examples? We\u2019ve got '\u02dcem.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n How often should you email your list? That depends on how often your customers want to hear from you. You\u2019ll need to start with a schedule that you think will work and then adjust it based on open rates, unsubscribes and other customer feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some general recommendations you can use as a starting point for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing to keep in mind is that a single email about a promotion or upcoming event is almost certainly not going to be enough. Constant Contact recommends creating a three-part email series for each time-limited event you want to promote, because let\u2019s face it, most of us could use a reminder or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How are you going to keep your three-series emails organized and sent out on time? The same way you\u2019re going to automate your welcome and post-purchase survey emails: with drip campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A drip campaign sounds like something you wouldn\u2019t want to send or receive, but it\u2019s an incredibly useful way to set up and run your email marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s simply a series of email messages that are pre-automated to go out to the list members you select on a schedule you choose in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That awesome welcome email from Sephora? Drip campaign. That message landed in my inbox less than a minute after I signed up on the website, because the company\u2019s new-subscriber drip campaign was ready to spring into action. The other emails in the welcome series that were promised in the first email? They\u2019re part of the drip campaign, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This kind of frequent, targeted messaging works well drip campaign emails typically have higher open rates than other marketing emails and customers are more likely to click-through from drip emails to the sender\u2019s website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can set up drip campaigns for any of the ways to use your email list that we covered above, and more. If you sell products that require some extra guidance and support after the sale, you can create a post-purchase drip campaign that highlights all the cool things buyers can do with their new purchase and where they can get extra help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Drip campaigns don\u2019t take long to set up. This post has a detailed section that will guide you through setting up drip campaigns with Constant Contact<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out our guides to setting up drip campaigns for small businesses<\/a> and for bloggers<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting up your email campaigns is the first step. From there, your job is to make sure your emails perform well and keep improving. Here are a few best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep the tone<\/strong> of your emails conversational. Make sure they\u2019re easy to understand and properly punctuated. And keep them short, so people can scan them on their phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use email formats that are optimized for smartphone display<\/strong>. Your email automation platform should have templates ready to handle that for you. It\u2019s still smart to test your emails on different devices to see how they look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check your metrics. <\/strong>Track your open rates and click-through rates for each email you send. Over time, you\u2019ll develop a sense of what types of emails get the best responses from your audience and you can focus on those. You can do this in Constant Contact\u2019s dashboard. Keep what works, replace what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\/B test your emails.<\/strong> Once you have the email marketing basics down, you can start conducting careful experiments to see what types of subject lines and content get the best responses<\/a> from your list members. As with metrics, A\/B test results can help you develop stronger email campaigns over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Managing your email list is just one step in growing your business. Check out these related articles for more ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re like most small-business owners, you collect email addresses from your current and prospective customers. If you aren\u2019t doing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":26394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[120,139,121],"class_list":["post-13306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-and-tricks","tag-shared-hosting","tag-startup-small-business","tag-wordpress-hosting"],"yoast_head":"\nYou might like…<\/h4>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/shared-150x150.png\")
<\/a><\/span>Shared Hosting<\/a><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/wp-hosting-150x150.png\")
<\/a><\/span>WordPress Hosting<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\nWhy your email list is so valuable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Growing your email list<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Managing your email list<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Using your email list<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. A welcome message<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"welcome](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/OWedFVYc3VQP3IbQ4rBnCf0HTohFxTi9LzcIaNhtgmzvwwHU-PW3S64RofcXyNHvBv8RGI370k3OHCK-lEZGTHxY8HuhsQB7XwvIb-QnTYFkjEcN6DRuSytUHHysELAexSpqt44\")
![\"example](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/fzVrVH-gCimpc8PraM_JpWHv77crL_nJjZ-cHQTn6C1xlhaXph8BpbnlBeLG5P5pxLvnSBveNjoCtxfgxm55ZRdthUN-7M7Qq0ZFvHHKkp9RCVKZ-C8NuRZPE_fePMT6hQJIVPM\")
![\"example](\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/opU4dmObZmuwh7hNpYRfnRxNXcmHku5A0WKtKsy0mozq6TmJjcg2Qcjx4X2If4IFHOnjo4tj0OAtsNAPeCDDzInBMH1kqoXYJ6cRnblk03tZgcRlVUDVFn7T8IPFCop74xQK3jg\")
![](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/v3rTiVIr_lQbGSd5ftjBcQ3LWBezTA1Znh3j1f8qoUCBAF-BzCnIn7R4dZUfFZGVu4JSpExEBjrXqCZCje5EGXh-sWIonbK6CkRGZIVUJrzamg5siknEtAqDWq8_ok0LQOMR7sU\")
![\"example](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/6Ke93euiqIiuKp3UKRcwh6LWWfXx7GjNzvOWf9f4J8RcLrjB426smHtHLQSdQcnQRbB0oIFeIO2BJCRmA8mazUoNmQX7GOp7URuMzRtcbB2t66agBl9j3O0168Vv0rWI0REVsdk\")
2. Promotion and sales announcements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"promotional](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/qj1pvs0CQbkmtcwvnPtwJz_MlZvDPgxKbTO9nDlai51IlFMZdIN0uPatuCIKqi_e11rRy_wrz0pBUFgbwewU1mEbTCMmJ8G3fwp9t3iOmQ8JRyVJdfEU7zbKrO9OBbT6c5kv2a0\")
3. Blog posts and articles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"blog](\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/D99Ow-xCuR0i5VEyzXBk-Kd5b2ROMYw5W4GnQipqnvUnb58x9tKH-cCRKekQjCrQs5xBX4yjozSHTQz4jhUxryhPYVZX1Wr42Y7nUrF4x1hUgHN3QpVmImTUDP6KLu39fbCUHik\")
4. Recommended products<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. Customer feedback surveys<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. Shipping notifications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"shipping](\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/2au28oe6iwsyrxRl48BIQo2y67hvTMm2O06t68NyHQzLb0NZXj3o_w_xZFByMH2NorObi6oNtOBtghqFcLIhD1C1h3zab8_hR8fQXZ5PqCH8xxa6pbJx_lUusD0hnepF4vieVR0\")
7. Events<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"webinar](\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/auvAzV_D6-7GnKLr1Jd6nVoXQ4zT7kjiIaBhOlXXQCpBV7--c1t_u6xWcOeI_ZeWF1stQzd56mSrdeaRhlPcIr5AqsJq5BkwMyduIAQZv6tWT5MOL7yCYXJy-FxtF0r3LG7SpGI\")
8. Seasonal content<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How often to contact your list<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Drip campaign: sad name, powerful email marketing tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Refine your email mojo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n