E-mail is key to increasing sales of your business. This lets you send out mail about your products and services in the hopes of converting people into customers and brand advocates.
To run an e-mail campaign with the intention of hiking up sales, you need to find a way to creatively collect their e-mail addresses. The best place to do this is through your blog. Set up offers and “freemiums” on your blog and require users to sign up using their addresses in exchange for your offer. Place a disclaimer on the page telling people who signed up with their e-mails agree to receive promotional mail. This method should draw you lots of e-mails especially if your blog has high readership and engagement.
Below are different offers you can set up on your blog to successfully grab their e-mail addresses.
Free whitepaper/e-book for download
Research for content about your niche and package the product of your research into an e-book or whitepaper. For WordPress users, set it up on your blog for download using the WordPress Download Monitor and the E-mail before Download plugins. The latter requires users to input their e-mail addresses first before they can download the file or receive it in the e-mail they indicated.
High-end giveaways
Aside from collecting e-mails, giveaways are a perfect way to build backlinks for your blog if you need that extra kick to your traffic.
Develop the rules for your giveaway revolving around a product or service that you are willing to offer for free. Search for blogs where you can host the contest and send them the contest instructions along with the links, details, and image to be featured on their blog. Get the information of the winner so you can send him or her the prize on time. The blogger normally asks for cash payment in exchange for holding the contest on their blog, but you can also offer them one of your products.
E-newsletter sign-up
E-newsletters contain the latest company news straight to their e-mails. People who signed up to receive the e-newsletter won’t have to visit your site or blog for updates.
This campaign type allows you to gauge how engaged your readers are and learn what it takes for your audience to become customers. For instance, you can dispatch a survey along with your e-newsletter asking people what they like or don’t like about your products or services. This should give you a better idea on what people want in your business.
Blog owners who have yet to set up an e-newsletter sign-up form on your blog should consider using MailChimp , AWeber, or Constant Contact (the latter two are paid).
E-courses
These are free educational content about a topic in your niche sent out to your subscribers part by part. You can explain or teach readers how to properly use a product and service in your business. Each e-course sent should be treated as a single e-mail – indicate an appropriate call to action on each to maximize your chances of converting your readers.
Send out your content on a daily basis over a 30-day period or a weekly basis over a 3-month period, depending on your marketing strategy. The aforementioned e-mail marketing sites should help you set and dispatch the e-courses on your blog.
Aside from e-mail marketing, ask for their home addresses and send them brochures or postcards with the blog address for a more personal approach. It really depends on the strategy you want to implement and the goals you wish to achieve in the long run. Using your blog as bait to grab their e-mail addresses is a way of building the bigger picture for your marketing strategy.
How about you, dear reader? Are there any other ways that you use your blog to capture e-mail address for leads and potential sales? Do you have any experiences you’d like to share regarding some of the ways mentioned above? If so, feel free to comment below!
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