Curious eh? Putting that term in Google gives you hundreds of blogs and articles suggesting different social media strategies, building great content, commenting on other blogger’s post, social bookmarking, participating in forums, befriending fellow bloggers so on and so forth. No, I am not going to suggest any of that. No doubt all those points are valid and useful, but I am going to focus one very simple but quite ignored aspect of blog promotion – Email Marketing.
What is Email Marketing?
Simply stated, Email marketing is blog promotion activity which uses periodical emails as a primary form of communication to reach out to the readers. It includes:
- Weekly newsletters
- Promoting affiliate products through email
- Event related mails such as setting up of contests or driving campaign
- Site/Blog updates
- Promoting own products
Why is it important for you as a Blogger?
When I launched this blog, initially I asked my friends and colleagues to review it. If they like it, they can spread the word to others through Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon or Digg. At least 20% of them weren’t active on Facebook, only 1% had Twitter account and rest of the people hadn’t a clue what StumbleUpon or Digg was.
Email is still the most primary yet the most effective way to reach out to the readers since everyone has one. Ask any problogger, he will tell you the same thing. It’s cheap, simple and has wider appeal. Secondly, unlike other forms of promotion, email is the only way which cannot go unread by reader once sent (unless of course you spam the hell out of them!). Email is the only thing which can ensure complete attention of reader. A reader may not skim through Facebook updates, recent tweets, front page of StumbleUpon or Digg, but there is no way on earth that can keep him from checking his emails. That’s what gives an edge to the email marketing over other forms of promotion.
Hey, I have Google Feedburner email subscription on my blog!
Sorry mate, but that’s simply not enough! When I set up my RSS feed and added email subscription box to my blog, I thought, YES!! Now my blog has all the essentials of a professional blog. Duh! Not a chance. You might be of same opinion, but feedburner don’t:
- Provide e-mail templates
- Provide control over whom to send mail
- Provide control on when to send mail
- Provide stats over how success your email subscription is
- Send targeted content based on user segments (geography, gender, age etc.)
- Provide email autoresponder service (such as welcome mail to new subscribers)
Cool, where can I get those features?
There are many professional email list building and marketing service out there on web. Most of the professional bloggers use and recommend using Aweber. Aweber is an industry-standard and provides tools to build professional looking email newsletters. Pricing starts from as little as $1 for first month and if you are not satisfied with their service, you get your money back within 30 days.
Isn’t there something which is FREE?
I knew it was coming. Quite natural. If you are new to blogging and you are not making any money yet, you are bound to look for something which is free, but provides all the professional features. The good news is, there is! MailChimp is upcoming email marketing tool which provides all the features like email list builder, email campaigns, templates, autoresponders which paid services like aweber provides, and that too for FREE! Of course, the FREE account is limited to 500 subscribers and 3000 emails per month. But that’s not too bad, is it? Once you crossed your subscriber limit, you can upgrade your account by choosing either monthly plans, pay-as-you-go plans or high-volume plans depending on your need. I am using MailChimp for past 2 months and I am loving it. Really!!
What do you think?
Now that you know what email marketing is all about, what is your take on it? Are you still using Google Feedburner? Or you use some other email marketing tool? How do you find it? What features it provides against price? Share you love in comments and by spreading the word about this article. Keep geeking!
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Great post!! Even though I’m not a blogger but your posts are always so informative! Thanks!
Thanks Amrita. You can be a blogger too if not now. I am only sharing what I learn each day.
I suppose this might drive massive amounts of traffic to your site… but don’t loyal readers already come to your site? And, I’ve signed up to a few a of my favorite blogs newsletters and I hate it… I’d rather them not clutter my inbox.
.-= Joshua Best´s last blog ..Get your mind and your money right, right now =-.
Yup that’s true.I too hate the email newsletters used only for selling own or affiliate products. But some blogs does provide useful updates through newsletter. Of course, it is a question of choice, but as a blogger, you need to keep your options open, right?
I would like to know how improve the visits of my blog from facebook .
Good one. I have been using my gmail account to send updates to my contacts. I am still forwarding the same mail with same contacts changing subject and contents. Its tedious and also a lot of emails bounce back.
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