The Best Automated Email Marketing Services for Bloggers

We don’t mince words. We don’t beat around the bush. If you’re looking for ways to increase the efficiency and productivity in your business,AWeber has the best automated email marketing services for bloggers and business owners.

For us, AWeber is one of the 5 tools we want every blogger to use. Not only do we use them, we love, teach and promote AWeber wherever we go. We even held a Blogging Concentrated event in their PA offices AND they’re sponsoring this post for us.

You don’t have a lot of time, and we don’t want to serve you fluff, so let’s skip the generic stuff and get to the top four features of their program.

  1. 3 Different Forms of Email Communication
  2. Making the Lists Talk to Each Other
  3. Duplicating Campaigns
  4. Automated 3rd Party Integrations

So let’s get to it.

3 Different Email Tools

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For most bloggers the idea that there are different types of email is foreign, and the idea that AWeber has three might be daunting. But let me explain what the three are.

Follow-up Series

The follow-up series is one of the automated email marketing services that has you here in the first place. Ever join an online challenge and get the Day 1 Email in your inbox immediately? Ever download an ebook and get the download link email immediately? Ever sign up for an event and get a “Welcome email” in your inbox immediately? This is an automated reply.

An automated reply is fantastic because you don’t really want to be sending emails to people all day long saying “here’s the download link”. That would really slow down your business. In AWeber a “Follow-up Series” email is that automated reply. But what’s even better is that you can create an entire sequence of emails that automatically lands in your audiences’ inboxes.

Our 21 Day SEO Challenge is just that. We wrote 21 “Follow-up Sequence” emails which start going to the buyers one day at a time right after purchase . . . I don’t have to be involved at all.

It’s called a “follow-up series” because it is how you follow-up with the audience member after they’ve engaged with you. That means you can go on vacation and they’ll still get emails from you.

The thing with a follow-up series email is that everyone gets the email no matter when you sign up. If you sign up today, you’ll get the first email (How to tie your shoe) today. If you sign up next week, you’ll still get that same first email (How to tie your shoe) that everyone else got. Perfect if you want to give the basics to everyone who signs up.

The Broadcast Email

The Broadcast email has a different use. We used a broadcast message today when we wanted to tell everyone in our audience that our BC Prime membership was on sale. Instead of being part of the follow-up sequence, this is something that we came up with today and wanted to share with our audience right away.

Broadcasts don’t have to be right now either, you can schedule them. If you’re going on vacation and want to be reaching out to your audience while you are away, you can create some broadcasts and schedule them to go out when you want them to go out.

I love Broadcasts for things that expire and things that won’t be relevant a short time later. An event announcement would be a perfect use for the Broadcast. What makes a broadcast different from a follow-up is that you only get the broadcast if you’re on the list today. If you join the list tomorrow you’ll get the first follow-up series email, but you won’t get the broadcast I sent out yesterday.

The RSS Blog Broadcast

Finally, the Blog Broadcast is the RSS feed powered email. When you write a new blog post, the RSS feed on your blog is updated. AWeber’s blog broadcast email gets automatically sent out to your audience when you write a new post. Of the automated email marketing services, it’s the one most commonly used by bloggers. For many, this is the efficiency they are looking for.

Automation Rules

Screen Shot 2015-08-24 at 4.09.25 PMThe automation rules functions are one of the strongest reasons to use AWeber. As far as automated email marketing services goes, the automation rules will drive your revenue the fastest. As you can see in the screenshot above, the 3 dropdown options make it easy to implement.

But what does it do?

Suppose you decide to write and sell an ebook. You create the page, advertise it on Facebook and send an email out to your newsletter subscribers. And someone buys it. Of all the people in your audience, this one person is now different than the rest of your audience. This person is a buyer.

When someone buys the ebook they get added to the Ebook Buyer list, and using the automation rules they can be automatically taken off the original list. That means you can continue to market the ebook to the old list and you can market your second ebook to the new list. Putting them in separate lists means you can speak to them more personally. . . in a way they can really resonate.

And this is something that automatically happens when the audience member buys the ebook. You don’t have to be involved.

Think about this, if you send an email to your newsletter audience about why they should buy your ebook but half of them already did, they’re not going to feel like you know what you’re doing. The automation rules inside AWeber take care of that headache for you. Boom!

Duplicating Campaigns

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I wish I would have known about this long before. I think I was an AWeber client for 4 years before I even noticed this one of their automated email marketing services. Remember the Ebook Buyers list and the automation rules that put the people on the right list? Well when you do that, you end up with a second list.

Some people say, I don’t want to manage multiple lists.

But you do, you just don’t realize how easy it is. With their “duplicate campaigns” function, you can take all the emails you wrote for one list and copy them to another. In our example above, take out the emails about buying the ebook (they just bought) and replace them with joining your Facebook group and voila!!! brand new targeted email campaign.

Automated Email Integrations

Integrations are vital to the success of your campaigns, sales,shopping carts,list building, business future. . . pretty much everything.

AWeber’s marketing materials indicate they’ve been around since 1998. I think that’s nice but to me it only matters for one reason. They have had time to work with, learn with and integrate with all the software you’re going to use to grow. Do you want to have to change email providers just because you add a shopping cart? No. . that’s crazy! You want a service that will integrate with everything you’re going to use to build your business.

Just for grins, here’s a quick sample list of their hordes of integration partners:

  • Etsy
  • Facebook
  • Eventbrite
  • SumoMe
  • Rafflecopter
  • WooCommerce
  • Clickbank
  • PayPal

See something you might be using? Don’t forget to think about that. You don’t want to grow next year only to find out that your email provider doesn’t integrate with your new stuff. AWeber integrates with all the big dogs and more all the time.

What are you waiting for?

automated-email-marketing-servicesOther than that, even though they have lots of tutorials, free webinars and live phone/chat support you should know that we are 100% committed to helping you make AWeber a successful part of your business. We have tutorials in BC Prime, do webinars every quarter and will gladly chat with you about any questions you have.

For the price, for the ease, for your business it is the best value for your money. If you’re considering a free service, then really think about how serious you are about your blog. Free is great, but not for the most important parts of your business.

I urge you. If you are a blogger and you aren’t using AWeber:

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P.S. If you want to get a chance to meet the folks at AWeber, come to the BuildYourInfluence Summit in the Pennsylvania Poconos on September 26th. Aweber is a sponsor and will be on hand to answer questions.

My Readers Don’t Want a Newsletter

In my recent article Don’t Write an E-book, there were some questions about the purpose of building a list. I believe a couple people actually said “my readers don’t want a newsletter, they already get my feed”.

In my recent article Don’t Write an E-book, there were some questions about the purpose of building a list. I believe a couple people actually said “my readers don’t want a newsletter, they already get my feed”.

In reading those I both understand the sentiment and where you might find success creating one.

List building is a critical element of an online business. Without the ability to contact your audience “at will” do you really have an audience? Or are you the kid with the lemonade stand on the side of the highway, just interacting with the traffic when it slows and rolls down the window?

I totally agree with the idea that there is no place or time for a “general newsletter” anymore. Especially for an active audience engaging with the feed and Facebook. Sure your grandma will read your newsletter, but most people will open it 45% of the time for the first two months then only open the seasonal ones.

Suppose you were to write a couple gluten free recipes and you get quite a few nice comments from that. That would be telling that you have an audience appreciative of gluten free recipes. Perhaps you could type those up and offer them as a “kitchen printable”. If you had them “opt-in” with their email to get this printable, you’d start to develop a “gluten free specific” list.

This would be a group that has a certain affinity to which you could learn more about. You could learn the phases of being Gluten Free. You could echo what sucks about being Gluten Free and what’s great. You could put together a pretty good email program, specific to that part of your audience, with recipes, books, blog posts, ideas, images, and more to serve them. Your entire audience might not be interested in that, but your Gluten Free fans would.

Let’s do a quick test, which of these do you open?

FROM: GAP
SUBJECT: January Newsletter

FROM: GAP
SUBJECT: 40% Off the Khaki Jeans you like

Parsing your list into affinity groups means every message is relevant. Every “newsletter” has meaning. Your open rates go up, your click through rates go up, your income goes up. If you want to learn more about List Building, Phil Hollows of Feedblitz wrote a great book on the topic. You can read more about that here: List Building for Bloggers.

Is it more work? It can be, but there are lots of ways to automate list building, parsing lists and email marketing to make it both easier for you and a better experience for your audience. If you would like to learn about the automation part, let me know in the comments and we’ll tackle that next.

Dan R Morris is the founder of LettersFromDan.com, a website dedicated to improving your revenue stream from online efforts. Dan is an infomercial producer, niche website owner, product developer, author and Mastermind leader. Dan actively encourages marketers to take that extra step so that “Hope” doesn’t become the marketing plan.

Celebrity Blogger Opportunity

(prREACH) Nashville, TN (April 8, 2014) – The iconic and historic East Ivy Mansion located in the beautiful splendor of Edgefield and NASH-FM’s America’s Morning Show are going to make one lucky engaged couple’s dreams come true. Presenting a wedding valued at over $100,000, this event will be planned and designed by celebrity wedding planner Angela Proffitt and will feature a live first dance performance by Lee Brice, a Curb Records CMA Award Winning Platinum selling country artist. Brice proclaims:east-ivy-wedding-venue

“As a newlywed, it is an honor to sing one of my songs to the new husband and bride for their first dance. Listen to the words in my songs such as “Love Like Crazy” or “A Women Like You,” and you’ll understand why.”

The East Ivy Mansion’s Italian inspired grounds will offer unparalleled historic sights coupled with some of Nashville’s most prestigious vendors. All parties are generously donating their professional services to guarantee the winning couple has the wedding of their dreams. To ensure no detail is overlooked, celebrity wedding planner Angela Proffitt will meticulously walk the couple through every step of the process, transforming the couple’s dream into a reality.

“As a wedding planner and designer who has had the honor of planning some of the most unique weddings in Nashville, I am so excited to provide my service to a deserving couple. With some of the top vendors in Nashville to help with this memorable event, it will truly be a dream wedding!”

When asked why East Ivy is giving away this ultimate dream wedding valued at over $100,000, East Ivy LLC proprietor Ed Clay simply stated:

“It’s always a great thing when you can give back to someone, and it’s so exciting to help a lucky couple live their dream wedding. This idea was born on Christmas Eve and has taken on a life of its own. I am blown away and honored that Angela Proffitt and all these first-class vendors have stepped up to donate their services and that Lee Brice graciously agreed to sing the couple’s first dance song. It truly shows you the pure hearts of the people helping with this magnificent event, which is perfect… because weddings are all about love.”

And just how did Lee Brice get involved? Clay explains:

“It was simple. On our way to a camping trip, I was telling Lee how I wanted to give a couple a once-in-a-lifetime dream wedding. I wanted to ask him to sing the first dance song, but before I could ask, he volunteered, ‘What if I sang the couple’s first dance song?’ It was just meant to be. Lee is one of the kindest human beings I know.”

The ultimate dream wedding will include stunning appearances and illustrious services by: East Ivy LLC, Angela Proffitt, Lee Brice, Karen Hendrix Couture, The Life Lens, Jay Qualls Cakes, Music City Dream Cars, Matchless Transportation, Liberty Party Rental, Dylan White Videography, Lejardin De Juli, Parlour 3 Beauty Bus and Nashville Event Lighting .

Dan R Morris of Blogging Concentrated is putting together a promotional program for bloggers. Wine, travel, wedding, garden and food bloggers will be covering the event for their audiences. Bloggers interested in getting involved should contact Dan R Morris.

This dream wedding giveaway is an opportunity of a lifetime for engaged couples everywhere and will be awarded to a deserving pair on April 26, 2014. In addition to the East Ivy Mansion serving as the spectacular venue, world-class photography, catering, lighting, limo services, cake creation, floral design, champagne packages, and more will sweeten this already “sure-to-be-amazing” event. All couples looking to tie-the-knot are highly encouraged to enter to win their dream wedding, and finalists will be selected and contacted for additional wedding details before the official winner is chosen.

“This is truly a fairytale wedding at its finest, which will be customized to the bride and groom’s personalities,” says Angela Proffitt, the planner responsible for making all the lucky couple’s dreams come to life.

America’s Morning Show host Blair Garner adds, “ We’re excited to be part of this great give away. Family is an important part of our show and knowing that we’re helping a couple become a family, in this most incredible fashion, is a huge thrill for all of us.”

Couples wishing to enter the Dream Wedding contest should visit: www.americasmorningshow.com and look for the link .  Alternatively, find the contest at www.WinMyDreamWedding.com .

About East Ivy Mansion

The East Ivy Mansion was built in 1867 and has been recently acquired by owner Ed Clay. The Mansion has been rezoned and is used as a full-time vacation home and event facility. This historic property consists of 44,000 square feet of beauty and boosts a guest capacity of 250. To learn more about the Mansion, as a Nashville Wedding and Event venue please visit: www.EastIvyMansion.com.

Using Audio on the Internet

Here’s some of what we covered:

    Why should I be using audio?With everyone moving to video, is audio dead?

What are some good uses for audio online?

What is the best way to record audio?

What about monthly audio services?

What’s the fastest way to create an audio?

Information about the best microphones to use, Audacity, Kunaki, PLR Music and Intros and much more.

Take a listen:

Continue reading “Using Audio on the Internet”

You Get Traffic From What?

I love it when I hear about people who get crazy traffic from weird places. I mean. . . it’s just awesome. And there are some crazy places sites get traffic like Google Groups, Flickr, FoodGawker, Google Images, other bloggers and even uploaded .pdf searches.

But traffic alone isn’t a business builder. For some any traffic is great because they make money on page views alone. But what do you have when that traffic goes away?

This is a list of places that many get traffic from. I’ve sorted the list from the least effective source of business building traffic to the most. Many of these places are great for other things, this list is specifically directed at traffic.

For instance the top articles spinners and adf.ly. . . traffic coming from these places don’t typically have any interest in your site before they get there. They just arrive.  Take contests for example, ever get 3,000 visitors to a contest page and then the next day get 12? Yeah, they were just interested in the free thing and could care less about the 90 hours you spent on your last blog post.

 

bctraffic

 

While forums seem to have gone to the wayside since the advent of social media, apps like Tapatalk keep them brimming with traffic and conversation. I know of sites that are getting upwards of 5,000 visitors per day from forums like Mark’s Daily Apple, Diaper Swappers, WhatToExpect, and Community.babycenter.com. . . just oodles of traffic every day as people share links and ideas.

Before we get into all the crazy ways you can get traffic, listen to the call we did aptly named “You Get Traffic From What?” and be updated on our upcoming calls here:

Stay with us this month as we talk about Instagram-like sites, Forums and syndication.

How to sell an ebook without a shopping cart

This is a quick tutorial on how to sell an ebook without a Shopping Cart.

Other than some edits I’m doing now, while the above video is finishing the processing, this is the page we created in the video. The ebook we looked at, of the marketing matrix, is a fantastic read. We really go into depth in helping you understand how to focus on the parts of your business that will move you along the quickest. I highly recommend getting it.




Should Community Building Start with RSS or Email?

So should you offer an RSS Service to your readers? Collect Email? Collect Phone? Or spend your time pushing “likes”, “pins” and “follows”? Well. . .

So should you offer an RSS Service to your readers? Collect Email? Collect Phone? Or spend your time pushing “likes”, “pins” and “follows”? Well. . .

Our job is to make our audiences smarter, better, happier. We create and distribute information and entertainment. But our ability to provide value to our readers is hampered by our ability to reach them.

Thus one of our primary goals is to collect contact information of those interested in our solutions, so that we can provide this value over and over and over. Continue reading “Should Community Building Start with RSS or Email?”