Kevin George — August 12, 2019 — August 12, 2019
Blogs are a fantastic way to build a following, grow your expertise, and bring people to your door. In order for a blog to be successful, you should drive people to your blog. Of course, blogs do show up in the search results and all those neat things but you also need to promote them actively.
Are you brooding over how to do it right and yield maximum benefits out of it? Let me explain to you how it works.
ENTER EMAIL MARKETING:
Email marketing can be used to draw visitors on your blog and get them to return to your website, thereby garnering customer loyalty. Even though your blog is purely educational and has nothing to sell, you cannot disregard having an email marketing strategy. Quicksprout suggests that your blog content is 3.9 times more likely to be shared on social media by email subscribers. Another report by Smart Insights reveals that emails have higher click-through rates across all industries, making it one of the most powerful channels to generate traffic to the website.
In view of these facts and figures, let’s explore the various ways in which you can grow your blog using email marketing.
Incentivize the subscribers when they sign up
Readers always appreciate insightful content on the blogs. How about providing them with a unique piece of content that enlightens them about a particular topic? It will not only persuade them to sign up to your email list but also hook them to reading your blogs.
It is a natural human instinct that whenever we are given a special discount code or complimentary content resource, we feel more inspired to join the email list. Your website visitors are no different. Use it as a chance to illustrate your expertise with the best piece of content. After all, getting subscribers is 20% about producing new content and 80% about how you distribute it.
See the screenshot below.
Wouldn’t it have been much better to share a free ebook in exchange for the email address? Think about it…
Spend some time to repurpose the popular posts
Use Google Search Console to discover your popular posts that are performing better than the others and repurpose it for your emails. You should definitely share new blog posts with your email subscribers, but you should also consider sending previously written posts every once in a while.
In case you have a monthly newsletter in your email calendar, you can use it to showcase the choicest of blogs. I would like to share a personal tip with you here. Segment your subscribers according to their interests and send curated content that would be relevant for the respective segments. This will enhance your blog reputation and give you an edge over the competitors.
Alternatively, you should try to take a fresh perspective on an already published topic or add more details to it according to the latest trends.
Take a look at the blog newsletter by EmailMonks. We promote all the latest blogs, infographics, and guest blogs in our monthly newsletter to keep the readers updated about the recent posts.
Have RSS feeds for your blog
By subscribing to RSS feeds, your website visitors will get regular email notifications whenever you update your blog. It is truly a boon for bloggers who want to increase their visibility. Also, it will eliminate the need for sending a manual message every time you update your blog and automate the process, which will save time and human efforts.
Just make sure that your subscription form is prominently placed and designed with contrasting colors like the one shown below.
Source: WishPond
Promote your blog along with the social media handles
Often, your blog is the face of your company. It is as important as your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram handle. Therefore, do not forget to put the link to your blog along with all the social media handles in the email footer. It will build confidence with the subscribers and make them visit your blog (again and again).
This practice is not just recommended for service-based companies. It can be useful for retail stores too. Here’s an email by Cotton On Kids wherein they have promoted their Small Talk on the Kids Blog.
Keep track of the metrics
As there is no dearth of information on the Internet, you ought to make sure that your readers continue to enjoy your content. Analyze your email marketing metrics closely to see which links do the subscribers click on. You can use these details to further segment your audience and make your emails even more targeted. Eventually, your blog will have something for every segment and you will be able to build stronger readership.
Follow the email marketing best practices
Apart from the points described above, abide by the 10 timeless best practices of email marketing too:
- Verify your email subscribers with a double opt-in method.
- Let the subscribers choose the email frequency with the help of a preference center.
- Write an engaging subject line that matches the copy of the email.
- Send valuable content that serves a purpose in the buyer’s journey.
- Understand your subscribers and set the right expectations.
- Do not forget the unsubscribe link.
- Choose the right email marketing tool that matches all your business requirements.
- Have a clear call-to-action button.
- Add a dash of visual appeal to your emails rather than sending a verbose email.
- Design a mobile-responsive email
Wrapping Up
Email marketing can work really well in getting your blog posts clicked on and read.
EmailMonks can validate this fact as we have seen an upsurge in the number of visitors after we started promoting our blogs in the monthly newsletter. While salesy emails can annoy the subscribers and put them off, newsletters promoting educational blog posts can create awareness and increase the likelihood of conversions.
Now, that’s the perfect win-win situation for businesses and customers alike.
Try it and let us know how it works for you. We would love to hear from you in the comments below.
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