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  • Writer's pictureMozie

Grow Your Captive Audience With Email Marketing


You probably know that email marketing is most certainly not dead. In fact, it’s still one of the most effective ways to not only communicate with your audience but to also connect with them and build the kind of loyalty that business owners dream of.


You may also know the general path to attracting email subscribers is through an opt-in offer. You can give away just about anything, but there are a few key requirements:


It Must Solve a Problem


Your opt-in offer must solve a problem for your audience and prospects. This means that you need to have a deep understanding of who your audience is, what they want, and why they want it. When you understand their emotions, motivations, and desires and you integrate them into your opt-in offer, you are taking the first important step toward building a loyal audience.


They Need to Value It


Think of your opt-in offer as your opportunity to make a strong first impression. True, you’ve already made an impression because they’ve signed up for your email list. However, we’re talking about growing a captive audience with email marketing, and that means that your subscribers must value the information that you’ve sent them.


Value is achieved in a few ways. Your opt-in offer must be quality. It must provide the solution that you promised. It needs to be relevant to your audience member, as well. And above all else, it needs to solve the problem you promised to solve. This is best achieved when you keep your opt-in offer simple.


Don’t try to solve your audience’s biggest problem. Get them interested by taking care of a small one and then feed them bigger and better solutions. Earn their trust. The first step to earning their trust is with an opt-in that they consider to be valuable.


Promise More


The opt-in is just the beginning. It’s a solution to a smaller problem that’s part of a bigger problem. Here’s an example…


Christine Kane offers mentoring and coaching services to entrepreneurs. Her opt-in offer is simple and straight forward and addresses the problem many business owners have, how to get their income up to a level where they can live and grow their business.

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It’s followed with a form that may surprise you, Christine would love permission to send you mail. Now, you don’t have to mail your audience. However, it is another way to connect with them. I’m sure that Christine has tested this tactic and it has paid off.


Her website and brand are very visually interesting and that plays a role in connecting with her audience. And as a mentor and coach, it’s important to know that you’re building a relationship. Snail mail probably helps her with this end goal.

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But let’s look at what happens when you get your opt-in in your email in box, because that’s where Christine embraces the “Promise more” concept that we’re talking about. She starts immediately by letting you, her new subscriber, know what she has to offer.

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You’ll see in this image that just under the “Download the video” button on the right-hand side is a document. It’s titled “Welcome letter” and it’s a sales page. You can also see that on the download page she has, in purple letters, the invitation to “schedule a clarity call with one of my team members.”


In both her welcome letter and her download page, Christine is setting the tone to start the relationship building process. She tells new subscribers that the video will set them up for success and get them on the path and if you’re ready to move forward…


Christine takes small, but immediate steps toward that relationship building process. She delivers a quality opt-in and immediately tells you how you can take action today.


Think about how you might do that with your own opt-in offer and business.

What offer could you provide your prospects that gets them so excited that they are ready to take the next step with your company – maybe even before they have opened their download?


What can you promise and then what can you promise next?


Creating Your Email Marketing, Loyal and Captive Audience, Strategy

Once you have a new subscriber, the real work begins. Your email messages need to be designed to continue to add value, to engage, and ultimately to convert. In essence, you need to be educational, entertaining, and relevant. No easy job, right?


Actually, if you plan it well, you can walk your new subscriber through the process and pull them deeper into your business. The goal is to sit down at a blank screen or piece of paper and outline the process your ideal subscriber/customer goes through when they’re seeking your products, services, or information.


What are they looking for initially? What problem are they solving? – Provide an opt-in that addresses their needs and desires.


· What’s next? Create an offer and information that helps them take the next step.

· What’s next?

· What’s next?


If you have a sales funnel, you can look at your funnel and explore how to educate your new prospects, and offer information while occasionally providing them with an offer or promotion that ties into where they are in their process.


For example, a Paleo blogger with information products may attract their subscribers with a book about how the benefits of going Paleo.


They might then share an email series about how to go Paleo without any cravings with a promotion for a cookbook of simple Paleo recipes.


The Paleo dieting audience will remain captive and loyal because the Paleo blogger is continually providing them with information and value to assist them as they make the transition from learning about Paleo to becoming a committed Paleo dieter.




Get Your Audience Involved


One great way to keep your audience captivated and loyal is to engage them and get them involved. You can ask questions in your email messages or invite them to visit your blog or social page to participate in a discussion. Look to trending topics, industry news, research, or controversial topics to initiate conversations. Emails are generally harder to write. The simple way to acquire emails is to use PLR content and edit it with your knowledge. Use PLR content as a guideline when writing emails for your audience.


You can also ask readers to participate in contests. For example, you might ask your readers to share a photo of them using your product. You decide what the winner receives and what would be most motivating and relevant with your audience.


Let’s also not forget that your audience has opinions, insight, and requests. Leverage their desire to communicate with you into a survey or questionnaire. You can approach the questionnaire in two different ways. For example, you can send an email questionnaire to learn more about how to serve your audience and customers.


And don’t hesitate to share feedback from existing subscribers. This information helps them feel validated. It tells them that you do in fact read their responses and that you care, and it supports your subscribers to feel like they’re part of a community.


A Questionnaire is Another Option


Or you can send a questionnaire that helps them learn more about themselves. For example, the Paleo blogger we just discussed might create a questionnaire that invited subscribers to learn what their biggest dieting challenge is.


They might answer 20 questions, tally their results, and then learn if they are sugar addicts, missing out on fat in their diet, emotional eater, and so on. Then…that same Paleo blogger might share a promotion designed specifically for each unique dieting problem. The sugar addict might receive an offer for a book on how to bust sugar cravings once and for all.

Again, the Paleo audience stays engaged with email and with the Paleo blogger because they’re constantly being offered information and products/services that help them solve their Paleo needs, goals, and desires.


The bottom line is that the key to keeping your audience captivated and loyal to your business is to provide them with a steady stream of valuable content with the occasional targeted and relevant offer. Plan it out. Go back to that simple question… “what’s next?” Put yourself in the mind of your audience and give them what they need.


Embrace Other Channels of Communication – Create Multiple Points of Contact


It’s important to keep in mind that email is one part of an overall marketing strategy designed to bring prospects into your community and to convert them to paying customers. Email often brings people into your community, and then there are additional steps that you can take to keep them there.


  • Add social sharing buttons to your email messages.

  • Invite them to participate in conversations on social media.

  • Invite social media followers to sign up for your email list, too. Cross promote!

  • Share different, but complimentary, content in both your emails and your social posts.

  • Tell your audience what you’re posting, how it’s different, and the value it provides if they follow you on all of your marketing channels.

  • And of course, promote your blog in your email messages and promote your email list on your blog.


All of these components, engaging, learning, inviting, providing value, and making relevant offers, are part of a solid email marketing strategy. A strategy needs to have goals and a way to track the results as well. And it needs to leave some room for adapting and embracing changes along the way. Before we wrap it up, let’s talk about a few new email marketing tactics you may want to consider.


Embrace a Few New Tactics


It’s important to talk about new tactics for building a strong list, one that’s full of people who want to become part of your community of customers. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with old school email list building tactic like advertising, article marketing, and SEO. However, new tactics like leveraging Instagram to promote webinars and eBooks or downloads, are proving to be quite effective.


When you click on the “learn more” it takes you to a webinar sign up page and then instantly delivers an eBook along with a confirmation of your webinar reservation. It’s just one of the many ways that business owners are leveraging the power of social media and the new way that consumers access information.


Mobile Applications


Mobile applications are relatively easy to create and can be given away for free. You can then invite or ask users to add their email to unlock more features or to access their results. For example, a mobile app that provides Paleo recipes might email you a shopping list for each recipe you choose.


You now have permission to send emails to the prospect who downloaded your mobile application. It’s also a great way to promote other products or services. The Mobile app, “Paleo Plate” markets their products right on their mobile application. It’s another tool that you can use to grow your email list, and to keep them engaged with your business.


Growing your captive audience with email marketing requires a good understanding about who you’re marketing to and why they want to buy your products. You have to understand their needs, goals, desires, and motivations. With that information, you can then create a content plan that provides consistent value to them. Keep in mind that your subscribers do expect that you’ll market to them and promote your products or services. Make sure that your offers value your subscribers and make them feel appreciated.


Finally, don’t forget to integrate your email marketing efforts with your other marketing channels and tactics. By connecting across multiple channels, you engage with your audience in a different way and keep them active in your community.

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