Avoid Corporate Speak To Get Your Emails Read & Acted On

Jon Olson 1 Comment

A golden rule of email marketing is to always ‘write’ your emails in a personal way and avoid as much corporate speak as possible. It’s great advice if you think about the DNA of every single email list you create…It’s made up of real people!

Each with different goals, dreams and businesses. So when you start throwing around big words to make yourself sound important, a lot of that will be viewed as corporate talk and your message will more than likely be ignored.

A huge tip to try in the next email you send is to write them like you are talking to ONE person.

Think of each person you are sending the email to, but write like you are having a one to one conversation with them. This is a huge tip to not only get more people on your list reading your emails, but to also get a lot more action and clicks throughout the message.

And you can understand why on a purely human scale….People do business with those they know, like and trust. So when you are treating your broadcasts as a conversation between two people instead of between 10,000 your message has more emotion. The greater chances you have to get big results when you treat people on your list…Well…Like people 🙂

Seems too simple doesn’t it? Just write like you would if you were talking to your best friend. How would you structure an email to a family member? Would you use corporate language and brag about all your accomplishments? Or would you be treating the relationship you have with that person with respect and adding value to them.

That’s the golden rule of writing awesome emails, you have to write like you are talking to one, even if you are broadcasting to thousands. When you do this, trust is built and more action is taken by your readers.

What Is The Best Time & Day To Send Emails?

Jon Olson 3 Comments

We’re about to open Pandora’s box in this blog post…

Ask any marketer or professional marketing firm and they’ll give you stats and numbers that’ll make your head spin. From the type of customers, to the segmenting of your lists, there is a lot of confusion when you type in Google…

“What is the best time & day to send emails?”

There are so many factors to consider. From what your subscriber lists are used to, to what kind of business you may be in. To weekend vs weekday broadcasts to whether or not you should send all email on Eastern time…

It’s a mess.

I can sit here and tell you that the most opens and action we get when we send broadcats at 8pm on weekdays. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes we send an email on Sundays and get huge open rates.

The biggest advice I could give you without making your head spin is…Track for yourself where you get the best results!

That’s not only a great practice to get into for business but you’ll start discovering what your lists react and act to. That truly is the best advice.

That being said, there are some fantastic resources out there that can help you and guide you in the right direction, take for example Propellor’s 2017 Email Marketing Field Guide and Infographic. This is a great guide to help you get some ideas on when the best days of the week COULD be…Could is the key word here.

Track, and find out for yourself!

Is there a perfect time and day to send?

I don’t think that question will ever get answered because each list is unique. Even the segmented lists without your Rocket Responder account will have different ‘prime times’ to get better action with your broadcasts.

The beauty of building your lists and email marketing is that you get to find out by testing…You wont upset your lists for sending an email at 4 in the morning or 4 in the afternoon, as long as you are building the relationships and proving value…

In every single broadcast!

A Quick Tip That Helps You Get More Action With Every Email Broadcast

Jon Olson 4 Comments

Here’s a simple tip that helped us get higher click through rates and action takers on every broadcast we sent. And while it may seem like a no-brainer for more experienced email marketers it’s a good reminder for everyone to keep things simple and straightforward in your broadcasts.

Part of getting more action takers on every email you send is to keep things formatted for maximum results. You can do this by this simple technique, keeping your links in the email copy at a minimum.

For example, you do not want 10 different links pointing to 10 different websites in your copy.

So keep it simple!

A good rule of thumb is to keep links to a maximum of 3. Now this is NOT gospel and obviously different emails call for different formatting.

However in testing over the past few years and millions upon millions of emails sent, we have found that when you keep the links in your email copy to a maximum of 3, you get more conversions and click throughs.

Note: Now again, different targets and goals for an email campaign will change the amount you set for your business and needs so this is just a suggestion, not a rule.

Another thing to remember about adding 3 links in an email is to not send them to 3 different web sites. Keep things simple and straightforward.

Your copy should flow and naturally lead your readers to the links. And when you send them here, there and everywhere, you just start to confuse your readers.

Remember, the simpler you make your emails, the better.

Want to add graphics?

That’s even better but again the same suggestions apply.

Less is so much more when it comes to this technique.

Try it, test it and see if it improves your conversions and open rates! We’d love to hear about your results, please do share them below 🙂

Email Marketing 101: The Thank You Page

Jon Olson 2 Comments

I thought it would be a good idea to go over some of the basics when setting up your first email list. There is one feature that is rarely used by the masses but savvy marketers have been leveraging it for years now with great results. And that is…The thank you page!

What is the thank you page?

Remember when you first signed up to a new mailing list and filled out your information?

You pressed the subscribe button and got taken to a page that said either thanks for signing up or look for the email in your inbox to confirm the subscription.

That’s a thank page and that’s prime real estate!

Your new subscriber’s attention is at the maximum it will ever be so now is the time to make a lasting impressions. This is where you can show them;

– An offer exclusive to new subscribers
– A video welcoming them to your list
– A downloadable bonus

Use your imagination and you will see, their attention is at the highest it will ever be when you get them to confirm so USE this time to make an impact.

I love using these pages to help indoctrinate and welcome them to my lists.

For example, I could send them to a page where I host a short video clip, letting them know they are valued as a new subscriber and what they can expect in the emails that follow. Remember, list building is all about building long term relationships and things like this help you stick out from the noise.

There is so much you can do and accomplish by using that high valuable real estate in your list building endeavours. Let’s show you how to set up a unique thank you page for your lists;

Step 1 – Simply log into your Rocket Responder account and click on ‘Forms’. You can find it on the left menu bar.

email marketing

Step 2 – Next you want to click on the big green button under all that code that reads ‘Design a new form’

thank you pages

Step 3 – This opens up your customizable form generator. You can play around with the design and entire feel of your subscriber forms here but we’re going to skip this and look at the ‘Options’ menu on the top left and click that.

email marketing thank you pages

Step 4 – Now we have two options. A thank you page box and a confirmed page box. You can use both of these spaces to put your thank you page in. Here’s a strategy I would use…On the first thank you page box, put a page in there with a video of you thanking them for signing up. Indoctrinate them a bit to what they can expect but also let them know to white list your emails, and start the lines of communication. Engage with them! But also, tell them to pay attention for a ‘bonus’ that they will receive once they confirm their email with you….

That then moves you to the ‘confirmed page’ where you can place your bonuses, offers or whatever you wish to give them extra value for signing up to your list.

email marketing

The best part about this is that very few email marketers use this to start the relationship. They are too busy trying to pitch someone the moment they get on their list. Use this time to get them to know the real you and what you are offering and then you will have a customer for life.

FB Funnel Setup

Justin Ledvina 6 Comments

Setting up a Facebook Lead Generation ad

Login to Facebook Ads Manager

Under What’s your marketing objective select Lead generation

Give your Campaign Name a title

Give your Ad Set Name a title

Select which Facebook Page you would like you create your ad for. (Having a Facebook Page is a requirement for using Lead Generation on Facebook)

Now we need to setup our Audience if you already advertise using Facebook Ads and have Audiences all ready to go select your Saved Audience and skip to the next section

1. Enter one or more global regions, countries, states/regions, cities, postal codes, addresses or Designated Market Areas ® to show or exclude your ad to people in those locations. Location targeting is not available in all countries (You can Include Locations or Exclude Locations

2. Select the minimum and maximum age of the people who will find your ad relevant

3. Choose “All” unless you only want your ads to be shown to either men or women

4. Leave this blank unless the audience you are targeting uses a language that is not common to the location you have chosen above

5. Define your audience by including or excluding demographics, interests and behaviors

6. Reach people who have a specific kind of connection to your Page, app or event. This will narrow your audience to include only people with that specific connection who also meet the other targeting categories you’ve selected

7. Click the Save This Audience button

You now have an Audience setup remember to tweak this as you learn what works and doesn’t work over time.

Skip to here if you already have an Audience set up

Only 2 options here. You can let Facebook decide where your ads are show with Automatic Placements or you can decide where they are shown (FB, Instagram, Network) by selecting Edit Placements

1. Select your Budget. I always start new ads on a $5 daily budget. This allows me to slowly and cheaply test to make sure everything is working properly before gradually increasing my daily budget

2. Select how long you would like this Campaign to run

*Notice the highlighted area this will show weekly budget

1. Your bid amount determines how effectively Facebook can optimize your ad delivery. Your bid competes in an auction with other advertisers, who also want to reach the same target audience

2. You can schedule your ads for specific hours and days of the week

3. You can choose standard or accelerated delivery. Standard delivery is recommended and the preferred option for most advertisers. Accelerated delivery can be useful for promoting time-sensitive events and quickly reaching a target audience. Manual bid pricing is required for accelerated delivery.

4. Click Continue button

Give your Ad Name a title

If you don’t have an Instagram account connected to your business. The Facebook Page you’ve selected above will be used to represent your business on Instagram.

Select your ad format for this example I’m using a Single Image

You can add up to 6 images here. Most of my ads I test with a single image until I know it is working properly. You can use Facebook Free Stock Images or create your own. Facebook is very fussy with their image ads (they hate text on images). Minimal text is allowed as you can see from my ad.

*Should you create your own image please pay attention to the highlighted area above. My image is 600×315 minimum required to be used on Instagram. All ads I create on FB are 600×315.

*Notice where the Red callouts match the Green callouts. Red controls where Green shows up for example Red #1 Headline is where the Green #1 Headline text shows in the ad

1. Add a brief headline to let people know what your ad is about. This won’t appear in all placements.

2. Add some text that will encourage the end user to take action.

3. Add a button that matches the action you want people to take when they see your ad. Here I selected Signup but a better option would have been Download (this is why we set a $5 budget because it’s easy to make small errors, no worries I’ll fix it)

4. Add additional text to emphasize why people should visit your website. This won’t appear in all placements.

5. This is the URL that will be shown to people who see your ad. It can be a shortened or reformatted link, but it must direct to the same place as your destination URL. This won’t appear in all placements.

*Notice the highlight area clicking this will allow you to add advance options. I’m showing you this area because I use it but is not necessary to get started. Look at this as an advance feature, feel free to skip this if you’re not comfortable.

1. URL parameters you specify here will be appended to or replace existing parameters in URLs. For example, if the URL parameters are specified as key1=val1&key2=val2 and this ad includes the URL www.example.com?key1=test, then the URL will be updated to www.example.com?key1=val1&key2=val2

2. This will measure your website conversions. You’ll see your results in Ads Manager along with performance of your ads.

3. This will measure your offline conversions. You’ll see your results in Ads Manager along with performance of your ads.

Now we need to create our first form. Click New Form button

1. This step is VERY IMPORTANT once you hit save you cannot change the name of your form. Make sure you name your form. (Ask me how I know haha)

2. Welcome Screen is optional but I do not use it and here is my reason why. It makes for another step the end user has to take to complete the action. I’ve tried both and got similar results so I stick with my less is more philosophy here.

This is my favorite part as you can see all that is required is selecting the type of information you want to collect. Any box you check will add it to the form on the right. Here is the great thing about Facebook Lead Generation ads, all of the information is prefilled in all the end user has to do is hit Submit.

Feel free to play around with this section but for my needs all I want here is their email and name.

Facebook requires you to have a Privacy Policy. You can use your own if you have one or you are free to use ours here is the link to it https://www.rocketresponder.com/privacy

1. Link Text add the word Privacy Policy

2. Link URL add a link to the privacy policy

This is where the link to your Thank You page goes. Since I’m giving away a free guide I decided to link directly to the PDF file. However you can link to whatever page you want.

We are done creating our form. Let’s go ahead and click the Finish button at the top of the popup screen.

Make sure you have the form you just created selected (Facebook does this by default but it doesn’t hurt to double check) and click the Green Place Order button

Click the Blue Continue button and will be taken to where your ad now resides in your Facebook Ad Manager.

We are all done here time to move on to RocketResponder.

Linking your Facebook Lead Generate ad leads to your RocketResponder Followup Series

Login to your RocketResponder account

Click the new Facebook Funnel button in the left menu

Click the Login Facebook button above the video tutorial and will be presented with a popup box to link your account

Click the big blue Continue as You button

After connecting your Facebook account with RocketResponder you will see all the Facebook pages you are a manager of.

1. Default List is a catchall and isn’t required. As you can see under RocketResponder I set the catchall to a followup series called RocketResponder Facebook.

2. Manage Forms lets you set Followup Series to individual forms. click the blue View Forms button.

Each individual Facebook form for that Facebook Page will show. Here you can see I named my Facebook Lead Generation form “How Super Affiliate Dominate 1” for this form in the drop down I have select a followup series I’ve written called “Email Marketing for Affiliate Marketers”

That’s it nothing left to do congratulations!

Let me show you one more thing in Facebook Ad Manager

It’s been a few days since I setup my ad. You can see I’ve generated 10 leads at the cost of $3.24 this number goes down dramatically as I tweak my target Audience over time.

Don’t have a RocketResponder account?

That’s ok I’m going to give you 30 days to try this method completely free along with all the other tools in our software suite but that’s not all I’m going to do.. if you’re happy using RocketResponder it’s only $20/m no limitations unlike our competitors who increases their fees as you make more money. We never increase our rates once a customer locks it in. Even if our software goes up in price and features (which it does on a regular basis) you will always pay $20/m period!

Click Here to get RocketResponder FREE for 30 Days than only $20 a month after that. No contracts can cancel at anytime. Cancelling within the 30 day trial will not bill your account. Cancelling is super simple just a giant red button in your account area. No Games No Tricks. We truly care about our customers even if RocketResponder isn’t right for you.