transcript - effective email marketing strategies

8/10/2019 Transcript - Effective Email Marketing Strategies

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IntroductionWelcome00:04 Welcome to Effective Email Marketing Strategies!00:07 This course is designed to give you tips and advice for growing your business or00:11 organization with email marketing.00:13 This course begins by showing you how to get your email marketing program off00:17 the ground and how to build your email list while complying with regulations and00:21 consumer preferences.00:22 Then I'll show you which types of email content and designs are most00:26 effective, and I'll give you tips for coming up with good content and making00:30 your content more valuable.00:32 I'll also show you how to adapt your emails for mobile devices, how to combine00:36 emails with social media, and how to automate your emails to save time.00:42 Tracking your emails and avoiding bounces, spam filters, and blocked email is00:46 also important, so I'll show you the best practices for getting more email

00:49 delivered, opened, and read.00:52 All of this and more is just a few clicks away, so let's get started with00:56 Effective Email Marketing Strategies.

1. Email Marketing BasicsUsing email in your marketing mix00:01 You don't have to be in business for very long to realize that you needto00:04 communicate with lots of people to attract customers.00:08 Of course, your business also needs to make sure that your marketing

00:10 communications bring in revenue over and above the cost of those communications.00:15 Email is a great solution for building customer relationships00:18 affordably, because it's a familiar communication standard and because00:22 it's so cost effective.00:24 The fact that email is a cheap way to communicate isn't the main reasonto use email however.00:29 Email also has a very high Return On Investment or ROI.00:33 In other words, an effective email marketing strategy can generate a lotof00:37 sales for a relatively small investment of time and money.00:41 In order to get the highest possible return on your email marketing investments,

00:45 you first need to understand where to use email in your overall marketing plans.00:50 The first thing to understand is the fact that sending email to total strangers00:53 does not work. You're more likely to get spam complaints than interest from00:58 prospective customers unless you send to a permission-based email list.01:01 Now, I show you how to build a permission- based email list in another section of this course.01:06 Instead of spamming people, use email to help convert current prospects


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into01:11 customers and current customers into loyal customers.01:15 Use email to educate people about the features and benefits of your products01:18 or services, differentiate your business from your competition, and to ask for the sale.01:24 You can also use email to help increase customer loyalty and referrals by01:27 sending emails that strengthen your customer relationships.01:30 Send them thank you emails, holiday greetings, and offer special privileges to01:35 make your customers feel like they're appreciated.01:38 As you watch the rest of this course remember that all the tips and ideas I01:41 share can be adapted to your specific type of business or organization,01:45 because no matter what kind of business or organization you have, keeping your01:49 customer relationships at the center of your strategy will put you on the road01:53 to email marketing success.

Getting the job done00:00 You'll need at least two technologies to execute your email marketing st

rategy:00:05 an authoring technology to create the content of your emails in HTML anda00:10 delivery technology that has the ability to deliver and track emails sent to00:14 a large email list.00:15 In order to do literally everything on your own, you're going to need toown00:19 your own email server.00:21 You'll need extensive programming knowledge and database skills.00:25 I don't recommend doing absolutely everything in-house, even for a largecompany00:29 with lots of technical resources.

00:31 Instead use an email marketing provider or EMP to help you run your strategy.00:37 An EMP is a company that offers a suite of tools to help you create, send, and00:42 track your own marketing emails.00:44 Most EMPs allow you to create emails without the need to know any HTML or the00:48 programming languages.00:49 And you won't need to set up and manage your own email servers and delivery00:53 gateways, because EMP is sending email from their servers on your behalf.01:00 Your customers will never know the difference and you'll probably get

01:03 better delivery rates too.01:05 EMPs give you tracking reports and database tools to manage your email lists and01:10 some EMPs even provide support and educational resources to help you gain01:14 expertise in marketing and the use of the EMP's tools.01:17 Enterprise-level EMPs give you access to advanced features, such as01:22 point-of-sale integration, email automation, advanced segmentation, and01:27 behavioral targeting.01:29 Remember that one of the most important assets of your email marketing s


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trategy01:33 is your email database.01:35 Make sure you use a company that secures your email database properly and01:38 protects the privacy of your email list subscribers.01:41 In the next section of the course, I show you how to protect your database in01:45 another way: by avoiding unsubscribes and spam complaints.

Becoming an appreciated email sender00:00 There are laws against unsolicited email or spam because people hate it.00:06 Since hate is not a buying emotion and the government makes the rules, here's00:10 what you need to know to become an appreciated email sender.00:14 Let's start with the law.00:15 Now, what I'm about to say is not legal advice in any way, shape, or form.00:20 It's just a summary of possible issues.00:22 Use a licensed attorney to make sure you follow the law when it comes toemail marketing.00:27 And the main law governing commercial email is known as the CAN-SPAM Act.00:31 You should read and comply with all parts of the CAN-SPAM Act, but here

are00:35 the major guidelines.00:37 First and foremost, you need a relationship of affirmative consent between your00:41 business and anyone to whom you send a marketing email.00:44 You also need to provide a simple and free way for your subscribers to opt out00:48 of receiving future emails.00:51 The industry standard is one or two clicks to unsubscribe.00:55 Also, make sure the information in your email is true and accurate.00:58 You are not allowed to fake your from line, use misleading subject lines, or01:03 send emails from a false email address.

01:05 Finally, make sure you include your physical business address in every email.01:09 A post office box is okay.01:12 Keeping your emails legally compliant will keep you out of trouble withthe01:14 government, but your job as an email marketer isn't to make the government01:18 happy; your emails need to impress prospects and customers.01:22 Here are three tips to make sure your email marketing is well-received and01:27 appreciated by your subscribers.01:29 First, ask for explicit permission before sending marketing emails.01:33 I talk about permission and building a permission-based email list in th

e next01:36 section of the course.01:38 Second, ask your subscribers to share their preferences when they join your01:42 email list and send only the information your subscribers request.01:46 Third, make sure that you send emails with the proper frequency and relevance.01:52 In general, people will tolerate almost any email frequency as long as your01:56 email content is valuable and relevant.


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01:58 For example, weather is a daily occurrence, so weather information is likely to02:04 be appreciated on a daily frequency.02:06 If you send a daily email asking people to buy something however, you'dbetter02:10 be pretty sure that your subscribers are interested in daily deals.02:15 Now that you have a basic understanding of becoming an appreciated email02:18 sender, let's leverage your knowledge by moving to our next topic, building an email list.

2. Building an Email ListAsking for permission00:01 Email marketing without permission can spell disaster for your marketingemails.00:06 You can't legally send emails to total strangers and even if you could,you00:10 wouldn't make very many people happy by sending them emails they didn'task for.00:15 Therefore, an email list without permission isn't very valuable.00:18 However, when an email list includes the email addresses of prospects and00:22 customers who have explicitly asked your business to send them emails to

stay00:25 informed, you have a very valuable asset for your marketing strategy.00:30 In this part of the course I am going to show you how to include permission in00:33 your email marketing plans so that your email list is full of people whowant to00:37 receive your emails.00:38 The first step in the process of building a permission-based email listis00:41 deciding on a permission level.00:42 Now, there are three basic types of permission.00:46 The lowest permission level is implied permission.00:49 For example, when someone hands you a business card and says let's stay

in00:53 touch, you could assume that means sending a few emails.00:56 But be extra careful with implied permission, because people may be unpleasantly01:00 surprised if you start sending marketing emails without first confirmingthe01:04 content and the frequency of those emails.01:08 It's a good idea in the case of implied permission to send an email confirming01:12 your decision to add someone to your email list and include a link for opting01:16 out if you're new implied subscriber doesn't want to be on your marketing email list.

01:21 The second permission level is explicit permission.01:24 For example, when someone fills out an online form to join your email list,01:29 that person has given you explicit permission to send the emails your email01:32 sign-up form specifies.01:34 Explicit permission is the industry standard for email marketing and the01:38 recommended level of permission for most email marketing providers.01:42 The third permission level is confirmed permission, also known as doubleopt-in.


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01:48 Confirmed permission works like this: when someone explicitly opts in toyour01:52 email list, you send an email asking the new subscriber to confirm their01:57 decision to join the list.01:58 Usually this happens by clicking a link or replying to the confirmationemail02:02 with a specific message.02:04 Confirmed permission ensures that your email list subscribers are highly02:07 interested in receiving your emails and confirming permission generallyimproves02:11 your delivery rates too.02:12 Now let's go over a few forms of permission that actually have the potential02:17 to get you in trouble.02:18 You should avoid building your email list based on someone else's permission.02:23 For example, don't send marketing emails to people on email lists belonging to02:27 your vendors, your colleagues, your partners, or trade organizations.02:32 If you want to reach people on other email lists, ask the owner of the list02:37 to send the emails to their list on your behalf and ask them to explicitly02:42 opt in to your email list.

02:45 Some email lists are sold or leased out by list brokers and permission-based02:49 quality is very important if you decide to use a broker to send your emails.02:53 If you decide to use a list broker anyway, make sure the list broker youuse is02:57 completely compliant with all laws and industry best practices.03:01 Since your email list is valuable, protect it like an asset.03:06 Don't share your email list with anyone and don't violate your permission03:10 standards by sending emails your subscribers didn't sign up for.03:14 In the next section of the course I show you how to collect email addresses from

03:18 people so that you can build a list with quality and quantity in mind.

Collecting information00:00 In this section of the course I show you how to collect email addressesto00:04 build your email list.00:05 If you haven't already, make sure you first view the previous section on00:09 permission before watching the rest of this section.00:11 Now, when it comes to actually collecting emails, there are five basic ways to00:16 ask people to join your email list.00:18 The first way to collect email addresses is by providing an online sign-

up form00:23 to your website visitors.00:25 You should put the sign-up form or a link to the sign-up form on every page of00:29 your website, not just the homepage, because you never know when someonewill00:33 enter your website or exit your website.00:37 The second way to collect email addresses is to collect email addresses00:41 from people in person.00:42 When someone calls your business on the phone, ask if he or she would li


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ke to00:46 join the email list to receive information about the topic of the call.00:50 When you attend networking events or trade shows and when you meet people for00:53 appointments, ask everyone to join your email list.00:57 I call it the 5 Foot Rule.00:59 If someone is within 5 feet of you, ask for his or her email address.01:05 Thirdly, all printed marketing materials should describe a way to join your email list.01:11 You can provide a sign-up form by asking people to write their information01:14 directly on the form, and you can use printed advertising to promote other01:19 methods of joining, which brings me to the fourth way to collect email01:23 addresses: mobile devices.01:25 You can ask people to scan a mobile barcode, like the one this poster.01:29 This one actually works. Give it a try right now on your screen to jointhe01:32 email list at lynda.com.01:35 You can also ask people to text their email address to join, and you canprovide01:40 mobile sign-up forms that can be filled out on a smartphone or a tabletdevice.01:44 You can use mobile devices for collecting addresses in person as well.

01:47 Simply hand your device to someone so he or she can fill out a form on the screen.01:52 The fifth way to collect email addresses is through social media networks.01:56 Place sign-up links to your email sign- up form on all social media sites you own02:02 and promote your email list in your social posts.02:04 Some social sites such as Facebook allow application plug-ins, so you can embed02:09 forms directly into your page.02:12 Remember that an email address is more effective when you combine it with other information.02:16 You may want to collect a first name for personalizing your emails ora Z

IP code02:20 for targeting local offers.02:22 But don't ask for too much information the first time you sign up or02:26 you'll reduce sign-ups.02:28 You can also ask for additional information once you've established a02:31 relationship of trust with the members of your email list.02:34 Collecting email addresses and other personal information isn't always easy, so02:38 stay tuned for the next section of the course where I show you how to create02:41 incentives to help you increase the number of email list sign-ups you get.

Offering incentives to increase signups00:00 It's a common misconception that people aren't willing to share their email addresses.00:05 Actually, they are willing to share.00:07 You just have to communicate the value of your email list effectively.00:10 The idea is to exchange value for information.00:13 The more valuable your emails, the more people will sign up to receive that value.00:17 Now, there are three basic ways you can maximize the value of subscribin


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g00:22 to your email lists.00:24 The first way is to make the information you put in your emails valuablein and of itself.00:28 For example, a consultant could offer free advice via his or her email newsletter.00:34 You can also give your subscribers immediate incentives for joining theemail list.00:38 Immediate incentives are usually provided to subscribers in the form ofan00:41 automated email sent to the email address used for the subscription.00:46 Use your automated emails to send a coupon or discount, a valuable download,00:52 access to a special video, a free product or service, or anything else that has00:57 immediate benefit to the new subscriber.01:00 For the best results, offer something related to your products or services as01:04 opposed to offering a free gift unrelated to your core business.01:08 That way you'll gain a prospect who is just as interested in what your business01:12 is as what you're giving away.01:13 For example, a restaurant could offer a free dessert to anyone who joinsthe

01:18 email list by sending a coupon to everyone who subscribes.01:22 In addition to immediate incentives, you can also offer the same benefits in the future.01:27 The benefit of future incentives is the fact that you can send new subscribers a01:30 few emails before they receive the incentive.01:34 In the next section of the course, I am going to show you how to designan01:37 effective marketing email so that your content and your incentives lookgood,01:41 function properly, and represent your business as professionally as possible.

3. Designing an Effective Marketing EmailDeciding on a format00:00 When marketers refer to the format of an email, it means that the layout, the00:06 content, and the purpose of a particular email work together visually and00:09 functionally as a unit.00:12 For example, a newsletter is an email format. So is a promotion, an event00:16 invitation, and a holiday greeting.00:19 This section of the course explains the email formats that you can choos

e from00:23 to run a successful email marketing strategy.00:26 It's important to use a variety of email formats in your strategy for two reasons.00:30 First, people respond to different formats in different ways.00:34 For example, many people wait to read an email that looks like a newsletter,00:39 while an email that looks like an urgent announcement is more likely toget00:42 immediate attention.


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00:43 While getting immediate attention from every email might sound like a good00:47 strategy, the reality is that urgency wears off if you use the same email00:52 formats for all your communications. Which brings me to the second reason to use00:57 a variety of formats.00:58 You need as many formats as you have reasons to communicate.01:02 For example, if you send promotions, event invitations, news, information,01:07 greetings, and appointment confirmations, you should utilize enough email01:11 formats to appropriately categorize your information into logical groupings.01:16 Now, here are the most popular email formats and some tips for making them effective.01:22 Email newsletters are typically focused on information rather than promotion.01:28 Newsletters can have columns to give them the appearance of a paper newsletter01:32 and are great for sending loosely related information in a single email.01:37 Newsletters also should have a periodic frequency, such as weekly or monthly,01:42 rather than an event or date driven frequency.

01:46 For best results, minimize the amount of promotional content in your email newsletters.01:50 No more than 20% of your email newsletter content should contain promotions.01:55 If you need to promote more than that, use a promotional email format.02:00 Promotional email should focus on a single promotion, such as a single product,02:05 a group of related products, or a theme such as a sale.02:09 Promotional emails are usually date driven or they are triggered by specific02:13 actions, such as a recent purchase or an inquiry.02:17 When using promotional emails, it's best to put some but not all of the02:22 details about the promotion in the email itself.

02:25 Put the rest of the details on a website to invite a click so that you know how02:30 many people were interested in learning more about the promotion.02:33 Another type of promotion is an event invitation.02:37 Event invitations can focus on one event or a series of events.02:41 Events are highly date driven and usually require a series of emails insimilar02:46 formats to get a good overall response.02:49 Make sure you plan out your event invitations on a calendar to avoid02:53 over-communicating.02:55 An email announcement is a format that's sent when no specific responseis03:00 expected on the part of the recipient.

03:02 Examples include greetings, thank you messages, press releases, and03:07 order confirmations.03:09 Send these email formats when you want to focus on relationship buildingas03:12 opposed to generating immediate sales or leads.03:15 Sometimes it's nice to receive an email that doesn't ask you to do anything.03:20 Email formats are most effective when your email designs and layouts area good03:24 match for the formats you choose.


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03:26 That's the topic of our next two sections: branding your emails and03:29 creating effective layouts.

Branding consistently00:01 You need to pay attention to the way your emails look, because your audience00:04 pays attention or not depending on the design choices you make in each email.00:09 The first rule of email design is to make sure your email designs are agood00:13 match with your other marketing media.00:15 For example, when someone visits your website and signs up for your email list,00:20 they might not recognize your emails if they look completely different from your website.00:24 To ensure a good match between your email designs and your other marketing00:28 designs, follow these guidelines.00:31 Include your logo in all your emails.00:34 Use colors that match your logo for backgrounds, borders, and fonts.00:38 And when you send a promotion that suggests the use of colors outside your00:42 brand, such as of running a Halloween promotion with black and orange, j

ust make00:47 sure to work the promotional colors into your brand instead of replacingyour00:51 brand with the promotion.00:54 Also, use the same type of images in all your emails.00:57 For example, there's a big difference between the look of stock photography and01:00 the look of graphics and clipart.01:03 Choose the image type that fits the personality of your business and then stick to it.01:07 When choosing email designs, it's important to brand each type of email01:11 format consistently.01:12 For example, make sure your email newsletter looks similar, but not iden

tical,01:18 to your email promotions.01:19 That way people will recognize your brand and the purpose of each email.01:24 One of the best ways to ensure brand consistency with all your emails isto01:28 design your emails based on similar looking email templates.01:32 What's an email template?01:33 That's the topic of our next section.

Creating a layout00:01 Laying out your content in an email usually requires building tables inHTML and

00:06 using Cascading Style Sheets or CSS to tell your recipient's computer how to00:10 display your content.00:12 If you're not interested in programming your own layouts, you can use00:15 pre-designed email templates that are ready to receive your text, images,00:19 links, and other content.00:21 Email templates are available from email marketing providers.00:26 Many providers include templates that are ready to use as is, as well as00:30 templates that can be highly customized without any knowledge of HTML.


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00:35 Content that draws the eye to a specific section of your email are called visual00:39 anchors, because the content acts like an anchor that causes the eyes tostop on00:44 that content while scanning through the email.00:48 Visual anchors include the following types of content:00:51 images, headlines, links, icons, divider lines, background colors, and borders.01:02 When laying out your content, the most important content should reside in the01:05 upper-left quadrant of your email, because most people start scanning an01:09 email in the upper-left.01:10 Also, most mobile devices display emails beginning with the upper-left,if the01:14 whole email doesn't fit on screen.01:18 One word of caution.01:19 It's important not to place too many visual anchors in all four quadrants.01:23 Doing so makes your email difficult to scan, because the eyes can't decide what01:27 is the most important section of the email.01:30 Organizing your content into columns is another great way to make your01:33 email easy to scan.01:34 And columns make it easy to organize related groups of content so your a

udience01:38 can scan each column as if it's a mini version of your email.01:41 There are three basic choices for laying out columns effectively in youremail.01:46 You can use columns of equal width to avoid emphasizing the content in one01:50 column over the other.01:52 You can put a narrow column on the left side of your email to emphasizethe01:55 content and a larger column to the right.01:58 You can also put a narrow column on the right side of your email to emphasize02:01 the content in a larger column to the left.

02:05 If you feel like you have so much content in a single email that you need to02:07 organize your content into more than two columns, you may want to consider02:11 breaking up your content into multiple shorter emails and sending with ahigher frequency.02:17 That way your emails won't be so daunting when your subscribers receivethem.02:21 Speaking of email content, the next few sections of the course show youhow to02:24 make your content valuable and effective by including links, information,02:28 offers, and a call to action.

4. Making Your Email Content ValuableIncluding links00:00 A good test of an effective marketing email is whether or not the email00:04 generates immediate sales or moves people closer to a purchase decision.00:08 In short, your email should invite action and decision making.00:12 Actions in emails usually involve clicking on links, which may include text


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00:16 links, images, buttons, and other graphics.00:19 This section of the course explains how to get the most out of the linksin your emails.00:23 Email links come in two varieties,00:25 external web links and internal navigation links.00:29 External links open up a browser window so the person who clicks on thelink is00:33 directed to a webpage.00:35 You can also create links to files stored on a server and links can openup an00:39 email program installed on your subscriber's computer.00:43 Emails received on a mobile device could also interpret a phone number or00:47 an address as a link.00:48 Phone numbers in the text of your email dial the phone number when touched and00:52 addresses can automatically link to an online map or a map application.00:56 There is no need to program these types of links.00:59 Mobile devices can detect them automatically.01:02 Internal links, also known as anchor links, point to content within theemail.01:07 Use internal links to help the person reading your emails to skip to content01:11 below the screen from the top of the email and to skip back to the top o

f the01:15 email from the bottom.01:17 You can also use groups of internal links like a Table of Contents to list the01:21 articles or sections of your email and allow someone to quickly jump tothat01:24 section of your email without scrolling.01:27 When creating text links, the best practice is to avoid using the phraseClick01:31 Here as the link. Instead use an action word or a phrase as the link.01:36 For example, a link to add an item to an online shopping cart should sayBuy01:40 this item, instead of To buy this item click here.

01:44 The more descriptive you can make your text links, the better chance youhave01:47 of inviting a click.01:48 For example, a link that reads More information isn't as descriptive asa link01:53 that reads Download the 50 page catalog.01:56 When creating image links, the best practice is to include some text inthe02:00 image inviting the click and explaining what the image link points to.02:04 Some images are intuitive as links so text isn't necessary.02:08 Examples include pictures of products that link to more information about the02:11 product, company logos pointing to the homepage of a website, audio icon

s such02:17 as a Play button that looks like a speaker, or screenshots of videos pointing to02:21 a streaming video file.02:23 Speaking of videos in other files, use links to deliver files and videosto02:27 your email subscribers.02:28 Never attach videos, pictures, documents, or other files to your emails,because02:34 email filters and blockers are notorious for stripping attachments, boun


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cing02:39 emails with attachments, and filtering emails with attachments to a junkfolder.02:44 Creating links and including them in your email is an important step toward02:47 making your emails actionable, but links all by themselves won't be tooinviting02:51 to your email subscribers.02:53 That's why the next section of the course shows you how to include valuable and02:56 relevant email content to go along with the links in your emails.

Creating valuable information00:00 The information you send in an email has to be valuable on a consistentbasis or00:05 your subscribers will quickly become un-subscribers.00:09 While it's great to send offers and incentives to make your emails more00:12 valuable, some of your email content needs to be inherently valuable aswell.00:17 That's because typically only a small portion of your prospects and customers00:21 are ready to buy when they receive one of your emails.00:23 If you limit your email content to promotions and offers, your emails wi

ll be00:27 irrelevant to the majority of subscribers.00:29 Now, here are some examples of content that can add to the inherent value of your emails.00:35 Information about products, services, or your company can be valuable,00:39 especially for new prospects or people who are interested in learning about new00:42 products or the latest trends.00:46 Tips and advice can be valuable if buying your products and services involve00:49 research, expertise, or sound reasoning.00:53 Tips and advice can come from you or your employees or you can feature tips and

00:57 advice from your satisfied customers or product suppliers.01:01 Instructions and directions can tell your customers how to get the mostout of01:05 your products or services before a sale and after a sale.01:09 Instructions and directions can also help your customers feel smarter about the01:13 purchases they make.01:15 Entertaining content can include humor, engaging stories, and even01:19 professional performances.01:21 If you use entertaining content, make sure it has something to do with buying01:25 your products and services; otherwise your email subscribers won't be aslikely

01:28 to recall your brand as the source of the content.01:32 Facts and research are a good idea when your audience needs more than anopinion01:36 to make a purchase decision.01:38 Coming up with valuable content can be handled in-house or through external01:42 sources such as copywriters and agencies.01:45 If you decide to use content from other sources in your emails, always ask for01:49 written permission so you don't violate any copyright laws.


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01:52 Assume all content is copyright protected and consult a licensed attorney if you01:57 aren't sure if you have permission to use someone else's content.02:01 Hopefully the information in this section has been valuable to you, because now02:04 it's time to explore all of the ways to include valuable offers in youremails,02:09 to help turn your readers into buyers.

Sending valuable offers00:00 In this section of the course I explain which types of valuable offers to send00:05 to your email subscribers.00:07 Valuable offers are incentives that help to overcome purchase hesitation00:11 and decision avoidance.00:13 The first rule of valuable offers is to know your customers, because different00:18 groups of people may respond differently to the same offers.00:21 For example, some people love to know about a discounted product because00:25 they like to save money.00:26 However, some people associate the word discount with words like discontinued,00:31 cheap, or out of style.

00:33 These two groups of people require very different offers.00:36 The former may respond positively to an email announcing a sale, while the00:40 latter is more likely to value an email announcing a sneak preview of the newest00:44 and most expensive product line.00:46 For the best results, conduct a survey or watch your email tracking reports to00:50 discover what your subscribers value. Then divide your email list into groups00:55 based on the types of offers that motivate each group.00:58 Here are some of the best forms of valuable offers for emails, along with some

01:03 advice for matching the incentive to the type of buyer.01:06 Coupons included in an email can be printed out or shown on a mobile device for01:10 in-store redemption or linked to an item in an online store.01:14 Use coupons when your prospects or customers want to be rewarded with prices01:18 that aren't available to the general public.01:20 To add a personal touch to your email coupons use a Mail Merge to include your01:24 subscribers name on the coupon.01:26 Giveaways are free products or services offered in exchange for information or a purchase.01:32 Use giveaways in combination with another product purchase when you want

to01:35 offer more value without discounting the value of the featured product.01:39 For example, if a car dealer offered a car at 50% off, people might wonder01:44 what's wrong with the car.01:46 If however the car was offered at full price with a giveaway worth 50% of the01:50 value of the car, the same value is perceived without discounting the car.01:55 If you decide to offer giveaways, make sure to check your local laws to


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make01:59 sure your giveaway doesn't qualify as a sweepstakes, contest, or lottery.02:03 If it does, you'll need to comply with local laws for these types of promotions.02:07 Loss leaders are another form of giveaway.02:09 A loss leader is a promotional price that results in a loss to the business when02:14 the product is purchased.02:15 Why would you offer a product in an email at a price that loses money? Because02:19 you want to acquire a new customer with an extremely low price so you can02:23 realize profits through repeat sales generated by additional emails after the02:27 initial loss leader purchase.02:30 Use loss leaders when you want to attract new customers to your businessand02:33 away from the competition.02:35 Once you have an offer that gets people to respond, it's time to help them take02:39 the next step by suggesting one or more actions.02:42 That's called a call to action and it's the subject of our next movie.

Writing an effective call to action00:00 A call to action is a statement that prompts your audience to take one or more00:04 specific actions in favor of your objectives.00:07 Calling for action isn't as simple as including a phone number in your emails or00:10 giving people lots of links to click on, you need to give people a few hints so00:14 they know exactly what you want them to do.00:17 Contrary to what you see in a lot of emails, "click here" is not the best way to00:21 call for action in an email.

00:23 Instead of click here, begin your call to action with a word that describes the action.00:28 Examples include visit, call, download, read, or print.00:35 You can turn your call to action statements into links or combined them00:38 with phone numbers or specific instructions to make the next steps as clear as possible.00:43 Sometimes the main reason to call for action is to ask for an immediate00:46 purchase, but there are lots of other reasons to include a call to action in your email.00:50 For example, you can use a call to action to ask people to read your email,00:55 by beginning your email with a statement like "Read this email before you buy online."

01:01 You can also use a call to action to highlight a specific portion of your email01:05 as in the statement "scroll down for a valuable coupon."01:09 Sometimes it's appropriate to ask people to save your email for later instead of01:13 deleting it if they aren't ready to take advantage of an offer in your email.01:17 You can also ask people to show the email by printing it out or showingthe01:20 email on a mobile device.


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01:22 And don't forget to ask people to share your email with a friend or colleague01:27 when they find the content to be of value to someone they care about.01:31 You may decide to focus on one call to action in your email, but sometimes01:34 including multiple calls to action in one email can actually increase the number01:38 of responses you get.01:40 One of the best ways to increase responses using multiple calls to action is to01:44 ask for three different levels of commitment from your readers.01:47 For example, a chocolate company might send an email promoting a new gift basket01:52 with the following three calls to action:01:55 order this gift basket today, download our gift basket catalogue, and like this02:00 gift basket on Facebook.02:03 Each of these calls to action result in a positive action, but two of them are02:07 still options even if the person reading the email isn't interested in making a02:10 purchase right away.02:11 Of course, every email requires the act of opening the email in the first place.

02:18 Next I'll show you how to get more emails opened by including a familiarfrom line.

5. Creating Effective "From" Addresses and Subject LinesSetting up the "From" address00:02 Creating a familiar from line is critical to getting your emails openedand00:06 read, because people don't like to receive emails unless they know the sender,00:10 especially when the email comes from a business.00:13 Unfamiliar email from lines can also result in spam complaints, even whe

n people00:17 have explicitly signed up for your email list, just because they don't know you.00:22 To make your from lines familiar, ask your customers how they know you and00:26 include that information in your from lines.00:28 If you or your employees have personal relationships with your customers, use00:33 your first and last names in your from lines.00:37 If your business is a local branch of a larger organization, make sure your from00:41 line includes your location to differentiate your emails from the otherbranches

00:45 and the main corporate emails.00:47 If your business uses an acronym, such as ABC Company, make sure your00:51 customers also know you by your acronym. Otherwise it's best to use yourfull business name.00:56 It's also important to make your address familiar.00:59 For example, the ABC Company could send their newsletters from the emailaddress01:03 [email protected]:06 Once you decide on a from line strategy, stay consistent. Then get to work on


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01:10 your subject line strategy by watching the next section of the course.

Writing effective subject lines00:00 Your subject line is the part of your email that prompts your recipientsto00:04 hopefully open your email and start reading immediately.00:08 Subject lines get cut off after about 40 or 50 characters, so the best way to00:12 utilize the subject line in an email is to describe the immediate benefit of00:17 opening your email with the fewest words possible.00:20 Subject lines such as July newsletter or News from ABC Company may be too00:26 generic and they're not strong enough to prompt an immediate open.00:29 Instead of generic words, choose value words for your subject lines.00:34 Value words are words or phrases that describe the benefit your readerswill00:38 receive by opening the email.00:40 Here are a few examples.00:44 If the benefit of your email is financial savings, you can use the wordsavings00:48 as the value word in your subject line, as in over $50 in savings in this email.

00:53 If the benefit of your email is valuable information, you should use words00:58 in your subject line that describe the immediate benefit of reading yourinformation.01:01 For example, if your information helps someone to compare the competition, your01:06 subject line may read "compare the competition in under two minutes."01:11 If the benefit of opening your emails is basically the same in a seriesof01:14 emails, you can work off of a theme by creating a brand for your emailsand01:18 including that brand name as the subject line.01:21 For example, instead of using the word newsletter in the subject line fo

r01:25 every newsletter you send, you can create a name for your newsletter, such as01:30 Smart Shopper Weekly if you're a retail store or 5-Minute Sales Tips,ifyou01:34 offer sales consulting.01:37 Coming up with good subject lines consistently isn't easy.01:41 If you're unsure about whether a particular idea for a subject line willwork,01:45 try testing one idea for a subject line against another idea using a small01:49 sample of your email list.01:51 Remember also to avoid subject lines that look like spam.

01:55 Using all capital letters, excessive punctuation, or extreme urgency canbe02:01 off-putting and cause spam complaints.02:04 Take a few minutes to periodically check your own junk or spam folder tosee02:08 what the spammers are using in their subject lines and then avoid copying their techniques.02:13 I hope this section of the course helps you to create a lot of profitable02:16 subject lines for many emails to come.


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02:19 And now it's time to move on to deepening your relationships with the people who02:23 open your emails by adding social media features to your emails.

6. Combining Email with Social Media and Mobile DevicesAdding social features00:01 In this section of the course I show you how to combine email and socialmedia00:05 to increase the number of social interactions your emails receive.00:08 Emails can be forwarded, shared, liked, tweeted, rated, and reviewed.00:15 You can use basic social media features to promote your social media content00:18 to your email subscribers and you can use more advanced social media features00:22 to allow your social media followers to view your emails without receiving00:26 them in an email inbox.00:28 Here's how it works.00:29 To promote your social media content to your email subscribers, simply include00:34 links to your social media sites in the body of your emails.00:37 For example, you may want to add a Facebook icon to your email linked to

your00:41 business page on Facebook.00:43 Posting your emails to social sites is easy with email marketing providers,00:47 because they can automatically send your emails to inboxes, Facebook walls, and00:51 Twitter pages when you schedule your email to go out.00:54 That way you can create the email content once and publish it everywhereas one campaign.01:00 When it comes to publishing your emails to multiple places, don't forgetto01:03 include mobile devices.01:05 To learn how to optimize your emails for mobile devices, watch the next

movie,01:09 "Creating a mobile friendly email."

Creating a mobile-friendly design00:00 Lots of people check and read their emails on mobile devices such as00:04 smartphones and tablet devices, so it's important to consider these devices00:08 when creating marketing emails.00:10 Specifically, there are three things to consider when you send emails topeople00:14 who are likely to read them on mobile devices.00:17 First is the fact that most people access the same email inbox with smar

tphones,00:22 tablets, and computers, so you shouldn't design emails for smartphones without00:26 thinking about how the designs will work on computers and tablets.00:31 Second is the usefulness of your email content to a person on a mobile device.00:36 When people are using mobile devices to read email, they are more likelyto be00:39 sorting through emails and deciding what to open now, what to save for later,


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00:44 and what to delete immediately.00:46 The more useful your email is in a mobile context, the more likely youremail00:50 will be opened immediately or saved for later use.00:53 For example, if your email contains a coupon that the recipient can showin a00:58 store to receive a discount, it's more useful in a mobile context than an email01:02 that asks your recipient to go through an online order process that involves a01:06 lot of typing. That may be easier on a computer keyboard.01:10 The third thing to consider is how the email will look and function on amobile device.01:14 Smartphones have much smaller screens than computers and it's often frustrating01:18 for people to scroll around to find links, text, and images.01:22 The most effective mobile email designs take advantage of the upper-left01:26 portion of the email.01:27 That's because most mobile devices either display emails beginning withthe01:31 upper-left portion of the email, or they display the whole width of theemail01:35 on the screen, requiring the recipient to zoom and scroll to specific sections of the email.

01:40 When people zoom and scroll, they often start in the upper-left of the email, at01:44 least in countries where people read from left to right.01:46 Here are some examples of the types of content that can be effective when01:50 positioned in the upper-left of your email.01:54 You can place your logo or the name of your business in the upper-left.01:57 You can begin your email message with the main headline at the top of your email.02:02 Images in the upper-left can be effective too, but you might want to make02:05 sure it's small enough for some text to fit next to it or below it to02:10 encourage people to scroll.

02:12 You can place navigation links in the upper-left so people can quickly scroll02:16 and click to the content in your email or onto a website.02:21 Remember that navigation links are necessary only when your email has lots of02:25 content that your audience has to scroll to view.02:28 If you decide you need a table of contents because the amount of contentin your02:32 email is so large, then take a moment to think about whether you're sending too02:36 much information in a single email in the first place.02:39 Cutting down your content and increasing your frequency might be a better

02:43 solution to making your emails easier to navigate on a mobile screen.02:47 Hopefully your email content drives people to take action and when theyhave a02:51 mobile device in hand, those actions need to be as mobile friendly as possible.02:57 I hope you'd join me for the next section of the course where I show youhow to03:00 create mobile friendly calls to action for your mobile friendly emails.


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Including a mobile call to action00:00 When people read your emails on mobile devices, they are more likely torespond00:05 if you include a call to action that makes it easier or more interestingfor00:09 people to take action using the device.00:11 Here are some of the capabilities that give mobile email so much potential.00:16 Smartphones allow people to touch or click on a phone number to immediately dial the number.00:21 So you may want to include your phone number in your emails to make it easy for00:25 people to contact you.00:27 Some smartphones and other mobile devices also allow an address to automatically00:31 link to maps and directions.00:33 So include your physical address in your emails if you have one or more00:36 physical locations.00:38 Before including links to your website in an email meant for mobile devices, you00:42 may want to optimize your website pages.00:45 Mobile webpages have simplified navigation and content that's easier toread00:49 on smaller screens.

00:51 A good web designer can help you to detect mobile device visitors and serve up a00:56 version of your website that's friendly to each type of device.00:59 Links to videos also work well in smartphones and mobile devices.01:03 For the best results, post your videos to a public site, such as YouTube, to01:07 make sure your videos will play on all types of devices.01:11 In addition to links in your email content, you can also use your emailcontent01:16 to suggest mobile friendly actions such as taking a picture and attaching it01:21 when replying to your email,01:23 visiting a social media site to follow your business or write a review,

01:27 checking into a location on a check- in site like Foursquare or Gowallaor01:31 Facebook, or showing the email to someone else.01:35 Showing the email works great for coupons and other offers in your emailif you01:39 have a retail store, because you can tell people to show the email to acompany01:43 representative to receive the discount or the offer mentioned in the email.01:48 Mobile technology is rapidly advancing, so the future is sure to unveileven01:52 more exciting mobile email potential.01:54 Until then, I hope this section of the course has helped you to develop

an email01:58 strategy that really mobilizes your email subscribers.

7. Maximizing Your Email Campaign ResultsManaging bounced and blocked email00:01 Email isn't delivered a 100% of the time, but undelivered email isn't00:05 necessarily void of opportunity.00:07 This section of the course shows you how to deal with bounced and blocke


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d email00:11 so you can turn as many negative results into future positives.00:14 Bounced and blocked emails are returned to the email sender's email address with00:20 code that tells you why the email was blocked or bounced.00:23 Of course, email servers don't exactly have a way with words, so I recommend00:27 using an email service provider that can categorize your bounced and blocked00:31 emails into reports that are easier for humans to interpret.00:33 Bounced reports show you which emails bounced and why they bounced so that you00:39 can take the appropriate action.00:41 Emails that are permanently undeliverable are called hard bounces.00:44 A hard bounce means that the email address does not exist, so it's either00:49 misspelled, the email address has been changed, or it's been abandoned by the owner.00:53 When you see a hard bounce on your bounce report, you should either contact your00:58 subscribers via another method to obtain a new email address or simply delete01:02 them from your database.01:03 When your email bounce report shows an email return as mailbox full, tem

porarily01:08 undeliverable, or blocked, these situations are known as soft bounces.01:14 Soft bounces may be temporary or permanent, so check your bounce reportto see01:18 how often a particular email is bouncing.01:21 If you notice three or more consecutive soft bounces for an email address, you01:25 should treat it just like a hard bounce.01:28 If you notice irregular soft bounces, you can try resending your email at a later date.01:33 Remember, the best way to reduce blocked emails is to make sure your email list01:37 stays up-to-date in the first place.

01:39 Send an email once every three months or so, reminding your subscribersto01:43 notify you or update their subscription profile if they change email addresses.01:47 That way you have a better chance of catching some of the email addresschanges01:51 before they show up on a bounce report.01:53 Another preventative measure is avoiding email filters that deliver youremail01:58 to junk and spam folders instead of bouncing the emails back as undeliverable.02:02 In the next section of the course I show you how to reduce filtered email and

02:06 get more email delivered to inboxes.

Avoiding getting caught by filters00:00 In this section of the course I explain email filters and how to avoid them00:04 as often as possible.00:06 Actually, email filters aren't always negative.00:09 Some people set up filters to sort emails into different folders to keep00:12 their emails organized.


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00:14 The filters you want to avoid are the types that sort emails into a junkor spam folder.00:20 Some junk filters are set by users who want to block attachments, profanity,00:24 or specific senders.00:26 But most filters are set by email companies that want to protect their customers00:30 from malicious content, spam, and other unwanted emails.00:34 To steer clear of as many automatic spam filters as possible, you should00:38 first check your email content for anything that shares the characteristics00:42 of a typical spam email.00:44 Examples include subject lines with all capital letters, attachments, and00:50 profanity, or certain words that are common in spam emails.00:54 Spam emails and legitimate emails often share similar characteristics, so I00:59 recommend using an email service provider with a spam check feature thatscans01:03 the content of your email for spam-like content.01:05 If you don't use an email service provider with a spam check feature, check01:10 your junk or spam folder once in a while to see what techniques the spammers

01:15 are using to get their emails delivered and then avoid copying those tactics in your own emails.01:21 Avoiding spam like content is an important part of avoiding filters, butit's01:25 even more important to make sure you establish a good sender reputationwith01:29 email companies like Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.01:33 Your sender reputation is made up of three things:01:36 the length of time you've been sending email from a particular server, the01:41 number of emails you've sent from a particular server, and the number ofspam01:46 complaints you've received from your subscribers.

01:49 One of the best ways to make sure your sender reputation is well-established01:53 is to use a well-established email service provider to send your emailson your behalf.01:58 Email service providers with established reputations have earned their02:02 reputations through close working relationships with the email companiesand by02:07 sending high volumes of emails to permission-based lists.02:11 When you sign-up for an email service, you also sign-up to adhere to their best02:15 practices and permission policies.02:17 So make sure your email list is permission-based and compliant with allof the

02:21 email service provider's policies before you sign up and pay for a subscription02:25 or a software package.02:28 Now that you know a bit more about maximizing your email delivery, it'stime to02:32 take a look at maximizing the responses you receive from your emails, namely02:36 opens and click-through responses.


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Evaluating click-through data00:00 Email marketing doesn't end when your email gets delivered.00:03 In fact, that's when things really start to get interesting.00:06 In this section of the course I explain how to know who is opening and clicking00:10 on your emails and how to use the data to improve your email marketing results.00:16 Email tracking requires some serious HTML programming, or you can just use an00:20 email marketing provider with built-in tracking and reporting to show you who is00:24 opening and clicking on your emails.00:26 Once you have tracking capabilities in your emails, you need to understand what00:30 it means when your reports show opens and clicks.00:33 An opened email, according to an email tracking report, means that the person00:38 who received the email enabled the images in the email to display or clicked00:43 a link in the email.00:44 No images? No open counted on the tracking report.00:48 This is important to understand, because a lot of people read emails without00:52 enabling the images or clicking on any links.

00:54 Use your open right as a guide to see how many people were interested enough in00:59 a particular email to enable the images or click a link, and then assumethe01:04 people who are not listed in your open report noticed your email and just chose01:08 to scan the email content without clicking or enabling any images.01:13 When it comes to your click report, things are a lot more straightforward.01:18 Your click report shows who clicked on which links and how many people01:22 clicked on each link.01:24 Your click report gives you two great insights.01:27 First, clicks are indications of interest on the part of your email subs

cribers.01:31 For example, if 20 people click on a link to watch a video about dogs and 2001:37 people click a link to watch a video about cats, you can determine whichpeople01:41 are interested in dogs and which are interested in cats.01:44 That way the next series of emails you send can be customized for eitherthe dog01:48 people or the cat people.01:50 Second, your click report also tells you whether your email content is valuable01:54 and interesting to your readers.01:56 When people click to view a web site, read an article, watch a video, or

download02:01 a picture, they are engaging and that helps them to remember your business and02:05 your message when they're ready to buy.02:08 For this reason, it's a good idea to leave some of your email content out of02:13 your email and link it instead.02:15 That way you can tell who is interested and who is not.02:19 When analyzing your click reports, it's also a good idea to compare youremail


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02:23 data with your website visitor data.02:26 If your email drives a lot of traffic to your website but nobody takes any02:30 action from there, it's an indication that your website content or youruser02:34 experience may be in need of attention.02:36 Of course clicks and opens aren't the only email actions worth tracking.02:41 It's also possible to track non- click responses, and I'll cover those in the next movie.

Tracking non-click responses00:00 Email links that drive traffic to a website can be tracked electronically,00:04 but non-click responses have to be tracked with a little human interaction and creativity.00:09 Here are some common non-click responses that are worth tracking.00:12 First, it's a good idea to track in- store purchases resulting from youremails00:17 if you have a physical store.00:18 To track in-store purchases, you can ask people to show your email either by00:23 printing it out or showing it on a mobile device screen.00:26 You can also track in-store purchases by including a special promotion t

hat00:30 isn't advertised anywhere except your emails.00:32 That way, when someone asks for the special promotion, you know the onlyway00:36 they found out about it was through one of your emails.00:39 Including a special promotion also works well if you want to track phonecalls00:43 generated from your emails, because you can attribute any callers who mentioned00:46 a special offer to your emails.00:49 You can take that concept one step further by including a unique phone number00:53 in your emails, so that anyone who calls the number is identified as som

eone00:56 who received an email.00:58 Another non-click response worth tracking is event attendance.01:01 Of course you can track event registrations electronically, but sometimes it's01:06 good to know how many reminder and invitation emails contributed to increasing01:11 actual physical attendance, especially if your events are free.01:15 In the case of events, you can use your emails as tickets, and you can ask01:19 people to show or print the emails for admission. Or you can include offers in01:23 your reminder emails that people can show or mention at the door.

01:27 If the fact that tracking non-click responses require some manual intervention01:31 has you worried about spending too much time, don't worry. The next section of01:35 the course shows you how to automate the most mundane components of youremail01:39 marketing program, so you have more time to keep track of all those happy01:42 customer interactions.


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Automating your email marketing00:00 One of the best features of email marketing is the ability to automate your00:04 marketing communications.00:06 This section of the course shows you two ways to send automated emails to00:09 prospects and customers.00:12 You need an email marketing provider or a really good programmer to helpyou00:16 with email automation.00:17 Some automation scenarios are simple and some are simple conceptually, but00:22 they're very sophisticated technically.00:24 After viewing this section of the course, you'll know what type of automation00:28 features you need from a provider to run the automation programs most helpful to your business.00:34 The first type of email automation is called an autoresponder.00:38 An autoresponder is a single email sent automatically in response to a00:42 specific event or action.00:45 Examples include an email triggered by a specific date such as a birthday,00:50 holiday, or calendar date, an email triggered by a specific time such as

00:54 lunchtime, or a few hours before an event, an email sent in response tofilling00:59 out a form such as ordering something online, or joining an email list,or an01:04 email sent in response to a click such as a click on a link to a websitepage or a video.01:11 To set up an autoresponder, you need to create an email with content that will01:15 be the same for everyone who triggers the autoresponder email.01:18 Once you've created the email, you can use your email marketing providerto01:22 assign it to one or more triggers or events.01:25 Sometimes it's appropriate to send multiple emails automatically in resp

onse01:29 to an action or event.01:31 An automated series of multiple emails is called a sequence.01:34 Sequence is perfect for targeting email content to individuals with different01:39 behaviors, interests, or contexts.01:41 For example, when a new prospect joins your email list, you may want toset up a01:46 sequence that automatically responds with the following four emails:01:50 a welcome email thanking the person for joining the email list sent immediately01:54 after joining; a follow up email with links to a product catalog, company

02:00 information, or other helpful resources sent three days after the welcome email;02:07 an email newsletter with the best articles and advice sent one week after the02:11 follow up email; and a promotional email offering a special discount asa thank02:17 you for joining the email list sent two weeks after the email newsletter.02:22 Sequences make your emails more relevant, because you can base them on avariety


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02:26 of relevant events and triggers such as clicks, dates, and periods of time since02:31 a prior action or event.02:33 When it comes to planning more sophisticated email sequences, you'll need an02:37 email marketing provider that has the ability to automatically stop or change a02:41 sequence based on multiple triggers or events.02:44 For example, you create a sequence for new prospects and one of those new02:48 prospects becomes a customer in the middle of your new prospect sequence,02:52 you may want to switch that person to a new customer sequence and stop the02:56 new prospect sequence.02:58 To automate sequence changes, your email marketing provider needs to integrate03:02 with your database and link tracking to identify changes in a customer profile.03:08 So switching someone from one sequence to another may be as simple as03:12 allowing the system to track someone's clicks or purchases and adjust each03:16 sequence accordingly.03:17 You can also manually add someone to a sequence or stop a sequence by ch

anging03:22 the data in someone's database record.03:25 Email automation takes a little extra time to set up, but I hope you seethe03:29 potential for making things more productive in the long run and I hope this03:33 email marketing course has helped to make your email marketing strategymore03:37 productive than ever.

Conclusion

Goodbye

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