5 Steps on How to use Blogging and Email Marketing Together
Article by Adity (Enthusiastic Content writer)
Modern Marketing Techniques aren’t Independent of each other. Content Marketing works with SEO, SEO works with Social Media Marketing, which can influence the content distribution, and so on. Treating these strategies as entirely independent can limit their potential significantly, which is why it is a good idea to consider how they can improve each other.
One of the most commonly used and highly successful combinations of strategies is blogging and email marketing. Most experienced marketers will include both of these strategies in their campaign because they elevate each other.
This article shows you how the two strategies can be used together:
1. Establish a Subscriber Base:
The first step is to establish a solid subscriber base for your campaign. You need email addresses of your target audience to run any kind of good email marketing campaign. There are several ways to gain a solid subscriber base and some of them are mentioned below:
• Add a CTA button on every page of your blog post. Make sure the button is visible but doesn’t disrupt the user experience too much. You can place the button at the bottom of the post or include a scroll activated one that pops up every time the user scrolls past a point.
• Offer freebies in exchange for emails. This is a very popular tactic and it is highly effective. Create an exclusive ebook or whitepaper with valuable and original content. You can then offer this content to the users for free through their email.
• Encourage people to send you emails with questions. This will help you collect addresses and establish a personal connection with the users.
• Encourage people to provide emails when they comment. You can give them an option to hide emails from the general public if needed.
If you have a business with an already established customer base, you can just use their email addresses in your campaign. Make sure you provide an opt-out option to people who aren’t interested. That ensures your email marketing campaign isn’t intrusive.
2. Create Reliable and Valuable Content:
No one likes an inbox full of junk and most people will unsubscribe quickly if they notice a lack of reliable or valuable content. So it is important to make sure you always provide value to your subscribers. But what does this value mean? What does it represent? Here are some factors to consider:
• Offer original information wherever possible. Generic articles don’t provide much value to the readers because they don’t provide anything new. If you offer data collected from research, surveys, and analysis, you will gain more subscribers and traffic.
• It’s not possible to offer original content all of the time. In such cases, it is easy to offer opinions and personal observations instead. These can also be of value and kickstart discussions in the comment section.
• Ensure all content pieces are well-written and have a conversational tone. Dry, textbook-like content isn’t appealing in the least. It is a good idea to develop a tone that is specific to your brand. For example, snarky humor is a great tone for an entertainment blog. A casual tone with modern internet lingo is great for blogs directed at social-media savvy millennials.
Unique and interesting content is the backbone of every content marketing strategy. You won’t enjoy much success unless you ensure every post you create has some value.
3. Choose Topics Carefully:
Most people write content based on keywords. While that strategy does work, it isn’t as effective as choosing topics directly and then finding suitable keywords. This allows you to create more targeted content that your audience will find appealing. There are many ways to find great topics and some of them are listed below:
• Look for questions that need answers in the comments section of your posts. This will allow you to address your audience’s needs immediately.
• Search for topics on Q&A platforms like Quora and Yahoo! Answers. Look for questions under your industry keywords and answer questions that don’t have many comprehensive replies.
• Address common customer complaints or issues in blog posts. You can offer your opinions or solutions.
• Look for popular opinions and offer a contrarian view of the topic. This will help initiate a discussion.
Interesting and engaging topics draw more attention and will have higher email open rates. People will be curious and will want to know more. As the content is tailored for them, they’re less likely to delete it or discard it to the spam folder.
4. Consistency is the Key:
It is important to be consistent when running a content and email marketing campaign. Sporadic publishing and weak topics will discourage your audience. They will also have an impact on your overall reputation. Maintain consistent quality on all of your posts as much as you can. It is better to post less frequently and maintain good quality than to post poor quality content often. You can hire a professional content creator for this purpose for the best results.
It is also a good idea to post in a consistent schedule. For example, some bloggers publish articles every week. Some publish them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A consistent schedule gives the impression of reliability and professionalism. You can also create a content calendar with editorial ‘seasons’ that focus on one particular form of content.
5. Create Appealing Email Subject Lines:
The most important aspect of every email marketing campaign is the subject line. If your subject line isn’t impactful and attractive, people just won’t open the email. Here are some points to keep in mind:
• Limit the line to 50 characters because most inboxes will truncate lines longer than that.
• Keep the subject line relevant and informative. Being mysterious is all well and good, but providing information has a higher click rate.
• Include specific information like percentages and facts in the lines.
• Create a sense of urgency and prompt action through the lines.
A good combination of email marketing and blogging can help you establish authority and earn people’s trust. In this highly competitive atmosphere, it is important to stand out as much as you can. You can only do that if you have solid content and email marketing plan in place.