I had heard that email marketing was key to a successful online business by all of my favorite business mentors but because I personally don’t love being in email sequences, I was hesitant to start. When I took a step back and evaluated things, I knew I needed to get an email list started but wanted to make sure it wasn’t overly spammy and salesy. So I decided I was going to do things MY way and learn in the process. For me, that was creating simple email sequences of 5-6 emails or less per sequence and a nurture sequence of one email per week.
But how did I get people ON the list? It wasn’t organic social media posts. The game-changer was paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Need details? Let’s break it down.
I created a handful of super niche social media freebies. For each freebie, I had a separate landing page with the opt-in that triggered a 5-part email sequence of one email per day. Once that sequence ran out, they would just be part of my nurture sequence which is one educational-focused email per week with an occasional sales offer. I did all of this in my email marketing platform, MailerLite.
Once I had all of that set up, I created a separate ad for each freemium. Yes, completely different campaigns, graphics, target audiences, etc. The copy was similar because I knew it converted well but I swapped out some keywords that fit the niche. My budget was $60 per month per campaign and I ran at least 2 campaigns every month. My lowest converting ad was a 15% conversion and my best was 31%. So fascinating seeing how certain audiences respond to an offer compared to others.
This method alone brings in over 100 new opt-ins each month, sometimes much more. I also do have some other freebies that I promote organically and a pop-up on my website that works extremely well which also supports the paid ad efforts.
Make dabbling in email marketing and paid advertising a goal for you within the next quarter of the year. I personally plan on doubling my ad budget now that I know I have a good foundation set and ads that are converting. It’s well worth it and I promise you will LOVE checking your account and seeing new emails popping up all day long knowing your work is paying off.