10 Keys for Getting Emails for Email Marketing with a Landing Page
One of the keys to successful promotion is getting the emails of individuals who express interest in your books, products, or services, so you can stay in contact with them and offer them other book, products, and services they might find of interest. If you just buy an email list and do a mailing that is like cold calling, and it is likely to be considered illegal under current spam email laws.
These regulations are formally set forth in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which stands for the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act. It lays out assorted regulations, including the requirements that you have a relevant and accurate subject line related to the content of the message and an opt-out or unsubscribe option. You also have to state that you are sending a marketing or advertising solicitation if you are sending an unsolicited commercial email. Should you market or sell to any citizen of the European Union, there is an additional GDPR law, which includes a requirement that individuals need to confirm their email address before being added to your email list and receive email communication from you. But there are no restrictions against a company emailing its existing customers or anyone who has inquired about its products or services, even if these individuals have not given permission, since these messages are classified as “relationship” messages.
There can be many other problems with buying an email list, since many lists are not up-to-date, so they have many returns in the form of bounces, and it can be expensive and time consuming to clean up a list.
That’s why creating your own email list is the preferred approach. In this way, you attract prospective clients and customers to sign up to be on your list, and once they do, you are free to email them.
Thus, the question is how to get these emails. Locally, you can get emails from collecting business cards at business networking and referral groups, attending social events, speaking to various groups, and reaching out to your network of personal contacts. But to grow beyond that, you want to use various online techniques to get people to give you their emails.
A common approach is to set up an offer with a free gift in return for an email. Then, individuals who reply get the gift sent to them at that email, which is how you validate that they have given you a real email. Besides getting the free gift, they may additionally be interested in purchasing your books, products, or services, and you can use that email to send them additional offers.
Here are tips for creating your own setup for a landing page.
1) Set up a landing page with appealing copy about your free gift and other things you do to make your offer of a gift appealing, so those who are interested will give you their email to get it. This landing page can be a stand-alone with its own domain name or a name that refers to wherever the landing page is located. Or it could be a page on your website dedicated to responding to your offer.
2) Include a photograph on your landing page which highlights whatever you are offering, whether a book cover, photo of your product, or photo of you providing your service to a client. You can also embed a video or include a link to a video that further explains your offer and invites the viewer to click the link below to get the gift.
3) Set up a “Thank You” page in which you send the person the free digital gift via an email. You want to send this gift by email rather than providing it immediately after they enter their email to make sure they are giving you a valid email.
4) Set up an autoresponder system through a service like GetResponse, MailChimp, aWeber, or Constant Contact, which is designed to collect emails and send out your mailings. If this system is complicated for you to set up, hire a virtual assistant who knows how to do this and can monitor the whole process for you. That’s what I did, so I can focus on writing the copy for the free gifts or marketing materials, though some virtual assistants can also write your copy.
5) Select a free gift to include in this mailing. Typically, this will be a digital product that can be attached in an email, such as a PDF of a booklet with tips, a first chapter in a book, or a list of popular websites or resources in a particular field. Another possibility is a coupon or promo code to get something for free, such as participating in a workshop, seminar, or webinar.
6) Test out the system to see that it works by having someone — such as yourself or the virtual assistant, go to the link which will be in the introductory ad about the offer to see that it works. If all goes well, you will follow the link to the landing page, put in your email, and get a thank you page which thanks for your interest and lets you know your gift is attached or is on its way. Then, if the gift is being sent separately, you will get an email with the gift. In either case, the thank you email may include any additional offers you are providing with the gift, or these might be included in a follow-up email. If all works well, you are ready to advertise the landing page.
7) Set up a social media post or an ad on Facebook, Google Ads, or Amazon Ads that goes to your target audience. Include a photo of your book, product, or service, and possibly include a video. Keep it short and to the point. The goal is to get the person to click a link to go to your landing page. If you aren’t skilled in writing marketing and ad copy, hire a virtual assistant or marketing pro who knows how to do this.
8) Set up an ad account with any of the platforms where you plan to advertise. If you hire someone to do this for you, give them the necessary access so they can manage your ads.
9) Monitor the results, so you see which ads are performing the best in getting prospective clients or customers to go to your landing page. Also, look at how well your landing page is performing in getting people who go there to enter their email.
10) Test out how well different segments of your landing page system to get emails is performing. Consider trying out different ads and different landing pages to see which is doing the best. Also, try out offers for different gifts, because they may prove to be more or less appealing to prospects. Still, another thing to test out is the different markets to which you are directing your ad, your landing page copy, and your gift. You can test out different versions of your book cover or illustrations of your product or service, too. Finally, if different VAs suggest different marketing approaches, see which one works best. In some cases, it may be better to let the VA write the copy; in other cases, the VA might give you suggestions and you write it.
In short, as in any marketing campaign, you have to test out different elements to see what works the best. As you do this testing, select the elements at each phase of the process that are the most effective. The five elements to test are:
· The copy and placement of your ad on different platforms (ie: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Ads, and Amazon Ads),
· The copy on your landing page,
· The gift you are offering,
· The target market for your book, product, or service,
· The approach of different VAs and whether the VA or you should write the copy.
In the next article in the series, I provide some examples of different landing pages and emails I set up, working with two VAs for different projects.
GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., J.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar leader, specializing in business and work relationships, professional and personal development, social trends, and popular culture. She has published 50 books with major publishers. She has worked with dozens of clients on memoirs, self-help, popular business books, and film scripts. Writing samples are at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com.
She is the founder of Changemakers Publishing, featuring books on work, business, psychology, social trends, and self-help. The company has published over 150 print, e-books, and audiobooks. She has licensed several dozen books for foreign sales, including the UK, Russia, Korea, Spain, and Japan.
She has received national media exposure for her books, including appearances on Good Morning America, Oprah, and CNN. She has been the producer and host of a talk show series, Changemakers, featuring interviews on social trends.
Scott is active in a number of community and business groups, including the Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, and Walnut Creek Chambers of Commerce. She is a graduate of the prestigious Leadership Contra Costa program. She does workshops and seminars on the topics of her books.
She is also the writer and executive producer of 10 films in distribution, release, or production. Her most recent films that have been released include Driver, The New Age of Aging, and Infidelity.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School. She has received five MAs at Cal State University, East Bay, most recently in Communication.