The FWD: Thinking Show

Nurturing a relationship through email marketing is a lot like forming relationships in real life. Am I saying too much, or too little? Am I saying the right things? It’s been two days, should I text now, or wait? Okay, texted. Oh no, I can’t believe I did that! Am I texting too much??

The struggle is real.

The age-old question of how many emails are too many emails, and what’s the appropriate frequency to send is relevant to marketers in any niche.

In this latest episode of the Ask Me About Email Marketing podcast, I’m joined by Content Marketing Specialist, Monica Montesa. We break down the various reasons for and against different send frequencies.

If you are struggling with identifying the perfect sending cadence, this is the episode for you.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The magic number of how many emails you should send
• The pros and cons of sending more frequently
• The pros and cons of sending less frequently
• The importance of setting expectations
• How to use data and surveys to decide

You don’t want to miss this. Here are a few links referenced in the episode:

• There’s No Magic Number for How Many Emails to Send – And That’s Okay
• SurveyGizmo
• Google Forms
• Typeform

Have a question about email marketing? Leave us a message at aweber.com/podcast.

We frequently talk about the impact of email marketing on our lives. Email saves us time, helps us grow our businesses, and empowers us to form relationships with people we value. But what about the industries we work in? How is email evolving the way we work?

Digital marketing has the power to disrupt traditional industries. Content creators, entrepreneurs and small businesses can now find and communicate directly with their audiences through engaging new channels.

In this latest episode of the Ask Me About Email Marketing podcast, we take a look into how pro-marketer, successful entrepreneur, and film distributor Jason Brubaker adapts and optimizes his campaigns in an ever-changing industry.

With his website, filmmakingstuff.com, Jason provides a valuable resource for professional and independent filmmakers. He uses email marketing to provide content on topics ranging from screenwriting and producing, to marketing and distribution. In this episode you'll learn:

• How to determine and test the best incentive to attract quality subscribers
• How to avoid making your "Thank You" page a dead-end page
• How to segment your most qualified subscribers into potential buyers
• How to increase engagement with your first followup and promote whitelisting
• Ways to maintain and clean your list
• What stats Jason analyzes to optimize his email campaigns

Get the pencil and pad out, there's a lot of interesting tactics to consider testing here. Here are a few links referenced in the episode:

• Jason on Twitter
• Filmmakingstuff.com
• Leadpages
• Jason's latest resource - Info Marketing 101

Have a question about email marketing? Leave us a message at aweber.com/podcast.

In December of 2015, we kicked off our podcast with our CMO, our Creative Director, and a single question: How could I use email marketing to support my book launch?

In episode 12, we take that question to another level with an engaging Q&A session with Honorée Corder, a speaker, coach, and authorpreneur.

What makes Honorée qualified to talk to us about publishing and tribe-building? She's released 19 unique self-published books!

Honorée and I chat about publishing, email personalization, content tips for small businesses, and much more. There is actionable advice in this episode for writers and non-writers alike.

You'll learn:

• The importance of developing an avatar, or persona
• The value of writing conversational and personal emails using personalization
• How email marketing can support your book marketing – from conception to completion
• Why double opt-in isn't such a bad idea
• A simple way to develop a 12-month editorial calendar

Here are a few referenced links:

• Honoree Corder
• Hack the Entrepreneur: How to Become an Expert, Love What You Do, and Find Happiness
• The Miracle Morning
• Honoree on Twitter

Have a question about email marketing? Ask us anything at aweber.com/podcast.

Growing your list is crucial to scaling your business or brand. On this episode of Ask Me About Email Marketing, I interview Amy Schmittauer from SavvySexySocial.com to learn how she managed to grow her list of email subscribers by tapping into her 2.3 million views on YouTube.

Amy shares her social and email marketing expertise, letting us know how to form lasting relationships through the inbox.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The importance of clarity, and the value of simply asking
• How to use specific YouTube tools to help drive traffic back to your site
• How contextual lead magnets can captivate a casual audience
• How to optimize content from your archive for list building
• A few emerging social media networks to keep an eye on

Here are a few links referenced in the show:

• Amy Schmittauer
• Amy's YouTube Channel
• 4 Types of AutoResponder Series and the One You Should Absolutely Avoid - Pat Flynn
• LeadPages
• Anchor.fm
• Amy's Guide To Snapchat

Have a question about email marketing? Ask us at aweber.com/podcast

Today, on the Ask Me About Email Marketing podcast, we're covering a hot topic in Digital Marketing – influencers. It seems like 2016 is the year of content curation and influencer marketing. Most annual predictions posts claimed these two areas of focus as important trends to watch.

There are many ways that brands, businesses, and entrepreneurs are using influencers to help grow their subscriber base and capture the attention of new prospects.

To get to the bottom of this concept of influencer marketing, which honestly is not very new, I roped our CMO, Erik Harbison, into the recording booth for a conversation. In this episode, we discussed influencer, advocate, and referral marketing, and how you can leverage these to expand your reach and enhance your email marketing.

Here are a few things you'll learn in this episode:

• What is influencer marketing?
• What's the difference between influencers and advocates?
• How do you find influencers and advocates?
• How can you activate influencers and advocates?

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

• Yelp
• Quora
• Extole
• Influitive

What do you think about influencer and advocate marketing? Ready to ask a question? Visit aweber.com/podcast to drop us a line!

What's the future of digital marketing?

Over 3000 like-minded marketers convened in San Diego last week at the Traffic and Conversion Summit to discover the answer. The host of the summit, Digital Marketer, educated the crowd on what's working today, and where they believe the industry is heading.

The content was enlightening and inspiring. Luckily, podcast hosting service Buzzsprout had a mobile recording studio on hand to capture some audio. I took to the booth with my colleague Meghan Nesta to dish out the main themes that we knew email marketers could benefit from hearing.

Check out the episode below:

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why you shouldn't propose to cold traffic on your first date.
• How to build relational equity with your subscribers.
• How generic lead magnets could be hurting your lead quality.
• Why its not always about you (but always about your customer.)

Special shout outs to Buzzsprout and Digital Marketer, keep being awesome!

Want to be on the podcast? Visit aweber.com/podcast to learn more.

Back again with another fresh episode of the Ask Me About Email Marketing podcast, the show where we're talking about all things email marketing and no questions are off limits.

For today's episode, we're stepping into the world of Jay Moore, one of our email marketing experts who has been working at AWeber for 8 years! Jay has seen the industry evolve quite a bit over the past decade and is has plenty of knowledge to drop. In this episode you'll learn:

• What major changes have impacted email marketing over the years.
• How to convert casual subscribers into loyal paying customers?

Here are a few tips that Jay mentioned:

• Set solid expectations for subscribers. Let them know what types of messages you'll be sending.
• People are more likely to invest in people and brands that they trust. Use email marketing as a way to establish a strong rapport with subscribers, and work to build trust before blindly pushing what you are selling.
• Subscribers are going to be asking, "What's in it for me?" If your emails are not providing value, they'll catch on.
• Not all subscribers are likely to convert from an email. Rather than drive subscribes directly to checkout, offer them other opportunities to learn more about your products and services. This could be done by directing subscribers to videos, live webinars, or more detailed content, like a guide.

Visit http://aweber.com/podcast to record your question, and we'll match the best questions with the best experts.

Today's episode answers a question we receive quite frequently: "What do I write in my emails?"

Our answer to this question comes in the form of a new 7-day email course: What to Write in Your Emails.

In addition to the course lessons, you'll receive 20+ email content templates that you can customize with your own content. These templates will help you overcome that inevitable writer's block!

We've been running this course for a few weeks, and so far the team has received some great feedback from participants.

Want to check out a sample of the course? Check out this blog post.

Ready to dive right in: Sign up for free here.

Have a question about email marketing? Record your question at http://www.aweber.com/podcast.htm

And we're back with another episode of the Ask Me About Email Marketing podcast!

This week’s question comes from a blog reader's comment on our podcast announcement post. Eliseo asked a great question about email templates. Specifically, Eliseo writes that he knows he needs to use email templates, but he's unsure how to master them. Where can one go to learn more about email templates, and maximize the value of using them?

To answer the question, I've recruited Mike Smith, a visual designer at AWeber.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Who should use a pre-designed template, and who shouldn't
• What elements to adjust, or tweak when working with a template
• How to test your emails, especially when using templates
• Where to get inspiration, advice, and actual templates for your email marketing campaigns

Here are a few notable links from the show:

• Litmus
• Really Good Emails
• Envato Market

Here are some additional posts on the subject:

• How To Care For Your Email Template
• 11 Email Ideas to Inspire Your Next Campaign
• 5-Minute Email Tips: Using Color and Content in Your Emails
• 5 Essential Design Tips for the Non-Designer

And a shameless plug...did you know that we offer custom designed templates? Want to be on the show? Visit AWeber.com/podcast.

This week’s question comes from Nick Jervis, from Your Website Genie who is curious what pop up styles are most effective, according to our data.

Despite my promise to seek out email marketing experts for each question, I decided to answer this question myself! I couldn't help it, as conversion rate optimization is an area of interest for me.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why I'm reluctant to answer this question with just data
• Different styles of popups, how to trigger them, and when to use them
• Two popup alternatives to test, which may create a more welcome user experience
• The importance of testing your forms and site

Here are a few notable links from the show:

• AddThis
• SumoMe
• Rapidology
• Hello Bar
• ConversionXL - In Defense of the Popup

We've also written some great content on the subject:

• Download Our Pop Up Optimization Guide
• 8 Ways to Improve Your Call-to-Action Copy to Get More Subscribers
• 4 Easy Tips for Turning Your Sign Up Form Into a Subscriber Magnet
• Quick Tips Video: 3 Tips for Building a Sign Up Form that Gets Subscribers