8 Must-Haves for a Killer Email Marketing Strategy

Email marketing is one of the key aspects of your blogging business. But if you haven’t even started an email list yet, I understand.

I’ve been there. The technical part of it scared me, I wasn’t ready to pay for a tool, and I didn’t know what to do next.

But now, my email list is my biggest asset and there’s so much going on behind the scenes. It’s where I form relationships with my people, launch my products and start conversations. I also have full control over it, unlike any other platform.

If you’ve been thinking about tackling email marketing for some time now, I want to make things easier for you.

Here’s a quick summary of the elements you need in place to set everything up and make email marketing work for you. Basically, that’s your email marketing strategy.

Take care of each of these, learn more about them, and you’ll make your email list a big part of your business.

How to Create an Email Marketing Strategy

1. The email marketing tool

An email marketing provider (aka email service provider or ESP) is a software tool that helps you collect emails, manage your list, send emails in bulk to your audience, personalize their experience, and automate parts of the process.

It also allows you to add signup forms (opt-in forms) to your blog, and create automated email sequences (to welcome new subscribers, share helpful content with them, tell them more about you and your brand, or even make sales). 

Add to that segmenting your list based on interests or actions, tracking open rates and click-through rates, and sending weekly newsletters.

You can’t do that from your personal email, so you need to sign up for a good email marketing provider and set up your account.

I use and recommend Kit (formerly, ConvertKit).

2. The freebie

Once you’ve signed up for a tool like Kit, it’s time to crate your freebie, also known as lead magnet. 

That’s something directly related to your blog topics, which will solve a problem or provide a quick win, and which people would love and grab right away, in exchange for their email address. 

This is a great and natural way to add subscribers to your list and make a good first impression. 

The freebie can be a checklist, PDF guide, template, etc. Or you can go the extra mile and create a free course (like the Passive Income Blog Boss I’m offering for free), a video series, access to a webinar, and so on.

Short and quick freebies do really well, though, as people often don’t have much time on their hands and are looking for quick wins. This is also what will make them stay around for longer and see what else you have to offer.

Don’t forget to make the lead magnet actionable. And if you’re selling something and that’s a priority, the freebie must be connected to your paid offer so you can qualify leads (and only get people interested in this on your list).

3. Segmentation and personalization

You can have more than one freebie, and even a few, related to the different topics of your blog. Segmentation works best in that case. That’s when you divide your list into more specific groups.

In this case, you can segment subscribers based on their interests (according to the freebie they signed up for). Then you won’t send the same emails to everyone, but will give tailored content to each group. This will increase engagement and people are more likely to stay on your email list and eventually buy from you, click your affiliate links or sign up for your offers.

You can segment subscribers based on: 

• Whether they are new or old subscribers;
• Where they are on their journey (related to what you teach and help them with);
• Subscribers who clicked on a product link vs those who didn’t;
• Which topic/freebie they signed up for;
• Etc.

Segmentation is part of personalization, another important element of your email marketing strategy. Personalized emails get more opens, more clicks, and more sales. It shows you get your audience.

If you’re searching for a strong platform to help with this, check out what EmailLabs.io has to offer.

4. The opt-in form

The opt-in form is the box where people can enter their email address to join your list. It makes email marketing legal and intentional, as they do it voluntarily. They give you permission to send them emails.

The way it works is that the form asks for an email (and a name, in most cases), and once someone fills it out and clicks the signup button, they are added to your list (through your email marketing provider).

If it’s an opt-in form offering a freebie, they might be redirected to it immediately after signing up. This depends on how you’ve set things. 

Design a simple, beautiful and yet effective opt-in form. 

Include a call-to-action such as ‘Grab my free checklist!’, ‘Sign up for free’, ‘I’m in!’.

My form below is an example:

You can then add it inside blog posts or anywhere else on your site (footer, on the homepage, on any other page, as a pop-up, or in your sidebar).

5. The welcome email

Moving onto the next element of your email marketing strategy. Also known as the freebie delivery email, this is the automated email new subscribers get right after they sign up.

Aside from delivering the freebie (and serving as a double opt-in to confirm their subscription), this is also your chance to introduce yourself and encourage people to get in touch.

In the Email List Bundle , you can find swipe copy, done-for-you templates, tips and examples to help you start and grow your email list as a blogger.

6. The landing page

Create a landing page for your freebie and add the opt-in form on it. You’re now ready to start sharing it with people.

Even if your form is added to many places on your blog, you still need a dedicated page just for that. It’s ideal if you run paid ads, want to share it on socials, or give anyone else direct access to it.

7. The automated sequence

You can then create an automated welcome email sequence – a series of emails people receive over the course of a few days or weeks – to nurture the relationship and provide value.

You create this once, and they are then sent automatically to people after they’ve been added to your list. That’s how you build trust with your audience. It can even lead to sales if you warm people up and offer your products in a way that makes sense to them and adds value.

8. The newsletter

Finally, there’s the newsletter – the regular email you send to subscribers to stay in touch, share new content, and teach something useful.

Make sure people hear from you once a week or so. Some bloggers send newsletters more or less often, it’s up to you.

Inside, you can add updates from your life and business, links to recent content (or older content that is still relevant), launch products, share tips and tricks, list helpful tools and resources, share what’s going on behind the scenes, and so much more. 

Make it as personal as you feel like. It’s supposed to be friendly and valuable so you can make people feel welcome and engaged.

Over time, they will want to hear from you, will click your links, will know when to expect the next newsletter, will reply back, and buy what you sell.

Also read: How to Monetize a Newsletter: 10 Ways to Make Money with Your Email List

Final words

So that’s what your email marketing strategy can include.

What do you think? Remember that taking each of these steps means running a business, not just having an email list or sending random newsletters and not getting results.

Let me know if you have any questions.