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You’ve probably already heard people say that “the money is in the list”.

If you didn’t know what this refers to, it simply refers to email marketing!

According to certain sources, when used right, the ROI for email marketing can be as high as 4400%. This basically means that for ever $1 spent on an email marketing campaign, you can bring back $44.

Are you starting to see why you need to start focussing on email marketing if you’re not doing it yet?

And the good news is that to start making a killing with email marketing, you just need 4 basic things:

  1. An email marketing provider service that will manage your campaigns
  2. A system to capture people’s emails (landing pages, squeeze pages, your blog or your website, etc.)
  3. A product or a service to sell
  4. Traffic ( to drive as many people as possible to your landing pages)

4 Top email providers to boost subscribers and sales

As you probably already know, email marketing has been around for many years now. It’s one of the most effective ways to communicate with your prospects and also to reach out to your potential customers no matter where they are in the world.

But to start communicating with your potential customers, you must have an email list in the first place. This brings us to these questions:

  • How do you build your email list?
  • Can you build a solid email list for free, using only free traffic?
  • Or, to build a list do you absolutely need to use paid traffic like Google Ads, Pinterest Ads or Facebook Ads?

There are many different ways to build your email list. All the above methods work. You can build a responsive email list using only free traffic and no one will know that your email list was built with free traffic.

If you manage to build good rapports with your list and if your list is super engaged, you can even start making good money promoting your offers.

For example, I managed to build an email list of 250+ people for free with Instagram in just a couple of months when Instagram was hot.

The reason I managed to build that email list of 250+ people is that I already had an audience of 10.000+ followers on Instagram.

Here’s one of the Instagram accounts I used to build my email list for free:

Since then, I managed to take this account to 22.000+ followers. But the problem with this account is that Instagram has made so many changes to their algorithm and now I’m no longer getting as much traffic and engagement as I used to.

You see, free traffic works…

But using only free traffic and free tools to build your list will make the process a lot slower. If you really want to take things to the next level, you must be willing to invest money in your online business.

This means that you must be ready to spend money… to make money.

This also means that you must be ready to invest in some professional tools, like an autoresponder. And you must be ready to invest in paid ads to accelerate the process.

As I told you, email marketing is nothing new, but the speed with which online marketers are becoming experts at sending emails has really made it popular. And when you think about it, it makes sense. Just check these statistics out:

  • By 2021, email will be used by 3 billion people.
  • 89% of Marketers rate email as their primary channel for lead generation.
  • 75% of companies say that email offers one of the best “ROI.”
  • 72 % of consumers prefer email as their best source of business communication.
  • Click-through rates are 6 times higher with emails than with other media.

With such statistics, there is no way anyone who wants to take their online business seriously can ignore the importance of building an email list and using email marketing as one of their primary source of communication.

With the advent of the internet, it has become easier than ever for any business to increase its visibility and boost their sales.

Through email marketing, businesses can do this very easily. It takes less time to do so than doing it face to face.

When you take the time to build your own email list, even if you only have a list of 100 people. That list is yours and no one will take it away from you.

On the other hand, if you have an audience of 10.000, 50.000, 100.000 or even 1 million followers on social media, your audience doesn’t belong to you.

They belong to your social media company. If for some reason tomorrow they want to ban you or if they decide to close your social media account for whatever reason, you can say by-by to your audience because they will take it away from you too.

With your email list. Nothing like that can happen because your list is your most valuable asset online and it belongs to you.

Even if you only have an email list of 100 persons as I said, you can still email them and make money if the product or service you’re promoting is targeted to them.

When a person opens your email, you’ve made it halfway and it’s almost a victory.

This means that the person is interested in your email, either because they know you and they trust you; or because they want to know more about you or your message.

This is why it is important to have a well-targeted list and to use professional tools.

If your list is not well-targeted or if you use poor quality free tools, your first reaction is always going to be that your message gets immediately dismissed.

What you really need to do is to provide value first and to reassure your list that your email is worth their time.

The first thing you can do is make sure your email message is clear and understandable. If your content is unclear or if you’re trying to pitch your audience all the time, they will not open your emails and all your campaigns will fail sooner or later.

Keep in mind your customer’s personality as well. Some email providers, such as Kartra, give you the possibility to segment your list depending on the behavior of your audience and their needs.

This is a good way to make sure that you are sending the right emails to the right audience. Customer feedback will tell you whether the product you are promoting is appealing to the customer or not.

You can’t get too much information from email marketing. Since the content is not in text format, you want to make sure your email marketing is not a direct sales pitch. This will prevent it from working for you.

You must follow up to make sure your customer’s email is being opened and most importantly, read. If you follow up with an email marketing campaign, you need to contact your customers by their name just to personalize things a little bit.

I like to call my contacts by their name every time I email my list and this makes them feel like I know them and that I’m not just sending bulk emails to thousands of anonymous.

For example, if I had to send an email to Jose, here’s how the email will look like:

Did you notice the “Hey Jose” on the top left corner of this email?

This will tell “Jose” that this email is especially addressed to him while helping me build a long term relationship with him.

When you give importance to your list, this will ensure your customer keeps coming back to open and read your emails for more information.

When your customers are interested in what you are offering, they are going to want more information from you.

Hence you want to be able to help them solve their problems. Making sure they have access to your email list can help you provide them with the information that they need and also help them solve their problems.

Among the many benefits and features you get when using email as one of your primary marketing strategies, you will quickly discover that one of the most important parts of email marketing is to keep it simple.

Let your customers know your target you are here to help them and once they start to know, like and trust you, then you can use your email list to your advantage.

Related content:

How to make money blogging: 10 Ways bloggers actually make money (Part 1/2)

How to make money blogging: 10 Ways bloggers actually make money (Part 2/2)

How to choose an email marketing service provider

As a marketer, by now I guess you know the importance of using email marketing if you want to communicate with your customers and also grow your sales or your subscriptions in case you’re promoting a recurring service.

Every business owner that’s just starting out on the internet should know how to choose an email marketing service provider.

This is because email marketing is a necessary step in the growth of any business today. Now there are many different kinds of services you can find online, some good and some not so good, but in this section, I’m going to give you quick tips on how to choose the right kind of email marketing service for your company.

The first thing to do when choosing an email marketing service provider is to make sure that they offer unlimited emails per month.

If you have 1000 subscribers and you’re allowed to send only 10 emails per month, this is ridiculous and will not help you grow your business as you would like to.

You’ll need to have the freedom to send as many emails as you want to communicate with your customers as well as the freedom to market your products or your services without being limited.

If you have unlimited messages per month to send out and if the email provider cannot provide you this service, you can ask them about it and see if they’re willing to accommodate your needs.

You want to work with a company that has your best interests at heart and that understands what you need to survive on the internet and in business.

The next thing to do when choosing an email marketing service provider is to make sure that they offer instant access to customer records and data.

This is extremely important when trying to collect data for all the different types of customers that come to your website.

If you don’t have a blog yet and would like to start one, click right here to get my 7 days “How To Start A Blog FREE Email Course”

Every company that sells something online should have access to the records of their customers.

You should never leave any part of your customer information out of your site because you want to have minimum control over the way your customers see your offers.

This is why you should use a service that allows you to take care of all your customer details for you.

Before you start with your email marketing strategy, it is important to think about the type of goals you want to achieve with your marketing campaigns:

  • Do you want to increase sales?
  • To build a gigantesque data-base of potential customers?
  • Or do you just want to give more visibility to your website or your online store?

If your goal is to increase your sales, for instance, you need to make sure that you’re focussing on building a “buyers list” as apposite to a “freebie-seekers list.”

Once you decide what you want to achieve, you can then work with the company to choose the right business model to suit your needs. Depending on your campaign goals, you may require different levels of support.

When setting up your marketing campaigns, it is important to be as realistic as possible about your budget and goals. It is always better to set up small campaigns and test them out on a small group of potential customers, rather than doing the large-scale project for which you would not have the budget.

For this reason, you must ask yourself, “What can I do with the budget I have?”

You will also need to learn how to choose an email marketing service provider that offers the most affordable rates.

To determine what your costs will be, be sure to ask yourself if I pay a monthly subscription on $29 per month to build a list of up to 1000 subscribers: “What will be my return on investment?”

If you need a no-stop service (and this will certainly be the case if you want long-term results), it will have a big impact on your budget.

However, if you want your campaign to be more of a trial run, you may choose a lower-cost option.

Next, determine the message type that best suits your business and its demographic. Do you prefer targeted messages that focus on specific problems? Or, are you looking for broad messages that appeal to a larger audience?

Content is also important to consider. Are you looking for new or unique content to incorporate into your campaign? Or, are you looking for a ready-made message that can be implemented into an existing marketing campaign?

Next, consider networking and content types and their benefits to your network. Will your network be comprised of a number of different businesses that require different messages or content?

Or, do you wish to build a more cohesive network, one in which each business sends out messages to its own recipients?

Finally, choose an option that best meets your business goals. How do you plan to benefit from using an email marketing service?

Once you know how to choose an email marketing service provider, you will be in a position to find the right one for your specific needs.

But what are the best email marketing service providers and how can you sure which one is the best fit for your business?

Honestly, there so many email marketing service providers out there that I just can’t mention them all here.

Obviously, you will have to do your own research and tests to find which service best suits your needs in terms of business goals and budget.

I have tried and worked with many email service providers. I got great results with some of them and I just wasted my money with others of them.

Just to give you an idea though, below I put together a list of the 4 email marketing services you can check and see if they can help you grow your business and reach your goals.

4 Premium email marketing providers that will help you boost your business

1. Aweber

What is Aweber

 

Screenshot: Aweber.com

One of the best email marketing programs in the business today is Aweber. When I first started with email marketing, I needed a reliable service to build my list so I joined Aweber because my mentor at the time was working with this company.

What I liked about Aweber is that it’s like the email-marketing program that allows you to save time and energy and make your life easier when managing your customer emails.

Here is how to use Aweber to manage your email marketing campaigns.

How to use Aweber to manage your email marketing

When using Aweber, you can put the customer’s email address on an opt-in list. This is where you will get their name and email address for future customer letters or newsletters.

As a marketing strategy, Aweber is a good option for both beginners and seasoned professionals. This is also one of the ways that you can market to your own customers as well as promote products to your affiliates.

In order to set up an opt-in form, you need to create a newsletter or email list. You can either create your own newsletter using Aweber’s template or you can use the default template provided with the program.

The main difference between the two is that the default template doesn’t allow you to customize the email subject lines.

The newsletter will display the name of the newsletter along with the newsletter address on the bottom right corner of the screen. To sign up for the newsletter, all you have to do is click on the link at the bottom of the screen.

Next, you will receive an email on a scheduled basis letting you know when to send your messages. It usually starts off with an introductory message. It doesn’t matter what type of email marketing plan you are using, whether it is autoresponder mailings or your own proprietary email campaigns, the most important part is the content that you send out.

Most Aweber features allow you to set up an autoresponder system. This is the best part of the program because it allows you to send out your messages to your list on autopilot mode via their secure servers.

The benefit is that you can choose to send them just one email per day or one email per week or per month? It really all depends on how deep you want to connect with your audience.

You should also use auto-replies to respond to your clients and prospects. Each newsletter or email campaign is different, and you can choose which automatic reply system you want to use.

For those of you who are new to email marketing, the best way to really discover all the features Aweber offers is to sign up with their program. They have plenty of tutorials to help you get started and fantastic support so you’re never left alone.

As I told you though, this is not a free service. They offer a 30-day free trial but if you want to keep on using the service after that, you’ll have to choose among one of their plans.

Just to give you an idea of their different plans, here’s a screenshot of their pricing at the time I writing this article.

Please understand that prices might change at any time so always visit their official website to get the most up-to-date info.

With all of the benefits of Aweber, email marketing campaigns will become more efficient and effective for you.

This program is perfect for newbies and veteran email marketers alike.

2. Convertkit

What is Convertkit

What is ConvertKit

Source: Screenshot convertkit.com

ConvertKit is an online service that provides you with the tools needed to manage email marketing campaigns. This powerful email service allows you to collect leads and send emails to your customers on autopilot.

It also includes advanced email marketing capabilities such as autoresponders, and tracking emails. Many of the emails on ConvertKit are customized for the email marketing campaigns that you set up.

You can also set up the options for auto-sending. This type of email service is great for when you want to take on an email campaign yourself.

How to use Convertkit to manage your email marketing

Automated email campaigns allow you to take full control of your email marketing campaigns. You can be as hands-off as you like, depending on how often you would like to communicate with your audience.

ConvertKit is an automated email campaign service that has users who rely on it as their source of information on how to use the software.

Famous bloggers like Pat Flynn from smartpassiveincome.com or Anastasia from anastasiablogger.com have been using Convertkit to manage their email marketing campaigns and they absolutely love it.

It has helped them grow their business and their income at a level you can’t even imagine.

Here’s what Pat Flynn has to say about Convertkit. I quote:

The more you can generate leads, the better. This is the reason why many marketers choose to opt for a service that will take care of everything like ConvertKit does.

And considering that some people believe that it is easy to convert leads to customers, chances are that you have also opted for a service that will achieve this.

Let’s talk about some of the benefits of using ConvertKit. The first benefit is, of course, the feature of automation.

You just have to enter the contact details of the person you want to create a campaign with and then you can either set up the campaign or send the emails according to the details you have entered.

This saves time, which is important for those who would want to conduct more than one campaign.

Another benefit is that this service gives you the ability to track how many people opened your email messages. It is very important because it lets you determine how successful your campaigns are.

Tracking is crucial especially for beginners in internet marketing.

If you think you are not familiar with the lead generation process, you are wrong. The service is very user-friendly and easy to use.

There are only a few simple steps to begin and of course, you can find tons of free videos on YouTube to learn how to use this tool.

The company claims that you can make hundreds of dollars in the first month using their lead-generation system. They will even help you get started with an automated email campaign with their 14 days free trial.

All you need to do now is to visit their website and to sign up.

3. GetResponse

What is GetResponse

Screenshot: GetResponse.com

With GetResponse, selling becomes easy. This service is an all in one marketing solution for all your marketing needs. How do I know that, well, I worked with them for many years as well.

According to their official website, GetResponse offers “the best in email marketing campaigns.” They are committed to delivering the highest level of service that will provide the best results.

Heres’s what they say about this platform, I quote:

“The GetResponse platform contains a suite of email marketing and online campaign management tools designed to help you grow your sales, maximize ROI, and succeed in online marketing. From unlimited broadcasting and top deliverability to 5-star customer service and over 50 easy yet powerful features.”

They offer email marketing software and tools that will improve your customer’s response time and enable you to effectively monitor their email campaign, with the right marketing tools, by using their software.

How to use GetResponse to manage your email marketing

The features and benefits of using GetResponse to manage your email marketing campaigns are plenty. Here are just a few of them:

When it comes to providing promotional emails, GetResponse gives you all the tools to create the most compelling emails and newsletters ever.

Here are a few of the many GetResponse features list:

  • Email Marketing
  • Autoresponders
  • Email Templates
  • Autofunnel
  • Webinars
  • List Building and Management
  • Analytics and Optimization
  • Traffic Generation
  • Five-Star Customer Support
  • Etc.

Their software has been designed to make sure that you have a maximum return on your investment. The software was specifically designed to provide professional-grade services, which you can certainly achieve.

Let it be you want to collect leads, send beautiful and high converting emails, increase your sales and subscribers engagement or to automate all your business, they got you covered.

Moreover, they do not limit the number of people who receive your emails. GetResponse allows you to send promotional emails to millions of recipients who are interested in your products and services.

To start using GetResponse, they offer a free 30-day trial so you can test the system without having to pay anything. After that, to continue using the service you can select a plan among the different packages and options to meet your needs and your budget.

Not sure if GetResponse can work for you?

Here’s a screenshot of my inbox with the leads I was getting daily with GetResponse and Instagram free traffic:

The best part about how to use GetResponse to manage your email marketing campaigns is that it only requires minimal efforts. The process of using their software will be pretty straightforward and easy.

So, if you are still a beginner in this regard, this is definitely the software for you.

This can be the greatest weapon in your efforts to increase your traffic and to boost your sales, through your email marketing campaigns.

So, if you are looking for a great tool that will help you in your marketing efforts, getResponse can help you in your email marketing.

Remember, it is important to understand how to use it before trying it out so that you can fully enjoy its benefits.

But once again, you don’t need to worry because they have plenty of tutorials to help you out.

4. Kartra

What is Kartra

Screenshot: Kartra.com

I talk a lot about Kartra here on this blog because it’s the service I’m using myself right now.

Kartra is an email marketing service provider who has been in the industry for several years. In fact, they have a strong following in the internet marketing niche. They focus on delivering the best results for their clients.

Here are some of the reasons why any marketer would choose to use Kartra as an email marketing service provider:

  • Kartra has a large user base that includes businesses of all sizes and industries. Because of this, the service has many different options available for each client.
  • Instead of being limited to one marketing plan, you can add other services to your plan. This allows you to have the flexibility that is necessary to grow your business.
  • Kartra will help you to create, market and launch your online business without needing to hire a team of developers.
  • Kartra is an all-in-one platform for your business (they have many features such as Kartra Checkouts, Kartra Pages, Kartra Leads, Kartra Funnels & Campaigns, Kartra Memberships, Kartra Mail, Etc.)

How to use Kartra to manage your email marketing

Kartra has many tools available to help you create the perfect email campaigns, page builders, landing pages, video hosting, etc.

These tools include an autoresponder, which automatically sends out messages for you to your subscribers. You can also set up an autoresponder so that you can capture new leads and capture them quickly with their lead capture pages and opt-in forms available.

Below is a lead capture form I created with Kartra in just five minutes.

Being able to create professional opt-in forms like this makes it easy for you to grow your business and make sure you always have new customers coming in.

That’s an example of a feature you can integrate into your email marketing campaign with the use of Kartra.

In addition to keeping your subscribers up to date on the day’s news, you can use Kartra to design and publish your email newsletter.

This can help you create a visually appealing, engaging newsletter that will make readers feel like they’re actually getting something out of it. When you add a weekly newsletter to your email marketing strategy, you can create an instant mailing list.

And because email campaigns can be designed in a variety of ways, you can make it look very different from the traditional monthly newsletter you receive.

Your emails may look completely different depending on the kind of layout you want to use and how your newsletter is published.

And if you don’t feel comfortable writing a traditional newsletter for your readers, you can publish your emails through Kartra’s in-house electronic publishing services.

You can choose a variety of layouts for your newsletter as well. These include the standard HTML layout, the interactive HTML layout, a template layout and even the option to integrate your company’s logo or a short description of your business.

If you wish to customize your newsletter a bit more, you can also choose a different layout. They have many different templates you can choose from.

So even if you’re using HTML, you should still choose a good e-mail marketing software package to publish your newsletter with. The key is to make sure that you make the quality of your newsletter as high as possible.

With a combination of Kartra and your email list, you can publish multiple newsletters to your email list. If you have one set of email addresses to send to, then you can publish newsletters to them.

But if you only have one group of e-mail addresses to which you send messages, then you can publish those to the Kartra list. And you’ll have a wider distribution of your emails.

The best part about integrating Kartra with your email list is that you can choose when you want to send out your emails.

If you are running an auto-responder or any kind of marketing campaign for your business, you can choose to send out your messages as and when you like.

And that means that you can update your list on your marketing activities without really making an effort. All you need to do is send out your message as and when you feel appropriate.

It’s also worth mentioning that in addition to combining your marketing and sales messages into a single newsletter, you can also send out two separate email marketing campaigns. Each time you want to send out a new newsletter, you can use Kartra to design a separate batch of emails.

How much does Kartra cost?

Kartra is not a cheap service. This is due to the many features and possibilities they give under one roof to manage and grow your online business.

As with many SAAS services these days, they offer a 14 day free trial period so you can test their service for free and see for yourself if you like it.

Here’s what Amira from aselfguru.com said when she started using Kartra.

I quote

“When I started blogging, just like most people, I signed up with ConvertKit for my email marketing needs but luckily within my first month, I learned about Kartra and how it’s an all-in-one business platform that allows you to do EVERYTHING you can think of! So I decided to try it for just a $1.00 here for 14 days and guess what? I never went back to ConvertKit!”

After your trial period is over if you want to continue using Kartra, here’s a screenshot of their different packages:

What is Kartra and how to use kartra for email marketing

If you think that Kartra can help you grow your business, you can try their service for just $1.00 for 14 days here.

There we go! I really hope you liked this article.

Thanks for reading…

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