Posted on May 21, 2014 by Adam Franklin

WMTW 019: How to explode your email list via advanced landing pages [podcast]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/158380542″ params=”color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

In episode 17 we looked at the basics of how to grow your email list. Things like housing your flagship content on a landing page, with a simple form where people can enter their name and email address in exchange to for it. Plus things like removing the main navigation to remove distractions. In this episode we step it up a notch and look at the more advanced tactics to amplify the growth in your email list.…

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Adam Franklin

WMTW 017: How to grow your email list [podcast]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Click to tweet this podcast >>

In the last 18 months our email list has grown 3x from ~3,000 to now 10,328 at the time of this podcast. During the previous 8 years our email list grew at a snail’s pace. Here’s what we did to amplify that growth.

Show notes

1. Opt-in form instead of ‘no rego required’

For the first 12 months after we released our flagship Web Strategy Planning Template, we had it available for download with no registration required.…

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Adam Franklin

WMTW 015: Email marketing and 6 surprising discoveries [podcast]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Click to tweet this podcast >>

In this episode Toby quizzes Adam about the email marketing he’s been doing with the Bluewire News. What follows are 6 unexpected findings.

Show notes

1. Shorter subject lines work better

Why? They stand out in an inbox full of long subject lines, and they are more reflective of emails from friends. Who writes a 20 word subject line to a friend!

2. You get loads of replies via riddles and brain teasers

Adam discovered that asking readers to reply works well, and asking them to reply to a fun, social thing like a riddle or brain teaser works even better.…

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Adam Franklin

WMTW 013: Email marketing for beginners [podcast]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Click to tweet this podcast>>

Show notes

Early days:

Adam had been involved in nightclub marketing and had used email in the early 2000s.
We had very few other options at the time – social media as we know it today didn’t exist.
Had our first 3 clients, and we wanted to “add-value” to them, and our readers.
But our first Bluewire News email was a disaster. I sent “Dear Adam” to everyone on our database!

It evolved 2006 – 2012

We send monthly Bluewire News emails for 7 years (2006-2012).

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Adam Franklin

How to do Content Marketing like the Godfather Joe Pulizzi

Joe Pulizzi is the godfather of content marketing – founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Content Marketing World, Chief Content Officer, and the author of Get Content Get Customers, speaker and blogger.

I just missed out on seeing Joe Pulizzi in Australia when he was out in March, but I got the chance catch up via Skype and interview him. Here we get to talk ‘shop’ and discover how to content marketing like a ‘godfather’!

Transcript

Adam Franklin: Hi, it’s Adam Franklin and I’m very happy to be here with Joe Pulizzi.…

Posted on Apr 23, 2013 by Adam Franklin

Marketing Experiments: Email Content That Gets Clicked

Email content that gets clicked

Continuing with my marketing experiments, I want to share what I’ve learnt about email content that gets the best click through rates.

[For the uninitiated, a click through rate (CTR) is percentage of people who open your email who then proceed to click through to a link]. Industry-average click through rates are 4%.

If you’ve been wondering what the click through rates are on the Bluewire News emails, they range from 9.8% to 34.5% and typically average 20+%. The Bluewire News goes out every week to over 6,300 subscribers.…

Posted on Apr 6, 2013 by Adam Franklin

Marketing experiments: Email Subject Lines That Get Opened

Since I began sending weekly Bluewire News emails at the start of the year, I’ve been experimenting with ‘Subject Lines’ and ‘From Names’ to see what gets the best open rates.

I usually run each of the A/B tests on a sample size of about 1,000 contacts each, for between 1-2 hours, and then send the ‘winner’ to the remainder of the database.

Here’s what I’ve learnt from the A/B split testing I’ve conducted.

Test 1: From Name

Version A: Adam Franklin & Toby Jenkins
Version B: Bluewire Media

The winner: Version B by 10.3% 6.9% and 31.4%
The first time I did this I got the unexpected result of the company name outperforming our personal names by 10.3%.…

Posted on Mar 5, 2013 by Adam Franklin

Marketing experiments: weekly vs monthly email newsletter

At the start of this year, I decided to heed Dan Zarrella’s advice, and test sending a weekly email newsletter rather than a monthly one.

Dan told me in an interview that you could email as often as daily without noticing an increase in unsubscribes. The caveat of course is that you are delivering quality content.

Here’s what I’ve learnt from sending weekly newsletters vs monthly.

Open rates: down to 19%, but plus an extra 10%

On the monthly newsletter, open rates were usually 25%. With a weekly newsletter, open rates have drifted lower to ~19%.…

Posted on Sep 6, 2010 by Lesley Hays

Weekly round-up (Vol. 71)

Building Online Authority: Have You Given Up on the Sale? – Search Engine People
You’ve probably read a lot of suggestions on how you should be using social media with your business – it can be pretty overwhelming! So many of these suggestions revolve around focusing on your consumer, providing content and backing off on the hard sale. So it’s refreshing to read this article on how you can hit a balance between these things and still selling your product or service.

4 Tips for Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts – OPEN Forum
These tips are both easy and effective.…

Posted on Feb 16, 2010 by Sarah McVeigh

Are You Solving Your Customers’ Problems?

I’m currently reading Reality Marketing Revolution! by Mike Lieberman & Eric Keiles.

Reality Marketing is based on adding an extra step to the marketing cycle – Lieberman & Keiles argue that going straight from an ad to a sale just isn’t realistic anymore. Instead, it takes more to take the cake: Mix advertising, public relations & referrals, add a free resource, and then go for the sale.

Customers want more bang for their buck than ever before, and the Reality Marketing crew say that you won’t be in for a chance until you stop talking about yourself & start focusing on the needs & wants of your customer.…