Marketing News and Reviews
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Best Practices for Double Opt-in
How you set up the sign up process for your email list can have a big effect on how engaged your subscribers will be later on. It might seem counterintuitive, but if you let people subscribe without any sort of confirmation, you can end up with a less engaged and less profitable list.
This is why one of the proven best practices of email marketing is to use “double opt-in.” In this post, we’ll cover:
What double opt-in isDouble opt-in versus single opt-inAn example of how double opt-in worksThe pros and cons of each sign up settingHow to set up double opt-inCommon mistakes people make when they set up double opt-in
Double opt-in does require some extra work, both for you and your subscribers. But if you want better engagement, higher deliverability, and more sales from the emails you send, it’s usually the best way to go.
What is double opt-in?
Double opt-in, also called “confirmed opt-in,” is a method of subscribing to an email newsletter where subscribers have to confirm two times (hence the “double” opt-in) that they want to receive emails from you.
It is used to screen out invalid addresses and improves the overall engagement levels of a list. Once your list is sent up to use double opt-in, no one can accuse you of sending spam - neither competitors nor email services.
The double opt-in subscription confirmation process consists of two steps:
A user leaves their email address in the subscription form on the site and clicks "Subscribe".The user receives a subscription confirmation email to this address, in which they have to click on a link to be added to the mailing list.
Only then can the user receive email newsletters. Double opt-ins should be implemented in channels where consent to receive email is usually not explicitly given. Otherwise, you can get a lot of spam complaints and get blacklisted.
Here’s an example of confirmed opt-in sign up form from AWeber customer The Disney Food Blog.
Step 1: Someone fills out the sign up form on your website:
Step 2: They see a “thank you” page with instructions about how to confirm their address:
Step 3: They go to their email inbox and find the confirmation email.
Step 4: They click the confirmation button or link in the confirmation email.
Step 5: They are brought to the final confirmation page.
What’s the...
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/double-o
New AWeber Updates and Feature Releases
Get more out of your AWeber account when you keep up on the newest feature releases — requested by and built specifically for customers like you.
All Recent AWeber Updates
Jump directly to an update:
05/10/2022Shopify Sales Reports04/29/2022Etsy Sales Reports04/07/2022New Look for the Message Editor03/22/2022Quick Actions Menu03/22/2022Keyboard Shortcuts03/09/2022Dynamic RSS Feeds12/15/2021PayPal Sales in Reports ➡11/05/2021Newsletter Hub ➡10/27/2022Helpful 404 for Unpublished or Disabled Landing Pages10/25/2021Consolidated and Sortable Reports10/25/2021Location Data in Reports10/03/20217-day Black Friday Campaign Template09/17/2021Make Your Landing Page A Homepage09/13/2021Quarterly Recurring Payments09/09/2021Direct-to-Payment Links08/30/2021Buy and Connect Custom Domains ➡
Track Sales from Your Shopify Store
In addition to Stripe, PayPal, and Etsy, you can now also see all of your Shopify store’s sales directly in your AWeber account. Track your sales against your email marketing campaigns to see what drives the most sales. Then, over time, continue to check your reports so you can do more of what works.
You can see your Shopify sales in three places:
1. The dashboard sales chart
A dashboard widget showing sales, which includes Shopify sales.
2. Individual subscriber activity
Shopify sales shown as a list item under a subscriber.
3. The ecommerce report
Shopify purchases in the Sales tracked over time report.
Use your reports to make more sales
The best way to improve your marketing is by tracking what works — and there’s no better way to tell what works than seeing your sales.
Send emails with your newest releases, popular products, and discount codes. Then, keep an eye on your sales and track when your customers tend to buy — and what they’re buying.
Once you find the days, times, discounts, and products that drive the most repeat sales, you can send your customers the emails they want, when they want them.
How to find your Shopify sales
If you already have your Shopify store connected, you can log in and check out your reports. Or if you use Shopify and you haven’t set up the integration yet, get connected now.
Connect Shopify to AWeber
Track Sales from Your Etsy Store
You can now see all of your Etsy store sales directly in your AWeber account. Use this data to...
https://blog.aweber.com/updates/new-aw
When and How To Use Plain Text Emails
Plain text emails are a minimalist marketer’s best friend. And while they are sometimes viewed as “old school,” text-based emails are still read and sent all the time. You’ve probably been sending some yourself.
So if paring your email messages down to their simplest form, or making your emails readable on devices like Apple watches sounds interesting, keep reading. This article will cover:
What is a plain text email?The difference between plain text and HTML emailsWhen to use plain text instead of HTML emailsDo plain text emails improve email deliverability?How to make text-based emails look betterWhy you should clean up auto-generated plain text emails
What is a plain text email?
A plain text email is what it sounds like: It’s an email message that only includes text. There are no images or graphics and no formatting. All the links are written out.
Here’s an example of a plain text email:
And here’s the HTML version of that same email:
The difference between plain text and HTML emails
As you can see in the examples above, plain text emails look like… plain text. HTML emails look more like a website page, complete with an image, a colored background, and embedded links - all the visual elements most marketers want to have in their emails.
Maybe most marketers, but not all of them. One survey of email marketers showed that only 20% of marketers prefer to send only HTML emails. 62% prefer to send a hybrid HTML/plain text email, and 16% actually prefer to send only text-based emails.
This is consistent with email marketing best practices. It’s also fairly easy to do. Almost all email marketing services let people send two versions of their emails - text and HTML. And many email services will automatically create a text version of every email.
When two versions of an email are sent (using “multi-part MIME format,” if you want to get geeky), each subscriber’s email client will show either the HTML or the plain text version, depending on the settings in the subscriber’s email client.
For the email senders who expressly want to send only text emails, many email service providers allow them to set up their email campaign so it only goes out as plain text.
This is why you’re probably sending plain text emails already - because your email service provider automatically makes a text...
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/plain-te
5 Essential Ecommerce Marketing Strategies for 2022
Want to make your brand more visible to your target audience - so you can attract and convert more customers? Who doesn't! But to get there, you may need to revaluate the ecommerce marketing strategies available to you.
The industry is constantly evolving which means you need dynamic ecommerce marketing ideas to ensure that you always achieve the best ROI (return on investment) on your ecommerce marketing campaigns.
Global retail ecommerce sales are currently estimated at about $5695 billion, and anyone who wants a piece of that needs to have a great ecommerce strategy.
A quick search online will show you that there are tons of marketing strategies to choose from. However, some are more effective than others. If you don't want to waste your time trying to find out what works and what doesn't, simply follow the tips outlined below. These are tested and proven to be the best and most effective ecommerce marketing strategies to help you crush your goals.
1. Leverage the power of email marketing
Email marketing has been proven to provide ample benefits for ecommerce. There are tons of different email marketing strategies that are perfect for ecommerce businesses. However, regardless of the type of strategy you choose, emails will help you reach your target customers directly in their inboxes which gives you the opportunity to nurture leads and increase your sales.
Use your emails to:
Introduce your brandInform subscribers of new productsSee what messaging and email content your audience responds toShare brand newsGive discounts and send notifications of sales
… and much more.
Just make sure that you use the right email tools. This will not only make your work easier, allowing you to automate much of your tasks, but it will also ensure high deliverability rates so your emails are read by your recipients as opposed to landing up in their spam folders.
Here are a few more best practices for your ecommerce email marketing strategy:
Automate a thank-you and confirmation message for new subscribers.Automate abandoned cart messages.Create an email newsletter to regularly update subscribers about your brand and its offerings.Create non-commercial emails that are engaging and/or educational (such as online courses, podcasts, blog articles, etc.) to boost brand development.Integrate clickable social media buttons into an...
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/ecommerc
5 Essential Ecommerce Marketing Strategies for 2022
Want to make your brand more visible to your target audience - so you can attract and convert more customers? Who doesn't! But to get there, you may need to revaluate the ecommerce marketing strategies available to you.
The industry is constantly evolving which means you need dynamic ecommerce marketing ideas to ensure that you always achieve the best ROI (return on investment) on your ecommerce marketing campaigns.
Global retail ecommerce sales are currently estimated at about $5695 billion, and anyone who wants a piece of that needs to have a great ecommerce strategy.
A quick search online will show you that there are tons of marketing strategies to choose from. However, some are more effective than others. If you don't want to waste your time trying to find out what works and what doesn't, simply follow the tips outlined below. These are tested and proven to be the best and most effective ecommerce marketing strategies to help you crush your goals.
1. Leverage the power of email marketing
Email marketing has been proven to provide ample benefits for ecommerce. There are tons of different email marketing strategies that are perfect for ecommerce businesses. However, regardless of the type of strategy you choose, emails will help you reach your target customers directly in their inboxes which gives you the opportunity to nurture leads and increase your sales.
Use your emails to:
Introduce your brandInform subscribers of new productsSee what messaging and email content your audience responds toShare brand newsGive discounts and send notifications of sales
… and much more.
Just make sure that you use the right email tools. This will not only make your work easier, allowing you to automate much of your tasks, but it will also ensure high deliverability rates so your emails are read by your recipients as opposed to landing up in their spam folders.
Here are a few more best practices for your ecommerce email marketing strategy:
Automate a thank-you and confirmation message for new subscribers.Automate abandoned cart messages.Create an email newsletter to regularly update subscribers about your brand and its offerings.Create non-commercial emails that are engaging and/or educational (such as online courses, podcasts, blog articles, etc.) to boost brand development.Integrate clickable social media buttons into an...
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/ecommerc
Welcome Email Campaigns: How to Onboard New Subscribers
It's a big deal when someone signs up for your email list. You've put in a lot of work to attract this person and to build up enough trust with them that they'll let you into their inbox.
But the work isn't done once they've signed up. Now your job is to engage them – to build on the trust and interest you've established with them so they'll become a long-term, enthusiastic subscriber.
All that starts with a welcome email.
What's a welcome email?
A welcome email is an automated email message that is sent out to new subscribers as soon as they sign up for your email list.
Some email marketers don't send a single welcome email – they send a series of them. These welcome series are sent out over time, usually one per day, and are typically a sequence of three emails.
Why send a welcome email?
Welcome emails get dramatically more opens and clicks than regular emails.One study found that welcome emails get 396% more opens and have a 533% higher click-through rate than other promotional emails. To make the most of new subscribers' interest in your emails – right at the moment after they've signed up.To help your subscribers get to know you.To give your new subscribers a message right when they sign up so they won't have to wait until your next regularly-scheduled email.To showcase the content you want new subscribers to see first.To increase your subscribers' engagement with your list long-term by starting off with a great experience.
Welcome emails, confirmation emails, and thank you pages
Let's step back from welcome emails for a moment and talk about how they fit into the overall experience you're creating to welcome new subscribers. This involves welcome emails - yes. But it also includes the thank you page you show subscribers after they've signed up and a confirmation email message if you're using double opt-in.
Just to be clear: Welcome emails are not confirmation emails. Both types of emails are sent right after subscribers sign up, but a confirmation email is used to confirm that someone wants to be on your list.
Confirmation emails are part of a process called "double opt-in," where people have to sign up and then confirm again that they want to sign up. Double opt-in does require an extra step, but it's worth it. It generally results in higher engagement rates later on....
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/welcome-
Welcome Email Campaigns: How to Onboard New Subscribers
It's a big deal when someone signs up for your email list. You've put in a lot of work to attract this person and to build up enough trust with them that they'll let you into their inbox.
But the work isn't done once they've signed up. Now your job is to engage them – to build on the trust and interest you've established with them so they'll become a long-term, enthusiastic subscriber.
All that starts with a welcome email.
What's a welcome email?
A welcome email is an automated email message that is sent out to new subscribers as soon as they sign up for your email list.
Some email marketers don't send a single welcome email – they send a series of them. These welcome series are sent out over time, usually one per day, and are typically a sequence of three emails.
Why send a welcome email?
Welcome emails get dramatically more opens and clicks than regular emails.One study found that welcome emails get 396% more opens and have a 533% higher click-through rate than other promotional emails. To make the most of new subscribers' interest in your emails – right at the moment after they've signed up.To help your subscribers get to know you.To give your new subscribers a message right when they sign up so they won't have to wait until your next regularly-scheduled email.To showcase the content you want new subscribers to see first.To increase your subscribers' engagement with your list long-term by starting off with a great experience.
Welcome emails, confirmation emails, and thank you pages
Let's step back from welcome emails for a moment and talk about how they fit into the overall experience you're creating to welcome new subscribers. This involves welcome emails - yes. But it also includes the thank you page you show subscribers after they've signed up and a confirmation email message if you're using double opt-in.
Just to be clear: Welcome emails are not confirmation emails. Both types of emails are sent right after subscribers sign up, but a confirmation email is used to confirm that someone wants to be on your list.
Confirmation emails are part of a process called "double opt-in," where people have to sign up and then confirm again that they want to sign up. Double opt-in does require an extra step, but it's worth it. It generally results in higher engagement rates later on....
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/welcome-
25 Free or Cheap Ways to Build an Email List from Scratch
Building an engaged audience is one of the best marketing strategies around. And email is one of the most effective channels.
But what's the best way to get started? How do you grow an email list without an existing audience to market to?
If you’re starting from scratch — or are looking to boost your list growth — we’ve got a slew of list building ideas for you. Read on for 25 free or budget-friendly ways to grow your list, even if you don’t already have followers somewhere else.
Note: Ideas that require payment will have a U.S. dollar sign ($) next to them.
Jump ahead to your favorite list growth idea:
Optimize website signupsWebsite chatbotsUse your Newsletter HubHave a sign up form at your store/locationFacebook groupsFacebook lead ads $TikTokInstagramShared Instagram liveTwitterYouTubePinterestMediumLinkedInHire an influencer $Podcast commercials $Appear as a guest on podcastsAppear as a guest on a webinarHost a webinar with a well-known guest (and promote to their audience)Guest post on similar websitesPromote a special freebie to another audience via emailSupport local events $SlideShareQuoraClaim your local listings
Capture the audience you do have
1. Optimize website signups
Whether you're building an email list from scratch or you already have a sizable list, always be looking for the best way to get as many web visitors to sign up as possible.
The best way to do that? Test!
Test your sign up form's location.
There are tons of places on your website you can add sign up forms:
Navigation barFooterA homepage sectionA specific sign up pageBlog sidebar or footerPopups anywhere on the siteAnd many more
Start by adding one to your homepage, since that’s the page most people will see. Then, continue to test forms in other places to see if there’s a “sweet spot” for email signups. Social Media Examiner may cover all things social media, but the top section of their homepage is all about getting people to sign up for their email list.
Test what your form says.
The way you entice people to sign up for your email list matters. But every audience is different — there’s no secret sauce. You just have to test what works for your customers.
Here are a couple of things to try:
Add a testimonialWrite your form in the same style as your newsletterInclude your name and headshotWrite a funny call to...
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/build-an
5 Examples of a Unique Selling Proposition and How to Write Your Own
Developing a strong unique selling proposition is one of the best ways to get better results from your marketing. Getting your unique selling proposition right will also help you define your overall marketing strategy. It will make all your marketing efforts easier.
What is a unique selling proposition?
Basically, your unique selling proposition (USP) answers these two questions:
What makes you better or different than your competition?Why should people buy from you?
Your unique selling proposition should be a short sentence or a phrase that sums up exactly why your business is better or different from your competition. It's what makes your business different.
Here are a few characteristics of strong USP:
It is true to your business.
Unique selling propositions can't just be made up to sound good and then slapped all over your advertising. They need to come from what your business is genuinely and inherently good at.
It's not enough to just claim, "We're the best." This is especially true if you're in a business with a lot of competition, like a pizza place or a candle shop. But a USP can illustrate why you think you're the best. If you say, "All about the quality," that's potentially a USP... but only if your business is unusually focused and dedicated to quality - if it's "your thing."
Your company mission statement and your USP should be similar, but your mission statement is usually directed at how and why you run your business. A USP is about the essence of your company, like a mission statement, but it is crafted specifically as a message to your target customers.
It sums up your promise to your customer.
Your unique selling proposition is as much about your potential customers as it is about your business. And a USP doesn't even have to be specifically about your product. It can be how you deliver the product. For instance, do you strive to offer world-class customer service? That's something that could be woven into a USP. A good USP explains your key benefit to customers.
Your unique selling proposition should also be written to attract your ideal customers. You don't need (or even want) to serve everyone. If your business and USP are well-defined, it will automatically speak to your ideal customers. So for a pizza place, "all about quality," would automatically attract foodies, not people...
https://blog.aweber.com/learn/unique-s
