We touched a little at the end of yesterday’s blog post on the whole idea of creating a game plan for continuing to improve our email marketing. Trust me, there’s always room for improvement, for anyone, including me.
While an audit like this is a great way to update and improve things, it’s just as important to keep an eye on things and tweak them more regularly going forward. At the same time, it’s easy to put this task on the back burner and focus on new and exciting or more urgent tasks instead. That’s why it’s important to make a game plan to keep improving your email marketing going forward.
Let’s start with a quick review.
It’s a good idea to review your lead magnet and consider changing it out every three to six months. Go ahead and put that on the calendar.
As previously mentioned, you also want to continue to add new autoresponder messages to the list. You can either set aside a particular day of the week to do that, or work on it in larger batches.
Let’s say you’re going to add one new email message per week. You could put it on the calendar as a weekly activity that gets done every Tuesday morning for example. Or, if you prefer to work in batches, you could set aside a day every couple of months where you write and add 3 months’ worth of emails. Find a rhythm that works for you and then get in the habit of doing it regularly.
Next, I want to share three other tasks related to list building and email marketing that you want to plan on doing regularly going forward. They are all important, as are the things we’ve talked about so far. Make them a priority, put them on the calendar and get them done. Your list and your business will grow that much faster when you do.
Your Game Plan Needs to Include These Tasks
Make it a habit to look at your opt-in stats. We talked in earlier posts about how much you can learn from them. Look at open rates and unsubscribes in particular. The most important stat for your bottom line is of course how many people take you up on your offers. Study any email offers or solo emails that are converting well for you and try to do more along those lines.
Look at your opt-in conversion rates. Play around with your opt-in forms and pages, the placement of the forms, the copy, etc., and see if you can get that percentage to go up. Most email marketing services give you the ability to split test your forms and pages. Take advantage of that. Set up tests and always have one running. Continue to try to beat your previous conversion rate.
Consider setting up different opt-in funnels. You can target specific subsets of your target audience with special funnels designed just for them. This allows you to speak directly to them and their particular needs. Of course you could also go wide by setting up a funnel on a related topic that your current readers may also be interested in. Continue to grow your list by setting up new funnels and new auto responders on a regular basis.
Wrapping Up
No doubt, you have a list of tasks to complete now. Some are likely needing addressed soon, while others have a longer term focus. This is completely normal, and really? It's why we did this audit, right?
When creating your game plan, remember to be realistic and kind to yourself. There is no perfect lead magnet, autoresponder sequence, or follow-up schedule, so PLEASE do not chase perfection. Good enough is good enough.
If you include regular reviews in your game plan, you will have ample opportunity to tweak and improve things over time. Download this checklist for reference.
