Author: Internet Marketing Made Simple

Once you get down to the business of planning your publishing calendar, you’ll quickly realize that you need quite a bit of content in order to run a successful newsletter. You may find it easy at first to come up with topics. But once you’ve been publishing for a few months you may start to wonder: now what should I write about?

No worries – once you finish reading this guide, you’ll know how to generate a near endless stream of ideas, and how to choose the topics that your readers are sure to love.

To that end, we’re going to start by looking at where to get these ideas, and then we’ll end with a few tips for approaching the topics from a unique angle.

Where to Get All the Ideas You Need

Ideas for your newsletter are everywhere… if you know where to look. Check out these 14 ways to generate all the ideas you need…

1. Check Your Inbox

The first thing to do is see what types of content other people in your niche are sharing. Be sure to pay particular attention to those subject lines that catch your attention, as that’s a topic that’s likely to catch your audience’s attention too.

Depending on the newsletter, you may be able to pull multiple ideas out of a single newsletter, as some newsletters post multiple articles per issue. Still others only publish one article, but it may give you multiple ideas. (Such as a FAQ article, where every question is a topic that could become its own standalone article.)

TIP: Be sure to take a peek in your spam/bulk folder. Here you’ll see subject lines that are likely to spark plenty of ideas for articles.

Next…

2. See What’s Trending on Social Media

There are multiple places you can get ideas from social media. Specifically:

Be sure to not only take note of the topic, but also the format (e.g., tips list, infographic, how-to article, etc.).

3. Do a Partial Google Search

The idea here is to begin entering your relevant keywords into the Google search box, and then let Google autofill in the rest. This will help you come up with topic ideas you might not have thought of on your own.

For example, if you type “dog training” into Google, the search engine will autocomplete with popular searches such as “dog training collars.” There’s an article idea for you.

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4. Use a Keyword Tool

The idea here is to insert your broad keywords into a keyword tool (such as WordRecon, MarketSamurai, WordTracker, or your favorite tool), and then look through the results list for topic ideas. Be sure to also look at the tool’s suggestions for related searches, and enter those as well.

TIP: If you don’t get suggestions for related searches, then do your own. For example, if you’re in a weight loss niche, you might search for the following: weight loss, lose weight, fat loss, dieting… and similar terms.

For example, if you search for a variety of terms related to weight loss, then you’ll get potential topic ideas such as “weight loss after 40” and “how to get rid of belly fat.”

5. Look at Popular Products

Go to marketplaces like Amazon, Udemy and ClickBank to look at popular (bestselling) infoproducts in your niche. You’ll want to check whatever information is available to you, such as the table of contents and/or the sales letter. Both of these should give you plenty of topic ideas for your next newsletter.

6. Browse YouTube

This platform has videos on every topic imaginable, so a broad keyword search (e.g., “dog training”) will help you generate plenty of ideas. Look at the main results. In addition, click on some of the videos and look at the related suggestions to the right of the video.

TIP: Focus on popular videos, meaning those that have a lot of “thumbs up” and positive comments.

Next…

7. Review Forums

Visit popular, active forums in your niche to uncover potential topics. Look for the following:

How do you find these forums? Search Google for your broad keywords (such as dog training) alongside words such as:

You can also search for lists of forums that other people in your niche may have compiled. Here you search for your keywords alongside term such as:

E.G., “Best dog training forums.”

Next…

8. Visit Q&A Sites

Another place to get topic ideas is on question and answer sites, as you can see in real time what sort of questions people in your niche are asking right now (as well as what questions they repeatedly ask over time). The top sites you’ll want to check include Quora.com, Yahoo! Answers and JustAnswer.com.

Every question is a potential article idea for you. In some cases, you may be able to pull several ideas out of a single question or its answer.  For example, if someone answers with seven tips, each of those tips may be expanded to create an article.

9. Check Blogs

Your next stop is to check the popular blogs in your niche. Here you’re looking for the following:

In addition, read the comments on popular posts, as these will give you even more ideas for topics.

10. Read/Watch the News

In order to mine the most ideas from this method, you’ll want to turn away from the “front page” news and focus on the parts of the newspaper or TV news that are a little more like articles.

For example, in the winter you may see an article about tips for keeping pets warm. If you’re in a dog niche, then this is an idea for you to use during the appropriate season.

11. Visit the Newsstand

Another really good way to generate article ideas is to look at popular magazines in your niche. Take particular note of articles on the cover.  That’s because major magazines invest a lot of time and money into figuring out what their audience wants, so the articles that will help sell the magazine tend to appear on the cover.

12. Repurpose Your Own Popular Content

Your next step is to look at your own content, such as your social media posts, blog posts, and newsletter content. In particular, focus on those pieces that were popular with your audience when you first published them.

Now look at how you can use that content to generate more ideas for upcoming newsletters. For example:

Next…

13. Ask Your Audience

Another good way to get topic ideas is to simply ask your audience what topics they’d like to see in your newsletter. You can do this using a survey tool like SurveyMonkey.com, or you can simply do an informal survey by asking your subscribers, blog readers and social media fans an open-ended question about what sort of content they’d like to read about in your newsletter.

14. Create a Swipe File

As you collect the ideas using the methods above, you’ll want to start a swipe file. This is your personal collection of article ideas. You can generate this swipe file by saving articles titles, writing your own notes about what’s popular, saving screenshots of idea topics and so on. Once you’ve developed a file, then you can check this file whenever you’re looking for a fresh idea.

How to Create Unique Content

You just discovered where to get all the topic ideas you need to create as much content as you need for your newsletters. However, what you need to do next is take those ideas and make them your own. Here are three tips for doing exactly that:

15. Swipe Ideas from Other Niches

The idea here is to look at other niche articles on blogs, newsletters, and social media in order to get ideas for how to create a unique angle for your article.

Let’s suppose you’re in a dog-training niche. You might venture out of this niche to look at what people are writing in a horse niche. For example, if someone has a light-hearted topic such as “10 Reasons Why Horses Are Better Than Chocolate,” you might adapt it to your own niche (e.g., “7 Reasons Why Toy Poodles are Better Than Chocolate”).

16. Brainstorm Unique Angles

Another way to come up with a unique angle for your article is to do some brainstorming. One way to do this is to ask how your topic is like something else.

For example, let’s suppose your topic is social media marketing. You might ask how this topic is the same as or different than the following:

You get the idea – figure out how to compare your topic to something that most people are familiar with.

For example, you might come up with an angle such as, “How Facebook Advertising is Like Dating.” Then you might compare certain parts of both processes. E.G., creating an attractive graphic for your ad gets attention from the target market in much the same way a sharp dresser gets attention on a date.

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17. Create Unique Acronyms

Still another way to make your content different from what others are doing is to create a “system” or “formula” based on an acronym. 

For example, the “AIDA” copywriting formula is a four-step system for creating sales copy. The four parts of this formula correspond to each letter in the word AIDA, and they are Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

You can do the same thing with any multistep process. Simply choose a relevant word with a number of letters that correspond to a step of your process, and then find a way to make each step correspond to your acronym.

For example, if your word is “C.A.S.H.” and you’re writing about how to create “cash-pulling” sales letter headlines, then the first step (for the “C”) might be “Capture Attention.” The second step (for the “A”) might be “Ask a Question.” And so on to create the rest of your formula.

This is a simple method, but it’s a great way to put a fresh face on a standard how-to process.

Conclusion

As you just learned, there are two steps to generating topic ideas for your newsletter:

• The first step is to generate as many ideas as possible, mainly by doing research both inside and outside of your niche.

• The second step is to take these ideas and “freshen them up” with a unique angle.

If you follow these two steps as outlined in this guide, you’ll find that you can generate a nearly endless supply of topic ideas plus a brainstorm a fresh approach for each topic idea.  Bottom line? You’ll never run out of unique ideas again!

Keep Reading: 17 Ideas For Ensuring When Subscribers Check Their Email They Read Yours

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Building a big, responsive lists requires you to take the following steps:

• Creating in-demand lead magnets.
• Setting up a compelling lead page to persuade people to exchange a good email address for the lead magnet.
• Driving targeted traffic to the lead page.

And then of course you need to also send high-quality emails that build relationships, promote products, and retain subscribers.

That’s what this guide is about. Check out these 17 ideas for building your mailing list…

1. 15 Types of Lead Magnets

The key to a good lead magnet is to send something that your audience really wants. So, for starters, you’ll need to do your research by finding out what they’re already buying and consuming. Then determine what sort of format works best for your lead magnet. Here are your top options:

• Ebooks/reports.
• Multipart ecourses.
• Access to membership site.
• Webinars.
• Videos.
• Audios.
• Software/apps/plugins.
• Templates.
• Checklists.
• Worksheets.
• Cheat sheets.
• Planners/calendars.
• Spreadsheets/calculators.
• Gear list/resource list.
• Group coaching Q&A.

Next…

2. The Lead-Page Checklist

Your lead page can make or break your list-building campaign, which is why you want to make sure it includes all the essential elements you need to persuade subscribers to join.  Note that your lead page doesn’t need to be long – just compelling.

Use this mini checklist:

• Does your headline present the biggest benefit?
• Do you present a bulleted list of the other main benefits?
• Do you offer a strong call to action?
• Is your CTA button easy to see on the page?
• Does the page look professional with a good design?
• Do you have professional graphic for your lead magnet?
• Does the opt-in form work?

Next…

3. Get a Feature-Rich Autoresponder

It’s a good idea to get a reliable autoresponder with the features and benefits you’ll need to run your mailing list. You’ll want to check if your email service provider has the following features:

• Built-in stats to test and track your campaigns.
• Opt-in form templates.
• Email templates.
• Automation (such as being able to add or remove people from lists depending on some action they take).
• Reliable uptime.
• Good deliverability rates.
• Good customer service.
• Good reputation.

Next…

4. 6 Ways to Capture Subscribers

The next thing you need to think about is how you’ll capture subscribers. You’ll want to make a plan for inserting opt-in forms into your website, including these options:

Use a standalone lead page. Then drive all your traffic to this page to build your list.

Insert a popup window or lightbox. This can be set on entry to appear immediately, on a timed delay, or when the person exits.

Insert an exit redirect. This is where anyone who’s trying to exit your page is redirected to an exit offer (in this case, a lead page).

Embed an opt-in form in you blog sidebar. Be sure it appears above the fold so it’s easily visible.

Embed a form within or at the end of blog content. For best results, embed the form at the end of highly related blog posts.

Create “registration” pages. For example, you can create webinar registration page or contest entry page.

Here’s the next tip…

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5. Do Something Every Day

If you want to build a big, responsive list, then make a point of doing something every single day to grow your list. For example, take steps every day to drive targeted traffic to your list.

NOTE: Don’t complicate this process. Instead of trying to do a bunch of things at once, start by picking just ONE traffic source and one lead magnet to promote. Get that one traffic source working well, and then pick a second source. Rinse and repeat, never adding another traffic source until you’ve mastered the current one and are getting good results.

6. Offer Multiple Lead Magnets

As you expand your efforts, you’re going to want to offer multiple lead magnets. Not only does this help you grow your list more quickly, it also gives you an opportunity to segment your list in a meaningful way.

7. Create Sharp-Looking Lead Magnets

As you know, you need to create in-demand lead magnets. Beyond that, you also need to present them in a way that makes people really desire them. To that end, you need to do two things: create a good cover graphic for the lead magnet, and craft a compelling title.

TIP: If you don’t have the skills to create stunning graphics, then outsource this task using a site like upwork.com or even fiverr.com.

For example, here’s a boring title:

“How to Lose Weight”

That’s not going to really draw people to the lead magnet, is it? It’s descriptive, but it’s bland and won’t stand out.

Now consider this spiced-up title: “Fat-Busting Phenomena: The Secrets for Burning Fat Fast!”

8. Write for the Reader

Whether you’re crafting your lead page, lead magnet or emails to your list, be sure you’re creating reader-oriented writing. This means your writing is focused on the reader and how you can help them (versus being oriented towards you, the author).

Best way to show this is with an example. Here’s author-oriented writing:

I’ll teach my best strategies for losing weight.

Now let’s rewrite that to make it reader-oriented writing:

You’ll discover the best strategies for losing weight.

The key is to create sentences that use words like “you” and “your” versus “I” or “me.”

9. Help, Don’t Hype

Your lead page (and other materials) should focus on how you can help your prospect. Avoid hyped-up, aggressive sales messaging or shady psychological sales “tricks” in order to make the sale. If you focus on helping others, you’ll naturally attract and convert your target market.

10. Use Email Automation

You can make it easier to run your list by taking advantage of email automation.

For example, when someone purchases one of your products, you should be able to automatically add them to your customer list. For example, if you’re using a shopping cart, be sure this cart integrates with your email service provider so you can indeed add people to your list in this manner.

Which brings us to the next point…

11. Comply With All Rules and Regulations

Before you collect a single email address or send a single email to your list, be sure that you’re following all applicable rules and regulations.

Specifically:

• Read and follow all the terms and usage policies set out by your email service provider.

• Visit the FTC.gov to learn more about sending commercial emails. These regulations generally apply to you if you live in the United States or send email to people who reside in the United States.

• Understand the regulations around the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which is Europe’s regulations. These regulations generally apply to you if you live in Europe or send email to people who reside in Europe. Learn more at https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en.

When in doubt, seek out an attorney who understands these various protections and can help you comply with them. This includes creating your own terms of service and privacy policy laying out how you’ll use your subscriber’s information, as well as sending email that’s in compliance with applicable laws.

12. Build Your List Using Word-of-Mouth

One of the warmest types of traffic you can generate is word-of-mouth traffic (AKA referral traffic, viral marketing, and similar). That’s because most people tend to “tune out” anything that looks like an advertisement. But when a friend refers them, they’re more open to your offers.

As such, you’ll want to incorporate word-of-mouth traffic methods into your overall traffic strategy. For example:

• Create shareworthy content and encourage your visitors to share it on social media.

• Design a referral program, where you offer discounts and free products whenever someone refers a friend and that friend joins your list. You may even offer a two-way referral, where both the referral and the person making a referral get a freebie or discount.

Next…

13. Use Content Marketing

Another powerful way to drive targeted traffic to your list is by employing a content marketing strategy. This strategy should include starting up your own blog and then posting fresh content regularly. You may even optimize this content for the search engines in order to attract Google traffic.

Another good way to employ content marketing is by guest blogging. You can find targeted blogs in your niche by searching for your niche keywords (e.g., “gardening”) alongside words that will help you uncover blogs that accept guest content. Specifically:

• List of blogs that accept guest authors.
• Guest content.
• Guest articles.
• Guest authors.
• Article submission.
• Article submission guidelines.
• Click to submit articles.
• Guest author guidelines.
• Guest author submission.

For example, you might search for “gardening blogs that accept guest authors.”

TIP: Be sure to follow the blog’s submission guidelines carefully when sending an article or a query. Also be sure that you only submit to targeted, high-quality blogs only. Research each blog thoroughly before you submit anything to it.

Here’s the next idea…

14. Drive Traffic Using Paid Ads

Another way to drive traffic to your lead page is by purchasing ads. You can purchase them on platforms like Facebook or use Google Ads, as well as purchasing ads on niche sites.

In all cases, the key is to start small and scale up if you get a good response. You want to be sure your ads are in front of as targeted of an audience as possible, so use longtail, highly focused keywords on the pay per click platforms, narrow your audience by demographics and interests on Facebook, and choose only high-quality targeted niche sites on which to post your ads.

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15. Leverage Other Peoples’ Traffic

Here’s another way to get referral traffic that tends to produce really warm, targeted traffic: get marketing partners, and give them some sort of compensation whenever they send a subscriber your way.

One way to do this is to simply do a co-promotion. This is where your joint venture (JV) partner promotes your lead magnet on their various platforms, and in exchange you do the same thing for them. If you get several partners, then you’ll have a lot of people promoting your lead magnets.

16. Generate Traffic Through Social Media

Another good way to get traffic is by using social media, especially Facebook, to drive traffic to your lead page.

As mentioned earlier, you can use viral marketing to generate traffic, and Facebook is a good place to distribute this content since the platform is built for sharing. Here are other ways to drive traffic back to your site:

• Post “Part 1” of an article on Facebook, and then direct people to your lead page to collect “Part 2.”

• Create a contest and give people extra entries for sharing your lead page with their friends. (You can do this using an app like Rafflecopter.com.)

• Create a Facebook group, post really good content, and then encourage people to join your list to get your very best content and strategies.

And finally…

17. Track and Test Your Campaigns

You’re wasting your money and/or time if you’re creating email campaigns that don’t really work. That’s why you need to test and track your ads and campaigns so you can focus most of your resources on the activities that are delivering the best results for you.

For example, if you’re using pay per click marketing, then you should test and track the following:

• The keywords you’re bidding on to see which ones produce the best response.
• The actual pay per click ad you’re using – tweak it until you get a good clickthrough rate.
• Test and track the headline, benefits and call to action on your lead page.

This is just one example. You’ll learn more about how to test your campaigns and what, exactly, to test and track in a later guide.

Conclusion

There are plenty of steps that go into building a big, responsive list. However, as you just discovered, there are two keys to keep in mind:

1. Take consistent steps every day to grow your list. These steps may seem small in the greater scheme of things, but these small steps add up to big results over time.

• Focus on one thing at a time. Get one source of traffic up and running before you incorporate another.

Now it’s your turn – go ahead and put these strategies to work for you!

Keep Reading: 17 Places To Look For Inspiration & Ideas To Write About (That Your Subscribers Will Respond To)

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So, you’re going to build an email list… now what?

Some marketers just wing it, meaning they decide what they’re going to send to their subscribers at the moment they sit down to craft an email. Failing to plan an email ahead of time won’t hurt if you do it once in a blue moon. Truth is, however, the most successful email marketers plan their promotional calendar well ahead of time, anywhere from six months to a year in advance. And these are the folks that tend to have the most profitable lists.

So, with that in mind, you’re about to discover how to plan out your own profitable promotional calendar. Read on…

1. Determine Your Goals

The first thing you need to do is decide on the primary and secondary goals for your mailing list. You’ll define these goal in this order:

1. Define the overall goals for your mailing list as a whole. Note: you’ll have different goals for each segment of your list. E.G., the goal of your prospect list is to get people to buy their first offer, while the goal of a customer list is to get repeat buys.

• Define the goal for EACH sequence you intend to create.

• Define the specific goal for EACH email you intend to create.

That way, you’ll know that each email supports the goal of each sequence, and each sequence you create supports the overall goal for your mailing list.

For example, your overall mailing list goal might be to make $X amount of money by promoting your offers as well as your partners’ offers.

To support this goal, you plan on sending an email sequence for each offer you want to promote.

You then plan how each individual email will help you sell more of a particular offer.

So, start by writing down your goals. Then check out this next idea…

2. 7 Types of Email Sequences That Work

There are plenty of different sequences you can use to grow your relationship with your list and promote offers. Check out these popular types of sequences:

Onboarding. Here’s where you send an initial sequence of emails to new customers to remind them of the benefits of the product they purchase, to show them how to get the most out of it, and to encourage them to start using it.

Indoctrination. This is a welcome series that you send to new subscribers to let them know what your business is about and how you can help them.

Ascension. This is the series you send immediately after a purchase to persuade a buyer to purchase more offers from you.

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Special promos/sales sequences. This includes sequences for things like launch week specials, flash sales, holiday sales and similar events.

Fear-Logic-Gain. This is a three-part sales sequence, where each email appeals to a different emotion or rationale.

Objection handling. Here’s where you raise and handle common objections (one objection per email).

Social proof sequence. This series is all about sharing case studies, testimonials and other proof.

Next…

3. 10 Questions to Ask Before Creating a Promotional Calendar

You’ve defined your goals and you know the different types of sequences that can help you achieve your goals. Now it’s time to plan out your promotional calendar for at least the next six months.

Answer these questions:

Which of your own products will you promote?

How many emails will you send for each offer? (Be specific.)

Which of your partners’ products will you promote?

How many emails will you send for each partner offer?

When will you promote each offer listed above? (E.G., a new launch needs to be promoted during that specific week, whereas an existing offer can fit anywhere into your calendar.)

What sort of sales/promos will you promote? Be specific.

Will you have any sequences tied to specific dates, such as a holiday sale?

Of the offers that aren’t tied to any specific date, is there a logical place they should fit into your calendar? For example, if you’re promoting a fat-loss guide that’s called “Get Ready for Bikini Season,” then it makes sense to promote it a couple months before summer. Or if you’re promoting something like a stop smoking guide, then it makes sense to make a big promotional push during the New Year when people are making resolutions.

Which of the above can go into your autoresponder, and which will need to be live broadcasts?

How will your indoctrination and onboarding sequences fit into the above?

Once you answer these questions, then you’ll be able to plan a calendar that’s designed to generate as many sales as possible.

Now read on to get more tips for refining your calendar…

4. Balance Autoresponder Messages With Live Broadcasts

Be aware of what sort of autoresponder messages your list is receiving when you send them live broadcasts. You need to balance these so that your audience doesn’t become inundated with messages.

For example, you might segment your list so that those who are receiving onboarding messages every couple days aren’t also hit with your live broadcasts. (Note: this is only temporary for a couple weeks – once someone is done with the onboarding sequence, then they can receive all your other emails too.)

5. Create Consistency/Continuity

When you’re creating your emails and sequences, be sure everything about them matches the rest of your business. Your lead pages, lead magnets, blog posts, social media posts, products and everything else should all have a consistent message and overall feel (e.g., same writing voice).

TIP: If you’re outsourcing some of this content, then tweak it as a needed to create a consistent message and voice. Whenever possible, hire the same writer to create all your content to help maintain consistency.

Here’s the next set of ideas…

6. 8 Questions to Ask Yourself When Creating an Email Sequence

Before you plan a sequence, ask yourself these questions:

• What is the goal of this sequence?
• How many emails will be in the sequence?
• What is the outline for each email?
• How long will each email be?
• How will each email help my subscribers?
• What will the title (subject line) of each email be?
• What will the call to action look like?
• Will I offer any special incentives to get people to take action now?

Be sure you have good answers to these questions, as doing so will keep your sequence tight, focused and effective.

7. 15 Different Types of Email Formats

Your sequences can consist of a variety of content. Here are different types of emails that might show up in a sequence:

• Direct response (hard selling) emails.
• Product reviews.
• Product comparisons.
• Tips.
• How-to/tutorial.
• Lists (gear lists, resource lists, etc.).
• FAQ.
• Coaching Q&A.
• Announcements.
• “Last chance” emails.
• Anticipation emails (used at the beginning of a launch sequence).
• Cheat sheets.
• Checklists.
• Templates.
• Worksheets.

Next…

8. Pick the Right Sequence Length

Generally, your sequences should be around three to seven emails long for each product you promote. Ask yourself these questions to pick the right length:

What is the price of the offer? Higher prices = longer sequences.

Is this a new product? Use longer sequences if the audience is unfamiliar with the product.

Are the subscribers new to your list? Use longer sequences if the audience is new, shorter sequences for long-time subscribers or customers.

For example, if you’re promoting a $20 offer to your customer list, you can send three emails. On the other hand, if you’re selling a $197 offer to new subscribers, then you may send out a sequence of five to seven emails.

9. Promote Right Away

Some people think they should “nurture” their list before promoting anything. Truth is, you should promote offers right in the first email. That’s because a good product recommendation helps subscribers. Why would you keep a solution from your subscribers that would really help them? Recommending solutions right away sets the right expectations, and grows your relationship when your audience sees that you’re interested in helping them.

10. Craft Evergreen Content

When you’re crafting sequences that you intend to upload to your autoresponder, be sure to craft evergreen content. This is content that won’t get outdated – it will be just as good six months from now as it is today. To that end, be sure to share time-tested strategies and products in your evergreen sequences.

11. Consider Retention Strategies

As you develop your sequences, you’ll want to keep an eye towards retaining your subscribers so that they continue opening and reading your emails. Here are four ways to do it:

• Focus on helping your subscribers and customers FIRST (e.g., no recommending subpar solutions just to line your own pockets).
• Send high-quality content that impresses readers.
• Offer occasional surprise freemiums and perks like exclusive discounts.
• Encourage interaction on another platform (like your blog or even a subscribers-only Facebook group) so that subscribers feel special and like they’re part of a community.

Next…

12. Create Regular Features

You want to train your subscribers to open your emails. One way to do that is to create a regular feature that’s sure to be popular with them. (You may need to do some research and experimentation to find out what your audience responds to the best.)

For example, you might have a weekly Q&A session, where subscribers send niche questions to you all throughout the week, and you answer them on Fridays.

Another idea: secure exclusive discounts on popular products in your niche, and create a “featured product” promo each week or every couple weeks, where you offer deep discounts to your subscribers only.

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13. Send Test Messages

Before you publish an email, always send test messages to yourself and look at them on a variety of devices. Check for formatting errors, ensure that personalization or other coding works, be sure the link is correct, and be sure it’s proofed and polished.

14. Follow Up With Subscribers

As you plan your calendar with respect to live broadcasts, you’ll want to build in a “follow up” cushion into your sequences. This is a day where you send follow up emails specifically to people who didn’t open your last email or those who didn’t click on the link. Generally, you’ll send these emails about 48 hours after you sent the last email.

15. Build Your Production Calendar

Your promotional calendar lists the days you intend to publish certain emails. As you build this calendar, you’ll also want to build your production calendar. This is the calendar that lists the days you need to write or outsource emails and which days you’ll proof them so that they go out on time.

NOTE: It’s a good idea to create emails about two weeks in advance. That way, if you or your freelancer falls ill or has an emergency, you’ve still got content in place for two weeks to keep your publishing calendar on track.

16. Check Your Stats

One big key to your success is to ensure that people are reading through your entire email sequences. To figure this out, you’ll need to keep an eye on your email stats. If people aren’t reading the entire sequence, then where are they dropping out? Can you figure out why they drop out at that point? And how can you improve your sequence so that subscribers keep reading?

17. Publish on a Regular Schedule

Your emails should go out on a regular schedule, according to the expectations you’ve set for your readers. Most marketers in most niches find that publishing once or twice per week works well (e.g., Tuesdays, or Tuesdays and Thursdays for twice-per-week publishing).

However, when you have special sequences (like a launch), then your sequences will be spaced differently, as generally you’ll send out a new email every one to three days. Same goes for the welcome series and onboarding sequence, as it’s important to send emails close together to help build name recognition and trust.

As you develop your calendar, be sure to keep these tips in mind so that subscribers aren’t receiving too many emails in one week.

Conclusion

As the saying goes, “failing to plan is like planning to fail.” That’s why you’ll want to create your promotional calendar based on all the tips you just learned. So, set some time aside in the next day or two and get it done!

Keep Reading: 17 Best Practices For Building Your List Every Single Day

Previous: Hands-Free Income: The Outsourcing FAQ

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You’ve no doubt heard people talk about outsourcing as a great way to grow your business. But maybe you have some questions about how you can start outsourcing smartly and effectively in your own business. Good news is, we’ve got answers. Read on…

What Can I Outsource?

You can outsource most any part of your business. Examples include:

• Content creation, such as blog articles, social media posts, newsletters and more.

• Product creation, including lead magnets, tripwire products, core offers and more.

• Video creation (from script writing to final production).

• Copywriting (ads, sales letters, landing pages and more).

• Traffic generation including SEO, social media management, press release distribution and more.

• Conversion testing and optimization.

• Paid ad placement and management.

• Affiliate program management.

• Web design/development.

• Graphics.

• Voice overs.

• Marketing strategy/consultation.

• General research.

• Customer service.

This is not even an exhaustive list. Point is, you can outsource most anything. Which brings us to the next question…

How Do I Decide What to Outsource?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Which tasks are high-value tasks? (Focus on these ones yourself, and outsource low-value tasks to others.)

• Which tasks do you dislike doing? (Outsource these.)

• Which tasks would give you a better end result if you outsourced? (Outsource tasks that you’re not very good at doing and/or those with a big learning curve.)

• Which tasks will help your business grow faster? (Outsource these.)

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Next…

How Do I Find Freelancers?

Once you figure out what to outsource, then you need to find freelancers to do these jobs. Here’s where to find them:

• Post on freelancing sites such as upwork.com, guru.com and freelancer.com.

• Search Google (e.g., “hire freelance writer”).

• Ask your colleagues for recommendations.

• Ask other contacts for recommendations (e.g., blog about it, post on social media, etc.).

• Post a want-ad.

Here’s the next question…

What Are the Keys to Outsourcing Smartly?

You’ve probably heard the horror stories about freelancing, which you want to avoid. To that end, follow these keys, tips and best practices:

Do your due diligence. Research each potential freelancer extensively using Google, checking references, reviewing their portfolio, and checking their feedback ratings (where applicable). Be sure to cross anyone off your list who has red flags, such as someone with poor reviews or someone who hasn’t been in business very long.

Start small. Even if a freelancer looks good on paper, you might not work together well. That’s why you’ll want to initially test a freelancer with small projects. If you work well together, then you can do bigger projects together.

Create detailed briefs. Freelancers aren’t mind readers. If you want to get a good end result, then you need to create clear, detailed briefs. Include details such as word counts, working titles, detailed outlines, and examples. The more information you provide upfront, the easier it is for your freelancer to give you what you want.

Conclusion You just discovered some of the keys to outsourcing through the above question and answer session. Be sure to put these tips to work so you too can outsource effectively and smartly.

Keep Reading: 17 Keys To Creating A Profitable Promotional Calendar

Previous: The Infoproduct Marketer’s Social Media Marketing FAQ

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No matter what you’re selling or which niche you’re serving, chances are your business would benefit from developing a social media strategy. That’s why you’ll want to check out this social media FAQ:

What is the best social media platform?

The “best” social media platform is going to be different for different people, depending on your niche and business model. That’s why you’ll need to do research on platform demographics in order to pick the platforms that are right for you.  You’ll want to check Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google +. Be sure to also look at networking sites that are specific to your niche.

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What sort of content should I post?

You can start by researching your competitors’ social media pages to see what they’re posting and what their audience responds to. However, you’ll want to post a variety of content in order to get a feel for what your audience responds to the best.

Examples include:

• Videos (how to videos, announcements, short sales videos, etc.).
• Tips.
• Longer instructional content (how to articles).
• Memes.
• Comics.
• Infographics.
• Quotes.
• Photos/illustrations.
• Charts/tables.
• Tools (such as worksheets and templates).

And similar content. Check BuzzSumo.com to see what’s popular in your niche.

How do I make it faster and easier to use social media?

Social media can be a huge time-suck for a lot of businesses. Fortunately, there are tools to make it easier. You may pick an “all in one tool” such as HootSuite.com, which will help you publish across multiple platforms, find topics, and keep track of your results.

What social media mistakes should I avoid?

Mistake 1: Not being social. Some marketers make the mistake of getting on social media and treating it like an advertising board. You need to interact with your audience, share useful content, and generally use it in a social way rather than promoting all day every day on it.

Mistake 2: Not using hashtags. Not only should you find out what content your audience wants, you should also find out what hashtags they’re using so that your content can get discovered. A tool like All-hashtags.com can help you uncover these hashtags.

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How do I get more people to share my content?

Social media is all about sharing content, but you need to be sure your content is shareworthy. Follow these tips:

• Create high-quality. Give people something they haven’t seen before or offer a fresh perspective, and they’ll share.

• Offer content that generates good feelings. For example, share an inspirational video.

• Encourage people to share. E.G., “Your friends will love this – and they’ll love you for sharing it. Share now to spread the love…”

• Install social media badges on your blog. You can use a social media plugin to make it easier for people to share your content from your blog.

• Keep it short. People have short attention spans, so make sure your content is easy to consume (from a few seconds for text to a couple minutes for videos).

Now a few parting words…

Conclusion

Your audience is already on social media, so be sure to put this information to work to make the most of these platforms in your business.

Keep Reading: Hands-Free Income: The Outsourcing FAQ

Previous: How to Create an In-Demand Product: The Product Creation FAQ

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Ever notice that some people seem to always create bestselling products, while others struggle to sell even a few copies? Some of that comes down to marketing, of course. However, a lot of it begins and ends with creating a high-quality, in-demand product that your audience will really love. That’s why I put together this product-creation FAQ. Read on…

What’s the key to creating an in-demand product?

They key is to do your market research. This means finding out what your audience wants, and then giving them something similar (yet better) than what’s already on the market.

You do this by finding out what they’re already buying. Check marketplaces like ClickBank.com, Udemy.com and Amazon.com to see what infoproducts are selling really well. For example, if you’re selling weight loss information and you note that people are really interested in low-carb dieting, then you’re going to want to create a product on that topic. (Don’t copy others’ product in any way… your product needs to be fresh and teach information from your own unique perspective.)

How do you boost the value of your product?

There are a variety of ways to create a product with a high perceived value. Check out these ideas:

• Share intermediate or advanced information, which has a higher perceived value than beginner information.

• Use a high-value format such as video over text.

• Offer a course rather than an “ebook.”

• Provide useful tools to help people implement the information. Examples include worksheets, checklists, cheat sheets, templates and similar items.

• Create a bonus package to raise the value of your offer.

Next question…

What if I’m not a pro writer/video producer/teacher, etc.?

No problem – if you don’t have the time, skills or inclination to create a product, then outsource. You can post a project on a site like upwork.com to find a freelancer. Just be sure to do your due diligence before hiring so that you select the best candidate.

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What are some of the overlooked keys to creating an in-demand product?

Some people think that if your topic is a proven seller, then your product is going to sell like crazy. In order for that to happen, you also need to put these keys in place:

• Proof and polish your product.  This makes a great impression and boosts the value of your product.

• Create an entertaining product. It should be entertaining to keep people engaged, and useful to solve their problem.

• Choose a compelling title. Your title can make or break your product, so brainstorm benefit-driven titles that will excite your audience. (Tip: Browse through Amazon’s bestseller lists in a variety of niches to see how to construct a compelling title.)

• Design professional cover graphics. Outsource this task on upwork.com, fiverr.com or similar if you don’t have the skills to do it yourself.

Now let’s wrap things up…

Conclusion

Creating in-demand products isn’t magic. You just need to follow the tips above for researching your market and then creating a high-value product your audience is sure to love!

Keep Reading: The Infoproduct Marketer’s Social Media Marketing FAQ

Previous: Your Content Marketing Questions Answered: The Content Marketing FAQ

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You’ve probably heard the term “content market” bandied around quite a bit as you’ve researched different ways to market your infoproduct business. But perhaps you have some questions about this strategy. If so, you’re reading the right article, because we have answers.

Let’s start at the beginning:

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is all about creating and distributing high-quality content in order to grow your business.

What are the benefits of content marketing/how is it used?

One of the reasons content marketing is so popular is because you can use it in a variety of ways to benefit your business. The benefits include:

• Establishing yourself as an authority in your niche.

• Using it to generate targeted traffic.

• Getting referral traffic (AKA viral marketing).

• Using it to bring repeat traffic back to your blog, social media page or other platform.

• Utilizing it to bring in traffic from the search engines.

• Preselling products or services.

Which brings us to the next question…

How do you use content marketing to establish yourself as an authority?

There are two keys to this strategy. The first key is to only post high-quality content. In other words, don’t post “filler articles” just because you need to publish something on your blog or elsewhere.

The second key is to blanket your niche with content. If people see your content on multiple sites or every time they search for a niche problem, they’re going to come to view you as an authority.

Here’s what to do:

• Post on your own blog.
• Do guest blogging.
• Syndicate your content.
• Create rebrandable content for affiliates to distribute.
• Create viral content.
• Optimize your content for the search engines so that people find you when they’re searching for niche topics.
• Showcase your expertise in webinars and videos.
• Publish a book (even a Kindle book) in your area of expertise.
• Distribute videos in your niche.
• Post on SlideShare.net.
• Post on social media (Facebook, YouTube, etc.).
• Distribute press releases.
• Publish your own newsletter.
• Be a guest author in other peoples’ newsletters.

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In short, get your content everywhere across your niche to build your expertise and name recognition.

How do you use content marketing to presell offers?

You use content market to generate traffic in the exact same ways as listed above (e.g., email marketing, blogging, guest blogging, SEO, etc.) The key is to create “useful yet incomplete” content. The useful part of the content impresses readers and helps them solve part of their problem, yet the “incomplete” part of the content gives you the opportunity to promote a related product.

For example, if you’re selling a gardening course, then you might create a five-part email series that teaches people how to identify and eliminate the top garden pests. People who like your emails will naturally want to purchase your course.

Conclusion

Content marketing should be a part of your overall marketing strategy, simply because you can use it for brand building, traffic generation, and even pre-selling content.

Keep Reading: How to Create an In-Demand Product: The Product Creation FAQ

Previous: 10 Types of Videos You Should be Sharing With Your Market

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Videos have been all the rage for many years now, and their popularity isn’t going to decrease any time soon. If you’re not already creating and sharing videos with your market, then now is the time to hop onboard. They’re great vehicles for sharing information, as many people would rather watch and listen then read. Plus, videos also have a higher perceived value than other forms of content.

What sort of videos can you create and share? Take a look at these ideas…

Explainer Video

This is a short video you post on your homepage or blog, which tells visitors who you are and what you can do for them.

Welcome Video

This is a video you post inside membership sites, which welcomes new members and tells them how to start using the site. You can also post welcome videos inside big product packages, such as a home study course. Think of it as a “quick start guide” to get people off on the right foot.

Video Course

Videos have a high perceived value, which makes them an excellent format for a course. You can sell it from your own site or even use a platform like Udemy.

Instructional/Informational Video

Think of this like an article. This would be a short two- or three-minute video where you share how to information, tips, or other advice.

“How To” Demo Video

Here’s where you share information, but you also demonstrate the process at the same time. For example, you might show golfers the best grip for driving.

Product Demonstration

Here’s where you show how to use a product. This can be part of a post-sales package (such as instructional content for how to use software), or you can use it as a pre-sale content to show people how well a product works.

Video Sales Letter

Use this alongside your text sales letter to reach as many people as possible. Avoid mentioning specific prices, guarantees or your bonus package, as these may change. Leave that info in the text letter, as it’s easier to tweak the text versus tweaking a video.

Announcement Video

You post this on your blog or website to make business announcements, such as announcing an upcoming contest.

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Behind the Scenes Video

People love getting behind the scenes of a business or even an industry. For example, if you’re catering to bodybuilders, you might take them behind the scenes of a bodybuilding competition.

Live Video

You can use a live video for many of the purposes mentioned above (such as a how-to video). However, a streaming live video is especially useful when you’re documenting an event in real time.

For example, if you’re serving a dog market, then you might live stream an event such as a local dog expo or dog show.

Conclusion

Videos are a great way to share information, as they carry a high perceived value and many people really prefer to receive information that way. That’s why you’ll want to look at your business to see how you can start using more videos too.

Keep Reading: Your Content Marketing Questions Answered: The Content Marketing FAQ

Previous: 7 Essential Social Media Platforms

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Your audience is already on social media, which is why you’ll want to develop a presence on the top platforms too.

But heads up: even though this article will list the top platforms, that doesn’t mean you should develop a presence on all of them. What you want to do is research each platform to determine which ones are a good fit for you. Here’s what you’re looking for:

• Does your audience have a good presence on the platform? There’s no sense in expending a lot of time and resources on a social media platform if it’s not your audience’s preferred platform.

• Does the platform fit your needs? For example, if your mix of content includes more text content than photos/graphics, then platforms like Instagram may not be a good option for you.

Point is, pick two or three of the best platforms for your needs, and focus on those platforms. Don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to be everywhere. (If you get good results from your initial platforms, you can of course add platforms over time if they’re a good fit for your audience demographics and business.)

Let’s take a look at the platforms…

Facebook

Most niches tend to be on Facebook, so most businesses will have a presence here too. Facebook not only lets you set up a Page for your business, you can also set up a discussion group. Facebook also has a good advertising platform for paid ads.

Twitter

Here’s another big site. You’ll want to consider this site if you intend to share a lot of news from your niche, as Twitter is known as the place to go for breaking news.

YouTube

This video-sharing site is a great place to go if you intend to share tutorials, demonstrations and similar videos.

Pinterest

While plenty of niches are represented on Twitter, there tends to be a focus on things like cooking, baking, home decorating, wedding planning and similar markets. That’s why this site also tends to have a lot of women onboard.

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Instagram

Here’s a photo-based site. Most people tend to offer little description and plenty of hashtags to help get their content discovered.

LinkedIn

If you’re in a niche catering to other business owners or professionals, then check out LinkedIn. This site gives you a chance to network with likeminded people as well as share articles and other content.

Niche Sites

Finally, be sure to research the social media sites that are specific to your niche. For example, Dogster.com is a popular social media platform that’s for (yep, you guessed it!) dog owners.

To see if there are similar sites in your niche, search Google for your niche keywords alongside words like “social media” and “networking” and “groups.”

Conclusion

Now that you know the top platforms, your next step is to research them to see if they’re a good fit for your business. Pick two or three platforms that meet your needs, then get to work building your audiences and sharing content!

Keep Reading: 10 Types of Videos You Should be Sharing With Your Market

Previous: Five Places to Purchase a Highly Effective Paid Ad

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Purchasing paid ads should be part of your overall traffic strategy, because it can often deliver high-quality traffic to your site fairly quickly. (Providing you optimize your campaigns and choose high-quality venues.) So, with that in mind, check out these five places you can place a paid advertisement…

Google Ads

This pay per click platform lets you narrow by audience demographics as well as targeting the keywords your market is typing into the search engine. For best results, choose narrow (highly targeted) keywords, which are typically the longtail keywords.

For example, a word like “weight loss” is not only too expensive, it’s too broad because you’re not sure who’s typing that keyword into Google and for what reason. Instead, choose something like “weight loss tips for men over 60” or “low-carb dieting tips for women.” This will get a more highly targeted audience in front of your ad, which will boost response and keep your ad costs down.

Facebook Ads

Facebook has wonderful tools for narrowing your audience by both their demographics and their interests. For example, if you’re selling dog-training information, you can choose an audience who’s already shown an interest in dogs and dog training (e.g., perhaps they’ve liked certain dog-related pages).

Other Social Media Sites

You’ll want to look into other social media sites, such as YouTube advertising, Reddit advertising and similar to see if they’re a good fit for what you’re selling. As always, place ads in a way that gets them in front of a targeted audience as possible. E.G., if you’re placing ads on Reddit, then choose a narrowly targeted sub-Reddit that matches your audience as closely as possible.

Niche Sites

Another really good place to advertise is on popular niche sites that get plenty of high-quality traffic. This is particularly true if these sites have “sticky” features that keep visitors on the site longer and bring them back repeatedly, such as a popular blog or forum/group.

Before you place an ad, be sure to gather information about how much traffic the site gets and where this traffic is coming from. Then start with a small ad buy, gauge your response, and purchase more ads on those sites that deliver the best response.

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Local Venues

Finally, keep in mind that there are local places for you to purchase ads. These may include:

• On local websites (e.g., if you have a city-related website that lets you place ads).

• In local newspapers, including the free ones that are given away in places like the entrances to grocery stores.

• In other venues, such as radio ads.

As always, look for opportunities to get in front of a targeted audience (rather than using “mass advertising” that gets your ad in front of a large but untargeted audience, like billboards).

Conclusion

Highly targeted paid advertising can be really effective. This is especially true once you’ve optimized your campaign to create a good response. You can start small, and then reinvest your profits as your campaigns start bringing in sales and cash.

Keep Reading: 7 Essential Social Media Platforms

Previous: 7 Ways to Increase Profits (backend, upsell/cross-sell, etc.)

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