How to Make Your Facebook Page Visually Appealing to Your Target Demographic

Facebook is closing in on nearly two billion monthly active users!

There was even an 18% increase from 2016.

If you think about the sheer size and scope of Facebook, it’s mind-boggling.

And when you consider the fact that one in five pageviews in the United States occurs on Facebook, the power of this social media behemoth is undeniable.

So, of course, you want to do everything within your power to connect with the largest possible percentage of your target demographic.

This enables you to build your following, generate more leads and rake in plenty of referral traffic to your website.

Of course, there are numerous variables that ultimately determine your success on Facebook.

But the way I look at it, your first order of business should be to make your Facebook page visually appealing to your target demographic.

It needs to pop.

In this post, I’m going to discuss the fundamentals of designing an eye-appealing Facebook page and cover some specific elements you should include to impress your specific audience.

Start with a customized cover photo

The most important element by far is your cover photo.

It takes up the most amount of real estate and is typically the first thing visitors see.

It needs to be perfect.

I recommend creating a customized cover photo that encapsulates your brand identity and instantly gives people a feel for what you’re all about.

Here’s the cover photo I use for the Quick Sprout Facebook page:

If you notice, it includes the same branding elements as QuickSprout.com, with the green background.

And in my opinion, this is the number one thing you should strive for.

You want your cover photo to mesh with your existing brand so that visitors can connect the dots.

This is key for strengthening your overall brand identity.

Here’s a screenshot of HubSpot’s Facebook page, meeting this requirement perfectly:

It utilizes their signature orange color and their distinctive logo.

And here’s another thing.

If it makes sense, try to incorporate your unique selling proposition, like I did with the Quick Sprout page.

Ahrefs pulls this off flawlessly with their cover photo:

This is helpful for first-timers, who may not fully understand what product you’re offering.

I suggest staying away from mediocre-looking stock photos because they tend to come across as being inauthentic (and sometimes cheesy).

Fortunately, creating your own customized Facebook cover photo isn’t difficult to do.

If you’ve got even an ounce of “designing chops,” you can use a free tool like Canva to create a professional-looking image.

The last time I checked, cover photos display at 828 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall on computers and 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall on smartphones.

You’d want to stick with 828 x 315 pixels to ensure your image doesn’t pixelate.

Here’s how to do it on Canva.

First, sign up for Canva:

It only takes a minute.

Once your account is set up, go to “More” from your dashboard.

Then scroll down to the “Social Media and Email Headers” section.

From there, you’ll see “Facebook Cover.”

Click on that.

Now, you can choose from Canva’s pre-made layouts, upload your own to edit or create one completely from scratch.

It’s quite easy.

You don’t even need to have any coding skills.

There’s no excuse to use some crappy stock photo when you can create your own epic Facebook cover photo free.

By the way, here are a few other ideas of the type of content you can feature in your cover photo besides just your brand name:

• a photo of your main product
• an event announcement
• a contest announcement
• a testimonial
• icons of companies you’ve worked with

Be creative, and try to stand out from the rest of your competitors.

Rock your profile picture

The next thing most of your visitors’ eyeballs will gravitate to is your profile picture.

Just like your cover photo, this too needs to be professional-looking and fully customized.

Here’s what the Quick Sprout profile picture looks like:

And here’s what I use for my Neil Patel Facebook page:

As you can see, they’re both in line with the branding I use on each site.

They’re also fairly simple.

I recommend you don’t get too busy or cute with your profile picture and keep it fairly sparse.

After all, you don’t have much space to work with.

In terms of ideal dimensions, Facebook suggests going with 170 x 170 for computers.

Again, you can use Canva if you need to create your profile picture from scratch or edit it.

The bottom line is you shouldn’t skimp on either your cover photo or profile picture.

These are the first things your visitors will see.

Not only should they look great, they should also tie in to your brand as well.

Post relevant photos

The first thing you’ll see when you scroll down most business pages is a “Photos” section.

This is another chance to crank up the eye appeal of your Facebook page and make it even sexier.

It’s also another way to reinforce your branding.

Add a handful of high-quality images to populate this section of your Facebook page.

Keep in mind visitors will see only three photos on your timeline, so you don’t need to be over the top in terms of quantity.

In fact, there are only three photos on the Quick Sprout page, and it’s done just fine:

What is important is that they all look great and enhance the overall aesthetic of your Facebook page.

You can then organize them into relevant albums like profile pictures, cover photos, timeline photos, etc.

Just be sure the three images displayed on your timeline are all home runs.

Ideally, they’ll be branded, and you can save the other images for the various albums that visitors can find by clicking on “Photos.”

Consider adding videos

I probably don’t need to tell you how huge video is right now.

In fact, “79% of internet traffic will be video content by 2018.”

Therefore, I’m a big proponent of using video anywhere I can.

One technique I’ve had tremendous success with is incorporating video into my Neil Patel Facebook page.

If you scroll down past the photos section, this is the next thing you’ll see:

Using video accomplishes three important things:

1. It allows you to quickly explain who you are and what your brand is all about.
2. You can instantly build rapport with your audience and begin to gain their trust.
3. It’s an easy way to bring additional exposure to your Facebook page (people can easily “Like” it and share it).

On top of this, it improves the overall aesthetic of your page.

As long as your videos look professional, they can boost the visual appeal considerably.

And I can pretty much guarantee people are going to take you more seriously.

Experiment with video.

More specifically, upload at least three videos to your Facebook page.

If you already have video content on your website or YouTube channel, this is incredibly easy.

Just upload the same content.

In fact, I use videos from the “Neil Knowledge” section of NeilPatel.com.

Otherwise, you can just record a few videos specifically for Facebook.

I’ve found this to be a great way to build trust and generate more leads.

It also helps beef up my Neil Patel Facebook page and makes it more robust.

Pin epic content to the top of your page

There’s one more feature I love.

And that’s the one that allows you to pin a top post to the top of your page to maximize its exposure.

Let’s be honest.

Some posts are better than others.

Although you always strive to maintain quality standards, some content naturally rises to the top.

Maybe it’s an epic, long-form post or an article that received a ridiculous amount of engagement.

Whatever the case may be, pinning it to the top can boost your authority and credibility.

Here’s what you do.

First, make sure the post has a brilliant-looking image.

If it’s only so-so, I suggest changing it to something that looks amazing.

Then, scroll down to the post, click on the arrow in the top right-hand corner and click on “Pin to Top.”

That’s all there is to it.

From now on, this is the first post that visitors will see when they browse through your content.

If you want to switch it for a different post later on, follow the same process.

Conclusion

As humans, we can’t escape our love of visuals.

Visual content is king because “90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.”

When it comes to your brand’s Facebook page, your main area of focus should be aesthetics.

By following these steps, you should be able to instantly grab the attention of visitors so that they explore more of your content.

And when it’s all said and done, this can have an extremely positive impact on your Facebook lead generation and increase your following.

Can you think of any other ways to make your Facebook page more visually appealing?

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2rnbD5I

Should You Be Using Live Video to Make More Money?

Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope.

All the major social platforms are integrating live streaming in some form.

Several up-and-comers, like Meerkat and MeVee, are also creating buzz.

And this all means one thing: Live video is hot. Scorching hot.

It seems everyone is now using live video in some fashion to connect and interact with their audience in real time.

I’ve noticed a good chunk of the YouTube channels I’ve been subscribed to for years are now taking it live.

It’s definitely catching on.

But does using live video make sense for you?

Is it a viable means of making more money?

In this post, I’m going to take a close look at the state of live video, how people are using it and what kind of results they’re getting.

I’m also going to look at the benefits as well as the drawbacks that might not be very obvious.

By the end, you should have a pretty good idea whether or not you should add live video to your sales and marketing repertoire.

Market outlook

First, let’s see what the live video market looks like at the moment.

Of course, video in general is booming.

According to eMarketers.com, “digital-video ad spending will rise from $9.9 billion in 2016 to $20.08 billion in 2020.”

More than doubling over the course of five short years is pretty dramatic.

But live video is what’s really blowing up.

Socialbakers found that “half of all big media pages publish live video.”

And the number of videos is growing.

I can only imagine what the numbers will be like once 2020 rolls around.

Another interesting thing I’d like to point out is the engagement level that comes along with live video.

In fact, live video blows pre-recorded video out of the water.

Forrester reports that “live video gets three times the amount of engagement as non-live video.”

And it’s easy to see why.

There’s a certain buzz that comes along with watching a video in real time.

There’s a connection that isn’t there otherwise.

Not to mention that viewers can directly interact with the person recording the video via live chat.

It’s pretty cool and shows just how far video has come in a relatively short period of time.

Remember when simply watching videos on YouTube was cutting-edge and really big deal?

Live video has built upon the original concept and made it far more interactive.

How live video is changing content marketing

It’s safe to say that content marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

And that’s fine by me.

Content marketing and inbound marketing in general have been a breath of fresh air in a world where conventional advertising mediums have become stale and quite obnoxious.

But the way I look at it, live video is poised to shake up content marketing.

Massive social networks, like Facebook and YouTube, could become a new form of TV big-name companies funnel more and more money into.

The traditional text-based blogging format could change as well.

Rather than always writing regular blog posts, people might start sprinkling in live videos here and there.

As you can see, there are some far-reaching implications.

The benefits of live video

Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

How can live video benefit you?

If you’re putting in the time and energy, it’d better be worth your time.

The way I see it, there are some huge advantages.

It helps your audience get to know you

For starters, it allows your audience to get to know you on an incredibly deep level that’s simply not possible with any other medium.

Just think about it.

A live video combined with a real-time comment/Q&A session is arguably the most effective way to inject your true personality into your content.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger uses live video fairly frequently to answer questions and connect with his viewers.

It adds a whole other dimension to his overall content.

And, in my opinion, it makes him more personable and relatable.

You feel like you know the guy.

Engagement

Next, there’s the increased engagement.

If you’ve been blogging, active on social media, copywriting, etc. for any length of time, you know just how important engagement is.

And by all accounts, live video is a natural catalyst for boosting engagement.

As I mentioned earlier, live video gets triple the engagement of pre-recorded video.

More specifically, “streaming videos on Facebook are viewed at much higher durations (3x) than non-live content.”

And here’s the kicker.

Facebook’s per-video engagement rate is a whopping 6.3%!

That may not seem like a lot at first glance.

But keep in mind the normal engagement rate for many industries on Facebook is less than 0.15%.

That’s a massive difference!

The brilliant thing about live video is that it naturally begs for engagement.

It’s basically like sitting down and having a face-to-face conversation with your audience.

They can ask questions, leave comments and really get to know you.

Increased engagement naturally comes with the territory.

Extend your reach

Live video is just about everywhere these days.

Scroll through your Facebook feed, it’s there.

In fact, “Facebook videos have increased 360% across everyone’s news feeds.”

Check out what your favorite YouTubers have been up to, and odds are someone is recording a live video.

Getting in on the action is virtually guaranteed to help you extend your overall reach.

It allows you to reach a larger percentage of your demographic that may have been inaccessible before.

Generate massive leads and sales

When you put it all together, it translates into more leads coming your way on a regular basis.

Not only that, the quality of your leads should increase as well.

They know you, trust you, and have rapport with you.

Therefore, a sizable portion of your leads is already primed to buy.

And it’s not unrealistic to expect repeat sales and long-term brand loyalty.

The Funky Fairy, a children’s clothing store in England, ran three sales over four days on Facebook Live.

Their goal was to liquidate their overstock inventory and quickly crank up sales.

The owner, Vicki Stewart, displayed the items for sale, while chatting about them.

Viewers, using comments, were also able to request specific items they wanted.

And it totally worked!

Views increased from roughly 7,000 during the first two sales to 10,000 for the last one.

This enabled The Funky Fairy to quickly move stock that otherwise would have probably just sat there.

Monetization strategies

There’s one last thing I would like to point out.

Increasing sales isn’t the only way to make more money through live video.

There are several ways you can monetize your videos to make money directly.

I came across an article from DaCast that highlights some specific ways you can make money broadcasting live video.

• Offer pay-per-view or subscription-based videos.
• Promote advertisers on your videos (“ads appear in the lower thirds of your video or as clips before your broadcast begins and/or interrupting it like standard television commercials”).
• Ask for donations and link to sites like Patreon.

I suggest approaching these monetization strategies with caution (you don’t want to create a rift between you and your audience), but I felt they were worth mentioning.

Under the right circumstances, they could definitely help you drive higher profits.

Does it make sense for you?

At this point, I think we can all agree the market outlook for live video is extremely promising.

It’s also clear that using live video can be highly beneficial to your brand and help you increase revenue.

But it doesn’t mean it’s right for every single brand.

Not to burst your bubble, but live video may not be viable if you have a small audience.

For instance, YouTube mandates that a channel must have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers in order to live-stream.

This number was reduced significantly: earlier in 2017, you had to have at least 10,000 subscribers.

And quite frankly, it could be embarrassing if you go live and no one shows up.

Another issue is it can hurt your brand equity if you don’t nail it.

You’re basically gambling on your image by live-streaming.

Putting yourself out there could potentially backfire, and people may not necessarily like what they see.

Or maybe it’s just not for you.

It’s pretty common for people to freak out once the camera is on them.

All of a sudden, your mind goes blank and the whole thing is just awkward.

Remember, there’s no editing with live video.

Viewers see everything in real time.

I’m not trying to kill your vibe, but it’s important to look at all the angles before you decide to start using live video.

Conclusion

Live video is a powerful new format, changing the content marketing game.

Most experts are predicting it will continue to grow and more companies will funnel big money into it.

The potential is huge.

If you follow the right formula and create engaging live video content, you can strengthen existing relationships, increase the size of your following, boost engagement, generate more leads and increase sales.

On top of this, there are several other ways to directly monetize your live videos.

But it’s important to note this medium isn’t viable for everyone.

I suggest giving it careful consideration before diving in head first.

If it’s something you’re seriously interested in and makes sense for your brand, give it a shot.

For examples and ideas, check out this post from IMPACT.

How often do you watch live videos?

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2r2FLUR

Niche Pursuits Income Report for May 2017

Welcome to my May 2017 income report!

As usual, I had a lot going on during the month related to business, so I'd like to share a few highlights. Overall, you will see that it was a good month.  My total income was up a couple thousand dollars this month, and I also launched Niche Pursuits Insider.

For now (and maybe always), I don't plan on revealing the income for Niche Pursuits Insider.  But if you are wondering, when all you charge is $1 trials the last few days of the month, the actual income isn't that significant.  However, as people stick around (which most are), the income for June will be significant for Niche Pursuits Insider.

I'm also very excited about my “Music Brand” that you can see below.  The income over doubled during May, and the early signs in June point to another growth month.

And here's my obligatory selfie for the month.  I've decided that I'll just use the first picture I get of myself each month, so this month isn't too flattering.  So, enjoy that…

Without my hair or makeup done

Income Reports

As usual, I am going to break each “brand” out with its own income table.  If you just want to see the total overall, you can always scroll down.  But if you like the additional detail on each brand that I operate, it's all there.

Please note: *Gross Profit is the profit after all costs of good sold.  So, for any Amazon FBA product sales, I've already subtracted the manufacturing costs, returns, shipping costs etc.  However, this is not a net profit number…to get that, I'd need to subtract out salaries, software expenses, etc.

NichePursuits.com Income Report - May 2017

Income Source	Gross Profit	Monthly Change
Total	$6,483	($1,181)
Bluehost (Get Web Hosting for Just $3.95 Right Here)	$650	$290
Jungle Scout: Amazon Product Finder, Special 10% Discount Here.	$729	$117
Thrive Themes (See my strategy for increasing subscribers with Thrive Leads Here)	$1,856	$670
AmaSuite 5 ($100 Discount Here)	$0	($24)
Easy Azon Plugin	$203	$7
SalesBacker (auto-email Amazon buyers)	$184	($49)
MerchInformer Software. (See how to start a t-shirt business with Merch Informer here).	$521	($127)
Long Tail Pro*(*My affiliate commission only, not my ownership distribution).	$396	($904)
SEMRush Competition Analysis (See an in-depth tutorial and video here).	232	$0
Inventory Lab: Amazon Profit Tracking Software	$35	$20
PointBlankSEO Link Building Course	$61	$30
Hire Writers	$165	$40
Content Refined (Exclusive 10% off When You Use Coupon Code: "spencer" at Checkout)	$315	$87
Amazon Affiliate Bootcamp by Tung Tran	$124	($746)
Human Proof Designs: Niche Sites Done For You	$1,012	($592)
Click Funnels (14-day Free Trial)	$0	$0

So, the income for NichePursuits.com is down by about $1,200 for the month.  The biggest drops were from Long Tail Pro (expected since I did a promotion the previous month), and AMZ Affiliate Bootcamp course.  Again, I expected this to be down, since Tung did a guest post in April which is really what brought in the sales.

Thrive Themes were up, mostly due to Jason's epic post about the best WordPress themes here.

Finally, I have to mention Niche Pursuits Insider even though I won't be revealing the income.  The launch went better than I expected!

I had a goal for the number of new members I hoped would sign up.  We ended up doing about 33% more than I expected.  We now have a very active private group in Facebook and we have live training starting this week (along with all the recorded blueprints in the member's area).

The income for Niche Pursuits Insider will be significant, and I expect it to grow quite a bit over the next year.  (If you are wondering, the doors are closed to new members…but we expect to re-open in a month or so).

The other thing of note is that I have a software product in the works which is getting much closer to being completed.  I'm hoping that in the next month, we can begin beta testing with users.  Then ideally, I could launch it publicly in 2 months or so.

Home Goods Brand Income - May 2017

Income Source	Gross Profit	Monthly Change
Total	$19,136.31	$1,699.88
Adsense	$543.72	$8.04
Amazon	$1,266.42	($210.67)
ebay Sales	$629.84	$29.99
UK sales	$3,309.17	$668.55
Amazon Product 1	$10,585.11	$1,747.76
Amazon Product 2	$2,043.85	($1,163.77)
Amazon Product 3	$296.19	$296.19
Amazon Product 4	$144.78	$70.56
Amazon Product 5	$42.04	$42.04
Amazon Product 6	$250.38	$130.68
Amazon Product 7	$24.81	$80.51

I'm happy to report that the “Home Goods Brand” is back to where it should be.  As you may recall from my last income report, the earnings were down a bit due to Amazon/Inventory issues.

However, our best selling products are back up and selling like they should.  Nothing is perfect, some ups and downs…but an overall increase is something I can live with.

Jason is diving into Google ads (both search and content network) for this brand.  We tried Facebook ads, but found that it wasn't a very good fit for this particular audience.  We are hoping to get paid traffic profitable and then scale.

We've got the landing pages all built with Click Funnels and are ready to go.  I'll report back next month on the results.

Fitness Brand Income - May 2017

Income Source	Gross Profit	Monthly Change
Total	$1,464.33	($69.73)
Google Adsense	$18.78	($19.57)
Amazon Associates	$422.04	($130.74)
Amazon Product 1	$383.47	($136.07)
Amazon Product 2	$479.57	$250.92
Amazon Product 3	$58.68	$33.59
Amazon Product 4	$101.79	($67.86)

The fitness brand was basically flat for the month.  Our existing products are chugging along, and I'm okay with that. 

We do have 2 new products (that I've mentioned before), that are taking a bit longer than expected to launch.  However, it's very possible that one or both will finally start selling in June.  I don't know exactly what to expect, but I would hope that these 2 new products add a couple thousand dollars per month to the bottom line.

Music Brand Income - May 2017

Income Source	Gross Profit	Monthly Change
Total	$2,584.85	$1,525.05
Amazon FBA	$484.85	$289.79
Shopify Sales	$1,948.86	$1,084.12
Product 2 Shopify	$151.14	$151.14

I'm excited about this brand!  I still believe that it could be a six figure brand.

The gross profit grew by a whopping 143% during May, and has grown by 300% since February this year!  The reason for the growth is obvious: I hired a part-time brand manager in January, and we have been testing and tweaking Facebook ads like crazy.

We've found a winning formula with our ads, and we are now slowly scaling ad spend. 

Also, you can see that we launched a new product on our own website (not on Amazon yet).  I know $150 isn't huge, but I'm happy with the start.  We plan on launching this product on Amazon as well very soon.

Fingers crossed for another good growth month in June!

Amazon FBA Incubator Income - May 2017

Income Source	Gross Profit	Monthly Change
Total	$1,960.31	$180.81
Amazon Product 1	$265.65	$60.72
Amazon Product 2	$558.95	$234.95
Amazon Product 3	$140.00	$59.29
Amazon Product 4	$1.51	($3.89)
Amazon Product 5	$4.74	$2.13
Amazon Product 6	$0.00	$0.00
Amazon Product 7	$637.29	($78.57)
Amazon Product 8	$187.20	($7.80)
Amazon Product 9	$0.00	($2.78)
Amazon Product 10	$136.08	($52.92)
Amazon Product 11	($104.22)	($104.22)
Amazon Product 12	$0.00	$6.97
Amazon Product 13	$0.00	($21.30)
Amazon Product 14	$5.95	$0.00
Amazon Product 15	$127.16	$88.23

The Amazon Incubator is just a hodge podge of unrelated products that I sell on Amazon.  Yes, the income is up $180, but it's not real significant.

As you may recall from my last report, one of our products (that usually does $1,500 a month) was taken down by Amazon.  We didn't know why at the time, but now we know.  Apparently, part of this product had a patent on it, and the patent holder asked that we take the listing down.

Oops.

So, we won't be selling this product anymore.  I feel terrible that we even sold a product that had a patent on it in the first place.  We made some assumptions that were incorrect.  (Lots of other sellers were selling this “part” so we assumed it wasn't patented).

Fortunately, there are no legal proceedings, we simply took the listing down, and that's the end of the story.  Close call.  But lesson learned, spend more time on due diligence before launching a product.

Total Income for All Brands – $31,629 (Last Month $29,474 / +$2,155)

Overall, for all my brands the income was up a couple thousand dollars. I'm happy with the way that May turned out.

When you add the reported income to the launch of Niche Pursuits Insider and the my new software project that is in the pipeline, I'm feeling quite positive about the future.

Undisclosed Income

I've been quite detailed in the income listed above.  However, I also have several other sites or income sources that I prefer not to be as detailed with.  I hope you don't mind.

Here's some additional sources of income that I won't reveal the exact amount of:

• Small niche sites making less than $500/month.
• Long Tail Pro Ownership.  I still own a portion of the Long Tail Pro business and receive quarterly distributions based on net profits.
• Investment websites.  I have invested in several other websites.  For most of these I own anywhere from 5% to 33% of the business.
• Jake FBA Business Partnership.  I invested in an Amazon FBA brand that Jake runs personally.
• Niche Pursuits Insider. 

Overall, if you have any questions or thoughts, I would love to hear from you in the comments below.  Thanks!

The post Niche Pursuits Income Report for May 2017 appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

from Niche Pursuits http://ift.tt/2qXkITk

39 Things Every Sales Email Needs to Have

Did you know Gmail alone has more than one billion monthly active users?

That means roughly one in every seven humans on the planet has a Gmail account.

And that’s what I love so much about email marketing: the fact that it’s so universal and allows you to reach such a huge audience.

Just think about it. Not everyone uses Instagram. Not everyone uses Snapchat.

But almost everyone uses email.

I look at email as the great equalizer in marketing. It’s especially helpful if you need to reach an older demographic of baby boomers and beyond.

Of course, there’s a lot that goes into a well run email marketing campaign.

Not only must you get recipients to open your sales email, but you also need to drive conversions.

To accomplish this, you’ve got to cover all the bases.

Here are 39 things every sales email needs to have.

1. A definitive purpose

Before you do anything, you need to have a clear understanding of the specific purpose behind each and every email.

One may promote a new product; another may discuss a major update to your service…

This will dictate the direction you take, the content you feature, the CTA you include, and so on.

Make sure you always know the precise purpose of your message before getting in too deep.

2. Specialized targeting

It’s likely your brand has multiple audience personas.

Effective segmentation is critical for getting the right marketing material in front of each email subscriber.

I recommend creating at least a few different personas and sending out individualized emails based on each group’s needs and preferences.

Here’s a very basic example:

This should ensure no one receives irrelevant content, which should have a noticeable impact on your open rate and conversions.

In fact, “segmented email campaigns have an open rate that is 14.32% higher than [that of] non-segmented campaigns.”

3. A killer subject line

Almost 75% of people don’t open emails.

A big reason for that is lackluster subject lines.

They’re not inspiring enough to motivate subscribers to open the email.

This is why you need to understand the psychology behind a killer subject line.

As a huge proponent of email marketing, I’ve done a considerable amount of experimenting with this process.

Check out this post I wrote on NeilPatel.com to learn the fundamentals of creating better email subject lines.

4. A personalized message

Research from Aberdeen found that “personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.”

Other studies have seen a similar trend:

So it’s really important you personalize each email.

Ideally, use each recipient’s first and last name.

5. To be brief

I love long-form content.

Aferall, it’s long-form content that tends to rank the highest in SERPs.

But a sales email isn’t the place for it.

Keep it short, sweet, and to the point for maximum impact.

6. A natural voice

I would wager that the majority of email subscribers don’t want to be addressed in some hyper-corporate, formal fashion.

Instead, most prefer to be spoken to like an actual person.

Use a conversational tone, and approach it as if you’re speaking to your blog readers.

7. Power words

Studies in psychology have shown that people respond better to some words than others.

Utilizing power words is a simple way to connect with readers and pique their interest.

Check out this list from SmartBlogger for examples of power words.

8. The word “you”

At the end of the day, we all want to know what’s in it for us.

If you want someone to read through your email in its entirety, you’d better darn sure appeal to them on a personal basis.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to use “you” when addressing your readers.

“You” is one of the most persuasive words in the English language and should help you connect with your readers.

9. To ask questions

I find asking questions to be a great way to mimic the feel of a face-to-face conversation.

There’s no need to go overboard, but asking a few key questions is an effective way to create rapport and get readers interested.

10. Empathy

People are interested in buying a product or service for a reason.

They have a problem or pain point they’re seeking a solution for.

Make it clear you understand their struggles and that your goal is to help them find a resolution.

11. Trustworthiness

Any semblance of sketchiness is a recipe of disaster.

Be diligent about establishing your brand as a trusted source.

12. To say “thank you”

I find that simply thanking readers for their time and consideration to buy my product is a perfect way to humanize my emails.

Here’s a great quote from The Harvard Business Review:

Saying “thank you” is a great way to close and shows you genuinely appreciate the fact that someone took the time out of their day to read your email.

13. A personalized product recommendation

Keeping with the theme of personalization, I suggest including a personalized product recommendation whenever it makes sense.

Take into consideration the needs, wants, and overall pain points of each targeted demographic.

Then include a link to a particular product they would be interested in.

14. Educational and/or entertaining content

One of the quickest ways to kill your subscriber’s vibe is to blast them with super salesy content.

Of course, you want to be actively promoting your brand, but it shouldn’t come across as obnoxious.

I suggest focusing on the two E’s:

Educating and Entertaining your audience.

Use these as guides for creating your email, and the rest should follow.

15. Eye appeal

Platforms, such as MailChimp and Aweber, offer a boatload of design features to make your emails pop.

Take advantage of these features, and place an emphasis on aesthetics.

This is extremely important for getting readers to browse through your emails and ultimately work their way to your CTA.

16. A branded template

Speaking of visuals, I can’t stress enough how important it is to create your own branded template.

Achieving consistency through this medium is vital for establishing and reinforcing your brand identity.

Once again, most platforms, like MailChimp and Aweber, offer everything you need to create a branded template.

Be sure you’re incorporating your company’s colors, logos, style, etc. so that it sticks with readers and helps them distinguish you from competitors.

17. Standard font

One mistake I see email marketers make is getting too cute with their designs.

More specifically, they get a little crazy with their fonts, making the content difficult to read.

Keep it simple, and stick with tried and true fonts, like Arial and Calibri.

These are easy on readers’ eyes and encourage them to read through the entire email.

18. Font consistency

I also suggest sticking with one font.

Make sure you’re not switching from font to font throughout the body of your email.

This disrupts the flow of your message and can kill conversions.

19. Short paragraphs

White space.

To me (and most readers), it’s a beautiful thing.

One of the easiest ways to maximize the digestibility of your emails is to use short paragraphs.

I recommend shooting for an absolute maximum of four sentences per paragraph.

One to two sentences is even better.

20. Sub-headers

What’s the other key element of digestible content?

Sub-headers to provide breaks and highlight main points.

Never include a large mass of text without breaking it down into individual sections, using sub-headers.

More specifically, it’s smart to use a variety of H1s, H2s, H3s, etc. to prioritize content.

Here’s a good example of how to do this effectively:

21. Bullet lists

Let’s not forget about bullet lists.

They’re ideal for breaking down longer lists into concise and succinct points.

22. Visuals

It’s no secret most people respond overwhelmingly well to visuals.

In 2017, “37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, second only to blogging (38%).”

I suggest using at least one image per email to give it some pizzazz and fulfill your reader’s inherent desire for visuals.

Here’s a really nice example of an email from United By Blue:

It’s actually the same image they use on their opt-in page, but it works perfectly.

23. Alt tags for images

In the event an image isn’t properly displayed, you need to have an alt tag for that image.

The alt tag will describe exactly what the image is so there’s no confusion for readers.

24. A video

Okay, you may not necessarily want to use a video in every single email you send.

But they’re definitely an effective way to increase your open rate and click-through rate.

According to Pardot, “Using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%.”

This proves people respond favorably to video, and it is something at least worth experimenting with.

25. A clean layout

This should go without saying.

Always be sure to look over each email and eliminate any clutter or unnecessary info that’s not genuinely contributing to its value.

I like to strive for a minimalist feel.

26. An enticing offer

Not only should your offer be relevant to the specific person receiving an email, it should be genuinely enticing.

Ask yourself whether it truly scratches an itch.

If not, tweak it until it hits its mark.

27. Specific benefits

Also be sure to mention the key benefits.

Let readers know exactly how their lives will improve.

28. What they’ll miss out on if they don’t buy

For most humans, “the fear of loss trumps the desire to gain.”

In other words, we’re risk averse by nature.

Briefly touching on the things someone will miss out on by not buying your product or service can provide the extra incentive needed to convert.

Here’s an example:

29. A clear CTA

The CTA is hands down one of the most critical elements of a sales email.

Not only should it be crystal clear which action you want readers to perform, it should be visible.

Netflix crushes it with this email where the readers’ eyeballs instantly gravitate to the red CTA button in the middle of the page:

This one, from Cards Against Humanity, also pulls it off well, incorporating the brand’s signature humor style:

30. Social proof

You’ve probably heard me talk about the importance of social proof in other areas of marketing.

It’s also quite effective in sales emails as well.

Whenever you’re directly promoting a product or service, include a quick little something-something that backs up its legitimacy.

Here’s a great example:

31. A link to your website

You’re obviously going to include a CTA.

But you shouldn’t stop there.

I recommend adding at least one link to your website, but three or four is completely fine.

This is a simple way to increase direct traffic and help people learn more about your brand.

32. A link to your blog

While you’re at it, why not go ahead and link to your blog as well?

It’s an easy way to increase your blog readership and create more buzz around recent posts.

33. Share buttons

Another reason I love email marketing is because it enables you to kill multiple birds with one stone.

Throw in social share buttons to popular networks to increase your following with virtually no extra effort.

34. A forward link

Let’s say a reader loves one of your emails and they want to share it with someone they know.

You can save them time and streamline the process by including a forward link so they can share it with a single click.

This is also a great way to quickly grow the size of your subscriber base without putting in a lot of extra work.

35. Signature

Don’t forget the signature!

This is another way to reinforce your brand identity, and it can drive traffic to other resources you’re trying to promote (e.g., your website).

36. Business info in the footer

People get tons of emails.

Some may literally receive hundreds on any given day.

Be sure to include key business info in the footer (e.g., address, phone number, other contact information) so people know exactly who is sending it and how to contact you if necessary.

It also makes it look more professional and legit in my opinion.

37. An unsubscribe button

Here’s the scenario.

You mistakenly signed up to a newsletter you have zero interest in.

All of a sudden, you’re bombarded with emails and no easy way to stop it.

It’s incredibly annoying and can create feelings of resentment and even hostility toward the brand.

Make sure you’re not doing this to your subscribers.

Give them a clear way to unsubscribe, ideally with only one click.

38. A means of feedback

Say that someone does decide to unsubscribe.

It’s important you know exactly why they decided to do so.

Here’s a good example of the types of questions you can ask to figure this out:

This will provide you with valuable intel so that you can improve your emails moving forward and prevent making the same mistake.

39. Mobile-friendliness

These days, over half (53%) of emails are opened on mobile devices.

Just look at how much email opens on mobile grew between 2010 and 2015:

It’s dramatic!

If your emails aren’t fully optimized for mobile, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

A mobile-friendly UX is critical, so you should do everything you can to optimize this.

I recommend reading this post from Copyblogger for advice on this topic.

Conclusion

The potential is huge for brands that use email marketing effectively.

Just keep in mind that the average ROI is $44 for every $1 spent.

Not bad!

But to get the most out of your campaign, your sales emails need to hit all the right notes.

By ensuring they have all the elements I covered in this post, you can boost both your open rate and your click-through rate for epic conversions.

What do you think the most important elements of a well-crafted sales email are?

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2s46rZA