How To Use Aweber , Step By Step Email marketing Guide for 2021.

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We all know how complicated Email marketing can be when getting started.

Whether be it a small business , personal brand or marketer. Say no more because in this article am going to demonstrate step by step how to use Aweber as your Email marketing tool and autoresponder.

But before We start am give you a quick idea of what and how email works and if it is still relevant for 2021.

I have included a table of contents to help you navigate around this article so feel free to check it out below here and let’s get started..

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a form of marketing that allows you to send personalized emails whether to customers or new visitors on your website while adding value and integrating or recommending helpful products or services to them.

Email marketing makes it easier to connect with a list of new visitors or subscribers because you own and manage the email list .

To get started with Email marketing you are going to need an email autoresponder or software. Which in this case we are going to use Aweber for our start up.

The very first and most important step in growing your email List is to understand and write down your goals , target audience and what problems are you willing to solve by reaching out to these prospects.

The leads (warm or cold) , customers or even website visitors need to have an idea of who you are and what credentials do you bring in regards to solving their problems.

This is where you have to decide on the following;

• What Channel or Traffic sources are you going to use.
• Where are your target customers or leads.
• What do you have to offer to them.
• What problem are you solving.

If you can answer all these questions then you are ready to move on to the next step.

Creating Your Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a piece of information or bribe that you can exchange with a potential lead or customer for their name and email or just email.

It does not mean you have to create an e-book or large pdf file.

So here are some examples of Lead magnets you can offer to your leads;

• A simple one Page Checklist
• Branded images or graphics
• Simple analysis reports
• Coupons / Discounts
• Case studies
• Free Trials / Samples
• Webinars / Free Training sections / Free consultation
• Quizzes / self check-ins or assessments
• Simple case studies
• E-books

There is so much you can offer but I would recommend you keep it simple straight forward.

Other Factors to Consider When making a good Lead Magnet

1. Don’t Try to Sale through the Lead magnet.

The main purpose of the lead magnet is to add more value to your leads but not try to push them for the sale right away.

Keep the Lead magnet basic , simple and add a few links to your socials and website because your leads may share the lead magnet with other friends and even family so having your socials in it would do some good branding.

2. Keep It Relevant To Your Brand.

Always line up your lead magnet with your future prospects campaigns or even emails.

If you are a Fashion Brand then your lead magnet should talk about fashion , Your lead magnet should not talk about cute cats or even dogs then the welcome email talks about Fashion.

This can upset your leads , make them confused and end up unsubscribing from your list.

3. Deliver What You promised?

Once a lead or customer enters their email , it is important to send them a welcome email right way with the Lead magnet access.

Don’t ask them to take other actions before you have delivered what they opted in for.

People will always notice a change and value they got from your content in the lead magnet. This is what makes them like you , and get excited about learning more from you.

Trust me people will always notice if you really took the time to make a good lead magnet.

This makes a difference for some one being on your email list for months and even years , reading your emails and buying all you recommend.

Once You Have Your Optin Bribe / Lead magnet ready then we are moving on to the next step.

Creating The Optin Form / Landing Page.

There are quite a number of software that you can use to create Awesome landing pages and optin forms and some of them come at a slightly high price than Aweber.

Step one of creating a landing page/ Optin form is to choose a template or start from scratch.

Log into your Aweber Account, Click on landing pages, and then create a landing page.

You can choose from a wide number of available templates . These are specifically made to suit any niche you are trying to get into

I would recommend browsing around and find a template that will suit your target audience.

What Makes A Good Landing Page / Optin Form?

I basically think the best landing page or optin form should have each or some of the following elements .

• Attention-Grabbing Heading [Hook]

The main purpose of your Heading Is To capture the attention of your leads. Having a good headline that addresses a problem can increase your conversions and sales.

It is important not to have Clickbait Headlines as this tends to annoy your prospects or leads.

Clickbait headlines tend to promise too much but under-deliver to the leads. So keep in mind what your products or services do and don’t exaggerate.

• Clear Description Of What is Expected.

Ensure that your sub- headlines don’t give away too much so that you keep the curiosity going making them wanting to discover more hence signing up for your email list.

A simple example can be this below..

“Learn how to build an online business that makes at least $100 a day Without paying for ads, having an audience, owning your own product, or even having a website. “

In this description, you can see am offering an outcome of what they will gain if they Optin, which is $100.

I go on to tell them what is not required and no need to spend any money to make the $100 a day.

• Add Strong Call To Action

When You have added the Headlines and simple descriptions, go ahead and add all the important call to actions you may need.

Such as an Email box with a button, phone number , first name , last name depending on the products or service you offer.

Some business such as local businesses can have more fields on their landing pages or websites because they show professionality.

But if you are an online marketer , selling your own brand products , Shopify products , merch , an Email address is more than enough.

Asking for more and more information can kill your conversion rates.

This brings us to the next and the most important feature of a highly converting page or site.

• No Distractions / Keep It Simple.

The best Landing pages , have no distractions eye popping colors . The simpler your landing page is the better it converts .

Here is an example of a landing page that I used in my previous promotions on Pinterest.

This landing page uses colors like orange and red because it’s congruent to the affiliate offer I was promoting.

Keep in mind anything that does not add up in your funnels or having opposite colors from those on the official sales page can kill your conversions.

Once they click the button a popup shows up and this is effective because they are already warmed up but before they get to the official sales page , I added an optin form

Its average Optin rate was about 68% because of how simple it is. Hopefully you get the idea.

Create A list in Your Autoresponder.

In Your dashboard Click on List Settings.

Then you will be able to add a new list, give it a name, and a brief description.

You will have to add a proper Email address , postal code and address . If you are unsure why this is address is important you can read more about the spam policies of your email marketing software.

These addresses appear at the bottom of your email for branding and helpful if your customers need to find your business.

If you are operating a normal business then you go ahead and use the business address you own. If you are a solopreneur then add your home address if applicable.

After creating your list you will be able to import a CSV file of your Email list directly into your Account and this is free.

Another important setting I would recommend you take a look at is the confirmation message .

I would suggest you take this off because in your campaign settings you will still have to send a welcome email so it would make sense if you sent a welcome email asking these leads to confirm they are on your list.

Creating a Campaign Automation in Aweber.

Here is a detailed example of a campaign I created in Aweber. I Set this up once and it will send these emails at the exact times specified.

After You have added specific Tags on your Email addresses submited in your landing pages .

Head over to the Menu tab above and click on Messages. It will bring up a drop down menu and in that menu look for campaigns.

After you that , you will click on create campaign and you will be able to start a brand new campaign.

Once you have created the campaign the rest of the work is easy as drag and drop.

You can add wait blocks , tags and emails that will be sent out. If you are using a paid plan then you will be able to add tracking links.

This will enable you see which subscribers click the links you added to your emails.

To write the Emails , it is as easy as dragging in text boxes , images , buy buttons and so much more..

So what are some good practices to ensure your Emails don’t end up in the spam folder.

Avoiding the Spam Folder

This is the best action You can take to greatly give your Autoresponder that your subscribers like your Emails.

• Ask Your Subscribers in the Welcome Email to Whitelist Your Emails.

I would recommend you record a simple introduction video of yourself , introduce yourself and tell your new leads of what they should expect from you.

In this video tell them to add your Email to their Favorites or Whitelist. Trust me on This one by doing this you will have a higher chance of 95% of avoiding the spam folder

• Send Valuable Information.

Most marketers Think that The emails You send out should always be forced on pushing your subscribers to making that sale.

Remember You should always have value 80% first before you send promotional emails. If your leads find out that you are so salesy then they may end up unsubscribing from your emails.

• Ask Your Subscribers For Feedback.

The best way you can learn on how to improve your services , emails , campaigns and products is to ask for feedback from your engaged subscribers.

You can easily do this by sending a simple survey email , check in emails or even rating buttons on your checkout pages.

If You deliver and improve your services , products upon feedback from your audience then they will like you more and add your emails to their favorites.

Increasing Your Emails Open Rates In Aweber.

If you don’t email your subcribers regulary , they may forget about you or even ignore your emails.

So how do you increase your open rates. Here are some ideas to help you out.

According to Aweber, The best open rates should be 10% in the first 48 hours of emailing your list.

You can do split testing and see which headlines tend to have the most open rates. Thankfully with Aweber you can do split test Emails and find out which gets the most attention.

Use Curiosity based Headers in your emails. This will appear as the main message seek peek on your subscribers notications.

If your headlines are Generic and not Addressing any problem your subscribers need help with then you are wasting time.

Another way to find inspiration is to look at your emails and see which emails have well crafted Titles and headers.

Which Images are they using and Emojis. This will help you learn and improve your Email copyrighting.

Always Update Your content and list. Find out which content performs better and which subscribers are no longer interested in your emails.

You can Also launch an engagement email campaign to awaken those subscribers no longer reading your emails. You can read more about this on the Aweber help page.

PLEASE NOTE: I built this exact form using another software on my website but the idea remains the same for Aweber users depending on your pricing plan.

I have summarized the pricing plans for Aweber below to help you get what is included in each pricing package.

For Any Additional Help in regards to Email marketing, you can check out Aweber Youtube Channel here with Awesome tutorials.

Please Note That some of the links included in this article may be Affiliate Links Which means I will get a compensation If You upgrade to any pricing plan available on the officials site.

This however doesnot add any additional costs to you on any purchases made.

Please go ahead and leave me a comment if this was helpful . Thanks.

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