It’s been said time and again just how important email marketing is for any kind of business. There is a higher percentage for your ROI when you compare email marketing to all your other online marketing efforts. There’s a reason why it’s so hard to get an email address, but there’s no denying it that email marketing is so successful.
However, there comes a time when you look through your analytical tools and see that you have been getting a lot of bounces off your site. There is no one singular reason for this and the way to correct this can be infuriatingly tough. But, it’s still possible to reduce your bounce rate and continue to grow your email following.
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Take stock of your content
First and foremost, you should look through your analytics and see which articles did the best and consider why those were the best. Was it the video you included, the type of article, perhaps even the style in which it was written. Then all you have to do is continue to do more articles along those lines.
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Consider the responsiveness
Those same analytics can tell you just how mobile friendly you have become, or how much more mobile friendly you need to become. With mobile internet becoming more and more popular, you will lose more in the long run if you can’t adapt for the mobile internet.
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Examine your optins
See which popups worked for you, and what triggered those. Were they right when a visitor showed up, as they got half way or to the end of your article, or as a last ditch attempt and they were about to leave your site? Did you use the same exact popups between your mobile visitors and PC visitors? If after analysis your results don’t look good, consider implementing a new type of optin form which could boost your conversions.
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Take note of the length of time visitors spent on your website
Consider the length of time a visitor stayed on your site. There can be a plethora of reasons why you have bounces in a matter of seconds. Ranging from miss-clicks, bad typing skills, or just an immediate dislike for the general look of your site. The ones that did stick around for a little longer, where did they stay the longest, the shortest? Whatever strategies you used that kept people there longer should be reincorporated elsewhere on your site. If your image heavy articles kept people enticed, give them more of that. If it was the videos, again, keep doing more of those.
Spend some time looking over your content as a whole. It’s quite easy to have spelling mistakes and grammatical errors littered in an article. Reducing those errors not only makes you a better writer, but it increases the professionalism your website gives off. This also goes for your popups.
Test everything
Then you must test everything. And keep testing it; because things trend online, they don’t stay the same for very long. If you can adapt as quickly as the changes come about, the better. Don’t be afraid to use different styles of popups either. Differentiate between your user base as well, because each type of user reacts differently. Wherever possible, use A/B testing, and change through it.
However, if you decide to implement a change, you should come up with several versions and several ways to go forward with them. Retaining subscribers and getting new ones is rife with ways to alienate either group. Because of this aspect, you should always test everything extensively.
Don’t be afraid to ask your subscribers for their opinion
You can also go as far as to invite your current email subscribers to tell you exactly what worked for them. Whether you ask for permission to use a 3rd party to call or email them, or just email them yourself. Chances are your subscribers will be quite receptive to this and will be more than happy to share their opinions with you. Then you can implement those opinions with your next revision or article and really see some traction.
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Alternatively, you can accept user generated content by way of a contest of giveaway that supports your brand. You may be surprised to see just how innovative your current email subscribers are and how just entering a giveaway or contest can get you more email sign ups. Anything that can get your audience involved is a way to rev them up and drive more of a following to you.
Build relationships with social media
Social media is quickly becoming the go to place for businesses looking to be more social, and not just another way for having a popularity contest. Many business still rate cold hard numbers being more important than warm hearted relationships. While there can be an importance placed on high numbers, it should always take a back seat to building relationships. No matter which platform you decide on, focus on building a new friend instead of another number.
Connect with your target audience offline
Going forward you should always be on the lookout for more ways to connect with your audience. It’s not always easy, and you should always be thinking of ways that will excite people. But it’s not only online that you can connect with people. Driving traffic to your site and using numerous variations of several different popups while spending money on advertisements to do all that isn’t the only way.
You can ask other thought provokers in your niche to get together and host a panel where everyone can come and weigh in. This works quite well between various service providers.
Another way is to form a legal cartel. This is a great idea for local non-competitive businesses like shoe stores, jewellery stores, and clothing stores. Cross promoting of each other can introduce new a new customer base to everyone involved.
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Setting up a physical shop is actually a lot easier than it sounds. You can rent a small stall at the local swap meet to showcase your product or service, as well as hand out business cards that can lead people to your website organically.
The three above ideas can lead to great revenue streams, but more importantly it can build lasting relationships without all the hassle of continuously testing various designs. It makes the relationships more personal than just being an internet bestie.
Final Thoughts
As a recap, be prepared to do a lot of site research followed by a lot of continual testing and changes. Nothing is static online. Be as mobile friendly as you possibly can be. This includes responsive website designs, mobile friendly and targeted popups. Be creative when targeting your audience, think of fun ways for you and your audience to get active in something. Use social media platforms to your advantage, but remember to be SOCIAL and not some number hungry person; ever. Go offline once in a while and get together other thought provokers in your niche or collaborate with fellow business owners and strive for a mutually beneficial goal.