How To Make Money With Bitcoin | Cryptocurrency Tips for Beginners | Chapter 15

Email Marketing - The Money is in the List

Probably the most powerful marketing tool since the conception of the internet until today was and still is email. Before we get started I want to make something clear, when I talk about email marketing I don't mean spamming people with annoying marketing emails. I'm talking about asking for your visitor's email address so you can create a relationship with him via email and perhaps also get him to buy your product.

The main difference here is that the user agrees to let me send him stuff and it's not illegal. The CAN-SPAM act23 describes exactly what you need to do in order to be considered as compliment with the law when sending out emails, but you don't need to read through the whole document, I'll break it down to you later on.

I know many people don't get all of the fuss going around about email but there are a few reasons why email marketing is so powerful.

1. Everybody checks their email - Unlike Facebook, Twitter or any other form of marketing, email is something that 100% of your prospects have. Over 4 billion people around the globe have email accounts24 compared to 1.23 billion Facebook users25.
2. Everybody gets to see your email. On Facebook for example, only 35% of your friends or page fans get to see your post26. With email, your message gets delivered 100% of the time. Sure, you may fall into the SPAM folder or the promotions tab on Google but we'll talk about that as well.
3. You can customize your email so that they will address your user personally. If you also have a name associated with an email address you can send super-targeted personalized emails, a feature which isn't available in any other medium.
4. Emails can be tracked just like any other form of advertising. How many people opened the email, clicked the link inside them or marked you as SPAM. It's all trackable.

Done correctly, email marketing will not only get you sales but will also build your brand, as people feel they have a personal connection with someone on the other side and that it's not "just an online shop".

There's an old saying that goes, "The money is in the list." This saying predates internet marketing, back when people were collecting actual home addresses and sending out snail mail (i.e. regular letters). Not a lot has changed since then, except for the fact that sending out mail has gotten much easier.

Emails can be used for many parts of your business, and here are just a few examples:

• Notifying customers about changes
• Asking for feedback from your customers
• Educating your users about Bitcoin or your product
• Conducting online support for your product
• Helping users get through the onboarding process - onboarding is the process from sign up until the first actual use of the product.
• Getting to know your customers better

Here are some examples from 99Bitcoins. The first example is how I use email to educate my blog subscribers. Every time I post a new informative or important blog post I make sure they know about it.

Chapter 15.1: Selecting An Email Software Provider

The first step will be to select an email software provider. You see, if you're going to deal with email lists you need some software that will be in charge of the following:

• Collecting email addresses and other information.
• Sending out emails according to your desired settings.
• Tracking statistics about emails sent.
• Managing your subscribers (remove unsubscribes, notify you of complaints etc.).

Now I know some of you are probably thinking, "I can just use a Gmail account for this, I don't need to pay money."

Wrong.

If you send out multiple emails (also known as broadcasts or blasts) from your Gmail address, one of two things will happen. Either all of the emails you send out will reach the SPAM folder of your subscribers or your account will be shut down.

The email software providers have specific servers that allow them to send out big amounts of emails simultaneously and still reach subscribers effectively. That's also the reason why they constantly make sure you are not just another spammer who sends out junk. Their server's integrity depends on it.

The two most popular email software providers out there today are Aweber and Mailchimp. You can choose either one but here are some things to take into consideration:

• Mailchimp will let you get started with up to 2,000 subscribers completely free of charge, no credit card required. Aweber will give you a 30 day trial but will start charging you $19/m after that.
• Mailchimp does not allow the sending of affiliate links. So if you're planning to become a Bitcoin affiliate I'd suggest going with Aweber (that's what I do).

If you find these two companies unsuitable for you there are some other great alternatives like GetResponse and iContact which also have a great reputation.

Create your first web forms by using AIDA

Once you sign up with either company they have some very informative tutorials on how to build your first list and email form. Since I want to deal with more Bitcoin and marketing related stuff, I won't go over how to set up these forms but rather explain the general guidelines.

Since a web form is just like any other marketing material we're going to use the AIDA formula to create it.

Attention - Form looks and location

There are several ways to get people to notice your opt-in form. The most basic one is its design. Make it in colors that contrast the website or in a different design than the rest of the site. Through your email service provider you'll be able to design your form to an extent. If you feel you want more attractive forms you can always use some 3rd party software.

For example, if you're using WordPress for your website, I highly recommend using Thrive Leads. This software allows you to design stunning web forms and also has a lot more features that I use on a regular basis. Other great options are OptinMonster and SumoMe.

Also the placement of your form is something you should consider when trying to get your audience's attention. Here are the options available:

Interest - It's all in the headline

This is not the first or the second time we're talking about headlines. Opt-in forms need interesting headlines as well or else no one will read them and follow through. Make sure to have a short and compelling headline using the rules we've learned in the beginning of this part.

Desire - Giving your users an incentive

In some opt-in forms like the sidebar, you have some more space available for additional text. You should use this space to create desire for subscribing. One of the most common methods to do this other than explaining the WIFM (what's in it for me) part of your newsletter, is offering some sort of an incentive to whoever subscribes.

In 99Bitcoins, I offer O.lmilliBitcoin to every new subscriber and I do this as an educational step. After all I am an educational site about Bitcoin, so why not let people experience their first Bitcoin transaction for free?

Of course this costs me almost nothing, since O.lmBitcoin is around 3 cents, and considering that not every subscriber follows through on the instructions on how to get these coins, I end up paying around $1 for each 100 subscribers which is a pretty good price.

This requires some manual labor as I have to manually send the coins to each subscriber. But that's why I hired a freelancer from Upwork that does this for $80 a month. I get around 1000 subscribers each month and it costs me $10 + $80 = $90. That's a pretty small amount to pay for qualified leads.

"but some people sign up just to get the money, so they're not real subscribers"

True. But since I track all of my open rates and click rates on my email I can wholeheartedly say that my list engagement rates are still growing. If most if these people were in it just for the money, I'd see a lot of subscribers but not enough engagement. That's not the case here, so I have to assume that most people are genuinely interested in the blog as well.

You can always copy this method and offer free Bitcoins as well. The cons of using this is that you get a lot of spammers trying to trick you in to giving them free money so you have to keep an eye out for it.

Coindesk, for example, gives out a free industryreport in exchange for your email address. Lately they have removed the request for an email address and are giving it absolutely free. My guess is that they understood that people who read this report are already Coindesk subscribers and they are probably losing reach and not gaining more subscribers from this.

Circle used to give out $50 in Bitcoins for whoever signed up to their service. This of course requires more than just an email address, but it shows you the power of incentives.

Action - short and compelling

The last part of the form is the call to action. In the case of opt-in forms there are several calls to action since the user needs to enter his personal details and then click the submit button. As a rule of thumb, the less information you request, the higher your conversion rate will be for your opt-in forms. For example, in 99Bitcoins I ask only for your email and nothing else.

As for the submit button, make sure it describe the benefit of the action and not just says "submit" or "sign up". Going back to Coinbase's example from the beginning of the book take a look at the text on their CTA button:

If you saw my own opt-in forms from before, you'll seethe CTA is "Send me the coins!". This has a great impact on how people react to your form since it answers the basic question of what's in it for me.

The last thing you may want to consider adding to your form is an unsubscribe/spam statement. I like to address the potential subscriber's hesitation by adding a short statement under the CTA button saying, "I hate SPAM as much as you do, you can unsubscribe at any time with one click".

Chapter 15.2: You've Got Your First Email Subscriber! Now What?

Explain what happens next

Most email service providers require you to use an opt-in confirmation process. This means your subscribers will have to click a confirmation email inside their email link to confirm it was actually them who signed up. You can imagine that some people won't complete this process and therefor you will lose subscribers.

One of the best things you can do is create a detailed "thank you" page that explains the exact process of what needs to happen next. Here's an example from 99Bitcoins:

As you can see, I went the extra mile and even posted a screenshot of how the email and link look like. In this page you may also want to tell your subscribers what they can expect from you: How many times you'll email them, the fact that you will never share their information and how they can unsubscribe if they want to. You can view my actual thank you page here.

Customize your confirmation email

It's possible and advised to customize your confirmation email. Try to make the headline sound more interesting than "Confirmation required" which is the default headline in most email service providers.

Follow up immediately

Make sure to send your subscribers something the moment they signed up. This could either be just a simple thank you email or the incentive you promised them. The idea is to get them used to opening your emails while you still have momentum. That's why incentives are so effective since people are actively looking for your email in their inbox.

How to communicate with your subscribers

You're going to have to decide on your communication format before sending out your first email, here are some of the options to consider.

Broadcast VS. Followup

An email broadcast (AKA email blast) is when you send all of your subscribers an email simultaneously. This is useful if you have a time sensitive update. On the other hand, a follow up email is an email which is timed from the last email sent. For example, you can set up a series of emails to reach each new subscribers once every two days teaching them something new about Bitcoin.

Follow ups are a good option for an educational series of emails. If you're going to utilize this option make sure to prepare the whole flow of emails in advance.

Promotional VS. Personal approach

If you've been reading 99Bitcoins' emails you probably already know that I send them out with a very personal approach. Having said that, you may want to take the promotional approach which includes a more designed email template.

I try to make my emails to look as plain emails as possible, since I believe the personal approach gets you more avid readers. Also, studies have shown that your prospect will need at least seven communication messages from you before deciding to buy something27, so no need to bombard them with offers from day one.

HTML VS. Plain text

When you format your emails you'll have the option of using HTML or plain text. HTML allows you to create great looking designs and also track your email's open rate and click through rate. Plain text looks just like a normal email you'd send a friend and does a good job at avoiding the SPAM folder or the promotions tab on Gmail.

I usually use the HTML emails since I want to have tracking, but I format them as plain text emails so that they won't look too promotional.

Chapter 15.3: Optimizing Your Email Open Rate

The first thing you'd want to work on is boosting your email open rate. If no one opens your emails, no one is going to click on them. To get an idea of what's a good open rate here are some industrybenchmarks by Mailchimp.

I can tell you that I get around a 26% open rate to my emails which is above average. Here are some quick tips to optimizing your open rate:

Headline - Since this is the only thing the user sees before deciding if he's going to open your email or delete it you have to have a good headline. Use all of the techniques we've talked about before and also make sure to personalize it if possible.

If you collect your subscriber's name as well as his email you can add his name in the headline via the email service provider - that usually gets higher open rate.

Optimizing the sender's name can also generate a greater open rate. I like using this formula: [my first name] from [my company name]. So emails that you will receive from me will be sent from: Ofir from 99Bitcoins. You can easily set this up via your email service provider as well.

Last but not least you should make sure your emails are sent during the right time. Studies have shown28 that the best time to send emails is usually on weekdays between 8am-10am. This of course varies according to your industry (check the reference for different industry analysis).

From my own experience, the Bitcoin related emails I send out tend to perform best when they are sent on weekdays. Since I cater many countries on my blog it's hard to time my email broadcasts but I usually send them around 4pm GMT. Coindesk and CryptoCoinsNews send their newsletter out at 2pm GMT.

Avoid the SPAM folder/promotion tab - People can't open your emails if they don't find them. In order to avoid hitting the SPAM folder or promotions tab on Google it's advised to instruct your readers to look for your first email and whitelist it. 

I also created a short animated tutorial about the promotions tab here.

One of the best ways to insure your emails get into your reader's primary inbox is getting them to reply to one of your emails. In 998itcoins I use two different methods for this. The first, is that I ask for my subscribers to send me a short intro about themselves before I send them the complimentary Bitcoins.

Second, after 2 weeks of being subscribed I send a follow up email asking them for some feedback on the blog, here's how it looks:

Chapter 15.4: Optimizing Your Email Click Through Rate

Once you get enough people opening your emails you now need to make sure they actually follow through on the actions you want them to take. The industry benchmarks for CTR on emails is usually between 1.6%-4.6%, exact figures can be viewed here. My own emails reach a CTR of around 6% (this is out of the total emails sent), here's how I do it:

Use a small amount of links - Don't bombard your subscribers with too many links. Usually figure out what's the main action you want your readers to take and only insert up to two links. For example, if I want to update my readers on a new post that is out I'll send out something like this:

As you can see there are only two links, both which are leading to the same post. This message got a 6.7% click through rate.

Anchor text should be attractive - Anchor text refers to the text which is highlighted by the link. Most people just use "click here" or "read now" which is fine, but if you look at the example above you'll see how I use a more benefit driven anchor text to make the link more attractive. I try to convey what they will receive if they actually click the link.

No "funny looking" links - Try to format all links to have anchor text. This is very easy if you're using HTML, but if you're using plain text you may find yourself needing to post links with long strings of character. This may scare some visitors away. My suggestion in this case is to use a URL shortener like bit.ly or goo.gl. 

Chapter 15.5: Optimizing Your Email Bounce And Complaint Rate

An email bounce rate is the percentage of emails that could not be delivered, mostly due to an invalid email address. In order to eliminate this rate to almost zero I'd suggest the following:

Use double opt-in confirmation - By default this option will be set to "on" on almost any email service provider. It just means that the user will have to take an additional step to confirm his subscription by clicking a link in an email sent to home. This makes sure that you're getting an actual valid email address and although it may lower your sign up rates, it's worth it in the long run . It's also legally required in order to collect visitor emails by the CAN-SPAM act.

Ask for "work email" or "primary email" - As stupid as it may sound, inside the email text box ask the user to enter their primary or work email. Also make it clear that in order to receive the incentive he'll have to actually access the address he put it.

Clean up your list once a month - If you're doing things right your email list will start to build up pretty soon. I suggest you clean it up once a month by removing inactive subscribers. This is good since it not only lowers your bounce rate but it also allows you to pay only for subscribers who actually read your emails.

It's up to you to decide what is considered an "inactive subscriber". For example, I delete anyone who hasn't opened any of my emails in the past two months. Considering I send out one email a week, someone who didn't open my last eight emails probably isn't going to start now.

Optimizing your email complaint rate

The last rate you want to optimize is your complaint rate. Each time a user clicks the "mark as spam" on one of your emails you get a complaint marked in your email service provider dashboard. You want to keep this rate to a minimum and here's how to do it:

Don't send too often - Unless your subscribers are expecting to get a daily email series, don't send out

more than twice a week, ideally once a week.

Remind your readers who you are * Believe it or not but people don’t really remember who you are even though they've subscribed to your email list. I start every email with, "Hi, this is Ofir from 99Bitcoins," just so that they'll understand who's talking to them. After a while they get used to receiving my emails.

Remind them why they are getting this email - How many times have you found yourself looking at an email and asking yourself, "Why am I getting this?" That's exactly what you want to avoid happening to your readers. At the bottom of each email I add a paragraph reminding them why they getting this email. You can also consider putting this at the top.

Give them a simple way out - Make sure to have a clear "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of every email. If people won't be able to find it they'll just hit the "SPAM" button instead.

Live up to your word - If you promised some sort of a "bribe" for new subscribers make sure you deliver it. I take the sending of our complimentary Bitcoins very seriously, and if I find out someone didn't get them it's taken care off immediately.

Learn from trolls - An Internet troll is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory messages with the deliberate intent of provoking an emotional response.

Accept the fact that no matter what you do, some people are just haters. They'll send you nasty emails, curse you and write all sorts of mean stuff. Instead of taking it personally try to use one of two methods. First, disarm negativity with kindness. Never lash out on your readers, it won't do you any good. At worst just ignore them. But if you try being kind in return you'll find out that people will actually feel bad they insulted you in the first place.

Second, try to learn from these "trolls". Once you remove the personal insult you may find out some valuable feedback from what they have to say, so keep listening.

Chapter 15.6: Email Hack - How To Get 1,000 Bitcoin Subscribers In A Week

This next hack is something I use very often to bump the number email list subscribers I get. Once a month I will hold some sort of a giveaway, but with a twist. Here's a breakdown of how it's done:

• I choose a very compelling product - for example, a ticket to InsideBitcoins or a Bitcoin hardware wallet like TREZOR. Since I know not everyone would want this prize I also allow the contestants to receive the value of the gift in Bitcoins instead.
• I set up the giveaway using the KingSumo giveaway plugin. This is a paid WordPress plugin which basically takes care of every aspect of the giveaway for you.
• I make sure to promote my giveaway on the relevant social channels as explain in Chapter 14.

If you want a full demonstration of how it's done you can read this excellent blog post by Josh Earl which is actually how I found out about this plugin. If you want to see the different giveaway on 99Bitcoins click here.

Just so you'll understand the potential of this, in the last giveaway I ran I got over 1,000 valid subscribers for a $50 giveaway and all within a week. The reason these giveaways are so powerful is because they allow other contestants to increase their chance of winning by bringing in more contestants.

So basically each contestant becomes sort of an affiliate for your contest which makes it pretty easy to go viral. I had one guy that brought in another 150 people on board, and I didn't have to do anything for it.

Additional advice about email marketing

Before we end this chapter, I'd like to share some final pointers regarding email marketing:

• Don't EVER deal with buying or selling email addresses. This is bad practice and will come back and haunt you later on.
• Make sure you track and test everything, don't just take my word for it (although you can use my word as a starting point).
• Make sure to send out emails on a regular basis. There's no use in just collecting emails and not sending anything out. If you do this, once you decide to send you'll be amazed by how low your open rate is and how many people mark you as SPAM. People have short term memories when it comes to subscribing to stuff online, make sure to keep them engaged.
• Write emails that you'd like to read yourself, make sure to send yourself a test email before each broadcast and ask yourself - "Would I open this email? Would I want to read this?"
• For advanced users, if you want to track your email marketing campaigns in Google Ana Iyti cs use this guide.

Homework - Set Up Your Mailing List for Success

This chapter's homework will recap all we've went through and put it into practice:

• Sign up with an email service provider. I suggest Mailchimp, but if you're dealing with
• affiliate marketing then use Aweber.
• Create some sort of an incentive to get your users to sign up. This could be a short guide, an industry report, free Bitcoins or anything else you think is relevant to your target audience.
• Set up your first list and web form. Each email service provider will have their own tutorials on how to do this.
• Start collecting emails by placing the email form on your website. Ideally you'd want to put multiple versions on it via Thrive Leads or Optin Monster (pop up, top bar, after post etc.).
• Make sure to create a customized thank you page for your subscribers, explaining to them what happens next.
• Create a welcome email to your subscribers. Decide on what form of communication you're going to use - formal or personal.
• Continue to test, track and optimize your email marketing messages.

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