RSS and email marketing tips for bloggers and businesses. The second of a three-part webcast series organized by Bill Belew, in cooperation with Amy Vernon, after we all met at the 2013 #NMX expo.

1. Building Your Business with RSS
& Email Subscriptions
Phil Hollows
CEO
FeedBlitz.com

2. What You’ll learn today
• The difference between RSS and email
subscriptions.
• Why offering subscriptions – and email in
particular – is more relevant today than
ever before.
• TEN POWER TIPS to build a better list,
faster.

3. About Phil Hollows
• Author of “List Building for Bloggers” e-book.
• Founder and CEO of FeedBlitz, the premium
FeedBurner alternative.
• FeedBlitz sends:
– Over 1 billion updates a year.
– on behalf of more than 160k lists.
– for over 72,000 bloggers!
• FeedBlitz gets your word out via email, RSS,
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and IM.
• Clients include: Seth Godin and Copyblogger

4. RSS, Feeds and Email,
Oh My!

5. What is an RSS Feed?
• An RSS feed is a way people can subscribe to
your blog.
• Your content is pushed to subscribers.
• Readers need an RSS reader to subscribe.
• Your blog will have an RSS feed, and that’s
pretty much all you need to know, technically.

6. What is an Email Subscription?
• An email subscription is a way people can
subscribe to your blog. e.g. a newsletter
• Your content is pushed to their inbox.
• Subscribers need an email app.
• There are plugins and services to help set up
email signups for your site.

7. What is the Difference between Email
and RSS?
Benefit Email RSS
Push to readers Email app RSS reader
Subscriber data Email address The user’s reader
Branding Unlimited Post only
Post optional “Blast” the list No
End user tracking Yes No
Personalization Yes No
Autoresponders Yes No
Mom can use it Yes No
Portable Yes No

8. Why Isn’t Email Dead
in the Age of Social Media?
Email is the most powerful,
effective and relevant
subscription option that exists today.
ATTENTION is the Name of the Game

9. Why Isn’t Email Dead in the Age of
Social Media?
November 2011

10. Why Isn’t Email Dead in the Age of
Social Media?
November 2011

11. Why Isn’t Email Dead in the Age of
Social Media?
November 2011
Via http://smedio.com/2012/05/11/why-social-media-is-yet-to-destroy-email-marketing/

12. Are You Wasting Your Site’s
MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE?
“I get ten times more response to my blog
from my email subscribers
than I do from anyone else.”
Seth Godin

13. Email Marketing is
Better for Bloggers
• Full branding.
• Activity tracking.
• Committed
subscribers.

14. Email is the Essential Component
of Hub and Spoke Content Marketing
• While all the other
elements of your work
are important and
probably cooler than
email…
• … if Facebook went
away tomorrow, what
would keep your
blogging business
alive?
Your list

15. Easy Tips to Grow Your List
Faster
The keys to email marketing
success are permission,
relevance and timeliness.

18. List Building – Basic Tips
• Learn from the leaders.
• Have a clear subscription form above the fold.
• Use social proof if you have it.
• Incentives work.
• Brand, baby, brand!

19. Make it Easy to Subscribe
• Can your visitors find your subscription form?
– Is it on every page?
– Do visitors have to scroll?
– How many clicks before they enter their email?
– Is it linked to by an inscrutable icon?
– Does it appear after less popular subscription
methods?
• Remember, you are not your audience!

20. Don’t Do this…
• The email icon is after
RSS
– But RSS is less popular
and unfamiliar to most
visitors
• The email icon is unclear
– Mail me?
– Subscribe?
– Forward to a friend?
• There’s at least one extra
click to get to the form
itself

21. Better, But…
• The email icon is now
the first to be seen.
– The most popular,
subscription type is
first.
– But it’s still ambiguous!
• The visitor still has to
click to get to the
subscription form.

22. Best!
• There is no ambiguity
• There is a concrete
call to action
• There are zero clicks
to get to the form
• Other sharing options
are still there

23. Power Tip #1
Make Your Subscription Form Visible
• Move it “above the fold.”
• Don’t hide it behind a confusing email or
RSS icon.
• Count the clicks before you can enter your
email address.
– Get that count down to ZERO.
• Don’t skimp on proving permission.
• Subscribe to your own mailings.

24. Power Tip #2
Social Media Cross-Promotion
• Add your favorite social
media options to your
mailing.
• Facebook tips
– Add your email service’s
Facebook app.
– Ask for subscriptions when
you post.
• Email is the original social
network!
– Make sure “email to a
friend” is enabled in your
mailings.

25. Power Tip #3
Add Incentives
• Reward subscribers for joining your list.
• Make the reward visible!
• Ensure your incentive is relevant.
• Use an autoresponder or custom landing
page to deliver the reward.
• Reward current subscribers with bonuses
to help with retention.

26. MoneySavingMom.com Example
• The incentive is prominent: Above the banner!
• It’s highly relevant to the site’s audience.
• It takes subscribers straight to the CAPTCHA
page.
• Post-activation pages take the new subscriber
back to the site.
• Results: Monthly net list growth has doubled.

27. Power Tip #4
Make the most of offline events
• Create a sign-up sheet
for your seminars.
• When you exchange
business cards, ask if you
may add to the list.
• Use QR codes to link to
event URL and
subscription forms.
• Add links to printed
collateral, t-shirts etc.

28. There Are No Shortcuts
• Don’t add subscribers who did
not give you their explicit permission.
• Don’t bury permission in terms of service etc.
• Don’t import from a list you don’t own.
– Not from your spouse, BFF or CEO.
• Don’t import from an unrelated list you do own.
• Never, ever, EVER buy lists.
– They will contain spam traps.
– You will be blacklisted.
• Don’t spam your LinkedIn contacts.
The instant you add *just one* email address to your
list without permission, you are a SPAMMER.
So, if you’re not sure, don’t.

29. Danger: Here be Popups
• Popups work – but use with caution.
• Don’t interrupt the visitor immediately.
• Give them time to explore your site.
– The longer they’re on your site, the more interested
they are.
– So the more likely they are to respond well to a popup
invitation
• Treat your visitors with respect before they sign
up
– So they’ll know they’ll be treated with respect after
they’ve joined your list.
– e.g. the FeedBlitz popup is on page 3, 10s delay

30. PopupDomination @ FeedBlitz.com

31. Pack the 1-2-3 Punch to Grow Your List
1. Use a professional email service.
2. Use a compelling, relevant incentive.
3. Make it easy to subscribe, including
respectful popups.

32. Improving Engagement
Or
100,000 subscribers don’t count for
squat if only your mother is opening
your emails.

33. Open Sesame
• Build compelling subject lines and copy.
• Reinforce your brand.
• Write for your three different reader types.
• Be imperative with your calls to action.
• Repetition works.
Subscribe to your own email updates.
If you don’t like what you get, your subscribers
probably won’t either. Fix it!

34. Power Tip #5
Use Compelling Copywriting
• Use direct, imperative calls to action.
• Reduce choices to reduce reader confusion.
• Write short, snappy, SEO-friendly titles / subject
lines.
• Accommodate different reader types:
– Have at least one image per post for visual readers.
– Use headlines for scanners.
• Fulfill the subject line’s promise.

35. Subject line Hints and Tips:
Applied Psychology / Neuromarketing
• Nasty out performs nice.
• Don’t ask for the order. Tell them to give it to
you.
• Low numbers work well, especially odd ones.
• Be urgent
– Buy now, do it today, immediate download!
• Use (but don’t abuse) the all-time classics:
– “You are not alone”
– “Did you get it?”

36. Power Tip #6
Check your Branding and Design
• Ensure your “From” name and address is what your
readership expects.
• Don’t be redundant in your subject line.
• Keep subject lines short
– 35 characters for mobile phones in portrait mode.
– e.g. Marie Browning, Requesting your Assistance becomes:
Marie Browning, Requesting your Ass (!)
• Test in gmail, with and without images enabled.
• Fix problems with or avoid using:
– CSS, background images, positioning.
– Image descriptions, light text on dark backgrounds.
– Text to image balance.

37. Unsubscribes are a Form of Engagement
• Don’t ignore unsubscribes.
– Someone saying “bye” is still telling you
something.
• It feels personal, but it most likely isn’t.
• Spikes in unsubscribe and complaint rates
may indicate:
– You’re losing relevance.
– You’re mailing too often.
– You’re not mailing enough.

38. Engagement Killers
• Broken images.
• Boring content.
• Burying the lead.
• Ignoring the mobile audience.
• Over-reliance on video and images.
• Over-mailing.
• Under-mailing.

39. Spam and Deliverability:
Truth, Lies and Compliance

40. CAN-SPAM: Required Irrelevance
• CAN-SPAM compliance is a legal requirement.
– But it’s irrelevant for deliverability and inbox placement.
– Being CAN-SPAM compliant does not mean your email isn’t
spam.
• But it’s the ISPs who decide where your email goes.
– The primary driver is sender (IP) reputation.
– Reputation is based on complaint rates, bounce handling and
history.
– Content filters come much later in the process.
– CAN-SPAM compliance is not a criteria used by receiving ISPs.
• Use a reputable email service
• Always use dual opt-in

41. Engaging the New Subscriber
Autoresponders and well-planned
landing pages make the most of your
new
subscriber’s enthusiasm.

42. Power Tip #7
Set up an Autoresponder
• Define a sequence of articles to send to new
subscribers, e.g.
1. Thanks for subscribing.
2. Here’s a special offer for new subscribers.
3. Check out our top ten most popular posts.
4. Survey: How do you like the site?
5. Here are the first three chapters of my e-book
6. Join the e-book affiliate program.
7. …
• At a minimum, say “Thank you for subscribing.”
• End the sequence with a reward for staying.

43. Power Tip #8
Spiff Up Your Landing Page
• Thank them!
• Deliver any sign-up reward / incentive.
• Offer more subscriptions to other content.
• Add links to your best / most popular
posts.
• Ask for referrals.
• Test and optimize.

44. Multi-list Strategies
Simple subscriber self-selection for
content, location and schedule
preferences reduce churn
and complaint rates.

45. Choice is Good
• Multi-list strategies reduce churn:
– Subscribers self-select into a list that is right for them.
– They’re therefore much less likely to leave it.
• It’s easy to set up multiple lists from your blog:
– Use tags and categories to focus content.
– Use multiple schedules to accommodate recipient
preferences.
– Make these choices available on the sign-up form.

46. More from MoneySavingMom.com
• Over 100 different
lists.
– Some filtered by topic
– Some filtered by
schedule
– Some filtered by
content
• All built from the
same blog.

47. Power Tip #9
Diversify with Multiple Lists
• Offer different versions for different schedules if
appropriate.
– e.g. Express, daily and / or weekly digests.
• Offer content-specific lists.
• Decide how to offer them to readers.
• Do you have user-driven searches and feeds?
– Offer email subscriptions for search results via API.
• Add the lists you create to your post-activation
landing page.

48. What Next?
• Make the easy changes first.
– You’ll be wasting your time otherwise.
• Pace yourself.
– It can feel overwhelming, especially if there’s lots to
do.
– Take one task at a time, one day at a time.
• Test! See how each change works for you.
– See if you can improve, tune and tweak.
– Don’t be afraid to roll a change back if it doesn’t work.
• Please let me know how you get on!

49. A DEAL for YOU
• Go to FeedBlitz.com
• Start a 30-day trial with this promotion
code:
BillBelew
• You will get a 15% lifetime discount 
(But only if you do it before April 1st)

50. Thank You
Questions? Comments?
Ask!
phil@feedblitz.com
@phollows
FeedBlitz.com
ListBuildingForBloggers.com
SlideShare.net/phollows
YouTube.com/phollows