101 Ways to Make Money With Email Marketing
By Troy Ericson
CEO e-mailMarketing.com
Numbers 1-51 are geared more toward business owners.
Numbers 52-101 are geared more toward freelance copywriters.
Many of these will be new - while others you will know. Troy & Dom made
these from our experience in selling $100MM worth of products & services
via email. Read these over, implement the ones you see fit, and enjoy the
profits:
For Business Owners:
1. Duplicate your list. This means, when someone opts-in to your main
list, they are also subscribed to a second list you own. The second list
is for promoting similar offers with a different from name (someone
else relevant to your business). Now you can send 2x the emails and
make roughly 2x as much. Consult your attorney on this first to make
sure it’s set up properly - you want to make it clear that people are
joining 2 lists.
2. Put something for sale on your unsubscribe confirmation page. You’ll
scoop up a few extra grand each month. Just make sure they’re
unsubscribed. Get my help with this.
3. Create a Browse Abandonment email automation that automatically
reminds people to book/buy when they visit your site but don’t finish
booking/buying. This gives our company a 10-15% boost in
conversions.
4. Send more emails. More emails = more money. Don’t fear
unsubscribes. The right people will buy. The wrong people will
unsubscribe. I would recommend 1 email per day for most
businesses.
5. Change your ‘From Name’ on occasion - the pattern interrupt will
crush.
6. Let people promote your products as an affiliate.
7. Promote other peoples’ products as an affiliate.
8. Send an email where you share a screenshot or video thumbnail of
every testimonial you have. Then include your CTA. The social proof
is overwhelming & people will stop questioning your authority.
9. Hire an Executive Assistant to do the little tasks that are preventing
you from doing the other, more important things on this list.
10. Keep a list on your phone of all the things that happen to you in
your daily life. Or interesting ideas that go through your head. Now
you have an endless bank of ideas to write about & associate with
products for sale.
11. Understand that not every email has to sell. Selling every day
without being entertaining or teaching makes people unsubscribe.
12. Be okay with people unsubscribing. If you’re not offending
someone, you aren’t being bold enough about what you believe in.
The ‘offended’ people never buy - they just reply with mean
comments. The buyers never reply with mean comments - they just
buy.
13. Search for your niche on Reddit. Look at what people are
saying. Write emails & sell products that solve those problems.
14. Create a Customer Avatar. What are their hopes & dreams?
What are their fears & failures? What do they love? What do they
hate? What have they tried before? What are they optimistic to try?
You can’t speak to your list the right way if you don’t know these
answers.
15. Send a SHORT email that asks people to share their #1
problem. Write emails that address their problems.
16. Use UTM Parameters or Hyros to track your results. Otherwise,
you’re flying blind.
17. Before you go to bed each night, write down what’s most
important to get done the next day so you don’t wake up & start doing
menial tasks.
18. Underneath your opt-in, write “Report will be emailed to you
immediately - make sure your email address is correct.” This will
reduce the amount of bounces you get.
19. On opt-in forms, don’t ask for their email. Ask for their BEST
email. People will follow directions & give you their best email instead
of the crappy one that they rarely check.
20. Write down your story, no matter how normal or crazy it may
seem. Tell it to your list. Stories are the #1 way people will relate to
you & trust you enough to swipe their credit card. People relate over
hard times & your ‘hero’s journey’ - not all your accomplishments.
21. Write an email about each of the objections you get. This helps
you overcome them before people ever talk to you or hit your
checkout page.
22. Go against the grain. Say things that are contrarian in nature. If
you say things that everyone agrees with, you will never stand out.
Every person who has ‘gone viral’ has done this.
23. Stop trying to sound like big corporations. The reason they’re
so careful in the way they write is because of lawsuits & valuations.
Be more relatable than them. Never assume that big companies are
100% optimized.
24. Talk to people singularly. Not as a group. Say “you”, not “you
guys”.
25. Write the emails from the face of the brand, not the brand itself.
People can’t build a reading relationship if they don’t know the name
of the person writing to them.
26. The 5 types of emails that sell the most are: Contrarian, Stories,
Personal Feel, Recent Events, & Curiosity.
27. Try to include as many of these elements as possible in each
email: problem, promise, timeframe, simplicity, specificity, credibility,
& relatability.
28. To increase AOV, add a line before the link that says “Most
people buy 3.”
29. Use ‌ as your preview text line. This leaves it blank, which
draws the eye to your email when everyone else’s preview line is a
crowded mess of words.
30. If you’re going to use an image, use images with red arrows &
circles… peoples’ faces… and weird objects to grab peoples’
attention.
31. Make your Gmail Profile Picture a GIF so it flashes - another
pattern interrupt that will make you stand out in the inbox.
32. Don’t just run holiday sales - run weird sales - like inventory
overstock or your child’s birthday.
33. You aren’t running enough sales for your ecomm store. Run 1-2
sales per month. Make the coupon code expire.
34. The day after a sale, reopen it for one day under the reason
that SO many people asked because they were too busy the day
before (this happens all the time to people). Many times, this will
outsell the sale. Don’t do it every time though.
35. If you’re launching a product, it’s VERY important to hype up
the launch for at least 3 days in advance. Otherwise your sales will
suffer.
36. Re-use your best-performing emails of the past in your
welcome series/autoresponder. It worked before, it’ll work again.
37. Resend your emails at night with a different subject line to the
people who didn’t open the first one.
38. Send your emails to a Gmail account that you use for testing
purposes BEFORE you send the email to your full list. Now you can
see if you’re landing in the Primary Inbox, Promo Tab, or Spam
folder.
39. Get your emails out of the Promo Tab & Spam folder for
guaranteed higher open rates & sales. Get my help with this.
40. Make sure your transactional emails (including receipts) are
sent from your domain so you get credit for the super high open rates
& your domain reputation goes up.
41. Check the status of your domain reputation on
Postmaster.Google.com - if it’s low, send a ‘reply email’ to boost it.
42. After you fix any deliverability problems, send a ‘re-
engagement’ email to recover any subscribers who weren’t previously
seeing your emails. You should be able to recover 10-12% of them.
43. Need a high-ticket offer to sell? Find out the #1 problem your
audience has, create a Calendly account, and send the link out in an
email about solving that problem.
44. Never switch ESPs because someone tells you the grass is
greener somewhere else. It will cost you a ton of time for not much
return. The only exception, however, is Mailchimp. Never use
Mailchimp. If it gives you a headache, don’t use it.
45. A great product category in addition to Done-For-You, Done-
With-You, and Do-It-Yourself is Watch-You-Do-It. People love to be a
fly on the wall.
46. When you first start emailing your list, sell high-ticket first until
no one wants it anymore. Then, sell low ticket so you can build up the
amount of people who trust you enough to buy your high-ticket offer.
47. Quality is ALWAYS more important than quantity. Stop worrying
about the size of your list & start worrying about how you make them
feel (AKA do all the things in this document).
48. There’s always someone on your list who’s ready to spend
thousands of dollars. You just have to send the right offer to them.
49. Is your offer getting saturated? Change the name to better
reflect the problem it solves. Then send an email about it.
50. Many people think that social media is exciting & email is
boring. Start emailing the same exciting things that you post on social
media. People want to know about your life, especially if you run a
‘guru’ list.
51. Don’t have the time or expertise to do all this? Hire me to do it
for you.
For Freelance Copywriters:
52. Start sending emails from your clients’ ESP instead of just
writing them in Google Docs. This makes it a recurring service.
53. Give your clients a free service if they refer you to 3 friends
54. Create a lead magnet (similar to the one you’re reading) & start
growing your own list. Email them tips similar to the ones you’ve seen
here. Create a Calendly account. Include the link to your Calendly in
the bottom of each email. Close them on the call.
55. Start writing an email every day about a story from your life &
how it relates to business. Share two of them each week on
Facebook & include a link to opt-in to your list if they want more.
56. When you have a few clients, create a private
Facebook/Telegram/Text group where you share what’s working well.
Charge a monthly subscription for people to be in the group.
57. Raise your rates. It might seem scary to you, but odds are,
you’re undercharging.
58. Hire a VA to do the little tasks that are preventing you from
doing the other, more important things on this list.
59. Understand that impostor syndrome effects everyone, even me.
You’re not an impostor. Usually the most genuine people feel like
impostors - and the real impostors don’t feel like impostors. Go do
what is best for YOU & stop worrying about what other people think.
Not everyone will like you, and that’s okay. There are thousands of
potential clients out there for you.
60. Understand that clients need you just as much as you need
them. Sometimes they need you more. So don’t think that they have
all the power. Don’t come off as needy.
61. Having trouble getting prospects to trust you? Offer your
services for a % of the revenue you generate (as long as they have
an established business & you TRUST them).
62. Edit your emails AFTER you write them. Don’t judge yourself
when writing. You’ll write way faster & have time to serve more
clients.
63. Opt-in to a bunch of companies’ email lists so you can see what
they’re writing about. You will learn VERY quickly which offers are
working well & which ones aren’t.
64. Now that you’re on their list, you can also email them back a
Loom video of what you would improve to make them more money.
Send it to them along with your Calendly link.
65. If someone doesn’t reply to you, follow up on a different
platform.
66. Don’t follow up with “Did you think about it?” … Follow up with “I
thought of another awesome idea that will make you more money.
Want to hear about it?”
67. Post your favorite tip from this document in a Facebook Group.
Message anyone who likes or comments & ask if they’d like you to
implement it for them.
68. The 2 things that kill sales are trust & confusion. Does the
prospect trust that you can do what you say you can? Is your offer
crystal clear to them?
69. Talk to a business owner friend of yours, mock-pitch them, and
get honest feedback. This will open your eyes.
70. Make a Facebook post that says. “X is my favorite email
marketing tip. Share yours in the comments. Let’s get a thread
going!”
71. Give in public, sell in private. Understand that you may not
make money in your first month or week. POST EVERY DAY until
you do on your favorite social media platforms.
72. Stop trying to be so “business-y” online. Be a normal human.
Talk about business AND life. Have normal photos. Nothing too
formal. Otherwise people think you’re desperate for clients.
73. Comment on other peoples’ posts & answer their questions.
Share some of these tips with them.
74. Go to events. Even local events on the Eventbrite app. The
more you TALK TO REAL PEOPLE, the better you will get, and you
will learn how to build relationships & close clients.
75. If you can’t attend events for some reason (stop making
excuses), there are plenty of events on Zoom where you can meet
people in the comments & offer advice. I’ve closed clients I’ve met in
the Zoom chat before.
76. Figure out your ACTUAL income per hour. Take your pay and
divide by the number of hours per month. You should probably stop
doing things that are below your average. Your average should
always be going up. It’s okay to fire clients & replace them with other
clients.
77. Charge a rev share on every client. No one will say no to giving
you 1% of the revenue you generate. Start at 5-10% on top of your
retainer.
78. Did the prospect say no? A good downsell is bi-weekly billing
because they don’t have to pay as much today compared to monthly
billing.
79. Make sure you ask the RIGHT questions to qualify potential
clients so you know it’s a good fit for both sides. View my calendar
here for example.
80. Not sure how much to charge? Figure out what it’s worth to the
client. Do they sell a $3,000 program? Charge them $3,000 per
month for Email List Management since they only need to make 1
sale to recoup your fee.
81. If you aren’t sure what to do, ask. Ask your coach. Ask your
client. No question is a dumb question. You only look dumb when you
assume & something goes wrong.
82. Learn email deliverability. It’s a skill that your competition
doesn’t have. Learn it here.
83. Have current clients? Offer them to send their emails, fix their
deliverability, and create email automations. Basically, you’re
upselling them. And current clients are your easiest closes.
84. Have clear expectations set with your clients. Don’t start doing
too much. If they ask for it, show them the agreement & say you’ll do
it, just not for free.
85. Be vulnerable. Honesty gets more clients than making things up
& trying to be perfect. I’ve had students tell clients that they were new
& that they were told $100 per email is a fair price. The client agreed
& paid them.
86. Send a cold email to your favorite brands with 2 sentences
about how long you’ve been following them. And 2 sentences about a
problem you noticed with their emails & how you plan on fixing it. Ask
them if they’re interested.
87. Collect payments with Stripe, which allows you to process credit
cards. PayPal gives people a lot of issues.
88. Become a Certified Email List Manager & get access to the
private job board. More info here.
89. Ideally, you want to find GOOD businesses that are NOT good
at email. It’s the perfect combo of them having money AND
opportunity.
90. Call a friend who’s in your client’s niche. Just talk to them about
that niche & hear out their problems, successes, fears, and wants.
Use this in your writing.
91. A good upsell is finding affiliate offers for your clients. Now they
have multiple ways to make money that don’t rely on just their own
products. You can also take a cut.
92. Have an ‘Investor’s Mindset’. You should determine if each
client is a good fit for YOU. Ask them questions to see if THEY are a
good fit. The right clients will be okay with you treating it this way.
93. Get your foot in the door - doing 1 small thing for a prospect -
paid or not - will get you places faster than all the people who try to
close big deals right away.
94. Write down EVERYTHING. If you don’t write it down, it won’t
happen. To-do’s. Goals. Wants. Your ideal life. Write it all down &
make it happen!
95. Don’t set deadlines that you can’t meet. Most of the time, the
client wasn’t expecting it that fast anyway.
96. Investing in coaching is the fastest way to succeed. You can
either spend money to save time. Or spend time to save money. You
can always get money back. You can’t get time back.
97. If you have a good work ethic, most investments will work out in
your favor over time.
98. Buy a domain that has your name in it. Use this as your ‘home
base’ that you can host your name, info, samples, etc. Keep updating
it & making it unique from everyone else. Wix is a good site builder
for this.
99. KEEP. MAKING. CONTENT. Someone will notice. People are
watching. It’s only a matter of time until you reach your goals. Share
some advice you learned in this document.
100. Volunteer as a host on a guru’s social media channel or
podcast. Your name will get a LOT of exposure to potential clients.
101. Don’t try to do all this alone. Join a community of 300+ other
people just like you - who are closing clients every day. Join here.
