Email is the conversion powerhouse for most content marketing programs — and it’s so often misunderstood.
Every month or so, this podcast will tackle a cornerstone topic for content marketers. Today, it’s email marketing.
Why is it so often misunderstood and underestimated? Partly because there’s so much incompetent and poorly executed email being sent.
In this 30-minute episode, Sonia talks about:
- Whether or not millennials actually read email
- The big problem with email marketing — and the time-tested solution to fix it
- Managing unsubscribes
- The two definitions of spam
- How to figure out if your open rate is any good
- Culling your email list of “unresponsive” subscribers
- How often to make a pitch to your email list
- Wisdom from Amber Rose on how to think about your list
Listen to Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing below ...

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The Show Notes
- To pick up the free email marketing ebook, get started on one of the tracks in the Education tab over on Copyblogger
- New Rainmaker podcast episode on Will Millennials Kill Email Marketing? with Brian Clark and Robert Bruce
- D Bnonn Tennant’s article on Why Email Marketers Should Ask Readers to Unsubscribe
- Search Engine Journal’s excellent detailed article on Goodbye Spam, Hello Inbox: 9 Ways to Fix Your Email Marketing Strategy
- NPR article on Why Political Fundraising Emails Work
- We write lots about email marketing on Copyblogger — in this article, Kelton Reid covered a bunch of points I didn’t have space for in the podcast 🙂 How to Master the Content Platform of Kings
- Henneke’s article for Copyblogger on 37 Tips for Writing Emails that Get Opened, Read, and Clicked
- The core of all good content marketing — combining Meaning and Fascination (Brian Clark)
- Sonia’s article on How Not to be a Dirty, Rotten Spammer
- Sonia’s podcast on How Not to Be a Dirty, Rotten Spammer
- Catch up with Sonia on Twitter @soniasimone
I just stumbled across your podcast and I loved all of the useful information you spoke of. I am just in the process of setting up my new blog and look, your information is extremely timely for me, thank you.
I would love to sign up for the paid services offered at copy blogger but my husband has been unemployed for 2.5 years which leaves us in a rather dire situation but always the optimist I will be listening and watching and learning from your free offerings until I can sign up for the training.
Thank You for being there
Linda
Thanks Linda! Authority is not actually open to new members at the moment in any event, but do go and grab all of the free material in the member library — there’s a lot there to get you started.
Excellent commentary on email marketing. I appreciated that you mentioned not to shy aware from a call-to-action in every email.
You brought up some great things for me to consider in our email marketing strategy. Thanks!
Sonia,
Mailchimp just analyzed “inactive subscribers” and found that yes, they are valuable:
http://blog.mailchimp.com/inactive-subscribers-are-still-valuable-customers/
So, be careful before you prune that lost!
Hi Sonia,
First time listener, and really enjoyed your podcast, and the insightful information. I have 2 questions for you:
1- I subscribe to a lot of social media/digital marketing newsletters. Virtually every time I click through to the site, I get a pop up asking me to sign up for the very newsletter I just clicked through on. Does the capability exist for publishers to not display the popup for those who already subscribe?
2- I see very little segmentation in email marketing today. Is this because the capability from email providers doesn’t exist or is it simply lazy marketing, or do marketers not see the value in it (examples: segmentation based on where they are in the funnel; or for consumer marketing – simple demographics like gender and age).
Thank you again for an informative podcast. Looking forward to listening to more.
…joel