50 Email Marketing Lessons Your Average "Guru" Won't Teach You... (Part 1)

I’ve sent millions of emails in the past five years.

And believe it or not, I've learned a few things after that many reps.

I know we've both seen WAY too many threads promising a few dozen lessons that'll change your life...

But I'm sharing this because the most important lessons I've learned AREN'T taught by all the internet marketing gurus we all love to hate.?

So, here’s part 1 of 50 lessons I’ve learned about email marketing in that time:

1. Send MUCH more often. Your subscribers do not care anywhere near as much as you think they will and your only chance at talking to more than 30% of your audience each week is by mailing AT LEAST 2-3x
2. Stop editing so damn much. Typos are minimal and make you human—over-editing ruins good emails...
3. Want to hold yourself accountable to sending more often? Find something to sell.
4. You don't even need your own offers to make money from your list.?I know folks who make BANK pushing affiliate offers
5. You NEED a consistent source of traffic. If it's organic (I prefer it) you need higher converting content and more consistent promotion to hit real numbers
6. Trust your audience and follow their feedback. But do NOT do everything they say. Watch for trends and patterns.
7. Test CONSTANTLY and push boundaries on everything: Subject lines, email length, conversation strategies, click-through targets. All of it. Best practices are great but every audience has a life of it's own...
8. How "good" you are at writing emails is not important right away. Your audience, your offer, and your frequency all more important than the copy
9. Running out of ideas? Write more often. Record everything and turn into an obsessive collector of information.
10. Stay on topic. Know what your audience is here to learn from you and share it with them. Unless it's funny or entertaining—always run with anything funny or entertaining.
11. Watch trends but don't fall victim to them. People notice when you start to sound like everyone else, but they'll love you for standing out.
12. Take a stand and do it often. If you have an opinion on something controversial (but on topic), share it.
13. What software you use does NOT matter. Pick one and start sending.
14. Don't have a list yet? Don't even consider running ads. Get to work on 1:1 outreach until you have your first 100 die-hard fans subscribed.
15. Stop selling your products inside of your email. If you're linking to a sales page, a VSL, etc then let that do the selling. Sell the click instead
16. STOP discounting for people who aren't customers yet. These are great for existing customers who can be rewarded or good behavior like repeat purchases. But it makes for cheap buyers if it's all you serve to non-buyers.
17. Get your new subscribers to purchase and purchase fast. They will never be more motivated and likely to act as when they first subscribe.
18. Want more ideas for sales and promo content? Start encouraging your list to ask questions. Questions and replies are GOLD for promo ideas, stories, and more.
19. Stop trying to be clever. Clear wins in subject lines, hooks and CTA's every day of the week.
20. That swipe file you've been collecting for years? STOP copying from it. Their brand is not yours and your audience is unique. Treat them as such.
21. Treat your engaged subscribers and customers like gold. Mail these folks as often as you want and reward them regularly. They WILL carry your business if you let them.
22. Design and Images should ONLY be used if they aid in conversion. If they don't help the sale and they're jus there for aesthetic—get 'em out.
23. Cut to the chase. Remove the pointless intros that everyone loves to include. Diving right into the story or hook will be MUCH more effective in getting your emails read.
24. Replies are KING and should be encouraged right from the start. Not only are they great for engagement, but they whitelist you automatically and do wonders for deliverability.
25. SHORT LINES. SHORT PARAGRAPHS. 60%+ of your audience will be reading from their phones, so make it easy on them.
26. Assume your subscribers don't give a SH*T about you. They don't care if you miss an email, send a typo, or send too many emails in one day. They have their own lives and you are nowhere near as important as you think. Therefore, nothing to worry about?? ♂?

Well, I know that's going to be a lot for you to dive into for right now, so I'm splitting this into 2 articles. 1-26 for now and the remaining 24 (plus 1 bonus lesson) in the next few weeks.

As great as these lessons are as a standalone resource, they're INFINITELY more valuable when you can bring them into context for your own business.

So, this is an open invitation for you to ask ANY question you have on everything I shared in this article.

Just send me an email at?[email protected]?with the subject line "50 lessons".

OR, you can get ANY email marketing question answered in less than 24 hours by me personally inside our private slack community.

Want to learn how you can get exclusive 1:1 access to me at any time AND get $1000's of dollars in courses, trainings and weekly group coaching sessions for less than $30/month?

Check out Email Empire Insiders today