3 Ways To Email Blog Posts For Engagement & Visibility
Here’s a question that comes up a lot in Blog School:
What works best when emailing blog posts to your list?
Email is a proven method to get your content to your audience. But you still need visits to your website. Website visits are crucial for search engine visibility and to build deeper relationships. So what’s the solution?
Here are three ways to email blog posts and get visits to your website at the same time:
OPTION 1: Blog Title Plus Link. In this option your title and a very strong call to action will get people over to your website. Here’s an example from Buffer. Both the blog title and the big blue call to action button really stand out. This works well when you have a very enthusiastic audience and are good at creating compelling blog titles:
OPTION 2: Give ‘Em A Taste. This option works well when the blog introduction gets readers engaged with your content quickly. Then they simply can’t resist clicking over to your site to read the rest. Here’s an example from Be Visible:
OPTION 3: Copy Your Entire Blog Post Into An Email. In this option you are going to email blog posts with the full content in the message area. To get readers over to your website, however, you must add a really strong call to action. This is where a valuable freebie or an irresistible offer will play an important role. In this example we used a freebie to entice our readers to the site:
Since a large percentage of people go through their emails on a mobile phone these days, you might assume that Option 3 is the best choice. But is it? Every business is different and every audience is different. So, what’s the ideal solution for your blog?
Conduct a test and find out for sure!
Here’s one way to test: create three different versions of your email (like the three above) and send each version to a third of your list. Analyze the results after a few days have gone by to discover which version has produced the most website visits.
A second way to test is to use a different email option for each of your next three blog posts. Once all three have been emailed, circle back and analyze the results.
The third way is the fastest way. If your email service enables you to do it, create three different versions of one blog email (like the three above) and send each version to a small percentage of your list. This is known as a “split test”.
After a prescribed amount of time (i.e. three hours) the winning version will be automatically sent to the balance of your list. The winner in this case would be the version that produced the most visits to your website.
Now that you know the 3 ways to email blog posts, which one will you try first? There’s nothing like knowing for sure!
