Offering blog updates via email is a must-have feature for most blogs, since many real, non-geek people are not familiar with RSS, but are very comfortable with email.

I mentioned this possibility in my post on updating readers when you post a blog, but since this wonderful feature of MailChimp seems to remain largely undiscovered, I thought I’d dig into it a little further.

You’re probably already using Feedburner to manage your RSS feed, and while it does offer email subscriptions as an option, it’s not the best solution if  you want to build an email list for marketing purposes.

Here’s how you can integrate RSS-via-email into your WordPress blog using MailChimp. You will of course need a MailChimp account which is free for up to 2000 subscribers.

Organizing Your Subscribers

Typically the best way to manage things on MailChimp is to have a master List which you segment using Interest Groups, rather than creating multiple Lists.  This is how MailChimp recommends to set things up, unless you have certain specific circumstances. Consult MailChimp’s documentation on this.

For this tutorial I’m using a main list with a subgroup for blog subscribers. By default when you sign up, MailChimp has  already created one list for you, which you will find under the Lists tabs.

MailChimp allows you to create RSS emails on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. If you want to give your subscriber the choice of how often they receive updates you could create an interest group for each frequency you want to set up. For simplicity, I’m only going to offer Weekly emails. Move your mouse over ‘groups’, click on the ‘create groups’ option and select a title and name for your group, eg. ‘weekly blog updates’.
[click images to enlarge]

As you continue to build your business other  interest groups you may create will depend on your specific needs. They may be things like ‘event updates’, ‘product updates’ – basically any type of information that you want to enable opt-in subscriptions for.

Create The Campaign

Now you’ve got your group set up, we need to build the RSS campaign. Click on Campaigns at the top.

Mouse over the Create Campaign button and then select RSS-driven campaign.
Enter your blog’s feed address, then select the frequency and timing of your campaign.

The next screen asks you to specify who will receive your email. This is where groups comes in. You only want those who have subscribed for weekly blog updates to receive this email. So click on Send To Segment

In the first pulldown, select the group you created for blog updates, then specify the ‘weekly’ segment. Then click use segment.

The next screen is pretty self-explanatory – you can specifiy a subject line etc

The campaign name is for internal use – it shows up on reports etc so you know what its referring to.

The next screen is where you design the look of the email. Your best bet is to pick one of their existing RSS templates – you will then be able to tweak colors etc so it matches your site.

You will see lots of funny codes like “*|RSSFEED:TITLE|* – these are the automated tags MailChimp uses to generate the content of the RSS email. Don’t worry – when it gets mailed out, the tags will be replaced with your actual content!

The final screen presents you with a summary of all your options for the campaign,  just save and update.

Set Up The Opt-In Form

Now we need to provide a way for people to actually sign up for your list. The  simplest method is to use the MailChimp plugin.

Before we leave MailChimp we’re going to grab an API key which will enable us to integrate our WordPress site with our MailChimp account.

Click on your MailChimp username at the top right of the screen. Then click on API Keys & Info. Just click “add a key” and then copy the key (a bunch of letters and numbers) – we will need it shortly.

So now head over to your WordPress dashboard.

Go to Add New Plugins and search for MailChimp. The first one that comes up should be MailChimp List Subscribe Form authored by MailChimp. Install the plugin.

Now you will see MailChimp Setup listed as a submenu of Settings. This is where you will need to paste in the MailChimp API key. After you click save you will now see a drop down with the lists you have created in MailChimp. Select your list and click update and you will see a new set of options to create a sign up form for your site. Configure the options as you choose. I typically uncheck the “Monkey Rewards” box, keep the Javascript checked and uncheck “Include Unsubscribe Link” (users can unsubscribe from the emails themselves, it doesn’t really make sense to have it in the sign-up form). Make the Header content field specific so that users understand what they are signing-up for, e.g. “Sign up for Weekly Blog  Updates.” If you have multiple interest groups which people can choose to sign up to (e.g. ‘blog updates’ and ‘event updates’, you would want to check the box that says “show” under Interest Groups. This will enable people to sign up for whichever of your updates they choose. If you only have one option currently – blog updates, then you have no need to show interest groups.

Once you’ve configured these settings,  go into your widgets and you will see a MailChimp Widget. Simply drag that over to your sidebar, and now on your site you should have a signup form.

Your work is now done, MailChimp takes care of the rest. It will automatically generate an email blast to opt-ed in subscribers, on the schedule you determined, as long as there is new content to send out. No new content – no email.  So this is a very easy way to communicate via email with your subscribers, even if you haven’t yet created an official ‘newsletter.’

Have a question? Leave it in the comments!

If you’re blogging you want readers to be able to keep up with what you’re writing, right? Here’s an overview of some of your options for enabling readers to subscribe, along with pros and cons of both.

Via RSS feed

RSS forms the basis of most updating systems. Every blog has an RSS feed (simply the output of your blog) which automatically updates when you publish new posts. For WordPress blogs, the feed is usually located at: yourdomain.com/feed. Visitors can use a tool like Google Reader to subscribe to many different blog RSS feeds and receive all the updates in one place. Here’s a shot of my overflowing Reader with a few of the sites I subscribe to:

As a publisher you can use Google’s Feedburner service to manage your RSS feed.

Pros – Feedburner is pretty easy to configure and you can implement it with the help of a plugin. Feedburner also provides copy/paste code to place icons on your site to advertise your feed. Feedburner formats your feed cleanly so that it displays nicely in browsers (try looking at a raw RSS feed in Chrome….it’s unreadable) &  feed readers and the subscribe options are clearly presented. You’ll also be able to get stats on the number of subscribers you have and the click activity on your feed.

Cons – RSS isn’t really a mainstream concept yet, so if your audience is not particularly tech-savvy, they may not understand how to use RSS or may not have any kind of feed reader.

RSS updates via email

This is probably a more effective way of delivering blog updates since people generally check their email frequently, and even if people aren’t familiar with RSS, they use email every day.

Feedburner also provides this service – subscribers will receive an email each day that you produce new content.

Pros – It’s easy to implement – you activate the email option in the Publicize menu and then grab the html code for the subscription form and paste it into a text widget on your WordPress site. Emails are sent through Google’s servers so won’t put any strain on yours. Since Feedburner offers regular RSS subscription along with email, it becomes easy to offer both options to your readers.

Cons – You can’t decide how often the emails are sent – daily is the only option. While you may think it’s important that people are notified of your new post as soon as possible, others may find a daily email to be overkill, especially if you post frequently. However emails are only sent on the days that you publish something new.

WordPress Plugin

Subscribe2 is a WordPress plugin that will send notifications via email to subscribers when you post new content.

Pros – Subscribe2 comes with quite a lot of configuration options, so the service is quite comprehensive. You can control frequency and format your emails with more flexibility than Feedburner.

Cons – the emails are sent via your own server so if you are lucky enough to have hundreds or thousands of subscribers you may run into some limits from your web server regarding the numbers of emails they will send per hour etc. By default the email generated by Subscribe2 does not include an unsubscribe option making its compliance with SPAM laws questionable. It also does not, by default, come with a sidebar widget making implementation not particularly intuitive, especially for a beginner WP user.

3rd Party email providers

Both MailChimp and AWeber offer RSS to email services which means that they can automatically send out an email based on your RSS feed, to subscribers. If you’ve set up Feedburner to manage your RSS feed, you would provide the email service with your Feedburner address from which they will generate the email. You can format the email template with great flexibility and branding, just as you would when sending any other email blast.

If you are using your blog to promote your business, or if developing an email list is part of your marketing strategy, this is the method I would recommend for providing blog updates via email to your readers. Using a service like this will ensure that all your emails are compliant with spam laws, and they provide a powerful way to manage your lists and get statistics. Instead of having your email subscribers split up between Feedburner and your regular email database, this way you can have everything in one place and can take advantage of grouping and segmenting your email lists and all the other powerful features these services provide. Both have WordPress plugins for integration.

MailChimp – This is my preferred service. Their interface is easy to use and they have a lot of great support information on their site. They are a ‘freemium’ service so you can have up to 1000 subscribers for free, after that you pay a monthly fee. They are also very proactive about adding new features, keeping up with the latest in social media integration etc.

Aweber – You’ll see a lot of internet marketers using this particular service. Their list of features is mostly comparable to MailChimp but they have no free level of service and their interface is a little slower and clunkier to use.

If you are a casual blogger or don’t need an email list for marketing purposes, this method would probably be overkill and I’d recommend using Feedburner.

Questions? Confusion? Let me know!

*header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/postaletrice/3402584092/

Is there still hope without a blog?

I would say ‘yes’. After all, a blog only works if you actually post to it and actively promote it. It’s no silver bullet and it does take time and commitment, and honestly, it’s not for everybody.

One of the main benefits to having a blog is that with well-written and targeted content it can attract search engine traffic quite easily. This is the main benefit you will miss out on by not having a typical, text-based blog. But search engines are not the only source of traffic. So while there are many benefits to having a blog, let’s consider some alternatives.

1) Re-think what a ‘blog’ means

The typical idea of a blog is a text-based site that you update at least once per week and ideally more frequently, with posts of several hundred words. But here are some variations on what a blog can be:

• Video Blogs – If writing is not your thing, perhaps you would be more comfortable on camera posting short clips on topics related to your business or art? iJustine is perhaps one of the better-known examples of popular video bloggers. Video is great for those with something to say, but who don’t enjoy writing.

• Podcasts- Not everyone likes to be in front of the camera, but an audio-only format can be more comfortable. Podcasts can be short or long-form, could feature only you, or discussions with a ‘guest’, and are very easy to produce with minimal equipment required.

• Photo Blogs – Or more generally, image-based blogs. Obviously this lends itself to those creative types who would rather let their work speak for them. A beautiful photo, illustration or design concept with a short comment could be a blog post. This is a great way to showcase your work, get feedback on developing concepts and maintain an easy-to-update web presence.

• Short-form blogs – A blog doesn’t have to be filled with lengthy articles to demonstrate your expertise and thought leadership -  that works very well for some people and industries, but not everyone. You could post brief thoughts, insights, and remarks on your passion or industry. Matt Mullenweg from WordPress regularly posts short quotes and thoughts on his blog

While these forms of blogging will not get you as much search engine traffic as a traditional blog, they are still a way for you to have a personal, regularly updated, low maintenance online presence, and a place where others can see what you are about and connect with you.

OK, so after considering these options, if you still don’t want to have any sort of blog, what are the other alternatives?

2) There are still other ways to drive traffic to your site

You will still need some kind of web presence – a website with clear information about your business/product/service and the ability to collect email addresses – at the minimum. But even without a blog attached to it you still can generate traffic and create interest in your business. Here’s just a few ways you can go about it:

• Social media – Twitter, Facebook and other niche social networks for your industry can give you a platform to connect with people by focusing on what you are passionate and knowledgeable about. Short, casual updates are the norm so it’s low maintenance. Your profile will contain information and a link to your website, so the more you get involved, the more people will see and click on your website link.

• PPC (Pay Per Click) – If you have a budget, even a small one, you can buy sponsored ads on search engine results pages to drive traffic to your site. A PPC campaign should not be entered into without a little research, otherwise you’ll waste your money, but it can be a cost-effective solution. You can set a daily spending limit to make the cost more manageable.

• Email marketing – It takes some work to develop an opt-in email list, but writing one piece of content per month may sound much more manageable than multiple blog posts per week. Email is a very effective way to promote yourself and connect with your audience. More direct sales pitches are also tolerated and expected more with email marketing than on social media, for example. By providing useful content and a well-crafted call-to-action, you can generate sales directly through email marketing.

• Blog commenting – Just because you don’t blog, doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from those who do. Leaving thoughtful, insightful and positive comments on blogs that are relevant to your audience is a great way to drive traffic to your site. Most blogs allow you to include your url, usually linked with your name, so that if you leave valuable comments, people will be encouraged to find out more about you and click on your link.

Blog or no blog, there is no answer to generating traffic that doesn’t involve some work – that’s the bottom line. Whichever method(s) you use, blogging included, there is no short cut to developing an interested audience. But the internet offers a plethora of ways to express yourself, so find the medium that suits you the best and start there. With consistent efforts you will see results.

*image header courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/busyprinting/4227080733/

I hate to call people out, but, you know,  a huge national company should really know better.

I signed up with Firestone to receive their email coupons (I’m way overdue for an oil change…..).
This is how their conformation email appeared in my inbox:

Well, actually it was in my junk mail folder. Fortunately I’m smart enough to check there ;)
But, yes folks “DO-NOT-REPLY” in all caps is really how they set up their “from” email address and “Confirm Sign Up” is really their subject line. If I hadn’t checked my email right away, and had seen this a few hours or a day later, I may well have not remembered that I signed up, or would have simply discounted this message along with the many other spam emails I receive every day since there was nothing about it that signified legitimacy.

So don’t do this! Learn from Firestone’s mistakes:

1)   Your ‘from’ address should display the name of your company so that it is instantly recognizable when scanning.

2)   Any number of subject lines would have been better than this one. Remind your subscriber what it is they signed up for especially since those first emails may well end up in the Junk folder and you need to make it clear that your message was solicited by them.  So perhaps “Firestone Discount Coupons – Confirm Sign Up” would be better in this case.

I’m guessing that just by making these simple changes, Firestone can increase the confirmation rate of their emails greatly.

The other example I found useful was from Bath & Body Works. I decided to unsubscribe because I was receiving too many emails and barely read them. So when I clicked unsubscribe the page I was taken to contained the following message:

I thought this was actually quite brilliant. It was as if they read my mind. Offering me lower volume options meant that I decided to stay subscribed, but at a more manageable frequency. A very smart way to utilize the unsubscribe function.

What can you do to improve the details of your email marketing campaigns and optimize them for success?

**header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ntr23/4642465883/

When developing a strategy for your site, the first and most important question to ask is:

Who do you want to come to your site? Who is your target audience?

Thou shall not answer “everybody”!

Get specific since the answer will provide the basis for all aspects of your online marketing strategy.

For more on this topic, also read:
Recharge and Refine Your Marketing Strategy
What Is An Online Marketing Strategy?

Does your site speak to your target audience?

Does your site….

Communicate your message clearly to the reader?
Have a great tag line?
Make it clear what you are all about and what you offer?
Guide the reader what to do next?

Example of a site that does this really well: www.IttyBiz.com

Keep it simple and focused

Don’t clutter your site with too many options  by loading up your sidebars (tag clouds, archives, categories etc) just because you can – that can be confusing. Focus on finding out what your visitors actually want, and how they behave on your site in order to better organize and focus your content. Some tools to do this:

Heat Maps

- Use the Site Overlay tool in Google Analytics for a rudimentary ‘heat map’ of what people are clicking on. Find it under the Content menu

- For a more true ‘heat map’ experience use ClickHeat – a free tool which is easy to install:
http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html

- For advanced users who want to get serious, you can use a paid service such as Crazy Egg.

These tools can show you where the most important, attention-grabbing areas of your site are so you can be strategic about where to place info such as your subscribe options, or your products etc.

A/B Testing

A/B Testing is where you compare different elements of a web page (or email blast) to see which performs better. So you can compare different calls to action, different designs etc. Your web server will show one version of the page to half your visitors and the other half see the other version and you can compare the results.

To do this you need to:

– sign up with  Google.com/WebsiteOptimizer
– Install this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-website-optimizer-for-wordpress/

Carsonified has the definitive video tutorial to implement this on a WordPress site.

You can also take a shortcut by checking out results from other people’s tests which might give you some ideas:

http://www.abtests.com/

http://whichtestwon.com/

Generate ideas for tailoring your content:

Find out what your visitors really want, by tracking searches on your site in Google Analytics:
http://www.webtrainingwheels.com/2010/02/do-you-know-what-your-site-visitors-really-want/

Also pay attention to the keywords that people use in your Google Analytics reports– this will give you ideas for more content, and also insight into the way people search – the way they phrase things. Useful for developing your SEO strategy.

Try and match up keywords with other metrics such as goal conversions, time on site, bounce rates etc, in order to pinpoint the most effective keywords for your purpose.

What are your most popular posts?

Develop a following

Encourage subscriptions via RSS and email
Email still crucial for businesses – try to develop your own targeted mailing list of potential customers.

RSS is well handled by Feedburner. Though Feedburner also offers email subscriptions, I prefer to send those through Mailchimp in order to consolidate my mailing lists.

Easy way to keep an active email list is to use an RSS to Email feature –Mailchimp and Aweber have this. Your RSS feed is converted to an email blast automagically on a weekly basis. This enables you to send regular email communication without having to produce a newsletter.

What can you offer as an incentive for someone subscribing to your list? A free ebook, coupons, a special offer etc.

“Sticky” Plugins

To customize the experience for your visitor and encourage them to stick around

- Microkids Related Posts Plugin , Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, LinkWithin
- What Would Seth Godin Do, or WP Greet Box – for customized calls to action.
- Yoast’s RSS Footer Plugin does the same for your RSS feed.
- enhanced commenting  – Disqus, Intense Debate

Tracking

Bounce rate is not the only metric !

Depending on your goals, also look at : Time spent on site, goal conversions (e.g. a sale, email sign-up etc), first time visits vs returning visits, traffic sources etc.

Some great resources suggested by audience members:

Ad management plugin:
WP 125

Alternates to Google Analytics for tracking:
Woopra,  GetClicky -  better than Google Analytics for real time tracking

Making your site mobile-friendly:

WPTouch – mobile friendly theme
Mobify.me