Increase blog traffic with email strategies

There are all sorts of little ways that email can increase blog traffic for you or for a client you blog for. Following are five good ideas.

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Email a new reader; or two or three or twenty! Darren notes that emailing new readers was one of the main strategies he used to build up ProBlogger traffic back in the day, and if it’s good enough for that well… why not give it a shot. Note – some emails to new readers can be annoying. Try to keep track of who you send emails to so that you don’t send off notes to the same readers over and over. I personally hate that and it won’t get me back to your blog. Also keep it short. I did recently get a very nicely written email from a blogger at Green Talk – it was short, promoted the blog and is a good example of an email you can send to your own readers (see below).

“Thank you for your comment on Green Talk I read each and everyone of the comments on my site. Green Talk is all about the conversation, so every comment is valuable to continue helping others to live a greener lifestyle.

To continue the conversation, consider joining the Green Talk Ning, a social network site, for those who wish to live a greener lifestyle or subscribe to Green Talk’s email or feed.”

Email a company: When you blog about a company or product – assuming what you wrote was favorable and well written, shoot said company off an email. Flattery will get you everywhere. Just send a quick note saying something like, “Dear so and so company… I recently blogged/wrote about/reviewed your super cool toy – (include link). Just thought you might enjoy seeing the post.” Also if you have a badge, this would be a good time to send it along. Many companies will place your badge at their site if you’ve reviewed their product.

Q: What if I wrote a bad review about a company? I’d send them an email anyhow. A few times this has worked in my favor, either by a company changing their product or it’ll start a dialogue or the company will say, “Well, you hated our granola bars but let us send you some coffee to review because you might like that.

Email another blogger: You have lots of choices when emailing another blogger. It could be to say you love their blog, it could be to say thanks for linking to you, it could be to start a conversation, but no matter what you email them for it often results in a link or two back to your blog.

Allow people to subscribe to comments: Comment subscription is not organically an email tactic. In reality it’s a comment/traffic tactic but it does draw people back via email, hence my including it here. When readers are allowed to subscribe to comments they’ll come back to re-comment when someone debates their comment or says something to spark their interest. If you need a plugin for this, I like Subscribe To Comments.

Let people subscribe by email and word it correctly: Most bloggers have RSS set up on their blog; i.e. “Subscribe via RSS.” Fewer bloggers allow for email subscriptions, however many people do like to subscribe by email. You can easily set up email subscriptions if you use Feedburner. You should also make sure reader subscribe by using the correct wording. For example, many people associate “subscription” with money. You usually have to pay to subscribe to stuff. Point out that readers can subscribe for free to make sure they do.

Of course there’s the basics too – include your blog in your email signature line, send professional emails, be nice and so on. The little things add up.

Got any more email tips that can increase blog traffic? Share below.

[image via sxc]

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Comments

10 responses
  1. Marian Schembari Avatar

    This is a FANTASTIC post, with a lot of great tips. I definitely do the email frequent commenters thing on my own site, though maybe not as often as I should. What do you think about newsletters for bloggers? Not a company thing, where you’re trying to sell a product (though that’s cool too), but maybe bonus content for people who sign up? It’s an idea I’ve been toying with the past couple days…
    .-= Marian Schembari´s last blog ..The Truth About Blogging For Money. Part 3: Creating Content =-.

    1. adrienne Avatar

      Hi. I get newsletter from blogs. Sometimes it’s a rehash of posts for the week or highlights for the month. I do get newsletters that have content only available to those that subscribe.

      I just read some of your posts(great blog!) and the only thing I would suggest is to be careful of how often you send out a newsletter.
      .-= adrienne´s last blog ..KFC Double Down is Good for the Community? =-.

  2. adrienne Avatar

    Do people really subscribe for comments? It’s never occurred to me to do so. I check blogs that I commented on later that day or tomorrow to see the conversation but I never felt the need to subscribe. I couldn’t handle getting 50 emails from a post. Or do you only receive a email if someone responds to your comment?
    .-= adrienne´s last blog ..KFC Double Down is Good for the Community? =-.

    1. Jennifer Avatar

      I subscribe to comments if I leave a longer, more in-depth comment, and I know I have many readers who do too. I think it happens more if the topic is one that people are likely to debate.

  3. Condo Blues Avatar

    How do you feel about auto response emails to comments? There are a few blogs I read and don’t leave comments on because I get what I know realize is an automatically generated message emailed to me thanking me for my comment. The first time it happened I thought it was so nice. The next time I commented I got the same emailed message and it lost at lot of its personal luster.
    .-= Condo Blues´s last blog ..Zestra Review and Giveaway! =-.

    1. Jennifer Avatar

      I don’t like auto response. I can tell that often when I get an email from a blogger it’s somewhat of a form email – but that I get, bloggers are busy. However, if I leave more than one comment and get the same blasted email more than twice, I’m done commenting at said blog. My email is full enough I don’t need that. Luckily, in my experience repeat emails like this have been rare.

  4. Anna (Green Talk) Avatar

    Jennifer, thanks for the putting my comment responder on your website! I hope it gets people into the “subscribing mood.”

  5. Increase Traffic Avatar

    Email marketing is a great way to increase traffic to a blog or any website, as long of course, as it is done right. I think what you mention about creating an optin list is a great way to build a list of contacts whom you can email when you have a new post on your blog. A lot of people do not understand the good things that can come with the use of email marketing strategies.

  6. Denise Avatar

    There are some great tips here that I will try to implement. A few I do already. Hopefully, with more time they will pay off. I’ve subscribed to your blog and look forward to following it. thanks!

  7. Gary Owen Avatar

    Thanks for the fantastic Post. Your blog is full of insights to all novice bloggers like me. You hacks, tips and tricks had immensely helped me to create a nice blog using blogger

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