A list is worth a thousand words … wait … no! That's a picture.

A list is worth money (at least it should be).

Trying to figure out how much it's worth, which emails are delivering results and which ones aren't, can be difficult and timely.

There are so many metrics to look at that it can be overwhelming and hard to determine what is/is not important.

This post aims to make calculating your email lists' value easier and faster!

Overall Concept

The main concept to understand is that there are multiple actions someone needs to take in order to go from an email to a purchase.

They need to open your email, click the link, go to your sales page and click the “buy now” button, and then enter their purchase info.

That's a pretty “normal” flow. (4 steps)

You could possibly cut out the sales page step by selling in your email and linking straight to the order form; however, people don't usually like long, sales page style emails and they don't normally perform well. In certain instances, they can perform very well (it's something to test).

These are all called “actionable metrics” (open, click, enter) and they're truly important with regard to figuring out how well your system is working.

Fortunately, we can break these 4 steps into two metrics to calculate the value of our email list. (Click Through Rate and Sales Page Conversion Rate)

Click Through Rate (CTR)

Click Through Rate or CTR is a measure of how many people received your email vs how many received it, opened it, and clicked the link inside.

For example, if you send an email to 100 people, 20 may open it (20% open rate), and 4 may click the link – meaning your CTR is 4%.

As you can see, CTR is affected by open rate. If zero people open your email, you will receive zero clicks; whereas, if 50% open your email your CTR will likely improve (look at “False Positives” below for more info).

Sales Page Conversion Rate

Sales Page Conversion Rate is simply a measure of how many people land on your sales page vs. how many people land on your sales page and buy what you're trying to sell.

For example, if you send 100 people to your sales page and 1 person buys – your sales page conversion rate is 1%.

The Calculator

If we're able to figure out our CTR and Sales Page Conversion Rate, we can calculate what our email list is worth!

Here's the calculator:

Click here to go to the calculator!

The calculator is a Google Sheet so you'll either need to “Make A Copy” within your own Google account or you can download it as an Excel Spreadsheet by going to “File” and “Download As”.

How It Works

The calculator helps you calculate what a subscriber is worth, after a month of being on your list.

You plugin the Tracking ID (TID)/Unique ID (UID), Page Views, Net Sales Count, Net Sales Amount, and Click Through Rate and the calculator tells you the rest (I'll define them in just a second).

The “most important” column is the last one, “Email's “Worth” Per Subscriber”. For every individual that receives that specific email, on average, you'll earn $X.XX.

For example, looking at the table above, for every person who receives Email #1, I can expect to earn $0.0136 … less than two cents. But, that's just one subscriber and one email.

By having thousands of subscribers and a higher “Email's “Worth” Per Subscriber”, you can see how it adds up!

For example, in the table above, it calculates the “Monthly Worth Of A Subscriber” is $1.74 (which is probably pretty high, but this is just an example), but multiply that value by a few thousand and you'll be sitting pretty!

The Columns

Email #

The number of the email in your series.

1 is the first email you send out. 2 is the second email you send out. Etc.

TID/UID

The Tracking ID or Unique ID.

These are normally self-assigned, so you can make them whatever you want. They're usually appended to the end of your URL for tracking purposes.

For example, in Email #1 above I assigned it the TID “a1”. Now, the link I share in my email will look something like this: http://SalesPage.com/?tid=a1

Affiliate Networks

Most affiliate networks offer TID/SID/CID/U1/AffTrack/etc to help you track conversions.

Here's some more info on tracking from a few popular affiliate networks:

• ClickBank (TID)
• ShareASale (AffTrack)
• CJ (SID)

Google Analytics

You can use Google Analytics to track sales on your own website from specific links you send in emails. Google Analytics doesn't use “TID” per se, instead you'll use other parameters to track your URLs.

For example, http://SalesPage.com/?utm_source=activecampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=/&utm_term=main-series&utm_content=a1

Woah!? Yeah, some day I'll write a post on what all that means and how to find it in Google Analytics, but I believe you can still grasp the concept – there's an email in my main series that has the UID of a1.

Now, within Google Analytics, I'll be able to track if my UID of “a1” results in sales.

Click here to checkout Google's URL Builder.

Clicks/Views

The total number of people that clicked your link and viewed your sales page.

Net Sales Count

The total number of sales from all of the people that clicked your link and viewed your sales page.

Net Sales Amount

The total amount of Net Sales.

Open Rate

The percentage of people that received your email and opened it.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

The percentage of people that received your email, opened it, and clicked the link inside.

Open vs CTR

A ratio that compares the open rate to the CTR. It allows you to find areas of improvement.

Sales Page Conversion Rate

The percentage of people that land on your sales page and make a purchase.

Automatically calculated for you – Net Sales Count/Page Views.

Average Sale Amount

The average purchase amount.

Automatically calculated for you – Net Sales Amount/Net Sales Count.

Earnings Per Click (EPC)

The value of each click.

Automatically calculated for you – Click Through Rate * Sales Page Conversion Rate * Average Sale Amount.

How To Use It To Optimize Your Email List

There's more than one way to use this data to optimize your email list. One way can be found [thrive_2step id='5968′]here[/thrive_2step] and can be used in conjunction with what's outlined below.

The other way is to arrange the order of your emails based upon “EPC” – where the higher valued emails are at the beginning of your series.

Why? Most of the time subscribers are most active when they first subscribe to your email list. Over time they tend to move onto other things, stop opening your emails, unsubscribe, and possibly mark your emails as spam.

For this reason, you want to present your highest value driving emails as soon as possible to capitalize on this “active period”.

However, when you start shifting your email series around there are certain things you want to take into consideration.

Things To Take Into Consideration

Unfortunately, rearranging your email series is not as clear cut as just placing the higher “Email's “Worth” Per Subscriber” at the beginning.

While it's certainly a helpful guide and a starting place, there will be instances where you send emails that aren't selling anything and the “Email's “Worth” Per Subscriber” will be $0.00.

However, you'll still send these emails “worth” $0.00 because they help build the relationship which leads to more sales later on.

False Positives

Keep this in mind – all that matters are sales.

It does not matter if your email open rate is 100% and your CTR is 100%, if no one is buying.

100% of nothing is nothing:

Coming up with the juiciest, clickbaitiest, subject lines means diddly squat, if sales don't improve as well.

So, keep that in mind!

Sequences/Series

As I alluded to earlier, you will send emails that don't sell anything; however, they're setting the stage for sales to come.

So, you need to be cautious when moving or removing an email as it may affect other emails down the line.

Also, the first handful of emails in your series will normally have the highest open rates – even if the subject line is lacking – and that's because people are in the “active period” I mentioned earlier.

So, if email #23 has a really good “Email's “Worth” Per Subscriber”, but it's not quite as high as email #3 – it may be worth trying email #23 in email #3's spot. If it's performing really well that far down the series, it may perform incredibly well at the beginning.

Statistical Significance

You need enough data before making changes.

If you throw a bunch of numbers into the calculator and it spits out that a certain email is worth $5 per subscriber – it can be incredibly exciting and you may want to switch up your entire email series to really promote that email.

BUT, what if only 3 people received that email and 1 person purchased? Do you think those 3 people are representative of hundreds to thousands of people? Highly unlikely.

To keep things simple, you'll want a few hundred people to receive an email before making any changes to it.

Any less and you won't have enough data to make an accurate decision.

This is called “statistical significance” [wikipedia], there's a lot of information on the subject already, and this post is already long enough. If you want to learn more, there's Google!

The point to remember is you need enough data before making changes.

Conclusion

There's a lot of information in this post. I'm sure I didn't clearly define and explain all the details – I'm expecting questions! Ask away!

The “Straight Line” Sales Funnel is where most people begin … actually, I take that back … it's where everyone begins.

It's Sales Funnels 101.

If you can't make emails trigger in a straight line, trying to trigger them based off of actions, events, interests, and intent will be impossible.

You have to start here and understand this concept or you can't move forward, it's that simple.

• Related Course: How To Build A Straight Line Sales Funnel

The “Straight Line” Sales Funnel

Lead Magnet

The Lead Magnet is the “free gift” you give someone in exchange for their email address – for example a coupon, free shipping, trial, webinar, etc.

If you've been on the Internet for longer than a day, you've seen opt-in or signup forms for Lead Magnets all over the place (you've probably seen a few on this site alone!)

You can learn more about Lead Magnets here.

Emails #1 Through Infinity

Pretty self explanatory. You send emails in an order that makes sense to transform a lead into a paying customer.

This is accomplished by sending emails that follow the 3Es:

1. Entertain: These emails are meant to entertain. Videos, pictures, stories, etc provide great entertainment.
2. Educate: Helpful emails that solve problems, answer questions, and provide guidance.
3. Earn: These emails drive sales by bringing customers back to your business.

Your email series could look something like this:

1. Thanks for joining, deliver lead magnet, here's what you can expect from us, here's a little about our business
2. Do you have any questions? (Try and start a conversation)
3. Introduce best selling product/service – describe features – link to sales page (educate/earn)
4. Best selling product/service – describe benefits – link to sales page (educate/earn)
5. Share an interesting user experience of your best selling product/service (entertain/educate/earn)
6. Best selling product/service – handle top 3 objections – link to sales page (educate/earn)
7. Send a cheat sheet for solving whatever problem your product/service solves so the customer can still solve their problem even if they don't chose your product (educate/earns trust)
8. Share a funny cat video, just because you thought it was funny (entertain)
9. Introduce 2nd best selling product/service – describe features – link to sales page (educate/earn)
10. On, and on, and on

A “Straight Line” Sales Funnel That's Working Right Now

I'm currently running a paid advertising campaign to a “Straight Line” Sales Funnel that's performing well and below you'll find the overall strategy for it.

For the sake of this example, let's pretend I'm selling cooking utensils.

1. Thanks for joining, deliver lead magnet, here's what you can expect from us, here's a little about our business
2. Entertaining story about how finding this soup spoon has greatly improved my life
3. Link to video on my site of a professional chef using the exact same soup spoon I'm selling. Of course, beneath the video I have a link to buy the soup spoon from me
4. Features and Benefits of the soup spoon, link to sales page
5. PDF containing 3 soup recipes that remind me of home. In the PDF I link to the soup spoon in my store
6. Entertaining story about how I've found this razor sharp knife has improved my life
7. On, and on, and on

It Has Its Strengths And Weaknesses

Strengths

• Easy to understand
• Easy to setup
• ALL email autoresponder services can do this, there aren't any special features required to make it work
• WAAYYY better than nothing
• It's a foundation for “bigger” things [see Interest Driven Sales Funnels]

Weaknesses

• May promote products and services to a person that has already purchased and therefore wastes time, effort, energy, resources, etc.
• The content may not pertain to the individual. For example, if you sell vehicles and your top selling product is a car, and your first 4 emails are about the car and the lead is only interested in trucks … the individual won't care about your emails.

In Closing…

If you do not have an email series or sales funnel in place currently or the one you have is lacking – focus on setting up a “Straight Line” Sales Funnel.

Once you grasp this core concept and the technical aspects involved, you'll be able to move on to bigger, better sales funnels.

• Related Course: How To Build A Straight Line Sales Funnel

I've started this post at least 20 times over the last 6 months … it's long overdue.

Trying to explain how to find someone else's goals, values, challenges, fears, etc is hard to do. It's very “woo woo” / “out there” which can get complicated and confusing very quickly.

There is good news!

I came across a video from Frank Kern (he's a big time Internet marketer) that explains exactly how to do what I've been wanting to write about.

He does it in a way that's logical and still kind of “woo woo” – but sensible.

Here's the video…

It's Long

It is long. And the exercises presented in it take even longer … probably about 8 hours total.

So, unless you're Ironman, you probably won't be able to do it all in one sitting … which kind of sucks.

Try breaking it down to 3 days …

1. Watch the video (tip: watch it at 1.5X speed)
2. Do step 1 (Questions below)
3. Do step 2 (Questions below)

You'll come out the other end with a full understanding of not only your customer, but yourself as well.

By watching this video and doing the exercises you may literally change your life … it's that good.

My Notes & The Exercise Questions

Two Easy Steps

Step One: Know what you REALLY want and who you REALLY are.

Step Two: Know what your market REALLY wants and who they REALLY are.

People Have Two Identities

#1: The identity they walk around in every day (“I'm a banker”) – shell identity

#2: The identity they really WANT (“I'm a rock star”) – what you daydream about, “true/core identity” (who they REALLY are).

Goal: Relate To People's Core Identity

Formula: E + I = L

• E = Experience. We do not crave things. We crave the experience the things give us.
• I = Identity. Our experience, beliefs, and values create our identity. All communication actually comes from your identity.
• L = Life. Our experiences and identity work together to form our life.

Design all marketing so you're communicating with ONE person.

WHAT WE ALL REALLY WANT IS A NEW LIFE.

The One Question That Will Change Your Life Forever

If there were no limitations or consequences, what would your perfect average day look like?

• Limitations: Financial, geographic, health, limiting people, etc. (wake up on the beach every day)
• Consequences: Stuff that you could get “into trouble” for (for example, you can't say you want to do cocaine and drive your car recklessly, this is dumb and there are consequences for this)
• Average: You could do all this stuff every day and not die or get sick of it

These questions are all based on desired experience … not goals or things. Remember that our experiences help shape our identity.

Step 1 Questions

Be descriptive (colors, smells, thoughts, feelings) – it will take about 4 hours and you'll fill up like 10 to 12 pages of info)

• Where would you live?
• What would your house look like?
• What time would you wake up?
• What would you do in the morning? What would you think about? What would you say?
• What would you have for breakfast?
• What does the mundane stuff look like? (Taking kids to school)
• What would you spend the first half of your day doing?
• What would you have for lunch?
• Who would you eat with?
• What would your friends be like? What would you talk about? Gossip? Real, meaning conversation? Jokes?
• What would you do for personal fulfillment?
• What life purpose would you strive towards?
• What would your business be?
• What time would you start work?
• What would you actually DO at work?
• What are your clients like?
• What is your relationship like with your spouse and your family?
• What would you do for family time?
• What would you have for dinner? Where would you eat? Who would you eat with? What would you talk about?
• What would you do at night?
• Who would you do it with?
• Where would you be?
• What would your thoughts be as you went to sleep?

Step 2 Questions

Your Ideal Customer / Customer Avatar

• Name?
• Gender?
• Age?
• Married?
• Kids?
• If they're married, what is the spouse like?
• What does the spouse think of all this foolishness?
• What's the relationship with the children like?
• What would this person be wearing?
• What do they do for a living?
• What's their biggest frustration?
• What's their biggest SURFACE (Shell) desire?

Now that you know WHO you're writing to specifically, you can influence them on the surface level because you have empathy.

And, surface level is better than 99% of what most businesses do.

But…

Step 2.5 Become Your Ideal Customer

Pretend to be your ideal customer – answer all the questions in the “Step 1 Questions” section as your ideal customer.

This allows you to uncover who they REALLY are.

Now you can speak from your core to their core.

In Closing

Do yourself and your business a favor and at least watch the video.

At 1.5X speed it takes about 75 minutes to watch and I swear it can change your life.

You already know that having an email list is important otherwise you wouldn't be here, reading this article.

So, I'm going to get right into it …

Why These 3 Tools?

They Work Everywhere

WordPress sites get a lot of love and there are a million and one optin plugins available for that platform; however, not every site runs WordPress.

There are also Ecommerce stores, custom coded sites, and other content management systems that need tools to grow their email lists.

The 3 tools below work on any type of site – just add a small snippet of code to your header and you'll be good to go!

They Have Quality Free Versions

The free versions of these tools are more than enough to get you started growing your email list.

And, 9 times out of 10, the free version will do all you need it to and you'll never need to upgrade to the “pro” versions.

They Work With Most “Big” Autoresponder Tools

No matter what autoresponder tool you use, be it ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, Aweber, GetResponse, Constant Contact, and beyond … one of these tools will work.

The 3 Tools

1. SumoMe (https://sumome.com/)

SumoMe is a suite of free tools that can be used to grow your website’s traffic. Four of the tools inside SumoMe that work great for growing your email list are the List Builder, Welcome Mat, Smart Bar, and Scroll Box.

The SumoMe suite also includes a few other tools like Heat Maps, Social Sharing, Highlighter, and more … making it a “true” all-in-one solution.

I also really like that SumoMe works nicely with Zapier – a service that connects over 500 services together.

What I don't like about SumoMe is that the free version doesn't include split testing and the pro version is a lot more expensive than it's competitions' pro versions.

2. HelloBar (https://www.hellobar.com/)

Hello Bar offers similar tools as SumoMe with regards to list building, but they don't have any other tools like heat maps and social sharing.

They offer optins in the form of a bar, modal, slider, and page takeover. Unfortunately I can't link to these optins because you have to be logged in to Hello Bar to learn more about them.

What I like most about Hello Bar is their split testing functionality is available in their free version (unlike SumoMe).

What I don't like is that they don't work natively with ActiveCampaign and I have to “hack” it together to make it work.

3. MailMunch (http://www.mailmunch.co/)

MailMunch is the newest of these 3 tools and it brings similar forms – popup, top bar, and slide box.

But, what it has over the other services is the “embedded” form which enables you to place an optin form anywhere on your website. This way you're not “bothering” people with popups, bars, and boxes – so, that's pretty cool!

What I don't like about MailMunch is that their free optin forms are fairly plain and to unlock the “prettier” forms costs at least $13.30/mo. Which, at this point, you might as well go with something more powerful like OptinMonster.

Zero Excuses

Now that you know about these 3 tools, you have zero excuses for not growing your email list!

How many emails do you ignore every day?

Why are you ignoring them?

Is it because you don't care about what they say?

Why don't you care?

I know I don't care because 9 times out of 10 … the content of the email doesn't pertain to me.

So, it gets ignored.

What if …

What if every email you received pertained to your particular interests, desires, and goals?

Wouldn't you be more inclined to read them … or at least click a link or two to see what they're all about?

I know if I had X problem and someone sent me a solution for dealing with X problem … I'd at least check it out.

Wouldn't you?

And it's proven …

And it's proven … tailored content converts better than non-tailored content.

Just checkout some of the results from MailChimp's most recent study on how segmentation affects opens, clicks, bounces, abuse reports, and unsubscribers:

• Opens: 14.96% higher than non-segmented campaigns
• Clicks: 72.37% higher than non-segmented campaigns (huge!)
• Abuse Reports: 20.39% lower than non-segmented campaigns
• Unsubscribes: 22.09% lower than non-segmented campaigns

The big number I want to point out here is “Clicks”  because you need people to click-through your emails to land on your sales pages and checkout pages … no one can purchase anything straight from an email … you need clicks.

By sending tailored content to individuals, the click-through-rate almost doubles (72.37% higher) … and that's insane.

Alas, most businesses don't …

Alas, most businesses don't segment their list and they don't send out tailored content.

Why not?

Most small businesses think it's beyond their capabilities to do something like this.

They're seeing massive corporations like Amazon do it … if you even think about a product on Amazon they'll start showing you ads everywhere you go for that same product and of course, they'll start sending you emails about that product.

But, most businesses can …

The good news is that most businesses can setup something that automatically segments their list and sends out tailored content to individual subscribers.

Thanks to advances in email marketing automation this type of system is very possible to setup for most small businesses … as I'm about to explain …

• Related Course: The ActiveCampaign & Interest Driven Sales Funnels Course

Segment Based On Interests

Earlier we talked about why we're personally ignoring most emails (because they don't pertain to us).

So, if we're ignoring emails because they don't pertain to us, we have to expect our subscribers to ignore our emails if the content doesn't pertain to them, right?

How do we make sure we're sending emails that pertain to the particular subscriber?

My suggestion is to segment based on interests … let the subscriber show you what they're interested in based on the links they're clicking, the pages they're viewing, and the stuff they're buying. Then, tailor emails to fit those interests.

For example:

If a subscriber shows they're interested in X, send them more content about X, and recommend products and services that help with X.

If they're interested in Y, send more content about Y, and recommend products and services that help with Y.

The Interest Driven Sales Funnel

You need to develop a sales funnel that's driven by each subscriber's particular interest(s).

Stop sending the same thing to everyone … it's neither effective nor efficient.

You've seen the results from MailChimp's study – tailored content gets nearly twice as many click-throughs as non-tailored content.

Instead of 100 click-throughs, you'd get 172 click-throughs … insane.

Interesting, eh?

Overall Concept (Macro Level)

Think of it like this – an Interest Driven Sales Funnel is your business, it encompasses everything … all of your products, services, offerings, etc.

An Interest Driven Sales Funnel is made up of many small or “micro” sales funnels.

Being made up of many micro sales funnels makes it modular in nature – which makes it easy to add to and remove from.

One of the micro sales funnels is a Straight Line Sales Funnel which we'll call your “Main Series”. The Main Series is your way to maintain a relationship with your leads while gauging interest (more on it later).

The other micro sales funnels are for your individual products, services, and offerings. Some products, especially those that are expensive and/or complicated, are likely to need more explanation than various one-off emails can provide, which is why they need their own sales funnel.

Straight Line Sales Funnel (Main Series)

The Main Series is the “backbone” of your Interest Driven Sales Funnel.

It's responsible for building and maintaining the relationship with your subscribers, while simultaneously gauging interest.

This is accomplished through the sending of 3 E Emails:

• Entertain: These emails are meant to entertain. Videos, pictures, stories, etc provide great entertainment.
• Educate: Helpful emails that solve problems, answer questions, and provide guidance. How-to tutorials, white papers, case studies, etc provide great educational material.
• Earn: These emails drive sales by bringing customers back to your business. Coupons, discounts, bonuses, etc provide extra incentive to shop.

People enter your Main Series when they opt-in for a General Lead Magnet (one that doesn't show intent) or after an individual completes a Product/Service Sales Funnel.

You can learn more about Straight Lines Sales Funnels here.

Product/Service Sales Funnels (Micro Sales Funnels)

Product/Service Sales Funnels are your “money makers”.

Their sole purpose is to sell a product or service that your business offers.

These funnels have the ability to stand on their own (ie. you can send paid traffic to them) and can look very different based upon what you're trying to sell.

For example, they can have 1-100 emails, offer webinars, product launches, 3 video funnels, up-sells, down-sells, cross-sells … basically any “guru” funnel you want to follow can be plugged in here.

The ability to plug & play with these various type of Product/Service Sales Funnels is what makes the Interest Driven Sales Funnel so powerful!

You're not limited in what you can do and people will always come back to your Main Series where the relationship will be maintained, other interests gauged, and other Product/Service Sales Funnels triggered!

For Example …

The above is just a taste of a Product/Service Sales Funnel.

The Start

No matter what “guru” funnel you follow (or you can always do your own thing 😉 ) the start will most likely be based on 1 of 4 things:

• Click (Interest Shown) – Someone clicks a link in one of your emails showing they're interested in a certain topic, product, service, etc.
• Specific Lead Magnet – Someone opts in to receive a Lead Magnet for something related to what you want to sell. For example, a mini-guide called “5 ways we decreased Facebook Ad spending by 89%” could lead to a Facebook Ads course.
• Page View – Similar to the “click” mentioned above; however, in this instance the individual may navigate to a particular page on their own without going through a link provided in an email.
• Points (CRM) – More “advanced”; however, if you're using a CRM tool you can use points to gauge interest and trigger Product/Service Sales Funnels based on points. For example, if someone looks at your sales page 5 times, you know they're highly interested … they may just need a tad more persuasion … exactly what a Product/Service Sales Funnel will provide.

After The Start (The Funnel Part)

After the Start, you have the “funnel part.” Again, this can look like pretty much anything; however, in the example above we use an Action Series and an Upsell Series.

• Action Series – This is a series of emails that addresses the subscriber from different angles in order to try and “connect” with them and drive them to take action (make a purchase). For example, one email could be very logical and explain, by-the-numbers, why your deal is great. One email could be a story about someone who found success with your product. One email could be very benefits driven and explain the results one can expect.
• Upsell Series – This is a series of emails that triggers after an action (purchase) is taken and attempts to move them to the next logical step. For example, they purchase a $7 guide to solve a problem and the upsell is a step-by-step video course that's $97.

The Finish

Just like the Start, the Finish will be the same no matter what the “funnel part” looks like.

If the individual entered into your Product/Service Sales Funnel from your Main Series – they'll re-enter the Main Series and pick up where they left off.

If the individual entered into your Product/Service Sales Funnel via another source, ie. Facebook Ad to a Specific Lead Magnet – they'll start the Main Series from the top.

Let's Piece It Together

This is what an Interest Driven Sales Funnel can, hypothetically, look like: (remember, an Interest Driven Sales Funnel is modular in nature. Interest(s) can be shown at any time which means Product/Service (Micro) Sales Funnels can be triggered at any time!)

Simple Explanation

When a new subscriber joins your list, they're “welcomed” to your list and your business via a Welcome Series.

From there, interest(s) is/are gauged based upon general emails that are entertaining, educational, and/or sell (earn) (3 E Emails).

For example, if I run a fitness center and I send out an email with a link to an article titled, “7 steps to lose 7 pounds in 7 days” and a subscriber clicks the link to that article, I can tell they're interested in weight loss.

Or, if I send out an email with a link to video called, “3 biceps exercises that'll add 3 inches to your biceps in 3 weeks” and a subscriber clicks the link to that video, I can tell they're interested in building muscle.

From there, I'll launch my “Action Series” that sends content pertaining to each specific interest and that also sells related products and services to help individuals reach their goals.

For example, if the individual shows they're interested in weight loss, I'll send more helpful content about weight loss in the form of articles and videos, as well as links to sales pages and offers for things like courses, diet books, exercise plans, supplements, etc.

And, I'll do something similar for the person interested in building muscle.

When the individual purchases a product or service from me, I'll recommend complementary products/services or even “bigger” products/services. (Upsell Series)

For example, the individual buys a $7 eBook that contains recipes for healthy meals to lose weight. I then know they're interested in eating healthy and can recommend various meal delivery services to them, for which I'll earn a referral commission.

And it goes on, and on from there …

Gauge interest, send relevant content, recommend relevant products and services, repeat.

Businesses That Need An Interest Driven Sales Funnel

Really, the only “requirement” is that you have the ability to cater to various interests – ie. you have multiple products/services. Of course, these don't need to be your own products/services – you can recommend partner products as an affiliate in order to best serve  your customers.

Digital Businesses

Businesses that sell digital products like courses, resources, guides, ebooks, etc can greatly benefit from implementing an Interest Driven Sales Funnel!

Since everything is performed online, you're able to “watch” everything your subscribers and customers do within your business – making it incredibly easy to gauge interest, setup and implement product/services (micro) sales funnels, and measure/test everything!

An Interest Driven Sales Funnel is what drives Crazy Eye Marketing!

Ecommerce Businesses

Ecommerce businesses can benefit tremendously from implementing an Interest Driven Sales Funnel!

In a similar fashion to the Digital Businesses I mentioned above, ecommerce businesses are able to track how individuals interact with their store, the products people are viewing, the products that are purchased (upsell series!), the words they're searching for, and even if products have been added to a shopping cart … but not purchased! (hint: send a cart abandonment series)

The options and possibilities are seemingly endless when it comes to ecommerce businesses!

Brick & Mortar Businesses

Believe it or not – brick & mortar businesses can also benefit from implementing an Interest Driven Sales Funnel!

Sure, the tracking won't be as precise as it'll be harder to track which part(s) of your sales funnel results in “actual” action – ie. a purchase; however, most everything else will be the same! You are still able to gauge interest based on clicks and pages viewed, you are able to send tailored content, and you still strive to drive action (a shopping trip to your business)!

Don't count yourself out of this goodness, just because you're not based primarily online!

Summary

Sending emails that contain content people care about will always convert better than generic emails.

The best way to figure out what someone cares about is to see what links they click on, pages they view, and products they buy.

From there you're able to send relevant content, products, and services and then rinse and repeat the process.

How To Get Started

I know this post was more high level strategy than actual tactics you can apply today.

But, don't worry! I've got something for ya … the The ActiveCampaign & Interest Driven Sales Funnels Course.

In the last post we talked about what you should send to your email list – emails that are entertaining/educational AND that help you segment your subscribers based on their interests.

But, what do you send once you know their interests?

That's what this post is all about!

What To Send

Once you know an individual's interest(s) you'll be able to send tailored content that caters to what they want to learn about.

For example, if I know someone is interested in sales funnel development – I'll start to send more information about sales funnels to help the lead become more educated on the topic.

I'll also begin to send action producing emails that drive the lead to my various sales funnel courses and services.

Between providing value and presenting solutions in the form of courses and services – I'll be able to convert more leads into customers.

• Related Product: 28+ Pre-Written Emails

The Problem: Driving Action/Sales

The concept is pretty simple – right? When someone is interested in something, you send them more information on that topic and then try to sell your related products and services.

Sending helpful emails is easy. These normally link to things like blog posts and videos that are educational/entertaining and people tend to enjoy receiving them.

Sending actionable emails is a little harder. These normally link to things like sales pages and order forms for products and services that are helpful BUT cost money.

So, you have to send actionable emails because the whole point of running a business and implementing a sales funnel is to sell things … but what's the best way?

The Solution: Marketing Formulas

Marketing or copywriting formulas are blueprints that help guide your email writing and structure.

These formulas help you approach your subscribers from different angles so you can better connect.

For example, some individuals may be more logical in their purchasing behaviors so they compare features. Others are driven by what the product or service will do for them – ie. benefits. Some want to make sure they're getting the best bang for their buck and they're looking at what your product can do compared to your competition – ie. advantages.

The example given above is the Features-Advantages-Benefits formula – and here are a few others you can use in  your email marketing campaigns …

Before-After-Bridge

• Before – What life is like before your product/service enters it
• After – How great life is after your product/service in your subscriber's life
• Bridge – Your product/service … aka … How to get to the “after”

Problem-Agitate-Solve

• Problem – Identify the problem in your subscriber's life
• Agitate – Make the subscriber “angrier” about their problem
• Solve – Present your product/service as the solution to this aggravating problem

Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA)

• Attention – Grab your subscriber's attention by being bold
• Interest – Give your subscriber interesting information on the problem your product/service solves
• Desire – Present the benefits of the product/service and provide proof it does what you say
• Action – Ask them to buy

More Formulas

The good news is there's a ton of information on these copywriting formulas … so, I don't need to cover them all here. Instead I'd rather show you how to implement the formulas into your emails.

By the way … here are a few more resources:

• Copywriting Formulas
• 27 Copywriting Formulas
• 21 Copywriting Formulas

• Related Product: 28+ Pre-Written Emails

How To Use The Formulas

How you'll apply these formulas to your email marketing campaigns will depend on your audience and what you're trying to sell.

Some audiences enjoy receiving long, thorough emails while others want a short blurb with a link to more information.

Complex/expensive products tend to take more “convincing” than simple/cheaper products and may require more emails and therefore, more angles.

1 Email, Short

In this scenario you would include the entire marketing formula in one email … in as few sentences as possible.

The goal is to get people to click through in order to get more information.

This scenario comes in handy when your audience doesn't read long emails and/or mainly checks their email on a mobile device and they don't want to have to sit there and scroll through a long winded email.

For example (AIDA): Missing out? 99% of small businesses don't have a sales funnel. Stop leaving money on the table! Click Here to learn more!

1 Email, Long

In this scenario, you would include the entire marketing formula in one email … but, it would be presented in several sentences/paragraphs – more like a sales page.

The goal is to really “sell” in the email. It can even link to the order form as opposed to a sales page.

This scenario comes in handy when you want to try a different angle than the normal sales page or if you're trying to sell an affiliate product. When you don't control the sales page, but want to provide as much information as possible to your subscriber in your own voice before sending them to someone else's sales page; this is a good method.

Email Series

In this scenario, you break up the marketing formula across several emails.

The goal is to introduce different angles to the subscriber in order to try and drive them to either your sales page or order form (if it makes sense to do so).

For example, with the features-advantages-benefits formula, the first email could identify the features of the product, the second email the benefits, and the third the advantages … selling your product/service from three different angles.

This scenario comes in handy when you're trying to sell something complicated and/or expensive and you need more time.

Summary

At the end of the day, the point of your email list is to increase sales of your products and services. By following marketing/copywriting formulas, you're able to write and structure your emails in a way that motivates your leads to take action and buy your stuff!

• Related Product: 28+ Pre-Written Emails

Is what you're using the best lead magnet?

Probably not.

Most of my posts, courses, and tutorials recommend offering a discount or a coupon as a lead magnet.

Why?

A few reasons:

• It's easy to setup – you don't have to develop a checklist, write an eBook, or develop a course. All you have to do is send an email with a code.
• It drives sales – the only way to take advantage of a coupon is to use it.
• It works – people like to save money and will happily give away an email address in exchange for savings.

But is it the best?

Doubtful.

Why Coupons Suck As Lead Magnets

• They're easy to duplicate – just as they're “easy to setup” they're also easy to ripoff and duplicate. Nothing can really stop someone from using it multiple times.
• They cut into profit – that discount has to come from somewhere …
• And … the biggest reason …

They only apply to those that are about to buy.

Why is this a bad thing?

Don't we want people that are going to buy?

Yes. You want people that are going to buy and coupons help drive sales; however, in offering one as the lead magnet … anyone who is “just browsing” isn't going to care about a discount.

They're in the research phase, trying to learn more, and you're trying to “force” a sale.

Doing this will turn people off.

Instead … do this:

Give coupons to “warm” leads and helpful info to “cool” leads

• Warm leads – those that are already on your email list and know about your business and what it offers
• Cool leads – those that aren't on your email list and are learning about your business and what it offers

Makes sense … right?

What's The Best Lead Magnet?

The best lead magnet is one that moves the individual to the next step.

Sounds simple, but what does it mean?

Figure out the individual's problems and solve them.

The solution is then the lead magnet.

C'mon Nathan! You're not helping!

OK! Here are the steps:

Scenario: we sell tools.

1. Pretend like you're a visitor that just landed on your website. Why are you there? What are you looking for? What problems are you having that would cause you to find your site?
2. Write out the problem(s) – ie. I need to put a screw in my wall that will support a 20lb picture frame.
3. Solve that problem – ie. Checklist: 5 Essential Tools To Hang Heavy Pictures | Guide and/or Video: How To Properly Hang Heavy Pictures On Your Wall
4. The solution you provide involves a drill, a level, a stud finder, a measuring tape, and special picture frame screws that are exclusive to your business and are guaranteed to hold up to 100lbs each!

So … If I'm a guy that's trying to hang a big, heavy, picture on my wall that the in-laws gave my wife and this business was offering a “how to” video tutorial for hanging big, heavy, picture frames … I'd grab that up in a heartbeat! And, while watching the video, I'd learn that I need a stud finder and some special screws, and I'd purchase them.

Whereas, if I landed on that same site, but was only offered a 20% off coupon … I probably wouldn't grab it, because it wouldn't be helpful at that point in time … I'd still be trying to figure out how to solve my big, heavy, picture frame problem.

Make sense?

Test, Test, and Test!

The great part about all of this is that it's easily testable. You can offer multiple lead magnets various ways.

There's A/B testing where half the people that visit your site are offered one lead magnet, the other half is offered the other one, and you compare optin rates and sales (because this is what truly matters; however, it may be a little harder to track).

You can have different ads link to different optin forms that offer different lead magnets.

You can have different lead magnets for each blog post or page on your website, like Nick Loper does on SideHustleNation.com.

You have to test them all.

You do not simply “pick a lead magnet” on day 1 and that's it for years to come.

Try a coupon, a checklist, an eBook, a mini-course, a contest entry, etc. Try them all and on multiple topics … maybe the first checklist you create falls flat, it doesn't mean all checklists will … it simply means that first one did.

Try a coupon at 10% and one at 30%. Does it increase optin rates? Does it increase sales? You'd be surprised … more often than not, higher discounts don't result in more optins or sales and only result in smaller margins on the same number of orders.

Test!

Summary

Don't get me wrong. I still recommend offering coupons as lead magnets because, again … they're easy, they drive sales, and they work.

However, know that they're probably best served to “warm” leads who are on your email list already as opposed to “cooler” leads just learning about your business. These “cooler” folks are looking for more guidance and information, provide it in the form of a lead magnet that moves them to the next step.

At the end of the day … test, test, and test!

Opt-in rates are important.

They show how many people saw your offer (lead magnet) and thought it looked “juicy” enough to give you their email address.

The higher the opt-in rate, the more visitors you'll turn into subscribers and the faster you'll grow your email list.

• Related Course: How To Optimize Your Sales Funnel

Why Google Analytics?

9 times out of 10, your opt-in form software tracks conversions already.

It will tell you how many people saw your opt-in form and how many filled it out.

This is semi-helpful, but it doesn't share the whole story.

It doesn't show you where the person came from and how they ended up at your opt-in form.

This is where Google Analytics comes into play – it shows you the exact steps someone went through before giving you their email address.

Example

This is just an example of one report. There are several “standard” reports and you can customize your own to get the data you need.

Other Coolness

Google Analytics also helps you track how well your advertising campaigns are doing.

Of course, Google Adwords and Google Analytics go hand-in-hand; however, you can also add UTM Tags to any link in order to see how well it performs.

UTM Tags are beyond the scope of this post; however, if you'd like to read more – here's a great article.

The Whole Story [DISCLAIMER]

I want to clarify something really quickly about opt-in rates.

They are not the “end-all-be-all.”

What really matters is: How Many People Buy.

Let's pretend that you created an opt-in form and got it to a 90% conversion rate – wow! You achieved the impossible!

The problem is, the people subscribing end up not purchasing anything you sell because they don't purchase products online.

It doesn't matter how many people are on your email list, if they don't buy anything.

I'd much rather have a list of 100 people that buy my products than 10,000 people who just want free stuff.

Keep in mind – opt-in rates are an important metric to examine and optimize for; however, the quality of people you're bringing in matters most.

How To Track Your Email Opt-In Rates With Google Analytics

Step 1: Thank You Page

The first thing you will need is a Thank You Page (sometimes called a Confirmation Page).

It's the page someone arrives on after they give you their email address that “thanks” them for joining your email list or asks them to “confirm” their email address by checking their email and clicking a confirmation link.

For example – here's one of my Thank You pages:

Step 2: Connect Thank You Page To Opt-In Form

Depending on your opt-in form software – how to “connect” your thank you page is going to vary, so you may need to do a little bit of research … or, if you get really stuck, ask me.

Here are a few tutorials:

• MailChimp
• ActiveCampaign
• OptinMonster

Step 3: Create Google Analytics Goal

Login to Google Analytics, navigate to the “Admin” tab and select “Goals”

Step 4: Create a New Goal

Click the “New Goal” button:

Under “Engagement” select “Sign up” and then press “Continue”:

Name your goal (ie: New Subscriber), leave “Goal slot ID” alone, unless you know what you're doing with it … in which case, you wouldn't be viewing this tutorial … select “Destination” as “Type” and click “Continue”:

Select “Begins with” and enter the url path to your Thank You Page without including your domain (ie. /thank-you). Assigning a Value or a Funnel is not necessary at this point, unless you really want to; however, I recommend leaving them “Off” for the time being, you can change it later.

Then select “Verify Goal”:

Ideally, you'll have had some traffic to your Thank You Page so you will see a conversion rate and verify that your Goal is setup properly.

If you haven't had any traffic to your Thank You Page – go visit it now and visit it on your phone too … just to get a couple “unique” visits. You'll have to wait a day or so for those visits to “count” … so, be sure to re-verify your goal in a day or two to make sure it's functioning properly.

Click “Save”

Step 5: Track

Now that you're tracking your conversions, it's time to view a few reports!

Select the “Reporting” tab at the top, then on the left select “Conversions”, “Goals”, and “Overview”.

Make sure you have the correct “Goal” selected, view the “Source / Medium” … and checkout what's happening!

It looks like the greatest percent of my conversions for this goal are coming from Google!

The “Reverse Goal Path” is also a great report (it's the one I showed in the first picture of this post).

Conclusion

This is just the beginning.

The point of this post was to get you tracking your opt-in rates with Google Analytics and to show you a few basic views.

Now that you're tracking and recording data, you'll be able to analyze it in order to figure out what traffic converts the best, where it's coming from, etc. – so you'll know where to focus your efforts.

But, that's for later … let's take it one step at a time!

• Related Course: How To Optimize Your Sales Funnel