email notifications for your blog content

Email Notifications for Blog Content

Becs Kemm

I work for

Company blogs

generate 55% more visitors

Source: Hubspot

> 62% of businesses

have a blog

Source: Hubspot

97% more inbound links

with blogs Source: Business

2 Community

Blogs have a

positive impact on

SEO

Many popular bloggers

earn enough to

live on

Company blogs

generate 55% more visitors

Source: Hubspot

> 62% of businesses

have a blog

Source: Hubspot

97% more inbound links

with blogs Source: Business

2 Community

Blogs have a

positive impact on

SEO

Many popular bloggers

earn enough to

live on

Company blogs

generate 55% more visitors

Source: Hubspot

> 62% of businesses

have a blog

Source: Hubspot

97% more inbound links

with blogs Source: Business

2 Community

Blogs have a

positive impact on

SEO

Many popular bloggers

earn enough to

live on

Company blogs

generate 55% more visitors

Source: Hubspot

> 62% of businesses

have a blog

Source: Hubspot

97% more inbound links

with blogs Source: Business

2 Community

Blogs have a

positive impact on

SEO

Many popular bloggers

earn enough to

live on

Company blogs

generate 55% more visitors

Source: Hubspot

> 62% of businesses

have a blog

Source: Hubspot

97% more inbound links

with blogs Source: Business

2 Community

Blogs have a

positive impact on

SEO

Many popular bloggers

earn enough to

live on

Company blogs

generate 55% more visitors

Source: Hubspot

> 62% of businesses

have a blog

Source: Hubspot

97% more inbound links

with blogs Source: Business

2 Community

Blogs have a

positive impact on

SEO

Many popular bloggers

earn enough to

live on

Pinch of Yum: $32,971

July 2015

You’ve blogged, now what?

!

Low reach unless you pay

Standard emails

are UGLY

Tiny lifetime in

ecosystem

!

Email is better, you can spy on your users…

(without them knowing)

Our own findings…

Sign up forms with

separate opt-in for posts

vs twice-monthly newsletters

Our own findings…

• Immediate feedback

• The comment game…

• 1400 subscribers in two months

• 28% unique opens

• 10% unique clicks

Our own findings…

Automation vs Manual

Automation - how?

• The default WordPress emails

• A plugin

• RSS->Email

• Time-saving

• Easy, mostly

• Can be set to schedule

Automation - WHY?

• Design limitations

• Boo-boos

• No ability to test & learn

Automation - WHY NOT?

Manual send - why?

• A/B subject line testing

• Customise copy completely

• More design options

Tips & tricks

To excerpt or not?

• Excerpt means you get more hits to your site

• Full post means likely to read more of post

• Full post reads not trackable

The big picture

Include a picture for a prettier looking

email

Add to functions.php// THIS INCLUDES THE FEATURED IMAGE (MEDIUM SIZE) IN OUR RSS FEED

function insertThumbnailRSS($content) {

global $post;

if ( has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID ) ){

$content = '' . get_the_post_thumbnail( $post->ID, 'medium' ) . '<br/><br/>' . $content;

}

return $content;

}

add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'insertThumbnailRSS');

add_filter('the_content_feed', 'insertThumbnailRSS');

Long-tail reading

NEWSFLASH: Not everyone reads

every single email you send!

Add links to older blog posts (a la Mailchimp)

Share blog posts in other emails

Use in combination with other

email types since not everyone

will want to receive blog posts by

email

Categorise

If you run a site with a lot of

different categories you might

want to allow users to choose

what they want to hear about

Apples

Oranges

Pears

What’s with the fruit?

Set your frequency

Promote

Sidebar

Before comments

Opt-in when commenting

Thanks! @becskr

Catch me at speed dating!