SendX
Email software to send campaigns, build lists, and automate marketing
When we talk about SEO and overall digital marketing, email is often neglected as a tool. Although email marketing and SEO can be used as individual strategies, marketers can blend them together in a successful plan.
Let’s not forget: both email marketing and SEO have the same foundational goal: building brand awareness online. If we figure out how to combine emails with search engine optimization strategies, we’ll boost the effectiveness of our overall marketing campaign.
Let’s see how we can do that.
Table of Contents
How Can I Increase My SEO with an Email Template?
1. Develop Multi-Purpose Newsletter Content
If you’re like most marketers, you use newsletters to promote the latest content on your blog, the new products featured on the site, or the promos that would bring more sales.
When inviting your visitors to subscribe, you make a promise similar to this one: subscribe to receive exclusive promos and content.
Yes; you’ll attract a few subscribers that way. It works for many popular websites, such as Wait But Why for example. This is the subscription form on that site:
But with this approach, you’re not promising to deliver real, exclusive content that would contribute towards SEO. To maximize your SEO campaigns, you need to make sure you follow best practices on-page SEO, link building and the UX of your site. You’ll make a better point if you offer exclusive content to your subscribers. Give them a reason not to think: “Why should I subscribe for updates, when I can visit the website and see the new content whenever I feel like it?”
You can offer infographics, research reports, eBooks, and other valuable and real content that will be exclusive for your email subscribers.
Here’s how Running Shoes Guru does that:
You can feature fractions of this content on your website after sending it out to your email subscribers as an exclusive offer. Make sure to indicate that the full content was more detailed, and your new visitors can get it, too. With the article featured on your site, you gain SEO points. You get double effects from a single piece of content.
2. Include Links in the SEO Emails
When you’re sending out promotional emails, you shouldn’t use them only to inform about your offers or introduce content. You have a chance to get your visitors on the website, where additional SEO content is featured. That’s your main goal.
There are a few rules to keep in mind when using links in emails:
- They should be easily distinguished. Underlining is not enough; it’s best to use a color that’s different from the rest of the text. Here is an example from The Hustle using red text to highlight links. Bonus points for the fact that it goes with their branding too.
- Use a smart CTA copy. The simple “Click here” from your usual SEO email template doesn’t work. Use a phrase that captures the essence of the content your recipients will find if they click the link.
Here is an example from the YETI email in which CTA says 'Listen Now ' instead of just Click here. It shows that the reader will be able to listen to music if they click on the button.
- Use a web traffic checker to monitor the traffic from your email campaign. That’s how you’ll see what strategies work and how you can change them for the better.
- The links should never be misleading! Take your visitors where you promised to take them, and deliver the content that they expect.
Continuing from the previous image, when we click on the Listen Now CTA, it actually took us to their Spotify Playlist and not some sales page or landing page.
- The landing page should feature a responsive design. Some of your visitors use a computer, and others rely on a mobile device. Everyone should see the content in an adequate format.
For a local business, ranking high in search engine results depends on the status they earn through reviews. If you maintain such a brand and you have email subscribers, ask them to contribute towards your reputation with their honest review.
Thanks to links in your emails, you can drive more audience to your website. Google will appreciate the boost of traffic. The bots will notice the engagement with that content. That’s how your newsletters serve as part of the SEO strategy.
3. Ask Your Subscribers for Reviews
This is the most direct connection between email marketing and SEO: ask your subscribers to provide you with content for your website. This is especially effective for local businesses, which rely on reviews more than any other type of business.
For a local business, ranking high in search engine results depends on the status they earn through reviews. If you maintain such a brand and you have email subscribers, ask them to contribute towards your reputation with their honest review.
Of course; you have to give them something in return. Offer a discount code, which they can use with their next purchase. You can also offer free eBooks, additional services, or anything else that would add value to the money they spend on your brand.
Remember: you mustn’t push for positive reviews. You should never write fake reviews; Internet users have gotten used to them and they know how to recognize them. Your business will strive only when it gets real attention from real users.
4. Use Calls to Action in Your SEO Email
The CTA is an essential element of a promotional email message. It triggers the recipients to take a specific action, which would be beneficial to your business. You may ask them to visit your website, make a purchase, download an eBook, or anything else that contributes towards your marketing campaign.
This same principle applies to the content you publish on your website and on social media. You can add email marketing elements to your SEO campaign. The CTA mustn’t be imposing. It should be well-placed and visible, while being discreet enough.
How do you achieve that? You provide value! When you convince your audience that you’re making an amazing offer, they will be glad to take the action you suggest.
Take a look at this email from Yoga with Kassandra. She offers valuable info for her subscribers, and includes several valuable calls to action along the way:
SEO and email marketing have a common purpose: to promote your brand to the right target audience. You want to convert the readers into something more. The CTAs can lead to such conversions.
5. Encourage Your Readers to Share Your Content on Social Media
Does social media popularity influence SEO? It’s a question that marketers have been asking for a long time. A study from 2016 showed that the brand’s good reputation on social media platforms did affect the Google rankings. The results were not 100% conclusive, but there’s something there: more shares on social media are likely to lead to a higher position in Google’s results.
There’s nothing wrong in trying. Even if you end up with improved social media popularity as the only reached goal, it won’t be a bad achievement.
All you need to do is include social media sharing buttons in promotional email messages. If the content is valuable, the recipient will be willing to share it on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook, and other platforms.
When your content is shared by multiple subscribers, more people will notice your brand. They will check out your website. With that, the shares indirectly contribute to a boosted traffic, which is an important aspect of your SEO campaign.
Don’t forget to include keywords in these emails! Your intention is to get them widely shared across platforms. Keywords will help you get noticed by the search engine’s bots.
Let’s Wrap It Up
Email marketing and SEO are not parallel lines that never meet. This is a serious mistake that many business owners make: they have separate teams working on both strategies, and these teams don’t collaborate with each other.
We’re not saying that these two elements of your marketing campaign should completely blend into each other. But it’s important to see the potential for mixing up your strategies in a way that makes them work together.
Email might not impact SEO in a direct way, and vice-versa. But when you use the methods we listed above, they can work together towards a single goal: improved brand awareness. Isn’t that what all marketers want?
FAQs
1) How can combining SEO and email marketing help me improve my email marketing and SEO efforts?
Email marketing and SEO both have the same goal of building brand awareness online. Combining emails with SEO strategies, will boost the effectiveness of our overall marketing campaign.
2) Can you offer some pro tips on improving the effectiveness of my email campaigns using SEO techniques in email marketing?
Here are some top tips to improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns using SEO techniques in email marketing:
- Include links in the SEO emails
- Ask your subscribers for reviews
- Use CTAs in Your SEO Email
- Encourage your readers to share your content on Social Media.
3) How can I best use CTAs in my SEO email?
The CTA in your SEO email must not be imposing. It should be well-placed and visible, while being discreet enough. Providing value in your email is very important. If you convince your audience that you are making an amazing offer, they will be glad to take the action you suggest.
4) How can I improve my Social Media engagement using my SEO emails?
A great tip would be to include social media sharing buttons in promotional email messages. If the content is valuable, the recipient will be willing to share it on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook, and other platforms.
