SEO and email marketing are often classified as entirely different digital marketing approaches. However, there is also a lot of overlap between them. For example, email outreach is often used as an integral part of search engine optimization.
When executing different strategies, we often use emails to contact other bloggers. We can also use these messages to promote targeted SEO content, build awareness, sell products, and accomplish other business goals.
Whatever the case, email marketing and SEO can definitely work together. To be specific, sending messages via Gmail or another platform allows us to boost our SEO efforts. In this article, we’ll share a few fantastic strategies that will help you mash these two together.
What makes emails great for SEO?
When optimizing your web pages, you always need a messaging system to contact your target audience and influencers. Whether we’re talking about Viber, WhatsApp, or social media messages, you need a platform through which you can contact all these people.
So, given all these advanced options, why do people still stick with emails?
Simply put, emails remain the most scalable, professional method of communication. Just imagine how your site visitors would react if you were to contact them via Facebook or Instagram. Although some people love this casual approach, others will consider it rather tacky.
Furthermore, emailing is the most universal of all marketing strategies, as you never know if a person uses WhatsApp or Telegram. But you can be certain that a lead has an email address. This fact alone will make your SEO strategy much more comprehensive and easier to execute.
4 Strategies that combine emailing and SEO
Here are a few best examples of how you can combine an email marketing campaign with SEO to boost your search rankings!
1. Backlink outreach
Whether you use Google or other search engines, you depend on other bloggers. In fact, we’d say that connecting with the right people is the best way to boost brand awareness in this day and age.
We all know that search engines simply love external links. They’re one of the most important off-page SEO factors that can push just about any type of content to stardom.
Links are a clear sign that other influencers love our article and are willing to share the post with their fan base. In a way, each time a person links to some web content, they’re basically supporting everything written on the page.
However, these links don’t come naturally, especially if you’re a young company. So, your task is to go out there are share the blog post with other website owners hoping that some of them will promote it.
How to implement it?
During this particular email marketing campaign, you’re trying to create a rapport with the people you’re reaching out to. You can’t simply tell them to promote your piece. Instead, you’re looking for a method that would persuade them to do so.
Here are a few tricks to persuade a person to link to your website content:
- Only offer relevant content. People will never link to you unless the post makes sense for their platform.
- Start the conversation slowly. You shouldn’t try to pitch a person in the first few subject lines and even the first email. Like with other types of sales, you’ll have to slowly build a relationship to stand a chance of converting.
- You can also offer them to replace one of the broken links with your own. Simply find articles that link out to pages that no longer exist, and offer your high-quality content as a replacement.
- If possible, you should also connect to a person on social platforms. Creating a real relationship before asking them for a favor can significantly increase the chance of success.
- Make sure your title and the first subject line attract enough attention. This is vital during cold outreach.
2. Promotional sales campaigns
Many people use SEO to drive qualified traffic to their sites and increase sales. But what if we told you that you could use sales as a vehicle to drive SEO?
Basically, you can create different promotional campaigns that would increase the number of visitors to your site. Give people on your email list discounts, coupons, and timed offers. When your most loyal fans start flocking to your online shop, they’ll take their time revising the offer and interacting with the site.
And this is where you get them. Even if visitors aren’t necessarily the biggest fans of your brand, the great offer will force them to stick to the platform for a while. While they’re on the site, doing their shopping, they might also go to your blog and check other products aside from the stuff you’re promoting.
Google analyzes average time spent on site and other website interactions, thus assigning rankings to specific pages. So, with this strategy, you can boost rankings for relevant keywords without spending too much money.
The only problem with this method is that you won’t actually make money from sales. You’re offering products and services at a bare minimum as a way of attracting as many people as possible to your site. So, this is more of a promotional method meant to build brand awareness.
How to implement it?
When it comes to this particular method, conversion is directly connected to the message. Your financial offer must be compelling to ensure you get enough traffic in the following days. In the end, if a person doesn’t like what you have to offer, they won’t even interact with the platform in the first place.
Here are a few tips for executing the approach:
- Whatever you do, make sure that you’re not losing money on this approach. While getting all this traffic and brand awareness is fantastic, you shouldn’t necessarily endanger your daily operations.
- Your conversion will be much better if you create a brochure in PDF. This will make it feel more professional and enticing. Furthermore, it will make it easier for people in your email list to share it with their friends.
- The optimal offer depends on your product and goals. You can go with major discounts, coupons, first-time purchase discounts, bulk offers, timed offers, etc.
- The fact that the offer is great doesn’t mean that the email should be crummy. Pay attention to the best practices, including having an excellent title and email body.
3. Content promotion
This following approach has some similarities with the previous two entries. With content promotion, you’re sharing awesome articles, studies, white papers, and similar types of content with your most loyal fans.
So, how does this affect your SEO?
Basically, you’re giving the followers something cool to read about. They already like your brand and interact longer with your site than other casual visitors. When you just start promoting a new article, extra visitors can significantly boost metrics and, with that, the search engine ranking of the particular piece.
The most important thing about this promotion is that you need to have a revolutionary content idea. You can also attract a lot of attention by writing case studies and other forms of posts that your fans would be interested in. Once you create the “hook,” start sending messages to your email subscribers.
But keep in mind that you shouldn’t do this for every post. Instead, you should only do promotion of articles that have a strategic value to your brand. So, before starting an email campaign, make sure to perform thorough keyword research and decide which are the most lucrative phrases to pursue.
Always remember that you’ll need an awesome template to attract their attention. Even though they’ve subscribed to your newsletters, that doesn’t mean they’ll read everything you send to them.
How to implement it?
Before sharing a few tips, we must mention that these campaigns should be strategically spread. There’s no point in trying to hook readers every week with a new article, as it will eventually antagonize them. Aside from emailing fans, you should also notify them via social media. That would create a double-whammy effect.
Here are some ideas you can use:
- We suggest that you check out other sites and find viral posts in your industry. Focus on articles that gained lots of search traffic quickly, but also content that garnered lots of attention on social media and other platforms.
- Crazy ideas usually go well with the users, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
- The best way to make this an effective email marketing strategy is by having lots of loyal visitors. If you’re grabbing people’s emails with cookies and other methods, there’s a chance they will bounce off the page as soon as they land. That way, a small number of people can drag down the whole campaign.
- Think about how optimizing this page will affect your conversion. Given that the post is trying to attract the widest possible audience, most people who visit the page will look for information and entertainment. So, you’ll have to find a way to reroute them to product pages.
4. Involve people in projects
The best way to make people care about your brand is by making them involved.
You can do this in different ways. For example, you can create expert roundups where you will invite professionals to contribute to your article. Strategies such as this are great for acquiring links and building awareness. However, you can also ask your regular website visitors for article feedback.
Companies can also partner up with other brands. Whether you’re organizing live events, webinars, or simply making a podcast together, you can get a piece of their followership. By getting more people to participate, you’re increasing reach and, thus, the odds that a project will be a successful one.
Of course, to execute these promotional activities, you’ll need to use emailing. Make sure to create brochures and other interesting graphic solutions to increase the response rate. Feature your guest expert at the top of the email to get additional traction.
How to implement it?
The success of this strategy is predicated on the popularity of an influencer. Logically, someone with a large followership will make sure that a project is a success. Although you can use the same strategy to receive feedback from your fans, they won’t be able to scale the message at the same level.
Here are a few things you need to consider with this one:
- The influencers’ level of involvement will correspond to the project’s uniqueness. If you’re looking to feature them in a roundup with numerous other experts, you can only expect to get a few short answers. However, if you’re organizing a unique event that will attract a massive crowd, they will be more inclined to participate at a higher level.
- You can also create a concept where you regularly ask fans to provide feedback. After that, you can feature them in your posts. Although website visitors don’t have the same pull as influencers and can’t help your content go viral, you can still ensure their loyalty with this approach.
- Ideally, before asking an expert to participate, you should have at least some sort of working relationship. Although certain people will answer a random email, your success rate will be much lower with cold pitches.
- Always analyze things from the experts’ perspective. How can they benefit from getting involved in this project? Will it be too much of a hassle for them? Keep in mind they’re getting similar offers all the time, and you need something really enticing to persuade them to join.
As you can see, these strategies are usually dependent on the underlying SEO content/offer. You need to have a solid pitch to entice people to participate. Otherwise, everything will be for naught. Once you get the necessary traction, you should start getting lots of links and social media shares, boosting your SEO visibility within the search results.
If you’re looking to create an actionable SEO email marketing strategy, contact MiroMind today. Our SEO agency is well-versed in different marketing approaches and can help you with just about any task!