Email FAQ Cheat Sheet Answers

By Troy Ericson

Hey, thanks for checking this out - it’s going to show you exactly how to
increase email conversions & sell more than you ever have before.

How do I know? Because I made this using the THOUSANDS of questions

I’ve gotten via email over the last few months. So it’s directly relatable to
you.

This isn’t the patty cake, softball type of Q&A you typically find on Google
where people don’t actually answer your question. This is me telling you
exactly what works after having sold over $50,000,000 worth of stuff over
the last 3 years.

Also, my goal is to make this document fun & easy to read. So hopefully
you find it entertaining. Feel free to save this (File > Download) or share
it with whoever you’d like (File > Share).

If you asked me a question that’s super specific or private, I’ll get back to
you personally as soon as I can - I’m a busy person (and so are you), so
that’s why I made this Done-For-You Google Doc! Enjoy!

Feel free to share this with anyone who might find it useful (:

FAQ’s:

What’s a good open rate? How do I increase my

open rates?
10-15% is about average based on all the lists I’ve audited that have at
least a few thousand people. Of course this varies by industry. However,
you should be getting AT LEAST 15% or you’re going to start running
into spam problems in the future. Ideally 20%+, or more if you have a small
list. Honestly, I’d prefer 20% now that we’re post-iOS 15.

The easiest way to increase open rates is to use the formula of *curiosity +
benefit* in your subject lines. And throwing in bits of contradiction or social
proof/name dropping. Be specific with your claims as well.

Of course this changes based on your niche, but I’ll give a few examples in
the email marketing niche since I know you at least have some level of
interest since you’re reading this.

Example 1: Weird email that sold $4,000 in 17 minutes

(The curiosity is in the ‘weird email’ part and the benefit is in the ‘$4,000’
part. I also used a timeframe since those help too.)

Example 2: The fastest & easiest way to land your first client

(This email would be geared toward freelancers, so the curiosity = ‘fastest

& easiest way’ and the benefit = ‘first client’)

Example 3: Newbie emailer STUNS Gary Vee with THIS strange email

(This makes people curious as to how a newbie could impress an A-List

marketer like Gary Vee. The benefit here is simply in figuring out how the
newbie did it. And there’s a lot of social proof since Gary Vee was
impressed.)
How do I increase my click rates?

Your click rate depends on a lot of things and will vary based on the goal of
each email and the size of your list (gets harder as your list gets bigger).

Let’s say you’ve got several thousand people on your list. Sometimes you
write long emails that get around 1% clicks, but those clicks have very high
purchase intent since they read the whole email.

Sometimes you can write short emails with a link and let people do all the
reading on the website. Those get 3-5% clicks where it’s quantity over
quality.

Either one can work. But the easiest way to get more clicks is to make the
link text match the subject line as much as possible.

For example, if your subject line is ‘Easy way to get more clicks from your
email’, the link text should be ‘Easy way to get more clicks from your email’.

It works because the congruency is very high. You can’t always make it an
exact match, but just do as best as you can. But overall, it’s all about writing
awesome emails loaded with amazing content that’s congruent with the
subject line. See the next question:

How do you come up with content for emails if

you feel like you have nothing to say?

After selling $50,000,000 worth of stuff in the last 3 years, I can confirm that
telling RELATABLE STORIES is the #1 key to writing emails that people
love while also persuading them to buy... Because it's hard to stop reading
a good story (doesn’t matter if it’s in a book, a movie, or an email)... IF they
feel they’ve been in your shoes before. And by the end of a good story,
people feel inspired to take action.

So the easiest way to write a story-based email is to think back through the
past week or so and tell a story that happened to you. Of course it should
be relevant to your audience, but here's how I tell stories & pitch stuff at the
end:

1. Tell a cool/funny/embarrassing story that your audience can relate to

2. Share the lesson/benefit they can learn from it
3. Product/service that helps them achieve the benefit faster or better
than they currently are.

If you’re writing for someone else and stories about YOUR life aren’t
relevant to the audience, use Reddit.

For example, if you’re a guy writing for womens’ weight loss, Google
“Reddit how do women lose weight?” and you will find a TON of stories that
really really really resonate with people who need your product/service.

Stories are all about relating to people, which is how to get your foot in the
door & sell them something that’s going to help them.

You can also use:

- testimonials (which is really just someone else’s story)

- current events (stories about the world around us)
- curiosity (sucks people into a story)

All of this helps readers relate to you, which is the key to making a sale.
I hope my emails are a good example of how to tell a story & then transition
into a Call To Action.

How do you balance promotional emails vs value

emails without sounding too salesy?

Similar to the answer above, you simply tell a story or share a testimonial,
and then transition into how a certain concept/product/service helped solve
a problem.

1. Tell the story

2. Share the concept/lesson learned
3. Share what you sell that helps with this concept/lesson

For example, I’m just going to be honest here haha, I’m giving you a TON
of awesome value so by the time you’re done reading, you’ll be more
inclined to buy something from me because of all the value you got here.

So as long as there’s value or entertainment (stories have both), people

won’t be made if you ‘soft sell’ them at the end.

So with that being said, if you want me to personally share even more
secrets & awesome value like this, join the Email List Management
Certification Program.

How often should I send emails? I don’t want to

annoy people.
Ok, now that you read the 2 questions above, it should feel a LOT easier to
come up with more emails. Which is great because the truth is that most
businesses should send a daily email.

The more you send, the more you make. You can’t sell via email if you
don’t send emails, right?

Also, don’t forget that your subscribers joined your list for a reason. They
WANT to hear from you.

If they unsubscribe, don’t worry. They weren’t very serious anyway. Plus, if
you have The Unsub Secret, you can still convert them into buyers.

Ultimately, people getting annoyed is caused by a lack of stories, value,

and entertainment rather than frequency. Because no one unsubscribes
from emails that they enjoy. Make sense?

The only time you shouldn’t send a ton of emails is if you have a really dull
service business that people only buy from when they have to (a few
examples: tree trimming, Christmas gifts, gutter cleaning).

For everything else, people want to hear from you often!

If this sounds overwhelming, just start off by sending one more email per
week than you normally do and go from there. You can also email me at
[email protected] if you’re looking for a copywriter to write them
for you. I have some incredible writers looking for extra work.

What’s the best day & time to send emails?

I know this sounds obvious, but just pick a time that your niche/market isn’t
busy or sleeping.

Sunday afternoons are great for just about everyone.

Right after work hours is good for people with normal jobs (especially if you
want them to click & consume content).

The beginning of the work day is good for B2B.

But to be honest, it doesn’t matter that much if you write good emails. One
time I accidentally scheduled an email at 3am instead of 3pm. The client’s
average open rate was 27%. The 3am email got 24%.

Plus, I have subscribers from all over the world, so sometimes the timing is
really odd for some people but I still get great open rates.

Point is, there are more important things to worry about. Just make sure to
send & you will improve right away!

What’s the best way to get a response?

Just ask a simple question. Keep the email extremely short and to the
point. When people reply, use that to start a conversation.

Keep it super simple. You won’t get many replies if your question is too
complicated.

Short & sweet reply emails work amazingly well.

For example, if you’re a real estate agent, all the email should say is, “Hi,
*First Name*, are you still interested in selling your home?”

Plus, when people reply, it boosts your deliverability AND allows you to get
to know your subscribers better. You’ll meet a lot of cool people.

How do I keep people interested in my emails

over time?

The most important thing is to make sure that your welcome email makes
sense and isn’t just something that’s thrown together really quick.

Make sure it’s congruent with whatever action the subscriber took to end up
on your list. Deliver what they asked for and then tell them what to expect
in the future (this is what makes them stick around).

Walk through the opt-in process yourself and make sure it makes sense to
new subscribers.

Then just make sure you’re using the ‘reply email’ from above so you know
what people want to hear about. And then write your future emails about
that.

But overall, the welcome email is most important because it’s your first
impression. And you don’t get a second chance at it.

If your welcome email sucks, people tend to not read your emails anymore.
How should I re-engage inactive subscribers
without hurting my deliverability to my active
subscribers?

First off, make sure you read the answers to the above questions so you
know WHY people lose interest in the first place.

But for your inactive subscribers, you want to put out your VERY best offer
or content in front of them. You have nothing to lose. They either reply &
you keep them on the list or they’re gone forever. So use a suuuuper
attractive subject line and keep the message really simple while giving
them a great offer. The format is below:

1. Curiosity-Based Subject Line

2. Quickly remind them who you are (how did they originally find you?)
3. Give them a reason why you are contacting them today
4. Present them with something cool (could be an offer or a freebie as
long as it’s interesting to someone who hasn’t opened in awhile)

As long as you don’t send to a TON of inactive subscribers at once, you

won’t hurt your delivery to your active subscribers. But don’t keep emailing
the inactive subscribers more than 2-3 times or you could run into spam
issues. Be smart about it.

In general, if people don’t open your emails for more than 30-60 days, you
should really consider kicking them off your list unless you wanna go to
spam in the near future.
Am I going to spam? How do I get out of spam or
make sure I DON’T go to spam?

It’s never the same for everyone, but here are some symptoms:

- Your open rate is consistently below 10%

- Your open & click rates are declining
- Your emails go to spam when you send to a new email address that
you haven’t sent to before (Sending to one that you normally send to
is NOT an accurate test)
- You use a lot of “spam trigger words” in your emails that have to do
with money, urgency, weird supplements, sex, etc.
- You use !!! or … or ALL CAPS in the subject line.

There’s a couple ways to get out of/avoid spam:

Way #1: Cut down the list size until you are getting open rates of 20%+.
The people you cut don't need to be permanently cut, just set them to the
side for now. Do this for a couple weeks (send a lot of emails) and your
domain reputation will begin to improve. Then slowly add some people
back, but obviously don't add back the people you cut out in the preliminary
step I mentioned.

Way #2: Buy a new domain and send from that. Most people won't notice
or care. But make sure to set up the list so it can be automatically cleaned
so this doesn't happen again.

If you think you’re going to spam & want me to get you out, click here.
How do I get out of the Gmail Promo Tab?

Truth is, the Promo Tab is almost as bad as spam. It kills open rates and
damages deliverability at the same time. And obviously it kills sales. It’s a
slippery slope. You could be losing thousands per month because of it.

Going to Promo is based on 2 things: Domain Reputation & Content.

Domain reputation is based on your sending history. If you generally get

good open rates, it’s easier to avoid Promo. But if your history is mediocre,
it’s pretty hard to get out.

Which leads to point #2, content. Because content usually dictates which
folder your emails go to and therefore it impacts your domain reputation.

So avoid using a ton of salesy or spammy words & phrases. However,

there is an easy way to get out of the Promo Tab that you can see here.
It’s a code that you paste into your email and it goes to the primary inbox
around 90% of the time.

How fancy do my emails need to be?

For most businesses, fancy is bad.

Big corporate companies tend to try and get too fancy… And then all the
smaller companies think that’s how you’re supposed to do it.

So then everyone’s doing it without understanding that they’re killing their

own open rates since they use a lot of images and end up in the Gmail
Promo Tab or the spam folder.
So unless you’re in a niche or industry where visuals are highly important
(ecomm), you shouldn’t have a lot of images.

Keep it simple & personable looking. Neatness and message clarity are the
most important, BY FAR.

The only time when you need to be a little fancy is for ecommerce, in which
case, I used this setup:

1. Logo
2. Headline
3. Image
4. Some persuasive/feeling based writing about the product
5. Another image

I share some great examples of these emails in my Certification Program.

Which ESP (Email Service Provider) should I

use?

Honestly, email success is more about using the principles I’ve taught in
this document. But to answer the question, I use ActiveCampaign. I think
it’s the best one by far because the deliverability is really good and the
amount of stuff you can do with automations & lead flow is the best in the
business. A few other good ESPs are Klaviyo, Ontraport, and Maropost.
Worst in my opinion is Mailchimp.

How do you grow an email list?

This is more of a matter of advertising, but here’s a few things you need to
know:

1. Focus on a good offer FIRST. If you don’t have anything valuable to

sell or (offer as a freebie), you’re building a business on a flawed
foundation.

2. Build a list from anywhere that gets traffic. Usually you will need to do
paid advertising to get a significant amount of traffic, but maybe you
have a site that ranks high on Google, or a lot of Twitter followers, or
a good reputation with your Linkedin network, or a really good
Facebook group.

3. Not all subscribers are the same. People who buy something to get
on your list are WAY more likely to buy stuff in the future. Freebie
opt-ins will continue to look for freebies.

What metrics should I track?

1. Sales (obvious but some people focus on the wrong things)

2. Open rates
3. Click rates
4. EPC (Earnings per Click)
5. PPM (Profit per 1,000 sends)
6. Earnings per Subscriber per month (Shoot for $1+)

How do you find clients who will pay you to write

emails?
I got started by learning a TON about email, practicing the principles in this
document, and then sharing things I learned in different Facebook groups.
Then people would comment or message me because they loved my posts
so much. Then I would chat with them about writing their emails for them. It
really builds your reputation over time, and that’s why today, people come
to me instead of me going to them.

Honestly, just post somewhere! You can also use sites like Upwork to find
remote jobs. I also have a jobs board & client-getting strategies in my
Email List Management Certification Program.

Can I hire you to do all or some of this email

stuff for me?

Yep, it’s expensive, but my agency can help you have record months right
away, OR if you’re just starting out, I can refer you to someone else. Either
way, just email me at [email protected].

Can I hire you to coach me?

Yep, here.

Do you have an affiliate program for your

products?

Yep, you can get paid commissions to sell my stuff. Here are the links to
use. Just make sure to replace YourName with your name:
Email List Management Service:
https://calendly.com/email-paramedic/list/?utm_source=YourName

Anti-Promo Tab Service:

https://www.EmailParamedic.com/?utm_source=YourName

Email List Management Certification Program:

https://apply.EmailListManagement.com/?utm_source=YourName