Time to rethink 🤔 lead generation strategies?

New here? This is Inbox Hacking, a Free Newsletter for Awesome email marketers eager to increase Awesomeness. Email marketing insights, tools, & tactics sent twice per week. Someone forwarded you our Newsletter? Please join over 14,230 Email Marketers and sign up for your Free subscription. Today → alternative takes on growing your list + 4 hot review insights, and a hack to implement today.

Hope you fine people had a tremendous St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Easter is roughly three weeks away so get crackin’ on those Easter egg templates.

This edition of Inbox Hacking brings you insights on growing your email list wisely. Alternative perspectives that can save your organization money on lead gen + keep worthless leads off your list. If you have hot leads running out your ears, ok, I’m also dropping 4 insights from a new survey on customer reviews at the end of today’s feature. Let’s dive in face-first.

🍿Catch Inbox Mailers’ Latest Deliverability Webinar?

#1 Takeaway on ALT Lead Gen

The number-one takeaway I snatched from this CopyHackers post?

Don’t follow the crowd when it comes to lead generation ‘how-tos’.

Turns out the crowd is full of imbeciles (🙋🏼‍♂️I had trouble spelling that word).

Wait! Free ebook downloads and grabbing easy leads from social media are how things are done.

By imbeciles apparently. And brands with 💰 to 🔥… according to Joanna Wiebe who wrote the CH post and is quite the angry writer. I’m smitten.

What’s Wrong with Easy Social Media Leads?

Easy. Sleazy. Take your pick.

Results will vary when generating leads on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

If you’ve had success there, awesome. But the big problem according to Joanna?

No double opt-in. Not by the social platform. Facebook will get one-click sign-ups for you with their native forms. Easy!

Sleazy when the sign-up is a bot, temp email address, or click-farm worker with click-induced arthritis.

Even clean leads via social one-click opt-ins can be a waste. Because it’s on the email marketer to get the barely warm lead to confirm the sign-up via email.

By time that email arrives the social media ‘subscriber’ is stricken with memory loss and massive distractions.

*The danger of not using double opt-ins→ deliverability damaged

Life Lesson: No Free Lunch or ebooks

“Giving away a Forrester report, for example, is generally going to be a safe bet if you’re trying to attract SVPs with budget. BUT selling that same Forrester report could bring in just as many great leads, just as fast.” ~CopyHackers

Nothing wrong with a helpful ebook or guide. Inbox Hacking produces solid ebooks.

Yet, the CH post highlights hard cold (mostly cold) facts:

Good ebooks take time to write (aka 💲)
Only high-traffic brands can promote an ebook without ads
Avg. conversion rate for lead magnet on a dedicated email opt-in landing page can be as low as 5% (LeadPages)

Then… getting downloaders to read 😨 your ebook is like asking them to run a marathon barefoot. TikTok’s murdering reading and literacy.

*Action step: Test a paid version of your ebook. Fewer leads but warmer.

Enough of the NO-NOs (Better Ways to Get Good Leads)

Hey, I could sit here all day and preach on what not to do. Don’t bet against the Jayhawks🏀 btw.

But here’s CH’s best advice for growing your email list the right way. Just like Inbox Mailers’ Network Effect, CopyHackers says→ borrow someone else’s list.

This tactic led to CH gaining 2,300+ new email subscribers via the network effect of partnering with ConvertKit. 2,300+ in just two days.💥

CopyHackers produced a webinar that connected with ConvertKit’s audience. Key points:

ConvertKit promoted the webinar to their subscribers
CH owned / managed the sign-up page so…
Leads went directly into their database
Double opt-in was used

These leads were hot-n-ready for the webinar and nurture emails leading up to it fanned the flame. Because they needed the information CH was bringing.

These leads were not rando Facebook sign-ups who were bored at lunch and forgot the webinar instantly.

(((Hopefully Facebook goes under before the name ‘Meta’ catches on)))

Check out examples of borrowing other brands’ email list.

Also, don’t rely on a sign-up form caked with mediocrity. Use a 2-button pop-up→ Because Jo says so.

Now for those fresh insights on customer reviews:

6% of consumers leave ONLY negative reviews
Most consumers leave reviews via Google (TrustPilot used least)
‘Likely to leave a review’ prompts: 17% asked by staff. 16% email or SMS request
87% surveyed were fairly to highly likely to visit businesses that reply to both positive and negative reviews

Full survey here via BrightLocal

Keep reading→ email marketing stats, our Knowledge Base, and more…

Knowledge Base

🔌Knowledge is power, but first, big-kid-spiration.

💡RSS-to-email (a smart-n-lazy way to market).

🔴Google Workspace emails crashing into spam folders? 👀 under the hood.

✏Content strategies comparison a public-school 😅3rd-grader can understand.

🤯Climb inside senior tech leaders’ heads to see what B2B content they seek.

💯Validity’s #1 tip for eluding spam filters (good luck)

Sponsored…

Spoiler Alert

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Triggered Emails. ✅Yes, it works for businesses of all sizes.

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Increase/Fix your reputation, deliverability, & inboxing rates
Increase/Fix Sender scores & IP Health
Re-engage your Dead/Unengaged list

>>>Book a Demo. Inbox Mailers is your can’t-miss email marketing tool.

Self Help

A sharp psychologist friend of mine has little use for books like The 48 Laws of Power.

The manipulation how-tos will pop the eyes right outta your head!

Yet, there’s value there even if you don’t plan to manipulate.

Because it lays out plans of manipulators.

Consider it a self-defense book.

*Shout-out to Inbox Hacking Subscribers →

💡Alexa at Clarity Benefit Solutions

🎈Abhinav at Optimizinge (Marketing)

Facts and Stats

2023 Survey: 90% of marketers expect YouTube to be part of their SEO strategy (Email Insider)
Email how-tos & testimonials rank #1 & #2 on email marketers’ 2023 plans
Pop-up forms convert 84% better when they contain an image (Drip)

Bonus: 74% of Email Marketers have saved a runaway bus full of orphans.

From Our Sponsor

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Possible reasons your emails aren’t delivered or opened:

Your subscribers aren’t engaged
IP reputation
Your sender score

Good news— Inbox Mailers created a new technology that fixes these problems all at once→ so your emails actually get delivered.

Not only that… their unique engagement trigger system ensures your emails get opened too.

It’s not all about your copy or the relationship with your list. Inbox Mailers works even with a disengaged list.

This new technology tells you when your subscribers are actively in their inbox… and uses that trigger to get them to open your emails!

🤔Imagine what revenue could look like if you improved your open rates by as much as 300%?

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>>>Book My Demo.

It’s the little things that move the needle.

Marketing Musings

Read that again, jot it down, get a tattoo of it perhaps.

The little things are the only explanation for most success stories.

Why one basketball team reigns and one sucks for decades
Why one singer rolls off fans’ tongues while 99% of singers go unheard
Why one business makes insane profits while another scrapes by

Sure we could say “it’s all luck” – like the podcast How I Built This does – every… single… episode!

And spoiler alert, every single company profiled on ‘HIBT’ was down to their last $27 and barely made payroll before finding success.🙄

Where was I? Ah… the little things are what get your emails opened, keep subscribers interested, and generate dollar bills.

This little tool from Litmus (loading bars) seeded this thought.

Get Hacking

Hell, I know it’s nearly impossible to get subscribers to add your brand’s email to their address book.

People find instructions baffling. And some folks are lazy. Others are like me and read emails while buzzed.

Nonetheless, every person who adds you to their address book means your odds of landing in the inbox spike!

So don’t give up. Today, please clarify those address book instructions in your welcome emails. Clarify the importance of taking the steps also. Then mention the instructions occasionally in future campaigns.

👍🏼Posts other Inbox Hackers liked

☹Why does email deliverability tank? (2-min video)

📩Learn from Litmus’ email dissections

📝Please take survey below. It could save the Dodo Bird.