Let's start with the basics, and then add on from there…
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the idea of building a contact list of email addresses (subscribers), ideally of those who are interested in you and your products, who you can then serve by sending messages and marketing materials that matter.
And when you do this right, your email list becomes one of the most powerful assets you have in your business. Your email list can help you understand what blog posts to write about, what podcast episodes to create or what videos and tutorials to shoot.
Your email list becomes your list of contacts to share newsworthy information about your brand and business.
And of course, your email list becomes a list of prospects that could potentially become students, customers, and clients.
Building a list and sending great emails is not easy though. If you're like many, it can seem like learning a new language, or maybe you've tried it and it just didn't work for you.
IT IS worth your time, but only if you execute properly. Don't worry though, because I got your back. You're in the right place.
On this page, you'll find:
- The best step-by-step guide to help you grow your list and make email marketing work
- Our best free articles and tutorials on email marketing
- Our favorite tools for email marketers
- Popular SPI podcast episodes about email marketing
The most important thing to remember, however, is this:
The size of your email list isn't nearly as important as the quality of people who are on it. It's not about the numbers, it's about the human beings and the connections and experiences you create for them over time.
-Pat Flynn
Free, just for you. No Opt-ins required.
The Best Email Marketing Guides on the Internet
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Email MarketingHow to Start an Email List
Don't Wait to Get Started You're on the right page if you know you need to know how to start an…
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Email MarketingThe SPI Essential Guide to Email Marketing
Welcome to my epic guide to email marketing! If you’re looking for in-depth guidance on what email marketing is, why…
Courses and Workshops
Courses to grow your skills
Email Marketing Magic
$499
A to Z Webinars
A step-by-step roadmap to help you create and deliver webinars that work. Grow your list. Increase trust. Make more money.
$499
Click and Convert Workshop
Learn to capture attention, increase engagement, and grow your business with this workshop from Pat Flynn and guest expert Darrell Vesterfelt.
$99
Traffic Booster Workshop
Learn to increase your exposure and grow your business without paying for ads with this 90-minute workshop from Pat Flynn. Learn strategies you can immediately put into action.
$99
Articles
Tutorials and Case Studies
ConvertKit Review 2021
Want to know if ConvertKit is the right email service provider for your business? Read our comprehensive ConvertKit review.
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How to Win with Email Marketing in 2019
Ready to crush it with email marketing in 2019? Email marketing is as crucial to online business as ever—here are my top five tips for success!
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How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Lead Magnet Ideas)
Want to grow your email list? Here are seventeen ideas for effective lead magnets—resources and tools that will help subscribers hit the ground running and turn them into fans, too.
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A Beginner's Guide to Email List Segmentation
Your audience isn't all the same—it's made up of several groups, each with their own needs and problems you can help them solve. In this step-by-step guide, I'll teach you to use email segmentation to better serve the groups within your audience.
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Why I Switched from AWeber to Infusionsoft to ConvertKit
Earlier this year, I made a big decision to move my email list of over 135,000 subscribers to Infusionsoft from AWeber, which I’ve used for the past 5+ years. Three months later, my email list now lives on an new and rapidly growing platform called ConvertKit.
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How to Train Your Subscribers to Open Your Emails Every Time You Send
You could write the best content in the world, but it’s all for nothing if no one opens your emails. There are two variables that can mean the difference between your subscribers reading your emails and completely ignoring them. Learn how paying attention to these two variables will greatly improve your email open rate.
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What I Learned From Growing My Email List 3,418% (Nearly 200k) in Just 11 Days
Are you looking to grow your email list quickly? Well this may just be the ticket for you. This is what happens when you run a viral contest, and this is exactly how it all happened (and what should have been done better).
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Email Marketing Checklist—How Many of These 10 Things Are You ACTUALLY Doing?
So you have an email list. Great! Unfortunately, if you're like most people, you're not optimizing your email marketing efforts. Here's a checklist of 10 Email Marketing Essentials. How many of the 10 are you actually doing right now?
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How to Land Your Emails in the Gmail “Primary” Tab Every Time
Tired of your emails ending up in your subscribers' promotions tabs? Here's what you can do to get your emails into their primary tabs, and help increase the likelihood your emails will be seen by your subscribers.
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How I Increased My Email Subscriptions by 315% (and the Small, Quick Thing That Made It Happen)
Last week, I wrote a post that increased my email subscriptions more than any other post I've written before. Here's exactly how it happened.
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Download the FREE Email Marketing Cheat Sheet Formerly known as Email the Smart Way
Learn to Write Great Emails.
The Epic Guide to Email Marketing walks you through how to set up your email marketing program, but once it's set up, what should you write?
The Epic Guide to Email Marketing walks you through how to set up your email marketing program, but once it's set up, what should you write?
- Topics
- Styles
- Universal Rules
Recommended Tool
ConvertKit
ConvertKit makes communicating with your audience easier, helping you to manage your email list, set up autoresponders, and create automations so easy and user-friendly—that way you can make sure you’re sending the right email to the right person at the right time. It’s the perfect blend of power and simplicity, and it's the best tool for promoting products to your audience.
Get ConvertKit
Podcasts
Email Marketing Podcast Episodes
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Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn
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AskPat 2.0
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Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn
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AskPat 2.0
Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn
Weekly interviews, strategy, and advice for building your online business the smart way.
Featured Episodes:
August 20, 2012SPI 044: How to Win With Your Email List – Part 1 of 2
April 29, 2015SPI 159: The Best Practices for Increasing Sales with Your Autoresponder Email Series
December 14, 2016SPI 244: Bootstrapping a Startup with Nathan Barry from ConvertKit
June 6, 2018SPI 321: Earn More Media Exposure (At Any Level) with Christina Nicholson
AskPat 2.0
A weekly coaching call on online business, blogging, marketing, and lifestyle design.