How to use additional content effectively, in your emails.

It’s good to include additional content inside your email; it can feel special to your readers – but when you do so, use links to refer to the content rather than embedding it as an attachment.

Why does it matter?

Well, attachments are more likely to be flagged as ‘spam’, especially if it’s a file that could potentially prove malicious when opened. To increase your chances of a successful delivery into your subscribers’ inbox, use clickable links to your additional content which the recipient can then click on to access it.

An example could be a downloadable document (e.g. template, ebook, spreadsheet etc.) for something that you want to give your subscribers for free; so the best way to give them access to it is to store it in cloud-based storage (e.g. Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox etc.) and then create a shareable link so that they can click on it to gain access.

This practice also helps to reduce the overall size of your email, a measurement that can influence the ability to track your email open rates.

Wait, what? 😳

Did I just say it can affect open rates?

Well, yes because of a thing that some ESPs (Email Service Providers) use called a ‘tracking pixel‘. They often load the tracking pixel as the last element of your email, meaning that if it never gets loaded, then your email is never registered as having been ‘opened’.

But why wouldn’t the tracking pixel get loaded?

Well, because some ISPs (Internet Service Providers – e.g. Gmail) can ‘clip’ emails that exceed 102kb in size, meaning that any content AFTER the first 102kb never gets loaded (or seen) unless the email subscriber purposefully loads the remainder of the email.

Now, you don’t need to get all techy trying to figure out the file size of your emails before you send them; just know that to use email marketing effectively and to adopt best practices then use links to documents rather than attaching them to your emails.

Do you have a way of being paid, without exchanging your time?

In other words, do you sell anything that, once sold, you don’t need to spend any more time on that sale?

It just works ‘out of the box‘ for every customer because of what you’ve already done to get it all set up in the first place.

This is known as ‘passive‘ income. Now, arguably there is no such thing as ‘passive‘ income, because an element of effort (and investment) went into creating it, but for the purpose of what we’re talking about – it essentially becomes passive after it’s launched.

Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about;

A digital course.
A paid-for newsletter.
An eBook.
A template.
A calculator.
A recorded webinar.
A video series.
An online library of content.
…etc.

You get the gist, right?

Things that you have invested time (and money) into to get it designed, built, and launched – but then becomes a marketing exercise, either organically or paid (or both), but when people pay for it there is little cost and a high-profit margin.

If you don’t have anything like this in your business, then it’s time to change that!

And if you’re reading this thinking that your business is “different” and can’t support such a thing (or things), then think again because EVERY business (and solopreneur) has this opportunity available to them, they just need to figure out what it is (they are).

So, do yourself a favour – go figure out what you could create in your business that people would be willing to pay for and that once launched, you don’t need to do anything, other than support them with more helpful emails (which you should be doing with EVERY sale you make anyway!) 😊

Start with a small goal – for example, create a digital product and sell it for £20. Sell just 1 per day, and you’ve just added another £7,300 of profit to your annual income!

An actor first, and then a crazily successful businessman!

You’ve undoubtedly heard of him, and chances are, you’ve likely watched some of his TV shows or films – I’m talking about Hollywood superstar, Ryan Reynolds.

Born in Vancouver, Canada in 1976, Reynolds started acting over 30 years ago, firstly starring in Canadian TV shows before making it to Hollywood and being hired for one of the largest franchises, Marvel for the blockbuster ‘Deadpool‘.

As successful an actor that he is, that side of his life is eclipsed financially by his entrepreneurial prowess. His current personal wealth is estimated to be in the region of $500 million, with the bulk coming from his business ventures.

I’m not sure I am aware of all his investments but the most notable ones include;

1Password – a Canadian password security company, valued at £6.8 billion.
WealthSimple – a Canadian wealth management service, valued around $5 billion.
Aviation Gin – he bought a stake in this company before selling the business to Diageo for $610 million.
Mint Mobile – his tech company that he sold to T-Mobile as part of a larger deal worth $1.35 billion.
Nuvei – a Canadian payment processing company, revenue of around $850 million.
Maximum Effort – a production company and agency with revenue around $200 million.
Alpine F1 Team – he joined a group of investors backing the F1 racing team in a deal worth $218 million.
Wrexham FC – In 2020, he and fellow actor, Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham FC for $2.5 million.

Who knows what the future holds for him (and his hugely successful wife, Blake Lively), but whatever it is, it looks like he’s a very savvy guy who knows how to earn money, but more importantly, how to invest what he earns so that it compounds his success.

I’ll be watching with interest to see what his next investments will be; he appears to have a bit of a ‘Midas’ touch, systematically turning opportunities into successful investments. Of course, I’m sure he also has a network of advisors who find these deals for him, but ultimately the credit (or blame) will always belong to him.

How to use additional content effectively, in your emails.