Any good marketer knows that search engine optimization (SEO) helps your business’ website rank higher in search engine results. This makes your website a lead magnet that helps potential customers discover and remember you and establishes you as an authority in your industry.
And like SEO, email marketing is a powerful tool that helps you connect with existing customers. Through product announcements, promotions, limited-time offers, and routine communications, you can reach intended audiences effectively, generate broad customer interest, and bolster your customer service.
When used together, SEO and email marketing campaigns can generate higher-quality leads and improve the conversion rate of website visitors, leading to greater revenue and business growth.
Here, we provide email marketing SEO strategies that will improve your online visibility and demonstrate how content marketing helps SEO.
Repurpose your site and email content
Content is crucial to any marketing strategy since it expresses your industry expertise and brand’s tone and voice. When you repurpose your existing content into new formats or across new channels, you can reach new audiences.
For instance, a promotional offer may get lost in a flurry of social media updates yet catch the right person at the right time through email. Or you can refresh an older blog post with current statistics, keywords, and topics to signal to search engines that you’re worth a better ranking.
If it’s possible to repurpose candle jars into flower vases, who says you can’t repurpose an email into a blog post? Here are the best ways to repurpose website and email content with SEO in mind:
1. Align your keyword research with your email content
The relationship between SEO and content marketing may seem unclear. (After all, who uses the search engine bar to search for answers in email?) Yet, from the subject line to the signature, the right keywords capture attention, convey authority, and prompt action.
With the same keyword research tools you use for SEO, you can find high-quality keywords for your next email marketing campaign. As a best practice, choose keywords that appear in natural everyday language and avoid keyword stuffing—which Google penalizes.
2. Turn emails into blog posts where appropriate
You can reformat emails as blog posts so site visitors don’t miss content if they aren’t subscribed to your email list. Through email analytics, you can see which headlines have the best click-through rates or conversions and use this information to create blog posts that perform equally well. And since blog posts are longer than emails, you can provide more detail and increase engagement time.
Even though every promotional offer you send may not warrant a blog post, sharing valuable information across multiple channels can attract many extra views. And as you repurpose content, you can scale the volume and reach of information you share and improve the SEO value of your website—which, in turn, helps you rank higher and increase traffic.
For instance, when you reformat an email for your blog, you may add additional long-tail keywords, internal links, or additional contextual information to enhance its impact. Updated statistics, data, and quotes can transform a personalized email into a general interest piece that appeals to a wider audience.
3. Encourage social sharing of your content
Nearly every business is on social media in some capacity, so if you publish content that has social-sharing buttons, encourage your audience to do just that: share it.
The more people share your content on social media, the more visibility your brand gets, which can lead to higher levels of engagement and traffic on your website. Additionally, when people Google your company to learn more, that can improve your website ranking and SEO.
4. Implement writing best practices on each channel
For your email marketing SEO strategy to work, the content needs to be engaging, informative, and valuable to your audience. Avoid just cutting and pasting an email onto your blog or clipping a snippet for social media, as each channel has unique considerations.
A white paper posted for corporate executives on your website will need a formal tone and structured format, while social media audiences appreciate humor and creativity. Use your best judgment to produce high-quality content that aligns with each marketing channel.
Make content accessible and shareable
After you’ve put the time and effort into creating the content, make sure it’s accessible. Here are some ways you can make sure your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed:
1. Include links in emails to your site
Each email you send should incorporate one or more useful links to your content, whether blog posts, landing pages, podcasts, social media, or your ecommerce shop.
For instance, if you send subscribers an email about travel must-haves, you can include links to your related product pages for them to buy luggage and other travel necessities from your brand. That way, you provide a helpful service to readers that’s likely to result in sales and loyalty.
Every time readers click on email links, you learn more about their preferences while simultaneously increasing your web traffic and search ranking.
2. Create strong calls to action
A compelling call to action (CTA) encourages email recipients to share, like, or comment on your blog, or it directs them to your website to purchase your product or service. CTAs are crucial part of content marketing and a well-crafted one can increase the number of shares your posts get.
If your email lacks a clear sense of direction, your recipients may not understand your company’s connection to the topic, which could benefit your competitors when your email subscribers turn to Google to determine their next steps.
To mitigate this risk, you can add social media sharing buttons to your email CTAs and blog posts. This way, you direct even more traffic to your website to nurture leads and drive conversions.
3. Personalize your messaging
Tailored content is equally vital to SEO and email marketing, with the chances of a reader responding to content being higher when it’s personalized. In fact, 66% of consumers say that impersonalized material discourages them from a purchase. To learn exactly what your audience wants, consider sending out surveys to help segment your email list more effectively.
4. Ask for reviews
You can also use marketing and SEO efforts to ask your subscribers for reviews. Reviews are a top factor in local search engine rankings, so don’t be afraid to ask your email subscribers to write reviews for you. You can even extract snippets of reviews to use as testimonials in your next email campaign, blog, or social graphic—further increasing your visibility.
And considering 93% of consumers read reviews before they buy, one 5-star review can go a long way. Accumulating more reviews can also increase your chances of gaining new and repeat customers, and as your business’ reputation grows, so do your search engine rankings.
Boost your emails with Twilio SendGrid
SEO and email marketing have the same foundational goal: to build brand awareness and engagement. Relevant web traffic funneled from email can reduce bounce rates, increase social media engagement, and elevate your search rankings. So as you learn fundamental SEO practices, you’ll write better email headlines, collect personalized data, and gather content ideas from the people who engage with your brand.
Email is the go-to marketing channel for long-term customer engagement, and we’d love to help you build consistent web traffic and grow your sales—affordably and at scale. First, have a look at our getting started guide for more in-depth tips on how to improve email marketing with best practices. Then, consider how our email marketing product, Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns, provides all the tools you need to manage your campaigns.
From templates and tests to automation and statistical reporting, SendGrid is here to help you deliver exceptional email experiences at scale. Sign up today to get started for free.