An Interview with Kulwant Nagi on Email Marketing

Kulwant Nagi is a blogger and an internet marketer. He blogs at BloggingCage.com and he owns a few more blogs on niche topics. He is an expert in a lot of areas but he understands email marketing very well, more than anything else.

He has grown his blog and income in a very short time using email marketing. He has experimented with many tools and strategies. He knows what works and what doesn’t.

He is a fellow blogger and a good friend. I decided to pick his brain on email marketing and he has shared his knowledge and experience without any second thoughts. So, here we go:

Deepak: How has building an email list helped you with the growth of your blog?

Kulwant: Building an email list was one of the best decisions I have taken in my online business. I started building my email list in 2013, so with time I have grown to 8,000+ subscribers till now.

Email is a medium to have a personal touch with your readers. They feel super special when they receive your email teaching them some special skills in your industry. Email marketing has helped me to build my brand by building strong bonding with my readers.

Deepak: What are the top 3 email providers would you recommend?

Kulwant: Aweber, GetResponse and MailChimp are highly recommended email marketing providers.

Deepak: What are the best plugins for WordPress users to convert visitors into subscribers?

Kulwant: I am using ThriveLeads from last 3-4 months. It’s insane. I am seeing a very good growth of number of subscribers each month after I have started using it. I also recommend SumoMe, OptinMonster (Read Review), Plugmatter Optin Feature Box and Ninja Popups.

Deepak: How many subscribers do you gain per day? And how do you engage with your new subscribers and build a relationship with them?

Kulwant: Right now I am getting 15-25 subscribers a day. I have setup a good followup series, where in the first mail I welcome them on my blog as well as provide them my top 3 articles to read. I have some good case studies in my followup series which help me to make strong relations with them.

Deepak: Any tips to improve the email open rates and click rates?

Kulwant: Try to play with the titles of your mails by making them feel special, secure and letting them know about any specific deal. Some examples:

• This little trick will make you SEO experts in 24 hours
• You can make $50 per day on autopilot
• 70% special discount: This deal is expiring in 4 hours

Deepak: Building an email list and maintaining it is not cheap, how do you monetize your email list?

Kulwant: Right now my main focus is on building my list and converting them into loyal fans. So right now I am not trying to push a lot of products or anything in my email list. I send email to my subscribers only and only if there is any special deal.

Deepak: Have you ever promoted an affiliate product or your own product to your email list? How effective has it been?

Kulwant: Back in 2014, I promoted BlueHost hosting by sending an offer link to my subscribers. On that specific day I made $660 just from my list. And then for 3-4 months there was a deal on Long Tail Pro, so I sent email to my subscribers about the discount and my special bonus. I ended up making $1,500 with the email campaign. So my experience till now with email marketing is very good!

Deepak: Do you do split testing with your optin boxes and lead generation tools? If yes, tell us about your experience. What has worked and what hasn’t?

Kulwant: I keep doing various changes on my blog optins to test which converts best. Till now, lightbox popup is working best for me which is bringing 10+ subscribers daily. I have worked with different popups as well. The popup that is converting best for me is YES/NO opt-in popup, where you ask users if they want to achieve something specific or not. And then there is an option to enter their email ID.

Deepak: Thank you for sharing your gyan on email marketing. I gained a lot of value from this and I am sure my readers also found it interesting.

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Any questions on email marketing? Leave a comment below and Kulwant will answer. Also check out his blog at BloggingCage.com.