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FBM Digest #101: Email open rate method to use, testing TikTok SEO tricks, and much more...

Lee Chapman

Lee Chapman

FBM Digest #101: Email open rate method to use, testing TikTok SEO tricks, and much more...

In the past month, I've got remarried (to the same person), been on two honeymoons, and done something to my lower back (L5) that makes it painful to sit, stand, and lay, which isn't ideal (if you've ever had this and fixed it I'm very open to ideas!).

 

But... I've also found 5 nuggets which I think you'll find very valuable. So let's dive into those now:


1. FBM EXPERT TIP: THE 1 QUICK SUBJECT LINE CHANGE THAT GAVE MAILIGEN A BIG BOOST IN OPEN RATES


Most of the emails Mailigen sent to their list got around a 20% open rate. So, they started trying different things with their emails.

 

The one thing that produced the biggest results was simply dumbing down their subject lines.

 

Here's one of the tests they did:

 

The First Email

Mailigen sent an email with the subject line "Make your emails stand out with symbols." 

 

The content of the email focused on using symbols in email messages. This got them their typical 20.5% open rate.


The Second Email

They segmented the subscribers who didn't open the initial email and sent them the same email but with a new subject line:

 

"send emails with awesome symbols in subject."

 

The 2nd email got an 8.6% open rate. This lifted the overall open rate to 29.1%.


What Mailigen did next

I would have assumed that sending 2 emails was always going to boost the overall open rate. 

 

But...

 

Additional tests showed that the dumbed-down subject line made most of the difference.

 

They adopted this new subject strategy and not only did it increase their open rates considerably, it also contributed to a 25% revenue boost over two years!

 

What you should do next

When you're writing your next email, imagine you're writing to a busy friend. You wouldn't use a fancy subject line and fill your email with fluff or long-winded intros.

 

I'm very confident this will improve your open and click rates considerably (the ClickFunnels newsletters I wrote like this were opened far more than their typical emails).

 

The hard part is getting started.

 

If you want someone to write a few emails for you, Matty Milligan is an absolute pro at writing emails.

 

He can write an email series for you that your audience will open and respond to. You can then use those emails as templates for all of your future emails.

 

Check out his services here.

 

 

 

2. MARKETING TIP OF THE WEEK: VIRAL TIKTOK VIDEO PROMISES #1 GOOGLE RANKINGS

Sam Oh, the VP of Marketing at Ahrefs, went down the rabbit hole of TikTok’s viral SEO tips, all promising to shoot your site straight to the top of Google’s rankings. 

 

Some of these tips were total game-changers, while others, while others were totally useless.


Here are the viral SEO tips that actually delivered—and the ones that were a complete waste of time:

 

TikTok Tip #1: Updating Declining Pages for a Traffic Boost

 

The first video Sam tried had a tip with over 15,000 views. This one was simple:

 

Find pages that have lost traffic, update them, and you’ll see a surge in clicks.


Sam gave this a try and found a page that had lost a whopping 20,000 clicks.

 

After updating the post, the results were nearly instant. The page shot up from position 16 to position 4, and traffic started flooding in again.


🟢 Verdict: 100% verified. This is one tip you absolutely need to be doing.

 

TikTok Tip #2: Tricking Google with AI-Generated Content

 

With 37,000 views, this TikTok claimed you could “trick” Google by using AI-generated content.

 

The idea? 


Use ChatGPT to write an article, run it through an AI detection tool, and then paraphrase it with something like Quillbot to make it seem human-written.

 

The results from Quillbot were reportedly awful (even the TikTok creator mentioned the results were bad.)


🔴 Verdict: Don’t waste your time with this. You can have ChatGPT (or any similar AI tool) come up with topics and write a sample blog post for you, but you have to transform it into your own article.


Google is getting smarter and can easily separate those who know what they're talking about from those who are just trying to make a buck. 


TikTok Tip #3: Using Google Search Console to Speed Up Indexing

 

A viral TikTok with over 300,000 views offered advice on how to get new content indexed on Google quickly by using the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console. 

 

Sam tried this tip and found it to be spot on.

 

After requesting indexing, his newly published page appeared on Google within hours.


🟢 Verdict: Legit and worth using! It won’t guarantee you instant rankings, but it’s a great way to make sure Google discovers your content quickly. 

 

TikTok Tip #4: Answering Questions from Answerthepublic.com

 

The final TikTok tip, with a jaw-dropping 1.5 million views, suggested you use Answerthepublic.com to find popular questions in your niche, and then create blog posts to answer them.

 

Sam wrote several blog posts using this method, but the results were... underwhelming. Some pages ranked in the top 100, but the traffic? Not much to talk about.

 

🟠 Verdict: A lot of work for minimal payoff. It’s a good idea, but you need a full SEO strategy to make it really work.

   

3. COMMUNITY MEMBER TIP: SHOW THE TRANSFORMATION

A great marketing tip from Harry Dry:


Find a company whose problem you solve, solve it (without permission), and share it with them on social media.


Lena apparently closes 33% with these cold pitches:


 

 

 

4. FUNNEL OF THE WEEK: 

This week's funnel is one I would love your feedback on because it was built by my brother Luke!

 

He completely revamped the old landing page, and it's converting well so far. Have a look at both and let me know your thoughts:


Original landing page

New test landing page

 

 

 

5. FOOD FOR THOUGHT: 

"The root of great work is a sort of ambitious curiosity, and you can't manufacture that."

- Paul Graham in this short essay on doing what you love.


And with that, we wrap up another newsletter!

 

Is your funnel working as well as you want it to?

 

If it's not, reply to this email and let me know what you need help with.

 

I'll get you on a free call with an expert that can help.


Lee

Wedding 2 in the Cotswolds,

England.