I created this guide because I see many clients and friends struggling with email. If you are a business owner and you already understand Part I: The what, the why, and the how of email marketing, feel free to skip to Part II: The Strategy Map and Fundamentals of Email Writing. Finally, if you are clear on strategy but just can’t make the words come out, or if you just want a feel good story for the day, scroll to Part III: How a Fitness Studio Owner Found Her Inner Writing Genius.
Part 1
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is one of the many strategies businesses use to increase brand awareness, convert followers to buyers, and keep long-term customers coming back for more. For solopreneurs and small business owners who are already wearing many hats, it can be a daunting task because it requires strategy, writing ability, design and tech skills - and when you’re running many other areas of your business who has time for all that? Still, when done correctly it can be the most effective strategy to increase online sales, especially when you can automate 80% of the process and earn passive income. So, it’s worth it to have a basic understanding of what is involved, and either DIY it with the tips below, or hire an expert. Let’s dig in.
Why prioritize email marketing? (Shouldn’t I be growing my social media following?)
Of 4.3 billion internet users, 80% have social media, but nearly all of them have email
The average conversion rate for email is around 6%, but only 1.9% for social
The ROI for email can be as much as 4400% - not kidding!
We DON’T own our social followers, we DO OWN our email lists
Email is easy to learn, easy to scale, and helps you earn passive income - the only way to stop exchanging hours for dollars and take back your precious time
Bottom line, is that we don’t own our social media accounts and all those followers you’ve worked hard to keep will be unreachable if Instagram disappears (not that it will but just imagine!). So how do you really grow your brand, generate leads, and create sales in a way that is scalable, and also learnable? This is the step by step diagram I want you to wrap your head around:
Part 2
Memorize this image! Here’s how to convert followers to buyers:
Let’s break that down.
We build a following on SOCIAL MEDIA to find people who are interested in what we have to say. These people are intrigued, not ready to buy, but with more nurturing, might be persuaded to.
If we do a good enough job on social, we will have succeeded in driving traffic to our WEBSITE. Once the follower has arrived on our website, our goal is to have them take a further interaction with us, and our reward is that they provide their name and email address (and maybe additional info that we can use down the road).
How do we get them to take this further interaction? We offer them a FREEBIE, ask them to take a fun quiz, download a useful pdf, sign up for a newsletter, anything that you know they are really intrigued by and are willing to fill out a CONTACT FORM in exchange for access to it (this takes knowing your customer and a bit of trial and error).
Now that they have filled out your contact form, you or your marketing expert will need to make sure your website is connected to an email marketing platform like MailChimp or Convert Kit, so that every form submission is collected and organized in your EMAIL LIST. Now look back at what you’ve created: a mostly automated process (i.e. little manual work on your part) of getting leads to reach out to you instead of the other way around. They’re basically waving at you saying “Hi, I’m interested, tell me more about you.”
Once you have that seal of approval, you are basically being invited to introduce yourself and dazzle your soon-to-be-customer. That’s where EMAIL AUTOMATION comes in. The next step is to start creating a series of emails that are engaging, informative, and can be “automated” aka automatically sent at the right time to the right person.
This is not rocket science. It isn’t a walk in the park. But if each stage is done correctly, you will succeed in converting your followers to SALES.
3 Fundamentals to Email Writing
Know Your Offers - Before you start writing an email, take a piece of paper and list your main services and corresponding price or, if you are a product-based business list any discounts, holiday sales, or other deals you want customers to take advantage of. Don’t overthink it, just list each one out. Knowing exactly what you are offering is key.
Describe Your Ideal Client - next to each offer from (1.) describe in as much detail as possible the most likely person to purchase that product or service. Is it a mom shopping for her kids for back to school? Is it a young woman trying to improve her fitness? Is it a small business owner who needs your help to build their brand? Think deeply about this person, their wants, needs, fears, and hesitations. This will help you use the right messaging in your email content.
Braindump Your Experiences - This is the fun part. Write down something funny that happened last week, something difficult that you overcame last year, something inspiring you saw this morning, or something ridiculous you did as a child. The point is to take real experiences throughout your life, and tell the story. Using authentic moments in engaging dialogue will build trust with your audience and they will finish reading your email because they can’t help but want to know how the story ends. So braindump it all out on paper and then go over it again to shorten and refine it so it will fit into an email.
Now you have the fundamentals to putting together an email. You know who you want to target, what you want to offer them, and you start with a funny story to get them to even open the email in the first place. They will enjoy your story so much, trust you as a human, feel like you took the time to open up to them, and be much more likely to learn about the product or service, and click whatever link you provide to purchase it!!!
P.S. There are 5 other secret steps to writing an effective email, and if you’d like access to those click here.
PART 3
How a fitness studio owner found her inner writing genius
My friend Neely was struggling with her email marketing. She knew she wanted to reach her loyal customers and send them messages of inspiration and helpful reminders about her offers. She also knew she wanted to reach first time customers and demonstrate her 10+ years of experience through nutrition tips and workout suggestions ... but for some reason she was getting totally stuck on how to get these emails written, even though all the knowledge was there.
“Sometimes, you just need someone to sit you down and say, “You KNOW your stuff, you provide VALUE, and your story is WORTH telling.””
Sometimes, you just need someone to sit down and ask you questions and support you and say you KNOW your stuff, you provide VALUE, and your story is WORTH telling.
Neely kept saying, “I don’t have any stories, I don’t know what to talk about. “ But the more I asked the more my jaw started to drop as she told me about training Ryan Reynolds (!!), working at Disney, dealing with a horrible boss, and all kinds of REAL and FUNNY and AMAZING things that people want to know.
As she talked, I typed, and suddenly, we were looking at 5+ pages of authentic and meaningful content, that she could easily share with her audience, and that wouldn’t be sales-y or dishonest or stupid or any of the other negative words the inner critic likes to shout at us.
“As she talked, I typed, and suddenly, we were looking at 5+ pages of authentic and meaningful content”
My point with all this is that it’s very easy to lock away our knowledge and bury it under the idea that it’s not good enough or relevant. But if we have someone believing in us, we can really unlock it and share what needs to be shared with our followers. And that is what I love to do with my clients.
If you feel like you’re getting in your own way and need someone to bring out your brilliance, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m here to help you be the reason your business succeeds.
