As a business owner, you know the importance of a growing audience, but if you can truly nurture the relationship with said audience and become their go-to gal for ________ [fill in the blank with your services], well then – business will be boomin’!

So, how do you do this nurturing I speak of? With communication and consistency, of course! 😉 And a great way to stay in touch with your tribe and grow your relationships with each reader is by popping up in their inbox regularly. IE The infamous email newsletter.

In case you have been on the fence about sending out emails regularly OR you have it on the list but it never gets done (don’t worry, we can fix this), here is a quick reminder of why you NEED to make your email newsletter a business habit STAT!

Bottom line: you do not OWN your social media followers.

Umm remember MySpace? It disappeared and along with it your entire network of followers. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest + Twitter etc really could be gone someday, so if you aren’t collecting your audience’s contact info via some other channel besides social, you could be in a pickle for sure!

Good news: YOU DO OWN your email list! Any time you capture an email address in exchange for giving a helpful freebie, opt-in or content upgrade, you get a new potential customer/client/reader for life.

Sounds good to me! So let’s get to it shall we?

Here are the key components of an AMAZING email newsletter:

IT GIVES VALUE

Just like ALL of the content you create, you need to be asking yourself what value are you providing your audience and how can you go above and beyond to make it extra helpful?

What problem are you solving for your reader and how clearly are you delivering the message?

It can be easy to over-complicate this and create a TON of freebies (anyone else besides me?? lol), but remember value comes in other forms too. It can be something that INSPIRES your reader, something that entertains or makes them giggle. Freebies (eBooks, audio files, cheat sheets, workbooks, checklists etc) are sooooo great, but don’t let them stand in the way of your consistency plan. Provide lots of value AND stay consistent.

IT TELLS YOUR STORY

Tell your story in your email newsletters. This is definitely one of the most important components as it develops the connection you have with your readers. They want to be able to relate to you, as a mentor for your success and as a REAL person who has struggles.

No one’s life or biz is perfect, despite what you see on Instagram heehee, and by being vulnerable and real with your audience a deeper connection can be made. And by adding any personal touches like your sense of humor or your style of writing, you can showcase that fabulous personality of yours.

After all, if telling your story ever gets you a couple unsubscribes – that means those peeps weren’t your ideal customer/client anyways. You want your email list to be full of ENGAGED readers. People that you can help and serve. People that like you and therefore like your brand/biz too.

IT UPDATES YOUR READER

Be sure to share upcoming events, recent content, blog posts etc. Not everyone follows you on ALL of your social media accounts and your readers will want to know what you have going on.

PRO TIP: send ALL your new freebies to your list too…they are VIP!!

IT PROMOTES YOUR BIZ (sometimes)

Oh and don’t forget that you do need to sell your stuff from time to time (LOL), so include any product/service info too. As long as you are regularly providing tons of value, this won’t come across as too sales-y to your audience.

Track the frequency of selling versus giving to stay in a more giving ratio. A good rule of thumb = *give, give and give some more…and THEN sell.*

IT HAS A FAB SUBJECT LINE

Email subject lines with high open rates can be kinda like a puzzle. Should you use emojis? Do you specifically note exactly what is in the email? Or do you keep it vague and hope the curiosity factor plays in?

The answer is…try them all, track the results and see what your audience prefers. We are all in different biz niches and thus, can have very different readers. The key to mastering the subject line is to know what works best for your exact reader.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS

EMAIL NEWSLETTER IMAGES: Don’t use a ton of images in your newsletter to decrease the chance of it going to a spam folder (2-3 max is recommended, unless you do custom coding).

EMAIL NEWSLETTER FREQUENCY: Send out a newsletter once per week. It really is the perfect frequency to stay in touch regularly without being overwhelming, thus increasing the open rate (versus just sitting there un-opened forever or being deleted due to sending too often).

EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE: When I started my biz I used MailChimp and was very grateful to learn on an easy-to-use drag-and-drop kind of setup. As I grew my biz, I switched over to ConvertKit and couldn’t be happier. There is a lot more email sequence customization and automation I can do by tagging and sorting each reader. It allows me to promote without being too sales-y by only sending promotions to my audience that shows interest in my current promotion.

 

I hope you found this post super helpful and you ‘WOW’ the socks off of that audience of yours!

*HAPPY EMAILING* -Amy