One of the biggest blockers you might find to starting your email list, is when you find yourself thinking along the lines of ‘What do I have to say?” or “What would I even send?”!
This thinking can kill a great email list before it even starts! And can block you from connecting with your list even after you’ve started collecting addresses!
Because there’s no point you gathering a long list of email addresses if you’re not going to do anything with them. Your email list should help you build a connection between you and your audience, and that connection won’t happen if they never hear you once they’ve signed up.
So, to help get you over this blocker, here’s 4 things you can easily send out to your email list without too much trouble, without being a professional writer, and without adding too much extra workload to your already busy schedule.
(Oh, and I’ve got a couple of tips at the end to help make this more doable. So keep reading if you were just thinking that’s all well and good, but I’ve already got minus no time in my day, I don’t need to add another job! Or something along those lines 😉
1 // Links to your blog posts (podcast, video, etc, whatever your platform)
Don’t forget that your audience is not sitting in front of your blog all day everyday hitting refresh in case you’ve added something new! I know even blogs that I’m crazy about tend to fall off my radar over time unless something keeps them front and centre
It’s the same for your audience. When you are sharing valuable information that is intended to help them solve a problem, improve their life, or learn how to do something new then they will want to know when you have something new to share. So tell them!
2 // A Quick Tip
Quick tips that can be put into action straight away. Things you know will help with the different situations they are facing at their stage of the journey. New happenings in your industry or niche that would affect them. These are all great things for you to send to your email list. And can just be quick snippets of helpfulness!
3 // A curated list of other people’s posts (relevant to your tribe)
Your audience probably doesn’t spend as much time immersing themselves in your industry/niche as you do. And none of us are the be all and end all of knowledge in our space.
So share some love, and earn some extra cred, by pointing to useful information and thought leaders that will expand the horizons of your tribe. Being generous and wanting the best for those in your audience is at the heart of growing a engaged, responsive tribe.
4 // Showcase your latest products
Whether you have a product or service based business one of the foundation purposes of your list is letting people know what you do, and how you can help them further.
You don’t want every email to be all about you, that’s a big turn-off, but you do want to keep them up-to-date, especially when it’s something you know they’ll love.
Whether that is sharing your details of your new course, or letting them know you have a new range of gorgeous earrings just in. Let them be the first to know what’s going on in your world, so it’s useful for them to OPEN your emails and STAY on your email list. And they feel a bit special, as they should as part of your email community.
Ok, so how do you feel? Was there at least something there that you thought, yeah, I could do that? Does it feel a little more doable?
Well, as promised, to make it even more doable, here’s those tips. These should help you fit regular communication with your email list into your already busy schedule:
Have a plan: Create a calendar based on the events, seasons and typical high points in your customer’s year. By putting in all the things that would give you an excuse to reach out to your customers you’ll:
- Be able to get ready in advance, so you won’t be scrabbling a few days before trying to get a newsletter out.
- Feel better about ‘bombarding’ people, cause there’s a good reason, as well as gives you something to talk about. (ie: “Mother’s Day is coming up, here’s 5 ways to spoil her this year”; “Tax time is approaching, here’s what you need to do”; “It’s Finders Keepers Market this Sunday – will we see you there?”; etc.).
- Be able to plan and promote special deals you might be offering your VIP Email Community (ie: “It’s not too late to have get it delivered by Mother’s Day – we’ll even pay for the shipping!”)
- Be able to plan other things of interest to fit in around those times.
Set up a template: A template takes away the stress of starting from scratch each time you come to write. The template doesn’t have to be fancy, in fact a current trend is sending email newsletters as plain looking as an ordinary email (especially for coaching and consulting businesses). But it should include important links (such as to your website and or social media accounts, and can include a picture banner or logo, etc. So, get that set-up in advance so that’s all consistent and taken care of each time.
Batch writing your emails: Batching is the process of spending a focussed amount of time on one task, so you get it done and out of the way, and free yourself up for other things.
For example, you spend 1 day each month batch writing four blog posts, and then the rest of the month working on creating products or working with clients, etc. Then you know that during the month you’ll have fresh, new content going out regularly (to help attract people to you), while you can concentrate on the actual work of your business (to keep the actual money flowing in ;).
You can do the same with your emails. Batch writing a month’s worth of emails in a day can take a lot of the stress off when each week it comes time to send a new one out!
Keep it simple: each email doesn’t have to be an epic novel! A short email that delivers value is never going to turn people off. So don’t think you have to write War & Peace every week. Just be helpful, friendly, let some of your < insert your favourite trait here > show through, and you’re on the right track.
Hope that you’re feeling more enthusiastic about emailing your list by now, and that you have it in your power to make a plan and be consistent with your emails, so that you can grow a valuable, engaged tribe of customers and raving fans around your business.
