Email Marketing: Connection, Courage + Commitment by Amber Lilyestrom Overview: Why does email marketing matter? In the current online space, your list as we refer to it is the only place to grow an audience in which the contact information (names, emails, etc) belong to your business. Facebook owns your Likes and friend profiles. Instagram does too and you have ZERO information on those individuals. You cannot contact them outside of those platforms. What is a list, exactly, and how do I even begin to create mine? Great question. Your list is what we refer to as the subscribers who opt-in or sign-up for your email newsletter. For example: On my website, currently, I have an opt-in box that encourages visitors to sign-up for my 5 Day Brand YOU Challenge. When they enter their information, it automatically uploads to my email newsletter provider, Mail Chimp, on my primary subscriber list. From there, the automated email sequence I have created is triggered and the new subscriber receives emails for the next 5 days for the challenge. Do I really need to go to all this trouble? Also a great question. It probably sounds really daunting. It did to me at first too but the short answer is YES. Here s why research shows that your programs, products and services will yield sales in correlation to 2-4% of your list size. So if you have a list of 1,000 people, that means you will sell somewhere around 20-40 seats in your program. Pretty cool, huh? You have to take the time to build a relationship and the associated TRUST that comes with it with your subscribers.
The best kind of email marketing is a long-term commitment with a chief focus on heart-centered connection. There is no denying that it takes courage to put yourself and your knowledge out there, but it is the foundation of a beautiful relationship with like-minded, passionate souls on a mission. Now let s get to that 1,000 person list Email Marketing Basics: We can t start to grow our list if we don t have a place for it to live. Here is a short list of the best and most reputable list building and management platforms: Mailchimp* Aweber Send Pepper Get Response Constant Contact Infusionsoft Ontraport *Brand Love recommends Mailchimp as a great starting place. Inside Mailchimp Refer to the following link for a quick screenshare on how to navigate Mailchimp amberlilyestrom.com/email-marketing-101 *Please note: PDF will not hyperlink so you will need to type in to your URL address bar.
10 Tips for Creating a Healthy, Heart-Centered Email Marketing Campaign 1. Create a beautiful combination of scheduled, high-value content and a great freebie to attract people to join your list. Make it an instant YES for your ideal client! 2. When choosing what to create for your opt-in freebie offer, make it a foundational piece of your core business mission something that makes your heart sing and legitimately HELPS your future clients solve a problem or challenge. Physical format can be PDF, video (series), powerfully written email series, audio recording, etc. 3. Keep a content schedule (or not). Whatever you do, have a plan and a purpose for why you re doing it that way. I ve seen all models, but those who are reliable tend to be some of the most successful. 4. Keep a running blog list and update it regularly with ideas and inspiration that comes up for you. Bring it with you everywhere in a journal or note on your mobile device. 5. Tell stories. Share relatable moments from your life and business experience and build connection. Authenticity trumps strategy everyday of the week. 6. Deliver value in every, single email. Even if that means you just got to entertain your readers with a laugh. Engage, entertain, educate, inspire in every single email. If you aren t doing at least one or more of these, don t send the email. Never send an email because you are supposed to send an email. You get to make the rules here and your readers are relying on you to give them something worthy of their priceless time. 7. Give more than you sell. We all know what it feels like to get email after email with slimy sales pitches, don t be that girl. Tell stories, connect, teach, motivate Aspire to make your email the one your subscribers is waiting for each week. I can promise you contrived sales pitches are going to earn you more unsubscribes than raving fans. Send emails you would like to cherish. 8. Make your headlines click-worthy. Check out the link below the training video to access a resource that shares with you the keywords that most likely trigger spam filters. Subscribe to other lists to take note of what subject lines made you want to click and those that didn t. Spend some time being intentional with this and study the process. Some of my favorites come from rockstar entrepreneur Marie Forleo: 5 Reasons People Don t Take You Seriously (And How to Change It) My Weird Little Stress Busting Trick And a few from my copywriting gal pal, Lauren Vanessa Zink:
3 Ways to Turn Your Home Page Into A Conversion-Bot The 10-Business-Building Tools I Swear By Anatomy of a $10k Month 9. Keep it simple. The goal should be to direct your readers to ONE desired transaction, not the kitchen sink. Keep it simple direct them to one offering, one product...there is a beautiful thing about tunnel vision in this case; you alleviate the risk of confusing them with choices. Get excited about one thing and shout it out and invite them to hop on the bus with you. Keep it simple. 10. Make sure the design of your emails looks pro, consistent and easy to navigate. Always include a way for them to contact you at the sign-off for each of your emails. 10 Powerful Ways to Grow Your List 1. Set-up an automation with your freebie and a small email sequence. Keep the high value and the high connection with this method. 2. Drive traffic to your list with everything you do. Periscopes, vlogs, blogs, webinars, speaking engagements, interviews drive people there any chance you get. 3. Buddy up with other entrepreneurs and colleagues in order to share audiences and attract new followers (webinars, telesummits, etc). Each time I have done this, my list has grown between 200-250 subscribers! Remember, we were not meant to do this alone. 4. Schedule a specific list-growing strategy every month webinars, interviews, email/blog/periscope series this is one of the easiest ways to grow your list rapidly. 5. Share your freebie in the groups you belong to. 6. Put it in your email signature. 7. Ask friends/family to share it. 8. Use Facebook ads to promote and get new subscribers.
9. Place your opt-in box prominently on your website and social media profiles to make sure new visitors have quick access to it. Pop-ups are shown to be the most effective conversion tool for capturing emails. Opt-in boxes or bars are also a very powerful tool if you do not have access to a pop-up. 10. Talk about it all the time. Get comfortable with sharing your freebie and what else you do with your list. Don t hide it. Have courage and recognize that your list is the lifeblood of your business. Grow it. Have fun with it. Love it on up! And a note on unsubscribes I know they sting. There s no way to sugarcoat this one. But I will share a story from a friend of mine who has a list of over 40,000 people. She shared that with each and every email she sends, she receives 200 unsubscribes. She said that at first it hurt, until she realized that the remaining 39,800 are still on board and it s her job to honor them and celebrate their commitment to being a part of her world via her email list. What a revelation. It doesn t matter if you have 10 people or 1,000 people signed up on your list. Each and every one of those people is a soul a dream a vision.and you are the recipient of their MOST PRECIOUS resource of all.their time. Honor it. Trust yourself and enjoy the gift that is the work that we get to do in the world. xo-amber