At the beginning of this year, while reviewing my social media outlets and new trends, I realized I needed to cull back in at least a few areas. I was spreading myself too thin. Regarding email newsletters, it seemed perhaps they were being left in the rear view mirror by many digital marketers. So, I asked myself, Are email newsletters still relevant?

After a long Saturday afternoon of research, I decided yes. If they are done right. In this tutorial, I want to lay out the correct methods for creating an effective newsletter.

Although you may be ready to launch your product or service, I want to show you how I think is the best way to retain your customers, rather than having them make a one-time purchase. Or worse, visit and immediately leave your website. You can do this simply by building your email list. 

The best thing about an email list is it’s a ready-made market. They may have bought something from you, or you may have given something for free in exchange for their email. One thing is certain; if people give you their email, then you’ve gained their trust and they’ll be willing to buy something from you in the future. That’s the beauty of an email list; done right, it’s your personal ready-made market.

Building Your Organic Email List

You’ll want to get the ball rolling right away, gain momentum, and use every outlet available to begin building your email list. You can do this in several ways:

1.     The best way to start is with your circle of influence—like family and friends.
2.     Promote a newsletter.
3.     Drop shipping: offer a product for “free”. But charge for shipping and handling—which also covers the cost of the product in exchange for their email.
4.     Offer a free consultation: best used for high ticket products and services, as free consultations are time consuming. Be careful how many you give out. You don’t want to work full-time for free.
5.     Free tutorial videos. You can use videos directly from your YouTube channel.
6.     Give away a free resource like a PDF file that supplements content in a blog post or video.
7.     Facebooks ads.
8.     Host an online contest on social media.
9.     Use surveys and questionnaires. You’d be surprised how many people respond to these.
10.     Raffles.
11.     Set up a loyalty program.
12.     Simply ask for it on your website.
13.     End an email with a Call To Action: E.g., If you found this email useful, please forward it to a friend.
14.     Host a co-marketer and share each other’s emails.
15.     Offline events like speaking gigs or a book signing.
16.     Webinars.

 

 

“If you aren’t building your list you are missing out on the future of your business.” — Vicki Fitch #RockThatDream

 

 

 

 

You want to grow your list organically, and there are so many ways to do this. Never add someone who does not voluntarily give you their email, and never purchase a list.

These junkyards are a scrapheap of emails people no longer use, or they receive so much spam they’ll instantly unsubscribe or block your emails. They might even give you a bad review as a spammer.

Permission Marketing

A tactic designed to sell your goods in which a prospect explicitly agrees to receive marketing material from you.

Opt-in emails is a great example of permission marketing. It’s a win-win. Your visitors receive something of value for free, and in return you get their email. If they like what you give them, you’re reducing the chances they‘ll unsubscribe.

Remember, email campaigns are a free, ready-made market just for you. Keep it organic and offer much value, and you won’t have a high turnover of unsubscribers.

Segment Your Email Subscriber List 

This is paramount! Your email list is not a database you can send all your free and promotional material to any time you want. People will unsubscribe. Segment your list into categories to use for different promotions.

I use Mailchimp. It’s easy to segment emails. You can target the right people for the right campaign, such as retargeting those who clicked through your Call to Action but did not buy anything.

Send a welcome email to new subscribers, a monthly newsletter to another segment, and a follow up ‘thank you’ email to people who have responded to a Call to Action like purchasing something.

 

Run Facebook ads for as little as $5.00 a day, reach new people and build your list by offering

something valuable for free in exchange for their email. Give a free membership or free consultations.

I suggest fifteen minutes, and cap them to a certain amount of consultations you can do every week.

Keep in mind, you don’t want to work full-time for free.

You’ve probably seen Facebooks ads that promote a webinar or give away an eBook or a PDF

offering 10 Top Tips to Cure What’s Ailing You. You can do something similar. I have a few eBooks

(easy to read in one short sitting) I give away for free in exchange for their emails.

eBooks

I find these are easy to write, and there is a great demand for them. I can put one together in less than a day. Keep it short and simple (under 50 pages with lots of images, double spacing and white background) with a decent cover. People with a passion for health, fashion and sales are always looking for an edge. This is a win-win for the responders who receive free value, and for you, as you gain new potential customers!!!

Types of Email Campaigns 

Once you begin to build your organic email list, you can begin email campaigns. Just don’t overwhelm people with long, lengthy posts with an end to sell something. Instead, establish trust by giving away lots of free stuff:

1.     Welcome email: send these within the first 24 hours of capturing a visitor’s email.
2.     Seasonal or holiday campaign.
3.     Free giveaway.
4.     Special limited discount.
5.     New product, service, content or updates emails.
6.     Retargeting campaign: run a retargeting campaign to those who clicked a CTA but did not move forward.
7.     The abandoned cart series: this is a type of a retargeting campaign. Many visitors will put an item in their shopping cart   but, for whatever reasons, do not follow through with the purchase. You will definitely want to retarget these hot leads.
8.     Lead nurturing email: this will be one of your most important emails. Stay connected to leads who are not ready to buy and build trust until they are ready.
9.     Event information: promote an online webinar, conference, speaking gig or upcoming book signings.
10. Confirmation or thank you email: these can be a receipt for a purchase or for registering for an event like a webinar.
11. Collaborate in a campaign with someone in your niche and share each other’s emails.
12. New video: recipients visit your YouTube channel, watch the video, hit the LIKE button and leave comments. You want this immediate viewer engagement as soon as possible to give your new video credibility and help YouTube promote it to new audiences.

Anatomy of a Newsletter

Newsletters are regularly distributed publications. Generally, they are about a single main topic of interest to your subscribers. They not only expect to receive them, they also know when it will arrive in their in-box—like every Tuesday and Thursday morning.

What I like about newsletters is they are, in my opinion, the most personal of all email campaigns.

Danny DeVito from Matilda (1996)

As with anything in this world, shysters will exploit opportunities for their gain and your loss. Like a sordid used car salesman, scammers and spammers can give newsletters a bad name. But don’t let that stop you from creating your very own newsletter offering.

Okay, let’s get excited and build a newsletter! There are a few ways you can easily do this.

Email Marketing Services 

There are many email marketing and autoresponder services. You can use MailChimp’s free version. Mailchimp offers the following features:

• Lots of templates to choose from.
• Stores your subscribers’ emails.
• Segment your database of customers.
• Test marketing messages; see what people like and don’t like.
• Your newsletters are easy for people to share. With a simple Call to Action, recipients can forward your newsletter to their family and friends.
• Easy to track sales and user engagement.
• You can upload videos.
• Simple to use once you get it set up.

Canva

Create a terrific newsletter using Canva. Most email providers, like Gmail and Yahoo!, will not allow you to embed a video into an email. However, you can import your Canva newsletter with an embedded video directly into a Gmail draft.

Using a Canva Newsletter Template in Gmail

Images 

Never use images if they are not free to use or you do not have permission from the source. For my Newsletter I use high quality free images, mainly from free sites like Canva, Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay and NASA.

Embedded Links 

Use links to a bare minimum. I place mine as far down at the bottom of my newsletter page as possible. You don’t want people leaving until they review all of your content.

Newsletter Signature 

Once the viewer does get to the bottom of the email, then add a link that takes them to your YouTube Channel for a quick fifteen second video; introduce yourself and your smiling face. I showed this Hello Video earlier. Something to consider for your newsletter signature hyperlink.

Here is an example:

About L. Diane Wolfe

Conclusion 

1.   Remember, email campaigns are a free, ready-made market just for you. Keep it organic and offer much value, and you won’t have a high turnover of subscribers.
2.   Newsletters need to offer something of value for nothing or have that WOW! factor.
3.   Use free apps like Canva to create your newsletter, then import into Gmail.

Call to Action

 

I challenge you to reach a milestone of your first 100 organic email subscribers. You can begin by selecting an email marketing platform such as MailChimp.

If you already have an email list with more than 100 addresses, then I hereby challenge you to reach a milestone of your first 1,000 organic email subscribers.