Everyone claims email is dead.
And yet, people subscribe to email lists every day.
Your email subscribers opted into your list for a reason. They’re interested in what you have to say and what you have to offer.
Why aren’t you giving them what they want?
Yes, People Do Still Read Their Email – Every Day
Social media may be incredibly popular, but email is still the best way to reach people with your message.
Everyone has hundreds of emails thrown at them in a day. Some are legit and some are spam. But consider the difference between hundreds of emails in your inbox and thousands of social media posts flying by on your app. Where are you more likely to see something that interests you and take the time to stop and click on it?
Here are some interesting stats on current email use:
- Most social media platforms have an average engagement rate of 0.58% vs email’s average open rate of 22.86% with a 3.71% click-through rate.
- More than 90% of people over the age of 15 have an email account and actually read their emails. Yes, that includes teenagers.
- Email marketing can bring in as much as $44 for every $1 you put in. That’s a 4400% ROI!
(These stats were found at Optinmonster.com)
- In 2018, 94% of people surveyed said they get online to check email.
- 72% of people surveyed would rather receive promotional content via email, compared to 17% who prefer social media.
- 66% of online consumers have made a purchase after receiving an email offer.
(These stats were found at Delivra.com)
So, yes, email marketing is still a viable and lucrative way to get your email subscribers to buy.
But to do that, you have to send them emails regularly.
Why Consistency Matters to Your Email Subscribers
Who would you rather hear from? A company that always delivers insights and interesting articles along with a sales message or a company that only communicates when they want to sell you something?
I know which one I prefer. And I open those emails as often as I can. (I’ll confess I don’t open every single one, but I do open a lot of them.)
I believe I have admonished you in the past not to use your email list as a booty call.
It’s just slimy to only send emails when you’re having a sale. Or to constantly send sales emails that offer no value beyond the sale itself.
I know there are well-known and thriving companies that do this. I also know they get a lot of sales this way. But for my part, those are the emails I usually delete or unsubscribe from. This is true for a lot of people.
My point is, if you send information that is valuable to your email subscribers regularly, they’ll start to look forward to reading your emails.
And when they’re reading your emails regularly, they’re getting your marketing message, which means they’re more likely to buy. Which is the name of the game, after all.
By the way, when I’m talking about “useful information,” that can be anything from article-length emails on a topic, like I send my email subscribers every Thursday, to links to blog posts like this one, to updates on what you’re doing and what new projects your company has in the pipeline.
These are referred to as “nurture emails” because you are nurturing the relationship between your business and your email subscribers.
How to Stay In Touch Regularly Without Driving Yourself Crazy
This is the pushback I get most often from my clients when I suggest regular emails:
- I don’t have time to write every day/week/month.
- I don’t know what to write about.
- Why would my email subscribers want to hear from me?
- I don’t want to bug them because they’ll unsubscribe from my list.
These are all valid concerns.
And they’re all easy to overcome.
Let’s start at the very beginning of your relationship with your email subscribers.
Establish Your Email Cadence Right Away
The very first email you send, immediately after they’ve opted in for your lead magnet, should contain the following sentences:
- “I’ll be emailing you every (day/week/two weeks/month)
so please keep an eye out for my emails.”
- “If you don’t want to receive that many emails,
you can change your email preferences here.” (Link to a form where they can
change how often they hear from you. Most ESPs have a way to set this up.)
- “If you want to unsubscribe, there is a link in the footer of every email where you can do that.”
Or something similar.
You’re making it clear in the very first email that you’re going to be sending them regular emails. You’re also giving them a way to change how many emails they send or to unsubscribe from your list.
Doing this builds trust right away.
By the way, most people open and read the very first email you send because it should contain a link to your lead magnet, which is why they opted into your list in the first place. For more about the first emails your subscribers should receive, read this blog post.
Batch Produce Your Emails
Sit down and write a whole bunch of nurture emails at once. That way you’ve got them ready to send when it’s time and you’re not stressing about it.
Once you get into the flow of writing, it’s much easier to keep writing. You may as well churn out a bunch of emails all at once if you’re in the groove.
If you’re like me and tend to go on and on when you write, you can figure out natural break points in your writing and create an email series on a certain subject. Then you can add, “Next week, I’ll tell you all about insert subject here,” so make sure you open my next email.” Here’s a blog post that shows you how break a long email up into a series of emails, while making your subscribers look forward to what comes next. Anticipation is a wonderful thing.
Set Aside Time Every Week or Month to Write Your Emails
Put time on your calendar on a regular basis to create your nurture emails.
Seriously. Block out this time or it won’t get done. (Ask me how I know.)
Make this time sacred and never sacrifice it to something else unless there’s an emergency. If you do have to sacrifice it for any reason, move the appointment on your calendar instead of deleting it.
You’re establishing a regular cadence for your email subscribers. You may as well do the same thing for yourself.
Pre-Schedule Your Emails
Most ESPs and CRMs have the ability to schedule broadcast emails in advance.
Once you have your emails written, put them into your ESP and CRM and schedule them as far out as you can. That way you know something is going out regularly and you can focus on all the other things you need to do for your business.
Yes, there will be times when you decide you want to change something in an email, or you want a different email to go out sooner than everything else you have scheduled. The lovely thing about automation is that it’s easy to change.
Let the technology work for you so you don’t have to work as hard.
To address the whole, “I don’t know what to write about” problem…
Keep a List, Notebook or Content Calendar Where You Write Down Ideas for Nurture Emails
I have found this incredibly helpful.
It’s the difference between wracking my poor, overtaxed brain for a subject to write about and being able to pull up a list and say, “Oh yeah. I’ll write about that today.” (I highly recommend crossing ideas off your list once you’ve written about them.)
I also keep a content calendar so I know when I’m planning on writing about a particular subject. I tend to make all of the content that week revolve around that subject, which makes my life easier and has a nice flow.
For the record, I write a blog post and accompanying email on Tuesdays, I prattle on about marketing during a Facebook Live on my business page on Wednesdays, and I send an email to my list subscribers on Thursdays.
That may seem like a lot of content to manage but because I plan it in advance, it’s really not.
But I Still Don’t Know What to Write
Trust me, I get it.
This is the number 1 complaint I hear when I ask business owners how often they write to their email subscribers.
After writing thousands of emails for over 100 clients, I have determined that every business’s subscribers have an “email type” they’re most likely to open and read.
There are 3 common email types that most people will open and read every time. You just need to know which type works best for your subscribers and why. Then you’ll know what to write and it will be much easier to do it regularly.
Discover your subscribers’ email type by clicking on the button below.