“I’ve tried email, but it just doesn’t work for me…”
I have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard this from business owners, coaches, consultants, you name it, they all say the same thing.
I get it.
Sitting down every single week to write a nurture email takes time away from everything else on your to-do list. As does setting up your email marketing funnel, or entire email marketing system.
You’re crazy busy already. You don’t have time for this. Or, when you do, it’s sporadic, which means it typically falls to the bottom of your to-do list.
I would posit that the problem isn’t that email “just doesn’t work for you” it’s that you haven’t found the best way to make it work for you.
This is the first in a two-part series about the reasons why you feel like email keeps failing you and how to take whatever you may have and make it into a viable marketing channel that helps you grow a supportive community of subscribers who become customers and/or clients.
Part 1 focuses mostly on business owners who are interested in the DIY aspects of email marketing.
This is for folks who want to share their own message in their own voice and enjoy getting into the nitty gritty of how and why systems work, so they can customize them to their situations.
Part 2 will be for people who are interested in getting more support, so they don’t have to do it all themselves.
I’m not just offering advice in either issue (though there’s some of that too). I’m including genuine solutions that you can implement right now, regardless of where you are in your business and how many (or few) email subscribers you may have.
There are two parts to making email marketing work for you:
- Writing a regular nurture email or newsletter
- Setting up an email marketing funnel and/or system
They’re both necessary to keep everything flowing smoothly, so you’re bringing in new customers or clients on a regular basis.
Writing the Weekly Nurture Emails
I’m starting here because this is the base of your entire email strategy.
Writing consistently, whether it’s once a week, once every 2 weeks, or once a month, is what builds your relationship with your subscribers. It also builds credibility, demonstrates your expertise, and positions you as the “go-to” person when your subscribers are ready to say yes.
The important part is establishing a regular cadence and sticking with it to the best of your ability. I am aware that life happens. It happens to all of us, including me. But the more consistent you can be, the better your nurture email efforts will pay off in the long run.
There are a couple of situations most business owners tend to find themselves in, so I’ll address each of them in its own section.
Starting From Scratch
Maybe you had an email list but it’s been years since you touched it and you’ve pivoted your business several times since then.
Maybe you tried to build an email list ages ago but it never really got off the ground. You have a few names kicking around somewhere, but nothing formal and if you do write to them, it’s a rare occurrence.
Or maybe starting an email list is still somewhere on your to-do list.
Don’t cringe if you see yourself in any of these scenarios. It’s very common. Email marketing takes time and effort and if you feel like don’t know what you’re doing, it’s easy to throw up your hands and walk away.
I’m going to encourage you to try again (or for the first time, if that’s your situation.)
The perfect place to start is my How to Start Your Own Email List From Scratch guide.
It walks you through how to start your email list with what you have right now. There’s no automation and it can be done in small chunks daily or weekly.
If you’re building for the first time, or rebuilding because you abandoned your original list, this is a simple, step-by-step guide that will get you going quickly and easily.
Check it out here.
Writing Your Nurture Email Yourself
If you’re confident in your writing and you feel like this is something you can easily add to your calendar and stick to every week, this is my personal recommendation.
It’s what I do every week. I realize I’m a bit of an odd duck, but so are a lot of other business owners out there.
The advantages are that you’re writing in your own voice, from your perspective, sharing your ideas, values, and mission with your subscribers. This gives you the chance to show your expertise, build trust, and connect on a deeper level.
The disadvantages are that you have to do this on a regular basis. And you have to come up with something to write about… Every. Single. Time.
Honestly, this isn’t as complicated as it seems. You are the expert in your business. You have plenty to share with your subscribers. The most common hurdle most people have to overcome is facing the blank screen.
Here are a few ways to deal with this problem:
Start with the common questions everyone asks: You know the answers to these questions by heart. Write out the question and answer it in the email. I recommend starting with the top 5 questions, one question per email.
Keep a running list of ideas: I keep this list on my phone, so I don’t lose it. I also use an app that automatically syncs with my computer, so I can find the list easily.
Use my Custom Subject Line Generator: Just fill out a form that asks a few questions about your business, who you serve, and how you serve them. A few minutes later, you’ll receive 3 subject lines and writing prompts customized to your business. Use those to break through the blank screen barrier and start writing.
Let the Robots Do It For You
I will be the first to say that I don’t do this myself. I believe in letting my own words flow from my brain and onto the page because that’s my jam.
However, I know a lot of people who do. Many of whom are in my Email Writing Accountability Group.
AI is a great tool.
But it is not the end-all-and-be-all solution that the tech bros keep promising us.
It is a tool, nothing more, nothing less.
If you approach AI from this perspective, then yeah, it can definitely get you started.
However, I strongly recommend that, once the robot of your choice has taken your prompt and turned it into something resembling a nurture email, you go through and heavily edit the whole thing.
“But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of letting the robots write it for me?” I hear you cry.
No. The robot’s job is to hand you a messy first draft that you can build on.
As I just mentioned, the blank page is the hardest hurdle to overcome for most people. Once there are words on the page in front of you, suddenly it’s much easier to massage those into what you really want to say.
Again, AI is a tool. Let it get you started by giving you the base of what you’re writing. Then you can shape what’s there into your own voice, sharing your ideas, your values, and your mission.
If that’s enough to get you going, fantastic. Work with your chosen robot and get those nurture emails out to your subscribers.
If you’re worried about whether what you (and your robot friend) have written is any good…
Or if you’re concerned that you won’t actually write this nurture email (with or without the robots) every week,
That’s exactly what the Email Writing Accountability Group is for.
The weekly 90-minute meeting holds you accountable to show up, write, and send an email to your subscribers every week.
The personalized feedback from me during those sessions, so you can improve your emails and get better results, makes you a better and more confident writer.
Build Your Own Email Marketing Funnel
I can already hear you whimpering…
Yes, I know, it’s another thing on your plate that you already don’t have time for.
But if you’re one of those DIY people who genuinely loves learning how to do stuff so you can do it yourself over and over, this is your best option.
Right now, there are 2 ways to go about this on your own:
Go through a course:
This could be in your email service provider’s (ESP) tutorial section, or it could be from an expert (like me) who you trust to explain everything clearly, so you can replicate it yourself.
Pros: You learn how to do it yourself.
Cons: You rarely get someone who actually knows what they’re doing to help you when you’ve got questions or you get stuck. This is true for strategy and tech support.
Use the internal AI automated system to build it for you:
Most ESPs have AI functionality now that will let you prompt the system to build whatever it is you need.
For most basic funnels, this is actually a good option. AI is sophisticated enough to put everything together for you and hand you a working funnel.
As per my recommendations above on using AI to write your emails, you will need to go through everything to make it yours before you launch your funnel. That includes testing the funnel to make sure it’s working the way you want it to and delivering your emails correctly.
Pros: It gets done quickly and works with whatever your ESP already has built into it.
Cons: You may or may not get a working funnel, depending on your knowledge of how funnels work, how well the AI understands your instructions, and the outcome you’re looking for.
If either of these solutions looks good to you, go for it. A basic funnel shouldn’t take you too long to set up correctly. Then you’ll have a mechanism to bring new subscribers into your email list, so you can turn them into customers through your weekly nurture emails.
If this looks intimidating to you, or if you’ve already tried one or both of these solutions and you’ve got a half-built funnel sitting inside your ESP, waiting for you to “get back to it,” I recommend my Done-With-You Funnels service.
You’ll get the guidance, feedback, and accountability build your funnel yourself from me showing you exactly how to do it, step-by-step, together, in real time. You walk away with a completed funnel you can modify and replicate whenever you need to.
This is the perfect solution if you know you want to build this yourself, but you’re scared to do it alone and “unsupervised.”
For those of you DIYers out there, I hope this has given you some good ideas and lets you move forward to make email work for you.
For those of you who would rather have more support to make your email marketing happen, tune in for next week’s issue, when I’ll show you the options I provide, as well as a few things you can do yourself.
Finally, this week’s image is of a Monarch butterfly in my garden.
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