You need to stay in front of your audience if you want to stay top-of-mind when they need your product or services. Blogging, posting to social media and being active in Facebook groups only gets you so far. The best way to stay in front of your audience is to communicate directly with people who are invested in your business. And those are the people on your email list. Which means having including email in your content strategy.
When was the last time you sent an email to your list—that wasn’t trying to sell something? Can’t remember? It’s time to get with the program and use email in your content strategy, sending quality emails that your subscribers will actually open.
[bctt tweet=”Get with the program and start sending quality emails that your subscribers will actually open.” username=””]
You can’t head to their home offices and click on the email for them, but you can set your subscribers up to really trust you and take action on your emails.
I regularly have an open rate on my nurturing weekly emails of 30% to 50%, and that’s with a list of 1,000+. (Yeah, my list might be small potatoes to some, but they’re paying attention. I’ll take engaged subscribers any day over a larger list.) Here’s how I do it and how you can step up your own game:
Include New Value EVERY Time
No one wants to read your blog post in an email. They can go straight to your blog for that. You know, the same blog you’ve already shared on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Why share the exact same content again in your email? When you share the exact same content across multiple channels, your audience stops paying attention. And they stop opening your emails.
Instead, include some new value in your email. Tell a personal story, expand on one point in your most recent blog post, give a new tip you haven’t included anywhere else. But the point is, you’re giving your audience something new and they’ll miss out if they don’t open your emails.
It’s time to start truly developing a content strategy, and including email in it. Learn more about content strategy in my FREE Content Strategy Clarity challenge.
Send More Value Than “Buy Nows”
How many sales emails do you get in one day? Yeah, there’s so many I can’t count them either. I get it: We’re all running a business and you need to sell your last product, program or offering to stay in business. But if all you’re doing is trying to sell to your audience, they’re going to stop paying attention. Either they’ll unsubscribe or your email will sit in their inbox, unopened.
You should send up to nine (9!!!) nurturing emails for every one of your sales emails. So if you have a launch coming up, with a 9-email sequence, you’d better have sent 81 nurturing emails to get ready for it. Now, of course that’s a little unrealistic since you don’t want to have to send a nurturing email every single day (another great way to lose your audience). Just know that you need to provide value—and tons of it—if you want to sell to your audience via email.
[bctt tweet=”You should send up to nine (9!!!) nurturing emails for every one of your sales emails.” username=””]
Focus on ONE Key Idea
We’re all guilty of getting so excited about everything we’re doing that we want to include it all in our weekly emails. But when there’s too much going on in an email, your reader doesn’t know what they’re supposed to do next. Which link should she click on? What’s with all the shiny graphics?
Deliver one key idea to your audience with each email. Then stop. If you’re super-excited about #allthethings, include a very short recap at the bottom of your email. But avoid flashy graphics that take away from your message (and tags your email as spam by Google).
Don’t Send to Everyone
Not all your audience members are the same, and not everyone wants to (or should) get every email. This is a lesson I learned late in the game, but since I started tagging and segmenting my email list my open rates have skyrocketed. Tagging helps me identify where the subscriber came from (where they opted in) and segmenting allows me to put subscribers into larger lists—like those who have attended a webinar or masterclass with me or those who have indicated that they want to receive my weekly email.
By picking and choosing who gets which emails, I don’t clog up anyone’s inbox and I make sure that everyone gets only the information they want. One subscriber could be in multiple tags or segments, but not every subscriber gets everything from me.
[bctt tweet=”Not all your audience members are the same, and not everyone wants to (or should) get every email.” username=””]
Pro Tip: How to Find the Time for Email and Content Strategy
You’re thinking, This all sounds great, Abby, and I’m totally on board. But seriously…How do I find the time to use email in my content strategy?
So glad you asked! My answer: Batch create. When you create your blog post or outline your next YouTube video, take notes on what additional value you can give to your email subscribers. And then write it. Like, right then! Don’t wait until the last minute to frantically throw together an email, just for the sake of emailing. The more thought you put into it, the more likely it is that your readers will open your email.
So tell me, are you ready to start using email in your content strategy? Oh, wait. Do you have a content strategy? Take this handy quiz to find out where you fall on the strategy spectrum!
