The Beginner's Guide to Email Marketing

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EGINNER'S

GUIDE TO EMAIL MARKETING For solopreneurs who want to increase their income by using a proven automated system.

What is Email Marketing?

At its simplest level, email marketing happens when you, as a business owner, use email to send information to prospects about your products and services.

It's the act of consistently sending emails (normally in bulk) to engage, communicate, share, and build a relationship with your ideal audience It's the best way (IMHO) for business owners to build relationships with their audience. It can even be a more powerful form of communication than social media or paid advertising.

It’s a direct line of contact between a business owner (you) and an email subscriber (your audience). Nothing stands between the two of you, making it a very effective way to build your business and increase your conversions.

As just one available marketing channel in your business, email marketing is widely accepted as giving the highest return on investment, with a ratio of 40:1.

You might be a solopreneur, or looking to become one whilst building a personal brand that can grow alongside your current career.

Maybe you’re a full-time parent who is building a side hustle that gives you the time and space to stay present for your family as they grow.

Or you might be a passionate content creator who is interested in building a location-independent business that gives you the freedom and flexibility to create projects you’re proud of on your own schedule.

Your email list will become your most valued asset in your business, even if you struggle to believe that right now. Properly managed, it'll become an income generator that will continually feed your business.

No matter what stage of your business or career you are in, email marketing can help you make a living online.

If it isn't already, email marketing should be a crucial part of your business's overall marketing and sales strategy, as it allows you to turn leads into loyal email subscribers that you can stay in touch with for the long term.

Your email list is one of the few marketing channels you own, which means you have full control over how often you communicate with your subscribers. You're are able to build an audience of people who are excited to hear from you.

Why use Email Marketing?

If you're a business owner and you're not using email marketing as part of your overall strategy for attracting leads then you're leaving sales opportunities on the table.

COST-EFFICIENT Although numbers do vary from one sector to another, it's been shown that on average, emails can be sent out to your leads and clients for as little as 0.01p per email.

MASSIVE POTENTIAL REACH With around 3.9bn email users worldwide, there is no shortage of potential subscribers. Email is still very prevalent, especially with business users, and email numbers are predicted to continue to grow in the coming years.

Having the ease of access to such a powerful marketing opportunity only reinforces why every solopreneur should be leveraging email marketing in their business.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT On average, email marketing campaigns return investment at a ratio of 40:1. I've seen this number quoted at 38:1, 43:1 etc., but it's always around this number.

This means that for every £1 you invest into email marketing, you should expect a return of around £40 - providing you have a properly constructed campaign that provides true value to your audience, of course.

PERSONALISATION By personalising your emails for your leads and clients, you strengthen the bond between you and them. When we receive an email it's much more personal if the email addresses us by our first name, instead of those "Hi Friend" type of messages we get.

Email marketing has been an effective channel for many years and that is forecast to continue for many more to come. The number of email users is set to increase to 4.3 billion by 2023 (source: statista.com).

SEGMENTATION Email marketing platforms allow us to do many clever things, none more useful than segmenting our 'list'. We can categorise our contacts by their interests, buying habits, preferences and much more. It makes for a very tailored experience for the lead or client.

DATA OWNERSHIP Arguably the most significant benefit of email marketing - YOU own the data, not another platform or business, but YOU. What this means is that no matter how large you grow your list, you can download it from your preferred email marketing platform and instantly upload it to another one. Compare this to your audiences on social platforms where the platforms own the data - not you!

How Does Email Marketing Actually Work?

If you've never done any email marketing before, then it may seem a bit confusing, but really it's very simple once you understand the process.

The process can be broken down into 3 easy-to-follow steps; STEP 1 - CREATE VALUE FOR YOUR LEADS You need to create 'things' that are of value to your ideal clients.

These 'things' are universally referred to as 'lead magnets'. The premise of the lead magnet is that you create something that is of enough value to your potential client that they're prepared to exchange their email details in return for your 'thing'.

The term "lead magnet" is often used interchangeably with others like "problem solver", "freebie", or "giveaway"... in essence, they're all the same thing.

Let's take a common example for a lead magnet; If you run an accountancy business, helping small businesses to take care of all their bookkeeping and taxes, then you might create a downloadable PDF document entitled: "The Small Business Owner's Financial Checklist - Everything you need to know to stay on the right side of the law".

If I saw that being given away for free, and I owned a small business, that would be very appealing to me, so I'd likely download it by exchanging my email address.

In order to come up with ideas for what will be effective lead magnets for your business, think about your clients' main problem and create something that will help them to overcome it.

STEP 2 - SEND TRAFFIC TO YOUR LEAD MAGNET Now that you've created your lead magnet, you now need to get eyes on it - so you need to drive as much traffic to your giveaway as you can.

Using all your accessible audiences, whether that's on social media platforms (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram etc.), which is most common, or even through online network meetings or face-to-face events - you should be making people aware of what you have to offer and invite them to get 'it'. f course, your lead magnets can take many forms, not just downloadable PDFs; you could offer 1-2-1 calls, video series online courses etc., basically anything that provides value to your lead.

In order to come up with ideas for what will be effective lead magnets for your business, think about your clients' main problem and create something that will help them to overcome it.

STEP 3 - NURTURE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS Once someone has requested your lead magnet, they become a subscriber to your email list. Once on your list, it's your job to nurture that newfound relationship, continuing to provide real value to them, with the intention of converting them to loyal paying clients.

Nurture email sequences are what allow you to establish and cement your relationship with your 'leads'. By consistently delivering value to them via campaigns, you'll keep your business in your potential clients' minds, making them much more likely to buy from you when they're ready to buy.

What Are Email Marketing Best Practices?

There are some core best practices that you should adopt early and always adhere to, otherwise you could find all your hard-earned subscribers disappearing over time. I've listed the main ones below.

ALWAYS BE GROWING YOUR LIST Every day, inside your business, you should have multiple assets that are solely focused on growing your 'list' of subscribers. These assets are your 'lead magnets' that can be shared in exchange for your leads' email addresses.

The bigger your list (and providing you have relevant leads) then the bigger your chance of selling your products and services. It's a simple game of maths with ratios at play.

The secret to communicating successfully via email marketing is to just be 'you'. People respond to people and if you make it impersonal and 'company-like', your engagement levels can suffer.

SPEAK AS A PERSON, NOT A COMPANY Nobody likes to be spoken to by a 'company', we like to receive emails from real people - so make sure your emails come across as 'you'. We've all had those emails that are signed as 'Support Team' or something equally impersonal.

BE PERSONAL Take advantage of the brilliant functionality that email marketing platforms afford us these days and personalise all your emails. If you're sending me an email, start it with 'Hi John', not 'Hi Friend'!

When you sit down to craft an email, think about a single person whom you're writing it for. Imagine that person being in front of you and you'll make your content much more meaningful and personal.

KNOW WHOM YOU'RE SPEAKING TO It's key to know whom you are writing the email for; you need to know the avatar of the person who is going to open your email and read it. The more laser-focused you can make it, the more success you'll have with your campaigns.

SHARE ALL YOUR BEST STUFF There's a temptation to only share some of your stuff with your audience and to keep the 'best stuff' for selling to them - but this can be counterproductive. Most people don't actually need help with learning what they need to know, but instead need the accountability or expertise that comes with actually working with you.

Always keep a clean email list by adopting a doubleopt-in policy, and keep it well maintained by removing inactive or non-engaged subscribers.

REMOVE 'COLD' SUBSCRIBERS Some of your email subscribers will not be right for you and they won't engage. 'Cold' subscribers are those who don't open any of your emails in a 90-day period. You should embrace this when it happens as it lets you get rid of people who were never going to buy from you anyway.

MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO LEAVE It's not only a legal requirement to have an 'Unsubscribe' link on each of your emails, but also very good practice. You should never be trying to keep people on your list who'd rather not be on it. If people want to leave, let them go, wish them well and let them know that they'll be welcomed back if they ever choose to do so in the future.

Good Practices for Writing Emails If your emails are to capture attention and get engagement then you need to write with purpose and direct it at your reader.

FIGURE OUT WHOM YOU'RE TALKING TO When you sit down to start writing your emails, you need to have one person in your mind. Have a clear understanding of who that person is, what their likes and dislikes are; what they do day-to-day; what their frustrations and challenges are, and focus on the language they typically use.

Even though your emails will be sent to hundreds, maybe even thousands, of recipients, you should always write each sentence as if you were talking to that one person.

If you learn to write just the way you speak, then your emails will become much more readable for the subscribers on your email list.

USE CONVERSATIONAL LANGUAGE If it aligns with your business, and I'd suggest most businesses do, then you should use a conversational style of writing since this tends to get a person engagement level than a more formal approach.

Just think about how you would actually speak to your ideal client if they were sitting next to you, having a chat over a coffee - that's what you're trying to achieve in a written email format. It just comes across much more natural and therefore more likely to relate to your audience.

As humans, we're hard-wired to engage with stories, so if you can improve your skills in that area you'll most likely increase your email engagement levels.

ADD STORYTELLING We all love a story; where's there's a beginning, a middle, and an end. From a young age, most of us are taught how to relate to events through storytelling.

Even if we don't consciously acknowledge it, we're wired to more easily relate to stories than boring monologues.

You can draw on past experiences or those of past clients - sharing what happened, what you did, and what you learned from each.

We can all relate at some level to others' experiences.

People aren't interested in the features of your products or services, they're interested what they can do for them, i.e. the outcome or results.

WRITE ABOUT BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES We've all been guilty of this in the past, I'm sure - but it's something that is a complete turn-off when we start bleating on about the features of our products and services!

You only need to think about some sales pitches for technology where the company (person) will list how much capacity something has, how many transactions it can do, how long batteries last etc. etc... yawn!

Contrast that with the famous Apple strapline when they launched the iPod - "10,000 songs in your pocket" - it just tells you everything you need to know, no techy-fluff - just the benefit of owning one!

How to Set Up Your Email Marketing System In order to set up and run an effective email marketing channel, you'll need to invest in a few things, some which are free (time aside), and one that requires a small investment (£10/m-£20/m) WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO SETUP YOUR EMAIL MARKETING SYSTEM No.1 - A LEAD MAGNET Decide on what you can create that gives your ideal clients something of true value, and you can give it away for free.

Typical lead magnets include downloadable PDFs, mini-courses, 1:1 calls, and trial access to a membership.

Once you have your lead magnet created and it's available to give away for free, you need somewhere for your leads to visit to request it, and where you can collect their email address - the 'value exchange'.

No.2 - A LANDING PAGE A landing page is just like any other simple web page, but with a few minor differences. It serves a single purpose, i.e. to collect people's email addresses and adds them to your 'list'.

Your landing page can reside wherever you want it to, however in most cases, especially if you're not very technical, it's best to use a hosted landing page where everything can be done automatically for you.

This is normally done via an email marketing platform, of which there are numerous to choose from.

Once you have your lead magnet created and it's available to give away for free, you need somewhere for your leads to visit to request it, and where you can collect their email address - the 'value exchange'.

No.3 - AN EMAIL SEQUENCE An email sequence is a series of pre-written emails that are intended to be sent at predetermined intervals to subscribers, based on when they join the sequence.

The most basic sequence is a 'Welcome Sequence' which would be a series of emails (e.g. 5 -7 emails) that would be triggered by a subscriber joining your email list.

The series of emails would be scheduled to be sent out at intervals of your choosing, drip-fed in line with when people join your list.

Example of an email sequence: Day 0 - Send Email No.1, which is your welcome email.

Day 1 - Send Email No.2, which could be you giving more useful content to your lead, perhaps unpacking some further details around the lead magnet that they requested.

Day 3 - Send Email No.3, which could be you asking them how they're getting on with their lead magnet and perhaps giving them more tips or helpful advice.

Day 5 - Send Email No.4, which could be another detailed analysis of a topic you covered in your lead magnet. Again, you can demonstrate your level of knowledge and expertise in your subject.

Day 7 - Send EMail No.5, which could be yet another unpacking of a topic that you covered in your lead magnet, plus a call to action to move into another sequence; e.g. "Click here if you want to learn more".

The most powerful features of any email marketing platform are automation and sequences. Using these will transform your business and free up your time to focus on crafting effective email campaigns that convert leads into paying clients.

No.4 - AN EMAIL MARKETING PLATFORM There are more email marketing platforms to consider than you can shake a proverbial stick at! There are literally dozens to choose from, if not hundreds, and can be confusing if you're not that sure of what you're looking for.

My recommendation for any solopreneur considering email marketing is to pick one that is fit for purpose, and not wildly overpriced or overly-featured for their specific needs.

I personally use ConvertKit, but there are similar ones that are equally effective, like Active Campaign and Mailerlite. There's no need to be paying any more than £10-£20 per month to begin with.

"Share your email marketing content with me, I'd love to see what you create, now that you know how to design and implement your email marketing system."

John Bellingham Founder, Proven Flows

Visit my website provenflows.com Connect with me linkedin.com Follow me @provenflows