We are starting a new series here on the podcast, the Basics of Email Marketing. In this first episode we are going to talk about how to start on Email newsletter.
As mentioned in the episode there are several related episodes that you can listen to as well including:
But First, Lead Magnet
Newsletter Dos and Donts
The Christian Business Advantage
How to Start an Email Newsletter
We are starting a new series here on the podcast, the Basics of Email Marketing. In this first episode we are going to talk about how to start on Email newsletter.As mentioned in the episode there are several related episodes that you can listen to as well including:But First, Lead MagnetNewsletter Dos and Donts
- Duration:
- 8m
- Broadcast on:
- 06 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
Welcome to the Christian Business Advantage podcast, the podcast for Christian authors, speakers, coaches, and virtual assistants. I'm your host longtime virtual assistant, author and speaker Alicia Avant. On this podcast we'll talk about how to build an online presence through email marketing, social media marketing, content repurposing, and building and maintaining your website. After serving Christian authors and speakers for over a decade, I have learned a great deal about their greatest needs, and it continues to be a privilege to serve them. Welcome to the podcast. Welcome to another episode of the Christian Business Advantage podcast. I'm your host Alicia Avant, and today welcome back. I took the month of July off, and I am back, and really excited to start a new series here on the podcast for the month of August, and we are going to be talking about email marketing for beginners. This, without a doubt, is one of the topics that I get asked about the most, so I feel like it is one of the most popular topics. And so today we're just going to start out with how to start an email newsletter. And this has seven steps. So we're going to go through those seven steps together. The very first step is to decide on the frequency of your newsletter. Before you ever begin, you want to know, you want to ask yourself, how often can I commit to sending an email newsletter? Because once people get used to hearing from you, you want them to expect your newsletter in a good way, but you don't want to let them down. So you want to be consistent with whatever you decide. So whether that's monthly, quarterly, weekly, biweekly, you decide. Second, if you do not already have an email service provider such as ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Mailer Lite, MailChimp, you will want to choose one of those. If you already have an email service provider, you can move on to step number three, which is create a lead magnet. Now, you might ask, what does that have to do with creating a newsletter? Well, in order to send a newsletter, you have to have people on your list to send that newsletter to. And in order to get people on your list, you don't just go and say, sign up for my newsletter. I know people do it all the time, but you want to give them something of value for free in exchange for their email and their name. And that is a lead magnet. Now, if you're not sure what a lead magnet is or if you want more information about it, there is an episode of the podcast from about a year ago that was called, but first, lead magnet. And it will guide you through what a lead magnet is. And I will put in the show notes. There are several episodes actually that I can link to that talk about that. So once you have your lead magnet, number four, is you've got to promote the lead magnet because the lead magnet gets people on your list. And from there, you send them newsletters. I hope that makes sense. And then number five is create a template. So don't get too bogged down in this and don't get too concerned about the template. Basically, what a template is, is it's the idea of the different pieces of the newsletter. So most people have like a letter from themselves or a note from themselves very first to introduce the newsletter. And then there's different sections that you can include. And we're going to talk about that more in depth in another episode. But some examples might be you might share upcoming events, you might share your latest work, you might share a blog post, you might share motivation, so on and so forth. But just think of the different pieces that you're going to share. And then you can create a template around those. Most email service providers have templates that you can tweak that you can customize to make it look like you and your brand and your business. And then you can go from there. So don't overcomplicate this particular step, because you don't want to get bogged down and not move forward. Also, myself and my team at Alicia Evan and company do specialize in email newsletters and email marketing. And we can help you with that, if you'd like to reach out to us. So we're on number five, which is creating a template moving on. Now to number six is create your first newsletter, jump right in there, create it. It's not as bad as it seems. As I said, with the template, don't overcomplicate it, just do it. And one of the things that you can do is you can start collecting newsletters that you really like, and putting them in a folder in your email inbox, and that you can use those for inspiration for what you want your newsletter to be like. I've done that. And I also collect them because I have clients who come to me wanting to create a newsletter, but they don't know where to start. And it gives them a jumping off point. It gives them something to look at and get the juices flowing, the creative juices flowing. So highly recommend doing that. And then number seven is super obvious, but it is to send your newsletter. Again, remember, you want to talk about or think about the frequency so you can be consistent with sending your newsletter. You want to track your open rates. You want to track, is this subject line working or not? And we are going to have an entire episode this month on subject lines because they really are what makes or breaks you in newsletters a lot of times because it's, is this is this worth opening? Are you enticing them to open your newsletter? I caught one this week. I was trying to remember what the subject line was, but I'm telling you, it really made me want to open the newsletter. And that is what subject lines are for. They are super duper important. Okay, so here it is. This is what her newsletter subject line said. It said, I didn't achieve my goal. And she used emojis in her newsletter, which we will talk about. And they were like the shocked emoji, the little smiley face, but it's he had a shocked look on his face. She's one of my favorite newsletters to receive. And she also had one a few weeks ago called Look, an adorable puppy video. We are all notorious for watching cat or puppy videos. So anything that will attract the attention of your readers to open the newsletter in their crowded inbox is a win. Alrighty, well, let's go over those steps real quickly. Once again, decide on the frequency, choose an email service provider, create a lead magnet and promote it. It's number four, create a template, create your first newsletter, and finally send your newsletter and we'll hop more into details about what to include and subject lines and things like that over the next few weeks. And I'm so glad to be back and hope you are glad to have me back in your podcast feed. Thanks so much again for listening to the podcast.