many of the women that I work with are not taking advantage of the benefits email marketing offers their business, for various reasons – and believe me, I think I have heard them all!
If this is you, just so you know, you aren’t alone in ignoring the gold that is building and using a list – here are some of the reasons (six reasons in fact) you might have for NOT making email part of your marketing activity – and what I think about that!
1. You don’t know what to write about
I hear this a lot but it’s an obstacle that’s easily overcome. What you should write about or put in your emails is a simple combination of what you know your audience will find useful/ desirable and what you want them to know about/ have to sell. And if you don’t really know the answer to the first bit, that’s ok, but understanding your audience and their wants and needs is key so start paying attention! Giving time and focus to coming up with a content plan and an ongoing list of ideas will cure you of this.
2. You are worried about boring/ annoying people
The only way that you’ll bore or annoy people is a. if they are not really your people (in which case, welcome their unsubscribe!) or b. you’re not approaching the content in the right way – see above point. Much more than a social media follower, an email subscriber is already interested and invested in you and in most cases are waiting for your content to hit.
3. You don’t think it works for product businesses
Au contraire mon petit chou fleur! I know email marketing seems to be better for service providers, all that opportunity to share your expertise etc but honestly, if people like your products enough to sign up for a newsletter or what not, they want to see your products! Also, you can share other things as a product maker, the process, behind the scenes, your design inspiration etc. There’s tonnes you can put into email marketing which is of value and would attract people into your world. People buy from people and perhaps your email is just the place to start showing up as yourself and engaging people with the magic of what you do.
4. You think it takes too much time
Not going to lie; writing an email to your people will take a tad longer than say writing an instagram post. However, the return you’ll get on it will almost certainly be a lot more (research says 6 x more). And there are things you can do to make the whole process quicker and easier, trust me!
5. You don’t believe it works
Why is that then? Honestly? I’d love to know where this is coming from so hit reply and tell me 😉 Ok, maybe you tried it and nothing came of it – I’d be willing to bet that’s nothing to do with the effectiveness of email marketing and everything to do with how you did it! Maybe you’re just making an assumption which has more to do with feelings around the above points but it’s easier to just say ‘nah, that won’t work for me’.
6. It feels pushy
Firstly, not every email needs to ask for the sale (although most should) and secondly, repeat after me, you are in BUSINESS. And part of that is saying ‘here’s a thing I made, would you like it?’. No-one is asking you to email people every day with a ‘buy buy buy’ vibe. There will be a frequency that feels right to you and a blend of content and sales that doesn’t feel pushy but actually makes you money.
So what do you think? Could it be worth the effort?
If you’d like someone to work alongside you whilst you figure out all the things that are currently phasing you, be that a content plan, a welcome sequence, or even just how to get people onto your list – I can be that person! Click the blue button below to book in for a discovery session with me.