5 Steps to Create an Email Marketing Strategy

What makes a really good email…?

Emails are one of my favorite pieces of content to create for clients. Why? Email marketing has the ability to nurture leads because it uses a platform people already rely on regularly. As social media trends come and go, emails are something we utilize every day. They can be such a powerful tool to share your message, provide value, and educate about your offerings!⁠

I’m hoping you’ve started by at least collecting the emails of your customers. (If not, please go set that up ASAP!) Or maybe you have an email list that you’ve sent things to on occasion, but that’s about it. Almost 99% of the brands I work with say they could do more with their email marketing strategy but either a) haven’t had the time or b) aren’t totally clear about what it should be. Here are some of my must-haves for email marketing success that I make sure my clients have set up for a solid strategy... ⁠
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1. Make sure you have a great welcome email once someone signs up and subscribes.⁠
Introduce yourself. Include a few helpful links where they can go to learn more about your products/services.

2. Next, take it a step further by creating a 3-5 welcome drip sequence.⁠
These are typically created to be sent once per day within the first week someone signs up on your list. The reason being is that your brand is fresh in their mind. What to put in these emails? I like to pose the question: What are 3-5 things a customer needs to know about your brand and your products/services. Make an email covering each topic as a way of “welcoming” them into your brand.

3. Share a value-based newsletter each month.
This is important. Emails are not just for sales and promotions. I recommend my clients send at minimum one newsletter per month that serves as a little behind-the-scenes for your customers. Share what’s going on inside the business, share some education, talk about what you and your employees are into at the moment, or check out more of my ideas here. It’s totally ok to include images and links that promote something you are selling but focus on making these primarily value-based.

4. Choose an email cadence that works for you.
I refuse to subscribe to the philosophy that there is a best-practice email strategy everyone has to follow. What’s most important is that your email schedule can be maintained with some regularity. For some, that means sending emails every week, for others, it's 1x per month.⁠

5. Treat your email list like VIPs.
This list is gold. They are the people who have voluntarily opted in to get messages from you in a place they check pretty regularly - their inbox. If you're making any kind of announcement or promotion, reward your email subscribers by letting them be the first to know.⁠
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If you need help setting up any of these foundational elements of your email marketing strategy, know there are people out there (like me!) who can help you. Regardless, all of these doesn’t need to be done in one day. I recommend starting with your welcome email and a monthly newsletter and build from there!

One final note I want to touch on here is about growing your email list. Some easy ways your can implement to continue to add subscribers is to make sure you have a sign-up form on your website (and social media profile), to collect email-opt ins at the point of purchase (like when your checking out at a store), and also not to forget about in-person opportunities. There’s nothing wrong with a good ol’ pen and paper sign up list to get people to jot it down!