Do you remember when Facebook went down earlier this year? In June and October, the social media giant’s platform was out of commission and affected thousands of users. For some people who just use Facebook to see photos of family and friends, this outage wasn’t a big deal at all. To others who utilize Facebook for business, it was a bit more than a simple inconvenience.
Let’s say you have a nice-sized community on Facebook Groups and this happens. You would be at a standstill until the tech geniuses at Meta fix the issue. That interruption isn’t something any business owner or entrepreneur needs to be dealing with. This is especially the case when it comes to connecting to your audience through email. As an entrepreneur, you want to have unrestricted access to your audience.
YOU OWN YOUR LIST
Your list of contacts, subscribers, and customers is YOUR LIST. You own it. Your list shouldn’t be affected by Meta, X, or any other mega platform. Maintaining this unrestricted access is vital to your business performance and your audience.
The KEY reason you want to safeguard your contacts and community is so that interruptions like Facebook outages aren’t keeping you from reaching them. Why is that so important? It’s important because keeping a consistent connection with your audience is how you maintain and grow that audience.
And how do you MAINTAIN AND GROW it? Maintaining and growing your audience is facilitated through effective email nurturing.
Email nurturing is the practice of opening a mutually beneficial dialogue between you (the entrepreneur) and the audience (customer, subscriber, contact). It’s developing a balanced flow of targeted content, inspiration, and communication. It’s providing undeniable value to each and everyone who signed up on your website or because of an attractive CTA (call to action).
Though some would say email nurturing or email marketing in general isn’t what it used to be, others including myself say otherwise. Sure, blasting out email after email for the sole purpose of trying to get someone to buy your product probably isn’t very effective. However, crafting a well-defined email strategy and providing value every time is absolutely effective.
DESIGN THE RIGHT BLUEPRINT FOR A SUCCESSFUL EMAIL STRATEGY?
Build a powerful Lead Magnet
Lead magnets come in the form of digital downloads like ebooks, templates, micro-courses, or checklists. They are promoted with visual attraction in mind backed by insanely useful content that can propel consumer interest. Most importantly lead magnets speak to NEED and solve problems.
Don’t be robotic… Keep it Personal
Be both professional and personal. Write your email content with a lot of YOU in it! Believe it or not, people like the personal aspect of emails. If the situation or context calls for an overly professional approach, then do that. Otherwise, let your personality and character shine through in your communication and content.
Take time to craft the best Email Templates
The reader of your email must immediately be drawn in by a compelling subject line. When crafting subject lines, strive to create urgency, capture attention, and be concise. Then upon opening the email, they should see captivating imagery and an impactful message. Make use of graphic tools like Canva or Adobe Suite to make email campaigns visually appealing. Don’t forget your CTA.
Develop a sound Strategy
What’s your plan or end goal? What are you wanting to accomplish with each and every audience broadcast from your campaign? The approach you take should be targeted and align with your overall vision and values. Your strategy needs to be written down or put into a mind map and applied to all content you send out.
Choose the right Email Campaign platform
Simply using an email provider like Gmail or yahoo to send out a bunch of emails isn’t optimal. As an entrepreneur and business owner, it’s imperative to select the right software to help you achieve successful email campaigns. ConvertKit is my go-to for email marketing due to its ease of use, simplicity, and overall performance. Other options include Mailchimp, Active Campaign, Constant Contact, and Zoho.
Segment your Leads
Segmentation of your contact list allows you to identify and separate your audience into groups. Contacts within your list will be at various stages in your funnel. How they find their way into your list will be different. Some may have found your website and simply registered for your email list. Others may have contacted you directly from a client referral, or from hearing you on a podcast. Use this information when segmenting your list into groups. By doing so, you can ensure your email campaigns are impactful.
Be Consistent in providing Valuable Content
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, always always always create and disburse VALUE in your content. Valuable content is useful, solves problems, sparks growth, initiates a conversation, and benefits your audience. Whether it’s a blog, newsletter, micro course, or other digital download, each and every piece of content should be crafted with excellence in mind. Nobody wants lackluster content.
EMAIL NURTURING IS AN ART
Now that you have the right strategy and tools in place for effective email marketing, it’s time to dive head-first into nurturing your community. Learn everything you can about nurturing relationships with prospects, existing clients, and committed subscribers. It’s an art. Nurturing involves providing not only valuable content but also support. It involves peering into the minds of your audience to uncover what their daily struggles are.
Meeting the needs of your community and providing solutions to their problems is what nurturing is all about. To do this you will want to survey them, answer questions on social posts or direct messages, and engage consistently with your audience.
In everything you do, do it with your audience in mind!