If you are freaking out about your entrepreneur email marketing efforts because you don't want to bombard your readers, this post is for you! Tips & Ideas for how to have a great email marketing plan!
I am an entrepreneur with a fair number of interests (aren't most of us?) And with that in mind I have a multi-niche website that serves real estate agents, writers, and Etsy sellers… pretty diverse group right?
Yup… they don't always like the same things!
My real estate agents are not interested in taking product pictures and my authors are not all that interested in Instagram…
BUT they are all interested in one thing… things that will help JUST THEM!
For years I was frustrated by the fact that real estate agents wanted to know the latest “realtor marketing” tips. Not marketing-marketing tips but just tips that pertained to them.
Shhhh this is a big secret… there are no “writer marketing tips” or “etsy marketing tips”… there is only marketing, Instagram, photos, video, emails, etc.
But that having been said, there is something super compelling about knowing that the info you are reading or watching is tailored just for you. All the examples will make sense immediately and you will not have to waste time figuring out what heck you are supposed to do!
And this doesn't just work for marketing peeps, whoa no!
Think about it, if you were a single mom of 4 kids and a financial consultant was trying to help you with an email series, which would you rather read?
- 5 Tips To Help You Have A Better Retirement
- How This Single Mother Made A Safe Home For Her Kinds AND Saved For Her Future
There is NO question that a single busy mother would be so much more inclined to read the second one and send that first one right to the trash or spam folder.
Segregating Your Email List
So the first thing that you want to do is segregate your email list. I use Infusionsoft which is a HUGE email marketing software but there are solutions like Constant Contact and Drip that let you put people on different “lists” according to the tags or categories you assign them. (#promo)
For example, my pal Rebekah who is a fitness guru for women could have lists like:
- needs to lose over 30 pounds
- gym rats
- skinny but weak
The verbiage she uses in emails that she sends out to these three groups should be totally different! For overweight women she will want to talk about how they get started, shave off pounds and lose weight. For gym rats she might talk about exercise plans in detail and then offer them workout routines. Two different types of readers!
Related Post: How To Segregate A Multi Niche Website
Autoresponders
If you are just getting started, skip this section!
Autoresponders are messages that go out automatically once you assign someone to a special list. For example, I have a series of 15 different emails that go out over the course of 15 weeks for my new Etsy email subscribers. These are Etsy related only and people seem to love them!
Sending out a series of messages like this to “onboard” your new subscribers makes them love you even more, but what about if they sign up to more than one of your lists?
Oh crap!
Now you are going to be sending them multiple messages a day possibly and that would be terrible… they would start to fall out of love because you send too many messages and then they would unsubscribe or mark you as spam.
What to do, what to do?
My #1 Email Marketing Hack For My Multi-Niche Website
So now we are onto my number on hack that took forever to figure out, but once I did made EVERYTHING so much easier!
I assign days to my lists. Wah wah!
Okay, what does that mean? I ONLY send Etsy autoresponder emails out on Mondays, Authors on Tuesdays, Real Estate Agents on Wednesdays and then send my newsletters out on Friday.
BRILLIANT!
That way no one can get more than one email a day even if they sign up for more than one list AND there is always a day break before they get my newsletter.
Not Being A Jerk
I KNOW everyone says marketing people are mean and hateful and just trying to take your money, but I am not that kind of marketer. I actually care about my peeps and so before I figured this out I was super hesitant to do any heavy duty marketing beyond just sending out a weekly message.
But then I realized that many of my new subscribers probably didn't know everything that I had been writing for the last 10 years (you think?) and so I needed to help get them up to speed with onboarding emails that were my best content.
But I hesitated because I didn't want to be a jerk and send out too many emails.
Segregating my list by days fixed all of my anxiety and hesitation about setting up autoresponders or sending out messages to my lists!
What If You Don't Want To Do Autoresponders?
Not everyone wants to take the time to set up autoresponders or maybe you are just getting started. This works even if you are a beginning marketer!
You could send out a broadcast message to your group on the right day that is a “saw this and thought of you”.
I do this sometimes too!
Say I find a cool article that I would send to one of my real estate friends because it is so good… then I just pop it in a message to my list and send it off with the message, “I saw this and thought of you”.
You know it will be of interest because they are on that list AND it shows that you care! PLUS you know it is quality content because you were going to send it to a friend first!
Email Marketing Wrapup
I KNOW everyone says marketing is dead and that you should stick to Facebook, but we have all seen that Facebook is not our marketing friend. They change things all the time and sometimes even delete accounts that people have spent years growing.
Having your own email list is a way to make sure you can contact your peeps even if everything else falls apart.
If you do nothing else this year, please start an email list or if you have one, please start emailing them more.
Most of my peeps are on a once a month or even once a quarter schedule, if you can up that to once a week or twice a month it can make a big difference in your sales and leads.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- More Advanced Blogging Marketing Articles https://marketingartfully.com/category/blogging/
- Only The Best Free Stock Photos and Mockups Sites! https://marketingartfully.com/2017/04/19/free-stock-photos-sites/
- Check out all my Pinterest Articles! https://marketingartfully.com/category/pinterest-marketing/
- Check out all my Product Photography Articles! https://marketingartfully.com/category/product-photography/
- All my best worksheets & planners http://marketingartfullyshop.com
