Marketing can be an overwhelming topic for small business owners. Even reading the title of this article, you might’ve taken a deep breath and second-guessed clicking to open the full article.
This response is understandable. Marketing changes regularly, and it can feel daunting to keep up with trends and industry shifts.
One marketing tool proves to be effective and worth your effort, time and time again. That tool is email marketing.
There are roughly 4 billion daily email users, and this number will continue to increase in the next year. So, if you are considering stretching yourself in marketing through an email newsletter, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to learn six tips to set up an email newsletter.
1. Decide on a Goal
As you get started setting up your email newsletter, you need to first decide on your goal and purpose for the newsletter.
What do you want to promote? How will you add value to your current and potential clients? What do you want people to do as a result of reading your newsletter?
Narrowing these goals will help you draft a clean and focused email newsletter and keep people reading each one.
2. Choose a Platform
Choosing an email platform might be the sticking point for many business owners. Don’t overcomplicate it!
You don’t have to spend all your money on a platform when you are getting started. Choose a cost-effective platform or no cost and easy for you to learn.
Don’t forget that you aren’t married to a platform. If you try one for a while and it isn’t serving you well, find a platform that will make your processes more efficient, remain within your budget and help you serve your clients well.
3. Build Your Structure
Once you have decided on an app or program for your email newsletter, it’s time to build the structure.
Do you already have a list of people that you can email? Ask their permission to jump onto your newsletter list. Set up this email list in your new database.
You need to build a subscription opt-in form to receive new people onto your email list. Doing so ensures that you have permission from people to send them emails.
Without this permission, you are out of compliance with GDPR. Create a simple form to take basic information. Don’t make it too complicated, or a person will be less likely to fill it out.
Finally, decide how often and when you will be sending your newsletters.
Start by sending one newsletter monthly. This timing might seem too minimal because you likely have much to share with clients! In this case, you are giving yourself the grace to create a habit, plan, and momentum in your marketing message to potential clients.
If you set out to send one email weekly without a habit, this plan will fail. You have too much going on in your business to remain consistent to go from 0-60mph. The key isn’t to send many emails but to remain consistent in your strategy and implementation.
4. Grow Your List
Here’s the fun part: Grow your list! You can watch the numbers grow and develop connections and relationships with new people. Create a high-value tool or download that you can include on your website as a way to gain email addresses.
It’s not a bait and switch. You’re giving people a taste of your content and help they can get through your newsletter and even more so in a coaching relationship.
Think of your newsletter as a way to help and serve people rather than just a list of names and email addresses. With that mindset, your content will reflect your heart and grow accordingly.
5. Design and Preview Your Newsletter
Don’t shy away from the word “design” here. It doesn’t have to be scary.
The beauty of using an email platform is templates you can drop your content into in a breeze. And, if you are more tech-savvy and want to customize, by all means! Just don’t spend too much time on the design. Simple and clean is best.
Once you have your email drafted, send yourself a test. Ensure all links work, the content is error-free, all images load, and dates or times are correct. You will likely catch errors or formatting issues that you wouldn’t until someone else told you they found them.
6. Track Your Metrics
Don’t skip this last step. Track your metrics.
This step is ongoing as you will want to check how each of your newsletters performs. Know what works and what doesn’t so you can make adjustments to your communications and make them higher quality. If you don’t track your data, you won’t have this intel on how your clients respond to your content.
Create a simple spreadsheet that allows you to track click rates, highest-performing links, replies, or calls to actions taken.
Add this data to the sheet where you track the KPIs for your business. Doing so keeps all data and information in one place for easy access.
Set Up an Email Newsletter to Drive Business Forward
Don’t let marketing overwhelm you. Make a plan realistic for your time, bandwidth, and stage of your business.
Ready to set up an email newsletter for your coaching practice? Keep it simple. You can refine and change your systems and processes later. Start small, track your results, and adjust when needed.
If this was helpful, see what other events or resources we have available to help you be the best coach you can be. Any other questions we can answer? Please reach out to us at Brittany@mentorcoachinsights.com.
