How to Write Effective Email Marketing Content with a Small EMAIL List

Business Tips and ToolsBranding

Nov 14

Written By brandmerry

How to Write Effective Email Marketing Content with a Small EMAIL List

So you have a small email list or no list at all? What if I told you that you can absolutely celebrate consistent revenue in your business, even with a list under 1,000. It’s all about building relationships and in this blog post I’m sharing 4 of my…

**This content was updated in November 2019

Email marketing is important whether you run an online business or a brick and mortar. The reality is every website today needs a website and an online presence. Yet, so many people are relying solely on social media to run their business.

The truth is you (we) don’t own those platforms, if Facebook or Instagram went away tomorrow could you successfully run your business?

Sure, a new platform will pop up, it always does, but how do you plan on telling you’re followers you’ve moved. Email marketing and email lists specifically are a way to stay in contact with your community, no matter what is happening on social media.

When I started my business I began building my online community via lead generation and hosting my own private Facebook group. I learned pretty quickly that even with a small email list I could make sales.

When I officially launched my business in July 2016, the first thing I did was to nurture my existing list, which wasn’t big at all and started building valuable relationships.

This is what helped me get my first paying clients.

I celebrated $15,000 cash with a list under 100 women and had my first $10k month with under 1,000 subscribers.

I’ve continued to implement the same practices as I’ve scaled my business to multiple 6-figures in three years.

Today, I'm sharing the exact 4 steps I used to let my true voice come through so you can implement them in your own business to build valuable relationships with your email subscribers.

1. Discover Your True Voice

Write how you speak, yes it truly is that simple. So many people overlook this or overcomplicate the sh*t out of it because they feel like they should speak a certain way to be taken seriously, that they should mimic what successful people in their industry are doing.

Listen, if you don’t write like you speak people are going to start connecting the dots and realize that you are not authentic and will not trust you. If you like to give a lot of detail and are a storyteller like me, then write that way.

The reality is there are already going to be people who don’t read your whole email and don’t like your style, so don’t even worry about pleasing them. Be yourself and connect with your ideal client.

By doing this, you’ll build trust faster with your true fans, rather than worrying about pleasing everyone and muddying your message.

Two strategies I use are:

Pretend you are writing a letter to your friend
Utilize a speech to text tool. Google Docs has an option called Voice Typing, simply talk about your subject and Google will turn that into written content. This is a great option if you are just starting out or find yourself freezing every time you open your computer to write.

2. Become Clear On Your BRAND Messaging

You need to be speaking to one person when you write your emails, posts, live streams whatever. This person needs to be so clear in your mind that you can pinpoint their pains and pleasures.

Now, I don’t want you to get wrapped up in exactly what your client needs and try to reformat your life and language to meet them, but I do want you to become clear on those pains and pleasures in their life so you can speak to them using your real-life experiences.

There are three things to keep in mind with your messaging:

Your purpose (why are you doing this?)
What you do, who you serve, what they are struggling with and how they benefit from your expertise
Their 3 major pains and 3 major pleasures

Use your three pieces above as a reference point to check in with yourself to see if you are still on track when it comes to your messaging every time you send an email to your subscribers.

If you’re looking for more support with your messaging, Check out this post.

3. Uncover Your Story

It is important to have your brand story laid out from the very beginning, but also be super aware of micro stories that are happening in your day to day. To start think of three major shifts that have happened in your life. For me, it was the loss of my brother to childhood cancer, the birth of my son and my decision to skip college after high school graduation (not in that order).

As you can see these shifts can be both major or subtle, it doesn’t matter, what matters is the impact it had on you and the lessons you learned (i.e. how you grew). Narrow down your three and write each story out, paying attention to details that you might share with your ideal client.

For instance, if I’m writing to my client, who struggles with time, I give them tips for how I manage time, but I also share my personal story of starting a business, working 9 to 5 and raising my son who ultimately led me on this path to entrepreneurship. Bring it back to your story every single time.

Looking for additional tips on Brand Story? Check out this post here.

4. Pull From Real-Life Experiences

There are a few tools I like to use to plan out my content. I love spreadsheets and I’m sorry if you don’t, but I love them and I use them in every area of my business. I create a spreadsheet with columns for each week of the month and columns for the number of emails I send. I use this to plan out my content because it allows me to see from a month’s view exactly what I’ll be sharing with my community.

You can download my free content calendar and learn my top strategies here.

While I’m mapping out my monthly content, I pull from real-life experiences and encourage you to do so as well. I look at every single opportunity in my life to get inspiration from. I take note! I use a few tools to keep track of all of this:

Notepad in my phone (my favorite by far)
I have a physical notepad reserved for ideas and stories I can share
My journal, these often come to me in morning meditations

At the end of the month, I pull from these various places and develop my content for the month ahead. If something really stood out to me and I feel like my community needs to hear it because it is so in alignment with my purpose, message and characteristics of my ideal client, I will rearrange my schedule to fit it in.

Conclusion

My biggest tip for you as you begin to nurture your small email list is to focus on story. It’s true that in the beginning, you don’t have as much to share and that’s ok. Maybe you’re just getting started and don’t have much content, but you do have your story.

Use your story to connect with your audience in a deeper way.

**If you’re interested in learning more about storytelling and branding specifically then I’d love to invite you to check out my new training where I’m sharing The Build a Better Brand Method.

Watch the Free Training