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Email List Building for Beginners [Step-by-Step]

 
 
 

Prefer to watch this blog content instead of reading it? Head here to watch it on the Brandmerry channel.


Today, we are talking about your email list. I got this question from a previous video that I did all about growing your email list. You can check it out right here. They wanted a specific video on what goes into starting and building your email list. So I'm going to break it down for you step by step in this video. Whether you already have an email list and you want to make sure all of your gaps are filled or you're just getting started, this video is for you.

My goal is to help entrepreneurs, not only have a phenomenal brand, but get that brand seen and paid. And one of the ways to do that is through email marketing. Before I jump into the step by step, I'm going to throw some awesome stats at you because if you're not yet convinced that email marketing should be a main focus of your marketing strategy for your business, these stats will definitely convince you that this is the right path to take. 

Did you know that you have a great ROI with email marketing? In fact, for every dollar you spend on email marketing, you will make an average of $36 in return.

You might be thinking, but do people really purchase from email? Yes, they do. 60% of consumers say that they make purchases based on the emails that they receive from businesses.

And you might also be thinking, oh, I don't want to annoy my audience. I don't want to have to email them, but this belief is actually holding you back because 61% of email respondents state that they like receiving promotional emails weekly. Yes, weekly. 

So if that doesn't already convince you that email marketing should be where you are focusing your energy and attention this year, I've got nothing else for you. If you want to get your brand seen and paid, email marketing is exactly how you do it.


First things first: IDEAL CUSTOMER

I've got six steps to get your email list started and ready to rock and roll. And at the end, we're going to talk about promotion. But before I do that, we've got to talk about a very, very important part of your email list growth. And that my friends is your ideal customer. 

You need to be crystal clear on who you want to fill your email list with because it's not just about having big numbers. It can't be about, I want to hit 10,000 email subscribers, and you're not being intentional with the subscribers that you are attracting. This is incredibly important because as you're going to see in some of the later steps, we're going to be creating messaging and gifts to pull your ideal customer in. And if you don't know who your ideal customer is, you can't create those things that's going to pull them in.

You need to understand who your ideal customer is at their core. If you have not done this work, I have a video for you all about market research. Make sure you watch that because it is going to be essential in following these steps to a T and making sure they actually work for you and not against you. 

I have clients who come to me with big email lists and aren't making any money. And the first thing we look at is who are those subscribers? If they're not your ideal customers, they won't buy from you.


Build your email list step #1: LEAD MAGNET

Let's get into the very first thing that you need to do to start building your email list. That is to create some sort of freebie, lead magnet, or free gift. They all mean the same thing, interchange the words however you want. 

It essentially means that you are creating something that you will give to your ideal customer in exchange for their email address and their name. Very, very important. So when you're starting to think about your freebie, your lead magnet, you want to know your ideal customer. Because you want to create something for them.

I often tell my clients to think about the email exchange as a $1,000 purchase. So for every single email that you get, you're making $1,000 in currency. When we change this focus, it requires us to create something of high value for our lead magnet.

Now that's not to say that you need to create an entire mini course, or you need to record eight videos. But you want to solve a very specific problem for your ideal customer. So while you're doing your ideal customer work, and you're starting to think about your lead magnet, I want you to write down three main problems that your audience is facing. Then create some sort of lead magnet that's going to help them solve a portion of that problem. 

Now, with your lead magnet, it's important that you're not trying to solve all of their problems. You want to make this very micro. So I'll give you an example.

I have a free class which you can watch right here, that's all about how to create a better brand that gets paid and seen. In the class specifically, I am breaking down the importance of branding, what is needed to build a better brand, and then how to get that brand seen, and some of my top strategies for marketing. 

I'm not teaching all the nitty gritty of exactly how to do each of those steps. That is taught inside of Roadmap to Freedom. But in order for my audience to understand the value of Roadmap to Freedom, they need to understand the importance of these steps first. 

So not only am I positioning my product as a great next step for them, but I'm also solving a core problem that they have, which is what am I supposed to be doing? What am I supposed to be focused on when building my brand and marketing it to my ideal customer? I'm going to give you another example.

Let's say that your ideal customer's problem is that they have low engagement on social media. You could share with them a brand guide to help increase engagement. You could share five prompts that will get great engagement, that they should work into their weekly social media schedule. And you could even, as a third option, share with them a messaging framework or a template that they can use to craft their social media posts to get optimal engagement. 

You wouldn't share all three of these, but you would share one of them. That's how micro I want you to be with your freebie and your lead magnet. 

So the first thing that you want is your freebie lead magnet, free gift, whatever you want to call it. Some examples of this can be PDFs, quizzes, a video, a class, whether that's on demand or a live class, meditation or an audio recording. 

One thing I want you to keep in mind is you want this lead magnet to be evergreen, meaning that it's not requiring you to show up at a specific time. We always want to have one lead magnet that someone can grab at any time, any time of the day, any time of the year, any time. And then of course you can sprinkle in live events like a free class or a free challenge or something on top of that. But we always want to have a way for your audience to join your email list.



Build your email list step #2: LANDING PAGE

The next thing that you are going to need to grow your email list is a landing page, a place for your audience to opt in, give their name and their email address to you in exchange for that free gift you just promised them. 

Now, your landing page is so crucial in the success of your email list building strategy, because it's essentially where your messaging is going to shine. So I recently did a podcast episode, episode 34 on the Brandmerry Podcast, where I share exactly what you want to have on your landing page to increase conversions. So make sure you check out that podcast episode, but here are a few things that I want to touch on that you absolutely need on your landing page.


TITLE
Number one is a crystal clear title. What is your freebie and how is it going to help your ideal customer? With my class that I spoke about before, which of course you can watch here, I'm saying, I will teach you how to build a better brand that gets seen and paid consistently. That is key. I'm very, very clear on what I'm going to teach you and exactly what you're going to walk away with and how it's going to benefit your business.



BULLETED LIST
The second thing you want to have is a bulleted list. Now you can choose to do actual bullets or maybe they’re blocks, whatever it is, I want you to clearly tell your audience what they're going to get when they give their name and their email address. 

What I mean by this is don't just assume because it's free, that someone is just going to sign up right now. Remember, email is currency, and we need to start thinking about it in that way. So you want to clearly communicate to your ideal customer how your lead magnet, what they're about to get from you is going to benefit them. How is it going to solve their problem? What are they going to learn? What will they be able to do with the information that you are giving them? 

Clearly communicating that will help them see the benefit and your conversion rates will be much higher on your landing page.



AUTHORITY BUILDER
The third thing that you need on your landing page is a small authority builder. How do we build authority? Storytelling. Yes. So I always recommend that my clients have a small bio about who they are, their hook statement, just really positioning themselves as an expert because the idea is that you're getting this lead magnet in front of people who know nothing about you. So we need to position that authority by sharing a little bit more about our professional bio, some of our accolades, and what we do.



STRONG CTA
The fourth thing that you need is a strong CTA. So those are those amazing buttons, that area where they're going to put their name in the or email address in. And I recommend being really deliberate with your buttons, saying things like, "Sign up now, get the download, watch now, grab the training. Those are really, really strong CTAs that are going to increase your conversions. 

As I mentioned, I have an entire podcast, episode 34 on the Brandmerry Podcast, which breaks all of this down step by step. So make sure you tune in for this particular step on your landing page.



Build your email list step #3: CONFIRMATION PAGE

The third thing that you need is a confirmation page or a thank you page. So this is essentially a page that your audience will land on after they have given their name and their email address. 

So they land on your landing page. They say yes, heck yes I want this. They put their name in, they put their email address, they hit a little button and voila. It takes them to a page that confirms that they have submitted their information.

This is incredibly important because we want to think about the times where we've put in our information online and there's been no confirmation message, or we get nothing. And we're like, oh my gosh, did it go through? I don't know. Let's just make it easy for our ideal customer.

This confirmation page can be as simple as saying, "Thanks so much. Your download is on its way. Your video is on its way. Go check your inbox now." You can take it even further and make a small offer on the backend. But I recommend if you're just starting out, keep it simple, get them to their inbox so they can grab that email right away, open it and click through. 



PLATFORMS
So let's pause for just a second and talk about platforms that I love for these different steps.

So the platform that we use over here at Brandmerry is called ConvertKit. We also recommend Flodesk to many of our clients as well. That's another great platform that we have a lot of our clients have success on. 

So essentially what you want is a platform that is going to allow you to create landing pages, it's going to allow you to create some sort of form, where they're going to put their name and their email address in, and it's going to allow you to automate what comes next. So all of those emails that you want to send that say, "Hey, your download is here. By the way, this is who I am." So on and so forth. You want those all to be automated.

So we really love ConvertKit and Flodesk. There are a lot of different options out there. So of course find the one that works best for you. But if you're anything like me and you're like, I just want a really, really great program. And I don't want to spend hours looking for it on Google, I highly recommend ConvertKit.



QUICK RECAP

So let's recap. You've created a freebie that your audience absolutely needs. You have now created your landing page, where someone is going to land to give their name and their email address for this awesome freebie that they've got to have. After they've submitted their information on this page, they are then going to land on a confirmation page. Now that confirmation page can just be a single low, easy, no design needed page on your website. 

Build your email list step #4: Confirmation Email

And now what happens. They're going to their inbox to grab their welcome email. This email is something that kicks out immediately after they put in their name and their email address.

So let's use ConvertKit as an example. ConvertKit gets that information, they tag them in the system and they shoot out this confirmation email. In this email, you want to make it short, sweet and to the point. You essentially want them to click through, grab that download, take that quiz, watch that video and get to work. 

You want to make sure when you're building your email list, that it's not complicated, that it's not a lot of steps because at the end of the day, you want your audience to have a win. We want to help solve a problem, but we don't want it to take them 72 days, because then that's prolonging how long it might take them to purchase your product or your service. 

So we want these steps to happen very quickly from the moment that they land on your landing page to getting that confirmation email. We're talking like 10 minutes max. So automation is key. Keeping that email short and simple. Hey, you wanted this. Here it is. Click here to grab it. I'll be back with another email soon. Keeping it really, really easy.



Build your email list step #5: EMAIL FUNNEL

Then the next thing that's going to happen is your email funnel. Your email funnel does not have to be terrifying. If you want an entire video on your email funnel and the top things that I recommend, let me know and I will make you that video because let's be honest, this is a lengthy piece. There are a lot of different details in it. I teach all of this inside of my program, Roadmap to Freedom, but you came here to learn how to grow your email list and that's what we're going to talk about right now.

So we already talked about the very first email. The very first email is very simple. It says hey, this is your freebie. Grab it. Now, they're getting to work. Within 24 to 48 hours, I lean on the 24 hour side, you want to send the first email of your automated sequence. This automated sequence will be set up inside of your email platform. 



Email One
If you're using ConvertKit, as I recommend, you will set it up inside of sequences and choose the timing between the emails. Maybe you're going to send an email every day for three days, you'll set it up, you'll link it to your form and voila. This is all happening on autopilot. 

When you're designing your email funnel, I want you to think of it as a handshake. It's essentially your introduction to someone that knows nothing about you. So what do we want them to know about you?

We want them to know your story. So the first email that you send should be really focused on the work that you do, who you are, and positioning your brand as an authority, as a brand that they absolutely want in their inbox on a regular basis. You can also set the tone for the type of emails that you might be sending weekly via your newsletter.



Email Two
The second email that I recommend you create is another bonus tip. So let's say that you created a freebie all about social media engagement and you shared with them five social media engagement prompts that they could use. Well, in the second email, you could now say, okay, you have your prompts. I gave those to you in your freebie, but I'm coming in with another sweet bonus. In this email, I'm sharing with you a sample template to structure your social media post. 

You don't have to create another freebie. You can deliver it directly in the email. You could also link to a really popular blog that you have, or a video that shares amazing information about something that's really valuable for your audience. You're just further positioning yourself as the authority and as the expert, someone who is going to support them in solving their problem.



Email Three
Then the third email, and again, I'm talking about a very basic email funnel right here, you could present your offer. Now, if your offer is over $47, I recommend putting a few more emails on the backend. But at the bare minimum, you can just have a very simple three email funnel, and then they would go directly into your general newsletter.

Now, one of the things that I teach at Brandmerry is the importance of this consistent communication. As we heard in the very beginning of this video, your audience wants weekly correspondence from you. 61% of surveyed consumers want to hear from their brands weekly. So I always recommend that my clients make that a routine in their marketing strategy. 

Now someone is on your list, they're familiar with who you are, you've set the tone, you've given them some amazing advice, you are now the authority. Now they will leave that automated funnel and they will get those weekly general broadcasts from you, which could be anything from your YouTube, your podcast, your blog, your promotion, anything that you are going to be sharing with them every week. The handshake has happened. And now we're all in relationship building.

Again, inside my program, Roadmap to Freedom, we understand the importance of email marketing. Everything that we teach and do inside of that program is focused on building your email list so you can get seen and paid. So inside of Roadmap to Freedom, we teach our clients how to set up their email funnel in as little as three days. We've got a sweet bonus called Funnel in a Weekend. If you want to learn more about Roadmap to Freedom and you want to see if it's the right fit for you, watching my free class by going to brandmerry.com/class is a fantastic way to learn more about the program, learn about my approach to marketing and how it can benefit you in your business and snag that sweet bonus.



Build your email list step #6: PROMOTION

Now we're moving into the sixth part of this process. This is the most important part. This is the part that is ongoing. Those other pieces, you might set them, you might be able to forget them for a little while, but now you're into your marketing. How do you get your new freebie seen? How do you get it in front of your ideal customer? 

This is where you are going to want to focus on two types of promotion. Yes. Remember I said, email is currency. Think about growing your email list as a form of promotion. You need to be talking about it consistently.

There are two categories that I love my clients to focus on: active and passive promotion.



PASSIVE

First, we're going to start with passive. What does passive mean? Passive is that banner on your blog that you set that says, "Grab my free quiz." They click it and voila, it opens up a box. It takes them to the landing page. They get to sign up for it. It's having that call to action on your homepage. It's a popup. It's having the link in your bio on your Instagram. These are all things that you're going to set up on the different platforms that you're on, on your website, maybe your banner on Facebook, you get what I'm saying, where you're linking to your freebie and you're setting it and you really don't need to worry about it. 

So if someone lands in any of those different areas, they're really interested in hearing more about you, they're interested in joining your community, they have what they need. They go to the landing page and the process starts for them.



ACTIVE

The second category is active promotion, and this is the one that's going to take more time and energy on your part and is something that is going to help you with getting your brand seen and paid. Now my favorite ways to grow my email list are through SEO platforms. Things like Pinterest, YouTube, Google, blogging, things like that. And I also love to talk about my freebies and my lead magnets on social media as well. But as you know, here at Brandmerry, we do not put a lot of pressure on social media. We are more focused on SEO strategies. So having those in place will create that consistent stream of leads coming into your email list without you having to post daily.

I talk more about this strategy on marketing inside of this video. Go watch that. That is going to really help you with the strategy behind growing your email list and the types of things that I recommend. 

Again, I teach all of this inside of my free class, where I'm teaching you how to build a better brand that gets seen and paid consistently. You can go to brandmerry.com/class to watch that completely on demand.

I hope this was really helpful in breaking down the step by step needed to start building your email list. At the end of the day, your email list is a fantastic asset. It is what you can take with you. You can download it as a spreadsheet and upload it somewhere else. We cannot rely on social media as a way to grow our communities. They are a nice little way to market if that works for you, but they are not a space where you control the narrative. Email marketing is where you get to do that. And as we saw in the beginning of this video, it can help you increase your ROI.

 

PS: Roadmap to Freedom doors are opening soon! This live group program will help you create an online business that allows you to create a life of abundant experiences and impact. This high-touch program helps you simplify the process so you can make more money on your terms. And, the 2023 cohort is going to be better than ever with updated content, lifetime access, new bonus content, and more! Join the waitlist and be the first to join in January 2023.


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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

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What to do When You Feel Stuck and Don't Know What to Email Your List

What to do When You Feel Stuck and Don't Know What to Email Your List {Video Inside} 

What to do When You Feel Stuck and Don't Know What to Email Your List | Content Creation Tips, Email Marketing tips | Branding and business coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

Before we dive in, I want to invite you to my upcoming masterclass: 5 Steps to Create an Authentic Brand. This is going to be way different than any webinar you've been to before because, let's be honest, I hate webinars. So I'm changing the game and bringing you this masterclass that is packed full of valuable information and giving you 5 actionable steps to create your own authentic brand. Join me here: Brandmerry.com/authenticbrand

Okay, now back to what to do when you feel stuck and don't know what to email your list or post on social media. How many times have you gone to email your list and sat in front of that blank email, unsure of what to share with your community? How many times have you done it for a Facebook post? An Instagram caption? Am I starting to see a theme? 

In November of 2017, it felt like I had lost every idea in my mind. I was really struggling to come up with content. I was struggling to email my list and post in Authentic Brand Builders. So I came up with a process to get unstuck, and that's what I'm sharing with you today. Life happens, I get it. So even if you're not feeling this way now, this information may be good to keep in the back of your mind, so when something does come up, you can still show up for your community and overcome the slump. If you've ever felt this way before, comment below and share your story! I love to read your comments. 

Why are you feeling stuck

We really want to pinpoint why you're feeling this way. It's not because you ran out of ideas. We always have ideas. Something else is blocking you and keeping you stuck. For myself, I was feeling a severe lack of confidence in November. Had I gone and posted to or emailed my community, it probably wouldn't even resonate with my audience because I wasn't inspired, and I wasn't confident. Ask yourself why? What is blocking you and why? 

Make sure you know your audience

Check in with yourself and make sure you know your audience well. If you know your audience, it's much easier to come up with ideas and often times when we feel stuck it's because we don't know who we are talking to. We feel like we're talking to everyone. When we are trying to talk to too many people, we talk to no one. When you go to write that email or that social media post, it's really, really important you know who you're talking to. 

Follow these 3 steps to get unstuck

1. Write an email about that very moment (your why to being stuck from number 1). 

Write about your current situation and what you're going through right now (or at that moment of feeling stuck). Make sure it gives value to your audience. This will help you build trust with your audience, it will help you relate with your audience and it will give you something to talk about. 

2. Have a brain dump

Be open to receiving the ideas and write everything that you can possibly think of down. If you haven't corrected the barrier of ideas flowing out, you won't be able to have the ideas flow in. You have to be open to receiving the ideas otherwise they won't come. But as soon as they do come, they won't stop. Sit down with a notebook and write down all of the ideas. 

3. Pull from the archives

The archives are your story. Anything that has happened in the past. We can pull from the archives and share those stories in a way that give value to your community. You can give tips to your audience who may be going through the same thing. This is so, so powerful. This is why I believe storytelling is the basis for every successful entrepreneur. Storytelling is about you being comfortable sharing your truth in a way that resonates with your audience and gives value.

BONUS TIP: If fear is blocking you...

Think about the person you want to attract to your brand. The person you want to respond to your message. Write to them. Write to that person. Break through the noise, speak your truth, get over the fear and just do it. 

You can watch the video for a more in-depth version of this and several bonus tips below!

Head over to my Facebook Page and be sure to like and comment on the video while you are over there to help more people see this information ↠ facebook.com/brandmerrycoaching

And as always please share and comment on this blog post, I love connecting with you!

Branding and Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry 

 
Branding and Business Coach | Branding Coach | Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry 

Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>

 
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The Three Key Pieces For a High-Converting Sales Funnel

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THE THREE KEY PIECES TO A HIGH-CONVERTING SALES FUNNEL

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

Funnels can be the absolute best thing for your business, you have the potential for passive income, building relationships and signing high-level clients all on automate. If you are considering starting a funnel to your online biz or need to make s…

So you feel like you have to have a passive income product to have a sales funnel?

Or maybe you don't even have a high-priced offer and feel like you shouldn't waste your time on a free offer and funnel?

So many entrepreneurs allow these two pieces to keep them from building a sales funnel. If this is you I encourage you to change your focus on using a sales funnel as a way to take your new prospect from cold to hot lead!

Use this opportunity now to build community and trust with your audience so when you DO have those offers you have someone to sell them too - see how that works?

If you’re not familiar with an email funnel or using the power of a free offer, be sure check out these blog posts here:

4 Steps to Create Your Next Free Offer

List Building 101

Ok, now on to the good stuff.

3 Key Pieces to Include in Every Email Funnel/ Automation or Sequence

Be sure to do these three things to keep open and click rates HIGH, while keeping unsubscribes LOW.

1: Include Your Story to build trust with your audience

Start thinking of everyone who enters your list as a cold lead.

What does that mean? They don't know anything about you, not even your face. So take this opportunity to introduce yourself, share some vulnerabilities and start to build the trust factor.

This is a golden opportunity for people to start REALLY paying attention to you and what you have to say and connecting with you on a deep level. When people trust you they will buy from you!

ACTIONABLE TIP ↠ I suggest the second email you deliver, after your free gift of course introduces you, your brand and tells a bit of a story. From there, include elements of story in the remaining emails while also giving your tips, tools and value to build trust.

A big part of the storytelling process comes from understanding your brand. Watch this free Build a Better Brand class to learn my 3-step process (hint: one is story)!

2: Write a subject line that gets opened

It's one thing to have a funnel, it's another to have someone read it - which is kind of the point isn't it?

It doesn't matter what you say in the body context of your email, if people don't open your email they will never know any of it. I argue that this step is the most important part of the process.

The reality is your audience is bombarded with emails on a regular basis and you need to grab their attention as quickly as possible. Ask yourself what would make me open this email?

ACTIONABLE TIP ↠ Spend time creating your subject line! One of my recommendations is to write the content of the email first and THEN pull some of the juiciest pieces as the subject line. Using things like numbers, questions and emoji’s can help with open rates. Be sure to keep your subject line lower case (i.e. “7 ways to improve your marketing” vs “7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing).

3: GIVE TREMENDOUS VALUE TO YOUR AUDIENCE

This is an excellent time to not only build trust with your audience through storytelling, but to also position yourself as the expert and guide they need.

People want to know WHY they should listen to you, so tell them! Start giving tips about a topic that interests them, share advice or a life lesson and what it taught you or share an old blog post that gives value.

This is the time to give, give and give so they make your emails a top priority in their inbox and understand why they should invest in you over someone else when the time comes.

ACTIONABLE TIP ↠ This is not just about “How to” content, while that can be super useful to your audience, it’s not the only way to add value. You can add value to your audience by solving a problem for them, giving them inspiration or flipping their mindset. When you think of the end goal of your brand, it should be to solve a problem your ideal customer is experiencing…use this time to start doing that. I recommend anywhere between 3-5 value emails before your subscribers is added to your weekly email list.

If you’re looking for an email platform I recommend, look no further than Convertkit! I’ve been using them for years and they are still my TOP resource for entrepreneurs.

Get a free trial here.

CONCLUSION

Growing your email community is VERY important. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a way to reach your audience that doesn’t rely on social media. No matter what stage you’re in at your business, having a free gift and email funnel is necessary and a great way to start building community and building trust.

If you’re ready to improve your overall brand to attract ideal customers, increase engagement and build a revenue-generating business, be sure to watch my free branding class: Build a Better Brand Method.

Sign up for the next class here.

Michelle Knight, Branding and Business Coach
 
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I'M MICHELLE KNIGHT

I was just a new mom with an ambitious dream to start my own business. That dream turned into a multiple 6-figure business and the ability to travel full time. Now, I teach women how to brand and market their authentic voice online and take bold action to create a life better than their dreams.


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Authentic Email Marketing and Why It's Crucial to a Successful Brand and Business

AUTHENTIC EMAIL MARKETING AND WHY IT'S CRUCIAL TO A SUCCESSFUL BRAND AND BUSINESS

how to find your authentic voice in email marketing

In case you haven't gotten the memo I'm really into authenticity. I've seen first hand how being authentic and vulnerable with your community can result in big pay days for your business.

In fact, it is authentic marketing that allowed me to sign four high-priced clients at $3,000 a piece with a list less than 100 people!

That's why in today's web series I'm sharing:

Four Steps to Show Your Authentic Voice in Email Marketing

I'm spilling the beans on my four techniques to make sure your true authentic voice comes through in your emails and how to start building that trust factor with your prospective clients.

I also wrote a bonus blog post all about my favorite email marketing provider and how to get started - check it out below.


Branding and Business

Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>

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The Top Three Reasons I Love Converkit

 
the top three reasons to choose Convertkit for your business
 

I've tested out a ton of email marketing platforms, because I love to do my research!

When I stumbled upon Convertkit, I really loved the option of having my landing pages and email marketing in one place. I want simple and easy for my business with the option to customize if necessary and that is exactly what I've found in Convertkit.

I wanted to provide some of my favorite ways to use Convertkit and how to get started right away in building your list and sharing your vulnerability through email.

If you haven't already be sure to watch my web series episode all about sharing your authentic voice through email marketing. Click here >>

Disclaimer: I absolutely love Convertkit and use it as my own email provider to grow my list, but the links within this post are affiliate links.

Ok, on to my favorite tools.

1) Landing Pages & Forms

Convertkit includes opt in pages which can easily be connected to you funnel. They offer four options for landing pages, which have been designed for very simple, straightforward use in gathering email addresses for your list. My favorite by far is the Sliding landing page. They also offer simple form options that can be embedded on your website to promote an offer or email newsletter. Since joining Convertkit, I've learned to customize the form option and host my opt ins on Squarespace and still get all the benefits Convertkit offers through their analytics (more to come on how I do this).

2) Tagging capabilities

One of my absolute favorite features of Convertkit is their tagging capabilities. When someone signs up for an offer, completes a sequence or clicks on a link you have the option to assign them a tag. There are two major benefits of tagging your list of subscribers. The first is your ability to make sure you aren't promoting the same thing (i.e. a training or offer) to people who have already signed up. The second, and maybe my favorite, is you can segment certain groups based on their activity. For instance, if you are promoting a new program and want to send a follow up email to clicked your link to learn more you can do so with tagging! 

3) Priority Email for Gmail

This is something I struggled with a lot with other providers and that was the fact that my emails always ended up in the promotions folder on Gmail. I want people to see my emails so finding a provider that had my emails showing up in the main folder was huge. Convertkit designs there emails to be super simple, as if you were just sending a friend a casual email. This allows your message to show up in the main folder for Gmail. Recently, they added additional templates that add a little more pizzaz to your emails, but still end up in the main folder - Win Win!

Convertkit offers a ton of options for building your list, nurturing your list and converting prospects into paying clients. If you are looking for an email provider I encourage you to check out Convertkit.


Branding and Business Coach

Michelle Knight is a Branding and Business coach for female entrepreneurs who are struggling to gain visibility and traction to take their business to the next level. She works with her clients to dive deep into their story so they can create a brand and message that positions them as an expert and allows them to create their desired income to free up time in their schedule for what matters most. Learn more >>

Read More