11 Steps to Get Started with Email Marketing

We've been talking a lot about email marketing lately in our EDUpreneur Mastermind. I am (and have been for a long time) a very firm believer in the power of email marketing and the importance of having a strong email list and email marketing strategy.

As the group digs further into email marketing, we have a couple members who are just venturing into the space, so I recently shared 11 steps for getting started.

You may be beyond these steps, but perhaps they'll be a good review or reminder of things to consider. If you're new to email marketing, I hope this helps.

Here are some of the first steps you need to take in order to get started with email marketing.

Step One: Think about the purpose of your email marketing.

Now, we could get into setting goals, KPIs, etc, but all I need you to do right now is think about what you want your emails to do for your business.

Some potential purposes are:?

• Drive product/services purchases
• Build brand awareness
• Nurture leads / build that know, like, and trust with your community.
• Upsell products after purchases
• Convert customers into repeat customers

Step Two: Ensure everything is for your Avatar

If it's been a while since you've reviewed your avatar/ideal client persona, or if you have never thought through that, take some time to ensure you know who you're writing emails for.?

Everything you do with email marketing should be with your avatar in mind.

Step Three: Pick your email marketing service provider

There are a lot of options here. Like with most software, they all have similar features and pricing, and the best fit comes down to your personal choices. I will note that MailChimp and Flodesk are the ones I most commonly recommend for getting started, but I encourage exploring many options and seeing which best fits your needs and your style.

Here are a few of the many email marketing service providers out there:

• MailChimp
• Flodesk
• ActiveCampaign
• ConvertKit
• GetResponse
• Drip
• Campaign Monitor
• Constant Contact

Step Four: Create a Lead Magnet

You need some way to get people to join your list. There are a million and one ways to do this, and you might hear them called "premium content," "content offer," "freebie," "signup incentives," "signup offers," "content upgrades," "opt-in bribes," or many other terms. We'll just use "lead magnet" as the broad term here.

Some examples of lead magnets are:

• Downloadable PDF "cheat sheet" or "check list" or "guide"
• An ebook - Which is just a book in PDF format?
• Online course - They provide their email when they enroll
• Email challenge - Series of emails delivered over a set amount of time that guides them through a challenge to accomplish something
• Masterclass - They provide their email when they register
• Live or Pre-Recorded Webinar - They provide their email when they register
• Giveaway - Emails are collected when they enter to win

*You can also grow your list through pop-ups and CTAs built into your webpages, blog articles, etc.

Step Five: Determine your email format

Important note: This can always change as you learn more about your audience, what they want, what works, what doesn't, etc. But you'll want to pick a format to start with.?

You could go with a more "newsletter" format, like The Tilt, which delivers 2 value-packed emails to thousands of content creators every week. Or a text-based format, like we use at Teach Better. There is no wrong answer here.?

Step Six: Set your sending schedule

The only wrong answer here is "inconsistently." Whether you send once a month, twice a month, or 5 times a day, the correct answer is "consistently."?

*I wouldn't recommend 5 times a day. I typically lean towards "more is better" but once a day is probably the most frequent you would want to email your audience. Once per week is enough for most.?

Step Seven: Set up your welcome email automation

Ideally, when someone joins your email list, they should enter an automation (sometimes called a journey) that welcomes them to your list and to your community. An email automation is a set of emails that are delivered to subscribers automatically based on some type of action taken by the subscriber.

Email automations can range from 1 to dozens of emails, depending on their purpose.

To prevent getting any of us overwhelmed, let's focus on just ONE email to welcome your new subscribers. This would be a single email that sends automatically when someone new joins your list.

This email should do a few things:

• Welcome them to the list to ensure they meant to join.
• Give them the option to opt out of the list in case they joined on accident.
• Briefly introduce yourself (and/or your brand).
• Tell them what to expect - How often you will email them, what you will send them, etc.

Step Eight: Start building your list

There are lots of ways you can begin doing this, as we mentioned above. You may already have a list of people who want emails from you, like from conferences. Or you might be launching your first lead magnet.?Create your list with whatever contacts you have (that have given you permission to add them) and launch your lead magnet to begin building your list.

Step Nine: Send your first email

This one is key...you need to send an email! You don't need to wait til you have 500 or 1,000 people on your list. Start with 50. Heck, start with 10. Just get it going!?

Step Ten: Measure your results

Please note: It is important to measure your results, but even more important to not get too caught up in those numbers, especially at the beginning.

Numbers to look at:

• Open rate: This is the number of people who opened your email.
• Clickthrough rate (CTR): The number of people clicking a link in your email.
• Unsubscribes: The number of people unsubscribing from your email.

Step Eleven: Stay consistent

Keep sending those emails! This is not a 1-day, 1-week, or even 3-month thing. Even the best email strategies take time to produce results. Stay consistent, track your results, adjust and tweak things, and give it time to work.

Comment and let me know how you're doing with your email marketing? Have you started? Just getting going? Building a strong list? Consider yourself an email marketing expert? I'd love to hear all about it!