Have you been struggling with how to nurture your email list? Think about the journey you’re taking that new subscriber through when they opt-in to your list. We’re taking them from a follower, to a friend, and then ultimately a customer. This process is dependent on you and how you nurture them from one step to the next on that journey.
Guide To Nurturing Your Email List in 3 Steps
Sit back and relax, cuz I’m about to introduce you to the step-by-step process for nurturing an email list that’s sure to bring you success in the form of connection and revenue, baby!
Step #1: The Welcome Sequence
Read it again. And again! This first step helps you take new followers (aka: email subscribers) and start a friendship with them.
The welcome sequence, by far, is one of the most overlooked, underdeveloped parts of any email marketing plan. A well-crafted welcome sequence is one of the most important elements to connect with your new subscribers.
Think about going to the mall and you walk into a high-end store. No one acknowledges you even if the store is empty. How do you feel? Pretty crummy, right? That’s what it feels like for a new subscriber when they opt-in and get crickets.
What to include in your welcome sequence
- your personality
- your businesses values
- your vision for your potential clients, students, or customers
- what your subscribers should expect now that they’re on your list
- newsletter schedule
- types of content (free and paid!)
This step is so important because your audience won’t move forward on the customer journey without it. Just like when you were in school and the teacher laid out
- what was going to happen that semester
- what they expected from you
- and shared a bit of their personality with you (even if it was dry lol)
It’s so important for you to do the same with your email list.
Still unsure? Having a hard time conceptualizing what this looks like in email form? You can snag my welcome sequence or read more about welcome sequences in Not Your Everyday List Of Best Practices Of Email Marketing.
Step #2: Email Newsletters
Email newsletters serve your audience more than anything else. There’s just something about opening an email. It’s more private. More personal. You can really begin to nurture your new followers/email subscribers and turn them into email friends.
A consistent email newsletter lets you keep the conversation going between you and your subscribers, establish your expertise, deliver value, and create real connections.
Generate Conversations
Create newsletters that consistently open up conversations, where subscribers are replying. Those individual conversations turn into relationships. Mike Kim says it perfectly, “It’s not about closing a sale. It’s about opening a relationship.”
When you stop thinking about your list as email addresses and really own the fact that they are real people, it changes everything. You could have thousands of subscribers, but getting to know them and working to turn them into friends…that’s here in step #2.
It’s through these relationships that we learn to curate products FOR them. And can develop sales messaging that truly resonates with them as a person!
One of the biggest reasons why email lists flop is because there’s a huge gap between who we think is on our email list versus who is actually on our email list. When you haven’t made the time to get to know your community and your subscribers… you actually create products and messaging around an idea in your head, not around a real person on your email list that is actually interested in what you’re selling.
(Yikes.)
Show Them You’re Invested
Don’t be afraid to share the behind the scenes of what you do to ensure that you’re showing up for them the best way possible. This gives your community an opportunity to see that you’re truly invested in them.
For example:
- I just spent $500 to get my email list cleaned up so I can spend that time writing better emails.
- I just spent 2 hours editing a podcast episode because I can’t wait for you to listen to it.
It sounds silly to write about those things to your subscribers, especially if you’re in a niche like travel or knitting or ecommerce. BUT!!! People seek trust before investing. And when they know you are “in it for the long haul”…then that builds trust and later?
Sales!
Share In a Relatable Way
With email newsletters, people often try to be interesting. But here’s the thing. That’s hard. It’s much easier to be relatable. And even better? People want to relate with other people.
For example:
- My refrigerator broke right before I sent this email. (Is that interesting? No. But, is it relatable? Yes!)
Stay Top of Mind
Make sure you’re sending out emails on a consistent basis. Rule of thumb would be a weekly email. However, if you invest and share with them really well, it’s easier to stay top of mind…and won’t be the end of the world if you skip a week or two every once in a while.
Need more help on newsletters? Steal the outline I use for every single weekly newsletter I write and start writing your emails in 20 Minutes or less.
Step #3: Sales Emails
Now we want to turn your newsletter friends into customers.
Since you set the expectation early on in the welcome sequence and remind them with your newsletters, your community already knows they will be getting sales emails.
By investing, sharing, and staying top of mind you’ve taken the pressure off of those sales emails.
AKA: It’s going to be much easier now to turn an email subscriber into a customer. Most people get tripped up when it comes to this stage, but not you! Because you took Step One and Step Two seriously. You’ve built the relationships you need. And now instead of looking at your sales emails as gross or desperate pitches…they are more like conversations with a friend about something they need.
Phew. Way simpler, right?
When we don’t know the person behind the email, it is in fact a cold sales pitch, which will likely be ignored.
When we’ve taken the time to develop these conversations, it’s exactly that…a conversation.
“I hate selling!” I hear that a lot actually. It’s because they’ve missed or sped through Steps One and Two. We haven’t created the offers and messaging that are natural to our audience. So it feels like hard selling.
Hope this 3-step breakdown on how to nurture your email list and subscribers has helped.
Need more? Here are some quick tips:
Email Writing Quick Tips
- Vary content between short and long form
- Remind people of offers
- Add a super signature (a footer note that reminds them about how they can work with you.)
- Have fun
- Don’t overthink it
- Keep design and copy minimal
- Put a gif or picture
- Every newsletter should have something new to share.
- Be serious about helping your reader.
- Save time with my email marketing templates!