How To Simplify Your Email Marketing In Just 3 Steps

There are a few cardinal rules when it comes to sending emails:

1. Write for your readers and don’t make it all about you.

2. Keep the email focused on getting across your One Big Idea.

3. Nurture your relationship with subscribers before you ask for anything.

I did not consult the Marketing People of the World to confirm this, but I’m confident that most marketers — the ones who are audience-focused and not sleazy — would back me up.

01 | Write for your readers

Now, this seems to be a really hard part of writing emails.

I think it’s because a) you’ve spent a lot of time developing something and you’re proud of it, and b) it’s hard to imagine you’re writing to an actual person when you send out a broadcast to a list of email addresses.

To help with this, consider a few things:

Write for ONE person. 

Who is the person, whether you know them or not, that this content would be most helpful for? What are they struggling with? What are they believing? What myths need to be busted? What fears need to be crushed?

It’s far easier to write an email — much like having a conversation — if you’re looking at and focusing on the needs of one person.

You don’t have to generalize your content to make everyone happy. In fact, I’d suggest you don’t — let your personality, your niche and the audience you want to attract be a firm concept for you — and let those who aren’t a fan or aren’t interested simply leave the chat (aka, unsubscribe).

Put your ego aside.

As proud as you are of your product, I want you to champion something even better, something your readers REALLY care about: what they’ll get out of it.

Whether it’s a product or a blog post, it’s not about how many hours you spent writing the article or editing the podcast… it’s about what that article or podcast will do to change the lives of your readers.

Take yourself out of the equation. Consider it as though you’re promoting your content on behalf of your best friend and you didn’t touch it; how would you hype it up to people about how helpful it is?

Do that.

02 | Keep the email focused

We are finite, busy humans with lots on our plates.

If someone read your email — or even skimmed it — what would they get from it?

I always ask my clients, “What do you want people to think, do or feel when they’re on your email list?”

Because no matter what you’re sharing, how you share it matters too.

If you overwhelm your reader, they’ll click away from your email frustrated or discouraged; or, at the very least, they’ll categorize it as “too much to worry about right now” and do absolutely nothing. BOO.

With a clear intention for each email, your reader will be able to take action without decision fatigue or becoming overwhelmed.

Focus on One Big Idea.

I’ve talked about the One Big Idea before and how it helps you communicate clearly to your audience — check out this article here for examples on what this could look like for your emails.

03 | Nurture before you ask for anything

Let’s be honest, we wouldn’t be doing any email marketing if it didn’t benefit us in some way, right? While it helps us connect with “our people,” it’s also flat-out smart business. 

You may be building your email list for any number of reasons, like to…

• Boost traffic back to your website

• Sell or launch a new product

• Create and fill a sales funnel

• Build authority and position yourself as an expert in your space

• Promote affiliate programs or products

• Ensure eyeballs get on your brand new content (versus publishing it and having it sit in the void of the World Wide Web)

But before you can ASK for anything — like in any good, wholesome, life-giving relationships in your offline life — it’s important to be present and nurture that relationship.

If the only family function you ever went to was dinner at Christmas, your family might get suspicious. Or if you only hung out with your friends when someone else offered to pay for your drinks…

…that wouldn’t be a great foundation for a hearty relationship, would it?

That’s why rather than doing the bare minimum only when it benefits us, we also show up for school programs for our nieces, buy flowers for mom “just because,” and text a funny meme to our best friends.

Nurturing your list can look a couple different ways: Sending content or event updates through your live broadcasts, but also sharing your top, most helpful and popular content through an evergreen nurture sequence.

But, wait…

You may be thinking, “What if I give it all away, all of my valuable content? Then I won’t be making any money!”

Right, not with every single email. But your list is also not a slot machine you send emails to and get money out of.

The long-term benefit of building a list of raving fans who love your emails and tell their friends about them… that’s worth it, and that will earn you money in a better way. Promise.

Are there any emails you get from others online that really speak to your soul and add value to your life? Who are they?! Forward me one of their best emails or reply to this one to let me know.

P.S. Are you looking for a third party email expert to review your setup, your messaging, your tags and segmentations — or all of the above? I have only five audit slots available from now until the end of this year. If you’re curious if it’s a good fit for you, click here to book a call with me!