How to Use a Content Bank to Organize Your Email Marketing and Streamline Your Message

Before you start building an email list or sending out newsletters…

Heck, even before you have a website…

You have ideas.

People ask you questions, and you have answers — or you could formulate some, just like you would in a real-life conversation.

Don’t let those ideas slip you by!

If people are asking, people want answers. And YOU are the person who can supply them with that super-helpful, “I gotchu” content to solve their problems.

Sure, you may not be sending out newsletters right now — but maybe that’s because you’re running into a few issues:

• You’re not sure what to write about

• You don’t have an organized plan of what to send your list

• You feel like you don’t have a clear focus for what to write or send out (feels a bit jumbled, maybe?)

Don’t worry too much. Everyone hits a roadblock now and then.

But I can help.

Organize Your Email Content into a Living Content Bank

01 | Keep all of your email content ideas in one place

Start by keeping a content bank — a brainstorming bucket, an ideas list, whatever you want to call it.

That’s what you’ll find on the first tab of my Content Calendar template (it’s free, so make a copy for yourself!). You can also pile all of your thoughts in a Google Doc.

There are no wrong answers, really. At this point, you’re listening:

• To what people are asking

• To your own answers (essentially your go-to “mantra” or “soapbox” even if you didn’t know you had one)

02 | Don’t compare your email content to anyone else’s

Your mind, your skills, your passions — and YOUR audience — are not the same as someone else’s. You’re speaking to them out of what brings YOU life, joy and excitement. And you’re sharing your answers to their unique questions.

Sure, there may be someone out there doing something similar to you. But are they talking to Jane from Miami, or are you?

Exactly.

Keep doing what you’re doing. Eyes on your own paper.

03 | Narrow your email content ideas into 3-5 themes

I don’t say this to “put baby in a corner” — or put your ideas in a box.

But I kind of am.

Here’s why:

If you have too many ideas, spread too thin and shared too infrequently, people won’t know what to expect from you (in an email or otherwise, like the services you offer). The key is consistency: we have to stay consistent, so they remember who you are.

When you dive into these 3-5 themes well and often, you’ll gain a really unique voice and develop your own perspective. Not only will that set you apart, but it also helps your audience learn more! You’re not covering a lot of topics an inch-deep — instead, you’re diving deep into a few, core issues or themes they need help with. That’s why they’re on your list, right?

Feeling locked down? The amazing thing about email — and online business in general — is that things can evolve and change, just like the tools and technology we use every day. Your core themes can certainly alter and change over time… just not every month.

Keep your themes consistent for a while and trust that this is a healthy restraint for you to resonate with your audience in a way that is recognizable and reliable with every email they receive. If after 6 months you want to swap out one theme for another, don’t let me stop you!

Plan Exactly What You’ll Email Your List and When

04 | Determine how often you’ll email your list

Besides deciding what content you’ll be sharing, you need to make a plan for exactly when you’ll email your list.

What’s that saying, “Fail to plan, and you’ll plan to fail?”

Right here, right now, make a commitment to email your list in a way that is consistent — but won’t cause burnout.

Here are some things to consider:

• How often can you connect with your email list without feeling like you’re heaping hot coals on your keyboard and stressed out from going overboard?

• Set a reasonable expectation for yourself — start small, then increase it over time if you’d like.

• You would rather be consistent and slow than fast and burning out, trust me.

Some examples:

• If you’re just starting out, emailing your list every two weeks as you get the hang of things is perfectly acceptable.

• If you’re sending content round-ups, commit to sending them out the same day and time every week.

Put your content calendar to good use

Once you dive into my free Content Calendar template (which is now YOUR content calendar, whoop whoop!) you’ll see another tab specifically for organizing which content topic you’ll talk about within each email you send out.

Reflect your chosen frequency by setting the date for each of your newsletters in the far-left column. Plan the content for the next 6 emails, so you can think big-picture — and then dive into the specifics of each email.

05 | Revisit your 3-5 email content themes

On that same tab of the Content Calendar, it’s time to organize WHAT you’ll send. Yay!

To make sure you’re hitting on a variety of topics from week to week, I suggest a couple methods of organizing your themes:

• Rotate through the same 3-5 themes, over and over again. (This is what I do.)

• Spend 3-4 weeks on one theme, then switch to another theme, then another. This is great especially if you have products that are theme-specific — so you can send a sales email after weeks of priming your audience with related content.

Pick the flow of content themes you want to hit on, and in what order, for each of your newsletter send dates.

06 | Assign a topic to each newsletter

Finally, we’re getting into the nitty-gritty details from your content bank.

Now that you have your themes in place, the next step is pretty seamless:

Handpick a specific topic from your content bank — from within the theme for that week — and assign it to that particular newsletter.

Prioritize the content you will share by:

• What people are asking about the most, right now. Serve your audience by answering their biggest questions!

• What gets you excited to talk about.

If it feels like it’d be pulling teeth to write content, skip it. There’s no shame in that.

Plus, by revisiting this process every 6 weeks or so, you may realize (ahem, you will realize) that just because questions were prompted by readers or saved in your content bank doesn’t mean you HAVE to write about them. They may no longer be relevant, so you can skip right on over them.

07 | Now you’re ready to write some emails

Set aside time to write and develop your email copy on a regular basis. For instance, I set aside time every Thursday morning to write my emails for the following week — it’s in my calendar, just like any other must-have appointment.

Some folks prefer batching their content creation time — like, setting aside a whole day to write a month’s worth of emails.

You do what works for you! The important thing is that you set aside the time, with a clear mind, and a specific goal for each email in place — and write.

Your subscribers are waiting to hear from you and the helpful content you can share with them!

I know this whole process sounds SIMPLE. But writing emails and sharing your message is hard enough.

I’ve found that breaking up my email marketing process — from strategy to specifics to writing — makes it WAY easier to sit, write and hit “send” to share it with my audience.

Make Email Marketing a Consistent Part of Your Business

Ta-da! Now you can keep your ideas in one place so they’re out of your mind and organized into themes.

With a solid content bank and a consistent newsletter schedule, you can write — confidently — since you know your email content aligns with your brand purpose, the message you want to share with your audience and you know it’ll serve your audience well.

Use this workflow to share resources, inspiration, or encouragement with your list consistently.

Time to start brainstorming!