When Is It A Good Time To Start Email Marketing?

I get asked all the time… “when is it a good time to start email marketing?”

Um, yesterday? Haha juuuuust kidding (kind of).

Many businesses put email marketing on the back burner because they aren’t sure where to start. It makes sense — there are a lot of moving parts.

I’ll be straight up with you: Email marketing takes time and energy to put in place and keep the wheels turning.

You need to:

• Determine a worthy topic of a lead magnet

• Write & create said lead magnet

• Set up that lead magnet to be delivered to new subscribers through your ESP

• Know what you’re going to say to subscribers, once they’re on your list — whether as a one-time welcome confirmation email or as ongoing automations

• Write said emails ^^ to your subscribers

• Maintain consistent interaction with your list, so you don’t “waste” subscribers by letting them go “cold”

I will say on the record that every business doing work online would benefit from email marketing. And since it takes time and energy to do it well, the question is — when do you dive in?

The time to start email marketing depends on the kind of online business you’re running.

Below are the two types of businesses I serve. See which one applies to you — and please feel free to comment below if you’re thinking, “But Allea, I still don’t know!”

If you run a blog — or you dream of it — then email marketing is essential. You’ll want to start building your list ASAP.

Email allows you to stay in contact, and when you’re new to blogging — every visit to your site is valuable. 

Related: 5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Can’t Be Ignored — and How It Benefits Bloggers and Online Businesses

With an email list, you can ping your readers’ inboxes directly, without being blocked by some shady algorithm you can’t figure out (I’m looking at you, Google).

Having an email list allows you to:

• Email your readers every time you publish a new blog post (boosting SEO)

• Promote a list-building giveaway to your current fans

• Leverage your engaged list for a joint-venture webinar, so you can continue to grow your reach

• Promote affiliates directly to consumers

• Use a nurture sequence to keep new subscribers coming back to high-converting or popular content on your site

There are dozens of ways to grow your list, but I’m more concerned that a) you ARE building a list from the start, and b) you maintain a consistent relationship with your readers.

Here’s how.

01 | Start today

Those steps above about creating a lead magnet and getting it out into the world? Yeah, that’s where you’ll want to start as soon as you can block off the time to consider a worthwhile and helpful lead magnet that will make life amazing for your readers.

02 | Write your welcome sequence

Your very first welcome sequence doesn’t have to be fancy — instead, focus on making it generously helpful.

Having a welcome sequence in place will introduce subscribers to you, your mission and how you plan to help them.

Want to get a jump start? Get my 5-part framework to write your welcome sequence today.

03 | Make a plan to stay in touch consistently

You don’t have to be in touch with your list frequently — but consistency is a huge part of building relationships, right?

Sure, you may start with zero subscribers, but give yourself an actual goal of when you’ll start emailing your list. Will it be when you have 5 subscribers or 10? Or maybe you’ll start the first of next month, no matter what?

The bottom line: don’t wait to email your list — whether it’s 2x a month or every Friday morning — even if it’s only 20 subscribers and one is your mom. I don’t want you to lose the interest of people who ARE joining your list, even if the subscriber count looks low.

Quality, not quantity. We all start somewhere!

04 | Brainstorm what you’ll share

Along with adding new blog content on your site, create a content “schedule” to share with your email list as well. You can very well use the same blog content you’re already developing and send that to your list — perhaps adding a personal story, a related resource or a video link in your emails — to repurpose content you’re already producing.

As you’re getting started, begin by answering your audience’s big “Frequently Asked Questions” or by sharing your top values so that you can begin your relationship with helpfulness and service.

For the inside scoop on how I organize content, listen to this podcast episode where Jordan Gill and I discuss how to simplify the weekly broadcast process. I also have a free content planning document for you that outlines my entire process!

Beginning Email Marketing as an Online Business

Email marketing is a tool to support growth into a larger audience — one that reaches beyond 1:1 sales and will enable you to scale services or products, like group coaching, a product launch or a Black Friday promo for a digital course.

Related: 5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Can’t Be Ignored — and How It Benefits Bloggers and Online Businesses

If you don’t need a big audience right now — say, you’re like me and only have limited time and energy to deliver services (hi, we don’t like burnout) — then you don’t need to hike email marketing up there on your to-do list before money-making actions like sales calls or client work.

When you’re a service or product-based business, it may never feel like the perfect time to start email marketing. Though everything else on your task list may be making you money, there’s a point where procrastinating on email marketing will set you back when you’re finally ready to grow.

When you want to grow your business online to a place where you could offer services or products to more people, I recommend having an email list to really knock it out of the park.

Research from Kissmetrics concluded that email conversion rates outperform Facebook and Twitter by 40x. <— that ain’t nothin’!

Consider the long-term benefits of growing a list of loyal readers, so when you launch your product or a new service you have a tailored group of engaged people to invite along — people who know who you are and believe that your product or service will support their lives. Those are the people who are more likely to buy. 

Here’s how to start.

01 | Set a start date

Set a date, be it next week or 6 months from now , to get your client, process, sales and services in place — then start. Set aside time to finally create your lead magnet, that magical gateway where people can join your list and your online community.

02 | Write your welcome sequence

By your “start date,” you’ll have a much better idea of who you’re serving, what questions your audience is asking most often and how to help them.

Use this as your basis for writing your first welcome sequence. Remember, email automations can be edited as things change — they aren’t set in stone. But as you start to grow your email list, be sure to share with new subscribers who you are and how your content is designed to solve their problems.

03 | Make a plan to stay in touch consistently

You don’t have to be in touch with your list frequently — but consistency is a huge part of building relationships, right?

Sure, you may start with zero subscribers, but give yourself an actual goal of when you’ll start emailing your list. Will it be when you have 5 subscribers or 10? Or the first of next month, no matter what?

Don’t wait to email your list — whether it’s 2x a month or every Friday morning — even if it’s only 20 subscribers and one is your mom. I don’t want you to lose the interest of people who ARE joining your list, even if the subscriber count looks low.

Remember: quality, not quantity. We all start somewhere!

04 | Create a content calendar

Opposite of how bloggers might go about email marketing (using content created on their site and then using it in email), content for online businesses may be flip-flopped:

• Create content for your email list first and foremost, nurturing every new subscriber. Then, once you have the bandwidth, consider how your email content can be repurposed into opt-ins, blog content, videos or tutorials.

In order to make it happen, create a content calendar that includes the email send date and content topic. Organize what your next 4 emails will explore, so you have a bit of an on-ramp for when you sit down to write — it will be easier to dive into the content when you know what direction you’re headed.

Click here to learn how to organize your email marketing, so you feel equipped to communicate with your list consistently.

I’d love to know — are you ready to dive into email marketing for your blog or online business? If you run another kind of business or you’re debating if now is a good time for you — please comment below and let me know, so I can lend my two cents!