However, building and maintaining this list can often seem like a daunting task. The key to overcoming this challenge lies not only in the methods of building a list but also in understanding the profound impact it can have on your business.

Why Build an Email List?

An email list is more than just a collection of names and addresses. It’s a direct line to your most interested customers and prospects.

Unlike social media platforms, where algorithms control your content’s visibility, emails land directly in your audience’s inbox.

This makes it a dependable and personal way to communicate with your audience, share valuable content, and build lasting relationships.

“If Social Media is the cocktail party, then email marketing is the ‘meet up for coffee’. The original 1 to 1 channel.”

-Erik Harbison

The Art of Connection

List building isn’t just about increasing numbers; it’s about fostering a community. Your email list should be a group of people who are genuinely interested in what you offer, who find value in your messages, and who look forward to your updates.

The aim is to create an environment where subscribers feel seen, heard, and valued.

Effective Strategies for List Building

1. Lead Magnets: Offer something irresistible in exchange for an email address. This could be an eBook, a webinar, or even a discount code – something that provides immediate value and a quick result for the receiver.
2. Optimize Your Website: Place sign-up forms in high-traffic areas. The top of your homepage or at the end of blog posts are good spots. Remember, the key is to make it easy and tempting for visitors to subscribe.
3. Consistent, Quality Content: Whether blog posts, newsletters, or updates, the content should be relevant, engaging, and valuable to your audience. This builds trust and keeps your audience engaged.
4. Personalization and Segmentation: Tailor your emails to meet the unique interests and needs of different segments of your audience. This makes your communication more relevant and effective.
5. Engage and Interact: Invite feedback, conduct surveys, and encourage replies. Interaction enhances the sense of community and belonging among your subscribers.

“A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a bigger list that isn’t committed.”

– Ramsay Leimenstoll

The Power of a Well-Built List

A well-cultivated email list can transform the way you do business. It allows for personalized communication, builds a sense of community, and enhances customer loyalty.

More importantly, it turns your email list into a group of engaged followers who are more likely to respond to your calls to action, be it a product purchase, service enrollment, or participation in a program you’re offering.

List building is an ongoing journey. It’s about consistently delivering value, building trust, and creating a community.

By focusing on these elements, you’ll not only grow your list but also cultivate a group of individuals who are genuinely interested in your business and what you have to offer.

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But what many people don’t realize is that email marketing can also be a powerful tool for content creators. And really, aren’t we all content creators?

Whether it’s blog posts or podcast episodes, short-form videos, ebooks or music, art, photography, design, or short reports, it’s all content. Email is an extension of every form of content you create since, at an essential level, it gets the word about what you’re creating!

Six reasons email marketing is so important for content creators:

Email Allows You to Reach a Wide Audience with Your Content

One of the most powerful aspects of email is that it allows you to reach a wide audience with the information you create – a.k.a. content – which gives you nearly unlimited options to create ongoing revenue. In addition, unlike other types of marketing, there are no geographical limitations on email. This means you can reach people worldwide with your content, regardless of where they live.

Email is an Excellent Way to Build Relationships with Your Readers

Email marketing is essential for content creators because it’s an excellent way to build relationships with your readers. Unlike other forms of marketing, email allows you to have a one-on-one conversation with your readers. This enables you to build a rapport and relationship with them.

Email Lets You Control the Distribution of Your Content

When you create content, you want to ensure it reaches as many people as possible. With email marketing, you have complete control over who receives your content. You can send it to your entire list or a specific segment of people.

Email Lets you Track the Performance of Your Content

Email marketing also allows you to track the performance of your content. For example, with most email marketing platforms, you can see how many people opened your email and clicked on the links in your content. This data can be very valuable in helping you understand what type of content resonates with your audience and what isn’t.

Email is a Cost-Effective Way to Market Your Content

Another great thing about email marketing is that it’s a cost-effective way to market your content. Unlike other forms of marketing, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to reach a large audience with email. You can even set up an email marketing campaign for free with some of the popular email marketing platforms.

My email marketing platform of choice is MailerLite. It’s easy to create segments from your list and simple to use. And the good news is that it’s free for up to 1000 contacts.

Email Lets You Segment Your Audience

This means you can target the types of content you create and send it to different groups of people. For example, you can send a blog post to your list of subscribers and a different email to your list of customers — allowing you to tailor your content to specific groups of people, which can improve your overall results.

7th Bonus Reason: Emails Can Be Repurposed

Check out the Twitter thread for ideas to repurpose your marketing emails.

Typeshare makes it super easy to repurpose one email into three formats designed for LinkedIn posts, Medium articles, and Twitter Threads.

As you can see, email marketing is a critical tool for any content creator who wants to get through to a wide but hungry audience and build relationships with their readers. If you’re not using email to market your content, you will miss a powerful opportunity.

Blog header image: Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

The post 6 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Important for Content Creators appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

👉 If you want more engagement with your email subscribers, send short, simple surveys every once in a while.

Ask readers to REPLY to you with their answer to one question.

This creates more engagement and helps you get to know what your readers like, want, and feel about what you’re offering. Then you can give them more of what they want!⁠

You may have responded to the occasional one-question surveys I’ve sent out. Recently I sent an email asking if readers used iOS or Android. I discovered my audience is split just about down the middle.

I also discovered most of the people who responded read my emails on their desktop computer vs. mobile.  That’s good to know because it helps me know how to best format the content.

Why is reader engagement important?

As you can see from the slide above (from a short presentation I did for clients about email trends), interactivity = engagement. When a reader interacts with your email by replying or clicking a link for a survey, it signals to your email service provider they want to get your messages. That improves your deliverability.

So, what should you ask your readers? If it’s the very first email they’re receiving from you when they subscribe to get a freebie or sign up to get your blog posts or join a webinar, etc., here are some ideas:

Ask them “What is your number 1 problem with regards to [topic]”?

(A) You get them to reply to your email (the main objective)

(B) You get to know your audience better and discover their pain points → use this to create offers that solve these problems

(C) You’re building a relationship by asking them questions → shows you care about them

Or:

If you find the tips in the email useful to help you to [get the desired result] reply back this email by saying:

Give me more!!

And I’ll show you even more cool tips!

Or:

you can simply ask them to reply to your email and let you know if they’re able to access the lead magnet you promised.

Something like:

Can you let me know if the access link is working for you? A simple “got the guide” or “problem accessing” would do. Of course, if there’s any problem, I’ll make sure to fix it for you.

And always keep in mind, when you engage your subscribers by asking for a direct reply, it helps keep your list out of the spam traps.⁠ That’s a big deal.

Finally, remember to ask questions that are relevant to your reader AND how you can serve them better.  And don’t forget to ask the question to followers in your online communities, too! The more intel you have about your community, the better you can connect with and serve them.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙤𝙙𝙖𝙮?⁠

In the comments below, post the question you’re considering asking your audience. I’m happy to offer feedback if you’d like some. 😎

Recommended Reading

This Email Marketing  Tip is  Essential for Getting More Visibility

Email Copywriting Checklist (free download)

The post Engage Email Subscribers with This Simple Tip appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

I’ve shared this email marketing visibility tip with clients and members of my communities…

Never forget many people wait until the very last minute to make buying decisions. ⁠

Think about how you make purchases for programs and products.

• Do you buy the minute you get the first email promotion? 
• Do you make your decision after seeing 2 or 3 or 4 emails? 
• Or, do you wait until the very last minute before you hit the Buy Now button?⁠

True story: for a recent 10 Day IF Challenge Ellen Britt and I hosted, 24 hours after the Challenge had already begun, 14 people signed up! That’s 30% of all the people who had signed up after we had been promoting for the prior two weeks.

TIP: When you’re promoting a program or product launch, ALWAYS SEND ANOTHER EMAIL right before the program officially begins. 😍⁠

Showing up in the inbox of your potential client is the best visibility you can get. It’s one on one: your message and your reader, coming together without social media distractions.

I know a lot of online entrepreneurs are afraid to “send too many emails.” They don’t want to “offend their list.” But, almost always, if you’re not sending that “last call” email, you’re missing out on sales. ⁠⁠

As a business owner, how does this make you feel? Uncomfortable?

When you have the right tools to keep you on track with your email marketing tactics: planning campaigns, writing copy, and delivering your content, then the fear of offending your subscribers is diminished.

You’ll know the purpose of your campaign, who you’re focusing on, the problems you’re solving, and how to convey what you’re doing to help your readers. And most important, what you want the reader to do.

The “one more email” then acts as the final gift you’re giving to the procrastinators on your list who will appreciate that last call reminder.

While there are many tools, one you can get started with that is effective for developing a process is a checklist to reference before sending any emails in your campaign. I’ve put together an email copywriting checklist (free) for you to use.

The checklist will help you improve your emails while you work on your process for planning and creating effective email campaigns.

Create a plan and use checklists to be assured your emails are in alignment with your goals.

And remember, always send one more email when you are promoting a product or service that has a deadline.

Note: the checklist is not a how-to document. It may reveal actions that you’re not currently implementing and that will be of value too. You’ll discover what you know and what you don’t know which will provide direction as you move forward.

Got questions or comments about email marketing and/or the Checklist? Post them in the comments below.

The post This Email Marketing  Tip is  Essential for Getting More Visibility appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

10 years and my message remains just about the same

Recently I was invited to be a guest on the New Bern Now podcast, interviewed by the New Bern Podsquad. Wendy Card, the founder, and publisher of New Bern Now, worked with me in a mentoring program about 10 years ago and she wanted to catch up.

Following is a 16 minute clip from the episode and we talked about my journey in online marketing, how COVID impacted business and most importantly, why businesses – local and online – need to have a website.

A lightly edited transcript with time stamps of the relevant parts (not the chit chat), follows below the video.

Edited Video Transcript

Kathy Morrison, First Vice President of the New Bern Historical Society (02:30):

We understand that you’re responsible for all of these great things that Wendy is doing. And Wendy has a whole list of things you’ve managed in the last year.

Denise Wakeman (02:42):

Well I’d say, I might have been responsible at the very beginning. But she’s taken off and implemented some amazing things. I’ve been watching.

Wendy Card, Editor-in-Chief, New Bern Now (02:55):

Honestly, I would have… If it wasn’t for you, … Before I met Denise, I was following everything that you did, that you recommended for people. You were giving free tips and tricks. So I would implement them here and there. And every single thing I did, it worked. So Denise is the real deal. And so I signed up for a six-month mentorship program. And every single thing, every assignment you gave me. And as long as people follow the assignment, they’ll be successful. And it just blew up and grew. But you really helped lasso that monster. And you do that every day with your clients, right?

Denise Wakeman (03:52):

That’s the idea. The key is… As you said, is taking action and doing the work. I can talk all day long, but if somebody doesn’t do it, then it won’t work. So that’s the beautiful thing about watching your progress, Wendy. Is that you’re out there doing it. And you take the next step, and the next step, and the next step. And here we are on Zoom (10 years later), with a video podcast.

Colleen Roberts, Public Information Officer of New Bern, NC (04:30):

For the folks who do not know, you tell us a little bit about what you do. I hear Marketing Trailblazers, I hear online visibility. Take us back to how it all started, and what your services encompass.

Denise Wakeman (04:44):

Oh my. Well, how it all started is a very long story. But essentially, I was with my then-husband in rural Canada, although I’m from Los Angeles. We wanted to start a business. And that was in 1996. And where we were … There weren’t very many people. So we realized that we were going to need the internet, even though it was still very new. Hardly anybody even had an email account at that time. And I just knew that I had to teach myself everything I possibly could about how to use the internet to reach people. And that’s what I did. We built a six-figure business coaching practice within a few years. And then I came back to LA, without the husband, and started working … I started my own business as a consultant, and helping people implement digital marketing.

Denise Wakeman (05:47):

And that was before there were blogs. And before there was social media. It was mostly websites, and pretty simple websites. They’re much more complex now, as you probably know, Wendy. Before podcasts, and before all of that stuff. So I work primarily as a consultant and done- with-you implementer. Because I feel that people need to know how things work for themselves. Mostly I work with small businesses, solo business owners, and small nonprofits to help them build their presence on the web. So that’s all encompassing. I look at a holistic picture. So the email marketing, that’s really critical. It’s the website, the social media. And look at what they want to achieve, and then create a system for them to get where they need to go.

Denise Wakeman (06:51):

So it’s a little bit different than when Wendy and I worked together because there wasn’t as much available for getting your message out. And as that changes on a weekly basis, if not daily. Now I say, “Okay, pick your platforms.” You don’t need to be every single place. But pick it, be consistent, and engage with people. That’s really what it comes down to, but there are foundational pieces too.

Colleen Roberts (07:24):

How did COVID affect your business? If at all?

Denise Wakeman (07:30):

It did affect my business, in that people sort of pulled back. A lot of business owners pulled back from investing in consulting or mentoring, that kind of thing. To some degree, not completely. It definitely accelerated the whole remote video thing. When people were saying, “Hey, have you ever used Zoom?” I’m like, “Yes, for about seven years now.” But you know, it didn’t stop. My business didn’t stop, but it changed more to outreach and community building. And I just continued putting stuff out there, putting stuff out there.

Denise Wakeman (08:25):

And then at the end of last year, everything exploded again. There’s a lot of people who reassessed what they were doing in the small business community. Whether it’s bricks and mortar, or online business. A lot of people are taking a look at, “Do I want to be doing this anymore? Or do I want to try something new? I want to get out of the corporate workforce and do my own thing.” I’m working with a lot of people who are starting new ventures right now. So it’s opened up a lot of doors, closed a few doors. It’s all good.

Colleen Roberts (09:13):

That was one of the reasons I asked you that. A lot of people did completely switch gears. You know, let me pull back from what I’m doing, get a new education, and something I’ve always been interested in. And then, teach me or spend time with me, showing me how to increase my outreach, my PR. A lot of people did that, I think, when they were stuck at home and couldn’t do anything.

Denise Wakeman (09:38):

Exactly. They were thinking, “What do I want to do? Where am I?” And what I’ve noticed, is more people who want to get their message out in one way or another. So they may be an expert in something. They’ve been working in a career for years and years and years, but they want to either start a side gig, a lot of side gigs starting. Or a new business, or an additional business that’s more than a side gig. But they may not know all the pieces that are necessary for this day and age for connecting with people out there. What do you need to get started? Why do you need those things? Who are they that you’re going to be connecting with? So it’s always different. And everybody brings something different to the table. Which is, I guess, why I like it so much still after all these years.

Colleen Roberts (10:41):

Every day is different.

Do you still need a website?

Wendy Card (10:42):

And I have a question. So 10 years ago, you recommended, “Wendy, you need a website.” Because back then, I had a blog. I typed a website with HTML and CSS. So it was a static website. And then we finally merged into WordPress. But you said, “You have to have… That’s like your home base. And then social media, email, all that as is an extension. Podcasts.” Is that still your philosophy?

Denise Wakeman (11:17):

That is 100% still my philosophy. You need to have a place to send people that you’re meeting out in the world. So whether it’s meeting them face-to-face, or you’re meeting them on Facebook, or Twitter, or wherever you’re doing it… If you have a podcast, and you’re reaching people in an auditory or visual way with video, there needs to be a place to send people. And that home base is yours. That doesn’t belong to Facebook, and that doesn’t belong to Twitter, and doesn’t belong to anybody else but you. As long as you’re paying your hosting fees, that’s your home. And it’s really where people can go deeper, take a deeper dive with you.

Denise Wakeman (12:05):

So posting a nice picture and a quote on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, that’s great. That gives people a sense of who you are. It helps you connect. But then eventually, you got to take them home [your website/blog]. Yeah. And have coffee with them at home. But that’s where you can start sending them down the link trail to learn more about you. Send them to a more detailed About page. Ask them to sign up for a newsletter, or subscribe to your podcast or to your video, your YouTube channel, whatever it is that you’re doing. But if you’re only relying on those social sites, those social platforms, you’re on rented land. And they can close you down and kick you out without any hesitation. You may not even know why. I know this has happened to lots of people, so definitely start there. Email is the second foundational piece, after the website.

Wendy Card (13:17):

Well, that’s a great point. Because I know there’s a lot of businesses, specifically in New Bern, I’m sure around the world, that are only on Facebook. Or only on LinkedIn or something. And they don’t realize that those photos that they uploaded, if they don’t didn’t save them, they’re gone. Gone forever. And I try to tell people that, but they get tired of hearing me talk.

Denise Wakeman (13:51):

I would say, especially for a local business, you’re probably connecting with lots of local businesses. Because you’re Ms. New Bern. But yes, you need to have a page or a group on Facebook, because people are looking there. There are lots of people who check out what’s going on those sites. But in the end, you want to take them off in some way. Especially to get onto your email list. Because if… Let’s say all you have is a Facebook page, where you’re posting your menu or your daily deals, or whatever it is. And let’s say you post something that Facebook doesn’t like, and they shut you down. Well, if you haven’t been collecting email addresses, or sending people to your website, so they have no other way to get to know [what’s going on}. You’ve just lost all those people. They’re gone. Bye-bye. They’re on to something else where they can get that information.

Wendy Card (14:52):

Yeah. That’s so true. Wow. You nailed it.

Colleen Roberts (14:58):

You taught Wendy well.

Thank you to Wendy Card, Colleen Roberts, and Kathy Morrison of the New Bern Now Podsquad for hosting me on their show. One of my travel goals now is to visit New Bern, NC, and hike in the Croatan National Forest.

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