Ready to make a strong start this new year? If that sounds good but you’re trying to get back up to speed after the Christmas break, I have some ideas to get you started on your email marketing. A little planning and preparation now could save you loads of time over the next few months, too.
1.Write an outline of email content first few months of the year (at least)
One of the big problems with email marketing as a small business is what on earth do you write in your emails? You can solve this problem surprisingly easily by having a list of what content you’re going to send and when you’ll send it.
So, write a list of what you will be promoting each month and think up some ideas about what you might write in the weeks leading up to those promotions. Then think about any special days or celebrations you could include (Chinese New Year, International Women’s Day…) and also any seasonal activities you might want to discuss e.g. are there any particular challenges your audience face in winter, spring, autumn or summer? Can you give them some tips to overcome these?
Just having a list email content ideas is a huge help, but if you can get ahead by writing some of these emails now, you could save yourself precious time when life gets busy later.
2. Schedule some emails now
Why not go one step further and schedule some emails?
There are two ways of doing this.
1) Scheduled email campaigns. For example you could write your February newsletter now and schedule it to go out on (say) 1st Feb. You need to be a little cautious with this because of the rapid changes in the news at the moment. But as long as you don’t forget about the email – just put a note in your diary for a couple of days before so you can check it – you should be fine. There are some free fill-in-the-gaps copy and paste emails in my Free Business Toolkit so you can schedule those right away. Click here to get access to that.
2) Automated email sequences. This is where you set up a series of emails to go out over a period of time. So you may have seven emails, and the first is out sent immediately after a subscriber joins your list, then email two goes out two days later, then email three goes out on day four and so on. You can also set them up so they are triggered by someone already on your list clicking on a special link.
The basics of how to do this are in my course Getting started with email marketing using Mailerlite.
Automated email sequences are good for anything where you want your subscriber to take action over a period of time, in other words perfect for new year! So you could set up a sequence to encourage your subscriber to set up a new fitness or healthy eating habit, or a business coach could give the steps needed to write a business or marketing plan.
3. Tap into what’s on people’s minds in January
Still stuck for email content ideas? Tap into what’s on people’s minds in January, for example:
- Fitness and healthy eating
- Looking forward to warmer, lighter days. Maybe booking a holiday
- Starting new positive habits, I expect habits to combat climate change may be a big one for 2022.
- Being on a tight budget, saving money or getting financial affairs in order.
Your business doesn’t have to be directly related to these subjects, you can use them to influence what you write and the tone of your emails. If you know your subscribers are more cautious over their spending in January, can you make a few smaller offers rather than one larger one, for example?
4. Behind-the-scenes stories
2021 was an unusual year to put it mildly! Can you share a little about what it was like for you and your business? Here are some ideas:
- What worked well (and what didn’t)
- What you learned, any insights you got from what happened to you or your business, how it will affect you/your business from now on.
- How you made changes to become more ethical or better support the environment (only if you did, obviously!)
- People you have worked with – tell the stories of the people behind the business – e.g. star clients, freelancers, new staff, staff who left, staff who achieved things.
Note, I’ve used ‘write’ throughout this article, some of these ideas could easily be done using video if you prefer.
I hope you have some good ideas to get you started now – wishing you a Happy New Year!
For more help with getting started or doing more with email marketing, take a look at my Speedy Email Marketing Club.