How to Start Email Marketing?

How to start creating your Email List

You create a list by collecting emails from individuals who trust you with their email address. Trust is something you earn from your customers; it starts from your first interaction with them. Trust is built over time, and like the relationships you develop in your personal life, it often takes time to trust someone.

How to build your list 

Below are some ways to earn trust from your customers: –

1. Blogs: Write blog articles that will lead to a transformation on the reader. They must learn something new that is of value to them. The blog article should, in reality, induce them to follow you or leave them waiting for the next blog. Ensure you have a way to collect email addresses at the end of your blog article.

At the end of the  H2H -Marketing, blogs have a  Branded useful worksheet that helps the reader our ideal customer take action, which creates momentum. Our customers tend to ask that question we all love so much: What else have you got?

Example: Email Subscription at the End of Hippos to Horses Marketing

2. Podcasts: Provide a link at the end of your podcast for your audience to subscribe to your podcast channel.

3. YouTube: Provide a link at the end of your podcast for your audience to subscribe to your podcast channel.

4. Social Media: Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest often allow you to link almost every post back to your website or Lead magnet. Instagram limits you to only one link

Can you see a pattern here? – your goal is to drive traffic to your website and collect Emails.

In the Hippos to Horses Marketing lead magnet, we recommend that small business owners have their website.  Your website is your Hub, the place where all your platforms connect, and all the magic happens.

Most entrepreneurs I know have shared a story or two on how a platform algorithm’s change made them lose followers. Their saving grace came from their Email list. They were able to connect immediately with their audience through this List.

Two key learnings: –

• Have your own website
• Have an email list.

5. Lead magnets

The idea is to create a valuable piece of content in a format you like and exchange it for an email address. The lead magnet could be a PDF, segment of your course, podcast. It needs to be worthy of an email. See our Free down as an example

A successful lead magnet leads your ideal customer to engage with your brand. It also warms up your audience, so they ultimately become your best customers.

A good lead magnet should leave your tribe with a Wow! Feeling and get them thinking, ‘ If this stuff is for free, imagine the paid stuff !’A desirable lead magnet should, in the very least address one of the most relevant challenges your customers encounter.  Remember this lead Magnet, like or not, will be a reflection of your brand.

Creating Your Lead Magnet is NECESSARY

Your content is the mechanism that will attract your audience and pull them in. Your lead magnet is the one thing that will transform a fan into an email subscriber—strengthening your relationship with them instantly.

6. Pinterest

We have recently rediscovered Pinterest. Pinterest is an excellent platform to gain and grow traffic to your website. Unlike most social media platforms, Pinterest allows you to send traffic to another platform ( website or Social media ). How cool is that! The best part is that you can do this on every piece of content that you create. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

If you would like to learn more about Pinterest, drop a note, and I will have a blog up to show you the benefits of Pinterest to your Business and how to set one up.

Remember, you must be consistent in your content creation. It is the only way to build trust. You must show up, regardless! So maybe you should keep a content schedule that is achievable and still aspirational.

At the juncture, We would like to point out the importance of getting permission from the email owner to communicate with them. It is also essential that your subscriber has the option to unsubscribe for all your content easily. Do you ever get frustrated when you unsubscribe from a list, and you get a message, ‘ You are now unsubscribed from the marketing list,’ … you know you will continue to receive emails from that organisation on other content. Don’t do that … let it go !.

How to Build your List with Quality Subscribers

So now you have Email subscribers! You are in Business.

You can do any of the following

1. Planned Emails: – Have a newsletter that is broadcast regularly. Consistency is your superpower!
2. Triggered Emails: – A subscriber takes action to leads to a series of emails.
   1. Welcome series, where you send a couple of personalised emails, highlighting the benefits they will receive because they have signed up to your List. Sign in to the Hippos to Horses Newsletter to see our Welcome
   2. Product launch

3. Landing page: This page used to increase conversions is unique because you gave away valuable content for free in exchange for an email.

These are some of the options, and there are loads more that you can do with your email list to create value for your audience.

You must provide many opportunities for visitors to your website or social media platforms to sign up. This process is what is termed as a conversion. A good example is Amy Porterfield’s website. There are numerous conversion points all over her website.

What an Email Service Provider is and the role it plays in your email marketing.

Email marketing is the biggest asset to any online business. It has earned its place in the balance sheet. Ben Hardy, the author of ‘Personalities, are not Permanent,’ writes that his publisher needed to see an email list of 100,000 subscribers before he could get for a book deal. The money is in the List, can you value and importance of creating an email list?

Email service providers (EPS) the power behind the email engine. EPS help you to manage a somewhat complicated Email jungle by offering automation services. They are a popular method by which companies use to manage their email marketing. ESPs provide a web-based service used by marketers to manage their Email activities. The ESPs serve the following functions: –

• hosting of forms for managing email subscriptions and landing pages,
• broadcasting tools for dispatching  the emails
• a database containing the prospect to customers profile.

Some of the popular ESP is Mailchimp ( free for up to 2000 subscriber ) Converkit ( free for up to 1000 subscribers ), Aweber. If you are starting a new business, I would strongly recommend going with an option that gives you free services. You will then have the opportunity to upgrade to the Pro version if you like the platform or switch to another.

What to do once you have your List to start generating income

When you start or revive your Email marketing, it can be a potent communication channel if well utilised. Email the right message to the right people at the right time you are sure to build an audience of highly engaged consumers who cannot wait for your next communication.

By continually adding value to your audience, you create an what is referred to as superfans. Superfans are the people who will purchase anything and everything you produce. The idea that was first written by Kevin Kelly, the senior editor at Wired.

 “1,000 True Fans” in 2008. The idea here is that you need a few loyal fans that buy almost everything you put out, allowing you to make a living whilst making your craft.

So we are superfans for Gin Stephens. You ask Gin Stephens, a former teacher who was once overweight and had tried every diet on earth, to lose weight. She wrote  Delay Don’t Deny    [ Full disclosure this is an amazon affiliate link ]. Long story short, she lost the weight and has kept it off effortlessly for over five years. You have to read her book to see her journey.  

She recently wrote a new one which we bought because, why not! Fast.Feast.Repeat. [ Full disclosure this is an amazon affiliate link ] This one has a more comprehensive guide with the science behind the benefits of autophagy.  

The long-short we have all her books have about three now, and we have the paperback, kindle and audio. Does this make Hippos to Horses super fans? Let us know if you want to progress on our Intermittent fasting lifestyle journey.

Fun facts

• A study by the Direct Marketing Association( DMA 2017)[1] found that for every $1.00 you invest in email marketing; you earn an average for $43.00. That’s a massive return on investment (ROI)

• Most Customers want to receive Emails for Businesses. I think that there is a particular element of trust when the Email is from a Business.

• Email Marketing dramatically outperforms Social Media Marketing according to a study by Mckinsey &Co. It gets even better. They found that a business is 40 times more likely to create a new customer from Email marketing than social media. If this does not make you take Email marketing seriously then …
• Email is a resilient technology. It continues to withstand the test of time.

Effective Email Marketing

Now that you know the importance of Email Marketing to your Business.  The following tips will ensure that your audience responds positively to your campaign: Using a Mnemonic -CRITICAL by (Chaffey & Ellis- Chadwick 2019[2])

1. Creative: – Optimise the design of your email, the layout, colours and images. Do not worry about this as most EPS offer free easy to use templates.
2. Relevance: – You must create content that meets the needs of your target audience. Address their problems, relieve their fears and build their trust.
3. Incentive: -What is in it for me? What is the transformation your audience will get by reading your email?
4. Targeting and timing: – You have to establish the right time of Day or Month to send out your emails.
5. Integration: – Ensure that your email is consistent with the other content that you are generating. If you are launching a new product, it will make sense to channel all communications around the product launch and product benefits.
6. Conversations: Encourage your customers to engage with you on social media

What is Permission Marketing and GDPR

Savvy business owners know that they can generate much better business results by cultivating an audience that wants their content, do not spam. Spamming is sending the same commercial message indiscriminately to a large number of recipients without their permission.

You must first receive someone’s permission to email them. It stands to reason that if you have permission, you are not spamming. At H2H Marketing we feel very strongly about spamming.

Remember the fundamentals rules of successful Email Marketing: –

• Quality over quantity
• Send value-driven Emails
• Use Call to Action

Remember that Email marketing will drive your business growth. There are dozens and dozens of email service providers out there. Ultimately, they all do the same thing: allow you to build email lists and send emails to the people on those lists.

Take some time to research on an Email service provider (ESP). Most ESPs usually let you sample their product by offering you free service and as they’ll make sure that you’re compliant with current email marketing laws.

Last but please get permission to send your emails. You will get their respect and trust.

Take some time to reflect on the blog by downloading our FREE Hippos to Horses Marketing -Reflections.

[1] DMA( 2017) DMA insight : Marketer Email Tracking : Study (www.dma.org.uk)

[2] Chaffey, D and Ellis-Chadwick, F (2019), ‘Digital Marketing Strategy, implementation and Practice. 7^th Edition Pearson.