Why you need an email list (and how to get started)
About 18 months ago my business Instagram account got shut down for a week.
At the time I had no idea whether or not the account would be restored or what I had done wrong. The customer service at Meta (that owns Instagram) is NOT great and it was impossible to get hold of anyone to help me get the page back up and running.
And while it was really frustrating that the page had just disappeared overnight - along with about 50,000 followers at the time plus all of the content I had created for nearly 10 years - I didn’t panic (too much!) about it disappearing.
And the reason I didn’t panic is because I had built my community in more than one place. My entire business wasn’t only about Instagram.
And one place in particular that I had put a lot of time and effort into was my email list.
And today I want to talk about YOUR email list....do you have one??
I hope you do because if my story about Instagram teaches anything it's how important it is that we are always trying to move our community off the platforms we don't own and to assets that we own and control ourselves - and your email list is one of the big assets.
But I know many people find email a bit overwhelming. They aren't sure what to share in email newsletters and end up lacking consistency with it.
So I thought I would share what I do and how I’ve become consistent with it.
MY EMAIL LIST + NEWSLETTER
As of writing my email list has nearly 59,000 people on it and each week I send my subscribers a Friday email that I’ve been consistently creating now for nearly three years.
I rarely 'sell' to my email list. Instead I use my weekly newsletter as a chance to share ideas and content with my community (I know many of you are already on my weekly email list - so thank you!).
My community know that I never miss a week with this newsletter and they expect it every Friday at the same time. And the way I've become super consistent with it is by having a clear structure that I use each week.
MY EMAIL STRUCTURE GOES LIKE THIS...
Every Friday I send a weekly email with a roundup of content on how to grow a profitable design business, design ideas and inspiration I've enjoyed during the week plus the behind the scenes of how I'm building my own multi-million dollar business.
I use Convertkit for managing my email list and writing my newsletters and to make the creation of the email even easier I have a template built out in Convertkit so each Friday all I have to do is open up the template and plug in my content for that week.
Here’s what that looks like:
Generally I can write my email in under an hour due to the framework being set and the email template having already been created.
And every week I get at least 50 return emails (sometimes more if something has really resonated that week) from people in my community thanking me for the newsletter or writing to talk about something in particular that I’ve discussed. Many also tell me that my newsletter is one of the only ones they open each week, due to the value that I provide.
So trust me when I say that writing a high quality, value packed newsletter is a great way to build a stronger connection with your community, while providing them value at the same time.
TAKE ACTION ON STARTING YOUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER
Here’s how to take action on what you’ve read in this post today:
1: Choose your structure
If you're struggling with email and don’t do it because you aren’t sure what to share then think about a structure you can use for your weekly emails.
Having a structure takes a lot of the pressure off having to think about what to write each week as you simply have to find things that fit into your structure instead.
Here’s some examples:
Five Tips Friday (share five things you’re loving that week)
Sunday Stuff (not the best name but you get the idea!)
Monday Motivation (a roundup of links from the web to motivate people on Monday morning)
Three Tip Tuesday
Roundup of the week
You get the idea!!
2: Create a template
Once you’ve got your framework, create an email template in your email marketing software that you can then just duplicate each week to make the writing process easier.
3: Block out time to write your newsletter
Then make a commitment to yourself to write your newsletter every single week, no matter what! That’s the biggest hurdle to overcome I think.
If things aren't in my diary then they don't get done! And my email newsletter is one of those things. This email normally takes me about an hour to write each week. So every week I have an hour block in my diary for when I will sit down and write it. Normally that’s between 4-5am on a Friday morning, the day I send the newsletter.
If you don't allocate some time for yourself to do the things you want to do then they just simply won't happen - it's as simple as that! So if an email newsletter is important to you then show yourself that and block it in your diary.
4: Don’t wait to feel motivated
Most of the time I enjoy writing my weekly newsletter - but not always! If I didn’t write it on the days I didn’t feel like it I would probably miss a newsletter once a month or so. But instead I’ve made this a non-negotiable on my list of things to create each week, so no matter what is happening in my life or business I get the newsletter written.
5: Get started NOW!
Hopefully that gives you a few ideas to start with - but my biggest tip if you don’t have an email list is to start one ASAP and then to think about how you can create a weekly newsletter that gets people excited to open it!
Thanks for reading and catch you in my next post :)
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
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