You’re building a list. That’s awesome. It will really help you grow your business and your reputation. It’ll help you make more money as well as become better known in your niche.
Building your list is a smart thing to do, no matter what niche you’re in. But now that you have a list, you may be wondering what to do with it. You could be asking the question, “What should I be writing my list about?” (Before we go any further, if you don’t have list, go to Aweber and start building your list for free. I’ll wait.)
Educate:
One important thing to do with your list is to educate them. Most of the time, the reason someone signed up to your list in the first place is because they wanted to learn something. You were giving away a product that taught something, and they wanted to learn about it. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes someone signs up to get something (like a planner or journal.) But most of the time, it is educational.
People want to learn more about a subject. That’s why they sign up for lists. That’s why they search for things online. They want more information. They want to become more knowledgeable about a subject.
Make sure you’re helping them in that quest. Teach them about things in your niche. It doesn’t have to be too deep. In fact, you’d want to save the specifics for courses that you may create. But people want to learn, so educate them in your emails.
How can you educate them? You can talk about a subject. You can give them a link to a blog post (preferably one of yours) so that they can get more information about a topic. Teach them things that you think they want to learn about. Ask your audience what they want to learn about, and then teach them those things. Educate them by giving them knowledge about things they didn’t even know they need to learn about.
Having problems coming up with content to educate your list about? I have two ideas that can make it really easy for you.
The first is to repurpose content that you’ve already created. Include part of a blog post in your email. Throw in some of the content that was part of an educational Tweet. You don’t need to only use unique content in an email. Most likely someone reading your email isn’t following you everywhere. So you can repurpose content from somewhere else so they’ll get to see it. Even if they did see it somewhere else, it will reinforce ideas for them, and they’ll remember it better.
Another way to have content that you can use to teach your list is to use done-for-you content. Also called Private Label Rights (PLR), it is content that is written for you, and you can use it as you’d like. You can use parts of it in your emails if it will help you educate your list.
Share:
Besides educating your list, it’s very helpful to share certain things with your list. You not only want to help teach your list things, but you want to grow your relationship with them as well.
There are many ways that you can do this. Make sure you share things about yourself. People need to know you better in order to like you and trust you, so let them get to know you. Share the things you’re doing, the things you’re interested in, and more. Become a real person to them, not just a business on the other side of an email, and you’ll do better within your business.
Share different events that are going on within your niche. It can be in person events, or webinars or something else online. People interested in that niche may be interested in attending events with other like minded people. If you’re going to be there, it also gives you a chance to get to know your list better – and them a chance to get to know you better!
You can share “behind the scenes” information. Make your list feel special by sharing exclusive “insider” information about what you’re considering, planning, and doing. They’ll feel closer to you, and may even write to you to give their opinion or advice!
Sell:
You want to help the people on your list. Sometimes that means that you’ll want to recommend something that they can buy. You should never feel bad about selling something to your list. If it will help them with something in your niche, you’re doing them a favor. People on your list might want to learn something. Or they might want to get a new product that will be helpful to them. If you don’t share these things, they’ll look elsewhere for recommendations.
That’s why selling is something that makes sense, and isn’t something you should shy away from. Let your list know what your favorite products are in your niche. Let them know what’s helped you. Share with them the things you love and use in your niche.
Just make sure you’re only selling things that you 100% believe in. Things you like, things you’ve used. You want to make sure that the things you’re promoting are high quality and will help the person on your list who buys them.
When Should You Send Each Type of Email?
Here’s the great news. You don’t have to send an email with only one of the above in it. You can educate, share, and sell all in the same email if you want to.
What you want to do is figure out where the person is at this each stage of your relationship. If you’re just emailing them for the first time, you don’t want to sell to them. You want to educate them. If they’re getting an email because they just bought something from you, you don’t want to sell to them again. You want to let them know they made a great decision, and educate and share some more. Then you can sell to them again in another email.
But other than that, you can mix and match anything in the emails your sending. As long as they sound genuine and add value, you’re good to go.
Email should be a conversation, not a one-way message. Envision list members as friends who understand you, want to share things with you, and want to support you. Ask them questions (and respond to them if they do!) Talk to them. Show them that you are one of them. Remind them that you want to help them and see them succeed. This will help you succeed as well.
Enjoy,
