Email Marketing with Ease

Kirsten 0:00

you're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact in their teacher businesses. I'm Kiersten, a teacher business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the creative teacher podcast. We have a remix episode. And this is for one of my favorite topics email marketing. I wish I had done it so much sooner than I did. And I wanted to share this episode to give you some tips on how to get started and some do's and don'ts and all that good stuff. So you are great for this episode. If you want to learn things like what email service provider I recommend creating lead magnet, how you can share that lead magnet and how to nurture your email list. So that is what our topic is all about today. Enjoy. today

Today's episode is all about email marketing with ease. We're going to talk today about why an email list is so important how to get people to opt into your email list and how to nurture your email list.

First, let's talk about why an email list is a great addition to your business. An email list is a collection of names and email addresses, who have given you permission to send updates and marketing materials through an email service provider, which we'll talk about later. You're basically taking your audience and people your who are interested in what you have to offer and sending them information about updates, products and services. email lists are a completely different ballgame than Instagram or Facebook, but in a very good way. For one thing, you own your email list. You don't own Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. These platforms could decide to change up their policies and algorithm and they've done that before. And it's also not guaranteed that everyone in their art in your audience will see what you have posted. But with an email list. Once you have the list of emails and your subscribers are opted in, and haven't unsubscribed Of course, you are free to email them and they will be more likely to see it than on a social media post. Another reason why email lists are a great addition to your business is that it is personal, you can reach your target audience directly in their inbox. There's no algorithm with it. And as long as your email address doesn't go into their junk mail or promotions tab, it's going to land in their inbox chronologically. So more people are more likely to see it. Your audience can personally reply and ask you questions without it being plastered out on social media. So this is a really great way to establish trust and connections with your audience.

have a free account for up to: 1000

Alright, so here's the second step is to create a lead magnet. So once you've decided on an email service provider, you need to have some type of opt in, also known as a lead magnet. This is just a free resource that a person gets in exchange for their email address. This could be a PDF guide, video training, ebook, mini course, checklist, any of those types of things, there's so many more that you could it could be the key to a high converting lead magnet, when where a lot of people will give their email address is that it is a quick win. And it's specific to your audience's needs. So if your lead magnet is too broad, you might end up with people on your email list that aren't really a great fit for the paid products or services you have. And then if your lead magnet is too daunting and too much to handle, the people who do opt in may not be able to even get through it. And they may not be keen on anything else you have to offer. So that's why you want your opt in to be valuable, helpful. And of course short and sweet to those who aren't your ideal customer.

So here is just a quick example, let's say that I create math TPT resources for upper elementary teachers, what I would want to do is think about a problem per elementary math teachers have in how my lead magnet could solve their problem. So maybe if their problem is that they don't have enough time to fit in number talks or warm up into their math block, I could have a lead magnet with a list of suggested schedules for 60 or 90 minute math blocks, or maybe a lead magnet with some simple ways to incorporate number talks, and warm up into their math block in a short amount of time. So that's just one example.

Let's think about those elements of design what we talk about I talk about a lot. When you design your lead magnet, you must incorporate those elements design and branding that I always talked about. So making sure your fonts and color scheme are matching according to your brand. There's a cohesive look to your lead magnet. It's appealing to your audience. And it's easy to read or skim and also adding a copyright of your store at the bottom. So just like you would create a TPT product it needs to reflect your best work. And there are some really great templates that you can use and just plug and chug from Canva or you can buy off of Etsy. Okay, after you've created an opt in and you've created a lead magnet, you will need a landing page. This is really easy to do if you have a Convert Kit and flow desk, your copy, or just what you write on the landing page that the potential subscribers would see is very important here. You don't want to just right subscribe and get this free lead magnet that's not really going to convince anyone to give up their email address, you need to be using photos and screenshots of the lead magnet and add fun and inviting text using your own brand voice that would appeal to your audience on what it includes and why it would help them. Then you would add a button under the place where it says name and email address. You really only need the first name and email address really anything more might be a little bit much. And instead of saying that button saying subscribe. It could say something fun like yes, I'm so in or give me that freebie. So emphasize that it is free to share your lead magnet where ever you can and as often as possible. social media Facebook groups if it's allowed, so you want to check the rules for each Facebook group, and then have it as one of your Instagram links in your bio. There's so many ways you can share your lead magnet to others and get people to subscribe.

You might be thinking to yourself, Well how do I know if my lead magnet is awesome people like it or it's a flop? Really the only way to know is time. So give it a couple of months to see how it does and if your conversion rate is really low, like less than I would say five to six 10%, then it may be time to tweak your lead magnet, or try something different.

One of my highest converting lead magnets is my product cover in thumbnail checklist. And I regularly get subscribers who opt in either through my Instagram link, my Facebook group or my website, you can actually check it out here in the linked blog post if you want to see what it looks like. But the conversion rate is at about 30% right now. So if you can get at least 20% conversion rate, which you'll be able to see all of this information in the statistics in your email service provider, or wherever your landing page is hosted, then that means that it's a really good lead magnet.

All right, so you have your lead magnet, you've marketed it out to the world. And now you have a few subscribers. What happens now, you want to nurture your subscribers, you can do this with a welcome sequence, or with consistent weekly emails, the last thing you want is for them to unsubscribe, but it's okay. If they do, it just means they weren't a good fit for you. And the last thing you want to do is just to have them on your email list, but you don't talk to them until maybe a sale comes up. So that's another thing you don't want to do, you're going to get some unsubscribers. From that. A welcome sequence is a series of automated emails that when someone opts into your list, it'll give them an idea of who you are, what you do and what you bring to them. Flow desk has a really great for email welcome sequence template that you can make your own. And then after they go through that welcome sequence, they would go on your general email list where you would just send them weekly content, your weekly content could consist of any new products you have out on TPT, a blog post or podcast and maybe even a social media post or sale that you have. When you're writing your emails, make it light and fun in your copy. The subject lines should be click worthy and make subscribers want to see what is in the email. And then your actual email should start with a fun anecdote story or something relatable before talking about a sale or product or content that you are offering. I also like to sprinkle in some gifts to make it even more connecting with subscribers. So I recommend that as well. Think about the emails you like to open. I personally hate anything that starts with ads. Now don't miss out on the sale, any type of email line subject line that has it, I won't even open it, I usually just delete it. So just think about the emails you like and try to implement that in with your own emails. Now before we end, I wanted to share with you one of my highest converting emails to give you some ideas and inspiration. It had a 53% open rate, and 17% click rate extremely high compared to my other emails that I've sent out. The crazy part was that it wasn't one of my longest emails. And my call to action was just to get my subscribers to read one of my blog posts. That was it. But I gave them just enough information for them to want to click and find out more information or read the blog post. Because it's short, I am going to read it to you. The subject line was the key graphic design tip that changes everything. So here is what was this is what the email was. First Name. Ever wonder what the secret sauce is when designing your product covers or thumbnails. What is it about some product covers that convert more than others? Here's a hint. It's related to a mid 20th century movement that still exists to this state. Less is more. Today's blog post lets you in on what it is, and why it's important to incorporate the strategy that many graphic designers use today. Warmly Kiersten the southern teach. Then I had a link that said read why less is more on your TPT product covers and thumbnails. But my email was broken apart. So I had the email was broken up with just a couple of lines because I like a lot of whitespace so that it's easy to skim and read. So that was just one that was really high converting. All right, well, this week was a lot of information on email marketing, and this is all just the tip of the iceberg. Email marketing is so versatile and an amazing asset to your business when done in a friendly and less salesy kind of way. I actually love sending out emails to my audience and I really love writing in general, and I know that the return on investment is so there. It's definitely beneficial to my business and I know it can be the same for you You, I wish I knew about email marketing much sooner than I when I started my email list.

Here is your action tip for today. Think about where you are in the email list process and take action on the step you're in. Are you wanting to get started but don't have a service provider? Your task is to decide on an email service provider. Do you need to perfect your lead magnet, your task would be to tweak or create your lead magnet? Do you need to change up how you structure your emails to your followers, look at your data and see what email was your highest open rate or click rate and see what worked and decide on what you can do to recreate that each week. So wherever you are in the process, I encourage you this week to get one step closer than where you currently are today. For me, my task would be to refine and tweak my welcome sequence for my new subscribers. So I'll be working on that this week. I would love to hear about what you think about this episode all about email, something that I love. You can DM me on Instagram or you can post a story and tag me on your biggest aha moments for the week. I would love to share your feedback in my own stories, so I can't wait to hear from you. All right. Well, that is it for today. I hope you have an amazing day.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.