05. ENGAGE AND RETAIN YOUR AUDIENCE FOR SUSTAINED GROWTH
When it comes to growing your email list and hitting your first 1000 subscribers, it’s not just about converting your followers into subscribers. It’s also about keeping the subscribers you have by creating an experience they will not soon forget.
It’s about capturing the attention of your audience in a way that makes them want to stick around.
It’s about connecting with your people, your community, and creating excitement and trust with the people you serve.
It’s also about providing value through unique experiences that people can only get from YOU!
So how do you hold on to the subscribers you worked so hard to get in the first place?
1. Provide a one of a kind brand experience.
Is the content you are sharing in your emails being told in a way that’s compelling, useful, inspiring, and/or entertaining for your readers?
From your subject lines to what people see when they unsubscribe, can mean the difference between people staying on your list or ditching you like a bad date.
Your newsletter should create a unique reader experience.
For example, if you are a fitness coach – you’ll want to share your own personal fitness journey, you will want to show off your fit body, share client transformations, demonstrate your creative workout exercises, floss your gym gear, share your daily meal plans or recipes and all the ways your audience get to know you as a fitness trainer.
You want to design your newsletter in a way that uniquely and creatively inspires your readers to get off the couch and go get fit. That means sharing actionable content such as your daily exercise routines, creating beautifully crafted meal plans, sharing photos and visuals of yourself and your clients living a fit and healthy lifestyle.
If you’re a vegan food blogger – your weekly emails might have announcements of upcoming books as well as any thoughts your readers might like to hear about – how to cook various vegan meals, a cool vegan resource you found, a vegan grocery list, the best vegan restaurants to eat at on the go, etc.
If you make physical products, like planners or jewelry – you might share sales, coupons, and photos of things in your shop. You could also share gift idea lists, talk about your creation process – let people get a sneak peek of new products in the works, etc. A nice grid layout with images that link directly to your shop would be an awesome solution!
There are SO MANY options for you to engage with your subscribers. And, more than just sending updates and announcements, your emails can really help you establish yourself as a go-to expert in your industry. My advice is always going to be – think about YOUR brand, YOUR audience, and YOUR message – what kind of newsletter would best serve and support both your business needs and the people that you’d like to work with?
You’ve GOT to make it valuable for them, or they’ll just ignore, delete, unsubscribe and move on.
Now just as important as what you send is how you send it and how often you send it.
You will want to make sure you customize your newsletter design and that your newsletter design follows your branding guidelines and remains consistent throughout. This is why it’s important to have a brand kit or a brand book that is useful for saving a specific brand color palette, logos, and fonts that you can apply across all your designs.
If there are certain types of imagery, graphics, illustrations, icons, or patterns you use, make sure to infuse them into your emails as well. You can upload your own images or choose stock images from places like Canva, Pixabay, Death To The Stock Photo, or Picjumbo. You can also take it one step further and add animated memes or gifs to your emails to add another layer of personality.
I recommend creating a few different templates that you can use and rotate but that are all aligned with your overall brand elements.
Your email messages are one place where your personality should really shine.
2. Stay top of mind. One of the questions I get all the time, is how often should I be sending emails to my list?
Just like blogging, to stay top of mind, you have to be top of mind. That means sending out emails frequently and consistently.
Now you do not have to send an email every single day (that’s a little much) but once or twice a week will let your subscribers know you are here to stay.
A huge part of your email experience is to make your subscribers feel as if they are truly a part of your tribe. Most of my emails begin by addressing the subscriber by their name (not an email address, or a generic, Hi). I try my best to personalize each message so that my subscribers feel like I am talking directly to them.
I also make it known that I am accessible, that I am here for my community, and that they can reach out and contact me at any time.
It makes a huge difference. Before someone is going to care about your products they want to know you care about them.
3. Create a community outside of the inbox.
Yes, email is great, but give your audience the opportunity to engage with you on social media and inside of your online communities. Have a Facebook group? Invite your email subscribers to participate in your community and join you for your live streams. Have an active Instagram account? Invite your email subscribers to comment on your IG posts and stories.
It’s easy to get email fatigue and when your customers are getting emails from dozens of other brands, they can easily forget you. So to keep them connected to you, immerse them into your community so it becomes a constant part of their daily social engagement. You want to make sure you do everything you can to ensure they are invested in your brand because it becomes a part of who they are!
