I was delighted to have Maeri Howard, a highly experienced email strategist, talk with me on this week’s livestream. Building up an email list of potential customers and sending them relevant content is such a powerful marketing tool and I’ve invited Maeri to share her top tips on how to build your email list using social media.
Let’s face it, you don’t want to be sending your newsletters to just anybody – you want to put them in front of people who really do want to hear from you. This is where social media comes in.
And it’s over to Maeri now to tell us what we need to be doing to build that enviable list using social media.
What Maeri does
Maeri predominantly works with companies who have been offering their product or service for around a year or so, and have found themselves struggling to get to grips with email marketing best practices and how best to convey the message about how good they actually are.
Her speciality is supporting businesses to really nail their email marketing strategy. She has a real passion for what she does and can’t wait to share her processes and top tips for email marketing.
Social Media and Email Marketing
As I’m writing this we are still in national lockdown. Without our usual face to face meetings, keeping in touch with our clients using these digital marketing methods is key to staying on their radar and to provide the help and assistance that will add the most value remotely. Keep talking and as I always say, ‘#GetSocial!’.
The more you raise awareness about you and your brand the better. Sadly, your customers won’t always respond to your first, or even your second or third newsletter, but you can bet that they’re watching and listening and when the time comes when they need your product or service, you’ll be the person they turn to. Stick with the process!
Email Marketing 2021 Tips
Go for the low lying fruit: what does that mean?
There are some hacks you can learn to make it easy for you to market your newsletter. For example on Facebook, below the header, there’s a drop down link where you quite often see businesses asking you to book time in with them, you can also place a link to your newsletter here.
Go on, take a few minutes to find out how to take advantage of this easy way of promoting your newsletter. Obviously only focus on the social media platforms that you use. Make them work for you!
To hear a little more about each one, head over to the livestream on YouTube and head for the 8-minute mark.
Tell your audience when you are going to email out your newsletter
To drum up excitement, curiosity and that all important FOMO feeling (Fear Of Missing Out) on your social media pages talk about your newsletter; say that it’s on its way to your subscribers and tease your audience with what’s in it. Don’t give too much away, just the headings and a tiny snippet is enough.
Do this every time. Once or twice is never enough. Having these reminders regularly is the way to go. Never assume that your subscribers are expecting it, or that your social media audience already know about your newsletter.
Another one of Maeri’s email marketing tips is to also talk about something that has appeared in a previous newsletter. For instance, a particular issue is trending which you covered the month before. Talk about this on social media to inform your audience that your newsletter is a wonderful source of information and to get signed up to it.
What a fab way of using social media to build your email list without any of the salesy talk!
Keep your ears open to what’s going on.
And the good news is that even if you’re not the creative type – you can still make this work. Hurrah! But you do have to be a good listener.
Do a spot of research and find the people and businesses to follow who talk about the kind of things that you know your followers and potential customers will be interested in. Pick out some topics and use them in your marketing content in the comfort that you know that this will spark a lot of interest or add value.
I talk about the 80/20 rule for your social media posts, and it also works perfectly for your newsletter content too. 80% of your newsletter content should be about what’s going on in your industry and the remaining 20% should focus on the service that you offer.
Talking about yourself constantly is a real turn off. We’ve all been to a dinner party where someone is so busy telling everyone about themselves, never showing any interest in anyone else – we avoid them don’t we!? The same happens in digital marketing.
Be consistent.
Whichever McDonalds you go into to get that naughty treat, the layout and menu is always the same. Before you go in, you’ve probably already decided what to have and know how much it will cost. You’ll know the process of ordering and where to wait to receive your goodies. It’s slick because it’s so familiar to you.
Have this in mind when you design the layout of your newsletter. Make it easy for your subscribers to find the content that they are after. Mixing it up and changing the layout may cause some frustrations.
Always place the most important pieces at the top in case they don’t read the whole thing. And test it on all devices.
Mailchimp or another platform for your Email Marketing?
Maeri recommends starting out on Mailchimp, it’s got all the features you’ll need when you start out and it will serve you well as you build your email list. Once you have a larger email list, then it’s probably time to consider changing platform to really wow your audience.
Use images
We’re a visual bunch aren’t we? Images are what attracts us to something – they’re definitely useful for stopping thumbs from scrolling on social media!
Maeri uses unDraw for all of her images including all the ones you see in the screenshots. She demonstrates live how to use it – head over to 19.47 to check it out. It’s free too which is always a bonus and basically has no limits as to what you can create and for whatever media you choose: great for newsletters, blogs and presentations (obviously) but you can alter the resolution for larger posters too.
Email marketing 2021 just got a whole lot better with today’s technology!
That was amazing, thanks Maeri!
I hope after learning those amazing tips that you will be eager to start combining email and social media into your marketing strategy. While you are looking at your email and marketing strategy I have a very handy blog about where to focus your attention this year, check it out here.
Maeri’s final takeaway piece of advice was not to get hung up with numbers. It’s not about how many sign people it, it’s about getting the right people to sign up.
Talking of signing up. If you want to hear more from Maeri, you too can benefit from her knowledge and experience by signing up to her newsletter here.
What’s coming up?
I’ve still some spaces left on my online LinkedIn workshop.
It starts on Tuesday 26th January at 9.30. For just one hour every day over four days you’ll learn all you need to drive and grow your business through LinkedIn.
It could be the best £99.00 you’ve ever spent!
I hope to see you there.
Bye for now,
Becs
Becs Bate, Social Media Executive
