So, you know email marketing is kind of a big deal but you have no idea where to get started. This whole technology thing is a little bit confusing and it’s making you so overwhelmed. Well in this Article I share nine steps to creating free email marketing using the Mailchimp platform.
I’m a brand and content strategist and love helping small businesses like yours build their brands online. So, if you’re new here, please consider subscribing because I release a new Article every Week, where I share tricks, hacks, and case studies, as well as interviews and business mindset strategies to help you to keep killing it in your biz.
But now, I’m going to be sharing the nine steps to getting started with FREE EMAIL MARKETING Using Mailchimp. So, email marketing has had a bit of a bad rep lately because a lot of businesses are just using it as a way to push out their message to their entire email list.
So this is really noisy content that offers little value to their audience. But with an email list, if you can leverage it properly; the really cool thing is that you own your subscribers. So, you control when your message goes out to your audience and who it goes out to. Unlike social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook which have algorithms, email is always delivered to your audience.
So if you want to get started with email marketing and in the cheapest way possible, then this is for you. I talk about how to use MailChimp specifically because I use MailChimp in my business and a lot of e-commerce brands are using MailChimp.
Especially, when they’re just starting out because it allows you to use their service for free for up to 2,000 subscribers. So once you hit that 2,000 marks you’re likely to be in opposition in your business where you’re able to pay a monthly fee.
But in those initial stages having a free option that works wonders, it’s a great platform, is such a great resource to have. So this is a total beginner’s guide. So it’s sharing the nine steps to getting started with email marketing.
So, step one is to understand your goals.
So, getting really clear on what the purpose of your email campaign is all about or your email list. So if it’s a newsletter to send out information about things that your business has been up to, make sure you get really clear on what is the value that you’re gonna be providing your audience and not just thinking about how you wanna use it as a platform to just speak your message.
So for example, my email list beyond this which I’d love you to subscribe to now if you haven’t already is all about sharing my entrepreneurial journey. So I get really personal on the types of content that I share. So, I share my strategies, my challenges, new things that are working for me, things that aren’t, changes in my business to really be able to help small business owners understand how things are working, and maybe I’m a few steps ahead of them, so they can start seeing how they can make these changes in their own businesses moving forward.
So, getting really clear on what that purpose is just the first step to your email marketing campaign.
Step two is to build your email list.
So, do you have a presence on social media? Start sharing that message, on the net, through your stories, and through your posts, or even through your Instagram bio, which is a really sneaky way to do it. Or, if you have a physical presence, so, you’ve got a brick-and-mortar store, just start asking people if they’d like to sign up for your newsletter. But, get really clear on what the value is they’re gonna get from it because just saying sign up to my newsletter is not gonna get the response you’re looking for.
Make sure that you have some clear call to action. Some value, whether it be in the type of content that you share with them that’s really exclusive, you’re not sharing this with anyone else, or whether it’s actually offering them something like a discount, or free shipping, or a free product on their next purchase for signing up.
Step three is to set up a welcome email.
So, to set up this email straight after someone has subscribed using an automation service, Mailchimp has an automation service built-in, and it’s really super straightforward, of how you go through the process to creating a welcome email.
But make sure that your welcome email covers the following things. So, it needs to say thank you to people for subscribing. You need to give them whatever you’ve promised them, whether it’s a discount or a freebie, and then actually share what it is that you’re going to be offering them through your email.
So, get really clear on what that value is with them, so they understand what they’re gonna be getting from you.
And number four is to make sure that you share anywhere else you’d like them to follow you. So, if you’re on Instagram, make sure you have a call to action to say follow us on Instagram because then they’re starting to build this bigger relationship with your brand as a whole.
Step Four is selecting the type of campaign that you’re going to be sending.
So, if it is an email newsletter, just get really clear on what is the value that you’re providing them, whether it’s a tip or something that’s really interesting to them that’s gonna make them open it and also click through to your website. So, make sure it’s something really great value, that you’re not offering everywhere, and get really clear on how you’re actually gonna be giving them something, that they’re gonna wanna be reading. Or maybe you want to send a promotional email.
So, this might be about a new product, or a discount, or a sale, or something like that. Again, get really clear on what their paying points are, so understand what your consumer’s concerns are right now, and explain how your product or service can actually help them with that. Use eye-catching colors and buttons, and all that sort of stuff to get really clear on getting that call to action to your site.
But, don’t overcomplicate it. Don’t offer too many calls to action in there, because then they re-confused about what they should be clicking on next.
Step Five is to choose your email template.
So, Mailchimp offers a whole lot of different options for design. So, a lot of templates which is great, and while you may want to create a whole lot of different emails, stick to one template, at least to start with, ’cause you don’t want to overcomplicate things.
So, just have one email template and then make sure it’s really resonating with your brand, use your brand colors, your logo, your fonts, if possible. Mailchimp doesn’t have all fonts, but, something that’s close enough to your brand. And also, these templates are all mobile responsive.
So, what that means is, if you’re looking at it on a desktop it will be responsive to a large screen. But, if you’re looking at it on a mobile, it’ll be shrieked down, so it’s not just automatically shrieked, they will move the images so it actually reads a lot better.
But, just be aware, you wanna test this. Do a preview when you are ready to send, just to make sure your images look right and that sort of stuff. Sometimes your images can look a bit too big, so you may wanna resize them at the start.
Step Six is to create the content.
So, people love to read content that is broken up into nice digestible chunks, because people don’t just read an email word for word, they often skim through it and will look for headers of things that they think, yes, that’s interesting, I wanna find out more, and either read the email or click through to your link.
So, getting clear on how you can actually format your email in a way that’s really engaging for your reader is really important, as is the content. So, making sure that not every email that you send them is a promotion. Make sure it’s split up with value-providing content, whether it’s tips, strategies, behind the scenes, whatever it is, to grow this bigger message about your brand.
And then you hit them with a promotion. I would say a promotion one every four emails if you’re an e-commerce provider. Maybe one every eight, if you’re a service provider. But, just making sure that it’s not a promotion. But, don’t put too many calls to action, ’cause it’s gonna confuse your reader. I would suggest asking you if I want them to click on one thing, what would that be? And just hone in on that call to action.
Step Seven is making you send a test.
So, you’re able to send a test email to your personal email, and just make sure all the links are working. Literally, click through all of them because you never know, you may have had a typo, or have kept a link from a previous email, so check all those out. Also, double, triple-check your spelling. Especially in the subject line.
If you have a spelling mistake in the subject line, it doesn’t look super professional. I’ve seen brands do this before, and it doesn’t look really great. So, make sure you triple-check that and make sure the body copy makes sense, has a good flow, check what it looks like on your desktop, as well as your mobile, as well.
Step Eight is choosing when to send it.
So, while I don’t think there is a blanket answer for everyone based on what is the best time to send out an email, I think it really depends on your audience and is something you can test. So, whether you’re ready to send out your campaign straight after you have finished it, that’s fine. I often schedule it for the same time every week, just so I can start getting my readers into the behavior of knowing when my email comes out, and roughly what time it comes out.
It may not be to the T, just based on other work commitments and things like that, but I always send it out on a Tuesday afternoon, so I can pre-promote this Guideline because I send these out, these go live on Tuesday, as well as talk about what I wanna talk about in that email as well.
And Step Nine is to Measure Your Results.
So, this is something you won’t be able to do straight away. You’ll have to wait till you’ve got a few campaigns under your belt, but, I’d suggest every month, have a look at your email campaigns and see how they’re performing. Are they getting better? Are they getting worse? Was there a particular topic that did really well, the particular topic that didn’t do so well? On the reports in Mailchimp, you can see your open rate, your click-through rate, and your unsubscribe rate.
So, your open rate is dependent on your subject line, so how catchy and interesting is it? Is it provoking that curiosity in your reader, as well as the content that your actually known for, because if you start to build behavior that people know, that the content you provide is amazing, they’re gonna click open every single time?
Your click-through rate is dependent on whether you have a really clear call to action in the email, as well as making sure that it’s clear on what they should be doing next. What is the action that you want them to take? And then you unsubscribe. Don’t get disheartened by unsubscribing. It just means someone’s not interested in getting your emails anymore, which is actually a good thing, ’cause you want to have only people on your list that are actually really super-engaged, ’cause it affects the health of your list and lots of other things.
So, unsubscribe is fine, just you wanna make sure that you’re not getting an increased number in unsubscribing, you only wanna get a couple.
So, that’s my nine steps tousling email marketing for free.
So now you have no excuses not to send any emails out to your audience, and to focus on email marketing as a strategy. So, if you’d like to see how I do this, sign up to my email beyond this which is all about the ideas, strategies, challenges, and things that are coming up for me as a business owner in this entrepreneurial space. I’m in the trenches like you, so maybe there’s something that you can learn from me.
I’m getting a lot of feedback from this email, because it is so honest and raw, and I’m sharing stuff that I’m learning along the way. I’d love to have you as a subscriber and please give me any feedback on it and things that are resonating with you.
So, if you love this free email marketing using Mailchimp Guide please give it a thumbs-up, and if you’re new here, consider subscribing, ’cause I release a new Article on marketing and mindset strategies for small businesses that are wanting to grow their brands online. I’ve got a few email marketing ones up my sleeve, so if this is a topic that interests you, subscribe because you’re gonna be able to see some really great content coming out in the next few weeks. But, that’s it for me so, until next time.