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nathalie

Blog Email Marketing

Why do I need an email list?

April 13, 2023
why do I need an email list

Email marketing is the most cost effective way of selling your products and services. On average for every £1 you spend you’ll get between £30 and £40 back from your email marketing effort!

Email marketing has been proven to be 40x more effective than social media marketing at aquiring new customers. Average order value from email marketing is 17% higher than from social media. So having an email list is a no brainer right? Here are some other reasons why you need an email list:

Direct communication

Email allows you to directly reach your audience and build a relationship with them

Increased engagement

A well-maintained email list can lead to higher open and click-through rates compared to other marketing channels

Better targeting

You can segment your email list based on subscriber preferences, allowing for personalized and relevant messaging

Owned Audience

An email list is a database of people who have explicitly opted-in to receive communications from you, making it an owned audience

Increased Conversions

Email can drive sales and other conversions by promoting products and services to a warm audience

Increased Brand Awareness

Regular email communications help keep your brand top of mind with your audience

Meaurable results

Most email marketing services provide detailed analytics, allowing you to track the success of your campaigns and make data-driven improvements

If you’ve got a list that been sitting there doing nothing, now’s the time to start emailing those people. Want to grow your list? Read my tips here.

Blog Email Marketing

How do you write emails people will open?

February 7, 2023
How do you write emails people will open?

On average people receive 100 emails a day! That’s a lot of emails, and if you’re anything like me if a few days go by and I haven’t cleared my inbox I’ll do a mass delete session without opening! So an email subject really needs to grab me for me top open it! Or it’s from a company or person that I love to hear from. So what are the common mistakes that companies are making when it comes to emails?

  • Frequency – companies send out too many emails, several times a week. Two a month or weekly is fine (if you have a lot of good content)
  • Subject line doesn’t match the content – people have learnt how to write great subject lines that make people open but the content inside isn’t providing people with any value. People don’t want to be deceived so they switch off!
  • No real value – what’s inside the email isn’t providing readers with any value
  • Not targeted correctly – if your products or services are varied, make sure that audience isaudience varied? Make sure that you’re sending out the right emails to the right people.

How to fix your emails so that people want to open them

  • Frequency – every two weeks or monthly is fine unless you have a lot of valuable content to share.  Don’t send something out for the sake of it as people switch off
  • Authenticity – make sure you’re providing the authentic you. Talk to your customers, help with their pain points and think about what you’d like to receive in your inbox.  Don’t just include content for clicks sake
  • Value – Provide your audience with valuable content that they will enjoy, find useful and want to find out more next time
  • Targeting – Segment your audience so that you’re speaking to the right people. For example if you’re an e-com business selling clothes for all, don’t send children’s wear updates to someoone who has only bought mens clothes for example. People may want to hear about other sectors but do that in a main round up so that you see what people are clicking on and interested in.

If you’d like to start and grow your email list, grab my email lead magnet ideas here.

Blog Email Marketing

How to grow an email list

January 17, 2023
how to grow your email list

So you’ve set up an email list but now you’re wondering – how do I grow my email list and get subscribers? Growing an email list isn’t easy but it can definitely be done if you’re consistent and tell everyone about it. Email marketing is still the most effective marketing channel with the highest return on investment. So it’s definitely worth not ignoring. And, unlike social media, the data i.e. the email addresses, belong to you! Here are my top tips on how to grow an email list:

  • Tell everyone about it and make it easy for them to sign up. Make sure that sign up boxes are clear on your home page, have a pop up on your website and put links in your socials
  • Sign up customers at check out on your website, if you have a bricks and mortar shop ask your customers at check if they’d like to sign up
  • Send out valuable content so that people don’t want to unsuscribe but also they’ll talk about it to others
  • Put share links in your emails. It doesn’t matter if you have 5, 15 or 500 subscribers. Make sure that you have a ‘share with a friend’ option at the bottom of your emails so that your subscribers can share and spread the news about your emails
  • Minimise the links it takes to sign up. Make it as easy as possible for people to sign up
  • Create ‘subscriber only’ content that means they need to sign up to access articles on your website for example
  • Have guest blogs on your website so that you get someone else’s audience coming to your website
  • Create a lead magnet to give people an incentive to sign up. Download my guide for lots of tips
  • Don’t use the word ‘sign up’ as it’s proven to make people sign up less! Use words like ‘click here’, ‘get your discount here’, download now’ or ‘join us’
  • Don’t buy a list! You don’t really know who the people on the list are, and chances are they won’t all want to hear from you and could flag you as spam!

If you’d like some further help with your email list get in touch and we can chat. Or download my email magnet guide.

Blog Business

Setting goals for 2023

December 12, 2022
how to set goals for 2023

2023 is nearly here and now is the time to have a plan in place (if you haven’t done one already). Whether you see yourself as a small business owner or self employed person, it’s good to have a plan with your goals, focus and strategy for the year ahead. Having a plan, means that you can look at this throughout the year, reflect on how it’s going and keep yourself on track. It’s so easy to fall off the wagon or the path when you’re working for yourself so this plan acts like an accountability buddy.

So where do you start? Sit down in a comfortable spot and either on a piece of paper or on word document answer these questions.

Income goals

It’s worth looking at your income goals in quarters. This make it more achievable and allows for growth throughout the year. However, if you prefer to just have a single income goal for the whole year that’s fine too.

  • My income goal for Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 or
  • My income goal for 2023 = to hit that I need …………… per month

Product / Services

Then make a list all of the key products and services that you’ll offer next year. If you have a product business you can group them by theme e.g. accessories, larger items, services etc.

Target revenue

Next to your list of products and services and the rates or target revenue for the month for these so for example:

Service business:

  • client services £1000 a month
  • 1-1s £300
  • Strategy zoom sessions £300

OR

Interior homewares e-com store:

  • Small accessories £500
  • Paper goods £100
  • Kitchen products £1000
  • Living products £1000

Work / life balance

Answer the following questions to help you achieve some work life balance goals:

  • Why is a work / life balance important to me?
  • In 2023 I want to:
  • I will achieve a better work life balance by:
  • If I achieve a better work life balance I will feel:
  • My 3 work life balance goals are:
  • I will track my achievements by:

Hope this helps, let me know how you get on!

Blog Blogs

Blog post ideas for beginners

November 21, 2022
Blog post ideas for beginers

Do you have a blog on your website that you promised yourself that you would be consistent with but not managed to? Or would you like to blog to help your website SEO (search engine optimisation) but you don’t know where to start? My blog on my website Rock Bakehouse had some of the top search items on Google and used to drive so much organice traffic to my website. Over 70% of my website traffic was organic. If your website has good content, Google will favour it more favourably when it comes to search. Adding new content that is in keeping with your website and keywords will also help with your Google ranking.

So where do you start? What are your customers pain points? Can you offer them top tips, share new products but also answer the most popular questions? Here are some ideas for you to try out.

Share new products and releases

Your blog is the perfect way to showcase new products to your customers. Share a new edit of products for the season. Or try seasonal blog posts which perfect to give you some focus for example ‘what to pack for a two week holiday’ and include new products or some of your products. You can also share other products that you don’t stock but that you love (non conflicting) and link to other websites.

Answer your audience’s problems

My most popular blogs were ‘how to get flat top cupcakes’ and ‘all in one method’. These were common questions I was asked in classes or in emails from students. So I knew that if they were Googling the issue, that’s how they would be searching for the solution. Have a look online on forums or Facebook groups and see what people are asking. For example a travel agent could do a blog post on ‘winter sun ideas for Christmas 4 hours away from the UK’ and talk about top 5 places to visits that aren’t far to travel to. By adding ‘from the UK’ it gives the blog posts a specific audience that it will be shown to but will also have less competition than a more generic blog post title.

Interviews

Introduce your staff or yourself. Or you could interview other business owners that compliment your business or other local businesses.

Testimonials or customer stories

Get your customers to share their testimonials or photos of your products in use and get their permission to use. These are great to feature on your website, but also a great way to link back to pages on your website for products or services that you offer.


5 top tips

  1. Remember that your customer is your audience so make sure you’re creating content that they will enjoy and find helpful
  2. Be consistent with posting. Consistent means creating worthwhile content (rather than just any old stuff) at a regular basis i.e. weekly or monthly for example
  3. Be visual and ALT tag and make sure you describe your images when uploading
  4. Plan in advance so that you’re never stuck on what to write
  5. Don’t forget to get a good title

Blog Email Marketing

How to start an email list

November 11, 2022
how to start an email list

Wondering why you need an email list? Email marketing has the highest return of investment of any online marketing so it’s definitely something that you should be doing. That means for every £1 you’re spending on email marketing, if done correctly, you’d get on average £30-£40 back in revenue. Email lists also belong to you so you’re not relying on social media alogorithims either!

What’s an email list?

An email list is a collection of email addresses that small businesses get from people that have signed up to a mailing list. People sign up because they want to hear from you, or they want to buy from you so you’ve got a great opportunity to nuture this realtionship! On average people get over 100 emails daily so make sure your emails stand out!

What can you do with an email list?

An email list allows you to build a relationship with your customers and potential customers. You also have direct access to subscriber’s inboxes. You can sell to your audience by sharing news of new products, services or offers. You can also offer your expert advice for example a homewares company could send out tips on ‘how to style your home this Christmas’ and include some products and ideas or a therapist could send tips on ‘how to manage stress during the Christmas period’.

You’ll also be building relationships with your audience so that they trust you when you’re selling to them.

How to start an email list

  1. Decide on the email platform that you’d like to use. There are loads out there but popular ones include Mailchip, Mailerlite, Active Campaign and Kalviyo. They’re all slightly different so have a look and compare them before you commit. It’s also quite easy to move from one to another so if you find you don’t like one you can move over to another platform
  2. Integrate it into your website so that people can sign up to it
  3. Create a lead magnet (freebeie) or an offer (10% off first order) to entice people to sign up to it
  4. Talk about it everywhere
  5. Commit to sending out emails on a regular basis and include useful information and not just sales stuff!

If you’d like more help you can book a session with me to go through your email marketing strategy or just get help on any issues you might be having in a power hour.

Blog

How to keep yourself warm working from home this winter

November 9, 2022
How to keep warm working from home this winter

Working from home has many benefits but the downside is keeping warm this winter without having to have the heating on all day. With the cost of living going up, gone are the days when you can whack up the heating and be toasty all day in a t-shirt. I’m lucky that I can work in our loft room where we dry our washing with the amazing heated dryer from Lakeland so that helps keep me warm. Unfortunately my husband is in the garden in our home office there where it gets pretty cold. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that turning down your main thermostat by just 1 degree could save around 10% on your energy bill so here are my top tips for keeping warm in winter when you’re working from home.

Keep yourself warm

I love my electric blanket in bed so electric rugs and throws are perfect for day time. Wrap it around yourself or just around your legs if you’re on a lot of Zoom calls, electric blankets cost pennies to run and on average will cost you £1.47 to run weekly according to the Money Saving website.

Layer up as much as possible. I love these underlayer tops from Uniqlo and they come in loads of different colours. And unlike a lot of base layers they’re actually nice to look at too! I also like to wear a big cardigan over my clothes too or a fleece dressing gown like this one too. Thick socks and warm slippers also help.

Hot drinks are your friend, and I’m definitely happy about that! Cups of tea, coffee, hot chocolate or even hot water with lemon are all good for keeping you warm. Plus, getting up and walking to the kitchen to do them also helps move your body and get the blood pumping to keep you warm too! Add something hot to your lunch too, soup using up left over vegetables is always a good shout or start

Keep the house warm

Close all the doors in your house to keep the warmth in, . If your thermostat allows, just warm up the room you’re using at the time. If not, portable oil heaters are great. You can turn them on and off and even set a temperature so that they turn off automatically when the room is warm enough. They also use a lot less energy than central heating and perfect if you’re working in an office that doesn’t have heating like my husband in the garden!

And finally, make sure that when you do have the heating on that it’s working the most efficiently as it can. Bleed your radatiors, make sure you don’t have sofas in front of them and check for draughts so that all the warmth isn’t wasted.

Let me know your tips on keeping warm!