What To Send To Your Email List To Engage Your Community [Ep. 37]
Wondering what to send to your email list to engage your community?
Well, you’re in luck, as in this episode we’ll be going through a list of emails you can send out to nurture your subscribers!
By the end of this episode, you’ll understand:
- Eight types of emails to send to engage your community (with examples!)
- An email marketing strategy to both nurture & monetize your email list
- Tactics for increasing your email click-through rate
- How to make newsletters more fun for your subscribers
- My favorite way to promote blog posts in emails
- And more!
Remember, collecting email addresses and growing your list is important, but it’s a waste of time unless you actually send emails that keep you front of mind for your community as you help them through high-value content.
Bonus: I also invite you to join my free list-building challenge to help really put what you learn in this episode into practice!
Disclosure: This episode + post on email marketing contains affiliate links to trusted partners I think you’ll love!
What To Send To Your Email List To Engage Your Community [Podcast Episode Audio]
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Improve Your Email Marketing With These Helpful Tools
Teachable. This is my favorite platform for creating profitable online courses. Their support is fantastic, too. My affiliate link gets you a 14-day free trial — no credit card required!
ConvertKit. A feature-rich yet user-friendly email marketing platform made by bloggers for bloggers. My affiliate link gets you a 30-day free trial — no credit card required!
Deadline Funnel. This powerful tool allows you to create real limited-time offers; as in, once the tripwire deadline is over there will be no way for a person to get back into the funnel to get it again.
Beaver Builder. I personally use both their theme and plugin. The plugin allows you to create beautiful landing pages using a user-friendly drag-and-drop page builder.
Interact Quiz Maker. This tool allows you to easily make beautiful and engaging quizzes that can engage your audience while growing your email list.
Perlu. A media network that is great for working with brands as well as other creators.
Ultimate Bundles. Become an Ultimate Bundles affiliate for high commissions. You can also apply to have your own digital products included their bundles for even more potential income!
See Email Marketing Success With These Helpful Past Episodes:
A Proven Step-By-Step Strategy For Growing Your Email List
How To Pitch A Brand Collaboration Proposal With Confidence
Create A Free Challenge That Grows Your Email List & Income
Monetize Your Email List With 4 Smart Strategies
Create A Profitable Automated Email Sequence (With Template!)
How To Grow Your Travel Blogging Income With A Tripwire Funnel
Making Money With Webinars: 10 Do’s + 3 Don’ts
7 Types Of Emails That Can Boost Your Travel Blogging Income
How To Create A Resource Library That Grows Your Email List
How To Use Email Storytelling To Write Better Emails
How To Create Opt-In Freebies To Grow Your Email List
8 Different Types Of Emails (With Examples!) To Increase Subscriber Engagement [Episode Transcript]
Truth:
My travel blogging business would not be where it is today if I didn’t have an email list.
And, in all honesty, if I had to choose between getting rid of all of my various social media channels or my email list, I’d get rid of the social media without even flinching. An email list is just that valuable.
There are many reasons to spend time building your email list.
First of all, unlike with social media, you don’t have to battle changing algorithms, pay-for-play schemes, and only a small fraction of your community seeing your content.
Plus, no matter what niche you’re in or who your audience is, they likely have an email address.
Also, you own your email list. So while social media platforms can lock you out or go out of business, with email you can always export your list and move it somewhere else.
And finally, email tends to convert better than social media — meaning it can be easier to monetize your content.
My email list is absolutely one of the most important assets in my business. It’s where I make a large chunk of my affiliate commission and almost all of my digital product sales — and I’ve worked with brands on sponsored newsletters.
But, to get to a point where you can monetize your email list, you need to make sure you’re constantly engaging your community and nurturing them with valuable content.
What exactly does this valuable content look like?
In this episode, I’ll be sharing what to send to your email list — including eight types of emails you can add to your email marketing strategy.
Now before we dive into the email types, I want to direct your attention to the show notes where I’ve shared a link to my free Travel Blogger Resource Library.
Inside you’ll snag access to 35+ resources from cheat sheets to workbooks to video tutorials that can help truly turn your blog into a profitable business.
I’m all about implementation and I really want to make sure you don’t just listen to the episode and forget about it, but that you actually use what I share to make your blogging life easier.
Inside the library, there are a number of printables and tutorials that will help you take what I share in this episode, and efficiently implement it.
Feel free to even pause this episode to go grab those resources.
You back?
Then let’s dive in.
Let’s kick things off with…
Email Type #1: The Welcome Email
This is one of the most important emails you’ll ever send to your audience — especially as it will likely have one of the highest open rates.
They’ve just subscribed, so they’re eager to hear from you.
Personally, I use this email to deliver the promised opt-in freebie (like these popular freebies for blogs), share a little bit about myself, and let people know what they can expect from being a part of the community.
You might also use this email to share some of your best pieces of content.
Love examples of emails?
Here is an excerpt from one of my welcome emails, where I weave links into what I’m saying:
“My goal: To provide useful, entertaining and inspiring content that can help you not only travel smarter but enrich your life.
I might share about active Antigua adventures (including quirky scooter snorkeling), how to explore Latvia solo, or how to go beyond the Empire State Building in NYC, just to name a few topics.
Or I might share a video from my YouTube channel to take you with me trekking in Nepal or road tripping around the South of France.”
Email Type #2: Your Story
Along with the previously mentioned welcome email, I like to include this email in my automated nurture sequence as the second email in the series.
This email is where you share your before and after story in relation to your blog’s mission.
The goal is to create a relatable model for your audience so that they can feel like doing what you’ve done is possible for them. Note here that this email should be authentic and true, as you honestly empower your audience.
For example, one of my storytelling emails shares how despite family and friends wanting me to get a corporate job in Manhattan, my love of travel drove me to pursue travel blogging. It was a journey that took hard work but got me to where I am today, being my own boss and getting paid to be creative.
Think about your own blog’s mission. Consider where you started and where you’re at now, and what the story of that journey looked like.
Here is another example:
Another segment of my community is solo female travelers.
When I share the my story email with them, I talk about how I had a big Europe backpacking trip planned with friends but they ended up bailing, and how I made the decision to go anyway on my own — and how the trip ultimately led to me becoming more independent and starting my own travel business.
Email Type #3: Promote Your Valuable Content
This might mean content like new or popular blog posts, videos, and podcast episodes.
Also, don’t forget to share new opt-in freebies you create with your email subscribers. Just because they’re already on your list doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get access to these free gifts, especially as it’s another way to nurture them.
Now, one tip I’d like to add here is to avoid simply sending an email that says “Hi! Just letting you know that a new post was published. Click here to read it.”
Instead, add a little intro that teases the topic and gives people insight into why you covered it and how they’d benefit from reading it.
Here is an example of how I did this in an email with the subject line “Take your blog full-time within a year. Here’s how!”:
“Have you ever sat in front of your laptop to write, but felt completely drained of inspiration when you went to type? I’ve totally been there — though I felt quite inspired when I wrote my latest blog post:
120+ Travel Blog Post Ideas For Engaging Content
These travel blog post titles and topic ideas come from researching what people are actually searching in Google so that you can create content people truly want to read.
Bonus: You’ll also get a step-by-step guide to launching a blog as well as bonus tips for crafting the perfect blog post title and introduction.”
Email Type #4: Strategies & Educational Emails
This is my go-to type of email.
Honestly, I feel like these types of emails work great in most email marketing situations; as a regular broadcast email, within a launch, within your automated email sequence, and more.
This is also an amazing opportunity to deliver some exclusive content to your list that isn’t published elsewhere. I’ll talk more about exclusive content as we go on.
Really think about the problems your audience faces and what questions they have. You can start brainstorming topics for these emails by using the following subject line formulas:
- How to [do something] in [timeframe]
- X# hot tips for [desired result]
- Case Study: How I [desired result]
For example, I recently sent an email with the subject “4 ways to monetize your travel blog right now.” It didn’t link to a blog post or video but instead shared the four strategies right in the email.
Email Type #5: Promote Free Events
As I like to say, “If it’s free, it’s me.”
Consider what free events like webinars, giveaways, workshops, summits, challenges, and free bundle giveaways might be of interest to your subscribers. Often, these may even be events put on by your affiliate partners — meaning you can empower your audience while monetizing your email list through affiliate marketing.
When promoting outside events, you can make them feel more community-oriented by telling people what aspects of the event you’ll be taking part in — such as attending a workshop or speaking during a summit — and asking people to tell you what they’re most excited about.
If you don’t know of any free events to promote consider creating your own. To help, I’ve linked a past episode on how to create a free challenge for your community.
Additionally, here is an excerpt from an email where I promoted a free challenge I hosted, with the subject line “Grow your blog with simple actions (FREE CHALLENGE)”:
“On weekdays from January 11-29 at 11am EST, I’ll be sharing daily actions meant to help you grow your traffic, community + income inside of our free community Facebook group. And, psst, if you’re not a member yet you can join here. Make sure to have your group notifications set to “all posts” so you don’t miss any of the prompts.
Many of these actions will be super simple and will take you just a few minutes to do, while others will be slightly more in-depth. That being said, my goal is to help you grow your blog *without* getting overwhelmed, so nothing will be too technical or complicated. Plus, I’ll have plenty of tips + resources to help you complete the actions.
Bonus: There will be a giveaway, as well, and to win you’ll need to play a little Bingo! 🙂 Basically, by taking actions like engaging with the daily prompts, posting takeaways on social media, and sharing tips with the group you can mark off the boxes and get closer to winning.”
Email Type #6: Themed Email Newsletter
I often get asked by community members what they should be putting in their newsletter. Should it just be a random compilation of past posts and videos?
In my opinion, one way to increase engagement with your newsletters is to give them each a theme that’s related to your blog. For instance, if you cover sustainable tourism you might have a “Conscious travel for couples” issue around Valentine’s Day.
Pro tip:
Create a calendar that has a mix of official as well as fun holidays that can help inspire your newsletter themes.
This is something I do often when creating the newsletters for my responsible tourism and culture magazine, Epicure & Culture.
For instance, I sent out a newsletter with the subject “How To Plan A Sustainable Fall Getaway” that included conscious travel tips, destinations, and product recommendations, and also highlighted a relevant cause for those wanting to donate to a sustainable charity.
Email Type #7: A Curated List
Another idea for sending out multiple pieces of content is to send out a curated list of links and stories that are related to your blog’s mission.
So, if you cover solo female travel, you could send out a weekly or monthly list of the top solo female travel-related stories or links that help them learn about this lifestyle.
Some could be from your own blog, but you can also source content from other publications, as well, to make it easier to put together.
Pro tip here:
Don’t just share links and article titles. Instead give a 1-2 sentence description for each story to entice people to click and read. It’ll make your email more valuable.
Email Type #8: Exclusive Content
I mentioned the idea of exclusive content before but I want to expand on it a little more here.
Many of the email types previously mentioned can fall into this category. The point is, while you absolutely want to let your email subscribers know about your new blog posts and YouTube videos, this shouldn’t be the only thing you’re sending.
Think of your email subscribers as your VIPs. You want them to feel like they’re a part of your inner circle.
Along with sending content that only they receive, that could also mean doing things like giving them early access to your offers and events, allowing them to give input through a survey email, shouting them out on social media, and offering them special bonuses when you launch your new products.
For instance, I recently sent out a sales email with the subject “Something special for my readers only” that promoted a bundle product I was a contributor to — and a special bonus just for them not advertised on the sales page.
Email Marketing Tips For All Types Of Emails
1) Don’t be afraid to be yourself. This may sound obvious, but I read a lot of emails from bloggers that sound really stiff.
Pretend you’re writing to a friend and don’t be afraid to use a conversational tone. This allows people to feel like they know you on a more personal level.
2) Tell stories. Whether you’re sending a nurturing email or a marketing email, always try to weave in stories where possible. This will really help bring your emails to life.
By the way, I’ll be covering a strategy for composing story-based emails in a future podcast episode, so make sure you’re subscribed to the show so you don’t miss it.
3) Include calls to action. Don’t just leave your subscribers at the email. Let them know what they should do after reading. That might mean clicking a link, watching a video, signing up for a workshop, subscribing to your podcast, or even replying to a question you ask at the end of the email.
Asking your subscribers about their opinions and thoughts is a great way to connect with them, learn more about what they want from you, and help them as you answer any remaining questions they may have.
4) Play around with subject lines. You could write the best email in the world; if the subject line isn’t attention-grabbing it won’t get opened, at least not by many people. So, spend some time researching proven subject line formulas — though of course still be honest.
A dishonest clickbait subject line can frustrate people and lead to them marking your email as spam, which can ultimately hurt your overall deliverability.
Alright, now I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you feel inspired and empowered to grow your list and nurture your subscribers with valuable emails.
Don’t forget to grab access to the free travel blogging resource library that I’ve linked here. There are a ton of resources in there on growing your community and increasing your blogging profits.
And of course, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes sharing these bite-sized strategies for bloggers who want to turn their blogs into profitable full-time businesses.
Happy blogging!
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