| Email Stars Backstage Edition is now enrolling. There are 20 spots available. I’m offering quick chats in case you need to ask me questions first and figure out if you’re a fit. You can book a call here. If you don’t want to get any more emails about it, click here to say, “Please turn off all emails about Email Stars.” You’ll still get my weekly newsletter. |
If you’ve struggled to get quality emails out to your list consistently, or had long lapses between communications and found yourself having to send the obligatory “here’s why I’ve been MIA for the last three months but you can still totally trust me” email, allow me to sympathize.
Creating any new habit in your business is tough, and the instability and unpredictability of our world these last few years hasn’t made it any easier.
And yet…
I’ve weathered divorce, finding and losing love and close friendships, promotions that didn’t go as planned, a wildly unpredictable school schedule and dozens of unplanned days off due to lack of childcare, scaling the level of support in my business wayyyy back, plus multiple hairbrained backcountry camping trips featuring black bears, and only missed a single weekly email.
I’ve got weekly emails on lock. And so this week I thought I’d share three practices that have helped me create consistency in my email marketing.
How to get weekly emails out consistently
- I work from a Google doc template for each month.
Each month I create a new document with dates and headlines for each email, plus a place to add two versions of the subject line and preheader text. (If you’re just getting started, I recommend doing four versions for practice. People spend sooo much time writing body copy for their emails, and mere seconds writing the subject line, which is just as important.)
Here’s the email template I use every month. You can use it for your own emails (click the link to make a copy). Bonus is that it creates a wonderful archive of your entire body of work that you can search and reuse as needed.
- I have multiple containers for capturing ideas for emails.
My Google doc template has a section for jotting down ideas, but more often than not I use the Notes app on my iPhone because it’s easier to access than the Google doc when I’m out and about, like at a dinner party, the Costco parking lot, or getting my hair done—my best ideas rarely come to me at my desk.
I keep this note pinned on my Notes app for easiest possible access. If I get an idea that’s really timely, I’ll go into my template for that month and jot something down for that week.
For example, underneath this email I see a note for next week that says, “People are vulnerable rn – bad time to be tricking them into buying things – story about $25K coaching package.” Maybe I’ll write that next week or file it away for another day, but not having to come up with an idea from scratch every week dims the very natural dread of the blinking cursor on plain white page.
- I have a system for uploading and scheduling emails.
Once I’ve finished the email I put a green checkmark like this ✅ next to the headline, and tag the person responsible for uploading the email, plus a microphone emoji if there’s an audio upload to the private podcast version of the email. Once the email is uploaded, the person responsible for uploading adds an additional green checkmark, so that I know not to make any more edits (or notify them if an edit is really necessary).
Here’s what the document looks like by the end of the month. As a reminder, here’s what it looked like when it was just a template.
I’ve been using this system since 2019. It is basically bulletproof. I’ve used it both with a team and without a team, through many iterations of my business.
The last few years have been a freakin’ roller coaster of a ride and having this system has really held me to my commitment to email marketing, thus protecting the two most valuable things in my business:
My relationship with my subscribers and my reputation in the industry.
No matter what, I have those two things. And as long as I have those two things, I know that making money will not be a problem.
That doesn’t mean I don’t worry about money sometimes—I do. That doesn’t mean I don’t worry no one will want to buy my programs—I worry about that too. This doesn’t mean I didn’t want to hide under my desk when my divorce basically cleaned me out—I totally did.
But there is also a knowing part of me that sees me honoring my commitment to protecting my reputation and my relationships, and knows I’ll be okay.
That’s what I help my students build inside my program Email Stars. It’s rarely a quick fix. The biggest benefits of email marketing start to pay off about six months in, sometimes longer, sometimes less if you’ve already got some consistency and good subscriber relationships.
It’s also hugely rewarding, the perfect medium for writers (and people who want to be), and a wonderful antidote to the fast-moving, highly-activating (i.e. triggering) world of social media. The conversations that happen on the back of my email replies are one of my favorite things about being in business, and where I learn the most.
Whether or not you choose to work with ME on your email marketing, I hope you make it a priority in 2023.
Here’s where you can get the details: Tarzan Kay’s Email Stars Backstage Edition
Tarzan
P.S.
Here’s the replay of last week’s Q&A call all about marketing. There were some really juicy questions about converting from sales calls that we really dug into. But we also touched on webinars, opt-ins and the basics of list-building.
My favourite feedback I got was that people felt calm listening and learning—as it should be! It’s one hour exactly and there is a pitch at the end that is literally one minute long.
P.P.S.
I’m pretty sure I know the first three questions everyone wants to ask, so:
- We kick off Monday, January 9th for a hands-on experience that includes 1:1 time with me. You have some time to consider your purchase, and you can also book a call with me to check in first.
- Everything is recorded (obvi) but I only recommend signing up if you can be present for the live experience.
- This is only for people who have and/or are growing an email list, and who know what they are selling and to whom
