Make Email Your Best Friend: Build and Grow Your Email List

I like to say the most valuable audience is the one you already have. That's why today's episode is all about Email. Email newsletters are a fantastic keep in touch tool for not only your clients and customers, but your referrers, your supporters, and your fans. I'm gonna share some easy ways to get started with email marketing, how you can use it to keep in touch with your current audience.

And I'm gonna touch on some of the experiments I've been running to grow my list in even more intentional ways. I'm Lex Roman, and this is the Low Energy Leads Show.

Over here. We like to keep it simple. So when we are talking about making email, your best friend, we are gonna start with the people who already know you, who expect to hear from you And who you could probably be getting in touch with more frequently than you are. So who do you start with when you're starting your email newsletter? You wanna start with your current clients, your past clients and your referrers. We're always thinking about marketing as meeting strangers. I really want you to think about how can you stay closer in touch with people you already know? Email is a fantastic way to do that. So you're gonna put a list together of clients you're currently working with past clients and people who've sent work your way. 

You don't need to boil the ocean on this. You don't need to go through every tool you have. Every email you've ever sent. Just pull a few people. I would recommend getting started with 10 people. If this is a daunting task, just pick 10. Look in your email inbox, check your invoicing tool. If you have a CRM, you can look in there, grab the contacts and put 'em on a list. 

Where should you put them? You can start with your regular email. So if you're sending a small number of emails to a small number of people, you can send them out of your regular email inbox. You don't need to set up a fancy newsletter tool. It doesn't really matter. Now it's nice and polite to give an unsubscribed link. 

And you can risk getting marked as spam, particularly if you're adding folks that you haven't been in recent contact with. So once you get past a, the first couple of emails, I would think about setting up a mailing list tool. And there's three that I recommend you look at MailerLite, Flodesk and ConvertKit. 

There are a million email marketing tools out there. So don't overindex on my recommendations here. Any tool that you use, you can use MailChimp, you can use something built in to your website. If you're using Wix or Squarespace, they both have built-in mailing tools.

It doesn't matter. It just needs to be easy for you to use. I like mailer light because it embeds really well into my website. I use Squarespace for my website, so they have really nice lightweight forms and I don't have to fuss with them too much. In order for them to show up nicely on my website. They also have a really generous, free tier where you can have up to a thousand subscribers for free that I think is, is pretty good in the email marketing space. 

But again, There are other tools that have free plans and you may not even be worried about hitting that subscriber count. So choose the tool. That's easy for you. 

Flodesk is great. If you're in a creative business and you really want full creative control over your emails. Emails tend to be really simple because email is an open market and there are so many email inboxes, and you really can't control how your email's gonna land. And look in someone's email the way that you can with a website or with social media. 

But Flodesk gives you the opportunity to crop creatively, your photos and your imagery, and they allow you to upload custom fonts. So you can really do a lot of incredible visual layouts with flow desk You can use flow desk for landing pages and simple checkout flows. Their pricing is flat rate. So you don't get punished for growing your email list, which is nice, but you pay a lot more if you're just getting going than you would with another tool. That gets more expensive as you grow your list. 

ConvertKit is a really popular email tool for creators. 

It's a little bit more complex than we really need when we're just getting started, but it has a lot of cool features. You can do landing pages and convert kit. You can do automated flows. And you can also charge for your newsletter. So you can do a paid newsletter through convert kit. They also have checkout pages and other ways to monetize through there. It's really designed for people who are creating on social media or on YouTube to be able to be their one stop shop and help them avoid having a website. 

Remember that with email tools, you can always download your list and move them to another platform. So you won't get locked in to email the way that you get locked into something like social media. I would think about two factors when you're choosing your first tool. 

One is how easily those forms embed on your website. So if you're gonna take in new subscribers or you're gonna put calls to action in your blog,

you want the newsletter tool to play nice with your website? So this can be an indicator that you might use something built into your website. If you're using Squarespace or Wix or Shopify, and otherwise you just wanna make sure that those forms work for you. If you don't have a website, then you might just wanna check their standalone email forms and make sure that they have everything you need. And that they're easy for you to set up. 

The second thing you wanna check is how easy the layout tool is for you. So how easy do you find it to compose an email in that tool? But I want to caveat that by saying that I'm noticing people's emails are getting simpler and simpler as an effort to stand out in the inbox. 

So here's an example from Victoria Boyd. 

And if you're listening and not watching this, it's a plain text email. There's no photos in it. There's not even so much as an emoji in it. So I'm seeing more and more emails move towards this style where it's just plain text. There's no logo on it. It's just the message that's being delivered and usually a link. So this is a text link instead of a button. 

Most email tools are gonna give you an option to add imagery or buttons. And I personally use those in my emails, but. We're sort of moving away in the email space away from overly designed, overly laid out emails. So as long as your email tool is easy for you to use, that's gonna be fine for sending out newsletters. 

When people are starting their email newsletter, they often ask how frequently they need to be sending those emails. I don't think you can go wrong here. I've had email lists that have been long dead, that I have revived and have re-engaged and ignited value out of. So I don't think you can really screw up email, whether you go too infrequently or too frequently. There's on the flip side of that. There's people that's in daily emails. So it really is set by you. 

I would say a minimum to shoot for is quarterly. If you are a service-based business and you are sending a quarterly email it's a great cadence to remind people that you're booking for the next quarter. 

And that gets us into what should you send with these emails? 

As you get going. If you're keeping in touch with your clients and your referrers, I would recommend celebrating clients, celebrating their success. They'll love being highlighted there and it helps people remember what you do and see the value that you've created in other businesses. You can also highlight some behind the scenes. So either a process improvement or photos of you working behind the scenes. And you can make a call that you're open for work. You can remind people about your booking process. 

This is particularly great if you take on repeat clients and if you don't, you can make a call for our referrals. If you know anyone who needs a service, please forward them this email. Reinforcing what you do, celebrating your clients, deepening the relationship with them. And opening up the door for continued work. And a potential referral. 

Once you started emailing people, hopefully you'll see the value in email. You'll start getting replies. You'll start getting bookings and it'll make you wanna invest even further in your email list. I know that I've seen the value of email over and over again in so many businesses. 

So as you start to see that value, you'll want to do more with your email list. And if you're thinking about how to grow your email newsletter beyond the audience, you already have. I wanna share some ways to do that, where you can stay intentional about who's on your list. 

I want to also warn you about padding, your email list. Sometimes people talk about buying email lists or getting as many email subscribers as possible. And I don't think that's a good use of your energy because ultimately the people on your email newsletter, they're there for a goal. So you want them to do something in your world, whether that is support something, donate to something, buy something, share something. 

You want them to be a qualified audience of some kind. I think of this through the lens of buyers and refers. If they're not already your clients, you want them to be prospects or people that would send prospects your way. Now that may not be true depending on your monetization model, but think about that audience intentionally, who should be on that list and why. 

Instead of just getting as many subscribers as possible.

To that end. Let's talk about how you can grow your email list thoughtfully. One of my favorite ways to do this is by partnering with other business owners. If you have a lead magnet or some kind of free download that you're already promoting. You can exchange that with other business owners who have a similar audience to yours, and cross-promote each other's downloads to your lists. 

Here's an example from Meneske. She offers a freebie exchange, but even if you don't have a formal freebie exchange, you can approach another business owner who you think would add value for your audience and vice versa and propose a freebie exchange. 

There's also new communities like letter growth popping up where you can identify newsletters that might fit your same target audience. And reach out to those newsletter publishers to partner and cross promote, 

it's open-ended how you collaborate with these newsletters. And you can see their ideal partners and also who already subscribes to their newsletters. So you can get a sense of whether or not you would be a mutual fit.

Another great tool that you can experiment with as you're growing your list is something like spark loop, which is a referral program specific to your newsletter list. So the same principle applies. We're getting in front of our buyers and our referrers, and we're asking them to introduce us to the next tier of buyer and refers. 

Newsletter referral programs are a fantastic way to do this. Spark loop is not cheap though. There's other tools out there that you can check out. 

The way that this works is they generate a block for you. That creates a unique code for each of your email subscribers. And when they send your email to someone else and that person signs up, they can get rewards, which you set up, you choose what those rewards are. But again, putting your energy in here, cultivating that depth of relationship with your audience and encouraging referrals through more ways than one will pay off more than trying to broadcast out to strangers. So I'd really encourage you to look at this space in your business before you spend energy, trying to meet new people on your own. 

If you're doing events or conferences or talks or webinars at the end of those, you always wanna make sure that people are staying in touch. So email is a great call to action. If you didn't already get their email upfront, you wanna make sure you stay connected. You've already qualified that audience through the topic of that event. 

Put it up on a slide at the end, with a simple link or a QR code, you can also put this QR code on your business card. If you're doing a lot of in-person networking. 

Your email signature can be an easy one. If you're corresponding with people a lot via email, you can just put a link to your newsletter in your email signature. Here's an example from my email signature, it's my main call to action there. I don't bother putting my social media in there because I really want people on my email list. And if I'm writing you back and forth, it's likely that you would want to be on my email list. So it's a little bit of a stronger call to action than following me on social media, which I assume these people already do. 

And even if they don't, I'd rather have them on my email list anyway. 

You should definitely be promoting your list on your own website and in your blog posts. Here's an example from XayLi Barclay, who is a YouTuber and video producer and video coach. And she has her lead magnet pop up when you land on her website and then throughout her blog post you'll see those calls to action 

so that if you're getting value out of her content or you're already coming to her website, you can stick around and not bounce away and leave forever. Having the email prompt on your website, making sure that it's really obvious how people can stay connected with you. So that that first visit doesn't become the last visit and they stick around. 

That's a powerful way to get subscribers on your list. They already know you. So keep in touch. 

And lastly, you wanna talk about your email list. So anywhere you're talking, whether you're networking, you're doing a podcast, you're at an event. Talk about your newsletter. Ask if people wanna be on it. As you're building relationships, email is a great. One to many, stay in touch tools. So you don't have to follow up with everyone. One by one, you can make sure that people are getting into your orbit And you're staying in touch with them as a group with your email list. 

As your list grows beyond clients, customers, and refers. You're gonna wanna increase your pace and send at a minimum, a monthly newsletter. 

And if you're up for it, moving to a weekly newsletter can be a really high value way to spend your time, particularly if you're already doing other marketing activities. So. Here. We're all about low energy. I don't like to add work to people's plates, but I would really encourage you if you're looking at things like SEO. If you're doing blogging, if you're doing social media to redirect that energy to your email list first, because this is your highest engaged audience, it is a warm crowd of people who already know you. 

People who like you and people who are starting to trust you, and you want to engage them and deepen your relationship there because they are closer to the money than people who you are just meeting on other. Platforms. 

As you grow this list, your content's gonna shift too. So you're really gonna be looking a little bit farther ahead at what people are thinking about before they buy from you. So you're no longer really catering to people who know you really well in your clients and your refers. You're looking at people who might be on the edge of that audience. 

And you're thinking about what will set them up to want to buy what I'm selling. What topics are top of mind for them? What questions are they asking right before they purchase the solution that you offer? You're still gonna wanna highlight success stories from your work. So celebrating your clients doesn't go away. I would double down on that. 

It's a great way to continue relationships with clients. 

And it's also a great way to highlight what you do to convert people who are on the fence about whether or not to to work with you. 

You can share more about your journey and who you are, so people can connect with you more. And then you always wanna make sure that you're sharing calls to action and highlighting what it is that you want people to do so that they take that action. Don't lose sight of that. 

Even when you're providing value in your newsletter, there's a point to your newsletter. So consider what that point is and make sure you're asking people to take the action that you want them to take. 

I'd love to hear how you're using email in your business, specifically how you're thinking about growing that list and what kind of content you're sending them. 

Head over to low energy leads.com and record a voicemail or DM me on Instagram at super easy. Does it? You can rate and review the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

And until next time, keep your energy low and your value high.