Marketing

I admit, when I started using email marketing seriously in my second business, I was way too narrowly focused on sales and discounts. But that is not the only way to get your subscribers’ attention and buy into your brand.

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In addition to waiting too long and being too focused on sales with email markeitng, I was just plain old inconsistent. I believe many small business owners can identify with me on all of those points. You know the importance of email marketing in your business, and you’ve probably experienced the power of email marketing as a consumer, but you are inconsistent for a number of reasons.

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You don't know what to say

You're not sure how to use your email service provider

Your emails don't look the way you want t

You don't want to come off to “salesy”

I understand and I've been in each one of those phases over the course of my journey as an entrepreneur. But one thing I've learned about email marketing is that creating high quality content consistently is what really matters. As long as you are producing content that your audience wants to read, finds valuable and can connect with on a regular basis, you’ll never run out of things to say and it won’t matter what your emails look like.

Here’s My Point

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools I'm using to take my business to the next level. Although I didn't start out using it efficiently, I now have the knowledge and confidence to use it as more than just a sales channel. Because I've taken the time to learn my audience and rely on consistency, I can now use email marketing as a vehicle to carry out my business’s mission. Through trial and error I’ve been able to fine tune my email marketing skills and build a community that continues to grow and thrive. And you can do this too, if you start with effort and intention!

In my first business as a freelance makeup artist, one of the things I allowed to hold me back was procrastination. Especially when it came to email marketing.

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I was vaguely aware of email marketing, but I didn't know how to use it as a makeup artist.

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I knew how to take pictures of my clients for Instagram. I knew how to use livestream to talk to my audience and explain the process. But I wasn’t sure how to translate my work into content for email. All I knew about email marketing was that it was a way for businesses to send sales and discounts to subscribers. I didn't understand how I was going to turn my love for highlighting and contouring my client’s face to the gods into emails that my audience would want to read every single week.

So, because I couldn't figure out how to make it perfect, I procrastinated.

One of the benefits of email marketing, that I completely missed the mark on, is that it reinforces brand values no matter what the content is about. All content across all platforms should reinforce brand values. And because email is such a personal form of marketing, you can use it to build a strong community around your brand.

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I also failed to realize that my goal as a makeup artist was more than just doing makeup. My mission was to make Black women feel beautiful no matter what they looked like, which is something I strived to do when my clients were in and out of my chair.

With that in mind, for me to use email marketing effectively, my question went from “How can I turn what I do into email content?” to “How can I use my overall mission to form a bond with my email subscribers?” A bond that will not only make them more familiar with me and what I do, why I do it, and make them more willing to trust me in my craft.

You don't have to make the same mistakes I did with email marketing. I waited entirely too long to incorporate email marketing into my business. At a much later point I learned I did not need a product or service ready to offer to start using email marketing efficiently. Why? Because my overall mission is much bigger than what I'm selling. I could use email marketing to establish my brand's mission, values and to connect with subscribers on those principles because they are global