Today is the first day of Blogmas 2021 and I’m excited to be embarking on this journey for the second year in a row. The difference this time is 1) Im much better prepared and 2) I’ve gotten the Collective community involved.

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With that being said, I did a poll on Twitter (a common theme for me these days) asking what my first Blogmas post should be. The answer, BY FAR, was How To Create an Email Strategy. So this article will walk you through my process of creating an email strategy for myself and my clients.

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Now let’s make sure you’re in the right place. I'm going to list a few statements and I want you to decide which statement resonates the most for you:

1. I feel like writing isn't my strength
2. I’m not confident in my emails when I send them
3. I get writers block every time I need to send an email
4. I’ve been using email marketing on and off but haven’t seen any results
5. I want a reliable way to put out great emails regularly

Which one of these statements tugged at you?

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I’ll be honest, I’ve felt every one of these sentiments. 

Early in my entrepreneurial journey, I sold cosmetics. I drove traffic to my website and made sales ON LAUNCH DAY. The reason why is because I had an email list. I used it to inform my growing community about my products, so that when my site went live, I saw a warm audience to take action.

Since then I’ve really gone through it with email marketing. 

Even with the success I had in the beginning, I still wasn't sure that I could make it work for me. I was doing ALL THE THINGS. 

But I still wasn't getting results. It wasn't until I got intentional about my marketing efforts, but especially my email marketing because I knew that it was the core of my community. I started by coming up with a framework, a plan, that covered 3 months of emails. 

From that plan I was able to see my highest number of website visitors and generate income consistently!

And I haven't only been able to do this with just my business. 

I've used the same system with my clients which has allowed them to reduce their anxiety with email marketing, grow their communities and make sales with CONFIDENCE.

So this article walks you through the process of creating an email strategy that 

• Aligns your email marketing efforts for maximum results
• Creates effective email content with Confidence and 
• Develops a reliable framework for consistency
  

Alignment

One thing that has made a huge difference in my life in general and a great impact on my business, is Alignment.

Alignment is defined as “the proper positioning or state of adjustment of parts in relation to each other”. In other words, getting your ducks in a row.

What you may not understand is that email marketing doesn’t stand alone in your business. While you can get great engagement and website traffic and make sales from email marketing, it’s far more effective when you use it WITH my other marketing streams.

And the best way to ensure your email marketing efforts are aligned is by establishing clear goals and expectations from the jump. When you're clear about what needs to get done, it's easy to create powerful content that gets results. This starts with strong marketing goals. 

Here are some common marketing goals 

• Build Brand Awareness
• Increase Sales or Profit
• Target New Customers
• Launch New Products
• Generate Leads
• Improve Customer Relationships
• Increase Website Traffic

Here’s an example of an aligned email marketing strategy: 

I began working with a new client and when we first began working together, we planned a 3 month content strategy which included email content for a spring sale. 

For the spring sale specifically, we determined that she wanted to launch new products and generate sales. 

We created email content that encouraged subscribers to be actively engaged throughout the sale and highlighted valuable products. 

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Because her emails were planned out and on autopilot, she was able to create a social media strategy on her end that would help accomplish the goals we outlined. 

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In the end, the hit her revenue goals, successfully sold her new products and to top it off, 20% of her customers were email subscribers!

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Content

The number one complaint I get from business owners about using or being consistent with email marketing is “I don't know what to say”. If you’re in this category, I have a secret for you.

You don't have to have the “right” words for your emails to be effective. 

There are 2 things you need to write effective emails: 1) Connection and 2) Value. 

Connection and value are the front of the line strategy to produce quality content and see traffic and sales. 

And it's not a strategy at all really. 

It should be your first intention with every interaction with your community. 

Now what does it look like when you're connecting with your subscribers? 

Connecting and giving value looks like showing empathy, addressing fears and limitations, and being genuine with your community.

When you enter an interaction with someone who’s new to your brand (often the case with email subscribers) and you’ve focused on connecting with them and leading with value, its a win for both of you.

Here are a few examples of what delivering that kind of value looks like

Getting personal 

Show the transformation

Sharing exclusive knowledge 

Community building 

Encouraging and Motivating

Market research  

Here are the types of emails that have made the biggest impact for me: 

Telling a personal story of triumph- You see me content! My personal favorite! I get the best feedback when I tell a personal story. I show in these emails that I am human and I make mistakes and don't have it right all of the time. I also share what helped me get on track and turn things around to see a positive outcome. 

Lists- I love sending a list of tools or a process I follow to achieve a certain result. It makes it clear what needs to be done and helps my community save time on something that I’ve already stumbled over and have now optimized. 

Spotlight- Through the Black Girl Boss Collective, my mission is to empower Black women every chance I get. What better way to do that than through giving them the spotlight and sharing my platform with them. It lets my community know that I notice what they're doing and that I appreciate them for the work they're doing.

The types of content that we just discussed work to show your subscribers that your brand is relatable, shows your authority in your field and shows that your subscribers are the priority. 

It's a win for the subscriber because they feel heard, seen, and valued as a member of your community. They can see tangible changes in their life as a result of being connected. 

It's a win for you because you are given the opportunity to build trust with the community member, it opens the door to get customers and returning customers, and build lasting relationships that stretch beyond transactions.

Now here’s the second most common concern I encounter: “How do I make sales without selling all the time or begging for sales?” 

When you implement the types of content previously listed, you can sell without overtly selling. 

You sell through connection. 

You provide context of your products and services are the best. These types of content make your community feel seen, heard and valued. It answers the universal questions: Why? 

Through these types of content you give value and show your community why they should take action with you over anyone else.

In this way, these types of content also work to convert your subscribers to customers before you even present the offer

So if you want to convert subscribers to customers, creating high quality content that connects to them is half the battle. 

Framework

One of the greatest barriers to success with email marketing that I’ve seen with clients and have experienced myself is a lack of consistency.

I'm going to be very honest with you: I’ve never truly felt like writing was a strength of mine. 

Writing has often been a source of frustration and anxiety for me. And at the core of my inconsistency was that same type of anxiety. 

The only thing that truly helped was to create an outline of what I'm going to write before I write it! Sounds simple but so impactful.

I created an Email Marketing Framework. 

This framework outlines the important elements of getting my emails out so that I can direct that mental energy to where it should be: showing up for my clients and connecting with my community.

The benefits of The Framework are 

• Time and energy saved on email marketing
• Reduced anxiety about what to write
• Consistency with my email marketing
• An aligned email strategy and 
• CONFIDENCE

Less than 2 hours of planning emails translates to up to 3 months of emails planned out.

So I'm going to share the elements I include in my framework and additional elements that you can use to build your own. As you’re reading this, keep in mind that I’m focusing on what works for me and the clients I’ve served. If you come across something that you think will work for you, feel free to take and implement! If you come across something that isn't in alignment with what you need, forget it and do what works for you!

Here are the 6 elements of an effective Email Content Framework

1. Theme: To start, Create a general focus for the month. It helps to use this theme across your marketing channels. This ensures that all marketing efforts are congruent and aligned. 
   

2. Frequency: Next determine the frequency you want to send your emails. Aim to send emails at least 2x per month. This helps to keep your brand top of mind.
   

3. Content Buckets: The 6 types of content previously listed are your content buckets. Choose 3 content buckets  to start and as you get more consistent and your community grows, expand your selection.
   

4. Outline:  Here is where you quickly flesh out your thoughts for each email you want to send. Include 3-5 bullet points of information that should be included in the email. This ensures all of the important stuff in the email. 
   

5. Call to action: Get clear on what you want to happen after your subscriber reads the email. This is the key to making email marketing an effective marketing avenue.
   

6. Subject line: This is often the hardest part of writing emails! So I Brainstorm 1-2 subject lines that would work for this email  based on what the email will be about and what you want subscribers to do.

So these are the 6 elements that I cover when I plan emails. Using these elements I can plan about 12 emails in less time than it takes me to cook a meal or do my hair. 

Now here are a few more elements that you may want to add to your own framework:

• Photos: high quality photos of yourself or your products are extremely helpful in connecting with and converting your email community
• Gifs: Gifs are a fun and easy way to help you get your point across. Decide which ones you’ll use when your planning to save time when its time to write the emails
• Links: the last thing you want is to tell your community to visit your website, but you forget the link or use the wrong one! Put your links in your plan so you can just copy and paste.
• Promotion: Sometimes subscribers need a reminder to check their emails! Plan how you’ll remind them through social media or other marketing avenues.
• Tags and Segments: Decide which of your subscribers you’re going to send your email to. This helps ensure you're sending targeted content to the right people in your community!

So we’ve gone over 11 elements that you can use the build your own Email Content Framework to help you stay consistent with your email marketing. 

Email marketing doesn't work if you don't implement! And creating a framework takes the guesswork, confusion and anxiety out of your strategy so you can do exactly what needs to be done.

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Was this helpful? Shoot me a DM on Twitter with your thoughts and the 1st thing you plan to do to create your email strategy. I can't wait to hear from you!