What to send to your email list in 2020

You’ve put in the time and effort to build your email list using a free lead magnet or opt-in, you’ve created a nurture sequence and you’ve promoted your opt-in to your audience. Now you have real subscribers who actually care about what you have to say! But, how do you know what to send your email list? 

 

 

 

What to send to your email subscribers in 2020

So many business owners build their email list but forget the most important aspect to email marketing: actually emailing your list. What’s the point of having people on your list if you never email them?

Many people spend time building an email list and just leave it sitting there until they’re ready to promote something. Then, they send a sales email and wonder why on earth a whole heap of people unsubscribed.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU BE EMAILING YOUR EMAIL LIST?

Personally, I think once a week is good. But, at an absolute minimum, you should be emailing your subscribers once a month.

I understand that we’re all busy and it takes a bit of time to create an email newsletter and send it out, but seriously, people will forget you if you don't email them.

They will forget your brand and forget why they even joined your email list in the first place. Sometimes, they will even forget that they opted-in to your email list and they will report you as spam. This hurts your email deliverability and gets you into more junk mail folders and fewer inboxes.

Yes, weekly might seem like a lot, but you can actually create and schedule your emails ahead of time. I've previously written about batching and scheduling your content – this is one task you can apply both of these tactics to.

WHAT TO SEND TO YOUR EMAIL LIST IN 2020

I get it, it can be hard to know what to send to your email list.

The short answer is: stuff that adds value to their lives. Yes, you should be emailing them every time you want to promote something, but that shouldn’t be the only time you email your list. Remember: give, give, give and then ask. It shouldn’t be too hard to add value to your audience's lives.

Remember – whatever content you’ve already created can be repurposed into email content – be it a blog, a video or an ebook. Any of that can be repurposed into an email. You could also give them a behind-the-scenes look into your business, or your life as a way to build a connection.

Or, you could ask them a question. For example, an email asking them what they most need help with right now. That could yield some pretty interesting insights for you, which could then be used to create content or products that solve the problems of your ideal customers perfectly.

A LITTLE WORD ON SUBJECT LINES:

Your open rate is the percentage of people on your list who opened your email.  An open rate of 20% or above is generally considered good. If your list is smaller you’ll likely get a higher open rate, but the one thing that can really influence your open rate is your subject line.

Your subject line needs to entice a recipient to open in a crowded inbox. This is far easier said than done. Try to create some intrigue with your subject line, or, alternatively – just straight up tell them what’s in it for them. I personally have found that using a personalisation tag, like their first name, in the subject line works really well for open rates too.

The specifics of using a personalisation tag will depend on which email marketing tool you’re using.

SOMEONE UNSUBSCRIBED – WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

You’re not doing anything wrong. It’s totally normal for people to unsubscribe from your email list.

In fact, according to Mailchimp, the average unsubscribe rate across all industries is around 0.33%. This means that if you have 1000 people on your email list, around 3 people will unsubscribe each time you send a campaign. This does vary by industry, so check out the Mailchimp blog, or your industry’s benchmarks.

Yes, I know it’s hard not to take it personally, but if someone unsubscribes chances are they were never going to buy from you anyway.

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