The Best Email Templates to Welcome Readers
By: Linda James Bennett At Shinyobjectmarketing.Com
Tags: Email Marketing, Marketing, Copywriting, Life Coaching, Business Coaching

Permission marketing turns strangers into friends and friends into loyal customers. It’s not just about entertainment — it’s about education. Permission marketing is curriculum marketing. Seth Godin

Now that you’ve got your email list building underway, it’s time to think about what you’re going to say to your new readers. The truth is you’ve probably read articles and how-to guides on list building, but what happens next?

Once they’ve joined your list, they expect to hear from you. Naturally, you’ve promised them something to get them to sign up. They’ve said yes, email me. You’ve got their permission to email them as often as you’d like.

As quickly as they enter your database, if you don’t deliver the value, they’re going to unsubscribe. So, let’s roll up our sleeves and put a plan together.

Behind the scenes, you’re creating a roadmap for your readers. While your conversational tone is light and airy, you are serious about the journey you want your readers to follow.

Email marketing aims to increase the know, like, and trust factor with your readers. Ultimately, they will feel good enough about you that they will buy from you.

And isn’t that what we did when we subscribed to a new email list? We’re confirming the information we’re getting is worth our time and attention.

It’s like the joke about the dog who is continually chasing after cars going down the street; truthfully, he wouldn’t know what to do if he caught it. We don’t want to be that person. If someone trusts us with their contact information, we want to be sure we know what we’re going to do with it.

What’s the plan?

Welcome new subscribers

This is an easy opening to your new relationship. Setting the stage for what’s next provides a sense of certainty for the reader.

· Introduce yourself and your company to the newsreader

· Create a message that resonates with them

· Let them know how and why you’ll be emailing them

· Confirm the great choice they made, signing up to your list

· Ask them to do something small to confirm their interest

· Create a soap-opera-like cliffhanger to grab their attention

Day 2: Follow-up Welcome message

If you’ve got evergreen articles, videos, and even podcasts you want to showcase, this is the perfect email to direct them to your best content. Your readers will appreciate you showing them around with materials that they would enjoy.

This is like having friends over. You want to show them around, where you have your best goodies, and how to make themselves at home.

Hook them up with your “Best of” content and tell them why they need it.

Day 3: Follow-up Welcome

This email adds the “Best of” series that you started the day before. You’re reminding them that you indeed have value to help them. Refer back to your previous email telling them how the emails can be used together.

Call-Out emails

This three-part email sequence is used to generate interest in something that they wanted. When you know that your readers are interested in achieving ‘something,’ you want to see who will raise their hand for help.

· The series starts with ‘do you need help” as the subject line.

o You then build on the problem they’re experiencing and ask them if they have taken action on their project

· In the second step, you use the email “join me in congratulating” email highlighting the fantastic results someone else has had with the same goal.

· The third step, “have you yet,” is a recap of how you help them reach their goal.

Start thinking about your email roadmap

These are some email objectives you can use to engage your readers with your fantastic content.

If you have an e-commerce business, these are the same steps that you need to take to create the foundation with your reader.

Create a roadmap for your readers to follow. Add in exciting articles that are personality-driven to capture their attention. When you design your emails in a soap-opera style narrative, they will be hooked on each message waiting for the wrap-up. But it never wraps-up, do it unless you’re ending the show.

Emails don’t have to a specific length to work. As a matter of fact, switching it up will give your readers a break from long epic posts.

Sometimes you need a bite, not the whole three-course meal.

The Next Steps

The emails described above are then put into an automated delivery system, like Constant Contact to send as soon as a new subscriber signs up. There are many automated email vendors; I like Constant Contact because it is beginner-friendly and reasonably priced.

While there are more sophisticated products in the marketplace, consider the learning curve required before you’re putting it into service. Some providers offer world-class support, extensive online training, and webinars to help you reach your goals. In this arena, you will find all levels of service at varying price points.

Ask yourself what is included and what isn’t. It’s easy to spend a ton of money on the most sophisticated offerings, but where do you see yourself in the next few years.

Select budget-friendly software that is easy to set up and implement with drag and drop design tools. If you’re a small business, you need a system that will pay for itself within a reasonable timeframe.

Now that you’ve set up your automated email series, you still need to email them your latest tips, hacks, and shortcuts that you’ve come across. The automated series is there to remove repetitive tasks from your to-do list. Be consistent with your messaging and present a professional image, no matter what business you’re in.

In summary:

Start connecting with your audience. Consider them an extension of the people you see every day as you educate them. Build a strong network of loyal readers who look forward to hearing from you — for specials, new blog posts, or a news story.

Email marketing is one of my specialties. If you’d like to chat about your next project, reach out at Linda@shinyobjectmarketing.com

Linda James Bennett; day 35 of 365 writing an article every day, making you a shiny object in the world.