For any small business or busy marketing team, making the time to maintain a schedule of publishing a blog or sending out email newsletters is easier said than done. Especially for solopreneurs like myself, email marketing can feel like a chore, or even overwhelming. With all of the bells and whistles available, it’s easy to get bogged down in a rabbit hole of content questions and technical puzzles, and the next thing you know, you haven’t reached out to your subscribers and clients in months. I’ve been there more times than I care to admit.
To get yourself back in the habit of consistent email outreach, it always helps to scale it down and simplify. Here’s a few practical ways to reduce the stress and effort of your next email campaign:
- Keep it short. There’s no need to write a full essay… a few paragraphs will do just fine. No matter how much your subscribers love you, they probably won’t read an entire email if it’s too long or has too much in it. If you have a lengthy article to share, consider breaking it up and sending over several issues.
- Repurpose your content. If you blog, simply include your blog article in your newsletter. With most email marketing services, blog articles can also be set up to email to your list automatically. With some initial template setup, your email marketing can happen with just a published blog post…allowing you to check off two marketing tasks with just a single post.
- Use your service’s mailer templates and editors. Don’t get caught up in custom email design… it is not worth your time, and your mailer’s appearance won’t be optimized across devices. Today’s services feature easy to use editors that make creating branded mailer layouts a snap.
- Leverage other types of content. Including interesting news items, answers to common questions or helpful resources are great ways to add variety to your newsletter while offering value to your subscribers.
- Simple text messages work great! If you are time-pressed or just don’t want to worry about mailer layouts, scale back even more and send a simple text message without images. These are often the most effective, as they focus the readers attention on your message. These more “personal” formats are good to mix it up a bit and call extra attention to special announcements.
- Keep a content notebook. There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank screen with no inspiration. Whenever you get a good idea or see a great resource, save it in your favorite notekeeping app. When it’s time to publish your next issue, you’ll be ready to go with good content.
Next time you struggle with squeezing in time for your email campaigns, take some time to boil it down to the essentials. Email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. The goal is to create a system that makes it easy to keep a consistent publishing schedule. You’ll have less stress and your contacts will be happy to hear from you!