When it comes to marketing your offerings, such as B. your regular yoga classes, workshops, retreats or other services, email marketing is undoubtedly the most effective way to grow your business.
It’s a fact and Instagram and Facebook don’t come close (maybe , unless you’re a yoga girl).
Reading: How to create an email list on
I love Instagram like the next yoga teacher, it’s free, fun and easy to use, but the fact of the matter is you don’t belong to your followers You don’t really… Instagram does. And boy don’t let us feel that, with all the algorithm changes, only a tiny fraction of your followers actually see your updates.
There’s no getting around that, my friend, you must have an email list and newsletter that you send to your subscribers on a regular basis. Plus a few other things I’ll cover next.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you purchase something through a link. Please rest assured that I only recommend products that I personally use and love!
Step 1 – Select your email marketing provider
If you If you want to email as a business and not to your best friend or sister, you need to use what is known as an email marketing provider. Don’t just use your Gmail account to email your customers. Not only will you be breaking email marketing laws (yes, they exist), you also have no real opportunity to grow your list since people can’t sign up for it. And the good news is that you can get started for free, so there’s really no excuse!
There are tons of options, but the one platform I recommend is ConvertKit because you have so many more options to expand your list and still be intuitive and easy to use. They have a free plan for up to 300 subscribers, where you can create multiple forms and landing pages, and it’s great to get started.
Here are just a few reasons I love it:
- The platform is well designed and extremely easy to use.
- It comes with powerful tagging and segmentation features that you get with a paid plan that starts at $9 per month. For example, you could exclude people who have already signed up for your upcoming retreat if you send everyone else a last-minute discount promo. AND it’s really easy to set up too.
- Their customer service team is super helpful.
- Finally, emails are delivered reliably (which you would expect, but don’t always get elsewhere).
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Sign up and set up your chosen email marketing provider. If you want to choose ConvertKit, read this article: Get started with ConvertKit.
Step 2 – SET UP YOUR DOMAIN EMAIL ADDRESS
To email -To send newsletters you need to have a domain email address. This is an email set up with your unique website url, for example mine is [email protected]. You can’t use Gmail, Hotmail, or any other tool to build your email list and send out newsletters.
If you already have a website, check if your website platform gives you the setup of email addresses allowed. For example, if you have a WordPress website, you can usually set up your email in your hosting dashboard.
If you don’t already have a website, you can register a URL with Google and set up your email as well. mail address with them. Please note that this feature may not yet be available in all countries. If not, you can, for example, register a URL with Siteground.com and also set up your email address with just a few clicks in their dashboard.
Step 3 – Create an opt-in form for your Website
Next, you want people to be able to subscribe to your list through your website. Create a bare form in Convertkit that you can then embed on your homepage, for example.
Add a title above the form and describe in a few words what people can expect when they sign up register. Make it engaging and fun. Whatever you do, don’t just say “Sign up for my newsletter”.
Instead, use something like:
JOIN MY INNER CIRCLE
Subscribe to my Magical Love Letters and receive exclusive emails delivered to your inbox weekly. My goal is to only send out great stuff that is guaranteed to inspire you and help you live your best life.
Here is a sign-up form I have on my homepage:
Step 4 – Write your first newsletter
Before you start sending out random notes or shouting out things you want to present to your subscribers, think about how you can best serve them .
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You have a huge opportunity – even responsibility – to add value to your subscribers. When someone essentially says, “Hey, I like you enough to give you my email address,” you owe it to them to give everything you can to make sure they make progress on that stays current or entertained.
How do you do that?
I like to start subscribing to newsletters from people I admire.They don’t all have to be in the same field as you, some online marketers like Marie Forleo are definitely worth signing up for as well. Start analyzing their emails. What do you like, what annoys you? This will help you find your voice and content structure.
Here are a few things to consider before writing your newsletter:
How often do you send it out? Quality is more important than quantity, but consistency is everything. If you wait too long between emails, your subscribers might forget you (who the hell is sending me that?), and if your email delivery is very inconsistent, it won’t build trust. I think a weekly newsletter is great if you produce new content every week, like yoga videos for example, otherwise once a month is fine.
What do you want to put in there? It’s good to have some structure so your subscribers know what to expect. For example, you could start your newsletter by sharing a personal story or insight. People want to know what’s happening in your life. Then you want to offer added value, such as For example, an early bird discount for your next workshop or a link to your new yoga video.
Write as if you were speaking to a friend. When we read entertainment content, we immediately feel connected to the author. We feel like we get to know him or her. This is your goal. But how do you actually do that? Conversational writing doesn’t mean that you actually write while you speak (for me that would be wishy-washy words, grammatical errors and unfinished sentences…). Instead, edit your text so it doesn’t sound like it’s written, and don’t forget to add a touch of personality. In a world of endless pixels and meaningless likes, we crave human connections and voices that speak to us. Just try to be yourself and write like you’re chatting with your student over a cup of chai tea.
Click here for more tips on writing great emails receive
Step 5 – Create a welcome message
It is highly recommended that you use double opt-in when setting up your forms and it is in fact a legal requirement in the EU and other countries. This means your new subscribers will need to verify their email address by clicking a link in the double opt-in email before they’re added to your list.
Es is a bit of a chore, but it will help you grow a more active email list with people genuinely interested in your content and offerings. If someone doesn’t even bother to verify their email, they probably aren’t really interested in you.
If you’re using the free plan with Convertkit, the double opt-in e -Mail This will also be your welcome email, so use this email to welcome your new subscribers and remind them who you are and how you can help them.
First impressions count here. That’s why you should put some effort into your welcome message.
In your message, you want to acknowledge how grateful you are to the people who actually took the time to subscribe to your list. So start by saying “thank you.”
Next, tell your new subscribers what to expect from you now that they’re on your list. Weekly updates? Funny things? Invitations to upcoming workshops? First dips in new retreats? Exclusive offers? You want them to be happy about being added to our mailing list.
Here is my welcome message for people who subscribe to my list:
Step 6 – Design a giveaway
People fucking love getting free stuff. Offering someone an unexpected gift is one of the quickest ways to bond with that person. And if that gift or freebie you’re giving someone who signs up for your email list happens to be totally awesome, beautiful, inspirational, or helpful? Instant love and connection ensue.
Here are some common types of opt-in freebies:
- Workbook
- Checklist
- Cheat Sheet
- Yoga Class
- Video Tutorial
- Email Class
- Discount Code
- PDF Guide
It’s about being generous while showing people how smart and awesome you are – not just “building a bigger mailing list” for fun.
If you’re at a loss and not sure what type of giveaway would be ideal for your customers, here’s a good question to ask yourself:
What are my customers struggling with the most?
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And what’s one gift that might help them with that… that?
It probably won’t be the complete solution – you should of course encourage your subscribers to come to your classes or workshops come for extra support – but this could be a great place to start.
The Sch The key is to find a topic and format that resonates strongly with your subscribers and will make them happy to share their email il address for.
Click here to learn more about creating a great Create opt-in giveaway.
Step 7 – Create a Landing Page
Once you have your amazing giveaway, you want to promote it and show it to as many people as possible. But if it’s hidden somewhere on your homepage, not everyone will find it and people will be distracted by everything else.
This is where a landing page comes in. On your landing page, you introduce your giveaway, tell people what they want to get, and give them the option to sign up for it. nothing else! You share the link to this page as often as possible, for example, put it on your Instagram profile, post it on Pinterest and Facebook groups.
Here is an example of one of my landing pages:
Step 8 – Drive traffic to your giveaway
Now that you’ve created a great giveaway, it’s time to publish it!
There is one A million and one ways you can advertise your freebie, but here are a few of my favorites:
- Facebook Post
- Instagram Stories – save the images to a story Highlight
- Blog Posts
- Site Sidebar
- Facebook Groups
- Forums or other places where your readers hang out
- Guest Posts
- A quick one-liner or “PS” in the signature field of your emails, below your em name and contact information.
The worst thing you can do is spend days actually creating the giveaway and t Then you’re not investing enough time in the promotion!
Step 9 – Create a content plan
Having a plan is the key to consistency. First, brainstorm topics and look for upcoming events you want to promote. Next, plan your newsletters for the next 2-3 months so you know about any upcoming events or updates or promotions to include in your emails.
This strategy prevents disasters in the end minute you can conveniently design your email newsletters and prevent sending random, unstructured emails.
Step 10 – Test, test, test
Take something Time to thoroughly test each email before you send it is super important. Read it through at least twice and check all links.
Next, test different options to improve your performance, such as:
Which day of the week results in higher open rates?
What subject lines are most effective?
Should you use a different name in the From field?
Testing everything is the secret of successful marketers. How else do you know if what you’re doing is working?
What’s next?
Building an email list can take a little time and effort, but It definitely pays to get serious about growing your business. When you start attracting loyal fans who genuinely want to receive your emails because your content adds value to their lives, that’s exciting indeed. Later, you can use all those email subscribers to send out invitations to yoga retreats, upcoming workshops, or even sell your new online course to generate passive income. It’s all in the list!
I hope this article has helped you create your own email list building strategy.
See also: How to Create Gmail Account?
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