What To Send Your Email List When You Have No Idea

Is not having a clue about what to send your email list putting you off starting one?

The thing is that the main purpose of an email list is to make money for your business.

 Whether it makes you money straight away or you prefer to focus on creating a relationships with your community first is for you to decide. But it your list is where you're going to find your fans, your customers and clients, so you  should treat it as one of your best assets.

So you need to start one now.

And, if you do have one and have been neglecting  your subscribers, you need to start sending them emails before they forget who you are.

 Here are some ideas for you to start nurturing your list and always have something to send them.

how often should you send emails to your list

If you want to look at data and see what other people are doing, Clickz has an article that explains everything about email marketing frequency.

But as far as I'm concerned, you have to choose a frequency that is right for you and won't overwhelm your subscribers. 

If you're starting out, aim for 1-2 per month and increase to weekly emails when your list grows. 

What's important is that you make it how often subscribers will receive emails from you. 

Let them know in a welcome email.

One thing every email you send needs

Before we look at what to send to your subscribers, bear in mind that the content you send to your subscribers should have value. There should be something there that helps them learn something, a solution to one of their problems, something that will keep them reading your emails. Even when you are selling stuff, add something of value to your emails or make them entertaining.

And ALL your emails should have a goal or a purpose. It doesn't matter if the goal is something as simple as getting people to read a blog post, download a file, fill in a survey, or something intangible like building trust or a commercial purpose like booking a consultation or buying something.

What to send your email list

Now, let's have a look at the type of emails and email content ideas anybody can send their email list.

New Blog Posts

I don't send every new blog post to my list, but many people do. It's up to you whether you send ALL your blog posts to your list, the most popular ones or a series of blog posts in your emails.

Or, if you have divided your subscribers into segments, you can send them emails only about the things they're interested in, so you don't overwhelm them.

A newsletter

So you can have announcements, or something you have been planning, something you've been working on, some industry news, information about a product you're developing... 

Freebies

People like freebies, they've already signed up to your emails because you gave them something for free.

If you have some new freebie, why don't you send it to them as well?

You can also create a resource library and let them know when there's any new stuff.

Learn how to do it here, it's free.

Tips and advice

You don't always have to give tips on blog posts.

You could create a series of emails to give a weekly tip or put them all together in one larger email.

Tutorials

Sometimes, you can teach somebody how to do something simple but it's too simple to write a whole blog post about it.

But it's enough to write it as an email.

Short tutorials are good for creating a series of emails to fill your calendar, let's say you could send one of these once a month, or they can be a one-off type of email.

Case Studies and similar things

A case study of work you did for a client, some testimonials or even FAQs about what you do.

Old Blog Posts

Used strategically, old blog posts can be very useful:

You can use them when you have a busy month, when you go away on holidays or when you are doing some sales campaigns but you still want to send content to your list

Or when you have a blog post that converts well (for affiliate marketing or sales of products) and you want to make sure it circulates through your list again. 

And after you've done some work to improve old blog posts, you can also send them to your list again.

Personal stuff 

Anecdotes and experiences that are related to your niche, so your list gets to know you as a person, not just as an email address.

Depending on the niche you can be more or less "personal" but these type of emails are good for creating a connection with your readers. 

Sales emails

How often you do this depends on how big your list is, what you do, and whether you offer services or products. 

But if you don't schedule email sales campaigns regularly, you're missing out!

It's one of the main reasons why you need an email list!

What's more, you don't want to be relying on a small sales funnels when people first come in the list and then you don't sell them anything else again until you have a massive sales campaign.

Cos big sales campaigns can leave you exhausted and might be a pain in the neck for your subscribers.

Get some tips guaranteed to make you more money with your sales campaigns here.

Launch emails

Every time you create a new product or launch a new service, you need to make sure your email list subscribers are aware of it.

But emailing them just once is not enough. 

The thing is that people are busy and are not always looking at their email on the day you want them to.

Or the subject line you've used might not make them open your email and click on the links.

But if you email them more than once, they're more likely to buy your new product.

So, use a series of emails for your launch campaigns, anything from 2 to 3 to 8-10 emails. 

Trending topics

Some trending news happening that will impact your industry.

Feel free to add your opinion or your advice.  

For example, as I am writing this blog post, the UE has passed Article 13 which affects copyright. So, if I wanted to, I could be writing an email about it and telling my community what it means for them and how they use social media.

Questions

If you really want to know what your audience wants, ask them.

It's OK to do this as part of your welcome sequence or during the year.

Surveys

Surveys go into more detail, so you can use these to develop new products and services.

For example, you can ask what new products they'd be interested in, how much they'd pay, why they didn't buy your last product, etc.

Challenges

Challenges can be engaging for your subscribers because they get to take a small action every day and, hopefully, they get to see the results quickly.

You can also use challenges so your subscribers post the results online and you get more social media exposure.

Lists of resources and tools

People love lists, and they're very easy to create.

They're also very easy to repurpose into a blog later and they can be monetised with affiliate marketing.

Behind the scenes

Showing people what goes on behind the scenes of your business: the good parts, the bad parts, the challenging parts... 

It's great if you can include photos or videos in this type of emails. And it's also good for you to show your "vulnerable" side.

Other people's content

Found something awesome somebody else has written in your niche?  

Then why not send it to your list as well?

For one of my websites, I used to do a monthly email with my favourite posts and articles from other people and I always got replies from my subscribers saying how useful they found them.

Seasonal stuff

You should already be planning your content according to the seasons so you can promote the right type of posts and products at the right time.

Even more so if you use Pinterest for your marketing.

But this also applies to your email list.

Don't forget to send emails for relevant occasions, events and dates to your list.  

And integrate your sales campaigns with them.

Milestones

Use your milestone emails to tell your audience what you have achieved and what you have learnt since you started, or what mistakes you made.

Some people send traffic or income reports as part of their milestone emails.

It works for some niches but not others.

So think about what milestones and goals you are working to wards and let your email list when you do. 

conclusion

Your email list is one of your most important business assets so you shouldn't neglect it.

It's important to grow it and nurture it.

And you do this by emailing your email list consistently and sending them a variety of types of emails that they will enjoy.

I hope you've found these ideas useful to come up with content ideas for your email list.

What about you?

Have you struggled with creating email content consistently?

Care to tell me in the comments what's your biggest email marketing challenge?

If you're ready to start growing your email list, why don't you give ConvertKit a try?