Email Marketing for Beginners: the Key to Passive Income in Your Business

Understanding Email Marketing: The What and What Not

First things first, let’s debunk a common myth: email marketing is not about spamming people’s inboxes or some get-rich-quick scheme. It’s about building relationships and offering value to people who’ve chosen to hear from you. At its core, email marketing is about creating a list of subscribers eager to receive emails from you. Simple, right?

Why Email Marketing?

Why email marketing, you ask? 

Stability and profitability! Unlike the ever-changing social media algorithms and SEO landscapes, email marketing provides a direct line to your audience. 

Think about it… you don’t own TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, right? Nope. Your account could get shut down at any time for any reason without any recourse. And don’t get me started on how I feel personally victimized my ever-changing algorithms. (Tell me I’m not alone please.)

An email list gives you the peace of mind to know that you are covered not matter what happens in the social media landscape.

It’s profitable! And guess what? For every dollar spent, the average ROI in email marketing is a whopping $36. That’s hard to beat!

You ever think about making an online purchase, but go check your inbox for a coupon code you know you signed up for? Or how about during Black Friday week when you know your favorite brands will be sending you all their deals to your inbox? 

It’s not just you. Lots of people actually go to their email inboxes to shop and spend money!

Choosing the Right Email Marketing Platform

Choosing the right platform is crucial. So let’s break down my top 3 favorite email marketing for beginners platforms.

Mailerlite

I personally am using Mailerlite. I love this platform because it has all the bells and whistles most business owners who are starting email marketing need. But it comes with a low price tag. In fact, most people can start off on their FREE plan without sacrificing any must-have features. 

ActiveCampaign

I have a lot of clients and business friends use ActiveCampaign and swear it. I think it’s a bit more robust than Mailerlite, but still fairly easy to use. 

Kajabi

For an all-in-one platform I always recommend Kajabi. You can create a website, host landing pages, do all your email marketing, host courses, and even create communities and launch podcasts. It truly is the most all-encompassing platform out there. Plus, they have great support in case you get stuck.

Creating Effective Lead Magnets

Now, to grow your list, you need an irresistible lead magnet. 

What’s a lead magnet? It’s simply a free offer you give your ideal client to entice them to join your email list. Some call it an “ethical bribe.” Or perhaps a free taste of what you have to offer in your paid products and services. 

Even if you didn’t know they were called “lead magnets” you have definitely come across lead magnets. Think about the last time you spent some cash at your favorite online store. You were probably met with a pop up telling you to sign up for their email list and get a 15% off coupon code, right? That’s a lead magnet!

For a service based business like coaches or consultants, I recommend free downloads instead of coupon codes. Think an ebook, training, masterclass, webinar, checklist, etc. 

Whether it’s a discount code, a free guide, or a webinar, offer something valuable that lures your audience into giving you their precious email addresses. Something they can’t just Google to find the answer to. Something that showcases your expertise and gives them a preview of what they get when they pull out their credit card and pay you.

Automated Email Sequences: The Path to Passive Income

Here’s where the magic of passive income kicks in. With automated email sequences, you can nurture relationships and sell to your audience on autopilot. 

This is like the special sauce of email marketing for beginners and experts alike. 

When someone opts into your lead magnet, you have a series of email that are dripped out to them over time to build the like/know/trust factor and sell them your stuff. 

When you’re ready to get fancy you can even create segments of your audience so you can send them as personalized content as possible. Or even send upsells to people who make purchases, and downsells to people who don’t.

Engaging Your Audience with Broadcast Emails

Apart from automated sequences, send regular broadcast emails to keep the conversation going.

Broadcast emails are single emails you send out to your list that are not part of an automated sequences. But you CAN schedule them in advance. 

These are essential to continuing nurturing and selling. And don’t wait to send them. It’ll be more intimidating to hit send on a email when you have 100, 1000, or more emails vs. smashing the send button with just a handful of subscribers. 

Key Metrics in Email Marketing

How do you know if your email marketing is hitting the mark? These are the 5 most important stats to know so you can gauge whether your email marketing is effective or not.

Sales

The whole point of email marketing is to make money, right? So knowing how many sales you are getting through your email marketing efforts is essential.

Conversion rates

This is the percentage of people who take the desired action you want them to take. That means of you are selling something, this is the percentage of people who buy. The average conversion rate across industries is around 1-2%. 

Open rates

While this stat is less and less accurate as privacy features control the access you have to email data, it’s still useful to know what percentage of your audience are actually opening your emails.The average is 20-30%, so if you’re in that range you’re doing ok.

Unsubscribe rate

You work so hard to grow an email list just for people to unsubscribe? Yeah it’s unfortunate, but it can actually be a good thing! If your unsubscribe rate is within the averages then it means the people who just aren’t aligned with you are showing themselves the door. This number should be below 1%, but closer to .25%.

Crafting Captivating Email Content

Crafting content that resonates is key, and it all starts with your subject lines. 

You have about 6 words that show up in the preview on mobile. So make them count. This is your hook to tempt them into tapping to open your email. My fav quick tip to increase open rates is to use emojis in your subject lines!

 Wrap-Up

Email marketing is a powerful tool in your business arsenal, perfect for fostering stability, growth, and passive income. Don’t hesitate to dive in and start experimenting. And if you’re thirsty for more email marketing wisdom, keep learning and exploring!