How to write your weekly emails to build the know, like, and trust factor

How to write your weekly emails to build the know, like, and trust factor

If you procrastinate writing your weekly emails…

If you sit down to write your weekly emails and freeze at the blank page…

If you struggle trying to figure out what to write…

You can make ONE small change to write emails that flow! 

Here’s my writing strategy and top tips.

First, let’s talk about the WHY. Why do we even care about emails? I mean, social media posts are quicker and give us instant feedback. 

Yes, but, your emails are contacts that belong to you. You get to choose how and when to interact with them. Your email list is filled with people who have raised their hands and said they want to hear from you. Your emails are welcome in their inbox. With social media, your posts may, or may not, be seen by your audience. 

And with emails, you have the opportunity to go deeper with your audience. You can take a deep dive into one small segment of what you do or how you help. Your email subscribers will give you a little more time and grace than your social media followers. They’re expecting you to show up in their inbox.

[And make sure you’re regularly exporting and saving your email list. You never know when your saved file may be necessary. One entrepreneur I know had their email service provider get hit by hackers during a big launch. They immediately set up on a different email provider, uploaded their file, and rolled with it. If they didn’t have their data backed up, they would’ve lost the entire launch.]

Why your “why” matters

Your Big Why - the reason you created your business and the change you want to make in the world - is another key element to the reason behind the importance of emailing your list. 

When you’re procrastinating and then failing to send out an email, you’re missing your God-given opportunities to make an impact. 

When you are regularly sending valuable emails to your list, your audience won’t be annoyed by a series of launch emails designed to sell because they trust you. Which is one reason it is so important to be sending regular emails containing value. Interesting emails. And ones to help deepen your connection with your audience.

You’ve probably been on someone’s email list where the only time they email you is when they have something they want you to buy!

Don’t be like that business. Give value regularly.

Prepare your content. 

One reason it can be intimidating to sit down and work on your emails is you get stuck when trying to figure out what to say. So, don’t start out writing by staring at your blank page. Build a habit of regularly brain-dumping your ideas so when it’s time to write, you can pick and choose which topic is inspiring you to create content around. Having a system for developing ideas and keeping an active list of options is a great way to have plenty of inspiration when you’re starting a new email.

Top Tip: As you talk to clients/customers keep track of common issues, myths, stumbling blocks. Those are great things to address in your weekly emails. 

Plus, keep track of funny incidents you can tie into your product or services. 

I like keeping a journal specifically for brain dumps, transcribing voice notes from when I’m out on a walk, or jotting down my random collection of ideas (often scrawled on the back of the closest envelope!).

As you create your content, keep the following categories of content in mind:

• Inspiration
• Engagement
• Education
• Promotion

Whether you are writing emails or creating social media posts, you want to make sure to include all 4 categories to connect more deeply with your audience. And by following my writing schedule (or creating one of your own that works for you), you’ll be able to review all of your emails and make sure they include the types of content you want. And if you haven’t grabbed the 12 Email Prompts that’ll kickstart you writing your weekly emails download them right now and get started!

Here’s my secret sauce: I write a little every day and once a week I write a lot. 

On Sunday afternoons or Monday mornings, I write for at least an hour. I don’t do a lot of editing or revising during that time. I just put words on the paper. I look through my ideas, stories, incidents, lessons learned, etc., and see what is inspiring me. I sometimes type up the story ideas and add the business connection so it’ll be ready for the next week I write. 

Then, during the week, I spend a few minutes - maybe as little as 5 minutes - looking over an email, editing it or revising it. I play with different titles, consider the flow of the email, and check for spelling or grammar errors. Some emails were written several months prior to when they actually get scheduled to be sent. Some have been completely rewritten. Some have been reviewed once or twice and only minor changes were made. 

Rarely does an email get sent out immediately after writing it. 

And, honestly, that’s a complete turnaround for one of my clients who went from saying, “Oh no! I have to write to my list!” at 12 midnight and then stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning writing and finally hitting send. Now she schedules time to review the email already in her document, make any tweaks she needs to, and hits send. Easy-peasy.

Don’t Start With A Blank Page

If having a blank page sitting in front of you makes you freeze…

Don’t start with a blank page! 

Seriously, set up a template or even just a “Hey there, FIRST NAME.” 

And if you want 12 writing prompts so you have questions to answer to get started, grab my free download here.

Having words on the page can help you move from stuck to writing. Plus, if you have a journal full of ideas, you can always start with a couple of bullet points to expand on or try writing as fast as you can without doing any editing. 

Your first draft should be just that - a draft to edit and revise later. I know, it’s all too easy to get in the habit of quickly writing something - anything - to send to your list because you’re running out of time to send them a weekly email. But, once you’ve built a regular routine for content creation, you’ll find you have time to edit and revise your drafts and just getting words on your page flow with ease. 

You aren’t writing an email to send immediately. You’re writing to revise. Your writing to get your words out of your head and onto the paper. 

We’ll talk about rewrite and revise strategies another time. 

Don’t just slap on a title

There’s a famous saying (at least in the copywriting world), “80 cents of your dollar should be spent on writing headlines.”

It’s the first thing your audience sees and, realistically, drives whether they even open your email or not. 

So don’t leave it to chance. Try different options. Different styles. 

Keep track of which titles your audience opens. 

Just getting started? Here are some specific strategies:

1. Curiosity. Write titles readers wonder about. One of my top opens was titled, “Kevin did us wrong”. If you weren’t on my list to read it, you might be wondering Kevin who? What did he do? Why was it wrong? 
2. Numbers. “12 things you don’t want to miss this year” - when I combined numbers and curiosity, my open rates jumped several percentage points. When I scrolled through my own list, I noticed I opened “Making $38 for every $1 spent???” from my friend and fellow copywriter, Chrissie Kenaston, talking about the amazing ROI from email marketing (numbers and curiosity again!), and I opened “87” from friend and business mindset coach, Laura Naiser, who was referencing how many hours they lost power during the big storms in Texas. Again, numbers and curiosity drove me to open it.
3. How-to. Ads strategist, Arfan Husain, had an email titled: Help Your Ads: Improve Your Page Engagement! {3 tools inside}. Well, if you’re running ads you’re always looking for ways to improve your results. This is a brilliant title for his audience.
4. Your name. Honestly, even with my biz friends I don’t always read their emails to me (I’m on their list but not necessarily their dream client). But when the title is good and I trust the name it’s coming from, I’m opening it. So make sure your “from” line is your name. If your business name is something different than your name, test and see if it makes a difference to your open rate. 

I signed up for a workshop, got the first email with the name of the workshop in the title so I recognized what it was and opened it. But the next email I didn’t recognize the business name sending the email so I didn’t even open it. A friend asked me about it and I went looking for it. Found it. Read it. Deleted it. The email didn’t even have a signature line so it was very impersonal. Unsubscribed. 

Make sure you’re connecting with your dream clients and you’re someone they want to hear from. Then tease them with the subject line so they know what they’re getting.

Worried you're too wordy?

Sometimes clients worry because their emails are too long. That isn’t necessarily a problem as long as they are engaging to your readers. But if you find yourself word vomiting on the page, building a consistent routine of writing and content creation will be your best friend. 

You can write several quick email drafts at one time and then spend time later revising and editing. You can see where you were too wordy and what you can cut out. You can reread your drafts and make sure they are clear and concise. 

Batch create and then edit later.

After working within your system for a while, you’ll have built up a library of emails to choose from. You can see what type of CTA (Call to Action) you want your readers to take and which email is a good fit for it. 

Top Tip: This is a good time to remind you...you are running a business so you need to look at the data. You should regularly look at the open rates for your emails. Perform A/B tests for headlines and keep track of what your audience responds to.

Don't think you have enough to say?

Sometimes clients worry because their emails are too short. 

Emails don’t have to be any specific length. As long as you are creating value in your emails, your readers will be building the know, like, and trust factor.

Remember that could be inspiring, educating (which is typically a longer email), engaging or promoting.

Several of those categories may be short emails. You can even send a single-sentence email. 

Be intentional.

Know why you’re sending what you’re sending. 

Be Strategic 

It can be tempting to write emails just because you have something funny to say. Or because you’re upset about something happening in your business or in your industry. Or because you feel the pressure to send a weekly email and you actually don’t think you have something to say. 

But, as one of my coaches, Tiffany Lee Bymaster (aka Coach Glitter) frequently says, “If you aren’t in a launch, you’re in a pre-launch.”

If your business has a launch model for promoting your products or services, you need to be strategic about sharing information about your programs. 

Your weekly emails give you a platform to share about your program, celebrate client successes, start overcoming objections and shifting beliefs, and continue to intentionally build the know, like, and trust factor. When you strategically send pre-launch emails, it means your launch doesn’t have to do ALL the heavy lifting. Your emails can set up your list to be ready to buy when you launch.

That’s why I have a Pre-Launch Countdown Email Strategy Program to help you intentionally email your list to prepare them for a launch. Click here to get started (or get on the waitlist) depending on when you read this.

Master Your Mindset 

One of my clients said, “I think I procrastinate writing emails because I know every time I send out an email, I get unsubscribes.”

The problem isn’t with the unsubscribes it’s what she thinks they say about her. Because I know she doesn’t really care about vanity numbers and being able to say, “I have [insert 4 or 5 or 6 figures here] people on my list.” 

So, let me take a moment and get real with you. Numbers aren’t always what they seem. 

You have people on your list who signed up to grab an awesome freebie and they’re never going to buy from you. That’s all they ever intended and they might not even open another email from you. Ever. 

Bless and release them.

You also have people on your list who like you but aren’t ready to buy from you right now. They know where to find you and they’re cleaning up their inbox. They unsubscribe. Awesome. When they’re ready, they’ll be back. 

Bless and release them.

You probably also have people on your list who are still trying to determine if you are the right person who can help them. Do they like you? Do they trust you? If your email says something they don’t like or they don’t agree with, they unsubscribe. Fantastic. They weren’t going to buy from you anyhow.

Bless and release them.

You aren’t the right person for everyone. 

And consider who you do have on your list. Even with a “small” list, if everyone on your list showed up at your house, you’d probably be wondering where to put them all. If every single one of them was a raving fan who bought everything you put out, who talked about you to their friends who could use your service or product, and who like, shared, and commented about your social posts, you’d be THRILLED with the clients you were bringing in. Serve your fans and bless and release everyone else.

Go write to your list. Inspire them, educate them, engage them, and promote your products or services. 

Build those connections so when you show up in their inbox with the exact offer they need, they’re ready to buy.

Then you know you’re making them an offer they can’t refuse (and not in a bad Godfather-type of way either).   

_{Thanks to Dan Counsell for the photo (on Unsplash)}