Do you ever wonder how to boost engagement with the emails you’re sending (getting more opens, clicks and sales)?

Maybe you’re emailing your subscribers but not getting the results you hoped for, or maybe this whole email marketing thing seems a bit confusing.

No matter where you are in the email marketing process, this post will give you some great insights.

My guest today is my friend and online marketing expert, Amanda Cook. In this post, she’s sharing some of her top email marketing strategies to help you stay in touch with your subscribers in a meaningful way so you can turn them into ravings fans that look forward to hearing from you week after week.

Be sure to scroll all the way to the end of the post so you can sign up to get a free copy of Amanda’s upcoming book: Wellpreneur: The Ultimate Guide for Wellness Entrepreneurs to Nail Your Niche and Find Clients Online.

Here’s Amanda…

You’ve probably heard that you must have an email newsletter if you want to find health coaching clients online, but you may not realize that there is more than one way to establish trust and rapport (and get paying clients) using email.

First, let’s understand why it’s critical to keep in touch with your email subscribers, if you want to turn them into clients.

Think about a recent shopping experience. There are different types of shopping trips, right? Sometimes you’re just shopping for fun, wandering around stores and “just looking.” You might take this kind of shopping trip for a lot of reasons. You could be bored, you could have time to kill before an appointment, you might want inspiration and ideas, you might be doing some research for a future purchase — but whatever the reason, on this kind of shopping trip you’re not really motivated to buy. You’re just looking.

On other shopping trips you’ve got a goal in mind. Maybe that summer wedding is just a few weeks away and you need an outfit, or all your socks have holes, or your air conditioner broke during a heat wave, or you need something to cook for dinner tonight. In times like these, you’re shopping with the intention of buying — and on these kind of trips there’s a much higher probability that you’ll leave the store having made a purchase.

It’s the same situation with your email subscribers. People visit your website, read your content, and join your email list for a ton of different reasons — usually NOT because they want to buy health coaching services right now.

Something about your content and your opt-in gift caught their attention. It hit on their needs and aspirations, so they joined your email list, but they’re not necessarily ready to buy at this exact moment. That’s where email comes in.  Your job is to keep in touch with them, offer value and connection, and make offers on your products and services. Then when they’re ready to buy, they’ll think of you first!

You don’t only have to keep in touch by a weekly email newsletter!  I often recommend creating a simple email autoresponder as a way to keep in touch and make offers.

Here’s the difference between the two approaches:

Email newsletters are sent out to your entire email list at the same time. An email newsletter often includes a little note from you, your latest blog post or content, upcoming events, and an offer for your products and services. The key point is that you’ll be writing your email newsletter once per week, and when you send it, that’s it. Email newsletters are one-time-only. If someone joins your list the next day, they’ll have to wait until the following week to get your next email newsletter. Your email newsletter can also be something very simple (not a lengthy newsletter that takes hours to put together) where you share a simple tip, maybe a recipe and call to action on how they can work with you (either in the body of the newsletter or included in the P.S.).

Autoresponders are an automated sequence of emails that start whenever someone subscribes to your email list. This means that every new subscriber gets the same introductory experience to your business. It doesn’t matter when they join — Tuesday or Friday, at 3PM or 3AM — when they join your list, they’ll get a welcome email, and then they’ll get a specific series of emails dripped out to them over the coming days and weeks.

There are three huge benefits of autoresponders:

• Thoughtful Experience: You’ll know that new subscribers are seeing your very best content first, and you’re providing maximum value, because everyone is getting the same email sequence when they join.

• More Engagement: People love autoresponders (when they’re done ethically) because they receive an immediate piece of content when they join, followed by regular, valuable content that helps them — it’s a strange experience to sign up for an email list and then not hear anything for a month! A new subscriber is motivated and wants to learn about the topic, so an autoresponder lets you deliver on that immediately, regardless of when they sign up.

• Less Effort: You set up the autoresponder sequence once, and people get it whenever they subscribe! You can send email newsletters less frequently (focusing around timely information like events), because you know new subscribers are hearing from you automatically.

You usually have to pay for an email marketing service to use autoresponders (as opposed to email newsletters which are sometimes free, depending on the service). But for a small list, this cost is usually very affordable, and it can easily more than pay for itself.

How to Create a Simple Welcome Sequence

Create your first simple email autoresponder to welcome new subscribers into your business.  Think about how people are joining your email list.  Often it’s by downloading an eBook or other freebie.  So start there.

Here’s an example of how a welcome sequence might look for a health coach offering a free eBook.

Sample Welcome Sequence (for an eBook):

• Day 0 — Subscriber receives link to download eBook.
• Day 1 — Subscriber receives a question: Did you read the eBook? Mention one part that is especially relevant and share a story about it from your own life.
• Day 2 — Tell a story about how to apply what they’ve learned to their life and offer a free strategy session.
• Day 5 — Keep the momentum going with another tip on how they can go further using this information, and offer a free strategy session.

That’s it!  Keep it simple and easy.  Just think about the experience of a new subscriber joining your list.  What will they want to know?  What are your best content and resources that can help them with their problem? What can you offer them?

You can make the welcome sequence as long as you want.  You could stop after these few emails, or you could setup 6 months of weekly emails for each new subscriber – it’s totally up to you.

When you create your autoresponder welcome sequence, you just want to set it up so that the new subscribers don’t receive your weekly newsletter emails until they have finished this first sequence.

The most important consideration is that you stay in touch with your new subscribers, offer value and offer your services.  You can do this in an email newsletter, as well as with an autoresponder in advance.  Stay front of mind with your email subscribers, and make occasional offers, so you can convert some subscribers into paying clients.

About the Author

Amanda Cook is a digital marketer, health coach, host of The Wellpreneur Podcast, and author of Wellpreneur: The Ultimate Guide for Wellness Entrepreneurs to Nail Your Niche and Find Clients Online.

You can sign up to get notified about getting a FREE copy once it’s released: WellpreneurBook.com

I read an advance copy of the book, and believe me when I say you’re going to want to get your hands on it!

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