As small business owners, we have spent time, money and effort into creating awesome content, inviting readers from various channels & incentivizing them to signup, which they did. But what’s next?
What to actually email them after the first welcome email?
If you have had the same question on your mind, read on! Here are 8 types of emails ideas that you can send out to your list + easy to follow newsletter templates for each of them.
Ready?
8 Engaging Email Ideas + Newsletter Templates
1. Info / Guides / How-to’s
These emails focus on helping the reader solve a real life problem that they are currently facing.
These comprise of valuable content, blog posts, how-tos and guides that you create around your offering or products.
Email Template:
[ Welcome message ]
[ Main content of the email ]
[ Call to action (Link) ]
[ What do you expect the reader to do? (comment / share) ]
[ Call to action ]
2. Blog Post Updates
These emails invite your subscribers to read your blog posts.
Use them to quickly boost your recent posts or to breathe life into popular posts.
Do include 2 to 3 links to the post at various places in the email and have a clear call to action. For example, if you want the user to leave a comment or share your post on social media, communicate that clearly. Guide them towards your CTA (call to action).
When used right, these type of emails can give a traffic boost to your newly written blog post and the search engines love it.
Intelligent exit popups like Yeloni help convert more visitors into subscribers.
Blog Post Email Template:
[ Welcome Message ]
[ Title of new Blog Post (linked to the actual post) ]
[ Summary / excerpt of the post ]
[ What do you expect the reader to do (comment / share) ]
[ Title of new Blog Post (linked to the actual post) ]
3. Insider View / What’s on My Mind
It’s fun to connect with the readers on a human level and show the person behind the brand.
Share a sneak peak of your office, a photo from a recent vacation or a snapshot of you sharing a funny moment with your pet.
Light-hearted emails create a personal connection with your readers & they come to recognize your brand through you.
Insider View Email Template:
[ Informal welcome message (Hey!) ]
[ Image / Video / Media ]
[ Email content ]
[ What do you expect the reader to do (comment/share) ]
4. Share Your Voice / Feedback
Emails don’t have to be a one-way communication.
It is fun, engaging and more often than not helpful to the business when it becomes two-way communication.
Ask your readers what they want to read more about, how you can solve their problems, how you can improve your offerings/services.
Your customers/readers are the best people to suggest changes that can make a huge impact on your business.
Email Template:
[ Welcome message ]
[ Why is the reader important to you? ]
[ What do you expect the reader to do (give a minute and share feedback) ]
[ Ask your question ]
[ Make it easy for the user to reply. Have a clear CTA ]
[ Thank you message ]
5. Upselling
When a customer is happy with your products or services, he’ll be looking forward to getting more of those from you.
Send out emails occasionally to upsell new services to already existing customers.
Email Template:
[ Welcome message ]
[ Show how they have benefited from your previous products ]
[ Give info about the new product and its benefits ]
[ State your time bound, subscriber-only offer ]
[ Make it easy for the user to perform the CTA ]
6. Social Updates + Incentivize
Encourage your social followers to sign up on your email list and vice versa. Share snippets and other relevant information happening on social media with your email list.
Email Template:
[ Informal welcome message (Hey!) ]
[ Image / Video / Media from the social channel ]
[ Email content + Invitation to join ]
[ What do you expect the reader to do (subscribe / like / comment / share) ]
[ Thank you message ]
7. Ask for Referrals
Word of mouth is an effective way of increasing traction for your business. Give your customers enough reasons and ways to speak about you and spread the word.
Thank them for all the referrals they bring in and make it easy for them to do so.
Email Template:
[ Welcome message ]
[ Why is the reader important to you? ]
[ What do you expect the reader to do (refer friends who can benefit from your services) ]
[ Make it easy for the user to refer. Have a clear CTA ]
[ Thank you message ]
8. Email Drips
Email drips are a goal based sequence of emails that go out periodically to a segmented list.
These require a one-time effort which brings in long term returns over and over again.
For example, if you are offering a 6-month course, you can incentivize the visitors to sign up for a free first chapter of the course and send it in parts over a week’s time. At the end of the week, you can send out an email asking your readers to sign up for the full course if they have found the previous content useful.
Our favorite tools to send email drips are GetDrip
Email Drip Template:
[ Welcome message ]
[ Summary of last email (not applicable if this is the first email) and how it helped the reader ]
[ Main content of the email ]
[ Call to action ]
[ When is the next email scheduled and what to expect ]
[ Call to action again ]
To summarize, your readers are people like you and me. They are definitely busier and have a lot more on their minds. Hence the need for having a personal connection and providing valuable content is now more than ever.
Free up your time to do stuff that matters.
Now it’s your turn. Tell us in the comments below – how do You keep your list engaged? Which type of emails do your readers love?