Ask any maker how they market their products, and you’re guaranteed to hear one answer: social media. And it’s not hard to understand why.
At the surface, social media seems easy. They know how to use it, and they may have even had some early success on it.
But going all-in with just social media is a big mistake. Yes, social media is an effective marketing tool for your business. Yes, it’s important. No one denies that. But it’s not the only way to market your products.
Getting social media right takes time, and it can be hard to grow organically. Knowing this, it makes sense to diversify your marketing strategy, right? Because when you do that, you open yourself up to more leads, more customization, and more customers.
That’s why email marketing should be on every maker’s radar.
With email marketing, you can leverage marketing automation, giving you more time to engage with customers and grow your brand. Not to mention, email marketing is very cost-effective.
So, how can you get started with email marketing? Read on to learn the basics of email marketing and useful tips to help you get started.
How to Start Your Email Marketing as a Maker
It’s fair to assume that 90% of people who buy handmade products have an email address. This means that for makers and artisans, it should be the go-to platform for promoting their work and their business.
But as with any marketing, the success of your campaign all goes back to starting out with a good plan. And your planning doesn’t need to be complicated. You can start your email marketing plan with these four simple questions:
What is the goal of my email campaign?
The first step is figuring out what you want the goal of your email marketing campaign to be. Some goals you could have include:
- Having more people shop in-store
- Getting more people to shop online
- Promoting new products
- Educating your users
Once you nail down what goal you want for your email campaign, you can then focus everything else around that to craft your message.
Who is my target audience?
Knowing who your target audience is very important when it comes to email marketing.
Let's look at an example. If you have a female demographic aged 18-24, your email might include:
- Bright colours
- Moving graphics
- Emojis
- And of course—that conversational tone
Why? Because research shows these attributes resonate with that specific target demographic.
However, say your demographic is men aged 45-60, you may want something that includes:
- Darker colours
- Direct messaging
- Simple images
Finding out who your target audience is will help you know what type of tone to use when writing your emails, what colours and designs, and what content you need to be focusing on to best engage with your customers.
What do I want to say to them?
This is another part where you’ll need to do a bit of research. Are you more educational with your products and services?
For instance, if you make jewelry from recycled silver, you may want to educate your users about how they can be more eco-friendly in their lives.
Or maybe you’re selling products for infants, which means your content could be geared around showing your customers what new products are best for babies, trends to consider, and other useful information.
You need to ensure your message speaks to the interests of your users. And that’s where email marketing excels. It allows you to create bite-sized content that appeals directly to their interests.
How will I measure my success?
Using email for promotion should never be about you. It is always about the shopper, their interests, and addressing their needs and wants (recognition, power, self-esteem, prestige, and others).
Starting your email with a personalized greeting will tell the reader immediately that whatever follows is about them and for them. Most email marketing tools (HubSpot Marketing, Wix ShoutOut, MailChimp, and others) will create personal salutations for each recipient automatically.
You can personalize the email further with your opening line. It should link to the reader’s needs and interests or concerns.
How can you do this successfully? You will need to have a clearly defined buyer’s personas in mind. Secondly, your opening line should speak directly to the user, using familiar language like “you,” “your,” and other similar terms. These are some of the most impactful words in marketing.
Remember, the average user invests 1-3 seconds in determining if they will read your email or not. The word “you” in the subject line significantly increases the likelihood they move on to the main text, which is where all the value is.
Let Them Unsubscribe
Sometimes things don’t work out, and that’s okay. Don’t be afraid to let your email subscribers unsubscribe. Make sure your email sequences have an unsubscribe button available.
Even though it may be tempting to inflate your mailing list with your well-intended content, it’s not always the best route to go down. This is because though you may have a lot to share, you might be only seeing a handful of responses, even though your mailing list is quite large.
This is where having an unsubscribe button is actually beneficial to your business. Users who aren’t actually interested in your business can leave.
Now this may seem like a bad thing. But it isn’t. Despite your email list losing a subscriber, it means the rest of your list is targeted and genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
Keep it Simple
The content of your email has to be clear and concise in addressing your reader’s needs. In the case of emails, less is always more.
In fact, email copy ranging between 50-125 words usually receives over a 50% response rate.
What if you do need to write more? Make sure your content is more than fluff. Take the time to create valuable content that engages your readers, provides them with value, useful offers, and other information that they need to know.
The Do’s and Don'ts of Your Call to Action (CTA)
Regardless of the specific goal you have defined for your campaign, the overarching goal of your email is to get your customer to take action. Your CTA should be clear and simple, making it clear what the intended action is.
Here are a few examples of simple, but direct CTAs:
- Join my Facebook group
- Check out my website
- Refer a friend to get a discount
- Follow me on social media for updates on new products
- Claim this offer
- Get 25% off
- Order now and receive free shipping
But, you need to watch out for some words that just don’t work as well in emails. Some of these words include:
- Submit
- Contact Us
- Complete
- Invest
- Buy
- Order
These words bring to mind buying, spending money, and come across as very formal and stand-offish. Yet, when you’re writing an email, you want it to be engaging, fun, and bring them back to your products—not your pricing.
Start Your Email Marketing Today With nookSTART
Email marketing is important for any handmade maker to have, especially when you’re just starting out. It’s one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies available.
Do you still feel like you need help with starting your email marketing? Or help with improving your existing marketing strategy?
Don’t worry! We have a supportive team here at the Nooks for you! Sign up for our nookSTART program to learn specialized marketing strategies designed just for makers like you.
