There’s likely come a point when growing your wedding business that you’ve heard of email marketing, but you probably weren’t sure it was right for you, it didn’t seem like a priority or necessary, or you just didn’t have time to start. All of these are valid reasons to not want to start a list, however it can be a game changer for many businesses.

Let’s think of it like this: Social media marketing is like renting a roadside billboard. Everyone can see it, but not everyone is going to be interested in reading it or learning more. There are thousands of billboards out there, and yours is just another one unless you can find a way to make it exceptional to attract the right audience.

So, what if you could somehow show that billboard (read: market your business) only to an audience you know is interested in learning more about your business, therefore are much more likely to work with you? That, in a nutshell, is email marketing. You have an entire list of subscribers who opted-in because they want to hear from you. Now, the only question is: How do you start one?

Create a Valuable Offer Your Audience Needs

There’s no way for you to legally get anyone on your email list unless they choose to opt-in. The easiest way to do that is to provide an incentive for them to do so. These are commonly called a “freebie”, “lead magnet”, “tripwire”, or “opt-in offer”, and they all serve the same purpose. Someone will sign up for your email list to then have the freebie delivered to their inbox.

You want your freebie to be something your audience needs. It should be valuable to them and help them solve a problem. If you have no idea what kind of freebie to create, we have a list of 26 of them for wedding pros here.

Create a Welcome Sequence

The very first email someone should get upon opting in is, of course, the freebie they signed up for. After that, you can send them a chain of emails called a welcome sequence. The purpose of this sequence is to introduce yourself and your business, provide even more value, and then you could pitch them. Welcome sequences are typically anywhere between 5-10 emails, depending on how much you want to nurture them and how many emails it will take to do so. The waiting period between these emails is also up to you, whether you choose to send them every day, every other day, or every 3 days.

Be Committed to Email Marketing

If you start an email list, be prepared to send out a newsletter at least once or twice per month to your list– either one to past couples and one to vendors, or just one general newsletter updating them both on what your business is up to. It’s okay to send out more emails during promotional periods, but be mindful of how many and how often you’re sending. You may see your unsubscribe rates increase if you send too many emails consecutively. At TAG, we send out a Sunday newsletter each week that’s jam-packed with value. It gives our audience something to look forward to each Sunday and lets them get to know what we’re all about– providing education and support to wedding pros.

Plan Your Email Content

If you have periods where you offer different incentives or sales, plan your content around them. For example, if you’re going to have an exclusive sale on your services or products for one week, plan your newsletters around that to build excitement. You should make your audience aware of the sale at least 1-2 weeks in advance, then email around 3-4 times during the week-of. In between, just follow your usual newsletter schedule.

Email marketing is a learning experience, and it takes trial and error to get into the right groove with how often you need to send emails, what they should be about, etc. to better engage your audience. Be sure to pay attention to the analytics your email marketing platform provides you also. Track which kinds of emails receive the highest open and click rates, which receive the most unsubscribes, and the timeline in which they go so that you can assess what seems to be working the best and what isn’t.

If you have any questions, feel free to DM us on Instagram @theabundancegroup!