Woo hoo! Email marketing is one of my favorite topics.

Why you ask?

Since Instagram changed it’s algorithm earlier this year, resulting in a drop in follower growth and engagement, I have been shifting my focus to my email list. By growing and nurturing my subscriber list, I know that I am directly reaching those that want to hear from me, and potentially buy from me. I spend a lot of time creating both my free and paid content, and to scale my business I want to make sure it ends up in the hands of people who want it!

The Instagram algorithm is a crap shoot in terms of any guarantee that your followers see all of your content, most of the time you are only reaching 10% of your audience. Yikes!

I love sending emails to my subscriber list because it goes directly to their inbox, so you know they are seeing it, and if you are delivering amazing content week after week, it is likely that they are opening it!

So how do you grow a list of subscribers who care about and want to read your content?

Here are my 3 steps:

1. Choose a provider: I started with Mail Chimp which offers a free membership when you are just starting out. You can use MailChimp to send out weekly newsletters with template options. I suggest watching a YouTube video on how to do this. I found MailChimp to have a bit of a learning curve. If you are ready to graduated from MailChimp to a platform with more capabilities, I would recommend ConvertKit or Kartra.

2. Send a Weekly Newsletter. Commit to showing up once a week for your subscribers. Use social media to take polls in your stories and ask about the content that they would like to see from you. Use this to build out your newsletter. I would recommend including a template with a few or all of the following:
   • Life update
   • Business update
   • Recipe of the week
   • Product/service offering of the week
   • What’s coming up for you next week
   • Any promotions or sales

3. Create an Opt-In Freebie. Based on the feedback you get from your social media audience or your subscribers on the content they want. Build one or two freebies to offer in exchange for someone’s email address. Offer freebies that tap into your own story and what makes you special. Here are some ideas for freebies that work well:
   • Create a quiz using Interact
   • Host a challenge
   • Shopping/Meal Prep Guide
   • A free chapter of your Ebook
   • Step by Step “how to” Guide

   Place your freebies everywhere: on your social media platforms and on your website. Add a banner to your website. Add pop-ups in your blog. Have a link in your profile in Instagram (you can use LinkTree for multiple links). Talk about freebies in your Instagram Stories. On your Facebook feed. The more places that people can find them, the better! And remember, it is all about giving them something VALUABLE in exchange for their email address. And then sending them valuable weekly content so they stick around ;)