Email marketing remains one of the most effective form of marketing. As a TpT Seller, this definitely needs to be part of your marketing strategy. However, sometimes it’s hard to know what works and what doesn’t. So here are a hodgepodge of email marketing tips I want to share with you. They are in no particular order, and there is no overriding theme connecting them all. It’s just a random assortment of tips that will help you be a better email marketer.
Add Value
I’m sure you’ve heard that before. So I’m opening with a fairly obvious tip (my list will get better). But it must be stated. Your emails need to be worth opening. Give advise. Help your reader. Share strategies, give away resources, or just brighten their day.
It’s okay to sell. It’s okay to share your TpT resources. But this should not be the only reason you send an email. Your customers should be better at whatever your niche is because they have read your emails even if they haven’t made a purchase from you.
My niche is math teachers. My readers should be better at differentiating their instruction, learn how to save time, be more empathetic to their students, and be more effective classroom managers as a result of being on my email list – even if they never purchase one of my amazing products.
Some influencers like to say that your readers should be left with this thought, “If he/she taught me all of this for free, imagine what I will learn when I pay him/her.”
Jab, Jab, Jab, Hook
Gary Vaynerchuk, yes THE Gary Vaynerchuk, says in his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook that you should give your readers value three different times before you ask them for a sale.
Make Deposits in their Emotional Bank
Email marketing is a lot like dating. We’re getting to know each other, I’m giving you lots of gifts and making you feel special, hoping to get that long-term relationship (in this case, the reader becoming your paying customer).
And just like in a romantic relationship, you need to make emotional deposits in your partner’s emotional bank account. In the romantic world that means quality time, serving, saying kind words, and even gifts. If you haven’t read the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman, you should.
Anyhow, with your email readers, you still need to make emotional deposits in their accounts. How can you do that? Well, it comes back to point number one, above. Add value. Help them find wins. Give them resources and strategies that will bring them success. And speak words of encouragement to them.
For every four emails you send, three need to add value, and the fourth needs to ask for a sale!
Ask for the Sale
Some of us are great add the value emails, and not so great at the sales emails.
But you know what the most successful entrepreneurs all have in common? They tell you to buy from them.
So write a sales email.
I have premade templates you can use and formulas to guide you on this process. They’re inside my Copywriting Course for TpT Sellers. Click here to get access to the whole course, as well as the templates and sample emails so that you can write to your customers and make sales.
Collect Stories
Stories are a powerful form of communication. So use them in your writing.
Tell personal stories, funny stories, sad stories. Tell stories of other people, reference famous stories from culture, movies, or books. Tell the customer’s story.
What happened in the classroom that showed you that you needed your product? Tell that story? How did you realize the teaching strategy that you’re using is a good one? Tell that story.
You should constantly be on the lookout for stories.
Whenever you stumble upon something interesting that happens, open up your notes app on your phone and write the story down. Make some notes about what it illustrates or how you can use it.
Here’s an example.
When I was a first year teacher, I was teaching high school geometry when a bee flew in the room. A girl started shouting and then the other boys joined in the commotion. Of course, they really just wanted an excuse to misbehave, but that’s besides the point. Irritated I grabbed a broom and opened the door to sweep the bee out of our room and into safety.
It didn’t work. I missed him several times causing him to fly down towards my students who freaked out and began diving on the floor.
Chaos ensued.
It occurred to me that my classroom management plan didn’t have a section line item that read, “What to do when a bee flies in the room.” Of course, you can’t prepare for everything, but it’s not unreasonable to think that we will have the occasional winged or creepy crawly visitor enter our room. What are my expectations for my students? For myself? How can I handle the situation better?
This is an illustration that is in my book on classroom management.
I’m starting to think this blog post is really just about giving you a long list of books to read. But seriously, if you’re going to buy a book on this list, buy mine!
Back to what I was saying. After the chaos had ended, and I was saved by the bell, I should have written this story down in my notes app under the section of classroom management stories.
You need to start collecting stories. Use an app. Keep them organized. Use them in your writing.
Don’t Use HTML Emails
I know, they look so pretty. And ConvertKit is now launching them as well, so maybe I’m just a big dummy. But HTML emails scream of spam. And the spam filters catch it and move it to that box. You will get higher email conversions if you don’t use HTML emails, and instead, just use plain text. It looks more like an email, so it’s less likely to get picked off by those spam filters inside the email platforms.
The same is probably true for headers inside your emails. They also don’t look like a normal person writing an email to a friend. instead, they look like they’re coming form an email marketer, ie., spam! I must confess, I’m still using headers in my emails. It breaks up the long text, making it easier to read. But I also must confess, I’ve never emailed a friend, or another teacher in my school, and used headers. So I should probably stop.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.
I manage several people’s email marketing. One client insists on HTML emails. She loves how pretty they look. She can add graphics, and space it out just so. plus she can have a header at the top and pretty colors in the background.
As a responsible email marketer, I am subscribed to her emails – the ones I am writing and sending for her. I open every single one. But guess what? They still go to my junk folder. Even though I have opened them all, which should tell my Gmail account that this is not spam, I want to read it, it still ends up in the spam folder. My suspicion as to why – because it’s an HTML email, and not a plain text one.
Focus on Benefits, not Features
If you want your readers to connect with you, and your product, so that they become a customer, you have to paint a picture of the product. We do that by talking about the pain, the problem, and the solution.
If you’re selling a lesson plan that is common core aligned, why does that matter? Because my lesson plans have to have the standards listed. So your lesson plan saves me time and makes my principal happy.
If you sell a coloring worksheet, why would I use it? Maybe it increases student engagement which increase their comprehension. So my students learn more and misbehave less.
Talk about those things – the benefits, not the features.
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