Congrats on hanging your shingle as a freelancer. Now if you don’t have a freelancers email list yet… keep reading, because this might make the difference during unforseen lean times!
Most businesses these days are learning the importance of having an email list.
An email list allows a business to regularly communicate with the people that have expressed interest in their products or services, and create content specifically for them that converts like crazy.
Seriously, email converts up to 40x better than social media.
Freelancers should take advantage of this powerful tool for marketing their business and getting more clients.
Creating consistent income has always been a challenge for freelancers. With an email list, a freelancer can attract an audience, get more referrals, and earn more repeat business to get off of that income rollercoaster.
Here are 4 reasons you need a freelancers email list:
The 7 Touch Rule
Did you know that on average a person requires 7 interactions with a business or brand before making a purchase?
The chances of someone coming back to your website 7 times on their own is pretty slim, so you need to do some prompting. Social media is great for this, but email is another tool you should have in your belt to increase your number of touchpoints.
Better yet – you can create a nurture sequence through email to create those interactions and move prospects through the sales process even faster. It’s like having a sales person on your team that you don’t have to pay!
Automating this within your email newsletter program will save you loads of time in the future.
If you’re thinking “But I need to talk to prospects on the phone to close the sale” you can use your nurture sequence to set up 15-minute consultation calls. Or you can direct people to your blog or social media channels so they can get more great content from you.
You’re in complete control of how you set up your email newsletter and nurture sequence, so you have the flexibility to create interactions with your audience that work to convert more people into clients.
Create Promotions During Slow Periods
We all know there are peaks and valleys in freelancing.
During the slower times, you can use your email list to drum up new business. After all, everyone on your email list has said that they like what you do by giving you their email address.
Freelancers can create special offers for their list to get new clients. A few ideas to try:
- Announce that you have a few openings for work this month and prompt people to apply for one of the coveted spots
- Create a VIP discount for your list as a thank you that they can apply to work for a limited time
- Offer a Bonus Bundle by adding something extra to the package such as an extra hour of coaching, an ebook that you’ve written, or extra graphics designed for their social media channels.
Get creative with offers you make to your list! Sending a note about a limited time bonus offer or promotion will light a fire under people to hit buy right away.
Survey Your Audience To Get Feedback
The key to good marketing is understanding your audience. With an email list, you’ve got a direct line to finding out who your people are without doing any expensive market research.
You can periodically send a survey or ask for replies to a particular question for some quick audience research.
Surveying your audience will help you to vet ideas for your business, like adding new products or services. The feedback you get can save you time, money and headaches when working on creating new stuff because you’ll be able to find out exactly what people want.
When you know what your audience is looking for, you can more easily create products and services that solve their problems and fit their needs, making it exponentially easier to sell to them.
Plus, you can use the language that your audience uses in your marketing copy to make it really resonate with them.
Launch New Passive Income Products & Courses
If you’ve got dreams of creating passive income with products or courses, you absolutely need to be building your list. These are the people that are going to buy from you!
Creating passive income products such as ebooks or online courses is a great option for freelancers to create more income from their expertise. With a product, you can put the time in once to create it and make sales for a long time to come.
When it comes to buying courses and information products, trust is one of the most important factors in the buying decision.
People need to know that they are going to get value from, and have success with your product or course to invest in it. You can establish a level of trust and solidify your reputation as an expert through regular content and communication.
When a person reads your email regularly and knows the value they are getting from it, they are more likely to trust that they will get value from your paid programs as well.
List conversion rates typically hover around 1-2%, so you don’t want to leave your list building to the last minute either. Building up your list from the get-go will ensure you have an audience to launch to.
How Do You Start An Email List?
Excellent question!
Luckily, starting an email list is pretty easy!
Choose Your Platform
There are a few options for choosing your email newsletter program. MailChimp and AWeber are two popular platforms that are free or low cost for small lists. They’re also both pretty easy to use and set up. Choose the platform you prefer and sign up for an account.
Create An Opt-in Freebie
To entice your website visitors to sign up for your newsletter, create an opt-in offer. This can be a PDF guide, a template, a video series, an ebook, a sample chapter… anything!
Your opt-in has to be something free that your readers are going to find super valuable. In exchange for their email address, you will send them this brilliant piece of content that they are going to love.
Add Opt-In Forms To Your Site
Once you’ve got everything set up, add opt-in forms to your website so that people can get access to your content.
You can use the form templates in MailChimp or Aweber by embedding some simple code on your site.
You can also use a tool like PopupAlly Pro to design multiple opt-in forms and popups that fit the branding of your site.
Create A Schedule
Now that you’re growing your list, you have to use it!
Create an editorial calendar or schedule so that you are communicating with your list regularly. Whether it’s every Tuesday at 9 or the 1st of every month, the schedule is up to you.
The key is to be consistent and focus on providing value to your audience.
If you deliver great content every time, people will start to look forward to your emails.
If you want to start your list growth with a bang, check out the free 30 Day List Building Challenge. You’ll get step-by-step instructions for starting and rapidly growing your list in 30 days.
