5 Email Ideas for Business to Send Right Now
Introduction
Are you a business owner who KNOWS you should be emailing...but don't know what to send to your email list? Email marketing is a crucial marketing strategy to build trust, grow your community, and sell your products or services. If you feel stuck or overwhelmed by this strategy, this post covers why email marketing is important and 5 email ideas for business that you can send right away.
If you don't have an email marketing platform yet, I highly recommend starting with a 30 day free trial of Flodesk. This is the email marketing service I use and recommend for all of my clients. This blog post dives more into the features and benefits of Flodesk, and you can get 50% off your first year using this link.
Importance of Email Marketing
Before we begin, why is email marketing important? Email is my FAVORITE strategy to prioritize as a marketing expert, and here are a few reasons why.
Builds Trust
Most importantly, email builds trust. People don't just hand out their email address to anyone; they share it in exchange for value or because they genuinely like the business and want to hear more from them.
Opening up an email from your favorite small business feels much more personal than watching their social media content—because it is. Email is a more private, intimate way to build trust with members in your community.
It's a powerful way to share stories you may not blast on the internet. You have control over who is on your email list and how you segment them, unlike on social media where you're at the mercy of the algorithm.
Serves Your Community
Email marketing is another way to serve your community. Based on peoples' preferences, you can tailor their experience on your email list. Email is another method to share free value, education, stories, and encouragement.
Based on your email analytics, you can see which content people want to learn about the most. They may prefer your more structured, educational emails over your personal, storytelling emails (or vice versa). Check out what people are the most interested in, and use that data to better serve them.
Boosts Sales
Of course, where you have strategy and trust, you have sales. Your email list is FULL of people who care about your business and want to hear what you have to say. While not every email needs to be a sales email, infusing sales strategies into your emails will earn you more money.
My favorite way to do this is with my story, segue, sell framework. Click here to get my 10 sales email templates following this framework, that you can customize and send ASAP!
5 Email Ideas for Business
Now that you understand the importance of email marketing and are ready to get started, here are 5 email ideas for business that you can send to your list immediately.
1. Send a Surprise Freebie
Surprising and delighting your audience with a freebie is one of my favorite things to do. This email idea is especially powerful if you haven't emailed your list in awhile. If you've been ghosting them (no shame), instead of popping into their Inbox again with stories all about you, make it about them! Share a free resource that they can use or learn from.
Essentially, you'll start this email saying hey, I missed you (if it's been awhile since you've emailed). Briefly reintroduce yourself if needed, and say you have a surprise for them. In the email, link a freebie or landing page directly.
My favorite way to do this in Flodesk is by using Link Actions. I'll link the actual freebie attachment, and add a link actions to add them to that specific freebie segment. That way, someone doesn't have to fill out another opt-in form. Click here for a blog post with different ways to use the Flodesk Link Actions feature.
2. Share Your Founder's Story
Have you ever shared your story with your audience? Perhaps your business started during lockdown in 2020 because you were so bored and needed a new hobby. Or maybe you, like me, worked 100 different side hustles before landing on your business.
Every business has a story to tell, and your story is worth telling. Share the story of how and why you got started. If your story is really long, you can break this email up into different parts.
3. Give an Update with Photos
This email idea is relevant if you had a recent life event or exciting news. For example, this would work if you recently moved, got married, had a baby, attended an event, went on a big vacation, etc. Share a brief story and update and attach some photos.
In my business, I do this every so often. I love to share photos, because that's yet another way of deepening relationships with your subscribers.
4. Show Something Behind-the-scenes
Is there anything going on in your business behind-the-scenes that you haven't shared publicly? If so, your email list would be a great audience to share! Some ideas here are to share the backend of a launch, new project ideas you have, products you're working on, or a step-by-step look into a particular workflow or system you've implemented.
I'm a firm believer in bringing your audience in to whatever you're working on. Gone are the days where you can say "something is coming" and hope that's enough for people. People love, appreciate, and value being a part of your messy middle.
5. Expand on a Past Business Mistake and How You Overcame It
We've all made mistakes in business, and this email idea is suggested to connect and inspire others. By being open and honest about your struggles, you're welcoming in conversations and sharing that it's okay to mess up. It's okay to not have it all figured out.
One note about this email idea is be careful when you choose to share a mistake. I highly recommend sharing something you've healed from and overcame already, so that it's not difficult or painful to talk about. If you're currently going through something hard in your business, wait to share only if and when you feel comfortable to.
Looking for email marketing support?
Did these email ideas for business get your wheels turning? I hope so! Email marketing is my jam as a marketing strategist, and I'm always looking for ways to make it easier and more fun for business owners.
If you're looking for additional email marketing support, here are two options:
Snag my sales email templates. These 10 templates were created from my story, segue, sell framework and are designed to make writing emails simple. Each one comes with a Flodesk template and text template (in case you use another email software).
Book a 60-minute strategy session. During a session together, we can dive into your general email marketing strategy, what freebie(s) you could offer for your audience, and what to send to build trust and boost sales.
