Once someone is on your email list, it’s critical to stay connected with them. Think about it like a friendship and how you feel when a friend only calls every now and then, when they want money.
Not good! Don’t be that friend.
You want to stay consistent with your emails because you’re building a relationship with the people on your list. All you want to do is communicate with your friends and share information with them.
A note about this episode is that this is a sneak-peek inside my brand new course: 5 Weeks to Confident Yoga Marketing.
I’m sharing this so you can get a feel for how I teach and if I’m the best teacher and coach for you when it comes to learning about marketing your yoga business. If you like this then you will love the course so learn more on THIS PAGE!
Mindset blocks when it comes to emailing your list
So often we’re worried about bugging someone when we send an email. I will often hear “but Amanda, I have so many emails in my inbox, I don’t want to send another one and bug my list” but I want to remind you of something…
They raised their hand and signed up for your list. They said “I want to hear from you”. So give the people what they want, valuable content from you.
The other thing that usually comes up when I talk about how often I suggest for you yoga teachers to email their list is unsubscribes. We often take it personally when someone unsubscribes from our list. Or we think that we did or said something in our email that offended them.
But here’s the truth: if someone unsubscribes from your list, they weren’t going to buy from you or learn from you. Period.
Do me a favor and stop looking at the names of the people who unsubscribe from your email list because I can promise you that your friends will likely unsubscribe. And it’s because they aren’t going to buy or learn from you and that’s okay. It’s better to have lower numbers of people on your email list who will actually read and engage with your content than it is to have higher numbers of people who actually don’t care about your work.
The only thing to keep in mind when it comes to unsubscribes is if you see high numbers over a period of time or with a single email. This will tell you more about your content and you can learn from that process. But overall, understand that you will likely get a few unsubscribes with each email you send out and the larger your list is, the higher that number will be.
How often should you email your list?
Consistency is what you really want to focus on when it comes to emailing your list as a yoga teacher. Whether you email them once a month or every week, the key is to be consistent. When you’re inconsistent with emailing it often feels odd to the person receiving emails.
Think about the emails you receive on a regular basis. You might not be able to say “Target emails me every Tuesday” but you like don’t get upset when Target emails you on a weekly basis talking about things you can shop for. They are consistent.
I suggest that you start with a monthly email. That’s only 12 emails in an entire year!
Then work your way up to bi-weekly or weekly emails. You will realize that you have more things to say, I promise!
Plus, if you’re consistently emailing your list and sharing where you’re teaching and how students can work with you as well as some helpful tips for them, you will stay top of mind. And when you do this, they are more likely to think of you if they want a private yoga session or if they want to find a yoga class. And then when you are ready to sell something like a special workshop or online offering, the email to your list won’t feel so abrupt.
What should your monthly or weekly emails look like?
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Keep it simple and casual like you would email a friend. Yes, there are email templates in all the email service providers but I don’t suggest them for yoga teachers for these reasons:
They are image heavy and that impacts delivery rates.
They feel less personal than a simple text email does.
Aside from templates, I do encourage showcasing your personality in your ongoing emails that you send to your list. This can mean images or GIFs or emojis. And a great way to know what to include in your emails to your list is to look at your text messages and emails to friends and family. What do you include in those emails? If you include videos and images and emojis, then include them in your emails to your list too. It’s showing more of your personality in the email and that will connect with your audience more.
Test your emails and see how it feels and looks on your phone and your desktop. If you start the email with a large picture and you can’t see any text right away, you will want to change that. Make sure that when the email is opened, there is text to read right away.
Planning for and writing your monthly or weekly emails
The email isn’t going to write itself, that I can promise you. So if you wait for it to happen, it won’t. You need a plan. The first thing to identify is when you will email your list each month. What week and what day of the week do you want the email to be sent? I would suggest starting with Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at first to see how your audience responds to one of these days.
The next thing to identify is when you will write and schedule your email. Please don’t plan to write the email the day you will send it. Yes, you can do this but it’s generally not the best plan. I suggest writing, editing and scheduling the email a week before you send it. This allows you time to not feel rushed and you will schedule it and likely forget about it. This is a good thing because sometimes we will stop an email because we’re overthinking it.
Here’s a template for what you can include in your monthly or weekly emails:
Something that is practical for your student that they can do at home. Ideally you will be writing a blog, hosting a podcast or you have a YouTube channel and that is where you will have a longer piece of content to share with your audience. Then inside the email, share a little about the content and link to that content.
Your schedule. Keep this section short and sweet. Bullet points are great for this section. Make sure to share where you are teaching public classes or any workshops you have.
An offer. Invite your reader to take an action on something. Whether it’s an invitation to workshop or sign up for a private yoga session. Make sure to mention some way that they can work with you. Don’t miss this opportunity!
Your next step
Commit to sending an email to your list on a consistent basis. Decide on the day of the month that you will send the email. Decide on the day that you will write and schedule your email too. Don’t miss that step! You need to plan ahead so that you can actually be consistent with emailing your list.
Remember that you have lots of great information to share with your email list and that this is a process that will take time. If you’re uncomfortable, sit in that discomfort but push through it. Promise yourself that you will email your list for the next 6 months and make it happen.
Until next time, give yourself permission to email your list and grace along the way. Talk to you soon.
I'm hosting a FREE 5 Minute Marketing Challenge!
This 5-day challenge will help you market your yoga business in just 5 minutes a day. Use the link to sign up today. The live challenge will happen January 27 - January 31, 2020. But don't worry, if you find this later, the replay will be available too!
