Lessons
Email Marketing for Crafters Intro
03:19 2Why Does Email Work?
11:51 3An Email List is an Important Business Asset
09:23 4Software is the Solution
21:33 5My Newsletter Story
14:45 6Advertising is Annoying
07:12 7Your Email is a Gift
04:05 8Market Research
11:35Identify Your Why
14:18 10Give, Give, Take: Make a Value Exchange
03:29 11Exploring Content Type
24:36 12Case Study #1: Abby Glassenberg Design
25:09 13Make It Exclusive
02:58 14Accuracy is Key
03:26 15Templates & Branding
07:07 16Think About Length
06:40 17Subject Lines
08:41 18Call to Action & the P.S
04:07 19Write Back, Okay?
19:24 20Case Study #2: Ann Wood
25:25 21Autoresponders
05:28 22Build Your List & Keep It Lean
41:36 23Case Study #3: Indiesew
06:43 24Game Plan for the Holidays
06:05Lesson Info
Subject Lines
Let's talk about subject lines so this is another area where there's been all sorts of research people forever researching optimal subject lines that are going to get people to open your newsletter I'm playing with them and doing all kinds of things eso when looking at all that research, it seems to me in my informed opinion that having a clear compelling and an informative descriptive subject line is really the key um and telling people what's inside instead of selling what's inside so instead of saying like, you know, you know, great discount on free pattern great just ten on patterns or free pattern inside or something like that sort of describing what it is that they're going to get so I like a great link packed just for you that kind of thing is a nice descriptor versus trying to sell everybody what's inside there kind of that kind of found spammy, you know, like awesome discount on skinny jeans that's what it sort of feels like so describing it being informative, clear, compellin...
g aa lot of people say to make it short, my subject lines a really long so I can't really say but but that's kind of the main gist of subject line, so I have a few of us a few for us to think about and these are in a worksheet that you can download from the creative life state for this class I'm so here are some subject lines that sort of lack possess that we could kind of think about beefing up a little bit maybe making them more appealing more informative, more compelling so let's think about free pattern so how could you make free pattern into something people might want to click and often using the word free tio can be problematic and get automatically putting people sam folder when gmail sees free it's like span so what coming to you with free pattern that might be better learn exclusively for subscribers so it feels like really exclusive yeah, so let's go with exclusively for subscribers and let's think what could we do with pattern though something just script of more with pattern new design so new exclusive yeah, maybe what the pattern is of right? Right so like perfect for your baby shower um you know, patchwork quilt pattern you think about sort of could you describe it better? Um crow shade shawl pattern yes, so that people that their issues with using the word free. What about from sarah studios using the word complimentary? Sure, I don't have a good one. Yeah could say complimentary I have used the word free. I'm okay with it it's a little risky, I guess but I do use it from time to time if it really is something that's free um all right, what about spring update so how could we make spring update a little bit more descriptive, more compelling, more anti thing. All right, so if it was your business and you have a bunch of things to share, that is a spring update. What would you add? Yeah, could do something sort of fifty, like april showers. Spring flowers, you know, right, right. Yes, but you want to make sure you mention a little bit about what, though, right? So that it's descriptive it's cute, but it also says, like, you know, charm necklaces or something. So we know what spring update is or even spring update the teaching edition. So you're telling about recent teaching gigs and upcoming teaching gigs that you have, for example, so at least we get a little bit more about it then just spring update new jewelry in the shop that's not bad new jewelry in the shop, but I think you could do a little bit better if we added something about the jewelry that wasn't just selling it but was describing it to um so yes, I have one from red scorpio in the chat room says what's new this spring what's new this spring but I think we need a little bit more yeah, what's there this spring with or about or it's it is so you s e w it is so you love that little name their new trends for spring jewelry there you got one yes, I think that's great yeah I think new trends for spring jewelry would be a good plan yes just give us a little bit more in there and I don't think you want to you know you don't need to be too cute sea and you do want to be straightforward straightforward is good um just tell us what's in it that's all so when you're sitting there is usually the last thing you have to come up with like what am I gonna put in here, eh? So when you're sitting there just be like, well what is it? What is in it? Ok and then just go and just right like you know six words that decides whether this and then you're done if you get super into septic lines you can do a b testing which I have not done but here's how it works basically you're splitting your group your newsletter subscriber base in half and you can split actually in thirds if you want and you're sending one half une email with one subject line like spring updates on the other half the same email but with a different subject line like spring update the teaching edition and then you can compare which half was more likely to open which have opened higher which have clicked higher in the kind of thing people get really into this people who are really into marketing, they love a b testing, I think it's super cool, I don't have time. I don't have time for I barely have time to, like, write the email so I haven't done this sort of thing. Yeah, but that's not to say that it's not valuable, so you could kind of put it on a future lists. You know, that would be interesting to think about later. Um, but that's how it works and it is something that email software afford you, which is just another reason why software is awesome and totally with paying for once you get to that level and then analytics it's also really useful. This is something that I look at. I look it open rates, and you can look over time at open rates. You can see open rates week by week, which ones got higher open rates and then which one's got lower open rates on. And you could also look a click rates and say, you know what that is. So the industry average for open rates, he's actually surprisingly low, it's somewhere between, like, fifteen and twenty five percent is like the sort of email marketing industry average that's like across all different kinds of companies. So that's not low, pretty low open rate that means most people like eighty percent of people or more are just the leading that email before opening it before clicking and opening the full email. My email newsletter has a fifty percent open rate. I try to keep it at fifty percent. We'll talk about how to keep it lean so that that stays that high. And I do think within a craft based business where people know you and our and it's like a one to one kind of relationship where it's not part of the bargain, just you. I do think you can expect a higher open rate than that twenty percent industry average and strive for a higher open rate than that on dh click rate. The industry average is something like two percent to four percent. I mean it's really low on my click rate is twenty percent, so I think you khun strive for a higher percentage than the industry average on both of those things, and you can use google analytics and a lot of different ways. I mean, you can cook up your email software to set certain goals within google analytics so that you can see how much your how well your email newsletters working, so are people actually buying? From opening the email or they buying elsewhere, you can do all sorts of analytic stuff. I will confess that I am not a super analytics person. I don't do a ton of that stuff. But I do sort of look in a cursory way. And if you are really into analytics, I think it's there's a lot there that you can explore.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Bundle Wade
Abby Glassengber's class is a great tool for beginners. Abby encourages us to focus on the goal of our newsletter, and to incorporate aspects of newsletters we enjoy into our own writing. A particularly useful section of the course was the description of different content types that work well for e-mail marketing. Those of us who dislike "salesy" content are given the revelation that our newsletters are a gift to our most dedicated fans. With this in mind, putting together newsletters becomes a more thoughtful and fun process.
Sally
What a fantastic course! Abby is informative, interesting and she explains both the bigger picture and the specifics to help you get started. I highly recommend this class.
atjgraphics
A down to earth and honest voice. I found this quite relaxing and a really nice class to get rid of those fears of email marketing. I love how the audience can participate and questions have been asked.