Having an email that you send out on a regular basis can help with keeping you top of mind with clients. You land right in their inbox and can have a great impact on their likelihood of purchasing or working with you in the future.
Importance of an email newsletter for your clients
I knew for years that I needed to be sending out an email newsletter to clients on a regular basis as a D.C. brand photographer. I have product and brand clients who need to work with me on a recurring basis, keeping top of mind only benefits me and my business. Over and over I’d heard, “you own your email list”, yes they’re right! The amount of clients who convert in an email is far higher than the amount who convert from any social media post. But I was recreating the wheel every month, thinking that I needed for my newsletter to be completely new each month…it doesn’t!
Building your newsletter from your own template
Now I look at newsletters in the form of blocks, most of those blocks being a template! This was game changing for the way that I approached building a newsletter every month in my favorite email newsletter provider, Flodesk. It suddenly became easy. Here are the aspects of my newsletter that always stay the same:
- Logo at the top
- Links to all the places that clients can find me often: social media, website, email
- My most recent Instagram posts
- Sign off & signature at the bottom
Have a goal for your newsletter each month
From month to month, the goal of my newsletter tends to change depending on what season of business I’m in. These goals can include: sharing a blog post/something of value, sharing a promotion or, industry trends or news, and any other information that would be of interest to my client.
Provide Value for your clients
Always keeping in mind that I want to provide my clients with value, because that’s the only way they’re going to continue opening my emails, here are my favorite block topics to pull from each time I build an email newsletter. I’ll usually select 2-4 blocks to include, as to not overwhelm my clients with too much information.
Email Newsletter Block Topics
- New Blog post: with a summary or list of the main points, make sure to include a link
- Session inspiration: sharing recent work that I’ve done for clients
- What’s going on this week/month: providing insight into my business and what kind of clients I enjoy working with
- Favorite things: a list of favorite business or lifestyle products
- Personal on-goings: reminder that I’m a mom and human who prioritizes my family
- Next trips or travel dates: especially if I’m traveling for work and want to book more sessions while I’m there
- Service Highlight: sharing a service/product that I offer
- Something I learned recently
- Announcement
- Vacation notification: making sure clients know when I’m going to be out of the office, especially when I’m planning to be out of town for an extended period of time and want clients to plan their projects ahead of time
- Testimonials from past clients: sharing social proof w/ a link to my google profile so that current clients can add their own review too
- Reshare old content!
- What’s in my cart: something that I’m considering buying for my life/business
- What am I listening to: sharing what I’ve been reading on Audible or on a podcast
- Client spotlight: sharing the wins of my clients and sharing how they’ve used their brand photography in their business’s marketing
Here is a PDF copy of my favorite Newsletter block topics to include in your next email to your clients
Building trust with your clients
Some of these email newsletter block topics are very brand photography & business related, but most of them are there for me to share a little bit about myself each time–building know, like, & trust with my clients & future clients.
The newsletter provider I use
For a few years I’ve been using Flodesk as my email newsletter provider. It has the aesthetic that fits my brand, while being easy to build with their drag and drop block system. (Use this link for 50% off your subscription to Flodesk) There are free options to use, like Mailchimp, but they aren’t as easy for me to create an email newsletter that fits my brand well.
If you’d like to see a few examples of recent newsletters that I’ve sent my audience, take a look here, here, and here.
