How do you deliver an email week in, week out? Yes, we’re talking consistency and accountability on the blog this week. These are two things which entrepreneurs ignore at their peril. But don’t worry, this blog is here to help because you can deliver a weekly email very easily, without having to sit down to write it every week. Curious to know how? Well stick with me and you’ll find out.
Why does consistency matter anyway?
Consistency matters in business for a few reasons:
1. You’ve given your word. If you have told people they will get an email from you regularly, on a certain day, then you need to deliver it. It’s not just about your reputation as someone who does what they say they’re going to do, it’s about people getting used to hearing from you on a regular basis.
2. It helps you organise your work-life. It’s very easy to get caught up in your business, dealing with clients, and find the things you needed to do to more your business forward keep slipping down the list. Regular actions to grow your business need to be part of your schedule.
3. You want to keep bringing people back to your website. Creating new content and then putting it out via email and social media drives traffic to your online home. Get your audience on there as often as you can so they can explore more of what you have to offer.
4. It makes you the person who comes to mind for your area of expertise. You want to become somebody’s favorite. Creating great content, which people look forward to getting, keeps you top of the list when they are ready to buy what you’re offering.
Why does consistency matter? You’ve given your word. It’s not just about your reputation as someone who does what they say they’re going to do, it’s about people getting used to hearing from you on a regular basis. #Youpreneur Click To TweetBatch your content
Do you batch content? This is when you create several pieces of content at once, be it blog posts, videos or podcast episodes.
Batching is a very efficient way to create content. You’re in that creative mindset for a set period of time. No dipping in and out, which saves a lot of time and mental energy. And once you’re done, you could have a month or more of content ready to go out at the press of a button. No need to worry about something happening which knocks you off track.
It’s an incredibly useful process to build into your business. I use batching in lots of ways, including to pre-record my podcast episodes way ahead of time.
You can do the same with the content you want to produce and also with your weekly email. Most of us know what is coming up in our calendar over the next 3 months, don’t we? The places we’re going, the topics we are going to be talking about. If you haven’t got a 3-month content plan, sit down now and write one. You need 12 pieces of content, ignoring the occasional month with 5 weeks in.
How good would it feel to have 12 pieces of content batched and ready to go? You can break this down into blocks of 4 so it’s easier to slot into your schedule. To find out more about how I use batching to boost my productivity, watch this video.
How to automate your weekly emails
Now for the clever part. Once you have your content lined up and you know the URLs you will use, you can set up your emails in your auto-responder so they go out automatically. You’re effectively putting it on autopilot.
Your email marketing service should allow you to time emails to go out on a schedule. Write your emails, choose the day and time they are due to be sent, sit back and relax (or get on with doing something else!) Your fans will hear from you even when you’re on holiday. My auto-responder allows me to program out emails for approximately six months.
Now sometimes plans do change so pop a note in your diary for you or one of your team to double check what you’ve planned a day or so before it’s due to go out. It’s a couple of minutes for peace of mind.
Pop it in and make sure everything you’ve said is still relevant. It’s also handy to have a reminder in your calendar the day the email is due to go out as well so that if something has happened in the wider world which means it would be a bad time to send that email, you can hit pause.
You can use this system to deliver email courses. When someone signs up to receive the course, they are automatically added to that email sequence. You set up the emails, say when each one should be delivered, and then it runs without you doing anything every time someone new joins up.
Deliver great content and help your audience efficiently and effectively by batching and using your auto-responder. You will find it saves you time and worry while keeping people who are email list engaged and happy.
Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our weekly podcast, Youpreneur.FM, as well as our annual conference, the Youpreneur Summit. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.
