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Easy Email Marketing: 10 Simple Steps For Creating And Sending Marketing Email Your Customers Will Love

Step 1: Collect Your Ideas

Welcome to Step 1! Let’s start by collecting ideas for your first email. Grab a piece of paper or open a doc, title it “Email Ideas,” and prepare to get writing. Here we go ...

Let’s Get Real: Discounts Are Best

First things first — a discounted price on your product or service is probably going to generate more sales than anything else. We all love a deal; the trick is in how you do it. The following ideas are all versions of discounts, but a few stand out more than others.

  • X% off the price.

  • Buy one, get one free.

  • Buy one, give a discount to a friend.

  • Give loyal customers a special discount.

  • Discount on products that are old or not selling. 

  • Freeshipping. (Everyone loves free shipping!)

  • Free gift with purchase.

  • First-time shopper discount.

And for the brave ...

  • A huge, super, time-limited discount.

I’m talking about a 50%-discount-for-one-day kind of sale. But only if the numbers still show a profit, of course.

Think about which of these might work best for you and your business and what you would sell. Now write them down on your Email Ideas list.

Share Your Greatest Hits

The world’s best musicians play their greatest hits over and over again, often for many years. The reason, of course, is that people will pay to hear them live. You can do the same with your marketing email, too. Your customers already know and love you for something. What is it? Add it to your list.

Share Your Secrets

What are the little-known but awesome things you also offer? Your customers probably think of you as good at only one thing. It’s human nature. Your email is an opportunity to remind them you’re good at other things, too. Maybe toss in a small discount to get sales flowing. Write down any little-known things you’d like to flag to customers on your list.

Check The Calendar

What season will it be a month from now? What will your customers be preparing for in the near future? A holiday? A wedding? What season is coming up? Spring? Winter? What activities will your customers need to start planning for now? Think about how you can help them with their plans and put your ideas on the list.

Predict The Future

Just as in the calendar exercise above, we’re thinking about the future ... but in years. Have you noticed any trends in your industry? Where is it all going? What might your customers be nervous about? You got it — write it all down.

Good Marketers Copy, Great Marketers Steal

I don’t mean steal like rob a bank; I mean they take lots of ideas, remix them and make them their own.

Here’s the author of one of my favorite books putting it another way:

“Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”

― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

No one owns an idea, especially in marketing. So borrow from competitors and mix up ideas freely, and add them to your ideas list.

You are signed up for your competitors’ emails, aren’t you? Go ahead, I won’t tell :)

Who Loves Ya, Baby? And Why?

What do returning customers say they love about your business? Think about ways to reinforce the things they love by making a tweak here or a small change there. Write your ideas on your list.

Great work! I hope you have a bunch of ideas written down on your Email Ideas list. Put it in a safe place and celebrate. Take a walk, eat a cookie and pat yourself on the back. You’re doing awesome. 

Next Is Step 2

We’ll decide which of your ideas to choose. Kind of exciting, isn’t it?