Email Marketing Best Practices for Makers

In today’s digital world, email remains a powerful tool for connecting with your audience, building relationships, and driving sales. Email marketing plays a pivotal role in the success of online businesses. It provides a direct and personal way to communicate with customers.

Let’s dive in and unlock the potential of your handmade business!

Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Building a Solid Foundation for Your Email Marketing

Before you dive into crafting captivating email campaigns, it’s crucial to establish a strong foundation. 

Select a reliable email service provider (ESP) with features tailored to your business needs. 

A robust ESP will provide tools for managing your subscriber list, creating visually appealing emails, and tracking important metrics.

Many ESPs provide a trial period to see if they’re right for you. I suggest trying Klaviyo, MailChimp, ConvertKit, or Flodesk.

A best practice is to ensure your ESP will connect with your online shop. For example, you can add Klaviyo to your Shopify shop. When someone signs up for your email list, it’s automatically added to Kaviyo. 

Crafting Engaging and Effective Email Content

To capture your subscribers’ attention, creating engaging email content is crucial. Think about how many emails you get in a day. The trick is to speak to your Perfect Customer with information that they are interested in.

Begin with attention-grabbing subject lines that entice recipients to open your emails. You can use a website like this free email subject line generator to help you with ideas.

Keep your email copy concise, friendly, and informative, focusing on your products or services’ value and benefits. Remember, your product solves a problem for your customers. Talk about those “problems” and how your items are the answer!

(If you need more help with creating content, take a look at my self-paced course, Clear Cut Content.)

Remember to add images to your email. Showcase your new pieces, or show your items in action. 

Your emails don’t need to be long, but they should contain information your customers want to receive and include one Call to Action (CTA). 

A call to action could be a link to a product for sale or a request for your email subscribers to follow you on social media.

Bonus tip: Only include ONE call to action per email. If you use multiple CTAs, your customers can be confused and possibly annoyed. 

Email Marketing Best Practices Include Optimizing for Mobile Devices

In an era where people are constantly connected to their mobile devices, optimizing your emails for mobile viewing is vital.

Ensure that your email templates are mobile-responsive, adjusting to different screen sizes. Most ESPs will give you a preview screen that will show you what your email will look like on mobile.

After you’ve created your email, be sure to check how it looks on both desktop and mobile! You may need to adjust the size of fonts or images to make the mobile experience positive.

Personalization and Automation for Enhanced Engagement

Personalizing your emails can significantly improve engagement rates. Address recipients by name to make them feel valued and recognized. 

Most ESPs allow you to add a subscriber’s name to your email. You can even add it to the subject line.

If your ESP is integrated with your website, you can create tags and segments that track your subscribers’ shopping habits.

With their shopping information, you can send targeted emails based on their preferences, purchase history, or browsing behavior. 

Build some automated emails into your workflow as you set up your email service. You can create automated emails for new subscribers, abandoned carts, and shoppers who last visited your store a while ago.

Building Trust and Maintaining Compliance

Building trust is crucial for successful online businesses. Be sure your emails offer clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe options. 

Ensure compliance with email marketing regulations such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR, safeguarding your subscribers’ privacy and data security. Most ESPs will guide you through these regulations.

By prioritizing trust, you’ll foster long-term relationships with your audience.

Nurturing Customer Relationships

Email marketing is a powerful tool for nurturing relationships with your customers. Here are some ideas to strengthen these relationships:

• Send exclusive offers and discounts to reward their loyalty.
• Share behind-the-scenes stories, updates, and sneak peeks to create a sense of community.
• Encourage feedback and engage with your subscribers through surveys or social media interactions, fostering a connection beyond transactions.

Remember, emails don’t always have to be about the sale. Your subscribers are your fans; they want to know more about you and your process. Share with them, and they will continue to be fans of you and your work.

Monitoring, Adapting, and Staying Informed

Email marketing gives you feedback that can help you determine which products are popular. Monitor your email marketing analytics and pay attention to what links they click on and which emails they open.

If your ESP integrates with your shop, you can see which emails bring in sales and how much they make. Use this information to create future emails. 

Stay informed about industry trends and email marketing best practices, ensuring your handmade business remains competitive and successful.

Email Marketing Best Practices for Makers

By implementing these email marketing best practices, you’ll be well on your way to creating engaging, personalized, and effective campaigns for your handmade business. 

Remember to build a solid foundation, optimize for mobile, personalize your emails, and continuously test and analyze your efforts. 

Nurturing customer relationships and staying informed are keys to long-term success. So, unleash the power of email marketing and watch your handmade business thrive!

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One of the biggest questions crafters ask about email marketing is, “What do I say??” If you’re looking for some help with content and messaging, I have the perfect guide for you! CLEAR CUT CONTENT – the self-paced content creation course for makers looking to grow their audience and get more sales. Read more about the course here!