☠️ Not a Black Friday email (promise)
Ep. 86: Does your freelance business need a newsletter? (with Eman Ismail)
Hi friend,
Hurray! This email didn’t get scooped up in your cull of Black Friday emails. Truly honoured.
How’s your inbox looking? So far today I’ve got emails from:
a homeware brand I bought some tea towels and toast tweezers from six months ago (and hadn’t heard from since)
about 18 emails from Anthropologie (their retargeting campaign is 🔥)
the National Museum of Scotland (time-sensitive fossils, who knew)
Nike, Adidas, Sweaty Better, Under Armour (clearly I have a type)
my window cleaner (maybe that was legit)
It’s a fun day for a copywriter – plenty of subject lines and CTAs to grab for the swipe file.
For the emails you don’t immediately send to trash, think about what made you click and how you can replicate that in your own marketing.
And if you’re thinking more seriously about your own email marketing campaigns, you are going to LOVE today’s episode of 15 Minute Freelancer…
Do you need an email newsletter for your freelance business?
With so many freelancer newsletters out there, you may be wondering – do we really need another? Do people really get clients through their newsletters? How do we know we’re not just writing for our friends?
(I see a lot of this in the copywriting space – writers writing about writing for other writers. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if your goal is to get clients you might need to be a bit more strategic.)
Writing a regular newsletter is a big commitment. And probably not one you want to dive into without being sure you can stay the course for long enough to see if it works (see also: podcasts).
But if you enjoy writing and you can find a way to stay consistent, it could be a valuable addition to your marketing strategy.
And with the social media landscape looking a bit topsy turvy these days, it’s one way to build a direct relationship with your audience and protect yourself against the whims of a billionaire’s mid-life crisis.
Don’t build your client pipeline on rented land, and all that.
So, where to start?!
If starting a newsletter is in your plans for 2023, you won't wanna miss today's episode of 15 Minute Freelancer. I’m joined by Eman Ismail, email strategist extraordinaire, who shares her advice on how to get started, grow your list, and use email marketing to attract clients (rather than “just curious” peers).
We talk about:
Why freelancers shouldn't overlook email marketing as a key way to build their business
Why email is actually better than social media for marketing
Eman's insights on what to write and how often
Building an email list full of the right people (and what to do if you attract more fellow freelancers than potential clients)
Eman's recommendations for email marketing platforms.
Listen here »
🧠 Insight: I remember a Being Freelance Facebook Q+A with Paul Jarvis back in the day – he used to have an excellent newsletter that he’s since retired – and I asked him for some tips on how to create a manageable and effective newsletter as a freelancer.
His advice was to keep it simple! Why not just share a quick tip about your area of expertise or a link to a case study, tell people what you’ve been up to, and let people know your upcoming availability?
While it might be best practice to email weekly, you can still get a decent ROI from doing something like this on a less frequent basis. Just keep focused on your goal – in this case, staying in touch with previous and potential clients, rather than building a mahoosive list. If you get one or two quality leads from each email, wouldn’t that be great?
➡️ 15-Minute Action: If you want to step up your email marketing game in 2023, why not spend 15 mins reviewing your strategy? Who is your target audience? What’s your goal? Are you trying to attract clients for freelance projects or do you want to grow a list to eventually sell a product/course of some sort? Those are quite different goals.
Personally, my goal with this newsletter is not specifically to attract clients (though I’m not averse to referrals 😉). If I was looking to generate leads, it would make more sense to build my newsletter around health or copywriting or some combo of the two that would be of interest to my ideal clients.
I just really love talking about freelancing. My goal with the podcast and this newsletter is to help as many people as possible build a freelance business that works for them. And I’m experimenting with different channels to see what resonates. Feedback always welcome!
Since all good emails end with a nice, juicy call to action, here’s one: if you enjoy this newsletter, why not share it with a friend? Together we can help even more people create a business they love.
Thanks for being here. And until next time, happy freelancing!
Louise xx