76: Want a SYSTEM for getting started with email marketing for your own creative business?

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Dolly Delong
Welcome to the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast where I help entrepreneurs go from scattered to streamlined in their creative businesses. I’m your host, Dolly Delong, a wife, a mom, and a photographer turned systems educator. Join me every week as we have conversations centered around creating tactical workflows, and automations in your business. Now, let’s make some strategic workflow magic.

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast. I am your systems-loving host Dolly Delong and if you are listening to this episode when it airs, it means it is officially May and I cannot believe it. May brings a lot of fun things for me, and I’m sure for many listeners. It means the end of a school year, especially if you have little ones at home, and you’re looking ahead to summer break. Again, depending upon where you are located in the world, you may be gearing up for a busy season with work, or you may be slowing down. So for me, I’m actually starting to rev up with more work, which I love personally. But I also love having those pockets of slower weeks starting in May. It’s just like a fun time of year. The month of May also lands in the middle of Q2 and if you are anything like me, you most likely are reassessing your quarter-two goals based on either your income or data, or you may be creating your goals as you go, or you may be like, I didn’t even realize we were in a different quarter, Dolly. So wherever you land, I hope you’re incorporating some sort of system and workflow for yourself, either way, that works for you. Now, I mentioned reassessing my Q2 goals only because of my overarching goal in my business is to always grow my email list. I know I’m always talking about email list growth, either through lead magnet topics, through the past bundles I have led, or through the various guests and experts I have invited on the show, you have probably picked up that I love talking about email marketing, and list building. But the reason why I am bringing up list growth and email marketing is this. I know that the term list growth is an online industry term that essentially means building out your email list and I know that it is industry jargon for online business owners and I know instantly, that can cause a reaction of ewww, Dolly. I don’t want to talk about that. Because that makes me think of gross, bro marketing tactics or you might be thinking, oh, I have like maybe 10 people on my email list and I don’t even know how to grow my email list like everybody claims would work to grow my email list. Or you may be thinking, okay, I have kind of an email list but I don’t even email anyone because what’s the point of email marketing? I don’t know what to write to them. I don’t want to sound annoying. I don’t want to be spammy. I hate getting spam. So I’m not going to email. Okay, so let’s be real. Do you fall into one or maybe all of those categories? I don’t know. So I want to encourage you to think where does that stem from? Now, I can’t speak for everyone. Because I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not a mind reader. Okay, hopefully, that made you laugh. But I’m not a mind reader. But I know, when I was first learning about list growth and email marketing, and anything to do with email marketing, it was super intimidating to me. I know that I can sometimes come across as like, Oh, I’m so organized. I love systems, and I love workflows and everything is put together but here’s the reality, I sometimes too get intimidated when I’m learning a new topic or a new workflow or a new system. So when I started learning about email marketing, it was overwhelming. It was overwhelming because it was a topic full of different aspects and I literally thought if I didn’t have an email list of hundreds of 1000s of people, I would be a failure. Because that is what a lot of industry experts sometimes can make you believe or feel or whatever you want to insert. They throw out their numbers and then they make it sound like oh, it’s so easy to build out your list, then you try, and then you’re like, it’s not as easy as everybody’s saying it is. I do want to share in my mind, the fact of the matter is this, I had to learn about the foundations of email marketing first, in order to appreciate the value of list growth to truly reach out to the right type of audience. So you didn’t let me maybe reshare a reiterate that point, I had to move past all the bells and whistles of list growth and all the terms and jargon and I actually had to learn about the foundations first, to apply it to my own unique business, to see the value, and to really, truly talk to the right people, and to learn how to reach out to the right type of audience that I want to serve. So I’m bringing up this topic of email marketing because I know for a fact that many creative business owners still are not tapping into the foundations of actually learning about the strategic power of email marketing and there is a myriad of reasons for that. So I wanted to use this quarter, again, I told you, I would come back to re-up the quarter. I wanted to use this time to start a new series centered around the systems and workflows of email marketing. So this series, I will be bringing on a lot of guest experts who are actual industry experts when it comes to email marketing, and they are going to be sharing so many different facets of email marketing, that will help you out in tremendous ways. Another reason why I’m doing this series is that I just want you the listener, to take baby steps into email marketing, I believe you can, in fact, learn to lay out a system that works for you in order to make proactive steps towards actually growing out an email list of subscribers who want to learn from you who want to engage with you, who want to learn more about your business, and in fact, buy from you or refer people to you and I will say, it’s not an easy peasy road filled with unicorns and rainbows. I mean, if list building was I think everyone would have lists of like 10s and 1000s of subscribers but I believe again, I tried to be as real as possible. It’s actually quite a roller coaster of emotions if you ask me when you decide to actually learn about email marketing, and then you actually apply new knowledge to build out your email list. Because honestly, it can feel overwhelming and I will attest to that I will be very real with you. If you are an OG listener to this podcast, you know, I like to keep it real. But also like to keep it real with you and let you know, we can do hard things, you can do hard things and if this is hard for you, you can take baby steps and lay out a foundation to learn more about email marketing. I just want to say at the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast, I believe, like listeners, we are a community of doers and dreamers who take actionable steps in laying out a system and workflow that works for us in our businesses and I want to include email marketing in that. So I believe you can take actionable steps in laying out a system that works for you and learning more about email marketing and applying it slowly to your business. So I’m gonna ask you to do something for me, I’m gonna ask you to put on your brave pants and join me in this email marketing series that I’m going to be serving up to you in the next several weeks. I promise you, you will get so much value in education from these episodes I have planned out for you. I’ve tried to make it very purposeful and strategic for you to apply right away because I don’t like fluff episodes. I like taking action and I want my listeners, I want you to actually learn what to do and I say this in every episode that I’d like to treat each podcast episode like a mini-mastermind or a masterclass. So that as you’re listening either on your drive, or if you’re doing your dishes, or if you’re folding laundry or whatever you’re doing, I want you to listen in and then to take action steps. So that is my goal for you. And if you want to know what topics will be covered, I have a teaser of the topics for you now, so I’m not sharing all the topics but I’m going to share a high level of what or a teaser of what we’re going to be talking about, so we will be covering how to actually create time and space for email marketing. Because I know that’s something that a lot of people struggle with, like, how can I have the time and space to write out emails? We will be covering how to actually move past the negative beliefs around email marketing because I know we all may, not you, but I know I struggle with a negative mindset centered around email marketing and I’ve had to really, really push myself in the last several years, specifically in the last year, to move past some negative mindsets of well, what’s the point of email marketing? I don’t have a list of 1000s of people, or somebody wrote a negative comment back and I just tended to focus in on that negative comment versus the other positive comments I had been receiving. So I created an episode of helping you move past the negative beliefs. Another topic we will be covering is how to actually get in front of new audiences because I know that’s something that a lot of creative business owners struggle with. And another topic teaser is we will cover what to write to your audience if you feel like you’re hitting a roadblock. And so again, those are just like four little teasers for you, and out of several weeks, all dedicated to the foundations and workflows of email marketing. Again, I’m only skimming the surface. Plus, let me remind you, each guest has their own resources that they’re going to be sharing with you for free. So I want to invite you to listen in to each episode so that you can dig into their powerful resources, get to know them, take baby steps, and actually step more into email marketing knowledge and know how to apply it to your business, all right? Again, why am I covering this topic of email marketing in such a huge series? So one, I believe it’s important to build your brand off of social media and off of platforms you don’t own, not just to take a break from social media. And not only because you may lose your platforms, due to unforeseen circumstances, we’ve all heard that you may lose your social media account for no apparent reason. But another reason, just to think about is what if you get burned out by social media? What if you do experience burnout, and you just decide I can’t do social media anymore? So if you don’t want to grow on social media, start taking baby steps and growing an email list, so that you can engage your audience week in and week out, without the need to post to social media, and email marketing is a tool for you to do that. I know of several business owners that have done this successfully, yes, it’s taken time. It’s not an overnight success, but it’s taken them time to build that audience and just talk to them through email marketing, and not depend on social media. All right. Another reason why I’m doing this series is, I am I know I shared this earlier but it’s mainly because many creative business owners are intimidated by the topic of email marketing, and the intimidation comes for a myriad of reasons. Again, I’m repeating myself, but some people might be thinking, I don’t know how to grow my email list, or I don’t know what to write to my list, or I don’t know the tech behind email marketing, or I don’t sell anything, so what’s the point of email marketing? So I want to help you break through all of those intimidations, which I believe can like limit you tremendously and I want you to see the power of laying out a good system and workflow when you get to know the foundations of email marketing. Then finally, in June of 2023, so as in next month, so if you’re listening to this live when it comes out, it’s May. So next month is June, and I’m going to be leading the Systems and Workflow Magic Summit, which is an email marketing edition. And yes, I said Summit, and it’s all centered around the systems and workflows of email marketing and yes, it’s going to be a free event. So I wanted you, the listener, to meet some of the amazing speakers who are going to be part of this event. So these early episodes will help introduce you to the speakers, and you can join to be included on the waitlist for the summit. So overall, I hope you’re excited like I am about the series. Again, let me remind you that you don’t have to be an email marketing expert to listen in. That’s not a requirement. Hopefully, you know that. The only requirement is this and I’m stating the requirement in air quotes since you can’t see me, is that you are open and willing to take baby steps in laying out a system and foundation that works for you. When it comes to email marketing and just start applying it to your own unique business. I believe that email marketing can positively impact your business no matter what industry you are in, alright?

So are you excited about the series, I really, really hope so. So stay tuned for next week, which will be episode 77. We are officially kick-starting off the series next week. So until then head on over to the shownotes to get on the waitlist for the Systems and Workflow Magic Summit, the email marketing edition. Read about all the details and invite your other business-owning friends who also want to learn about email marketing, because again, it’s a free Summit. I hope you have a streamlined and magical week you amazing muggle you. Have a wonderful day, and I’ll talk to you next week. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at dollydelongphotography.com/podcast. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it with your stories, and tag me @DollyDelongEducation over on Instagram. Until next time, go make some strategic workflow magic.