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How Email Marketing Can Passively Grow Your Side Hustle
A lot of times when we think of email marketing, we think of what our Promotions Folder inside our inbox looks like. There are a lot of Old Navy emails, Wayfair, and more emails we do not read. This is a big reason why a lot of entrepreneurs don’t utilize email marketing. This and the dissolution of it take too much time. I’m here to convince you otherwise. However, if done correctly, your side hustle can utilize email marketing as a primary strategy and tool for growth.
In this episode, I am going to walk you through 3 ways to utilize email marketing for your side hustle. I’m going to provide examples for each that you can apply to your own business. Then, give you a simple 3-step plan for getting started. You can also follow along with my free email prompt download. Grab my 1 Year of Email Prompt Ideas For Nurturing Your Audience right here. With my free guide, you can eliminate email writer’s block for good and start building relationships!
Why Creating An Email List Is Important
Email marketing is a strategy used inside businesses to regularly send value-added emails to those who have subscribed to your email list (likely through a lead magnet) that eventually leads to a sale invitation. And for side hustlers, I’m going to give you one big reason why email marketing should be a priority, and that’s passive growth. For side hustlers, a passive growth strategy is key.
According to this article on Hubspot.com, 81% of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters. This means that the most effective way to naturally show up in front of your ideal audience (that eventually leads to income) is through your inbox.
With email marketing, you get to passively promote your products and services. You can passively create a higher level of customer service. Plus email marketing allows your side hustle to make a strong impression for who you are, what you do, and who you do it for.
01. Welcome New Subscribers
The first way your side hustle is going to utilize email marketing is through nurturing. After delivering a free lead magnet, your welcome series will passively nurture this new subscriber. Your welcome series can do this by providing value and promoting your products and services. If you haven’t created a freebie yet, go back and listen to episode #8 Creating The Ultimate Lead Magnet For Your Side Hustle.
After this free lead magnet is delivered, you want to create a welcome series (if they are a new subscriber) of 3-5 emails. Introducing yourself, and go a bit beyond just what your About page says. Pull the curtain back, create excitement, and invite them to truly explore what you got going on.
From there, drip out a few emails over the next several days introducing your business, sending them to popular blog posts you’ve written, or podcasts episodes you’ve recording. Continue to serve them while promoting the value inside your business and on your website.
At the end of your welcome series, promote your products or services. You can do this naturally by letting the subscriber know what it is you offer, when your offer is a great fit for someone, and how someone can get started.
Your Welcome Series:
- deliver automatically after lead magnet delivers for any NEW subscriber
- 3-5 email series drip campaign post lead magnet delievery
- Introduce yourself beyond your About page
- Create excitement and belonging
- Deliver additional value about yourself, your business, and your industry
- Naturally introduce your products/services and invite the subscriber to learn more
02. Nurture Subscribers
The second way your side hustle can utilize email marketing is through the process of creating authority and trust. To create authority and trust in your inbox, you want to do one thing very well, and that is to email your list on a regular basis. No matter your business model, you want to stay consistent.
And through these consistent emails, you are given the opportunity to create authority and trust further with the content you provide. The big question a lot of side hustlers have is “what do I email my list”. And the answer is serve, serve, serve, serve, sell. You want to email your list value-added content on a regular basis that continue to serve them, speaks to their pain points, points them to your website, and continues to educate them about your industry.
Remember, they became a subscriber of yours for a reason. So you know where their interests are. These regular emails are an opportunity for you to serve those interests.
With these emails, you can also begin creating true relationships. And we all know that sometimes a relationship needs to be formed before a sale is made. Invite your subscribers to reply, to answer questions, to ask you questions, to truly engage with you.
This helps you build out better content for your subscribers and it helps your overall email open rate. If you email someone who cares for you and is engaged with you, they will open that email no matter what.
Tips For Nurturing Your Email List Regularly:
- Provide meaningful value over generic content
- Grab my free download of 1 year’s worth of email-nurturing ideas
- Make your emails engaging
- Nurture to build relationships
03. Sell Inside Your Inbox
The third way your side hustle can utilize email marketing is through selling and monetization. We always want to lead by serving. However, we also want to optimize income.
Consider monetizing your inbox with tried and true affiliate products that you feel good about recommending to new subscribers inside your welcome series. You can also do this inside regular nurturing emails depending on the topic of conversation.
Your inbox is also a fantastic place to pitch your products or services. When you’re ready to invite a subscriber to take action, this is pitching. You’re not asking them to “learn more” about your products and services as you may inside your welcome sequence, you’re inviting them to purchase.
And you do this through an email series. Create a series of emails (I suggest 3-4) highlighting your promotion and the reasons why they would benefit if they took part. You can tag and structure your pitch depending on inbox behavior (if they opened, clicked, etc). You can (and should) create urgency meaning there is a time limit on your promotion.
And even during these promotional emails, you are continuing to serve and provide value. Remember no one likes to be pitched when they don’t feel served
How To Monetize Your Side Hustle Email Marketing Strategy:
- Included suggested and trusted affiliate products inside your welcome series
- Recommend suggested and trusted affiliate products inside your nurturing emails
- Create monthly promotions for your inbox centered around urgency
- Invite subscribers to take action with your promotions rather than “learn more”
In Summary
In summary, email marketing is a powerful tool for your side hustle. You can truly measure performance, tweak strategy, and grow your business. With your busy side hustle schedule, you can passively promote your business with email campaigns. You can passively create trust and authority. And you can also passively earn income, right inside your inbox.
- Passively promote yourself and your business
- Passively build trust and authority with an audience
- Passively earn income (inside your inbox!)
How To Get Started With Email Marketing Today
There are 3 easy steps you can take today to start utilizing email marketing for your side hustle.
3-Step Plan For Adding Email Marketing To Your Side Hustle Strategy:
- Get a service email provide (see why I love Flodesk and save 50% here)
- Create a beefy, value-added welcome series
- Batch create emails with your end goal in mind
The first step is to get an email service provider already if you don’t have one. Through an email service provider, you can create and automate email series that drip out over time. You can also batch-write emails and schedule them ahead of time. Plus you can see email analytics like your open and click rate.
I use Flodesk for my email marketing. Flodesk makes it easy for beginners and experts alike to build their email lists and convert them into customers. Their stunning email templates and user-friendly interface makes them a great fit for me. And if you’re looking for an email service provider, or for a better one, you can get 50% off your first year with Flodesk right here.
The second step to getting started utilizing email marketing for your side hustle is to create a value-added welcome series that automatically drips after your lead magnet delivery. Really beef this series up. Pull that curtain back, and make it exciting. Give a ton of value and truly serve your subscriber. And if applicable, see how you can monetize this series
The third step you want to take is to begin batching those emails. Define your email marketing goal each month. Decide on how many emails to send each week and how to properly nurture your audience so your goal is met. Then sit down and batch out those emails. Write out and schedule one week or one month’s worth of nurturing emails.
