Let’s go back to basics with email newsletters
This year, I want to encourage as many service-based businesses as possible to incorporate email newsletters into their Marketing Strategies.
In this series of blogs, I’ll share tips and hints to get you started.
Step 1: Pick a Platform
The first step to get started with sending email newsletters is to pick a platform.
When I talk about email platforms I’m not talking about gmail, yahoo and outlook, I’m covering Email Service Providers that are built for email marketing. These systems ensure you stay compliant with relevant data regulations, give you functionality like automated emails and segmentation and give you brilliantly useful insight and analytics (I’ll cover these elements in future blog posts).
But when you run a service business the options can feel endless (because they are)!
I’m here to give you a little nudge, because, in all honestly, the platform you use at the beginning doesn’t really matter. You aren’t tied to a platform once you sign up, so if you start working with a system and you decide you don’t like it, you can always take your list to a different host.
The most important thing is to find a platform that you like using. Because if you like it (or at the very least don’t HATE it), you’ll be more likely to incorporate email newsletters into your marketing and content plans.
There’s no use having a super whizzy email set up if you don’t use it to build your community.
So pick one, give it a go for a few months and see how you go.
But of course I want to give you a few guidelines and share my favourite platforms for service businesses sending newsletters.
I use MailerLite, Mailchimp and Flodesk with my clients.
I love that each of these options has easy-to-use, drag and drop editor, and low-cost options to get you started with little (or zero) financial commitment. You can create sign-up forms, landing pages and send branded newsletters which for most service businesses is enough to see results. You can also build automated welcome emails and if you want to share freebies you can in just a few clicks.
Flodesk is my go-to if you have a large existing audience. If you have an in-person community, you have thousands of followers on socials or your website gets huge volumes of visitors each month.
The reason I suggest Flodesk in this situation is because it’s a flat-fee platform. No matter how many subscribers you have, you’ll always pay one fee (currently) $35. Unlike Mailerlite and Mailchimp which offer free accounts if you have under 1k subscribers (and other things) but have a sliding scale as your audience of subscribers grows.
I have a Flodesk referral link here which gives you half-price for 12 months.
Mailchimp is a really recognisable email platform. It has lots of integrations available if you want to connect it to your website and other platforms. I find the builder really easy to use for both email newsletters and automated messages. It can get a little bit spenny once you start to build your subscriber numbers.
Mailerite is a brilliant platform to get you started. The drag and drop builder is intuitive and I find that beginners find it straight forward. It’s free for those with less than 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 email sends and doesn’t have quite the sharp rise in cost that mailchimp has.
There might also be a platform almost ready to go. And it’s one that most email marketers might not highlight. But you know I’m always happy to buck the trend.
Have you considered using the marketing email set up on your website?
If your website is hosted on a platform like Squarespace or Wix, you will have the capacity to send marketing emails built-in.
I don’t usually recommend this route for my clients as the functionality is limited and analytics are basic, but but but it’s better to start building your list and send newsletters on your website set up, than not.
If this blog has left you even more bamboozled about your choices drop me an email, give me the low down on your business, and I’ll give you my expert view on what would work best for you.
If you’d like help getting started with sending regular email newsletters that really connect with your dream clients, drop me a message.
Let’s tick email newsletters off your 2025 to-do list.
Bx