just getting started with email marketing as an artist maker or handmade business owner if so you're in the right place in this video I'm going to be chatting with my friend and clavio email marketing expert Holly merch about some beginner steps to get started with email marketing Holly is the founder of e-commerce arcade where she specializes in leveling up your e-commerce game with Shopify as well as clavio for e-commerce email marketing she's an illustrator and branding designer with more than a decade of experience selling handmade products online and in person hi Holly so if you are working with a client who doesn't have any email marketing whatsoever how do you get started well they definitely need to get started because one thing that I hear from clients all the time is they all wish myself included that they started collecting emails way sooner than they are and that's okay you if that's been you it's okay just give yourself a permission slip not to beat yourself up and work to start collecting emails is the very first thing that you need to do and then the next thing would be to select a platform and which platform I was chatting with a student in the badass creat marketing accelerator the other day and they were like what platform do I use and my suggestion is like whichever one feels easiest to you and that you will actually use but do you have recommendations well my go-to is clavio and that is because I work mostly with e-commerce Centric entrepreneurs and it's literally built for e-commerce and I know it really really well and it's integration with Shopify which is also what I specialize in is just wonderful and really well done I I'm kind of of the same thing that you recommended to that student is pick one that feels good for you that you will use um I do try to like encourage people to use clavo but at the same time though I had a student in a group that I was presenting to and she said I've been in cavio I don't get it and she just seemed really frustrated but there was another platform that she had used and was comfortable with and I said just stick with that one then if it if it as if it causes you to actually like send out those emails and to use that tool there's no wrong tool yeah because when you're just getting started with email marketing you have to start somewhere so you can always start with a tool that feels simple and easy to use and as you get bigger you could move to something like claya with a Shopify website yes exactly okay so we have a platform we're started Gathering email addresses maybe we're doing craft shows and literally getting people to write it down in a notebook because that's a super easy way to go uh so then what do they do once they're in clavio or whatever their face email marketing platform is MailChimp mailer light whatever it is what do they do well it depends on the platform because some of them have a lot more options than others but I would say if it has automations I highly suggest setting those up and testing them testing them is so important so some of those automations at least the basics that I tend to start with with clients is a welcome series and that's a series of one to it could be five it could be seven emails and we usually space them about a week apart you can go a little bit closer but not to overwhelm your new subscriber and that um automation is triggered when someone signs up for your email list and then they get to know you through these emails and they're more Evergreen in nature and then the next two that I usually set up are um a browse abandonment which is kind of like I kind of I compare it to like as if your store online is a brick and mortar and you're saying hello as someone walks through the door and it's just a friendly way to say hello to someone who is already familiar with your business and Sh and kind of just looking and then the next one is abandoned cart which of course we've almost got them to the finish line of converting on your site and an abandoned cart really help helps people focus in a very busy internet world yeah and it's like doing them a service I remember chatting with some people at a conference and they were like oh isn't an abandoned card email kind of spam me and I was like no like what if you have like a toddler who ran in and distracted you while you were literally about to pull out your credit card and buy the thing like you're just helping them exactly and I I mean I have ADHD and so the internet is wonderful and also terrible at the the same time so any sort of browse abandonment or abandoned cart is a really lovely thing for me to be like oh that's right that's I was trying to buy mothers and Father's Day cards and I got distracted and that is something I need to do on time so I don't miss the boat they can be really helpful and that's one of the beautiful things about using Shopify and clavio together is that sort of stuff is really just baked in right yes exactly the integration with cavio and with Shopify is so so good and the data gets you know they share the data so tightly that there are times where I'm like I'm glad that I'm glad that these are my customers and there's no other extra things like you're not like CIA is not the type of platform that's just going to send a random email to someone who stumbled upon your site and has interacted with your business never since that point uh so it's always about like you know who's familiar with your your business and has done something to um the added as a contact in clavio perfect so if you have never done email marketing first thing start colleting those email addresses pick a platform cavio is great especially if you're already on Shopify but just pick something and use it and then set up those automations if you can do that and speaking of um signing up for emails I did a test a few years ago when I ran my handmade business and I was doing craft shows pretty regularly and I did an experiment of how many emails can I get people to sign up or how many emails can I get via an iPad at a craft show versus like oldfashioned clipboard and pen and hands down the clipboard and pen and paper one out like people like that tactile response to writing their name which means that sometimes yes you have to interpret handwriting but they like that experience better than you know typing on an iPad or at least verbally trying to tell you while they're checking out during a transaction yeah and that's just proof that you can make these things simple they don't have to always be overly complicated and overly techy if that doesn't feel good for you do what Mak sense for you and your business exactly so tell me more about campaigns what does the setting that up look like what does does that look like for a handmade business so a campaign can be differentiated between like an Automation in that they are more oneoff and they're more time Centric or times sensitive emails that you would send to people who are subscribed to your list and I know a lot of folks really struggle with sending those consistently myself included we all struggle with it but the great thing about it is by sending it consistently whatever that Cadence is for you is so crucial because people know when to expect it and um it helps keep your business top of Mind does that mean you need to send every week no if that doesn't work for you try every month or even if that's too much try every quarter but you really don't want to go too long without sending a campaign to that list otherwise you know six months or a year could go by and then all of a sudden when your email pops into their inbox they may not remember subscribing to you and they may unsubscribe which isn't great or even worse Markus spam which we definitely don't want yeah and yeah I always recommend like pick a Cadence that works for you like you said like at least once a month is kind of preferable but once a quarter can work too if you're super busy and like pick a template kind of an example that you kind of always follow every single time so you're not having to reinvent the wheel if you need examples of that I have a video right here so go check that one [Music] out