5 Types of Emails Bloggers Should Send
/Discover the five types of emails bloggers should send to their lists to build trust, drive traffic, and increase income outside the range of SEO! Learn everything you need to know including what email marketing is, why it’s important, and what types of emails to send to crush your email marketing strategy!
If you’re in the online space at all, chances are, you’ve heard that you need to have an email list. Whether you’re running a social media account, hosting a blog, or doing some combination of both, email marketing is crucial.
Not only is it the only list you own, meaning if social media disappeared tomorrow you could still contact your fans. But it’s also one of the easiest and most effective ways to build trust with your audience and create lifelong fans.
In addition, having an engaged email audience can work wonders to drive traffic to your website! This can be a game-changer in the ever-changing world of Google updates and AI.
However, knowing how to effectively market to your audience can be a challenge. So, we’re breaking down the five different types of emails to send to help you grow your email list with ease!
What Is Email Marketing?
First things first, what even is email marketing? Glad you asked!
Email marketing is a strategy that involves sending targeted messages directly to subscribers’ inboxes. The main goals of email marketing include keeping readers engaged, informing them of new content/products, and driving conversions.
In the food space, this often looks like alerting readers of new recipes, promoting courses, cookbooks, and ebooks, and driving sales through sponsorships.
Contrary to what you might think, email marketing doesn’t have to be spammy or overly pushy. It’s simply an act of keeping a conversation going with your fans!
Why Is Email Marketing Important?
Email marketing helps nurture your audience, building trust with you and your fans. As a result, they will be more willing to engage with your content and support any products or collaborations that bring in sales.
Email marketing often has a huge ROI (return on investment) in terms of time and money. Once you have everything set up, it’s fairly cheap to maintain and doesn’t take much of your time throughout the week. You can even outsource email marketing through freelance writing packages like my email services!
Unlike just posting on your site, email marketing allows you to directly target your audience through segmented lists, delivering content you know they want. This can skyrocket open rates and have an outsized return on the direct traffic to your blog. Plus, it’s a lot faster than waiting for Google to index and rank a post.
Do Food Bloggers Really Need an Email Marketing Strategy?
YES! I find many food bloggers overlook the importance of a solid email strategy, preferring to focus on social media instead. Don’t get me wrong. Social media can be hugely impactful, but email is the best way to deliver all your delicious recipes and helpful content directly to your readers. By sending it to their inbox, you no longer have to take a chance on them finding it through an algorithm.
Remember, the subscribers to your email list choose to be there. So, you know that they want to hear from you and are more likely to engage. Therefore, building an effective strategy is crucial to maintaining a loyal audience and growing your blog.
5 Types of Email Newsletters Bloggers Should Send To Their List
Of course, the examples below aren’t the only way to market to your email list. However, they are some of the most common and effective. If you’re just starting out, I recommend creating a marketing strategy (or hiring a food blog writer, like me) to implement the email types below.
Once your system is running smoothly, you can experiment with different email types and ideas!
Welcome Sequences
A welcome sequence is an automated email sequence, typically consisting of a daily email for three to five days after a reader subscribes.
In a welcome series, your goal should be to introduce yourself and your content to readers so readers know what to expect when opening your emails.
A welcome series can look like:
Day 1: Welcome subscribers to your community. Give them a brief overview or tips of what they can expect in their inbox.
Day 2: Share some fun facts about yourself and your life, hobbies, and passions beyond just blogging. Tie this into your blog, and give a little bit deeper insight into what you’ll be sharing.
Day 3: Start sharing your most popular blog posts and content.
Looking for inspiration? Take a look at these 5 food bloggers smashing it with their welcome emails!
Weekly Newsletter Broadcasts
This is arguably the most common email marketing strategy implemented across every niche. A weekly newsletter can be a mix of personal updates, new posts on your site, educational information, sales, and announcements. Typically, they’re sent out once or twice a week at the same time to keep audiences engaged.
Weekly broadcasts are fun because they allow a lot of space for creativity. This is the best place to give readers a bit of a peak behind the current into your personal life. I find that sharing tidbits about what’s going on in life, goals, challenges, etc. builds a human aspect into a brand and keeps readers coming back for more.
The goal of weekly newsletters should be to connect with your audience on a personal level to build trust and engagement while also keeping them up to date on the newest posts and latest happenings with your business and/or blog.
Tip: When writing, think about what YOU want to see in your inbox, and go from there!
Meal Plan Emails
Meal plans are an excellent way for food bloggers to stand out in a cluttered inbox. They’re always a hit and often turn into something readers look forward to receiving every week. You can even turn your meal plans into monetized products as your blog evolves.
In each meal plan newsletter, you should include photos of the recipes, brief descriptions of each dish, and, of course, links to the blog posts with the recipes. Then, explain how to use the recipes to plan for the week ahead.
I recommend sending meal plans out every week on the same day at the same time. I recommend Sundays or toward the end of the week so readers have time to grocery shop, plan, and prep.
Include a minimum of five recipes, sticking with a theme like dinner. Or, go crazy, and provide a complete breakfast through dinner meal plan for the entire week. It’s entirely up to you and how much value you want to provide.
You can even go the extra step and turn your plans into downloadable PDFs and shopping lists!
Tip: Include your top-performing posts and high RPM recipes to not only deliver your best content but boost your ad income as readers navigate to the recipes.
Quick Start Guide (5-Day Email Series)
Matt Molen is a huge proponent of email series. His “Email on Autopilot” course is where I first learned about and started implementing them. Simply put, a quick start guide is a 5-day email series designed to drive conversions and deliver your best content directly to your readers’ inboxes.
The series starts with a general theme or topic such as “5 Must-Have Christmas Cookie Recipes” or “Your Complete Thanksgiving Menu.” Once a reader signs up, they receive one email for 5 days, linking to a relevant recipe or article on your site.
The emails are short, sweet, and designed to keep readers engaged while conditioning them to open your newsletters after the series ends. Keep reading to learn more about how to make a quick start guide and grow your email list!
Evergreen Sequences (Forever Series)
An evergreen sequence or forever series is an automated email list that showcases your top articles. The series can feature as many or as few emails as you like. However, it’s designed to be set up once and then automated to go on essentially forever, sending an email to readers once a week.
Because the content is evergreen, it’s always relevant and doesn’t require much maintenance. That means you no longer have to write, schedule, and send an email every single week! Keep reading to learn how to craft an effective evergreen email sequence.
In Conclusion
Email marketing is a game-changer when it comes to building an audience, boosting blog traffic, and driving revenue. And it doesn’t have to be complicated! Implement these five email marketing strategies, and experiment to find what works best for you and your audience.
Interested in growing your email list but don’t want to add more work to your plate? Check out my email writing services, or drop me a note explaining your goals, and let’s chat to see how I can help!