This is a guest post by Meera Kothand. Be sure to check out her awesome freebie at the bottom of this post!

It’s a tough balancing act being a mom and a blogger, isn’t it?

You work hard to earn some income from your blog, keep your social media feeds filled, write and publish your blog posts, create those pesky graphics in ten different sizes and try to manage the kiddos and household.

When you have to do all of that and I tell you to add email marketing in the mix, I don’t blame you for wanting to throw something at me. Email is this whole other monster that you don’t even know how to start tackling right?

But what if I told you that you could use email to save time, build credibility and bring in the sales?

Email is not a time drain. Far from that. If you know how to use email right, it could very well be the key tool in your arsenal saving you loads of time.

If email marketing was that great, why aren’t more people using it rather than viewing it as a chore? That’s because they fail to see the automation opportunities that exist in email.

Power of Automation

Automation is not scheduling. In fact it’s the very opposite.

Scheduling is manually batching an area of work so that it can be published or shared later. Queuing your posts in WordPress to be published later, loading your buffer feeds and loading your pictures on Latergramme are examples of scheduling.

Automation is setting up a system of processes that repeat themselves time and again.

That is what you want to do with email. And this works like a charm for a mommy blogger because time is so precious.

In this post I’m going to give you a snapshot of the possibilities that exist with email marketing.

Welcome onboarding for new subscribers and clients

Have a new subscriber? Hurray! This is your time to wow and impress them when they are most engaged with you and your brand.

Every time someone new opts-in to your list, send them a welcome email series which is a sequence of 3-5 emails.

Example: After opting in for the freebie “10 Screen-Free Toys for Guaranteed Quiet Time Play That Will Let You Relax, Recharge or Put The Laundry Away”, WhatMomsLove.com sends a short series of welcome emails to introduce you to their brand. See screenshot below:

Email #1 of 4 from the WhatMomsLove.com email welcome sequence.

Imagine every subscriber going through an onboarding sequence with the intention of introducing them to your brand, your best content and the value you provide.

Imagine the impression that would make on your subscribers. Your new subscribers will be taken care of no matter when they opt in to your list. Even if that’s during the holiday season or when you’re on vacation.

Opt-in > Deliver opt-in freebie > Subscribe to welcome email series

Collect Testimonials

As bloggers and solopreneurs we struggle with getting testimonials. It’s one of those things that gets put on the back burner because we simply forget to put in place a system to do so.

But what if you could automate the process. Here are some ways you can do so:

• A subscriber who has been on your list for 30 days or more gets an automatic email asking for feedback or a testimonial about the content you’ve been sending them
• You auto send an email to any client after they’ve signed up for your service package and ask for feedback about the working process
• Anyone who has purchased your course or ebook gets an email 30 days later asking for a testimonial

You will wake up each morning to testimonials in your inbox rather than actively look for them or remembering to get in touch with subscribers, customers or clients.

Are you starting to see the potential of your email list? Don’t miss Meera’s free email course, “Email Lists For Newbies“, to kickstart your email list the right way.

Know exactly what your audience is interested in

What if you knew exactly what your subscribers were interested in? Tag anyone who has opted-in to your freebie or content upgrade or clicked on a blog post link as interested in that particular topic.

If a reader clicks on this link, you’ll know they’re interested in Pinterest.

This way when you’re looking for beta testers for a product or to do a product survey related to the topic, you will know who to reach out to on your list. You can do this easily with an email service provider such as ConvertKit.

Opt-in to freebie or content upgrade> tag as interested in topic

Click on blog post link > tag as interested in topic

Sell on autopilot

Do you have an ebook or course that you’d like to sell on autopilot? If you have a content upgrade or freebie on your blog that’s directly related to that paid product, you could set up a series of 5-10 emails filled with educational content to send to any subscriber who opts in to the freebie or content upgrade.

Sample sales email series.

There are very few people who will buy from you straight off the bat. By sending them content related to the topic of your paid product you are showing your expertise and the problem that your product solves.

You inch the subscriber closer and closer towards making a purchase. You could then present your product as a natural ‘next step’ later in the email series for anyone who wants to go deeper into the topic.

Opt-in to content upgrade or freebie > Subscribe them to an email sequence

Identify potential customers

Not everyone will be interested in your offer. But those who click through to your sales page are at least interested to know what your offer is about.

It’s important to know who these people are so that you can send them offers even if they don’t buy from you the first time.

There are several reasons why someone doesn’t buy. It’s not always about your product. It may not be the right time for them. They may have other budget constraints for the month. Being moms, we know how such months are.

But if you show up at an opportune time in the future, they might just jump on your offer. You can automate this as well and I’ll show you how in the next step.

Present a downsell

A downsell is a ‘lite’ or cheaper version of an existing product or service package.

For anyone who has clicked through to your sales page but did not buy your product, add them to a downsell sequence that will only hit their inbox 30-60 days later. You could present them a coupon code or a ‘lite’ version of your existing product.

Provide excellent customer service on auto

Your email content just bagged you a sale. That’s fantastic, but your support for that subscriber who just purchased doesn’t end there. Connect them to a new email sequence that hand holds them through your course or product.

Tag as ‘purchased product’ > Subscribe to ‘welcome to course/product’ email sequence

Embrace email

All of these processes that I’ve walked you through can be set-up once and then run on autopilot in the background with an email service provider with basic tagging and automation features.

Our host Candis and I are huge fans of Convertkit (aff link). Convertkit has a dedicated ‘Automations’ section in the dashboard which makes it really easy to have all of these running in minutes. If you’re ready to kickstart your email list, Convertkit is a platform we highly recommend.

You will need to sit down and plan how you’d like them to work, but once you have the systems in place, you will begin to enjoy email and reap the benefits of it.

Every piece of content including your emails and blog posts will work harder for you so that you have that extra time and money to spend on your family. So that you can work on growing your blog and business rather than be in constant ‘launch mode’ wondering where the next sale or client is going to come from.

Have I convinced you to embrace email as yet?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Meera Kothand

Meera is a certified email marketing specialist and blogger who helps ambitious female solopreneurs and bloggers find focus, build authority and stand out online. Want to get started with your email list? Take the free email course Email Lists for Newbies.