28 Apr Your Email List Isn’t Growing: Here’s How to Fix That
You opened your crafty business because you love what you do: the color pop of a hand-dyed skein, the satisfying snip of fabric shears, styling mannequins and hosting trunk shows with popular designers. That was all the fun stuff. But now that you realize you need to do the marketing tasks and you’re feeling overwhelmed managing your email and the *list*.
Here at Stitchcraft Marketing, growing email lists for craft businesses is exactly what we do. We’ve put together a quick EMAIL GROWTH GUIDE to make things easier so you can get back to the fun stuff.
Your email list is one of the most valuable assets your business owns. Not your Instagram. Those are people who raised their hand and said, “Yes, I want to hear from you.” The reason why is called PERMISSION MARKETING. Your customers are giving you a rare thing… the privilege of marketing to them. This is the reason why–if done correctly– email marketing is the most effective tool in your toolbox.
Your email list is a room full of people who already are beginning to trust you and love what you offer. Your job is just to show up, talk to them and continue to deliver VALUE.
The good news? Once you figure out the formula and come up with a value-based template, it can become a predictable flywheel for your sales. If you’re doing it wrong, it’s probably one of these reasons:
You have too much friction to sign up for the list:
Is it easy for prospective customers to subscribe? You would be surprised how many craft business owners neglect the first, most important step. If it’s difficult to sign up for your email list, they may decide that buying from you is difficult too. Make sure your sign-up is easy to find on your website- such as in the footer of every page.
Your content needs work:
Most outbound emails fail for the same handful of reasons, and none of them are about what you’re selling. The yarn is great. The fabric is beautiful. The problem is in the content.
You’re too pushy:
Your newsletter content should be about your avatar (otherwise called your target customer). It should be about how to make her crafty life richer, more inspired, easier etc. The worst emails are those that are “BUY BUY BUY” my stuff. While it’s okay to showcase new releases and offer discounts, be mindful that your newsletter is not all about YOU. Mix in tutorials that teach her, images that inspire her, and behind-the-scenes content that make her feel closer to your mission and purpose as a business owner.
Your newsletter is a “Wall of Text”
This is how we describe a newsletter that has too many words and not enough imagery. Remember that your customer is creative! She wants to see beautiful things- including what you have for sale. Minimize the words, include more white space and generally make your sends shorter.
You’re not looking at the data:
If your open rates are not 40% or higher, there are improvements you can make. If your open rates are 15% or lower, your email marketing is broken and needs an overhaul. Check your back end statistics of your email client to know for sure.
You’re not cleaning your lists
From our experience working with over 300 companies in the craft space, we can report that a typical attrition rate is around 7%. You’re going to lose at least that amount annually. You should also be manually cleaning out your lists and sending an opt in notice to anyone who has not opened an email in over a year. Many clients don’t realize that they’re still paying to have those people on the list so we encourage cleaning so that you save money! Stop paying for people to NOT open your email.
You can fix all this with our FREE Stitchcraft Marketing Email List Growth Guide
Join our free SKOOL community for craft business owners and get access to our complete guide: every email growth strategy we’ve employed for clients over the years that we KNOW is tried and true. We built this space for craft business owners who want to grow with guidance.
When you join, you get access to our full resource toolbox, including the guide. You’ll also have access to other curated content such as our “Marketing Minis” – quick video shorts on timely topics and our “Monthly Magic”– one long form tutorial video. As a free member, you can view this month’s content.
It’s free to join. Just tools, content, community, and a lot of people figuring this out together. And if you decide you want more, you can upgrade to our monthly subscription which gives you access to all our content archives and free monthly consulting with our team on our “Craft Exchanges”
Join the free community on Skool.
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