Romance Your Mailing List. Don't Hit It & Quit It.

"How often should I email your people?" I get this question all...of...the...time.


I know the wrong way to do this and that is to send emails only when you want something from your mailing list like:

  • Register for my amazing event that costs $$$


  • Purchase my new book and online course for $$$


  • Join my exclusive new membership program that's only $$$

That is Hit It & Quit It Marketing, which is very salesy and self-serving.


A better way is Romance Marketing where you consistently email your list that includes mostly educational information and sometimes include promotional items. The people on your mailing list signed up for your content because they are intrigued by what you have to say about who you are, what you do and who you help. It is your job to romance them with regular emails, so they fall in love and make a purchase to attend your event, buy your book, or join your membership program.

No joke, email marketing is the #1 way to build a relationship with people that WANT to hear from you.

When it comes to getting customers, email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined. 40X! Let that sink in.


Not only that, once you have customers, you want to keep them -- and keep them happy. Email is a powerful tool for nurturing your relationship with customers and establishing your authority so they keep coming back for more.


So why is email so much better than social media? You own the channel. Outside of email compliance, there is nothing stopping when, how, and why you are reaching out to your customers by email. You own your email list. You do not own your social media.


The power of email cannot be ignored. Now that you fully grasp how valuable email can be for your business, let’s talk about how to create an email strategy that converts and improves customer loyalty.

Consistency & Frequency Creates The Romance

How often should you email your people? I know the wrong way to do this and that is to send emails only when you want something from your mailing list like register for an event, make a purchase, or join my membership program. That is the Hit It & Quit It approach, which is very salesy and self-serving.


There is no one-size-fits-all answer to email frequency, but here is some research to consider:

The folks at SmartrMail took a look at the data regarding open rates of bulk email campaigns such as newsletters. They found that the open rate goes up when sending 4 - 8 emails per month.


Not only do we want people to open our emails, we also want them to click our links. Their data showed that the click rate was also the highest with 4 - 8 emails being sent per month.

So the data clearly points to about one or at most two emails per week being the sweet spot.


Bottom line, create a romance with your emails that will grow into a relationship.


Let’s talk about crafting emails that will help us grow our business. While it comes down to providing value, here are some tangible tips and guidelines that will help you write emails that meet your goals.

ONE Call To Action

Consider why you’re emailing your people, and make sure you have one main goal and one call to action. It’s important to make it clear and keep the number of options low so that people can easily make a decision.

Effective Calls to Action

Consider why you’re emailing your people, and make sure you have one main goal and one call to action. It’s important to make it clear and keep the number of options low so that people can easily make a decision. Don’t contain friction words - Using words like buy, sign up, or submit can be a turn off. Instead choose other words that the reader feels more open to. The focus should be on the value they are getting when they respond to your call to action. Some good examples are, “Yes, I want xyz!” or “Reserve your spot now!”


Follow the value - Make sure to provide value before you ask your reader to do something.


Simple and clear - Make sure your CTA is easy to understand.


Stand out from the rest of the copy - Use elements such as whitespace, a button that contrasts from the rest of the page, or a different size font.


Share the benefits - Make sure to focus on the benefits to your customer so that they want to respond to your CTA.


Looks good on mobile - Remember that people often read emails on their phones, so make sure your CTA looks good there, too.

Focus on Readability

People get a LOT of emails and spend a lot of time reading on their phones and computers, whether it’s email, social media, news articles, blog posts, etc.

You want your email to be easily readable and even scannable.

  • Use size 12 font


  • Use whitespace


  • Include bullets

Subject Line

The subject line is the most important piece of content in your email. It’s what determines whether someone actually opens your email or whether they keep on scrolling their inbox.


Here are some ways to make your subject line stand out and grab their attention so they respond by opening the email.


Part of the subject line is the sender name, so make sure that yours is personal and human, such as Sophia@mycompany.com . People want to hear from real people.


Keep it short. Emails with shorter subject lines are more likely to be opened. Copyhackers founder Joanna Wieble suggests experimenting with extremely short one- or two-word subject lines, or really long ones (over 60 characters) to stand out from others.


Create curiosity. This is a great way to make people want to open your email to find out more.


Create urgency. When you are offering a special or there is a real deadline, let people know!


Personalize. You can use what you know about your customers to customize the subject lines to speak more directly to them. Doing this makes people feel like you’re really talking to them as individuals.


Interactive Content

Interactive content invites your audience to take an action without leaving your email. It also allows you to build brand awareness, increase engagement, and create more value for your audience.

Surveys are a great way to get feedback and segment your audience.


Clickable and engaging features like gifs, image carousels, quizzes, and educational kits are highly engaging and also invite your audience to click and take action.


Videos are proven to increase CTRs (click-through rates), email open rates, and dwell time (which is the amount of time people spend consuming content on your email).

Add a P.S. in your emails

Did you know that people often read the P.S. at the end of the email even before they read the content? A possible explanation is the Zeigarnik effect. It’s what keeps people glued to their phones, watching the same soap opera on television every week, and gamers addicted to games. Many also have a habit of reading the end of a book before they read the introduction.


Adding a P.S. increases click-through rates because people scroll down and see a P.S. and right below it a CTA.


Recommended tips from Einstein marketing are to vary the color and size of your P.S., and use the first name of the recipient.

How do you know if it is working?

There are four KPIs to watch:


Deliverability: This is a measure of how many of your emails reach the intended email box of subscribers.

  • Work Smarter CRM is going to get you better deliverability than other tools because of the way it is set up.


  • Your deliverability is based off of your reputation and no one else's.


  • Clean list. Everyone on your list opted in to receive emails from you.

Open Rate: This is the percentage of people who open your email once it reaches their email inbox.

  • Make sure to have intriguing subject lines.


  • Be consistent in sending emails.


  • Include relevant, valuable content.

Click-Through Rate: This is the percentage of people who click on a call to action once your email reaches their email inbox.

  • Have one CTA and make sure it’s providing value.


  • Make sure it's clear to the recipient what action you want them to perform.


  • Try different CTAs -- bold versus subtle or graphic versus inline copy.

Unsubscribes: Your unsubscribe rate is the percentage of people who opt out from receiving your emails.


If a lot of people are unsubscribing, you definitely want to take a look and figure out what’s going on. Here are some things to consider:

  • Is the email you sent aligned with your brand?


  • Are you delivering on the promise you made in your CTA?

Need Ideas On What To Write?

A great email strategy can catapult your business growth to new levels, and it starts with making email a priority.

  • Make a plan.


  • Be consistent.

Need ideas on what to write? We've pulled together 29 content ideas to stop hit it & quit it marketing.

What It Takes

An awesome CRM and the know-how to use it will keep your funnel full. Why?


You may write great content, conduct transformational programs, and host meaningful events, but if you don’t grow your audience and tell them about it… you won’t reach the masses, and you won’t have the impact you hope for.


To get your message out there, you need tools:

  • Email marketing
  • Landing pages
  • Autoresponders
  • Online courses
  • Email nurture sequences

A CRM, or a customer relationship management system, can be a game changer in your business.


Most CRM providers offer training videos you can watch. But who has time to spend hours doing that?


What if there were a better way? What if you had an actual person who knows you and your business personally to help you get started, set up your CRM, and get your campaigns built and sent out?


Game changer, right?


At Work Smarter CRM, we help make it easy for you to dial in your emails so you can create more trust and loyalty with your customers and make more sales to grow your business.

Mary Sue Dahill, Founder & CEO of Work Smarter Digital

Business owners look to us when they are tired of wasting time and money on digital tools that don't make a dent in their business. What they want is a one-stop-shop for their digital solution and CRM support that "...just handles it" and starts making them more money. Schedule a Work Smarter Consult to explore what’s possible.