If you don’t already have an email list, girl get on it! I don’t care if you are styling hair, selling foals, a massage therapist, selling wreaths on Etsy you need to start a list.  Not sure how to check out this post here! 

I highly recommend ConvertKit if you’re really going to dive in, total immersion!  MailChimp is great if you are a -wade in slowly kinda gal though! (though in all honesty its not the most intuitive platform) 

1. Not Having a Plan 

What is your goal for starting a list? I struggled with this big time for a while.  It took me a while to wrap my head around this too. So for weddings, my main goal is to book brides, but here is the thing I know that not everyone who signs up for my list lives in western North Dakota.  I know I could have come up with a better opt-in that did a much more efficient job at attracting brides in my geographical location, but ya know what I still wanted to serve these other brides even if I wasn’t near them. This is where I needed to fall back on to my why.  To educate and inspire so that we can celebrate their transformation.  So for my wedding list, that’s my goal to educate and inspire. I know if I can do that then the brides who are on my list and close to me will book.  And those who aren’t close I’m still inspiring and educating.  Who knows maybe one day I’ll have a wedding planning book or something to sell them, in the meantime I’m showing up to educate and inspire. 

save for later!

2. Only having one place to opt-in.

 I had a bad habit of just writing one blog post and linking that opt-in on that page and leaving it. Y’all that was dumb. I should have been linking back to that post more often, putting the link in my sidebar, in the footer. If I want to educate and inspire I need to get that into their hands! Need ideas for your opt-in? Grab my list of 50 ideas below! 

3. Not having a welcome series.  

If you are needing help on your welcome series you can check out this post here where I walk you through what it is, and how to write your own! In short, if you don’t have a welcome sequence you are shooting yourself in the foot.  These first few emails are the MOST OPENED emails you want to use that to your advantage, deliver value, and introduce yourself to your new subscriber! 

4. Not Consistently Showing up! 

I’m raising my hand here, guilty as charged. Here is the deal, I had to make a commitment to myself a promise I would not break. Then I had to schedule it.  I use CoSchedule now for all my blogging, social media, and email marketing planning. I’m writing this blog post inside CoSchedule right now! This means I get an actual overview of what is going out, what needs to get done, and what’s on deck. My brides get emailed once a month, while I’m dropping into my fellow entrepreneur’s inbox once a week. That is a big commitment that takes time and forethought and the only way I can keep any of that straight is to use CoSchedule!