Hi again Reader,

Usually my weekly email centers around my podcast episode for the week, but this week I went a little rogue and the podcast episode is about my birth story (including giving birth with no epidural - yes it hurt a lot).

Since babies, motherhood and birth in general may not be what you need to hear about this week I'm also sharing exactly what's working for me with email right now.

BACKGROUND INFO:

• I technically started my email list in 2018, but before 2023 it had literally 201 subscribers. I didn't regularly email my list and I didn't do much to grow it
• Last year I realized I needed to start taking my own list way more seriously
• Currently, my list has 3,301 peeps on it (thank you for being one of them by the way!)
• My average open rate from the last 3 months is right at 50% (if you round up)

• My click rate varies and that's ok. My goal isn't always to just get people to click over to things. I'm way more focused on trying to write helpful things that people want to read
• I use ConvertKit as my email provider
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WHAT'S WORKING:

1. This ridiculously simple email template (the one you are seeing right now) - it's simple, gets to the point and makes it easy for people to actually read your email.

Want to steal my template? Click here for the exact HTML code and a tutorial about how I set this up.

2. Providing helpful content in the actual email - ok I know this probably seems like a no-brainer but most people focus on constantly trying to get people to click over to things in their email.
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I love when you click on things Reader, but I also want this to feel like a pen pal-style situation that hopefully makes your life better and easier in some way.

When I share about a podcast or a blog post I wrote you'll probably notice that I also include at least a brief summary inside of the email so that even if you don't go listen to the podcast you still hopefully got the main takeaways.

3. I always brainstorm at least 10 subject lines before I settle on the one I actually end up using
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​4. I include key links at the bottom of every email - take a scroll down to the bottom of this email and you'll see them. It's nothing fancy, but it regularly reminds people of some of my other stuff and people ALWAYS click on them with each email.

5. I got consistent with my emails - this is the most basic advice in the book, but it's true. I have multiple reminders set to remind me to write AT LEAST one email a week. I also sometimes sit down and batch a bunch of newsletters at once.

Does any of this matter? Does my email list make a difference in my business?
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YES - it does! I regularly get podcast downloads, new clients and affiliate income from sending emails.
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Also I just weirdly like writing emails.

-Mara
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PS- Yessss! Please send me more email questions if you have them. I feel like I'm a tiny fish in the email sea, but I'm more than happy to share more about what's working for me or how I grew my list.