You’ve got an email list. Maybe it’s twenty people you signed up at a fair last summer, or maybe it’s a couple of hundred.
You know you should be emailing them, but every time you sit down to do it, you just can’t think of what to say.
There’s no sale on, you’re not launching anything this week, and nothing much has happened that feels big enough to take up space in someone’s inbox. So you tell yourself you’ll send something when you’ve actually got news worth sharing, and go back to writing posts for social media.
Here’s why that’s a mistake.
You might believe that you should only send an email when you’ve got something “worthwhile” to say, but who decides what’s worthwhile?
Is it just new things? Is it awards? Is it press coverage? Is it discounts?
I hate to break it to you, but you are not always the best judge of what other people want to hear about your work and the products you have for sale.
As handmade makers, we’re notoriously low on confidence and belief in our work.
As product-based business owners, who are surrounded by the same products all day, every day, we tend to overestimate what any of our customers or subscribers actually know about us.
Your email subscribers have given you their trust. They have shared their email address, given you access to their inbox and asked to hear from you.
They want to know more about your work, and right now, they don’t know very much.
Maybe they saw you at a show and signed up for your emails because they think your work would be a perfect birthday present for their sister, and they want to be able to find you again at that point.
Maybe they signed up because they wanted to buy something, but they need to wait until they get paid, or until their living room gets redecorated, or until they’ve run it past their partner.
And if you don’t email them, because there’s nothing new or nothing worth talking about, you’re breaking the deal you made with them.
That deal was to tell them more, over time. To stay in touch and remind them.
You’re waiting until you’ve got something special to say. But the emails your customers actually want from you are far more ordinary than that.
If you want to do a good job with the email marketing for your handmade business, all you need is a handful of email types that you can keep coming back to time and time again.
That means you don’t have to concern yourself with what’s worth sending when it’s time to say hello to the people most interested in your work.
So here are six emails that every handmade business owner can come back to time and again.
Because you don’t need to have a sale, a launch or big news before you send an email.
When you sit down to write an email to your list, just pick one of these and get started.
1. The welcome email
If you only ever set up one of these, make it this one.
Your welcome email goes out automatically, the moment someone joins your list. It’s the most important email to send because it gets sent to your subscriber when they’re at their most interested.
They’ve just said yes to hearing from you, and you’re still fresh in their mind. That means that your welcome email will usually get opened more than most other things you send.
So give them a proper welcome to your list. Tell them a little more about who you are and what you make, let them know what sort of thing you’ll send and roughly how often (Try to avoid saying you won’t spam them or will only send something “worthwhile”)
Then ask them to do something. This might feel uncomfortable, but it’s good practice because most of your emails should end by making an ask.
Ask them to take a look at your bestsellers. Give them a discount code to use (with a time limit). Ask them to take a look at a blog post or read some testimonials.
Remember, this email gets written once and then automatically greets every new person who signs up, without you ever having to think about it again.
Bonus tip: Extract some of the text from your welcome email to use in an “Introducing myself”
post on social media. You need to post this kind of content regularly on social media, so write it once and use it forever (with just the odd tweak now and then)
2. The “what I’m working on” email
All you’re doing in this email is telling people what you’re working on right now.
A batch of pottery that’s halfway through glazing, the new batch of soap curing on the shelf, the commission that’s a bit bigger and a bit scarier than anything you’ve taken on before.
This email looks like it isn’t selling anything, but really, it’s creating another way for people to see your products and think about whether they’d like to buy them.
A lot of the time, that’s all we’re doing. We’re trying to find reasons to show our products to people beyond just “here’s what’s in my shop”, and this email is a good way to do it.
Showing things as they’re being made, or orders as they’re being packed, or work as it’s being hung for an exhibition – these are all ways of reminding people what you sell and why they liked it enough to sign up for your mailing list in the first place.
And people genuinely love this, because seeing the person and the process behind the thing gives them good stories to tell when they buy or gift your product.
It’s also really great for when you DO have something new coming up, but it’s not ready yet. You can ask people to join a waitlist for the new collection or just keep reminding them. That way, when you launch it, people who are interested will already be looking out for your messages.
3. The product story email
One of the best things you can do for sales is to talk about the stories behind your products and your creative work.
Where did the idea come from? What inspired you? Where did you learn this technique? What were you doing when you decided to make it? What’s the thing about making it that they wouldn’t believe? How many times did you have to redo it before you got the right version?
If you don’t think that anyone cares that you saw a bird in your garden and decided to draw it, then you’re wrong.
People love to tell each other the stories behind the things they own and the things they give.
It helps us to make conversation, it makes us all more interesting, and when you give something you can tell a story about, it underlines that you have bought a thoughtful gift.
You might already be sharing these kinds of details with customers at craft fairs and shows, but these are excellent material for your marketing emails. Write them down when you think of them, and keep a bank of stories and details for each product.
Then choose one item and tell its story in an email. The inspiration, the materials, the process, the little details nobody would notice unless you pointed them out.
4. The “where I’ll be” email
If you do fairs, markets, open studios, or exhibitions, getting your existing customers and subscribers to come to your events is always worthwhile.
It’s so much easier to have a good sales day when you bring your audience with you, and getting to meet them in person again builds even more trust and rapport between you and your customers.
Social posts aren’t the best way to reach your customers about an event you’re attending because they might only reach a fraction of your followers, or reach them at the wrong time.
For time-sensitive content, about upcoming events, email is the better choice .
So when you’ve got a show coming up, that is exactly the moment to send one. It can be as basic as: here’s where I’m going to be, come to this show and see the products that I’ve got. Tell them the date, where to find you, what new pieces you’ll be bringing, and why it’s worth the trip.
And, remember, even for people who can’t attend or who live too far away, this functions as a “what I’m working on” email to show them your work in a different context than just “visit my store”
5. The values and beliefs email
I think this email is the biggest missed opportunity for most of the makers I have spoken to about their marketing.
If you have practices or materials that you’ve committed to that make your work different from the mass-produced versions on the high street, tell your customers about it – especially if it explains why your prices look very different.
Don’t assume your customers already know any of this, even if you’re clear about your ethics and values.
You’re picking up new followers all the time who’ve never heard it, and even the ones who’ve been around a while may not remember unless you tell them again.
People who choose to buy handmade work specifically to make conscious purchases that align with their values are a significant portion of the audience for a lot of makers, so say it out loud and keep repeating it.
And don’t assume that this is only of interest to people who already know about the issues. So if, for example, you’re using ethical gemstones in your jewellery, tell people what that means.
Tell them what the alternatives are and why there are issues. Part of your mission is to educate your audience without ever judging them for not knowing.
6. The customer favourite email
If you’ve got a piece that people buy over and over again, this is definitely one to talk about in your emails.
One of the fears that keeps people from ordering from you is the worry that maybe this purchase will be a mistake or that it won’t be as good as they think.
And as much as we all like to think that we’re not influenced by what other people say, it makes us feel better to hear that people have bought over and over again and were pleased with their purchases.
It also takes away a little bit of the decision pressure. When we’re shopping for something, and we can’t decide between a few items, we’ll often ask the person with us what they think, because sometimes hearing someone else’s opinion helps us decide.
Your emails can do the same thing.
And it’s especially important when they’re buying something to give as a gift. Buying gifts can be stressful. I know that when I’m buying gifts for my niece and nephew, I always appreciate the reassurance of seeing someone else say that they gave the item as a gift and the recipient was really pleased with it.
This works as a sales email where your customers do the selling for you. Name the piece, tell people what others say about it, and explain what makes it a favourite.
And if being direct about selling in your emails makes you a little uncomfortable, that’s worth working on, because being salesy in the right way is mostly a matter of getting comfortable with it.
Rotating through different types of email helps keep things from getting boring.
If you just send the “buy something now” email over and over again (and every email is the same), your subscribers will lose interest.
But when you rotate through different types and show a bit of behind-the-scenes one week, a product story the next, a “where-I’ll-be” when you’ve got a show coming up, the relationship stays alive, and the emails stay worth opening.
And it takes the pressure off you, because you’re don’t have to rack your brain for something to write about. You’re just choosing which of the six to use this week or this month.
Is it worth sending?
If you’re ever unsure whether an email is worth sending, here’s the test I’d use. Look through the emails you receive from the retail brands you follow.
If you’re not on any lists, I’d suggest getting onto a few, so that you can watch what they do and see what this looks like from the receiving end.
Pay attention to the things that they email about. It’s often about the weather, or notable calendar events, or just because it’s the weekend. You’ll often see that what they’re doing is just finding excuses to talk about their products.
And that’s all you need to do, too.
Remember, you’re noting what they do to get ideas for how to market your own work. You’re not assessing whether you personally like it or respond to it. Your preferences are not necessarily the same as your customers’.
Email marketing won’t be effective with people who don’t like getting email, so there’s no point worrying about them. Instead, tailor your strategy to the people who are happy to receive emails from businesses and brands they like to buy from.
Believe me, there are lots of them.
And if you want to join my email list, I send a weekly email to makers running handmade businesses, with practical things you can use in your own. You can subscribe here.
