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Email Deliverability Rules in 2024: Explanation + Tips for Non-Techie Business Owners

Email marketing still returns a high ROI for your business – IF you get your emails into the right inboxes and they get opened. Getting to the inbox may be a little different in 2024 as you need to be aware of major changes and requirements from two of the largest inbox/email recipients – Google and Yahoo. The major inbox sources set a start time for these changes as of February 1, 2024. These services want to cut down on phishing attempts, bad actors, and spam filling people’s inboxes; so they are requiring those who send emails to authenticate and prove they are who they say they are. These are good best practices we have already been following! But there are also updates that are a bit technical in nature that you need to follow as well. So let me offer some explanations and break things down if you are feeling non-techie, so you can take necessary steps and keep your email deliverability in a good place.

What Email Marketing Changes Are We Talking About?

Google and Yahoo made the announcement in October 2023 with a start date for ‘enforcement’ of Feb. 1, 2024 that their rules for allowing marketing or any ‘bulk emails’ into their inboxes would be changing. They want to cut down on gazillion spam emails out there. Some are calling it the biggest change to email marketing since … well, ever! But let’s not panic!

Overall, it’s a positive change – none of us like spam! I do not buy into any of the hype or messaging around “Google wants to destroy email marketing!” We want to be welcomed into people’s inboxes. It’s permission and relationship marketing.

We also don’t want bad actors, internet scum, to use our mighty reputations and domains to send phishing messages or spam!

Taking steps to keep an active, engaged email community and follow best practices will help businesses of all sizes, types, industries and niches. It’s just now we have a few extra hoops to jump to get there.

Read the initial announcements here:

Gmail protections for a safer, less spammy inbox (by Google)

More secure, less spam: enforcing email standards for a better experience (by Yahoo)

The Basics of the New /2024 Email Requirements

Google, Yahoo and all the email inbox purveyors want to keep things clean and make sure people get only the emails they want to receive from whom they signed up to get them.

They are requiring steps for things like reducing confusion, clearly showing in to/from fields who is sending the email (like using your own domain), and taking technical steps to authenticate all mass sent emails.

While the initial rules state they apply to those sending 5,000 emails daily, most of the sources I’ve seen indicate this will soon drop lower, so go ahead and take the steps you need to now. (also while the 5k number came from Google, Yahoo didn’t release any min threshold #s and Microsoft has already been acting more strictly)

1️⃣ Send from an email at your own domain

2️⃣ Keep a low spam complaint rate, under 0.3% (e.g. nor more than 3 spam reports for every 1000 messages)

3️⃣ Have a clear, one-click unsubscribe option

4️⃣ Authenticate your emails using the protocols SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Am I Affected? Do I Really Need to Worry?

Bottom line – if you use email marketing in your business, yes this applies to you; no, you do not need to panic. 😉

The rules apply no matter what industry or niche you are in, what’s in your emails, or what software you are using for list-building and email marketing; as long as you are sending an email from your domain-based email address out to many people all at once.

The initial announcement and reports all mention ‘if you send 5,000 messages a day’, so many of the small biz owners I know went ‘whew, that’s not me’ – HOLD UP! Yeah, they do apply.

One, those changes are highly likely to rollout to all email marketing senders in the near future; so take the steps now and build a good sending reputation.

Two, why operate under a ‘barely maybe sorta compliant’ strategy? 😕

Three, even if you have a relatively small list, you could hit that 5K limit.

What if you’re launching a new course or running a flash sale – the kind where you may send more than one email to your list in a day? And what if you also have some automations going out to welcome people or follow up from a course?

See how things add up?

PLUS most of the smart email experts I follow, AND the email software providers, all say that this number is likely to go DOWN, not up as changes roll out. Some of the email software, such as ActiveCampaign, say that Google/Yahoo have told them the 5k limit is “not a safe zone.”

So … If you use email marketing, email follow-up in your business, sending one email to many people at once – you will need to pay attention and follow the new rules.

Stop Panicking About February 1st!

⭐❗⭐ On the Do Not Panic front and all the fear-mongering and people trying to get you to fork over money to fix things before midnight on February 1st — STOP!🫸🏻🛑 While February 1, 2024 is given as the new START date, there is NOT a giant switch flipping at midnight that will automatically shut every business out of inboxes instantly if all steps are not complete.

Google themselves have put dates to the rollout and enforcement of the new changes, because even they know this is big!

It’s gonna take a little while. Take a deep breath here!

Here’s a screenshot from the Google sender guidelines FAQ (taken as of Jan. 24, 2024 with FAQ update from 1/18/24 ) with clearly listed rollout/enforcement phases of February, April, and June of 2024.

I get it, there’s been arguing going on around if this is a hard deadline, a start date, does it affect everyone equally, what penalties will there be, what happens if I email on Feb. 2^nd without DMARC, etc etc etc.

Again, deep breath. Don’t panic. Do take as many steps as you can as soon as you can. Get authenticated. Ask for help. And do not panic!

You can see from Google’s announcement ( or read about it here from one of the big email compliance checking tools, Valimail) that they will be phasing this in (let’s presume Yahoo and others will too). The requirements start to be something we should all follow FROM Feb.1, 2024 – that’s not the be-all-end-all date!

You may see some initial drop off in deliverability, higher bounce rates especially for Gmail addresses or for no-longer in-use addresses starting from Feb 1, but this will keep rolling out from there.

Work towards getting as many of the pieces in place as you can as soon as you can but do not pull a techie all-nighter on Jan. 31!

So Important to Clarify the Email Deliverability Changes I Created a Video For You!

Because of all the hype and possible misinformation or scare tactics out there, I was frustrated on behalf of all my less technical friends! So I jumped on video to talk about the issues and the phased rollout shown by Google’s FAQs!

You can also come to my FB group and ask questions and I’ll add more tips to this post and answer to best of my ability and librarian-mode research skills! 🤓

Need to see your current status? Use Free Authentication Tools (but watch out for upsells!)

The team at Email Smart has a free authentication checker (email opt-in required; they also have a Done-for-you upsell offer; NO aff link) that can check your domain and email provider setup for *most* of the major email marketing services. (*Grrrr, ConvertKit is NOT one of them! I had used this in past when I was on ActiveCampaign though)

Here’s another way to check your email authentication using a test email and Gmail account from EmailToolTester.com.

Breaking Down Details on the New Email Deliverability Requirements

There are a few components to the new rules –

The “being a good email sender” best practices (that many/most of us already do)

The certain technical pieces in place to ensure emails sent from you really are from you.

If you haven’t been following all the email sending, deliverability best practices for things like consistency, segmenting, clean lists, clear content, low spam complaints, and generally keeping an engaged list – well now is a great time to renew those efforts!

⭐Since keeping an active, engaged email list is such a key part of email marketing best practices, why not check out my Write Your ~~Damn~~ Mighty Emails Kit – with a planner to help with consistency, prompts to beat blank-screen blues, and templates that encourage opens, clicks and replies – those key signals to the email gods that you have an engaged list! ⭐

Step 1 – Use Your Own Domain to Send Emails

Send from your domain email – not a Gmail, Yahoo, or other free address. This has always been a good practice, but I get that some budget-conscious new business owners start by using all the free tools they can.

However … that’s a no-go now. You can’t authenticate a domain you don’t own, like a Gmail or Yahoo or Comcast address.

You need a domain for your business so you have a professional email address, even if you don’t end up building out a website. (I’ll save why you should have a website for another argument article)

So please make sure you’re sending from something like:

laura@amazingcoach <dot>com or Kevin <at> krauselandscaping <dot> com

not …

lauracoaching@gmail <dot> com or krauselandscaping@ yahoo<dot>com

❗Related to this … do use your name and not “info”, “Support”, “newsletter” as they are referred to as ‘role-based email addresses’. These types of addresses are often banned or blocked by both email marketing software and the email inbox providers.

Role-based addresses are assigned to a title/role in an organization, a mailing list or a group, and not one specific person. Many of the email inbox purveyors see role-based email addresses as ‘generic’ addresses are frequently blocked. They have higher than normal bounce rates and may have higher spam complaints related to them. It’s harder for email services to know if everyone on a possible group address gave permission to receive emails, so that’s one reason they are bounced more. And some email services (such as Constant Contact, MailerLite) don’t send emails out to role-based emails.

So even if you are the sole person getting or sending from newsletter <at> yourdomain <dot>com – the inbox overlords don’t know that.

While it has not been declared offlimits publicly by Google or Yahoo, we know from how they treat role-based emails already that’s not a good idea. So now is a good time to switch from using “info” or “hello” or “newsletter” to a real person’s name.

Related tip … don’t sign up to other people’s email lists using one of these addresses either – you won’t get the info you wanted and it hurts your fellow small business pals in their email marketing.

Step 2 – Avoid Be Marked as Spam and Keep a Low Complaint Rate

Only send emails to those who have clearly, authentically opted in to receive your emails.

Related to that – Don’t buy email lists. Ever.

Follow the CAN-SPAM Act rules in the US and similar rules in Canada and elsewhere. This includes things like: don’t use deceptive subject lines; have a clear, real address in all your emails (most services include this in your footer); don’t use any misleading “to”, “from” or “reply to” info in your headers.
Keep your spam complaint low. Gmail is now requiring below 0.3% overall.

How to keep spam complaints low?

➡️ Make sure people are clear on what they are signing up for and what they will get from you, how often you send emails, that your send tips, news AND offers.

➡️ Monitor where you get traffic from to your landing pages and opt-in offers – are they truly a fit and match for your business and offers?

➡️ Align your opt-in offers with the rest of your content and offers. For example, don’t offer a gift about email newsletters or email deliverability tips when the rest of your emails and offers are about creating your own tarot cards, spiritual business practices ( * this really happened with someone’s gift I claimed in a bundle! 😯)

If you need some help fixing an unfocused or mis-aligned freebie … why not check out my free 8 tips and fix your freebie? 😉

Digital download for 8 Tips to Fix Your Email Freebie

8 Key Tips to Fix Your Freebie

Take your email opt-in freebie from ‘meh’ to mighty. From unfocused to client-attracting and higher converting.

➡️ Related to the next step around unsubscribing – we really prefer people to unsub vs. mark us as ‘spam.’ Another reason we want to make sure the right-for-us people are joining our email communities, that we are offer value, we are consistent, and we don’t let people forget why they signed up in the first place.

➡️ Segment your list and send appropriate emails to your segments vs sending everything to everyone. Related, don’t mix up your lists or include multiple lists in one broadcast email.

➡️ Have an active process for managing and ‘scrubbing’ your email list to remove inactive, disengaged or ‘cold’ subscribers. Yeah, this one is a little harder these days with open rates being nearly meaningless, but it’s still necessary! I’ve worked on this a lot the past year and plan a workshop or course on it soon – so be sure to stay in my community for more info! 😉

Step 3 – Unsubscribing must be super easy and one-click

Easy unsubscribing has always been best practice but now rules state you MUST have a one-click unsubscribe (this has a deadline of June 2024).

Nearly every legit email marketing software/service I’m aware of has rules that your unsub link must be in every email – don’t try to circumvent that! IF your software doesn’t have one-click unsubscribe, it better add it fast or you should change services. But seriously, this step is (or should be) being handled by the email software such as ConvertKit, AWeber, MailerLite, ConstantContact, Drip, etc.

Clicking the “unsubscribe” button or link in an email must take users to a page where they confirm unsub, but NOT need to enter any other details (like re-entering their email address).
[Also say goodbye to those black-hat dude-bro-marketer tactics of redirecting someone who hit ‘unsubscribe’ to a page where you ask them ‘are you sure? How about offer X?’ Blech! Good riddance!]

Unsubs can be good because you don’t want inactive, cold folks on your list. And you don’t want people to forget why they signed up and click the ‘spam’ button.

This one may sting a little – as if you have a smaller email list, every unsub represents a larger % of the total until your list grows.

But unsubs are a fact of life and to be celebrated really – those people didn’t align with your message, your offers, or haven’t been reading your emails. Let them go and get deliverability up by sending only to people who WANT to hear from you!

Step 4 – Verifying and Authenticating Your Email Sending Status

The previous steps may seem familiar and even easy – bet you may already be taking those steps! Good!

The verifying and authenticating step is the one I see causing eyes to widen, glaze and tech-headaches to form because it feels like it’s a foreign language and requires steps most of us have not had to take. Or it was so long ago we did the steps that stuff has changed!

Since SPF, DKIM and DMARC protocols are not part of our everyday business life, I’ll walk through the what of these technical requirements, show examples, and point you to further resources.

How to Handle + Setup the Technical Requirements of SPF, DKIM and DMARC at Your Domain

Now you need to add the 3 policies or records that prove you are who you say you are in your emails and that any software you use to communicate to your audience/list is legitimately sending on your behalf.

These are the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records.

Here’s some homework or prep to do to get ready for these 3 new records:

Where Are Your DNS Records? Do You Have cPanel Access? Be Able to Login There

For many /most of us we will be accessing our DNS records at our webhost. That’s where your DNS records are and can be edited to add the info from your email providers. (e.g. BlueHost, HostGator, SiteGround, Squarespace; I host with the wonderfully responsive MomWebs[Aff link]) But it’s possible your DNS records may be with who your purchased your domain from.

➡️ If you are confused or don’t know you can use this DNS lookup tool to find your DNS provider. Or the DNS lookup from MXToolbox.

NOTE: while you may have purchased your domains via GoDaddy, NameCheap, etc – you do not need to go there for any of these email settings UNLESS they are also your host.

screenshot of Siteground webhost DNS zone editor — Example from Siteground of DNS Zone Editor

screenshot of MomWebs webhost Cpanel including DNS Zone Editor — My webhost, MomWebs and my cPanel showing DNS Zone Editor, lower right

Know Where to Find the Values or Records for SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your Email Marketing Software or Any Email Senders

In a separate tab or window you’ll log in to your email marketing software to get the info from them for SPF, DKIM and DMARC records – each service has their own codes.

Most email services also have links to help sections for major or common webhosts – if yours is not listed reach out their support desks for help. You can also try Googling or checking YouTube for “Add CNAME record at _____” and replace blank with your web host.

Psst … I did a Mighty Tools Tip video a while back showing how to add a CNAME record via the cPanel for my current, mighty awesome webhost, MomWebs.

Check the updates and help files at the end of this post for most major email marketing software providers.

➡️ In one tab or window you will be logged in to your web host and its DNS editor/zone and in another tab/window you’ll have your email provider info.

Log in to your host and the cPanel (or email the support team at your host for help).
Find the DNS editor or DNS zone – and look for ways to ‘manage’ or ‘update’.
Go to the account settings for your email service and/or check the help files on where to find their SPF, DKIM, DMARC record values that you will need to enter at your webhost (e.g. here’s the help page for MailerLite).

SPF

Sender Policy Framework – is a standard email authentication method. It helps prevent spoofing or phishing as well as messages being marked as spam.

An SPF record identifies the servers or services allowed /authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.

It’s recommended that your domain has ONE SPF record, but that single SPF record can have multiple pieces of data for senders allowed to email on your behalf.

For example, if you have transactional emails coming from SendGrid (receipts, password resets, etc) and your newsletter or marketing emails come from AWeber – each of those is represented in your SPF record.

Information is stored in a TXT record in your DNS provider or the DNS zone, usually where your domain is hosted.

Each time you add another platform that is authorized to send emails on your behalf, it gets updated in a combined single TXT record.

➡️Go to the DNS area at your domain provider or webhost –

Note: DNS TXT record field names vary by webhost – double check from your webhost AND your email services.

➡️Copy/paste the SPF record values provided by the entities sending email as your domain (e.g. MailerLite, ConvertKit, SendGrid, MailGun, GoogleWorkspace, etc).

It can take up to 48 hours for SPC authentication to show as working.

Here are examples of what the SPF records may look like that you will copy/paste into the appropriate fields in your DNS editor at your webhost.

Record	Type	Host /Name	Value	TTL
SPF	TXT or CNAME (check your provider)	@	Copy the info given by your email services – it may look something like this: v=spf1 a:mail.solarmora.com ip4:192.72.10.10 include:_spf.google.com ~all	1 hour or 3600 seconds
Example from ConvertKit	CNAME	ckespa	spf.dm-kmn66p4d.sg8.convertkit.com.
e.g. MailerLite + Outlook	TXT		V=spf1 include:_spf.mlsend.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all
e.g. someone sending from G Suite/ Workspaces and ActiveCampaign			v=spf1 include:emsd1.com include:_spf.google.com ~all

It may look like this, for Google Workspace for example :

V=spf1 include: _spf.google.com ~all

When you have other services that send for you, the TXT record will have multiple entries : “includes:xxx” before the ~all

You can see more examples here from Google

My cPanel at MomWebs, filtered to show just CNAME types of records as my new (as of late 2023) email marketing provider, ConvertKit, gave me the SPF values in CNAME format, not TXT (last two rows in the photo below).

MomWebs cPanel DNS Editor showing CNAME records — My Mighty Marketing Mojo CNAME records – you can see ConvertKit supplied a CNAME for SPF

DKIM

Domain Keys Identified Email – Like a certificate or tamper-proof seal that verifies your email is legit and hasn’t been altered or messed with.

This is the authentication part of the new rules. Or think of it like a digital signature, proving you really sent that email. DKIM records help prevent spoofing and phishing, keep you out of recipient’s spam folders, and can help you build up a good domain reputation over time.

A DKIM record is a TXT record you will add via the DNS editor at your webhost. It usually has a name, version, key type, and the public key – information that is provided by the service sending out emails for you.

*NOTE: Some email software will ask you to create a CNAME record, not a TXT record – as they consider CNAME more secure. They are entered and created nearly identically in the DNS Editor at your webhost.

The TXT or CNAME record may look something like this:

Record	Type	Host (or Name)	Value
DKIM	TXT or CNAME	cka._domainkey
	*ConvertKit for example uses CNAME records not TXT records		dkim.dm-kmn66p4d.sg8.convertkit.com.
DKIM (example from ActiveCampaign)	TXT		v=DKIM1;t=s;p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDBzXkunA 132Pf3SwHF7UKTODjFW8JKXUFWCHcNLvRHPCFDzJDPuAuoZq0XAIoOStu+Qq+/ ggm1zDYbgsaIkOmkBWV9m/NPQ3BbXNEnCqjsyVxWlrQs0R01W4ihsHM8BkbE7 dGRot1DdDM1HBMxrMDEOPuEZaNjtpgcJVRqswz7YwIDAQAB
DKIM (CNAME example from AC)	CNAME	acdkim1._domainkey	dkim.acdkim1.acems1.com
Example from MailerLite	CNAME	Liteserv._domainkey.mlsend.com

** Double Check Recommendations from Your Email Service – including if you did some or all of these steps in the past.

For example, I used ActiveCampaign for 5 years and had done the DKIM process with them sometime in the past when the legacy TXT record was allowed/recommended – hence the longer example above and in the screenshot below of my DNS records. AC now recommends CNAME as seen above.

screenshot of DNS editor for legacy DKIM record — My ActiveCampaign legacy DKIM long-form record at my webhost

screenshot cPanel DNS editor DKIM record new — new ConvertKit DKIM record for my site

DMARC

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC)

DMARC is the policy or rules on what happens if someone who is not authorized (by SPF, DKIM rules) to send an email on behalf of your domain tries to do so.

It used to be that only really big list senders needed to set this up, and the help files at some email marketing software still talks about this being optional. But not anymore! So we all get the ‘joy’ of setting up this more technical verification.

The confusion I’ve seen most often among less-techie solopreneurs and online business owners is around the 3 possible settings for the policy, what they mean, and what do we do about this. Also that while one setting is ok and legit, it will throw back some cautions or warnings from the various checking tools. Let’s walk through DMARC.

Record	Type	Host /Name	Value
DMARC	TXT	_dmarc	v=DMARC1; p=none;
Example with DMARC reports added, sent to your domain (replace with your website)	TXT		v=DMARC1; p=none; fo=1; rua=mailto:reports@yourdomain.com;

Three basic setting possibilities:

P=none >> means nothing happens, it still goes through to destination

P=quarantine >> means the email gets sent to spam

P=reject >> means it isn’t delivered at all

** for the Feb 1, 2024 changes coming from Google, Yahoo and other inbox guardians (aka the software/systems someone uses to receive and read emails – inc Hotmail, Outlook, Google Workspaces, Comcast, etc) – basic or bare minimum is DMARC set at p=NONE **

HOWEVER …. Many of the available DMARC tests out there that check your domain records will come back with a yellow/orange ‘warning’ if you set things up (correctly!) as p=none. You still have a proper DMARC record, it’s just that it’s set leniently. And going forward Gmail, Yahoo, and others would prefer that questionable emails are rejected or quarantined.

Because yes, ideally, we want it set on reject to prevent someone from using our email addresses in a phishing scam!

It’s ok as we work on these new, stricter sending rules, to start off at the more lenient p-none setting.

Why?

Because there may be a tool or app that needs to legitimately send things on your behalf and we didn’t know or weren’t sure if we needed to setup things on that tool.

Why Is It OK to Leave at “none” to Start?

We are taking a few weeks to watch for what happens when we send our email newsletters, sales emails, transactions, etc. We want to see if there’s a setting or email sending tool we maybe forgot about or something that is causing problems.

Which do we need to maybe look out for?

Calendar/scheduling apps, old lead magnets tied to an email service you switched from (oops, is that just me?), other 3^rd party lead-gen tools, external community sites like Heartbeat, Circle, Mighty Networks, possibly payment processing like Stripe, or other transactional-based email apps like MailGun, SendGrid, automated webinar registrations, etc.

BUT – many of those are sent from THOSE tools’ domains on behalf of your account with those tools. Not a problem. It’s when we have things set to show up as coming FROM our own domains that need to have things say we are who the tool says we are.

We are taking a watchful monitoring stance in the first few weeks of these new rules.

Results of Checking My Setup for the Three New Policies

I’ve take these steps and set things up – AND sent a broadcast email out to my list since doing so. I ran a few quick tests and I can see I’m good to go.

Having one of your own Gmail addresses on your email list is great for testing things – you can go to your Gmail inbox, find an email you’ve sent from your email software and click the 3 dots at top right, then “show Original”. Look for Pass/Fail for SPF, DKIM, DMARC. This post on checking authentication from EmailToolTester details the steps I’ve shown in the screenshots below.

I will still be editing my DMARC record soon in early 2024 after a few weeks of monitoring.

checking email deliverability setup in gmail — In email click the (3) dots … and then Show Original

Here’s my PASS report. ✅✅✅ ☺️

Gmail showing 3 passes for the new email deliverability settings of SPF, DKIM, DMARC

Tools for Monitoring DMARC

One of the annoyances in Google and Yahoo saying EVERYONE has to implement DMARC policies is it means this watching and monitoring. Back when only really, truly big brand senders had to do this, ok, they have TEAMS to monitor stuff.Fine. But we are mostly solo operators without IT staff and now we have to make sense of these regulations AND monitor things. Ugh. 😡

Key is to have tools that can help us monitor DMARC and make sense of what’s happening in the behind the scenes. Because if we set it up to send those monitoring reports directly to our inbox (as in the chart above_) … it comes out as gobbledygook (as unreadable XML data files) that even this techie gal can’t read!

In totally transparency, while I’ve used the SPF and DKIM settings for my email marketing software for a few years on at least two different platforms – DMARC records and monitoring are new to me.

As techie as I may be, I dislike messing around in the deep backend of my website! So, I’m looking for budget-friendly tools or services to make sense of the monitoring. We want a tool that presents the data in a way we can read and take any necessary action – especially in the weeks and early months of the new rules.

I’m testing and checking out DMARC monitoring tools – the ones I’m listing here are just general recommendations I’ve seen mentioned in multiple places. Test for yourself too!

Valimail [seen mentioned in several groups I’m in – has a free plan or free trial; I’m wary those of tools that don’t list pricing! *I’ve also seen that it offers free monitoring for Office 365 users – may be worth checking]

AppSumo has had email reporting tools – one may have just left the lifetimedeals sale, but there are probably others coming!

Dmarcian tools

I have used only their free tools – domain checker and inspector; they also have a Record Wizard. I have also seen this tool mentioned many places and by other small online biz owners [Personal plan, up to 2 domains, 1 user $0; Basic plan for business/nonprofits $24/mo ]

MXToolbox [Free plan for 1 domain and weekly monitoring; then jumps to 129/mo!]

EasyDMARC free plan for 1 domain, up to 10,000 emails, 14 days of data ; then $36/mo

⭐Easy DMARC also has help articles for SPF/ DKIM configuration for many email services (I saw Mimecast, MooSend, ConvertKit, Groove, AmazonSES and so so many more!). Also checkout/ use the EasyDMARC email investigation tool to check your settings;

Postmark – free trial/version, $10/mo per domain plans

More Email Deliverability Tools

Google Postmaster Tools

Check your DMARC records by MXToolbox

DKIM Key Checker from Protodave – as recommended by PostMark

Email Sending Tips + Requirements from Major Email Marketing Services

2024 Deliverability Tips from Aweber

Verifying domains with MailChimp

ActiveCampaign’s Guide to Google and Yahoo Changes in 2024

MailerLite’s updates on the new inbox protection rules

Flodesk’s updates on the 2024 email marketing compliance changes

ConvertKit’s update on the Gmail Yahoo requirements

BirdSend’s tips on email sending and changing your domain (note – they still haven’t updated to show that SPF DKIM etc are not just for advanced users!)

Get Response’s response to Google, Yahoo email changes

Wix help guides for email deliverability

Squarespace help for adding custom DNS

Shopify help guides for setting up their email and the Shopify post on the 2024 requirements (even if you use other services for marketing emails, make changes at your Shopify site too for those automated customer emails such as purchase notifications)

Setting up custom email sending at Podia

Kajabi’s updates on the Google, Yahoo email requirements

Now You Have the Knowledge to Take Action and Control Email Deliverability in 2024 + Beyond

Hopefully with these steps, record examples, screenshots and resources you’ll feel a little more comfortable about taking the steps necessary for solid, reputable email marketing in 2024 and beyond. The good news is that we have to set this stuff up once and then not again! Well … not until we change email services. 😉

January 23, 2024

Simple Reasons Your Email Opt-in Gift Isn’t Converting to Customers – and How To Fix Your Freebie
It’s Time to Fix Your Freebie and Make it Focused, Not a Fire Hose of Information!

Online business owners, I bet your freebie (aka lead magnet or email opt-in gift) is not bringing you enough right-for you customers. To attract loyal subscribers who turn into buyers, we want them to see results quickly, so they trust us and want our other offers. But if your email opt-in gift isn’t focused, it’s not doing the job. I know many of my early ones were not! In your effort to serve, are you hitting folks with a fire hose of information? No matter how valuable your info, that’s not helpful and won’t lead your people to take the next step with you. In this post and video discover the simple reasons why your email opt-in isn’t converting like you want.

And learn quick tips to make your lead magnet sexier, mightier, way more focused, and more likely to bring you more of your ideal customers.

You’re building your email community, right? The business asset you OWN, not the space you rent from the social media companies, that’s always shifting and changing? You get the power of email to build your business, yes?

Good!

And you know that you have to have a mighty good free gift (aka freebie, lead magnet, opt-in bribe, etc) to get folks to hand over a legit email address?

Good, good!

Where Many Email Opt-in Gifts Go Wrong

Before you sit down to craft that mighty awesome (and hopefully easy) email gift that will attract loads of the right-for-you people … I want you carefully look at what you’ve outlined and ask:

➡️ Is it clear exactly who this gift is for or designed to help?

➡️ Is it focused?

➡️ Is it helping people with just one specific problem or need?

➡️ Or are you about to hit your new subscriber with a fire hose of information?

Yeahhhhh …

☹️

One of the reasons I see lovely, fine, knowledgeable coaches, consultants and other solopreneurs trying soooo hard with lead magnets or free gifts that just aren’t working for them – ok, a reason my first few weren’t as mighty as they could be – is because the opt-in gifts are not specific and focused.

The gifts are all over the place. Or try too hard. Or don’t lead anywhere. Or …

You didn’t do your homework first. You tried to cram in ALL the great things you know about the topic of your free gift. It was with good intentions, but it’s not leading to what you want.

What Happens With a “Meh” or Unfocused Freebie

Your lovely new subscriber opens your first email. They download or access your gift, they start to skim ….

…. and their eyes glaze over.

❗It’s just too much.

❗ They aren’t sure what to do, right now, with all that info.

❗ They save it to their hard drive where it gathers digital dust. They tell themselves they will get around to it – and we know they won’t.

❗ They don’t take action on your tips.

❗ They don’t buy your easy-yes (aka tripwire) offer.

❗ They don’t go on to buy the related course, workshop or coaching offer.

Opportunities missed. Ouch.

Example of an Overloaded Free Gift That Won’t Convert People to Customers

Have you ever seen a good looking landing page with an attractive offer, maybe from a coach offering spiritual transformations and healings. You download the workbook and inside you see …

An attractive looking and well designed PDF … but wow it has soooo many pages!
- A section with questions on setting goals
- Another section on how to work out life balance
- How to prepare a vision board
- And an area for gratitude journaling
Yes, all in the same workbook.

Oh my. 😵‍💫

(to protect the innocent– this is NOT a freebie from any of my current clients or Easy Email Gifts workshop participants, but it is real!)

Any one of those topics could become a useful, actionable freebie that attracts the coach’s ideal clients. But packing them all together – and overwhelming or confusing the reader – is not helpful to the coach or her prospective client.

I’ve seen tons of other examples where just too much, or too different, info was stuffed in one downloadable.

Heck, I’ve done it myself! My first email opt-in gift had 30 (!) top marketing tools inside. Talk about overload. 🙄

[collage of some ‘meh’ and ‘ohdear’ freebies I’ve collected in recent years – every one could be so much better! Some were too much info/too many tips, others missing call-to-action, branding; old style long data reports; gifts that over-promised, under-delivered]

In my reviews and workshops on email gifts we look at lots of examples I’ve collected over the years -good and meh or plain bad.

Some looked great, were actionable, were almost at sexy and irresistible … and were also probably 3 gifts rolled into one.

It happens to all of us!

To Fix Our Freebies, We Must Make Them More Focused

Before I give you the questions to use to review and fix your free gift, let’s dig in a little more on what it looks like if a gift is not focused or specific enough. And how it could be improved.

Now might be a good time to watch the live video chat I did previously on this topic!

8 Key Tips to Fix Your Freebie
Take your email opt-in freebie from ‘meh’ to mighty. From unfocused to client-attracting and higher converting.

What Getting More Specific May Look Like – Examples

Don’t create a ‘business blueprint’, and not even a ‘visibility blueprint.’

Why not? Because those are too broad and generic.

I have sooooo many “blueprints” as gifts saved in my hard drive – and I can’t tell any of them apart unless I open and skim each one.

Do you think YOUR ideal client is going to take the time for that? Nope!

I do it because I’m using them for research to help you! Your client wants help and wants it now – not weeks or months from now when they finish reading and maybe implementing the ‘blueprint’.

Spell Out What You Mean By Terms, Concepts and Cut the Jargon

What does ‘blueprint’ MEAN??

What does ‘visibility’ MEAN?

What does ‘life balance’ MEAN? from you? for your reader/client?

What do you mean by ‘budget’?

What does visibility look like in the business of YOUR ideal customer?

What results are gonna happen for them if they ‘get visible?’

Don’t talk about “transformation” – show them what you MEAN.

Ask the “SO WHAT?” question.

If I’m more visible I get more email subscribers?

So what?

So, I have more people likely to click on my next offer.

So What?

So, I sell more and earn more.

So What?

So, I can save more money.

So What?

So, my husband and I can retire sooner and travel to places while we are healthy enough to do so and enjoy.

Ahhhh, now we’ve hit something personal and emotional and talks to REAL benefits that make your gift irresistible.

Get in your audience’s head to figure out what your idea means for them

What do THEY think ‘visible’ means? That they have to speak on a stage? Write a book? Do TikTok?

If by ‘visibility’ you mean “show up on social media so people get to ‘know, like, trust’ you” – ok, but we can get MORE specific.

It is even more specific as “5 steps to easy social media visibility with Reels.“

Now add in the pain point you know your ideal people have – that they are scared of the camera and don’t feel comfortable ‘getting visible’ by being on-camera.

A free gift that offers “5 ways to get your biz visible with Reels without spending hours in front of the camera” is WAY more focused.

Say your ideal client is a 45+ woman who’s had a lot happen in her life journey and she wants to give inspiring talks – and be paid to do so. She wants to use the money to help build a nonprofit and help others who’ve faced similar challenges. You want to help her get booked on those stages, and you know she could start small and local to build confidence, her public speaking skills, and hone her message.

A gift on ‘getting visible’ that’s specific for them could be “3 Outreach Email Scripts to Get You Booked for Local Speaking Engagements This Month.”

You see where I’m going with this ‘focused freebie’ advice?

Good!

Stop using bland, basic, generic, or unfocused “coach speak” …

What does ‘life balance’ MEAN?

Do you mean ‘get 8 hours of restful sleep a night’ or do you mean ‘home-cooked meal in 30 minutes per night’?

Both could be right and true and be great titles for gifts! But which one calls out to YOUR audience and matches YOUR offers?

“Life balance” looks very different for a 45-year old woman with a side hustle than a 31-year old mom with an active toddler. It’s different for the already retired vs the ‘almost ready to retire.’

Those are different audiences with different pain points or needs – so you need a gift that hones in on what your ideal person wants and what you can offer.

A free gift on meal planning can get more focused – tell your ideal people it’s ok to use pre-cut veggies, bagged salad, or a rotisserie chicken for a home-cooked meal. Or share 30-minute, $10, heart-healthy, didn’t-come-from-a-box meal ideas.

Do you see how those are more irresistible because your ideal person can say ‘oh yes I want that!’

Cutting the generic terms includes something like ‘budget friendly.’

Whose budget? How much? What time period?

The budget of someone starting a side hustle and hoping to make $1k / month is a ton different from someone earning 3-5K/mo, or scaling to 6-figures or 7-figures.

They all have a ‘budget’ but what’s on it and the dollar range are different. My budget is different than yours. Also, ‘Budget’ doesn’t mean ‘free’ – not always. If you specifically mean ‘free’ or ‘freemium’ then say exactly that.

Ok, I think you get the idea on narrowing it down to make it focused and simulataneously more irresistible to your right people.

Think about what can you share or give someone that truly makes things easier and lets them get something DONE.

What’s going to be different in your people’s business or life after they used your checklist, watch your video, or read your ebook? What will they get done and when can they expect to see results.

Make sure THAT is in your title, your landing page, and how you talk about or promote your gift.

Worry Less on What It Looks Like vs What Your Gift Can Do for People

Your gift doesn’t have to be the world’s most gorgeous, perfectly designed thing. I’ve seen plenty of gorgeous freebies that had too many pages, too much info crammed in. They weren’t going to get the job done no matter how good they looked.

Yeah, I’ve also seen some freebies that are kinda boring looking – plain, basic Word docs. That was enough for a freebie a few years ago. And sometimes if the info is helpful enough, it can be good enough now.

But if you can, take a few minutes to at least add your branding, your photo, make it easy to read, and more memorable.

Don’t worry about the ‘best’ tech or tool to create your email opt-in gift and concentrate on creating one that is focused, irresistible, and actionable. Use the tools that are available to you. You can add on later – after your mighty awesome freebie is proven and converting to amazing new, paying, customers.

A Google Sheet with categories, formulas, and the numbers a solopreneur should be tracking to see consistent income is VERY different and more helpful than an ebook – and even more helpful likely than a checklist.

Create your checklist in Canva (affiliate) if you want it too look a little prettier and still be easy to use. I wish I’d used Canva (affiliate) for some of my earlier lead magnets instead of trying more complicated tools. [NOTE: I DID use Canva to create the free content upgrade gift that goes with THIS post 😉]

Your free gifts will also evolve over time. You WILL have more than one. You may test different formats.

I’ve done lead generating webinars, video series, master classes, checklists, email-based mini ‘courses’, templates or swipe files, and different kinds of ebooks.

The common denominator?

All my opt-ins and gifts have gotten simpler, shorter, and more focused over the years. That’s what I want for your email list building efforts as well.

I’m not the only one teaching and preaching the tips for more engaging, useful, and irresistible email opt-ins – you can check out Neil Patel’s advice on improving your lead magnets.

Time to Review Your Email Opt-in Gift and Ask These 8 Questions to Fix It

In the accompanying video I talk about tips for reviewing your email freebie and making plans to make it more focused and more useful for your ideal clients.

Good gifts lead to actions and lead to wins. They show your ideal people “oh, this person knows how to help me get from point A to point B.”
- What makes it different – from the dozens/hundreds of other ebooks, PDFs, planners out there? Where’s the YOU factor?
- Where’s the sexy, irresistible factor?
- Does the title or headline grab their attention?
- Will your ideal prospective customer CARE about your opt-in?
- Is your gift – especially the title – missing the desire, pain, benefit part? WHY should I CARE? What’s In It For Me – the classic adage of all marketing. What is gonna be different or better in my life or biz because I have read/watched/filled in your gift thing?
- Make it focused! One, single, discrete, tiny problem – that’s part of a bigger problem or desire.
- Does the title (and subtitle) of your email opt-in gift include the problem and the benefit for your ideal customer?
- Does it answer the classic marketing adage of “What’s In It for Me?”
Want my tips on how to fix your freebie to make it more irresistible? This post getting too long for you? 😉 Put your info in this form and I’ll send the tips sheet right to you.

8 Key Tips to Fix Your Freebie
Take your email opt-in freebie from ‘meh’ to mighty. From unfocused to client-attracting and higher converting.

Great Gifts Help Me DO Something I Need in My Business (or personal life)

I don’t need another social media planner – I know I should be posting! I know about how often! I even know WHAT topics and types of posts!

I am still staring at a blank Word Doc and Blank Cava pages.

Gimme templates – show me the words to drop in.

Even if YOUR ideal client is new to social media marketing, giving them a planner may not useful or actionable for THEM. They need examples of what to post and to see it can be easy.

THEN they need a planner to organize their workflow (hint hint – that could be a bonus gift or your tripwire/easy yes offer).

THAT’S why templates are going like hotcakes in giveaways and bundles and low cost sales – they are literally an EASY YES.

I dropped an easy $19 recently because someone who sells templates – that I already love and use – has new templates to take advantage of Reels. WITHOUT being on-camera, without spending hours to get 15 sec of video. HELL YES TAKE MY MONEY NOW EVEN IF I’M NOT SURE I’LL EVER DO A REEL! 😆

And yeah, you bet I’ll be an affiliate for them after it’s launched publicly.

Forget the reports, longer ebooks, whitepapers, case studies and such that were good enough gifts years ago. We all have the attention span of gnats now. Create checklists, worksheets, short workbooks, templates, swipe files, super short video trainings, or other quickly consumable content.

What You Should Do For Your Email Opt-ins Right Now

Taking action on this advice is your homework for the next month my Mighty Pals. Not that it has to take that long!

✅ Do not be afraid to get super specific with your audience, the problem your gift is solving, the time-frame, and the benefits to your new email subscriber.

✅Revise your gift title so it calls out to your ideal person, addresses the pain point and answers that ultimate “So What” question.

✅ Stop over-thinking and over-delivering. Keep It Sweet n Simple.

✅ Shorter is more likely to be actionable, means more likely they see results, means they are more likely take/buy the next step you offer them.

➡️ Go sexy up your opt-ins and get them more focused, more irresistible, more unique, more benefits-focused.

Want these tips in a nicely focused, downloadable tips sheet to use when you review and improve your freebie? Click here to get it now! [yes, that’s me offering you a focused freebie!]

8 Key Tips to Fix Your Freebie
Take your email opt-in freebie from ‘meh’ to mighty. From unfocused to client-attracting and higher converting.
September 28, 2022
How to Easily Resize Images and Speed Up Your Site

Google and Your Readers Want Both Images and a Speedy-Loading Website – Here’s How

Do you know how to easily, quickly resize images so the file size (data amount) is not huge, still looks good, and doesn’t slow down your site? It’s really not that techie – I’ll tell you how and give you options for tools to do it.

Why Should You Care About Image Size?

Your website needs good-looking images. Readers and visitors are attracted to good graphics, and those graphics can help you get the point across in your copy and content.

But … we also need speedy-loading websites. And images can sloooooooowwww things down.

Google – and your readers – hate when web pages and blog posts are slooooow to load. Slow can mean ‘penalties’ or being lower in Google’s search results (especially in mobile search). Slow can mean more people bounce right off your pages or posts – tired of waiting even a few seconds. Slow can mean lower conversion rates for email opt-ins, sales, etc.

And slow can mean a few seconds or even half second more than what the tech gods have deemed ‘speedy.’ SEM Rush states your site needs to load in less than 2 seconds to be faster than 75% of the web. Neil Patel shared a Google report that shows how much those bounce rates go up for just a few seconds of loading time. Ouch.

(Google told us all back in 2018 it was going to ‘penalize’ sites for slow loading – it started doing so in 2021. Now, with two sites of comparable content, the one that loads faster will show higher in search results. So fix your site speed!)

A big reason a page or post will be slow to load = your images.

Not sure about your site-loading speed?

Use Google’s own Test My Site tool to test yours. Or use this page speed tool.

[Uhoh – I have some serious work to do according to Google’s mobile speed check ☹️]

There are other reasons your site can be slow and you should talk with website and WordPress experts on how to improve your site speed. I highly recommend you talk to my pal, Paul Taubman at Digital Maestro.

Yes, you can use tools or plugins to compress your images after they are on your site. The tools built in to ThriveSuite that I use will do this for me. Other pals like Smush by WPMU Dev. There are lots of plugin options for image compression.

But let’s focus right now on one less techie thing we can do before we add plugins to help with image compression AFTER those images on our sites.

Let’s resize our images before we ever upload them to our website.

An image that is 2MB or greater is too large in memory or data and taking up too much time to load. Shoot, some sources say even 500kb images are too big.

You don’t need a file size that huge to still have a good-looking image.

How-to resize images – what tools to use

One reputable tool to resize your images, for free – is from Adobe’s Creative Cloud Express here. (psst – Creative Cloud Express includes what used to be Adobe Spark – the competitor/alternative to Canva (affiliate))

Another free cloud tool is Compressjpeg. It has an elephant icon. You can bulk upload up to 20 images at a time.

I’ve also used and recommended TinyJPG as a cloud-based source to resize images.

We’re aiming for about a 60-75% reduction in size, with no discernible loss in quality.

I’ve also used the basic ancient Windows Paint program for years to resize an image. I can tell it what percentage to reduce by or set a pixel by pixel amount.

I just discovered that for Windows 10 or 11 you can add the PowerToys app (from Windows) and it has image resizer. I can right-click one or more images and resize. If you don’t immediately see the Resizer – click More Options.

Wow, ~~potential~~ total game changer! (I have a new Win11 computer and had already added this app – now I have a reason to dig in and use it! Ok, tested it and wow that was fast and easy! It took a 5MB photo down to 200kb easy and quick.)

As a long-time amateur photographer I have plenty of high-resolution images I took with my DSLR Canon camera. Plus even my iPhone XS photos can run large – not uncommon to have photos 2MB to 4MB (or even larger) in original. Some of the stock images I have purchased over the years also come in higher resolutions and larger file sizes.

I want to use those images in a blog post, on a sales page, or even make into social-friendly graphics. But they are just too big.

In addition to the web apps mentioned above, I’ve long used basic, Microsoft Paint to resize images and keep quality high enough for nearly all digital uses. It’s easy to resize even as large as 2000 px and the file size can be 900kb.

Or take a 2MB photo and resize it for a sales page to 900px square – and boom it’s 370kb. And still looks fine on the web page.

I love Canva for creating graphics for all kinds of purposes – but it’s not my first choice for resizing an image prior to editing, manipulating or putting it in a designed graphic. Canva (affiliate) does a good job or resizing those designed images for different uses (e.g. Facebook vs. Instagram vs. Pinterest). Also, you can use to download your Canva (affiliate) creations as a JPG file instead of the default of PNG to make file sizes smaller. JPG images are smaller in data file size while generally still good enough for most web uses.

But I recommend you resize any of your own or purchased stock images BEFORE you upload them to use in Canva.

Take just a little time before you design graphics for your web pages or blog posts to properly resize your images. It will save you time later and keep your website humming and loading in a speedier fashion.

February 17, 2022
Why Content Planning is Like Gardening

Marketing is quite a bit like farming – planting seeds, nurturing, and seeing results grow and bear fruit down the road. In content marketing, planning out a content strategy takes cues from gardening. Just like your yard or garden needs a mix of annual flowers and perennial plants, your content needs a mix of the new, time-sensitive (annuals) and the foundational, time-less (perennials and evergreens).

If you have a yard, garden, window box in your apartment, or spent any time watching HGTV or reading Better Homes + Gardens … you know the terms evergreen, perennial, and annual. They’re in every garden book and on all the tags at garden centers.

Good garden design tells us we need a variety of plants – we need a mix with evergreen content too

Why?

Mostly so your yard isn’t bare brown and empty during the winter or a monotone green with no pops of color in other seasons. Not that there’s anything wrong with green! But color and variety are more interesting and pleasing. Not to mention the variety helps birds, bees, critters and our environment.

And you don’t want your blog to be bare, to only post quote memes or National Chocolate Day posts, or have to constantly be creating content. You need a content mix that’s as varied as a good garden.

Annual Flowers and Annual Content –

While annual flowers are bright, showy, glorious colorful bloomers – they last only one season. You have to replant those Marigolds, Zinnias, Petunias or Begonias every spring/summer. Many gardeners love getting cheap flats of fun annuals and digging in every year. Or buying a pre-done hanging basket or pot with good-to-go (that’s likely me) every season.

You have “annuals” content like this too

It’s entertaining, fun, eye-catching, and very time-sensitive. Not long-lasting. You ‘re-plant’ it often.

Think most Instagram posts, Reels, TikTok, a lot of Facebook posts. In fact, most of social media is ‘annuals’ style content – all about grabbing fast attention. Sharing news, events, hot takes, even some opinion pieces – none of that is evergreen or timeless but it gets attention and helps our audience, Heck, it’s often showy, colorful, fun to look at just like those annual bursts of color in your yard.

You’re constantly re-doing, creating, posting this kind of content. We need these posts, but we can’t rely or build a content garden around just these types. But it’s part of the content mix. Just like a yard looks better with some pops of color.

Also beware of the lifespan of your social posts. Just like annual flowers can get wilted, brown, leggy, or die of lack of water, your social posts have relatively short lives. It’s great to use social media scheduling tools, including ones that let you re-cycle and reshare content (I like MeetEdgar, SocialBee and SmarterQueue for doing this). But you don’t repeat the exact same posts forever. Even if you have a social post leading to an evergreen blog article or product, do create completely new social posts for these types of articles or products, basing what you say on current interests and trends, rather than yesteryear’s focus.

Perennial Plants and Content –

Then you have my garden staples and favorites – perennials. Long-living, come-back- reliably, plant-once-look-good-forever, I-can’t-kill-them plants. Ok, sure some perennials are really only great for 3-5 years. But others keep going. I have some “knock-out” roses in front that are probably in year 15+ and bloom nicely every summer. Without me ever doing ANYTHING. I love my lilacs – the gorgeous purple and heavenly scent. I do nada but enjoy.

Let’s turn to ‘perennial content’ …

Do you have seasonal topics in your niche? Parenting coaches can have timely tips for back-to-school, for summer break, and school vacations. Easy to refresh and reshare at key times of year. Different biz owners could talk about organizing, clearing out digital files, even website maintenance around ‘spring cleaning’ or even New Year’s.

Think about blog posts you have that you wrote a few years ago that still bring you traffic. Posts about topics (ahem – like evergreen content) that are kind of timeless and still hold true one, two, five years later – maybe with a little pruning or refreshing. [psst – that link is to a HubSpot article on evergreen content – from 2014 and it’s still relevant! Evergreen at work]

You could create some ‘perennial’ social media posts as well – customer testimonials, behind the scenes looks at your business, tips, how-to’s or other educational content that you can rotate through the year. If there are key National Day of X topics for your niche, why not reuse the graphics when those dates come back around next year?

Evergreens of plants and content –

The shrubs and trees that look good 4 seasons of the year. Pines, spruces, cedars and more. My neighbor has a line of various small-medium evergreens as the ‘fence’ between our yards. Much nicer than an actual fence.

Or like my holly bushes, bright green under their coating of snow. They would look better if we hadn’t wound up with all female bushes and no ‘dudes’ nearby – no berries (look it up – there are male and female hollies!) But they are sturdy, give nests to birds outside my window, and balance some of the other plants and flowers.

In our content mix we have evergreen content as well –

It’s like perennial content but it can last even longer. These are the foundational content pieces, sometimes known as core or content pillars, that you can build around. Key blog posts that get lots of Google love and bring traffic for years. It’s better to have quality content than lots of mediocre posts with no staying power.

You can have evergreen blog posts, videos, self-study courses, and workshops even. Your automated welcome and nurture series of emails to welcome new subscribers should have evergreen info and an evergreen offer. There are software options to turn webinars ‘evergreen’ and have them run anytime a participant signs up rather than waiting for your next live event.

Just like evergreen trees and shrubs – this long-lasting content can stay fresh with good care and pruning.

Yes, you’ll need to update your content, especially if it includes any facts or stats. Check that links still work. Add a new example.

And … when you update, note the date when you updated it – then you can republish, reshare, and re-promote that content. Get new eyes on it. And new subscribers to your email list because of course your best, evergreen content all have opt-in forms or content upgrades with them right? 😉

[Hey: scheduling and setting aside time to go over content and do a content refresh is a necessary part of business and marketing. What are your top blog posts? Do you have outdated content that needs pruning? Need to fix broken links to keep perennial or evergreen content working? I do this work regularly. If you’re stumped on where to start or how to tackle a content refresh – Borrow My Brain and we will chat about how to smartly refresh your content!]

Ok – what’s the bigger point of gardening and content planning you’re wondering?

Are you using all the content types in your business?

More importantly – are you leveraging the perennial or evergreen content? Or are you too reliant on the showy, one-and-done annual types?

And as you plan this quarter– and longer-term – think about what your gardening content mix should look like.

What are the evergreen topics in your niche and business?

For example, you’re a parenting coach for families with kids younger than teens – bedtimes, meal times, toddler tantrums, and homework battles are evergreen topics

The latest public health news or guidance is not evergreen – it’s time-sensitive, fleeting and at best an ‘annual’ type of content.

Talking about starting school or going back to school could be a ‘perennial’ topic.

What are the evergreen content types you feel most comfortable creating and sharing?

Maybe you want to create epic, deep-dive guide blog posts. Only a handful a year, but so good they will work for you for years. Or you prefer a mix of case studies and reviews as your evergreen pieces.

Sit down to look at your content strategy, next 30-90 days, think about your ‘garden’ or mix of content.

Can you create a foundational piece that will be timeless and good for months and years to come? What about some supporting pieces – a related blog post, a graphic, videos that are not time-sensitive – some perennial content. Then fill it out with the timely, eye-catching pieces of content – emails, social media posts, maybe live videos.

I did a Facebook Live video about this topic … while the video was ‘annual’ content at the time … it’s on an ‘evergreen’ topic. So I can embed the video in this post and now it lives on.

Do you look at your email opt-ins as part of your perennial or evergreen mix? Is everything thrown out there and you’re just hoping it blooms or grows?

What are some examples of perennial or evergreen content?

Answer common questions from your audience – if you hear a question multiple times, there’s a good chance others have the same question too. And they are Googling it – so be one of the answers they find. Perfect for blog posts, but also emails and videos.

Round-Up, List, and/or Guide Posts –

List posts are still popular as well as round-ups of key resources on a topic. Some bloggers have made the ‘ultimate guide’ their core content – deep dives on a common question, breaking things down step-by-step. Neil Patel is known for these deep dive posts, or see his his combo list/round-up style like 20 success lessons from top marketing blogs. At his previous sites like QuickSprout and Kissmetrics (see their guide on calculating conversion rates) the guides keep answering questions on digital marketing and bringing traffic for years.

Checklists –

They’re great opt-in gifts, in part because they can be evergreen. They answer questions in bite-size, easy-to-read way. Think of 5-9 items that people can easily follow, cross off, and get quick wins. Much longer than that and you lose your reader. You could use Canva to easily create a very attractive checklist that people would want to print and keep. I also love giving checklists in shared Trello boards.

Case Studies, Examples, White Papers –

If you have examples, maybe original research, or a client success story – share as a case study (or a white paper to download if that suits your audience). Results framed as a story show your expertise and the results you bring to your customers and clients

Glossaries, Definitions, Resource lists –

These don’t have to be deep or wordy but they are often comprehensive. A one-stop-shop place for your audience to come to – for top tools, best websites, best gadgets in your niche; define common terms your niche uses. Glossaries don’t seem sexy, but they are long-lived evergreen content. If you attract a lot of beginners in your niche, you’re doing a big favor to educate and show the way. For example, Search Engine Journal has an SEO Glossary of 200+ terms. I created an A-to-Z marketing terms glossary for library marketing professionals on my other biz site. Resource pages are good spots for affiliate or referral links to the products, books, and courses you use most and want to recommend to your people. Note – this is a page, not a blog post.

Other options for perennial or evergreen content may include: books, interviews, best practices, tutorials, your history or your story, and product reviews.

To save time and energy in content creation and marketing, think of what can be the perennial and evergreen content pieces in your business’s content garden.Do you have an existing blog posts that are older but still getting traffic? Can you refresh them and make them more perennial and visible? Get them working even harder in the garden to attract visitors.

What do you want to be known for? What do you want to use to attract the best birds, bees, and people to your spot? Consider creating a hub or easy way to see and find the best, sturdiest, most evergreen content you have so your visitors can easily find it. Plant or create a few core pieces, that if tended to, watered, pruned and refreshed, will be attractive and productive for much time to come.

I wish you much success in developing a green thumb for content planning, just like in gardening.

Want more marketing tips? More how-to’s, explanations, and maybe some deep-dives?

Or learn how to use your amazing content garden to attract the right-for-you people to your email list and get your Freebie Fixed Fast.😉 Yours to download free.

8 Key Tips to Fix Your Freebie
Take your email opt-in freebie from ‘meh’ to mighty. From unfocused to client-attracting and higher converting.

January 27, 2022
8 Solopreneurs Tell Why Email is Mighty Marketing for Them

8 Smart Solopreneurs – Coaches, Community Builders, Creators – Tell Why Email Is Mighty Marketing for Them

If you’ve been online for business for even a hot minute you’ve heard lots of folks talk about the power of email marketing, that email is NOT dead, it has a great return on investment, its an asset that YOU own (unlike social media), and so much more. And it’s all true! Email is very mighty marketing for online business owners across all niches and client types.

But becoming good at email marketing can feel hard, taking time, patience, and testing. Thankfully, there are awesome business owners out there willing to share what they’ve learned over the years in creating an email community and using email to build their businesses.

One thing they all echo is that success comes from honoring your subscribers and readers as community members – not just a name on a list. Connect with them, build relationships, encourage feedback and connection, and you will all benefit.

I asked several of my online business pals, across different niches and client audiences, to share a story of what it has meant for their business to use email marketing and to offer some encouragement for engaging with your growing email community. Please enjoy and add your own email stories and tips in the comments section!

Melissa Brown of She’s Got Content

“These people are my community … I don’t take them for granted”

I always remember that an email list is comprised of people. And these people are my community–each and every one of them has their own dreams and hopes. At some point, they said yes to one of my offers to be on this list. I don’t take them for granted.

However, my respecting their inboxes got in the way in the beginning when I was building my list. I didn’t want to ‘bother’ anyone by emailing them! I was having full-blown anxiety about sending an email to be sure. I was so afraid that any email I sent would bring an avalanche of unhappiness from the people on my list.

My coach, Kelly McCausey challenged me to begin sending just one email per week. I could talk about whatever I wanted to share in that email. And that was the turning point because now, in almost 3 years, I have not missed a week sending my weekly email on Monday Mornings. I send more emails throughout the week now, too, if there’s something I want to share with my community.

All it took was a commitment to email just one time per week. Simple. Once I started racking up the weeks of emailing, I didn’t want to break the chain. And now after this long having a weekly streak, I do whatever it takes to send out that email.

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

Finding and making offers that my people love. I feel like a matchmaker when I share n affiliate’s link for a service or product and someone buys.💙 And then I know better what kinds of offers to bring more of to them.

Kelly McCausey of Love People and Make Money

“Email gives us choices and is empowering”

Like everyone else, over the years I’ve played on a variety of social platforms from the old Ryze.com and Yahoo Groups to the common social spaces everyone tinkers with today. I’ve had success for a season in most places I give attention to – but nothing lasts forever. If I weren’t leveraging the opportunity to invite people over to my mailing list community, those connections would be lost.

I invite you to think about email as building a community of people. When I hear “list”, I like to think “Community.” My Community – not one that I own, but one that I’m a part of. [Me too Kelly, me too! ~Jennifer]

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

Being a choice about when I make contact is empowering. I get to choose when and how often I send email. Will I mail a couple times this week or every day? I can popcorn topics or I can drill down on one thing for a week. I did that recently, focusing on passion in business. Seven emails that built one on another and has now turned into a meaty blog post and evergreen coaching offer.

Val Selby, Coach and Community Builder

“Email is the constant that’s been part of my business success for years”

I truly feel it means everything to my business success to have an engaged list. Social media is ‘fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants’ if they will want to stay connected or click on products to buy. Those in my email community are saying they want to invest just a little with me to find our more. Plus, now that I’m using Active Campaign I can get really targeted to those that are clicking on things and could use more information on any given topic.

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

My absolute favorite is getting replies from an email I’ve sent out. Whether it’s laughing at something I’ve said that made their day better or sharing a tough story, it’s definitely my favorite to get the feedback that they opened AND read it. *all the warm fuzzies*

Pam Hamilton at Building Visibility

“the power of email for business success comes from relationships built through emails”

Having an email community allows me to talk with the people who have shown in interest in what I have to offer without all the outside noise.

I didn’t fully appreciate that in the past and had often ignored my list. Now-a-days I know how important it is. And, I’m working hard to get better at communicating with the people who’ve trusted me with their email address.

People always say the money’s in the list, the money’s in the list. But, that isn’t quite true. The money is in having a community of people that you have built a relationship with, so that they know, like and trust you. Those people will buy your products and services and those you recommend. Email allows you to do that with people all over the world, and people right around the corner too.

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

My favorite part of having an email list is knowing that the people on it, chose to be there. I know each of the people on my list want to hear from me. That makes it a lot easier to make sure I speak with them through email regularly. I’m still not as regular as I want to be; but I’m way better than I was. I’m a work in progress just like the folks on my list. I love knowing that they appreciate that just as much as the content I share.

Terry Loving WordPress Management Services

“I love how some emails are a real conversation and I’m looking to find my voice that way”

I know why I should have an email community and I have tried to build a responsive one interested in what I do. However, I admit that I find growing an engaged email community to be very challenging as website management doesn’t feel like a “Sexy” topic. I am currently working on making my topics more specific and my emails more frequent.

I love receiving Jennifer’s emails and save them as I like how we are having a conversation. The conversational style and how she shares her tips and processes of working with her community is very helpful. I’m looking to find my voice in a similar way. [awww thanks Terry!~Jennifer]

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

Some days I wrestle with sending emails if response has been quiet. But, I know that when you have a list that engages your people, those email interactions can be very effective. An email community is truly the most effective and inexpensive way to market on line as you are talking directly to someone.

Dr Renee Cohn Jones of Helping Parents Parent

“I love getting replies, comments and being able to answer questions for my email community”

Having an email list has been the best way for me to provide information, education, and support to the parents I work with. I’ve tried a few other things that have helped bring people in/let people know I am out there, but email is the tried and true way that I engage with my parents.

I can share anything with them, so that is a bonus, too – whether it is an educational email, something interesting that I can turn into a parenting tip. For example, I shared about National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day and how that can be a science experiment in the kitchen, connecting with your child! Or I can email an offer for an upcoming webinar or course. Sending messages to my email list is a great way to reach everyone.

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

It has been so much fun for me to get responses and comments about an email I’ve sent (not always enthusiastic!) and is a great way for me to grow the connection and relationship I have with my clients/the parents I work with.

Connie Ragen Green, Small Business Unmarketing

“With each email I’m renewing my vow to my community to provide them with content, ideas, and resources in way that benefits each of us.”

When I think about my email list, I think of the trust people from around the world have placed in me over the years. They’ve shared their name and email address with a total stranger, or, at best someone whose articles they have read or perhaps seen on social media. Less common is the person who has met me in person and has more of a connection with me, and I with them.

I do not take this trust lightly or for granted. With each email I send, I’m renewing my vow to them to provide content, ideas, resources, and more in a way that will be beneficial to each of us.

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

I love having an ongoing conversation with the people on my list! I ask probing questions and encourage them to reply to me. I believe this creates a Mastermind, where each person’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are valued and acknowledged. Even when we don’t see eye to eye, we are able to discuss even the most controversial topics with mutual respect.

Stephanie Watson-Barry of Monthly Content Helpers

“Without our email community we wouldn’t have a business”

Without our list, we would not have a business. As we build this business and as the list grows with customers and interested people, income grows right along with it. Our email list is something we own that we can take with us to any platform/email software of our choice, depending on what’s useful to our customers and audience. Whether blab, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and so forth, the email list — regardless of the platform used to manage the list – adds enormous value to us as a business and our customers who can always get the information we distribute.

What is your favorite part of having an email community to talk with?

No matter what happens to social media like LinkedIn.com and Facebook.com, we can always use email marketing to contact our customers and keep them informed, engaged, and on track with their business goals.

What’s MY Email Story?

My email story is still evolving; like my business pals, I too know the power of honoring those who choose to receive my emails. Mighty Marketing Mojo has grown because my email community has grown.

My community has grown because I’ve dedicated time, energy, and resources to building it – through list-building events like giveaways, bundle sales, speaking on podcasts, speaking at summits, creating multiple free opt-in offers to meet my audience where they are in their business journey. You can’t just plop a form in the side bar of your blog and hope people find it. You need to be proactive about sharing and promoting the ways to join your email community every day in multiple places. Leverage the power of your network and community to help grow your community.

Creating a consistent habit of writing and sending emails has also been crucial. The more I write and send, the stronger my voice becomes, the clearer my message, the more responses I get, relationships develop, and my business grows.

If you’re still on the fence, wondering about making choices for email software, or confused about the steps to get started – it’s time to get my free 12-step guide and checklist for Email Marketing Setup for Success.

12 Steps to Setting Up Email Marketing for Success
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Let’s hear your experiences with email marketing!

Please add your email stories or tips in the comments

September 28, 2021
Discover 5 Ways to Naturally Share Offers in Your Emails

Are You All Give and No Receive with Your Emails? aka You Aren’t Making Offers to Your List!

When was the last time you sent an email to your mighty awesome community of subscribers, with a link in it? Specifically a link that asked them to take an action like signing up, registering, booking a call, or buying? Every solopreneur I know has been guilty of doing tons of nurturing and giving in their emails, and not enough sharing of offers. Often the reluctance comes from fear – fear of selling, fear of rejection, fear of no one wanting their offer, fear of how to write the offer, etc. What if it were easy to send your list offers? What if including links to offers – yours or an affiliate’s/partner’s – felt quick, easy and natural? Read on to discover the 5 ways any online solo business owner can comfortably and naturally share links to offers in their emails.

Email Relationship Are Two-Way Streets of Giving

Email marketing is about relationship building for sure – but it’s also about building your business, which means earning money from your email list. They look to you as an expert, an insider, a trusted and respected source, and someone who offers them valuable solutions.

But that can’t happen if all you do is give, give, give and never open up to receive (I don’t like saying ‘take’) – are you making it impossible for your list to give back to you because you never tell them HOW? Because you don’t make offers?

Let me guess … because you’re afraid to make offers! You’re afraid to sell or be ‘salesy’

I get it – I really do!

But the offers in your emails could also be for a different freebie – or a webinar – a way to take another step deeper in relationship with you (they are now a warmer lead and more likely to purchase!).

Or the offers could be affiliate offers – programs, books, courses that you LOVE and recommend.

You need to work on naturally working in those offers and links to your emails.

Some will be solo, promotional emails (your offers or affiliate offers)

Sometimes those links will be just part of your regular newsletter or updates

No matter which – there’s a way that will work for your audience and your offers. It’s time to start practicing sharing offers so your business actually grows!

The 5 Ways to Naturally Work in Links to Offers

The Blog Soft Sell

Let a blog post do most of the ‘talking’, as a kind of ‘soft sell.’ In your email give a tip or two, as a snippet from a blog post and provide a link to the post to read more. In the post you discuss or review the product/course/offer. Perfect for review posts!

Want to see an example in action? For more than 6 years I’ve participated in Kelly McCausey’s annual Stretch Yourself Content Marketing Challenge. And participants frequently write posts about what we love and get from the challenge, as part of the challenge itself. AND we get to use our affiliate links to promote the challenge – in its live and self-study forms. It’s a blog post ‘soft sell’ in action.

The Casual Mention

You talk about a topic X, give a tip on X, and casually mention ‘oh hey here’s this tool that helps you do X’ in an email you send. For example, my community knows I check out new software, and I love easy ways to do things, AND I dig video creation tools. It’s perfectly natural for me to email and give a tip or two about creating easy, short, social-friendly videos where you never appear on camera and why they’re so popular on social media (85% of videos watched sound off). And then mention the 3 tools I like for creating videos like that: Biteable, Wave, and Canva– yes Canva (affiliate) does videos. Oh, and each of those links is an affiliate link (yep, they are affiliate links here too!)

See, this is mighty easy so far, right? You’re still giving value and information – but you are including affiliate links to the stuff you already love and recommend for your people. It wouldn’t be very kind or helpful of me if I taught you a tip and left you hanging on how to DO the thing. So I share the course, software, or tool that helps me and you get the thing done. Works for all niches and audiences.

TIME OUT …

There’s a video to go with this blog post AND it’s an example of content repurposing in action!

I took a conversation with another online business owner, a question from my email community, and some private label rights content to create show notes/outline for a Facebook Live video. Then some of those notes became my email – with clear Calls to Action – to invite my email community to watch the video. And then I showed how those notes became this blog post and where the video would be added when it was finished. So now I can share this post – with the video in it – to social media or a different email. That’s Mighty Smart Content Repurposing in action! (oh, yes I have a self-study workshop about content repurposing where you can see more demos like this and get your content to work smarter and harder – not you work harder!)

Strong Call to Action

It’s time to move up a notch and to make a stronger offer- by including a clear, direct call to action in your email. Pick a topic for your email, write it with solid tips/info, then end with both text and a button as CTA (call to action) to “go pick up X course on Z topic” or “want to learn more, click here to sign up for X.” Consider adding another link in the P.S.

You aren’t being so soft here. You are making your CTA very direct and not buried in the text. Use bold, maybe even a color font, and test out the button graphics in your email marketing software. You are making it clear to your reader what you want them to do, where to click, and where it’s taking them.

For example, I could write an email about why segmentation is the future of email and how it leads to more engaged subscribers, which means more sales. And then I could tell you the best way I know how to easily create segments is in my preferred software, ActiveCampaign – click here to sign up for your free trial. It’s similar to the casual mention, but more direct; a little more overt of a promotion.

Instead of sending you to an affiliate link for my fave email software, I could tell you that I have a webinar on email segmentation (I do!) or to hire me for a Borrow My Brain session to set up tags and segments in your ActiveCampaign account. (clients have done so!)

“Sponsored By” in your Newsletters

If you have a regular weekly or monthly newsletter you could make an offer for an evergreen product/service of your own (or an affiliate offer) and call it a “sponsored by” message. Or just in some way visually and design-wise set it off from the rest of your newsletter content- make your offer a mini ad.

Several of my pals have added in regular reminders and mini ads to let people know they currently have coaching slots available.

Pam Hamilton of Building Visibility

Kelly McCausey of Love People and Make Money

Or I could create a “sponsored by” area with links to ActiveCampaign – a natural fit for me. Or add in my own little graphic ‘ad’ area for Borrow My Brain offers or a coaching offer.

What offer could you choose to be your ‘sponsor’?

Ok, time to power up our asking and receiving even further – it’s time to work on a purely promotional email. But keep it in your style, your tone, your vibe and keep it natural! If you’ve built a relationship with your list as someone they trust, then they trust you to give them the straight info on how to work with you! Remember, they opted-in to your list because you OFFERED them some kind of a solution. Give them the next part of the solution!

The Stand Out, Stand Alone Solo Promo Email

Now we are taking a slightly harder sell because this email is dedicated to promoting a product or service and encouraging the reader to click and buy – or at least click and check out the sales page. Again, this could be something you sell or an affiliate offer. (hmmm when was the last time you did a dedicated campaign for an affiliate? Multiple standalone promo emails – talking about benefits, sharing results, overcoming any objections?)

Solo promo emails are necessary! Your CTAs and offers can sometimes get lost otherwise. The issue our communities can have is when they become the ONLY email someone sends.

It’s one thing for Kohls, Wayfair, Frontgate, Penzeys, or Readers to send me sales emails every day – they are all big retailers, all known for never-ending sales, and we signed up to their lists basically to get coupons and the sales. And THEY know, and WE know, that we delete 99% of those emails – which is why they send them ALL the time, so the one time I DO need towels or spices – boom, there’s the sale or coupon I need.

We serve our clients a little differently. We believe in content marketing – which puts education first. People subscribe to our lists looking for information, and yes for solutions, and I hope to hell they realize we are BUSINESS OWNERS WHO SELL THINGS, but it’s not the only thing we send them.

You have (or are working on – yay you!) built a relationship with your email community – you respect them, they respect and trust you, and you are establishing GIVE and RECEIVE. Your email community WANTS to know what you’ve got that can help them – and they can’t read your mind. So, sometimes you need direct, promo emails and sometimes you need to gently nudge and remind them via the other ways.

See, that wasn’t so hard! Surely you can incorporate at least one of these 5 tips you’ve learned today to more comfortably make an offer via email this week. Mix and match your emails using a combo of offer types. Regularly work in links in your email that encourage your readers to click and take action. Sometimes it’s to check out an affiliate offer. Sometimes it’s to tell them about YOUR offers.

Start right from the beginning of your email relationship to get your community used to seeing links and offers from you. They will come to know you send them quality offers, that the links are worth clicking, and they will build a habit of giving back to you by buying.

Need help getting started with email marketing? Want to make sure you are setup for success right from the moment you decide to start a list? Then grab my FREE guide and 12-step checklist for the Mighty Email Marketing Setup for Success.

September 16, 2021
5 Evergreen Content Ideas for any Solopreneur Niche
If You’re Feeling Stuck for Content Ideas Pick One of These to Use for Any Small Business Type or Niche

Summer is in full swing and the heat could be zapping your energy, fogging your brain, or melting your mojo. Or maybe you’re stuck inside on another cold day and the icy temperatures have your good ideas frozen in your brain. While I can’t give you ice cream treats or a nice warm cup of cocoa, I can share 5 evergreen content ideas to get you unstuck in your business. These topics will work for blog posts (original or go curate some content), live videos on any platform (please, if you do an interpretive dance on TikTok, let me know – it would be reason enough for me to get the app!), as a series of images and short videos in stories on IG or FB, as FB posts, as emails …

OR HEY … mix it up – create a piece of content using one of the topics in one content format and then repurpose it to at least 2 others. Recycling is good for business AND the environment.

Content Suggestions Fit Every Type of Solopreneur Business

These 5 content ideas will work if you are …
- a parenting coach or someone helping mompreneurs
- teaching on mindset shifts for new business owners
- a writer or book coach
- in the health/wellness niches
- talking marketing to other businesses (like me!).
No matter your niche and audience of customers, you can add your own stories or examples and adapt each idea to suit your business and your audience. And you can do so over and over again.

Strategic Content Topics That Lead to Next Steps and Offers

Plus each of these content topics naturally leads to other topics and to opportunities to offer a next step of help as an email opt-in gift, or a low-cost product, or even as a way to lead to your courses or coaching. That makes for more harder-working, more strategic content and less fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants efforts. Remember, content marketing is to educate and inform while inspiring your audience to take a specific action.

Use the given headlines as blog post titles, video titles, or email subject lines – and just tweak or fill-in-the-blanks with your audience where appropriate. Don’t overthink it, just take the ideas and run!

5 Boredom Busting Content Ideas

How to Stop Feeling Stuck and Move Forward

This topic could be adapted to talk about moving forward with your business structure (LLCs vs Sole Proprietor, etc) or how to move forward with creating and launching your next course.

If you’re in the moms or parents space, it could be on moving forward with getting kids ready for back to school (especially after some weird virtual/hybrid learning times) or moving forward with aiding elderly parents.

For fitness and wellness coaches, talk to your people about moving forward with an improved diet at the end of summer fun or how to stop feeling stuck with the same old at-home fitness routines.

Try these 5 points under the main topic:
- what’s the roadblock or crippling belief behind why your clients say they are stuck (with recipes, fitness, kids, course creation, etc)
- what’s one small step you can recommend to get out of comfort zone
- name one new piece of positive self-talk
- how to ask for outside help
- Then of course recommend they go ask for help – and get a trusted coach – AHEM THAT’S YOU!
See, ANY topic or niche can work here!

Easy ____ Essentials to Boost Your _____

Time to play content creation Mad Libs! Fill in the blanks with your favorite easy tips and ways to boost to get a particular result.
- ‘easy mindset essentials to boost your sales success’
- ‘easy 3-ingredient recipe essentials to boost your morning energy’
- ‘easy hip stretch essentials to boost your flexibility’ [wow, I really need those right now!]
- ‘easy social media essential tips to boost your post engagement’
You aren’t solving all their sales issues or fixing all flexibility – you’re giving them a few easy tips where they can see some fast “aha! moments” and come to see you as a trusted resource with valuable info.

Now also add in what you offer that can also help them Boost X …

Do you have a workbook on sales success tips for biz owners who hate sales?

Can you offer a VIP day – maybe a wellness coach could offer flexibility and core stretch days?

Maybe you have a self-study course on 90-days to greater mobility?

Share a free video about creating more engaging Facebook posts? Have you shared your podcast yet?

Tons of opportunities here to show and tell them where they can get more valuable tips just like the ones you shared in your blog post, video or email.

7 Questions Every _____ Should Ask Before Hiring a ______

Yes, more great fill-in-the-blanks! These are the questions a client or customer should ask before hiring someone like you! But they are often the questions our prospects are afraid to ask, forget to ask, or only think of later on. Be transparent and helpful by showing them how to make a more informed hiring decision.

Examples could be …
- the 7 things someone should ask before hiring a kitchen designers
- the 7 things to ask before hiring someone to design a logo
- the 7 things a new business owner should ask before hiring a lawyer (or a business mindset coach)
- the 7 things to know before hiring someone to help you with public speaking
- 7 things to know before you hire a VA (including what is a VA)
Ask yourself, what are the questions you wish your clients had asked or knew before you ever jumped on a first call? Or what are the common questions that come up in a first call?

If you don’t do 1:1 or group coaching – what about teaching? What things do you wish someone thought about before they jumped in and purchased a class? What are the most common questions that come up in your first lessons or about your core courses?

Another idea – Turn it around – tell them the 7 things you always ask in your first calls:
- what would reaching your goal look like?
- Where do you want to be in 5 years?
- How would 5 years in the future You describe X?
- What do you like most about where you are now in X situation?
- If you had a magic wand, what’s ONE thing you want to change this week?
I Practice What I Teach – Here’s a Video of Me Explaining the 5 Evergreen Content Ideas

5 _______ experts you shouldn’t ignore

This topic is for sharing the people and resources you turn to and introduce them to your audience. Think of this as a specific kind of round-up post. It’s both very valuable and a great place for affiliate links! Share the love time. Who do you follow on a topic in your niche that you think the rest of your people should know about?

Share 3-5 blogs you read all the time or 5 podcasts you always listen to – and most importantly share WHY. Why are these 5 experts in your overall niche that can help your community go further. Maybe they cover some aspect that you don’t. For example, I’m not an Instagram marketing expert – so tell my mighty pals to check out Jenn Herman at JennsTrends.com because she IS a bonafide IG expert and a voice I trust.

Pick one tidbit or best piece of advice you’ve gotten from each person you follow and share in the short paragraphs about each person.

You can repeat this type of content over and over by sharing different experts or different resources. One time it was bloggers, another time it was podcasts. One time you share your favorite recipe sources, another it’s quick videos for stretches. Easily repurpose into graphics for social media, or 5 social posts – one per person.

4 (or 5 or 7 or whatever number greater than 3 lol) ____ traps that could keep you stuck

Every niche has common pitfalls, mistakes, or possible traps that your audience could fall into – and you want to be the person to show them how to avoid those sneaky traps. You can also share how YOU hit a roadblock or trap and how YOU got out of it – be an example to follow.
- 4 common mindset/thinking traps that keep you stuck in a life rut
- 5 common exercise traps that keep you from making fitness progress (or get more specific – 5 common mistakes that keep your legs and hips weak; or 5 reasons you will never actually ‘blast your belly’)
- 6 common snacking traps that keep you low on energy
- 5 behavior traps that keep you and your kids in the fight zone
- 5 writing traps that are keeping you from getting the first draft of your book done
Reassure them that everyone in X Niche falls into one of these traps at times. Paint a picture of the story of how you failed and then how you got out of the trap. Give a tip on how to recognize the traps. Give a tip on getting out of one or two of the traps.

You do NOT have to go into detail on how to get out of every trap – you’re giving them a map of what to avoid and that in itself is very helpful. The logical next is showing in more depth HOW to get out of the traps and that comes in your course, your coaching, or even your email follow-up series after an opt-in.

Link to a freebie or a call where they can get more help getting past the other Z traps and the other hidden lurking traps of X Niche. Keep leading your people to more next steps to keep taking action and seeing even more results.

I love myth-busting and helping my biz pals to avoid tech and marketing mistakes so I’ve used variations on this topic multiple times. I advised on blogging mistakes to avoid; shared about the pros and cons and some mistakes made when I switched email marketing services; plus avoiding bad social media advice.

Pick One Evergreen Content Topic and Create Over the Next Month

These are all evergreen topics – you could come back, update them, or do them again later. They work in all content formats. Use a blog post, or an email – or BOTH! Make a good blog post on the topic, then share the highlights in an email.

Or go from blog post to video, or video then blog post (ahem, that’s what I did -the notes came then the video and both into a blog post). Start from your area of content creation strength.

AND all the topics can all lead to other content and offers. They help educate your audience – not just about X topics but about YOU and your expertise. They give some info on the WHAT and WHY ….

They start to hit on the HOW … but all need more … more HOW. More on HOW TO AVOID, HOW TO KEEP IMPROVING …. Hence, leading to OFFERS. An email opt-in, a webinar, a summit, a video, a course, your 1:1 offers, etc.

Get off the fly-by-seat-of-your-pants content creation treadmill or just throwing any old content up on your blog, start from solid topics that address key, ongoing concerns of your audience. This makes for mightier content. 😁
July 26, 2021