Mighty Marketing Mojo

Author: Jennifer Burke

5 Expert Resources to Inspire Your Email Welcome Series

5 Expert Marketing Resources Share Tips and Examples to Inspire Your Email Welcome Series

I’m a huge believer in the power of email marketing to build and grow a business in our very digital world. Email is far from dead! Authentic, value-driven, personality-sharing emails delivered straight to your prospects’ inboxes are a great way to build Know-Like-Trust factors crucial to turn a reader to a prospect to a happy customer. One of the most essential tools in your email marketing toolkit is your series of automated emails to welcome a new list subscriber to your email community.

But if you’re not a writer or ever get stumped it can feel miserably hard to figure out what to say in a welcome series of emails. I’m here to help with a round-up of examples of good welcome emails that you should steal borrow for your business. PLUS I have a workshop coming if you want hands-on help and accountability for your creating your own Email Welcome Series Mojo.

“8 out of 10 customers expect to receive a welcome email after they sign up for an email list”

This article on the 7 best welcome email examples to engage your customers – from OmniSend – restates a lot of the great data out there that backs up why email is still an awesome marketing tool.

It includes good reminders that you may also have automated welcome series after someone purchases a product (digital or otherwise) from you. Goal here is to make sure they are happy with purchase, show how to get the most from the purchase, and encourage them to be repeat customers later. Omnisend shares examples from a variety of larger brand names and e-commerce sites (e.g. Michaels, AirBnB, Away) and smaller niche sellers.

HubSpot always leads by example with content marketing and giving valuable content in exchange for email subscriptions. It’s natural they have a round-up of 10 examples of welcome emails to inspire your own strategy.

They include examples from Virgin America. Monday.com, Ikea and more. Yes, those are big names with big budgets but they send welcome emails just like we can and do as solopreneurs and small businesses! There’s always a nugget or two to learn from the larger brands.

SendInBlue’s post on 9 best welcome emails examples to win over subscribers reminds us that we want to use our welcome emails to ‘start off on the right foot’ with our newest community members. These first emails are the most read and a golden opportunity at relationship building. Naturally, as an email marketing tool they also give an opt-in gift of email templates and encourage you to use their product. But the advice and examples work no matter what software you choose.

I liked that instead of just 9 brands’ emails, they showcased types of welcome emails: video greetings, GIFs, personalization, product showcases, and more.

This article from Instapage on the 7 welcome email examples for your next campaign reminds us that a good, attention-getting subject line is just as important for an initial welcome email as it is for all the rest of our emails. Pay attention to the subject lines of the examples from all these articles AND from the emails you get as you subscribe to new lists.

Tip 2 from Instapage is key – “set expectations.” In your welcome series set the tone for your new email relationship and be clear about how often you email, what types of things you send, and just generally build up trust.

Bonus Tip: Keep an email swipe file in your inbox

I use a label in Gmail to indicate Email Swipe Examples – and tag anything that catches my attention that I may want to explore, copy, or be inspired by later. See a good subject line, like how they formatted an email, like a phrase they use to talk about something in your niche – save it to your Swipe File. Then review that folder or label later when you feel stuck or need some inspiration for your own emails.

From my own much-loved email marketing software, Active Campaign, is their 6-email sequence you can steal based on examples from AC users and experts

Yep, they want you to go right ahead and borrow/steal/use their email examples. I’m sure they’d love if you used ActiveCampaign to send those emails, but they recognize they are walking the talk in content marketing by educating and offering value to everyone.

Be sure to read or scroll though to see examples of exactly what some AC experts out in their welcome series.

Such as this example that lists a 4-email series:

1 – Welcome – a friendly welcome to new clients

2 – How we work – start building trust with giving info on the team

3 – What to expect from us – lay out exactly what the new client can expect

4 – What we need from you – if a new client needs to fill forms, do tasks, offer them a checklist to make it easy and smooth start to the relationship

There are other nuggets in all of the articles about what can go in each email in the welcome series. Pull what works for you and your business right now.

Also, that’s a big part of what I’m teaching in my Email Welcome Series Mojo workshop – what to put in your series, how to craft a compelling email, and then we get them written!

Go find some inspiration here to write or refresh the most opened emails you ever send your community – your welcome email series.

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July 16, 2021
Saving Time in Trello with Butler Automations

Saving Time By Learning Automation Hacks and Tips Using Trello’s Butler Tool

I love Trello. I’ve used it for many years – all on the awesome free plan – and think it’s a great tool for productivity, organizing ideas, planning out content and more. I even created a course on using Trello in your solopreneur business, Mightier Marketing with Trello. Then I created a 10-day challenge to get right into using Trello in your business. I’m ALL IN on Trello! But I also don’t know every in, out, and feature – I could use features better. The built-in automation tool from Trello, called Butler, is a feature that I’m not using and need to learn more about. Thankfully there are lots of sources and videos to show ways to use Trello’s Butler!

The basics of what is Butler in Trello

Butler is the built-in tool (not a Power-Up, add-on or integration) that lets you simply automate some actions, tasks, or workflows in boards. Butler is available for all user levels and account types (yes including free).

You create commands and Butler does the work, to save time from doing tasks manually. Create commands or automations for boards, at the card level, based on calendar or scheduled intervals, or because some other action happened. As easy as it is to just drag-n-drop things in Trello, Butler takes care of those tedious clicks and drags.

As much as I love Trello, Butler and its commands has always left me a little mystified. So I went looking for some simple examples of Butler at work.

Video Demonstration of Creating Automations Using Butler

This short 15-minue video from Simpletivity helps explain Butler, starting with telling us that Butler is best for automating repetitive tasks inside of Trello.

For example, if you have a standard, left-to-right Trello board for current projects (i.e. ToDo, Doing, Done), then instead of manually dragging items from To-Do to Done and changing the due date, you could automate it with Butler. Or what if when you checked off a due date as complete, the card auto-magically moved to the Done list?! Butler can do it.

Video shows creating a rule and an action trigger for when a card is moved to Done the due date is also checked off to show green and complete. Don’t forget to hit the green + button to add an action and then hit SAVE when done.

I loved how simple these steps were. I learned the Butler steps in the first 4 minutes of the video!

Another example shown to use Butler is adding lists on a regular schedule – e.g. adding new task list for each day or week. This automation starts from the calendar option inside of Butler, not the rules area. I like knowing what these different sections mean.

This simple video of examples using Butler can help us all take our Trello use to another level without special skills or a big learning curve.

If you want my guide to Trello – check out my Trello Tips 101.

July 15, 2021
Using Canva as Part of Smart Content Curation

Use Canva and Templates to Style Images for Smart Blog Post Curation

Solopreneur pals it can be stressful and feel time-intensive to keep up with content marketing. Especially if you feel you have to create new content all the time. But wait! There are ways to be consistent in content marketing without starting from scratch every day. You can use content shortcuts or licensed content as a brain starter. You can repurpose content across platforms as a time-saver. You can fill in content gaps by smartly sharing other people’s content with smart content curation. And Canva is an easy way to help you create your curations.

Content curation is not copying. That’s a big no-no and you already know that!

Content curation is not just re-posting something or sharing a link out via social media.

It’s more than just compiling a list of links and throwing them on a page.

Smart content curation means you add your own insights, why you are sharing something, and add value while bringing valuable content to your audience.

You are giving credit to the original source, even sending them some nice keyword, back-link juice. You clearly quote your source. You are doing favors both for your audience and the original content creator.

If you’re low on time, running around with clients, juggling multiple projects – instead of letting your blog sit dark and dormant – curate some content over there and help your people!

As a trained, degreed library professional before I went out on my own as a marketing coach, I know a thing or two about curating content and doing it safely and legitimately. Think about it – libraries are giant collections of curated content. Librarians are constantly searching out and then displaying and sharing new books, new films, new homework help, and new resources to help their particular communities. You can literally ‘borrow a page’ from them!

My coach and pal Kelly McCausey runs a Smart Curation Skills challenge and it kicks me in the but with a giant “D’UH why don’t I do this more often” every time I’ve taken it. Even if you miss the live week-long challenge you can get the tips, demo videos, and take on a 5-day challenge of your own any time of year.

Kelly says about smart curation:

“Think of curation as your ‘Easy Button.’ Other smart people are creating all kinds of amazing content that your people can benefit from. When you’re the person to introduce it, you gain authority by simple association.”

Content curation is a smart, easy way to be more consistent with your content marketing.

What Does a Curated Post Look Like?

First up, curated posts are not long.

Tell ‘em what you’re sharing, show the thing, tell ‘em why you’re sharing, and encourage your readers to go check out this other valuable post. That’s it!

One way we make sure we’re on the up-and-up with our curation is to never take another site’s images – don’t link to their image (that could break and it’s on the line for fair use). We instead take a screenshot to show what and where we are curating.

I also usually add a link back to the original post as the image link.

Kelly and I each like to style the images in way to show we ‘borrowed’ or screen-captured them – that they aren’t ours. Kelly loves Snagit + Photoshop. Me, I’m a looooong time Canva girl. (I do have SnagIt and like it a lot!) You can create blog post images – including curation posts – using the design or image tool of your choice. Don’t over think it!

You can use the many frames in Canva to style an image so it’s more clear it’s a screen-capture.

Below is a short demo video of me using the built-in-to-Firefox screenshot tool and my already created blog post image templates in Canva (affiliate). I use Canva (affiliate) frame elements to style them in a way that makes it a littler clearer the image is not original to me.

If you want to practice your curation skills to boost your content marketing consistency I highly recommend you check out Kelly’s Smart Curation Skills challenge.

**yes those are my affiliate links for Canva (affiliate) and Kelly’s course but I only share things I test and trust – you’ll never pay more for using my links and could often get a discount**

July 14, 2021
10 Types of Email Subjects to Get Attention and Opens
Solopreneurs Use These 10+ Types of Tested Email Subject Lines to Get More Attention and Higher Open Rates

You’ve heard and seen me teach and preach on the power of email marketing to drive business success for budget-minded small businesses and solopreneurs. Email marketing is far, far from dead!

But sometimes our stats look sad and we worry we aren’t reaching our mighty peeps on our carefully crafted lists. Look, there are a lot of reasons open rates may be down/off (and are a poor measure of overall success), but there ARE also ways we can work on getting more attention in crowded inboxes. I’m not talking about anything spammy! More like using some consumer psychology and knowledge of how human brains work – regardless of niche or industry or business size.

Now, I don’t have hundreds of thousands of emails I can use as data to test everything about email writing or email subjects. At least not YET I don’t! But as I keep building my business through email marketing, I’ll keep sharing what I’ve learned on email writing. But in the meantime, you need to dive in and get writing! 😁

What Makes a Good Email Subject

Good email subjects are like good blog post headlines, attention-getting social media posts, headlines on sales pages – something that grabs your reader and makes them keep going. If a subject isn’t interesting, relevant and on-topic – it gets skipped or deleted right out of the inbox. We HAVE to get that first open so we can have a relationship with our email community.

How do we do that without acting spammy or feeling icky?

That’s where that consumer psychology research and years of copy-writing ‘hacks’ come in – that we can learn and borrow from. Using data says is proven to work isn’t icky – it’s actually pretty smart and saves you tons of time!

There are lots of places that talk about email marketing tips and in particular, how to write attention-getting, open-and-read email subjects.

There are some common points across the various sources, pointing to tried-n-true copywriting techniques on what gets people to open and read your marketing emails. Use these core types of email subjects to your advantage!

I’m a researcher and a teacher, so I’m trained to the core to share resources I’ve used. It’s about time I shared some of my ‘secret’ tools with you too!

Email Subjects Derived from Consumer Psychology – aka Why Our Brains Say CLICK

One well-researched, well-crafted, and frequently updated post with more than 150 tested email subject lines from OptinMonster. [It’s been updated AGAIN – now 164 subjects!]

This mega guide to email subjects that get attention is broken down by type or category of subject line – you should be aware of all 10 human-behavior types of emails.

They read like a primer on the human psyche or even the 7 deadly sins! Check out a few, see what might work in your industry or niche – not all will be a clear fit for every type pf business, but don’t write them off! Then mix, match, and test variations out for yourself!

The Core 10 Types of Human-Behavior-Driven Email Subjects

1) FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – also known as ‘scarcity’ or ‘urgency’
e.g. ” your 6-figure content plan goes bye-bye at midnight”

2) Curiosity – humans don’t like gaps or open loops in their brains
e.g. “9 disgusting facts about Thanksgiving”

3) Funny/Humor– a fine line and requires creativity but can pay off (could also be a spot where you use pop culture references
e.g. ” As You Wish” (a reference to the Princess Bride)

4) Vanity/Ego – we all want to be liked and accepted
e.g. “Your butt will look great in these workout pants”

5) Greed – it’s tough to pass up a really good deal
e.g. “Flash. Sale. Alert”

6) Sloth – we humans are a lazy lot! talk shortcuts or time-savers
e.g. “steal these email templates”

7) Pain Points – where are your customers on their customer journey? note the problems you solve
e.g. “stop wasting money on ink”

8) Retargeting subject lines (works if you have data about a subscriber – such as they failed to finish a purchase online, clicked your FB ad, didn’t purchase after a trial, etc)
e.g. “hey, forget something? Here’s 20% off”

9) Personal – personalization in subject lines (using a contact’s name)
e.g. “happy birthday Mary – surprise inside!”

10) Straightforward – when in doubt, keep it simple and clear
e.g.” Happy Holidays from [Company Name]”
e.g. “The 2021 state of social media report”

Other Smart Sources Agree on Key Email Subjects That Can Work for Many Businesses

Neil Patel agrees on many of these core, psychology-drive email subject types in his mega round-up of clickable email subjects.

He mentions:
- Curiosity
- Scarcity – aka urgency, FOMO; he suggests using deadlines for your CTA as well as the word “tomorrow” in your subject (boosted open rates by 10%).
- Free – we all love free things. Send your subscribers little extra bonuses from time to time – no extra steps required (I teach this in both my welcome series coaching program and my Write Your Damn Emails Challenge).
NOTE: Neil shares research here that says we should NOT fear using the word “free” in our email subjects – data that says you won’t immediately end up in spam. So test it out!
- Personalization – data shows it improves clicks and conversions. So go use your subscribers’ names! (and we better hope they gave us REAL names!)
- News – give your people the breaking news they want – just stay relevant to your business and niche.
- Social proof – we like knowing that something is popular, that others like us, like that thing too. “Join our 3000 active subscribers” or using a testimonial, a quote, a link to an ‘influencer’ in your niche.
- Announcements, events – if you are speaking somewhere, have a masterclass, are attending an event – let people know. And invite your readers to join you when possible.
More common types of emails – and subjects – mix in with the psychology-driven tips

Other types of emails, that you can mix in or use with the psych and copy-writing tips are those shown to be effective in research on subject lines from Instapage:
- How-To – classics can work! You’re telling your reader you’re about to help them. It can also have aspects of curiosity at work – people want to know HOW you’re going to deliver on what you’re teaching
  g. “how to grow your business in 15 minutes”
- Self-interest – we all want to improve something about ourselves, so tap into that.
  g. Mint’s “Can you guess your top spending categories last week?”
  E.g. CoSchedule’s “21 social media templates to help you execute a strategy for 10x growth”
- Quick Fixes – tap into human behavior #6 from above, “Sloth.” Humans are lazy. We are wired to look for quick fixes. Why things like “secrets”, “insider’s tips” or “just 15 minutes” can work so well.
  g. Salesforce “36 enterprise apps you could build and deploy today”
  e.g. IMPACT blog “ 4 simple tweaks to convert more subscribers on your blog”
- Comparisons – we’re constantly comparing ourselves (and our businesses) to others to see how we stack up. Play in to your reader’s inner competitiveness.
  g. Experian “see how you measure up”
  e.g. Formstack “12 problems all digital marketers understand – do you relate?”
- Ask Questions – I’ve personally tested this one multiple times through A/b or split testing and question versions of subjects usually win. Easy to pair with the other suggestions.
  g. “Will this be your defining moment?”
  e.g. “Sally, want to quit your job and get paid to write?”
Still want to see even MORE examples of email subjects that have worked for businesses across industries and niches? Ok!

Check out this roundup of 180+ proven email subjects – sortable by category!- from Sleeknote.

The categories Sleeknote has are echoed by the earlier lists -using a mix of consumer psychology and copy-writing 101.

E.g. Funny, Curiosity, Social Proof, Last Chance (aka scarcity)

Plus use-case or event types of emails like: cart abandonment, follow-ups, promotions.

Some of the examples I liked include:
- Personalized: “We’d love your feedback, Seray!” from Joybird
- Funny: “Great, another email” from Studio Neat
- Scarcity/Last Chance: “bye bye bye” from Proven
Of course the content marketing experts at HubSpot have their own round-up of email subjects. See their 150+ best email subjects. How many follow the Psych 101 tips or categories mentioned above? 😉

Note: You have to scroll a bit to find out the brand, product, or industry of some of the emails. But many of the subjects are general enough to tweak and use in any business I suspect.

Some of my favorites from the HubSpot list:
- “*Don’t open this email*” – ohhh some reverse psychology!
- “As you wish” – ahh a pop culture reference – and one of my favorite
- “Do not commit these Instagram atrocities”
I’ve talked about these email writing tips in several of my live video chats – so if you don’t want to keep clicking and reading – you can watch the videos below. Then go write some mighty email subjects to test.

Email Marketing – Improving Your Subjects – Better Subjects for More Opens

Is anyone listening? How to make an impact with the ONE thing you truly control in open rates – your email subject. I share some of my split test results on email subjects plus a favorite tool for writing better headlines (and email subjects).

Don’t over think things, don’t try to use ALL of these all of the time, do pick 2 or 3 types of subject to try out with your list and see what the data shows is working. Keep testing and learning. When in doubt, always be clear and give value to your people – align the subject with what’s inside your email – no ‘bait-n-switch’!

To avoid landing in the spam folder, the dreaded ‘promotions’ tab, or just being deleted – take a little time to use natural human tendencies to craft a subject line that gets attention, gets opened, and gets read.
July 13, 2021
4 Ways to Evaluate Content Beyond Pageviews

Solopreneurs Concerned with Content Marketing Should Know These 4 Ways to Evaluate Your Content Success

You know I love digging into data and research and sharing tips with you – so this post about the 4 ways you can evaluate and measure your content success beyond standard old pageviews, caught my attention. I’m a big believer in letting data inform our marketing and help us improve our efforts to serve our audiences. Do more of what works!

From the content marketing team at AudienceOps…

Pageviews don’t give you a full picture of your content’s effectiveness. You need a deeper well of metrics to know whether your content really fulfills its purpose

Which is why as smart small biz folks using the power of content marketing, we need to know the tips, tools, and ways to make it work for us. You want to check out these 4 other ways to look at seeing if your content is doing what you set out to achieve.

A great example is tip #1: Lead Generation

If you create content with the intent of bringing in mighty, awesome new potential clients or customers … how do you know if your website content is leading to new leads? And even more importantly, is your site attracting and serving the right-for-you kind of audience? Are you getting bot traffic? Lookie loos who skim and bounce away quickly? Fluff traffic attracted by a viral, fluffy, not-on-message, blog post?

The most fundamental way to fix this is by asking visitors to do something on the page that pushes them into the next stage of the customer journey.

Translation – do you have a super opt-in form and gift in ALL your blog posts? [uh oh time to add one here too! 😉] Or are you asking them to leave a comment? to share your post with THEIR people?

I also like the bonus tips in this section on things like testing your CTA, putting your opt-in or CTA in different parts of your post, using different buttons or graphics, etc.

The other areas we should look at for content success metrics include: user behavior, quality engagement, and brand reputation.

All the points offer good ways to use the time and skills you have to dive a little deeper into seeing what is – or is not – working on your website with your content marketing.

July 12, 2021
5 Email List-Building Tips You Don’t Want to Overlook

Don’t Overlook These 5 Simple Email List-Building Tips

As a busy solopreneur you have a lot on your plate and many marketing tasks are calling your name. I get that growing an engaged email community can feel like a super slow process; but every effort we make adds up. Are you taking advantage of the easy, plug-n-play, or nearly set-and-forget ways to build your email list? Here are at least 5 email list-building tips you don’t want to overlook.

Let’s simplify marketing, not over complicate it. We KNOW we should be using email marketing and building our list, but many small business owners struggle with HOW to build. Or they don’t have a simple plan to show them where to go. Take small chunks of time each day to start with the little things that can work for your business 24/7/365 and add on the efforts that bring in new people in bunches as well.

Don’t Miss These List-Building Tips:

One: Your Email Signature

Add a compelling description of your free gift to your business email signature.

You probably send dozens of one-to-one, personal emails daily. Why not get a little extra boost from each by including not just your website, but a link to a great email opt-in gift in every one of those emails?

There’s even software and plugins for your email that will make your signature look better (and convert better), like WiseStamp. You can see email signature examples from them here. Also see the tool NewOldStamp for branded email signatures – more ways to add a call-to-action in the emails you send every day. And YesWare has a few more tips and examples on how to create a more effective email signature.

Also add a link to your free gift landing page to the signature field for any non-social media forums or groups you are in too! [below is a pic of my profile in an online forum where I can share a bio and add a link to an evergreen free gift landing page]

Two: Your Social Bios

Add a ‘link in bio’ area to your social media profiles that links to a landing page for your free gift.

There are apps and software like LinkTree, Lnk.Bio, FeedLink, Later (a great IG social management tool- has a free ‘link in bio’ option) or others that can make this easier, especially for sites like Instagram where there are no active URLs in posts or captions. LinkTree and similar options make it easy to share more than one link, when you only have space on a social profile for a single link.

BETTER …. make your own super basic ‘link in bio’ landing page on your website – that way YOU get the benefit of that social media traffic to YOUR site, not LinkTree.

Create a page with a short name, like yourcoolsitename.com/connect

That page has a top resource, or your most recent top social posts/videos, or your book, a video, could be an Amazon affiliate link to a product you talk about on social, your other social accounts, but most importantly – your email opt-in freebie link.

And, this way you don’t have to change out the link in your bio every day (ugh who on earth does that?!) over on IG if you are promoting or sharing different things. You send them back to one page on your site – and THAT is where you put the most up-to-date offers.

Link-in-bio landing page example made with SeedProd

You can use any page-builder plugins or tools you already have for your site, such as: Elementor, BeaverBuilder, ThriveSuite; or tools like LeadPages.

Here’s an article with step-by-step instructions on using Elementor to create a ‘link-in-bio page.’

Keep the page simple, mobile-friendly, easy to click, and don’t miss out on opportunities from that social media traffic.

[Note: No, I don’t have a landing page that looks like this, mostly because I don’t use IG for business, only personal use. But if I were using IG I’d go the route of making my own page with Thrive vs. spending for a 3rd party tool. If you aren’t comfortable creating your own landing pages – by all means use one of the apps!]

Three: Make It Easy for Your List to Share with Friends

Be sure there’s a signup link in the newsletter itself – great for if a member of your email community forwards your email to a friend.

Why not also use that as a CTA (call-to-action) in your next email – ASK your people to forward a great email from you to a pal who would be interested.

Bonus related tip from your email software:

Use the archive feature in your email marketing software to share the page for a sample issue of your regular, newsletter-style emails (like when I send a #ThursdayTips with the area for Tech-Tools-To Read). There should be a link on that page to your sign-up form in your email software.

Another Bonus Tip:

If your friends or colleagues are part of your ideal client audience, have you invited them to your list yet? Use the app for your email marketing software or their tools for gathering contacts legally, offline, and ask the next time you see them. Or forward them one of your great newsletters – that has that link to sign up – and ask them to join. OR … send them to your free gift page and ask them to sign up that way. Make it easy!

Four: Putting Your Link in All Your Videos

Do you mention how to join your email list on all your social media videos, live chats, or YouTube videos? Is the URL to your best-converting landing page in the description of each video on YouTube? Don’t forget that the world’s second largest search engine … is YouTube!

Use simple video editing software to add in a graphic during your video or at least at the end of your video with a call to action to get your free gift and show the URL. Make it short and easy to remember.

My preferred video editing software is Filmora – it’s pretty easy and intuitive to use and has lots of goodies built in (like title graphics, lower thirds, music, etc). But you can do simple edits with the Video editor built-in to Windows and even YouTube has a simple editor.

Did you know I make simple animated intro/outro video clips for clients? I just made a simple outro animation to go at the end of all videos and remind viewers to Like-Comment-Subscribe AND it has a link to an evergreen free offer for my client. Contact me to learn more!

Here’s a still from an outro I use in videos to remind people to join my Mighty Marketing Mojo Facebook Group. I have others with my blog, landing pages, or other CTAs.

Outro – at end of videos with call-to-action to join Facebook Group

Five: Your Most Visited Pages

Look at your website analytics – what are your most visited pages? I’ll bet that over a year or more, your About page, services page, the category pages for blog posts, your resources or recommendations page – all get a ton of the percent of traffic on your site. Do you have attractive, attention-grabbing, and relevant opt-in forms on each of those pages to connect and convert those visitors to members of your email list?

While you’re working on opt-in forms on your website – if you want to check out 3^rd-party opt-in form tools (this means NOT the kinda ugly forms built-in to AWeber, ActiveCampaign, MailChimp etc) – 2 of the stand-alone tools I have tested and recommend are: Sumo and OptinMonster. Sumo has a Free Forever plan worth checking. OptinMonster is super robust, but plans start at $9/mo.

My preferred tool that I’ve paid for happily for years is ThriveLeads and its part of the great set of tools in ThriveSuite. You get access to all their conversion-minded tools and plugins in ThriveSuite. I personally like the analytics and color-coded dashboard that shows me how each opt-in form or lightbox is doing. But ThriveSuite is way more than just an opt-in tool and it might not be right for every biz owner.

I know these tips can seem basic, but every bit helps. And we shouldn’t forget about the easy, very nearly set-n-forget ways we can build our communities while we’re off doing other great things in the world.

June 17, 2021
How Anyone Can Mind Map to Brainstorm for Content Creation
Let’s use Mind Mapping to Brainstorm and Organize Ideas for Content Creation

Business owners frequently create content to bring visibility to products, courses, or services. We can have a lot of great ideas rattling around in our heads. How do we organize those thoughts? How can we have more strategic – i.e. connected – marketing by tying our blog posts, Tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram stories, and videos together more powerfully? And how can we more clearly see ways to reuse, and repurpose our content? One suggestion – use the tools and techniques of mind mapping for your content creation and organization.

If you haven’t tried mind mapping, here’s a short introduction to get you started plus some basic tools to help you unleash your creative brainpower in a method that fits you. Also check out an earlier post I wrote on brainstorming content and using your mind maps.

Why Mind Map For Content Creation?

Mind maps can be used for organizing information, creating plans, goal setting, or certainly for idea generation for writing and research. A survey from the Mind Map Software blog (there’s a blog for everything!) found that mapping software can increase pace of work, boost creativity, and free up more time. Sounds like reasons to give it a try!

Mind maps have distinctive characteristics that them better and more useful than traditional organizational tools. They are great for visual thinkers and learners (and we all tend to pick up info quicker visually vs. all text), for creative thinking and getting out of your ‘normal’ routines. Lots of people don’t think in a linear way, so the graphic, relational method of a mind map works better for them.

Brainstorming via a mind map encourages free association and a judgment-free zone. All ideas are valid, put them on the map and decide later if they fit or are good for your project. If you come up with a lot of ideas unrelated to your original creative session or theme, start a new, separate mind map and work on it later. Or if your map starts getting complicated and unruly, cut one or more sections of the map out and save them as new maps.

How to Mind Map – the basics

Start from the Center – Start with one specific topic

Mind maps explore a central theme, idea, topic or question – something that’s fodder to build off of – and branch or build out from the center.

Put the central idea in the literal center of your map (on paper, whiteboard, an app, XMind, PowerPoint, etc). Put other ideas and thoughts as spokes or sub-circles off the main, and each of those can spring new links, spokes, circles – whatever is related to the idea you’re noodling on.

Emphasis on Relationships or Connections –

A mind map helps you see at a glance how elements of the map (or central theme) are related. The links or relationships don’t have to be exact or strong, just what comes to you.

Start with writing down at least 5 subtopics related to your center/core topic or question.

For instance
1. Define your topic
2. Benefits of your topic
3. Best practices of your topic
4. Top tools for your topic
5. How can you make your topic easier/better/faster
Keep It Simple

Single words or concepts are better than complex or bundled items. As you keep branching out and creating more connected bubbles and lines, use as little text as possible

Feel free to use colors, symbols, pictures, doodles (most of the software tools will let you add images, graphs, other files, color coding). Just don’t go overboard with your color-coding. It still needs to make sense at a glance.

If you don’t know where to put an idea, let it ‘float’ until you see its connections. That’s an advantage to mapping with Post-Its or mind mapping software – ideas can hang out until you see the connections.

Ask Questions to Guide Your Mapping

Use the classic 5-W’s (who, what, where, when, why + how) to stimulate your brainstorming.

Or you could map out Pros vs Cons, of a tool, app, product or service.

Or think of the different perspectives on your topic, a different angle you could take to approach it, even the different content formats that could explain your topic. There’s always more than one way to look at something.

The Question approach is especially good for mapping articles, blog posts, how-to instructions, or research-driven content pieces. You could mind map your next webinar or video as well!

For example:
- - WHO is the video for
  - WHERE you will film it
  - WHAT are you teaching/explaining or promoting
  - WHAT are the benefits of the concept you’re teaching/explaining
  - WHY is this video or webinar important for your audience.
Mind Maps Are Fluid

They can easily be changed, edited, added to. Don’t stop, don’t think, just do. Just keep adding, spiking out.

If you do get hung up on 1 word or idea, leave it and move to something else. If one branch starts to get a little long or veers off target from the central theme – no problem, snip it and turn it into a new map.

Collaborative Tool

Mind maps can be generated as part of a team or group exercise (physically or virtually, in real time or with members contributing as they can). It’s easy for every member to add an idea or relationship and contribute to the whole. Most of the mind mapping software allows for sharing, shared editing, and collaboration.

Using Mind Maps in Content Creation – Especially Blog Posts

From Darren Rowse of ProBlogger is this good, though older, post on using mind mapping for writing and blogging. His main points –
- Don’t get hung up on technology or technique – just write or draw and let ideas circulate and flow. You can use paper, a whiteboard, or a cool app, but use what’s easiest to get ideas going and keep them going.
- Use it to extend your existing ideas and writing – take your most recent posts (or videos, articles, podcasts – whatever your content format fave is) and spend just a few minutes (seriously, set a timer for 5 min) on each one, thinking of ways to take that idea further. Questions you didn’t answer, questions that came later, the opposing view, a commentary on the topic, more details on ‘how-to’, a case study or example, a link round-up, a visual way to describe X, etc.
- Expand again – Take one of the good ideas you came up, circle it, set the timer for 5 more minutes and think about how to expand all over again! Start creating more little ‘child’ circles, bubbles, boxes or whatever. You’ve got the creative juices flowing, so use them!
More tips on using mind maps for content marketing comes from the mapping software iMindQ – I particularly appreciate their recommendations to include the content formats and types in your maps. For example, looking at how a specific topic or question could be a video, an infographic, an ebook, a paid webinar, an email series, etc.

Tools For Mind Mapping
- Whiteboard and dry erase markers
- Go even more ‘old-school’ with blank paper and colored pens or pencils. Elements can be added and erased easily.
- Post-Its and a large table or blank wall – because they can easily be moved or rearranged as new ideas and relationships form. Get several colors of Post-Its.
- PowerPoint – use the SmartDraw feature, or add the flowchart or shape elements plus lines and arrows.
- XMind – Free to download (I use this one – and it opens nearly all other mind maps from other software)
- Mind Meister – completely cloud-based tool with easy-to-use interface where you can easily add videos, images, files, links or more. You can share a map privately, publicly with all other Meister users, or grab the embed code to put on your own website [free plan has 3 maps, then $5/mo] I created a new free account and got started creating the sample map below in less than 5 minutes.
- Milanote – like a cross between Pinterest, Trello, and mind-mapping software [Free for 100 notes, images or links; pro plan w/ unlimited storage $10/mo]
- Lucid Chart – project management, data visualization, flowcharts, process maps – another one that looks like a cross between Trello and some other software
- Freemind
- Mind Maple
- Bubbl.us
Your browser is not able to display frames. Please visit <a href="https://www.mindmeister.com/1638129319/email-marketing-sample-map?t=PsKa1CWrxW" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Email Marketing Sample Map</a> on MindMeister.

Email Marketing Sample Map by Jennifer Burke

There are many other free and paid mind mapping apps or software offerings to check out. The ones above are just some of the most popular. Search also for “concept mapping” software or apps, and you may even test out the infographic design tools like Venngage or Easel.ly. Some of the options that come up in searches for ‘mind mapping’ do a lot more and seem like hybrid tools and not as much like the older bubble trees.

Do some searching, check out the interfaces, look at other options and try a few to see which ones are intuitive for you to use. If you can’t or won’t use it, it’s not a very useful tool!

More Resources and Examples on Using Mind Maps for Idea Generation

Venngage (an infographic, visual ideas design tool but not mind mapping software per se) has a set of templates on basic mind maps that could inspire you. You need to create a free Venngage account to use templates (some are free, some require a paid account)

9 Wildly Useful Blog Mind Maps (from MindMeister)

How to brainstorm a project plan using mind mapping

16 powerful ways to brainstorm with mind maps

Test out some mind mapping tools, starting with pen and paper, and see if it helps you the next time you’re feeling a bit stuck. Use one to map out your whole blog, or your posts for the next quarter. Create a mind map for your next course, program, seminar or webinar. Try mapping out your marketing and promotion strategy for the next quarter too.

See where this creative, visual technique takes you and your content creation this year!

[Post updated September 2020]
September 30, 2020