Just getting started with email marketing as an artist, maker or handmade business?
In this beginner’s guide to email marketing, you’ll learn:
Why email is still worth it for artists and handmade businesses
How to get started with email marketing
Selecting an email marketing platform
The difference between email campaigns and email marketing automations
How often to send marketing emails
3 examples of types of email newsletters you can send
What to include in email newsletters
As a creative small business owner, email marketing is important because it's a marketing channel that YOU own and can control.
Is email marketing still worth it for handmade businesses?
The answer is, plain and simple, YES, email marketing is VERY MUCH worth it for artists, makers and handmade businesses.
With social media, algorithms may change and you don't truly have control of how many people see your posts.
But with email marketing (or SMS text message marketing), you have direct contact with YOUR customers and fans.
Email marketing is a direct line of communication with your customers.
When I work with handmade business owners, I like to introduce them to this framework that I call the Badass Creatives Marketing Pyramid. It's a helpful tool for thinking about what you should be focusing on:
At the bottom of the Marketing Pyramid is your foundation, your brand.
Your brand includes all the things that make your business uniquely yours. It's your products, your art, your creative vision, your brand identity.
It includes the voice and the tone that you use to communicate with your customers, as well as the visual brand like your logo, your colors, your fonts, and your aesthetic.
Your brand also includes your ideal customer and your target audience.
Your brand is your foundation. It's the thing that everything else is built upon.
The middle of the pyramid is your owned marketing channels, including email marketing.
Your owned marketing channels are all the things that you own and can control in your business.
These are things like your website, search engine optimization, and your email marketing list.
These are things that you have control over.
They are assets that you can continue to grow and build and develop that will continue to bring profit and revenue.
And at the top of the pyramid, we have 3rd party marketing channels.
Third party is just what it sounds like: it's another person or entity.
Third party is also valuable, but it's at the top of the pyramid for a reason.
Third party includes things like social media platforms, paid ads, working with influencers, getting press and publicity for your business.
One of the mistakes that I see a lot of small business owners and handmade businesses make is that they start a business and they know that they need to market it. They're familiar with social media from using it as an individual user. And so they immediately gravitate towards social media as their primary marketing tools. But they neglect to build the foundation of their pyramid.
Focus on creating a strong brand and getting your owned marketing channels in place, including your website and your email marketing.
How to get started with email marketing, with Klaviyo expert Holly Marsh
In this video, I talked with my friend & Klaviyo ecommerce email marketing expert Holly Marsh about some essential tips for getting started with email marketing.
Holly Marsh is the founder of Ecommerce Arcade, where you can level up your ecommerce game with strategy, design, and heart.
She specializes in the Shopify ecommerce platform, as well as Klaviyo for ecommerce email marketing. She is an illustrator and branding designer, and has a decade of experience selling products online and in-person.
Holly told me, "One thing that I hear from clients all the time is they all wish (myself included) that they started collecting emails way sooner."
If you haven't started collecting the email addresses of your customers and fans, that's okay!
Don't beat yourself up over it, but start collecting email addresses as soon as possible.
You can keep this very simple.
If you sell at craft shows, you can simply bring a notebook and have customers write their name and email address in the book and then enter it into your email marketing software when you get home. (This is actually what I did throughout my decade-long craft show career!)
Holly actually tested this a few years ago when she ran her handmade business, Marshmueller.
She told me, "I was doing craft shows pretty regularly and I did an experiment of how many emails can I get via an iPad at a craft show versus an old-fashioned clipboard and pen? Hands down, the clipboard + pen and paper won out. People like that tactile response to writing their name, which means that sometimes, yes, you have to interpret handwriting, but they like that experience better than typing on an iPad."
That's just proof that you can make these things simple.
They don't have to always be overly complicated and overly tech-y if that doesn't feel good for you.
Do what makes sense for YOU and your business.
Which email marketing service is the best for small business?
The next thing to do is select an email marketing platform.
Holly's go-to email marketing software is Klaviyo because she specializes in ecommerce and that's what Klaviyo is built for. It integrates very well with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Wix and Magento.
However, if Klaviyo feels overwhelming to you, our suggestion is to pick whichever one feels easiest to you and that you will actually use.
Holly told me, "I do encourage people to use Klaviyo but at the same time though, I had a student in a group that I was presenting to... She said 'I've been in Klaviyo, I don't get it,' and she just seemed really frustrated. But there was another platform that she had used and was comfortable with. I said just stick with that one then if it causes you to actually send out those emails and to use that tool. There's no wrong tool."
I've used lots of email marketing platforms over the years, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution.
Like most software, different email marketing tools have different price points and different pros and cons.
Some email marketing platforms that are frequently used by artists and small businesses include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Mailerlite. I've used all of these at various stages and for different reasons.
Here’s a good article comparing some of the options popular with ecommerce businesses.
Start with a tool that feels simple and easy to use.
As you get bigger and your needs change, you could always move to something like Klaviyo with a Shopify website if that makes sense for your creative business.
Email campaigns and email marketing automations
One thing Holly and I discussed was the difference between email campaigns and email marketing automations.
Email campaigns are basically when you send an email that will be sent to your subscribers once. A monthly email newsletter could be an example of this, or a 1-time email you send to promote your Black Friday sale would also be an email campaign.
Email automations are something that you set up once, and they automatically send emails to your customers.
Some popular types of email automations for ecommerce businesses are:
Welcome email or welcome series
Browse abandonment emails
Abandoned cart emails
As Holly explained, a welcome automation is triggered when someone signs up for your email list, and then they get to know you through one or more friendly email messages.
When Holly works with clients on setting up their Klaviyo email marketing, she also sets up browse abandonment and abandoned cart email automations.
She says, "Browse abandonment is kind of like as if your store online is a brick and mortar, and you're saying 'Hello!' as someone walks through the door. It's just a friendly way to say hello to someone who is already familiar with your business. The next one is abandoned cart. Here, we've almost got them to the finish line of converting on your site. Abandoned cart really helps people focus in a very busy internet world."
Browse abandonment emails and abandoned cart emails are helpful ways to nudge people who were already interested in your products and remind them what they were looking at.
Think about it... our lives are busy and full of interruptions.
What if you're about to grab your wallet and buy those cute shoes, but you're suddenly interrupted by your child or spouse?
As Holly says, "I have ADHD and so the internet is wonderful and also terrible at the the same time. Any sort of browse abandonment or abandoned cart is a really lovely thing for me to be like, 'Oh that's right! I was trying to buy Mother's and Father's Day cards and I got distracted!' That's one of the beautiful things about using Shopify and Klaviyo together, is that sort of stuff is really just baked in."
How often should I send marketing emails?
As an artist or creative business owner, you have a LOT on your plate.
It's important to send emails regularly to your audience, so that your customers remember who you are and why they signed up for your list.
That said, pick a sending schedule that works for YOU and your business.
I typically recommend sending an email campaign at least once a month, but if you are super busy and that feels unmanageable, try to send something at least once a quarter or every 3 months.
If you get into the groove, a weekly email also works well for many creatives.
I also suggest developing a template for your email campaigns to make it easier. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time!
3 types of email campaigns or email newsletters you can send
In this video, I show some examples of emails sent by some of my favorite artists & creatives to give you ideas of 3 different types of email marketing messages you can send:
This video was actually inspired by a student in one of my Skillshare classes.
Emily asked, "What are some of the loveliest, most creative ways to make sure that people really feel like they're being brought into your community, rather than just being broadcast to? Do you send newsletters (maybe weekly or monthly)?"
I grouped these into 3 different types of emails that I’ve seen many artists, makers and creatives have success with, but you can also mix & match some of these formats together to find what works best for you.
The first type is weekly inspiration roundups.
This is a format I’ve seen a lot of creatives have success with.
It doesn’t have to be weekly if that feels too much for you.
You could use this style and send on a different schedule, but for creatives like Austin Kleon and Justin Shiels, I’ve seen these weekly emails work really well.
Austin Kleon is a writer & artist who’s been using the format for a long time. He’s the author of books like Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work.
Each Friday he sends out a list of 10 things he’s been reading about, learning about, or interested in.
Justin Shiels is a friend of mine and an incredibly talented illustrator, artist, and author of The Reset Workbook: A Guide to Finding Your Inner Magic.
He has a lovely weekly inspiration email called The Weekly Reset, which features his original illustrations, inspirational messages and pep talks, and a curated list of recommendations and what he’s interested in.
I did a version of this type of email for a long time with my former business.
I’d do an intro section that was focused on something current I wanted to promote or talk about, but in each email, I’d include a "5 things" section: a list of 5 recommendations or links or things I was reading or interested in that I thought my audience would appreciate, too.
The second format of emails that is super popular with artists & makers as well as many ecommerce businesses is product-focused, image heavy emails.
If you don’t consider yourself a writer, are more a visual person, or just want to keep the focus on your products themselves, you can totally lean into using images with maybe a little bit of descriptive text.
You can basically treat your emails like mini ecommerce sites!
My friend Kelsey, founder of Fringe & Company does this. Her background is photography, so rather than writing text-heavy emails, she really leans into her strengths and sends out emails that are photography focused.
The third format that works for certain types of creatives is emails that resemble long-form letters, as if written to a friend.
If the written word is where your creative strength lies, this one could be for you!
A few years back on the Badass Creatives podcast, I interviewed a few of my favorite folks who use this format for their email marketing: Alexandra Franzen and Monique Malcolm.
Alexandra Franzen is a best-selling author, award-winning editor, and entrepreneur. She's co-founder of a company called Get It Done. I took their program, The Tiny Book Course, a few years ago which helped me write and self-publish my second book, We Are the Weird Ones: Embrace Your Weird for a Kinder, More Inclusive World.
Monique Malcolm is a productivity coach, host of the Take Tiny Action podcast, and author of the book Don't Let Fear Have All The Fun. I love her newsletter, Take Tiny Action Weekly. It's full of inspiration and practical tips to help you make progress in small but meaningful ways, every single week.
Both Alexandra and Monique are writers, so this long form written format lends itself naturally to what they do.
I’ve found that this format works really well for creatives who also focus on providing services rather than selling physical products.
HOWEVER you can mix and match!
My friend Emily of Sweet Olive Soap Works is a cold-process soap maker with a love of New Orleans history, so she combines writing with images of her products.
Jill Bliss is another artist whose emails I love. The way she combines storytelling with images of her artwork and products is delightful.
What should you include in an email newsletter?
One of the best ways to get inspiration for what to include in your emails is to sign up to receive emails from artists or brands that you respect and admire.
Don’t copy directly, but see how what they do can potentially inspire you. Take notes, adapt and make it your own!
You'll also want to think about:
What is the most important information you need to communicate to your audience?
What information is most helpful and valuable to your audience?
If most of the people on your email list met you at a craft show, you might want to include a list of your upcoming craft shows as a regular section of your email newsletter.
You might also want to promote new products, or products that are being discontinued. "Get 'em while they last!"
You could include joyful things that inspire you, like some of the creatives mentioned above.
It all depends on YOUR brand and YOUR audience.
If you want even more ideas for what to include in your emails, download my FREE guide, 100 Marketing Content Ideas for Artists, Makers & Handmade Businesses.
It’s full of ideas to inspire your email campaigns, blog posts and social media marketing efforts.
