Did I get your attention? Are you looking to make some money from your business while you sleep at night? Now, I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that it will just happen overnight, because it won’t. It takes some consistency and some build up, but it is completely possible to send an email to your customers, and make money from it. I did it, and in the off season of our nursery business, with no inventory on hand.

Let me explain.

The back story

I have been using email marketing in my retail nursery business for 2 years. It started with me knowing I needed to start a list, but having no clue where to start. I hired someone to help me get set up with templates and a brand board using the free email service Mailchimp. I collected email addresses of a few people that signed up on line, but I wasn’t really committed to growing it. To be honest, I was a little embarassed about asking people for their email address because I didn’t want them to think I was annoying or spammy (is this you? if so, let’s talk.) Well, they could sense that, and when I would ask, my uncomfortableness wasn’t very attractive, and they weren’t that excited about signing up.

Later I hired another person to help me understand email marketing and she set me up with Activecampaign, another email provider, and some templates and a welcome sequence. A welcome sequence is a series of emails that gets sent out to a person joining your list. It helps to introduce yourself, your business, and what you have to offer them, and invite them in to your world a little more. Having that welcome series set up and automatic made it easy for people to learn more about our business without me having to do much other than get them signed up on our list.  After getting signed up for Activecampaign, I decided to commit to emailing our list once a week (every Thursday morning). I used Activecampaign to reach out to our list for over a year, but as our list grew, it started to get more and more expensive (like $600 a year-yikes). I decided to switch to Flodesk, which is $19/month for life. I love that the cost will never go up no matter how many subscribers I have. 

So last November, I started emailing our list once a week (still every Thursday) using Flodesk. It makes sending email so easy and actually enjoyable. I used to put off the task of emailing our list (I knew it was important, but I didn’t love it) to now really looking forward to sending out those emails. And the people receiving them can tell.

You might be thinking, oh sure, that’s fine and dandy,but what the heck do I say?

In my weekly email I start by catching people up on what’s happening at the nursery. I usually share one photo of our family or of the nursery. Then I provide some kind of inspiration: a photo from a customer, a blooming flower or plant, or something from the internet I found helpful. Then I share the blog post that I have written for the week. And finally, if I have an offer (something to sell) I put that at the end. 

So for 2+ years, I have consistently shown up in my customer’s email inbox. I started to get more comfortable asking for email addresses as I started to get positive feedback from the people receiving them. People were responding to me telling me they love reading them! I couldn’t believe it. I started to view the emails I was sending not as an annoyance for our customer, but as a service to them. Something that contributes positively to their lives. Looking at it that way changed the way I view email marketing forever. It’s a powerful tool, one that I think every business owner, blogger, direct seller, or anyone who has a product or service to sell should use. It’s the most effective way to market, a direct line to your customer and way in to their heart and mind. 

That brings me to how I made $600 from one email, during our off season, when we didn’t have any plants on hand to sell. It was February and I decided to pick five plants that I knew would be top sellers and offer them as a pre-order option. The email went out the first week in March, I put a link to an online shop with five plants. As norma,l I scheduled the email to go out on a Thursday morning and when I woke up, I had made $600 in sales! I have shown up and served for two years and it paid off. Having that validation showed me that showing up for your customers consistently and serving them will come back to you.

I use email marketing as a way to connect with my customer, share behind the scenes of our business, and add value to their life. It went from being something on my to do list that I honestly dreaded, to becoming one of my favorite tasks.

Do you have an email list and are you serving them?