Hayley Maisey, our Wizard of Marketing, shares why email marketing remains one of the most powerful, steady and underrated tools available to us self-employed folk.
Do you ever feel like you’re posting on social media into a void?
You craft something thoughtful, relevant and useful. It gets a handful of likes. Maybe a comment. Then it disappears beneath the next wave of content.
This can be exhausting! Social media has its place, but boy, is it getting noisy. And noisy environments are hard places to build meaningful business relationships.
Email Marketing vs Social Media
Social media platforms decide who sees your content. The LinkedIn algorithm shifts. Trends change. Your carefully written post might only reach a small percentage of your followers.
Email is different.
When someone joins your mailing list, they are making a choice. They want to hear more from you and in a more direct way.
Targeted email communication allows you to:
- Speak directly to people who have already shown interest.
- Share deeper insights than you can in a short post.
- Influence readers to complete a specific action.
Trust and credibility matter – that direct line of communication is valuable.
How does building an organic email list strengthen your business?
Growing a mailing list organically takes time.
You might add a few new subscribers each month. It can feel slow compared to the instant visibility of social media. But slower growth is often stronger growth.
An organic list means people have signed up because they value your perspective. They may have downloaded a resource because it helped them. Perhaps met you at an event and wanted to stay connected.
These are warm contacts. They are far more likely to become clients, collaborators or referrers than people who casually follow you online.
A smaller, engaged list is far more powerful than a large list full of people who never open your emails.
Quality over quantity.
Treating your subscribers as the special ones…
If someone gives you their email address, that is an act of trust.
Subscribers should receive everything you share publicly first. That might include:
- Early access to workshops or events
- Behind the scenes reflections
- Personal stories and lessons learned
- Exclusive offers or limited spaces.
Treat your subscribers as your inner circle. Speak to them in a more direct, human way. Invite replies. Encourage conversation.
You can also use one to one emails thoughtfully. A personal follow up to a click, download or event attendance can open doors. It feels considered, not broadcast.
Email subscribers and things to consider
Unsubscribes
Unsubscribes are normal. But they can increase if emails feel irrelevant, overly frequent or too sales focused.
To look after your list:
- Send emails consistently, but not excessively (one a week tops).
- Be clear about what people will receive when they sign up.
- Focus on value before promotion.
- Keep your tone aligned to your blogposts and social posts, but remember this is a different kind of communication.
Keep your list clean
Remove inactive contacts over time. Make sure you have clear consent – get clued up on GDPR. Review your list – are the people on it potential clients, past clients or people who might refer you? (They’re the ones you want.)
A clean, relevant list protects your reputation and improves your results.
Email Marketing: How to get started
If you are new to email marketing, you do not need expensive systems.
You can start with:
- Mailchimp – offers a free plan for smaller lists and has built in writing and automation tools.
- HubSpot – includes free customer relationship management and email marketing features.
- Canva – useful for designing simple, branded graphics or headers.
- ChatGPT – can help with ideation, creating subject lines or structuring your thoughts if you need a starting point.
How can you use Email Marketing to build long term business relationships?
Email marketing is not about quick wins. It is about consistency.
For us, freelancers and self-employed, our work is relational. Clients invest in the person behind the brand as much as the services on offer. Email gives you a space to demonstrate your thinking, share your approach and stay visible (without chasing the algorithm!)
If you want marketing that feels calmer, more focused and more human, building and nurturing a high quality email list is a strong place to start, and integrate into your existing approaches to Marketing.
Within L&D Free Spirits, we often talk about building sustainable businesses, not just busy ones. A well looked after mailing list is one of the quiet foundations that support sustainability.
And sometimes, quieter foundations are exactly what we need.
