Running a small business can feel pretty isolating, can’t it? The long hours, endless decisions, and constant second-guessing—all while flying solo. It’s easy to feel like you’re the only one navigating this wild journey. But here’s a little secret: you don’t have to go it alone! 🙌
Why Small Business Owners Often Feel Isolated
The day-to-day grind of running a business means you’re wearing multiple hats—owner, marketer, customer service, and more. And while it’s rewarding, it can leave you feeling like you’re on an island. The pressure is real. There’s no “team” to bounce ideas off of, no co-workers to share the wins and struggles with, and the weight of every decision falls squarely on your shoulders. This kind of isolation isn’t just frustrating, it can hold you back. But here’s the good news—community can change all that.
Why Community Matters for Small Business Owners
Having a community of like-minded entrepreneurs around you is one of the most powerful resources you can tap into. Not only does it help ease the feeling of isolation, but it gives you a support system to lean on, learn from, and celebrate with!
Feel Connected: It’s amazing what happens when you connect with others who get it. Sharing your journey with fellow small business owners can instantly make you feel less alone and remind you that many others are facing the same challenges.
Get Out of Your Own Head: We’ve all been there—stuck in a loop of second-guessing. Sometimes all you need is someone else’s perspective to find clarity and boost your confidence. A community can be the perfect sounding board for your ideas.
Receive Encouragement and Support: Whether you’re celebrating a win or feeling stuck, having a group of peers who can lift you up or provide feedback is a game-changer. Your community becomes your cheerleaders, mentors, and problem solvers—all rolled into one!
Actionable Ways to Overcome Isolation
Ready to start building a community of your own? Here are a few steps to get you started:
Join Online Communities: Online spaces are great for connecting with other business owners from around the world. (Psst, have you checked out the AWeber Community yet? 😉) Whether you’re looking to chat about marketing strategies or just want to vent about the entrepreneurial rollercoaster, online communities are a goldmine for connection and support.
Attend Local Meetups or Networking Events: Face-to-face interactions can do wonders for fighting isolation. Look for local business meetups or networking events where you can swap stories, learn from others, and maybe even spark some collaborations.
Find Accountability Partners: Having an accountability partner is like having a built-in cheerleader. Find a fellow small business owner and check in regularly to share progress, challenges, and goals. Sometimes just knowing someone is in your corner is all the motivation you need!
Connect with Experts and Mentors: Don’t hesitate to reach out to industry experts or mentors for advice. Webinars, online coaching, and even quick chats with seasoned professionals can open up new perspectives you may not have considered.
Introducing the AWeber Community
If you’re feeling isolated, stuck, or just need a little extra support on your small business journey, we’ve got the perfect solution—introducing the AWeber Community! 🎉
We designed this space for small business owners like you to connect, learn, and grow together. Inside, you can:
Gain inspiration from fellow entrepreneurs and hear about their real-world experiences.
Learn from marketing experts to help take your email campaigns to the next level.
Ask questions, share ideas, and find support for all the unique challenges you face as a small business owner.
Get involved in shaping the future of AWeber with feedback that we value and listen to!
Don’t Go It Alone—Join the AWeber Community Today!
Your next big idea could be just one conversation away. So, why wait? Jump in and be part of a community of small business owners who are passionate, driven, and ready to help each other succeed. 🚀
Our Amazing Customer Solutions Team
And don’t forget, our in-house Customer Solutions team is here for you! Whether you need help setting up your next campaign, optimizing your email strategy, or just have a quick question, our team is ready to support you every step of the way. Reach out via live chat, phone support, or email—whichever suits you best!
What are you waiting for? Let’s build something amazing together!
For anyone looking to streamline their email marketing experience, simplicity and speed can mean everything. Now, there’s a new way to get started and stay connected, without the fuss of traditional sign-up and login steps. Introducing Google One Tap, a more direct path to accessing AWeber and unleashing the full potential of your marketing campaigns.
What Is Google One Tap?
Google One Tap puts an end to juggling multiple passwords, waiting for verification emails, and filling out lengthy forms. Whether creating a brand-new account or logging back in, a single tap grants immediate access using your trusted Google credentials.
How Does It Help You?
Faster onboarding for new customers: Instead of wrestling with email confirmations or password requirements, you’ll move directly into exploring features that help grow and engage your audience. This means no downtime between deciding to start and actually rolling up your sleeves to create and send compelling content.
Quicker login for existing customers: For existing users with an email address matching your Google email, logging back in can be done in a blink. If memory lapses around passwords have ever slowed you down, those days are over. A simple tap reconnects you with the tools and insights you rely on, so you can immediately focus on building relationships with subscribers.
Where to Find It
Google One Tap is now in place throughout the new account creation experience, as well as on login pages. Whether you’re new or returning, there’s no need to search. Just look for the prompt to sign in or sign up with Google.
Reduced Setup Time, More Immediate Value
The less time spent wrestling with accounts and credentials, the more time that can be dedicated to understanding your audience, crafting targeted messages, and analyzing performance. By eliminating steps, Google One Tap helps ensure every click you make counts.
Security You Can Trust
This streamlined approach leverages Google’s secure authentication protocols, providing both convenience and peace of mind. Gain quick access while keeping your data protected.
Get Started Instantly
See just how easy it is. With Google One Tap, you’re only one step away from managing, growing, and optimizing your email marketing—starting now.
Keyboard shortcuts have become ubiquitous. They are indispensable tools that help everyone navigate their digital environments with speed and ease. Now you can use one more keyboard shortcut to add some personality and fun to your AWeber emails and landing pages with ease: introducing the inline emoji-picker.
Simply type ‘:’ and begin your search, the inline picker will refine based on your text. Choose your emoji and that’s it, it’s that easy!
Here’s how we’ve incorporated even more keyboard shortcuts throughout the AWeber platform to help you seriously speed up your workflow:
🗺️ Navigation Shortcuts
You can navigate to different pages and features in your AWeber account using super handy keyboard shortcuts. Need to start creating a message? Hit “Shift + M”. Want to head to Reports to check the stats on your most recent email? Simply Hit “R”!
Here’s a super handy Cheat Sheet you can print out and keep by your computer.
✨ The Slash Menu
Type “/” on any new line in our Message Editor to quickly add new elements or to write with AI. Navigate up and down the menu with your arrow keys and hit Enter to make your selection. This handy shortcut can seriously speed up your creation process.
💇 Styling Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are an effective way to style your message as you see fit without having to click extra buttons. The shortcuts used will vary depending on if you’re using a Mac or Windows device.
💅 Markdown Keyboard Shortcuts
Want to take your text formatting and styling to the next level? Say hello to Markdown. Markdown is a text-to-HTML language used for quickly formatting and styling text. Type a hashtag to get an H1 or two hashtags for an H2. Need a blockquote? Type a right angle bracket (>).
Check out some of the other things you can do with Markdown in action below ⬇️
Getting used to keyboard shortcuts takes a bit of practice, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Start by learning a few essential shortcuts that you use frequently, like Ctrl + C for copy, Ctrl + V for paste, and Ctrl + S for save.
Sound familiar? Of course it does. It’s one of the top reasons our customers give us for letting their email marketing flatline. They just run out of ideas or topics to write about.
Even pro writers come up with major email block. Ann Handley, co-founder of Marketing Profs and the popular book “Everybody Writes,” only sent two emails to her subscribers in 2017. (In fact, the lack of communication was her catalyst behind revamping her entire newsletter strategy.)
But when your emails stall, you can’t make connections with your subscribers. You can’t sell. You can’t gather feedback from your audience. You’re leaving money on the table!
Never waste time trying to think of a topic when you should be writing. Here are 8 brainstorming techniques that will help you create a list of topics for future emails.
Quick Notes on Brainstorming
First things first: Let’s go over a few quick notes re: brainstorming.
Coming up with ideas for your content is serious, but don’t get too caught up on producing the perfect idea right away. If you’re too critical, you won’t get anything written down. You never know what a random word now could make you think of later. Keep a positive mindset and be open to any and all ideas.
Don’t worry too much about following the rules. Brainstorming is all about creativity and finding whatever method works best for you. While one person might do well with a structured brainstorming process, another might thrive with a loose, free-flowing idea session.
The important thing to remember about brainstorming ideas for your email campaigns is that you’ll want to stay open-minded throughout your process . . . regardless of what that looks like.
Next, let’s start looking at a few specific brainstorming techniques you can try in order to get the ideas flowing.
Brainstorming Techniques for Stellar Email Ideas
Before we jump in, let’s talk about AI (I know, I know). Copywriter extraordinaire Eddie Shleyner said, “AI may eventually replace some writing. But it cannot replace writers, people, everything we know and feel and emote.”
I agree.
I don’t think AI will replace the human touch any time soon, but it can be a super valuable unblocker. Our AI Writing Assistant, built directly into the AWeber message editor, can be a great brainstorming resource when you’re stuck on what to write about, a new word to describe something, or how to hit the tone you’re looking for.
Check it out and keep it in your brainstorming arsenal so you can get back to what you love faster.
Okay, on to the techniques.
Brainstorming Technique #1: Word Association
Start with one or two words related to a broad topic, and write down anything they make you think of. Let your inner editor rest for a bit and just jot down whatever ideas and words come to mind. If you need help, try a tool like Visuwords to get the process going.
Don’t overthink things or worry about explaining how the words are related (at least right now.) Instead, let the ideas flow and see what interesting concepts naturally arise.
This is a similar concept to the word association technique. Start with a word in the middle and draw lines outward to the ideas that word sparks. Mapping helps you visually process your ideas and decide which ones are the strongest.
If we can figure out how things are connected, sometimes we can borrow solutions or ideas from another field to solve our own problems. Look for parallels around the issues you’re facing in different areas — like your personal life or at work.
For example: Did you recently overcome a challenge at work that taught you a lesson or provided some new perspective on an issue? How can you share that experience as a story that may help your audience with their biggest pain point? You might have come to a solution that would make for a brilliant email campaign.
Brainstorming Technique #4: Blind Writing
Just. Don’t. Stop.
You don’t need a plan of attack or an outline for this — just put words on a blank page, no matter what they are. You never know what will spark an idea, and writing anything is the first step to writing something good.
Set a timer and challenge yourself to keep writing for however long you want. You may be surprised how much you can get down on paper in a short window of time.
Brainstorming Technique #5: Challenger
Make a list of your assumptions (about your customers, your content, your format, etc.) and then challenge them one by one. You might think you already know the best way to do something, but we don’t make progress by never questioning things.
This is also why split testing emails is so important. You may think one subject line will perform better over another, but without testing, you never truly know.
Create a table to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to your current approach to email content. This helps you see your process in a more analytic way and logically decide if there is a more effective way to write, share, and educate.
As you complete your SWOT analysis, be sure to see what your main competitors are doing and make notes on how you may (or may not) be measuring up with your current approach.
Conversations with your subscribers can lead to a treasure trove of email ideas. Ask your subscribers questions and try to find out as much information about them as possible. What do they actually want or need from you? What are their biggest obstacles, goals, or main pain points?
Your subscribers’ feedback will be immensely valuable to your business. You can use it to write your next email, and other types of content like blog posts, videos, and social media posts. You can also take it a step further by using the feedback to correctly position your product, inspire loyalty, and/or develop all-new products.
Brainstorming Technique #8: Start with the Subject Line
Set a timer for 5 minutes. Then, come up with a list of subject line ideas that you would absolutely open if they hit your inbox.
Ask yourself questions like:
What’s the key point in this email that a subscriber would be eager to know more about?
Did I write about something in the email that would surprise the reader?
What do readers need to know right now?
The subject lines you write may even spark some all-new content ideas.
Consistently sending emails is a wonderful way to keep subscribers engaged, but try not to forget that no one wants to open an email that doesn’t actually have any new or useful information. Having a constant supply of fresh email ideas keeps you from getting marked as spam and sent to the junk mailbox, never to be opened again.
On a regular basis, brainstorm new topics through these different approaches and keep a swipe file of your best and brightest ideas. You’ll never hit a bottleneck in ideas for email campaigns again.
Ready to start sending killer emails to your list? Then sign up for AWeber Free today!
I’m gonna take things way back. During my senior year of high school, I served as the entertainment editor for our school magazine. For my fellow Gilmore Girls fans out there, I felt like Rory writing and editing for her school’s newspaper, The Franklin (minus the uniforms and a character like Paris out to make my life miserable).
Unfortunately, in my very first issue, I learned an incredibly important lesson the super hard way. 🫠
I designed the entertainment page, which incorporated several images of movies and TV shows that we reviewed that month. I was so happy with how everything turned out—but that happiness turned into utter dismay when we received our copies from the printer. All of the images on the entertainment page were missing.
I rushed to check my InDesign file. Sure enough, I had neglected to embed the images before sending it to the printer. The page looked incomplete and unprofessional, with tiny image icons and alt text where so many awesome images should have been.
This experience is similar to what happens when images get turned off in emails. Just like how my entertainment page looked incomplete (and, IMO, silly) without its images, your marketing emails can look odd if images don’t load, especially if your email is image heavy, or worse, image only.
🫣 The Problems with Image-Heavy Emails
Loading Issues: Image-heavy emails can take longer to load, especially on mobile devices or slower internet connections, leading to frustrated recipients who may abandon your email before it fully loads.
Accessibility: Many email clients block images by default, which means your message might not be conveyed as intended. Without proper alt text, your recipients might miss out on key information.
Deliverability: Emails that contain a high ratio of images to text are often flagged by spam filters, reducing your chances of reaching the inbox.
🖼️ Best Practices for Using Images in Emails
Balance Content: Ensure a good mix of images and text. This not only makes your email more readable, it also improves deliverability.
Use Alt Text: Always add descriptive alt text to your images. This ensures that your message gets across even if the images don’t load.
Optimize Image Size: Compress your images to reduce loading times without sacrificing quality. This enhances the user experience and keeps your audience engaged. A good rule of thumb is to keep your images under 200KB. In AWeber, we help optimize your images to ensure they will display properly in most mail clients!
Why AWeber’s Templates are the Perfect Solution
We understand the importance of balancing visual appeal with functionality. Our email templates are designed to provide a harmonious mix of images and text, ensuring your emails are not only beautiful but also effective and accessible.
Creating an automated email campaign can seem daunting. You have to consider multiple factors that can make or break your conversions. At the same time, you have to do this while balancing your customers’ needs. Then there’s the need to ensure your automated email series addresses every stage of the buyer’s journey.
To make the process easier, we’ve put together this guide. Follow these email automation workflow best practices for optimal results.:
6 email automation best practices to follow
Ready to jump on the email automation bandwagon? Follow these six email automation best practices to reach your subscribers with the right emails at the right time:
1. Set goals and map your automated workflow
Setting up an automated email workflow is pointless if you don’t know what you want to achieve. Think about it. How else will you gauge the effectiveness of your automated email sequences without marketing goals?
Your goals determine the type of automation workflows you set up. For example, an email sequence whose goal is to drive sales will look different when compared to one that exists to onboard new customers.
Here are other automated email workflow goals you might have:
To inform or educate
To reduce cart abandonment
To promote an event
To win back subscribers
To ensure the best results, your automated workflows and goals should align with every stage of the customer journey. That’s why creating a customer journey map helps. Think of the customer journey map as a visual representation of the stages your customer goes through when interacting with your brand. Essentially, it allows you to visualize your customer’s specific points of interaction with your brand at every stage.
The main benefit of this email automation strategy is that it can boost your customer retention rates. When you combine goals with a customer journey map, you can deliver timely messages that resonate with your customers.
Additionally, when you analyze your automation workflows against goals, you can identify the factors that impede desirable user behavior. This can help you finetune your email workflows and help customers progress through their journeys.
2. Trigger emails on customer behavior
When creating a sequence of emails, automate them to send based on specific customer actions and inactions.
Behavioral triggers refer to email sequences that activate in response to the recipient’s actions. Common behaviors that can fire off such email workflows include:
Meanwhile, time-based triggers occur in response to inaction. For example, you can set up an email sequence that triggers after a user has been inactive for a specified period. The content, calls to action, and aim of each of the individual emails in the sequence will be to win back the customer.
Triggered emails are essential because they let you speak to the customer at specific points in their journey. That helps enhance the customer experience.
Additionally, trigger emails target specific customer journey stages. So, they essentially lead customers toward taking a desired action.
3. Incorporate follow-ups in the automated campaigns
Unfortunately, emailing your target audience once won’t be enough to get them to take your desired action. It doesn’t even matter whether they’ve expressed a strong interest in your products or services. Life’s distractions could still steal their focus away and hurt your chances of making a sale or nurturing a lead.
So, incorporate follow-ups into your automated campaigns.
This entails contacting a customer who has stopped progressing through their customer journey. For instance, the customer may have abandoned their shopping cart at checkout or registered for a webinar but failed to attend. Whatever the case, your follow-up email serves to give them a gentle nudge so that they re-engage with your brand.
In the context of automated emails, your follow-up emails should trigger in response to your email recipient’s behavior. Abandoned carts, lead magnet downloads, newsletter subscriptions, free trial signups, and more are all fair game for follow-up emails.
Regarding how often you should follow up with your customers, there’s no clear-cut answer. As a rule of thumb, aim to automatically send follow-up emails a few days after your initial confirmation email. For example, if a customer abandons their shopping cart, you can wait between three days and a week before following up with them.
Meanwhile, if a customer’s behavior reveals that they need time to mull over whether to do business with you, play the long game. Program a longer series of emails with informative content like blog posts and case studies to nurture them until they come around. You can use ready-made AI templates like the one above to speed up the content creation process.
4. Implement hyper-personalization
Hyper-personalization refers to email marketing that leverages insights from historical and real-time customer data and use them to deliver relevant and personalized content. For instance, in hyper-personalization, you’d send a male subscriber this email on the left. A female subscriber would receive the email on the right:
To leverage hyper-personalization in your automated email workflows, gather as much customer data. Collect their demographic information, previous purchases, interests, and browsing trends. For this, use tools such as surveys, preference centers, heat maps, and recording sessions.
Your email marketing efforts can benefit from hyper-personalization in numerous ways. For one, it helps you create email content and personalized messages that resonate with your audience segments. When used with email segmentation, you can create dynamic content based on factors like your audience’s behavior and location.
Also, hyper-personalization is great for customer engagement. It can help you tailor your communications in a manner that’s optimal for higher conversion rates. Thanks to AI-powered automation, you can speak directly to your customer’s needs and pain points at scale.
Finally, hyper-personalization gives you a deeper understanding of your customers. This benefit is significant because it improves your email marketing chances in numerous ways.
Not only will you get better at targeting customers, but you’ll also have the data needed to create a pleasant customer experience. Your customers will deem your emails as a source of valuable content.
5. Maintain consistent branding
When your email subscribers open your automated emails, they should instantly know that the email came from you. Brand recognition is key to business success. Half of consumers say they’d buy from a brand they easily recognize.
To foster this familiarity, maintain consistent branding across your email and web properties.
There are several ways to do it. The easiest method is to place your company logo in the profile picture section of your email account and the email’s header. As the image below shows, SaaS company ClickUp adheres to this best practice:
This email design technique ensures that your logo will be the first visual element your email contacts see when they open your emails. It’s also the lowest-cost method for building brand recognition with your email campaigns.
Another effective method for maintaining brand consistency is to use the same design elements in your email as you do on your website. Incorporate the same fonts and color scheme in your email newsletters. This will prevent your potential customers from being confused when they visit your email and other web properties.
6. Continuously track performance
It’s good practice to continuously track how your automated marketing emails are performing. Tracking performance provides a treasure trove of data you can rely on when planning future campaigns.
One way to track performance is to run A/B tests on the various elements of your emails regularly. Send two sets of emails with different subject lines, layout designs, and call-to-action copy to two sets of audiences. Then, note down which version produces higher email engagement rates.
While doing A/B tests, keeping track of success metrics will help you gauge your campaign’s performance. The key metrics to track include open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
You can analyze the results in your chosen email marketing automation software. Use the metrics to make data-driven decisions related to your workflows as part of your B2C or B2B strategies.
You can also track campaign performance using email funnel conversion analysis.
mail funnel conversion analysis tracks how customers move through your conversion funnel. With it, you can identify bottlenecks that cause subscribers to churn or impede their progress along their journeys. The data you get from this analysis will help you optimize your funnel for conversions.
FAQs
What is an automated email workflow?
An automated email workflow is a series of emails that are automatically triggered and sent based on a subscriber’s specific action. That action can be everything from a link click to a form submission.
Automated workflows can be a powerful tool in your overall email marketing strategy. Not only do they save you precious time. They also help you reach your business goals with minimal intervention.
What are the benefits of email automation?
Email automation workflows provide several benefits. For one, they help you respond to customer behavior appropriately. Also, email automation saves you time. It automates mundane and repetitive workflows (for example, welcoming new customers). Finally, automated workflows drive conversions. They help you personalize email communications and send them to audiences that find them relevant.
What is the best email automation tool?
There are several excellent options on the market, but we can confidently say that AWeber is among the top options. It offers all the features needed for automating email workflows. These include an email builder for design and behavioral automation features. Other great automation tools include HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and GetResponse.
How do I automate my email?
Automating email campaigns is a five-step process. Step one involves choosing email automation software. The second step has to do with determining the goals for your automated campaigns. Your third step is to target and segment your audience. Step four involves deciding on email triggers. The final step involves creating email campaigns and activating them.
An automated email workflow is a series of emails that are automatically triggered and sent based on a subscriber’s specific action. That action can be everything from a link click to a form submission.
Automated workflows can be a powerful tool in your overall email marketing strategy. Not only do they save you precious time. They also help you reach your business goals with minimal intervention.
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In closing
The email automation best practices discussed should get your campaigns off to a flying start. Your email campaigns must incorporate follow-ups to bring disengaged customers back into the fold. Without goals, creating automated workflows will be a pointless endeavor. For best results, make sure to map them to the customer journey during the goal-setting phase.
Meanwhile, hyper-personalization can help you gain actionable insights into your audience and drive customer engagement. Maintain consistent branding across your email, social media accounts, and website. This will ensure brand recognition. Automate trigger emails to ensure content gets sent at the right time and based on pre-specified user actions. Finally, consistently track your campaign performance. It will help you iron out any issues in your future campaigns.
