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Email marketing tips for small businesses.

Get regular tips that are easy to implement and perfectly suited to solo business owners. Discover the secrets of attracting your ideal leads and turning them into loyal paying clients, using the power of Kit.

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How to set up Kit (formerly ConvertKit) and collect your first email subscribers.

Step #1 of 3: Get your free Kit (formerly ConvertKit) account It starts with an account. If you haven't subscribed to Kit (formerly ConvertKit) yet, head over now and get a free account. When you sign up, you'll automatically get a 14-day free trial after which you can either go for a premium plan, starting at $9/month. Get your free Kit account If you choose the free plan (the 'Newsletter' plan) then you'll be able to collect up to 10,000 subscribers, however, your automations are limited to...
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How I onboard my new subscribers and give the best experience I can, using their data.

How I onboard my new email subscribers in Kit (formerly ConvertKit) In my business, I have several entry points through which email subscribers can arrive on my list - most commonly via a 'lead magnet'. If you're unfamiliar with the term 'lead magnet', essentially, it's something of value you can give your would-be subscribers as an incentive to join your email list in exchange for their name and email address - e.g. "The Email Marketer's Starter Guide" downloadable PDF document is one of...
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Tags, Custom Fields, and Segments - what's the difference?

Tags, Custom Fields, and Segments - what's the difference? It can be confusing when first getting into email marketing. The terms 'tags', 'custom fields' and 'segments' seem to be bandied around, even used (incorrectly) interchangeably. So, in this article, I'm going to explain the differences and when to use each one when designing and building your email marketing system. Tags Think of these as post-it notes that you (digitally) 'stick' on your subscriber. If you've ever seen the promos for...
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How to start collecting subscribers for free with an email course.

The 4-step process of collecting subscribers using an email course Steps: Decide on your course topic and subtopics Craft your content using the email sequence builder in Kit Create a landing page to collect subscriber details Create an automation in Kit to run your system on autopilot 24/7/365 People love a course - providing it delivers on its promise! We all have one in us, no matter what we do in our businesses - yours is no different. An email course can deliver valuable content to your...
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Ten of my clients' questions (and my answers) about ConvertKit.

Client questions and my answers Every month, from several sources, I field questions about ConvertKit. Some are new and never asked (of me) before - and others are regulars that pop up quite often. I thought it would be helpful to share some of these with you so you can benefit from the questions asked, and from the answer I give for each one. The 10 questions are in no particular order, so jump in wherever you like! Do I need a domain to use ConvertKit? Is ConvertKit a CRM too? Is the...
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How to create an email course as your lead magnet, using ConvertKit.

Tutorial: How to create an email course as your lead magnet, using ConvertKit. Firstly, just in case there's any doubt about what I'm referring to as an email course - it's a course that's delivered to your subscribers, via email, using automatically drip-fed content over a predetermined time; e.g. a series of 7 emails, drip-fed to each recipient at a rate of 1 email per day, starting whenever they join your subscriber list. There can be many elements to the content contained in the emails...
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Three reasons why you don't want to miss out on what ConvertKit's doing!

Three reasons why you don't want to miss out on what ConvertKit's doing! Recently, there have been several, what I consider, relatively significant announcements and releases by the ConvertKit team. You get the sense that it's ready to take a seismic leap forward as a marketing platform. I've used many email marketing platforms (or email service providers) over the years, but never have I attached the same degree of affection to one as I do with ConvertKit. It just ticks the boxes when it...
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An image of John Bellingham with his arms folded, next to a title 'How I publish website blog posts directly from my ConvertKit emails.'

How I publish website blog posts directly from my ConvertKit emails.

How I publish website blog posts directly from my ConvertKit emails Step 1: The blog post images The first thing I do when I come up with my blog post idea is create the images that will accompany the post. I do this using Canva. I have a template that doesn't change, apart from the title, so I only need to type in the title and download the new images. I create 2 images for each post; one that's 1920px x 1080px (i.e. the image you can see above) which is used as the feature image on my...
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The 4 core components of my small business and how they generate my income.

The 4 core components of my small business and how they generate my income. #1 Attention Engine In today's online world, 'attention' is the most valuable of currencies. If you're not able to capture the attention of your ideal targets among the passing traffic, you'll struggle. The two places small business owners most commonly seek attention are on social platforms and their websites - and in that regard, I'm no different. LinkedIn and my website I'm active on just one social platform and...
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