I get a lot of pushback with regards to email marketing. Most of my students don’t use an email autoresponder like MailChimp, Active Campaign, or Infusionsoft in their pet sitting business.

They say, “I don’t want to be pushy. I don’t want to send emails.”

I get that. I used not to like it either, and it made me feel uncomfortable.

Thus, this is why people and business owners should have an email strategy in place in their business. Today, I want to go through different email marketing types you can implement in your pet sitting business.

Have a welcome email.

When you sign up with a new customer, you want to have an email that shows them exactly who you are, easy to follow steps and systems to go through to onboard them to your company.

They will now know who you are, how you do business, what their responsibility is as a customer and your responsibility as the business owner.

I’ve had many welcome emails that I keep making better as time goes on. A welcome email is one of the easiest ones you can start with. Have a welcome email to open your arms and welcome your new customers to your pet-sitting business.

Offer an educational email.

You’re keeping in touch with your customer base, or your customer prospects, to stay top of mind with them so that when they are ready to buy or are willing to schedule service, you’re going to be the first person they think of. You do this by offering value and educating them.

Think of what you can send to your customer prospects and customers that would make them think like, “Wow, that’s an excellent email.”

Think of anything newsworthy in the pet sitting industry. Think about cross-promotions with other pet businesses in your area. Would your customer love a $30 coupon to a local pet store?

You and these businesses can work together and cross-promote, educate, and provide value to the people on your email list.

Think of different, fun ways. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What would my customer find value in? And if I were the customer, what would I like to see in my inbox?

Write promotional emails.

You’re allowed to promote yourself and your business. You are in business to make money.

“Hey, Christmas is coming up. Are you headed out of town for vacation? I would love to take care of your pets. Here’s a pop-up sale we’re doing. Book your summer services now. Pay in full, and you’re going to get $39 off your service order.” So on and so forth.

Don’t be shy about promoting yourself, even with social media.

Create triggered or transactional emails.

You are offering a free download, a free PDF, a free coupon. When a potential client sees those and they say, “Yes, I want that. Here’s my first name and email.” boom, an automation kick in.

You don’t have to go home and say, “Ooo, I have to send this person that asked for this PDF, the PDF when I get home.” It just happens automatically.

Use lead nurturing emails.

When someone does raise their hand and says, “Yes, I want what you have to offer on your website,” you want to have a campaign set up where you are nurturing them.

You are letting them know, “Hey, this is who I am. These are my pet care values. These are the paying points that I help solve for my customers.”

You always want to speak to the benefit and outcomes that your customer prospects will get by choosing your pet-sitting service.

You can easily do this in a well thought out, nurture sequence. Your customer prospects can get, let’s say, four to five emails from you, one a day, and each of those emails is going to help move them along the process to them becoming a paying customer because you’re the only logical choice. That’s what that lead nurture sequence does for you.

Create re-engagement emails.

Often, we have these pet-sitting clients come, sign up, and use us. We don’t hear from them again.

You can do different re-engagement campaigns to offer a big high-value coupon if they book service within the next two weeks.

You could say, “Hey, Christine. I haven’t heard from you in quite some time. Here is a 40% off coupon that you can use towards your next service. If you sign up by…”.

You want to add scarcity, so put a deadline date in, and then that is going to re-engage them. One, to become active on your list because they’re taking action within the email. Your email service provider is going to say, “Okay, this person’s active.” Then, they’re also going to book service, and you want to get them re-engaged with your company. You want to nurture them again, and you want to stay top of mind with them.

That is email marketing 101 in a nutshell. Don’t be fearful about it.

You can check out MailChimp; if you want to get started to test this out on your own. It’s free for the first 2000 subscribers. Then you can choose one of these emails to implement in your business.

Take action, and then really think out an email marketing campaign for your business. Because email marketing works.