Yesterday I went on about how effective email lists are for your business, and today I want to talk about the easiest (and least time-consuming way) to use your list: creating an autoresponder.

An autoreponder is a series of emails that are sent, automagically, to subscribers on a schedule you set. The biggest draw of creating a series like this is that you only have to write it ONCE. And everyone will see it, in the order that you want, forever. Unlike a blog, social media or weekly newsletters, everyone is receiving the information in the same order. And you don’t have to think about it again!

Although these are pretty simple to create (see the tutorials below), I don’t find many of the makers or teachers I work with use them…I’m not quite sure why. We got to talking about this in the Starship, and it sounds like the main block is just figuring out how it would work for you and your business, whether you’re a yarn-maker, a designer, or a writer.

Well, I’ve got some ideas for you! In today’s video (the first lesson in the new mini-class), I explain the benefits and the three different ways you can use ‘em in your business:

Reading this via email? You might have to click through to see the video.

Tutorials on how to add emails to an autoresponder using:

• MailChimp
• Constant Contact

Want to use autoresponders to connect with your customers? Join me on a 5 day exploration!

This video is the first in a series of 4 lessons on using email series in your business. In coming lessons we’ll cover, in detail, each of the ways you can use them, along with examples, and try-this-yourself worksheets. Get the exploration here.

Got questions about using or creating series? Ask me!

PS. Unrelated! See that picture in the frame behind me in the video? That’s a picture of the Starship, commissioned from Amy. You can get art for your business from her!

PPS.Today’s my mother-in-law’s birthday and she sometimes reads the blog. Hi Rhonda! Happy Birthday! I’m sorry your gift will be late, but I promise you’ll get it Friday! xoxo!

Last week I taught a live workshop for a bunch of artists on Social Media for Beginners, and I think I wasn’t quite what they expected. I didn’t start by talking about Twitter, or Facebook or about how to post a status update. I started by talking about a path of connection to your customers.

Because social media, blogs, and even websites are completely pointless unless they are part of a path that brings a potential customer closer and closer to you and your products.

If the only Real Work in your day is to connect or to create, then everything you do to connect…should actually be effective at connecting.  My favorite piece of a path doesn’t actually include social media at all – it’s your email list.

You know, the place where people who want to learn more about your work sign up to get updates or news or stories from you? I’m not talking about cold-calling via emailing, or even subscriptions to your blog. I’m talking about giving interested people a way to connect with you directly, and then sending those people regular messages.
Why is this so effective?

It’s direct. When you send an email to your list, it is going directly to the people who have asked for it. Unlike a blog, where they have to visit you, or social media, where only a few people are online to see it at a time, an email is delivered to them. So you don’t have to hope or wonder if they saw it.

It’s desired. If you clearly explain what they’re signing up for…and then you send them exactly that, your messages are wanted. You never have to worry if the people really want to hear about your new project, of course they do! They signed up to hear about it!

It’s conversational. While it’s easy to lurk on blogs or skim tweets, an email inbox is a place of conversation. We’re used to opening, reading and then responding to the messages we get there. So when you send an email, you can ask questions and expect answers (especially if you ask about them and not you.) And these conversations can guide everything you do – they help you know your real Right Person, they can inform what you make next or suggest where to sell.

It’s foundational. You can start a conversation in today’s email and continue it for three or four weeks (or a whole year!) Using autoresponders, you can create a whole series, so that every new person that signs up, gets the same messages in the same order, ensuring that everyone sees your best work or your introduction or gets to know you before you take the conversation deeper.

I know lots of makers avoid starting (or using) an email list because they think of it as another To Do to add to their week. But what if it wasn’t? What if you could create the content once, have it delivered automagically to every new member, and then not worry about it until you had something new to say? This is why I love autoresponders (an email series sent automatically when someone joins a list or buys a product). Creating content can be as easy as collecting up your best blog posts or chunking up your about page and BAM! You’ve got a tool that introduces new people to your work and starts new conversations, without any extra work from you. It’s a clear and easy step on the customer path that can be automated without losing any of the connection or honesty.

I’ve been getting questions about them from Starship members, so I created a little class about using this tool in your customer path. I’ll be sharing the first video lesson with you here, tomorrow, for free. You can subscribe here to be sure not to miss it.

Do you have an email list as part of your customer path? How do you use it?

There’s a job available, in a town I love, that looks to be tailor-made to my experiences in the crafty-business world. I very seriously thought about applying, (even though it’d be a pay cut from what I make now, doing what I love!) so much that I wrote a friend asking for her perspective. Just writing out all the reasons I was even thinking about going back into office life led me to a big revelation. I don’t want this job, I don’t need any office job.
But what I do miss about job-getting and -having is the validation that comes from being hired. When you work for yourself, there’s no on in “authority” to tell you if you’re doing the right, wrong, or weird thing. There’s no one to choose you, to pick you out of a crowd and tell you are qualified and that all your experience is worth $X.

This leaves the authority in our hands, which can be unsatisfyingly complex. There has yet to be one big moment in my business when I realize that I am right, that I am worthy, that all of my experience has led to this one definition of my role in the world. There have been lots of small moments (signing clients, the book contract, every quarter when the Starship fills up)…but nothing as obvious and life-changing as the just-right job offer can be.

I know I’m not alone in this because earlier today I emailed with a crafter who didn’t get picked as a finalist in a design contest she entered. Contests are another way we ask the outside world, and someone with authority to pick us, to tell the world that our work is worthy. Other authorities we hope to get chosen by: retailers, trade shows, judges, galleries, publishers.

Are you waiting to get picked? Are you hoping for the validation of someone in authority?

Why? What will that bring you, in reality? More work, more writing, more making?

Guess what?

You can do that without anyone else’s permission. You can create, write, make right now, today.

The surprising thing about leading a Starship full of creative entrepreneurs is that every week I get giant reality check. No matter what I think will work for a business, or how well I assume someone is doing during our weekly check-ins I get firsthand stories of what is working, what is not, and what everyone is struggling with. Sometimes, it seems everyone has had an amazing week full of big orders, interviews, and fat accounts. Other weeks, everyone has expensive doctor appointments, sad sales and zero retweets.

In a given week, it can be crushing (or thrilling). I want everyone to be doing well! All the time! But that’s just not realistic. In every business, a little rain must fall. This is the power of regularly checking in with the same businesses – I can see the longer thread of their story. It’s not just this crappy week, but the whole trajectory of how their business has transformed in the last year or more.

With that in mind, I’ve learned there are some things you can do in a bad week to both keep your wits about you, and soften up the hard:

• Take a break from reading how well everyone else is doing. Really, just stop reading it.

• Look for signs from reality. Is this actually, measurably awful or does it feel awful? (It’s totally permitted to feel awful, just don’t let it catastrophize into an unreal business emergency.) Is this problem important or urgent? Being a day late for rent is super annoying, but if you’re just waiting for a client to pay her invoice, and then you’ll have plenty, this is not a huge sign that you suck. Take a deep breath. You’re fine.

• For a real problem, find a quick solution. I’m not a fan of quick-fixes as a long-term plan, but sometimes you need to just get your feet under you. This might be anything from a part-time gig, to a new income stream, to something you’ve never considered.

• If you find yourself in this situation regularly, take a day off to look clearly at your entire business model. How do you get paid? What products do you have available? How easy are they to buy? What is the customer path for each product? Is it obvious? Long?* Map it all out, in detail and find the weak spots. Then make a Next Steps list and get to work.

What do you do during a hard time in your business?

*An example: the customer path for the Starship is long – it takes at least a few months of reading my work, having conversations with me on Twitter, and getting my email lessons to feel comfortable enough to sign up for a whole year working together. Knowing this, I switched to only opening it once every 3 months and I devote myself to helping people come closer throughout those 3 months. This greatly changed my money flow, meaning I have to make other changes in my other income streams. If I didn’t elucidate this for myself, I could tear everything apart trying to “fix” it.

Wow! Tuesday’s post about creating a path of connection really touched on something, prompting emails + tweets from so many of you!

We’re all searching for a rhythm to interacting with our community, one that is sustainable for both sides, one that feels generous and friendly and doable. After spending the first months (or years!) of your business searching desperately to find your people, it take s a conscious shift to move into serving your people –  through your marketing and making – to stop pushing so hard and start looking around and talking with who’s there already.

But take note! Even if you’re in the very beginning stages of finding your People, you still need to think through the customer path, so that every new person who discovers you knows what to do next. This is part of the system you want in place as you begin to reach out to new customers.

Now that we have a path to bring interested readers closer, let’s talk about what happens after they commit to us, after they become a customer. The path doesn’t stop here, at the door of The Purchase, it can keep going deeper and deeper into your community. In other words, each of your products or services can act as a different part of the path – each one can deepen a relationship with your customer.

Like I said before, every path will look different. Even if you sell products online and never interact in the physical space of your customers, you can still create a path. Even if you only do craft shows in person, you can still create a path.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you lay your path

• Make it easy to start on the customer path. Have something available for the taste-tester. If I’m on your newsletter and open all your emails and am a fan of your work — how can I first support you? If you’re an artist – do you have affordable prints (or even notecards?) If you’re a teacher, do you have a book or PDF or email series?For some of your people, this will be the end of the path (even if they love you), but for others this will reassure them that they want to continue on the path with you, into bigger commitments.

• The more time or money commitment required by your product or service, the farther down the path it is. Offer this deeper commitment to people who have already invested in the relationship.

• If you make products, it may seem difficult to come up with further parts of the path. Brainstorm ideas that would either give the buyer more of your products over time, more of your personal time and attention, or a special access to treasured, limited editions.

• Guard your path. It’s easy to think we should offer everything we have to everyone who finds us – but this doesn’t serve you or them. It confuses a first-time buyer (or scares them off), and it throws your precious time into the hands of strangers. Instead, offer your deepest options to those already on the path – past customers, long-time readers, customers-who-have-become friends.

• This isn’t about keeping the wrong people out, this is about keeping your Right People engaged and interested. A clear path helps you and the customer know what to do next.

• Make it obvious. And then even more obvious. Don’t rely on your biggest fans to find your other offers, show it them clearly and with love. Make it perfectly obvious what they should do next if they want to enjoy even more of your work.

What’s your customer path look like? How do your products guide a reader into becoming a more invested buyer?

If you’re listening in to your people, and you’re fully showing up to connect with them, the next step is to make it easy for them to connect with you. While it’s true that having a host of option (blog, email, social media) gives your reader a lot of choices…it also triggers the paradox of choice. With too many equal options, people are more likely to choose nothing than to choose something. Not to mention, having too many equal options makes it hard for you to keep up with it all, which is oten “solved” by putting the same information everywhere, punishing those you follow you in more than one place, killing real connection.

It’s your job to create the path.

If you want to connect with readers and buyers, and help them find your work and make the decision to invest it, then you need to make it as easy as possible for them. You do this by suggesting what to do next, at every step. You do this by creating a path for the reader/buyer to follow.

This pathway of connection includes absolutely every way you interact with people who may or may not be your right people – your blog, email newsletter, social media, guest posts, sales pages, and (once they cross over into Right People territory and pay for something), your connection pathway continues through your products, classes, clubs, retreats.

Today we’ll talk a bit about creating a pathway of connection for your reader (before they buy, before they decide if they are one of your Right People), and tomorrow we’ll talk a bit about creating a path for your buyer.

Every path is different.

I can’t tell you what your path should look like. It’s going to be based on what works for you and on what your People use and read (I talk about choosing your tools in detail in Chapter 5 of the book.) But as you plot your path for your customers, here’s a few things to keep in mind:

• The first steps on your path are the easiest to do – reading one blog post, replying to one tweet. This is where the person very first becomes aware that you and your work exist. Next steps on the path require more commitment and more information.

• Honor this commitment your readers are making and the trust their putting in you. Honor it by giving them what they’ve signed up for. Respect the deeper commitment by matching it – create deeper content, invite them to specials, give them first sneak peek.

• Keep in mind who you’re writing for. A guest post is going to be seen by people who don’t know anything about you. A tweet may be read by new followers and old friends. An email to your newsletter list is read by people who have committed to hearing from you regularly, and who probably have already decided they like you and your work. Write for the specific audience.

• The farther people walk down the path, the closer they are coming to you. Since such a small percentage of people who read your blog or follow you on Twitter actually take the time to reply to you, treasure each response and give it your time and attention. In replying (or starting a conversation) this person is saying: Hey, I want to connect with you more, I want this to be a two-sided relationship. This is the best! These relationships are the bedrock of your business, so do whatever you have to do to make time for them.

• Make it easy for the reader to move down the path. Once you know the steps on your path, lay them out in order for your readers. Suggest the reader of your guest post visit your blog, tell your twitter followers about your newest post, ask your blog readers to subscribe, create an autoresponder to introduce new subscribers to your work , invite your subscribers to your newest product or service. It’s up to you to explain the path to interested readers, so don’t wait around for them to find it.(You do know I send special weekly lessons to explorers, right?)

• At the end of this path is a relationship, an equal exchange. This might be a sale (in which you exchange money for a product) or it might be a collaboration or even a real friendship. As you build your path and invite readers to the next step, remember this! Begin with the end in mind, and ask yourself if you want to say or do what you’re doing, if there was a true friend on the other end.

Let’s take a breather for a minute and acknowledge something. This is kind of scary. If you feel anxious or shy about talking about your Art, then it might be exceedingly uncomfortable to imagine this path, to imagine that you’re going to have more and deeper conversations. I think this is why so many people just  default to  ”I listed this” tweets or boring blog posts. It’s much easier to be boring and impersonal.

But there’s a huge upside – it’s much easier to invite real fans into your work. It’s much easier to talk to people who want to buy what you sell. And the only way to know they truly want it, is to give your fans a way to connect with it and you. I tell clients to look at their newsletter sign-up as a chance for the fans to speak up and say: I’m here! I want to know more!  It’s a service.
And here’s more good news – when your future customer is connecting to you in new ways, when you’re respecting their commitment and fulfilling it with your best work, you’ll see that you are both getting something out of the relationship. They’re not just giving you money for your art – they are enjoying the relationship. They are delighting in knowing you.

This pathway of connection comes up pretty often in Flight Plan sessions – if you’re feeling scrambly about launching your book or writing your newsletter, it’s likely that your pathway isn’t clear (to you or your people).  Finding time to make your art and connect is often as simple as clarifying your connection path and making it obvious to readers. I still have four spots left, if you’d like to one.

Last week we talked about the Real Work in your business: Make Art + Connect and Beka commented that it can be boiled down even further: Make art TO connect. I couldn’t agree more!

For many of us, making art is how we both connect with our inner selves, who we really are and what we really think, and how we  connect with the world. We learn to see the world, describe it, and share it with others through our Art. (Reminder: Art = what you make. From writing, to painting, to sewing, to teaching, to parenting, to practicing medicine – it’s all Art.)

But for lots of us introverts*, we have to make it a point to connect. We have to work at actually doing it, even when our art requires other people (like teaching or writing). It’s not a question of if you’re with another person, but if you’re really opening up to them, being brave and sharing who you are. For example, right now I’m writing in a coffeeshop packed with people, but I’m not connecting with any of them. When I work one-on-one with explorers, I have to practice opening up, truly listening, and being fully present during the whole hour, and in our email conversations before and after. I have to clear my mind and tune in.

Connection was my big lesson last year, and its intersection with art-making is one of my favorite areas of exploration. See, I spent years of my working life thinking, being inside my own head, and only venturing out when I needed something. It was my handmade business that first sparked my curiosity about why other people do what they do. And soon I realized that dedicating time to learning that (via real conversations) was the best thing I could do for business.

I started to explore this intersection of connection and art in my book, where we dive deep into understanding the person on the other end of the transaction: Who is she? What does she want? Why is she buying what you’re selling?…after we get clear on you and your Art.  In the book (and in all of my work) I insist that you know the answers to those questions better than anyone else.  How? Your connection. Your conversations. Being open and listening in.

Here’s a partial list of what learning-through-connection requires:

Presence. Are you there? Or thinking about 50 other things? (This is why it’s hard to connect on Twitter – you’re absorbing a firehose of information all at once, from a zillion people).

Openness. Are you waiting to say what you want to say? Are you open to being wrong?

Patience. You don’t get to know anyone in one conversation. It takes many conversations, over a long period time to learn what makes someone do anything.

Curiosity. Good news – people are fascinating! Be interested in what makes them act, and you’ll be endlessly absorbed.

What else is required to connect with your People?

* If you wanna learn more about the wonderfulness of introverts (and how to work with or parent an introvert), you gotta read Quiet, by Susan Cain.