This quick tip works equally well for email newsletters and product pages or product marketing launch pages. We’re talking about buttons – with a strong call to action.
I’m always looking for quick, easy ways to improve click throughs in emails or on product pages. Because sometimes, the simplest tweaks can result in the biggest rewards. And it’s always fascinating to me how the smallest change can completely alter a person’s behaviour!
So today, let’s talk about buttons. Particularly buttons with a strong call to action!
WHY YOU NEED TO USE BUTTONS IN YOUR EMAIL MARKETING
Most people who read your emails or scroll your product listings are probably doing so on their phones . ***
Clicking on text links on our phone is always a little more challenging than clicking while on a desktop or laptop – or even a tablet.
Big thumbs, small screens.
This is especially true when the links are short, one or two word text links.
If you’re not already, start using buttons in your emails and on web pages where you have an important call to action you want the reader to take.
They’re big, they’re bold, they stand out and, they’re easy to click when you’re holding a phone.
And unlike 5 or 10 years ago where including a button meant doing some coding, now they’re as simple as drag and drop so there’s no reason not to.
BONUS TIP: USE STRONG CALL TO ACTION LANGUAGE.
When you use a button, it’s important to use strong call to action (CTA) language that makes it clear what clicking the button will do.
Strong CTAs you might want to use include:
BUY IT NOW
GET YOUR EBOOK NOW
READ THE BLOG POST
GET THE RECIPE
SUBSCRIBE NOW
You can also use an arrow icon on the button to make it even clearer that something is going to happen when they click that rectangle.
Not that long ago I started transitioning clients from using the name of the recipe on a button to using a strong CTA.
So this…
Changed to this:
Every single one of them saw an uptick on click throughs by changing the CTA on the buttons. It was amazing what such a small change could do.
If you’re not already, try using buttons in your emails and on your website when you need the reader to take action.
If you are using buttons, make sure you’re using simple, strong language that directs the reader to take action.
Track your results and see the difference!
*** Not all email lists are the same. Don’t assume your readers are mostly mobile users even if that is the industry norm. Always check your data to see what your list is doing and tailor your emails accordingly!
Want more quick tips to help you with your email and digital product marketing? Subscribe to my monthly newsletter! Each month I write an exclusive newsletter full of tips, tricks and ideas for food content creators and their email lists!
October is just the start of the busy holiday season. Work ahead with these October email newsletter ideas for food bloggers and food content creators.
October is when things really start to get busy for food bloggers and content creators and you will have no shortage of content ideas.
A lot of food content creators up their send email send frequency as we get into Q4 – especially if their audience is focused on baking or entertaining. This isn’t necessary – especially if you’re already emailing multiple times a week – but it is a great way to give your traffic an additional boost through the season where RPMs tend to be at their highest.
But, you’ll definitely want to plan for this. As we’ve talked about before, repurpose your older content in your emails – the more of it you have, the less work you’ll have to do! Work as far ahead as you’re able to – it will be less work in December!
SEASONAL HOLIDAYS
Canadian Thanksgiving: October 9th (2023) Halloween: October 31st
Canadian Thanksgiving is a huge food holiday so even if you’re an American content creator, it’s worth making mention of it – perhaps you could put together a mini guide of links to your most popular Thanksgiving content and pop it in one of your emails.
Halloween – more down below (it deserves it’s own section!)
Diwali runs from November 10-15th (2023) and late October is a great time to start trickling out content if this is a good fit for you.
If you have digital products (ebooks, shopping lists, menu planners etc,) around preparing for any of the remaining holidays in the year – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, or New Years now is the time to be actively promoting them to your list every week for the remainder of the year.
HALLOWEEN
Halloween content is becoming almost as big as Christmas and people are looking for a lot of fun ideas and activities. This is a great time to flex your creative muscles with spooky content:
Pumpkin: It’s all things pumpkin from now until… well… the end of the year really! Don’t just focus on sweets. Remember savory applications, beverages and using up all the remains of the pumpkin to avoid waste and jack’o’lantern ideas
Party foods: the spookier, creepier and more fun, the better: Halloween charcuterie boards, anything with eyeballs in it (pasta, punch, brownies), ghoulish cocktails – let your imagination go to town!
Halloween with kids: this is a great time to get kids in the kitchen and people are looking for tutorials and easy, fun recipes kids will want to help with.
School treats: cupcakes, bars, cookies, alternatives to sweets, nut-free
Entertaining menus: horror movie night, pre-trick or treating fuel, trick or treating after parties, fireworks block parties, adults only costume parties, party goody bags, budget friendly ideas
Cakes: more and more Halloween cakes are showing up as showstoppers for a party
Leftover candy recipes… so much candy… 🤣
SPORTS
It’s tailgate season! Sports are in overdrive in the fall: hockey, college football, NFL, CFL, World Series baseball… that all adds up to a lot of game day weekends!
Pull out your game day recipes: snacks, dips, wings, finger foods, chili – all the favourites!
Canadians, don’t forget Grey Cup is in November – I know from my own food blogging days that a lot of people search specifically for Grey Cup recipe ideas and it’s an underserved niche.
**Don’t forget to add in vegetarian and vegan options as well as some alcohol-free beverages – all of these are continuing to grow in popularity and it’s rare to host a gathering these days that doesn’t include meat and alochol-free guests!
PIE SEASON
Some may not agree but I think pie season is the best season!
Apple, pear, pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, mince… and don’t forget the savoury ones! There’s also tarts, galettes, lattice tops… can you tell I love pie?
With pie comes pastry so pull out your pastry tutorials and videos and includes those in your emails too.
COMFORT FOOD
It’s full on comfort food season and comfort food email content always does well, regardless of your food niche.
casseroles
soups
hearty pasta dishes
roast dinners
breads, buns and biscuits
potato dishes
anything with melted, bubbly cheese
Think of ways you can put a spin on these for your audience:
budget-friendly
diet specific: gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, etc
meal planning and prepping, batch cooking
meat-free
easy, weeknight friendly, under 30 minutes, etc.
SEASONAL PRODUCE
Almost all the typical North American summer produce is finished by October and we’re heading into the season of root vegetables, squash, hardy greens and alliums (onions, garlic, leeks etc)
apples, crab apples, quince
pears
cranberries
pomegranates
carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets
winter squash, pumpkins
potatoes and sweet potatoes
Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower
leeks, onions, fresh garlic
kale, Swiss chard, cabbage
TAILOR YOUR OCTOBER NEWSLETTER CONTENT FOR YOUR EMAIL AUDIENCE
How you proceed with your emails for October will depend on your audience. You know them better than anyone else. Remember that your email audience may be different from the audience that finds you through search.
Focus on what your newsletter subscribers respond to. If you have the data available in your newsletter marketing platform, look at which content they responded to last fall. Then create newsletter content that’s a good fit. If your audience doesn’t care about sports, skip the sports content!
Now’s the time to get started. Plan out your October newsletter calendar and batch write your emails. Schedule them and you’re good to go!
Want More Tips?
Want more email tips? Subscribe to my monthly newsletter! Each month I write an exclusive newsletter full of tips, tricks and ideas for food content creators and their email lists!
As we enter September, email newsletter content ideas are plentiful for food bloggers and food content creators. The hard part will be narrowing down your content for the next few months!
For most food bloggers and food content creators, September is the kick off to the busiest season of the year!
There’s no shortage of things to write about over the coming months. This is the time of year where food plays a crucial roll and everyone has a lot to do!
How can you start to make things easier for your most engaged audience members?
MAKE AN EMAIL CONTENT PLAN
There are so many ideas for email content over the next 4-5 months that it can be almost overwhelming. My best suggestion is to take a few moments to sit down and craft out a content plan to get you through early January. It will help alleviate some of the stress! If you need help, check out this post on planning out your email content (Step 4 is particularly helpful for this time of year.)
If you’ve been neglecting your newsletter subscribers, now is the time to show them some love. You want them to be interested and full of anticipation for how you’re going to help them get through the next four months as they head back to school or work, look forward to Thanksgiving and Halloween and start to plan their holiday season.
FOCUS ON YOUR EMAIL AUDIENCE
Remember that this list of ideas is meant to help kickstart your brainstorming. Choose topics that are obviously a good fit for your audience. But don’t shy away from other, less obvious, topics. Instead, look to see if there’s a way you can adapt them to fit your audience
For example: lunchbox ideas. These don’t just have to apply to school lunches. Adults head back to work after vacation. Budgets are a little stressed this year to maybe more adults are brown bagging it or meal prepping to avoid waste. They need lunches too. Maybe they work from home and get too absorbed in their work to be bothered with lunch.
Your audience might be looking for budget friendly hacks or maybe they’re vegan, or don’t eat dairy or they follow a keto diet. Take the lunchbox idea and adapt it to fit your content and audience.
SEASONAL HOLIDAYS
Here are some holidays and significant content themes for September; Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) runs from Sept 15-17, it’s officially PSL season and, of course, the kids are back in school! Canadian Thanksgiving is October 9th
Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown on Friday, Sept 15 and runs till sundown on Sunday, Sept 17 – there are multiple foods associated with this holiday
pumpkin everything is going to be everywhere for the next 3-4 months – pace yourselves! 🤣 (and make sure to recycle your old pumpkin content in your emails!)
Canadians, start trickling out your Thanksgiving content in late September – people plan menus well in advance.
Americans, don’t neglect your Canadian readers – Canadian Thanksgiving is second only to Christmas in terms of food prep and consumption (this is also where segmenting your email list by country can be super helpful!)
If you have digital products around preparing for Canadian Thanksgiving (ebooks, shopping lists, menu planners etc,) now is the time to be actively promoting them to your list every week in September.
If you have digital products for Halloween (ebooks, project plans, party planning etc), start promoting to your list weekly in mid-late September.
Apples! September is apple season: cakes, pies, galettes and tarts – but don’t forget savoury apple ideas as well!
BACK TO SCHOOL
Back to school is such a big topic it deserves it’s own section!
lunchbox ideas:
snacks
mains
treats
hot and cold foods (and how to store them)
food safety
sustainable packaging
bento boxes
cookies, muffins, bars
alternatives to pre-packaged food
allergen-free or friendly
make ahead/meal prepped
budget friendly
lunches for adults
breakfasts:
grab-n-go
quick and easy
overnight prep
weeknight dinners:
one pot or sheet pan
under 30 minutes
under 20 minutes
meal prep
freezer friendly
pantry planning, kid approved, Instant Pot, Air Fryer, slow cooker
snacks:
after school munchies
high energy fuel for sports or after school activities
snacks for studying, focus and concentration
easy snacks
diy snack packs or refrigerator snack drawers
energy and granola bars and balls
classic lunchbox and cookie jar cookies
food tips for surviving in a dorm or shared accommodation
COMFORT FOOD
September (and even early October) weather can be a mixed bag but odds are good that there will still be a lot of hot days ahead. Pay attention to weather across the continent and not just where you live before you get too carried away with comfort food.
Having said that, the days are shorter and the nights will be starting to cool off so start to sneak in some lighter comfort foods. Soups, lighter pasta and potato dishes are all good options for September.
SEASONAL PRODUCE:
There’s a little bit of everything available in September!
apples
pears
plums
blackberries
figs
grapes
cranberries
pomegranates (late Sept)
most other summer fruits are still available but are at the very tail end of their season
carrots
corn
summer squash, cucumbers, zucchini
green beans
tomatoes
eggplant
peppers
winter squash, pumpkins, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, celery and sweet potatoes (the Thanksgiving foods!) all start to appear in mid to late September depending on geography
OTHER SEPTEMBER FOOD CONTENT IDEAS
holiday budget planning – this year, more then ever, people will be budget focused this upcoming holiday season. September is a great time to start talking and writing about how to plan for the holidays on a budget – including pantry planning, entertaining, cookie and bar swaps etc.
Now’s the time to get started. Plan out your September newsletter calendar and batch write your emails. Schedule them and you’re good to go!
WANT MORE TIPS?
Want More Tips?
Want more email tips? Subscribe to my monthly newsletter! Each month I write an exclusive newsletter full of tips, tricks and ideas for food content creators and their email lists!
It’s easy to get stuck trying to figure out what kind of content to put in your email newsletters but if you’re a food blogger or YouTuber, you already have loads of content ready and waiting to be used. Just look into your content archives!
One of the biggest challenges most food bloggers and food content creators have when it comes to consistently emailing their newsletter list is figuring out what to put in their emails.
But in reality, you probably already have more email content than you know what to do with!
REPURPOSE OLD BLOG CONTENT VIA EMAIL
If you’re stuck for something to send to your list, it’s time to… go back in time!
Your email marketing is the perfect platform to resurrect old content.
Your new subscribers? They haven’t read that old content.
Your old subscribers? They haven’t seen it in eons, possibly years and potentially not at all! (did you even email them regularly 3 years ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago?)
While it’s important to update old content on your website regularly for SEO purposes, those rules don’t apply to your emails. If a post is old and doesn’t have the best photos or has a story about your Aunt Betty that the search engines aren’t interested in, it doesn’t matter. You can include it in an email.
Posts that are less popular in search can still get great click throughs in your newsletter (earning you some ad revenue) because it’s a different type of reader.
Think of it this way:
Most of us will never be able to rank on page one for a chocolate chip cookie recipe – the competition is waaaaay too fierce. But that doesn’t mean your recipe isn’t a great recipe!
In fact, your newsletter readers want to know what your chocolate chip recipe is because they trust you and like your content. That’s why they open your emails every week!!!
So share that 6 year old chocolate chip recipe in an email. They want to see it.
HOW CAN YOU REPURPOSE OLDER BLOG CONTENT INTO EMAILS?
Here are some easy ways you can repurpose your old content into emails:
⭐️ THEMED EMAILS: example: a Taco Tuesday theme. Make the email a digest of all your taco recipes. You can make themes as broad (cookies) or as specific (peanut butter cookies) as you like depending on the type of content you create.
⭐️ MENU EMAILS: create a complete menu for a meal. You can theme these as well.
Here are just a few ideas:
mother’s day brunch menu
takeout night at home menu
book club meeting menu
easy kids birthday party
the “soccer practice is at 7pm” menu
Expand this to a meal prep menu for the whole week if that’s your niche.
Expand this to a meal prep menu for the whole week if that’s your niche.
⭐️ SEASONAL EMAILS: Package up seasonal content on your site into individual emails. There are so many opportunities to do this.
For example, Halloween is in October. Package up old Halloween content into a series of October emails:
5 Ghoulish Halloween Treats
5 Fun Halloween Treats to Make with Kids
5 Spooky Halloween party cocktails
⭐️ LEFTOVER EMAILS: what happens after every holiday? We have leftovers. Using Halloween as an example again, send an email out right after Halloween with 5 Recipes That Use up Leftover Halloween Candy or 5 Recipes that Use upPumpkin Carving Leftovers. The recipes themselves don’t have to be Halloween related – they just have to be pumpkin or candy related – search your archives for pumpkin recipes. People always forget about leftovers!
These emails are also a great way to highlight minimizing food waste.
⭐️ TUTORIAL EMAILS: If you specialize in something, package up tutorials on your site into emails. Let’s say you make a lot of pies. Send out an email “Everything you need to know about making pie crust” and simply include 5 links to different pie crust recipes and tutorials on your site (how to make pie crust, how to make a two crust pie, savory pie crusts, how to do a lattice top, etc). You don’t have to write an essay on pie crust – just include the links with a short paragraph tying them all together.
⭐️ GREATEST HITS/POPULAR POSTS: Do recap emails highlighting the most popular recipes or posts on your site. Break it down further and do the most popular soups, desserts, weeknight dinners… you get the idea. Share your personal favourites. Readers like to know.
TIPS TO MAKE REPURPOSING CONTENT INTO NEWSLETTERS EASIER
Here are some simple tips to make repurposing blog or video content into newsletters easier for you or an assistant
✅ PRO TIP:keep a spreadsheet that contains a list of all the emails you send out each year.
Include the date of the email, the topic and the recipe or article names and links that were included. Use a new tab in the sheet for each year. Also make notes of any products or special offers you promote: either your own (recipe ebooks, printables etc) or non-Amazon affiliate links.
This helps ensure you don’t repeat links too frequently. I’ve noticed many of my clients tend to gravitate to the same 20-30 links over and over because they like the recipes or they perform well in search. But by having a record, it’s easy for me to show them we used that link two months ago and it’s too soon to repeat it.
✅ PRO TIP:a spreadsheet is easily searchable making it easy for you, or anyone helping you, to check and see the last time you included a taco recipe.
✅ PRO TIP:Try to wait at least 6 months to repeat a link. I prefer to wait longer but it really depends on your send frequency or the content you want to reuse. Sometimes sooner is better!
✅ PRO TIP:Repurposing content makes it very easy to write and schedule your seasonal emails well in advance. By repurposing your older Halloween or Christmas content you can probably have 10 seasonal emails written and scheduled by late September.
Leave space in your schedule to write an email for new holiday content or leave space in each email where you can add a new recipe that fits with the theme. But seriously… how nice would it be to have all those emails written before the busy holiday season even starts?
These are all really simple ways you can repurpose old content and make it earn its keep, while never running out of emails to send!
WANT MORE TIPS?
Want more email tips? Subscribe to my monthly newsletter! Each month I write an exclusive newsletter full of tips, tricks and ideas for food content creators and their email lists!
For food bloggers and food content creators, August email newsletters can be a little challenging. Not because of a lack of content but because we’re bridgingtwo very different seasons.
August is an awkward month for food content emails. We’re in the heart of summer vacation and the hottest weather of the year but at the same time, back-to-school is right around the corner. In many parts of the US and eastern Canada, kids go back to school as early as mid August.
So… some people are looking for back to school content and others aren’t even opening their emails as they soak up their last few days of freedom.
Much of July’s content suggestions, particularly canning and preserving, outdoor entertaining and cool kitchen ideas are still relevant for August (get the full July list here)
SEASONAL HOLIDAYS:
Labour Day (the first Monday in September), other civic holiday long weekends
one last kick at the can for summer – this is a popular weekend for having friends over and entertaining outdoors. For many people this is their second New Year’s Eve as school and regular work routines resume after the weekend and summer unofficially comes to a close
SEASONAL FOOD & CONTENT:
It’s stone fruit season!
blackberries with raspberries and blueberries at the tail end of production
stone fruits: apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums
pears and grapes in some areas (September for others)
while many fruits are at the tail end of their summer production, most are still available in August with cranberries, apples and rhubarb being the exceptions.
almost all vegetables. Squash is just coming in, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, corn and carrots are all flourishing. It’s actually easier to list the veggies that aren’t available yet! Asparagus has long since finished and pumpkins, red and yellow onions and Brussels sprouts are still a month away.
Depending on where you live, kids go back to school in late August or after Labour day weekend in September. University and college kids mostly go back after Labour day. Start dripping out content in late August but keep this list handy as you plan September as well. Here are a few to get you started:
lunch box ideas
allergy friendly (peanut-free in particular!)
eco-friendly packaging ideas
budget friendly (10 lunchbox ideas that cost less than $X)
hot lunch ideas (and how to keep them hot)
lunch box sweets and homemade treats
making lunch box veggies exciting
after school snacks
quick and easy
fuel for sports or activities
quell the pre-dinner munchies
grab-n-go breakfasts
easy breakfasts ready in 10 minutes or less
budget friendly cooking tips for college kids
dorm friendly meal ideas or dorm friendly foods
cooking basics for kids on their own for the first time
weeknight dinners
30-45 minutes or less
one pot meals
10 ingredients or less
meal prep and batch cooking
foods that fuel study sessions or help with mental focus
how to avoid the morning breakfast/lunchbox prep crunch
tips on getting your kitchen and pantry organized for meal prep and back to school.
As always, these are suggestions – adapt them to fit your niche and your audience.
WANT MORE TIPS?
Want more email tips? Subscribe to my monthly newsletter! Each month I write an exclusive newsletter full of tips, tricks and ideas for food content creators and their email lists!
