How to utilise Squarespace email campaigns to promote your services

As a service-based business owner, maintaining consistent communication with your clients is essential. We all know that it's cheaper, easier and all-round better to retain a client than it is to get a brand new one, and email marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep your audience engaged, informed, and eager to use your services again. But - setting up email campaigns is much easier said than done. So lets walk through how to set up and run email marketing campaigns using Squarespace’s built-in tools, so you can effectively promote your services with emails.

What are email campaigns and why are they important?

An email campaign is a series of marketing messages sent to a group of recipients with the goal of promoting services, sharing news, or encouraging engagement. For service-based businesses, email campaigns can:

• Keep your brand top-of-mind for existing clients.

• Educate potential clients about your services.

• Drive traffic to your website or booking pages.

• Offer special promotions or discounts.

Regularly communicating through email helps build trust, nurture leads, and ultimately convert prospects into loyal clients.

Crafting your email campaign strategy

Before diving into the technical aspects, it’s crucial to establish a clear email campaign strategy. This will serve as your roadmap, guiding your decisions and ensuring consistency.

1. Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your email campaigns? This could be include increasing bookings, promoting new services, or building a subscriber list.

2. Know your audience: Who are your emails targeting? Understanding your audience’s needs and pain points will help you craft messages that resonate better with them.

3. Content planning: Outline the content you’ll share, like educational articles, client testimonials, or exclusive offers. Planning ensures your emails are relevant and valuable.

4. Frequency: Determine how often you’ll send emails. Consistency is key, but avoid overwhelming your subscribers (and your own to-do list!).

5. Measuring success: Decide on the key metrics you’ll track (open rates, click-through rates, conversions) to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Creating email templates in Squarespace

Squarespace offers some great (customisable) email templates, and you should be able to find one that aligns with the aesthetic of your website. We'd definitely recommend using a template for email campaigns if you're new to email, but I'm sure there's many email design experts out there who can help you create a fully custom email design as you grow. For now, here’s how to create an email template:

1. Go to your Squarespace dashboard > Marketing > Email Campaigns

2. Choose a template: Have a look at the available templates and choose one that best fits your brand. You can filter by categories like announcements, newsletters, or promotions.

3. Customise your template: Use the drag-and-drop editor to add your branding elements, such as logos, colors, and fonts. Try to include high-quality images that reflect your services, and ensure any text is clear and concise. Make sure there's a purpose of the email and that this comes across in your design - for example are you promoting an offer? Telling people a follow-up appointment may be due? Releasing slots for a peak season time?

   • Best Practices:

     • Compelling subject line: The subject line is your first impression. Make it attention-grabbing and relevant, else your customers potentially won't even open it.

     • Call to action (CTA): Every email should have a clear CTA, guiding the reader to book a service, read more, or contact you. This should align with your purpose of the email.

     • Responsive design: Ensure your email looks great on all devices, especially mobile. Squarespace easily allows you to test this, so switch between the different device previews.

     • Preview and test: Always preview your email and send a test version to yourself before sending it to your list. Open up the test email on different devices, and make sure you test any links in the email.

Segmenting your audience

Audience segmentation involves dividing your email list into smaller, more targeted groups. This allows you to send personalised content that’s more likely to resonate with your recipients.

Why should you segment your audience?

Segmented campaigns can lead to higher engagement rates, as they cater to the specific needs and interests of different client groups. For instance, you might have separate segments for new leads, repeat clients, or those interested in a particular service.

Your audience could also already be pre-segmented depending on how they signed up for your emails. For example, you might want to send different emails to those who signed up from your newsletter block, to those who signed up from a promotional pop-up, to those who've created an account with you as they've booked a service with you.

Squarespace newsletter block example

How to segment your audience in Squarespace

1. Tagging subscribers: In Squarespace, you can tag subscribers based on their interactions, such as which services they’ve shown interest in or previous bookings.

2. Creating segments: Go to 'Audience' in the 'Email Campaigns' section and create segments based on tags, location, purchase history, or engagement level.

3. Targeting with precision: Once your segments are set up, you can target each group with tailored content, such as exclusive offers for loyal clients or introductory services for new leads.

Scheduling and automating email campaigns in Squarespace

Timing is everything in email marketing. Squarespace allows you to schedule your campaigns for optimal times, ensuring your emails land in your subscribers’ inboxes when they’re most likely to engage.

Scheduling your campaigns

1. Choose your send time: After creating your email, navigate to the “Send” screen. Here, you can either send your email immediately or schedule it for later.

2. Best times to send: Generally, weekday mornings are ideal for sending emails (we would recommend starting with 8am in your local time), but you should experiment to see when your audience is most responsive. It does differ by audience, so for example some email experts recommend 4pm for younger audiences if you're targeting students.

Automating your campaigns

In Squarespace you can set up automated emails for key actions, like welcome emails that automatically send when someone subscribes to your list or follow-up emails after a service has been booked.

Squarespace have released lots of information about automated campaigns, which you can read through here for more information.

Tracking performance in Squarespace

To ensure your email campaigns are effective, tracking key metrics is essential. Squarespace provides built-in analytics that give you insights into how your emails are performing.

Key metrics to monitor:

• Open rate: The percentage of recipients who open your email. A higher open rate indicates a compelling subject line.

• Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who clicked on links within your email. This shows how engaging your content is.

• Conversion rate: The percentage of recipients who took the desired action (e.g., booking a service). This is a direct measure of your campaign’s success.

• Unsubscribe rate: The percentage of recipients who opt out of your emails. A high unsubscribe rate might indicate your content is not resonating with your audience.

Analysing and adjusting

Squarespace’s analytics dashboard allows you to view these metrics in real-time. Use this data to refine your strategies, such as adjusting your content, segmentation, or send times to improve future campaigns.

Ready to start email marketing on Squarespace?

Email marketing is a powerful tool for promoting your services and engaging with your clients. By utilising Squarespace email campaigns, you can create professional, targeted, and effective email strategies that drive results. Remember, success in email marketing comes from thoughtful planning, consistent execution, and ongoing analysis.

If you need further help, contact us today for our expertise in website design and SEO, or start creating your first campaign today and watch your business grow!