🚀 Our account exploded, our engagement skyrocketed, our sales directly from Instagram took off, and more importantly —

The shifts — and results — we witnessed? They are *ENTIRELY* as a result of five primary things we’ve changed.

–––

Keeping up with Instagram (or any social media) can feel like a huge chore, – right?

You want to spend less time creating content and more results from what you post.

Now that you have over 60 graphics at your fingertips, what comes next?

How do you know what kind of content you “should” be making?

In Spring of last year, we committed to this resolution — stop creating content you don’t actually like — and dramatically shifted our content strategy.

We committed to creating content we actually *liked* and more of what WE wanted to see. For us that looked like:

✅ Carousel posts that are jam-packed with value that’s relevant to our people

✅ Real, relatable, and really fun– that’s the kind of content that we want.

✅ Make it so good that people want to get off Instagram and explore your website.

So, if you are where we’ve been, these are the 5 content principles we swear by that make creating content much more enjoyable (and sustainable!)

Let’s dive in 👇.

TONIC’s 5 Rules to Make Social Media Suck Less

👉 01. Show up when you actually have something to say

A bid to connect with the actual audience you want, or some form of value to add (and yes, silly, funny, beautiful things add value.)

If you don’t have something to say, plan something to say. Your new social media templates are designed with prompts and ideas to help make this easier.

Post as often as you can while creating content you’re actually proud of. (We gained almost 30k followers posting twice a week. Quality > Quantity.)

👉 02. Add value, not noise.

After every post you draft, think, What benefit does this have for my reader? What’s their takeaway? How can I add even more value?

Add examples to your informational posts. Show what you’re learning + working on in real time (people love following a story!). Show up to serve, problem-solve, and connect.

👉 03. Create the kinds of content you actually want to see.

Sure, maybe you post that pretty, crowdpleaser Reel, but you attach a caption in your own, real freaking voice.

The motivational quote post has an honest, vulnerable, actionable caption instead just a breezy, “LIKE IF YOU AGREE.”

Study the content you like. Start telling better stories (here’s how). Try new things. What’s the worst that can happen — that post doesn’t perform? Test, iterate, refine, grow.

👉 04. Build a community, not an audience. 

Respond to your comments with more than a few heart emojis. Ask good questions in your DMs. Engage with the people engaging with you. Create more of the content your insights show people want from you, and ask what they need help with next. (Then follow through.)

And hey, when you stop thinking of them as “followers” and start treating them like individual people, this app gets 10000% better. 

👉 05. When you see someone creating content you love, engage like hell with it!

Make it absolutely clear you want more of THAT, damnit. Comment, share, save, sing it from the rooftops. The algorithm has to serve us more of what we love, so put it to work for you. Let the algorithm KNOW.

And take heart, content creators (which is all of us at this point): Don’t give up making the original, thoughtful, excellent work you’re entirely capable of just to be seen on this app.

Do it, whatever it is, your own way.

(And now, do it much easier / faster with your new Canva templates!)

Use your real voice, lean into your weird, your gifts, and create the kind of content only *you* can create. (We’d argue you also need a killer website and an email list where that content can live sans-algorithm).

The post Five Principles of Content appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

In this post, we will cover what’s included, email deliverability facts, and how to use these with your email marketing platform (because, yes, they will work with ANY of the big players)! Let’s dive in!

How To Use TONIC’s All-New Canva Email Graphic Templates

What’s Included in the Canva Email Graphic Templates?

Each email graphic template collection includes modular, customizable pieces to help structure your emails effectively:

• The Master Project – Email layout & content guides, tutorials, tips, and FAQs
• Hero Graphics – Main banner images for your emails
• Header Banner Graphics – Section introductions for better organization
• Vertical Content Graphics – Featured content visuals
• Horizontal Content Graphics – Secondary content visuals
• Screamer Banner Graphics – High-impact announcements and CTAs
• Prefer a video walkthrough? We’ve got you.

You customize these graphics in Canva, export only the elements you need, and combine them with plain text in your email platform’s editor to craft emails that are *chefs kiss*. For example, you might use a branded header image at the top, followed by plain text for your main content, then a product feature image, more text, and a button graphic for your CTA. It’s really that easy. 

What About Email Deliverability? Will Images Hurt Open Rates?

We live in a TRUST but VERIFY world. So rather than tell you that these email graphics “are fine!,” we’re backing it with the facts because open rates matter: 

• Email on Acid (the Harvard Business Review of email deliverability) ran tests and found that:
  • “All of the emails we tested with 500 characters or more got the green light from all spam filters, regardless of the number of images added.”
  • Emails under 500 characters were more likely to be marked as spam if they didn’t include an image.
• Omnisend suggests maintaining a 60:40 text-to-image ratio to avoid spam triggers.
• Our own experience: We’ve sent emails with varying text-to-image ratios for years and never had deliverability issues. The key? Send relevant, engaging content, and you won’t get flagged as spam.
• Bonus Tip: Want to check your sender reputation? Use tools like Senderscore and Warmy.io to see if you’re at risk of landing in spam.

Want more information on avoiding spam jail when sending emails? We’re glad you do because we have a WHOLE post on just that! 

How Do These Work With My Email Platform?

Yes, our Email Graphic Templates work with any of the major players in the email marketing platform realm (FloDesk, Kit, ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, etc). Basically, if you can upload an image into the emails you create, you can use these graphics, no problem. 

And great news, the process is universal across platforms (but we have tutorials, too, because we love you):

• Customize each email graphic in Canva
• Export each modular piece as a PNG
• Upload to your email platform using image containers within the email builder
• Arrange with plain text sections for the ideal ratio 
• Deliver stellar emails that are brains and beauty 

Browse the tutorials based on platform:

• How to Use TONIC’s Canva Email Graphic Templates in Kit
• How to Use TONIC’s Canva Email Graphic Templates in Squarespace
• How to Use TONIC’s Canva Email Graphic Templates in FloDesk
• How to Use TONIC’s Canva Email Graphic Templates in ActiveCampaign
• How to Use TONIC’s Canva Email Graphic Templates in MailChimp

Conclusion

Creating beautiful, engaging emails is time-consuming unless you use our expertly designed all-new Canva Email Graphics. These email graphics ensure your emails look professional, stay on-brand, and get waaaay more clicks, no matter your email platform. We’ve done all the email marketing research (& testing) so that you can send emails with industry-leading design that get delivered.

The post How To Use TONIC’s Canva Email Graphic Templates appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

How to Keep Your Emails Out of the Spam Folder (& Why Images Can Actually Help)

In this no gatekeeping, no BS post, we will cover key tips to avoid spam jail, why images can increase deliverability, and how to establish balance between images and text in emails that make the email gods smile. You in? Thought so. 

The Keys to Avoiding Spam Jail

Follow these essential practices to ensure your emails land in inboxes rather than spam folders:

• Send Engaging, Relevant Content
  The most critical factor in email deliverability is engagement. If your subscribers open, read, and click on your emails, email providers recognize your content as valuable and keep it out of spam.
• Maintain a 60% Text / 40% Image Ratio
  A well-balanced email that combines text with supporting visuals helps ensure readability and maintains good deliverability.
• Encourage Replies
  When recipients reply to your emails, it signals to email providers like Gmail that your messages are legitimate and worth keeping in the inbox.
• Grow Your List the Right Way
  Never purchase email lists or send unsolicited emails. Instead, focus on building a high-quality list of subscribers who genuinely want to hear from you.
• Be Mindful of Spam Trigger Words
  Words like “free!”, “limited-time offer”, and “act now” can raise red flags for spam filters. Use them sparingly and in natural contexts.

Basically, if you’re providing VALUE via your emails and not spam, you have nothing to worry about. 

Why Images Can Boost Deliverability

Contrary to popular belief, images alone won’t land your emails in spam jail. In fact, using images strategically can increase your deliverability. Here’s how:

• Images Improve Click-Through Rates: Eye-catching visuals draw attention to key parts of your email, making it more likely that readers will click.
• Higher Click Rates Improve Sender Reputation: When more people engage with your emails, Google and other providers boost your sender reputation—reducing the chances of being marked as spam.
• Better Email Experience: A well-designed email with relevant images enhances readability, improves mobile experience, and aligns with your brand identity.

The Right Way to Use Images in Emails

While images are valuable, they should support—not replace—your written content. When crafting your emails, keep these best practices in mind:

• Design emails so that they still make sense if images don’t load.
• Ensure emails look great on both mobile and desktop by checking the previews on both before you hit “send.”
• Stay consistent with branding and layout to establish professionalism.

Also, we may get questions from people asking for tips to optimize their images for email. Here are two free resources for image optimization that we love and use at TONIC:

• tinyjpg.com: Use this to reduce the size of your PNG and jpg (still images) files to a fraction of their original size.
• ezgif.com: Use this to optimize your gifs and reduce their file size.

Conclusion

Creating well-balanced, visually appealing emails can be time-consuming. That’s why we’ve done the hard work for you. Our expertly designed all-new Canva Email Graphics ensure your emails look professional, stay on-brand, and, most importantly—get delivered.

The post How to Keep Your Emails Out of the Spam Folder (& Why Images Can Actually Help) appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

But first, some backstory:

We joined Instagram in 2013….. aka back when people posted photos of their coffee, slapped a Valencia filter on it, dashed off a witty caption, and got 3853857 likes. 😂😭

And yet, for the past two years — and especially for the last one — like most small business owners, we’ve been SO. ANNOYED. with Instagram.

Sure, we had 15k, then 18k followers… fine! But it didn’t matter because our posts BARELY got seen and our engagement was so low we found ourselves Googling  “SERIOUSLY, IS SHADOWBANNING A THING” on the regular.

I had to LEARN TO MAKE REELS. I am old! Not great!

The person managing our social media left, so I had to take over, and fed up + ready to quit (“I’ll be over at my EMAIL LIST, where it’s FUN!”)… we decided to make a few Hail-Mary changes around here.

And… damn. 🤯

I’ll share the results—and the first 6 takeaways from the last three months of weird Instagram-Wild-West growth—with you in a sec, but first, I have to address the elephant in the room:

One BIG thing that makes it easier for our content to get seen around here? Is that I am a designer, I can make a pretty, standout post graphic in a flash, and I’ve learned what works.

THAT’S why we’ve released Canva social media templates that incorporate everything we’ve learned and what we know WORKS… so you can focus on making great content, not ALSO having to become a designer. (You can also try our FREE templates and see how easy Instagram can be!)

Okay, okay, now we’ll tell you everything we know about growing Instagram organically..

#1 – Every post is an opportunity

If you want to organically increase your following and grow your reach, each post you create is an opportunity… not a piece of placeholder content primarily meant to fill a square.

When I stopped focusing on “getting something up” and started focusing on adding as much value to each post — i.e. making it helpful, thoughtful, specific, or entertaining — as we possibly could, our results took off. Stop thinking piecemeal. Build a binge-able content library your followers want to explore.

#2 – Consistency isn’t key

Hear me out: This is controversial, but posting consistency on Instagram matters much less than we’ve all been told. (Shocker. Like, why would IG want us spending all our time here?!)

Sure, you might get great results from posting every day, but you’re going to get far better results from posting freaking great content.

Post in your feed as often as you can while maintaining the integrity of your content.

(My current life mantra: Do less, but better.) The “consistency” you want? Is when people legit look forward to your content because it’s consistently fantastic.

#3 – Serve, don’t sell

Months ago, we had a new template launch, and despite my whole content plan, our engagement tanked, our pretty product posts bombed, and only a tiny percentage of our sales came from Instagram (after all that work!)

Want to guess what happened when we stopped selling and focused on informing / serving / educating / adding value here instead?

1) We built trust, authority, and relationship with our audience. 

2) That audience doubled.

3) Ironically, our sales with buyers specifically citing Instagram as their referral source increased by roughly 500%. 

Serve > Sell.

#4 – Create the content you actually want

Great news: You don’t ever have to make another effing reel (unless you really want to). Yes, everyone’s pronounced static content dead, and to that, I say WORDS AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE. (Also, carousel posts actually have the highest engagement rate per impression!)

Our engagement blew up when we threw out what we thought we “had” to post and made the content we wanted (like a deep dive into the Little Miss trend, because seriously, wtf?!) Genuine interest generates the signature, high-quality content your audience can’t find anywhere else.

#5 – Stop blaming the freaking Instagram algorithm

You know what’s great about the Instagram algorithm?

When you create content that your audience likes, it shows that content to more people. If the Instagram algorithm isn’t loving your content, that’s your cue to… create better content.

(An annoying truth I resisted for far too long.)

Want to create more algorithmic (just made that up!) posts? Analyze top-performing content for trends, ensure your design is algorithm-friendly, and hone your content creation skills. You don’t need to “beat” the Instagram algorithm. You need to use the algorithm.

#6 – Design matters, so scale up your hook

Here’s an easy one: Make everything bigger.

If you browse your explore page — which you should because it tells you what Instagram thinks people like you will enjoy — you’re going to notice something: you can get the gist of most “top posts” at a glance.

Viewers tap the post they find most interesting, which they determine entirely based on the post cover. So, start with a hook to capture interest and scale it up to snag attention in (tiny) context.

Need an example? Check out our viral “Stop Telling People You Love Coffee“ post.

Want the rest of our social media lessons?

We’ve got something just for you to fall in love with content marketing again! Get the replay to our Email Marketing and Social Media Masterclass!

If “finally figure out Instagram” is on your list, this is the masterclass you need in your life. We took everything we’ve learned generating multiple seven figures from our email list AND growing a highly engaged social following and shared it with you!

I’m also always sharing inside our #longandweird newsletter what I’m learning along the way and what’s working (and not working) for us here at TONIC. Join our VIP list so you can continue learning how to grow online + steal our exact strategy for creating content that performs well on social media.

Beat the Instagram Algorithm with our FREE Canva Templates

Oh and did we mention, we spent the past 12 months studying the algorithm, collecting viral posts, testing designs, and have watched our account grow around 1,000 followers per week. Now we’re giving everything we’ve learned to you – and you can try them FOR FREE.

These Canva templates are designed to stand out in the feed, beat the algorithm, and get your content in front of your dream clients.

👉 “Your templates are literally dominating my growth!! I’ve never got this many likes in 30 minutes 😭 I’m so grateful!!” – Erin, sexy Instagram-haver

Grab your FREE set of Canva social media templates for Instagram posts, stories, and reels. Featuring elegant pre-licensed, custom fonts, scroll-stopping photos and videos you can use, and strategy to grow your audience.

The post Growing Instagram Organically: The 6 Rules We Live By appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

Before we can get into our *official* stance on the debate, it’s important that we establish the difference between paid ads vs. organic traffic.

What is paid traffic? According to SEO guru Neil Patel, paid ads definition refers to “online methods a company uses to attract more customers by paying for ad space on search, other websites, or social media.” 

For the sake of this conversation, though, we’re focusing less on social media advertising, and more on all things paid search – aka those first hits at the tip-top of Google before you get down to the organic traffic results. 

What is organic traffic? Organic marketing is exactly what it sounds like: creating and distributing valuable content that leads to people finding you organically. 

(As in, without the help of paid advertising.) 

Any content you post that doesn’t involve paying for visibility can fall under the ‘organic marketing’ category: blog posts, case studies, guest posts, tweets, social media posts, email newsletters…

So, now that we’re all on the same page about what’s what—which option is better: paid ads or organic traffic?

So….Paid Ads or Organic Traffic?

Sorry in advance for this answer, but… it depends.

Specifically, it depends on what your goals are, what your timeline is, how much you’re willing to invest, and what you consider a worthy ROI to be. 

We’ll skip over the obvious goal of marketing—increasing brand awareness and getting more eyes on your content—to give you an example of which situation might be best to choose organic marketing vs. paid ads. 

Are you hoping to increase email list sign-ups before a big launch?

Are you trying to drive traffic to the landing page of your new product? 

Are you in the middle of cart-open for your new online course, hoping to increase sales?

Then use paid ads. 

Paid ads are a great way to increase clicks for a time-sensitive goal because they generate instant results. While they are getting more expensive, they’re worth it! In fact, 80% of consumers have admitted they’re more likely to purchase from companies who run paid ads.)

If we’re talking longevity, though…

Compared to paid advertising, organic traffic wins every time—because it creates a permanent traffic source for your website, naturally giving new people the opportunity to get their eyes on your content. 

The second you stop paying for an ad, the traction disappears. But when you publish a nice, juicy, value-packed blog post? That could drive organic traffic to your website for years to come. 

(We posted this article about How to Write Copy People Actually Want To Read for-ev-er ago, we’re talkin’ back in 2020 which feels like a century ago… and it’s still bringing organic traffic to our site.) 

Organic marketing—specifically, organic search—boosts your credibility, attracts relevant users, and costs you nothing. 

However, we do have to note: organic marketing can be time-consuming, and it will take longer for you to get results. 

It’s no secret that writing one paid ad is a lot less labor-intensive than writing a 2,000-word blog post—but if there’s a possibility of that few hours spent researching and writing making you $$, your time + effort is worth it. 

Plus, Google low key loves organic marketing…

Because it’s impossible to talk about paid ads vs. organic traffic without mentioning SEO, let’s dive into discoverability.

If all you cared about were paid ads—and you didn’t take advantage of organic marketing at all—you’d be driving traffic to an empty website, with nothing for those newly-paid-for eyes to see. 

“Organic marketing also convinces search engines that your website is relevant to what your audience is looking for,” according to Buffer. “Optimizing all your content assets for search engines will improve your discoverability and lead more qualified customers to you.” 

Like we said: organic marketing is about longevity.

Here’s how organic content marketing can get you on Google’s good side:

1) Effortlessly integrated keywords.

Take our blog about why we love Showit, for example. Because we were writing about all the reasons the website builder is so great, it was easy for us to include relevant keywords that we know our target audience is searching for, like “Showit website templates” and “best website design templates” and “switch to Showit.”

2) More content for Google to index.

Aka more reasons for Google to look through your site, and make the equivalent of a “mental note” about what you have to offer, so they can then recommend it to anyone who searches for what you’re writing about. 

Every time a new piece of content is added to your site, you’re essentially signaling to Google “hey, c’mere—there’s something new for you to look at!” to which Google will respond “ooh, thanks, I can tell you’re an active site; let me tell all my users to head over there ASAP!”

3) More opportunities to “rank” on Google.

Forgive us for getting all techy on you, but this is a huge reason to add a blog to your site: your website can only rank for a few specific keywords relative to your business, but your blog can rank for hundreds.

Essentially, every time you post something new on your blog, you’re opening that line of communication with Google again, telling them hey, I’d like to rank for *these* keywords now, check me out.

4) Link building.

Another techy thing, but stay with us: including links in your blogs—both to other creators’ websites and different places on your site—lets Google know that you care about making your blog a user-friendly place. 

Anything you do to make your user’s experience more enjoyable can earn you a Google Gold Star (we made that up, but it should be a thing, don’t you think?) and signal to the search engine that you’re all in on helping readers get where they need to go faster and easier.

If you think of your blog—or your website in general—as a map, including links is the equivalent of providing your user directions. And Google loves easy-to-follow directions.

Organic marketing isn’t just about blogging, though…

There are plenty of ways you can organically market your business. Our favorites are sending our #longandweird newsletter (by the way, you should subscribe—it’s basically the opposite of every other marketing newsletter ever) and posting on Instagram (specifically about how to effectively market your biz).

Other forms of content marketing can include:

You’ve got options, friend. There’s a content marketing sweet spot out there for everyone—all you have to do is find it.

So… wait—are there any paid ads advantages?

We know we’ve sort of been setting up camp in the “organic is best!” side of this debate, but we definitely do also see benefits of investing in paid search.

The most prominent of which being the fact that organic marketing and paid search work together.

Your paid ads bring the traffic in, but your organic marketing efforts are what make people stay.

If we used Google Ads to get more eyes on our Showit website templates, we’d get more eyes on our Showit website templates. But that doesn’t mean we’d sell them. 

We have to do our part in educating why what we have to offer is the solution to the problem that brought them to our website in the first place. 

At the end of the day, it’s not really an either-or conversation. 

Paid ads and organic marketing efforts each have a place in your traffic generation strategy.

→ Paid ads have great short-term gain, but you need to be willing to allocate some of your funds toward ad spend.

→ With organic traffic content, you don’t need money—but you do need time. 

But BOTH options will deliver great benefits for your business, like:

✔️ Delivering an impressive ROI

✔️ Boosting your brand’s awareness

✔️ Introducing your content to new audiences

✔️ Expanding your visibility

So there you have it. Our take on the paid ads vs organic traffic “which is right for you” conversation.

Did you find this helpful? Do you want to hear more about how we use paid ads and organic traffic here at TONIC? Get our SEO strategy that will drive high-quality organic traffic to your website with our Simply SEO Newsletter.

The post Paid Ads vs. Organic Traffic Marketing: Which Should You Use? appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

And because we had a feeling you might be feeling that way too, we decided to create Canva social media templates to make Instagram fun again… but not just any templates. 

The most strategic, curated, customizable, and intentional Canva social media templates on the market. 

(Fine. We’ll just say it — the only social media templates you’ll ever need.)

We designed and tested them to ensure they look great with your content and branding—not just with the exact fonts and images we used—and that they’re built with the same high-impact, stand-out strategy that has grown our own account by tens of thousands of followers in the last few months alone.

Yes, you read that right—tens of thousands of followers over the last few months.

But you’re not here to read about how awesome our templates are. You’re here to find out if Canva social media templates are right for your business.

And we’re here to help you figure that out, by answering all of the *actual* questions about them.

(Aka the ones you’re really wondering deep down, not the surface-level ones you’d find on sales pages and in product descriptions.)

At the end of this post you’ll learn exactly what’s inside of each social media template pack – what they do best, how they’re unique, and how they can give you hours of your day back every time you use them.

“What’s all the hype about Canva?”

There’s a reason everyone and their mother recommends Canva: it’s SO easy to use. 

Like, actually easy to use for an actual human who doesn’t have a background in design. 

(Pause: in case you’re still wondering “um, help, what is Canva, anyway?” – it’s a free online graphic design tool used to create things like presentations, videos, PDFs, digital downloads, and—of course—social media posts. I recommend upgrading to Canva Pro, though, because you unlock so many more features, and it only costs $12.99/month.) 

No matter which type of business you run—personal brand, online service provider, e-commerce powerhouse, brick-and-mortar store, seasonal lemonade stand in your front yard—Canva was made for you. 

Because (shocker!) you don’t have to be a graphic designer to create awesome social media content. 

Now is probably as good a time as any for us to finally make our stance on the infamous “do professionals use Canva?” debate, so, here goes: 

*stands up taller, stares dutifully into the (virtual) expectant crowd* Yes. Professionals do use Canva.

And while we can’t speak for everyone, we certainly can confirm that WE use Canva to market our own business (aka create social media posts, lead magnets, PDFs, etc) and we couldn’t be more obsessed with just how simple, seamless, and accessible it is.

“I know they’re technically for anyone, but, tell me the truth… will Canva templates actually work for me?”

Short answer? Yes. 

Long answer? Yes, of course, absolutely, let us show you proof:

Just a few brands making use of our social templates in their feeds:

“Since anyone can use the platform, and anyone can buy the templates, wouldn’t my feed just look like everyone else’s?”

We’re glad you asked—we’ve been looking for an excuse to tell you this story:

We had this same thought.

…and we almost didn’t even create our social media templates because of it. 

When we looked around the market, there were countless Canva social media templates available, both free AND paid, and the majority were under $30 for a pack of 3 million. The market seemed saturated.

But when we looked a little closer, we saw that the products on the market didn’t actually meet our audience’s needs. 

They weren’t excellent or strategically designed for what actually performs well on Instagram, and didn’t include fonts, images, or content prompts.

So, we saw an opportunity to be innovative, and launched the templates anyway.

And to our surprise, our Canva social media templates for Instagram made up the majority of our revenue from our most recent launch. 🤯

Want to know why we think these templates did so well? Because they’re easy to customize and *actually* make YOUR OWN. 

You can quite literally adjust any detail to fit your needs, which means that you can tweak and adjust them as you see fit to ensure that your version of the template looks like your brand. 

Don’t take our word for it, though, see for yourself right here, or watch this video:

“What can I use your Canva social media templates for?”

You can use our social media templates for quite literally anything you’re already posting—or wish you were posting—on Instagram. 

We’ve split our Canva social media templates up into 4 packs:

• the content pack
• the marketing pack
• the sales pack
• the stories + reels cover pack

Or shop the bundle pack and get the sales pack, marketing pack, and content pack #1 AND ALSO save yourself some $$$. We loveeee the bundle — it’s one of our bestselling products in the whole shop.

Let’s take a look at what’s included in each pack…

The Canva Social Media Content Templates Pack

Our content Batch No. 1 is perfect for posting standalone graphics, carousel designs (to share educational info!), quote templates, ‘reminder’ graphics, cover pages, tweet-style templates (we’re loving these lately), testimonials… you name it, there’s a template for it. 54 of them, to be exact.

Annnddd, many of you asked for even more content templates and um well… WE DELIVERED! Our second pack is jam-packed (see what we did there) with even more designs to easily transform your content into beat-the-algorithm, explore-page-landing, engagement-growing material. (Psst — they’d also make GREAT Facebook ads!)

Batch No. 2 features many additional carousel designs (both cover and interior, plus final CTA pages), mockups, and post styles in a variety of aesthetics.

In Batch No. 3 we updated our traditional Canva templates with large format typography and striking colors. Batch No. 3 features a mix of editorial design and modern typography (hello, gorgeous) – all with stock images you can use and control yourself.

The Marketing Canva Social Media Templates Pack

Our marketing pack is, of course, for all things marketing – podcast, freebie, blog post, product, live event, service, course, sale, video, anything! 

Many of you asked for posts you could use to promote what you’ve been working on, whether that’s content or product, ESPECIALLY blog posts (just like this one!) and now you have 46 strategically designed, Canva templates to choose from.

(Here’s a sneak peek, if you’re curious to see what the stunning templates look like up close.)

The Sales Canva Social Media Templates Pack

Our sales pack makes selling with strategy STYLISH (for once) and we’re not sure we’ve ever made anything more beautiful. If you have something to sell—product, course, mockup, membership, coaching program, service—you’ll definitely have a use for all 46 of them, no problem. 

The IG Stories and Reels Canva Social Media Templates Pack

Our Stories pack (is an absolute MUST if we do say so ourselves) has a HUGE range of designs — from affiliate product / gift guides, event, sale and product promo, to fun video stories. This pack can also be used for Reels, Reel covers, blog AND Pinterest graphics!

We believe a strong, well-branded, instantly-recognizable stories game is the secret weapon of the top brands on social media.

The Bundle Canva Social Media Templates Pack

Orrrr you could purchase our social media template bundle and get the sales pack, marketing pack, and content pack #1 altogether for a fraction of what it’d cost you to buy all of them individually, PLUS 25 extra templates for Instagram stories. 

You’ve been asking us for: completely customizable, stunning Canva social media Instagram templates, built with all the signature TONIC strategy, designed to help YOU beat the algorithm + stand out in the feed. And here they are!

“Will I actually see a return on investment for social media templates, or are they another biz expense I’ll come to regret?”

Unfortunately, only you can truly be the judge of that, but… we have a good feeling you won’t regret your purchase. Here’s why:

Our Canva social media templates don’t just make your life (and marketing) easier, they make it more FUN. That was our entire goal in creating them. 

Without templates, content creation is an overwhelming, frustrating mix of fonts, colors, images, ideas, adjustments, and blue-light headaches. And none of that is fun.

What *is* fun, though, is getting thousands of new followers per week because your social posts look so dang good and your content is so irresistible. 

We spent five months testing design, sourcing stock photos and free fonts, collecting viral posts, and studying what works & what doesn’t so YOU could have the perfect templates to support your social media growth. 

When your social presence looks like you care—aka when scrollers stumble on your account and see a professional, curated feed that you clearly put a lot of effort in—you’ll get real results.

Results like this:

So, what do you think—are you ready to use Canva for social media marketing?

And save your sanity in the process, now that you don’t have to waste time Googling things like “how to make templates on Canva” and “most popular Canva templates for sale” and “how to create social media posts on Canva”? 

We can’t wait to help you give your feed a facelift — shop our social media templates right here!

But wait, there’s more—try our Canva social media templates for FREE!

Get a FREE collection of our Canva social media templates for Instagram posts, stories, and reels.
See what all the fuss is about (no card required).

The post The Best Canva Templates for Social Media Marketing appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

But after all my resistance, when I saw one of my favorite influencer friends raving about her new Stanley cups tumbler (that she’d ALSO resisted), I finally purchased one a few months ago… practically out of spite.

And damned if I don’t love it.

“So, what’s up with the Stanley Cup?” my friend Judah asked me a few weeks ago, seeing my Stanley snuggled up next to me on the couch. Apparently, he’d been confused by the fact that all the women in his office suddenly toted around giant camping water bottles to every meeting.

“I don’t know that much about hockey?” was my confused answer. (Let’s all agree to refer to them exclusively as mugs or tumblers.)

But his question got me thinking. What, exactly, was the marketing magic that turned a piece of camping gear into the viral, emotional-support water bottle we know and love today? How did Stanley mugs get so popular? Why did women love these things? I mean, what’s so special about Stanley mugs, anyways? Why, somehow, were we convinced that THIS water bottle was the PINACCLE of all beverage contains, forsaking all other alternatives and probably-better options?

I did some digging and I was shocked by what I found.

The Story Behind The-Now Viral Stanley Quencher Tumbler

Yep. Three years after the Quencher mug hit the market in 2016, sales were so bad that Stanley’s executives decided to pull the tumbler from their website altogether. The market was too saturated — it wasn’t selling.

But when two women running the affiliate marketing blog / Instagram account The Buy Guide found out one of their favorite products (which sold out every time they shared about it) was being discontinued, they took action.

Their emails to Stanley went unanswered for months until finally, their plea to reinstate the mug caught the attention of a Stanley sales manager investigating why former Bachelorette Emily Maynard had just, seemingly out of nowhere, posted about how much she loved the (discontinued) mug…

(Answer? The Buy Guide ladies had sent it to her months before.)

Stanley finally agreed to let The Buy Guide founders purchase 5000 mugs (with their own money!) to resell on their own — a test to see if they could rebrand the mug as a must-have accessory and reach the powerful new market of women-selling-to-women they’d promised.

Yep. The mugs sold out in days. It was more sales volume than Stanley had ever seen(!).

And yet, the Stanley execs were still unconvinced.

So, The Buy Guide ladies did it again.  (Nice.)

Finally, Stanley agreed they were on to something. They met with the women and partnered on the marketing strategy that has grown one of the internet’s most viral products — a $40, always-sold-out water bottle with over 3.4 billion TikTok views and sales up 300% year over year. ONE product that’s more than doubled Stanley’s total revenue.

Basically, every marketer’s dream. So, of course, we’ve got to break this down.

5 Genius Marketing Strategies for Small Business: How Stanley Mugs took Over the Internet

Here are the top FIVE marketing strategies I think we can steal from Stanley.

#1 Embrace Scarcity

In part because they weren’t sure of the demand, Stanley switched from a typical, large product order model to a collection release model, with limited stock in each drop.

(Stanley’s Global President Terence Reilly referred to this as a “sneakerhead” model, not unlike what he supervised at his old brand, Nike, where limited edition, limited-quantity shoe collaborations would create lines of hopeful buyers around the block.)

Without fail, each release sold out (still does!), and at its peak, the waitlist for new tumblers hit over 150,000 people.

Suddenly, just being able to buy the tumbler felt like a feat (!), so consumers rushed to purchase at every restock. (Purchasing as a privilege = every marketer’s dream.)

This also provided an easy angle and timestamp for the brand’s influencers to promote the product.(“Hurry, they just got restocked and won’t last long! Don’t think, just buy!”)

Each release also featured new, limited edition colors, planting the idea that the tumblers were collectible. Now, there’s a truly insane market for Stanley buy / sell / trade, with legions of women who own not one, but DOZENS of Stanley mugs, collect rare colors, and somehow need one for every possible daily beverage / life hack. (Thanks to our #longandweird reader Tara, for sending me this ridiculous video.)

Since when is a water bottle a collector’s item?! (Since marketing.)

Lesson #1.5? The easiest customer to convert is the one you already have.

#2 — Find Your People, then Market to Them

Stanley was originally marketing their tumblers to the same people who bought their other adventure / camping gear — mostly men.

However, The Buy Guide ladies argued that the customers most likely to buy were women (often teachers or nurses who needed a large, portable drink, or moms on the go who’d view the mug as a vital everyday accessory, not a piece of gear). They knew the specific segments of their own audience who’d most loved the mug.

Stanley redesigned their website, marketing, and color palette to reach their target market. The Buy Guide helped send an OG crew of influencers the new product. And boom, when they found + marketed to the right people, sales skyrocketed.

Lesson? Even great products fail in front of the wrong audience. (And when you market to everyone, you reach no one.)

Get extremely clear on who’s already buying your product, who you want it to reach, and what you’ll need to shift to reach them even better. (Our free Attract & Repel Guide is a great place to start!)

#3 Sell the Benefits, not the Product

Stanley’s main detractors have a few primary battle cries — “It’s $40 for a water bottle…that’s no different than any other mug? Why aren’t we freaking out about Yeti?!” But um, no other water bottle company’s sales are going up 300% year over year, and that’s because Stanley (and their host of influencers) know they’re marketing benefits, not product.

It helps that a water bottle is a “virtue purchase,” which you can easily justify based on the transformation it promises (“I’ll be a person who hydrates!”). But Stanleys also fit in your cup holder, come in aesthetic colors, feel great to hold, etc… (just a handful of the benefits you see devotees touting on TikTok.)

Lesson? Market like you’re the only one out there.

Stanley’s not busy explaining why they’re better or different than Yeti cups or how their handle is a little more ergonomic. (Their influencers do that for them!). Instead, they market like their product — which, again, is a water bottle — is revolutionary. And people believe it.

Sell your benefits, not your product.

#4 Make it a Gateway

You’ll notice a theme when you look through the #stanleymug TikTok tag (which, alone, has amassed over 34 million views): “I finally got it! I feel so cool now! Am I an influencer yet?”

When you’re buying a Stanley mug, you’re not just buying a tumbler — you’re buying into the aspirational community the NYT famously called The Sisterhood of the Stanley Tumbler.

You’re buying a keycard — a gateway to get on the same level as thousands of influential, stylish women whose calling card is currently a giant emotional support water bottle — and at $40, it’s far more accessible than the rest of their lifestyle.

Lesson? Create a community, not a product.

#5 Reward Your True Believers

There were three primary changes The Buy Guide women advised Stanley to make:

1) Redesign their website / customer experience (a great first step!)

2) Introduce new, trendy colors, and most of all

3) Start an affiliate program. (is affiliate marketing worth it? we say yes and here’s why!)

Stanley’s marketing exec, Terence Reilly, has gone on record saying the brand has almost no influencer partnerships budget. Instead, they seek to reward “true fans” who organically talk about the product with commissions.

Lesson? Authentic enthusiasm is priceless.

In 2023, UGC (or user-generated content) is one of the most powerful forms of marketing (92 of consumers say they trust it more than any other form of advertising), and when it’s used on your website / social media, can increase your conversions by over 6x.

(A few more stats:  51% of millennials trust word-of-mouth recommendations from strangers more than recommendations from friends and family — hello, TikTok! 74% of consumers decide what to buy based on social media posts.)

If you want to skyrocket your conversions, find the people who ALREADY love what you offer, incentivize them to create content, and reward them for it.

(Psst: TONIC has a fantastic affiliate program!)

What is Influencer Marketing?

When I was researching this article, I found a quote from The Buy Guide founder Linley Hutchinson that stopped me in my tracks.

Talking about Stanley’s affiliate / influencer marketing strategy, she said:

“That’s how people shop these days. We don’t have time to browse the internet. It’s so nice to be able to hop on social media and be told what to buy.”

I loved that. We’re all busy; we don’t have time to shop. We just want to KNOW what we’re purchasing is going to be good. We want to be told what to buy.

They want someone they trust to assure them their investment is going to pay off; they’re going to love the Stanley mug. They’re going to be the best, most-hydrated version of themselves.

When I look at the Stanley strategy, I don’t just see a strong influencer marketing push. To sum it up,

• They found the right market.
• They adapted to reach that market.
• They built a loyal fan base, then rewarded them for creating content.
• They turned that fan base into a community.
• They let their community tell everyone else to buy.

But if you take nothing else away from this piece, let it be these two genius marketing strategies:

1) Done right, marketing is powerful – it can literally bring a product back from the dead and turn it into a profit-generating machine. Holy crap.

2) There is nothing more powerful than letting your customer sell for you, in their own words. (And you should reward that).

Brb — need to refill my Stanley.

You can find the abbreviated version of this post here for easy sharing, and of course subscribe to our #longandweird newsletter for more genius marketing strategy breakdowns just like this one! 

The post 5 Genius Marketing Strategies: How Stanley Mugs Took Over the Internet appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

But, let’s unpack this power of affiliate marketing so you can see why we love it so much and how it’s totally possible to grow your affiliate income without the sales-y infomercial “ALWAYS BE CLOSING!” vibes.

If you’ve ever considered getting into affiliate marketing or have wondered “is affiliate marketing worth it?” keep on reading.

Disclosure: We’ve even included some of our own favorite affiliate links inside this post to show you our point of how easy and awesome affiliate marketing can be. And because their products are some of our faves. We may receive commission through purchases made with those links. And now you know…

Affiliate Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

When it comes to purchasing decisions, humans like to buy from people, and hearing someone you trust validate a purchasing decision triggers an emotional response powerful enough to overcome objections.

(Plus, if I say, “OMG, these jeans are the best I’ve ever owned, and they have magic 🍑 butt powers, I get so many compliments when I wear them that they are also now my pajamas — here’s the link!” what brand’s traditional marketing can compete with THAT?!)

What is Affiliate Marketing?

If you’ve been around the education / influencer / entrepreneurship industry for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of the concept of affiliate marketing.

By definition, “affiliate marketing” is just when someone (the affiliate) shares a product or service (often with a link or discount code) and then gets a commission / percentage of the sale if someone else purchases as a result.

It’s mostly passive income—it requires no start-up costs or special equipment—and it’s one of the fastest-growing industries, period.

Just take a look at these numbers:

+ By 2023 the affiliate marketing industry is expected to reach an estimated worth of $12 billion. (That number has tripled since 2015.)

+ 8 in 10 brands run an affiliate marketing program. (So, most of them.)

+ Affiliate marketing is responsible for a mind-blowing 16% of global e-commerce sales.

And we’re telling you that with no headache, doing what you’re likely already doing, you could be getting a major piece of that industry, adding a revenue stream, and generating life-changing passive income.

Affiliate marketing is an easy way to make money. 

(Think about it: what would an extra $1,000 a month do for you? Take care of your student loans? Ditch your credit card debt? Click add to cart on those dreamy Moyo stock images? Tell all your friends about how awesome TONIC templates are with [insert your affiliate link!] (Hint, you can earn extra income by showing off your sexy TONIC site by becoming a TONIC affiliate.) …. See what we did there? THAT’S affiliate marketing!

But before we tell you all about how to add another revenue stream, let’s get a few things straight about if affiliate marketing is worth it:

1. Affiliate marketing isn’t sleazy.

We know you’re likely wondering “is affiliate marketing even worth it?” and “is affiliate marketing legit?” because affiliate marketing gets an oddly bad rap.

(Maybe you’ve even Googled “is affiliate marketing a pyramid scheme?” after binging more too-good-to-be-true TikTok videos than you’d like to admit.)

The world seems to think affiliates are like a bunch of shady infomercial salesmen profiting on predatory marketing tactics, all very “Have I got a DEAL for YOU…”

In reality, done right, affiliate marketing is simply connecting people with products and services you think they might like or benefit from… and then giving them a personalized path to purchase.

It’s sending your friend a link to those jeans you think she’d look great in. 

It’s telling people about your favorite dish at that new restaurant. 

It’s sharing your way-better-than-expected experience at the eye doctor with the grocery store cashier.

(Well, maybe not that last one… we may just still be figuring out what our boundaries look like when it comes to conversation. But when we’re passionate about something, we just can’t help but TELL THE WORLD, okay?!)

Affiliate marketing is all about using your experience and influence to help interested people get stuff you like.

And why not make money while you’re doing it?

Here’s the thing — if you’re not actively affiliating for brands or products you love, you’re missing out on some serious money hanging out on the table. The truth is… you’re probably already an affiliate for something. You’re just not getting paid for it yet.

2. Affiliate marketing isn’t weird, and people WANT to be told what to do. (We like direction, not trial-and-error!)

As humans, we’re pack animals. We rely on others to provide information that validates our decisions — especially our purchasing decisions. (It’s why we assume the restaurant with the line out the door is probably going to be good.)

When your friend tells you their skin has never been better than with that serum, that’s an example of affiliate marketing. And you know what? It feels natural. 

You want that recommendation from your friend, and because she was the one to recommend it to you, you feel more confident in your decision to buy it, because you trust her.

And later, when you love it, too, you’re grateful your friend hooked you up. 

(And if she made a little kickback, all the better!)

Let’s normalize responsible affiliate marketing. It’s a win / win / win for affiliates, consumers, and brands.

3. Affiliate marketing can happen anywhere.

You don’t need a giant following to be a successful affiliate marketer. All you have to do to be a fantastic affiliate is use whatever platform you have to tell people about things you authentically like.

If you spend the most time interacting with your followers on Instagram, why not use it for affiliate marketing?

If your blog posts always get great traction when you pin them, affiliate marketing on Pinterest would be a success. 

If you have Mark Zuckerburg to thank for your engaged community, start affiliate marketing on Facebook.

4. Affiliate marketing isn’t complicated.

You don’t need a team.

You don’t need a background in sales.

You don’t need any special equipment.

These are the only things you need to make an affiliate income:

• A product or service you actually believe in
• Someone to share it with
• A piece of content about that product
• A place (or few) for that content to live. (Big news on that coming in our post this Friday!)

We’ve seen firsthand the power of affiliate marketing to transform a business and generate massive revenue —like we said earlier, it now accounts for almost 50% of our total sales — and we have friends, clients, and TONIC affiliates making hundreds of thousands / literal millions of dollars in affiliate revenue alone… the kind of people who have this down to a science.

So, we asked a few of those affiliate geniuses if they’d sit down with us and share their BEST tips for making affiliate income, and they said YES.

What do the experts have to say about affiliate marketing?

You can’t spell “affiliate marketing” without A-m-y P-o-r-t-e-r-f-i-e-l-d. She is quite literally the queen of online education, and has grown her ridiculously successful business by teaching business owners, entrepreneurs, and other educators the profitable action steps for building a highly engaged email list, creating and marketing online courses, and using online marketing strategies to help them sell with ease.

(Like we said. Queen.)

When we asked Amy her best tips for affiliate marketing—after we got over how freaking cool it is that Amy freaking Porterfield was willing to help us educate our audience, and after we did our embarrassing happy dance about it—she opened our eyes to the power of affiliate content with this golden nugget:

“Narrow your focus. Rather than spreading yourself thin trying to affiliate for a bunch of products and programs, pick just a handful to go all-in on, then create content for those products like they’re your own!”

— Amy Porterfield

It’s the ‘create content like the products are your own’ piece that gets us. This strategy allows you to truly integrate affiliate marketing into what you’re already creating, making it effortless and authentic to your brand. 

The next affiliate marketer we asked for advice was Graham Cochrane, aka Kajabi’s #1 affiliate. He quite literally brings in MILLIONS of dollars each year in affiliate revenue alone, solely by making helpful, valuable content on his email list, podcast, courses, and his YouTube channel.

Here’s what he told us:

“Think evergreen. The best affiliate content isn’t a one-off, disappearing Instagram story, but searchable content people can discover and purchase from over and over. Hint: Think about the questions you had when purchasing the product, then answer them on a searchable platform, like a blog, website, or YouTube.”

— Graham Cochrane

We absolutely love Graham’s advice about creating the content that people are actively searching for to take advantage of affiliate marketing. 

Not only will it get the product you’re promoting on the map, it’ll also get YOU and YOUR brand on the map. SEO is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?!

Quick TONIC tip before moving onto the advice from our next affiliate—who happens to be our top affiliate—about creating more searchable content: answering your community’s questions is THE best way to create content that they’ll both love and be able to easily find. 

(Next time you’re brainstorming which questions to answer, we recommend using Pinterest to figure it out. The predicted text that comes up under the search bar—aka the suggested terms that pop up in that box below it—indicate what the platform’s 400 million monthly users are searching for!)

Okay, now we’re ready to reveal the identity of that top affiliate we mentioned: none other than Jenna Kutcher, of course. 

If you know Jenna at all, you know that her being our top affiliate is the least shocking fact in the world, because she’s the top affiliate for EVERY affiliate program she’s in. 

When we asked her what she attributes her affiliate success to, this is what she told us:

“Go above and beyond. Instead of just using the content a brand provides, I create my own, more personal content (often a landing page on my website) that goes deeper explaining what I love about the product and how I use it. Sometimes I’ll even include a download or freebie to help my people enjoy it even more! It’s not just about pushing sales — it’s about sharing an experience.”

— Jenna Kutcher

(We recommend taking her advice very seriously. Maybe even getting it tattooed on your forehead.)

And as if that helpful hint weren’t enough, Jenna has also graciously agreed to contribute to our new (100% free!) resource about how to grow an extra income stream with affiliate marketing by sharing 4 more top-dog-level affiliate marketing tips, and believe us when we say… this info is  GOOOOD.

So good, in fact, that we actually can’t wait another second to share part of her expertise with you, so we’ve decided to go rogue and tell you our favorite tip with you here and now:

Create resources that can inform, serve, and live on forever.

Jenna’s co-authored blog posts with us, she’s written her own, she’s got a killer TONIC landing page on her site that goes DEEP talking about what she loves about the product and her favorite sites…  She’s had Jen on the podcast, we recorded a webinar together, and she even made this AMAZING youtube video talking about TONIC.

You see the common theme with all of this expert affiliate marketing advice, right?

→ Create searchable content. If your goal is to influence as many people as possible, so you can earn as much money as possible, you’ll want to get your content in front of as many eyes as possible.

→ Create lasting content. Quality content has no shelf life, and your earning potential has no limits. 

→ Create relevant content. Consider what your audience actually wants and needs before promoting something, and only recommend the products and resources you feel are actually relevant to your business and your community.

We love this advice from our friend and affiliate Kaitlyn Parker of Copy Uncorked:

“Choose aligned affiliate partnerships and then thread those products through every part of your customer journey. When your affiliate relationships are easily integrated into your brand, you can offer them at multiple customer touchpoints. That familiarity increases sales!”

— Kaitlyn Parker

Just like she said, it’s all about aligned partnerships that feel familiar. It makes sense for her to recommend TONIC products to her audience, because they all need design. It’s a completely organic partnership, and Kaitlyn recommending design feels like a natural progression of everything else she’s already talking to them about. 

When your community knows that you respect them, and that you’d only recommend something you’re certain they’ll love, affiliate marketing is so easy.

Ready to learn more about how to grow your affiliate income promoting the brands you use, love, and trust?

Curious about the do’s and don’ts of affiliate marketing in the era of AI, Tiktok, and (healthy) internet skepticism?

Check out our Affiliate Marketing Masterclass, where you’ll learn how to steer clear of icky affiliate marketing and automate your way to sales success.

Whether you’re hoping to earn extra income by becoming a TONIC affiliate or promoting another brand you love, we’re so excited to help you learn more about how to become a killer affiliate marketer. 

With the help of some of the major affiliate marketing powerhouses—aka the experts who know everything about how to make money with (authentic, aligned) affiliate marketing—we’ve created a fantastic new, free 3-day email / video resource you do NOT want to miss. You can find all the details right here!

(Consider it a mini affiliate marketing course, fo’ free. You’re gonna love it. And so will your biz bank account.)

Or maybe you want to skip the whole learning part and go straight to the doing?

We’re cool with that, too—and we have just the thing for the perfect affiliate shop page to add to your website.

The post Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It? appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

Two years ago, email marketing was my least favorite thing I did for our business. And it definitely wasn’t generating a giant chunk of our revenue.

In fact, while I knew we “had to have an email list” because blah blah, there’s no algorithm, you don’t have to dance and point in the inbox, etc., I could never think of anything to write about and thus, either sent NO emails or hated what we did send. Fun!

But then something magical happened.

One day, during the first of 19385 days in quarantine, I was bored. And instead of writing our typical “5 quick ways to make your website better!” email, I got distracted by our ugly email signature and wrote this weirdly long, random, not at ALL marketing-y email about procrastination, email signatures, and Nick Miller from New Girl (weirdly hot, right?).

It didn’t look pretty, there were 0 buttons, no fancy email newsletter layout—but it was fun to write (I’d kind of forgotten I love to write), it made me laugh, and it was sort of helpful? So I hit send and walked away.

And… holy crap. I never expected the response I’d get. 

As it turns out, everyone ELSE was *also* bored in quarantine, procrastinating, hated their email signatures, needed to discuss Nick Miller, and wanted something funny to read?

Our inbox *exploded.*

And in that one moment, our entire approach to email marketing changed. Heck, our entire business model — and revenue — changed. Our boring sales emails transformed into a famous (kinda weird) newsletter responsible for generating multiple 7-figures in two years. 

Email is now THE most powerful tool in our business. It’s also the most enjoyable.

It went from a chore I dreaded to the highlight of my week (And many of our #longandweird subscribers’ weekly highlight, too. 🤗)

And when we finally decided to use our email newsletter to sell, it WORKED.

& even better? Writing content for our subscribers feels easy, now that we know our audience is much more interested in real-life rambles than the perfect, curated “tips and tricks” that they’re bombarded with on every other marketing platform. 

If I have a weird experience at the grocery store? Newsletter. That time I got stuck in Panama? Newsletter. Crazy pest control guy? Newsletter.

(“I bet THIS is going in the newsletter!” = a phrase I hear a lot!)

Everything suddenly turned into email newsletter content in my mind, and TONIC has been reaping the rewards ever since—so I figured it’s time for me to share the “how to” of it all, since so far all I’ve done is tell you what not to do.

In our last post, I showed you a little bit about how it worked, but now I want to walk you through the strategy involved.

So, you want to stop writing boring emails (and fall in love with email marketing for good)?

Then you’ll have to ditch the digital marketer jail. 

You know, that place you land when you don’t send enough giant buttons or calls to action or spotlights on that one product you’re dying for your audience to buy. 

Instead, you’ll have to venture off into the world of the unknown and consider writing what you actually want to say, because chances are, your subscribers are as sick of the typical marketing content as you are. 

No one wants to read the email you think you should write; they want to hear what you really think, what you bought, that embarrassing story, what you’re learning, experiencing, hating, feeling… 
They want the details that create memorable, relatable personal connections.

5 Ways To Write Email Newsletters and Keep Your Readers Engaged

#1 – TELL BETTER STORIES

My simple, yet absolute holy grail advice for great emails? Start telling great stories.

Here’s why: no matter how busy your audience is, they’ll make time for great stories.

Sure, they may be extremely overbooked and stressed out, but they’ll welcome the distraction—because stories stick, and stories connect.

They get retold, passed down, and ultimately, remembered. (Um, Super Bowl commercials have a giant budget for a reason.)

One of my favorite studies shows that messages delivered as stories are twenty two times as memorable as facts. 

Not to get all science-y on you, but when we read a good story, our brains actually release oxytocin (the happy bonding hormone) which means suddenly, we CARE about the people involved.

This is why every-politician-ever invents a story about “little Rhonda from Iowa” when they really just want to make a point about, like, corn zoning laws. 

If you want people to read your emails, stop making them READ and start making them CARE by telling a story.

Your email newsletter subscribers don’t care nearly as much about “ways to grow your affiliate income” as they do about that time you arrived in Paris with only a breast pump to your name.

Email feels like a chore, stories feel like a break.

#2 – GET PERSONAL

Here’s a secret about email that most big brands have yet to figure out: we almost never want to read an email from a brand (anyone else immediately send them straight to Trash?) but we DO want to get letters from our friends. 

That means that all you have to do to stand out from 99% of marketing emails is make things more personal.

People want to connect with people. And people want to buy from people. 

I’m sure you’ve experienced this phenomenon in your own life plenty of times. Don’t you feel so much better about your purchase when you know exactly who your money is supporting?

(Do I suddenly feel like I’m saving the world one mom-and-pop shop at a time when I #ShopLocal on Small Business Saturday? Absolutely yes, I do.) 

Marketing in your email newsletters shouldn’t feel like marketing if you care about helping your subscribers get to know you—not your brand, YOU.

Email is the best place for building authentic connections, because of the nature of how the content is delivered; it’s a one-on-one conversation inside their inbox.

So, treat it as such, and email the kind of content only you can create: interesting, funny, breezy, casual, vulnerable, thoughtful, personal. 

The content that comes from your life and your story and your experiences will perform much better—and will foster deeper connections with your community—than any traditional email from a brand ever could.

(No one would read my emails if they came from Tonic Site Shop, but now thousands upon thousands of people open all of my #longandweirds because it comes from Jen.)

#3 – WRITE THE KIND OF EMAIL YOU’D ACTUALLY WANT TO READ

If you wouldn’t want to read your emails, why would anyone else?

When I hated email, this was the issue. I knew *I* wouldn’t have wanted what I was sending, therefore I wasn’t motivated about sending the content at all. My heart wasn’t in it, because I knew their eyes wouldn’t be on it. 

It was boring. 

If you’re gonna take up space in someone’s inbox, add value. 

When you email just to email—or worse, just to sell something—your subscribers’ interest starts to wane off, until they eventually X out and move onto the next just-like-everyone-else brand taking up space in their inbox.

But when you provide something insightful, inspirational, informational, inspiring, or—our personal favorite—entertaining,  you’re able to capture (and keep!) their attention much easier. 

Remember: there are no specific rules to follow to write the best email newsletter for your business. You don’t have to do what all the other brands are doing. 

(And, just in case you haven’t caught on by now, we’re telling you that you shouldn’t.)

Simply follow your interests and create the content you’d actually like to consume, and it’ll magically make you want to create more!

→ Quick tip before we move on: if you want to write better emails, start with reading better emails. My personal favorites are from Laura Belgray, Cole Schafer, and James Clear.

#4 – STOP WRITING LIKE A WEIRD ROBOT HUMAN

I know, sorry, I’m calling you out, but honestly, would you EVER say “I have an exciting new offer to share with you, Jennifer!” to a friend across the table at a coffee shop?

(I sure hope not.) 

Instead, what you’d probably say is something more like “ahhh Jen! I’ve been working on this for month and it’s FINALLY here!” 

But, for some odd reason, as soon as most people feel like they need to be “professional” they turn into weird, impersonal robots writing stiff, awkward (boring) phrases they’d NEVER say in real life.

#5 – START IN THE MIDDLE

Most boring emails start out the same way:

“Hi Jennifer, I want to tell you about something crazy that happened this week. I could hardly believe it!”

Nope, sorry. All of that copy is unnecessary, and I’m already bored. 

Try this instead:

“Hey, Jen! My friend Alex has a habit of befriending random bartenders, and sometimes it gets her everyone in trouble. This was one of those times…”

You want to see how that story ends, right?

No one wants to hear about the story you’re going to tell—don’t make them unwrap the Amazon packaging to get to the product.

By starting in the middle of the story, you’ll be able to hook your reader’s attention so they can’t WAIT to read on and find out what happens.

I always go back to this favorite copywriting tip: “if they don’t read your first line, they won’t read your second one, either.” And that 100% applies to writing email newsletters; capturing attention immediately is the only way you’ll get them to keep reading. 

And speaking of…

RE: How To Write Email Newsletter Subject Lines

Getting your subscribers to open your email newsletters is just as important as getting them to read them all the way through, and that responsibility falls on the shoulders of your subject lines. 

With limited space—41 characters total, but 16 characters being the optimum amount for conversion—you don’t have much to work with in terms of convincing your subscribers to open your emails, so every word counts. 

But that’s not a problem for you anymore, now that you know that (pretty much) all you have to do is put yourself in your reader’s shoes & consider what would make YOU want to open an email.

(“Um, Jen, do you have any more concrete tips than that?”)

According to email marketing powerhouse Mailchimp, the best subject lines are short, descriptive, personalized (use the reader’s first name!), limit punctuation, and use emojis carefully.

Thanks, Mailchimp. My less-confusing tip? Open a curiosity loop.

Almost all of our most effective subject lines have one thing in common — your brain HAS to know what happens next.

For example, a recent SL that crushed it for us?

“Start with a dead body?”

Think of the sheer number of questions your brain generates after reading that.

Start what?

Who’s dead?

Why is this a question? This hasn’t been decided?

Why is Jen talking about murder in a Friday email?

Scientists have found that when confronted with something that creates curiosity, your brain actually releases increased dopamine (the pleasure chemical) and there are increased pathways to the reward center of your brain that go off when you find the “answer,” and triggers the hippocampus, which leads to increased memory for whatever you’re discovering. 

Simply put, your brain literally THRIVES when it’s following curiosity. Open a curiosity loop in your subject line and people can’t help but find out more.

RE: How To Send An Email Newsletter

Alright, alright, alright — now you know how to: tell better stories, get personal, write the kind of email you’d actually want to read, stop writing like a weird robot human, and start in the middle.

Now it’s time to get your stories out into the world! Our go-to for anyone looking to get started with email marketing is Flodesk. We hate designing marketing emails because let’s be real, it’s hard to make email newsletters look pretty. And then FloDesk came in and saved the day by making email easy and pretty. We call that a win-win! Tonic Regulars save 50% with this link.

RE: Email Newsletter Examples

Subscribe to get more non-boring email newsletters delivered to your inbox 😏 Or, if you can’t wait til our next #longandweird goes out, read the series that started it all, Jennifer In Paris, right here!

The post How To Write Email Newsletters Your Audience Wants To Read appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.

Random sign I saw on the street? Newsletter.

Cricket in my garage? Newsletter. 

Getting chewed out by a stranger over text who thought I was a scammer? Newsletter. 

Running into former Etiquette teacher at an event and her asking me—at age 18—to spit my gum out into her hand? You better believe I was both dying of embarrassment and dying to tell our subscribers all about it. (That story is the perfect depiction of why I’ve chosen to officially title the TONIC newsletter #longandweird)

And today, I’m going to teach you how to do it, too.

How To Use Storytelling Marketing In Your Small Business

#1 – Stop using “nothing exciting happens to me” as an excuse

You don’t need fascinating, extraordinary stories to write the memorable, story-driven content that will inspire connection (and drive insane engagement + revenue).

In fact, the most mundane, seemingly random situations can be turned into A+ marketing content for your brand.

Actually, they often make the BEST content, because—guess what?!—everyone else’s lives are pretty normal and mundane, too.

It’s much easier for someone to relate to you and connect with you over a trip to the grocery store gone wrong than a first-class flight to Dubai.

All you need to do to capture their interest is learn how to mine the so-called “boring” stuff for the engagement gold.

#2 – Learn how storytelling is used for content marketing

Mastering how to tell great stories is one of the BEST skills you can learn as a marketer, because storytelling is everywhere in marketing. 

In fact, I’d even argue that storytelling is the most authentic, effective organic marketing strategy to use to get more sales.

Because, as I said, people can effortlessly resonate with stories.

In other words: stories don’t take extra effort to consume, because people like reading them. They’re entertained by them. They want to spend their free time reading about your awkward run-in with that flight attendant, or the time you excitedly waved to someone you thought was your friend, or the way your dentist responded when you told him how often you flossed. 

It’s the same reason content creators have skyrocketed to celebrity-level success. People love to hear about what happens in other people’s lives.

It’s human nature to be nosy.

And it’s smart marketing to capitalize on that, in order to build real connections with your audience.

#3 – Tap into the “everything can be content” mentality

If you read my recent post about how to stop writing boring emails, you’d know this already, but that ‘everything can be content’ mentality is actually what made me fall in love with marketing again.

I’d been painfully tired of all the typical salesy, impersonal stuff, and decided to try something different—aka writing what I actually *wanted* to write about—and when my audience loved it (to my utter surprise, given how mundane it was) I knew I’d tapped into my ability to transform anything into a solid piece of content marketing.

Our Top 5 Storytelling Marketing Examples

Want to see how I transformed our audience’s “boring” stories into killer examples of effective storytelling used in everyday marketing?

After I posted what I had no idea would turn into part one of a 3-part series about content writing tips—this plea for people to stop writing boring emails—I received an overwhelming amount of DMs asking “But, Jen, HOW?! My life is BORING!” 🥴

…to which I responded: challenge accepted. 

Storytelling Marketing example #1: Finger bowl

The example that started it all was this one from Jen Madigan, a virtual assistant for creatives. As soon as she tagged me in her story (see below), I knew I had to try helping her relate it back to her business.

First, tell the story:

“Before Jen’s mussels came, the waiter put the finger bowl (to wash her hands) down in front of her along with a spoon (?) and said “It’s hot!” and literally nothing else (?), and it was all very confusing. So, she drank it.”

Then, relate it back to your business, by connecting the situation to a common feeling.

In this case, I chose to relate the ‘finger bowl’ to a common frustration for Jen’s clients: figuring out how to manage all of their tasks. 

“I think we’ve ALL been in a situation like this in our business … where we’re faced with a piping hot “finger bowl” of a problem to solve or a complicated project to make happen with random tools and NO directions or help in sight.

That’s where I come in. I’m the friend sitting next to you saying, “Hey, I think that’s for your fingers?” I’m HERE to help you figure out the problems, the systems, the next step you need to get where you need to go… (even if that’s just to another restaurant where things make sense.)”

This is where the ‘everything is content’ mentality kicks in. 

I wasn’t focused on the actual story—although it is quite embarrassing, I feel for ya, Jen—as much as I was focused on finding a common denominator between the storyteller herself and her audience.

Once you look for meaning in the story, identify an element of symbolism, and figure out a way to relate that back to your readers, you’ll transform into a storytelling expert in no time.

Let’s look at a few more examples…

Storytelling Marketing example #2: The Life-Changing Massage

You know who else finds it hard to rest?

NEW MOTHERS. What do they need? Someone who gets that to deliver them meals and help them + their bodies rest and heal!

First, tell the story about redoing the bedroom when you had a cold. Then transition to something like this: (You could substitute the “Erin” part for anything that led you to what you do now!)

“Honestly, I’ve never been great with rest. It’s incredibly hard for me to just be still. I need to stay active — in control. But after my daughter was born, something kind of magical happened:

My friend Erin stopped by my house. She brought me a delicious, nourishing, healing meal. She washed my dishes. She made me lie on the couch — for twenty long whole freaking minutes! — while she gave me a life-changing massage.

I cried. And I knew. This was what I wanted to do. For other women like me. For women who need help, encouragement, and permission to rest.”

Storytelling Marketing example #3: Small lights, big problems.

Notice anything here? Giant plane = business . Tiny LED landing light = makes all the difference in the world.

First, tell the story (here’s a short version):

“I’m writing this from the waiting area of gate 35E, where my flight has just been delayed four hours because of a LED landing light approximately the size of my pinky toe.

Yep. Hundreds of people, grounded, fighting crappy wifi because of one little light..”

You get the idea. Then transition to universal:

“I couldn’t help but think of how similar this is to business… how many entrepreneurs have absolutely NO idea what’s working for them— what’s driving the most leads, bringing in the most revenue — and how to find the teeny-tiny things flat-out malfunctioning.

Thankfully, that’s where we come in…”

Storytelling Marketing example #4: A Cat Licking An Eyeball

I know what you’re thinking: 

“This isn’t possible. You can’t possibly turn this into an example of good storytelling in marketing.”

Oh, yes I can.

Because this isn’t a story about a cat licking an eyeball. This is a story about how we Google random things when we REALLY need expert help. 

(Something we’ve all done, right? Which is your clue it’s a great, universal story!)

So, first, tell the story about the cat, then relate it back to how you can help them.

“I get asked a lot what I do… and honestly, sure, there’s a creative part of my job, but really, I’m the person who can save you from panic 1am Google-searching “Best times for wedding ceremony” and “Which side does the boutonniere go on!?” I’m the person who knows exactly when to cut the cake, the only DJ that doesn’t suck…

Heck, I’m now the person who knows you can’t get pinkeye from your cat.”

Storytelling Marketing example #5: Dancing

This isn’t (just a story) about dancing. It’s a story about doing something you love, and yet still having NO IDEA what the hell you’re doing.

First, tell the story, then make it universal.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how many times I’ve felt like this in my writing. Like I’ve done this before, I “should” know all the steps, and then suddenly I’m back to square one with no idea what comes next, hanging upside down while someone screams at me to UNDULATE!

Surely I’m not alone in this?

Here’s what I’ve learned to do when that happens… (you know, after Googling ‘DEFINE UNDULATE.’)”

You get the idea by now, right?

Storytelling Marketing Tips and Tricks

Here’s how you can use what you learned from these examples of storytelling in your own business:

• Ask yourself: Is there a part of your story / experience / feeling that your audience might relate to? Is it similar to something they’ve experienced, too? Take the specific and make it universal!
• Consider how this story might relate to what you do / a problem your reader has / a benefit you provide in your business / a customer case study / a new service or offer.
• After telling your story, always pivot back to your reader. Even if the story is about you, the outcome is about them. This is where you add value, provide application, expert help, or position yourself / your offer as a solution to what they need or desire.

Now, go practice and write great story content—and make sure you subscribe to our #longandweird newsletter to see all the things I transform into relevant stories to teach you more about design, marketing, and more. 

Want to catch our 3-part series on writing engaging, story-driven content and my theory that almost anything can become great marketing content?

✔️ Part 1 – Stop Writing Boring Emails here

✔️ Part 2 – Boring Story Great Content

✔️ Part 3 – People Buy Stories

(And, side note, if you want to be featured in potential future blog posts like this – follow along with us on Instagram here!)

The post Storytelling Marketing Sells: How to Use Storytelling to Write Better Content in 2024 appeared first on Tonic Site Shop.