Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses email (generally newsletters) to help you engage with your customers and potential customers. Ideally, a good email marketing campaign will help drive sales, increase awareness, and build loyalty. MailChimp is one email service provider (ESP), but there are many others out there. Regardless of who you choose, a good ESP should allow you to build and manage your email lists, provide a variety of templates, send your email, and track analytics to help you refine your messaging.

1. Build a Good List

The first step in creating an email marketing campaign is to build a solid list of subscribers. We all know that everyone gets too much email these days. That's why you need to ensure that people you're sending to have chosen to hear from you, which in the email marketing biz is called "opting in." This means someone signed up for your newsletter either on your website, via your Facebook page, or even by adding their name to a good old-fashioned paper list at a craft or trade show.

Automatically adding all of your past customers to your email list is a big no-no, as is buying lists. Remember, the goal is to create a list of people who want to hear from you. It's way better to have 50 people say "Hooray!" and do a happy dance when they see your store name in their inbox than to have 500 people spilling coffee on their keyboards in their haste to hit the delete button. A solid list of subscribers translates to higher open rates (meaning, people actually opened and read your message) and higher click-through rates, which means they clicked on links to your items - yay! Like many things in life, email lists are more about quality rather than quantity.

So how do you get those all-important email addresses? Simple: You need to let people know you have an email newsletter to subscribe to! Here's a few ways to do that:

• Your website or blog: If you have a website or a blog, you should make it easy for people to sign up for your newsletter right on the homepage. When selecting your email service provider, make sure they provide code to easily drop a sign-up widget on your website that will integrate with your list. Also make sure to set expectations as to what they'll be receiving, like, "Sign up for a monthly newsletter featuring our latest products!" or some such.
• Your Facebook site: Same is true for Facebook. If they "like" you on Facebook, they'll love hearing from you via newsletters, right? Make it easy for them to sign up here as well using a widget.
• Twitter: Tweeting an occasional reminder that you have an email list should garner a few more subscribers, especially if you give followers a peek at the kind of content you produce. Example Tweet: "Sign up for our newsletter to receive discounts and special offers on our summer products at supercoolnewsletter.com."
• Events: Etsy sellers ABS (Always Be Selling). That means that in addition to running your online shop, you're likely doing craft shows, farmers markets, summer fairs, etc. There are a few ways to collect email addresses at a live event, the tried-and-true being a clipboard with a sign-up sheet and pen. This works, but then you have to enter all those email address into your list. Another option is to use something like MailChimp's Chimpadeedoo, which allows people to add themselves to your list via an iPad or Android.
• On Etsy: Etsy's About page for sellers is a great place to add a link to your email sign-up page. You can also include a link to a sign-up page in your Shop Announcement and Message to Buyers. Again, don't just automatically add customers to your list; always make sure you have their consent.
• Share! Make it easy for your subscribers to share your newsletters via social share buttons and a "Send to a friend" link. Most ESP providers make it easy to do so, since these days everyone's sharing content like animal cookies in kindergarten.

2. Create Great Content

When producing your newsletter, always keep your business goals in mind. Are you running a holiday promotion to increase sales? Consider making the promotion the centerpiece of the newsletter, or at least make sure to prominently feature the promo code. Want to showcase your new products? Mention "new products" in the newsletter subject line, and include lots of cool photos of your new stuff. Craftmonkey is an app that integrates with MailChimp and makes the process of including pictures and product descriptions to a simple newsletter super easy. Plus? The logo is a sock monkey. Hello, cute!

Your other goals may include increasing your connection with your customers, establishing yourself as a subject matter expert in your field, or letting people know about an upcoming event. Here are a few more ideas to help you get started. And if a particular story is too long for a newsletter, you can always link out to your site or blog and encourage people to read it there:

• Latest products: Everyone likes to see what's new and fresh.
• Behind-the-scenes: If you have an interesting story to share, people will want to read it. How do you make your products? How did you get started?
• Video: Don't be afraid to experiment with using video - sometimes adding a little clip or even a Vine video can go a long way in communicating who you are.
• Events and promotions: Going to be someplace where people can meet you in the flesh? Let folks know via your newsletter! You can even segment your list and target your newsletter to subscribers in that area. Word.

Elle Dee Designs uses a newsletter to share highlights from her blog, as well as a "Featured Product of the Day.

3. Build Your Brand, Be Yourself, Spread Cheer!

When designing a newsletter, you want to make sure it reflects you and your company in a way that's consistent with your other branding efforts - including your logo, packaging, websites, and, of course, your Etsy shop. Most email service providers offer a wide variety of templates that you can use to select certain color palettes and styles. If you can upload and add your existing logo, even better.

The most important thing to keep in mind about email marketing is to communicate like a human being, not a robot. Someone's inbox is a pretty intimate place to be (especially considering over 50% of adult Americans sleep with their phones!) Treat your subscribers with the respect they deserve and show them how much you appreciate their attention. If you send newsletters with well-written, interesting content that reflects who you are while providing real value, you and your subscribers are bound to be EFFs (email friends forever!)