How to build a story bank & never run out of email ideas

If the idea of sending a weekly email to your list overwhelms you a little, you’re not alone. Just one email a week means you have to come up with 52 new ideas every year to keep things fresh and exciting.

Fifty freakin’ two ideas!!!

And that’s just the nurture emails 💀

When I first started my email list, I’ll admit, I panicked too. I mean, on top of ALL the other things I have to think of and keep track of on a weekly basis, there’s no way I could think of something new every week to write about, right?

Wrong (thank goodness).

Turns out, coming up with a topic for each email isn’t as difficult or tricky as I initially assumed it would be. And realizing that my everyday life actually provided the majority of my email content without even TRYING? …That just made it even easier.

It all comes down to keeping a story bank, which is exactly what I’m going to talk about with this post.

So if you’ve already got an email list and you’re struggling with figuring out what to write… 

Or you’re procrastinating on even starting one because it just seems too overwhelming and you don’t want to commit…

Keep reading 😎

You’ll learn what a story bank is, the things I keep track of when I have an idea (so I don’t forget the whole point I wanted to make), and where I grab story ideas from in the first place.

What’s a story bank?

Just like you keep your money nice and safe in a bank account, a story bank is where you keep your ideas nice and safe until you’re ready to use them. Instead of relying on your memory when it comes time to whip out a story, it ensures you’ll always have content to pull from. Because let’s be honest, relying on your memory when you’re under pressure doesn’t always go well!

But it’s as simple as that: an ongoing list of ideas so you’re never left desperately trying to pull something out of your ass. 

I like to keep my story bank on the Notes app on my phone. Since I always have this addictive little device with me, I know it’ll always be handy when I need to write an idea down.

Other ways to keep this little story collection safe:

-Notetaking phone app of your choice 
-A portable pocket notebook and pen
-Google doc (accessible from the phone too, yes!)
-Voice memos (to be transferred to a larger, non-portable notebook)
-Post-it notes and a dedicated wall space
-A dry erase board out of reach of any danger (dog tails, children’s hands, etc.)

Non-reliable ways to store your ideas:
-Your memory

Once you’ve decided your preferred way to jot ideas down, the next step is to… actually jot them down 😉

Why it’s easy to build it

As an entrepreneur, it’s likely your brain is always kind of “on.” No matter how much you try to turn it off and just enjoy life, it’s always in sleep mode, just waiting to be reactivated by the smallest motion that kicks it into gear.

While this kind of sucks at times, it’s also the reason building your story bank doesn’t have to be hard. You never have to sit down and dedicate an hour here and there to figure out what story ideas to put in it.

It grows naturally as you live life, doing what you do best: thinking, creating, resting, innovating, marketing, writing, collaborating, etc. 

Before you begin adding ideas to your story bank though, make sure you have a clear idea of WHAT you talk about when writing to your email list. 

What kind of topics does your target audience need to know more about? What topics are you skilled at and ready to give insights and value on? 

For me, it’s email copywriting, storytelling, entrepreneurship, wellness, mindset… So my stories will always relate to those.

And with those specific areas in mind, I start to pay a little more attention to the things happening in my day-to-day life, ready to identify when something touches on my key topics. (More info on that in the last section though 😉)

The things you should keep track of (it’s not JUST the ideas)

Have you ever taken notes during a workshop or a course, only to look back and think, “what the hell does this even mean?”

The same will happen with your story bank if you don’t take a moment to note some important pieces of info along with your idea. Writing something like, “two bluebirds flying past the window” is only going to leave you confused when you try to remember why on earth you even wrote that down.

So once I’ve identified an idea I want to dig into later, here’s what I write down:
-The idea for my emails
-What happened that sparked the idea
-How I felt 
-Key takeaway

Here’s a peek into what I had written for a past story idea (yes, this is actually from my story bank!):

-Why you need a welcome sequence
-My experiences when going to my friend’s party (meeting her kid, standing without knowing anyone, meeting someone I had heard my friend talk about…)
-Nervous at first, then relieved, then content and welcomed
-Your email opt-in is like an invitation to your party. When someone signs up, they’re excited to get your emails (or come to the “party”)... but what if they’re left hanging with nothing to welcome them? Etc.

After writing this blog post about the importance of having a welcome sequence, I was able to pull in a recent experience I had attending my friend’s party. It was the perfect way to make the topic relatable and drive people to my blog, where they found helpful tips they could use right away.

I was also able to use this story idea to write a couple posts on LinkedIn (like this one) as well! Yay for repurposing story ideas 🙌🏻

So… Where do you get ideas from?

Would you be mad if I said, literally anywhere? Heh

But in all seriousness, literally… anywhere.

Once you have the idea of building up your story bank in the back of your mind, you’ll find you start identifying moments throughout your week (or even daily!) that would make for damn good email stories. 

To help you get the brain juices flowing, here’s where I typically pull mine from:
-Inspiring ideas or quotes from podcast episodes
-Random thoughts I’ve had while walking
-”Trail wisdom” …life and biz-related moments that can be connected to experiences while hiking 
-Conversations or exchanges I’ve witnessed out in public
-Famous quotes I agree or disagree with
-Common topics in areas that I’ve had my own experiences with (perfectionism, imposter syndrome, not giving myself a break…)
-Inspiration from other people’s emails or posts (not copying, of course… but talking about what I read and why I agree, disagree, why it’s helpful, unhelpful, etc.)
-Song lyrics or emotions experienced when listening to songs
-Takeaways from coffee chats I’ve had with fellow entrepreneurs
-Struggles I’ve had and what I learned from them
-Successes I’ve experienced and what I did to reach them

I could seriously go on forEVER (and I’ve got more listed in this past post too!)

But I hope this starts to give you an idea of how you really CAN pull ideas from anywhere.

Here’s an example before I end this post. During one of my regular forest walks, I came across two men. The first was friendly and conversational. The second literally went out of his way to avoid crossing my path on the trail 😂

What would normally be a random occurrence sparked an idea in my entrepreneurial mind: just like on the trail, I’m not going to be for everyone when it comes to my business either (no matter how helpful and charming I am!). There will be people that appreciate what I do… and people who avoid me like the plague. And I was able to use this insightful moment as the topic of an email (which you can actually read here)!

See? 

When you start opening your mind to pay more attention to what’s going on in your life, you’ll find there’s a lot more worth writing about than you may have originally thought!

So are you excited to start your story bank? Do you already have some ideas you can pop in there? Let me know below!

And when it comes time to turn those ideas into fleshed-out story-driven emails, you’ll find this free guide helpful. It’s got 7 actionable steps to take you from story bank to writing engaging emails to hitting send… all in bite-sized chunks made for taking action! 

Rather stick to the stories and have someone else do the writing for you? Say no more!

Let’s chat and see how I can support your biz with kickass story-driven emails. 

Start a convo (I’m nice, I promise!)