797: What’s ACTUALLY Working For Email Marketing In 2024

25:20Build that into the welcome sequence. Continue that process. So then in the end, you're going to have this incredibly passionate group of email subscribers. And it doesn't need to be this massive vanity metric of tens of thousands of followers to make a huge impact on your business. 100 email subscribers that want to hear from you will fuel your business far more than a thousand on social media who never see your content. I guarantee you that right now. And that's what's so amazing to me about email marketing. I know we've all heard that like stat of like, you know, one email subscriber should be an extra dollar revenue per month.

25:56And I would argue if you are consistently serving them, right? Like there, there has to be something to that. But I think what's so beautiful is like if a listener was just to imagine what an extra$100 would look like for them each month, or what an extra$1 ,000 would look like. It really gamifies email list building in a beautiful way of like, how can I add value in such a way that people are excited to give me their email address? How can I show up and serve in a beautiful way? And then how can I provide invitations for the logical next steps for these people? And it totally shifts out of this feeling of like we often can feel on social media where it's like screaming to the masses and like, I hope the right person sees this and I hope that they take action on this.

26:42And I hope that they click the link in the bio and then they get off of this and take the next step. And it's like this more frictionless opportunity to connect on such a higher level that the like energetic exchange, it just feels different to me. It feels like, it just feels like such a breath of fresh air in a world where I think we've become curious and cautious about how we're being sold to in a way of like, I can actually speak to you because I know something about you that gives me the ability to actually serve you in the way that you are hopefully desiring to be served. And I'm giving you an opportunity to RSVP to an invitation and you can say yes or no.

27:23And there's no emotion involved, right? I will still keep serving you if you say no. And if you say yes, that's amazing. And I just like, to me, I think it's what so many of us are craving, especially like heart-centered entrepreneurs who are doing the things they love and can't believe they're fortunate to get paid to do them. It just changes the exchange. I love that you called it energetic exchange because it is exactly that. And then what's craziest is that right now the mainstream adoption of AI means that we're going to go even more robotic, right? Like a lot of email marketing companies are already enabling AI generated content, right?

28:04Like you're going to start receiving newsletters that were AI generated. E-mail marketing companies are already creating these like list growth strategies. I was just looking at one of them where someone joins your list and then it recommends other lists to join. And these subscribers are worth one 10th of an actual organic subscriber, right? So in a world where we're headed towards these like AI powered content, right? Newsletters are going to start feeling like ads and guess what happens right at the beginning? Sure. Maybe it works right for a few months. But what happened on social media, people start getting ad savvy.

28:40And then all they want is a real you, right? All they want is a real recommendation. Is it behind the scenes? It's a messy and your focus on really like the energetic exchange, the true, like there's a human being on the side of the screen. There's a human being on that other side of the screen to me is what is going to define the most successful newsletters in the future, period, right? It's not human. It's that people aspect. Yeah. You know, it's interesting as in our most recent launch, we did something we haven't done in the past because oftentimes we're dealing with a high volume of people.

29:12And I was like, we're talking about the power of email marketing. Let's show it. So we actually had in the email, hit reply and let us know. And we had something of a call to action. And then we were able to have these one-on-one conversations with people. And I was like, this is how this works. We are literally illustrating this at a massive scale that is requiring beautiful manpower, but creating space for real connection. And I just loved that pivot because I was like, I want to like literally, hi, it's me. Like I am here and you are there. And I know that. And the fact that you hit reply means I get to hit reply.

29:51And like, again, it's just like it is, it's just such a different thing. And I think that so many people listening are burned out by strategies that kind of take off and then fizzle. And I love what you said, Martha, about the fact that like, there's so much tried and trueness with email marketing. Because on my webinar, somebody asked me, well, what has changed the most in the last 10 years? And I sat there like stumped for a minute. And I was like, you know what? Nothing really has changed in a beautiful way. And so it is unwiring that constant need for changing and trends and things and like getting to the heart of it, which also means that entrepreneurs can create systems around how this works for them and how they write and what that flow looks like and imagining that person, you know, getting this week by week.

30:40And it just, there's so much beauty in it. And I think that some people hear it and they're like, this is going to be hard and it's going to be a grind and it's not as sexy as social. And I think it's way sexier if you ask me. What I'm so passionate about with Flowdesk and why I recommend it to everyone is it's beautiful. I mean, let's just give a shout out to female founders who actually put time and effort and care into what things look like. And I've heard arguments in the past of like, email marketing can't be pretty and effective. And so I kind of want to hear the argument on that because I've actually seen that to not be true.

31:15And so it's like, let's just smell that meant? Yeah. Okay. So it was true, right? I think where there's smoke, there was fire, right? I don't know. ESL. So I think it goes something like that, but it was true. I think in the past, the inbox managers like Gmail and Yahoo and Outlook weren't sophisticated enough to tell when something was spam and when it wasn't. So one of the tools they had was if this email is very image heavy, then it is very likely spam. But this is like 10, 15, 20 years ago, right? Like when these dinosaur companies were created. The beauty of AI is that it's something that is not new.

31:54And Google, for example, has been using it a lot for the last few years, like decades, right? And it actually has gotten really sophisticated in being able to tell when something is spam and when it is not. So they're no longer using the image as a spam predictor. In fact, if you look at some of the world's top companies that are really crushing it with email marketing, like Anthropologie, Airbnb, Urban Outfitters, right? I love Reformation emails. They're all image, right? Like 100 % image. And that's okay. We were at Stripe Sessions. It's a Stripes conference recently. And they had a presentation about design.

32:31And they showed an experiment that they run internally. And this is an enterprise company serving enterprise people, right? And they ran an experiment with an email that was ugly text, kind of like no formatting. And then they beautified it. And the beautified email converted more than 20 times better. And again, this is not creatives. This is not solopreneurs. This is enterprise selling to like hardcore enterprise developers. And it's the truth, right? Like beauty converts and beauty and good design is not an option anymore. It's an expectation. and you just have to do it. Now, on top of that, we have a patent for Flowdesk.

33:13So it's actually like granted patent, an invention that we created that automatically optimizes the delivery of your email. So if it has some text version and some layouts, the text version gets delivered in just pure text and then the layouts get delivered in a flattened, lighter image version. So it is actually behind the scenes optimized for deliverability. You don't see it because you don't have to because why would we put that on your hands if we can just automate it? Yeah, so you just don't have to struggle with that. I love that. It's time for Black Friday, Dell Technologies' biggest sale of the year.

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36:46Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com forward slash host. Okay. I want to know, Natalie, what types of content are most effective in email marketing right now? And how can businesses keep that email content fresh and engaging? So I think a lot of times people understand the general, you know, create the freebie, deliver the freebie, then what? Yes. Okay. I love this question. And first and foremost, I just want to say good content is not what we say good content is. It's what your audience says good content is. So that's where I actually want everyone to start.

37:26I want you to start by really getting to know your audience and understand what they are excited to hear from you week over week. There are a multitude of ways to do this. Obviously, you can run surveys. You can encourage replies. I love, Jenna, that you did that with your most recent launch. I saw that. I watched the webinar. You killed it. It was so good. That's a great way to get that qualitative feedback. And once you've done that, then you can, especially right now, things I'm seeing, then you can do a couple of things to really enhance the content that you provide. So one is exclusivity.

37:54I think there is magic in a world where so often it feels like everyone has access to everyone 24 hours a day on things like social to actually take your list and remind them that they are a true part of your community. right? Make it exclusive. Provide content value and insider insights only to them. Make that clear that it's only for them. You can also use that email list and use the content in it to give early access to things. So early access to flash sales, opportunities to work with you, giveaways for one-on-one sessions or small group sessions. I've seen that done to learn even more about the audience when you're crafting something like a course or an offering for your business.

38:32The second thing, and I will probably encourage this until my last breath, is content that engages in authentic storytelling. Martha already said this, so I'm just going to highlight it once again. You know, people really want to know you, the real you. My highest performing email I've ever sent had a subject line that was face planting in an airport. I've never had more people open an email than that email. And it was just a story of me trying to be cute in a new pair of boots, which highly do not recommend wearing a brand new pair of slippery sold boots in an airport when you're running late from one flight to another.

39:08And I'm running through the Indianapolis airport. I slip, I fall flat on my face, sprawled out on the floor. And the learning from it was nobody even paid attention. Nobody looked. Nobody even stopped to help me. It was so mortifying. And yet I popped my head up like a turtle on this like, you know, overly shiny floor and no one's even paying attention. And I wove it into a story for my business community about so often we're afraid to fail and make mistakes, you know, in a miserable public way. And yet I guarantee no one's watching you as closely as you think. But that story, that real moment of genuine human nature, tripping in an airport, looking like a fool, like that's the story, people.

39:46It's maybe been six or six years now, five, six years now since I wrote that email. people still bring it up to me. My point is authentic storytelling tied to value will always have a place in good content. And then the last thing I will say is that your audience is really busy. So number three is curate for them. Curated value is so important in this day and age. I've seen lists like the skim, morning brew. The thing that they are doing is really just curating the day's news or the business news in a way that makes it very digestible and easy to read. And so if you're not a long form content person, if that's not where you shine, if the storytelling doesn't need to go on for three paragraphs, that's okay too.

40:27You can provide value and content that people are going to love by curating, you know, the outfits of the week, for creators especially, right? The products you're loving, the natural items you've brought into your skincare routine that have changed the game, whatever it is that you create for your audience in terms of value, if you curate it and you deliver it in a way that is beautiful, like I love Martha that you touched on that, but beautiful and just really easy to digest. That in and of itself is value too. Oh my gosh. So much amen to that. And it's so interesting to me where people are like, well, I don't know what I'd say.

41:00And then you're like, well, are you creating content on other platforms? Yes. Do you have a podcast or a YouTube channel or a blog or anything? Your email can help get people to those things, right? So it's like giving an extra shelf life to stuff you're creating. And I also love the exclusive thing. If you haven't noticed everywhere, there are subscription services popping up where people are literally paying to get exclusive content, whether it's on Substack, whether it's a broadcast channel, whether it is like extra ad free premium content on podcasts. And so if you think about it, if somebody would be willing to pay$5 a month to get exclusive content and you're giving it for free, and you're literally just serving your list with something that not everyone else is getting, you are providing massive value you that people will be so excited and an opportunity for you to have a way to grow your list.

41:50One of my friends, Danielle Canty, she was a co-founder of Boss Babe. She just did this yesterday where she was like, I'm sending out an email about the five things that I wish I would have done differently at the beginning of my career. It is only going out to my email. Tap here to subscribe before I send it. And I was like, she didn't even have to create a freebie. She was already going to send that email. And just giving that opt-in gets people excited to get that email and the emails that follow. And so it's like, I think sometimes our brains like to overcomplicate things to add more chaos and confusion to something that is actually rather quite simple.

42:23And so I think that can be really powerful. Okay. So what trends or patterns have you noticed so far this year that are working to get people to take action in the email? So we've talked about how to grow, but what trends or patterns or tips do you guys have for getting people like from the email to the sales page or to the offer page or to book the call or to buy the product? What are you seeing? So before we even go to the content of the email itself, one thing I will say that is increasing conversions across the board. And something I just want to encourage people to do more often is increase the frequency of when they're sending emails.

43:01So earlier this year, we released our small business trends report, which was essentially kind of a data dive that we did behind the scenes. We looked at every email sent across our platform, or most of them, I should say, in 2023 in an aggregated and anonymized way. It was over 6 billion, maybe almost 7 billion emails in 2023. And what we found is that 63 % of members that we have are emailing their list less than once a month. And so I want to call this out first and foremost and say, if you are not part of that 63%, if you are someone that is emailing at least once a month, I'm a big fan of a biweekly.

43:40If you have the bandwidth to do it, but monthly is also amazing as well. This is a great just first step. If you want people taking action in those emails, they have to hear from you. I know it sounds so simple and it's common sense, but you have to be showing up consistently and repeatedly. Think of it like, you know, you meet somebody for the first time, you shake hands. And if you never hear from them again, are you ever going to take action? If you walk by in the street and they say, hey, I want to tell you about this amazing thing that I'm working on. You're like, do I know you? I don't remember.

44:06Have we met versus, you know, there's a little coffee shop down the street that I go to almost every morning with my husband and our kids. And we run into the same neighbors every single day. And we have little conversations of any one of them. And actually last weekend, the gentleman who works at the coffee shop is raising money for the food bank. He's selling t-shirts with our neighborhood name on them. And I saw him chatting with someone else about it. I bought three shirts. He didn't even sell it to me. I just I felt this need to be, you know, giving in reciprocity to someone who I've come to really value.

44:37And that's the first thing that you need to do. Increase the frequency. Start engaging with your list. I encourage monthly to biweekly to weekly if you can. If you actually can do weekly or more, great. I know for a lot of folks that's really overwhelming. So start with just committing to once a month. That's my first recommendation. But then we get to the content of the email. And I'm going to give you some quick, you know, really clear principles that we have seen. And as a marketer that I have seen work exceptionally well. And the first is simple but important, and you would be surprised how many times this is not the case.

45:04You need to make sure that you have very easy-to-spot call-to-actions, right? You need to leverage buttons. You need to aim for bold, visual contrast that is easy to spot in an email. And the same goes for, you know, if you're linking in the text itself, make sure they can actually tell that it's a hyperlink. So often I see these beautiful emails, but there's either no call to action or the call to action is so far at the bottom of the email that you've missed that opportunity to really grab them from the beginning and have a call to action a little bit further up in the conversation. So that's one.

45:38Second thing I'll say is leverage your psychological sales principles of urgency and FOMO. We have a countdown timer. We just launched it a few months ago. It's built right into the emails that you can send. take advantage of the fact that if you are trying to get people to a sale that you're offering or something exclusive, specifically when we're actually going to make the sale, make sure that you're giving them a reason to do it now. Because what can happen is they might have all the best intent in the world and actually want to attend your webinar, want to take advantage of that sale, but they don't feel that extra little nudge to do it now.

46:13So when you can do something that encourages urgency or creates a little bit of a feeling of this isn't going to be around forever, you can create kind of that behavior to take action a little bit more quickly. And then that also helps them for missing out because we've all been in a scenario where we see an email, somebody's offering something amazing. And then, you know, I think about my kids, like the kid starts crying and I'm like, oh no, I got to run over and take care of Huey. And my attention is gone. But sometimes when someone just says, oh, it's through the next 24 hours, 48 hours only, I do remember to go back and take action.

46:44Or if not distracted, I'm able to take action right away. So whether it's making sure you have clarity in your calls to action, urgency, creating that little bit of FOMO, obviously in an authentic way. We don't want to be inauthentic in our marketing in any way, but just reminding them, you know, hey, I don't want you to miss out. I know this is a value. I know this is going to make an impact in your life. Definitely, you know, include that and include it early in the email and often. One thing I want to add to this because I am obsessed, Natalie, is that we pay a lot of money for data assessment in our company.

47:17And all of the things you just said are what we pay thousands of dollars to hear. And so like the top three optimizations that people can make are subject lines. So making them super clear. I think oftentimes we try to get like fluffy or like super creative. And we found that like the more clear we can be in the subject line, the more people will open it. The second thing is exactly what Natalie said, getting the links super obvious and above the fold. And so sometimes when I write copy, I tell the story first and get to the point and blah, blah, blah. And then I literally have to flip the email on its head and be like, okay, what is the most important thing they need to know first to make a decision?

47:59And then how can I just affirm that decision as they continue to read? And so we've literally just had to go through emails that have converted well, but could convert better and just rejig and rework them. So I still write in the way that I write, but then I like optimize. And then the third thing is, is consistency in links. And we realized like, sometimes we do a pink link. Sometimes we do a red one. Sometimes the hyperlink is blue. And it was like, you want to train people on the best way to take action with you and to just get comfortable. So even if they're not clicking a link in one email, but then they see it in the next, it's just very clear of like, this is what a link looks like from Jenna.

48:37And so all of us creatives are cringing of like, oh, dang it. We've got to rein it in a little bit, but rein it in in the optimizing ways and then let the glitter fly in all the other places. And so those are the things we pay lots of money to learn. And now you have them all. And we are just keeping it clear, I think is the best thing where it's like a lot of times we can add in unnecessary fluff, which can just create more friction for somebody in their experience. So I love what you said. Okay. One of my final questions is looking ahead. I want to know your predictions. Like I want us a year from now, two years from now, you know, Natalie, you were one of my first episodes on this podcast.

49:18So seven years from now, come back and let's say we had a stinking crystal ball on email marketing. And so each of you, I'll start with you first, Martha, what are some of your predictions for the future of email marketing? And what do you maybe see changing or in the landscape shifting? Yeah. I think the first one is a split. I think we had a split of email marketing with content-focused email marketing and data-focused. So just automations for automation sake versus newsletter, like fresh content. I think the next split is going to be AI-generated content content versus AI behind the scenes.

49:57We're the second type because AI generated content, I think a lot of the newsletters you're going to get are going to start sounding the same. You're going to start reading a lot of like GBT sentences here and there that sound awkward. And you're like, Oh my God, like this person started to sound different. And then they're all kind of like blending together versus people who are definitely using AI, but more to power insights to make better recommendations on how to clean your list. What are some of the top automations that you might be missing, and then are bringing their person forward, doubling down that human connection aspect.

50:27That would be my top prediction. I love it. Natalie? I can't beat that. I think that is such a spot on prediction. And I would be willing to bet so much on it coming true. But here's some of the things I'll have fun with this one. Seven years from now, some fun things that I'd love to see. So I would love to see, you know, Gmail, Yahoo, platforms like that. And I think they may become even better at helping to handle things, yes, like spam, but also categorization. I've noticed even recently that Google or Gmail specifically is starting to pre-populate images that are featured in emails that are being sent.

51:02So my Sephora email, when I opened it, when I opened my inbox actually showed me a tiny highlight of the image in the Sephora email. What does that tell me? It tells me that we're not the only ones who acknowledge that in order to grab someone's attention and to keep them engaged, they're going to want to see something beautiful and visual. So with my crystal ball, I actually believe that visual beautiful emails will become far more important, that people will acknowledge that having a gorgeous brand that they're investing time and money and energy into can't then, you know, lead into ugly emails.

51:34Like that cannot be the future of marketing. You have to have brand consistency across the board. And Gmail, Yahoo, platforms like those in which we actually read our emails and digest are going to actually adapt to become more friendly to the types of content that people want to be engaging with. Because what I believe as well is that they're in competition with social media in a very strange way. They want people's attention. They want people engaging in the inbox just in the same way that we do as creators. So they're going to take advantage of leaning into the things that will keep people excited to open their inbox.

52:06I imagine it'll be more visual. I imagine it will be tailoring and personalizing and enabling the actual recipient of emails to have more control over their inbox and what they see and when they see it and how it's organized. And so it's just, to me, an exciting moment because it really puts power back into the hands of the small business owner who isn't just lost in a sea full of, you know, saturated content that people are scrolling to consume like little dopamine hits without an intent to actually engage, connect or buy, but instead to have a space in the inbox going forward long into the future as it is today, where their subscribers can't wait to hear from them and are excited to see the real human behind the email.

52:47What a compelling future you guys have painted. I am here for it all. Where can everybody find out more about you guys and connect with you? I just, I love you both. Yes. So first and foremost, just highly recommend checking out flowdesk.com and we're on all social channel. So at Flowdesk, you can also, if you want to chat with a human, obviously, who's behind Flowdesk, you can find me at Natalie Frank. I'm the head of marketing here at Flowdesk, and I would love to help you in any way that I can as you get started on launching your list. Would just love to be a part of your journey. Thank you, guys.

53:20We have been through so much life together, the three of us. It's actually remarkable. And I just, I love what you're doing. I love how you're doing it. And I love the way that it is just bringing up this creator economy me in such a beautiful way. And so just thank you for spending time with me and using our magic crystal balls to really believe in a beautiful future where email marketing is a part of it. Thanks for being with me. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Call me giddy, but I am obsessed with the fact that I literally get to talk to people that I love about topics that I nerd out on. This episode was just so much fun.

54:01And I love getting other people's hot takes who have that industry knowledge because you can hear things from me, but when you hear it from the source, maybe it hits a little bit differently. And I have a feeling that might've been what happened for you today. As a reminder, I want to invite you to join all of us inside of my list building challenge. It is five days long. We have the strategy and the implementation. I'm talking about tech tutorials to walk you through exactly how to do what I'm teaching so that you can literally get your email list set up and running and get subscribers on it.

54:34Join us inside of my list building challenge at listbuildchallenge.com. That's listbuildchallenge.com. Not only will you learn from me how to get started, but you'll also learn from Flowdesk how to use that platform so that you can get fast results. I want to make this the easiest shift to winning for you. And so again, join me at listbuildchallenge.com. I hope you loved today's episode as much as I did. Until next time, keep on digging your biggest goals. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. I hope today's episode filled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business.

55:16If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to golddiggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, Gold Diggers.

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