903: Email Marketing 101: How to Grow Your List, Nurture With Ease, and Sell Without Feeling Salesy

26:44I want for you to learn strategies that give you your time back. Like that is really like the ethos of it. And one thing that's interesting is, is I think one mistake a lot of people make in their welcome sequence is they go too hard, too fast. And they end up almost branching people off into like different offers and different segments and different sequences before they could ever finish the welcome sequence. And to me, when we were building it this time, I was handwriting every single email and I'm like, I want this to feel like a beautiful story, something fun to read, something interesting.

27:20And I also want them to complete it. I don't want them to get lost or get lost in an offer or a funnel or anything along the way. I just want them to get from email one to email six and enjoy the ride. And so that's kind of what I did for ours. And again, there's not like links or call to actions or selling at all. It's more so again, brand awareness, connecting with me as a creator. What do I stand for? How can I help them kind of vibes. So for you, what you're talking about, I like this idea of having just some sort of elongated sequence that kind of teaches and seeds throughout the weeks, right?

27:57I wouldn't necessarily call what you were describing a welcome sequence. To me, a welcome sequence is like front end. It could be like three emails total where it's just like, as soon as somebody subscribes, here are these three things they need to know before they go any further. But what I love about what you were talking about is when you can sit down and thoughtfully create content and you know that it can be serving people while you sleep, whenever they opt in, right? And that every week they're going to get something so that even on the weeks where life gets chaotic and busy, or you're planning for a launch, or you're working one-on-one with clients and you don't have time to send an email, they're still hearing from you, right?

28:35And so what you're building is you're building security and you're building something that is still going to be serving for you. So I would look at that more as like a nurture sequence. And I love it. I think it's super smart. I think it's really, really thoughtful. And one of the things that people don't leverage enough that you are savvy enough to do because you did this is a lot of times people write this epic email and it's a one and done, right? They send it out to their list. If somebody opts in the next day, they're never going to see that awesome email. They're never going to get that.

29:06And so the way that you're doing it is you're sitting down and writing something thoughtfully and you're like, wow, this can actually work for somebody a month from now or even a year from now. I'm going to make sure that this is a part of the sequence. So I am a huge fan of that, especially if you are somebody who is prone to get really excited about something and then kind of fall off the bandwagon because you get really excited about something else, which is I'm sure is a lot of the clients that you work with as well. And so having something set up where you're like, regardless of if I sit down and type up an email today, something is going to be sent out this week for 10 weeks or whatever it is, that feels good because it builds in that security and it keeps serving long after you hit send.

29:47Okay, wait. So then are you saying this sequence should be, because like the way I envision it in my mind is like, imagine a calendar, you have like the four weeks ish. So every fourth week it sends out an email from this sequence and then the remaining ones, like the remaining three weeks, I would just send the regular newsletter. Yes. I love that. That is fine. That's totally fine. And I would just call that a nurture sequence. Yeah. Welcome sequence is like front end. You're walking into the party. You're getting to know this would just be set up more as just like a nurture sequence. That's just nurturing your subscribers every month, however you're setting it up.

30:28And so again, if you write an email and it does really well, or it performs really well, look at ways that you can repurpose that or pop that into some sort of sequence or funnel so that that doesn't go to waste, right? So that it doesn't just live and die with that one send. And so you're already kind of doing that with that rhythm and you're still going to be showing up in inboxes every fourth week, right? And so just look at that as a nurture sequence. And I would just challenge you, like keep building that thing out with timeless resources that can just keep serving and keep going. So you could build that thing out pretty well, which would be awesome.

31:06Okay. When you put it that way, my mind goes to, then I maybe should do two of those say week two and week four. Sure. One being more the brand awareness, like you mentioned, you know, the backstory or like offers that type of stuff. And then the other, maybe the cool, fun productivity tips that are kind of like timeless. Yes. So then two of my monthly emails are already done. And I just did two a month. Yes. I mean, I love that. I think that could be great. And the one thing I'll challenge is just make sure that when you do that, just make sure it's super evergreen, right? So like, it's not saying like, it's summer in Minnesota, and then they're going to get it in December, and they're like, wait a minute.

31:47So all you have to do is really just run it through a filter of like, is this truly going to be valuable six months from now? And if the answer is yes, absolutely find ways to repurpose and reuse it. I love it. I think it's great. And I think to It helps people sit down and write emails that you don't just feel like, oh, I'm just doing this one email. I'm going to send it tomorrow. And then next week, I got to do the same thing again. It kind of changes the energy around it. If you're sitting down and you're really meaningfully writing something and you're like, this is going to work tomorrow and it's going to work a month from now and a month after that and a month after that, it changes the energy around email marketing and it makes it fun.

32:27And it helps you to look at too, like, what were your top performers and can I repurpose them in a new way so that I can send them out again? Because they were great and everyone should see this, you know? Yeah. I love it. And it gives me such peace of mind to think about even just now seeing the welcome sequence stuff in place and seeing the numbers going through without me touching a thing. Yes. Oh my gosh, girl, you're speaking in my language. It is like the sexiest thing to me to know that people are getting served and I didn't do a thing, right? Like it feels good. It takes that like weight off of your chest that many entrepreneurs feel.

33:01I love it. Yeah, so efficient. Hey, before we thank our sponsors for supporting this show, I just want to encourage you that if this episode is helping you reimagine your email strategy, why not pass it along? Text it to a friend who's starting their own business or struggling with marketing overwhelm, because coming up, I'm going to share what metrics actually matter and the most common mistakes I see beginners make when it comes to their email marketing strategy. you know i only share stuff i'm genuinely obsessed with and so when i kept seeing bowl and branch sheets all over instagram i was like okay are these actually worth the hype drew and i have been using their sheets and duvets for over a year now and honestly our bedroom feels like a completely different space the moment you touch these sheets you'll get it they're incredibly soft to start but they literally get softer every time you wash them they're made from 100 % organic cotton so they're super durable and they're breathable which is perfect for piling on cozy layers without turning into a furnace at 2 a.m.

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35:16Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. Similar to that, when it comes to metrics, I like on kits, on the main dashboard, one of the three key things I chose you is click rate and it stresses me out. Like, do I really need to care about it? Cause it's not like I'm trying to sell in every email. So why would there be a click? But then it's like front and center. So I'm wondering what do I look at and how do I determine what was a good email basically and what wasn't? Yes. Okay. I love this. So metrics are so funny and they can totally mess with our heads, right?

35:55It's like we're stepping off of the algorithm and vanity metrics on one platform and then somehow they get shoved in your face on the next one, right? You're trying to get away from that. So one of the things that I think is so helpful when it comes to email marketing is pick one metric to care about for each email that you send. Okay. So one of the metrics could be your open rate. So like how effective was my subject line? I love open rates because to me, if I'm working on the inside of the email and people are not actually opening it, then I just wasted my time. I want to spend as much time on that subject line as I am on the inside content of the email because open rate.

36:34So if you're sending out an email and there are no links in it, like I said, it's just straight serving, it's storytelling, it's connecting, open rate. That's the metric you want to look at. Okay. If it is an email, maybe where we were talking about like an invite, right, where it's not necessarily a hard sell, you're inviting someone to click to listen to a podcast or to check out a book. That just helps you see if you have message clarity. So click right there, just make sure that what you are inviting them into is clear and aligned. And so click right there isn't like a slap on the wrist of like, yes, you did it or you didn't.

37:11It's just data that helps you see, is my message clear? Is it resonating? Is it connecting? Is it something that people find valuable? Because I find it valuable again. So that just helps you kind of see like, how is my message clarity? The last thing I will say that isn't measured in metrics, but I think it should be, is how many people are replying to my emails or how many people are converting. And I think that this just shows us resonance, right? Like this is resonating with the right people. So if you are sending out an email that isn't about sales and you invite in replies, like, tell me what your number one struggle is, or tell me what hilarious thing is on your desktop right now.

37:53And you don't know why it's there, right? Like inviting that in, it's resonating with people. They feel comfortable. They're starting the conversation. If it's conversion, again, that just shows that the offer is resonating. So I would just say for every email you send, pick one main metric that you're going to look at and let the rest fall away. Like information is powerful. Data is awesome. But a lot of times data is interesting. It's not useful, right? It's interesting to know what your click-through rate is, but if you don't know how to impact it, it's not actually useful, right? Or if you don't need to impact it because it's not tied to direct results.

38:26It's not useful. So I would just say you don't have to track everything every time. Pick one point and look at that. So like for us, one habit that we've gotten into is at the end of every month, we look at all the emails we sent out and we just do an analysis like which emails had the best open rates. Let's look at those subject lines. What was interesting about their subject lines? Was there any trends in those subject lines? Which emails did have high click rates? Was it a free offer or paid offer? And we just try to look at the whole ecosystem without judgment, just saying like, what are the numbers telling us that we can use as we continue writing ahead?

39:01And one thing that I think is interesting, and it kind of makes me laugh because I feel like this is also in relationships too, is a lot of times people like to keep score, right? Like me and my husband were so bad at this. Today I woke up and worked out and then I was like, okay, I get my workout time this morning. You get it later. We keep score sometimes. But when it comes to like data and a dashboard, it's not a scoreboard it's a classroom and that distinction is so huge because when you look at it not as like I am a success or I am a failure when you look at it more of like wow this is interesting this is where I'm learning this is how I'm getting better it shifts the energy right I think so many entrepreneurs are afraid to experiment we're looking at everything as a win or a loss and we're not actually seeing opportunity to like try things and test things and experiment more.

39:47So just know that like every single email you send is kind of an experiment and that's fun. And that helps you really just look with an open mind at the data that you're getting. And again, not be hard on yourself if something didn't perform the way you wanted it to, or really go back to the drawing board and be like, I think this should have done better. What did we miss? Or how could we do this? Sometimes I get dead set, like where I'm like, this email is going to crush it. And then it doesn't. And I'm like, what did we miss here? Like, where was I off? Where was I not clear? Like, what was it?

40:16And for me, that's fun. Like, I like to see that. So just look at that. And then the last thing I'll say too is if you're only celebrating sales, you're missing this opportunity to really look at like the signals. Like, is your email list engaged? Like, are they opening? Are they excited to open? Are they replying? These are all signals that like your message and your like offer is resonating. and to me sometimes people don't realize like businesses often especially when I think of yours where people have to first grow their awareness in the issue then they have to learn about like okay this is an actual problem and identify it then they need to start exploring solutions you might have a longer tail conversion right where somebody might not convert on day three like other marketers and so when you can see the signals and say wow this is still resonating this person has been on my email list for six months and they open every email.

41:09That's a huge signal that what you're doing is working and it will pay off. And so just kind of lose the desire to pull some of our tendencies from other platforms of like, this one flopped, this one did great. And just really open your eyes and be like, this is a classroom and I'm a student of it and I'm here to learn. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. Cause yeah, my favorite thing is also when someone replies is like, oh, I did this. Thank you. That's like my favorite metric. Yes. And maybe just make a separate dashboard for you to track that. So that it's like, you know, the email marketing softwares aren't necessarily tracking replies and conversations.

41:44And we have a thing on my team where Stephanie on my team will drop in email replies into our Slack so we can see what people are saying. And so I can respond to them personally. And it's like the best, right? It's just so great. I love that. One question that comes to mind when you talk about open rates is I cannot set up a double opt-in simply because of the report software. Like it creates a custom link per person and Kit only allows like one link for the opt-in, right? Yep. So my open rate for the freebie delivery is around 50 % because they also can just download it on this site. So there's no need to open it.

42:23But then what I'm wondering is, should I clean out my list regularly, depending on whether someone never opens any emails? Like how do you approach that? Yeah. So we call it list scrubbing. I'm sure there's probably like a more technical term. And what we do is like, we'll clean off our list. Like if somebody hasn't engaged with an email and it's like, I think we usually do 90 days, we'll send them an email of just like, Hey, we're going to remove you from this zero, like zero issues, zero problems. I just want to let you know, if you do want to keep getting my emails, click here. If not, we'll remove you.

43:01And like, we hope our paths cross again. Like it's something kind and nice, but it's kind of like, I don't want to bother you. So if I'm bothering you, I'm just going to stop. So usually after 90 days, if they haven't opened or engaged with any emails, we'll send out one or two emails, just saying, Hey, we're going to remove you from the list. but if you want to stay on it, just click this button to stay on. And then we will clean off our list. Cause again, we want a healthy list and you're right. It can really skew your metrics as well as if you're looking at your overall list health and like people are on the list, but they're not even engaged at all from day one.

43:33The other thing that's interesting is you also want to make sure that your initial emails aren't hitting spam filters or promotions filters, because if you enter in in that inbox, it's hard to get into the main inbox. And so having a welcome sequence, again, that doesn't have a lot of links, that isn't like filled with sales jargon and things, and that invites in replies will help you stay in their main inbox because it shows that you're a safe sender is somebody that they actually want to engage with. And so that is also something to note. So I absolutely recommend cleaning your list. You can do it, you know, 90 days, 120 days, whatever it is, you can set the parameter there.

44:12And I would just say before you remove people, send one final email just to those people who haven't engaged and be like, Hey, before I remove you, like, I don't want to bother you. Just let me know if you still want to get this content and remind them what type of content you send and who you are again. Cause if they haven't opened, they probably don't remember. And then you can remove them after that. And so I think a healthy list is way better than like a bigger number of disengaged people. Agreed. Also a question with what I do is it's very visual and email is not the most visual like media or platform.

44:48So do you have any tips on how to like showcase that? Like are screenshots a good idea or will those get me into spam? Should I do like links to YouTube videos instead? Or like, I don't know. How would you approach that. I love that. So yes, your work is visual and I think it helps to see it, especially for people that are still building their awareness around it. So I would say you can absolutely use an image. I would use one image max. So I would just do one image. I've even been noticing as I've been watching some like of the big retailers with like massive marketing budgets, instead of sending emails with like a bunch of photos that you could click on, it's like one big photo and then you can click on it.

45:30So I would do one. I would do either like a beautiful screenshot or some sort of styled preview where they can actually see what it is. One other thing that we do to like add in a little movement is we'll do one image, but it's a GIF. So you can see like the mouse moving since you do like awesome templates, you would kind of show the template in use as a GIF. And we use a website. It's easy, like the letters E Z GIF.com. And it can turn like any video into a gift that you can use in your email. And then I would just say like, make sure that your words do the selling and your image is kind of the hook, right?

46:05So when you drop in a photo, don't think like a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a lot of people will say that it is. Make sure that your visuals are kind of like the curiosity spark, but make sure that the benefits and the explanation are in words. So don't expect somebody to look at it and understand what it is that they're looking at. Make sure that like, if nobody saw any photo, would this email still make sense? Right. And that's like a good test to kind of run it through. And then one other thing you can do too, is like, let's say you have like your template shop. You can do one screenshot where you link to like the hub or like your sales page, where there's different templates that people can choose from, where it's almost like a choose your own adventure.

46:46So you could do one screenshot that shows off different templates and then they could click over to see the rest. So those are kind of the things I would do. We don't use a ton of graphics in our emails. We've kind of gone back to old school where there's not even like buttons in them. It's more like plain text, really clean. But then once or twice a month, we'll toss in a fun GIF or a fun image just to spice things up or to help people kind of see what it is we're talking about. So I love that. Okay. I wish I did templates, but I can do screenshots of custom workspaces for sure, or I can just turn them into gifts.

47:21That's a good one. Yes. Because then it doesn't count as a video, right? Yep. Nope. It doesn't count as a video. Yeah. Also, since I joined the Pinterest lab, I'm going to be starting Pinterest. Yeah. And the place that will lead to is going to be a blog. And I'm wondering how to integrate the blog into email. Because like, I guess it makes sense for it to, like if I do a monthly blog, it to appear in like one of the monthly emails. like four emails a month. But then how would you recommend doing that? Would you just copy paste the blog? Would you just do a teaser? Is there a benefit of linking people from the email back to the website if they're already on the list?

48:03Nope. Okay. So here's what I would do. So great. So I have literally, this is wild. I've been blogging for 15 years. I love a blog. I am obsessed with blogging. Okay. So when you incorporate your blog posts into your email, you want the blog to be the bonus, not the main meat. So the issue that a lot of people have is they will literally like copy and paste it over. And there is literally no reason for somebody to click over to their blog, right? Cause they basically just got everything there. So your email, the goal of the email is to sell the click. So how are you going to sell the click to get them to click to the blog?

48:40So a lot of times what we'll do is we'll share like one takeaway or one story from the post, or we'll share like the behind the scenes. Here's what we didn't say in this blog post, but we wanted to, to allow people to go deeper. So you don't want to just say like new blog post up. It's like, tell me the story behind the story or give me a reason to want to click over and learn more. And so it's more of like a teaser. And so that makes it really fun. And what I think is the best way to do it is tell a really personal story that you only feel comfortable telling to your email list that wouldn't like live publicly on the blog that kind of sells the point or sells why that content is interesting, right?

49:21Like how did you come to this conclusion or why does this matter? And then I would say just again, as you were just saying, kind of stack it into your rhythm that you're creating with your nurture emails. So the blog is really like the invite run, right? You're not converting, you're not selling hardcore, you're inviting someone into your ecosystem. And so yes, once a month, if you have a new blog post up, figure out a fun way to sell the click to the blog through your email. And I think that will be so much fun. It's also, again, a really great data point to make sure that the people who are on your list are resonating with the content you're creating elsewhere, because it kind of shows that congruence of like, they might be on the path to purchasing or their awareness around your offer is growing.

50:01And so that's a really great way to do that. I love it. I love a good blog. So then would it make sense to include at least maybe some of the blogs in that extended sequence. Yes, totally. Totally. And when you write those emails for the monthly one, if you write it timeless, which blogs are timeless, like we still have blog posts from like four years ago that get tons of traffic because they're still valuable. Right. And so those could absolutely drop in on that like second week, like you talked about, if you make that extra nurture sequence and let's say you write five different blog posts. Again, that's five different weeks of content, making it all timeless.

50:39So it's not, you know, tied to a certain season or a certain stage of life. And that would be epic. I think that would be so smart to do. You're making email sounds so much easier than I thought it was. I'm so grateful. Oh my gosh. I think we might have time for one final question. Do you have any fun questions to end this off? We've done a lot of work today. This is awesome. Yeah. My last question is, are there any common mistakes to avoid that you see beginners making? For example, I know in CommerKit, there's this kid's domain verification that sounds kind of scary, but do I need to do it? Or like any other common mistakes?

51:19So what I would say is just common mistakes. So getting super excited and then just falling off the bandwagon, right? There are so many statistics of people that will, you know, email for three weeks and then they fall off or start a podcast and do six episodes and then fall off. And so build it in a sustainable and fun way, which you absolutely are doing. Think long-term. So don't just think one and done. Think how can I use this email over again, which is exactly what you're doing and invite in replies. Because the more that you hear from actual people, the more that you see that these data points aren't just numbers, they're humans that you are communicating with, that you get to really serve and hopefully eventually connect with and invite into your offers.

52:02And so making it really a human experience. And the last thing I will say is make it fun to do, make it fun to write the emails, make it exciting to send, make them emails that you want to read. If you make it fun for you, then the people that read them on the other side of the screen are also going to enjoy them. And so we have just gone back to basics with email where like I am writing every single email. I'm having so much fun with it. I'm thinking of funny stories and things that I'm not sharing anywhere else and making it just feel like this exclusive club of connection inside of an inbox.

52:36And it's just totally changed the energy around email marketing. So start with that energy so that you don't have to go backwards. I think it's going to be so awesome. And you're doing such a good job. I'm so excited for you. Thanks. Also having those two sequences, like long sequences in place. Yes. It was like, it frees up the space to add the fun and creativity without having to be my head off. What is the purpose of this email? Is this like a sales thing? Is it not? Yes. I love that. I mean, I was so wild before I had my baby. I made a six month nurture sequence because I was like, I'm going on maternity leave.

53:13I don't know when I'm going to be back. I don't know when my brain is going to work again. I want to make sure I'm showing up in inboxes so you can go on with your bad self and make like the coolest nurture sequence ever. That nurture sequence ran for like years and it was awesome and it was so thoughtful and good. And so just like have fun and you can keep building those out as you keep writing. So every email you write doesn't just have to go out once it can become a part of those sequences you're building, which again, will give you that longevity and also show you that like people are getting served while you sleep, which I think is like the ultimate dream.

53:45Andrea, where can everybody connect with you, learn more from you, check out your work. We're all so curious to tell us all the things. The best place is my website, since I'm not a big fan of Instagram, which is theproductivitywitch.com. And that's also where I have the free human design report that tells people how to create and find their ideal, most productive workspace. And also to kind of give back to you and your audience. I'm doing a 15 % discount on productivity readings with code Jenna. So if anyone wants to do that, that is the best deal I've offered them at so far. Amazing. Look at you.

54:26Can you tell this girl's a student of gold digger? Andrea, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thank you for being vulnerable and showing up and asking amazing questions. I can't wait to see what you do. And I'm so excited for everyone who gets your emails. So thank you for being a part of this. Thank you so much. These coaching sessions are so much fun and I hope that they're super valuable for you as a listener. I have so much fun connecting with gold digger listeners, just like Andrea. And if you want your chance to be coached on the gold digger podcast, make sure you are a part of our gold digger podcast insiders, Facebook group.

55:01We have it linked in the show notes and in the show description. Once you are in there, you will see where we are calling out to our audience saying, who wants to come on this show? I love doing these sessions and I hope to meet you exactly where you're at in your journey. If this episode helped you or you know it could help someone in your life, take a quick second to share it. It would mean the absolute world to me. And if you want to learn more about how to grow an email list of engaged buyers, make sure you sign up for my free training at listbuildchallenge.com. I am so obsessed with email marketing, as you can tell from today's episode, and I want to help you find the easiest route to success with your email list.

55:41Until next time, Gold Diggers, keep on digging your biggest goals. And thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast. 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. If 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.

56:17We'll see you next time, gold diggers.