Lessons

Lesson Info

Basics of Email Marketing

Thank you very much, and we're back with lesson fifteen basics of email marketing and before we get into that talk a little bit about what we just covered in less than fourteen right sales pages that actually sell, we talked about why you should never start your sales page by talking about yourself and what you should start with. Instead, we talked about the top ten reasons your sales copy isn't converting, and we talked about features versus benefits and how to use that to sell your stuff, and now we're moving on to email marketing something that I really love tto learn the importance of an email newsletter it's one of the objectives the difference between blogged followers in an email newsletter in the basics of getting started with email marketing what you'll learn why you need an e mail newsletter who doesn't have an e mail an e mail opt in a new mill newsletter dinner you're new, so it's okay, you you just made that? Yeah anybody else? Everybody else has one. Yes, okay, how to cre...

ate an effective often for your email newsletter what teo email about the four questions you need to answer before writing your next email newsletter if you run an online business without sending an email newsletter, you're going to struggle regularly to connect with your followers to regularly connect with your followers. Your followers will forget about you without hearing from you because they're busy we're also busy without an e mail newsletter you're missing out on the most effective way to say sell to your audience online so why email? Most people check their email on a regular basis daily if not multiple times a day so it's the best way to get in front of them not everybody is checking in sta gram every hour or checking facebook or even coming to your blawg because they forget to do that you need a way to communicate with your most loyal followers regularly to let them know about sales launches new products new block post and you have a lot more control you have a lot more control than you do on social media first of all you don't know where that's going you know my space we don't use that anymore and facebook changed the algorithms and so it's really hard for people to get in front of their followers and so there were some businesses that really relied on facebook and then when that switched they were like e what am I going to do now? It was really difficult for them you don't wanna have to do that instead he want to build something that you're in charge of and that you have full control over so let's talk about email newsletter versus blawg followers because this is a question I get a lot blawg followers or in our ss feed such a somebody signing up to get your stuff via blah glove in or something like that means that somebody gets updated whenever you publish a blogger post and that's the only time that they get updated you need to have an email newsletter so that you can email without blogging because they were going to be plenty of times within your business that you're going to want to communicate with your customers with your target market without having to blogged about it and people pay more attention to e mails that are sent that are supposed to be e mails than tio there are ss feed and things like that they tend to pay more attention to it there are so many times when I just delete my block eleven because I am super busy and I don't have time to look through it and scroll through it but if I get an email from somebody that I really look forward to then I open it anyways so you don't want to just have a narcissus feed if that's what you have so I wouldn't know if you struggle with email marketing and what's your biggest hang up is there anything that really you're nodding your head amanda what what is it about email marketing that kind of frazzled you um just knowing what to send what to say when this ended the whole deal? I mean I honestly, before our last time you were in creative live, I like quickly made an often and got everything up, and I haven't really done anything with its sense I put, like five autumn will respond er emails to certain block post and I don't send anything you don't send anything else, ok, what about the tutorials you've talked about wanting to create for for your people? Um, I I would do that. Yes. Okay. And what about the block post you've published sense? Why don't you send that out to your email list? It's kind of hard for me to know what to send, like the segmentation of it and everything like I know that it exists. I know it's just thinking about it for myself, like what is right? I think I second guess myself. So do you have your mls? Segmented? Yeah, yeah, segmentation, but I don't know if I'm doing it right. So what are your basic segments? We're going to get into segmentation later, but I'm just wondering, I have the when they do my free opt in for my glam, your brand in seven days or whatever it's great, and then I have like two my course is that I've created those ones, and then I have, like a couple of other like freebies that I've made that have those so I don't know if that's right or not but that's what I have yeah because you know that that person's interested in that thing so that's what they signed up for so if you write a block post that also correlates with that topic, you send it out to that list, right? But then I don't know, but then you know, so we need to get you doing that. Okay? We need to get you doing that because that's one of the reasons that you're not getting as much block traffic comments shares all of that stuff because people don't remember to come and check your law because they're busy. I know some of you wouldn't remember to come in check when I put up a block post if I didn't e mail you and we'll talk about it, right? You get the email and you're like, oh, yeah april pills usually around this time I should go check out what this is right and it's not something that's an interruption to your day. You're probably kind of excited about it. Yeah, about yours. Yeah, that your people are about yours because they opted in to hear from you they want to hear from you. This is a big lesson for everybody stop being afraid of emailing your list because they gave you their email address for a reason they want to hear from you and if they don't want to hear from you they will unsubscribe and those people can just go away it's okay anybody else biggest hang up when it comes to email marketing on was that that I'm bothering them I don't want to bother them and then they unsubscribe because you won't leave me alone which I don't send about that often but I still have that fear they're not going to they want to hear from you they opted in don't worry about it because what you are is losing out on that communication with your people because you're afraid of communicating with your people could backfire in the same way you don't hear from me often the left okay and what's the like what's worse somebody unsubscribe ing because they're not your ideal client so they go away and you can't really talk to them anymore or you don't talk to anybody so they do go away because or you don't talk to him anyway so it doesn't even matter if they are subscribed or not because you're not talking to them even though there's going to be people who are your ideal they're waiting frankly like you said you were gonna send me some stuff was going on man yeah exactly her shell I mean I don't want to talk about jewelry all the time what is your ideal cuss sturmer really excited about what is she interested in? I don't know I'm not really sure we were just discussing it and but everybody said they're my ideal customer okay, so jenna what would you is there something in particular that you can think of that you would be excited to hear about from michelle yeah, I think I'd be um excited to hear the story behind um someone requesting something personalized and why they did it and how they got the idea um because I remember telling you I was thinking about maybe I could use a photo um I took in a park with my mom and give that to her as a gift um so maybe I'd get more ideas from other people and it would be kind of like sentimental and show how they're bonding with the jewelry you've already got that idea before their idea plant e o e their ideas you just have to put them in tow into play into practice and keep I mean, I bet anybody here who's your ideal customer would be open to saying these are some other things I would like to hear from you yeah do it okay blogging and email blogging and email work really well together when you publish a high quality blawg post, you should email your list with all or part of the post unless you want lots of people to miss it so lots of people are going to miss out if you don't send it to them if you don't let them know about it and you can either send the entire block post or you consent part of it and say click here to keep reading don't say if you want to keep reading click here some word it in the way that is click here to keep reading on you can do either way I like to put I used to put my entire block post and now I like to put in part of my block post because it sends people to the block and then they comment that's something that I really value the block comments or something really important to me that's why I no longer put the entire block post end you do not need to create lots of extra content for your emails you don't people are busy if you write a great vlog palace that's all you need that's it I promise that's what I sent on a regular basis and I have a really great group of female subscribers that are very loyal to me and love hearing for me on a regular basis and that is the majority of what I send out is hey here's my block post for the week I will tell them I will send out extra emails when it makes sense so I'm teaching at creative live I'm probably going to send out some extra emails to let them know about it or if I'm having a launch I'm gonna send them out extra emails but you don't need to create lots of extra content this is another hang up for people they feel like they have to come up with a special content for their email subscribers and you don't need teo but you do want to be able to email when you have things to email about here's the thing about email that's really exciting is that we've been given this really exciting opportunity to connect with our audiences regularly for free or for very little money via blogging lots of us to do that with very little money email when you first sign up with some platforms it's free so you've got this opportunity to connect with your audience for free or very little money and so many people are squandering it or not taking advantage of it this is your chance this is your opportunity to talk to your person on a regular basis get them x excited about your stuff and so many people don't do it so stop making excuses whatever the excuses are I don't have enough time my stuff isn't good enough I don't know if they want to hear from me and try doing it regularly and see what happens to your business if you're not emailing regularly and you make this change let us know what happens to your business it's it'll get exciting that's for sure so what are you going to do with this opportunity? Because guess what else? Your competitors have also been given the same opportunity. They also can connect with your audience their audience on a regular basis so who's going to make the most use of it who's going to do a better job of it? You or them it's, not your customers job to remember you, it is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don't have the chance to forget. I think this is really powerful because sometimes we feel like, well, they should they should remember about me they should know to con and check my blogged I hope they remember to come and check my blawg, but we're all so busy you have to think about yourself and you have to give your customers a reason why they want to hear from you regularly. What are you doing for them that they're going to be excited that they're not going to forget about you? So another holdup is choosing a platform and basically for this I say just choose just do it, just pick something, do a little bit of research, give yourself give yourself a day to research and pick a plan for I recommend a weber because that's, what I've used for so long but male champ and mad mimi are also comparable options that people use if you want more options within your email software, you could try infusion soft or entre port, but there are more expensive options you get. You could do a lot more with segmentation and those kinds of things, but it's a lot more expensive to use one of those platforms, so if you want that opportunity to be able to have lots of segments and things like that when we talk about segmentation, but just do a little bit of research, give yourself a day if you don't already have an email list, you're opt, inform is the place that people input their email address and name if you want it to start receiving your emails, that's what you're often is most of you guys, all of you guys already have an opt in, right? Okay, so you already know what it is, but anybody watching at home that you don't know what I'm talking about, an opt in that's where you put in, where your subscriber puts in their name and their email address, and then they start to receive your emails. So the important thing is to create an effective opt in. There are some ways to do this first, having irresistible copy in making it visually appealing those air to really important pieces, so you don't want to just put up the first thing that comes to mind. Which is another thing that people tend to dio because when you're in the rush to get this up and going, you just tend to go with whatever is coming to you in the moment and then you don't go back and change it so it's okay to kind of get something up there and start collecting email addresses but then really look at it give something really good away so that people want to give you their email address, especially in the beginning, especially in the beginning when you're building your email list, give them a freebie a discount code downloadable print there are all kinds of things that you could give away and we'll talk about that more instant gratification meaning give them something they can get right away or use right away and ask for the least amount of info possible. So don't ask for last names one some people don't want to give last names and to just one more barrier first name, email address or just email address it depends on whether you want to be able to personalize your emails or not, but that's it so where do you put your optimum form all over the place? You can put it in your block header you can put it in your side bar you can put it on your about paige, you can put it at the end of some of your blogged posts you can link to it in your shop announcement if you're on it see linked to it in a thank you email for purchase to get people to sign up in case they're not already on your list as many places as possible is best and we're gonna talk about landing pages and that kind of stuff coming up shortly, but for right now, these are some great places to put it, putting it somewhere near the end of your about paige is really great because if they've gotten that far, they will often if they've read that much of your about paige, they're gonna opt in so that's a great place to have it that a lot of people don't have it yet. Somewhere on the main part of your website is very necessary because that's the important thing lots of times it takes seven touches before somebody buys, and so therefore if they come to your web say, and they don't opt into your list, they're probably going to forget to come back. I've done that so many times where I'm agitated with myself that I've gone to a website and I've seen something I like who I should really get this for myself when I'm treating myself, teo say a new handbag and then in a month later and credit, I see that handbag I can't remember and there was no upton in I didn't end up following that person for whatever reason, and now I can't remember how many times where you were like I can't remember where I found that, so I want to show you some effective op tins. This one is from nikki eligwe round who is the communication stylist. If you guys don't, who knows who nikki is? Yeah, about half okay, nicky is also awesome when it comes to copy and copyrighting she's, another person that I recommend everybody follow. I don't know how you can't fall in love with her and her style, it just it warms my heart all the time, so on her page she has a little thing that you can click to sign up for her email, and then this is what pops up. Yes, I was hoping you'd click that that breaks the pattern you're not expecting that. Enter info below for a free copy of the conversational copy cheat sheet quick and easy tips to write copy that sounds like you two stay in touch to be a most weekly updates first name email address, send it never have your button say something like submit because one people don't like to submit it's just one of those things that that's not a nice word for us and two it's not emotionally appealing, so have something that is more like this. Send it to me or I want that or give it to me or yes let me in or whatever it is do something that's emotionally appealing here's another example this is from hillary rushford site and her optimism right over here and it's the honor society and it says you on the list you and me get a front row seat that's emotionally appealing it brings you and makes you want to be friends with her and then she has two different ways you can sign up it says yes more confidence in my style darling small business love because she does both and this is a great way to segment when you do things that are pretty different is have people check which one they're interested in to get on that list so that you don't have to have to opt in forms because that's very confusing I have seen websites that have three or four opt informs on the main page above the fold or right below the fold as well I'm thinking oh this is so confusing for people all right so we have a hot seat patty come on up and join me and we're going to bring up patty's email opt in paige come on a pad eh yeah all right so this is patty's opt in page so the first issue here is that we don't see an opt in above the fold oh okay so people have to scroll down and then the other thing is is that it took us a while to figure out where it wass so it's gonna take a while for your person to find where it is so then let's read a little bit of the copy needs some inspiration want more fun in your life I'm here to help okay what we need to do with this sentence in particular is we need to really boil it down and zoom in and figure out what this actually looks like because this is one of those vague thing okay so what does this actually look like so uh in terms of the actual emails that have been sending people well what does it what do you mean when you're saying needs some inspiration want more fun in your life what do you mean by that? You just want to feel inspired and happier I guess okay and so what does that look like for people when they are more inspired in happier so in terms of this it would be, um feeling more confident and they're crafting, making things that they feel good about wearing we're gifting two people um just feeling excited about making things okay so that is even more specific than this so I think we start there and then we keep zooming in and trying to figure out what this exactly looks like especially for your business now also I think that there's you don't need a cz much here as you have here especially you can you can have more but it needs to definitely be below the opt in and when I looked at your optic I don't believe I saw this part when I looked at it before is this new when you sign up you get a free spot here that wanna play great before he left okay perfect all right so let's look at it when you sign up you get a very special free knitting pattern it's exclusive and it's so cool it's not a super beginner pattern so if you were brand new netter you could hold on to this pattern as a goal stick with me and we'll have you making cool stuff like this in no time okay so I love that you are giving away a free knitting pattern because you're getting your ideal person onto your list and that's what you want the copy at the top is not necessarily getting your ideal person on your list because inspiration and creativity and that kind of thing can mean so many things so I think you have to be a lot more specific about the fact that you are going to be talking about knitting mainly frame okay um eso I think we need to also really break this down so when you when you sign up you get a very special free knitting pattern okay, so what is the knitting pattern so what is it for? S o those are like sweaters for your cell phone. Okay, so that's one of the things that I would have on there so that it's so actually name what it is okay a sweater for your cellphone and even you can play off of that and talk about how making like your cellphone cozy and and and even cute it up a little bit okay um and then it's exclusive and it's so cool. So what does it what do you mean about its exclusive? Uh, nobody else is selling that particular pattern and I don't have it for sale anywhere else. Okay, so one of the things you need to do is be more specific about that because that makes it really appealing to people okay, that nobody else has this kind of thing and you can't get it from me anywhere else. So this is the only way you can get it for me. Okay, so you don't need to say it exactly like that, but you need teo put that kind of language into it. Okay. Um and then it's not a super beginner pattern, so instead I would say something like it's an intermediate pattern. Okay um and then are you mainly attracting beginners or you mainly trying to attract people who are more experience must excuse me mostly beginners on then some immediate okay, so what you might wanna have is two different often tze and you might wanna have an opt in for beginners in an opt in for people who are intermediate and that's going to help you get the right people on each list so you might have a pattern for people who are brand new okay? And then a pattern for people who are more intermediate because seeing something like this for me I'm not gonna opt in because I feel like I'm not gonna be able to do it feels too much okay, so I think this is a great place to start because you're getting some of the right people in your list but there definitely some changes that you could make to this so could you make it even better? Does that help? Yes well, this is so new to me. Yeah, so yeah, I've only sent um I think two or three so yeah, it's brand new yeah, of course of course you're learning that's that's the point of being here so you're doing a great job. I mean, you're getting yourself set out. Most people don't even have a freebie. Most people don't even have an opt in for awhile so you are well ahead of the game it seems so simple, but then when you start doing it it's complicated that's what I'm here for thank you so much, patty. I really appreciate you coming up here into the hot seat because I know it's uncomfortable to come up to the hot seat but that's how everybody else learns by getting an example so you are awesome for doing that. All right, so you need tohave an email marketing plan it's not good enough just to have an email list do you need to have a plan so turn to page ninety six in your workbook and start to think about these questions who are you trying to attract? This is your ideal customer. What are you trying to accomplish once you get them on your list, how are you going to accomplish it if you're working really hard to get new subscribers, what are you doing to take care of them once you get them through the door? So we're going to talk about segmented lists and auto responders in less than eighteen but for right now I want you to start thinking about this stuff we're going toe develop a plan over the course of the next few lessons but this is just to get you started and one of the questions I really want you to think about is what are you doing to take care of your subscribers once you get them in the door because you're working so hard to get new followers? What do you do in once you get them there so I know people have had questions about what teo email about email about block posts, launches new products and services sales business news like speaking engagements magazine features interviews guess suppose basically anything going on in your business that you think your ideal customer would be really excited to hear about that's what you came all about use your block post as a starting point because you want to reuse and repurpose content as much as possible we'll talk about this more and more and more too but for instance, let's say you do a periscope that's really great if you use a way to record it and then use that as a blogger post and then you email your subscribers about it. You've done something on social media, you've turned it into a block post and you've turned it into an email and it becomes one of those things that you were able to use more than one way it makes business a lot easier, especially for those of you who have day jobs or have small children and say to me, I can't spend that much time look for ways to do this kind of stuff do not abuse the relationship you have with your e mails scribner do not email just to email it always needs to be great content I want to be emailing my list every wednesday, but there are times that I don't and it's, because what I've got planned just isn't good enough and that's not me being like too hard on myself, that's me knowing that I haven't done my best work, it's the difference between trying your best and not trying your best? If you're trying your best, send it if you're not, and you just slap something together in order to email your list, don't send that out because they'll stop paying attention to your e mails. You want to be one of those brands that they're so excited to hear from, and every single time they want to open your email. So before you write each email, these are the questions that you're going to answer, and this is workbook page in ninety seven who are you writing to? Why are you writing this what's the point? What do you want to achieve, and how do you want your readers to feel going with this? The game plan and you can use this for blogging as well, and it especially if you're using your blood post for your email, answering these questions are really going to help you, and it gives you that confidence place to start from. It'll make it easier if you think about who my writing, teo, why am I writing? What do I want to achieve? And how do I want my readers to feel make things easier on you and your subscribers by on lee including one call to action and topic message and each email this also is very overwhelming for you includes it include a bunch of things in the email that you're sending out when you're trying to send out five different things to your subscriber and you feel really overwhelmed by him out of things you have to put into your email think about how overwhelmed they are when they get your email and when you do this lots of times they don't do the thing you want them to do so maybe you really want them to read your block post but you've also included an interview that you did you've also included something that you wrote specifically for your email lists and you also included your top five books over the past six months well, they probably we'll pick the thing that you want them to pick they probably aren't going to click on the block post because there are so many options either they're not going to click on anything because it's too overwhelming or they're goingto pick one of the things and it might not be the thing you really want them to focus on so we don't want to do that and this makes it so much easier for you don't include if in your call to action if you want to keep reading click here versus click here to keep reading and we want to avoid spam boxes, so these are some of the ways that you can do this. I am not a neck spurt and this but these are some of the ways that I know that can be helpful to avoid spam boxes, one having a double opt in so people opt in, and then they confirmed that they want to get your e mails that's what a double opt in means instead of they opt in and then they start getting your emails immediately have them click that confirmation email, encourage subscribers toe add your email to their safe email addresses, make it easy toe unsubscribe you don't want lots of people saying that your e mail is spam and they do that when they feel like they can't get off your list when they want to, and we want to get those people off. Our lists include your postal address, it can be appealed box, but this is also a legal issue you're supposed to have your your postal address in your e mails can I just add, make sure it's an actual legit address? I said I had somebody that I was following on email and I bailed off for email unless she was a pretty big name teo because her even her not email her mailing address that she was using was like very obviously a made up mailing address and because this is a legal issue you don't want to squirrel around with like if you don't want to give out your home address that's cool that's when the post office box comes in handy but yeah, don't make up a fake one. Avoid these phrases if you really want to avoid spam box is free act now open immediately those things are often used by people who are sending out spam, and therefore sometimes they get flagged, avoid all caps and multiple explain ex exclamation points, so all caps all across your headline don't do that or if there was a lot of it in your email, don't do that either because it can get flagged a spam always test your email and the links in the email before you send it to your list. We all make mistakes and there have been times when I have sent something wrong to my email list, but test it. Take that extra step you've already put in the work email regularly and consistently to build trust with your email subscribers. I recommend once a week, but at least twice a month you're not emailing twice a month people are going to get your email and say, who is this who is this again? I forget why I signed up for this okay show of hands who gets their feelings hurt when somebody unsubscribe tze from their list yeah it's a natural thing who gets those notifications that somebody has unsubscribed from their list okay I say turned them off especially since it hurts her feelings and it can effect moving forward so amanda the fact that you already have a hard time emailing your list I would really turn those notifications off because it's not worth it we're not carrying about those people who don't care about us and our businesses it happens to all of us and we also can't take it personally because it's often not something that's personal and if it is that person is a jerk you feel like you're giving it your all your best and then somebody unsubscribed and you're like oh, but I'm trying so hard it's just that they're not you're right person so why people unsubscribe you're doing a good job of talking to write people in your emails the wrong people are going to get off your list so that's actually a good thing it means you're doing something right in the moment it might not feel good, but in the long run you want people who aren't jiving with your club out of there you want to get him out of there because they're not the right people they're never gonna buy for a meal if they're thinking about unsubscribe ng they're never gonna buy from you so you don't want to keep them on your lip and you never know what's really going on I have people unsubscribe because they're no longer running a business they've decided to stop their business and so they unsubscribe from my list I can't take that personally it's not my fault that they're stopping their business they just don't need my emails anymore or maybe they're un subscribing from all of their e mails because they're trying teo clean out they're in boxes and people do that all the time I can't get my feelings hurt because they're doing it to everybody so anybody have any questions about a mom? Everybody good? Yeah process speeds are they a thing of the past like should you have one somewhere on your block? Well, some people do like tio subscribe to your bloggin that way so I think it's nice to have that option I wouldn't have it as like an opt in box and then have another opt in box because then people sometimes pick the wrong one but if you have a link to where people can get it okay, that that can work but it is I think it is becoming a thing of the past people aren't doing it is often I hardly ever sign up for that there yeah it's something but some people still dio so you can give them that option it just depends on you just wanna make sure it's not confusing okay so today's mission is to add an opt in form to your website and start collecting email addresses. You guys were doing that, so you don't have that homework today, that's. Amazing. Then start a content calendar for your email list. This is your homework. So if you're blogging regularly once a week, then that can be the start of your content calendar. Start putting those blawg post in that content calendar, and then look at when you're going tohave sales or launches, or any exciting news coming up and put that in your calendar. Because often, if we don't put it on our calendars, it doesn't happen.