Lessons

Lesson Info

Creating Marketing Content That Connects

So let's now talk about creating content that connects this hopefully we will answer the question of what to write about people are always telling me that they do not I don't want to do an email list because I don't even know what to write about is it it's so we're going tio combat that right now I do want to say that we don't have time to get into writing everything you could be blogging about so right now we're gonna be talking about your email list and as one of the bonuses that when you bought the class you've got the crafting an effective blogged book this is across have already created with diane of coffee pod has an amazing blawg and in that we walk you through figuring out what actually blogged about because you know, I try to fit it all into this cross and I realize we would need to make it like ten days so you can get that workbook and work through it it's very somewhere to this workbook and that you're gonna apply it all to your own business and that will help you figure out...

what you should be walking about so creating content that connects the email we've talked about two kinds of content there's the opt in bonus that people get when they sign up in the ongoing content that's going to build relationships what I mean by ongoing is the email that you sent out each week, every other week, once a month or your block posts that you're writing on an ongoing basis. So if you flip to page thirty seven of your workbook, you'll see that I start asking questions to help you create your opt in let's talk a little bit more about that. So what an opt in is? I think I explain this to you guys. It's a thing that you get when you sign up for an email list so it's a thing that's going to be e mailed to them right away in that initial welcome email so it can be a coupon code actually think I have examples of what it can be. Oh, that decide to not mess up, okay, so to figure out what teo figure out what to send people, you want to ask yourself who is signing up to your list and what are the benefits of your work and her life? This goes back to what we did, um, in session one, where we talked about the benefits of your work, your opt in needs to reflect the benefits of your product. So this is big because this will help you figure out what it is you should be offering if your product offers the benefit of creating a sweater that fit every time, then you're opt in could be related to knitting things that fit ok, if that was the thing you were really going to focus on, if you're the benefit of your work is that you help busy moms look stylish and your opt in would be something that would instruct busy moms on looking stylish uh fast or for cheap or with a bohemian look like some resource is maybe so you want to know who directly you're talking teo, and then the benefit of your work and how you could translate that into something, email a ball and then also you need to know why she signing up. In other words, what did you tell her she was going to get? What is the motivation? Is it that she wants discounts, which is usually not the kind of signer upper and buyer that she want? Is it that she wants tips on looking stylish? Because that's super important is it that she wants money tips like she wants to know how to survive with a six month old? Because they're all different benefits that you could focus on? Or is she signing up just because, like I get old navy e mails and they just tell me what's new the time we like five times a week what's new what's, new what's new so you, khun do different kinds of emails based on what the person wants. And you get to decide what you're gonna send when I asked why is she signing up? You can help her figure you can tell her you know what you're going to get when you sign up so I ask you these questions on page thirty seven of your workbook hey was signing up and I force you to describe her who she really is I keep saying she it could be he but for you that air here I know that most your buyers are women so you want to describe that person and then and then you also want to think about why you're a perfect fit for her and this is what we did in session one where we talk about why she is you're right person you want to know why she wants your stuff in her life because once you once you get clear on that it will be so much easier for you to write something that's a value to her and then the third question there is what is she waiting for? Why hasn't she bought already? What is it that you haven't answered for her that you could in this often and then the last question is what could you say to her? What could you write for her to communicate your value trustworthiness, the benefits of your work that will reflect um those what your work brings into her life this qualities of your work and this will be an ongoing process, so even though I'm asking you the questions now, obviously you need to be thinking about this because this is something you're going to create once and then we'll be on your list it's not like you have to create it again and again so it's okay to take a while to kind of planet and just for some ideas you're often could be anything wait, let me see if we ask the question oh yeah ok, so it goes on to page thirty eight you should answer all the way through page thirty eight kind of why I give you some examples so it could provide this it needs to provide the same kind of value your work provides I really want to answer the need that she has in her life for your product answer do you want to answer that in your opt in? Because then you're going to get the same person who's both signing up and wants to buy it also will provide a more than what she gets on your site something different, something better, something slightly more advanced than your general bloch posts so as an example, if I was doing a block post about what you can knit with hand spun yarn ah great opt in might be a series or a pdf on how to use hand spun yarn and then it demonstrates your value we keep saying you are of service to your right person because you're filling her need so your your your thing is valuable in her life. If you want to demonstrate that whether it's, your experience and fashion or your artistic eye or the thing you know how to do that makes her photos of great even to demonstrate that somehow in your value and or in your opt in, you do not have to say it out, right? You do not have to say I am valuable because of this, it will be more that it's reflected in the way that you write to her in the questions of her that you answer with it. So while you guys were writing all the way through page thirty eight, I have some examples. We can also take questions from the chat room if some come up while I'm giving these examples well, we have people who are suggesting possible opt in things and benefits to their readers. That one girl circus had a question about what a garment care chart be. A good thing to use is not often I e this is a chart that people can look at to say what's washable at what temperature so they don't ruin their clothes now would that be something that's good to give away? Is something like this? Absolutely because I know that karen sells tio she sells distant sustainable clothing that's going to last a long time like on dh so she so to tell somebody how to take care of the thing that they're buying from you is a genius because it will not just apply to you but I'll find out all the other clothes that they own so be really useful in your life another example is is someone in my starship sasha? She said I could use her name and she creates yarn from I believe local well that's breed specific so she gets the wool that's all from the same kind of breed of sheep and has yarn milled so it's all just one breed of urine and so her siri's that she's writing that you can get when you sign up and that link is in the resource guide is about the benefits of each breed so that you understand whether you use her yarn or somebody else's urine kind of the difference between marino and shell island the kind of projects that you would use marino four versus a kind of product you'd shut one for and and also a bit about why she chose it because she knows all this stuff about wall that has a knitter you might have no idea, but most energy were really interested to know like I mean cheaper adorable so everybody wants still more about sheep, but but that walking them through basically what she's doing is she's teaching you to be smart enough to make good use of what she's selling, but also of any earn that you use in your life, and this is educating you to be where you understand the value of what she offers, but you're also going to be just better in your life at the hobby that you love to dio. So another option is another example. Rather is a knitwear designer that I worked with who was coming out with a new book, and so she had to spend all of her time working on new designs for the book, and she didn't have any time to make it to make new designs to offer the world to sell and she's like I don't even have time to email anybody, but I have this email list and the people say they like hearing from me, but I don't know what to say. So what we worked on for her was a plan that she would create a series of e mails that introduced people to her past designs because people come to you now they have no idea what you used to make, they're not going to go through all of your archives and find it so one email oh, and we kind of did she do it a couple ways you can look chronologically like I started out designing scarves and then I moved on to sweaters and I moved on to brioche stitch and then I moved on the lace and each email could highlight different designs from that period or you could do it based on types of designs like I've designed several sweaters there was this one in two thousand and this one in two thousand twelve and all of those links were directly links to the products so they helped her reach her goal of continuing to make sales even when she's busy with something else but they also just helped people understand what it is that she does and they could see she's been designing for a really long time like she knows what she's talking about and she has things that I would be interested in so I actually have like twenty more examples I could go through but I want to know yeah yeah so there's a blogged people subscribe to the blogged right? Are you assuming that they've just subscribed to the blawg and then the newsletter is on top of that? Yeah so there is either or no I'm assuming this that blawg readers the majority of black readers don't know about subscribing or are people who are going to come across your website don't know about the technology of subscribing in the same way and that you can make it so that your block poster delivered via email so that's just your block post, but then you've got to remember you have to readers, you have the person who's reading it in their email who signed up and really wants it, but girls have perfect strangers, but I'm talking about is an email list where you send separate messages so you might include that they can get blogged posts, but I also mean a separate message that, too just for them and so this opt in will come when they sign up. But if you just do subscribe like through our ss like feed readers, that doesn't give you any options, you can't really do anything with their e mails, and you can't send them anything. So for this, it has to be that you're using an email software, but maybe this will help injured a little more fully two on my list when you go to sign up, you can choose to get my weekly lessons, or you can check the check mark in my block posts. Reid check either one both, either, and no matter what you're going to get because it all goes through male chimp, you're going to get a welcome note that has and then you get an e course that comes automatically so you'll still get my block post each time I write one will come to you, I post my podcast there, so we'll come to you if that's what you wanted. But if you don't want to hear from me three times a week and you just want a lesson that's written just for email subscribers that's a different lesson, so we're talking about creating it could be a lot of content, depending on how often you write your email, how often you write your block posts. So do you have are is this feed on yours as well? I haven't you know, when you subscribe, I mean, there is an r s s feed you good to go dig for, but I found that more bloggers know about our ss feeds and blood readers. And so when I've asked my parents or energy or a great example of people who read blog's but who aren't as tech savvy, they had no idea what I meant by subscribing v r s s feed on dh when I felt the class toe different audiences that's not something that you have to really be in the block grating to figure out how to subscribe to them. You know what I mean? And you want to be able to reach people in their in box, whether they know about that technology or not, because they don't have to know anything to just give you there and email, you know, then your emails just show up. Are there questions, or would somebody like to share some of their opt in ideas? A quick question before we get to opt in ideas? This is something from mary w, and they were wondering if you could clarify something that was in a previous slide. You had a point that said, what is she waiting for? And they want to know, how do you determine the answer to that question? What you what? Your reader is waiting, so if you haven't had any customers yet, then you're going to be making it up. But actually, what you're gonna ask yourself is, what would I what about what would what I wait for? I go to a web site, I like a thing I hesitate, what is that? Hesitation? Is it that I need to know more about the details of it? Do I need to know that it's going to fit into my life, do I need to know that this person is trustworthy? And that all happens subconsciously for most of us, when we go shopping and you walk into a store, yeah, I mean, you guys ever have the experience where you just kind of turn around, walk out? You're like, it's? Not for me, I'm not a big shopper, so I do that, like ninety percent of the time, just like I can't do this on my leave, so that, like, knowing what caused me to do that, what are the things you can? You can kind of test it out on yourself and see what other information do I need to know before I can make a thing? You can also pay attention to your analytics a little bit and see where people are going, what information they're looking for in your sight, what they're paying attention to. But a lot of this is trial and error and it's asking people like when they buy, uh, one of the questions I'd like to ask is, did you have any hesitations before you bought? And a lot of people will say, yeah, I thought maybe you're going to tell me what everybody else tells me, so I read long. Your blood for a while and I figured that you're gonna give it to me in a different way or someone else told me that they like the worksheets so I went ahead and decided so that gives you the idea of what they hesitated on and then also what pushed him over the edge yeah so in the newsletter if your product it is more of like a one time by things like you don't have that many returning customers would you be catering the newsletter too customers that haven't bought yet then yeah yeah you can kind of depends on what you want to write about and but as for the who you're writing teo I think so are most of your sales custom work or they things that are available in your shop? It's ok, well I get a lot of both but um ah more I think just listens that are are the there because it's kind of easier and it's not as big of an investment probably so if you don't get a lot of return customers and it's mostly new people that I would think about your email list as being people who come to your site and just aren't quite ready to buy so they sign up and so they are new to you so you can absolutely invite past customers to join but when you talk you'll talk like they're they haven't made the decision yet and it doesn't necessarily mean you're poster or your e mails are going to be convincing them to make the decision is going to be hard sell it's just going to give them more information especially for you it would be amazing if your e mails either were like had like a collection of the pretty photos you've posted from your amazing photo shoots like I would kind of like to see that as a potential buyer well almost like a photo album you're sending me on a semi regular basis of the options or it could be where you tell the story of a custom piece or you if people are taking selfie is wearing your stuff you could say these were some of the selfie is posted with hash activists like your emails could be very visual don't have to be words and actually we're gonna get into ongoing conduct but your opt in could be something aimed at that person that girl who's who would buy your thing but hasn't bought it yet or talk about weddings of like do want on something blue brights that you know purchased from you and decided that was going to be there something blue thing thinking current to them about the different things that they're already going to look for for their wedding yeah and you could also dio like your upton since you said you also coordinate weddings is you could give them your top ten tips like if I if you send out but we might lose that are my top ten tips for ah hassle free, personalized wedding, and one of the tips is get a custom had dress or get one, you know, in the shop, and then the other tips would be like, make sure you know your timelines, make sure you vetra vendors, you know, all those things that you would tell a new bride, but that's information that you have that your buyer really wants on dh, that would be maybe a bridal focused one, but if you do, you sell things that aren't just bridal focused, a swell, so maybe five tips to taking great photograph, you know, like if you've been looking at these floor crowns, you'll be interested to know that many of my customers using an amazing photo shoots. Here are our tips for the best ways to take a photo in your in your crown or to take a gorgeous photo that makes you look free and bohemian whatever you know, whatever those words are that will speak to your people when you talk like that she's, like I already want to read that I want to know how to take a photo in your for a crown and look amazing. So and that will help after she reads that she's like, ok, so now I see what you just just demonstrated is your value, because you're knowledgeable also demonstrated how I would use your product so I can picture it in my life. And you are reminding me oh, yeah, I have that photo shoot, like now have triggered a photoshoot equals by this thing from her. So now let's talk about creating ongoing content which you will find in your workbook on page thirty nine. And I need you to start listing first things your fans would want to hear about because that's what you're going to be sending them and your ongoing conduct. And the reason I use the board bands is because that's what your subscribers are there people who already like you and want to hear more about you. So this is different than what we talked about in making your web site have the information that new people want. This is people, porter fans. What would they want to hear about what they care about what they think about what they what are they into? Which hopefully the work we did in session one on right people will really help you make this easy to do. So, uh, you need to know when you create ongoing content who you're writing teo and that's, where the right people stuff in session one really came into play, is knowing who you're writing, too, so you can speak directly to them. And you also want to keep in mind why she loves you, why she wants to know more. Why is she of hand, what are the benefits of your work in her life and what she needs to know to buy from you? What is it that is giving her pause? It's a question we had a minute to go, like. How do you know what it is that she needs to know these air? The questions you want to be answering when you write your messages now and I said this earlier, you are not writing a newsletter. You are not sending a family christmas letter to all your relatives. You are not telling them about what's happened in your life in your email. You may mention personal stories you made tie that into your product but this is not about I wrote this book post this week ever this guest post this week I had three new projects in my shop because that's all about you and as we've been talking about this isn't about you this is about them and your product in their life so you're not going to focus on what's happening in your life you're going toe focus on what you can do for your reader so that might mean that you share a personal story but then you turn it back around so they can see how it applies to them it might be that you share a new product you have but you talk about how they could use it in their life so this is your ongoing content what we're talking about here the things you're going to send and maybe each week every other week once a month tio um keep connecting with them to keep them coming closer, keep them remembering why they liked you and wanted to sign up I said we have questions about ongoing conduct yeah, you ever do like links like you want have ah like you might have found like great I think I think it says something about this the other day where you you found great resource is and that could be the topic of the news the newsletter yeah yeah, I think that's great, especially if it's a resource and it's useful to your reader. Uh, you know, the kind of thing you're into, and you send a like a list of links and that's absolutely great know you might want to even include that. Do you have a blogged you might want to include that in your block? Because it does a few things for a block and that in the internet and that's that, um, the other people who you linked teo, you can let them know like I included I have a round up of the five best sites for fill in the blank, including this person, this person, this person you could tag him on twitter on facebook and let them know as a way of connecting with him, and also they will see maybe if they're paying attention that you link to them, and that is maybe the kind of resource that would be evergreen, that people would want to get a gun on him again. But now, if you want to do like a round up of, like the five best board post I read this week and you think your people would like that, that could go out via email, I mean, you do either one putting it on your block gives you a little more website juice you know because often people will that track back with one of their site and nelson traffic to your site but an email is a good place to so is it safe to assume or good to assume that people that get your deuce letter may not be reading your blawg yes because I like give them all the places to link to me or you like my blood linking all of that yeah um but you know and sometimes I'll recap something that I said on my blogger I'll say this's a post you might want to read assuming that like not everybody's reading drugs all the time so I'm going to say the answer depends on you and your subscribers because I think you know that you have a bigger subscriber listen you do blah greeter so it's likely that more people are subscribing than our regular they're not really block breeders there they're more like they wanted in their in box so that makes sense for me I think most people find me on the block and then move on to the email newsletter so I don't I don't want you to want to punish people who are following you everywhere you know what? I'm punish your biggest fans by just giving them the same information but you could recap it you could include it linked to something else what will often say is you know the conversation sparked by this week's blogged post and that would block post is a link led me to be thinking about entered the new email lesson, you know? So I've linked to it, but I haven't said here's what's on the blogged, you know, I have another yeah, so I've kind of come up with a formula where I have, like, four topics in my in my newsletter, and I kind of rotate them through them, you know? So so that I only really have to come up with one new thing every time I do a newsletter on the assumption that a lot of people aren't giving to the third and fourth thing, and so is those things. Move up, it's hard for me to picture what you're saying. Eso let let's have topics one, two, three, four in an email that you're sending in my newsletter and so four becomes three and three becomes too and it becomes one and one disappears because now it's old news and I put something else in, okay, that's probably more kind of look for this coming up. Okay, so it's for people who, like, read all the way to the end. Okay, but then next, the next time it comes out, it will be further up in the newsletter because it's become more relevant. Because we're closer to the date yes that makes because you have a lot of things that air date specific to tell them about right sorry was there a question so the question was is I mean is it okay to just do that that makes it easy to do one you think yeah it is working for you and if you find that you're getting engagement on the things now you're only finding that people are clicking and paying attention to the first thing than just sent an email with one thing okay but if you say you teach it a bunch of locations of specific dates and people need to know to put it in their calendar than you would want to tell it to them earlier than they're actually so they can plan for it so it all depends on your information but if you really find if you list for things but people only ever read the first one stop listening for things and just list the first one because you're you're you know can be small your email could be short especially the more often you send it the less you wanted to make it like a big production both for you and for them because people don't want to read like you know ten thousand words on you every week especially not about your product but eh so you want to just try to figure out experiment with which ones work okay that totally because I haven't thought to look at what they're clicking on. Yes, and it might be that they're clicking on the third thing each time and that's the place where it needs to be right, you know. Thank you. Sure. So then the question to you is what could you send your reader to bring more of your brands quality into her life? This is all about your e mails. Your blog's, your opt in there all about her getting to know you better if she's taken one step closer to you by subscribing then you have taken one step closer to her by giving her more of what it's like to buy your product so it's not necessarily about what you want to say it's about bringing that into her life but that's fun, easy sweaters that fit memories that you're wearing all of those qualities. You can give them a taste of it any now. So do we have that some? Have you guys thought about what you want to send, what you could send? Are there questions in the chat room about it? Well, we had a question that's interesting talking about when is too long to wait after you've collected these e mails now has come from monica and says that I've collected a lot of names and e mails but I haven't done the best job of connecting with them regularly how long is considered too long to reach out after they've initially requested the information? The question everybody ask that because I think people started email list and then they like freak out and go away from me for like two years so I say send the email now send an email that says you have not heard from me in a while and what you signed up for it in this way remind them why they're getting email and say don't do the big apology just say you have a word for me in a while but you signed up here as a reminder so and then just go into it just go right into it now if the question is how often should you send it like don't want to go six months because they won't remember and you'll get tons of unsubscribe because they're like why am I getting this email? Um and we've all been in that place right? You subscribe to something and then six months later that email you and you're like who is this person? I don't like them or just a surprise that it showed up in your inbox so if you have any milk a longtime send a message remind them when they said or that they signed up also let them know there's an unsubscribe button on the bottom if you no longer want to get these messages and now and then just launch into it but as for how often to send them somewhere at the at the high end would be once a month but no uh less often going to see more often no less often than once a month because people will forget the internet moves really fast and people in boxes air really full until going more than once a month they're not going to remember that they signed up they're not going to remember why they're interested in so once a month being you know the top end and for most of us no more than once a week makes sense, especially if you're a product based business. The difference might be if you had like three tips each week or if you're providing a service we're having really up to date news matter. Do you want to do it more often if you're doing something like daily candy which features a new product every single day but most of us don't have that kind of production time we don't have that kind of marketing time so anywhere between one so we can once a month the main thing though is that she wanted to be scheduled like you do it at the same time whether it's the fourth thursday or every other tuesday or every thursday. You want to have a scheduled so that it's expected the number. One thing for email is that they should know that they're going to get it and then be happy when they get it. And if you are, emails are bringing more of the quality of your work into their life, they're going to be delighted to get it because that's what they're coming to you for, they want more of that. They want more ideas or beauty or ease and fashion that's what they're looking for from you. So you should filled out all the way through it page thirty nine and have some ideas for ongoing content. Actually, creating ongoing content is ongoing. You will keep creating it and getting better at it and tweaking it. So it is ok if this all seems like a lot to think about. I wanted to hit all of this because this is where people are going to get to know you and like you and move closer and closer to you.