Melanie
Welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast for all decision makers and action takers. Take it away, Esther.
Esther
Good morning and welcome to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're talking about email marketing sequences. So what exactly is that and why do we need to talk about it?
Melanie
Now, for those of you that are actually listening to this or watching us on YouTube, well done. You managed to stay awake.
Esther
Why? Because I mentioned email marketing.
Melanie
Yeah, it can be a fantastically boring subject. And I do get it because I find it quite boring. But But it is essential. It is essential. It is the most successful way to convert your audience. And you have to do it via email marketing sequences. Because the email marketing queen is with us today, I'm now going to turn the questions around to her instead of making me completely mess myself over again because I have no idea what I'm talking about. So Esther.
Esther
Yes, Melanie.
Melanie
You have been doing email marketing for yourself and for your clients for a number of years now.
Esther
Many years, yes. And I don't find it boring.
Melanie
No. Now, I do find it boring, but I know it's absolutely necessary. So that's why I have an email sequence, too. But how do people find the right email client for their business? I think that's probably where they start.
Esther
Okay, so I would start Obviously, when you're first starting out, you generally have zero people on your list. So I would not recommend starting with an all bells and then whistles platform that will eat into your money, time, soul, just to get you started. There are ones that when you have between zero and 100 emails or email address, addresses because there's different ways to measure them. So some of them measure them on the number of email addresses that you have, some of them measure them on the number of emails that you send. So if you're starting out with less than 100 email addresses and you don't know how quickly you will build up to be over that number, start out with a free option. So I'm a big advocate for saving money, saving time, saving effort. MailerLite is really good for a free version until you get those numbers up. And you get a lot of good things within the free version of MailerLite. Now, this is not an ad for MailerLite. I am not paid by MailerLite. I myself use the free version of MailerLite. And for a lot of my customers, I do as well. But I am not affiliated with them. I love their listening.
Melanie
That can change.
Esther
That can change. But as of this moment in the recording of the podcast, I am not I'm affiliated with MailerLite. I just love how simple it is to set up. And that's where a lot of people stumble over themselves and go, oh, this is too difficult. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what goes where. I don't know what to write. And I don't know how to set it all up so that it talks to my website and so that people can sign up via website or social media. I don't know how to get started. So it's really simple to get started on a platform like MailerLite. Others do exist. There is Mailchimp, which doesn't have as many free options in it anymore. Used to have. It's a shame on you, Mailchimp.
Melanie
Sendinblue one is one, isn't it?
Esther
Sendinblue is one. Sendable is another. A constant contact that we had on a few months ago. Also is email marketing. We haven't looked into that one an awful lot more because I just, I stick to what works until it doesn't. And then I go looking for another one.
Melanie
It depends on where you are based in the world. There'll be ones that are best known in your region. And by all means, do speak to other business owners who will give you their feedback as well, because honestly, it's the feedback that makes the difference for these platforms to a lot of people.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
So now we've talked about the email client that we should use. When do people need to set up these sequences?
Esther
Before getting your first email address into your platform.
Melanie
Crums.
Esther
So, I mean, you don't have to, but it would be easier because that way then the minute someone downloads your your giveaway or becomes a subscriber or makes a first purchase or whatever you're using to get people into your email list, then they will automatically then get their first email of welcome, thank you for downloading, thank you for purchasing, thank you for whatever. And then it'll automatically shoot out the next day, two days later, whatever period of time you feel necessary to set these up. So in, I'm going to talk about MailerLite because it's the one that I know most about. In it, you can set up the welcome email and then you can set up two options. If they opened it and if they didn't open it. And you can have different things triggering. If they didn't open it, you can resend and say something in case you missed it, here's the download that you asked for. MailerLite site, Constant Contact, are really good at getting into the inbox, because if you go back and listen to the episode with Erica Robinson, we talk about how getting into the inbox is really difficult. And a lot of places Gmail, Yahoo, tried to block a lot of these business emails and things. So using a professional platform will definitely help, but make sure that it's set up properly with your business email address all connected up and everything else. So there's a few things that go on in the background before you do anything. But if you have your email sequence written, so that can be, like I said, for example, welcome. The next one can be, so we'll give the example of a fitness instructor. Okay, so welcome. Thanks for signing up to my Pilates course. Here's the first video. Then in the next email, it could be workout tips for, if you're a beginner, this is the equipment that you're going to need. Intermediate, you'll maybe already have this equipment, but you'll also need to have this other one, etc. Then the next one could be healthy eating suggestions. And you could be going through and say, so you're doing your pilates, but in order to get maximum If you're going to benefit from it, make sure that you include more protein and eat these and don't eat these. And here's a recipe idea. Then after that, it could be a success story. So Lisa came through the course and after six months, noticed a lot more flexibility, a lot more like her clothes fit better or just feeling happier in herself and feeling more relaxed because it's Pilates. And then the next one could be a limited time offer. So you've come to the end of your free sample or your free trial or whatever it is that you're giving away.
Melanie
So that would be the final call to action?
Esther
Yeah. So a limited time offer of sign up today and get 50% off or 10% off or whatever percentage you want to give because they've gone through the whole sequence. And like I said, in a lot of In a lot of the email platforms, you can put in, if they don't open it, send this, send this other email. And if they open it but don't click on the offer, you can then send another, it can trigger or different things.
Melanie
Sounds very if this then that scenario.
Esther
It is. So you can set it up. I'm going to say you don't really need an email platform in order to do it because there's things like Zapier or IFTTT that do these things, but you really want somewhere to store. The whole point of sending emails-.
Melanie
Everything is in one place, isn't it?
Esther
It's all in one place. But the point of emails is that it's the one piece of data that you own on on your customers and your potential customers. So it's one of those things that no matter how annoying you think it is or how boring you think it is, it's like you were saying, Melanie, it's one of the things that actually gets opened and people will go back to it, because if not twice a day, five times a day, 10 times a day, people are in their emails.
Melanie
So many things people can do with their emails these days. People can open them up on their laptop or on their phone to a separate screen. And so they keep a record of that email. They can tag them. I tag them all the time. They can move them to folders that are relevant. So But again, following your example, one could be for recipes, another one could be for exercises, and you can say, Okay, I want to keep this exercise, or I want to keep this recipe, and I want to move it over to a separate folder. So you don't always know that they're just clicking onto the link and then going to your website. They could well be keeping those emails because they're also really useful.
Esther
They are. And when you're setting up the sequence, you asked when to set it up. And I said before promoting something on your website or before asking for signups, because you don't want to have to think about if somebody signs up at 10: 00 at night on a Saturday night, you don't want to have to go, oh, I must go and check and ping it across to them. And then three days later, pinging the next one to that person, but the other person's already on email five. And it just keeps it-.
Melanie
You can't keep up with it.
Esther
You can't. And it makes it streamlined. Now, I have set up sequences for clients in the past, and there's one of my clients, she gives sales tips, 31 sales tips. So there's one a day and every day once.
Melanie
That sounds familiar. One a day, and it's been running for years.
Esther
And this is the other thing. If it's something evergreen like that, then you can set it up and literally walk away and forget about it. Check it from time to... Usually they send you-.
Melanie
Maybe update the relevant information.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
So how long does that email sequence go on for, Esther?
Esther
That one goes on for 31 days.
Melanie
There you go.
Esther
One a day. But these other ones, you could have it on day one, day three, day seven, day 14, day 21. Just depends on what your audience, and this is where you need to know what you're doing before you set it up. So your strategy could be to have them drip feed the information, or in another case, you could want to just send it out on day one and then six hours later, if it's a limited time offer, You're going to need to have that urgency on the email. Maybe it's a course that's going on for five days, so one a day over the five days.
Melanie
There's so many different ways you can do it. One of the most frequent One of the questions I get as a mentor is, you've told me I need to do an email list, and how often do I send it out? So onboarding somebody is probably where you do the most emailing, I think.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
From my lack of judgment and expertise. And once you've got them on board and you've given them a full idea of all of the products and services and relationships you may have with others, because you may be collaborating with other partners and teams and you want to mention them as well, just to give that bit of extra added value. If they haven't unsubscribed from you by that stage, then you know that they're invested in you, that they're not just there for the download that you talked about in your lead magnet.
Esther
Yeah. And that's also an important point that you bring up, that you need to give them an out. They need to have a way to unsubscribe at any point. And you can't just go, Oh, hang on, but you haven't finished all the tips, or you haven't finished all the going through all the videos.
Melanie
And you can give them preferences as well. Just today, actually, went through my preferences with Mari Smith. So she's got multiple lists that you can be a part of. If you work it out right with your email client, you can actually have multiple lists that they can be on about certain products or certain services, and even how many times an email goes out.
Esther
Yes, and a lot of places you can say, Look, I know some people send on a daily basis, I only want the Monday Breakdown or the Friday, whatever. There's also, that's all part of your segmenting when you're going and setting up these things. So you can have them and have tags and labels and segments and groups. And there's so many different names for the exact same thing, depending on which platform you're using. But basically, as with everything, set your objectives, set your goals.
Melanie
I thought you were going to say it depends then.
Esther
Well, as with everything, it also depends. But set your objectives and your goals before you start, because you could make this as complicated as you want, but people want simple. They want it to be easy. They want the information in short. Your emails don't even have to be long. They can be two lines or one line. And if it's, tip for today, one line. To me, that's perfect. And people would also even read that without actually clicking into the email because you get that little preview part to the email in most of the places that you read your emails. So have really clear definition of who your audience is, what questions they're asking, what they want to to know or learn from you. And then the triggers, like you say, what will initiate the sequence? Do they have to sign up for? If you've got two or three different things that you're offering as giveaways, have them going into the correct place. So it's a lot of background work before you actually launch an email sequence.
Melanie
Can you see why this is so exciting to everybody?
Esther
I love it. I love it. So this is probably the one part of the mathematical equations that I actually can do and understand because adding and subtracting are not my fortes. But if this then that, the whole what works, making things trigger.
Melanie
This is why you and I work so well. Okay. You're the brains and I'm the personality. That's pretty much all I've got going for me.
Esther
But before we finish, I just need to say test it and test it and test it again before you launch it.
Melanie
Okay. How? How can you test it before launching?
Esther
Oh, so there is like you can send a test sequence. So you can get somebody to send the test email and then once they receive it, then after three days, after the trigger, then get them to test both sides. Like, yes, you open it or no, you don't open it. It triggers the next email the next day or three days later, whatever. So test it.
Melanie
Okay. Scintillating conversation.
Esther
Well, if you're a nerd like me, then come and follow me, find me, ask me all the questions. Don't ask Melanie anything about email marketing.
Melanie
No, no, not about this. Now, if you're going to a Comic Con at any time, I am a total nerd. Okay. Now, moving on. Thank you so much for outlining what email marketing is, how we can do it, especially about the the email sequencing. This is something very personal you need to pick, but we're hoping that we've opened your eyes and your mind to various means and ways of doing it today. Remember, you can listen back, get some notes. Don't forget, we're going to have the show notes up eventually.
Esther
When the website's fixed.
Melanie
But what we want you to do is put this stuff in action. Don't just listen and go, Yeah, that's a good idea. Inactive. Because our audience are decision-makers and action-takers. So just a big yes in the background, please. Yes.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
Let's do it. That's all we have time for today. But we'll be back next week with another podcast. Bye for now.
Esther
Bye.
Melanie
Do you think we should ask Aaron to add the cheer? Do you think he would?
Esther
Probably would, if we remembered to ask him.
Melanie
Yeah, let's ask him.
Esther
Okay. You ask him. I'm scared of him.
