How a Nurture Sequence Generated $61,000 in One Email with Cody Hays

We know you don't have a lot of time , so here's the bare bones of what you need . Go , execute it and let me know how it goes , so that way I can consistently pour into you and provide additional feedback as you are growing .

Let's transform your mission into a movement . Hello , welcome back to another episode of Missions to Movement and today , from one marketing person to another , I am very excited to have Cody Hayes , founder of Marketing Mission , on the podcast today . We were just chatting .

He's also in the process of getting his PhD in mass communication , so I mean , we got an expert on the line today . Cody , welcome to the show .

Flowdesk is the email platform that I use and Cody uses , and I have introduced lots of nonprofits and for profits to Flowdesk , and friends of mine use it , and he was able to create a revenue of $61,000 from one email and that's , my friends , what we're going to be diving into today .

So , before we get into today's amazing case study , you launched your company Marketing Mission in 2020 . What led you to do that and specifically , why in that moment ? Why at that time ?

Others , like the past agency that I worked for , did not .

So I noticed that the company that I was working with previously decided that , hey , you know , you paid us hundreds of thousands of dollars to plan these in-person events and transform these square houses into these gorgeous transformed experiences for students , but because we can't actually meet in person , we're not going to refund you that money , we're actually going

to charge you more to switch over to virtual . And that to me , was like oh , no , no , no , no , no , no , friends , we do not need to capitalize on a global crisis in a moment like this . And so that really like struck , my values did not align with it and I felt really compelled to take a step back and say , no , I do not want to be part of that .

So thus , marketing Mission was born as a volunteer initiative , initially to ethically support these organizations and their pivot to digital platforms . So we started Marketing Mission really as a virtual events company , doing the branding , marketing tech behind all of that to change from the in-person scramble to a safe online environment .

That was still entertaining and still valuable to folks and the best part about it is we also , in that first six months , didn't charge anybody at that time .

So when folks typically come to us , you think the busy executive directors , marketing development directors maybe they have a marketing person on their team , but chances are it's probably lumped in with that development coordinator or development director and so we come in really to offload that marketing , the comms , the website , email , social to allow the development

directors , the executive directors , to focus on their zone of genius , which is the one-on-one personal connections with folks . And we monitor the digital to ensure that anything that we notice , like the trends , patterns , email open rates , things like that get communicated over to folks on the team so that way they can do their one-on-one outreach .

But we really focus on building up the systems , developing the strategy and building the infrastructure in the organization so that way , when the team is ready to grow and bring on a dedicated communications coordinator or manager , they don't have to scramble figuring out what do I actually post about ? How do I do this ? What should my graphics look like ?

They have everything that they need to just fall into that position and execute with ease .

Where should someone really start when they're saying , yes , I want to streamline my marketing , help me Like , where is a good like kicking off point ?

I know it won't be released until the new year , but I want to plug in what I call declutter December , and that's really the month where we sit and go through all the marketing stuff and all the tech tools that we have , all the subscriptions that are adding up in our bank account and literally just do an audit .

And so that's where I say if you're trying to streamline your marketing in 2024 , just do an audit of what you have already done , what has worked , what hasn't , and identify have I used this tool in the past three months ? Is it worth it for me to keep paying for that , and are there any tools that I can combine ?

So I like to start on the tool level to figure out what is going on , like what systems , processes , tools I'm using , and then go into OK , what actually did we send out ? So what emails did we send ? What social posts did we send ? What updates did we have to make to the website ?

And then write those down into a quarterly task or a monthly task , maybe like mapping out your entire year , and then you can start grouping information . So I like to do a good batch work , as I am streamlining , and say , okay , if we have , you know , 10 tasks here and three of them are copywriting , let's do all of our copywriting in this one week .

So that way , you know , instead of having to sit down and write every single day for our social caption , we can just sit down for the quarter , knock out all of the captions in one or two days , then move on to the graphics one to two days , have it ready on Friday for the interview and then we're set for the week .

So what I am typically looking at when we're talking about streamlining is are we using too many tools ? Can we streamline from there ? And then let's take a peek at what marketing strategies and what tactics are actually working , double down there and if we can group any of the things that take our time , let's do

that so that way we can batch work it and set a cadence for how often we need to batch work that information .

You have to go through like click this thing and then talking to this person and then getting this , and it was difficult . But I love the idea of decluttering and , yes , we are recording this in December . But another tip , and I just had Bex Tom's on the podcast talking about Canva .

Her episode makes me wanna clean out my Canva account so badly and organize all of the things in Canva , and so I love the idea of decluttering . To start streamlining is brilliant . Love that , cody . Okay , let's jump into this flow . Desk email case study how did nurturing lead up to $161,000 email ?

So I love this whole concept and that concept of automation of emails . Can you break this down for us ? So you spent three weeks over the summer collaborating with your team to develop essentially a year's worth of newsletter content . I love this . What was the initial strategy Like ? How ?

So we knew that I was having a hard time writing the emails every week for us to send out , and so what we did was sit down as a team and we went through all of the emails that we had previously sent one off , and we went through all of the social posts , the Instagram posts , that I had posted for the past year and a half , and said , okay , what are

people actually responding to ? That was the indicator to say people are liking this and the engagement rate is double what it usually is . That'll probably make a good email . And so we pulled those captions and just like dumped them into a document .

And we pulled the existing emails , dumped those into the document and we realized through that that there was some themes to what we were talking about , obviously because we're marketers and we were able to take that and really understand if this is the top topics that our audience actually cares about , let's double down there .

And so what we did was essentially take all of those little captions and one off emails and create a template that we could use , for each email essentially has , like the introduction , the main meat and potatoes , the call to action and then a PS section , and our goal was let's get just connect with folks once a week to ensure that we're staying top of mind ,

let's ensure that that meat and potatoes content is super , super valuable . So that way it literally is like giving them a strategy every time they open up the email that they can immediately implement .

And then let's give them the call to action to either respond to us to let us know how their campaign is going or to send us a progress update and send us the landing page that they're working on will review it .

So really just treating this sequence as a way to actually communicate with folks , not just as like a hey , here's our emails , but actually , hey , I want to have a conversation with you and if you want feedback on the work that you're doing , just reply to this email and I will personally record a video for you giving you feedback , and so just little things

like that to make sure that , yes , if we're automating 50 emails an entire year's worth of emails in advance it has to be timely , it has to be super , super valuable and it has to be really specific to what they are focusing on in this moment . And for us . The common theme was I don't have enough time in my day .

I don't really care about marketing , but I know it's important , so what do I do ?

Now we have an entire vault of nonprofit templates and trainings that organizations they sign up for . You get like 30 plus templates to go through . Realize this evolution also was again came through the responses that we were getting from email and from the social posting hey , I need this or what do you do about this ?

And so well , we have a template for that . Let's just refine it a little bit and get it up on that template shop .

Really , that vault of free templates is meant to again solve an issue or solve a problem for folks , and so essentially like using that lead generator to collect the email addresses and then we would send an email immediately after someone signs up saying , hey , thank you so much for signing up .

Here is access to those free tools that you requested , whether it's the training or the template or what have you and then they get that . We wait a few days and then we start that 50 part series .

So , essentially , by the time that they are signing up and they get that free resource , and then the emails that follow give them a very clear steps on how to implement that resource and develop campaigns using those resources . So it's not just a you wanted this great runaway . It's like you wanted this great .

Here it is , and here's the support and here's follow up for literally an entire year to ensure that you are implementing it and has support as you are implementing it .

have sort of the welcome-esque and the traditional like hi , here's who we are . But I'm still jumping straight into that value add and so , rather than I know some folks will have like here's the freebie and then here's your three part welcome sequence and then you can go into the nurture sequence . I'm like they're here because they want something Like .

The reality is I'm going to target . I don't really care about the name of the person who's like helping me , I just want my stuff right . So , recognizing that , and I was like people don't really care too much , I was like , oh , I got this . Who actually made this ? It's like , no , let's just , I got this stuff .

Here's value , and if you decide to keep scrolling , that's when you'll learn about me . But the most important thing is to ensure that you actually have the resources that you need and that's where we kind of built that trust with folks over time , because we know email a week is a lot , but again , if it's providing value and it's actually helpful and applicable .

I know I personally don't see those types of emails as a nuisance , but rather as , like , an extension of the strategy work that I'm doing .

I guess two parts is performance of open and click-throughs and then where do you normally see the sales start to trickle in ? I think this is relevant for anyone who's creating an automated email sequence . Then also , I think in the nonprofit sector , organizations always want to know how many emails do I send ? When do I make the asks ?

How many times do I insert the ask ? I'm wondering if you have any insights on that just from your own personal work .

I don't really care if they are looking at a call , but obviously that would be lovely . I'll say the main goal is to get them back onto the website because we have social ads and Dana ensures the expert , and to retarget folks , but- .

Yeah , then , after they've signed up for the vault , if they don't sign up to purchase the nonprofit starter pack that we offer and they'll get sent an ad for a nonprofit starter pack that includes a nonprofit marketing strategy , template canva templates , email welcome sequence , bunch of tools from the template shop .

Then , if they do purchase from there , then they'll get an ad to join content club . If they don't purchase from there , then that's okay , we're going to just keep them in our fold and we'll likely reach out to them .

When it comes to the money side of things , let's dive in a little bit on that . The email nurture sequence at the bottom has an ad for a digital product template and that's relevant to whatever we're talking about . That's where some income comes in through digital product sales , template shops , things like that .

But the real piece and I think the piece that you're wanting to know , for instance , the $61,000 , that piece is a one-off email . So what I'll do and I'm actually sending it this week , so if you're on the list , keep your eyes out is I'll pause all of our email sequences , including that nurture sequence .

It doesn't matter if somebody's signed up and is in like email 10 of 50 , or if they're in email 40 of 50 , to me , because I'm just sending that one-off sales email a year , I don't really care who sees it .

I'm like the person who signed up yesterday may be ready and may be looking , and so I'll send out the email and say this is how you can work with us in 2024 . And I'm not listing all 10 services and 10 different projects that they could work on , I'm just choosing the top level , which for us is one-on-one retainer work .

So we work with four organizations throughout the year to maximize their marketing and streamline their time , and we have two open spots for that for 2024 . And so I'll send out that email to the list and we'll see what happens .

Historically , we've had our retainer clients come from that email and this will be the third year I've sent it and so we've been able to generate some pretty large , significant retainer packages for an entire year of service from those one-offs .

So I'll track the open rates with that email , because I know it's being sent out to just over a thousand people , and so I'll track that and say , okay , who opened that ? Who clicked to the landing page ? Who responded to the email ? All three of those , like the engagement metrics , gives us a much shorter list .

That's essentially like these people are actually interested , and so that's where I'll go through and come through those people and be like , okay , who do I actually know on this list and let me forward this email to them and I'll wait like a week and send forward the email that I previously sent with a personal note that says hey , I think you would be a

really good fit for this package . This is what I think we can accomplish together in 2024 . Would you be open to a coffee chat ?

I like to actually just like build one-on-one relationships with people and kind of let them see like are we a good fit for each other and can I actually provide what you need , rather than just try to like sell , sell , sell and like the reality is nobody's going to pay $61,000 just because you sent an email .

Of course , it's the relationship that has been built over the entire year and the one off personal correspondence and showing up for that person with a very specific vision of where we can take that organization in the future .

Do you look to see when did they initially subscribe and is there any logic to oh , they're 50% through the nurture sequence or they just start , or did they complete it and they've been on there for a couple of years ? Have you done any research into that ?

Basically , like once they get through that initial like marketing 101 sequence that I offer , which is about like 10 emails long after they sign up for the vault , then I'll usually get folks kind of replying to that because they get like a certificate of completion and so that people will respond to that and then we'll schedule .

But then folks that go on that longer sequence . It's really like I'm checking in with you whenever you are ready and we are here .

Kodi , I love getting like literally what I say this show is about , which is behind the feed , and thank you for being so transparent and sharing with us , and I hope this is super useful to anybody else , and I mean what it seems like to me at the core is value , value , value , right , like you're like , how can I help ? How can I help ?

How can I help ? And then , when you do decide that you want to take it to the next level , hey , we're here and we hope that we built this relationship with you and we can be a good fit . So good for this year , for 2024 . Do you go in and make tweaks to those 50 emails or did they stay pretty consistently the same ?

But as we've grown our audience with more specific non-profit organizations that are aligned with our values , we were able to go back through that initial Lotus sequence and say , oh , they didn't really resonate with this one , let's pull that out . Are they really resonated with this email ?

because it has a 60% open rate let's write a few more like that , and so every year we will kind of do an audit per se of like , okay , how are things going ? And if we need to adjust , and some emails like say , for example , they have an email that's like a 20% open rate , that's like okay , we just need to like change our subject line .

Friends , something is not working .

And so the piece with this and having such a large funnel is that doing it periodically , like annually , is enough for me , and just because I want to get enough people through the entire funnel before I actually make any adjustments , because we can't necessarily make the most educated assumption with just a few hundred folks in email 50 and where , like it'd be

great if all 1000 had already made it to that point .

That is something I want to work on for this new year for sure , and take your best practices into use . I want to jump into Codate . I am so thankful for your time . Last two questions for you . One is what is one thing that you would like to ask for help or support on going into this new year ?

But I would just say to continue to iterate audiences and content copy to see if you can always lower down costs depending upon where they are . They tend to fluctuate throughout the year as well .

But it would be interesting and I'm sure you've already done this , Based upon those emails that you say have really high open rates , is there an ad that can correlate with that topic ?

Because it sounds like he's giving me the oof face Because if that language is getting opened on emails , it would probably get a high click through rate on social ads and it sounds like also that topic or that interest would be compelling . So that's something interesting that you could put together .

We are in the attention economy and if you can just stay top of mind when somebody is ready to make that purchase , when they're ready to make that donation , when they're ready to do what Like , if you have been seen and we need to be hit over the head constantly and with somebody , brand or visual item , then you are going to be the person thought of if

they're seeing you in this omnipresent marketing space that we're in . And then coding number two , which is so important where can listeners connect with you and how can they sign up for this email list , because I know they're going to want to see it in action .

So we have things like copywriting templates , we have AI prompts , we have social media strategy templates and canva templates for social as well . So just a ton of valuable and easy to use strategy templates specifically for nonprofits .