¶ Email Marketing Mistakes and Strategies
Welcome back to the Art of Online Business and if you're watching us on YouTube , then you can see that Allison Hardy is back with me . She's an email marketing strategist who helps coaches and experts enroll more clients into their courses , memberships or memberships , I should say , on autopilot and she's also the creator of the Six Figure Secrets podcast .
She's a Huffington Post contributor and , like I asked her in the last episode , how did she pull this off ? She actually was named one of Washington DC's most influential professionals under 40 by the Washington Life magazine and we went into just how competitive and , I guess , the high quality , high caliber person that's in Washington DC in our previous episode .
If you want to get to know Allison more and how she built her business , she shared some high points and some very raw low points , and that link is in the show notes or descriptions below . This is episode two , where she's going to share the biggest email mistakes that she sees .
Course creators making that cost them sales , along with what goes into a sales email to make it work and get this . If you thought a nurture sequence and a welcome sequence , I'm raising my hand because I thought this , but if you thought they were the same , she's going to tell you how they're different and which one makes better sales or more sales .
So , allison , good to have you back again .
Thanks for having me .
You're very , very welcome . You're very , very welcome . It was a cool first episode . The listener should definitely listen to that , but now what I've been waiting for is please help us out with some email marketing . Like , first of all , what is the biggest mistake that you see people making in their emails ? That's just killing their sales .
Yeah , it's kind of simple and it's really two things . So the first one is they're not emailing enough . So if we think about like stats on emails , what we're told is that 20% open rate is considered good , and so if we think about those numbers , that means 80% of the people who are receiving your emails are not getting or not opening the emails .
So if we want to capture all of those people , we have to simply send more emails . And so what I see a lot of people doing is , let's say , they have a four day open cart period . They're just sending one email a day , and that's simply not enough .
And what I have found people do that because they're afraid of being salesy or they don't want to be pushy . But if we look at like retailers , like Old Navy , for example , I get at least three emails from Old Navy every single day and I'm not upset by it . So like , if Old Navy can do it , you can do it too . So send more emails .
Wow , I know I went to high school with a kid of the person who invented the jingle for Old Navy . Really , pacific Northwest , yeah .
Old .
Navy Old Navy performance . Pacific Northwest Old Navy performance . They are doing alright , you are right , though . How do you send more emails , though , if that is the thing that is hurting my sales the listener's sales the most is not sending enough email . You just said during a launch One email per day . Okay , how do we send more , though ? How ?
How do you do it if you're not good at writing ?
Yeah , so I think a lot of times , when it comes to writing sales emails , we are only thinking about them from one perspective and it's your perspective because you're the one writing the emails right . But there are multiple different kinds of buyers . So , like I'm the type of buyer who I like buy off the open cart email .
Like if I'm paying attention to your launch , I want the thing that you've launched . Like I've already made that choice and I'm just in that launch to get , like , the offer right . So I'm going to buy off of that open cart email . But not everybody operates that way . Some people need , like , all the details . Some people need , like a connection to you .
Some people need to know about client results you've helped people to achieve . Some people are , like major procrastinators and need to know they have two hours left until our cart closes . So , like , if you can think about the different ways that people buy , it will help you to write those emails .
So like , if someone's , like you know , been burned in the past by , maybe , someone else in your industry and they're , like , hesitant to buy , what do you need to say in order to make them feel a little bit calmer or to help them to understand you're not that person , and you can really help them do these things .
So like thinking about the different types of buyers and writing to them can be a really helpful way to write more emails .
Okay , all right . What's another flaw ? An email flaw , an email marketing mistake .
Yeah , it's not inviting people to join your course in the beginning of the email or more than once in the email in the email . So if we're looking at habits like I use Hotjar to record , okay , so what it does is like records the screens and it like shows you where people you know track off or where they what they click on , things like that .
Like a Hotjar heat map , if you will .
Yes , there we go . A heat map , that's the word . So what Hotjar has taught me is that people don't scroll for the most part . So if you are called to action to buy is at the bottom of your email and they have to scroll down , they're probably not going to do that unless they're like super interested in what you'd say .
So you need to put that call to action to join your thing at the top , probably in the middle , at the end of the email and then probably in the PS . Like if you can offer them up multiple places in your emails to join your course , then like they're more likely to do it , Cause also we also need to be told what to do multiple times .
So by continually inviting people multiple times in the emails to join the thing , to join your course , it can really help to increase sales .
So people don't scroll when they open emails .
As a generalization , they don't . Sometimes they do , or if they do , and what a lot of people do is they open it and they immediately scroll to the bottom and they'll read the PS and then , if they decide it's worthwhile , they'll scroll back up and then they'll start to read . So the PS can actually be a really powerful tool too .
Okay , inquiring minds . My mind wants to know it's open cart or it's a welcome email sequence . Let's say , following the email or the first email or second email , you're probably going to tell me I should sell in the first email , after delivering a lead magnet .
Either way , at the top of that email , without what I would call building contact , how do I just make a call to action to sell or to buy what I'm selling ?
And not have it be like buy my stuff . Yeah , yeah , yeah . So if the lead magnet is set up , so they download the lead magnet , right . What I would recommend you have is a tripwire on the thank you page that sells something a low cost , like $27 something . In the lead magnet , you should also have another opportunity to buy something .
So what you need to do in your email marketing is create a culture of selling and In the lead magnet , you should also have another opportunity to buy something . So what you need to do in your email marketing is create a culture of selling and buying . So even if they're not buying from you , you're at least selling to them , right ? So they're ?
Oh , okay , this person's open for business , I can buy things from them . I don't want that right now , but they're aware , right ?
So in that first email , or maybe the first email after the lead magnet delivery , you can say like hey , by the way , in whatever the name of the lead magnet is the name of the document , you probably saw an invitation to join the name of your program .
If you just want to fast track this whole process and grab it , you can do that right here and just hyperlink the right here . So just like , think about like there's some people that don't want to go through your nurture sequence . There are some people that just want to buy from you . So again that speaks to like the buyer motivators .
So like for those people , just give it to them , give them the deal , like , make them the offer . And for the people that need more from you , they need to have that knowledge and trust factor stronger with you . Then they can go through the nurture sequence and then they can get into that pitch sequence .
But thinking about the type of buyer , like if someone just wants to buy something from you , give them the opportunity to just buy something from you .
If someone wants to buy something from you , give them the opportunity .
Why not ?
That sounds like a no-brainer .
Yeah , and I think it's just really overthought . I think a lot of people just get all up in their heads about it and the reality of the situation is usually people are looking to solve a pain point .
So if you have a way that they can solve the pain point offered to them in the beginning and if they want to take action , they can take action , and if they don't , that's cool too .
And it doesn't turn off people , or maybe if it turned somebody off , they probably weren't the right fit to do business with you anyway , though you could help them Absolutely . Yeah , wow , that's okay . I can see my lead magnet welcome sequence .
I'm like not on my screen right now , but I can see it , because writing is so difficult for me that that experience of producing it is still fresh in my mind and it looks like I need to go back yet again for the 17th time and tweak that email .
It could be so much sometimes , yeah .
No , but I appreciate . I appreciate you just saying that . Yeah , and for everybody that doesn't have a tripwire or as I like to call it , a welcome offer , a low cost , low ticket offer on your thank you page of your lead magnet , if you're waiting for a sign to make one , this is that sign .
Let people know that you are in business and that you can serve them and give them the opportunity so you can reference it in the first email . Okay , so you were going to talk about what goes into a sales email . Yeah , I would love to know , like , how do you so ?
First of all , when you say what goes into a sales email to make it actually sell , is it a structural thing Like , should we be writing less ? Should we be writing more ? Is it the length of the email ? Is it just the number of call to actions or what goes into it to make it work ?
Yeah , I don't think there's a and I don't teach like a necessary , like structure of emails . I go back to that original idea that I shared with the different motivators for people . So like I have an email inside of my pitch sequence called the engagement email and this is what I teach inside my membership . So it's email number five in my pitch sequence .
I know it like the back of my hand , but it's an email that just says like hey , name of person , by now you know that name of your course is open for enrollment or you can join name , of course , but I see you haven't yet . That must mean you have some questions , hit , reply and ask away . Super short , right , it's like four or three lines .
But what that email does is it gets people to ask you questions and that email is scooping up the people who just need that like extra contact with you .
¶ Effective Email Marketing Strategies
When I used to do I used to have a call to action in this email , be like book a call , and what I found was people were booking a call out like 10 days later and that's not what I wanted . I wanted them to like book the call for the next day and that wasn't happening . So I shut up , probably should have put some limits on my calendar and all that .
But I was like okay , like how can I just not do the calls anymore ? Is there another way you can do this ? And so I just was like let's try hitting reply and ask me questions . And more people did that because it wasn't as scary for that type of buyer who just needs like the little touch . Like asking them to get on a 30 minute call was too much .
So if they could just hit reply and then I could respond a few hours later , that was a whole lot better for them and lower their anxiety . They didn't feel so much pressure on the call Like oh my gosh , how's this call going to go ? Yeah , it was very simple and very easy .
So , like when it comes to those sales emails , if you can really pull out like fears people have or objections they have or maybe experiences they've had in the past , and just speak to those things , not like you know , call them out and like you always hear the like call out their pain points and stab them with it and turn the knife , we don't need that .
But like I hate that stuff , most stuff , most people do , and like maybe it worked a while ago , but I'm still not convinced . It did just like have , like think about your buyer , like put yourself in different buyer's shoes and speak to them in a way that helps them to understand that you actually do get it sounds easy it can .
It can be , if you let it sounds good , but but , this is something that I talk about a lot in the podcast because it's , it's very it's , it's really close to .
What makes facebook ads work is we can't do that if we're not researching right the person who we're working with , helping and serving right like we really do have to know them in order to do what you just said .
Yeah , for sure . So when you know your ideal clients really well and you can put you know , maybe your program serves like three or four iterations of one person and maybe they're motivated in different ways . It does make writing those emails a bit easier .
Yeah , wait , hold on . I said yes , but what did you mean by three or four iterations of one person ?
Okay , wait , hold on . I said yes , but what did you mean by three or four iterations of one person ? Okay , so like if you're a let's say you're a macros health coach , so you help people like lose weight by counting macros .
So you probably have people in your audience who have like failed at macros before , or you Maybe they've never heard of macros or maybe it's just really like too complicated for them . They need someone to like hold their hand . So it's like three iterations of the same ideal client .
So if you can speak to all three of those people in a singular email , that could be really helpful . Or if all of your ideal client has tried it in the past and failed , what are the different fears that they have that you can introduce into each email ?
the different fears that they have that you can introduce into each email . And just to clarify by speaking to those three people in a singular email you mean a different , separate email for each person . Yes , okay , rather than one super email that .
No , no , no , no , no .
Yeah , yeah , Just make it true , just make it true , semantics , and so you can share .
you know , especially with like the three different types , like the person who failed , the person who has no idea and the person who like it's over complicated for them .
If you have client stories that can come in alongside of that and support that so that they're seeing themselves in those client stories , it can be a really great way to really serve them and help them .
I like it so talking to the different iterations of your ideal customer in separate emails , adding in client stories , ideally . Well , I guess it wouldn't be a client failure story , wouldn't it ? It wouldn't be a client success story To show that you understand them and build your authority . Okay , All right , we're getting a roadmap here .
Thank you , Tell me , then . I'm sure people like to know numbers . I get asked this question a lot , as I'm sure you do . But what is too much ? Like how many emails in a cart open sequence Once you've had your launch in an open cart ? Like how many emails do you send on the closed cart day or do you recommend people send ?
Yeah , I usually do a three-day open cart period . There's two on the first day , three on the second day and three on the third day .
So there's two on the first day , three on the second day and three on the third day . So easy yeah .
It's always morning and evening , so like 8 am , 8 pm and then like two o'clock . If it's three emails in a day and right in the middle on day , number two at in the afternoon is that engagement email . So the email that's like hey , the cart's open for the program by now .
You know that you must have questions to reply , so that gives me time to actually answer it before the cart closes .
Nice .
Yeah .
Would you say including , like an engagement email and a lead magnet , welcome sequence would be a good thing too .
Yeah , I think anytime you can talk to your people is great , so I think that's a great idea .
Okay , yeah , all right , I like this . Like I like this , I'm thinking the look of my face is I have a lot of work to do still , but I like this a lot .
¶ Nurture Sequence vs Welcome Sequence
Now that one thing that really kind of blew my mind when I saw it was the difference between a nurture sequence and a welcome sequence , because I actually did not know , and thus I may have been squandering the power or just and a welcome sequence , because I actually did not know and thus I may have been squandering the power of my welcome sequence or just .
I might have to really redo it from the ground up , but I'm ready . What is the difference between a nurture sequence and a welcome sequence ?
Yeah , so a welcome sequence . In my experience , what I have found is welcome sequences are very centered around us as the business owner , as the expert , and while we're great and awesome and cool , people really don't care . They want to get results . They want to solve their pain point . So , and also welcome sequences .
What I find is they're not super strategic , they're just like . Here's some helpful information . Here's a podcast episode I was on with the intention of , you know , building clout and serving and providing value , but it's not bringing your people on a journey . So your people are looking to you as the person who could potentially help them solve this pain point .
So help them start to solve the pain point . And so I'm a fan of a nurture sequence and specifically having a nurture sequence that has videos in it .
And so what you're going of a nurture sequence and specifically having a nurture sequence that has videos in it , and so what you're going to do is they're going to download the lead magnet and then you have to get them to the point where they're ready to say yes to your program . So what do they need to know , what do they need to understand ?
What do they need to maybe do in order to get ready to say yes for your program . So when they're in this nurture sequence , I one time had this mastermind friend of mine and we were talking about I forget what we were talking about , but she was like Alison , if you say you're going to help someone , actually help them .
And I was like well , duh , like what are you trying to say ? And she's like no , like you're sitting here talking about how I was talking about my nurture sequence . And she was like you're talking about how you have all this stuff in here , but like I don't think you're actually helping anyone , I think you're just talking . Oh , okay .
So she's like so what can they like do or understand or know or have done , so that they're actually like understanding how you can help them ? So as soon as she said that it really like , kind of like a light bulb moment , and so that's kind of how I approached that nurture sequence build up was like oh .
So as soon as she said that it really like , kind of like a light bulb moment , and so that's kind of how I approached that nurture sequence build up was like give them some stuff , you're not going to give them the whole program , you're just going to help them with little bitty bits along the way , so that they start to understand what it could be like
working with you . Because , remember , they're also thinking to themselves , like what's in this for me ? Like how can I actually do this thing that this person is telling me to do ? Or how can I actually solve this pain point ? Like is this person actually the person for me ? So they're also have that dialogue going in their head , right ? So I think it's just .
I think it's a better way of nurturing your leads , I think it's a better way of exerting you as the authority in the space and I think it's a better way of getting people to the point , so that the pitch doesn't seem like it's so out of the blue and like random .
Okay , Would that help ? Just to clarify , because I have looked at email sequences before where the course creator delivered a lead magnet but then started teaching them other things that are taught in the program , them other things that are taught in the program .
So when you say video , do you mean helping them get the result that the lead magnet promised , so to speak ? Or like what is that video exactly about ?
Yeah , so what I would encourage you all to do is , once they download the lead magnet and then , right before they go into the pitch sequence , what are , like , the steps they need to do or go through or understand to make it so that that pitch makes sense for them . And so that's what each video in the emails should be about .
The steps that they need to go through make the pitch make sense for them . Can you walk me through mine ?
Sure yeah .
All right Off the cuff , here we go . Lead magnet is the seven biggest mistakes that Facebook that course , creators make with Facebook ads that burn through their ad spend .
Okay , and then your course is .
My course is the lead gen cheat code the easiest way to bring in affordable , quality leads without hiring a Facebook ads manager .
Okay , so the lead magnet makes sense because they're already qualified in that they're running ads , so that's great . What I would actually do I have a slightly different suggestion for you is each of those seven mistakes . I would do a video on them . So it's the . I call it the . I call it the teach nothing new method .
So I have two different perspectives on nurture sequences , and I think you should do the teach nothing or teach nothing new . Yeah , so each email is one of those things and in those emails you're going to record a video that talks a little bit deeper on that concept . And throughout those videos you can start to talk about your program .
Inside the program , we do this Inside the program , I can help you do this through this . So you're saying the name of the program , you're seeding it , you're helping them to understand hey , like , this program can actually help me with this thing , so that when you get to the pitch , they're like oh right , this is that thing he's been talking about .
I like it For once , but I have already done something right in my email .
Okay , so you've been doing that .
I do have that Each one of those mistakes has like a four-minute , like an actual four-minute video of me showing the mistake and showing how to avoid them . I guess avoid the mistake or the right thing to do instead , and I do mention my course .
There you go . You're good to go . Look at you .
Look at me , allison . If somebody wants to learn more from you about making their let's call it email sequences just emails in general actually sell , what's the next step ? Where can they find you or where can they learn more ?
Yeah , so you can go to allisonhardycom forward slash funnel of the month club . That's my membership . All about email marketing . Or you can send me a DM on Instagram . I'm Allison underscore , hardy underscore .
All right , I'm writing that down right now . Allisonhardycom forward slash funnel of the month club funnel of the month club .
Yeah .
All right , cool . Or DM you at your Instagram account , which both of these I will link in the descriptions and the show notes below . For those of you that are still only listening on the podcast , I say only because it's such a cool experience over here on YouTube . Come on over Then you can see what well you can see Allison . She's cool , allison .
If this was the last time that somebody ever got to hear from you , what would you say to them ?
oh my gosh , if this is the last time anyone got to hear you were expecting that one no , I wasn't . Oh , it's a good one . I would say . My piece of advice is go for it , don't be afraid to make a change .
Change is where the growth happens , and I would argue on the other side of your change and your growth is whatever you're seeking , well said On the other side of your change and your growth , is what you're seeking .
There it is Until the next episode , and thank you for being here , allison Until the next episode . Be blessed , take care , we'll see you in the next one . Bye .