#216: How to Make Money with Email Marketing
Want to know how to make money with email marketing? You know the saying, “The money is in your list.” But is it really?
I’ve got email expert, Brittany Long from Win With Systems, on the podcast to share all her email monetization secrets.
Personally, in our businesses, email marketing gives us the biggest return on investment but I wanted to hear directly from an expert.
So Brittany and I talk about the easiest ways to set up systems to build your community, sell to your subscribers, and grow your list.
Brittany gives real tips on how to write compelling emails that get people to open, how to set up a forever series so you never run out of content to send, how to find topics to write about, how set up a launch sequence for selling a big-ticket item to your list, and so much more!
After listening to this episode, I think you will agree that if you have a solid strategy, the money is definitely in your list!
Table of Contents
Show Notes:
- MiloTree Easy Payments
- EMAIL CHALLENGE: Set Up a Paid Workshop in 5 Days!
- MiloTree Pop-Up App
- Win with Systems
- Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group
- All Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes
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Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie. Hello, everybody.
Jillian Leslie 0:12
Welcome back to the Blogger Genius Podcast. I’m your host, Jillian Leslie. And I’m super excited because I have a wonderful podcast today all about email marketing, but not just about email marketing, how to make money with email marketing.
I am interviewing Brittany Long from Win with Systems and she has some great tips.
Now before I start, I’m going to recommend that you download my free cheat sheet on the 5 Secrets Successful Bloggers Already Know to Grow Their Businesses. And you can get that at milotree.com/secrets.
I’ve been coaching successful bloggers for the past 10 years. These are the things I see them doing over and over again. And one of them by the way is they grow their email list. But what they do with their email list is what we’re talking about in today’s episode.
So, get the cheat sheet by going to milotree.com/secrets. And before I launch into the episode, I want to let you know that I accidentally had my microphone off when I was recording. So it recorded through my computer.
So my sound doesn’t sound that great. But I say stick with it. Because you will definitely be taking notes in this episode. So without further delay, here is my interview with Brittany Long.
How to Make Money with Email Marketing
Brittany, welcome to the show. It’s great having you.
Brittany Long 1:43
I’m really excited to be here. I love talking email. So I’m can’t wait.
Jillian Leslie 1:47
Well, I do too. I was just saying this before I press record that I am a huge email fan. And the longer I am in my own entrepreneurial journey, the more powerful I think it is.
Brittany Long 1:59
Yeah, it’s so true. And we were talking before everybody pushes it off until the last thing in it. And it’s always one of those things on your to do list that you’re like, I’ll do it soon. I’ll do it soon. And then it’s been like months or years.
And when you see the amount of revenue that you’re missing out by not having consistent emails, it’s astonishing.
Jillian Leslie 2:16
It really is. So let’s take a step back. I don’t know anything about your story. So how did you get into email? And how have you grown your business? And where are you today?
Brittany Long 2:28
So my first toe dip in the water of email marketing was actually over a decade ago, I was like a recruitment person for the college that I went to. And so, I would be emailing people back and forth and keeping track of stuff in their database.
And all of these things. And I didn’t know it was called email marketing. It’s just, we were emailing people. And this is what we said. And we have certain ways of saying things.
And so that’s really when I got started with email marketing, I just didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. And when I first was doing that I didn’t realize you could get paid to write for a living, I love writing. I love doing it especially emails.
And so, I actually went into teaching after that. I was a middle school science teacher. And while I enjoyed many aspects of that, after my second year, I realized I was spending so much more time focused on other people’s kids, other people’s families.
And I really was quite neglecting my own family because I was always grading all these, doing all these other things for my students and for the families that I worked with. And I had a cancer scare after two years of teaching.
And that was the moment that I knew I wasn’t supposed to be a teacher. And up until that point, I thought I have time. I’ll figure it out later. And I think deep down I always knew entrepreneurship was for me, but it was scary.
And I thought well, maybe I have time I’ll do it later. But that cancer scare made me realize I might not have time later. And so I left the doctor’s office that day thinking I was going to die that year, how it was presented that’s really what I thought.
And the thing that sticks with me, the thing I don’t think I’ll ever forget is the amount of regret that I felt knowing that there was something else out there for me, and I knew it. But I’ve been too scared to pursue it.
And so after trying many, many, many different things I had in total over 27 side hustles because if nothing else, I am persistent. And I really wanted to figure out what it was that I was supposed to be doing.
And so after trying all these different things, I had the opportunity to write emails. To ghost write emails for somebody I was working for, and I loved it. And I just couldn’t stop.
And the really cool thing about this is that that’s really where I got introduced to evergreen emails. The idea that you can write emails once and they can keep on running.
And anybody that comes onto your list now or three years from now can be part of that list and be nurtured and all of that. So I got to write some of those emails for that client. And then I had other clients I did it for.
And then I actually did it for a brand that we had. That was for teachers that wanted to leave teaching. And the really cool thing about that is that now at this point, I think I started that Evergreen Sequence either 2 1/2 or 3 years ago and it’s still running.
And I still get emails almost every day from people that are saying things like, this is exactly what I need to hear today. Thank you for emailing this. And so it’s really cool.
Because even though I’m not personally active in that brand anymore, we still are making a consistent impact every single day for people that are going through that Evergreen Sequence that I wrote years ago, and we’re making revenue from it too.
And so, that’s how it all started was with a cancer scare. And then with just this desire to try everything until I figured out what I really, really wanted out of my life.
Jillian Leslie 5:40
Absolutely. And I think the pandemic, at least in my own life has really pushed forward the concept of seize the day, because if it’s not today, when is it? Because you don’t know.
Everything today is, kind of holding things lightly, because you don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. And I think that sense of immediacy has really for me, come to the fore. If it’s not today, what am I waiting for?
Brittany Long 6:08
Yeah, and we see that a lot with the clients that come into us, we see that a lot. Some of them wait until the bomb drops in their life, whether it’s divorce or separation, or they’re not feeling well, or they get sick, or they have a baby.
Or they just realize they want to be able to spend more time being present instead of always working. We have a lot of clients that come to us for that reason where they want to seize the day.
But they’re like, “Wow, my business is currently set up in a way that I can’t seize the day, if I stop working, my business stops running.”
Why Are Evergreen Emails So Effective?
And so, that’s one of the reasons I love evergreen emails, because I’ve seen how that works in people’s lives.
Where they can step back for three months, six months a year and their business can still bring in revenue, even if they’re not physically showing up every day.
Jillian Leslie 6:50
So let’s talk about where email fits in. When it comes to funnels and making money. You’re like saying, and then you have your emails running, and then money is happening. And it’s like, wait a minute, I don’t think it’s that easy.
So let’s go through how you think about it in terms of where that sweet spot is for email marketing, and you’re talking about an evergreen list, but okay, I can be sending emails that go out.
How do I actually monetize? One of the things that is kind of like my North Star for 2022 is monetization, because we’re all working so hard. And I think connecting the dots can be difficult. So explain all of this stuff to me and how it works.
Brittany Long 7:40
So, email can be in pretty much every part of your business. So there’s a few ways that you can earn from email or more than a few. But here are some of the ways that we suggest because this is where you’ll start to see the revenue coming in faster.
How to Set Up an Evergreen Abandon Cart Sequence
So, the first one to start with, I always suggest is an evergreen abandoned cart sequence. It’s evergreen, because you create it once and then it continues to run, you don’t have to keep creating it or sending that live or anything like that.
But abandoned cart sequences for every single product that you have.
Jillian Leslie 8:06
So this means I’m selling products?
Brittany Long 8:09
So, if you have a product to sell, having an abandon cart sequence for every single one of them is very, very important.
Anywhere from 70% to 85% of people that make it to the order form actually abandon the cart, which means that you’re missing a lot of revenue if you don’t have an email abandoned cart sequences.
Typically, we suggest having four to five abandoned cart emails in that sequence. And usually the flow that we suggest for it.
Abandoned Cart EMAIL 1
The first one, I send out 15 minutes after, and I assume that they got distracted or forgot or something like that, I have a toddler at home. So I know what that’s like. And so I assume that’s what it is.
So I give them the option to click the link and get the thing they were going to check out with. But I also asked them to reply and typically in emails, you don’t want to have two calls to action, you don’t want to ask them to do two different things.
Because usually people don’t do either. But in this particular case I like to because this is really an email for two different kinds of people. It’s for the person that just got distracted, and they did want to buy it. And so it’s a link for them.
And then it’s also for the person that was really close, but they just have an objection or question that they need answered.
Abandoned Cart EMAIL 2
And so we want to find out what that question is. In the next email we send we answer some of the common objections.
Abandoned Cart EMAIL 3
In the next email, we have some kind of success story.
Abandoned Cart EMAIL 4
And then the final email, we just remind them here are the benefits that you’ll get from this product or service, whatever it is. And here are some common questions that you might have.
Here’s the answer to them. Here’s one more time where you can buy it. And so by following that formula, that’s where we see a lot of results. And like I said, if you already have an offer, that’s the easiest one to start with.
You don’t have to create anything new other than four emails that run for you. So abandon cart definitely the first one, first sequence that I would starting with.
Jillian Leslie 9:41
I just want to stop for one second because I thought what you had in those emails seemed really smart.
So in the first email, you say, “Hey, I think you forgot this and your card, just want to remind you but if you have some sort of question, or there’s some reason why you’re not purchasing, let me know.”
Then the second one is the one where you speak to their objections. Is that right? So it’s kind of like the yeah, but. I was going to buy this. And it’s like, “Hey, I’m on top of that, I’m going to get to that before you and tell you why this is a good purchase.”
And then the third one is, “Hey, if you saw Jennifer bought this over here, and she’s had so much success with this.” And then the first one is just a little kind of tap on the shoulder reminder. Like, “Oh, just in case you needed another little reminder. Here’s what it is.”
Brittany Long 10:39
Exactly, yeah.
Jillian Leslie 10:41
Okay, with some frequently asked questions in the last one, is that right? And I like this, because I believe this fits in with when you’re creating sales pages went like, these are the things to be thinking about, like a reminder.
Yep. But hey, so and so Jennifer has had a lot of success with this. Those kinds of things are how, as an entrepreneur, who’s selling something, how you want to be thinking. Am I right?
Brittany Long 11:09
Absolutely, yeah.
Jillian Leslie 11:10
Okay, so you’ve got to abandon cart. I know, like “Klaviyo” or Klaviyo, however you pronounce it, which is an email service brand. Which is right? Is it Klaviyo?
Brittany Long 11:20
You know what, I watched a video because I couldn’t remember, but now I can’t remember which one is right or not.
Jillian Leslie 11:25
Me too. I think I watched the same video. Alright, so like Klaviyo let’s say, any kind of email service provider has these like built in. Klaviyo is something for like Shopify owners, and they have these like built in.
So could you just use their built in kind of automation or do you feel like yours is different?
Brittany Long 11:49
So personally, I like mine, because I’ve seen the data on it. And I’ve seen that it works better than the templatized ones that they have out there. But I always suggest testing and split testing everything.
And so what I would suggest, especially at the beginning is have split tests for every single email, as long as your email service provider allows it, which most of them do. And when I say allows it I mean, has a capability for it. And most of them do.
How to Split Test Your Emails
And you want to split test very specific things. So the first thing you want to split test is the subject line. And the reason is, that is the first thing. If you don’t have it open, nobody is going to read it.
Jillian Leslie 12:23
Totally
Brittany Long 12:25
And we want to get it as high as possible. So we want to split test that multiple times. The next thing we want to split test is going to be the first line. The next thing we split test is the second line.
And then the final thing that we split test, well we can split test the body too. But the final big thing we split test is the call-to-action.
And so you do one of those at a time, one variable at a time. And then once you have the high enough numbers you want you move on to split testing the next thing
Jillian Leslie 12:49
Interesting. So we’ve got abandoned cart, give me other ways I can make money with email.
How to Use Fulfillment Emails Effectively
Brittany Long 12:55
Yep. So the next thing we want to do is your fulfillment emails. So your fulfillment emails, people think of those as the emails that are like, hey, here’s the thing you bought, or, hey, here’s the thing you opted into.
But that’s the prime real estate because most people open your fulfillment emails, because they want the thing they paid for or opted into.
And so you have higher than average, way higher than average, open rates with your fulfillment emails, because people want their stuff. But what I see most people doing is just saying, “Hey, here’s the thing you bought, talk to you later.”
Jillian Leslie 13:25
Thank you.
Brittany Long 13:25
Exactly. So you’re missing opportunities, if you’re not letting them know, other things that you have to offer them. I like to think of it as, two things one as an author that puts the other books that they have in the inside of their book.
So nobody would say oh, you’re such a money hoarder, or you’re grabbing for money. We would say, “Thank you, I like this book, I’ll probably like this one, too, by you.”
And so I like to think of it as that. Or as if you go into the doctor, let’s say you go to the ER, and you’re like, oh, I have such a bad toothache.
And the ER doctor that’s in there says, “Yeah, let me fix you right up.” They give you medicine for the toothache and send you home, even though they can see that you have a broken arm too.
And that’s what we’re doing when we give them the fulfillment, but we don’t tell them other ways that we can help them.
And so when we’re doing fulfillment emails, we want to say, hey, most people also have this problem. Here’s how I can help you with that. Because they’re going to have that problem solved either way, whether it’s by you or by somebody else.
And so it may as well be by you if they already like you and trust you and know you, because they’re already buying from you.
Fulfillment Email Sequence
And so what I usually do for fulfillment emails, the first email is the, hey, here’s your thing.
And then I also usually do, hey, here’s some other ways that we can help or hey, here’s some other things that people have asked for that bought this. And so, just letting them know, here’s some other stuff.
And then the second email I usually send is a reminder to go back and finish whatever it is they were working on, on the thing that they purchased.
What I find is that if somebody purchases from you, and does not finish what they’re working on, they’re less likely to buy from you again. Because every time you launch, they’re like oh, I need to finish that, oh, I need to finish that.
I can’t buy this other thing until I finished that. And so by helping them finish and stay committed to working through whatever it is they bought from you already, it’s easier for them to become customers to buy from you again.
Jillian Leslie 15:12
Interesting. So, you’re saying that in the fulfillment email, you might be like, “Hey, people who bought this also got benefit from this.” And then are you sending another email to kind of help them complete? So that’s the sequence there.
And then it might be further emails of like, “Hey, here’s the problem.” You know, those kinds of emails like problem solution type emails, but you want them to complete like the course or the whatever, set up the coaching call back on it.
Brittany Long 15:42
Exactly. And usually, I only do up to four fulfillment emails, three to four fulfillment emails. From there, I turn them in, or I send them to a welcome sequence that everyone goes through.
As long as it’s the same audience, everybody goes through the welcome sequence, where they get to know me better and how I can help them. I again, show them other places that they can buy, or other things that they can buy that might be helpful for them.
And then from there, we go into the Evergreen Sequence. And for us that’s a year long, nurture and sell sequence.
Jillian Leslie 16:11
What email service providers do you like the best?
Best Email Service Providers
Brittany Long 16:15
So personally, I like ActiveCampaign. It’s very, very robust, but it is very confusing for people that are just starting out.
So, if you’re listening and you’re a newbie, starting with MailerLite is usually going to be your best option MailerLite, MailChimp or ConvertKit. Unless you’re Ecom.
Jillian Leslie 16:39
I’m going to be like to kind of share my truth. I agree with you. We use ActiveCampaign and to be honest with you. I feel held hostage to ActiveCampaign because I have so many automations in it, that the idea of ever moving goes out is really difficult.
I think it is really robust, but yet it’s super glitchy and slow. If I could make the decision again, I probably would do something different. That’s my feeling about ActiveCampaign.
MailerLite is my go to and by the way, I have accounts, I use MailerLite for one of my businesses, I use ActiveCampaign for another, I use MailChimp for another. I’ve explored them all.
To recommend MailerLite getting your first 1,000 subscribers free, it’s much more intuitive than a lot of the other ones. So that is my go to.
Brittany Long 17:32
The other issue I see happening a lot with ActiveCampaign was a lot of our clients that are in there is the customer support. It’s not as great as some of the other ones.
In fact, there’s somebody I was working with, and she was telling me that the email that she had last sent out would always go out to her new subscribers. And that might not sound like a problem, but it is when you’re doing a launch.
And it’s like, hey, the launch is ending and it already ended. And then you’re summing this up, just subscribe really, it’s super awkward. And so I was trying to figure out what it is. I got to customer support. And they were like, “That’s just how it is.”
And I was like no, that’s not just how it is, absolutely that. And so it took a few hours, but I just kind of kept pushing and pushing and pushing until they brought someone on and within minutes they had it fixed. But it wasn’t just like this is just how it is.
And so sometimes, I mean with other places too, but I’ve especially found with ActiveCampaign sometimes you have to really push a little bit to get questions answered with their support.
So as far as the robustness I really like ActiveCampaign, but for me personally, I use Kartra. The reason I use Kartra Mail is because I like that I can just do everything in there.
My funnels, my communications, my membership, as far as memberships go it’s not the most beautiful. As far as funnels go it’s incredibly clunky and that takes a while to learn whereas like ClickFunnels is better for that.
But for the email marketing I like it because it’s robust like ActiveCampaign is and it has everything in one place. So that’s why personally I choose that one.
But if I’m talking to somebody that wants really easy funnel builder as well, then I don’t suggest that one. So I think MailerLite is a great one to go with, especially if you’re newbie or intermediate.
Jillian Leslie 19:11
Definitely. So I had to just dish about that with you for just a second.
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How to Set Up A Welcome Series
Jillian Leslie 20:12
Let’s go through your welcome series. Somebody buys from you. They’re just joining your list then, and boom, you’re going to send them the thank you purchase sequence of like, hey, great, thank you, hey, you might like this.
And then you’re going to send them through your welcome series. Talk to me about what that looks like. What should these four emails be?
Brittany Long 20:37
So this is really your indoctrination sequence. And I don’t love calling it that. Because it sounds very cultish.
Jillian Leslie 20:42
I was going to say, yeah.
Brittany Long 20:45
But really, it’s the way for them to get to know you and see if it’s a good fit. And so I’m really purposeful about the language that I use in our welcome sequence I’m using for us personally.
I want to make sure that people that come in, they’re focused on taking the next step, they’re focused on working smart, they’re focused on finding ways to have a wonderful business.
Serve people that they love, but also spend time with the people they love, also, and being present. And so that’s what we talk about a lot.
So I’m talking about that a lot in my welcome sequence. I’m letting them know the other offers that we have as well. At this point they’ve gone.
Jillian Leslie 21:19
Who is we? Is it just you and like, why?
Brittany Long 21:22
No. So we have a team of about 10. We have myself and my husband, we’re co- founders. And then we have my project manager, we have my VA, we have writers.
So, we have the agency side of our business as well. So, we have DIY, done-with-you and done-for-you services and product.
Jillian Leslie 21:39
When you’re sharing about we are you sharing personal stuff like, “Hey, I’m Brittany, I’m a mom, I was a teacher.” How do you come across this is always I think the push poll, I want to share about me, but I want to be of service to you.
Brittany Long 21:57
So how we do that we have a formula that we use. And we use this because we have data from over 100 business owners that have multiple different kinds of brands, anywhere from pets, I get to dentists to everywhere in between.
And what we found is following this particular formula works best. So we call it the ATMRN method. I wish I had a better acronym for it. Acronyms are not my forte, the “A” stands for attention.
Welcome Series Email Template
So basically, it’s a way to hook them in to draw them in. And usually having a quote or question or statistic does really well there.
The next thing that we have is the “T” and that’s tell your story. So that’s where we’re telling our story, whether that’s my own personal story, or the story of us as a company. And then the next thing is “M”, and that’s make it mean something.
So even though I’m telling my story, I’m not telling you for the purpose of like, “Hey, here’s my story.” I’m telling it to make it mean something to them. So for example, if I’m telling a story about going to Target, nobody really cares if I went to Target or not.
But what my particular audience, the people that feel burned out that want to make more, but they’re like I am working so many hours, there’s no way this is sustainable. I am missing out on time with my family. How do I get past this?
Those kinds of people, if I tell them and said, I went to Target with my kids and my family, and we just walked around for a little bit, we went through every aisle, there wasn’t any to do list, there wasn’t any purpose to it.
And yet, when I left, I had notifications that we had sales coming in from our Evergreen Sequence that would mean something to them.
And so, when you’re telling your story, you want to make sure that it’s connecting it with something that is meaningful to your audience.
And then the next letter is “R” which is reflect and so we want to think of any objections people have anything that they’re thinking about, that’s what we want to answer there.
So going back to the Target story, I might tell that story. And I might be thinking, alright, somebody in my audience is saying, well, that sounds great. But I could never do that because I only offer services. So I can’t make sales on autopilot.
And so that’s maybe an objection that I want to answer for them. Yes, you can make sales on autopilot. And then here’s other ways that you can systemize it so that you are only showing up and doing the work that you love doing.
And then the “N” is next step, that’s a call to action. That’s what we want them to do next.
And so for almost every email that we write, we follow that formula that works best according to the data that we have. It works best both for our open rates and for our click-through rates.
Jillian Leslie 24:16
And you’re doing four of these emails with this same I can’t even remember the acronym but these gaps in each one.
Brittany Long 24:25
So not just that email, but all of our emails have that same formula and the welcome sequence what we do is we welcome them in. We let them know who we are what we do we make it mean something to them. Have that call-to-action, all of that.
Jillian Leslie 24:39
Give me an example that in these four emails, what are the different call-to-actions or is it the same for each one?
WELCOME EMAIL STRATEGY: Get People to Reply to Your First Email
Brittany Long 24:45
Yeah, so at the beginning, I want them to reply I want them to reply as often as possible actually, because it does help with the deliverability.
It also helps really bridge the gap from this is a faceless person on the internet to this is somebody that’s actually responding to me.
And so, I always like to have them reply, especially at the beginning, because then it also is more likely I’m going to show up in their actual inbox. So I like to get them to reply. And then if they reply, of course, I respond back to them as well.
But that has helped significantly with us building a community building a fan base building relationships with our people.
Jillian Leslie 25:16
Can you give me a question? Give me a question that people could use to get people to respond. What’s your favorite?
Brittany Long 25:22
Actually, let’s see. So, we want it to be something that’s non-committal. So something that isn’t like, “Tell me your deepest, darkest secrets.” So an example of one that I sent recently is, “Hit reply, and let me know what date works best for you.”
So sometimes I’ll give them a freebie or I’ll be doing a workshop maybe it’s a workshop I do every Thursday, “This workshop is coming up, let me know what Thursday’s best for you.”
It’s something they just have to reply with one word, usually at the beginning I try to do that just reply with one word, I just want them to take action on that.
And so, another question could be, after I tell the story and make it mean something and all that, I could say, “Have you ever experienced this? I’m curious if I’m the only one hit reply, and let me know if you’ve ever experienced this.”
And I want to point out that I’m reiterating what I want them to reply to. So I said, “Hit reply. And let me know if you’ve ever experienced this. I’m curious if I’m the only one.” If I leave it at that, it’s less likely they’re going to respond.
So that’s why I say again, “Hit reply, and let me know if you’ve ever experienced this.”
Jillian Leslie 26:19
You say it. Explain that again. What is the line?
Brittany Long 26:23
So I said, “Hit reply, and let me know if you’ve ever experienced this?” And then I add that little piece like the reason I want them to reply.
So, the reason I want them to reply is I’m wondering if I’m the only one or if anybody else feels this way, too. And then I reiterate.
Jillian Leslie 26:39
Got it, and you ended up with better response. Interesting.
Brittany Long 26:43
Yeah.
How to Set Up an Evergreen Email Series
Jillian Leslie 26:44
So these are the four emails and then let’s talk about the Evergreen Sequence. Oh, wait, because remember my word for 2022, monetization. Are you selling in these four emails?
And then you move them into your evergreen. Will you say what that is, and then how you’re selling in that?
Brittany Long 27:04
Absolutely. So our evergreen year long nurture and sell sequence is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a year long sequence, where we both nurture them, we provide tips and resources.
We provide how to’s and trainings, but we also do sell in those sequences as well. And so for an entire year, I know that anybody that comes on my list today is going to get emails from me, that nurture them to give them helpful advice.
That helps set me up not only as the authority, but also help me set up as a person that can help them anytime they have a problem with email marketing, and specifically evergreen kind of email marketing.
And so as they’re on my list, they’re going through that they get two emails. If I’m sending one email a week, they get two emails that are nurture emails. A third email, that’s an offer email, and then the fourth email is a nurture email as well.
Jillian Leslie 27:51
These are for your evergreen emails?
Brittany Long 27:53
Right. Every month four emails.
Jillian Leslie 27:56
Every month?
Brittany Long 27:57
Every month.
Jillian Leslie 27:58
Every month. Well, every week, every month, they’re getting four. You though, have sat down, and you’ve written 52 emails.
Brittany Long 28:07
Yeah. well, significantly more than that. Because actually, we do three emails a week, for us personally, for our audience. And so if you happen to be on our list, you’ll be seeing three emails a week from us.
But typically what we suggest, especially if you’re not emailing consistently currently, or if you’re emailing once a week currently, we suggest doing one email a week on your Evergreen Sequence.
That means once you have those 52 emails for an entire year, you don’t have to worry, you know that your audience is getting those emails from you.
And so, what we do I suggest while you’re setting this up, after you mapped it out writing two emails a day, and you can do your entire Evergreen Sequence in less than a month.
Jillian Leslie 28:43
And how long should each email be? And how do you deal with topical stuff like it’s fall? Or do you not go there? Because like it’s winter, but how do you not go there?
Brittany Long 29:00
So for length in the emails, I try to move in between medium to short length emails, I’m a little bit long winded. So some of my emails are longer. But I what I tried to do is I split test those too.
So I’ll have some that are longer, and then some that I cut down so that they’re a little bit shorter, I summarize it a little bit more. And then I split test those to see how they do. For us typically, the longer emails, you just find, the shorter emails you find too.
But typically, sometimes I’ll hear people saying like, “Oh, don’t do long emails.” Nobody wants to read those. But if you’ve already built a relationship with them, I get emails that are like, “I never read long emails, and I always read yours.”
It’s because I’ve built a relationship with them and I put that hard work in and so typically at the beginning, if you want to have short to medium emails you do longer later.
But short to medium at the beginning while they’re getting to know you is usually best. For me since they’ve already gotten to know me I do some longer ones too.
Jillian Leslie 29:57
So you’ve got four emails going out a month and how many of those are selling and how many of those are giving value? What was it again?
Brittany Long 30:05
So it’s three to one. So three emails are giving value one email is selling, and usually my final email the month, so I go value value sell value, my final email of the month usually have a PS back to the offer as well.
So they get the offer email, and then they get a soft sell as well in that final email.
Jillian Leslie 30:24
Okay. So back to the question of how to not make them all about like now it’s July 4, or it’s 2022. How do you then deal with that?
Brittany Long 30:39
So there’s two ways I deal with that. One is if there’s something big going on; usually I will pause my Evergreen Sequence just briefly, and dress it and then unpause my sequence.
So if I have a launch going on, if it’s a holiday, if it’s the new year, and I know that I want to send very specific emails about this time of year, I sometimes pause that sequence so that I know I don’t have a million emails going out.
The other thing I do is I make sure that my evergreen emails are going out on certain days of the week. So for us, I said, we do three emails a week. So we have Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays, when we send our emails.
We send Tuesday and Thursday, because those are the highest open rate emails for us. And then we send Saturday because the kind of email that we send is like a take today off kind of email. So it makes sense for us to send on the weekend.
And so, I know if I want to send a live broadcast email, I can send it any other day of the week, and they’re only still going to get one email that day, they’re not going to get a million from me.
Jillian Leslie 31:32
Got it.
Brittany Long 31:32
So that’s the first thing we do.
Jillian Leslie 31:35
But they will get your other ones that are in the series?
Brittany Long 31:38
Right. Exactly. And I just have to unpause it when I’m ready for it. The big thing though, is just making sure if you want to do a live email, one that talks about fall or winter, whatever, that’s going to be a live broadcast email.
It’s not going to be in your Evergreen Sequence.
Jillian Leslie 31:52
Got it. I’m sure you get this question a lot. What do I write in my email that’s a lot of emails!
How To Figure Out What to Write in Your Emails
Brittany Long 32:01
Exactly. I do get that question a lot. And one of my favorite things to do is just find out what people are already asking questions about in my niche. So there’s a few ways I do that.
One is just by Googling, you know how you can go like, how do —? And see what fills in. So that’s one of the ways that I do that.
I also go to answer the public dot com. And you can type in something there, and it’ll have a bunch of things that come up, I use keyword research. So those are some things that I do to find out what people are asking.
Also, anytime I ask people to reply, if it’s asking them, like, what questions do you have? Or where are you getting stuck? I keep a bank of those. So I can see that. And I can answer those kinds of questions in my emails as well.
I answer anything that’s coming to my inbox where people are confused about or there are questions about. Those are the biggest places that I get my inspiration for writing. But then if I get stuck, I think who, what, when, where, why, and how.
So who needs my help? Who has asked the question recently. Who did I hear that was giving maybe information that’s not the best information, and I would say don’t call that person out, or anything like that.
But I do say, I’m seeing this trend recently. But here’s why I think doing it “X” way instead of “Y” way, is going to get you better results and here’s the data. I do a lot of step by step kind of things.
Typically anything that I can make a video for I tried to put an email as well. For me, I think about the beginner stuff, too. So even somebody that’s worked with ActiveCampaign for a while.
There might be things that somebody like me, that’s in it quite often would know. And I can say, “Hey, if you’re getting caught up on this, here’s something you can do to get around that.”
So I try to think about those problems that they’re having that they may not even know there’s a solution to yet. Those are some things that I think about.
I also think about my person. So I have my customer journey mapped out, I know the symptoms that my person has. I know that most of my people that come in, they’re feeling tired, they’re feeling burnt out.
They’re feeling ready to have something running, they want to know that everything’s going to work out on their journey. And so I try to address those things too. So not all of my emails are like, hey, here’s how to do this thing like technical.
A lot of my emails or some of my emails, at least are inspirational, motivational as well. Just letting them know I see you and I hear you and I know what you’re going through and it’s going to be okay.
And those are the emails that I get the most responses on because I think in a world where we can connect with people like anywhere on the internet or anywhere on the planet still so many people feel disconnected and they feel alone.
And so letting somebody know that you see them that you’ve been where they are that you can sympathize or empathize with them I think goes a long way in building a relationship with your audience but also just helping them feel heard and seen.
Jillian Leslie 34:44
I totally agree. In fact, my second word for 2022 is “engage” meaning getting out of myself and doing a cold email to you and saying come on my podcast or reaching out to a customer and saying let’s get on the phone like really connecting.
Initially, I was like, I want to make friends. And it’s not. It’s that I want to have conversations. And I do want friends, but it’s more like, I want to hear what you’re struggling with or what your life experience is like.
So that I can get out of myself and really hear it from you.
Brittany Long 35:18
Yeah, I love that. And I totally agree.
Jillian Leslie 35:20
Now, what about this? I’m listening to this podcast episode, I can hear all of the “yep, buts” in my head. And one is, I feel like I’m a bad writer. I don’t feel comfortable with words, expressing myself. That’s difficult for me.
And now you’re telling me to write 52 emails. So speak to me for example, do I write short sentences? Do I not worry about whether my sentence structure is correct? Lots of whitespace.
What are the kinds of tricks that can make it easier for me to write my emails?
Tips for Writing Emails
Brittany Long 35:55
I hear this a lot. And first, I want to say that your ability to write with proper punctuation or anything like that matters much less than your ability to connect with somebody and share, just share from your heart.
One of the entrepreneurs I worked with, she’s an eight figure earner, fantastic businesswoman, brilliant. But her punctuation and grammar it wasn’t great. And I would fix it in the emails.
And she’d say, “Actually, can you go back and change that, because that’s not how I would write it.” And it was really interesting. And like her audience responded really well to that, because she was real. And she was honest.
And she said, “Even though I’m not great at this, I have a message to share.” And so you do too those of you that are listening, right now you have a message to share.
And you have a way of saying things that are going to make an impact to the people that need to hear it. Some of the emails that we send out, I look back on them.
And I’m like, you know what, I’m not sure if this is the best email as far as punctuation, as far as grammar, as far as structure, this is not the best email.
But man, if I haven’t gotten more responses from those kinds of emails from people that are saying, this is exactly what I need to hear on the exact day that I needed to hear it. And so you have a message that somebody that’s on your list needs to hear.
And by not sending it, you’re making it harder for them to get to that next level, whatever that looks like for them. So that’s my first thing. Even though it’s not perfect, never going to be perfect,
Jillian Leslie 37:14
I get that it’s like get out of yourself, get your helper hat on and go help somebody.
Brittany Long 37:20
Absolutely. And then the other thing I’d say is, for me personally, we’ve written so many emails for ourselves, for others, that’s what we do for a living. And still, every single email I write, I always start with a messy copy.
My goal is not to go in and make it perfect from the beginning, my goal is to get it done. And so the first email, I always write the first draft, I always write my plan is this is going to be an ugly email. And I’m okay with that.
Because if I can do that, I can make a fantastic email just with a few edits. And it’s never as bad as I think. If you’re writing right now, or thinking about writing, you might be thinking, well, of course you write for a living, your emails are probably fantastic.
But when they start, they’re not fantastic. There’s a lot of editing that goes into that. And that is normal. So, I want you to know that person is normal.
Other things that have helped the people that we work with as far as students, besides making a first messy draft is saying it out loud. Especially if you’re an external processor, using something like the otter app.
It’s O-T-T-E-R.ai, you can record yourself saying something. It transcribes it for you; you can copy it and then edit it from there.
And I found that anytime I get stuck on what to write or how I’m writing, or I get in my own head, saying out in the app, and then writing it from there has helped tremendously.
Jillian Leslie 38:33
Now, one thing that is a trick and you can tell me, if this is a good trick or not. I have noticed that my emails now have lots of whitespace they have very short sentences, I bold certain words.
Because people reading on their phones is a very different experience than reading on your laptop or reading a book.
And all I want to do is give you something where you get the gist and you can just scan it and know like about me or about what I’m offering or whatever. But like I don’t want to make you work.
Brittany Long 39:09
Yeah, exactly. I totally agree.
Jillian Leslie 39:12
Like a different kind of writing. It’s easier. It’s an easier way to write.
Brittany Long 39:17
Yeah, I agree. And so bolding, italicizing, underlining, using those different things to help make it easier for them to read and read through. We’re finding that over 50% of our readers are actually on their mobile.
So yeah, it’s super, super important to have it in chunks like that. If you have giant mega paragraphs, the chances of them reading through all the way to the end are fairly low.
And so one of the best things you can do is like chunk that information up like you’re saying in those shorter paragraphs or shorter sentences. And then also having a call-to- action, the same call-to-action but in multiple points throughout.
Especially if you have a long email, if they don’t get to the very bottom, obviously they’re not going to click on the link and so having the link in multiple places can help with that.
EMAIL TIP: Add One Call to Action
Jillian Leslie 39:56
Would you agree, one call-to-action you can have multiple links, but like people think I’m going to put everything, email link to everything and give people the choice.
And I have learned the fewer choices I give people, the happier they are, and the more likely they are to click or to buy.
Brittany Long 40:14
I agree. Yep, we’re testing that out right now we actually our audience we have significantly. It’s like 50/50 on done-for-you audience and do-it-yourself audience. It’s the same thing, email marketing, but it’s two very different audiences.
And so one thing we’re testing out right now is having those two links and saying if you want us to do it for you or if you want to do it for yourself, and we’re having really good results with that.
But under every other circumstance, where I’ve tried it, newsletters, etc. having one call- to-action is definitely the way to go.
Jillian Leslie 40:43
Okay, now, let’s say, I’m just starting to make products to sell. As an entrepreneur, I’m always saying, “Go make products.” Even if they’re super easy. We have a product called MiloTree Easy Payments, you can set up a paid workshop, and go sell products.
But let’s say I’ve got one product, it’s like a download, or a paid workshop, but I only have one, am I going to sell this? It’s like, where do I start? Is it I need to build five different products?
Because you’re telling me I need a whole Evergreen Sequence. And like in one of those every month, I’m going to be selling something.
Can I be selling my same product over and over again every month? Or do I need to build products before I can set up this whole sequence?
Brittany Long 41:37
It’s really up to you, if you enjoy creating products, and you know that you can create them and you can create them quickly.
Then what I would do for somebody like you is I would say start the first four months of your Evergreen Sequence, and have those first four months being the product you already have.
And then build out those additional products that you want as you’re building out more evergreen emails. If you’re somebody that does not like creating new things, you don’t want to create a ton of new things, or it takes you a really long time.
Maybe it just doesn’t come naturally to you. So you need a lot of help with it, which is totally fine. But if that’s somebody like you, then what I would suggest for you is to have the same thing for the entire year.
And then just pepper in the other offers as you create them over time. And so one thing that you can do is focus on the migraine goal. So I know you might be thinking, okay, but I just have one product. Surely at some point they’re going to buy it.
For the people that don’t buy it right away have micro angles, so different reasons for them to buy or bussing different objections throughout the Evergreen Sequence on those offer emails.
If you do have them buying at the beginning, you want to think Is there anything else that I can add on. Is it easy for me to add on? And if not, that’s fine, too.
But if not, you’ll just skip that email, or you can change it so that the offer is just in the PS only. I don’t even suggest that. But it’s an option.
How to Grow Your Email List
Jillian Leslie 42:50
One thing we haven’t discussed, and hopefully we can touch on this very quickly is how to grow your list? We didn’t even get there.
Brittany Long 42:58
Yeah, absolutely. So there’s loads of ways to grow your list. One of the best ways we’ve seen is through using ads to go to a quiz and having people take the quiz and then they put in their email address.
So that’s one of the best ways that we see to grow your list right now.
Jillian Leslie 43:15
Where are you running these ads?
Brittany Long 43:19
On Facebook, that’s where we in the past when we run ads is on Facebook. But even sharing links in your group, if you have a Facebook group would be really good.
Podcast if you’re on Podcast Episodes, people can get on your list by getting that freebie. Blog posts, guest blog posts, any of those are really great to put on your lead magnet. So that quiz or that freebie that you want to offer them.
Jillian Leslie 43:40
Any other good ideas like that that are kind of not just here’s my PDF.
Use Quizzes to Grow Your Email List
Brittany Long 43:46
So while a lot of our clients work with quizzes, a lot of them also will do templates. Checklists are okay, but they’re not as appealing as they once were.
Especially for people now that they understand what they’re giving up with their email address that they’re going to get emails. So quiz is usually the best one, especially if you’re running ads.
The next one would be templates. So for example, we have one for our welcome sequence where people get a template and a mini-training and we’ll give it to them for free. If I’m presenting in a group, usually I’ll give that to them for free.
So that’s one that we do, we sometimes will see free trial, especially for SAS, that’s usually a really, really good way to get people on your email list. And then doing some kind of workshop or challenge.
So for me personally, I usually charge for my workshops, but every once in a while I’ll do one where it’s a free workshop anybody can come in to and that’s one that we promote pretty heavily because it is usually paid.
Jillian Leslie 44:36
Are you promoting that with ads to get people?
Brittany Long 44:41
Currently we aren’t because we weren’t having great success with ads. And so we said okay, let’s double down on what’s working for us right now. And so that’s why we shut them off in quarter four, but we’re going to be bringing them back in quarter one.
Jillian Leslie 44:54
I love these new ideas of ways to grow your list. So while we wrap up, are there any other ways that you could think of that we haven’t touched on for monetizing with email like abandoned cart and evergreen series?
Doing the three giving value one selling that kind of thing. Anything else that we should touch on?
How to Write Sales Emails for a Live Launch
Brittany Long 45:16
Yeah. So the last thing I would say is that if you’re doing a live launch, planning on doing one to four live launches a year, I usually don’t suggest doing more than that, because that’s a lot. So one to four live launches a year.
And actually, let me kind of run through what I would put in each of those emails. So I would do a value add or newsletter. Usually, I don’t suggest newsletters. But at the beginning of this particular live launch sequence, I suggest that.
And then the next thing is introducing the problem and requesting them to respond. The next email would be why is this a problem? The next email would be an objection. So busting objection.
And then some kind of training that training could be a how to video or it could be even just say, here are the three steps to X Y&Z and just writing it in there.
The next email would be busting, another objection, and then another training. And then finally, we would get to the offer. With the offer, we would have seven emails total.
The first email would just be straight up about the offer, who it’s for how it’s going to help them. Email number two of the offer would be a microing, though. So specifically, here’s who is going to help specifically.
Here are results that you can get from it that other people have gotten with it, and including a success story.
The next email would be another offer. And you’re busting objection number three, the next email is going to be another micro angle and success story. The next email is going to be busting objection number four.
The next email is going to be micro angle number three, the next email is going to be just letting them know, “Hey, the sales about over.” And then from there, another value add and then another value add that takes you through three months.
So if you’re doing one live launch every quarter, that would be the entire three months right there.
Jillian Leslie 46:57
And then this is something that you’ve created and automated so you can just run it three months later, three months later, three months later.
Brittany Long 47:06
Yeah. For us, I don’t really love live launching because for the lifestyle that I want to create. I’m all about that evergreen everything. But I do if we have something new that’s coming up or something that is higher ticket, I like doing that for a live launch.
And so, we do have one or two things that we live launch a year. And so, I just follow this process. Once I create it once I’m good to go. And then I can also add that to my Evergreen Sequence as well.
Jillian Leslie 47:32
This has been so good filled with so much good information. Really this is definitely the way to step up your email game.
So Brittany, people want to learn more about you learn about your services, your DIY, all that good stuff. How should they do that?
Brittany Long 47:49
So they can reach out to me at brittany@winwithsystems.com.
Jillian Leslie 47:52
Say it again. Say it again.
Brittany Long 47:55
Brittany@winwithsystems.com and it’s B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y. There’s like a million ways to spell it. But that’s how I spell it.
Jillian Leslie 48:02
Okay, terrific. And people in the audience, hopefully, you’ve gotten all these new ideas on how to monetize in 2022. So Brittany, I have to say, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Brittany Long 48:14
Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Jillian Leslie 48:16
I hope you guys like this episode, my biggest takeaway is that email is incredibly powerful. And the goal is to provide value and to sell. So value selling do not be afraid to sell in your emails because you’ve got solutions people are looking for.
Reach out to me, let me know if you agree with me. But I thought that there were so many good takeaways in this episode.
So again, if you want to get my freebie of the 5 Secrets Successful Bloggers Know, it’s really good. And you can see how many of these things you are already doing. Head to milotree.com/secrets and I will see you here again next week.
Other Blogger Genius Podcast episodes to listen to:
- How to Explode Your Email List with an Easy, Fun Email Challenge with Haeley Giambalvo
- What’s the Big Deal with Email and Monetization with Liz Wilcox
- 5 Secrets Successful Bloggers Know to Grow Their Blogs
Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy…
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Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week.
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