#129: How Your Email List Is Like an ATM

Today, we’re talking about email marketing, and how your email list is like an ATM, and makes you money if you know how to use it.

I’ve got Sarah Williams from Framed By Sarah back on the show for a Part 2 Interview. If you haven’t listened to our Part 1, you can do so here.

Sarah has built a successful subscription box business, and in this episode we dig deeper into how she thinks about putting a box together to sell to her customers—how do you deal with managing subscribers, inventory, planning for the future, the experience for her customers, etc.

We also delve into Sarah’s email strategy. By combining different parts of her business into her emails, like her weekly Facebook Lives, and promoting different items every week, she’s figured out how to use email directly for sales.

She’s gotten so good at targeting her customers using sophisticated email automations, she’s able to serve up the right email to the right customer at the right time.

If you’re looking for new strategies for making money online, especially ways to build recurring revenue streams, please don’t miss this episode.

How Your Email List Is Like an ATM and Makes You Money | The Blogger Genius Podcast

Table of Contents

Show Notes:

Host 0:04
Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.

Jillian Leslie 0:11
Hello friends. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius. Before I get started, I wanted to let you know that our next Six-Week MiloTree Coaching Group is starting August 4th. This is the coaching group that David and I teach live on Zoom.

It meets for six weeks. And we show up with you twice a week. We do a teaching workshop session and we do a Q&A session. And the great thing about it is we get to know you. So while we’re teaching general stuff, we are also teaching specific stuff for you..

It’s that we show up live with you, we hold you accountable. And you are growing your business while we are holding these sessions. Also, we’re giving you feedback in real time. It’s very exciting. It’s very satisfying for David and me to get to know you.

What I want you to do is I want you to head to MiloTree.com/meet.

And this way you can sign up for a time to get on the phone with me so that you could tell me about your business. I will look at your blog or your website and give you some feedback. I’ll talk about what we could do for you what this group could do for you.

And I’d love to meet you. If even if you’re just like, really thinking about it, but not really, please book a time with me, because I love meeting my community. I love meeting you. And just hearing about what you’re excited about. What you’re struggling with.

All of that because I have to tell you, chances are I have been there too. Okay, so go again, MiloTree.com/meet and come meet me. Also, if you want to learn about the group, you can go to MiloTree.com/group, and you can read about it. But really, I look forward to getting on the phone with you.

For today’s episode. I have Sarah Williams from Framed by Sarah back on the show, because in our last interview where she was talking about her subscription boxes, I felt like there was more to unpack there.

Sarah and I talked about the logistics of setting up a subscription box, like what it really takes. And we also talked about her email strategy when she said, her email is like an ATM. My ears perked up, and I needed to know what that really meant.

So without further ado, here is part two, my second interview with Sarah Williams. Sarah, welcome back to the show.

Sarah Williams 5:31
Thank you so much for having me again. I’m so excited to be here.

Jillian Leslie 5:35
Just before I pressed record, I said it will probably include more things but the two things I really wanted to talk about was the nuts and bolts to building a subscription box business. What does that really take?

And two, how you think about email marketing. In our last recording, you said your email list is like an ATM and of course we’ve got to unpack that we’ve got to dig deeper.

Let’s first talk about let’s say, I’m a knitter and I want to create some sort of themed box and sell it to my audience and it be a recurring revenue stream for me. It’s new stuff for people to get in the mail a little present in the mail. How do I think about this?

Sarah Williams 6:27
I think you and I discussed this right before we got on about what if I’m not Stitch Fix? What if I’m not FabFitFun? What if I’m not Dollar Shave Club? Can I do this? And the answer is really like yes, you can do it.

You Can Start a Small Subscription Box Business

You don’t have to go into this thinking you have to be a big gigantic company, and you have to sell 10,000 boxes. But you have an audience. If you are a seller, if you are an E-commerce or brick and mortar, you sell things and you have customers and customers want to buy from you.

I look at a subscription box as being something that you’re providing for your customer, that is a great value in a convenience. So if you can combine those two things, you can really curate a special box for your customers.

Jillian Leslie 7:13
Okay. Are there different experiences in the box? For example, like for you, I feel like you’re giving people a monthly moment of celebration, celebrating yourself, but are other boxes like, I’m going to get stuff that’s less expensive. I’m going to get a deal and that’s why I subscribe.

Is it I’m going to get the newest stuff and trends like I subscribed to Birchbox for a long time, and I got all this cool makeup every month? And I’d be like, “Wow, what new eyeliner. What is the cool nail polish trend?” That kind of thing.

So, do I have to think of that thing up front? Like what is the goal behind my box?

Sarah Williams 8:02
I think when you’re starting a box group, let’s take the knitting example again. So what you want to do for your knitting community? Is it a project of the month? Are you creating a project for them that you can teach and train? And then your box is all the supplies for that project?

Is that that they get the newest VIP yarn that you have that’s exclusive to you, and they’re a subscriber so that they can get the limited edition yarn? Is it because you’re teaching them new tools to use or new techniques? You have to think about what is your niche already?

How can you hone in on that and really bring it down just a little bit. Even make it more specific, because those are the boxes that are really going to grow. If you try to be a box for everyone. You end up being a box for no one.

Think About What Kind of Experience You Want Your Subscribers to Have

And then the other question you just asked me is yes. What kind of experience do you want that subscriber to have? Is it for them? Is it a gift for them? Is it a project? Are you teaching them something? Do you want them to learn how to do knitting?

Are they already knitters and you’re teaching them like a higher skill level? Is it a convenience thing, like we talked about Dollar Shave Club, you use razors every month? And it’s just a replenishment and it’s really convenient to know that that’s going to pop in the mail.

Like I have an ink subscription. Like I get ink every single month. I know I’m going to run out of it. I know it’s coming and I don’t have to worry about it. And that’s the benefit. It doesn’t have to be a super cheap thing.

I’m not getting ink at $5 a cartridge. The reason I’m a subscriber is the convenience. It’s the convenience for me and sometimes that’s more valuable than the actual dollar amount.

Jillian Leslie 9:48
I have this Amazon Subscribe and Save and therefore every two months, I weirdly get sunscreen. Because sunscreen is like that thing where you don’t want to run out of it. You’re not really psyched about going to buy it.

You forget when you go to the grocery store, I need to get the sunscreen and so I just have it show up at my house. And I do that with, I don’t know, paper towels and things just show up at my house. I think we do it with printer ink, as well because you don’t want to run out and you know that you’re going to run through it at a certain pace.

It’s like, okay, it just shows up. It’s funny because I hadn’t thought of those really as like subscription boxes, but in a way they are.

Sarah Williams 10:32
Yeah. And you can either do it out of convenience, you can do it out of value, you can do it out of an experience. There are lots of different ways that you can create a box for your products or what you do.

Jillian Leslie 10:46
So you have a community of people who pay you per month to be part of your group of people selling boxes, and you’re a coach for them and you have resources and stuff. Of the people in your group, most of them what kind of boxes are they selling? So you’re selling an experience like a monogram personalize gift?

Sarah Williams 11:09
Mine is a luxury experience, personal item. They’re all over the place, I have a lot of creatives in my group. So they have like a craft box or a skill box, like a painting or an art. I have a lot of those. I have home decor boxes.

I have clothing boxes, T-shirt boxes, candle boxes, there are a lot of different all over the place boxes inside my group. It would be fun for me. I need to create a poll in there and have them what kind of box do you have? And you can really do this with any product in any industry.

And that’s the thing that I want to get across is that it’s not specific to a niche or an industry. It’s a great thing across the board.

How to Set Up Your Subscription Box?

Jillian Leslie 12:02
Then how do I actually deal with the logistics? I want to create a box, so again, let’s go back to the knitting thing. And every month, let’s say I’m going to do a different knitting project, and you’re going to have the supplies and all this stuff.

How do we even get the physical boxes? How do I deal with the shipping? How do I deal with getting all the yarn?

Sarah Williams 12:25
It feels overwhelming.

Jillian Leslie 12:28
A logistical nightmare.

What is a Post-It Note Challenge?

Sarah Williams 12:30
It feels overwhelming. And the first place that we start when they come into my Launch Your Box Coaching Group is, we do a post-it note challenge. And this is really just set a timer you’re writing on post-it notes and you’re putting all the ideas you have for these different boxes onto a separate post-it notes.

And you’re just slamming them out and you’re sticking them on your table and you’re just going for like 20 minutes. And then when the timer stops, you’re looking at each month and moving these around. What could I put in boxes?

It’s helpful if you can visualize what your box might be, before you start thinking about the logistics, or you just feel like well, that’s too much.

Jillian Leslie 13:08
That’s what I think.

Sarah Williams 13:09
I’m going to stop right here.

Jillian Leslie 13:10
I have to tell you. Look at me I’m going to show you this. Nobody can see this because they’re listening. But I’m holding up a pack of post-it. I am the biggest post-it user ever. And I wish you could see my desk because all I do is do exactly that. In my life and in my business is I have an idea, boom, it’s a post-it on my desk.

So that speaks to me of brainstorming with post-it.

Sarah Williams 13:32
And I like it.

Jillian Leslie 13:33
Because it’s very open ended and you can move them around and you can prioritize them. It’s like a Trello board. But my Trello board is on my desk and it’s actually physical.

Sarah Williams 13:43
That’s exactly it because even when we get started, what we think we might use may not be exactly what ends up so it’s this working document. That’s why I like to use the post-it notes because they can be removed and they can be changed and it’s not ever set in stone.

But then you start to think about, okay, I’ve got six months of yarn boxes that I’m planning out. Are those themes with color? Is it around a season? How can I make this an experience? We talked about on the last call we had together. And then it’s okay.

If I’m going to create this, I’m going to need yarn. I’m going to need yarn; I might need those needles. I’m just making this up. I’m going to need the tools; I probably am going to need some printable items to show them step by step. I’m going to need to create some instructions.

I think about all the things that I might need, and then I’m going to start looking for them. If you are a yarn seller, you already know where to get yarn. You already have it in your store, you’re already selling it so that’s a no brainer.

Maybe you don’t carry tools. Now you need to start looking for a way to get some tools. So can you go to market? Can you use a global marketplace like Alibaba? Is there someone that you know that carry these that you can figure out how to contact them?

Can you go onto these brands websites and see if you can come become a wholesale buyer for these different tools that you might need? So these are different ways you can start to find these items. So now I have my yarn, I’ve got my tools.

I’m going to maybe hire a little graphic artist maybe to create some inserts for me that have instructions, and they’re real friendly and easy to follow. So now I have the things. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to put it in.

And so I like for you to think about the products first because that’s going to help you figure out the size of your packaging. Can this fit in a poly mailer? Does it need to go into a box? What is the structure of your items so that you can figure out your packaging?

How Your Email List Is Like an ATM and Makes You Money | MiloTree.com

Why You Want to Plan Out Your Boxes Six Months in Advance

And we go through several modules of packaging and what you need in launcher box. But that way, if you can see what you’re going to put in that box, it helps you visualize what you need. And that’s why I like for them to plan out six months first before we even start talking logistics.

There’s a difference in sending a poly mailer and a box. The shipping is going to be way different, the experience is going to be way different. If you can think about those things up front, then all the little logistic pieces can start to fit together very easily and you don’t feel overwhelmed.

Jillian Leslie 16:17
Okay, so right now it is end of June. So I assume you are done with your July boxes. And when did they go? Are you working on your October box right now? How far in advance do you have to plan these out?

Sarah Williams 16:35
June has already gone out. We’re getting ready to start packing July. I just finished the inserts and some of the designs for August that are going to be on my printed materials. But I have planned my boxes through March 2021.

Jillian Leslie 16:51
No way. Okay,

Sarah Williams 16:53
I’d like to work six months at least and if I could go nine months out. I feel really good about myself because it helps me plan. And it’s not all the items in each one of these boxes but the main item and some of the supplement items are already figured out.

So that when I get closer; I can add in a little bit more detail. I know what my themes are. I know what my color palettes are for the next nine months. And that will help me put all the finishing pieces together.

Jillian Leslie 17:22
Now here’s the thing you’re trying to grow your business. How do you deal with inventory nine months out? How do you know how many people? You don’t want to over buy; you don’t want to under buy. What do you do?

Why You Want an Active Waitlist in Your Subscription Box Business

Sarah Williams 17:36
My box subscription is on a closed membership model. So that means it is not open all the time. Right now I have a set number and that is the number of boxes that I have. And I’m going to have that number next month, the next month, the next month.

And then when I want to plan an increase, I’m going to increase it by 100 boxes and then that will be what I’ll order for the next month after that and I just kind of stair step it up. Now, you will always have cancellations every single month.

When a cancellation equals, I have an extra box sitting here that I still need to sell. And so, what I do is I create a waitlist for them. And every time I’m talking about my boxes, I’m posting the link to join the waitlist.

And so, when I’m ready to send July and I realize I’m going to have 30 extra boxes because I may have had 30 cancellations last month, I go to my waitlist and say, here’s a little sneak peek of my July box, I have 30 boxes left the first 30 to sign up, will get these and boom, I’ve got 30 signups all my boxes are sold.

I’m not having to worry about this excess inventory that I’m sitting on because I had cancellations last month and you’re going to have cancellations. It could be anywhere from 3% to 10%. If you’re under 5%, that’s a good number. But 5% of 2000 is a lot of boxes.

Jillian Leslie 18:59
Yes.

Sarah Williams 19:00
So I’ve got to make sure that I’m constantly building a waitlist in between each month, so that I can sell those and I’m not sitting on excess inventory.

Jillian Leslie 19:10
Therefore, you can project what your inventory is going to look like, say in six months.

Sarah Williams 19:16
Yeah, I know exactly what I’m going to sell in March 2021. I already have that increase built in. I already have the plan on the calendar when I’m going to launch and open up new subscriptions. And my hope is and what has worked so well over the last few years is that I keep building that waitlist.

So there’s never an imbalance of numbers each month. If you don’t have a waitlist, that number will continue to go down every month. And then if I’ve ordered six months out, I’m sitting on an extra 150, 200 pieces. And that is not good for anybody.

Jillian Leslie 19:49
Got it. Did you have to learn all this yourself like piece by piece?

Sarah Williams 19:54
I did. And you know it’s one of those things when I started there wasn’t a place where I found that I could learn about subscription box. It was pretty new; people were doing it. But it was just the big companies. The little companies weren’t doing it yet.

And so it’s just one of those things that you just try and you learn. And I made a lot of mistakes along the way. I mean, a lot like, let’s not get it twisted here. I have made some mistakes. But I think that for me, I look, I listen and I learn. I’m constantly watching what other people are doing.

And I’m thinking how can I implement that in my own business? And that’s what has made me successful. The best part about my coaching group is I’ve taken all these things that I’ve learned over the years.

I’m just breaking them down and making them super easy for my members to not get caught up in all these little details and to really thrive and grow.

Why the Unboxing Experience is So Important

Jillian Leslie 20:47
One thing that I think a lot about is the unboxing experience. So I don’t know how many people out there have bought a product from Apple, but if you do and you open it. It is a beautiful experience, you are getting so much delight, there’s so much surprise and delight.

It’s like you can tell they focus so much on that experience. When you were showing me your subscription box, there is that little bit of like, Ah, this is so cool. And I think in our own businesses, even if we’re not selling a subscription box, just the delight of delivering something to somebody matters.

How do you think about it in your own business? And how do you see it successfully in other people’s businesses because I use Apple as like the perfect example of this.

Sarah Williams 21:43
And you’re talking about their packaging. Number one. Their packaging is really wonderful.

Jillian Leslie 21:48
it feels so good.

Sarah Williams 21:49
All these compartments in there and you keep on doing and pulling out.

Jillian Leslie 21:53
And it fits so beautifully together. And oh, yes.

Sarah Williams 21:56
Packaging is a huge part of an experience, but it’s not a make or break. And so what I teach my members is that use what you have in the moment. I don’t ever want anyone to be not profitable because they spent all their money on their packaging that is not worth it.

If you’ve got to use the brown box for five months until you can afford the nice custom, pretty box then that’s what you’ve got to do because our number one goal is to be profitable. But what else can you add to that box?

Can you print it? I do a lot of printed quotes and stickers and then exclusive coupons. All these little things, put in your box, they cost very, very little but create a great user experience.

Jillian Leslie 22:38
I always like it when you get a note from somebody that might be signed by them. I remember getting something from a small vendor and it had a lollipop in it. And just that which I’m sure was very inexpensive like a dumb dumb lollipop, but just getting it was like, oh, we just felt like a thoughtful touch.

Sarah Williams 23:00
Because you didn’t expect it.

Jillian Leslie 23:01
I didn’t expect it.

Sarah Williams 23:01
You expected what you ordered. So when you got a little bit more, that creates some value. So we’re adding some stickers in this month. So I’ve created the design for the T-shirt, and then I’m taking that design and putting it on a die cut sticker.

And so it’s just a little extra, they can put it on a cup on their laptop, wherever. And every time they see it, they’re going to remember that shirt and they will remember that they’re part of my T-shirt club. It’s just a little bit extra, and you can do it very inexpensively.

Jillian Leslie 23:30
I love that but it is like a little bit of thought that goes into it. And the benefit, I think it’s this concept of surprise and delight, which is you want to do that little unexpected thing that little dumb dumb lollipop or those stickers, or whatever, just to get that little bit of like, oh, a little, I don’t know, just those good feelings.

Sarah Williams 23:52
It’s fun. That’s what it is. You’re delivering some fun. Even if I got my printer ink and there was a little something in there like Apple puts the little apple stickers. They’re branding something you love that sticker. And now you’re walking around with their brand all over everything.

Jillian Leslie 24:08
Totally.

Sarah Williams 24:08
It’s just the case. And if I got a little something fun with my ink maybe I got a fun pin with their logo on it. I would be like, “Oh, that’s really cool.” So you can think about all those different things that you can add into your own subscription to create that surprise and delight moment.

Jillian Leslie 24:22
Yeah, like Glossier makeup, started online. They did a pop-up shop showing my Glossier lipstick. They did a pop-up store in Austin. So my daughter who is 13 was like, “We have to go.” And we went, we bought some stuff.

They had stickers and you better believe this their stickers are on her laptop. Because it’s cool and you want to be associated with this brand. And I thought to myself, oh my god, what brilliant marketing on their part because now my daughter walks around with Glossier everywhere.

Sarah Williams 24:39
Exactly.

Jillian Leslie 24:40
And literally I think we bought like two things. It wasn’t like, we’ve gone all in on Glossier, but now it’s like, oh, that’s cool. And so yeah, doing something small. But I have to say that it made me have that moment like, “Oh, that’s cool.” So I totally get it.

Sarah Williams 25:20
It up levels your brand. If you’ve got stuff branded, it really up levels your brand as well.

How The MiloTree Pop-up App Grows Your Social Media Followers and Email Subscribers

Sign up for MiloTree for 30-Days Free | MiloTree.com

Jillian Tohber Leslie 25:27
Given this uncertain time, as online entrepreneurs, all we crave is certainty. So what if I could promise you that growing your social media followers on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, plus your email list could happen automatically.

All you need is a blog or a site you own and some visitors and I guarantee that the MiloTree pop-up app will automatically convert those visitors into followers and subscribers and you don’t have to do a thing. We are no longer living in the world as it was.

I think we’re realizing the importance of nurturing our online businesses, so we can have freedom to live the lives we want. But in order to get there, we have to manage our scarcest resource. Time.

So let MiloTree do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to growing followers and email subscribers, and you spend your time creating content solutions products that serve your audience, so you can start seriously monetizing your blog.

So here’s my advice. Stay consistent. Kill the perfectionist in you so you can get stuff out there quickly. Touch yourself with kindness, embrace the mess, and go make a couple of smart choices like using MiloTree on your blog to grow your followers and subscribers.

So you don’t have to worry about that. Sign up now for Milo tree and get your first 30 days free. There are really no risk 8000 other bloggers just like you are using MiloTree right now to grow their businesses. Please pause this episode and head to MiloTree.com to sign up for your free trial.

With all the worry, we’re feeling this will give you one less thing to worry about. So what are you waiting for hit pause, head to MiloTree and sign up today.

How to Learn about Starting a Subscription Box

Jillian Leslie 27:12
Tell people about what you’re offering in terms of your subscription group membership, that kind of thing for people who want to go deep and try and really start building out a box.

Sarah Williams 27:28
So it’s perfect for anyone that wants to start a box if you’re thinking I really want to do this in my business, but I don’t even know the first thing to start with. It’s perfect there. Or maybe you have a subscription box and you just really want help growing it and that’s great too.

We have members from not having a box to having 500 subscribers. So it is for all levels and what’s included in the membership is this great base of core training. I record these modules every month. It’s logistics, it’s shipping, it’s packing, it’s buying wholesale.

It’s launching. Today I recorded a module about print items and perceived value of your items. And so you get this great base of core training right when you walk in the door so it’s all there and wherever you’re at on that scale of starting a box or having a box you can dig in and get some training.

And then with a membership provides is we do Q&A. So I show up you get access to me on the front lines every single month. I show up in there live once a week. We do box opening so I open other members’ boxes and give great feedback on them how they can improve their processes.

We have guest speakers. We’ve had the CEO of Packlink came in. We had an executive from FedEx talk about shipping. We’ve had someone from ShipStation join us so all these things, you just getting constant training and you have constant access to me.

And the best thing about the membership is that it is full of like-minded entrepreneurs.

Jillian Leslie 29:04
Yes.

Sarah Williams 29:05
That are doing the exact same thing. They help each other, they encourage each other, they’re answering each other’s questions. They’re showing some fun items they got and then where you can go buy it too.

So it’s really a great community to be a part of. It’s a closed membership so I’m not open all the time. It opens July 23rd. And I’m not sure when I will launch again it will probably won’t be until the fall.

So now’s the time to get in and start building that because wouldn’t it be awesome to have a box going into the fall of this year?

Jillian Leslie 29:37
Right before Christmas? Absolutely. And what a great gift idea also.

Sarah Williams 29:42
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 29:43
We have a Membership as well for bloggers and online entrepreneurs in different niches. And, but same idea, which is I think there is so much power in being in a group with like minded people. learning from each other. I feel for us, everybody is facing very similar challenges.

And having slightly different niches like for you having people with different kinds of boxes. You learn from somebody, let’s say you’re for us like a food blogger versus like a homeschooling blogger. It’s like, “Huh, I never thought of the world like the food blogger does.”

Yet that’s kind of relevant to my own business in this certain way. Like maybe I could take what they’re doing over here and bring it into my niche or my lane over here. Because we’re all kind of facing the you know, for you guys. It’s all about you got to get a box out every month.

Sarah Williams 30:42
And so it got really cool to see what other industries do that maybe you wouldn’t have thought about.

Jillian Leslie 30:48
No.

Sarah Williams 30:48
It really opens your mind to all these different things.

Why Learning from Other Online Entrepreneurs is Important

Jillian Leslie 30:51
I find too, that I call it the cross pollination is very, very powerful because it’s very easy to get stuck into your lane and then you might, let’s say even have friends who are other food bloggers. Weirdly there’s a lot of group think there.

There’s a lot of like, this is how we do it as food bloggers, and all of a sudden you step out of that you see somebody else doing it differently. And you’re like, “Wow! Why can’t I do that?” So I think there is so much value in being in a group of people like yes, you get to be the leader of it.

And you probably have more experience than anybody else, however, but you too find stuff that other people are doing or like, Hey, where did they source that or whatever. And it’s like, wait, I can even take this into my own business.

So there is something very powerful and that being on the internet and being able to connect with people who are doing stuff in new and exciting ways. Like maybe your mother or your sister or even your spouse doesn’t understand.

Your best friend does not understand but there are these people out there on the internet who understand and there is so much value in that.

Sarah Williams 32:01
Talking with your husband or your best friend about your dang subscription box. There’s come a point when your friend stop asking you to go to lunch with them because they’re tired of hearing about it. So, it’s like, if we can all geek out and talk about subscription boxes together, and it’s fun.

And then when we go home, or we’re with our friends, we don’t have to, can I get your feedback on this? No, I already got it inside the group. I’m good.

Jillian Leslie 32:26
You guys, I’m sure could so geek out on tissue paper.

Sarah Williams 32:30
Oh, we could.

Jillian Leslie 32:32
And it’s like, wow. Whereas then you don’t have to show your best friend 30 different types of tissue paper and discuss, I don’t know the thickness or the color or whatever. So, I totally get it. So, people want to learn more, where should they had to for that.

Sarah Williams 32:48
They should go over to Launchyourboxwithsarah and that’s with an H. Sarah with an H dot com. And right there, you’re going to get on my waiting list if we’re not in launch mode right now, but we opened July 23rd. And we’re only open for five days.

So you want to get on that waiting list now because then you’ll get the emails and you’ll know exactly when I am open and you can grab a spot and launch your box.

Jillian Leslie 33:10
I love that. Okay, now can we segue to email marketing?

Sarah Williams 33:13
Yes.

How Your Email List Is Like An ATM

Jillian Leslie 33:13
Okay, because when you said this thing, how your email list is like an ATM. I’m like let’s dig into that. Okay. So talk to me about broadly how you think about email? First of all, what email service do you use?

Sarah Williams 33:29
I use Klaviyo.

Jillian Leslie 33:30
Okay, that’s right. We’ve talked about this. Yes. Okay.

Sarah Williams 33:33
Huge fan of Klaviyo and because of its E-commerce powers. Now if I wasn’t necessarily on E-commerce, I don’t know that would be my first choice. But because it has so much. I don’t know even know what it is. I call it magic.

It has so much magic around your browse abandonment, what people are looking at without even adding them to a cart. There are so many features that you can use. So Klaviyo is my deal. And really as far as email marketing goes, I treat every week as a different campaign.

So when you build an email, it’s called a campaign. But I call the campaign the series of emails that will go out with that one specific topic. So it’s not just shooting an email out, like, shoot it and you’re done. And that’s what a lot of people do.

They’re like, Okay, I’m going to talk about my cup that I’m using today and what I put in it, and this is what I’m going to talk about, and here’s where you can buy the cup. Here’s the cup, email, boom, it’s out, made a few sales. Okay, I’m moving on. Now, next week, I’m going to talk about this.

No, that’s not what I do. So I create this whole event around it. And I don’t know if we talked about this last time or not, but I do this Facebook Lives on Friday.

And so what I’m doing is I’m generating one piece of content, and I’m doing a Live, I’m doing an email campaign. I’m finally getting into my posts and my Pinterest.

Jillian Leslie 34:59
So let’s break that down. We talked about this a little bit in the last recording, but Fridays you come on at 9:00 am. And you talk about a product.

Why You Want to Show up Regularly on FB Live

Sarah Williams 35:10
Several products. Favorite Friday fines.

Jillian Leslie 35:11
Your product. Your favorite Friday fines.

Sarah Williams 35:14
Friday Faves.

Jillian Leslie 35:15
Faves. Okay, let’s say you’re going to talk about three things. You’ve going a cup, you’ve got a pen, you’ve got something.

Sarah Williams 35:23
A bag.

Jillian Leslie 35:23
A bag. Okay. And so you’re like, “Hey, guys, here’s what I got.” And you do this for maybe 10, 15 minutes?

Sarah Williams 35:29
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 35:29
Okay, then what? What happens to that video?

Sarah Williams 35:32
So that video is now on my page and it’s getting some juice already. So now I’m going to create my emails around this live and these products. So my first email, I usually send out three emails with an email campaign.

Jillian Leslie 35:46
So every week, they’re going to get a video?

Sarah Williams 35:47
Every week.

Jillian Leslie 35:48
Okay.

How to Repurpose Your FB Live Content in Emails

Sarah Williams 35:49
Well, they’ll probably get two of them because they’re segmented. And I’ll tell you how that rolls. So I created this campaign, and first, I want to drive them to this video. So my first email is did you catch me live, and I do like a screenshot of me live like this.

Nobody else can see this, but I’m just like talking and it’s my Live and so that makes them interested because I do different places around the store too. So if I’m doing it right here you can see the machines behind me. So they may want to click on that and see what’s going on behind me.

Or I’m showing something so I want to pique their interest.

Jillian Leslie 36:28
That is linking to your Facebook page or you’ve downloaded the video?

Sarah Williams 36:32
I’m sending them over to Facebook.

Jillian Leslie 36:35
Got it.

Sarah Williams 36:36
So if they haven’t seen it. I want them to go watch it because that gives me video views, that gives me Facebook juice it gives me all the things. Then below it I’m telling the story about what I’m showing, a little bit of story.

I know I don’t put all the pieces in there. I maybe show them one thing that I showed and they can see the rest here at my video. So I’m driving traffic back to the video. Or they can just click here and buy the thing if they want something.

Jillian Leslie 37:07
Okay, so remember, we had three things. You said in the in the text, so you have like, let’s see, here’s a screenshot of you, if you click it, it’ll link to Facebook, they can watch the video. In the email description. Are you showing three photos of the three items or Just one?

Sarah Williams 37:24
One of them.

Jillian Leslie 37:25
Okay.

Sarah Williams 37:25
And I’m talking in depth about that one, maybe it’s the most popular thing.

Jillian Leslie 37:29
Okay.

Sarah Williams 37:30
And maybe I’m holding it up in that video that I’ve screenshotted.

Jillian Leslie 37:33
Okay.

Sarah Williams 37:34
I do lots of different things. So it’s not the same every single month. I don’t want it to be boring. And I want it to be static and really different. So maybe I’m telling a story about this thing. Maybe I’m showing you different ways to use this thing, multiple ways to style this T-shirt I’m wearing.

Maybe I’m talking about four pairs of earrings that go with the shirt that I’m wearing or whatever the case may be. I’m featuring something in this first email that was in the video.

Jillian Leslie 38:02
And there’s an image of it?

Sarah Williams 38:03
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 38:04
Okay.

Sarah Williams 38:04
And there’s a link to buy it.

Jillian Leslie 38:06
Got it. But only one link to buy one of the things in the video. Not all three.

Sarah Williams 38:11
Right.

Jillian Leslie 38:11
Okay.

Sarah Williams 38:12
So they can either go watch my video and there they’re going to get the link to buy it or they can scroll past that and just buy it from there. Okay, so that’s email one, and that goes out the day after my Live. So that would go out on Saturday.

And then on Sunday, I’m going to go in and segment out anyone that has not opened that email. So, I do that on Sunday afternoon. It’s called my non-open resend segment. And so, I’m going to just send that again on Sunday.

Jillian Leslie 38:42
With a different subject line?

Sarah Williams 38:44
Same thing. it’s the exact same. They didn’t open it, they never even opened it. So I don’t have to re-invent it.

Jillian Leslie 38:50
Wow, okay, great. I love it.

Sarah Williams 38:52
So I’m going to send that exact same thing. I may change the subject line. That’s the only thing I may change because that might be the reason, they didn’t open it. So I’m going to just change that subject line, but the content of that email is exactly the same.

And what you can do in Klaviyo is just save your email template. And then when you make a new campaign, you can just pop it right in, you don’t have to do any extra work. Then on Monday, I’m going to send another email.

And this goes to everyone whether you opened it or you didn’t open it, this goes to everyone. And this is different images and different texts about the same Facebook Live. So maybe I’m showing the other images that I didn’t show in the first one.

I have a different subject line, I have different texts, but it’s all around the same thing.

Jillian Leslie 39:36
Now are you linking back to the Facebook Live again?

Sarah Williams 39:39
No.

Jillian Leslie 39:39
Or was that only in those first two emails? So Facebook Live is done?

Sarah Williams 39:43
Not talking about it.

Jillian Leslie 39:45
Got it.

Sarah Williams 39:46
In this email. I may talk about people that have already bought the item from Friday, or I may be sold out of something and I can say, “Oh, these sold out in 24 hours.” Or there might be a little comment on my Facebook Live. About how they bought it, and they’re so excited.

And I’ll share that in there to get other people excited about that. So different strategies again, I always want to mix it up. It’s never like the same plug and play template. It’s different things. But the content is leading back to that Facebook Live. And I’ve done lots of images with these different things.

So I’ve done maybe three or four images of different items so that I can use different images on social media, on Pinterest in the email, but it’s all the same thing. So this email campaign then runs Monday.

And if I really have good sales from that Monday email, I will send another non-open resend on Tuesday, if not, I just leave it at is and move on and start planning the next Friday. But that is my email campaign every week.

And sometimes if I’ve got other things going on, I will sprinkle in some different emails, different times a week but I don’t ever want to over email. I think you can really lose the battle there if you over email and then people stop opening them all together so I never want to be that person.

Jillian Leslie 41:12
How do you get on to your email list buying something from you?

Sarah Williams 41:16
You can buy from me I have a pop-up. So Klaviyo has pop-up features in there. You can embed lists on your pages, you can put the pop-up. So I have a pop-up. I can gain anywhere from 300 to 500 new email subscribers a month from my pop-up alone.

Jillian Leslie 41:33
Wow, wow.

How to Make an Easy Opt-in For Email

Sarah Williams 41:35
And all my pop-up is something they can download, usually a print like an 8 by 10 print, a quote, an inspiration saying because that’s what my box is about is being inspired and kindness and all those things.

So that’s what my pop-up is. You never want your pop up to be something that’s not related to your thing.

Jillian Leslie 41:59
Well here’s the question, do you know what most retailers do, which is get 10% off?

Sarah Williams 42:06
No.

Jillian Leslie 42:07
You don’t discount?

Sarah Williams 42:07
Because I find that they don’t use it. They don’t use it. And so, an 8 by 10 print is something that’s more tangible to them than a discount code.

Jillian Leslie 42:18
Interesting.

Sarah Williams 42:19
And so, I do not use discount. I’m not a fan of discounts in general. So I don’t want it to be I’m only going to buy this if I have a discount code. Back in the day we only bought pizza if we had the pizza coupon.

Jillian Leslie 42:31
Totally.

Sarah Williams 42:32
We only go to JC Penney’s if we have coupons.

Jillian Leslie 42:34
Yeah, oh, my God, the Gap like they run now discounts all the time, but it’s like, who would ever pay full price at the Gap or Banana Republic like you just are trained to never do that.

Why You Don’t Want to Run Sales

Sarah Williams 42:50
That’s not what I want. And I feel like it also devalues the products in my boxes if you feel like you have to have a discount every time you log in, or every time you buy something, and if you don’t have a discount you don’t want to buy. So, I have trained my audience that we do discounts.

We just had a BoGo sale last weekend, but we don’t do them all the time. They’re rare. They’re fun. They’re a special event. It’s not an ongoing thing. I like a free gift way better than a discount. So maybe if you spend $50, you can get a free pair of earrings.

I love that pop-up idea. And there’s a coupon code for that. And maybe those earrings cost me $3. So it’s a better perceived value on what you’re getting than just a 10% off code.

Jillian Leslie 43:39
How many people would you say are on your list?

Why You Want to Cull Your Email List Often

Sarah Williams 43:42
So right now, I have about seven to 8,000. I purge it regularly. Because again, that skews your numbers. So I purge it about every three months just completely purge it and I can’t remember those settings that I have exactly in Klaviyo. But there’s a suppression segment.

So it says if you have not opened, maybe one of my last 10 emails or something like that, because I’m sending them every week. So it’s very regular. Haven’t opened any of those. I don’t, I don’t want to keep sending to you, because that’s going to hurt me. It’s going to hurt how much I pay to Klaviyo every month.

Jillian Leslie 44:22
And by the way, I have to say Klaviyo is not cheap, because again, they are very specific for E- commerce and they’re very powerful like you’re paying for that.

Sarah Williams 44:32
You’re paying for that. But I can tell you and just one of my flows that is set up automatically through Klaviyo it pays my monthly Klaviyo by four times every single month. And that is a flow that I set up that I never have to touch. So it’s paying for itself in a way that I couldn’t do on my own.

Jillian Leslie 44:54
That’s my next question. Do you do you put people they can have different names again, in automations? Like somebody joins your list and they immediately boom gets sent through a different automation of triggered emails, what does that look like?

Sarah Williams 45:09
So in Klaviyo that’s called a flow, I like to call it a funnel but it’s a flow. So if you come in on my pop-up, so right now, there is a print right there on my pop-up. And if you come in on my pop-up, you’re going to get an email that says, here’s your download. And it’s got a picture of the download.

It’s a high resolution. Download it here, that’s your first email. And then you’re going to get another email in a day or two. I can’t remember how I’ve set it up. But it says, don’t forget your download. It won’t be here long.

I want to give them urgency to download. It’s going to be there forever. I want to give them some urgency to go ahead and get it downloaded. And that’s what the subject is so they’ll open the email and then I have a shirt that they can buy as a one-time purchase and it is somehow coordinated to that print.

So right now, the print on there says, “Be kind, Be bold, Be yourself.” Well their shirt says that too. So if you like this print, oh, I want to get this shirt that matches that too. So you’re more likely to buy that shirt and it’s a one-time purchase. I’m not asking you to commit to me yet.

You’re just branded to my world. I want to get to know you first. I want them to get to know me. I want them to buy a shirt one-time. I want them to get it super fast. I want them to get their shirt and love the quality of it.

Jillian Leslie 46:34
Yeah.

How to Create Email Automations Like Sales Funnels

Sarah Williams 46:35
And then I’m going to hit him with another email. And this is usually four to five days later because I want them to get their shirt first if they bought it and says, “Did you get your shirt?” And you can segment that they bought the shirt from that email.

So anyone that ordered that product now and you can spider it out like a funnel. So, if you bought the shirt, you’re going to get this email. Did you get your shirt yet? Do you like Love it. Do you wish you had this every month?

Join the T-shirt club. Here’s what the next month shirt looks like. And so that’s my funnel to get them into the T-shirt club.

Now if this one says I didn’t buy this shirt; you haven’t placed this order for this item yet. It’s an email like what are you waiting for and then I give them lots of different shirt you know, options. Maybe they didn’t love that shirt, maybe it was the color or whatever.

So then I’m trying to hit them with a one time purchase there. So that’s kind of my flow of my pop-up but you can do this for different things. So maybe I have a checklist of your beach summer packing items, and that’s pinned on Pinterest.

And so that flow if you come in off my beach summer packing slip maybe the next email is all my beach bags and what you can buy. And then oh maybe you would like my monogram box if you like the beach bags because I have a lot of bags in my box.

So you can really create this and it may feel overwhelmingly I like the box thing we already talked about. You start with one, you start with one, and you build it. And then you see how it’s working. And then you build another one. And the great thing is, is you can take these flows, and you can clone them.

So you’re not having to rebuild one every time. You can say, Okay, I’ve got this new print, I want to add, I don’t have to build a funnel from scratch, I can take my current one, duplicate it, change the shirt, change the messaging, change the print, and boom, it’s ready to go. And that’s what I do.

Jillian Leslie 48:31
I love that. Okay. And so those are your main what do you call flows?

Sarah Williams 48:37
Flows.

Jillian Leslie 48:38
Okay.

Sarah Williams 48:39
The flow is like that you have a welcome flow. So they’ve come in from a pop-up or there’s a specific, lead magnet that they’ve come into either on my page, on my blog, on Pinterest, and so those have a specific flow to them.

So anytime I build a lead magnet, I have a flow on the back-end, I use wallpapers. So I use like, you can’t see it because they’re no faces, but I have found wallpapers.

Jillian Leslie 48:56
Yes.

Sarah Williams 48:57
And so, if you’ve come in on a wallpaper, I try to select an item that would relate to that wallpaper and just to plug it there. But also in Klaviyo you have different flows. You can do cart abandonment, which everyone should have on any platform. You have browse abandonment.

If you are already on my email list, and you go over to my website, Jillian, and you start shopping, but you never put anything in the cart, you’re just looking at things like oh, I’m looking for ideas, but you never put anything in your cart. And you’re already on my email list.

I know what you’ve been looking at. And so, what I have built in is the browser being in it flow says, “Oh, Jillian, you looked at this item, you might want to grab it before we’re sold out.” It has a picture of the thing you were just looking at.

And so, it’s very similar to a cart abandonment, but you never put it in your cart. So that’s a really smart thing. What else you can do, and I just did this one this weekend, I had a BoGo sale. So I ran this BoGo sale from Thursday to Sunday.

And on Sunday I had my email campaign we went out Friday, Saturday, and one Sunday, but also Sunday, I sent another email segment it, I had a bunch of tie dye tees left. So I really wanted to see if I could sell a few more tie-dyed tees on the BoGo sale.

Jillian Leslie 50:29
What I could do is I could go in and create a segment. It’s anyone who has looked at these tie-dyed tees more than once, in the last 14 days and put them on a segment. And there were 450 of them. Okay, 450 people had looked at these tie-dyed tees in the last 14 days.

How to Use Email to Track Your Interested Shoppers

More than once?

Sarah Williams 50:53
And not purchased. More than once, but had not purchased them. Because I chose these tees, one, because I had an ad running. So I knew there were a lot of clicks on that ad. And these were in the email and I was wearing it on the Facebook Live and all the things.

So, there was a lot of interest in them, but for whatever reason someone had not purchased them. So I sent a very targeted email saying this is your last chance to get these tie-dyed tees on BoGo. And why choose when you can have them both, there were two of them because it’s the BoGo.

And so I sent that out just to those 450 people. And when I do a segmented email like that, I usually get a 40 to 50% open rate and I typically get an 8 to 10% click rate on that. Because it’s very very targeted and that’s what Klaviyo lets you do.

It let’s you stalk people; I mean, it let’s you say like I know what Jillian’s been looking at on my website. I’m going to hit her with an email. You can do that with a discount. Like do you want $5 off I see you look at this thing do you want $5 off, buy it now. You can do whatever you want.

It helps me with end of the month when you’re trying to hit your goals or if you have excess inventory and you want to try to sell some stuff, it’s really powerful. And that’s what I love about klaviyo.

Jillian Leslie 52:08
I now I totally understand how your email list is like an ATM machine and how creative you can get with it. And what I love for you is how all the pieces of your business come together. For example, you’re wearing the T-shirt in your Facebook Live.

Or the way that you think about packaging each week with certain products that you’re going to push that week. So it’s not just randomly like in your store going what should I write about today? But it’s you know where your focus is and in a weird way, you’re selling a lifestyle.

Sarah Williams 52:51
That’s exactly what it is.

Jillian Leslie 52:52
But it’s not like who needs another t-shirt?

Sarah Williams 52:57
Everybody.

Jillian Leslie 52:57
Right.

Sarah Williams 52:58
Everybody.

Jillian Leslie 53:00
But it’s much more about I need that lifestyle than I need that T-shirt. I need that T shirt that says that thing about the message I want to put in the world whether it Be kind or something like that. Especially I bet during this crazy time I bet those kinds of T-shirts sell.

Just the idea that you can tap into where people are and where they are emotionally and sell them stuff that touches that because again, we’re not going to be naked like, if you don’t sell me a T-shirt, I’m going to walk out naked.

How to Sell Items No One Needs

Sarah Williams 53:45
Right. It’s not like food and this is a thing I was just interviewed by Klaviyo blog. And this was the thing about for me especially during the COVID craziness, I don’t know if it’s ever going to end but for me it was this realization that what I have no one needs, nobody needs what I have, it’s completely a want.

And when I saw a surge in sales in the month of April, it made me realize how much people just need something for themselves, and how I can show up. And I can give that to them. And whether that makes them feel good when they’re wearing it, or feel good when they open it in the mail, or just feel good about themselves in general.

Like that’s what it’s about. There’s nothing essential that I sell. And so, I’m reminded of that a lot, especially when my store got shut down because I did not sell essentials. But it’s important to people and I want to be that person that they come to when they need something for themselves.

Jillian Leslie 54:50
I think that realization is so powerful. I really do and especially during this time when we need comfort.

Sarah Williams 54:58
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 54:59
So I love that. Aright. So, if people want to join your list, where should they head to see what you’re doing with email?

Sarah Williams 55:06
With email, I teach email inside launcher box.

Jillian Leslie 55:02
Okay.

Sarah Williams 55:07
So there are email training in there.

Jillian Leslie 55:12
Okay.

Sarah Williams 55:13
But if they want to just get on my emails and see those they can go over to my website. It’s framedbysarah.com. Just wait for the pop-up to show up. And then you can put your email address in there, you’ll get a fun print and you’ll see what that looks like on the other side.

Jillian Leslie 55:26
I love that.

Sarah Williams 55:26
Or you can just start browsing and I’ll hit you with another email soon too.

Jillian Leslie 55:30
I love it because you’ll know because you’re stalking. I love it. Well, Sarah, thank you so much. Honestly, as I said, you are so my good friend now. Thank you so much for coming back on the show. I’ve learned from you so much.

Sarah Williams 55:45
I love it. I hope your audience really gets some great stuff out of this too.

Jillian Leslie 55:49
I hope this got your wheels turning. Is there a way you could create a subscription in your business, a membership in your business? Something where you’re pulling people together with a sense of commonality, a sense of purpose, a sense of fun.

Remember, please, if you are ready to up-level your business, whether it is new, whether you’ve been at this a while, but if you are feeling frustrated, or you feel like you need a new direction, or you need people behind you.

Supporting you, giving you ideas, creating a sense of community, because the one thing about what we do is it can be lonely, well, I want you to head to MiloTree.com/meet and sign up for a time so that I can get on the phone with you.

I can hear what you are dealing with what your goals are, what your dreams are, and see if David and I can help you get there. So remember, this is for our Six-Week MiloTree Entrepreneur Group. Where we in real time, help you grow your business, we hold you accountable.

And it’s fun and especially in this uncertain time, it’s really nice to show up for a group of people and not have to talk about I don’t know what’s going on in the world but show up for each other with something that we all can control and cheer each other on.

I think it’s incredibly powerful. If you want to learn about it, go to MiloTree/group. But first go to MiloTree.com/meet and really get on the phone with me. I would love to hear from you. And I will see you here again next week.

If you are looking for ways to grow your community whether that be email whether that be social media, right now head to Milotree.com install the MiloTree app on your blog and it will do the work for you. Let it do the heavy lifting for you.

Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram 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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