#168: What's the Big Deal with Email and Monetization?

Ever wonder, what’s the big deal with email and monetization?

Why does everyone say to grow your list? And, how are you supposed to use it once you have one?

All these questions and more will be answered in this podcast episode with Liz Wilcox, email expert.

In this episode, we dive into:

How to turn your followers into friends, and then customers
What should be in your welcome series
How to sell to your audience without seeming salesy
How to get people on your list
How to work with others in your niche to help grow each other’s lists
How to write good subject lines to get people to click

If you already send emails, or are just dipping your toe into email, you will get so many real takeaways in this episode. I highly recommend you listen!

Find out What's the Big Deal with Email and Monetization. Listen to the newest episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast with Jillian Leslie where she does a deep dive with Liz Wilcox about email marketing. | MiloTree.com

Table of Contents

Show Notes

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

Jillian Leslie 0:11
Hello my friends welcome back to the show. This is your host, Jillian Leslie. I’m a serial entrepreneur. I’ve grown two successful businesses with my husband, Catch My Party and the MiloTree app, and these are both still going strong.

I’m also a business coach, and as I like to call myself, a business translator. So, what I do is, I take what is working in online business today. How people are growing their businesses and making money.

I break it down so you can use these strategies in your own business, and hopefully grow your income too.

Before I get started, I want to invite you to join my Facebook group.

I’m in there all the time and it is a lovely community and it is called, Become a Blogger Genius. So, please when you are on Facebook next remember to come over to search for Become a Blogger Genius and join and I would love to hang out with you over there.

Today I have email marketing expert Liz Wilcox on the show. Liz is really playful and fun as you will see. In fact, she loves NSYNC almost as much as she loves email marketing.

She’s sharing strategies on how to grow your list, how to talk to your list and how to sell to your list. Yes, the money is in your email list, so, without further delay here is my interview with Liz Wilcox.

Liz, welcome to the show.

Liz Wilcox 1:50
Thank you so much Jillian, and thank you, blogger geniuses out there listening. I’m super excited to talk about this today.

Jillian Leslie 1:59
Yes, we’re going to talk all things email marketing. So, my first question is can you share your entrepreneurial journey? How you got interested in email marketing and where you are today?

Liz Wilcox 2:12
Sure. I’m really excited to be on this show in particular because I consider myself a Blogger Genius. Do people come on and say that probably not?

Jillian Leslie 2:23
You’re the first one.

Liz Wilcox 2:25
Welcome to the show folks, buckle up. Jillian just spit out her coffee. You can’t see it but she did it. So, I love talking to bloggers. I used to be a straight up like Pinterest, SEO, Facebook group type of blogger.

Starting a Travel Blog About Living in an RV

Actually, I started my entrepreneurial journey because I wanted to hit the road in a RV. My husband at the time was in the army and they tell you where to go you don’t get to choose.

And I said oh to heck with that that’s for the birds. I’m going to figure out how to make my own money so that you can quit the army and we can go on this road trip of a lifetime.

We can be these full-time digital nomad type of people. So, of course you put it in Google, how to make money online? You see all these people, all these quote unquote “blogger geniuses” telling you how to do it.

And I said oh well if they can do it I can do it because I’m seeing all these young people. At that point I was late 20s. I was still young. I’m still young now but anyway I thought oh well if they can do it, I can do it.

And so, I started blogging thinking most people said, oh to make a full-time income usually take the average person three years. I said to heck with that it’s going to take me two years.

So, I went in very naive but very excited to give it a go. And so, I started my blog as a business. It was an RV travel blog. I had never traveled in an RV in my life. I had just recently bought an RV.

I figured how can I make this RV blog interesting when I don’t know anything about RVs or traveling. And I’m staying in one place at the time and so I just started telling these funny stories about my journey into the RV life.

Talking with people and I ended up creating my first product about six or seven months in. For me I might as well made $1 million, I made about $7,000 in the first few months and it was a book about crappy RV stories.

So, I know you guys listening like strategies but a little inspiration for you. I literally wrote a book about “Poop” and made thousands of dollars.

So, whatever your idea is, it’s way better than that and so I believe in you and your ability to make money from your blog.

Jillian Leslie 5:04
And then how did this lead you into email marketing?

Liz Wilcox 5:09
Okay, like I said it was an RV thing. I’d moved into an RV. I had a young daughter at the time, I think she was two or three when I started and I didn’t have a lot of time.

I kept hearing all these quote unquote “online gurus” saying, oh, my number one biggest mistake I ever made was blogging or online business. I didn’t take my email list seriously; I didn’t start building my email list until a couple years into the game.

I thought I’m a very efficient woman. Point A to point B, I want to get there as quickly as possible. I lived in an RV, very efficient type of person I don’t need a lot of excess, I don’t want a lot of excess. And so, I said okay well, that’s what I’m going to do.

If the people that are making millions of dollars. Tell me the money’s in the email list that’s all I’m going to focus on. So, I started outsourcing Pinterest. I stopped writing as many blog posts. I would outsource those to other bloggers.

I allowed for a ton of guest posts and no matter what I did that week, no matter what was happening, I wrote to my email list. And I realized I was pretty good at it, and after a few years I had built my list up.

And I ended up selling my blog in March of 2020 to go all in on email marketing because in a niche where people don’t want to pay for electricity, I was selling them books on poop.

And so, people were wondering how are you getting them to buy this PDF when they don’t even pay for housing. So, I realized that was a real strength, and I went all in on it in in 2020.

Jillian Leslie 7:02
I have this framework.

Liz Wilcox 7:05
Okay.

Bloggers Need to Be Content Marketers, Not Content Creators

Jillian Leslie 7:05
That I teach and you can tell me what you think about it. I think that bloggers are not content creators. The smart ones, the successful ones, they are “content marketers.”

So, that every piece of content that they create has to have a purpose of how this is growing their blog and making the money.

And when I think about content whether that be blog posts whether that be videos whether that be social media posts on Instagram or Facebook. I think of that as top of the funnel and as I move people down the funnel, I think email is at the bottom.

And if I can get somebody to know me because of a blog post I wrote or something I put on Pinterest or social media. And I can get them on my list ,then I can do what you were talking about. I can get them to know me.

Again, that know, like, and trust which takes time. But if I ultimately want to sell something like we do. We sell a $9 pop-up to grow email and social media that’s like a smaller purchase $9 a month.

Or we sell coaching groups that are much more expensive, but the way that I have found the most success is via email. When I ask people how did you find this or why did you sign up? They say because I get your emails.

So, I think that is so important because it is the place where you can take a cold lead, or maybe a lukewarm lead. And then you can nurture them, and not in a manipulative way, in an honest way, so that they know you.

And when they purchase from me, they know I’m going to stand by what I sell and they’re more apt to do it. So, what is your thought about my purchasing funnel strategy?

Liz Wilcox 8:59
I think that’s perfect and that follows so well into the framework that I teach. And you can you go to my website lizwilcox.com. And it’s right there. The homepage is my entire framework.

How to Turn a Follower Into a Friend, Into a Customer

Anyway, first you have a follower which is when you’re talking about social media, blog post they find you on Pinterest wherever. And it’s your job to turn them into a friend and then a customer.

So, how do you go from follower to friend. Number one, get them on your email list, build that list. It’s so much easier the way people interact in the inbox is so much different than the way they interact with any other app.

It doesn’t matter what kind of social media the way people are acting in their Outlook Gmail, Yahoo whatever they’re still using was totally different. So, you’ve got that follower get them on your list and that’s when you can turn them into a friend.

I don’t mean a friend like a lot of people say, oh you have to date your list. No, that’s creepy. You’re not trying to date them. I think of it as a friend, like, say, you went to high school with Michelle, and you lost contact.

You knew each other pretty well in high school. And so, you see her in the grocery store, you both go to grab the same bunch of bananas. “Oh my gosh, Michelle, I can’t believe that’s you, how are you doing?”

And you both found out that you have, this is kind of abstract, but I’m a huge NSYNC fan, the boy band from the 90s. And so, you both find out you have just re-sparked that love of NSYNC.

And so, “Hey, let me get your email. I follow a lot about NSYNC and, can I update you, I want to send some more stuff about NSYNC.” And so, she gives you her email. And now you’re going to talk about all things NSYNC with her via email.

So, think about whatever your niche is if you’re a crochet blogger, you blog about travel, you blog about making hats, whatever your thing is, just think about it.

Like oh, it’s an old friend, you’ve been acquainted before, and you have this mutual interest, or whatever it is, you’re selling. And you just email them once a week, you build that know, like, trust factor that Jillian was talking about.

Welcome Email Strategy — How Many Times to Email

And I can go into what goes into the welcome sequence. So, I call it like a four plus one method, you email them four times in the first week, and then you email them once a week. You got to be consistent, top-of-mind.

There’s a whole heck of a lot going on with our smartphones, our attention is being pulled in a million different places online. And so, you just email once a week, you stay top-of-mind, you share in a relatable way.

And you just stay consistent, and then that person becomes your friend. And again, not like your best friend, you’re telling them about the horrors of the emergency room you had last night.

You’re sharing relatable content; you’re using content marketing. And then, this is the way that I’ve always done it, I’ve sold over a dozen digital products in four years. I just asked them, they’re my friends now.

How to Sell To Your Email List

“Hey, are you interested in this fan book about NSYNC? Or are you interested in this eBook about crappy RV stories? Or, are you interested in this outline course to help you pre-sell your products?” Whatever it is, you have the idea.

And if you get enough interest, then you can create that product, you can sell it to them, because they’re your friends. They told you that they wanted it and that they needed it. Does that make sense?

Jillian Leslie 12:46
Absolutely and I speak about it because I teach in our coaching group this idea of niching down. The more defined and specific your niche is, the easier it is to find your people, the other people who go nuts over NSYNC.

Liz Wilcox 13:15
That’s very niche. Yes.

Jillian Leslie 13:18
It would be, what’s the guy? Not, Justin Timberlake. But one of the other ones.

Liz Wilcox 13:26
Joey Fatone? I’ve got that, you can’t see it but I’m pulling up a snowglobe of Joey Fatone right now.

Jillian Leslie 13:34
Exactly. So, you not only love NSYNC, but you love Joey Fatone and you want to connect with all the people. People underrated him but he was really the star. All of that and if you can find that.

And then if you have, let’s say like your cousin’s aunt’s brother manages him. So, you have some insight into him, an inside connection. And then you could be my Joey Fatone best friend. That’s what I think.

Again, you’re right about like, I don’t need to hear about your kids’ allergies. But I want to know that you’ve got some insight information that I will find so interesting, and that you can educate me about it.

So, I would say you’re somebody’s girlfriend, and you’re kind of taking them by the hand and leading them on a journey so that they can learn more about Joey Fatone. And what his weight is like right now, or what he looks like now.

And is he married? Is he divorced? You would have that insight and that’s the kind of thing where I feel like you’re somebody’s friend, but you’ve a little bit more insight, a little bit more information. And by imparting that to your people, they love you for it.

Liz Wilcox 14:58
Yes. 100%. 100% I’m glad we stuck with the NSYNC analogy it brings my heart so much joy.

Jillian Leslie 15:06
I love that. So, let’s talk about getting people on your list. What are your best strategies for doing that?

How Do you Get People to Join Your Email List?

Liz Wilcox 15:17
Sure. The way that I like to build my list is just networking. So, I find a lot of people ,well not a lot, but I’ll get into Facebook groups or Instagram, whatever social media you’re using right now.

And try to find people within your niche that are doing something similar. Like, if I’m talking about Joey Fatone, they’re talking about Lance Bass, something similar.

Or, if I’m talking about NSYNC, they’re talking New Kids on the Block, whatever it is, I love this analogy. My heart feels so good, I’m going to keep going with it. And, just start networking with them.

And as you build the relationship, I do a lot of link swapping. So, you share my freebie, I’m going to share yours in my newsletter on social media, whatever you decide.

And I find that the best way to not only build your list, but to build credibility on social media, if they see someone follows Stacey. And then they see my face pop up, and, I’m sharing something similar.

I’ve all of a sudden, I got Stacy’s credibility, because she shared my stuff. And it’s a really great way to link build.

I actually built a whole business with three other bloggers that were in the same niche as me, and was able to build up my audience. Build my list just by doing these link shares.

And I see a lot of people they’ll do like Instagram pause and like for like, type of things.

But like Jillian suggests, like the content marketing, all of that is to get them down at the bottom, into the list, then you want to offer to share their freebies, as long as they’re good. So, that in return, they’re going to share whatever your lead magnet is, as well.

Work with Others in Your Niche to Grow Your Email List

And it’s going to be great leads for you because it’s someone within your niche. And again, I believe in collaboration over competition. What is it rising tide full toss ships whatever it is?

Jillian Leslie 17:32
Lifts all boats?

Liz Wilcox 17:32
Yeah, lifts all ships. And especially, if you can find someone at whatever your level at maybe a little below or a little above. Linking arms, so to speak. And, helping each other out is only going to make you much bigger.

When I first started my RV blog, I linked up with three other RV bloggers, and we put on a virtual summit. This was many years, like 2016 or 2017, before virtual summit, were really a thing. And we made ourselves look so huge.

Not only did we make money, but all of a sudden, we were getting sponsorships as a team, individually, and we were able to build our email list, because everyone was like, “Oh, wow, who are these people? How did they do that?”

So, if you can find, group of friends that are just as you know, in love with your niche as you are. They’re putting out good stuff, and you can share, each other’s lead magnets, blog posts, whatever makes sense for you.

Honestly that’s been my number one strategy ever. I do that all the time. And then also, right now I’m really into list building with virtual summit. And this isn’t for everyone. I love being on camera. I love being interviewed.

Use Virtual Summits to Build Your Email List

I’ve got a solid framework. If you’re like Jillian and I and you’ve got your framework, you know exactly what you want to teach people just get out there. There are so many virtual summits, especially after 2020 and the pandemic.

They’re not going away anytime soon. And when I did my virtual summit with RV-ing that was unheard of.

RVers, that’s not your typical online audience, but because of 2020. Most audiences are now very familiar with Zoom, very familiar with the online event concept.

And so, if you can get yourself into digital summits, virtual events, whatever the heck you want to call them, and you can create a good presentation. You can be engaging, use slides.

I use sound effects; I have a software called Ecamm Live that allows me to put sound effects. Yeah, write it down, folks. Pull over write this down, I don’t see anyone else doing this.

And I don’t usually share this, but I use Ecamm Live, you can use that other one that people use for Facebook, it’s got a duck.

Jillian Leslie 20:16
StreamYard. That’s what I use. StreamYard.

Liz Wilcox 20:17
StreamYard. Yeah, I don’t know if it’s as advanced as Ecamm because Ecamm has been around for like four or five years. But sound effects I can put like, GIFs, gifts, however you want to pronounce it on the screen.

I can change where I’m looking on the camera, or where you see me on the camera, I can put words on the screen, it’s very easy to use. If you have a Mac, I highly recommend it. Jillian get an affiliate link, because people should buy this thing.

And it really makes me stand out. I was just in a summit and I report back. And I think I had about 500 people watch. And I got more than half of them to get my freebie. And that was about 30 minutes of work.

Jillian Leslie 21:01
Wow, what you’re doing is you are presenting, then you’ve got an opt-in that is of course related to what you’re presenting. And it’s a link or people can just kind of go to that link to get it.

You know that you’re promoting that in the webinar or at the end of your session. And then what you’re finding is your conversion rate is really high.

Liz Wilcox 21:27
Yes. So, let me give you one more tip on how to get that conversion high. Because most people will say, “Don’t bother with digital summits, that’s just a way for the host to grow their email list, the conversion rate is garbage.” I find that to be not true.

Number one, because of all the things I told you that I do with Ecamm Live, I want to present in a fun way. But here’s a tip for you to be able to get that conversion up.

So, as you’re presenting, at the very beginning, you just say, right off the bat, “Hey, I’m going to be giving you a lot of info. If you’re like me, you probably already have your notebook, and you’re ready to scribble until your hand falls off.”

However, you would say it. But don’t worry, I have created this freebie that has everything in there it’s at the bottom, you don’t have to take one piece of notes.

Everything that I say, there’s going to be a few key points and those are in the freebie. Something like that. And as you’re talking, as you’re going through, as you’re saying these points.

I know I just threw a lot at you. Don’t worry, remember, it’s all in the freebie, you can just click the link right now and get it.

Another point another few slides. But remember this is in the freebie you just keep saying it over and over. And then at the end and this is gold. Show them the freebie.

Screen share and say remember I told you I was going to put all of this into a document, eBook, whatever the heck your freebie is. Let me just show it to you real quick, and then you screen share, scroll, scroll, scroll.

Remember, go to lizwilcox.com or click the link below, Bitly dot whatever, and get your freebie. That way because the argument is valid, everyone’s throwing their freebie at you in a summit.

But if you can tie it into your presentation and make it known like this is actually really valuable. Then people are going to sign up and you’re going to build your list way way quicker.

Jillian Leslie 23:45
Given that we are spending this entire interview talking about the value of email marketing and growing your list. I wanted to remind you that you can grow your email subscribers effortlessly with the MiloTree pop-up app.

So, in addition to growing social media followers on Instagram and Pinterest, and YouTube and Facebook, MiloTree integrates with all the major email service providers.

You can get your pop-up set up in minutes, you can add a custom image, especially if you’re offering an opt-in. So, head to milotree.com. Sign up for your account, get your 30 days free, there is no risk. And now back to the show.

What Type of Email Opt-In Should You Create?

Jillian Leslie 24:31
In terms of opt-in, let’s say I love this idea of the virtual summit. Let’s say though I don’t have a summit coming up and I want to create an opt-in that will get my audience’s attention.

What do you think works? Is it a checklist is it some instructions to something? In your experience have you found it’s easy to create and easy to consume and gets people excited?

Liz Wilcox 25:01
Sure, this is the answer that everyone loves. It depends on your audience. If your audience are, mothers of five children.

Like on average, they’ve got three to five kids, then you’re probably not going to want to put out five days of training videos that they have no time to watch. So, think about who’s your ideal person?

How much time are they spending on learning more about NSYNC? Or whatever the thing is. What are they willing to invest into someone that’s brand new?

Because if I’m talking to Justin Timberlake himself, I’m going to sit down, I’m going to watch that video.

But if I’m just, talking to somebody’s brother’s cousin’s mother’s neighbor that might know Justin Timberlake. Like, yeah, sure, I’m going to open up a checklist or whatever. So, think about it in terms like that.

But honestly, what I do everything I create, whether it’s free or paid, and this goes back to whatever your ideas better than mine, and you should charge more than me. Everything I do is just a Google Doc.

So, in my world, I’m an email marketer, I teach people how to make writing emails easy. I didn’t create an eBook. I don’t have a checklist. I just use swipe files, which are basically emails I’ve already written that you can take and make your own.

And it’s just a Google Doc. Somebody suggested I put some branding on there. So, I just did that today. That’s after 14 months of it being up. I was like, Yeah, sure. Okay. I’ll put my logo on it. But it’s just a Google Doc.

And it’s just the information, I created a quick Loom video walking through every email. And so, if you’re thinking, oh, it just takes a long time, whatever you want to create I guaranteed whatever your idea is, it’s probably too much for free.

So, I would suggest, honestly, if you wanted to do a checklist, it doesn’t need to be the super pretty thing you created in Canva.

As long as the info is there, and it’s easy to access, that’s when people will love it, that’s when people will praise it. Actually, open it and read through it. If they’ve got to click three times to download it, it’s not going to do well.

But if you just put it in, hey, this is just a Google Doc, and I’ve got a video walkthrough of what the heck I’m saying like, oh, okay, I can take three minutes to watch that video.

And even on the landing page, you can say, this will take you five minutes to consume, or you should be able to understand this. Or I’ve got this three-minute video walking you through, whatever it is.

And I think that increases your chances of getting it signed up for and getting it consumed. Because I mean, how many freebies have you signed up for this week that you haven’t opened yet?

Jillian Leslie 28:14
Absolutely.

Liz Wilcox 28:14
We’re all shaking our heads there, rolling our eyes.

Jillian Leslie 28:17
Absolutely. My downloads folder is filled with them. So, I get it. I always think that what gets me to download, and not just that, what gets me to actually open the file. And then the third one, and what gets me to read it.

Because I will stop at each one of those stages. I’ll sign up for it, get it. How easy is it to actually get because sometimes it’s like, four clicks before I get to anything? So, I might bail there. I might bail once I get it.

And I might bail when I’m reading it, if I do read it, like what keeps my attention? So, think about your own life when you are downloading freebies, and do sign up for I won’t call them your competitors, but your future friends in your space.

Liz Wilcox 29:07
I love that.

Jillian Leslie 29:07
Sign up for their lists and see what they’re providing. See how much value you’re getting and what you think.

And then I would say be inspired by what you see, take the stuff that you think is really valuable. Put your own spin on it, and then see if that’s useful for your audience.

What to Email in Your Welcome Series

Now, can we talk about then you touched on a welcome series and you said, send four emails in the first week and then one email every week.

I have two questions what goes into those four emails? Where somebody is going like, “Oh, right, I sign up for her, oh, here’s who she is.” And then secondly, what is your thought about then selling to your list?

At what point do you introduce the concept of I’ve got products that you might be interested in buying.

Liz Wilcox 30:00
Sure, I’ll answer that second question first. And then I can go into just email by email. So, first of all, if someone finds you, they’re opting into your thing, wherever they found you, Pinterest, Google, Facebook groups, wherever they are actively searching for that solution.

They are actively searching for other NSYNC fans, or they are actively searching on how to use Pinterest, whatever your thing is. So, I’m in the camp, that you should just try to sell them something right away, they are clearly excited about it.

Set Up A Tripwire Right Away

And so, I really advocate for having a tripwire, like, full disclosure. I’ve got a freebie, if you sign up for it, it’s not going to take you to the thank you page, it’s going to take you to a sales page, and I’m going to pitch you a $22 product.

No shame, you are actively searching for email solutions, I have them, I want you to buy them. Because I believe in my products, even though they’re Google Docs, they’re good stuff, and they will change your life.

And so, that’s the camp I’m in. Some people will say, wait until you build that know, like, trust factor and that’s also valuable.

Obviously, you’re not going to sell $3,000 product immediately after you sign someone up, but you might sell a $7 to $20 product that is very reasonable.

So, if you can create a product or if you already have a product that’s in that range, it should definitely be a tripwire.

Also, if you already have that product, you should definitely put it in your first few emails like, “Hey, don’t forget, I’ve got 20-minute newsletters, it’s going to help you write a newsletter in 20 minutes. You should get it right now.”

Jillian Leslie 32:01
So, this is the same product as the one in the tripwire or is this a different product that you start selling?

Liz Wilcox 32:06
If you’ve got many different products, vary it. If that one’s not working, plug in another one. If don’t have any products yet, what is something you could sell right, now that you have that you could get $7 to $9 for.

Jillian, I think you mentioned you have a $7 product, right?

Jillian Leslie 32:23
We have a $9 product.

Liz Wilcox 32:28
Yeah, $9.

Jillian Leslie 32:28
And we also have two products that are $7. Yes.

Liz Wilcox 32:33
Right. And so, because Jillian knows people are actively searching for what she’s got to give. And she wants to give it to you right now for $9. It’s a heck of a deal.

So, in your welcome email that very first one, if they don’t buy you can put a PS. Like PS did you get that tripwire? And you don’t even have to set up any fancy. I just said, if they haven’t bought it yet.

If you look at your email service provider, and it gives you a headache, just send it to everyone and just use the words: ” If you didn’t buy this yet.”

Do not send, if it takes you more than 10 minutes, and you’re like, I’m just not going to do it because I can’t figure it out. And I’ll put it on my to-do list. And then in a year from now you’re like, oh, yeah, you see me at a digital summit.

You’re like, I never did that because it was too complicated. Just put the word if, if you haven’t gotten this yet, just send it to everyone. No one’s going to be mad at a two sentence, sales pitch in a PS after they already bought it.

They’re going to hit reply. And they’re going to say, “Yeah, I bought it, I can’t wait to take a look. Thanks for the reminder.” And then they’re going to go download that because they forgot.

Jillian Leslie 33:45
I just have to say that you and I are very like-minded. I love when you give these hacks to say, do not worry that it’s a Word doc, do not even worry if you don’t have your logo on your download.

Do not worry if you can’t figure out how to segment and figure out who’s already opened your email or who’s purchased your tripwire and just do the easy hack.

And recognize maybe there will be one person who is mad and says, “You already tried to sell this to me.” Well, you know what, that’s a person who you willfully don’t want on your list.

Liz Wilcox 34:22
You don’t want them to buy anything else because it’s only going to get worse.

Jillian Leslie 34:26
The person’s freaked out. You know what, that’s not a person you want in your life.

Liz Wilcox 34:32
That’s not $9 you need to have.

Jillian Leslie 34:36
Absolutely. So, in these four emails that you’re sending. So, you send somebody to a tripwire. I love that. And then what is the journey? And then what is the weekly email?

Liz Wilcox 34:48
Sure, sure. So, remember I said at the beginning, just quick for emails, you’re turning this follower into a friend into a customer. So, the first email is just going to be your freebie and a quick intro.

I see so many bloggers out there they want to throw the kitchen sink and everything else like at them right away. And unless you’re Marie Forleo or something nobody cares about your life story in that very first email.

Like no one’s that excited, sorry I know that hurts but they just want what they signed up for. So, you can say something and this is actually in my freebie or the swipe files and it gives you all four of these emails. So, you’ve set me up nicely, Jillian. Thank you.

Jillian Leslie 35:34
Oh, good what is the webinar? Where should they go to get it?

Liz Wilcox 35:38
They can just go to lizwilcox.com. It’s in every scroll you see sign-up for my email list, sign up for my email list.

If your homepage doesn’t have at least three places for people to sign up for your list, put that on your to-do-list.
Liz Wilcox

Because I think I have five. I recommend three to five places on your homepage for people to sign up.

Anyway, that was a side note to list building. So, this is the easy way to welcome people. Number one, just give them the freebie and a quick intro like, “Hey Jillian so glad you signed up for my swipe file.”

“You’ve waited long enough to get your email marketing together so, just click here. By the way my name is Liz, I’m still obsessed with NSYNC but I love email marketing even more. Talk to you later.”

That’s like six sentences. It’s very quick. Jillian went through her whole thought process like, oh did I download this? Did I open it? Am I actually going to use it?

We want to try to remove as many barriers as possible and if you’re talking too much at the very beginning, they’re never going to click on that.

Number two, the second email and I send these let’s say Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday. I just roll them right out and you can test but I’ve had three companies, three different email lists I always send them one right after the other.

Your Second Email Should Be Your Best Content

So, the second email is your best content. I know we’re all bloggers here so what’s your best blog post or what’s a blog post that you think really shows who I am? For me I love to tell funny stories.

If people don’t have a frickin’ sense of humor, I do not want them on my email list because they are not going to like me. So, my second email I’m showing them a blog post that is maybe a little sarcastic.

I think with my RV blog the second email was something about like what your RV says about you? And it was all very sarcastic. If you have this expensive RV you must be a yuppie who only camps at parks with pools and fitness.

It’s like very sarcastic but right off the bat if you don’t like that you need to get off my list right now. This is only more of what’s going to come. So, think about that when you’re picking out your best content.

You can either put a link to the blog post. You can put some of the blog posts in there. You can write a whole new email maybe that’s not on your blog.

Whatever you think is some really good content that’s going to help them. Maybe entertain them a little bit get to know you without telling your whole life story type of thing.

Your Third Email Should Be Newsletter Expectations

And then the third email and this is something I don’t see people doing and this has literally changed my life when I started doing this. So, the third email is what I call newsletter expectations.

And I should just give you this, Jillian I don’t actually have this anywhere but I’m going to add this slide to the Google Doc actually. That’ll make it super easy because I don’t have this anywhere and I just realized that’s a disservice I’m going to add that.

Anyway, so number three is the newsletter expectations and that is just where you’re telling people what they can expect from the newsletter like, “Hey I’m Jillian, I write emails on this day. I have products about this and I like to talk about my dog.”

Or whatever, your little quirk is if that makes sense. So, in mine it’s, “Hey my name is Liz, I love NSYNC and I still talk about them I’m going to write you on Tuesday morning I’ve got a Facebook group.”

So, this is where you can put if you want them to join your Facebook group. If you want them to follow you on Instagram that’s where you really strong whatever it is. And also, this is key like this is so key.

If you’re only half listening put down your phone and listen right now. This is where you tell people you are going to offer them free and paid products or services, advice however you want to put it.

If you’re listening and you don’t have a product right now, but your whole point of blogging is to create products and make money. You want them to know right away that you are a business.

And you don’t have to come right out and say, I make this much money a month or, here’s my blog revenue report.

But you can just say like, Hey, I’m going to offer you some free and paid products, about NSYNC, crocheting dogs, travel, whatever your blog is.

And that way, you can’t see my hand, but I’ve got my hand on the back of my head, and just kind of flip a switch in the back of their mind that says, Okay, this person is a business.

And this is very subconscious, one day, they’re going to send me a sales email. And that way, when you actually go to send a sales email, or you go to pitch them, it’s not this huge surprise, like, oh, my gosh, she’s an e-beggar, boo, unsubscribe, you suck.

Because you told them upfront, I’m going to offer you some free stuff and some paid stuff. So, they know what’s coming.

Jillian Leslie 41:11
I think that’s so powerful, especially if you’re a parent, you have kids, and you know this with your parenting that the more you can frame an experience for your kids, hey, we’re going to go to the park.

And then we’re going to be there for like 45 minutes. And then afterwards, we’re going to go to the restaurant, and we’re going to get burgers. And then we’re going to come home, and it’s bath time or whatever. And you set this expectation.

You’re like putting the I don’t know the foundation or like you’re kind of setting it up. It’s like super helpful when you’re a parent because you’re explaining what is going to happen. And then your kid can kind of trust this.

Okay, I know, then I’m going to get a burger and then we’re going to get a bath.

Liz Wilcox 42:00
And they’re not upset when it’s like why aren’t we going to the park? Oh, I told you we were going to Old Navy first. Jillian, you can’t see me because you’re listening. But I’m applauding Jillian right now. That’s such a perfect example.

Yes, you want to just set the precedent. You want to like; this is what’s going to happen. I love that parenting example. That is a choice that is so legit. That’s exactly what you’re doing here.

Jillian Leslie 42:27
I love that.

Liz Wilcox 42:29
Thank you. It’s just something that I thought of one day when I was kind of writing my manifesto. And I was like free and paid products. And I’m like, wow, that’s worth everything right there.

Your Fourth Email Should Be About Your Why

But anyway, the fourth email is just your big why, nobody on the first email, they don’t really care. But by the fourth email, hopefully, you’ve shared a little bit of your personality, you shared what’s coming next.

And now obviously you don’t want to write a thousand word newsletter, but this is where I would share, hey, I started my blog because I wanted to hit the road with my family. And then I became empowered to make my own money.

And I got so mad when I saw people taking six months to create a course that they spent $5,000 on and they made exactly zero from it.

And so that’s why I sold my other blog and I went full time into email marketing because I don’t want to see another blogger go hungry. Or whatever your big why is, this is where you can put it.

And if you have a Facebook group and you’re really trying to push that or if you have a product that $9 thing this is where you can put that at the end, by the way get my templates, get my whatever your product is.

Or by the way don’t forget to join my Facebook group or don’t forget to add me on whatever that thing is, that can be your call to action.

Jillian Leslie 44:02
Can I share one of my pet peeves for email?

Liz Wilcox 44:06
Please.

Jillian Leslie 44:06
Actually, I have two.

Liz Wilcox 44:06
Oh, let’s talk.

Never Apologize to Your Email List

Jillian Leslie 44:10
The first one is this. I say never apologize in your email if you have not sent an email. How many times do I get an email, I signed up for some of these lists.

Liz Wilcox 44:27
Preach, I’ve got my hands up in preacher mode.

Jillian Leslie 44:30
Two months later a random email shows up and the person says, “Oh my god, I am so sorry. You have not heard from me for two months.” Now, first of all, I don’t even know who this person is.

Secondly, if you start with an apology, I already feel bad. ‘A’ you’re not that responsible because you haven’t been emailing me but the truth is, I would never have noticed that.

You see these cooking shows. And somehow something goes wrong in the kitchen when they’re preparing something. And then they come out to the judges and they go, I didn’t put the sauce on because I burnt the sauce.

And the judge would never know there was a sauce.

Liz Wilcox 45:11
They would never know there was a sauce. Amen preach it.

Jillian Leslie 45:15
So, with that. And then my second one is, in your emails, your you and I talk about this a lot. I have a 13-year-old daughter. So, I see this every day. My 13-year-old daughter believes that the world revolves around her.

And it takes a little bit longer for us to kind of have to unlearn that. I still think the world revolves around me, but the truth is, nobody really cares. I teach this all the time. Nobody cares about me.

So, in my emails, when an email is coming to you from Jillian Leslie, even if I’ve been sending you weekly emails, you’re going to get an email at some point be like, who is this again?

Continue to Remind Your Readers Who You Are

So, in the emails continue to remind the reader who you are and what you do, because at some point, how many emails do you get from people and you’re like, “Wait, who is this?” Like, “What are they talking about?”

Again, talking about what you were saying setting the framework. I think it’s almost like you need to reset in every email in a short way. Hey, guys, it’s Jillian.

So, now for example, when I do Instagram lives, I repeat myself or when I do my podcast intro, “Hey, guys, Jillian Leslie, host of the Blogger Genius Podcast, business coach, business translator.” Boom. And then you go, “Oh, right. That’s who that is.”

But to think that people will know who Jillian is, even if they get my weekly emails, I think is a big mistake. Your job is to continue to remind somebody why they signed up for your list and what you offer who you are. So, those are my two pet peeves.

Liz Wilcox 46:56
I love that point, Jillian. So, in my emails, I just always say something like, “I take my job as your source for email marketing tips seriously.” So, they’re like, Oh, yeah, that’s why I opened up this email, or that’s why I signed up for her list.

Okay, yeah, I remember her. Because otherwise, it’s like, why is this person talking about NSYNC. Why does she always sending me these? because I send like personal GIFS. I’m like, why is she always popping up? Who is this lady?”

Especially with email marketing, they probably are on 10 email marketing list. And so, it’s like, Who’s Liz Wilcox again, or I’ll put and this is just my personality, and it might be yours too. So, I’ll sign off and I always sign off my full name.

There’s a lot of Liz’s out there. A lot. And there are several Liz’s that talk about email marketing, actually. So, I’ll put Liz and then I’ll put in quotes, “Your email marketing friend Wilcox.”

Or that lady who won’t stop emailing me Wilcox, that lady who talks about NSYNC and emailing Wilcox. So, that number one, they know, I’m like the email lady.

And number two, I’ve got a little bit of a distinction, like, oh, yeah, she likes NSYNC group, or, oh yeah, she’s always doing these silly PS’s because that’s my personality.

And not everyone is as loud as me, so to speak, but whatever is in your personality to just gently remind them, I’m in your inbox. Because, back at the beginning, we met at the grocery store, and we were talking about NSYNC.

Or just that general reminder. I love that, Jillian.

Jillian Leslie 48:40
And I love our way you think about it as branding, that is branding, you’re going to do that. Why not?

Liz Wilcox 48:46
100%.

Jillian Leslie 48:47
Think about what it is that you can do to remind your audience because the truth is, they don’t care about you, and they forget you. Even if you’re emailing once a week, don’t think that you’re top of mind.

They are not going to bed at night thinking about you.

Liz Wilcox 49:01
That’s so true. If you go to my website, you’ll be like, okay, now I know what she’s saying. I stand out online, I wear loud colors. I’m very, like 90s themed. And even me, people forget about me, I don’t have 100% open rate people unsubscribe.

Even people that know me personally write, they’re not going to bed. Oh God, Liz, I’m so glad she went on Facebook Live today that changed my life. I’m so glad she emailed me all those subject lines. That’s not what they’re going to bed thinking about.

So, even if you think I’ve got this. My content is great and people always praise me even those types of people. You need to remind them. That’s why I was saying earlier about the friend quote unquote, “staying Top-of-mind” but also sharing in a relatable way.

I’m sharing content that makes sense. A lot of my audience are millennials so, obviously they’re going to get the NSYNC jokes. They’re going to get it when I talk about you Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or New Kids on the Block or whatever all those things are.

And so, that’s in a relatable way as well. And yeah, we could go and talk about branding all day.

Jillian Leslie 50:25
We’re coming to the end. So, let’s talk about headlines and how to get people’s attention because there could be a fantastic email behind that headline.

But if that headline doesn’t get somebody to click and open, you’ve lost them. So, what do you do to get somebody to click that link?

How to Write Good Subject Lines in Your Emails

Liz Wilcox 50:46
This is such a huge question. I literally have a two-hour workshop on how to get people open your emails. But actually, in my freebie you get that welcome sequence I just talked about and then you get 52 subject lines as well.

That all have a 40% open rate or higher for myself tested. Anyway, with headlines with subject lines you want to make a subject line for a friend. This is not Google SEO. This is not top five ways to get NSYNC to notice you or whatever your thing is.

Top five ways to make your crocheting easier. That’s what you write for Google that’s what people are typing in Google.

Like I said earlier the way people interact in their inbox when they open up their Gmail, their Outlook whatever app they’re using for their inbox they just interact differently. It’s just the psychology thing.

So, you’re talking to a friend you want the headline to be like a friend. Like if I was just emailing Jillian to thank her for being on the podcast, my subject line would be a quick thank you or a quick follow up or something like that.

What’s your address? Might be a subject line if I was going to send her a gift or something like that. And so, the way that you would write a friend or a fellow colleague.

However, your relationship is with your subscriber that’s how you’re going to write the subject. I’ve got two examples here so, “Three ways to overcome naysayers in your life.” That’s something you would type into Google. That’s going to have a low open rate.

If you switch that to something like, “I can’t believe my mom said this to me.” Holy crap she said what! I’m clicking on that. It’s kind of like a Clickbait thing but our inboxes are so inundated you’ve got to really stand out.

And so, anytime you can use, I’m trying to think of words like “this” if you can use the word “this” in your subject line. And now don’t use “this” every time because then it becomes normal and it won’t stand out.

But you know, “I can’t believe my mom said this to me.” She said what, I need to click it, “You won’t believe this discount.” What discount? Why won’t I believe it? Click, Something like that.

Jillian Leslie 53:26
Isn’t it this idea that we need closure and as soon as you leave the question in my mind?

Liz Wilcox 53:33
Such a good point

Jillian Leslie 53:34
I have to click because I have to get closure. It’s part of our wiring as humans. It is why clickbait works. So, I always use this example.

Liz Wilcox 53:45
Fantastic.

Jillian Leslie 53:46
Like what are the best hairstyles for 2021 and like I’ve had the same hairstyle for the last 15 years. I’m not changing it but you better believe I will click on that because darn it I need to know. Like is Rachel’s Friends hair coming back?

Liz Wilcox 54:05
I literally was just thinking what’s Jennifer Aniston doing nowadays?

Jillian Leslie 54:09
Totally.

Liz Wilcox 54:11
That’s hilarious.

Leave Open Questions in Your Emails to Get People to Click

Jillian Leslie 54:11
You can ask me the thing that I honestly don’t even really care. But if you put it as a question where there is an answer or kind of like I love these ones. Like look at my garage you want to see what it looks like now that I’ve cleaned it up?

Liz Wilcox 54:29
Okay. Yes, I do.

Jillian Leslie 54:31
I totally do. It looks like a mess right now how could that ever be cleaned up?

Liz Wilcox 54:36
That’s such a good point.

Jillian Leslie 54:38
Any time you can leave that question like the one about you’re not going to believe my mom said this. Whose mom doesn’t say those things? Maybe my mom said that thing. So, I love that idea.

I love the idea that it is writing for your girlfriend or boyfriend or whomever but it isn’t this formal thing of like, I’m this crocheting blogger. And so, it needs to be the five tips to, getting your yarn untangled.

Liz Wilcox 55:08
That is going to get an automatic delete. Nobody cares about the top five things if they wanted to read about top five things, they would just Google it. When they’re in their inbox, they’re just thinking a different way. It’s much more personal.

Email is the is the original social media. And that’s still how our brains think of it. I’m in there because maybe I signed up for something. So, I’m looking for that you’re looking for something and you’re skimming it looking for particular things.

Maybe you’re looking for Jillian’s email, because she always gives good advice and tells good stories. Maybe you’re just even looking to delete some things. And what’s going to stand out to them.

People On your Email List Want to Hear From You

And like we touched on with the list building, people signed up for your list, they want to hear from you. And so, they’re looking to their emails, because they want to click on something.

When I’m on Facebook, I’m just scrolling, I don’t want to click on any ads. I just want to see what’s up. But when I’m in my inbox, I want to click on something, I want something to be interesting. When I go to my mailbox, I want something to be in there.

Jillian Leslie 56:29
I think what you said is interesting, where do I hear from my friend? Sure, on social media, we text and stuff, but they email me, with the information about whatever. And so, it is this place where I am seeing my family or my friends or whatever.

And so, you’re right, showing up in that environment. It is more casual. And I think treating it as such, that’s like one of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is you are that friend.

Liz Wilcox 57:02
Right, and people want to click. I know, sometimes I’ll check my email just to see if there’s anything interesting. Like, oh, I wonder if so and so email me back, or I wonder if Jillian sends out her newsletter this week yet.

They’re going there to click or maybe they’re just going because they’ve got it on their phone that says they have 10 unopened and it’s just driving them crazy. They’re going to click.

Just like you’re going to Instagram to watch stories, you’re going to Facebook to hit the like button, you’re going to Gmail to click and open. So, write a headline that gets the clicks baby. I’ve got 52 of them for you.

Jillian Leslie 57:44
So, Liz you shared so much. And now I think this will help grow your email list. How can people learn about you reach out to you and sign up for your list? I have to just say, always sign up for email marketing experts list because you get to see what they do.

So, even if you are stalking lists to go, let’s see her strategies. Go see her strategies in real life. Go sign up for her list.

Liz Wilcox 58:14
Yes, if you sign up for my list, any email I write, I want you to take it. I want you to swipe it, I want you to say oh my gosh, this email is awesome. I have to use it for myself. Totally, take my stuff. And use it as you will.

So, you can just honestly go to lizwilcox.com. Like I said, on your homepage, you need to make it super easy to sign up. So, when you go to lizwilcox.com, all this framework, stuff we were talking about is going to be there.

But right there, it’ll say get my swipes or email swipe something like that. If you don’t see it right away, just keep scrolling. It’s I think it’s five or six times on the homepage. Just get the email swipes. And that includes all those four emails already written.

You can take them and make them your own. Obviously, if you’re talking about crocheting, or Pinterest or something, you have to change the content. But the framework, the outline is totally there for you.

And it also includes three newsletters, so newsletter examples. We didn’t get time to go into this, but I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t be spending more than 20 minutes on your newsletter. So, I give you three examples of how to write something really quick.

And then again, like I said, you get 52 subject lines that for me personally has gotten me over 40% open rate that you can take and make your own. So, just go to lizwilcox.com and click the “Get the email” swipe button and you can sign up right there.

Jillian Leslie 59:53
Liz, this has been such a pleasure. You are now my email best friend. So, thank you for that. And thanks for coming on the show.

Liz Wilcox 1:00:04
Thank you so much Jillian and thanks for listening. I am really excited to see your business grow.

Jillian Leslie 1:00:10
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode as much as I did. For me my biggest takeaway is to add your personality and all aspects of your business especially in the emails that you send.

Risk being a little more raw but a little more authentic and see what happens especially as you market and sell to the people in your audience.

And final reminder next time you are on Facebook which could be in two minutes, search for Become a Blogger Genius and join my Facebook group.

And tell me that you just came from this episode and I will be absolutely delighted and give you a personal warm welcome and I will see you here again next week.

Other Blogger Genius Podcast episodes on email marketing to check out:

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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