Shownotes
Email Copy For More Opens And Sales
- The secret to creating a relationship with your subscribers.
- Liz's Email Staircase system.
- Why it's crucial to remember there's a real person on the other side of that email address.
- Who your BEST customer is.
- Ideas for what to put in your emails.
- How to invest in your customers so they invest in you.
- The key to being relatable - people buy from businesses they trust.
- How to get people to like and trust you.
- Who to scrub from your list.
- And tons more!
Tune in to this episode PACKED with tips to help you write email copy that gets more opens and more sales!
Resources Mentioned
Liz's Contact Links
Website | Facebook | InstagramJoin Our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
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Gift Biz Unwrapped guest,
Speaker:episode number 415.
Speaker:It wasn't something that came naturally.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:it was a really scary thing to use my voice and
Speaker:to use words,
Speaker:Attention, gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers.
Speaker:Pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one,
Speaker:now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is Gift Biz Unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host Gift Biz gal,
Speaker:Sue Mohe.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Sue.
Speaker:And as always,
Speaker:I'm so happy that we're together again today.
Speaker:There are a lot of podcasts out there and I'm honored
Speaker:that you've chosen to listen to mine.
Speaker:We've covered so many facets of a handmade product business over
Speaker:the course of the years and today is no exception.
Speaker:We've talked about how to start and grow your business stories
Speaker:from many of you who have done just that.
Speaker:How to choose and use social media sites,
Speaker:build your website.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:there is just so much information here for you,
Speaker:but not necessarily at your fingertips.
Speaker:So I've made a tool for you that categorizes by topic
Speaker:the episodes of this podcast,
Speaker:but only the ones that stay relevant over time.
Speaker:Because yes,
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:there are past shows that just don't work anymore for us
Speaker:today. The world is changing so fast,
Speaker:right? You can use this tool to zero in on whatever
Speaker:topic you need at the moment.
Speaker:Do you wanna hear from others in your specific industry?
Speaker:How about details on Pinterest or setting up an email strategy?
Speaker:You can now easily find the right episodes and create your
Speaker:priority listening roster.
Speaker:Consider this your Gift Biz resource center at a glance.
Speaker:It's a Google Sheet best viewable on your computer versus your
Speaker:phone. Make sure to look on the bottom where there are
Speaker:five separate sections for easy topic reference,
Speaker:kind of like chapters of a book.
Speaker:It makes finding the shows to help you with what you're
Speaker:working on right now.
Speaker:So much easier.
Speaker:To access this free resource,
Speaker:go to gift biz unwrapped.com/topics.
Speaker:Today's show might just be the game changer you've been hoping
Speaker:for. If you know you should send regular emails,
Speaker:but that's where it ends thinking only you tell yourself you'll
Speaker:get to it in the future and then bump it back
Speaker:week after week until it finally drops from the list.
Speaker:Or you've sent out a few emails maybe even years ago
Speaker:and just couldn't make the connection with the effort put in
Speaker:to results that would make it worth it.
Speaker:Well listen up because all of this changes right now.
Speaker:Liz is here to present a fresh approach to email marketing.
Speaker:You'll hear why it can bring in an additional sales and
Speaker:how to make it so much easier than the way you've
Speaker:been approaching it in the past.
Speaker:Hear about the email staircase,
Speaker:which seems so obvious,
Speaker:but might not have been in your thought pattern.
Speaker:Before we get into details about the very first emails to
Speaker:send virtually done for you direction,
Speaker:there's an important discussion about engagement because the magic is in
Speaker:making your email activity a two way street.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:you want your customers to know you and it all goes
Speaker:up a notch when you have the opportunity to know them
Speaker:too. Listen up for Liz's free subject,
Speaker:blind creation tool.
Speaker:Making that part fast enough,
Speaker:effortless. I think that's the trick when email marketing doesn't feel
Speaker:so heavy a task,
Speaker:that's when you'll start doing it.
Speaker:Excited to hear more then let's get to it.
Speaker:Right now.
Speaker:Today we're gonna be talking to Liz Wilcox,
Speaker:the fresh princess of email marketing.
Speaker:Liz is an email strategist who shows small business owners how
Speaker:to build online relationships,
Speaker:package up their magic and turn it into emails that people
Speaker:want to read,
Speaker:and importantly purchase from In the span of five years.
Speaker:Liz grew and sold a successful blog bought out of her
Speaker:second company and built her third business into a multiple six-figure
Speaker:party that just won't quit.
Speaker:Liz is on a mission to help more businesses package up
Speaker:their magic and sell through email in a way that leverages
Speaker:their personality,
Speaker:vision, and values.
Speaker:She's also a walking nineties pop culture encyclopedia for a unique
Speaker:teaching style you are not likely to forget anytime soon.
Speaker:Liz, welcome to the Gift Biz Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I was just telling Sue before we hit record,
Speaker:I love talking to Makers.
Speaker:I am so freaking excited.
Speaker:I'm so ready to unwrap email for you.
Speaker:I cannot wait to do that.
Speaker:But before we do that,
Speaker:we're gonna unwrap your maker side a little bit and that
Speaker:is by having you share a little bit more over and
Speaker:above the intro about who you are,
Speaker:Liz. And I'd like to do that through a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to think and create your very own
Speaker:candle that really resonates with the inner you,
Speaker:what would it look like with a color and maybe a
Speaker:saying or a quote or something?
Speaker:Yeah, I love this question.
Speaker:So my candle would be a rectangle shape.
Speaker:It would be this like burgundy reddish brick color because my
Speaker:favorite story is actually something that Will Smith shares about.
Speaker:He didn't try to become the number one paid actor in
Speaker:Hollywood. He was just laying one brick at a time.
Speaker:And that's kind of how I approach my business.
Speaker:I'm not trying to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:oh, I wanna be this multimillionaire,
Speaker:whatever. It's just every day I show up,
Speaker:I lay my brick as perfectly as a brick can be
Speaker:laid and one day I'll have the wall,
Speaker:and so my candle would be brick shaped.
Speaker:It would kind of smell like that.
Speaker:Very earthy.
Speaker:I don't wanna say it would smell like cement,
Speaker:but you know what?
Speaker:Like fresh or like an old like Clay or something?
Speaker:Yeah, like very earthy.
Speaker:Clay is a great,
Speaker:I can smell it.
Speaker:Can you smell it,
Speaker:Sue? You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker:I can smell it and I can see it too.
Speaker:It has some texture to it too,
Speaker:doesn't it?
Speaker:Yeah, I can feel it on my fingertips and it would
Speaker:say something like,
Speaker:brick by brick,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:I need to get that candle made.
Speaker:If you make candles hit me up,
Speaker:I need to get that candle made asap.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:What a great question.
Speaker:We're having so much fun.
Speaker:And I love your answer too,
Speaker:because step by step,
Speaker:I mean that's what we've seen.
Speaker:I've been podcasting now for eight years and we have seen
Speaker:anybody who has achieved any level of success,
Speaker:it's always been one little step by one little step looking
Speaker:at yes,
Speaker:you want your want a goal,
Speaker:but if you look at that only it seems insurmountable,
Speaker:it's too far away.
Speaker:Absolutely. I think that's a great way to start with email
Speaker:too, cuz everyone,
Speaker:you listen to podcasts and you Google email marketing and of
Speaker:course all these success stories pop up,
Speaker:right? I made a hundred thousand dollars from one email and
Speaker:I'm a millionaire in two years and things like that.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:ah, you know,
Speaker:really you've gotta step by step brick by brick in one
Speaker:day. You might see that success,
Speaker:but it's newsletter by newsletter,
Speaker:which I think is what we're gonna talk about today.
Speaker:Yeah, we definitely are.
Speaker:Okay, so from your history and the intro,
Speaker:it feels like you've always loved words cuz you were blogging
Speaker:first. I don't know what your second business is and now
Speaker:it's all about email.
Speaker:So were words like always a part of your life.
Speaker:Yeah, and that's so funny that Sue mentioned that because y'all,
Speaker:I actually was mute until the age of seven,
Speaker:so I did not speak until I think like around first
Speaker:grade I started to kind of open up and so you
Speaker:might look at me or listen to me as you're doing
Speaker:right now and think,
Speaker:oh, that must just have come naturally.
Speaker:Like Sue said,
Speaker:oh, you must have just always loved words.
Speaker:But it wasn't something that came naturally.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:it was a really scary thing to use my voice and
Speaker:to use words,
Speaker:but it was something that I recognized power in in from
Speaker:a very early age.
Speaker:You have to speak up in order to get your needs
Speaker:met. And so being nonverbal was incredibly hard.
Speaker:And so that was something that I had to learn about
Speaker:and yeah,
Speaker:of course as I started writing I realized I was good
Speaker:at that and I love it the same way you might
Speaker:be creating gift cards or you might be like a renaissance
Speaker:woman with yarn or something,
Speaker:suddenly you find your gift,
Speaker:right? And I found once I learned how to harness the
Speaker:power of words,
Speaker:yeah, it definitely took off for me.
Speaker:Wonderful. And what made you decide to make it into a
Speaker:career? Like how long ago was your first blog?
Speaker:Let's start There.
Speaker:Yeah, I started my first blog in 2016 and I was
Speaker:married at the time and my husband was in the military
Speaker:and we decided to move into an rv.
Speaker:You know the military,
Speaker:they always move you around,
Speaker:you never know,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what's the point in buying a house?
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:well I hate cleaning and I don't like spending too much
Speaker:money, so let's just move into an rv.
Speaker:And that's when I realized sort of Googling,
Speaker:listening to podcasts like this,
Speaker:how do you make money?
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:oh, this RV has wheels.
Speaker:I should try to figure out how we can live on
Speaker:the road.
Speaker:This is awesome.
Speaker:And so I started an RV travel blog and before that
Speaker:I have my master's degree in leadership.
Speaker:I wanted to open up my own school.
Speaker:I have a background in education,
Speaker:but once I realized I could make money online with my
Speaker:words, that was my skill.
Speaker:The same way your hands might be your skill.
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:I'm never going back.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:being an education is very stressful.
Speaker:I had a young daughter,
Speaker:she was a toddler at the time.
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:wow, it just opened up my world.
Speaker:Maybe you're listening,
Speaker:you have a similar experience where you make that first dollar
Speaker:or you listen to that first podcast and you think what
Speaker:they're doing what online?
Speaker:And so I said,
Speaker:I'm not an idiot,
Speaker:I can figure it out.
Speaker:It might take me a while,
Speaker:but I'll figure it out brick by brick.
Speaker:And yeah,
Speaker:that was about seven years ago.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:What a wonderful story that is in so many different ways.
Speaker:I think what I wanna do here,
Speaker:Liz, is start diving right into more words,
Speaker:more word talk,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:Sure. Because you are a specialist in email and we've talked
Speaker:a bunch about email on the show.
Speaker:I told you that as we were talking before we hit
Speaker:record people I believe understand the value of email.
Speaker:And those of you who are listening,
Speaker:if you don't go back just a few episodes,
Speaker:there's a ton of email episodes about the value,
Speaker:the importance,
Speaker:how to set up all that list building,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:But where I see Liz,
Speaker:so many people getting stuck is they get all of that
Speaker:in theory,
Speaker:right? But then when it comes to actually writing these emails,
Speaker:and maybe they do the first one or the second one,
Speaker:but to keep it going and then to feel like it
Speaker:has any effect whatsoever.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:sometimes you feel like you're spending all this time on an
Speaker:email, people will take like hours to write them,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:whatever. And then it doesn't help anything,
Speaker:doesn't help with a sale or make you feel more connected
Speaker:to customers or maybe you don't even know if anyone's even
Speaker:reading them.
Speaker:That's where we're getting stuck.
Speaker:So I would love to call upon you to come to
Speaker:our aid,
Speaker:pull out that teacher style that you have and help us
Speaker:with this.
Speaker:Yeah, I love what Sue said in the last part.
Speaker:She said,
Speaker:you don't feel connected to the people that are maybe reading
Speaker:your emails or you hope are reading your emails.
Speaker:And that's what I'm all about.
Speaker:Liz Wilcox loves to make friends and that's why I got
Speaker:really good at email when I started.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I was an RV travel blogger I was speaking to,
Speaker:and if you can't tell by my voice,
Speaker:I'm not one of them.
Speaker:I was speaking to a lot of men in their sixties
Speaker:where on my email list and I was in my twenties.
Speaker:How is this girl connecting with that audience?
Speaker:And I realize that I just follow something I call the
Speaker:email staircase.
Speaker:So first you have a follower,
Speaker:right? Somebody finds you online,
Speaker:you get on a podcast,
Speaker:you do a JV thing and you get 'em on your
Speaker:email list,
Speaker:which I know Sue has an amazing podcast episode about that,
Speaker:that I'm sure she'll link in the show notes.
Speaker:And then once they're on your email list,
Speaker:you turn them into a friend and we'll talk about that
Speaker:in a second.
Speaker:But once you have a list full of friends,
Speaker:it's much easier to convert them into customers,
Speaker:right? So follower,
Speaker:friend, customer,
Speaker:that is the email staircase.
Speaker:I don't like to do anything that's too many steps,
Speaker:right? It's hard to carry around a bunch of bricks Steps,
Speaker:a few bricks at a time.
Speaker:And so what I mean by friends is,
Speaker:number one,
Speaker:I want you to think of when you get an email
Speaker:address on your list,
Speaker:it's not an email address.
Speaker:There's another person on the other end of that address,
Speaker:right? There's maybe,
Speaker:oh you know brianna gmail.com,
Speaker:sue hotmail.com.
Speaker:That's a real person who's really interested in what you're selling
Speaker:or has possibly already purchased.
Speaker:And we all know the saying the best customer is a
Speaker:repeat customer,
Speaker:right? So how can we turn them into friends?
Speaker:There's three things,
Speaker:and I want you,
Speaker:when you write your newsletters,
Speaker:to think of these three things as you are writing.
Speaker:So number one,
Speaker:just show that you are invested.
Speaker:That you are invested in those people reading and invested in
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:And it might seem,
Speaker:oh Liz,
Speaker:I make jewelry on Etsy.
Speaker:They just want the jewelry.
Speaker:They don't care about the behind the scenes stuff.
Speaker:But I beg to differ how many,
Speaker:especially makers,
Speaker:how many makers are doing amazing things with Instagram lives or
Speaker:going live in their Facebook groups,
Speaker:just showing how they're making their wreaths or making their jewelry.
Speaker:People love that behind the scenes stuff.
Speaker:They wanna see that you are actively working on your products.
Speaker:There's a reason why there's a lot of distrust with giant
Speaker:corporations because we're now realizing we don't know how that product
Speaker:is actually made.
Speaker:We don't know if it's sustainable,
Speaker:ethical, right?
Speaker:And so if we can show how we're invested in our
Speaker:business, that's gonna go a long way.
Speaker:People are gonna invest back into your business,
Speaker:right? When you show that you are invested in it.
Speaker:I love this idea of investment too,
Speaker:because often we feel,
Speaker:I think like cuz I'm thinking of a couple of ways
Speaker:that we could also show investment that you might not normally
Speaker:think would apply to an email or social media.
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:if someone goes to a conference,
Speaker:Amen. Because they're learning more about their craft,
Speaker:they're getting together with other candlemakers or they're going to the
Speaker:stationary show in New York because they are wanting to make
Speaker:sure that they're staying on the top of their industry and
Speaker:of their craft.
Speaker:So that would be investing in your business craft shows.
Speaker:If you're actually out and going and participating in craft shows
Speaker:every weekend,
Speaker:twice a year,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:showing pictures of you doing that.
Speaker:And I've never connected the word invest with this Liz,
Speaker:which is so good,
Speaker:is showing your investment in the company.
Speaker:Even if that person who's opening the newsletter doesn't go to
Speaker:that craft show,
Speaker:they're seeing that you're serious about your business,
Speaker:right? That's the point.
Speaker:Absolutely. So those are two different additional ideas and the behind
Speaker:the scenes,
Speaker:the making,
Speaker:which you know,
Speaker:maybe you've invested and you've upgraded in your pottery wheel or
Speaker:you're just showing how it's actually done.
Speaker:All of those things.
Speaker:So I think everybody can think of more ways,
Speaker:but this idea of investing and having that as a way
Speaker:to draw customers closer to you cuz they're getting to know
Speaker:you, I think is huge.
Speaker:Liz, so you're starting out absolutely amazing.
Speaker:I love this.
Speaker:Awesome. Stay tuned folks.
Speaker:I've got more.
Speaker:But wait,
Speaker:there's more.
Speaker:And then also investing in your potential customer or your customer
Speaker:or your reader showing that you're invested in them.
Speaker:I make these candles,
Speaker:I go to this craft show so I can actually have
Speaker:high quality products,
Speaker:which I know is important to you.
Speaker:I want your home to be,
Speaker:I'm thinking of candles cuz that's how we started,
Speaker:right? I want your home to be paran free.
Speaker:I'm looking for sourcing out the best ingredients,
Speaker:the best sense,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:dot for you because I want this for you.
Speaker:If you make allergen-free jewelry saying Hey,
Speaker:I want you to be able to wear earrings without your
Speaker:ear breaking out and having to go to the ER for
Speaker:an infection.
Speaker:That's why I'm doing X,
Speaker:Y, Z in my business.
Speaker:It's important to me.
Speaker:So having sort of a vision for your customers or your
Speaker:potential customers is important too.
Speaker:And showing that you're invested in that.
Speaker:And that might seem,
Speaker:oh, I'm product based,
Speaker:I don't have a vision for them,
Speaker:but I know that you do.
Speaker:You want the jewelry to look good.
Speaker:I'm looking at my mom made my daughter a scarf for
Speaker:Christmas, right?
Speaker:She wants my daughter to wear it.
Speaker:That's the vision,
Speaker:right? So she went and she sourced like beautiful soft yarn.
Speaker:It's like a baby's bottom.
Speaker:That thing is so soft.
Speaker:I wear it more than my daughter cause I love it
Speaker:so much.
Speaker:But she had a vision for where that scarf was going
Speaker:and what she wanted for it.
Speaker:And I know you do too with your products.
Speaker:So showing you're invested in the business and that you have
Speaker:a vision for how your product should be used for your
Speaker:person to make their life better or more warm or smell
Speaker:better in the home,
Speaker:whatever, comfort,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:is really important as well.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:And you're also then educating them too on why your product
Speaker:is different from other people's products or the value of healthier
Speaker:ingredients, whatever the case might be.
Speaker:Absolutely. And so that's invest.
Speaker:And the second thing I want you to remember,
Speaker:and this is where a lot of email marketers will tell
Speaker:you to tell stories,
Speaker:but especially makers,
Speaker:we did not get into business because like Liz Wilcox,
Speaker:we're good with words,
Speaker:we're better with our hands,
Speaker:right? Most of us as makers.
Speaker:And so instead of trying to tell a story,
Speaker:I'm just gonna tell you to be relatable.
Speaker:And notice I didn't say be interesting,
Speaker:right? It's hard to be interesting.
Speaker:You try to come up with a story,
Speaker:it's like,
Speaker:ugh, suddenly your 10th grade English teacher is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:on your shoulder,
Speaker:Mrs. Miller.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:don't start a paragraph with a conjunction and then that and
Speaker:the other.
Speaker:And it becomes very hard.
Speaker:Like Sue mentioned,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:about 10 minutes ago,
Speaker:oh it might take you hours to craft a newsletter that
Speaker:made me cringe.
Speaker:You can't see me.
Speaker:But I literally went,
Speaker:but instead be relatable.
Speaker:And you can do this in just two to three sentences.
Speaker:I call it a personal update.
Speaker:And it's just two to three sentences about something that has
Speaker:happened in your life since the last time you emailed them.
Speaker:It could be that investment related,
Speaker:I went to a craft show,
Speaker:or it could be,
Speaker:oh, my fridge is broken,
Speaker:I'm waiting on the repairman and while I wait,
Speaker:I'm writing you this letter.
Speaker:Having an appliance break is incredibly relatable.
Speaker:Is it interesting?
Speaker:And not really,
Speaker:unless you're an a repair man,
Speaker:but it's very relatable and humans want to relate to each
Speaker:other, right?
Speaker:There's a reason why if you go to my website,
Speaker:you'll see it's very nineties themed.
Speaker:I want to relate to other people who were having a
Speaker:good time in the nineties,
Speaker:right? And so being relatable is really,
Speaker:really important.
Speaker:And it's also much simpler than trying to be interesting or
Speaker:tell stories or learn how to use your words to segue
Speaker:into sales.
Speaker:The first thing you said is two to three sentences.
Speaker:So you don't go and tell this whole story.
Speaker:Well then I had to call a repairman,
Speaker:I couldn't find him.
Speaker:They came for absolutely three hours,
Speaker:blah, blah,
Speaker:blah. Like it's just a little point in time fact.
Speaker:And I love your explanation because the first thing I'm thinking
Speaker:I like to think and get in my listeners heads when
Speaker:we're talking,
Speaker:the first thing I would think they would be saying is,
Speaker:well, why would they care?
Speaker:Right? But to your point,
Speaker:cuz it's relatable,
Speaker:it's interesting,
Speaker:it's a little point.
Speaker:And we've all hit appliances break,
Speaker:so that's why Absolutely.
Speaker:Versus A story that nobody can relate to,
Speaker:right? Right.
Speaker:So why would they care about your fridge breaking or you
Speaker:walking the dog or you working on your laptop inside of
Speaker:your computer today?
Speaker:Or just something simple,
Speaker:right? It's because people wanna relate to people.
Speaker:Going back to,
Speaker:again, we are not trusting those giant companies because we know
Speaker:they're so far out of touch,
Speaker:right? But as small business owners,
Speaker:as makers,
Speaker:we have the advantage where we can just be a real
Speaker:person because we are a real person and people wanna buy
Speaker:from people they trust.
Speaker:So when you can become relatable in the inbox,
Speaker:you get that whole,
Speaker:oh, I'm scrolling,
Speaker:scrolling. Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Sue sent me something,
Speaker:she sent me an email.
Speaker:I wonder what she has to say today,
Speaker:right? Because I know she's invested in me and I know
Speaker:she's relatable.
Speaker:Chances are you are not the only maker that makes what
Speaker:you make,
Speaker:right? You're not the only,
Speaker:like I'm wearing a crocheted hat today.
Speaker:I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of people who could
Speaker:make this hat,
Speaker:but I bought it from one particular person,
Speaker:right? Because I like them.
Speaker:I buy from people I trust.
Speaker:And your customers do too.
Speaker:So being relatable is really important.
Speaker:Wonderful. Okay,
Speaker:so we've got being invested in,
Speaker:show them that you're invested in your business and show them
Speaker:that you're invested in them.
Speaker:That was number one.
Speaker:Number two,
Speaker:this amazing and super simple point of being relatable.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's easy,
Speaker:the way you described it.
Speaker:None of this is hard so far,
Speaker:Liz, and I'm loving this.
Speaker:Yay. And what's the third one under?
Speaker:This is all still under being a friend.
Speaker:Like making them be a friend.
Speaker:Yeah. And this is what you can filter your newsletters through.
Speaker:And the third thing is just stay top of mind.
Speaker:And this might be the point where you throw your note
Speaker:cards in the air,
Speaker:you say,
Speaker:oh gosh,
Speaker:that's so hard.
Speaker:But when you do numbers one and two correctly,
Speaker:when you show that you're invested,
Speaker:when you are relatable,
Speaker:staying top of mind becomes a lot easier.
Speaker:It's not about sending daily emails or even weekly emails.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you go on vacation,
Speaker:like I know Sue is doing very well deserved,
Speaker:so awesome,
Speaker:we're so excited for her.
Speaker:Yes, your kid gets sick or you just have a backlog
Speaker:of orders and that's the only thing that matters for the
Speaker:next eight days,
Speaker:right? When you can show you're really invest in your relatable,
Speaker:you can skip a week,
Speaker:you can have an accident happen,
Speaker:you can forget it,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:And the task moves to next week in your project management
Speaker:system. And so staying top of mind becomes much easier when
Speaker:you do those first two things.
Speaker:And I just heard you give us permission to miss a
Speaker:week, heaven forbid that happened.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:I missed last week,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:things got ahead of me.
Speaker:I had a lot of writing to do and I thought,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:it's Thursday and I haven't sent an email.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:well the world's not on fire.
Speaker:I guess I'll talk to them on Tuesday.
Speaker:And maybe that's how you're relatable with that next one.
Speaker:Absolutely. You might have seen I missed last week,
Speaker:here's what happened,
Speaker:but I'm back.
Speaker:She just got it.
Speaker:She's an email genius now.
Speaker:It's really not that hard.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I love that so much.
Speaker:But do you suggest continuity and frequency with emails?
Speaker:Yeah, of course.
Speaker:So I like to think of the inbox,
Speaker:just like the mailbox,
Speaker:right? We go out and we think,
Speaker:oh you know,
Speaker:that's a bill that's on auto pay.
Speaker:I don't have to even open that.
Speaker:That goes right in the trash.
Speaker:And oh,
Speaker:those coupons they send me,
Speaker:I don't even shop at these places.
Speaker:And oh my gosh,
Speaker:Sue sent me something,
Speaker:I'm gonna open this right away.
Speaker:We do the exact same thing in the inbox.
Speaker:Oh, that's spam,
Speaker:that's a bill.
Speaker:I'll search for that when it's due.
Speaker:And oh my gosh,
Speaker:Liz Wilcox sent me something.
Speaker:I wonder what it is.
Speaker:And so we want to be familiar.
Speaker:I know who Sue is,
Speaker:I know she's got a podcast,
Speaker:she's really good at helping me X,
Speaker:Y, z,
Speaker:but we don't wanna be predictable,
Speaker:right? Where it's the exact same thing in the email every
Speaker:single time.
Speaker:And so of course,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:consistency helps with that familiarity.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:we wanna vary that content.
Speaker:Sometimes, you know,
Speaker:sometimes maybe we're having a flash sale,
Speaker:other times maybe we're just trying to point people to our
Speaker:Instagram, cuz we're trying out live demos over there.
Speaker:So we wanna vary our content,
Speaker:but consistency definitely helps.
Speaker:But it's more about what we said at the top of
Speaker:the hour,
Speaker:that connection piece over consistency.
Speaker:When your people really feel connected,
Speaker:when they really know you're invested,
Speaker:you're a relatable person that they like,
Speaker:you're gonna be that person in the inbox.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:they sent me something,
Speaker:I've gotta open that right away.
Speaker:So no template emails where you just slip in another product
Speaker:and a price.
Speaker:Yeah, you wanna vary your content.
Speaker:I know Sue is against this,
Speaker:but if you wanted to sell in every email you could,
Speaker:but don't have it look the same every single week.
Speaker:Template emails,
Speaker:I don't know if you're on flow desk,
Speaker:they have all these beautiful templates that you can plug and
Speaker:play, but you wanna vary the content.
Speaker:So it's not like if Sue sent me a package in
Speaker:the mail every single week for four weeks,
Speaker:the first two weeks,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:Sue sent me something,
Speaker:this is awesome.
Speaker:If it's the same candle,
Speaker:if it's that same brick candle by the third week,
Speaker:I'm gonna say,
Speaker:oh, I don't need another brick candle right now.
Speaker:I'll save that for later.
Speaker:Right? And we do the exact same thing in the mailbox.
Speaker:So don't,
Speaker:while those email templates can look beautiful,
Speaker:and we want everything to be like a church program,
Speaker:right? That's kind of what we think of newsletters.
Speaker:It's first I put X,
Speaker:then I put Y,
Speaker:then I'm gonna put the sale and all the pictures of
Speaker:my beautiful products on the bottom.
Speaker:If it looks the same every single week,
Speaker:people are gonna tune out.
Speaker:So you definitely wanna vary that content.
Speaker:Yeah, and I think just by nature of the fact that
Speaker:you have befriended them and they know you're a product-based business
Speaker:and you sell X,
Speaker:any communication from you clearly should have a link to your
Speaker:website. So if they're ready to buy,
Speaker:absolutely you can do that,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:right? But it's just not always only product,
Speaker:price, buy button,
Speaker:that type of thing.
Speaker:Amen. You Always give them the option to come back,
Speaker:but you're not always just direct a hundred percent in their
Speaker:face selling.
Speaker:Absolutely. We definitely don't want to dismiss that friendship we can
Speaker:create. And that's why at the top of the hour I
Speaker:said, oh my gosh,
Speaker:I'm so excited.
Speaker:I love talking to people who make products because y'all people
Speaker:are out here doing what Sue just said not to do.
Speaker:Hello, product price by button piece out.
Speaker:So simple for you to differentiate and stand out from the
Speaker:crowd and do,
Speaker:even if you just did one thing Liz Wilcox told you
Speaker:to do today,
Speaker:you're gonna stand out like,
Speaker:whoa. People are gonna be so amazed and you're gonna see
Speaker:so many amazing results.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:Okay, so let's swerve now into customers.
Speaker:So you're talking about this staircase.
Speaker:So first get them on the list,
Speaker:then they become friends.
Speaker:Is there anything different you do now when you have a
Speaker:subset of your friends who are purchasing from you?
Speaker:So they are also now customers.
Speaker:I wanted to pause this discussion for a second to let
Speaker:you know that I recognize you may be feeling overwhelmed right
Speaker:now. I mean,
Speaker:I bring on great guests who are specialists in their fields,
Speaker:and we get into fabulous conversations that you know can help
Speaker:grow your business.
Speaker:So after the show,
Speaker:you have the full intention of grabbing a download,
Speaker:making an adjustment on your website or any number of other
Speaker:ideas that arise as a result of this podcast.
Speaker:But what happens,
Speaker:you get back to your other activities and the momentum you
Speaker:once had gets lost.
Speaker:What you've planned to do is forgotten,
Speaker:then you feel bad because your business is going on as
Speaker:usual without implementing anything that you know would help grow your
Speaker:business. We're just too busy doing all the things like a
Speaker:robot moving from one thing to another without thinking,
Speaker:because we have to.
Speaker:I get it,
Speaker:I've been there.
Speaker:But guess what?
Speaker:There is another way.
Speaker:Since I recognized this exact behavior in my own business,
Speaker:I set out to do something about it.
Speaker:And now what works for me,
Speaker:I'm sharing with you.
Speaker:I formalized the process and it's called the inspired daily planner,
Speaker:made specifically for gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers,
Speaker:but it's not your ordinary planner.
Speaker:First off,
Speaker:it comes with a video explaining my productivity strategy.
Speaker:Plus it's not dated.
Speaker:So you can start using your planner the second it arrives
Speaker:at your doorstep.
Speaker:And that's not all included for each day is a motivational
Speaker:message or business building tip and plenty of space to capture
Speaker:and book in time for to-dos,
Speaker:schedule appointments and all those other ideas that are now getting
Speaker:lost. Think of it as a book and a planner all
Speaker:in one,
Speaker:yet compact enough to carry with you and resource as necessary.
Speaker:It's the perfect solution to truly act and move your business
Speaker:forward. Go to gift biz unwrapped.com/inspired
Speaker:to get your hard copy planner along with my power of
Speaker:purpose video that will set you on the path for true
Speaker:business growth.
Speaker:This makes a great gift too.
Speaker:So if you have a biz bestie,
Speaker:pick up a planner for them too.
Speaker:That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com/inspired.
Speaker:Okay, let's get back to the show.
Speaker:I like to surprise and delight.
Speaker:I don't know about you,
Speaker:but with customers,
Speaker:every once in a while,
Speaker:maybe I'll pull up my Google calendar and just pick two
Speaker:random dates a year where I just send out an email
Speaker:that says,
Speaker:Hey, I just wanted to say thanks again for purchasing that
Speaker:candle or whatever.
Speaker:This can be a mass email,
Speaker:you could send it to all your customers,
Speaker:that's totally fine.
Speaker:And it's just,
Speaker:it brings them back,
Speaker:right? Especially if you have more expensive products,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's like,
Speaker:okay, I made the sale,
Speaker:now I have to go find,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a new lead.
Speaker:I have to go do this new JV partnership.
Speaker:More eyeballs.
Speaker:More eyeballs,
Speaker:more eyeballs,
Speaker:right? But if we've got these customers on our email list
Speaker:doing all the things we just said,
Speaker:but also just every once in a while doing something to
Speaker:surprise and delight them,
Speaker:whether it's just an email of gratitude or you pick some
Speaker:of your,
Speaker:depending on what E S P you're using,
Speaker:you can isolate your best customers.
Speaker:Sending them a handwritten note or some kind of exclusive access.
Speaker:I'm only making this for people who have done X and
Speaker:Y. Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I'm getting excited thinking about it.
Speaker:You can't see my smile,
Speaker:but like,
Speaker:woo. I know I sent even.
Speaker:So I sell digital products and even I have a membership.
Speaker:And I sent an email on the two year anniversary to
Speaker:people who had canceled the membership and I said,
Speaker:Hey, this is the two year anniversary.
Speaker:I know you're not in the membership anymore,
Speaker:but I just wanna say thanks for giving it a try.
Speaker:This membership has changed my life and you were a part
Speaker:of that.
Speaker:And I got so many replies.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Liz, it's so good to hear from you.
Speaker:Happy anniversary.
Speaker:That's so awesome.
Speaker:And some people rejoined and others,
Speaker:they just said,
Speaker:Hey, I'm onto the next thing.
Speaker:Or I closed my business down,
Speaker:or I shared it with a friend,
Speaker:I just don't need it anymore.
Speaker:And it opened up so many great conversations,
Speaker:and that was just a couple weeks ago.
Speaker:So I'm sure it will just continue to ripple effect,
Speaker:but that surprise and delight for customers,
Speaker:even if it's just once a year,
Speaker:I think will go a long,
Speaker:long way.
Speaker:Well, and you also surprised me just now because I thought
Speaker:where you were leading was you sent that gratitude and all
Speaker:of that,
Speaker:and I thought you were gonna say,
Speaker:here's an offer to rejoin,
Speaker:but you didn't do that,
Speaker:you just left it open.
Speaker:It was just a pure gratitude message.
Speaker:That was it.
Speaker:And then by nature,
Speaker:some people,
Speaker:people joined back in.
Speaker:But just that shows sincerity for your message,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:versus saying,
Speaker:I wanna get back other people who have left.
Speaker:Here's how I'll do it.
Speaker:It's my two year.
Speaker:Right? You're attacking it from a different angle,
Speaker:which feels much more caring and genuine versus an angle to
Speaker:sell, if that makes sense.
Speaker:Absolutely. Y'all,
Speaker:I really mean it.
Speaker:When I say friend,
Speaker:I really mean it when I say invest into them,
Speaker:right? Kindness is always cool in my book.
Speaker:And for me it's,
Speaker:I have a very long term way of thinking.
Speaker:I'm not thinking,
Speaker:oh, I've gotta make this sale right now.
Speaker:And of course there were times where I had to,
Speaker:but I always knew I'm gonna be in business in 10
Speaker:years from now,
Speaker:right? And hopefully you are listening and you think that too.
Speaker:And so letting down your guard a little bit and really
Speaker:allowing yourself to open up real relationships is gonna go a
Speaker:long, long way versus constantly,
Speaker:Hey, here's a discount,
Speaker:here's a discount,
Speaker:buy my thing,
Speaker:da dah dah,
Speaker:dah. Again,
Speaker:being a real person and show you're invested for the long-term
Speaker:is gonna give you long-term gains.
Speaker:Yeah. All right.
Speaker:So what I'm taking from you,
Speaker:Liz, under this category of customers is tag your list so
Speaker:that you know who are customers and who are prospects.
Speaker:And then you can take those customers who have already experienced
Speaker:your product or purchased it as a gift for somebody else
Speaker:and treat them as an elite group in a very genuine
Speaker:way. Absolutely.
Speaker:So it might be that you get an ingredient,
Speaker:maybe it's a color,
Speaker:it's a special type of yarn.
Speaker:Something with only a limited amount.
Speaker:It's not anything that you're gonna be able to make in
Speaker:mask, but you can make limited and introduce and offer it
Speaker:to that select group of people only.
Speaker:Or maybe you do a special appreciation sale a couple days
Speaker:ago at the time,
Speaker:we are now talking,
Speaker:so we're actually recording the interview.
Speaker:Few days ago it was random acts of kindness day.
Speaker:You could put that into an email.
Speaker:And my random act of kindness,
Speaker:because you're an existing customer,
Speaker:whatever is this,
Speaker:I decided just last minute,
Speaker:I'm gonna throw this up for you today,
Speaker:to give them an extra level of special touches.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:People wanna be a part of something,
Speaker:they wanna feel like they belong,
Speaker:like someone understands,
Speaker:then they get a little special treatment,
Speaker:especially with physical products.
Speaker:Again, going back to my crochet hat,
Speaker:if I bought this and they reached out to me six
Speaker:months later,
Speaker:Hey, how are you liking that hat?
Speaker:Share it with a friend.
Speaker:Or you know,
Speaker:I created something similar that I think you might like.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's exclusive only for people who have bought that hat.
Speaker:I'd be like,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:I can only get this for you guys.
Speaker:I bought the hat like,
Speaker:ooh, la la.
Speaker:Heck yeah,
Speaker:I'm getting that thing right.
Speaker:It's like a prerequisite.
Speaker:Being a customer is a prerequisite to even more goodness here.
Speaker:Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker:And you can also do things,
Speaker:I'm just thinking,
Speaker:we're just kind of spinning ideas for people,
Speaker:right? You talk about digital products and yes,
Speaker:most of us here are making physical products,
Speaker:but nothing says you don't put together a little care sheet
Speaker:that you can email people about how to make sure that
Speaker:knitted hat that you're wearing stays as beautiful as the first
Speaker:day that you got it.
Speaker:Here's how you wash it,
Speaker:here's how you store it off season,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Like things like that.
Speaker:So things that you might know because you're a specialist in
Speaker:your product that honestly your customers might not know.
Speaker:Absolutely. I talk about that all the time.
Speaker:Or I'm thinking,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if you make mugs or tumblers or wine glasses or some
Speaker:kind of artisan thing,
Speaker:I'm thinking maybe you could have a happy hour of only
Speaker:for people who have bought this certain wine glass or whatever.
Speaker:Oh, I'm gonna have a happy hour.
Speaker:It only happens once a quarter.
Speaker:It's only for people with this specific mug.
Speaker:Well first of all,
Speaker:I'm buying that mug if I don't already have it.
Speaker:And if I already have it,
Speaker:I'm thinking,
Speaker:wow, I'm really special.
Speaker:I know for me,
Speaker:again, I'm very nineties themed and there's one Etsy shop that
Speaker:I buy just about everything she makes.
Speaker:It's all like boy band and NSYNC stuff.
Speaker:If she would throw a happy hour,
Speaker:like a watch party of an old concert or something,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:I would buy so much more of her stuff to come
Speaker:to the Zoom party decked out.
Speaker:Like I'm the one,
Speaker:I'm the biggest fan,
Speaker:right? Same.
Speaker:You have certain Tumblrs or you sell like sports themed stuff.
Speaker:That's a community already looking for more connection and you can
Speaker:really tap into that.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Well, Sue and I are a dynamic duo.
Speaker:We Are Five stars.
Speaker:Pause the episode,
Speaker:go to iTunes,
Speaker:give her five stars.
Speaker:Like I,
Speaker:I'm fluffing this.
Speaker:She's a great host,
Speaker:y'all. Oh,
Speaker:you're so sweet.
Speaker:Okay, so I feel like we're already getting into engaging with
Speaker:your audience cuz that's a big thing that you do too.
Speaker:So it's not only being relatable and all becoming friends,
Speaker:you also are big at having them engage with you because
Speaker:you then get to know them too.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if they're only hearing about you,
Speaker:you don't get to know them as much unless you do
Speaker:some type of engagement.
Speaker:So how does that work?
Speaker:Yeah, so we want our people for a couple different reasons
Speaker:to know that our email marketing is a two way street.
Speaker:They can reply to us,
Speaker:we're gonna reply to them.
Speaker:Number one,
Speaker:that's excellent for deliverability.
Speaker:A k,
Speaker:a, it's gonna get you in the inbox versus spam if
Speaker:you have people clicking on your stuff,
Speaker:hitting reply,
Speaker:for lack of a better term.
Speaker:I say that signals to the internet gods that your emails
Speaker:matter. And so when new people get on your email list,
Speaker:you're gonna go or you're gonna be more likely to go
Speaker:into the inbox than spam.
Speaker:Okay? So it's not just someone taking action so that more
Speaker:of your emails will be delivered to them.
Speaker:It's also your overall reputation as someone who sends emails overall,
Speaker:even if it's a brand new person.
Speaker:Absolutely. Sue nailed it on the head right there.
Speaker:Okay, I just wanted to make sure I understood what you
Speaker:were saying.
Speaker:Yeah, she's got it.
Speaker:And so we want that from a deliverability standpoint,
Speaker:especially as you grow your list,
Speaker:it's really important to keep it healthy.
Speaker:And then also remember follower,
Speaker:friend, customer,
Speaker:how are we gonna create that community where it's like Liz
Speaker:just said,
Speaker:oh yeah,
Speaker:I would show up to all the Zoom parties.
Speaker:That would be so amazing.
Speaker:It's because I feel very connected to that maker.
Speaker:I follow her on Instagram,
Speaker:I'm friends with her on Facebook,
Speaker:I get her emails,
Speaker:I'm gobbling up all that stuff.
Speaker:And something that she does really well and you can do
Speaker:too, is in your welcome sequence or your onboarding sequence when
Speaker:someone purchases and gets on your email list,
Speaker:however you're doing that,
Speaker:making sure that what Sue mentioned at the very top when
Speaker:she introduced me,
Speaker:you're doing three things.
Speaker:Number one,
Speaker:showing a little bit of personality.
Speaker:Remember we want them to know,
Speaker:like, and trust us.
Speaker:We gotta show a little bit of personality.
Speaker:You don't have to be Liz Wilcox to have a personality,
Speaker:right? Sue and I are very different,
Speaker:but there's something about Sue that you like that gets you
Speaker:listening, opening emails,
Speaker:following her on social,
Speaker:right? So sharing a little bit of personality.
Speaker:Number two,
Speaker:sharing your vision.
Speaker:We've touched on this a little bit,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:I want my candles to make your house a home.
Speaker:I want my jewelry to make you feel good when you
Speaker:go out on a date,
Speaker:whatever that vision is,
Speaker:sharing it so people start to feel that connection,
Speaker:like, oh wow,
Speaker:again, that person's really invested,
Speaker:that person has thought through.
Speaker:They're not just mass producing stickers or whatever is why they're
Speaker:creating the stickers or whatever,
Speaker:right? And then your values,
Speaker:and this is not spewing your politics everywhere,
Speaker:commenting on every social injustice that's happening.
Speaker:But there are certain values that drive the way you do
Speaker:business, drive the way you do life that you can and
Speaker:should share in your welcome sequence and in your newsletters to
Speaker:make people feel aligned with you.
Speaker:There's a reason why I love that one Etsy shop,
Speaker:she's a boy,
Speaker:bander like me,
Speaker:she values nostalgia,
Speaker:right? And so do I.
Speaker:In my business,
Speaker:one of my values is affordability.
Speaker:A lot of my products are under $50 and that aligns
Speaker:with certain people.
Speaker:If you're a high ticket coach,
Speaker:I'm not really in alignment with you.
Speaker:You might come on my email list,
Speaker:you might get off pretty quickly.
Speaker:So making sure you have certain values.
Speaker:Again, the candle example.
Speaker:Why do you wanna make a house a home?
Speaker:What do you value there?
Speaker:You obviously value family,
Speaker:comfort, peace,
Speaker:tranquility, things like that.
Speaker:And sharing that.
Speaker:I make candles to make your house a home.
Speaker:I want when you step in your house for it to
Speaker:be a peaceful atmosphere.
Speaker:My candles,
Speaker:do this and that for you.
Speaker:Right? That's showing a lot of values.
Speaker:Instead of saying,
Speaker:well I make candles cause I can sell 'em online,
Speaker:right? That's not very compelling.
Speaker:Yeah, and I'm glad you gave an example because you don't
Speaker:say, my values are Right.
Speaker:You don't just just state values because that doesn't mean anything
Speaker:to someone who's reading.
Speaker:You bring in a story or a reason that relates to
Speaker:them. Just like your example just now,
Speaker:making your house a home,
Speaker:a healthy home or however it would align with your values
Speaker:is by demonstrating it by an example.
Speaker:Not just the words.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be this really like cut to the
Speaker:heart kind of example I just gave.
Speaker:If you make little figurines and you just think they're cute
Speaker:and you just like people that want cute things in their
Speaker:life, I'm thinking of like the Japanese have something,
Speaker:I forget what it's called,
Speaker:but it's like cute culture and some people are obsessed with
Speaker:it and everything in their house has like a stuffed animal
Speaker:on it.
Speaker:And that's your thing,
Speaker:right? Just like the boy band thing,
Speaker:that's nostalgia.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be this serious thing,
Speaker:but it has to be something that I can immediately say,
Speaker:oh yes,
Speaker:that aligns with me.
Speaker:I love cute stuff.
Speaker:I can't get enough pink in my house.
Speaker:Or you know,
Speaker:whatever it is.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be this end all,
Speaker:be all type of value.
Speaker:So I don't want you to think it has to be
Speaker:super serious if you're not.
Speaker:Yeah. Or in a certain situation,
Speaker:maybe it's not.
Speaker:And that I'm gonna tell another story cuz it might spark
Speaker:some ideas for people.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Years ago when I was in Japan,
Speaker:because you brought this up,
Speaker:they had these little baby,
Speaker:I mean they had to be a quarter of an inch,
Speaker:big little.
Speaker:I think they were cats.
Speaker:I'm not exactly sure.
Speaker:I believe it.
Speaker:That sounds accurate.
Speaker:They were so small,
Speaker:I'm not even sure what they were.
Speaker:I bought like 12 of them for all of my friends
Speaker:because easy to pack and go home.
Speaker:They were just so cute.
Speaker:And so I told everybody,
Speaker:keep this in your purse.
Speaker:I'm thinking about you.
Speaker:I'm sending my vibes to you.
Speaker:Even when we're not together.
Speaker:We're close friends.
Speaker:And I still to this day,
Speaker:there are a couple of women that I know who keep
Speaker:them in their purse still because you don't even remember that
Speaker:they're there.
Speaker:They're so little.
Speaker:And so if you make something that's just fun,
Speaker:maybe it should connect with what you obviously make and are
Speaker:known for.
Speaker:But if it's just something fun that you're just gonna make
Speaker:a few or there's a reason for 'em or whatever,
Speaker:that would be an example.
Speaker:I just brought that up as a fun idea.
Speaker:I love that so much.
Speaker:Just make it easy.
Speaker:So in your welcome email,
Speaker:you wanna show your personality,
Speaker:you wanna share your vision for your product and then demonstrate
Speaker:the values and why your customer would care about those values.
Speaker:That's why they're buying from you.
Speaker:Cuz they also agree are in alignment with and care about
Speaker:those things for themself as well.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:this is all great,
Speaker:Liz, but they're not gonna get to any of this unless
Speaker:they open that email,
Speaker:right? We know how to get them into the inbox because
Speaker:it's how you've been talking with people through their emails.
Speaker:So your reputation,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:through your email service provider is strong.
Speaker:So that gives you the best opportunity of getting in front
Speaker:of them so they have the option to open.
Speaker:But what do we do to get people to actually click
Speaker:and open?
Speaker:Yeah. So again,
Speaker:thinking brick by brick.
Speaker:So making sure that welcome sequence is really solid.
Speaker:And those first couple emails that you send are short and
Speaker:to the point.
Speaker:The biggest mistake I see people making is the first email,
Speaker:or the second email being everything.
Speaker:But the kitchen scene,
Speaker:it's, Hey,
Speaker:this is where you can find me,
Speaker:Pinterest, Instagram,
Speaker:Twitter, da da da.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:do you even use any of those and talking about how
Speaker:you got into making candles or creating stickers,
Speaker:or they're not our friends yet,
Speaker:unless you're Oprah,
Speaker:kind of famous people don't wanna hear your story.
Speaker:They're not gobbling up everything you're sending quite yet.
Speaker:They're not our friends yet.
Speaker:And in those first few emails,
Speaker:really setting expectations is gonna help people open your emails from
Speaker:here on out and sending an email that says,
Speaker:Hey, this is what it looks like to be a member
Speaker:of this community,
Speaker:to be on this email list.
Speaker:Whatever you wanna say.
Speaker:And this is where you tell them,
Speaker:if you're gonna give them any type of advice,
Speaker:like Sue mentioned earlier,
Speaker:I'm gonna share how to care for your crochet hat and
Speaker:any other items you might buy in the shop.
Speaker:I'm going to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:go live on Instagram and do demos of how I create
Speaker:sense every Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker:If you wanna help me pick out the next set for
Speaker:each candle of the month,
Speaker:make sure you follow me over there,
Speaker:right? You're setting expectations of what it looks like to be
Speaker:in the community and where they can find you.
Speaker:And then number three,
Speaker:you're gonna tell them when you are going to email them.
Speaker:And I know Sue and I talked earlier,
Speaker:maybe about 20 minutes ago,
Speaker:about, you don't have to always email every day or every
Speaker:week. Sometimes it can be sporadic,
Speaker:but just be as honest as possible.
Speaker:I'm gonna email you on Tuesday afternoons about X,
Speaker:Y, Z.
Speaker:Or you could be,
Speaker:I'm gonna email you sporadically because I'm a maker and that's
Speaker:how my brain works.
Speaker:Stay tuned,
Speaker:right? That creates curiosity.
Speaker:So it's not necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker:And then the last thing,
Speaker:make sure,
Speaker:of course you're a maker so it's a little more obvious
Speaker:for people,
Speaker:but make sure you're just saying,
Speaker:I'm gonna offer you my suite of products,
Speaker:or I'm gonna share my favorite products of the week,
Speaker:or I'm gonna offer sales and exclusive access to certain products.
Speaker:Whatever is true.
Speaker:However you run your business,
Speaker:if you're stay tuned for my Black Friday and Christmas and
Speaker:July sales,
Speaker:making sure that you're setting the expectation that,
Speaker:yeah, this is a marketing channel,
Speaker:and you might think I'm a product maker.
Speaker:That's pretty obvious,
Speaker:right? But we just wanna,
Speaker:again, set that expectation.
Speaker:So if they don't want those emails,
Speaker:they will unsubscribe.
Speaker:And the people that really wanna open your emails and really
Speaker:consent to all those things you just said,
Speaker:stay on the list and stay opening.
Speaker:Yeah, and I think that's really important because if you have
Speaker:a lot of dead weight on your email list,
Speaker:first off,
Speaker:your email list is gonna get so big and you might
Speaker:have to pay more for people who aren't because they're on
Speaker:your list and they aren't even opening,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:Amen. So as it gets bigger,
Speaker:that's gonna happen.
Speaker:Plus your list gets bad with all those unopeneds.
Speaker:And I think that also,
Speaker:you can correct me if I'm wrong,
Speaker:Liz, but I think that also affects your reputation if they're
Speaker:seeing such a large group of people not opening.
Speaker:It definitely does.
Speaker:Yeah. So that's another way to keep your open rate up
Speaker:and to keep engagement up to keep yourself in the inbox.
Speaker:It's a little more technical of an answer,
Speaker:but you definitely want to be scrubbing the people that are
Speaker:not opening off your list How often?
Speaker:I would say once a quarter,
Speaker:at least twice a year,
Speaker:depending on the list building that you're doing.
Speaker:Like if your list is growing exponentially,
Speaker:you probably wanna check in every three or four months to
Speaker:get those people off.
Speaker:And then if it's a little slower list,
Speaker:maybe you're emailing once a month,
Speaker:you wanna check in twice a year.
Speaker:Now you can remove those people from your email list,
Speaker:download them,
Speaker:and then you can still use those addresses to run Facebook
Speaker:ads or Etsy ads or whatever you're doing.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:those are still your emails,
Speaker:but we don't wanna be sending them that consistent newsletter if
Speaker:they're not opening,
Speaker:because again,
Speaker:they're sending a signal out to the internet.
Speaker:Gods so Sue's on my list,
Speaker:I send an email out for 90 days.
Speaker:Sue opens exactly zero emails.
Speaker:So Sue sends,
Speaker:let's say I send 20 emails in 90 days,
Speaker:Sue sends 20 signals to the internet Gods that Liz's emails
Speaker:don't matter.
Speaker:Now, Sue times a thousand.
Speaker:That's a lot of signals to the internet guys,
Speaker:right? And it's gonna start plummeting.
Speaker:So you wanna get those people off your list or stop
Speaker:emailing them.
Speaker:Maybe you keep them segmented so you don't email them and
Speaker:maybe you have a look back window during Black Friday,
Speaker:right? And you send them stuff during Black Friday,
Speaker:or you have a Christmas in July sale,
Speaker:you can bring those people back,
Speaker:but you definitely don't wanna be emailing them your monthly or
Speaker:weekly newsletter if they've fallen off the wagon,
Speaker:so to speak,
Speaker:in about 90 days.
Speaker:Yeah. And I think all the more reason to the whole
Speaker:point of becoming a friend.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I know that there are brands that I follow because I
Speaker:like their products,
Speaker:but I don't need their products all the time.
Speaker:And maybe I even like them just as people,
Speaker:and I wanna stay up to date as to what's going
Speaker:on. I still open even though I might not be in
Speaker:buying mode right now.
Speaker:So there's lots of reasons to do that.
Speaker:But all right,
Speaker:I have a big question.
Speaker:Okay. We have people I know who have an email list
Speaker:already established,
Speaker:or they've been collecting emails for several years and never sent
Speaker:out an email or started with the best intent and stopped.
Speaker:So I've got a list of people who haven't been sent
Speaker:to for a long time,
Speaker:but we've just gone through and talked about so many things
Speaker:that are so achievable and easy.
Speaker:So someone who's like,
Speaker:okay, I can actually do this.
Speaker:I wanna try this,
Speaker:but they have this list that hasn't been used forever.
Speaker:How do they get started at this point?
Speaker:Yeah. So super simple.
Speaker:You just wanna send an email out and say,
Speaker:give away something for free.
Speaker:Like if you've gone to taking care of your jewelry or
Speaker:little video on how to x Y,
Speaker:Z with your product and say,
Speaker:Hey, you got on my list for X and y reason.
Speaker:Remember me,
Speaker:I'm Liz Wilcox,
Speaker:I'm that email marketing lady.
Speaker:By the way,
Speaker:I wanted to share this with you in case you don't
Speaker:have it.
Speaker:And if you don't know anything else about me or you
Speaker:can't remember,
Speaker:know this.
Speaker:And then this is where you put in a little personality
Speaker:and that vision.
Speaker:And so for me,
Speaker:I would say,
Speaker:as much as I love the nineties,
Speaker:I love the idea of you making money with email,
Speaker:even more,
Speaker:talk to you later.
Speaker:And so you might say,
Speaker:as much as I love X,
Speaker:I love the idea of Y even more.
Speaker:And I know you're probably driving or doing dishes,
Speaker:you can't write that down,
Speaker:but try to bury that in your brain somewhere.
Speaker:So, hey,
Speaker:checking in.
Speaker:Liz Wilcox here.
Speaker:Here's something I wanna give you.
Speaker:Again, showing you're invested right up front.
Speaker:I wanna give this to you,
Speaker:by the way,
Speaker:don't forget,
Speaker:I'm Liz Wilcox,
Speaker:as much as I love X I love Y,
Speaker:even more Y being that vision.
Speaker:And then you can,
Speaker:in the Ps,
Speaker:this is where you can set the expectations.
Speaker:PS I'm gonna start emailing my list even more.
Speaker:I'm really excited about it.
Speaker:Here's what's coming up.
Speaker:And then that you set those expectations soon.
Speaker:And I talked about five minutes ago,
Speaker:oh, I'm gonna offer this kind of advice.
Speaker:I'm gonna share these exclusive access things.
Speaker:I'm gonna email you every other Tuesday.
Speaker:I'm gonna offer my products over on my Etsy shop.
Speaker:Whatever's true,
Speaker:I'm gonna go live on Instagram.
Speaker:Right? Just set those expectations and then just start your newsletter
Speaker:from there.
Speaker:Okay? So don't overthink it.
Speaker:And since you're gonna be cleaning your list at some point
Speaker:too, there will be some people who are like,
Speaker:I cared about the product then I don't now.
Speaker:My baby's now five years old.
Speaker:Or you know,
Speaker:whatever relates,
Speaker:Right? And then let them go save the names,
Speaker:as Liz was saying,
Speaker:but just don't be mailing to them anymore.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:again, don't overthink it.
Speaker:But I,
Speaker:there is one topic that I just want some words of
Speaker:wisdom on before we close up here.
Speaker:And that is subject lines,
Speaker:because those I think still are important to trigger people to
Speaker:be interested in opening,
Speaker:but we're all weary cuz there's always people who do the
Speaker:bait and switch in subject lines and things like that.
Speaker:So what would be some tips on what we should be
Speaker:doing for subject lines so that they emails get open and
Speaker:the subject lines are appropriate?
Speaker:Yeah, so write your newsletter first.
Speaker:Write your email first and then look at it and say,
Speaker:okay, if,
Speaker:if I was sending this to Sue,
Speaker:if I was sending this to my friend,
Speaker:what would the subject line be so that they actually open
Speaker:it? Remember,
Speaker:we're trying to make friends and so we're not trying to
Speaker:bait and switch,
Speaker:and of course we wanna create intrigue,
Speaker:but it's,
Speaker:if you have to think literally about Sue,
Speaker:like what would I,
Speaker:if I was emailing this to Sue,
Speaker:what would the subject line be?
Speaker:What would you know?
Speaker:What's the gist of this email that's gonna get Sue's attention
Speaker:that I can put in the subject line?
Speaker:I also directly on my website,
Speaker:it's not even an opt-in,
Speaker:I have a subject line generator.
Speaker:I think it's got like a hundred subject lines.
Speaker:Ooh, I know Sue,
Speaker:you can't see Sue's face,
Speaker:but her eyes just drew really big.
Speaker:Yeah, I always forget it's on there.
Speaker:But you scroll down a couple scrolls and it says,
Speaker:need a subject line and you can just hit that button
Speaker:to your heart's content.
Speaker:So If you ever get confused about your subject line or
Speaker:you're not sure where to even start,
Speaker:I know writing from scratch totally sucks.
Speaker:So you can just go to liz wilcox.com
Speaker:and click that button to your heart's desire.
Speaker:I'm going there today.
Speaker:I told you it's fun over here in Liz Wilcox land.
Speaker:We don't do anything that's difficult.
Speaker:So anything I can do to make life simpler for you,
Speaker:that's what I wanna do.
Speaker:Cause I really believe in the power of email marketing.
Speaker:We totally need to do that.
Speaker:I've always felt,
Speaker:just a couple more comments about subject lines.
Speaker:Yeah, I've always felt like you don't wanna give away everything
Speaker:in the subject line because then there's no reason for people
Speaker:to open.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:So you have to be cautious about that.
Speaker:But you also don't wanna be overly teasey where it feels
Speaker:like, oh,
Speaker:all you're trying to do is annoying.
Speaker:Get me to Open.
Speaker:Like, you know,
Speaker:so there's a fine line between all of that,
Speaker:but that's why we need to use your subject line generator.
Speaker:Absolutely. And for me,
Speaker:it, yeah,
Speaker:you wanna create intrigue,
Speaker:but you don't wanna be annoying.
Speaker:And so just like the content of your email vary the
Speaker:subject line.
Speaker:Sometimes it might be just really practical,
Speaker:Hey, I've got three tips for you today.
Speaker:Other times it might be that intrigued,
Speaker:only open if you're ready for email marketing.
Speaker:Other times it might be sort of lazy,
Speaker:feeling lazy,
Speaker:please open,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:So I mean,
Speaker:it depends on your personality,
Speaker:right? I'm making these up on the fly.
Speaker:That's actually a good one,
Speaker:Nate to laugh today.
Speaker:Please open.
Speaker:Yeah, Somebody write that one to me.
Speaker:I don't wanna forget that one.
Speaker:Yeah, But what about when people include words like sale promotion,
Speaker:three days only it does that land you in the promotion
Speaker:folder versus the primary inbox?
Speaker:Okay, so let's talk about the promotions.
Speaker:If you land in the promotions Gmail,
Speaker:which is what use promotions is actually doing its job,
Speaker:you are a promotional email.
Speaker:The promotions folder is not the spam folder.
Speaker:And so if you land in promotions,
Speaker:that's actually very 100% accurate and you should not worry about
Speaker:it other than it's annoying.
Speaker:Now, most people don't even use promotions folders.
Speaker:Some people do,
Speaker:most people don't.
Speaker:On average,
Speaker:the average Google Mail user does not use the promotions tab.
Speaker:It's that spam we want to avoid.
Speaker:But nowadays,
Speaker:there's so many emails being sent,
Speaker:I think it's,
Speaker:I don't even know,
Speaker:it's like billions of emails.
Speaker:Billions and billions like every month.
Speaker:And so trigger words like flash sale,
Speaker:free discount,
Speaker:there are so many trigger words now that basically there are
Speaker:no trigger words.
Speaker:So don't worry about that.
Speaker:If you are having a sale,
Speaker:put that in the subject line.
Speaker:If you've done everything Sue and I talked about for the
Speaker:last hour,
Speaker:you will land in the inbox,
Speaker:maybe sometimes the promotions,
Speaker:but that's Gmail doing its job.
Speaker:You didn't do anything wrong and you will make money off
Speaker:that sale.
Speaker:Okay? I mean,
Speaker:I've gone into the promotion folder more and more because there's
Speaker:so much good stuff that I want that lands in there.
Speaker:Then I have to swipe it over to my inbox to
Speaker:try and train it that I want it in my primary
Speaker:folder. Yeah,
Speaker:and I think people are learning that over time,
Speaker:but it is frustrating sometimes that we land there.
Speaker:It is frustrating.
Speaker:And email marketing.
Speaker:So we're recording this at the beginning of 2023,
Speaker:mid 2021,
Speaker:apple started to do a lot of things with email marketing
Speaker:that has triggered other companies to change up things.
Speaker:And Google hasn't announced anything but what Sue's talking about,
Speaker:oh, that landed in my promotions when normally it wouldn't be.
Speaker:Obviously Google is changing things behind the scenes and that's business,
Speaker:right? Business is always evolving.
Speaker:The tools we use are always evolving.
Speaker:And so just keep an eye out on it but don't
Speaker:stress about it.
Speaker:And all the more reason to also be doing some social
Speaker:media posts and other things so that you can run into
Speaker:people who are following you in different places so that they
Speaker:do get that email.
Speaker:Absolutely. They remember to look for whatever.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So tell us more about all the goodness that Liz Wilcox
Speaker:offers. You've already talked about a little bit on your website,
Speaker:but what else can you share with us?
Speaker:Yeah, so of course I'm an email marketer.
Speaker:I would love,
Speaker:if you are ready to kind of put all this to
Speaker:action and you need a little help,
Speaker:you can go directly to liz wilcox.com.
Speaker:You can hit the hot pink button in the top right
Speaker:hand corner.
Speaker:You can't miss it.
Speaker:I'm actually gonna give you three newsletter examples,
Speaker:all those things we talked about,
Speaker:investing, being relatable,
Speaker:staying top of mind,
Speaker:getting people to click reply.
Speaker:You're actually gonna get three newsletter examples,
Speaker:samples, templates,
Speaker:you can plug and play them.
Speaker:One to show you how to get people to click.
Speaker:One to show you how to get people to reply,
Speaker:and one to show you how to get people to buy
Speaker:directly from your newsletter.
Speaker:You're also gonna get 52 subject lines,
Speaker:completely four free,
Speaker:that have all garner me over 40% open rate.
Speaker:And if that's not enough,
Speaker:we talked about that welcome sequence.
Speaker:Those are those first bricks you need to lay.
Speaker:I have a four part welcome sequence already written for you,
Speaker:designed to show off your personality,
Speaker:your vision and values.
Speaker:That's all for free.
Speaker:Liz wilcox.com.
Speaker:Hot pink button,
Speaker:you can't miss it.
Speaker:Wow, that's a lot.
Speaker:Liz, We covered a lot today.
Speaker:How can anybody not do that?
Speaker:Super easy,
Speaker:Sue. I need to hire you as my hype man.
Speaker:No, I mean we need these things for sure.
Speaker:So, and then from there we learn more about what you
Speaker:offer and as we go.
Speaker:But the very first thing,
Speaker:cuz I've learned,
Speaker:you always wanna give one call to action,
Speaker:right? So this is the call to action,
Speaker:the pink button.
Speaker:Yeah, hot pink button,
Speaker:baby. Get in there.
Speaker:We've covered so much stuff today and I was actually like,
Speaker:wow, we're covering everything in my freebie.
Speaker:This is awesome.
Speaker:Like I said,
Speaker:five stars,
Speaker:this lady's a great host.
Speaker:Y'all need to rate her right now.
Speaker:We covered a lot.
Speaker:And whenever you are with your email marketing journey,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I wanted my freebie to be able to actually truly help
Speaker:you. I really mean it when I say I want email
Speaker:to work for you.
Speaker:And I love working with Makers because just simple tweaks can
Speaker:make you stand out in a huge way and pay big
Speaker:dividends over the long term.
Speaker:Yeah. And you're showing us that it doesn't have to be
Speaker:hard. Like we need to wipe away these thoughts that we
Speaker:have to spend hours writing emails.
Speaker:You've explained to us how to do it.
Speaker:You're gonna provide us with a lot of direction when we
Speaker:hit that pink button on doing it with examples and everything.
Speaker:You've got subject line generator,
Speaker:like all of that.
Speaker:You've given us everything and what you just said there,
Speaker:you're walking the talk.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you're telling us what you want for us.
Speaker:So you're doing exactly what you teach other people to do,
Speaker:which is incredible.
Speaker:Amazing. This is a fabulous episode.
Speaker:I can't wait to share it with everybody.
Speaker:Liz, thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker:And I can't wait to see what everybody does with email.
Speaker:You've changed our email world.
Speaker:How about that,
Speaker:Liz? Love that.
Speaker:Wow. I hope this conversation has made you feel lighter and
Speaker:excited about revisiting your approach to email.
Speaker:The idea of talking with friends versus customers makes it so
Speaker:much more doable.
Speaker:I also encourage you to take a peek at Liz's website.
Speaker:It reinforces some of the concepts we've talked about here.
Speaker:And you'll find the subject line prompter about halfway down the
Speaker:homepage in a bright yellow box.
Speaker:Plus, take advantage of her freebie offer.
Speaker:That way you'll also get on her list so you can
Speaker:see all the concepts we've talked about today in action.
Speaker:Short of doing it for you,
Speaker:this is everything you need.
Speaker:If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to show support,
Speaker:a rating and review is always fabulous because it helps get
Speaker:the show seen by more makers.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward.
Speaker:And there's another way where you can get something tangible in
Speaker:return for your support too.
Speaker:Visit my merch shop for a wide variety of inspirational items
Speaker:like mugs,
Speaker:journals, water bottles,
Speaker:and more featuring logos,
Speaker:images, and quotes to inspire you throughout your day.
Speaker:Makes a great gift too.
Speaker:And we've just added some new products for the season to
Speaker:the shop.
Speaker:Turnaround is quick and the quality is top notch,
Speaker:nothing but the best for you.
Speaker:Take a look at all the options@giftbizunwrapped.com
Speaker:slash shop.
Speaker:All proceeds from these purchases helps go to offset the cost
Speaker:of producing the show.
Speaker:And now be safe and well,
Speaker:and I'll see you again next time on the Gift Biz
Speaker:Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:I wanna make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook group
Speaker:called Give Biz Breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:I got a really fun post in there that's my favorite
Speaker:of the week,
Speaker:I have to say,
Speaker:where I invite all of you to share what you're doing
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people.
Speaker:And just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week.
Speaker:Without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what?
Speaker:Aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group Gift Biz breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.
