Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- Keep optimizing. Stop being a perfectionist and get your product out there. Then revisit it and use customer feedback to make it better.
- Don't give up when something doesn't work as well as you'd hoped. Keep optimizing it -that's your pathway to great success.
- Listen to your customers. They will direct you to where you should go to make more sales.
Email Marketing Plan Tips
- Why is email marketing important? Because it's the core of your ability to communicate with your customer via a channel YOU control.
- Good email marketing helps you build connections and relationships with your customers.
- You already know how to build a relationship with your customers in person. Email is just an extension of that.
- Email signups and sales are as strong as they were 5 years ago. So email is still a great tool to build your business.
- Give people a compelling reason to sign up for your list. Figure out what's valuable to YOUR customers, rather than what you see others doing.
- Listen to the full episode for tips & ideas to get sign-ups!
- Ask for replies and feedback in your emails to build the relationship and encourage connection. Replies to your emails will improve your deliverability, too. <-- Pro tip!
- Keep your list active so that when you send out important emails (like for the holidays) they remember who you are.
- Don't know what to put in your emails? Tune in for TONS of email ideas!
- Platforms - if what you're using is working for you, don't switch. Only switch if you need something your current platform doesn't do. If you do switch - do it in the off-season, never during the holidays.
- Much more info than can be shared here. Listen to the full episode to get it all!
Resources Mentioned:
Chloe's Contact Links
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedinJoin Our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
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Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 290.
Speaker:Next time they see you at a trade show.
Speaker:They're going to come over because they already know what your
Speaker:new product is.
Speaker:And they know they want to come and see it,
Speaker:buy it,
Speaker:try it on,
Speaker:taste it Attention.
Speaker:Gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers 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 to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:Sue. And as we enter into this month of thankfulness and
Speaker:gratitude, I want to tell you how much you mean to
Speaker:me. I appreciate each note,
Speaker:email and review.
Speaker:I get telling me how this show has helped you either
Speaker:start or add to your business.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you for that.
Speaker:If you've been following me this last month or so,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm super excited about and promoting Facebook shops these days in
Speaker:a big way.
Speaker:Why? Because it's a huge opportunity for you.
Speaker:If you're thinking of turning your hobby or craft into a
Speaker:business, but haven't taken that first step yet,
Speaker:you can start selling your products without having your own website
Speaker:without knowing about shopping carts,
Speaker:shipping methods,
Speaker:or any of the things that typically prevent people from starting.
Speaker:Just think you could begin making money with your handmade products
Speaker:this holiday season.
Speaker:And if you're enjoying that extra income and sharing your products
Speaker:with others,
Speaker:you can expand into a more formal business.
Speaker:Next year,
Speaker:I show you exactly how to do this in my program,
Speaker:set up and sell in Facebook shops.
Speaker:I made the program super affordable.
Speaker:So it's completely doable.
Speaker:You can be up and running within just a few days.
Speaker:I take you not just through the step-by-step on how to
Speaker:get your shop created,
Speaker:but then how to attract people to buy from you.
Speaker:But time is running out to gain traction for the holidays
Speaker:for this year.
Speaker:So stop this podcast.
Speaker:I give you permission and sign up.
Speaker:Now, check out all the details over at gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash Facebook shops.
Speaker:Now, today I am taking you across the pond,
Speaker:as they say to talk with an email marketing expert.
Speaker:Did you know that email signups and sales are as strong
Speaker:today as they were five years ago?
Speaker:I know this gets lost with all the focus on social
Speaker:media and email marketing plan adds strength to your business that
Speaker:on Facebook,
Speaker:Instagram, or any other social media site,
Speaker:simply can't match and make sure to listen all the way
Speaker:through because the final topic we cover is how to create
Speaker:a plan for email marketing.
Speaker:This plan will get you to make a transition,
Speaker:goodbye thinking and hello doing today.
Speaker:It is my pleasure to introduce you to Chloe Thomas of
Speaker:e-commerce master plan.
Speaker:Chloe has been working in direct marketing since 2001.
Speaker:It started with focus on in-store loyalty programs,
Speaker:catalog, mailings,
Speaker:and email marketing.
Speaker:From there,
Speaker:she brought several established mail order businesses into the internet age,
Speaker:launching websites,
Speaker:first ever email campaigns,
Speaker:as well as Google AdWords and affiliate marketing.
Speaker:Following her success there,
Speaker:Chloe transitioned her experience into a marketing agency,
Speaker:all its own.
Speaker:She expanded into B2B marketing and sales and learned more about
Speaker:retail. And e-commerce by working with everyone from wall street retailers
Speaker:to pure play online startups in 2012,
Speaker:Chloe realized her future was in helping e-commerce businesses work out
Speaker:what marketing they should be doing.
Speaker:So e-commerce master plan was born Chloe,
Speaker:welcome to the gift biz on repped podcast.
Speaker:Hello, how are you?
Speaker:I am wonderful.
Speaker:And I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker:And we are going to be talking and diving into email
Speaker:marketing today,
Speaker:which is something that I know will perk up all my
Speaker:listeners ears.
Speaker:So I really appreciate you coming on.
Speaker:It's exciting to be here and I love talking about e-commerce.
Speaker:I love helping people get started.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I'm really looking forward to this.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:I'm going to delay all of that goodness for just a
Speaker:second, because I want to learn a little bit more about
Speaker:you from a different angle.
Speaker:And that is through a motivational candle.
Speaker:This is a creative way that really resonates with all of
Speaker:our listeners.
Speaker:Cause we're all creatives here.
Speaker:So we get to see a little bit of a different
Speaker:side to you,
Speaker:Chloe. So if you were to share with us what a
Speaker:motivational candle would look like by color and quote,
Speaker:that really speaks to you,
Speaker:what would it look like?
Speaker:Okay. So it's going to be two colors.
Speaker:It's going to be pink and it's going to be blue,
Speaker:kind of vertically separates the top half's blue,
Speaker:bottom house pink,
Speaker:and the words on it are going to be keep optimizing,
Speaker:which has been my personal mantra for probably five or six
Speaker:years. Now.
Speaker:It's actually,
Speaker:I don't know you mentioned this,
Speaker:but because you've got a crafting audience,
Speaker:I think I feel I have to,
Speaker:it's actually cross stitched in a design.
Speaker:I've done with a big tree that sits halfway down my
Speaker:staircase. Every time I walked down the stairs,
Speaker:I see keep optimizing and cross stitch on the wall.
Speaker:So I kind of figured this same idea with your candle
Speaker:here. And the reason why is my personal mantra is because
Speaker:it does two things for me,
Speaker:one, it reminds me that nothing's ever finished and you have
Speaker:to keep going back and,
Speaker:and improving.
Speaker:But it also reminds me that nothing's ever perfect.
Speaker:And therefore,
Speaker:at some point you have to put it live.
Speaker:And I am historically awful at trying to make things perfect
Speaker:before I put them live.
Speaker:And as I think everyone listening will know is that that's
Speaker:a route to never really achieving anything.
Speaker:So that was what my candle would be.
Speaker:Yeah. And so true to our audience too,
Speaker:because it's also,
Speaker:you want to keep perfecting what you've made.
Speaker:Just one more little tweak or a little more color there
Speaker:or Oh,
Speaker:the stitch way back.
Speaker:Wasn't quite perfect.
Speaker:So I've got to go fix it.
Speaker:And at some point you just have to say,
Speaker:good enough is good enough.
Speaker:Let's sell this baby.
Speaker:Exactly. And until you put it on sale,
Speaker:until you put it out there,
Speaker:you don't know what the real problems are because it doesn't
Speaker:really matter what you think it matters,
Speaker:what your customers think.
Speaker:And every time you do this and you actually put it
Speaker:out there,
Speaker:you suddenly discover the thing you thought was going to be
Speaker:the best seller nobody wants.
Speaker:And the thing you didn't think was going to be the
Speaker:best seller everybody loves,
Speaker:which is why you've got to put it out there.
Speaker:Cause then you get the feedback that you can use to
Speaker:actually optimize.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:It's really heartbreaking to me.
Speaker:And I'll be curious if you see this,
Speaker:I think you do just by what you were saying is
Speaker:that there's so much time prep time put together,
Speaker:making a lot of product because they just know that this
Speaker:is going to be the big seller or putting up a
Speaker:website. That includes that product,
Speaker:all of the background stuff.
Speaker:And let's face it.
Speaker:Even though tech is always an issue,
Speaker:it's a lot more comfortable to do work behind your desk
Speaker:when it's just you and the work versus getting out there
Speaker:in front of people and actually seeing if it's going to
Speaker:sell. But so to get back to my point,
Speaker:it's so heartbreaking when people spend so much time there and
Speaker:then they actually get to the point of selling and it
Speaker:isn't what anybody wants.
Speaker:Yeah, it's awful.
Speaker:I've got a brand slash client at the moment who is
Speaker:working on launching a site where she's selling her artwork on
Speaker:products. So mugs bags,
Speaker:phone cases being the case in point.
Speaker:So she's licensing her artwork.
Speaker:She's Doing it for her own Shopify store.
Speaker:So her artwork on,
Speaker:I think direct dispatch products,
Speaker:but I haven't got into that bit of it with her,
Speaker:but she emailed me today going,
Speaker:Oh, I'm so close to going live,
Speaker:but I've got a reformer,
Speaker:every picture for all 30 phone case sizes.
Speaker:Like we don't even know which pictures people want to buy
Speaker:yet. Why don't you just do the top three best selling
Speaker:phones and ignore the other 27 covers save two hours of
Speaker:your life.
Speaker:And then if one selling or if a customers are messaging
Speaker:you and going,
Speaker:why can't I get it for my Google nexus?
Speaker:Then you bother to create the one for the Google nexus.
Speaker:But we get this completion,
Speaker:this perfection idea.
Speaker:And it stops us putting it out there.
Speaker:And nine times out of 10,
Speaker:the customers don't care that it's not finished.
Speaker:And the customers will send you in a completely different direction
Speaker:to the one you thought you should be going in any
Speaker:way. So yeah,
Speaker:I see it a lot and it frustrates me too.
Speaker:And I'm going to raise my hand.
Speaker:I've been guilty of doing that too.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Oh, I'm guilty of It as well.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:whether it's online programs or actual products,
Speaker:I think it's just human nature.
Speaker:Once you recognize it,
Speaker:that's the first step to solving it and not doing it.
Speaker:So like I'm really big right now,
Speaker:Chloe on Facebook shops over here,
Speaker:it's a big deal right now in the U S it
Speaker:just came about people can start Facebook shops and test their
Speaker:products there and see to your point.
Speaker:What's actually selling without a lot of investment without building a
Speaker:big website up yet,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:And then once you see what's working,
Speaker:then you take the next step.
Speaker:This is like golden information,
Speaker:right from the top Chloe,
Speaker:I try,
Speaker:I'm equally bad.
Speaker:There's at least two projects I can think of right now
Speaker:that I should have put live by now that I'm procrastinating
Speaker:on. And sometimes my procrastination is just thinking,
Speaker:not even getting anything done.
Speaker:That's why it's written halfway down my stairs and cross stage
Speaker:is so is it every time I walk past a gate?
Speaker:Yes, Chloe,
Speaker:keep optimizing,
Speaker:actually go and get it done.
Speaker:Put it live,
Speaker:see what the feedback is,
Speaker:then improve it.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:let's go.
Speaker:The next time you walk by opera down the stairs.
Speaker:I want you to think of us and our conversation right
Speaker:here. And maybe that'll jolt you to action.
Speaker:That'll be your trigger.
Speaker:Sue says,
Speaker:you're going to feel guilty and do it well.
Speaker:We can always use the little pushes,
Speaker:right? So I think you're talking about with keep optimized.
Speaker:And I just want to add one more point is the
Speaker:perfection is one thing.
Speaker:Remind me,
Speaker:what was the other reason the optimizing One is to stop
Speaker:being a perfectionist and just put it live.
Speaker:And the other one is to remember,
Speaker:to revisit it and make it better because that kind of
Speaker:speaks to that angle where I see this a lot with
Speaker:Facebook ads in particular is someone they spend 10 pounds on
Speaker:a Facebook ad.
Speaker:It doesn't work and they write off Facebook ads forever.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:no, you learn from that.
Speaker:And you reiterate and you try again and you try again.
Speaker:And often you're not going to get great success the first
Speaker:time. But if you keep optimizing it,
Speaker:then that's your pathway to great success.
Speaker:So it's kind of sticking at it,
Speaker:but also getting it live sooner.
Speaker:Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker:And the other thought I wanted to come back to this
Speaker:point, because the other thing I thought of while you were
Speaker:talking about this is the world also continues to change.
Speaker:And so you also have to make sure that your products
Speaker:stay relevant to phone cases like you were talking about when
Speaker:phones go out of style and the sizes aren't available anymore,
Speaker:you need to make sure that you're updating what's available.
Speaker:So people will still want it.
Speaker:It's still saleable.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, let's talk about email marketing.
Speaker:Let's just dive right in here.
Speaker:What role do you feel?
Speaker:Email marketing plays now let's just specifically talk product based businesses
Speaker:here. What role does that play?
Speaker:Because I think a lot of people will say,
Speaker:well, I'm out at craft shows or people walk into my
Speaker:shop. Why do I need email?
Speaker:Wow. It's for so many reasons.
Speaker:But the core of it is it's your ability to communicate
Speaker:with your customer in a marketing channel that you are in
Speaker:control of.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:they can like you on Facebook.
Speaker:Yes. They can follow you on Twitter,
Speaker:Instagram, Pinterest,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:But on each of those platforms,
Speaker:you're at the whim of the algorithm.
Speaker:Whether or not someone actually sees your message,
Speaker:you can't send a message to everyone you're connected to on
Speaker:Facebook and them actually see it.
Speaker:It just doesn't happen when you put up those page posts.
Speaker:But when you send out an email,
Speaker:it gets delivered caveat here,
Speaker:email deliverability,
Speaker:not getting into that today,
Speaker:but basically it all does get delivered to the people who
Speaker:have signed up.
Speaker:So it's your way of communicating with them,
Speaker:telling them what's new,
Speaker:telling them your story,
Speaker:building trust and a relationship with them.
Speaker:So the next time they're in the local mall and they
Speaker:walk past your store.
Speaker:They walk in because they know what's going on.
Speaker:They know more about you.
Speaker:They feel more connected with you.
Speaker:They're not going to walk past your store.
Speaker:They're going to come in next time.
Speaker:They see you at a trade show.
Speaker:They're going to come over because they already know what your
Speaker:new product is.
Speaker:And they know they want to come and see it,
Speaker:buy it,
Speaker:try it on taste step,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:It's really just another touch point and a touch point that
Speaker:you are way more in control of.
Speaker:I would say too,
Speaker:because let's say it's a craft show or a farmer's market.
Speaker:Someone might only go one time,
Speaker:but what if they bought your product and loved it?
Speaker:And then they wanted to know how to get back in
Speaker:touch with you because they want more Exactly.
Speaker:It's giving them a way of connecting with you to find
Speaker:out in.
Speaker:And it could be you're in that situation where they've come
Speaker:in and they've gone,
Speaker:Oh man,
Speaker:I really like that.
Speaker:Have you got it in this side?
Speaker:If you've got it in this color?
Speaker:Yes we do.
Speaker:Normally. But at the moment I'm out of stock,
Speaker:that's then gone.
Speaker:But you can say to them,
Speaker:sign up Tori,
Speaker:my newsletter.
Speaker:And you'll know when it's back in stock.
Speaker:And you'll know when we bring it out in 20 other
Speaker:colors for next year or whatever it is we're doing.
Speaker:So it enables you even for those who aren't yet buying,
Speaker:it enables you to build that relationship and that connection.
Speaker:So as once they're ready to buy,
Speaker:well, actually quite frankly,
Speaker:it accelerates them on being ready to buy because then they
Speaker:feel that connection and that emotional link to you and to
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:Right. And how do you feel?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I know these days when someone wants my email,
Speaker:I'm very reluctant to give it to them because it's like,
Speaker:okay, now I'm going to be getting a ton of emails
Speaker:from you.
Speaker:They're all going to be probably sales emails.
Speaker:I like your product,
Speaker:but I don't like it every week,
Speaker:every day.
Speaker:And I'm trying to keep my inbox manageable.
Speaker:So do you have any clues or tips for us on
Speaker:ways to collect email addresses where people are so interested,
Speaker:they are ready to give it to you?
Speaker:They can't wait to give the address.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:I think first of all,
Speaker:you need to not think that everyone's unwilling to sign up
Speaker:because signup rates are still as strong as they were five
Speaker:years ago,
Speaker:email performance and sales are still as strong as it was
Speaker:five years ago.
Speaker:So I think it's easy to fall into the trap of
Speaker:thinking, this is how I do it.
Speaker:So that's how everyone else does.
Speaker:So people,
Speaker:if they're interested,
Speaker:they're intrigued often email will be the first step before they're
Speaker:willing to give you money.
Speaker:So they give you their email address to see if they
Speaker:can trust you with that before they're willing to give you
Speaker:their money,
Speaker:which obviously is a far more committed point where they start
Speaker:handing over co-taught cash.
Speaker:So I think as though people want to sign up,
Speaker:but then of course,
Speaker:there's lots that we can do to encourage them to sign
Speaker:up. We've got kind of the incentivization side of it.
Speaker:So things like running competitions,
Speaker:we've got 10% off free PMP or free shipping,
Speaker:all these things that we can do to incentivize the signup.
Speaker:But I would always start without the incentive because until you
Speaker:know how many people you can get to sign up when
Speaker:you're just saying,
Speaker:we're going to send you interesting stuff.
Speaker:And I will expand on that shortly.
Speaker:I promise until,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what percentage of people you get to sign up,
Speaker:then you won't know if offering a discount or free shipping
Speaker:or the competition,
Speaker:the cost of that is worth it.
Speaker:Because what you don't want to do is to accidentally give
Speaker:10% off to everyone.
Speaker:When actually just as many people would have signed up.
Speaker:If you hadn't been giving them 10% off,
Speaker:because that 10% of you've sweated and labored over and you
Speaker:deserve quite frankly,
Speaker:Right? It comes right off of your margin.
Speaker:Any promotion you run is always about getting the customer to
Speaker:do what you want them to do as cheaply as possible.
Speaker:And if we don't need to give them 10% off to
Speaker:get our email address,
Speaker:then we shouldn't give them 10% off.
Speaker:You've got to start with a no offer one.
Speaker:And that means giving them a compelling reason to sign up.
Speaker:So often people get hung up on what we see in
Speaker:the info world,
Speaker:which is white papers or PDF downloads and that kind of
Speaker:thing that doesn't work as well in the e-commerce space.
Speaker:What you need to do is you need to think of
Speaker:what's going to be valuable to that person.
Speaker:Why is it they want to buy from you?
Speaker:So it could be,
Speaker:I have a friend who runs a fish business.
Speaker:They're a fish monger,
Speaker:online fish monger,
Speaker:and their email signup has a picture of boss of the
Speaker:business who knows all about fish.
Speaker:So it's immediately got that human connection.
Speaker:Cause right next to the most signup,
Speaker:there's a picture of the fish monger.
Speaker:Then they have little bubbles,
Speaker:which say recipe ideas,
Speaker:because if you're buying fish,
Speaker:you want some ideas of what to do with your fish.
Speaker:It says latest news from our fishermen.
Speaker:So they're going to get that as well.
Speaker:So you just giving them these kind of like little bite-sized
Speaker:bits of what they're going to get.
Speaker:If they sign up,
Speaker:you can also do some call it like monthly or weekly.
Speaker:So you take away that fear that it's going to just
Speaker:fill up the inbox,
Speaker:but then you are obviously committing to only messaging that on
Speaker:that kind of timeframe.
Speaker:So think about the sort of things someone would want to
Speaker:know about from you,
Speaker:the sort of things you're going to be sending them and
Speaker:make that clear around your newsletter sign up.
Speaker:And that can do a huge amount to increase the number
Speaker:of signups you're getting.
Speaker:Yes. And I would also agree that setting the expectation that
Speaker:I'm going to be emailing you weekly or monthly or whatever
Speaker:it is with the enticement like you're talking about.
Speaker:I love that example by the way,
Speaker:because I would sign into that immediately.
Speaker:I'd be so interested and it's not selling it's using their
Speaker:product, but not selling,
Speaker:which I absolutely love.
Speaker:What are the rules though,
Speaker:around when someone ops in don't you have to tell them
Speaker:that they are signing up for regular communication with you.
Speaker:Yes, there are email rules and we need to follow them.
Speaker:We'll get into that right after a word from our sponsor.
Speaker:Yes. It's possible.
Speaker:Increase your sales without adding a single customer.
Speaker:How you ask by offering personalization with your products,
Speaker:wrap the cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,
Speaker:Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or
Speaker:party favors for an extra meaningful touch.
Speaker:Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name
Speaker:or find packaging?
Speaker:That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select
Speaker:to not only our customers willing to pay for these special
Speaker:touches. They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your
Speaker:company and products.
Speaker:You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds,
Speaker:make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to
Speaker:spend money to order yards and yards print words in any
Speaker:language or font,
Speaker:add logos,
Speaker:images, even photos,
Speaker:perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels.
Speaker:To for more information,
Speaker:go to the ribbon print company.com
Speaker:To be aware of whatever the legislation is in the area
Speaker:you're in,
Speaker:which is a complex complex area at the moment.
Speaker:But the rough rule of thumb that everyone seems to be
Speaker:going by is that as long as you make it clear
Speaker:that they're signing up to receive marketing communications from you,
Speaker:which could be a line as simple as sign up to
Speaker:receive our newsletter.
Speaker:It could be text next to it,
Speaker:which just says,
Speaker:by signing up,
Speaker:you will receive marketing communications about our products.
Speaker:If you're going to do it that way,
Speaker:I would add in two very important messages,
Speaker:which encourage people to sign up.
Speaker:One is we will never give your email address to anyone
Speaker:else. And the second one is you can unsubscribe at any
Speaker:time, so they know they're going to be able to access
Speaker:it again.
Speaker:And you should also have a link to your privacy policy
Speaker:close by.
Speaker:And that's mainly based on the European GDPR legislation,
Speaker:but that's very,
Speaker:very similar to what's being rolled out in various parts of
Speaker:the U S as well,
Speaker:Right? So you're setting expectations and then they're also in control
Speaker:of their future.
Speaker:You're not like latching onto them forever if they don't want
Speaker:to be there.
Speaker:I think the other thing I want to bring up and
Speaker:I'm bringing it up because I have been guilty of this
Speaker:myself is if you do some type of a contest or
Speaker:a sweepstakes for a prize,
Speaker:with the goal of collecting email addresses,
Speaker:you want to make sure that that prize is something that
Speaker:relates to your customer longterm.
Speaker:Oh yes.
Speaker:Or else you're going to get potentially thousands.
Speaker:Like I did of email submissions and the majority of them
Speaker:just wanted to win something,
Speaker:but would never really become your customer.
Speaker:Yeah. You definitely don't want to be giving away an Amazon
Speaker:voucher. You want to be giving away one of your product
Speaker:or something very closely aligned to your product.
Speaker:I think even when you do that,
Speaker:you'll still get a lot of people who aren't going to
Speaker:convert. So I think if you're going to competitions are brilliant.
Speaker:I'm not saying anything against competitions,
Speaker:but the other thing I would do as well as making
Speaker:sure that the is your product is I would make sure
Speaker:that you kind of track those respondents separately.
Speaker:So you see how that list performs separately to how the
Speaker:rest of your database performs and that you may be only
Speaker:send it a couple of emails with really big links to
Speaker:unsubscribes. So you encourage those who are never going to buy
Speaker:from you to quite frankly,
Speaker:go away and get off your list.
Speaker:But I'd also make sure that you're sending them really high
Speaker:quality content,
Speaker:those first few messages you send them.
Speaker:So as then,
Speaker:you're giving yourself the best possible opportunity of someone who saw
Speaker:a friend posting free competition,
Speaker:and to now,
Speaker:and they just entered.
Speaker:They then get a series of emails from you to explain
Speaker:who you are,
Speaker:why your product's great,
Speaker:why they should buy from you.
Speaker:So is then they're qualified to make a decision about whether
Speaker:they want to be on your list or not.
Speaker:Okay. I'm going to put myself to a test and you're
Speaker:going to judge me.
Speaker:Okay. Okay.
Speaker:And total truth and total truth.
Speaker:If you want to say,
Speaker:Sue, you are so wrong,
Speaker:then go for it.
Speaker:Okay. So my very favorite is what you said about that.
Speaker:Fishmonger is exchanging an email address for something that relates to
Speaker:your product that is an enhancement to the product.
Speaker:So I like to use the example of,
Speaker:if you sell scarves different ways,
Speaker:you can use your scarves different ways to tie it or
Speaker:how to take care of it or things like that,
Speaker:or candles could be,
Speaker:how do you ensure that you get the most out of
Speaker:your candle as possible or places to put your candle that
Speaker:will affect your mood and you know,
Speaker:who knows what it is,
Speaker:but enhances an add on to the value of purchasing your
Speaker:product. So that's my first favorite thing.
Speaker:My second favorite is offering some type of a discount.
Speaker:When did they purchase?
Speaker:So saying sign up for email marketing,
Speaker:just like what we talked about before,
Speaker:and I'll send you a coupon code off your first purchase.
Speaker:So they're not able to use that discount unless you have
Speaker:the email.
Speaker:So in a way you're paying for the email,
Speaker:but you get them on the list and you get the
Speaker:sale at the same time.
Speaker:What do you think of both of those,
Speaker:Your first example,
Speaker:about 10 ways to tie a scarf?
Speaker:I think I would start off with that one.
Speaker:See what kind of response you get.
Speaker:So how many people who come to your website who come
Speaker:to your store,
Speaker:come to your stand?
Speaker:What percentage of them sign up?
Speaker:I do that for a month and then the next month,
Speaker:the next event,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:I would test the 10% off your first order and see
Speaker:how much of a difference that makes to both the number
Speaker:of people you get signed up.
Speaker:And then the number of people who sign up who then
Speaker:go on to purchase,
Speaker:because quite often that adding the discount,
Speaker:it increases the speed at which someone goes from signing up
Speaker:to buying more than it increases.
Speaker:The number of people who signed up.
Speaker:And if that giving away that discount is worth it to
Speaker:you. And often it is then carry on with it.
Speaker:If it's not,
Speaker:then go back to purely the compelling message.
Speaker:And I think I just wanted to add something else because
Speaker:I thought of something else.
Speaker:When you were saying about that scarf idea,
Speaker:in particular,
Speaker:if, for example,
Speaker:you're selling scarves and you have his five ways to wear
Speaker:our scarf,
Speaker:you could do it as a,
Speaker:rather than as a download or as a single email,
Speaker:as a five email series.
Speaker:So like you're signing up kind of to training.
Speaker:So you get a series of five emails,
Speaker:each of which shows how to tie the score for different
Speaker:way. And then you're able to get in that inbox multiple
Speaker:times with something the person's expecting.
Speaker:And you're able to really go into depth on those five
Speaker:different ways of tying it,
Speaker:which as you said,
Speaker:could work for any product,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:candles, how your candle,
Speaker:the best ways to position a candle in every room of
Speaker:your house,
Speaker:because then you're going to sell more candles.
Speaker:Quite frankly,
Speaker:if you've explained to them how to put it in the
Speaker:downstairs bathroom,
Speaker:how to use it in the garage,
Speaker:how to use it in the kitchen,
Speaker:they're suddenly going to want them all over the house.
Speaker:So there's ways of doing it where you could turn it
Speaker:into kind of almost a newsletter training mechanism to get them
Speaker:to sign up.
Speaker:I like that idea.
Speaker:It also is conditioning them that when they open emails from
Speaker:you, there is something really good inside.
Speaker:So they're starting that repetitive behavior with your emails specifically.
Speaker:Yeah. And it proves that you're going to give them that
Speaker:high quality content,
Speaker:which is highly linked to your product,
Speaker:but it's showing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:your product,
Speaker:you know how people are using it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:the customer,
Speaker:it gives them ways to connect with you.
Speaker:And I keep saying about connection and emotion,
Speaker:and it's one of the most powerful ways to sell.
Speaker:And those of you out there who are making your own
Speaker:products, who are designing your own products,
Speaker:you are better at this than most retailers.
Speaker:This is your,
Speaker:I was gonna say your kryptonite,
Speaker:but it that's completely the wrong metaphor,
Speaker:completely wrong.
Speaker:This is your kind of power is that you already know
Speaker:how to build a personal relationship with your customers because they're
Speaker:coming into your store.
Speaker:You're dealing with them directly on social media.
Speaker:They're coming to your stand at the craft fairs.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:the sort of things they want to hear from you,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:about building relationships,
Speaker:they come back and buy again,
Speaker:email marketing is just another way of doing that.
Speaker:So the more you can put yourself out there and you
Speaker:can give them that great advice that you would give them.
Speaker:If they walked into your store up to your stand,
Speaker:the more you're going to build that relationship virtually to increase
Speaker:the size of your online business.
Speaker:We really need to be thinking about email is just another
Speaker:touch point with our audiences and Chloe,
Speaker:no surprise what's happened this year.
Speaker:Anybody who a hundred percent was relying on brick and mortar
Speaker:for the most part,
Speaker:but then also we have a lot of people here who
Speaker:go just from craft show to craft show,
Speaker:to craft show,
Speaker:especially through the good weather seasons,
Speaker:depending on where they live.
Speaker:We're totally shut down for some time this year.
Speaker:And I had an opportunity a few weeks ago,
Speaker:we have a very,
Speaker:well-known very upscale art show that happens in my community.
Speaker:And I went over there.
Speaker:It was limited spacing,
Speaker:social distancing temperature.
Speaker:When you go in,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like the whole thing,
Speaker:but I was talking to a lot of these artists and
Speaker:they said,
Speaker:yeah, we've never done email before in our life.
Speaker:And we wish we would have been all this time because
Speaker:we wouldn't have lost so much momentum.
Speaker:They had emails from people they had sold to in the
Speaker:past, but not others who were anticipating the next time they
Speaker:saw them at a show or something because it was when
Speaker:all the shows had to go dark.
Speaker:They were stuck.
Speaker:So I think the mentality of email is one layer.
Speaker:Customer contact is a great layer.
Speaker:It gives you way more information to enhance your emails better,
Speaker:but it all works together.
Speaker:It does.
Speaker:And sometimes it can feel with email.
Speaker:Like you're just sending something out into the ether and nothing's
Speaker:happening because on social,
Speaker:you get the likes and the comments and all the rest
Speaker:of it.
Speaker:So you kind of immediately get feedback,
Speaker:but email is still having a big impact.
Speaker:It's still getting people to know,
Speaker:like understand your brand.
Speaker:And if you want to hear back from people,
Speaker:putting your email reply and let me know what you think,
Speaker:let me know what you want more of.
Speaker:So you can,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if you're feeling it's a bit cold,
Speaker:you can easily encourage that two-way comms when you're doing email,
Speaker:just like you would on Facebook or Pinterest,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Yeah. And I've heard that having people reply to your emails
Speaker:increases the deliverability of your emails too.
Speaker:It does.
Speaker:Yeah. So I lost over deliverability earlier.
Speaker:So deliverability is all about getting your email into someone's inbox.
Speaker:So we all have that thing where there's someone,
Speaker:a retailer we like hearing from,
Speaker:and then all of a sudden we thought we haven't seen
Speaker:that emails in a while.
Speaker:And then we check our spam folder and all of a
Speaker:sudden, although he must have gone into the spam folder,
Speaker:that's because their deliverability has decreased.
Speaker:And deliverability is basically based on the reputation of where the
Speaker:black box that your emails are flying out of.
Speaker:If you use trim your MailChimp black box,
Speaker:if you use Klaviyo,
Speaker:the black box at Klaviyo,
Speaker:and that reputation is predominantly based on how people react to
Speaker:your emails,
Speaker:Yours specifically,
Speaker:or your provider,
Speaker:like I use what used to be infusion soft.
Speaker:Now keep,
Speaker:is it their overall reputation or your own reputation as a
Speaker:business using that platform?
Speaker:A mixture of the two,
Speaker:but these days,
Speaker:most of the sending platforms are very good at managing deliverability
Speaker:on your behalf.
Speaker:Because obviously if their deliverability went through the floor,
Speaker:they didn't lose all their customers.
Speaker:So technically speaking,
Speaker:it comes down to the reputation of you and the other
Speaker:people who are sending from the same black box as you,
Speaker:because unless you're a huge company,
Speaker:there'll be multiple people coming out of the same black box
Speaker:and behind the scenes at companies like those we've mentioned.
Speaker:And I haven't double checked that each of them do this,
Speaker:but I'd be very surprised if they don't.
Speaker:They have kind of like a hierarchy of black boxes and
Speaker:the better your sender reputation,
Speaker:yours personally,
Speaker:the better black box you'll end up on.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:And if you're misbehaving a lot,
Speaker:they'll put you on the lower list,
Speaker:which is one of the reasons I said about when you
Speaker:run the big surveys,
Speaker:encourage people to unsubscribe in those first few messages after the
Speaker:competition, sorry,
Speaker:not survey competition,
Speaker:because you want them off your list quickly because otherwise in
Speaker:six months time,
Speaker:they might hit spam because they forgot forgotten.
Speaker:They signed up and that's a really bad sign for your
Speaker:sender reputation.
Speaker:Good signs for your sender reputation are people opening and reading
Speaker:your emails and people replying to you is another great sign
Speaker:for your sender reputation.
Speaker:So that was a very long-winded answer to say yes.
Speaker:Asking people to reply to your emails is a good thing.
Speaker:We're working on getting better at cleaning our lists on a
Speaker:regular basis.
Speaker:I have two different businesses.
Speaker:So we have two separate lists.
Speaker:We've cleaned one.
Speaker:Now we're working on the other one and Oh my gosh,
Speaker:it breaks my heart that I have people on a list.
Speaker:And the number's pretty big who have not opened an email
Speaker:in six months,
Speaker:let's say,
Speaker:but it's in my best interest to get rid of them.
Speaker:Right. I mean,
Speaker:if they didn't open for six months,
Speaker:most likely that they're not being seen is my guests because
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:Chloe. My information is so awesome.
Speaker:If people see it,
Speaker:they're going to open.
Speaker:I'm just kidding.
Speaker:But you're right.
Speaker:It's like you're being a good emailer and you're putting things
Speaker:out there which are interesting.
Speaker:And then not going out there weekly or going up their
Speaker:monthly and they haven't opened in a long time.
Speaker:Then they're probably what I still call emotionally dormant or emotionally
Speaker:unsubscribed. They're just ignoring you every time you come in.
Speaker:What I tend to do with mine is every month or
Speaker:so, I will send something really,
Speaker:really strong out to everyone.
Speaker:So occasionally I run a 99 Pence Kindle book event with
Speaker:a number of different business authors.
Speaker:And I think that's a really strong message that people are
Speaker:probably going to be quite interested in.
Speaker:So that email I'll send out to the whole database that
Speaker:I'm legally allowed to send to.
Speaker:So everyone who has an unsubscribed just to try and reactivate
Speaker:a few of those emotionally dormant,
Speaker:but most of the time,
Speaker:I'm not sending to them.
Speaker:And usually it's going to be,
Speaker:when you do this for the first time,
Speaker:do not be freaked out that it's probably going to be
Speaker:more than 50% of your database,
Speaker:that you're suppressing that's normal and it's okay.
Speaker:They weren't buying,
Speaker:they weren't spending money anyway.
Speaker:Right. And I actually feel like a lot of them aren't
Speaker:seeing, I mean,
Speaker:I'll go into,
Speaker:I use Gmail.
Speaker:So if I go into my promotion folder,
Speaker:there is so much goodness there.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:wait, I want this,
Speaker:I want this,
Speaker:I want this,
Speaker:but I don't go in and look at my promotion folder
Speaker:every day.
Speaker:I forget.
Speaker:And for those of you guys who are listening in,
Speaker:you're using Gmail,
Speaker:go into your promotion folder,
Speaker:you are going to see some gifts there because there are
Speaker:people you want to know about.
Speaker:And the way to fix that is you just move them
Speaker:into your primary folder from your promotion folder And just drag
Speaker:Them over.
Speaker:So I honestly feel like a lot of them just end
Speaker:up there,
Speaker:but this is I guess,
Speaker:all to the point of cleaning and making sure that your
Speaker:list is relatively active.
Speaker:And by saying that,
Speaker:what kind of open rates do you suggest we be looking
Speaker:for? So can I give one last tip on keeping things
Speaker:accept? Oh yes.
Speaker:Because I'm aware that I'm guessing the majority of your audience
Speaker:are quite gift focused businesses.
Speaker:So the end of the year is very,
Speaker:very important for them.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:you should be making those dormant,
Speaker:less suppressing those people who aren't responding to your emails,
Speaker:but do not forget that a lot of your customers are
Speaker:only interested in between September and December of the year,
Speaker:or if you have a great mother's day,
Speaker:they're interested at mother's day time or father's day time or
Speaker:Valentines. So just be aware that you will probably be running
Speaker:a suppression,
Speaker:maybe January,
Speaker:February, March,
Speaker:kind of time when you're out of your core season.
Speaker:But if you listen to what I was saying about emailing
Speaker:everyone, when you've got something big on,
Speaker:don't suppress them in January and not emailing them anything until
Speaker:September, because that's a long gap,
Speaker:which is bad for your deliverability because someone over nine months,
Speaker:someone's probably gonna forgot they've signed up.
Speaker:So if you're going to suppress them,
Speaker:do send them and want to email them all.
Speaker:When Christmas goes live,
Speaker:then make sure you've sent them something maybe every other month
Speaker:in between just to keep them a little bit warm.
Speaker:And just though they can remember who you are when you're
Speaker:doing it,
Speaker:because I'd hate for you to have a sudden drop off
Speaker:in performance in September,
Speaker:because you suddenly email all the people you haven't emailed all
Speaker:year and a load of them hit spam.
Speaker:I would hate for that to happen.
Speaker:So do you keep them a little bit warm through the
Speaker:year if you're going to mail them when you get to
Speaker:Christmas? Excellent point,
Speaker:I'm really glad you added that in.
Speaker:And so what would be the parameters when you're just going
Speaker:to drop them from your list?
Speaker:I would be looking at someone who hasn't like you were
Speaker:saying, hasn't opened in six months.
Speaker:If you're emailing weekly,
Speaker:if you're emailing monthly,
Speaker:I'd probably go as far as nine months.
Speaker:And probably if someone hasn't done anything in three years,
Speaker:I'd probably never do anything actually,
Speaker:probably two years,
Speaker:actually. I wouldn't ever mail them again.
Speaker:Cause you kind of got the soft dormancy and then you've
Speaker:got the hard dormancy.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's really good direction.
Speaker:Now I was mentioning earlier that I use keep and I
Speaker:would not really ever recommend that for anybody who's in the
Speaker:maker, business,
Speaker:selling a product.
Speaker:I just think it's overkill.
Speaker:I use it because I have double companies,
Speaker:just a lot of different reasons I'm using it.
Speaker:What would you suggest?
Speaker:And what would you recommend someone look at as they're analyzing
Speaker:different types of email platforms that are out there?
Speaker:I used to be an Infusionsoft partner many years ago,
Speaker:which obviously was the previous version of keeps.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:I would recommend a retailer to use it,
Speaker:but it's an amazing system.
Speaker:Yeah. Yes it is.
Speaker:I'm too entrenched.
Speaker:That's my thing.
Speaker:Plus, they are working well for me.
Speaker:So I'll go with that.
Speaker:The thing,
Speaker:if it's working well for you,
Speaker:then you should always stick with it only.
Speaker:I think one of the things which can be quite easy
Speaker:with these kinds of tech platforms is you see something exciting
Speaker:and new,
Speaker:and then you spend a huge amount of time and effort
Speaker:migrating to it.
Speaker:But actually there was nothing wrong with the original system just
Speaker:because it's new doesn't mean you should necessarily shift,
Speaker:but that's completely off topic of what I'm supposed to be
Speaker:answering. So platforms I would look at MailChimp is very solid.
Speaker:If all you want to do is send out newsletters and
Speaker:mini welcome campaigns.
Speaker:There's little follow-ups we were talking about with the scarf methods,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:then MailChimp will give you what you want.
Speaker:If you want to take it up a level,
Speaker:then the two platforms I'd take a look at are Omni
Speaker:sand, which is O M N I S E N d.com
Speaker:and Klayvio,
Speaker:which is K L a V I Y O I know
Speaker:there's a V,
Speaker:but they say it,
Speaker:say it clay confusing.
Speaker:Those are the two which will enable you to start with
Speaker:all the right tech in place and all the right stuff
Speaker:you can do.
Speaker:They make it very easy for you to build up your
Speaker:content and your automation,
Speaker:as you become clever at what you're doing.
Speaker:And they also grow with you.
Speaker:So as you can start integrating with your Facebook ads,
Speaker:so you can kind of real time sync your audiences between
Speaker:the two platforms and you can bolt on SMS and push
Speaker:notifications and all kinds of stuff to those two platforms.
Speaker:Those are the two,
Speaker:which I would take a look at if you want to
Speaker:do something more advanced.
Speaker:But if you know,
Speaker:in your heart of hearts,
Speaker:all you're going to do for the time being is,
Speaker:get people signed up and send them a newsletter once a
Speaker:week or once a month.
Speaker:MailChimp, Chimp is going to give you everything you need,
Speaker:depending on your list size.
Speaker:You might be able to get it for free and migrating
Speaker:from MailChimp onto more advanced packages is really straightforward and often
Speaker:they'll do all the work for you.
Speaker:So that shouldn't be too much of a leap for you
Speaker:when you get that.
Speaker:Okay. If someone has been emailing for a while,
Speaker:I know for a long time,
Speaker:the go-to platform was constant contact.
Speaker:Is that an okay platform to just stick with,
Speaker:if you're already up and running with it,
Speaker:or are there things that these others that you suggest?
Speaker:Well, let's just talk MailChimp because I think constant contact and
Speaker:MailChimp are pretty similar.
Speaker:Yeah. Fundamentally,
Speaker:if the platform you're on at the moment is giving you
Speaker:what you need,
Speaker:then don't shift.
Speaker:If you can see something on another platform that you think
Speaker:you could use,
Speaker:that you can't do on the platform you're currently on,
Speaker:and that you think you had a use and B would
Speaker:drive your revenue,
Speaker:then change,
Speaker:or it would save you time,
Speaker:then change,
Speaker:but don't try and find solutions to problems that don't exist.
Speaker:If you've not got a problem,
Speaker:don't shift if constant contact you're on it and it's working
Speaker:for you then awesome stick with constant contact.
Speaker:As I said,
Speaker:pretty much,
Speaker:all of them are very,
Speaker:very good at deliverability.
Speaker:And that is the number one thing you are getting from
Speaker:your email service provider is deliverability.
Speaker:And all of them are great at enabling you to send
Speaker:newsletters and to sign people up.
Speaker:So in the last there's something you're missing that you want
Speaker:to do that you believe will make your business better stick
Speaker:with where you are.
Speaker:And there always is an ability to export all of your
Speaker:contacts if you were ever to move anywhere.
Speaker:So you're not putting time investing in gathering contacts,
Speaker:kind of like on social media,
Speaker:if you're on Facebook and then you get in Facebook jail,
Speaker:and your account is dropped,
Speaker:you lose all of your followers.
Speaker:That's not the same way with email.
Speaker:So I would say,
Speaker:especially this time of year ramping into the holidays,
Speaker:focus on getting more people on your list versus looking at
Speaker:changing to a different method.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:This is not the time of year to be switching to
Speaker:stick for now.
Speaker:And in your off season,
Speaker:that's when you should be looking at right,
Speaker:I've got a week I can spend working on something,
Speaker:I'm researching something.
Speaker:And at that point go,
Speaker:what is the biggest thing that's missing?
Speaker:What's the biggest opportunity or what's the biggest problem to solve.
Speaker:And then focus on that one.
Speaker:Most of the platforms will help you to migrate and they
Speaker:all have really good how tos and all that kind of
Speaker:stuff. So there's some amazing platforms out there.
Speaker:But if all you're doing is sending those newsletters,
Speaker:getting the sign-ups stick with where you are,
Speaker:unless you've got a problem.
Speaker:Okay. So in talking and knowing my audience pretty well,
Speaker:I think they really understand why email could be important,
Speaker:but it's figuring out what to put in those emails.
Speaker:That's the hurdle.
Speaker:I'd be interested in your thinking,
Speaker:what do we do when we don't know what to do
Speaker:or we're uncomfortable?
Speaker:Or we're not sure if we're doing it right.
Speaker:We do nothing.
Speaker:Right? So I think there are a lot of people out
Speaker:there who have started an email list.
Speaker:Maybe it's only their customers.
Speaker:Cause clearly I've emailed us of customers.
Speaker:Hopefully I can't say that guaranteed all the time,
Speaker:but mostly,
Speaker:but they've never really started anything in terms of a consistent
Speaker:plan. What would be the first steps I loved when you
Speaker:said that?
Speaker:Because a couple of years ago I wrote,
Speaker:I think it was 18 ways to break newsletter,
Speaker:broadcast block.
Speaker:So I won't give you all 18 now,
Speaker:but I'll give you the P tenets because it's been a
Speaker:perennial problem as a problem,
Speaker:way back in the early two thousands.
Speaker:When I was sending my first emails,
Speaker:you kind of go,
Speaker:Oh God,
Speaker:what are we going to say this week?
Speaker:And I was like that Monday morning problem.
Speaker:Oh no,
Speaker:I've got to send an email.
Speaker:What am I going to tell people?
Speaker:So my first tip for breaking this blog is to have
Speaker:a promotional calendar.
Speaker:So a spreadsheet,
Speaker:which has the weeks across the top and has your different
Speaker:marketing methods down the left hand side.
Speaker:Okay. So each column is a week and the first row
Speaker:you're going to put in that is what's happening in your
Speaker:business. So if you're going to a craft fair,
Speaker:put that in.
Speaker:If it's,
Speaker:when you're going to launch your Christmas range,
Speaker:put that in.
Speaker:If it's,
Speaker:when you're on holiday,
Speaker:put that in because for smaller businesses,
Speaker:that's really important to go on that calendar.
Speaker:And once you've got the stuff you're doing as a business
Speaker:and add another row and the next row is going to
Speaker:be big things happening in the world that relate to your
Speaker:business. So when Christmas is Valentine's day,
Speaker:father's day,
Speaker:mother's day,
Speaker:international honey lovers day.
Speaker:If there's such a thing and you sell honey anything which
Speaker:relates to your business,
Speaker:which could be something which you want to drive some promotions
Speaker:and drive some sales around.
Speaker:So that gives you kind of the shape of your year.
Speaker:And then the next row is going to be your email
Speaker:marketing, right,
Speaker:where you're going to put in what you're going to talk
Speaker:about each week.
Speaker:And you start off by filling in the big stuff,
Speaker:which is the stuff based on those two rows you've already
Speaker:had. So father's day is big for you.
Speaker:Then bear in mind,
Speaker:you've got to be able to ship it,
Speaker:which obviously if you've got a physical store,
Speaker:you've got a bit longer because people can come in on
Speaker:the day and buy something,
Speaker:but work out what messages you're going to send about father's
Speaker:day. Maybe you're going to do one,
Speaker:which is last minute father's day gifts,
Speaker:or how to buy for the man who has no idea
Speaker:what he wants or the man who has everything and fill
Speaker:those in and do the same for Christmas,
Speaker:for your sale,
Speaker:for your five-year anniversary of being in business,
Speaker:whatever those things are,
Speaker:fill those up.
Speaker:You will probably find that that's half your year filled with
Speaker:email topics.
Speaker:So then we just have the rest of it to fill
Speaker:in. And for this,
Speaker:I would go to,
Speaker:what are your best sellers?
Speaker:What are the key stories that people like from your business?
Speaker:What do people always talk to you about when they come
Speaker:in, do an email about that?
Speaker:What are the best-selling products?
Speaker:What's the story behind your products and just sit down and
Speaker:do a bit of a brainstorm about all the things you'd
Speaker:like to tell someone about your business and then work out
Speaker:where they slot into it.
Speaker:Now, ideally,
Speaker:I'd do this for a full 12 month period,
Speaker:but if you only have the energy to do it for
Speaker:three months,
Speaker:I understand,
Speaker:but that will give you kind of a sketch of what
Speaker:to say in at different points in time.
Speaker:Which means that when you get to Monday like,
Speaker:Oh God,
Speaker:we got to send an email.
Speaker:What are we going to say?
Speaker:You don't have to start off from,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:what am I going to say?
Speaker:You started from going,
Speaker:Oh, look,
Speaker:I wrote down that this week,
Speaker:I should be talking about how we source the yarn for
Speaker:our scarves.
Speaker:And once I know I'm talking about that,
Speaker:then that's going to spark you with some ideas of,
Speaker:Oh yes,
Speaker:we had that picture sent in of the sheep,
Speaker:on the farm X,
Speaker:Y, Z,
Speaker:let's put in the picture of the sheep.
Speaker:Let's talk about the sheep and the yarn and everything.
Speaker:And all of a sudden,
Speaker:it's so much easier because you have that nugget of an
Speaker:idea straight away.
Speaker:So, and I would also keep piece of paper or a
Speaker:Google doc where you write down ideas when they come to
Speaker:you. Because often I certainly find when I'm away from the
Speaker:desk is when I come with my best ideas.
Speaker:And then when I need them,
Speaker:I forgotten where I've written them.
Speaker:So it's just a notepad of email ideas or blog.
Speaker:Post ideas really helps when you've got those moments of block.
Speaker:I would also add,
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:shows that you're going to cause you know,
Speaker:when those are and pictures of being at those shows or
Speaker:making sure that people know in those areas that you're at
Speaker:those shows.
Speaker:So something like that,
Speaker:if they're not in the area,
Speaker:tell them,
Speaker:watch my Facebook.
Speaker:Cause I'll be doing some lives right?
Speaker:From my booth,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I'm thinking you could do exactly.
Speaker:Another point for contact that came to mind as you were
Speaker:talking, is what are people asking you all the time about
Speaker:the product?
Speaker:What are the questions that come in?
Speaker:Those could be separate topic emails also,
Speaker:right? That's perfect.
Speaker:I'm seeing now that you could do like next week,
Speaker:we're going to be at,
Speaker:they show.
Speaker:If you can't make it,
Speaker:blah, blah,
Speaker:blah. If you can X,
Speaker:Y, Z,
Speaker:and put all that information in,
Speaker:then you kind of have a,
Speaker:this week where at where you talk about maybe the key
Speaker:products you're taking with you,
Speaker:or look,
Speaker:we just pack the car.
Speaker:Here's all the great things which are coming with us.
Speaker:And then the week after the event,
Speaker:you can go.
Speaker:We had a great time at this event.
Speaker:This product was really popular link to buy it on the
Speaker:website because we love to know what other people want to
Speaker:buy. Bestsellers are always the more something sells,
Speaker:the more something will sell.
Speaker:If you tell people about it,
Speaker:then you could encompass in that ask this really interesting question.
Speaker:So I thought I'd give you all the answer.
Speaker:That's three whole weeks taking care of for just one event.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:That's brilliant.
Speaker:Yes. I love it.
Speaker:I think one of the plays to one of the problems
Speaker:I think we all have with content is that we go,
Speaker:Oh, there's an event.
Speaker:We'll include it in an email.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:no, an event could be three emails.
Speaker:We often squeeze piece of content down into just one thing.
Speaker:When actually,
Speaker:if you think about it,
Speaker:you can extrapolate out into lots.
Speaker:So this is totally opposite of dieting.
Speaker:You want to expand what you're doing?
Speaker:Kind of like the suggestion that you gave about the tips
Speaker:for scarf time into five emails.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Same type of thing with email.
Speaker:How can you expand the topic further then?
Speaker:Weekly doesn't sound as hard because quite honestly,
Speaker:as you were giving examples and laying out the calendar,
Speaker:I'm thinking people are cringing for weekly.
Speaker:Maybe we should start monthly,
Speaker:but this makes it easier to do weekly.
Speaker:Yeah, it does.
Speaker:How long do the emails need to be?
Speaker:As long as you need to get the message across,
Speaker:which I know is a hideous answer and you'll be going,
Speaker:Oh, that's so annoying.
Speaker:But if you're doing an email,
Speaker:which is we're going to be at this show,
Speaker:then literally headline,
Speaker:we're going to be at this show,
Speaker:picture of show or product or something,
Speaker:details of where the show is.
Speaker:And if you can't make it to the show,
Speaker:make sure you're following us on Facebook.
Speaker:We'll be live streaming.
Speaker:That's quite a short email that doesn't take a lot of
Speaker:content or copy.
Speaker:If your,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:like a banker email for when you can't think of anything
Speaker:else is to just send one,
Speaker:which is our top five best selling products.
Speaker:It will work.
Speaker:And it's really quick and easy to put together.
Speaker:That is actually going to be our top five best-selling products,
Speaker:headline five products with links through to the website.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be long or complicated.
Speaker:And I think if it gets very long,
Speaker:then you're probably better off putting the content on the website
Speaker:as a blog post and then linking people through to the
Speaker:blog and just giving them a taster.
Speaker:Yes. Which is perfect too,
Speaker:because you can,
Speaker:if you're blogging,
Speaker:there's a week right there too.
Speaker:And that I would suggest could be a repetitive email every
Speaker:six, seven months.
Speaker:Yeah. The most popular blog posts on newest blog posts are,
Speaker:have you,
Speaker:what have you missed on the blog?
Speaker:Brilliant ideas for emails,
Speaker:Blog, post rundown,
Speaker:popular sense,
Speaker:this holiday season,
Speaker:most important colors going into the spring.
Speaker:You could just sit down with a group of girlfriends and
Speaker:brainstorm a million things.
Speaker:I think that could be fun.
Speaker:Girls night out where you're brainstorming.
Speaker:You're helping me with my business.
Speaker:Sorry. I'll buy the first round.
Speaker:Something like that.
Speaker:Okay. So this makes sense.
Speaker:So we were talking about blocks.
Speaker:Are there any other blocks that you can help us with
Speaker:just to get us started?
Speaker:But another banker email,
Speaker:which not enough people do,
Speaker:but it's really,
Speaker:really powerful is our top reviewed products.
Speaker:So a bit like the best sellers,
Speaker:but this one you'd have a picture of the product.
Speaker:And then the quote from the person's review.
Speaker:So our five-star products are top rated products and that is
Speaker:a really easy email to put together.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there's no thought involved at all.
Speaker:Yeah. And so much easier when the words are coming from
Speaker:somebody else and so much more believable,
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:Exactly. That's another really simple banker go on to Google analytics.
Speaker:Look at your top blog posts.
Speaker:Look at the products that people are at the categories that
Speaker:people are looking at.
Speaker:All of that can give you ideas.
Speaker:Like what people have been talking about on Twitter or Pinterest,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Talk about something cool.
Speaker:That's been going on on social media,
Speaker:which will increase the number of people.
Speaker:Sign up to your social media.
Speaker:There's infinite ways of doing it.
Speaker:You've just got to kind of think there's almost about thinking
Speaker:the entire time.
Speaker:Would this make an email?
Speaker:Yeah. I want to say the overall consensus is calm,
Speaker:friendly. I'm starting to get,
Speaker:not like the word authentic because everyone uses it already,
Speaker:but you don't have to look all button tied up professional
Speaker:with every single email.
Speaker:Like one email might be,
Speaker:you're not going to believe what happened in the workroom this
Speaker:week. Yeah,
Speaker:exactly. And some like major fail,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:The customers will really respond to the love that kind of
Speaker:behind the scenes feeling like they're in the inner circle,
Speaker:super, super powerful stuff.
Speaker:It's something which we all don't do enough of in our
Speaker:businesses is let people in to see what's really going on.
Speaker:And it's something which someone producing their own products in this
Speaker:space. There's I said earlier,
Speaker:this is what you have ahead of all the other retailers.
Speaker:Is that humanity to the business.
Speaker:Yeah. The other thing that I'm thinking for emails,
Speaker:we're just like shooting off bunches of ideas right now,
Speaker:brainstorming, right.
Speaker:Is when people get on your list,
Speaker:if they feel like they're treated as a special group,
Speaker:so maybe they get to see the first new line that's
Speaker:coming out.
Speaker:Or if you're doing some type of a limited collection,
Speaker:they get to see it first.
Speaker:I have the best opportunity to get it before it's all
Speaker:gone. Things like that,
Speaker:that information then can be delivered in an email.
Speaker:Definitely. And actually you can even take it to the level
Speaker:before, which is share with them.
Speaker:Pictures of your mock-ups,
Speaker:your test products and go with thinking of doing one of
Speaker:these for Christmas.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:Or we're thinking of doing this,
Speaker:but we're not sure whether it's doing green or blue,
Speaker:which color would you like and get them almost a vote
Speaker:and define what your new products are.
Speaker:That's a great way of getting them involved.
Speaker:Yeah. And if they reply to your email,
Speaker:then that's going to help with your deliverability.
Speaker:Exactly. And neuroscience tells us that if someone's been involved in
Speaker:the creation of something,
Speaker:they're more likely to buy it.
Speaker:So then they vote for the green one.
Speaker:Then when the green one's ready,
Speaker:you email them and go,
Speaker:you selected and here is the product.
Speaker:You emailed the whole list and go due to your votes.
Speaker:We did the green one.
Speaker:It's now available to buy,
Speaker:get it today,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:And I thought of another idea that I really should have
Speaker:mentioned earlier,
Speaker:which is you should have an inbox,
Speaker:not your normal inbox,
Speaker:another email inbox,
Speaker:where you sign up to other people selling similar product to
Speaker:you. So as when you stuck for ideas or when you're
Speaker:come at trying to come up with ideas,
Speaker:you can go into it and you can just scroll through
Speaker:all your competitor's emails and what they're up to and what
Speaker:they're doing.
Speaker:Or other people who are marketing to a similar customer group
Speaker:or people whose emails you just think are really,
Speaker:really creative.
Speaker:And that will give you a huge bank of resources to
Speaker:look at an ideas when you need it,
Speaker:don't do it in your own inbox or it would just
Speaker:become overwhelming.
Speaker:So do it on a separate one,
Speaker:Right? So that's just competitive research.
Speaker:Yes. You're giving us permission.
Speaker:It's not cheating or anything because you're going to add your
Speaker:own spin to it.
Speaker:Right. You're not going to totally copy,
Speaker:but you're going to get inspiration.
Speaker:Add your own spin.
Speaker:It's just triggering ideas if you will.
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker:I love,
Speaker:love, love that example.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Wonderful. So here's what we need to do is we need
Speaker:to keep optimizing wherever we are right now.
Speaker:We need to think about advancing our email strategy.
Speaker:So if you haven't started,
Speaker:it's time to start.
Speaker:We've talked about the platforms you can use.
Speaker:We've talked about how to attract people in so that they
Speaker:will share their email with you.
Speaker:And we've talked about how to put together a calendar and
Speaker:millions of options.
Speaker:Well, maybe not millions,
Speaker:but lots of options on topics and content that you can
Speaker:do for email.
Speaker:And they don't have to be long either.
Speaker:And you can schedule them out in advance,
Speaker:right? Just like you can do the calendar,
Speaker:you can schedule them out in advance.
Speaker:Yes you can.
Speaker:So maybe how would you direct people that you're working with
Speaker:Chloe? Would you suggest maybe?
Speaker:Well, I'm thinking of like five things at a time,
Speaker:which is why I haven't started reading.
Speaker:But one thing you could do is just say,
Speaker:one day a month is going to be to do your
Speaker:four emails or whether it's you or someone else on your
Speaker:team. Who's doing them Monday afternoon,
Speaker:first week of the month,
Speaker:we're doing all of our emails.
Speaker:Or you could also do a mass take,
Speaker:not a hundred percent of your week.
Speaker:I get it.
Speaker:But like all the holidays,
Speaker:you already know the things that are already set to go,
Speaker:just schedule those in.
Speaker:So that I would say maybe a good quarter of the
Speaker:calendar could already be done if you really blacked off time.
Speaker:Like the slow period,
Speaker:that kind of thing.
Speaker:When you're not tired and recovering from the holidays a little
Speaker:bit after that Completely.
Speaker:And even if it's something like we were saying about the
Speaker:example where you have,
Speaker:you've been to the event and you're going to do like
Speaker:an email after the cross show to say what happened and
Speaker:the key things you can set up,
Speaker:probably 30% of that email before you even go to the
Speaker:show. And then when you get back from the show,
Speaker:when there's a whole load of stuff to do the week
Speaker:after a show,
Speaker:unpacking, fulfilling other orders,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:catching up with everything you didn't do last year at the
Speaker:show. So you reducing the workload that email by 30% a
Speaker:makes it quicker to finish it and get it out.
Speaker:But it also makes it less daunting.
Speaker:Finishing an email feels so much less hard work than starting
Speaker:an email,
Speaker:Right? For sure.
Speaker:So all of this sounds really doable.
Speaker:And apart from overall sales,
Speaker:which I guess would be the obvious trigger,
Speaker:how do we know if we're doing well with our email
Speaker:marketing? Do you want to keep it The look on your
Speaker:open rates and your click rates?
Speaker:So the open rates is the number of people who received
Speaker:it, who opened,
Speaker:which I don't like to give benchmarks because I think you'll
Speaker:be a real benchmark for these numbers is against how it's
Speaker:worked in the past for you.
Speaker:Because if you've only started recruiting,
Speaker:getting people to sign up to your emails in the last
Speaker:three months,
Speaker:you're going to have a much higher open rate than someone
Speaker:who's got three years worth of data sat there.
Speaker:So it's all about seeing how it performed versus your last
Speaker:week versus the other weeks you've done.
Speaker:And then you get an idea of what subjects work.
Speaker:So keep an eye on the open rates broadly.
Speaker:They should be somewhere North of 20%.
Speaker:If you're over 30% congrats,
Speaker:you're doing really well,
Speaker:but you've got to really engage list.
Speaker:Then you'll click rates are the percentage of the people who
Speaker:opened, who then went through to the website because obviously the
Speaker:point of these emails is to get people to your website.
Speaker:And that,
Speaker:again, you're looking somewhere North of 15% is good,
Speaker:but I'm double check what percentage you're looking at,
Speaker:because sometimes you might be looking at a click rate that's
Speaker:as a percentage of the number you sent.
Speaker:And what I'm talking about is as a percentage of the
Speaker:number of people who opened.
Speaker:So if you look at it,
Speaker:it looks terribly small.
Speaker:You're probably looking at the percentage of scent,
Speaker:not the percentage of opened.
Speaker:Okay. Which is one final,
Speaker:very important point,
Speaker:which is there should be some type of call to action
Speaker:or ability for people to get over to your website in
Speaker:every single email.
Speaker:Yes. But not necessarily promoting your products in every single email.
Speaker:No, you're not necessarily putting the product in and saying buy
Speaker:this, but you want to make sure there's links through.
Speaker:So as if someone's inspired,
Speaker:they want to go and have a look around.
Speaker:Yeah. It could even be something like,
Speaker:see more about company name with the link,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:Okay. Wonderful.
Speaker:This has been so helpful.
Speaker:So many ideas.
Speaker:I love that we just guide into all of these multiple
Speaker:brainstorming ideas.
Speaker:Cause some will resonate more with one group than another.
Speaker:Yeah. You've definitely given some great content ideas too,
Speaker:which like we've talked about is often the stumbling block.
Speaker:So thank you so,
Speaker:so much for all of this conversation and letting us pick
Speaker:your brain here with that.
Speaker:My pleasure.
Speaker:Will you share with us a little,
Speaker:A bit more about what is encompassed under all of your
Speaker:e-commerce master plan?
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:an evolving feast is e-commerce master plan.
Speaker:I think that you will find all of what I'm about
Speaker:to mention our e-commerce master plan.com.
Speaker:So it's the best place to go.
Speaker:So we now have two podcasts because one just wasn't enough.
Speaker:One. I interview a retailer every week it's called the e-commerce
Speaker:most planned podcast been going for five years.
Speaker:It astounds me how many people listen every week.
Speaker:It's so cool that I get to help.
Speaker:So many people improve their businesses and we just share retailer
Speaker:stories. So everyone from huge businesses like Tesco and Yandy,
Speaker:right? The way through to startups,
Speaker:it's always something interesting and inspiring in that.
Speaker:And then the other podcast is the new one that's called
Speaker:keep optimizing.
Speaker:Can you tell where I got the name and that one
Speaker:each month we focus on a different marketing method.
Speaker:So we get deep into it.
Speaker:So it might be SEO.
Speaker:It might be Google ads,
Speaker:Facebook ads,
Speaker:content, email,
Speaker:and each week I speak to a different expert on that
Speaker:topic. And then I've also written a number of books on
Speaker:e-commerce the most recent one of which and the one which
Speaker:most clearly ties into what we've been talking about today.
Speaker:It's called e-commerce marketing.
Speaker:How to get traffic that buys to your website and it's
Speaker:on Amazon as paperback ebook.
Speaker:So Kendall ebook and all the audio book.
Speaker:I nearly forgot how to say,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:so that's what I'm up to.
Speaker:Wonderful. So loads of resources available to over there.
Speaker:So make sure if you're interested,
Speaker:jump over to e-commerce master plan,
Speaker:we'll have the links in the show notes.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Now, Chloe,
Speaker:I'm going to put you a little bit in the future
Speaker:here. You'd reference that you have a few things as you're
Speaker:walking up and down your stairs that are in the back
Speaker:of your mind of things that you need to do,
Speaker:what would you be willing to share with us?
Speaker:Where are you going in the future?
Speaker:Wow. So the biggest thing I'm working on at the moment
Speaker:is I am trying to stop doing any client work because
Speaker:I've kind of been moving away from being a consultant and
Speaker:towards being an advisor.
Speaker:And so the big project at the moment is for 2021
Speaker:for me to not do any client work.
Speaker:So I'm trying to find a way which enables me to
Speaker:still help retailers who need that one-on-one help,
Speaker:but without me actually having to do it.
Speaker:And that's the thing,
Speaker:when you're in the shower,
Speaker:you've gone for a walk.
Speaker:That's the thing that's buzzing around in my subconscious.
Speaker:Well, so you're ramping down one area and ramping up another
Speaker:area. It sounds like,
Speaker:Yeah, that's the theory.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Ask me in 12 months if it's worth Well,
Speaker:you've got to have the vision before it can happen.
Speaker:So I would say you're on the right track there You
Speaker:do. And I suspect what I start with in January will
Speaker:be completely different to what I'm doing to solve the problem.
Speaker:And don't take it because I still want to help retailers,
Speaker:but I don't have the bandwidth to do it as well
Speaker:as I know it could be done by other people,
Speaker:but it's how to put those links together.
Speaker:Best of luck to that.
Speaker:And thank you once again,
Speaker:so much for sharing all of this fabulous information with us
Speaker:today, I really appreciate having you on My pleasure.
Speaker:It's been great hanging out with UCO and I hope it's
Speaker:helped everybody.
Speaker:You can't see me here,
Speaker:but I'm jumping up and down with delight at what a
Speaker:fabulous conversation this was.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I can't even count how many great ideas we covered for
Speaker:email content and we all know it to be true.
Speaker:The hardest thing to do is to come up with what
Speaker:to say in our emails.
Speaker:Now you have topics galore next week.
Speaker:We'll hear from a long-time business owner who almost shut down.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:she fell out of love with her business,
Speaker:but catch this because of one very difficult client,
Speaker:you'll hear how she reignited her flame to come back stronger
Speaker:than ever for.
Speaker:Now, thanks so much for spending with me today.
Speaker:If you'd like to show support for the podcast,
Speaker:please leave a rating and review.
Speaker:That means so much to me and helps the show get
Speaker:seen by other makers,
Speaker:a great way to pay it forward.
Speaker:Be safe and well.
Speaker:And I'll see you next week on the gift biz on
Speaker:wrapped podcast.
Speaker:I just,
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite posts every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what,
Speaker:aren't you part of the group already,
Speaker:if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search
Speaker:for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.
