Your launch emails might not actually be the reason your launch isn’t converting.

In fact, the real problem may have started weeks before you ever opened the cart.

In this episode of Growing a Deeply Rooted Business, Jess and Rachel continue the launch series by breaking down four common email marketing mistakes that can quietly derail a launch—and what to do instead. From choosing the wrong lead magnet to skipping your ramp-up emails, sending the same message to everyone, and forcing subscribers to choose between enduring your promotion or unsubscribing completely, we’re digging into the decisions that happen before the sales emails go out.

You’ll learn how to create a more intentional email strategy that attracts the right people, moves them through the awareness journey, personalizes their experience, and protects the relationship you’ve built with your list.

In This Episode, We Cover

• Strategic lead magnets that attract the right audience
• Pre-launch emails that prime people to buy
• Smarter segmentation for more personalized messaging
• Tracking subscriber behavior for better launch decisions
• Ethical promo opt-outs that protect your email list

Resources Mentioned

• Aligned Leads Formula - Our framework for creating a lead magnet that attracts the right audience and connects naturally to your offer: https://gal-agency.com/aligned

Meet Your Hosts

Jessica Walther is the founder and CEO of The Launch Collaborative and Sustainable Success Systems. As a launch strategist and systems consultant, Jess is dedicated to helping solo business owners and small-but-mighty teams build businesses that deliver both peace and profit. She specializes in creating sustainable growth strategies that align with her clients' values and lifestyles.

Rachel Lopez is the founder and CEO of Gal Marketing Agency, a boutique email marketing and strategy firm. With over a decade of experience, Rachel helps heart-driven entrepreneurs craft intentional marketing strategies that attract, nurture, and convert leads sustainably. Her human-first approach ensures that marketing efforts feel authentic and effective .

Together, Jess and Rachel blend systems, storytelling, and soulful strategy to help you grow a business that's deeply aligned with your life—not just your revenue goals.

Connect With Us:

• Jess Website
• Rachel's Website

Hang Out & Say Hi!

• Deeply Rooted Business Instagram
• Jess Instagram
• Rachel's Instagram

Email marketing and launching typically go hand in

2

hand, but it's more than just sales

emails that you have to plan for.

3

We have our ramp-up emails, promotional

emails, segmentation emails, and then we

4

finally get into the launch sales emails.

5

And what we typically see over and

over is that launches usually don't

6

fall apart at the sales emails.

7

They fall apart in everything

that was supposed to happen before

8

those particular ones which is

why the postmortem always ends up

9

pointing you in the wrong direction.

10

The offer was wrong, the price was

wrong, and the copy didn't hit, and

11

it's usually none of those directly.

12

It's the four decisions that got

made weeks earlier, and every

13

one of them looked like the

efficient choice at the time.

14

Reuse the freebie that you have, skip

those kind of extra emails plugged in,

15

send to everyone just in case, and cross

your fingers that everything goes to plan.

16

Every one of those decisions

cost you more than what it saves.

17

So today, we're gonna be walking

through the four mistakes and what

18

to do instead when it comes to

launching in your email marketing.

19

Jessica: But before we get into it,

welcome back to another episode of

20

Growing a Deeply Rooted Business podcast.

21

I am Jess, your sustainable systems

growth wizard, and I'm here with

22

Rachel, our marketing mastermind.

23

This is part of a launch series that

we're doing, so if you're just tuning

24

in for the first time, make sure

that you go back and listen, because

25

they are all building on each other.

26

Now, before we get into talking about

all the mistakes that you might be making

27

with your emails, let's take a deep

breath, ground ourselves, because Rachel

28

just listed a lot of freaking emails.

29

But they all have a very specific purpose.

30

We're gonna make sure that

you know what that purpose is.

31

So take a deep breath

32

And then exhale.

33

All right, so Let's get

into mistake number one.

34

This is one of those ones where you think

you're saving time and being efficient,

35

which is pointing traffic at whatever

kind of random freebie you already have

36

lying around, when actually we should

be more strategic with our freebie if

37

we're gonna spend our time promoting it.

38

Correct, Rachel?

39

Rachel: This is one I see far too often.

40

Or even just making a freebie that doesn't

really have much to do with your launch.

41

We really wanna make sure that the

damage that's done isn't monumental

42

to your audience and to your target

audience, 'cause this is really what's

43

building the momentum for your launch.

44

So if you're reusing a freebie, the

reason why this stuff doesn't necessarily

45

work is because if it is not structured

to talk to your specific ideal client

46

or this particular pain point that your

offer is serving from the launch, then

47

it's just gonna inflate your numbers

and I honestly think it gives false

48

confidence, going into a launch when as

soon as you hit open cart and nobody opens

49

and nobody clicks because they weren't

necessarily the primed audience for it.

50

It's just like god, dagger to the heart.

51

So when you wanna make sure that

you're building a new lead magnet,

52

it's gonna be aligned, right?

53

You've heard us talk about our

Aligned Leads formula constantly.

54

You have to look at the pain

point, the target audience.

55

You have to make sure it filters

your exact audience that you want

56

to be primed for this launch.

57

And then just a random one

together, Oh my gosh, I've been

58

in lead magnet heaven right now.

59

I'll say heaven 'cause I love it.

60

Where I'm combing through and

auditing these old ones that people

61

were using for their launches, and

the little light bulbs of ah, yeah,

62

No wonder your first launch didn't

work because this was not even targeted

63

or speaking to the right people.

64

Jessica: I actually hate the word freebie,

and I hate that it's used in this context,

65

and what it actually is, is a lead magnet.

66

And I think when you use that word,

it makes it so much clearer in

67

what that thing is supposed to do.

68

Where a freebie could just be

something random for free that

69

you give away that may be useful

but has no job in your business.

70

We always talk about giving your

content a job, and a lead magnet is

71

just another piece of content that

needs to have a job in your business.

72

And your job is to lead, magnetize,

and then lead people to your offer.

73

So that means you need to be starting

backwards from your offer and figuring

74

out what needs to happen in that leading

section, and then what can you put out

75

there that would magnetize the right

people for that specific offer to it

76

Rachel: Yeah, and I think you

can go the entire opposite side

77

of this where you're building

multiple lead magnets for a launch.

78

Don't do that.

79

You wanna make sure that when you

are doing this, you can answer two

80

questions: who are you trying to

attract with this, and what is it that

81

you want them to believe once they've

your welcome sequence, your PDF,

82

your guide, whatever the case may be.

83

Because if your lead magnet doesn't, not

answer those two specific questions or

84

if you can't answer those two specific

questions, you probably should go back

85

to the ideation phase and really try

to rework it so that you're building

86

backwards from the launch versus

just trying to get something out.

87

Jessica: Moving on to mistake number two

is I think maybe planning just to send

88

sales emails or putting overemphasis on

your sales emails and leaving a bunch of

89

holes leading up to your cart open event

90

Rachel: Yeah I think the thing that so

many people forget is that ramp-up stage.

91

It's really trying to get the little

antennas of interest going for the

92

people who have a particular problem.

93

I hope everybody hears this, everybody

is not paying attention at the same time.

94

So that ramp-up stage of really trying

to pique people's interest isn't just

95

one email, and it's not just two emails.

96

It's a consistent effort, like we

talked about in the timeline episode

97

before this, to make sure that you're

shaking loose the people who weren't

98

necessarily paying attention but have

this problem, and to start capturing

99

their attention more intentionally.

100

typically, what happens is

when you operate without this

101

ramp-up stage, when somebody's

coming and reading "Cart's open.

102

Enroll now."

103

They're thinking, "Wait, what?"

104

And they're trying to educate

themselves from problem-aware to

105

solution-aware those sales emails.

106

When those sales emails should

be ready to navigate the

107

solution-aware persons', objections.

108

They should be the ones

saying and validating that

109

this is the right decision.

110

It should not be educating that

person's pain point, 'cause that's

111

all before that open cart happens.

112

So when you're jumping straight to sales

emails, you have a whole gap in the

113

awareness cycle that you really should

be speaking to, whether that's a live

114

workshop, a live class, a challenge,

something like that, that kind of

115

gets them up to speed a lot faster.

116

Jessica: Yeah.

117

And I think another critical mistake

people make, especially when they're doing

118

live event launches, is forgetting about

the emails that come between registration

119

of event and the actual live event.

120

What I'll see a lot of people

do is just do straight, like,

121

"Confirmed, see you there.

122

Reminder, happening in a week.

123

Reminder, happening in two days.

124

Reminder, we're starting now."

125

But those emails aren't doing

anything other than reminding,

126

and I think that's a miss because

you've got these people's attention,

127

they're registered for your event.

128

Now, what do you need to do between

this time and your live event where

129

you know you're gonna pitch their

offer to keep moving them up that

130

ladder so that when you pitch your

offer, they know, "Oh, this is me.

131

I'm ready."

132

And the only thing you may have

to be doing in your sales is just

133

overcoming any other objections.

134

But you should be using those reminders

to prime, nurture, and then make sure that

135

they show up to your live event as well.

136

Rachel: Yeah, and if that person

signs up the day you start promo-ing,

137

and then doesn't hear from you until

two days before with reminders,

138

you've lost a lot of that momentum.

139

Sure, they're still probably paying

attention on social, but you really

140

do want to just think of all of

the elements of getting sticky.

141

And I do say this in the sense

that I know, I'm very aware.

142

I had somebody tell me straight to my

face, they said, "Nobody gets excited

143

when they get an email," or, "Nobody feels

special when they get an email," because

144

we were planning a segmented section.

145

I said, "Ouch, Yes, they

do when you do it right."

146

So you wanna hold that thing at the

top of your head being like, " How do

147

I make these people who have taken a

specific action with me feel a little

148

bit more special or feel a little bit

more educated or still involved after

149

they've done what I've asked them to do?"

150

And so I think that's the mentality

you wanna go into, which is why

151

in the two episodes back when we

were talking about the ops and the

152

planning aspect of it, these are the

conversations you should be having then.

153

You don't wanna be having, I wrote

my promo email, I'm gonna hit send,"

154

and then thinking about, "Oh, what

are the other emails I need to do?"

155

Because then you are gonna overwhelm

yourself thinking or you will say,

156

"I'm gonna not do that because that's

gonna take away too much time."

157

So when you give yourself that proper

planning window to map out all of the

158

touch points, you are gonna have a much

more successful launch because it's that

159

much more intentional And less stressful.

160

Jessica: Especially if you're running

cold ad traffic, what do we say?

161

The 18 to 24 touch points.

162

If you're not really emailing them or

using those touch points in between

163

registration and live event properly,

that is a big opportunity for you to

164

get lots and lots of touch points in.

165

I've seen people do pre workshop sessions

to help shift some of those beliefs or get

166

them a little further along, or sending

resources beforehand, or journaling,

167

or reflection prompts, or sending them

to different podcasts or blogs that

168

you've written that may be adjacent.

169

All of that is opportunity to get in front

of them again and just continue to build

170

your expertise, continue to build their

problem awareness so that once you're

171

ready to pitch their offer, they are

more than ready and willing to listen.

172

Rachel: Which brings us to mistake

number three, which is something, oh

173

my gosh, I wish every single time I've

had pushback on this one mistake is I

174

would be a millionaire and I could

retire by now, which is wanting to email

175

everyone because you're just scared.

176

You're having FOMO that you're gonna

miss a sale if you exclude anybody.

177

And while segmentation isn't

just exclusion, it is also

178

just bucketing differently.

179

I think this is the one where there's

so much emotion attached to it because

180

you're sitting there and you're trying

to be like, "It's a numbers game, right?

181

I need to hit this many people."

182

And when I'm over here telling you,

"We should not send to these people.

183

We should actually do this over here.

184

Red flag, red flag, red flag."

185

We wanna ease that because we wanna make

sure that you're taking into consideration

186

some of the things that you can be

little bit more intentional about, right?

187

Like excluding past customers,

people that have already taken this

188

action that don't need to see you

discounting it or promo-ing it when

189

they've already taken that action.

190

Not only is that gonna affect

your click rate, but you're

191

probably gonna annoy them.

192

And you want them to stick

around and be engaged.

193

I have a client right now who has

a membership, so past clients or

194

past people from this membership get

targeted significantly different than

195

the people who have never been members.

196

You wanna engage or segment out people

where you talk to them very different and

197

say, "Hey, come back and do this and take

this action," versus "First time here?

198

Cool.

199

Let's hang out," blah, blah, blah.

200

Two very different messages, but it's

still really important to just think about

201

the conversation that you would have.

202

And I honestly think it's

a lo t smarter when…

203

you wouldn't just walk into a

room and have the exact same

204

conversation with everybody.

205

You would want to customize it in

the tools that you have available.

206

Jessica: Yeah.

207

My launch client, who I reference

all the time, we're actually

208

in the midst of planning.

209

Their second launch of the year, we

don't know if it's gonna be another three

210

million, but it's gonna be some of it.

211

We'll see how it goes.

212

But basically, since our past

launch, one of the opportunities

213

we recognized was, this client had

previously just done a lot of cold ads.

214

His strategy was cold ads right before

the launch for two weeks, spend 250K,

215

get people to a five-day master class

day and night, and then to a two-day

216

boot camp and convert, which is great

if you have nerves of freaking steel

217

because that's a lot of money going out

that you're depending on to convert.

218

So one of the things we did after

last launch was to start not just

219

waiting till right before the launch

to build the list and build the ad.

220

We've been doing some prayer calls,

weekly master classes now we've got this

221

list that's here from the past launch.

222

We've got these people that have been

coming in through prayer calls who are

223

really at the top of that awareness funnel

as far as the offer we're trying to sell,

224

and then we have a master class that's

very much more targeted to almost being,

225

solution aware, program aware to them.

226

So we've got all these people that

we've been running ads to in different

227

ways, and if we sent one email

and to talk to all of them at the

228

same time, it wouldn't hit at all.

229

But because we know and because we have

them segmented of where they came in

230

or what they've been attending, we can

actually sit there and write different

231

emails based on where we know they are

and where we need to get them to in

232

order to be able to convert at that time.

233

So I hope that makes sense of

just seeing it tactical in action.

234

And then another way that we do is

once we get them to register for this

235

boot camp, we have them take a little

survey that will also help us bucket

236

them into what particular season of

life they're in, so then when our sales

237

emails start to fire, we can segment

them that way and be very much more

238

specific when we're talking about pain

points and desires based on what we know

239

and they've told us in their survey.

240

So It ends up being a whole crap ton of

emails, which is why we have to have a

241

whole person dedicated just to writing

these emails for us, but they end up

242

converting better because they're doing

a more specific job, and we're not trying

243

to talk to everyone the same exact way.

244

Rachel: Yeah.

245

And even if one, I'm sure

everybody listening to this is

246

like, "Uh, y'all are delusional.

247

We're not writing a

bazillion different emails."

248

Just the tech side of it too.

249

If you decide you don't want to go the

segmentation route, at least plan the

250

tech side so you're tagging behaviors

so that when you're at the end of

251

the launch doing a postmortem and

you're like, "Why didn't this work?"

252

Or, "Why was this portion of the launch so

much more successful than this portion?"

253

You can at least have some underlying

data, like people that registered.

254

We recently did this where in one of my

past clients, we had a master class back

255

in May, and then we did our open cart

and everything, and the people that came

256

through that actually converted did not

register for the actual master class.

257

So we had to be like, "Why was that?"

258

But luckily, we had things tagged

at the Google Analytics level.

259

We had things tagged flowing into

the email platform based off of

260

behaviors, web page visits, and all

of that, where we could say, yes,

261

that's so much more interesting.

262

This is the direction of that."

263

So you just think about okay, maybe

this is your first launch and you

264

don't actually know any of this stuff,

where can you put the pieces together

265

to give you more data on the back

end so that segmentation is a lot

266

more intuitive in your second round

launch or whatever the case may be?

267

Jessica: All right, so moving

on to our last mistake was

268

only giving people two options.

269

Endure these 80 email blasts I'm about

to give to you, or get off the list,

270

when actually there's a third option,

and I think what we would argue a

271

more ethical option to give people,

which is to have them opt out if they

272

are not interested in this particular

offer that you're offering at this time

273

Rachel: Yeah.

274

I typically just call

them mute buttons, right?

275

Mute these promos.

276

We see a lot of success with this for

some of my, clients in the health and

277

wellness space where things around

pregnancy can be very triggering.

278

Things around motherhood or Mother's

Day can be super triggering.

279

And so we give them the option to

say, "Hey, just mute me for this,

280

but keep me on your newsletters,

keep me on your content.

281

I wanna see the rest of it, and then

bring me back in once this chaos is done."

282

And we noticed that in launches before

we had this option to mute, We were

283

losing, 600, 700 people in email on

an 80,000-person list compared to

284

when we put it in mute, we were losing

some, but it was significantly less.

285

It was less than 100,

you know, in that number.

286

So the saving of 600 people on

your list, not only did you just

287

honor their consent and say, "Hey,

I'll meet you where you're at.

288

Don't worry.

289

You don't need to be a part of

this right now," compared to losing

290

them as a subscriber forever.

291

I think that just honoring the buyer

choice and the buyer behavior is

292

really powerful because sometimes

we get emails back and we're

293

like, "Thank you for doing this.

294

I just lost my mom, and I can't even

think about opening Mother's Day emails."

295

And you're like, "Whoa, there's a human

on the other side of this email that I

296

just sent," and it just impacted them

in a way that we didn't expect to.

297

And I think that's the more ethical

part that we want to participate in,

298

and not have to kinda just blast people

a bazillion emails that they don't

299

want and lose them as a person that

we're building a relationship with.

300

Jessica: and it protects your sender

reputation score, which you've heard

301

my horror story about us getting

banned from an email platform

302

because we got too many complaints.

303

'Cause if you're

304

not gonna give them the option to

unsubscribe, they may unsubscribe, or even

305

worse, mark you as spam and complain as

well, which hurts your sender reputation

306

score, which may cause you to not show

up in the right inbox, or may get you

307

banned, because that has happened to us.

308

We were sending a lot of emails.

309

So make sure that there's an

option for them to opt out.

310

If they don't wanna read your

sales emails, then they're

311

gonna press that button.

312

There's probably 100% chance they weren't

gonna buy anyways, so you're not losing

313

anything other than not making someone

sad or mad or all that other stuff.

314

All right, so let's recap our four

mistakes that we do not want you to

315

make, and then what to do instead.

316

So number one, make sure that

your lead magnet is not a freebie.

317

It is very strategic, and it has the

goal of attracting the people that

318

would be right for that offer, and

then leading them to that offer.

319

Don't just use one that you have

lying around just because you have it.

320

Make sure that it is solving the

problem right before or a little

321

bit before your offer solves.

322

Number two, you wanna make sure

that you are putting just as much

323

energy, time, effort on the emails

that go out before the sales emails

324

versus just your sales emails.

325

The sales emails can be

pretty straightforward.

326

They're probably just gonna say a

lot of what the sales page already

327

says, just written in an email format.

328

But the emails that do the hard

work are those before that, that are

329

speaking to pain points, desires,

doing the education and all of that.

330

That is necessary to get that

person ready for your offer.

331

Number three, make sure that you are

segmenting your offer so that you can

332

offer personalization and that you're

speaking to the person, where they're at.

333

You're meeting them where they're at.

334

And number four, be nice.

335

Give people a reason to opt

out of your sales sequence.

336

Not only is it a more ethical way

to market because you're giving

337

consent, it also will help you to

protect your email reputation score.

338

Make sure that you're landing in the

right inbox and all of that sort of jazz.

339

Rachel: Yeah.

340

So if any of this hit home, we want you

to share it with your biz bestie who's

341

got a launch on the calendar but hasn't

quite planned the email portion yet.

342

And we want to know when you're

launching, if you're launching, and

343

if you have revised your lead magnet,

and when was the last time you did it?

344

No judgment whatsoever.

345

this is again, the middle of our

launch series, so if you're new here,

346

go back and start at the beginning.

347

Hit like, subscribe, review on

whatever platform you're listening to.

348

And until next week, we're

349

Jessica: rooting

350

for you.