How to increase email marketing sales with Sarah Marie Anderson

Your Dream Business

English - November 29, 2021 00:00 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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Previous Episode: How to set your goals and make them happen for a successful 2022

Next Episode: How speaking can grow your audience and boost your business

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Sarah Marie Anderson who is an email strategist and copywriter who helps entrepreneurs create lasting relationships with email subscribers through engaging welcome sequences. We talk all about email onboarding processes and how to do them, the types of emails you can send and when, the Fibonacci sequence, the mistakes people make when onboarding and how to sell to your list and what to do when they are not buying!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

Onboarding is a sequence of emails you send to a new person who joins your list – this often walks them through what you do and what you offer creating connection and engaging them.Onboarding can also give you an opportunity to get to know your audience more.Welcome sequences should be around 5-8 emails.When delivering a freebie – make sure you tell them how to get it and then set expectations for the next email.End your email with a teaser as to what is coming next – this will get them prepared for your next email and want to open it!Subsequent emails in your welcome sequence – intro email to you and your business (your story and your why), give value such as blog posts, podcast episodes, freebies etc, talk about your offer so they can understand how you can help them and how they can buy it.Ideally you should wait until subscribers have finished your welcome sequence before sending your main newsletters.If someone opts into multiple lead magnets at once – try to get all your welcome sequences to feed into one sequence after the freebie has been delivered.Don’t overwhelm your subscribers with too much information at once! Try to separate things out into multiple emails instead.How to use the Fibonacci Sequence for emailsDon’t come on too strong when your subscribers have just met you – keep selling soft and explain more about what you do and how you help instead.Look at your email stats often – Are people opening them? Are they clicking your links?Go back and review the emails that have had higher stats – what did you do differently?Try sending a round up email with various links they can click.Do some research and get to know your subscribers more – give them a tag when they click so you can personalise more.Re-engagement email – click here if you are here still around!Ask questions in your subject lines.Two magic words to use in subject lines – “That” and “You”

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Don’t sell too much too soon – your email subscribers need warming up!

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

An introduction to Sarah Marie 05:15Onboarding your email subscribers 9:03Onboarding mistakes that turn your subscribers off 22:36How often should you email your list? 29:06What to do if your email subscribers are not buying 32:20How to increase email engagement 36:37Writing a successful subject line 41:34

CHECK SARAH MARIE OUT:

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RESOURCES MENTIONED

2022 half day planning and goal setting session

Transcript:

Hello and really warm welcome to this week's episode of the...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Don’t sell too much too soon – your email subscribers need warming up!

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

CHECK SARAH MARIE OUT:

Website

Instagram

Facebook

RESOURCES MENTIONED

2022 half day planning and goal setting session

Transcript:

Hello and really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are things? So this week I have a really, really good interview for you. In fact, I've done loads of batching of interviews.

There are some absolute gold coming up. Like I've been finding some amazing people, some different voices, and I'm really excited for you to hear some of the episodes that are coming up so, so much good stuff. But before we get started with the interview, I just want to remind you about my 2022 planning/goal setting/mastermind session that we're doing the workshop that we're doing. Uh, I told you about it last week. It's on December the 8th. It's going to be from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM UK time. And basically we're going to go through what you did last year as in this year. What year are we on 2021.

Also going to look at, uh, what you want to set goal wise for next year. And then I'm going to walk you through a number of planning exercises, which is going to get you really sorted on exactly what you need to do next year in order to try and achieve those goals. It's really important thing to do.

It's great to carve that time out. Come and join me and some other amazing business owners. And let's work all this together and get your plan starters that you can go into 2022 feeling so happy and confident in the right mindset to ensure you're set up for success. So come along for that, that's going to be a really, really good session.

If you want to find out more and sign up it's teresaheathwareing.com/2022planning okay. So that's that first off. And then next off, I just thought, as we're getting nearer the season of jolly and happy and giving and loving and that sort of stuff, I'd ask nicely if you haven't yet given me a review on your favorite app or iTunes, I would really appreciate it.

If you could, if you could go along and give me five lovely stars. Tell everyone what you like about the podcast and share it. That would be absolutely amazing. I would appreciate that. No end. Okay. So today's podcast interview is with Sarah Marie Anderson. She's an email strategist and copywriter who helps entrepreneurs create lasting relationships with email subscribers through engaging welcome sequences.

After learning a, after earning, not learning a BA in English writing, Sarah has continued to sharpen her skills and writing for clients all over the world. Since 2015, she has helped hundreds of small business owners create authentic connections with their audiences through email. So, you know, I love talking my emails and this is great because one thing I tell myself and I'm, you know, I'm going to say, it's a story I'm telling myself and it's not true and I'm going to change it is that I don't enjoy writing.

So it was really great to chat with Sarah Marie about all things when you're writing emails. So we went through onboarding process. What one was, what you should do, how you should do it, her kind of view in terms of the types of emails you could send and when. She also talked about the Fibonacci sequence and how that fits into sending emails, that was interesting.

The mistakes that people make when doing the onboarding. And then really excellently. We looked at how to sell to your list or what to do if they're not buying. And then we finished off with her critiquing some of my subject lines, which I was more than happy with. I kind of volunteered it because I think it's really interesting and it just proves that we all need to kind of think about this things. We need to go back to these things all the time. So it's a great episode loads to take from it. I think you're really going to enjoy it. So without further ado here is Sarah Marie Anderson.

Teresa: Okay. I am really looking forward to welcoming to the podcast Sarah Marie Anderson.

Teresa: Sarah, how are you doing?

Sarah: I am doing so great. I'm really excited to talk to you today Teresa.

Teresa: I'm excited because we get to talk emails and you may or may not know this about me, Sarah, but I am obsessed with people building email lists. So I haven't talk about building an email list. I talk constantly about building an email list.

Teresa: I speak on stages about building an email list. I, my focus tends to be at the beginning stage. i.e. you need one and how to get one. And what I'm really looking forward to with this episode is we're going to dive a bit more into sending those emails and how that might look and how we can manage some of those.

Teresa: But as I always do, I start by asking you to introduce yourself to my audience and just explain how you got to do what you do today.

Sarah: Yeah. So I'm really excited to be here. Thank you for having me. My name is Sarah Marie Anderson, as you've already introduced me and I am a copywriter and email marketing strategists.

Sarah: So I started originally doing kind of general copywriting and ended up niching down to email because I saw how powerful it was both like for my business personally. And I also just really love writing emails. You know, they're short, they're snappy, you know, compared to like a long sales page that can be like thousands and thousands of words.

Sarah: I love doing emails and sequences to where you kind of take that big, long sales message. It could break it out into little chunks that are like fun and easy for someone to digest. Um, I work with a lot of professional service providers, coaches, online course creators, all those kinds of people creating welcome sequences for them to kind of help.

Sarah: Get to know, kinda connect with those new subscribers that are join our list, excited to hear from them and helping them, you know, share their message with their new audience.

Teresa: I love it. So have you always been in this kind of space? Is this like, obviously you've done copywriting and various things. So was it always from an email point of view or was it other things?

Sarah: Well, so the first, my first adventure actually into this online business phase was I had an Etsy shop for a while. Like I started with a handmade shop. I was actually selling hand dyed yarns. I love to knit. I've been knitting since I was a kid.

Sarah: And so that was like my first sort of try and through that is how I learned all about online marketing, because I was like, okay, I gotta figure this out. Like. So like shares some of your traffic, but like, you've got to find out how to market outside of it. And that's why I actually started email list and I could see where I would send an email, I would get sales.

Sarah: So it was like really powerful, even with a very small list. I only had like a couple hundred people at that time, but I could also like, see the benefit of doing this and connecting with the people that had bought from you in the past, the people that were interested in what you were doing. So that's kinda how I got into it.

Sarah: And I fell in love with the online marketing side of business and especially copywriting. Uh, I have a background, uh, I was an English major in college, so I was like, oh my gosh, I can write and do all this like, cool stuff with this online marketing. Like one of my favorite parts of copywriting is the research part.

Sarah: So every project, I get to like dive into a new kind of radical and learn more about like a new type of business, new type of niche, new type of market. So that really felt like a great fit. And I started doing general copy, web copy sales pages, all that stuff, and really honed it on email as they went, because it just was the most fun for me, actually.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. And I think so the, one of the reasons I'm so passionate about everyone having an email list is one, it belongs to you, which is a key thing, especially like the other week where Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, went down. You know, that doesn't help when you're trying to run a business through some of these places. And two, because it's that way of like, connecting with your audience.

Teresa: I love nothing more than them emailing me back. Like, and I encourage it massively. And my team know that if there's an email from my email list that has come in as a reply, they leave it alone. And I reply. And whether it takes me a couple of hours or a couple of days, I always replied. But why wants to get, because I think there's a misconception, right?

Teresa: Okay. We can build a really nice email list. We can create a lead magnet that speaks to a perfect customer, and then we get them on the list. And then what happens or what if like the engagement isn't very good. As, if not more important at that point, because you've gone to the effort of getting them so now let's make sure that they're good people.

Teresa: So let's talk about the onboarding process first. So when, when the fact that you explain to my audience, what you mean by onboarding.

Sarah: Yeah. We'll talk about onboarding, you know, sometimes I'll call it a welcome sequence or a nurture sequence. It's this like series of emails that you want to send to a new person that joins your list.

Sarah: And it's a really lovely way to kind of walk them through all the things you have to offer, introduce them to you, your world, what you're doing online, what you have that can help them and even do it in a way that is creating a lot of connection with them, engaging with them from the beginning, and really getting to know the people on your list also, because that is so important too.

Sarah: It can be a way to also learn about your audience, research your audience, and be able to create even more personalized stuff for them. And you're talking about replies. I love to ask for replies, especially in the sequence. A lot of times I'll do it in a welcome email. I'll ask people to replied, tell me how they found me.

Sarah: Tell me where they're at in the world. Even ask like a question, like, what are you wanting to learn about this topic that I cover? You can even do something fun. Like what's your favorite emoji hit me back. To get people engaging because one, you get to start these one-on-one conversations, which are so great and kind of the magic of email feels very one-to-one.

Teresa: Very personal.

Sarah: Yeah. It's super personal, even though you're sending it to thousands of people and then it also can help with your deliverability rates too. You know, people are applying to spam emails. So if you have a lot of people that are replying back. It's more likely than to end up in their main inbox, because it's something that they've engaged with and it's something that they're actually, you know, responding to.

Teresa: Yeah. So there's many differing thoughts and practices about an onboarding process and, you know, they all have merit. And, and for me, I guess when I teach it's about well try and if it works and brilliant. So what your thoughts. So let's say someone's opt in to one of my lead magnets and it's a lead magnet.

Teresa: I don't know. I'm just trying to think of the many different lead magnets out there. So I've got one about mindset in business, like in some of the mindset tricks and tools I use. So they've opted in, they get email number one, which for me is here's your thing, because that was the whole point they signed up. What, how many emails would you see in an ambit boarding process?

Teresa: And would you start, would you do anything else in that email zero almost, like, or would you just go, here's the thing and I'll see you in a couple of days.

Sarah: So usually when I work with clients, I typically find that the welcome sequences, those emails tend to be like five to eight emails, kind of, depending on what they're trying to do.

Sarah: And if we're doing any kind of segmenting or personalization stuff like that in that first email, I usually want to just like celebrate them a little bit like 'Yey you're here. I'm so excited for you. This is what you're going to get to learn from this thing you downloaded.' Delivering a freebie, make sure it's very easy for them to realize how they're going to get it.

Sarah: Uh, and then a lot of times I will either ask a question or I'll set an expectation that we'll be in a lookout for my next email on and kind of do a little bit of a teaser so that they're more interested in what you've got coming next. Like that is fun to do with a PS. I love doing, it's the covering in term is called like an open loop or.

Sarah: It's kind of like a cliffhanger of like a TV show, like you and the email was sort of a teaser of what's coming next and that can help your open rates as the sequence goes on, that people are like, 'Oh, what is this next new clip or trick or whatever I'm going to get from the next email.' And that's a fun way to kind of structure the sequence so that they're kind of like leaving a little breadcrumbs along the people like following up on.

Teresa: So we send the thing and then do you have a very specific. Like, is it number two as a introduce you, number three, is it, so what kind of things would they do in those subsequent emails.

Sarah: Yeah. There's a few different things that I recommend doing in your welcome sequence. You know, you could do it in, you make change around the order, but you definitely want to have an intro email, because when you think about this, this is probably, you know, one of the first times people are seeing you, maybe they've seen you on social.

Sarah: Maybe they've seen an ad. Maybe they've seen, you know, but they don't really know your full story. So I feel like, uh, an intro email, tell you a little bit about you, and then you can talk about either maybe how you got started. You can talk about maybe your why behind your business? Like what lights you up, why you keep doing this, talk about maybe your brand values, something like this, to help them have a little bit deeper connection with the name behind the email.

Sarah: I even like to do like a picture or something. That's just like, 'Hey, here's my face.' You know, this can kind of have that, that deeper connection. I also love to do an email. That's kind of giving them a little bit of extra value, so that could be something like another lead magnet or freebie you created that could also just be like sharing your best content.

Sarah: Like if you have like your top five blog posts or your, you know, if you do a podcast, like you, you know, your most popular episodes, things like that, that people that are new to your world have not seen all of the stuff that you've created. So you can kind of help them find that good stuff with these emails.

Teresa: And so let's say you've done different emails over the way, and you're adding in these various bits. Do you go straight into a sale? Like, and I get that, obviously it depends on the product, but if it's an online product or if it's a lower cost product, would you attempt to go straight into a sale or would you not bother?

Sarah: You know, I like to do cramps on soft sell opportunities throughout the sequence. Like maybe in the, about you email, you can be like, Hey, or, you know, about talking your language, like check out my, you know, what I offer...