The Dos and Don’ts of Your Email Welcome Sequence
Episode 250: Show Notes
Hey everybody and welcome back to the The Strategy Hour! We hope you’re as excited for today’s episode as we are because we have something special for your earbuds that we know you are going to love. Today we will be talking about email welcome sequences and how to do them right. It took us some time and few missteps to get our’s where they are today, and we are happy to share all the blunders we made for you and your business’ benefit! We want to help you get your welcome sequence just right for your needs and most importantly to make it profitable, so buckle up!
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During this discussion we’ll be guiding you through our history with email tools and ideas and showing you just what worked...and what didn’t. At the end of the chat we will be sharing something extra special that can take you one step further in your marketing so make sure to listen out for that. We cover the purpose and reasons for having a bomb welcome sequence and do a deep dive into why our first welcome sequence was so bad! (Imagine that!) From there we share some of the reasons why it can be so difficult to get this right, especially in the beginning, and we finish off by emphasizing what you should be focusing on when you are putting your sequence together. Let’s do it!
What is The Purpose of a Welcome Sequence?
So you have some subscribers or followers who have taken notice of what you are doing...HOORAY...now what? Let’s say they clicked your link to receive emails or maybe they had a free service delivered to them. Just because they did that doesn’t really mean much. They may even have forgotten what they signed on for in the first place! If they now receive your regular newsletter they may be a bit in the dark about why they are getting it, what you’re all about or why they should care. This is pretty much what we did at first, and looking back is a bit painful to be honest. The point being you have to try and bridge the gap between first time engagement with your online presence and customers who know and care about what you have to offer. Your communication needs to service all of these needs and really invite people into your world. You can potentially have new signees everyday and your email correspondence needs to take that into account and keep people up to date according to their relationship with your business.
Our First Dismal Attempt at a Welcome Sequence
It was not so long ago that we were using MailChimp and we were unable to automate much. We just shot everything out at once and thought that was it. Boy were we wrong! Our first email newsletter was pretty much bursting at the seams with information about everything. We are talking biographies, interests, quirks and all. It’s like we had never heard the term ‘reel it in’. We gave away way too much and left little to the imagination, bombarding any potential clients with so much information it could scare the bravest of them away. This send and hope strategy was not much of a strategy at all, and looking back, we can see how we were trying to address all our different customers in one communication, with no nuances and personalization to attend to the dynamic and different stages people may be on with us. On top of this, the amount of links we included in those early emails probably filtered them straight to the spam folder!
How We Initially Used Freebies and Downloads
The newcomers to our email list most likely read a blog post or found us on Pinterest ,but that one piece of content is really not enough for them to have known who we were and especially to have cared. So if at that point, after the most minimal of engagement, this new customer, was to receive some random promo for an upcoming offer, how do you think they might respond. Generally the rule is not favorably! And then repeated reminders and and constant updates? Not good! Regrettably this was how we were treating our mailing list, everyone getting everything all the time no matter their level or experience with us. This leads to large amounts of inappropriate content, so basically we had to grow up and start filtering our communications because this was not working! The first iteration of this meant that we sent out a week’s worth of emails for new signees to welcome them to our tribe ,and this was a step in the right direction. The emails were still all about us and in most cases had very little real purpose other than to try and make people feel at home. It was like a big introduction but with very little direction. Just us going on and on about what we did and why they should like us. We want all of our listeners to take this lesson to heart, inject your personality into your content, but do so with purpose and restraint. Your audience cares but only to a point, especially in the early stages of this kind of relationship!
The Effect of Struggling Socially on Your Business Now
Both of us had trouble connecting with real friends, both at school and at college and at times we can see the effect of this dynamic and how it played out in our business communications. If you feel like you also had some of this in your formative years, we feel you! But we are all stronger and older now and we need to go beyond the difficulty we might have faced. You cannot let you email marketing sound like a plea for friendship or a flex on how cool you want people to think you are. You are great and cool and unique and have loads to contribute and share but you want people to want to get in with you and not sound like you are trying to get in with people! We have all felt like outsiders or that we are not worthy and these are hard experiences to shake off but with time and some conscious action we promise you can take off that burden! Another important thing is to show why you are unique but do not do so to the point that you become unapproachable. We are not trying to build walls here, we want short, to the point, relatable content!
Making Money the Purpose of The Emails That You Send
The bottom line, as usual, is the bottom line! You want your audience to sign up for something that eventually leads to them buying and putting some money in your account. Everything you are doing in these communications should be targeted towards this goal. We only really made this change earlier this year and boy did we notice the difference! Around March, we erased everything and started over to focus on teaching our audience about business, something about themselves and just enough about who we are. We hope you can follow suit and have these kinds of honest and open channels with your email list. From here you can really start funneling people into bigger sales that are appropriate for where they are at. You can offer value without being off-putting or seeming boastful and overbearing. In the end, what you really want is to have a customer base that is sure they want to back you, not a half-hearted group of people who do not stand with you.
Following the Soap Opera Sequence
It was around this time that we started following what is known as the ‘Soap Opera Sequence’. Now, if you are unfamiliar with it there is no need to freak out, there will be plenty of time for you to learn all about this and all the other methods for directly your emails. Basically the lesson here is to make sure that those reading your emails want to come back and read the next one, tomorrow or the next day. Since making this change, we have noted huge improvements in engagement. Open rates have increased and the open to purchase conversion ratio has steadily increased to a really high number. Sometimes we are still a little confused by why our new tactics have been so successful but needless to say that what we have been describing is at the center of this success. You should be collecting your data and adjusting the areas that you can see are not performing well so that they can rise up to the highest points. You need to know how many people are doing what and you need to have your hands on sister! Get in there and get your hands dirty! Make sure you are giving your customers the best!
The Upcoming Workshop to Help You!
To take this lesson one step further we have made a resource for this exact reason available to you so that you can go straight from this episode and start building your best welcome sequence! This information will also be a course in the not too distant future so if you like what you see on the blog be sure to keep your eyes open for that soon! We will be walking you through everything, from signing up with the amazing ConvertKit, to streamlining your information to really hook in those great customers that you deserve. It’s all free so sign up and get on it!
Quote This
Instead of feeling like an outsider trying to get in, you want people to try and get in with you.
Highlights
What is The Purpose of a Welcome Sequence? [0:03:58.2]
Our First Dismal Attempt at a Welcome Sequence. [0:08:05.9]
How We Initially Used Freebies and Downloads. [0:12:39.2]
When We Grew Up and Started Filtering. [0:14:50.9]
The Effect of Struggling Socially on Your Business Now. [0:20:29.2]
Making Money the Purpose of The Emails That You Send. [0:24:12.9]
Following the Soap Opera Sequence. [0:27:01.9]
The Upcoming Workshop to Help You! [0:30:12.7]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Welcome Sequence, Return Customers, Indoctrination, Content, Marketing
