Kristen Doyle 0:00
So you’re sending emails to your list, but are they connecting? Or maybe you have a whole list of people you’ve been avoiding emailing because you aren’t sure what to say and you don’t want to be just one more thing cluttering someone’s inbox.
Kristen Doyle 0:17
If that sounds like you, then you are in for a treat, because today I’ve got the fresh Princess of email marketing herself, Liz Wilcox, here to help make email marketing feel easy. Liz helps small businesses package up your unique magic and turn it into emails that people want to read and, most importantly, purchase from.
Kristen Doyle 0:41
Today, Liz is sharing how you can write your weekly emails in 20 minutes or less, how to build trust that turns your subscribers into buyers and so much more. Let’s get into it, because you do not want to miss this conversation.
Kristen Doyle 1:01
Are you a digital product, or course creator, selling on platforms like teachers, pay teachers, Etsy or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you’re in the right place.
Kristen Doyle 1:16
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I’m Kristen Doyle, and I’m here to give you no fluff, tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process. Things like SEO, no stress, marketing, email list, building automations and so much more. Let’s get started y’all.
Kristen Doyle 1:40
Hey, hey, Liz, thank you so much for being here.
Liz Wilcox 1:44
You’re welcome. I can’t wait to talk, email talk, you know, all the things I’m really excited. I love this podcast because, honestly, I love selling, and I consider myself pretty savvy. So by the end of this episode, you listening, I hope you feel the same way.
Kristen Doyle 2:05
You definitely are a savvy seller, for sure. Well, let’s dive straight in. Of course, email marketing is your whole big thing, and you are so good at it. I have learned so much from you. So I’m just super excited to dive into talking about our emails and really focusing on those weekly emails that we have to send out week after week to connect with our audience.
Kristen Doyle 2:29
Those can feel sometimes just daunting and like another thing on the to do list that we have to make time for, but they are so important, and I heard that you are recently saying we should only spend 20 minutes writing our emails every week. Can you tell me how on earth that is possible?
Liz Wilcox 2:49
Yeah, so first, let’s talk about what the weekly newsletter is. This is something you manually send out. This isn’t evergreen content. That is automated. It’s okay. I need my email to be sent out on Tuesday. It’s Monday night. It’s Tuesday morning. What am I gonna write?
Liz Wilcox 3:07
And yeah, I feel like you probably shouldn’t be spending too much time, 20 minutes at best. And here’s why, our inbox is inundated with all sorts of emails, right? Like, raise your hand if you’ve got over 1000 unread emails, you know right now, right? And the problem that I see a lot of entrepreneurs and online business owners making is they try to make this weekly newsletter like a church brochure, like an actual newsletter that has 1,000,001 things.
Liz Wilcox 3:45
But when you couple that with, you know, oh, I’ve got these emails from somebody I thought I already unsubscribed from. How did this spam come through? You know? Oh, there’s my doctor’s note. There’s my electric bill. Oh, what does Kristen have to say? What? Oh, there’s Liz, right. We don’t want to be just another thing that’s too much for them.
Liz Wilcox 4:08
Oh, I know what’s inside that. Or I know it’s going to be long. I know I’m not going to be able to look at all the stuff Liz sent me today. I’ll save it for later. And we all know later means never, happened, never, right? And so I really recommend this 20 minute framework, which is super simple. And Kristen, can I go? Should I go into it right now?
Kristen Doyle 4:31
Yeah, let’s do it.
Liz Wilcox 4:32
Okay, cool.
Liz Wilcox 4:33
So just have a greeting. You know, Hey Liz, Hey Sara, and then share a personal update. A lot of email marketers will tell you to share stories here, but again, we want to respect the inbox. It’s a newsletter, not a novel. So just get in, get to the point and get out.
Liz Wilcox 4:53
So a personal update is just that little bit of connection. What is something you did since the last time you emailed your subscribers? This is, you know, when you call somebody on the phone and you have, you know, you want to ask how mom is doing, but you have to ask, like, how you doing? Oh yeah, I took the dog for a walk, yeah. Oh yeah. Let’s talk about mom now, right?
Liz Wilcox 5:14
It’s that little chit chat, and I recommend this, because it is also the way we connect. I’ve often heard advice of, like, cut out the chit chat in your newsletters. But I’m saying No, put that chit chat in, put that little nuance conversation in, because that’s how people connect. That’s how you can share that you are relatable, you are invested in them.
Liz Wilcox 5:40
So again, it’s just that greeting, a short personal update, two to three sentences since the last time you emailed them, and then just segue into the content. Whether you want to share your new podcast episode, you want to share something you saw on Facebook that you found was really valuable, you have a new article. You’ve got a new printable for people.
Liz Wilcox 6:02
You have a new product. You’re running a flash sale, whatever the heck you’ve got going on that week, or you want to share, put it in there. And I did use the word segue, which you might think I’m terrible at segues! My English teacher was always screaming at me about them. But remember, this is the inbox. This isn’t an essay. It’s not a novel.
Liz Wilcox 6:23
Just hit that CAPS LOCK button, type the word anyway. Dot, dot, dot. What I really wanted to talk to you about is my new podcast episode. It features Liz Wilcox, all on 20 minute newsletters, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, any other details you want to put in and then get out of there. That is the 20 minute newsletter framework.
Kristen Doyle 6:44
I love that, and I love that it starts with that little personal connection, because it is just so important for a little bit of our personality to be in our emails, for us to build a connection with people. And I will say the emails I write that have that little, some little personal update a book I’ve been reading. I’ve did this thing at the gym, and my knee is killing me now, whatever it is, those are a lot of times I get really good replies back from people.
Kristen Doyle 7:12
And that’s a good such a good way to just build connection with the people on your list. They might not ever reply to talk to me about my podcast episode, but they’ll reply to talk to me about a book I’m reading, and then they’ll still tune in to check out the podcast episodes and all the other things.
Liz Wilcox 7:27
Right. So within email marketing, and when you do it right, it does these things, and I’ve kind of dropped them before. So number one, it shows that you are invested in your subscribers. This is why weekly newsletters are so important. It’s not enough to just, you know, show up every once in a while when you have something to sell, no one will invest in you and your products and services before they know you are invested in them, right?
Liz Wilcox 7:55
So sending that weekly newsletter and even putting in a little bit of that personal update shows you’re invested. Hey, I saw this and thought of you. I made this, you know, podcast episode available, because that’s my number one question, right? So sharing that you are invested is going to help them invest right back into you.
Liz Wilcox 8:14
The second thing is making sure you’re relatable. It helps you to start relating to your people. If I said, Oh, before I recorded this podcast episode, you know, I had a sneezing attack. I had to re record this three times. Kristen just smiled, because that’s so relatable to her, right? She’s my ideal, like that, right? We’ve all had something happen.
Liz Wilcox 8:38
Even, oh, I just took my dogs for a walk in the rain, even if I don’t have any dogs I know. Like, I can see my neighbor right now walking in the rain with her dogs. And I’m relating to you. Something I use in my emails a lot is like 90s and 2000 pop culture like, I’ve got NSYNC in the background right here. I mentioned them a lot. I love Seinfeld. I’m actually wearing a Seinfeld right now. I love that show survivor. I talk about that, you know, the tribe is spoken.
Liz Wilcox 9:10
And so people relate me to that sort of, you know, timeline, right? And so even when they’re maybe in the car going to carpool and an in sync come song comes on. Suddenly they’re thinking about Liz Wilcox. Suddenly they’re remembering, Oh, crap, I didn’t write my weekly newsletter. And so inserting those pieces into your weekly newsletter with that personal update or with the description of your content is really important, so that you stay top of mind.
Liz Wilcox 9:45
So again, that showing them you are invested in them, sharing that you’re relatable to them, and staying top of mind, that’s the purpose of the weekly newsletter, and you can do it so simply with that 20 minute framework we just gave you.
Kristen Doyle 9:58
Yeah, it’s so easy to just find something to share. I think a lot of times we overthink it. I know I do anyway, I overthink like, Okay, what is a story from my life this week? What has happened that I can talk about that’s gonna relate to this podcast episode or relate to this offer I’m sharing. But it doesn’t always have to be this perfect tie in. Yeah.
Liz Wilcox 10:21
Amen. And I love that. Kristen said, you know, Oh, that’s interesting. That’s relatable. Listen, you don’t have to be interesting in your newsletters. You just have to be what we just talked about, relatable, right? There’s a difference between being interesting and being relatable.
Liz Wilcox 10:39
I could have come on here and said, Oh, I actually was on that show survivor. I got fourth place. It was awesome. That’s a very interesting thing about Liz Wilcox, right? But you know what? It’s not it’s not relatable. I doubt anyone listening to this podcast has been on a reality show. Has almost won a million dollars in front of 125 countries internationally, that’s not relatable, right at all.
Liz Wilcox 11:10
You know how I said, Oh, I love that show survivor, and suddenly you’re starting to think about it. Oh, yeah. I used to watch that back in the day. That show still on, and it gets your wheels spinning. I didn’t actually have to be interesting. I didn’t have to tell that story Kristen said she’s racking her brain to find to relate to you.
Liz Wilcox 11:30
And so a big mistake I see with your newsletters is just trying to be interesting when you should be focusing again, more on just trying to be relatable. Oh, I spilled mustard on my shirt. My fridge broke down. I was in the middle of recording, and, you know, the Amazon guy came and rang my doorbell and it ruined the entire thing, because I have three dogs. You know, those are not, like, very interesting things. They’re nothing you would write a novel about. But remember what I said 10 minutes ago? It’s a newsletter, not a novel.
Kristen Doyle 12:05
Right. And those things are so real, as opposed to, let me tell you this story that’s going to tie perfectly into the thing I’m going to say in a minute. And then people wonder if that story even actually happened, or if you made it up, so it would tie in. But people like, I think people just they like to get to know us as people, and to feel like, Oh, she’s just like me, like she goes out on a walk with her dog, and it suddenly starts pouring rain too.
Kristen Doyle 12:30
She gets interrupted by the Amazon driver who, by the way, very quietly, walked up to my door just a second ago and did not ring the doorbell. Thank goodness. What a gem they are. We all have those things, and they’re just so real. People like to see that we have things that aren’t perfect in our lives too. I think everything, at least for a little while, it felt like everything we put out had to be so polished and perfect all the time. And I just love that we’re embracing being a little more real now.
Liz Wilcox 12:59
And the one thing you got to know about selling is people buy from people they trust. And who do they trust? People they can relate to, like Kristen just said, people who they think, oh, this person is real. They care about my problems. They know what it’s like, right? And I love, love, love that we live in this modern market where we get to choose. We have a lot of buying power.
Liz Wilcox 13:26
We can choose to buy from Kristen or a big box store, right? But where is the money going right now, a lot of people, especially now, are choosing to revert back to the real person, right? I can see where my dollars go when I purchase with Kristen. So the savvy seller knows that people buy from people they trust, and they work really hard. And again, this is why weekly newsletters are important to you know, build that, know, like trust factor, and you can do it with those weekly newsletters,
Kristen Doyle 14:03
Yeah. And I am just as guilty as anyone else of sometimes backing off of those. In fact, I have to write one today because I did not send a weekly email last week, because I just got done promoting something. And sometimes it just feels like, Okay, I’m tired. I need a week.
Liz Wilcox 14:20
Yeah, well, I love I love that. She just brought that up, because when you do a big promotion, you can take a week off. And the thing about staying top of mind, and of course, I I’ve been recommending weekly newsletters left and right here, but when your person knows just how relatable you are, when they know how invested you are in them, you can take a week off after a promotion or during a holiday, or you’re going on vacation.
Liz Wilcox 14:48
And you tell people, Hey, I’m going on vacation. I didn’t write a newsletter, you know, I’ll see you in two weeks or whatever, right? The important part is they know that you’re invested. They know that you’re relatable, because that’s how you stay top of mind. That’s how, like Kristen said, Oh, I can take a week off after promotions. My people know I’m there for them. I’m still top of mind because I’m so consistent, because I am, you know, doing promotions, sharing my best offers with them, so they are thinking of me when they think of this solution.
Kristen Doyle 15:25
And they trust that you’ll be back because you are consistent in all the other times. Kind of gives you some leeway to take a break every now and then.
Liz Wilcox 15:32
Amen.
Kristen Doyle 15:33
We were just talking about sales a little bit, and how people buy from the people that they trust and that they feel like they resonate with and they like. You have this email staircase framework that kind of talks about converting those subscribers into customers. Can you tell me? Tell us a little bit about that?
Liz Wilcox 15:51
Yeah. So it’s really simple. It’s just a staircase that you climb to get to customers. First you have a follower, turn them into friends, then turn them into customers. So followers are getting people on your email list, right? The friendship starts with a welcome sequence, which I know Kristen has an amazing podcast episode with a copywriter. She’ll link to the show notes in there for you.
Liz Wilcox 16:15
And then once you have a list full of friends, you can have a list full of customers. And this relates really well to the weekly newsletter conversation we’ve been having, because you create that friendship within the newsletter, right? Again, you show you’re invested, you become relatable, you stay top of mind, and within the newsletters themselves, how do we convert to customers?
Liz Wilcox 16:40
We can do a lot of soft selling in our newsletters. For example, if we sent out an email like, Oh, I just took my dog for a walk, it’s raining anyway, I did manage to record this podcast without too much rain in the background. Check it out here. And then you say the topic, you know, this topic is all about email marketing. We got Liz, da, da, da. You sign off, but you can soft sell.
Liz Wilcox 17:10
You can convert into a customer in the PS. PS, getting ready to get serious about your email marketing? Check out my offer on X or it could even be an affiliate link. Check out Liz’s email marketing membership, right? Or you can even just do something I call super signature.
Liz Wilcox 17:30
It’s, you know, PS, when you’re ready. Here are ways I can help you. And maybe you’ve got, you know, your Etsy shop or or, you know, your own shop where you sell your printables and resources. Maybe you’ve got, you know, a free resource, like your podcast, and then maybe you’ve got a signature offer that’s open enrollment right now, and you put it right down there, but we can turn every newsletter into a sales email. No, it doesn’t have to be this hard, you know, pitch, but it can be a soft sell.
Kristen Doyle 18:03
And I love that w e don’t always have to be so actively selling things to still get our offers in front of people. And when it’s the right person at the right time, they’ll click on those little soft links too. It doesn’t always have to be a big sales email.
Liz Wilcox 18:17
Yeah. I love that. I always say, you know, people don’t buy when you sell, they buy when they’re ready. For example, my sister and I, we have completely different buying action when it comes to getting gas for our car. I drive a 1989 Ford Bronco. It needs gas all the time. Also, I’m a single woman. I do not want to run out of gas on the side of the road, right?
Liz Wilcox 18:45
I cannot stick my thumb out and just have somebody tow me home or whatever, right? That’s a big vehicle. It’s an expensive vehicle to tow to the gas station. My sister, on the other hand, drives a newer Volkswagen Jetta. She’s getting 30,40, miles to the gallon. She has a partner at home who you know, in a pinch could come rescue her, right?
Liz Wilcox 19:08
So the way we buy, the way we pass the local, 711, much different. I’m stopping in quite often. She’s pushing it to the max, right? But that 711 is always open on the corner. I can pull in at any time and get the gas I need. When? When I’m ready.
Liz Wilcox 19:34
And so that super signature Kristen and I were just talking about is really important, and I love that she said that, because the right people at the right time they’re gonna go into your email. Oh yeah, Liz said, you know, I’m finally ready for that membership. I know it’s at the bottom of her email. They can type in Liz, they can click on it. They can purchase when they’re ready. Now, that’s savvy.
Kristen Doyle 20:00
It is, and I have that in the bottom of my emails. I think it’s been in there maybe a year now, and I get clicks every single email I send out, not saying I’m getting millions of clicks, but there are clicks every single email I send out, I get clicks down there. A lot of times it’s a click on something totally unrelated to what the email was about.
Liz Wilcox 20:23
You just never know when that person is ready. But it’s our job again, like 711 to just be, you know, be on standby.
Kristen Doyle 20:31
Yeah, just always available and kind of like that gas station. I mean, I know exactly where and how far it is to the closest gas station if I am in a pinch, because I do run it down pretty low most of the time.
Liz Wilcox 20:44
Oh my gosh, so funny.
Kristen Doyle 20:45
My husband gets in the car and he’s like, really again? Yeah.
Liz Wilcox 20:49
I don’t, I don’t know how people live like that. I don’t want to be anxious!
Kristen Doyle 20:53
I blame a car salesman a couple of cars back who had me test drive a car with seven miles to empty registering on the thing. He’s like, No, we’re fine, we’re good. Are you sure? Oh my gosh. And I think ever since I’ve just Yeah, I don’t respect it as much as I should.
Liz Wilcox 21:13
Kristen’s like, that’s a scam. That’s not even true. The dealer told me.
Kristen Doyle 21:18
Like, look, it says I have 20 miles. I’m fine.
Liz Wilcox 21:21
That’s so funny!
Kristen Doyle 21:23
But we always know. I know exactly where the gas station is, I know how far it is from home, and I know it’s going to be there whenever I need it.
Liz Wilcox 21:32
Right. And it’s it’s the same behavior in the inbox, if you have something like a super signature where you’re over and over again, just hey, when you’re ready, because I know, you know Kristen’s in my inbox. I know how to search for her, and I know how to click that link.
Liz Wilcox 21:50
And I know this works, because chances are, even in the last 30 days, you’ve searched for a bill. Oh, I gotta pay my electric bill. I just type in for me. I live in Florida. So I just type in FPL. It pops up. I click on it, I make sure, you know I got the date right, and you know the auto pay is set up right.
Liz Wilcox 22:10
And so we always in our inbox, are actively searching for solutions. We’re trying to get our questions answered in the inbox. So the super signature is just a super low pressure way of selling and ensuring your customers can get what they want when they want it.
Kristen Doyle 22:28
Yeah, I love that. And I one other thing I’ve done with mine is I use it as a way to create a little awareness around maybe offers I have or things that I do that I don’t talk as much about. So they’re there, and people see it in that signature. And a lot of times people have told me, like, Oh, I didn’t know you did this, but I saw it in your email. I’m like, when did I write an email about that? Oh, no, it’s in that signature.
Liz Wilcox 22:51
Yeah, I love that, and because you never know when people are going to join your list. For example, you know, I do a launch of a product three times a year, March, July, November. But if somebody, oh, or if somebody joins right after the sale in July, I’m not talking about it for another 90 days.
Liz Wilcox 23:09
But if I had it in the Super signature, hey, this is going to come up soon. This is going to come up. Oh, what is that? And, you know, we can start opening up that conversation. And if I wanted to probably just open up the cart right then and there.
Kristen Doyle 23:23
And I have definitely been known to do that if somebody replies back to an email, if they take the initiative to say, hey, I really want this, even though it’s not open right now. I have been known to open the cart for somebody who who did that, who took a little, you know, initiative to ask.
Liz Wilcox 23:36
How savvy.
Kristen Doyle 23:38
So let’s talk about another thing that we sometimes struggle with, in addition to sales. Subject Lines are so tricky because it sometimes feels like there’s so much pressure around putting the right thing in the subject line to get someone to click and open.
Liz Wilcox 23:55
Yeah. Subject lines can be tricky, but I think they’re often just overstated. I can definitely give you some tips on subject lines, but what I really want you to know, what I really want you to think about when you write emails, is the from line. This is from Liz Wilcox, from Kristen Doyle, right? If you are, you know, a customer of mine. You like my emails, etc. It doesn’t really matter what’s in the subject line.
Liz Wilcox 24:25
You see my name, and you open. The same as what I just gave you an example. When I’m looking for my power bill, I literally told you I type in FPL. That is the from line. I know I need those emails, right? If I’m searching for that product I’m finally ready to buy. I don’t remember the subject lines of emails, but I remember who sent them, and so this is why weekly newsletters are so important, again, because it helps us stay top of mind, right?
Liz Wilcox 24:59
And it gives us an opportunity every single week to make that personal connection, to show we’re invested to share in a relatable way. And that’s very, very important to getting emails opened, more important yes than the subject line. So how the heck do we get the from line? Super, super like, oh yeah, that’s Liz. I’m gonna open that.
Liz Wilcox 25:25
Well, you have to create value in the newsletters, which we’ve already talked about. Talked about respecting the inbox. Get to the point, get out of there. You know, share a story when you’ve got a really good one. Leave it for next time when you don’t, right, we’ve already talked about how to actually get the from line going. So any thoughts on that, Kristen?
Kristen Doyle 25:44
Just one quick question, because I am curious what your thoughts are. I have seen people use just their name in the from line. I’ll just use me as an example. So Kristen Doyle, just their name in the from line. I’ve also seen people use the name of their business. So my podcast is the savvy seller I could do from the savvy seller, and I’ve seen people do some sort of combination of both. What are your thoughts around? Which one is better? If there is one?
Liz Wilcox 26:11
Yeah, I kind of like the the combo, but it really depends on what kind of brand and business you’re creating. For a really long time I’ve been creating a personal brand, so my emails just come from Liz Wilcox. But as I grow, as my membership grows, I’m becoming known for things outside of my name, right? I have a membership, email marketing membership. I have a Facebook group and podcast email sound booth.
Liz Wilcox 26:40
So that might be something I need to consider if and when I get to that point in business where people are like, Oh, that’s the email marketing membership lady, right? So maybe I put Liz Wilcox EMM on there, right? Yeah. But in general, especially when you’re first starting out, if you can get that name recognition like Kristen and I both do in that front line, that works really well.
Liz Wilcox 27:08
But I I would caution against just having like your business name, like if Kristen changed it to savvy seller tomorrow, that’s so faceless. And remember, we already talked about, people want to buy from people they trust. So even large companies, I always recommend having someone’s name in front, like, for example, if we were active campaign, right? An email service provider will be, you know, John from Active Campaign, right?
Liz Wilcox 27:39
So you know who it’s from. You know, it’s a person. So I never recommend just having, you know, I never would just say email sound booth, like my podcast name, right? I would just have, you know, Liz from ESB or whatever, right? Yeah, it
Kristen Doyle 27:55
just feels more personal, even if all you do is a first name, right?
Liz Wilcox 27:59
I mean, if my, let’s say, you know, I order something from the NFL, right? You know, I’m really excited about the Super Bowl my team’s going in. If I had an email from the NFL, like, selling me t shirts, I feel like, whatever. I just bought one. I don’t, not gonna open this. But if it said something like, you know, Stuart from NFL, I’d be like, Oh, Stuart, what’s
Liz Wilcox 28:21
Right?
Liz Wilcox 28:24
yeah, it’s more personal. It creates intrigue in that case, or it creates familiarity. Oh, I know who Liz is. I know who Shauraha is. I’m going to open that, yeah.
Kristen Doyle 28:34
Just builds that recognition again, and that sense that you actually know this person a little bit.
Liz Wilcox 28:39
Exactly. So I know that the original question was subject lines, or subject lines on something, they’re not right, they’re not completely like a moot point. So we do need to still write subject lines as best we can. And what I recommend is just writing the subject line from the perspective of a friend, right? Follower, friend, customer, they email staircase right.
Liz Wilcox 29:03
If I was just sending this to Kristen, if I was just sending this to you, what would the subject line be? I’m not trying to write something to grab attention on social media. I’m not trying to write something for SEO on Google or YouTube. I’m just writing this to my buddy.
Liz Wilcox 29:19
It might be something like, you know, if it was my new podcast episode, it wouldn’t be, you know, three ways to repair a broken email list. It would be, got a broken email list? Made this for you. Something like that. So it’s, it’s much different than what I’m writing for SEO. So write to a friend, write the email out. Think about, what the heck is the gist? If I was just sending to Liz, what would I say? Put that in the subject line and go for it.
Kristen Doyle 29:48
I love that thought process. I am going to definitely put that in practice when I do my email this afternoon, because I always get hung up on subject lines. I am guilty of AB testing even just on a weekly email because I don’t know what to say. And, you know, maybe can take a little pressure off and just write it like I’m writing to a friend. I love that. That makes it feel a lot easier.
Liz Wilcox 30:12
Yeah, amen. And something I’ve been experimenting with just in the last like three weeks is I’m trying this one word subject line, and it seems to be going really well. I tell you, that’s way harder than writing five words and, oh, by the way, don’t let your subject line be too long.
Liz Wilcox 30:32
It really, you know, most people are reading on mobile, so if you can’t read it in like, you know, three to five sentences, or, I’m sorry, three to five words, yeah, then it’s too long, right? It’s not a sentence. It’s just meant to be a little blurb. So don’t, don’t make it too long.
Kristen Doyle 30:51
And it’s probably getting cut off most of the time anyway, because, like you said, we are mostly reading on our phone.
Liz Wilcox 30:56
E xactly, exactly.
Kristen Doyle 30:58
I did see your email yesterday or today that had the one word subject line. And I’m very intrigued by this whole process.
Liz Wilcox 31:05
I love that. Yeah, the purpose behind it is especially right now. So we’re recording probably about, I don’t know, 4550 days out from Black Friday. And so I just know everybody and their mother is emailing,
Kristen Doyle 31:24
And it’s only getting worse, right?
Liz Wilcox 31:26
And everybody and their mother has been taught Oh, three to five words for a subject line. And so they all are kind of the same length, you know? They’re all kind of saying very similar things. And so I thought, you know, how can I stand out? How can I just even visually look different? Yeah, and I said, Oh, just one word. So I’m experimenting with that for the next 30 days. And so far, my open rate has has been slightly above my average open rate.
Kristen Doyle 31:58
So interesting. And you know, it reminds me of what we get told about things like Facebook ads, your ad image, whatever you’re using for the visual, its whole job is to be a pattern disruptor, to be something different that stands out from everything else. And this sounds like a way to maybe test something similar in the inbox.
Liz Wilcox 32:18
Yeah, yeah. It’s definitely a visual cue, and especially for the people that have been around me for a long time, like Kristen, who noticed, oh, that’s just one word that’s different.
Kristen Doyle 32:31
What is Liz doing? This is different? Yeah, what?
Liz Wilcox 32:34
What is she doing here? Like this is different. So it’s a visual cue for people who maybe not, don’t notice my emails usually, and it’s a visual like interest, for people that always open my emails to, you know, be very curious and more engaged.
Kristen Doyle 32:54
So interesting. I love that idea, and I may have to give it a try at some point down the road. I don’t know if I could pick one word. Does sound like it might. It’s
Liz Wilcox 33:02
hard. It’s it’s getting easier, but at first it’s like, you I could pick 1000 words if I only had one now. And it’s like, but just, you just got to pick one and go with it.
Kristen Doyle 33:15
Isn’t that true of everything, like just pick yes and go with it. Yes, we overthink too many things I think.
Liz Wilcox 33:25
We really do.
Kristen Doyle 33:27
So speaking of overthinking, I know a lot of people just feel really overwhelmed when it comes to email marketing. I was actually just talking to a web design client who said she had some questions around her email opt ins and things, and she said it’s just so overwhelming. What advice would you give or what’s the first step you would recommend people take if they’re feeling overwhelmed with their email?
Liz Wilcox 33:49
Slow down. You don’t have to do all the things at once. And I want you to hear me. I know you’re driving right now. Maybe you’re doing the dishes. You got carpool something, but hear me. And this is going to be so simple that I know you’re going to remember it. You don’t need to take notes. Email is actually not that complicated.
Liz Wilcox 34:10
People who have complicated products to sell you might tell you that, but email marketing really is only three components. First it’s that welcome sequence. And I know Kristen has an amazing podcast on that already that you canlisten to. So get your welcome sequence done. Second, what we’ve been talking about for half an hour, weekly newsletters, just send an email every single week. And the third component, of course, is selling sales emails.
Liz Wilcox 34:45
We talked a lot today about how to soft sell in your weekly newsletters, so that you know that part’s pretty much taken care of, but also the hard selling, aka launching. Uh, flash sales, you know, kind of a mini launch. You know, you can do a full blown launch. You can do mini ones. You can do flash sales, and just really knowing when you’re going to send those out. So again, email can be really simple. Just break it down into those components.
Liz Wilcox 35:17
Do I have my welcome sequence set? Am I writing consistent weekly newsletters that help me stay top of mind, becauseI’m showing that I’m invested and I’m relatable to my potential clients, and then am I selling to them? Do I have that super signature? Did I write an email today with some tips and I can put a PS? Oh, yeah, I have a whole workshop on this, or, Oh, I’ve got a bundle of templates you can buy for this on this topic, right?
Liz Wilcox 35:47
And then, you know, do I have in the next 90 days, a place where I could maybe launch a product and send out some sales emails, 2,3,4,5, days in a row? So email feels overwhelming. I know it does, but I don’t have anything expensive to sell you, and so I’m here to tell you, like, it actually can be really simple.
Liz Wilcox 36:11
And when you have those, when you lay those bricks, so to speak, welcome sequence newsletters, sales, that’s when you can start to, let’s say, work harder, where you can start to bring in strategies, where you can start to say, Maybe I need a funnel. Where am I going to place this and that. You can start to play with more buttons and pull more levers.
Liz Wilcox 36:35
But right now you need to just build the keyboard, so to speak. And if you don’t have those three things moving and grooving very smoothly, then you don’t it good news. You don’t have to worry about all that other stuff you’ve ever heard about email marketing.
Kristen Doyle 36:52
It takes a lot of pressure off, to just focus on the main things and get that stuff all in place first.
Liz Wilcox 36:59
Is that helpful?
Kristen Doyle 37:00
Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for this. This has been such a great conversation. Before we go, will you tell people where they can find you, and we’ll drop links, of course, in the show notes.
Liz Wilcox 37:13
Thank you. Of course, I’m an email marketer. I would love for you to join my email list. We talked about a lot today. You can go directly to Lizwilcox.com in the top right hand corner, you’re going to see a hot pink button. You can’t miss it. It’s going to give you, if you need it, a welcome sequence already written for you.
Liz Wilcox 37:31
It’s going to give you three weekly newsletter samples directly from my membership. It’s going to show you how to get people to click, how to get people to reply, and how to get people to buy directly from your newsletter. And if that’s not enough, I know Kristen told me that you know you have trouble with subject lines, so we’re going to give you 52 subject lines for a year of free prompts. So that’s all at Liz wilcox.com hot pink button. You can’t miss it.
Kristen Doyle 37:57
And since you didn’t say too much about it, I will share I am in your email marketing membership, and I absolutely love it. Highly recommend it. It has made writing those weekly emails so much faster and easier, because I have that jumping off point, I have that template to get me started.
Kristen Doyle 38:14
But in addition to that, it’s also made it easier for me to write, even without the templates, because the longer I’ve used them, the better I’ve gotten at writing those emails on my own, which is this whole other little unexpected bit of it, I guess, because I love that thing, and now I’m getting better at it on my own too. Yeah, I
Liz Wilcox 38:33
love that so much. Yeah. So the membership is only $9 a month. You get a weekly template delivered straight to your inbox. And I know Kristen, I have this in common. I am a teacher at heart, and so I love, love, love what she just said, and that’s part of the design of the program and membership is, the more you use mine, kind of, the less you need to use mine in the first place.
Liz Wilcox 38:56
You build those reps, you’re creating that pathway in your brain. So eventually, you know you can, you know, flee the nest and do your own thing. So I’m so happy to hear that I’d love for you to check out email marketing membership again, you can go to Liz wilcox.com there’s a yellow button at the top of the screen for you to check it out.
Kristen Doyle 39:17
Awesome. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing all of your email wisdom with us today.
Liz Wilcox 39:24
Thank you. Can’t wait to see what everybody does with email marketing.
Kristen Doyle 39:29
That was such an awesome conversation with Liz Wilcox. I know you’re walking away with some fresh ideas for how to make your emails feel more authentic, less overwhelming, and still drive sales. If you want to grab the free templates and tips that she mentioned, head over to Lizwilcox.com and hit that hot pink button, you will not regret it.
Kristen Doyle 39:51
And if you’re looking to sharpen your email skills even further and to get some weekly templates that you can use to write those emails, check out her email marketing membership. I’ve been a member for a couple of years now, and it has been a game changer for me. You can find all those links in the show notes for today’s episode. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I can’t wait to see you in your inbox soon.
