0:03
Okay, TPT sellers ready to see growth in your business? You’re in the right place. Welcome to the savvy teacher seller. I’m Kristen Doyle. And I’m here to give you no fluff tools and strategies that will really make an impact on your sales. Let’s get started y’all.
0:24
Hey ya’ll, welcome to this episode of the savvy teacher seller. I’m your host, Kristen Doyle. And today we are talking about the importance of having an email welcome sequence for new subscribers that join your list. And some of the pitfalls of not creating one.
0:44
You might have heard of a welcome sequence, or maybe you’ve heard it called a nurture sequence. But either way, about a year ago, I finally took the time to create my own. And let me just tell you, the difference has been huge. I am getting more replies to emails, more clicks to my links, more sales for the things that I’m promoting in my weekly emails. And that experience in my own email marketing really solidified for me how important it is not to neglect those first few emails that subscribers get when they sign up.
1:18
So let’s get into it and talk about the magic of a welcome sequence. We’ll start with the purpose of a welcome sequence and what it can do for you. And then I’ll share some tips for creating your own. One of the first things that your welcome sequence needs to do is extend this warm welcome to your list.
1:38
See, we all know that first impressions are so important, and you want your subscribers to feel valued and welcomed to your list right from day one, your welcome sequence should also serve as an introduction so that new subscribers can get to know you and what you offer to them. It’s also about building trust with your subscribers.
2:02
So when someone is brand new to your world, and they sign up for your list, they don’t know who you are, yet, they don’t know that they can trust you. And we know that people purchase from people they feel like they know, like and trust. So when you’re creating your welcome sequence, keep in mind, it’s not just about sending some emails, but about building that foundation of trust, getting people to feel like they know and like you.
2:30
One more important piece of your welcome sequence is to set expectations for what it’s going to be like being on your email list. See clear expectations lead to happy subscribers. When people get unhappy with our emails, it is often because we’re delivering something they didn’t expect that they were going to get.
2:52
So if we get people onto our list with a freebie, and the first few emails that they receive are more and more and more free things and we never sell anything, then when we do start selling to them later, they may be disappointed, they may not feel like they’re in the right place. And so we want to make sure that we set clear expectations upfront about the type of emails you’re going to send, the fact that you’re going to be promoting products to them in your emails, and how often you’re going to send emails as well.
3:25
Another thing to keep in mind as far as expectations is to be sure that your welcome sequence emails, follow the same type of style that your regular emails will follow every week as well. Now one great thing to do in your welcome sequence is provide some quick wins. We all love instant gratification. So if you can provide some sort of quick win in those first couple of emails where your subscribers feel like they’re getting something great from being on your list, then they’re more likely to stick around. Those are your five reasons that your welcome sequence is so important and things that it can do for you in your business.
4:02
Let’s talk specific tips for creating your own welcome sequence. First up, you want to make sure that these emails are going out consistently and that they’re going out quickly after someone first signs up for your list. For that reason, I recommend doing your welcome sequence in an automated way so that you are able to have these go out on regular intervals, no matter when someone signs up.
4:31
I do this in ConvertKit using a visual automation and a sequence that is scheduled to deliver emails. Now in terms of frequency, personally, I deliver those emails every two to three days initially and then I roll them in at the end of the welcome sequence to a tag that lets them start receiving my regular weekly newsletters. So that does mean that people who are in the welcome sequence are not getting my regular weekly newsletters right now. And that’s Okay.
5:00
I know I might be missing out on maybe some potential promotion opportunities or something. But it really is that important to welcome people into your world the right way. Now, when it comes to automating one potential issue that you’ll just need to plan for is avoiding people going into the same sequence and getting the same emails multiple times.
5:21
Now, most platforms have a system to avoid this. But you can also set it up so that you are not duplicating your welcome sequence for every opt in, but that you are sending all of your new subscribers to the same welcome sequence. On ConvertKit, the way that I do this, is I send out my initial email with the freebie as the incentive email, some platforms might call that an auto responder when they sign up for the form. And then the rest of the emails in my welcome sequence are not tied to that form.
5:56
Everyone who signs up on a new form goes into an automation that puts them through the welcome sequence, which is a set of automated emails. And there is a setting in ConvertKit, where I can set any sequence to either allow people to go through it multiple times, or to only allow them to go through it once. So for this welcome sequence, I have it set so that people only go through the welcome sequence one time. That way, if they sign up for a different freebie later, they might get put into my welcome automation.
6:29
But what will happen then is ConvertKit will realize they have already gotten this sequence and it will kick them out of that welcome automation, move them to the next step where they just get their weekly emails tag back and they’re in my normal list. You just want to make sure that you have a system in place to make sure subscribers aren’t getting multiple instances of the same repetitive welcome emails.
6:52
Now it is important though to take advantage of personalizing your content and using different segments. So depending on how different your email opt ins are, you may need different welcome sequences for different categories of products. If you do that, just be careful that you’re writing them in a way that they are very different. And those emails within those welcome sequences are not the same type of content. You want to make sure that they are unique to that specific product. And people don’t feel like they’ve gotten an email that they got a couple of months ago when they signed up for a different freebie.
7:27
Now, that is an advanced step. So if you are just thinking about creating your first welcome sequence, then I would recommend just creating a generic welcome sequence. And then you can always use it to tag subscribers based on their interests so that you can personalize emails in the future.
7:42
In your welcome sequence, it’s very important to avoid overwhelming people. You want to make sure that you pace yourself with showing them all of your products that you offer, especially as TPT sellers, where unlike some other online businesses, we don’t offer one or two products. We don’t have one main course that we promote or a membership or something like that. Most of us have hundreds of products in our TPT store that we’re trying to promote.
8:08
And maybe you also have a course or a membership. But you’ve got all of these things to promote. So pace yourself. Keep it simple in the welcome sequence and don’t throw everything all at them at one time. Think about how you feel when you see a multitude of options and things are just kind of being thrown at you versus when you’re guided through a clear path to something.
8:33
One feels calm and easy to follow the other feels overwhelming and stressful. So keep that in mind. You can share all of your offers with your subscribers at some point through your weekly emails. But be strategic about what you’re putting in your welcome sequence so that you are keeping it very simple and not overwhelming them.
8:53
Let’s talk a little bit about what goes in that welcome sequence. It doesn’t have to be a long extensive sequence. I’ve heard of people who do 52 Week Welcome sequences to welcome people onto their email list. But I personally just don’t feel like that’s the best choice for our TPT stores. First of all, the content we deliver is so seasonally relevant, we need to be able to send things out on a date based range.
9:23
The other reason is, especially if you’re doing multiple welcome sequences, you want to make sure that you get people through your welcome sequence fairly quickly, and get them onto your regular weekly emails. That way you’re able to promote seasonal products to them. Let them know about events like TPT site wide sales or other promotions that you might have going on and keep everything super timely and relevant.
9:47
When you write your welcome sequence, it can be as simple as five emails. The first email should deliver the freebie that they’ve opted in for and thank them for signing up. It should encourage them that they’re in the right place that they’ve made a good step. And like I shared earlier, I use the incentive email in ConvertKit to deliver that freebie.
10:08
That way, I’m not waiting on any automations, there’s no time triggers as soon as they submit the form, it triggers that email to go out. Some of other email platforms might refer to this as an auto responder. And I know on flow desk, the only way to send out an automatic email like this is to create a sequence or an automation. So you may have to create an automation depending on your platform. But in ConvertKit, like I said, I just put this in the incentive email that is attached to the form.
10:39
Now, emails two through five should be in your welcome sequence. And I do this like I said in ConvertKit, in a visual automation, that puts them into a sequence and has these spaced out two to three days apart. Email two should share some sort of quick tip that solves a common problem. Keep in mind what freebie they opted into and make it relevant to that.
11:04
If you can give them a quick win in the second email they get from you, this is a really good way to build some trust, and to get them seeing the value and staying on your email list instead of hitting that unsubscribe button. Because here’s what happens. The first email someone gets from you is delivering them a freebie that they asked for. They’re going to download the freebie they like the freebie, hopefully, they’re not so likely to hit unsubscribe because they wanted that email.
11:31
Email number two is when a lot of new subscribers to your list might go oh, this is an email list. Let me hit unsubscribe, I don’t want to clutter up my inbox, which I think we can probably all relate to. But if you are giving them some sort of a quick win in the second email, then this gives you a chance to hang on to that subscriber and get them initiated into your world so that they know like and trust you and stick around to make purchases later.
12:00
Email number three is where you want to introduce yourself, maybe share a personal story about why you created this freebie or why you created your business. You want to introduce them to who you are and how you can help them. And then in email four, it is time to showcase one of your products, you could pick a best seller, or something that is a fan favorite, something people rave about that gets great reviews.
12:29
My recommendation for this is to consider a product line. So that the first thing you’re getting people excited about and interested in is an opportunity to sell more than just one single resource. Maybe it’s a bigger bundle or a product line that they might want to use over and over. And then even number five, this is kind of your closing email for the welcome sequence after this one that will head into your regular weekly emails.
12:54
This is where you can answer some questions, you can show off some of that great feedback about that best seller. But definitely open the door in that email for your subscribers to reply to you. Maybe you ask them what questions they have about the content that you share. Maybe you do something as simple as hey, how can I help you with your classroom with whatever they’re teaching?
13:23
Open the door for them to hit Reply to ask you questions to give you feedback about things. Because you really want people within that welcome sequence to start recognizing that you’re someone they can talk back and forth to not just someone who’s gonna send out email broadcasts that they never connect with.
13:40
Alright, that is it for our email sequence, email, our welcome sequence emails. Hopefully that makes sense. It makes it feel a little bit more doable. But if you are thinking, oh my goodness, I don’t even have a welcome sequence yet. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Like I said, I didn’t have one for years. So your action step this week is to just start simple.
14:03
Jot down three really important things you want every new subscriber to know about you and your business. Maybe it’s your top resource, a little tidbit about your teaching journey, some unique teaching tip that you swear by. Jot those things down. And once you’ve got that draft, a single welcome email to send after you deliver the freebie, just one to start. Aything is better than nothing and you can always expand on it later.
14:32
Now, if you’ve been listening and nodding along and thinking wow, I really need to up my welcome sequence game, but I am not good at writing the emails. Then I do want to share a really great resource with you that I have personally used for so many different things. My friend Nicole is the queen of selling without being salesy. You might remember her from Episode 53 earlier this year where she shared copywriting tips for Your TPT product descriptions.
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If you’re looking for some swipe copy to help you update or write your email welcome sequence, definitely check out Nicole’s elevate your email copy. Among other things, it includes her plugin play red carpet welcome sequence, and I’ll put an affiliate link for that in the shownotes. Trust me, it is a game changer. It is the easiest template to follow.
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It will help you roll out that red carpet welcome people onto your email list in such an effortless way it won’t feel so heavy at all. Her templates are so so easy to tweak and because she doesn’t do a lot of marketing in the TPT world, you won’t sound like everyone else. Remember, the journey with your email subscribers really does start with that very first email so make it count. Be genuine and provide value in your welcome sequence. Talk to you soon friends.
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I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you did, please share it with another teacher seller who would also find it helpful. For more resources on growing your TPT business, head to kristendoyle.co/TPT. Talk to you soon.
