Email Marketing Mistakes That Kill Your Sales

Welcome back to the show, my friends. We're gonna talk about email marketing today. Let's just dive in. This is one of the most powerful strategies any coach can leverage. This isn't just my opinion. Most good business coaches will agree with me on this. So let's talk all things email marketing, not the kind that feels spammy or salesy, but the kind that builds true relationships, trust, this revenue loop that moves your business forward consistently. We're gonna talk about foundations of email, yes, but also through an advanced lens. I'm gonna guide you and talk about positioning, leverage, email segmentation, how email supports scale, not just a relationship and engagement. Here's the thing, email marketing, it isn't optional anymore. It never really was optional, but What I mean by this is it's something that you own. Unlike social platforms, it changes the rules, the algorithms, and it changes, you know, at the snap of a finger. Email marketing is something that actually works, always works. It's built for real businesses that want reliable conversions, not just vanity metrics about going viral and likes and followers. You want consistent revenue, you need to have a bomb email list and a bomb strategy so you can have those consistent conversions. Let's talk about why email marketing matters in the first place. So not only do you own your list and it becomes one of the most valuable assets in your business because anybody can follow you on social media, but when somebody gives you their email, That is a permission slip. They've said, yes, I want to hear from you. I am opting in. That makes email far more effective. This is why email matters, because it's far more effective than any content alone. Email allows you to build that deeper relationship, to educate your audience, to sell without feeling salesy, because you have that deeper relationship. They opted in. You can turn this engagement into income, into a revenue stream. So this isn't new, obviously, email marketing. It is a timeless strategy that works, which is why it's so important. It is one of the foundational principles, in my opinion, of marketing. Email marketing, it works whether you're selling free content or high-ticket offers or mid-ticket digital products. It really doesn't matter. So let's break down the steps. Number 1 is obviously building your list. You have to have a list to do email marketing. Before you can email anyone, you need to have people you can email. That means you need an opt-in, an opt-in that actually converts. So you need a checklist, a template, a mini course, a short video trainings, swipe files, quizzes. People love quizzes. They love to learn about themselves. So here's the key difference. Opt-ins must solve a real problem your ideal audience is already wrestling with. If they have to think about, is this gonna be worth it for me? It's not gonna convert. It's free. They're not even paying you $27 or $37. This isn't even a low ticket offer. This is a lead magnet. This is a freebie. If they have to think about whether they should opt into the freebie, it's not a good freebie. When somebody consumes the opt-in, your goal is not to just give it away, like, yay, I'm giving away free shit. No, it's to start a relationship and it's to move them along in the client journey. This lead magnet is one of the very first steps in the client journey. So then it moves on to the welcome sequence. This is step 2. This is your first impression. Somebody opts in, they get that lead magnet. But they don't just sit there. This is where the real strategy starts. This welcome sequence, 3 to 8 emails, it needs to thank them for being there, for subscribing. It needs to obviously deliver the lead magnet or whatever it is that you promised. Tell your story so they can begin to know you. Story sells, especially if you are your own ideal client. They're gonna be like, wow, she gets it. This is where the trust is gonna start to form. Then you're gonna set expectations for what they're gonna receive being on your email list, and then introducing your offers naturally, organically. It's not, here's my lead magnet, now buy my program, buy my program. No, we need to build that relationship organically, naturally. There's a huge difference between emailing sporadically anytime you wanna make a sale, and then also emailing with intent. This early sequence, this This is where you're gonna turn this passive subscriber who just opted into your lead magnet into an actual engaged reader. This is essential before you ever sell anything. You have to build that relationship. Step 3 is nurturing them on a weekly basis. You can't just have an email list and email them once in a blue moon. It needs to be consistent. We need to train them to open their box and what they're gonna get when they open our email. A lot of people get stuck here. They treat email like this spam channel instead of this relationship channel. Instead of only emailing when you want to sell, you need to develop that rhythm of value first. I always say 80% value, 20% hard promotion. So you need to be giving away value, value, value, personal stories with a lesson, insights that help them think differently. Maybe you are delivering many trainings or you're leading them to wherever the trainings are happening. You're curating content around the tools that you love. You're giving them pro tips. You're showing them case studies from clients and testimonials that you're a real coach and you get people real results. You are giving them helpful reminders that connect back to what you're offering. The point is to not sell every single time. In your email. Yes, you need to stay top of mind because people will forget about you. So if you're on any 7, 8-figure earner, their email list, you're getting a lot of emails from them. You're probably not opening all of them. You're opening the ones that have really sexy, compelling headlines, right? So what is the subject line? What is the preview? That's important, but it's also important to send emails to stay top of mind. It's also important not to sell every single time so we can train them to actually open those emails because they know when they open them, wow, they get pro tip, they get value. Then when you are ready to sell, they're gonna be ready too. So that regular thoughtful email, it's gonna go a long way. It's gonna be helpful for them. It's not gonna be pushy, and it's gonna help you get conversions when you actually do send the email. Where you're selling. Step 4 is a bit more advanced. It's going into segmentation, AKA talking to the right people, emailing the right people. Not everybody on your list is in the same place. They don't have the same level of buyer's awareness. Segmentation allows you to send the right message to the right person at the right time. So for example, brand new subscribers, they're gonna get a different sequence than the customers who have bought from you before. Somebody who has already opted into your 5-day challenge that you're doing, they need to be taken off the list. They need to be segmented so they don't get all of these emails to sign up for the challenge. This is where you're gonna lose people when you're bombarding them with unnecessary emails. So having a tag strategy, having a CRM system in place, having proper automations, are gonna be very, very important when we talk about segmentation. Buyers who haven't purchased again, they get a different series. These are hotter leads. They've already bought from you once. They're probably gonna buy from you again. Abandoned cart sequences, people who clicked but haven't bought yet, we need to have a follow-up series. So segmentation is gonna allow you to improve your conversions, It's gonna help decrease unsubscribers. It's gonna help your list feel more personalized, not generic, and you're gonna be talking to the right person at the right time. Step number 5 is selling with strategy, not desperation. You don't need to sell every single email. I already talked about this, but you have to sell within a thoughtful flow of connection, value, and timing. What does that mean? It means the typical selling framework includes a launch sequence, a cart open sequence, and then a last chance close cart sequence. So the launch sequence, it's focused emails leading up to an offer opening. Then when your cart opens, you're highlighting the benefits, you're answering common questions, you're proactively overcoming objections, you're providing social proof and testimonials and case studies. And then the last chance sequence, Cart is closing. That's gonna infuse sales psychology and urgency and scarcity with integrity, of course, reminders, clear next steps. So even in these sequences, the goal is connection first, then the offer is second, which is why top content creators, they teach value-first selling because we have to lead with value. We have to build trust. Trust is the foundation of conversions. And trust leads to a conversation, and conversation is also the foundation of a conversion. Step number 6 is make sure you know your numbers. You have to track in order to improve. Email marketing is not just set it, forget it, send it to the list, hope and pray. No, you need to track your open rates, your click-through rates, your conversion rates. You have to use these metrics to then improve your list. What's your unsubscribe rate as well? Maybe I need to have better subject lines. Oh, I compiled a list and these subject lines did really well. Every time I sent an email with this subject line, my open rate was above 50%. Maybe I need to have clearer call to actions. I'm seeing my click-through rate is not so good on these emails because I have multiple call to actions. I'm noticing that emails that I send one call to action is improving my conversion rates. My click-through rates, et cetera. So I'm giving you examples here. You have to be familiar with your numbers. You have to track, you have to look at what's gonna be the relevant content and then do more of that. So it's not about getting a perfect open rate or a perfect unsubscribe rate. It's just how can I best improve my list over and over and over again, knowing that it is one of the most powerful assets in your business when it comes to reliable and sustainable conversions. Here's another thing I wanna talk about. Here's what separates email that works from email that just sits in your drafts for forever or in your head for forever. Email isn't just a distribution channel where you're sending emails out. I really want you to have this mindset shift of This is owned real estate. I'm talking about your email list as an asset, something that you own. It is owned real estate. Remember, platforms rise and fall. How many new platforms have come out in the past 10 years? And then they go, and then algorithms change. But your email list, it's yours. It's owned real estate. When you use it strategically, It is one of the biggest revenue drivers that you have. If you would ask me what I would do differently when I was first starting my business, it would've been dumping a lot more money into growing my list. I have a hefty email list now because I've been building it over years, but if I could go back in time, I would've done a lot more list building strategies at the very beginning, and I would've put paid advertising on it sooner than later. So final takeaways are create an opt-in list. If you don't have an email list, you, you need to have an opt-in so you can start building an email list. Have that opt-in be very sexy and compelling. And I'm using sexy in this marketing term, right? It needs to solve one clear, persistent, painful problem for your one ideal client. Write a welcome sequence. It needs to build trust. They're not just getting your lead magnet and then we're leaving them hanging. Send these weekly nurture emails. You're adding value first. Value, value, value, 80% value, 20% hard promotion. You're going to segment your list. You're going to have proper tagging strategies, naming mechanisms, a CRM system, so you can sell strategically, not sporadically. To the right people at the right time. And then you're gonna track your results. You're gonna optimize your email marketing strategy over time. I said this was gonna be short and sweet, but I kind of had a lot to say. I hope that this episode brought you clarity around email marketing. My love is with you. I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Thriving Therapreneur Podcast. I hope that this episode has inspired you to reduce burnout, work smarter and see the freedom potential you have as a therapist. We would love to have you inside the Therapist to Coach Accelerator Facebook group where we have live trainings and cheat sheets on all things marketing, sales, and adding coaching ethically and legally. I am here cheering you on and I'll see you around.