147: Breaking Down Email Marketing: Four Phases for Business Growth with C.J. Thomas

Hi there.

Before we dive into today's episode, I want to ask you an important question. Are you wondering why your hard work isn't reflecting in your bank account? If so, I've got something that could change the game for you. With my digital product accelerator one on one coaching program, I'm on a mission to help entrepreneurs like you be bank consistent revenue without sacrificing your time or sanity. Imagine shifting from 90% client facing work to enjoying consistent revenue from your digital products, all while reclaiming your time. You already know that you don't need another course and a one size fits all approach isn't going to cut it. What you need is a strategic long term plan that tailored just for you. So if you're ready to build the profitable freedom giving business you dreamed of, apply to work with me by going to destinycop.com apply. I cannot wait to learn more about you and your business. Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and evergreen sales funnels. In this podcast we go deep into product and marketing strategies for digital product creators. We cover everything from digital product creation, how to market and sell your digital products, and just as important, how to find your ideal customer. Let's jump right into our show.

And my special guest today is CJ Thomas. CJ is the founder of Simply Healthy Marketing, Organic Marketing Coach and your go to Strategist for all things email. She specializes in helping service provider coaches and course creators master the art of authentic marketing to grow their heart center businesses. And cj I am super excited to chat with you today and we're going to be talking about the foundations of growing a business that business owners like us need to know before we start marketing. You're going to walk us through all the juicy details. But before we get into the questions I have for you, can you tell the good audience a little bit more about you and how you help people?

Absolutely, Destiny, and thank you so much for having me on. My name is DJ and I have been in the marketing industry for about five years and before I got into the marketing space I was actually a health and wellness practitioner. I was a yoga teacher and I realized how much marketing really went into growing my business. And I also realized that my peers weren't necessarily getting the education they needed to market their own businesses. So when I made that transition it was rooted in the idea that if I can help other people boost their heart centered businesses, then I can make so much more of an impact in the world than I could just being one wellness practitioner. So that was kind of the birth of the journey that became simply healthy marketing. And throughout the years I have helped people with copywriting, with setting up email campaigns and growing their business through email, and also with creating the foundations for their business and doing so in a way that doesn't compromise their authenticity. Because a lot of times, you know, we see these gurus online who tell us that we have to have six figure businesses or that we have to do things a certain way in order to succeed. And I like to look at it a little bit differently. I like to promote the idea that you, you can grow a business from whatever vision you have. If you want a five figure business, if you want a million dollar business, it's up to you and it's all about what's in your heart, where are you feeling led and how are you feeling to show up for and help people? So I help coaches, course creators, service providers, practitioners in the online space create the foundations for a business that is sustainable and that can last throughout the years.

And I love that. And I want to dig into these foundations that you're talking about. Can you walk us through what they are? And I want to really delve into each one of them.

Absolutely. So just a quick look. We're looking at setting goals, setting growth goals that are achievable and getting clear on the offers that you're creating in your business, getting client clarity. Because if you don't know your client, you can't attract that client. And then also when we're looking at promoting the business, content clarity. I am a deep believer that your content is your legacy. And this expands beyond just the content that you're creating on social media. But there's tons of different ways that you can create content. And so getting clear on what type of content you're going to use to build your business is super important. And that's something that I help people figure out. So anywhere from social media to email and we'll dive into a lot more of that.

So let's start with setting that growth goal that you talk about. What's involved with that? How do we even go about starting to set that goal? You know, I have in my mind like generally what I want to make every month or I need to make every month to support my family. But is that all that it entails or what, what do you do to walk clients through that?

Great question. So your growth goals have a few different aspects and the reason why I start with this is because if we don't have something that's driving us beyond money, then it's really hard to know if we're on the right track. It's hard to stay motivated. You know, it's really challenging when we're taking a journey and we don't necessarily know what. What our destination is. And so when it comes to creating a growth goal, we're looking at everything from not just how much money do you want to make with your next offer, but also how many people are you looking to get on your email list, and what does it look like to actually start approaching that goal? And so I created a calculator where people can actually look and say, okay, I want to add 30 new people to my email list in the next 30 days. What does that really look like? Being able to actually break down a goal and see what steps will have to go into it is something that helps you create a stronger plan. And then also looking at goals from a wider perspective, where are you trying to go in your business? How are you trying to help people? And what do you want to make sure you are accomplishing along each step of the process so that you are in alignment with that end goal, that. That big goal? And then the other piece which you mentioned, Destiny is looking at like, okay, well, when it comes to pricing my offers, you know, what goals do I have, what do I need to cover at the end of the month when it comes to bills, and what do I need to pay for in my business, and what money do I want to have left over for the life that I want to create for myself? And so really looking at that as well and taking that into consideration when pricing offers and things like that.

So you're looking at revenue, you're looking at things like, you know, how many subscribers on your email list, and maybe even some goals for social media. But what I really loved about what you say there or what you said there is kind of setting that growth for how do you want to help people? What do you want to, you know, what do you want to get out of this business? Which I think is something that we overlook a lot of times.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, I think that because of the world we live in, where we have to make a certain amount of money to live, it's so common that you'll see people just thinking about, okay, what can I do to make money? And it's the businesses that are thinking more about, how am I, how am I living out my purpose? Who am I helping? How am I stepping into and stepping onto a path that's going to feed my soul and nourish the souls of other people. It's when you start to do that that you see those businesses that, you know, they grow and they really succeed. And their goals are beyond money. Money is a part of it and it's great and it helps them to continue on their mission, but their mission is a lot deeper.

So I'm going to move on. The next foundation that you mentioned a second ago was Offer Clarity. Can you walk us through that in a little bit more detail?

Yeah, absolutely. So with Offer Clarity in the most basic way, it's knowing what it is that you provide for your, your ideal Soulmate clients. And so are you teaching them a course? Are you offering an in person service and how is it packaged? Is it a one off? Is there a package that people can buy? Where is it hosted? You know, what is going to actually go into creating and selling that offer and making it accessible. And that's where you really need to know what are your systems for how you're putting it out there? You know, what is the solution that you provide and being really clear on every single aspect of that. And then also your specific frameworks. Do you have frameworks that set your business apart from all the other businesses in your industry? I help people create that clarity so they can create something that is rooted in their own secret thoughts and helps them to boost the magnetism of their offers.

So what if we feel like we might not have that, you know, special, special framework? Do we need it or is that something that we only need if we have like the signature type offer or the signature type service? What do you generally say to clients related to that?

So this is where I really help them find that clarity. And you know, I actually would love to use your business destiny as an example. So, so what I've noticed is that you work in creating a lot of summits and a lot of collaboration and pulling people together to create these super deeply informative events where people can learn about how to build their business. And I would say that that's your secret sauce. The model of your business and the way that you're doing it is something that not everybody else is doing. However, the broader, you know, the, the broader area of your business is that you're helping people build businesses and you're in marketing and that's something that so many people are doing. But the way that you do it is very specific to you and your business. And so that's where you start to think about, okay, what is my special way of helping people? And you can't necessarily do that if you don't know the, the client that you're looking to, to draw in. That's where you really start to create that offer clarity as well.

I love that. I love the, you know, kind of talking about my business and my example. You know, sometimes I don't, you know, sometimes I'm so close to it, it's hard for me to say, oh yeah, that's my secret sauce. But you're right, I do love bringing people together. I do love collaborations. I do love help people grow in their business. And it's definitely, definitely something that I, that I love to do. Let's move on to the next point which you talked about, which was client clarity. And can you walk us through what you typically coach your clients on that and how do you help them get that client clarity?

Yeah, absolutely. So with client clarity, this one is big because for most people, especially in the beginning stages of starting their business, they want to help everyone and they're super excited about how they can help everyone, everyone. And what ends up happening is they get lost in the noise of their industry. And what I help people do is I help them hone in on who is your soulmate client, what problems do they have, what demographic are they in, where are they at in their lives and how does your offer come in as a solution to help them get from point A to point B. So an example of that would be I have a client who, you know, we're working together to help her pivot in her business from being a VA to being a consultant. And when we were talking about who her ideal client is, you know, at first she was like, you know, anyone who is in business at the two year mark, anywhere from the two year mark to the eight year mark, and I was like, okay, that's a really broad, you know, span of business. And people from that two year mark in their business are going to be dealing with a lot of different problems that may not be present at the eight year mark. So let's narrow it down. What if we say people who are in business from the five year to eight year mark, they are clear on how they're making sales in their business. They have the money to hire a team, but they don't necessarily know how to delegate and they need someone to come in and help them see, see like you said, from that bird's eye view where they can make different shifts in their business to take it to the next level. So, but that right There is deep clarity around your client. And when you know that, then you can start looking at, okay, how do I provide specific solutions that solve their problems and speak to them through my messaging?

And I love what you said about, you know, kind of building this all around your Soulmate client. And I think that's, you know, a lot of times, you know, when we're out there and we're kind of hustling for that revenue to meet the revenue goal that we talked about earlier. It, you know, we don't always, you know, focus on that Soulmate client and we may take anybody and everybody who might not be the best fit for us. So I love what you said there. Now, moving on, let's talk about Content Clarity. So now we have. We know what our goals are, we're very clear on our offer and how we're kind of differentiated in the marketplace. We know who our Soulmate client is. How do we go about attracting that person?

So Content Clarity, the first piece to Content Clarity is knowing what type of content you want to create for your business. We get really stuck in this tunnel vision of like, I need to create reels and be on Instagram and you might not be reaching your ideal client from that place. And so it's really important once again, going back to that Soulmate client clarity, knowing where they are and how they like to consume content and then creating content that you can put in front of them that is something that they want to devour. Right. And so maybe your expertise is in blog posts or maybe you're a YouTube video creator. You want to make sure that you have a long form type of content that you're creating and that will be super, super helpful when it comes to creating that short form content that you see on social media. So that's one strategy. And I think that it's super important to think about the long form, because long form equals long term. So, like we are here on this podcast. This podcast is going to live for a long time. And that reel that you create today may only live for the next 24 hours. And so you really want to think about what kind of content are you creating that's going to have longevity and helping you create awareness around your business and promote your offers and then also attract the right people. And when I work with clients, we look at content from the perspective of, first off, what platforms matter for what purpose. A lot of times we think, okay, I started a business, so I'm just going to go start a social media account and that's going to sell all of my offers, but we aren't really clear on what social media is for and where it is on the buyer's journey. A lot of people will overlook email content and creating emails, but they're not looking at the fact that if you have email, that's a really important step on the buyer's journey as well. So when we work together, we look at content from that big picture, and then I help people create the strategy that they're going to use to grow their business and reach their soulmate client.

And you made an important point regarding long form content. You know, podcasting, blogging, and probably video is in there also. What is your favorite?

My favorite is video. I love making video. And I also actually consider email as long form too. And email has been a huge love for me. So I'll make videos and I will send out emails. And I actually also do blogs. So I guess I don't necessarily have a favorite destiny. I just kind of like to play with all of it. And that's where my authenticity comes in. I'm a huge creative. I. My brain jumps around from thing to thing all the time. And so I give myself that space to play in my business and I will then kind of be able to study, like, where are my clients really, like, devouring my content. And then I look at, okay, maybe that's where I make more of it.

And I know one of your superpowers is integrating authentic email into all of these foundations that we talked about today. Can you tell us a little bit about how you do that and what would you recommend for somebody who's listening to this podcast right now? How can they take advantage of email as it relates to these business foundations?

Yeah, so when it comes to email, I have broken it down into four phases. There's the welcome phase, the nurture phase, the promotional phase, and then the loyalty phase, where you're drawing people back into your offers and back into that buyer's journey. And I found that when you can look at email from that perspective, you're also getting a really good picture of the buyer's journey as a whole. And being able to incorporate email into your business helps you do things. Like when you meet someone new, you can bring them into your business and start building their awareness around how you can help them right away. By offering something free and having an automated welcome sequence, you can continue to connect with people through creating those nurture emails. And then when it's time to make the sale, people feel like they know trust and like you, and you can send them Those promotional emails. And then you can follow up by just letting them know that you're still there to support with those emails that offer, you know, discounts or ask for their feedback. And that's where that loyalty phase comes in. So when people kind of sleep on email marketing, I'm always like, you know, this is an aspect of your business that is going to build the foundation for long term growth if you let it.

And I love how you broke it down between those four phases. The welcome, the nurture, the promo, and the loyalty phase. So I love that as it relates to the buyer's journey. CJ before we wrap it up here today, any last minute tips for the audience?

Yeah. So I would say go set some goals. If you're feeling like you're lost in your business right now, if you feel like you're struggling, if you feel like I am creating these offers and nobody is coming, go back to the drawing board and get really clear on your why, you know, and then start doing some research around your goal. A lot of times people give up because they don't understand that where they are on their journey is actually normal and they might not see the results right away and they just feel like, okay, well, it's not working, I guess I need to quit. But if you start to actually get clear on what your goals are, you can make a very strategic plan around how you're going to reach them. And you can also do research around, you know, how are other people reaching these goals, how long is it taking them, and am I in the place that I'm supposed to be? So my tip, my homework, all of my, my audience knows I love to give homework. My homework is to go and set your goals, reassess them.

I think I definitely need to go back and reassess mine. I try. I feel like I almost need to do that every quarter. It's crazy.

Yeah, it's so important. Schedule it. Put it on your calendar.

Yeah, There you go. C.J. can you let folks know where they can find you? And I believe you have a free gift for them also.

Absolutely. So first off, if these four steps are not something that you're implementing in your business already, I have created a course called, called the 30 day list growth formula where you can actually take it at your own pace and in the next 30 days, start to implement all four of these steps into your business and jumpstart the momentum towards growth. I have a free gift for you. It's called the seven steps to building your email list. And if you follow me, on Instagram at Simply Healthy Marketing, you can go to the link in my bio and you can get access to that free gift. It helps you start to get clear on setting goals and think about that, offer clarity. And there's also a content strategy in there that will help you start building your list. And then if you feel like you want to take it even further from there, the 30 day list growth formula will be that next natural stuff. So I'm on Instagram AtSimply Healthy Marketing.com you can follow me there. Go to the link in my bio and you can get that free gift. And you can also go to www.simplyhealthymarketing.com to learn more.

So and CJ, we'll make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so people can just click on them and find you. And thank you so much for joining us today.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Destiny.

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