177: The Missing Piece in Your Email Strategy

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And my special guest today is Melissa Seidman. Melissa is founder of Not Another va, a team of passionate email marketing virtual assistants dedicated to help businesses like yours achieve their full potential. And Melissa, we are talking about one of my most favorite subjects today which is email marketing and I am super excited to dive into this with you. But before we get into all the questions I have have for you, can you tell the audience just a little bit more about you and your business and how you help people?

Yeah. So my name is Melissa Simon from Not Another va. You can find me at not another VA if you just Google it. I'm on Instagram, Facebook and my website and we specialize in everything for email marketing from startup jobs to writing, nurturing welcome sequences to course launches to do DIY email services where people want to just get email templates and then support their business with templates that they can edit and modify and make their own. And then we also do done for you services. So we do a ton of weekly emails, bi weekly emails, all that fun stuff.

Okay, so like I said, I have a lot of questions for you but the one of the main questions I have is because you're working with a lot of different businesses, a lot of probably different niches out there, what is the number one mistake that you see people making with their email marketing.

Yeah, I think the biggest mistake I see with email marketing over time is people just not being consistent with their list. They have a list, they're building their list, they're nervous to send their emails. They either go through their list too long or they email different times of the week, different days of the week. I think the most important thing you can do is email consistency. And I often use the tagline, consistency is what works for your business. So some people, it might be emailing twice a week, some people might be emailing once a week, some people might be emailing once a month or twice a month, let's say the first Monday and the third Monday. Do what you can consistently do long term and you will see growth from your email list.

So let's delve into that a little bit. You said, you know, consistency is what works for you and what you're referring to here, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what you're referring to here is what people, most people would call a newsletter. So you're, you're referring to the newsletter. Are there any other emails that people should be doing and how does that fit into like a weekly email newsletter schedule?

Yeah, you should always have a welcome sequence. So when someone joins your list, no matter where they join it from, whether it's from social media for a pin, or from a website or from YouTube or from a podcast, they should always go through some sort of a welcome sequence. Welcome them to your brand, welcome them to your business, welcome into whatever products or services you sell. And the idea is that you're going to nurture them along the way, but you're also going to weed out people that are maybe not interested in your product or service. So I often think a welcome sequence is good for a bunch of different things, but the reality is you want to tailor it towards your audience and make sure you have the right people on your list. Amy Porterfield says, write for your ideal customer avatar, and I think that's so true, is when you write, you should be writing for that ideal customer in mind. And if it's not the right customer, they have the right to unsubscribe. And I think I would rather know that earlier in the email marketing journey than realizing they're not opening my emails, buying my products or converting my to more sales.

So welcome sequence. What about if we're doing like a flash sale, would that, how would that fall into. Yeah, newsletter email.

Yeah, you should have a sales sequence. Obviously, if you were doing a flash sale or a product sale, you should have some kind of sales sequence with multiple emails going out different times during the week. I tend to pause my weekly emails and if I'm doing a special sale or I do an opt in where they can click to unsubscribe from the sales sequence, give them the option of unsubscribing from the sales sequence but stay on your list. So I often do that also.

So let's go back to that weekly email newsletter. And I know that, you know, even in the past year the different it.

Has changed a little bit, right?

The email newsletters are becoming cooler. Cool again or cooler? I should say say Tell us a little bit more about how we should structure our weekly new email newsletters. What should be included in them? What are your general tips for kind of making sure that we are delivering what we should be delivering in those weekly newsletters?

Yes, I try to keep email newsletters Around 300 words too long can actually turn off subscribers. People often don't read the entire emails anymore. So what I find is often if I'm trying to use my call to action, whether it's sending them to a blog post or sending them to a podcast or sending them to a product that I'm selling, put the link multiple times in the email. The top, the middle and the bottom, including the P.S. remind them of that one call to action. You want to nurture them so you want to not be afraid to show your personality. Make it seem personal. Use their first name in the email often. Two times customers come to me and they're not using first names. And I think it makes a big difference if putting someone's first name into the email, but not always at the top of the email you could add a question and then put their name there. You can put their first name in the middle of the email or the body. It doesn't always have to be like, hey Melissa, Hey Destiny. It could be throughout the email.

I love that tip putting it throughout the email. And I know that I've tried to do that in my own and I've seen other people do it. And I really love seeing my name in the middle of the email.

I get so many replies from customers that think that I'm like individually talking to them and not realizing that it's like an email platform that does it automatically for everybody. But it's so interesting to think about that. It's such a personal thing that you can do and you're going to create a connection and the more connections you have, the more customers you will have.

Do you have any tips for us on kind of putting together our content bank for our email newsletter marketing? Because I know for me sometimes it can get difficult thinking about, oh, what am I going to write about this week? Because I have different sections in my newsletter. So what do you suggest to people if they're doing this themselves?

How do they kind of gather all.

Of that information to inspire them?

Yeah, so think about the season of life you're in, what type of year it is, what, what season it is, what month it is, what your customers pain points are. And I think that's important to tailor all of that to your audience. But then also keep in mind like the season. So if it's summer, maybe you write about the book you're reading about or the vacation you're going on. Like don't be afraid to put a little bit of personality into the emails. And then in terms of like emails, I have, I sell Email Club, which is a service that I sell that's just templates that gives people ideas for each week. And then I also have a content calendar that I sell that has four ideas each week for emails. So it gives you a ton of ideas to write emails if you're struggling.

Okay, so tell us a little bit more about what it in. I don't know how much you help clients with this, but let's say that somebody you know has an email list but it's not growing. What are some of the strategies that you would suggest that they do to get, you know, kind of new people on their email list of their ideal customer?

Yeah, I zoom with clients all the time and like go through their own platforms and try to figure out what marketing strategy they're doing and what's working and what's not working. And oftentimes like it's a simple just oh my gosh, I didn't realize I could do a reel about this or I didn't realize I could do a story about this product and then obviously convert more subscribers. Having your email in multiple places is really important. The link in bio but less people are clicking in the link in bio. But often I'm finding a lot are wanting to drop a word and then you send them the link directly to them. So you can use automations like ManyChat to do that. I'm also finding posting on Facebook and social media, Instagram and Pinterest having pins go to the free lead magnets. That way you got to have a lot of marketing channels. And the idea is that your Email list can grow in a lot of different ways, but you do have to market it and not be afraid to market it.

So do you have any experience with some of the email newsletter platforms out there or email platforms out there who have like Sparkloop or, you know.

Yeah.

Or jumping into that. Walk us through how that works and if, if that's working for any.

Yeah, you could join if you're in ConvertKit. ConvertKit is the one platform I actually recommend to people and I love it. I use ConvertKit myself and I find that they're. The features of ConvertKit are way more severe than a lot of platforms. I personally, on a daily basis use about nine platform platforms, so I like ConvertKit the best. They have a creator network where you can join and use referrals and get paid to refer people to other people's networks. And you can do that to connect your newsletter. You can have other people refer your newsletter if you do that too. It's a simple way to build your email list. ConvertKit's really pushing it right now to use the Spark Loop to promote growing your email list. And it's such an easy way to find someone who's similar to you and, but, and you can grow your emails together.

So let's say that somebody is. And I'm jumping around just a little bit, but this just kind of popped in my mind. Let's say that somebody is sending out their weekly newsletter emails, but they're not getting sales from them. What would you suggest that people do to get more revenue from email marketing?

Yeah, so I would look at your overall strategy. How often are you nurturing? Do you have a welcome sequence in place? Are they the, the right type of subscribers for your list? Some. Some people create freebies just to grow their list, but they're not marketing to the right type of client that they want on their list. So I think that's also really important. Looking at your lead magnets, are they converting at a certain percentage? I like to see each lead magnet convert 30% or higher. So if the lead magnet's not 30%, reevaluate it. Maybe change up the image, make sure it's a high quality photo, make sure the words are converting that they want to join that email list to get on, get that freebie and then make sure your freebies are directly related to products or services you sell. I think that's also really important in terms of converting to more sales. Make sure you're consistent on a schedule. That makes a huge difference with sales. It does take time to Both value of nurturing but also of selling. And they joined your email list for a reason. Don't be afraid to sell to them. You can do, I do 24 hour sales where I'll send an email out the night before. I send out at midnight. So often you're the first email in their inbox and then they see the email, they buy the sale at 6pm sales ending in 6 hours. Type thing email, go out. I also have an abandoned cart email. So if they abandon their cart and they can get a follow up email that way and then I also have, I think it's just helpful to follow up so it's not just a one email and then you're done type thing.

I think that's a really good tip and I think that's something that we all need to remember is, you know, we have to send multiple emails if we're having like a sale and just keep reminding people because they're not always seeing things that we are sending out or they might just see it and then forget about it. So I think that's a great tip. So, Melissa, any last minute tips for the audience before we wrap it up here?

It does take time. I think people get really frustrated. Their email list doesn't grow overnight. It does take time to build your email list. And I often say it's not always about the size of your email list that matters, but how engaged they are. Like I've seen huge success in my business and other clients, businesses that have smaller lists, larger lists, like, you just need to be consistent with it. And it does take time. I have clients that have made over $200,000 a year with their email list that is a decent size. And I have clients that have 150,000 subscribers on the list and they're not making any money. So you got to really figure out what works for your niche and your audience and try to tailor your marketing needs towards that particular area.

Yeah, I just want to go, I just want to ask you another question on that because that is such a powerful statement. Where you have a list that has, you know, 150,000 people on it and they're not making money in a smaller list where they're making 200,000 between those two, because you see a lot of clients in your business between those two. What do you think is the biggest thing there? Is it that consistency or is it something else that they're missing?

I think it's, I think it's consistency. I think it's personality in the emails. So not only writing about like the products or services you do, but saying I'm going for a walk with my dog and I thought of this product or like, like I think don't be afraid to put your personality into the email. And if you like I write emails for people all the time that are not obviously my, my own and I watch Instagram, I watch their clients stories, I see what's going on in their life and I put that personality into their emails. So the copy is sounds like the person is writing it in terms of content and I think that's really important in terms of converting to more sales and it does take time and I would rather like make sure those freebies are marketed to your ideal niche and your ideal list because you don't want people joining your email list that are not the right type of client or the right type of customer for your list. And I think that's a big point. I would rather have a smaller list that's engaged in opening my emails and buying my products than a really large list that is not converting.

So Melissa, thank you so much for joining me today and bringing all of your knowledge about email marketing for us. Can you let folks know again where they can find you? And I believe you have a free gift for them too.

Yeah, you can find me at not another va.com@none other va on Instagram and I also have Facebook group called email marketing that works. But if you go to my website, nonotherva.com everything, the everything page, which is pretty amazing, has a lot of my really big offers that I do but it also has at least 10 different freebies and trainings that you can watch and you can join whatever freebie you want. In terms of email marketing, there's a content calendar, there's email templates that are DIY emails. There is an email marketing training of how to marketing mist. I have 10 marketing mistakes to avoid. There's a video there, there's a bunch of different options, subject line, cheat sheet, that type of thing.

Yeah. And definitely go there and check that out. I spend probably, I don't know, 15 to 20 minutes on Melissa's website this morning and going through everything and she has a lot of great information there for you. So Melissa, thank you so much for joining me. I loved our conversation.

Thanks so much for having me. Have a good day.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show I you hope I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day, and bye for now.