290 – An Email Marketing Plan – The Often Forgotten Powerhouse to Increase Sales with Chloë Thomas of eCommerce MasterPlan

Email marketing plan with Chloe Thomas of eCommerce MasterPlan

Do you resist email marketing for your business as too hard or complicated? The truth is, a good email marketing plan can be a real powerhouse to help you increase sales. And today we’ve got Chloe Thomas here to help us out.

Chloë has been working in direct marketing since 2001. It started with a focus on in-store loyalty programs, catalog mailings, and email marketing.

From there, she brought several established mail order businesses into the internet age – launching websites, first-ever email campaigns, as well as Google Adwords and affiliate marketing.

Following her success there, Chloe transitioned her experience into a marketing agency all its own. She expanded into B2B marketing and sales and learned more about retail and eCommerce by working with everyone from high street retailers to pure play online startups.

In 2012 Chloë realized her future was in helping eCommerce businesses work out what marketing they should be doing and so eCommerce MasterPlan was born.

BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS

  • Keep optimizing. Stop being a perfectionist and get your product out there. Then revisit it and use customer feedback to make it better.
  • Don’t give up when something doesn’t work as well as you’d hoped. Keep optimizing it -that’s your pathway to great success.
  • Listen to your customers. They will direct you to where you should go to make more sales.

Email Marketing Plan Tips

  • Why is email marketing important? Because it’s the core of your ability to communicate with your customer via a channel YOU control.
  • Good email marketing helps you build connections and relationships with your customers.
  • You already know how to build a relationship with your customers in person. Email is just an extension of that.
  • Email signups and sales are as strong as they were 5 years ago. So email is still a great tool to build your business.
  • Give people a compelling reason to sign up for your list. Figure out what’s valuable to YOUR customers, rather than what you see others doing.
  • Listen to the full episode for tips & ideas to get sign-ups!
  • Ask for replies and feedback in your emails to build the relationship and encourage connection. Replies to your emails will improve your deliverability, too. <– Pro tip!
  • Keep your list active so that when you send out important emails (like for the holidays) they remember who you are.
  • Don’t know what to put in your emails? Tune in for TONS of email ideas!
  • Platforms – if what you’re using is working for you, don’t switch. Only switch if you need something your current platform doesn’t do. If you do switch – do it in the off-season, never during the holidays.
  • Much more info than can be shared here. Listen to the full episode to get it all!

Resources Mentioned:

Chloe’s Contact Links

WebsiteFacebook | Instagram | Twitter | Linkedin


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Transcript
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 290.

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Next time they see you at a trade show.

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They're going to come over because they already know what your

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new product is.

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And they know they want to come and see it,

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buy it,

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try it on,

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taste it Attention.

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Gifters bakers,

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crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

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Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

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Now you are in the right place.

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This is gift to biz unwrapped,

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helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

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Join us for an episode,

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packed full of invaluable guidance,

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resources, and the support you need to grow.

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Your gift biz.

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Here is your host gift biz gal,

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Sue moon Heights.

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Hi there,

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Sue. And as we enter into this month of thankfulness and

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gratitude, I want to tell you how much you mean to

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me. I appreciate each note,

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email and review.

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I get telling me how this show has helped you either

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start or add to your business.

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Thank you.

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Thank you for that.

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If you've been following me this last month or so,

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you know,

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I'm super excited about and promoting Facebook shops these days in

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a big way.

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Why? Because it's a huge opportunity for you.

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If you're thinking of turning your hobby or craft into a

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business, but haven't taken that first step yet,

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you can start selling your products without having your own website

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without knowing about shopping carts,

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shipping methods,

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or any of the things that typically prevent people from starting.

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Just think you could begin making money with your handmade products

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this holiday season.

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And if you're enjoying that extra income and sharing your products

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with others,

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you can expand into a more formal business.

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Next year,

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I show you exactly how to do this in my program,

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set up and sell in Facebook shops.

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I made the program super affordable.

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So it's completely doable.

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You can be up and running within just a few days.

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I take you not just through the step-by-step on how to

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get your shop created,

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but then how to attract people to buy from you.

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But time is running out to gain traction for the holidays

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for this year.

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So stop this podcast.

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I give you permission and sign up.

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Now, check out all the details over at gift biz,

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unwrapped.com forward slash Facebook shops.

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Now, today I am taking you across the pond,

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as they say to talk with an email marketing expert.

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Did you know that email signups and sales are as strong

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today as they were five years ago?

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I know this gets lost with all the focus on social

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media and email marketing plan adds strength to your business that

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on Facebook,

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Instagram, or any other social media site,

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simply can't match and make sure to listen all the way

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through because the final topic we cover is how to create

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a plan for email marketing.

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This plan will get you to make a transition,

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goodbye thinking and hello doing today.

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It is my pleasure to introduce you to Chloe Thomas of

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e-commerce master plan.

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Chloe has been working in direct marketing since 2001.

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It started with focus on in-store loyalty programs,

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catalog, mailings,

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and email marketing.

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From there,

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she brought several established mail order businesses into the internet age,

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launching websites,

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first ever email campaigns,

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as well as Google AdWords and affiliate marketing.

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Following her success there,

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Chloe transitioned her experience into a marketing agency,

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all its own.

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She expanded into B2B marketing and sales and learned more about

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retail. And e-commerce by working with everyone from wall street retailers

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to pure play online startups in 2012,

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Chloe realized her future was in helping e-commerce businesses work out

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what marketing they should be doing.

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So e-commerce master plan was born Chloe,

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welcome to the gift biz on repped podcast.

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Hello, how are you?

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I am wonderful.

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And I'm so glad you're here.

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And we are going to be talking and diving into email

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marketing today,

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which is something that I know will perk up all my

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listeners ears.

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So I really appreciate you coming on.

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It's exciting to be here and I love talking about e-commerce.

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I love helping people get started.

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So yeah,

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I'm really looking forward to this.

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Me too.

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I'm going to delay all of that goodness for just a

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second, because I want to learn a little bit more about

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you from a different angle.

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And that is through a motivational candle.

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This is a creative way that really resonates with all of

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our listeners.

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Cause we're all creatives here.

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So we get to see a little bit of a different

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side to you,

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Chloe. So if you were to share with us what a

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motivational candle would look like by color and quote,

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that really speaks to you,

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what would it look like?

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Okay. So it's going to be two colors.

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It's going to be pink and it's going to be blue,

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kind of vertically separates the top half's blue,

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bottom house pink,

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and the words on it are going to be keep optimizing,

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which has been my personal mantra for probably five or six

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years. Now.

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It's actually,

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I don't know you mentioned this,

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but because you've got a crafting audience,

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I think I feel I have to,

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it's actually cross stitched in a design.

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I've done with a big tree that sits halfway down my

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staircase. Every time I walked down the stairs,

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I see keep optimizing and cross stitch on the wall.

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So I kind of figured this same idea with your candle

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here. And the reason why is my personal mantra is because

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it does two things for me,

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one, it reminds me that nothing's ever finished and you have

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to keep going back and,

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and improving.

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But it also reminds me that nothing's ever perfect.

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And therefore,

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at some point you have to put it live.

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And I am historically awful at trying to make things perfect

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before I put them live.

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And as I think everyone listening will know is that that's

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a route to never really achieving anything.

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So that was what my candle would be.

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Yeah. And so true to our audience too,

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because it's also,

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you want to keep perfecting what you've made.

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Just one more little tweak or a little more color there

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or Oh,

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the stitch way back.

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Wasn't quite perfect.

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So I've got to go fix it.

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And at some point you just have to say,

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good enough is good enough.

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Let's sell this baby.

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Exactly. And until you put it on sale,

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until you put it out there,

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you don't know what the real problems are because it doesn't

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really matter what you think it matters,

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what your customers think.

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And every time you do this and you actually put it

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out there,

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you suddenly discover the thing you thought was going to be

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the best seller nobody wants.

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And the thing you didn't think was going to be the

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best seller everybody loves,

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which is why you've got to put it out there.

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Cause then you get the feedback that you can use to

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actually optimize.

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Oh my gosh.

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So true.

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It's really heartbreaking to me.

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And I'll be curious if you see this,

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I think you do just by what you were saying is

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that there's so much time prep time put together,

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making a lot of product because they just know that this

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is going to be the big seller or putting up a

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website. That includes that product,

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all of the background stuff.

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And let's face it.

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Even though tech is always an issue,

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it's a lot more comfortable to do work behind your desk

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when it's just you and the work versus getting out there

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in front of people and actually seeing if it's going to

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sell. But so to get back to my point,

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it's so heartbreaking when people spend so much time there and

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then they actually get to the point of selling and it

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isn't what anybody wants.

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Yeah, it's awful.

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I've got a brand slash client at the moment who is

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working on launching a site where she's selling her artwork on

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products. So mugs bags,

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phone cases being the case in point.

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So she's licensing her artwork.

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She's Doing it for her own Shopify store.

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So her artwork on,

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I think direct dispatch products,

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but I haven't got into that bit of it with her,

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but she emailed me today going,

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Oh, I'm so close to going live,

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but I've got a reformer,

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every picture for all 30 phone case sizes.

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Like we don't even know which pictures people want to buy

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yet. Why don't you just do the top three best selling

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phones and ignore the other 27 covers save two hours of

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your life.

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And then if one selling or if a customers are messaging

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you and going,

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why can't I get it for my Google nexus?

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Then you bother to create the one for the Google nexus.

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But we get this completion,

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this perfection idea.

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And it stops us putting it out there.

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And nine times out of 10,

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the customers don't care that it's not finished.

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And the customers will send you in a completely different direction

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to the one you thought you should be going in any

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way. So yeah,

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I see it a lot and it frustrates me too.

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And I'm going to raise my hand.

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I've been guilty of doing that too.

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Oh yeah.

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Oh, I'm guilty of It as well.

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Yeah. I mean,

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whether it's online programs or actual products,

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I think it's just human nature.

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Once you recognize it,

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that's the first step to solving it and not doing it.

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So like I'm really big right now,

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Chloe on Facebook shops over here,

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it's a big deal right now in the U S it

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just came about people can start Facebook shops and test their

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products there and see to your point.

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What's actually selling without a lot of investment without building a

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big website up yet,

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all of that.

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And then once you see what's working,

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then you take the next step.

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This is like golden information,

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right from the top Chloe,

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I try,

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I'm equally bad.

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There's at least two projects I can think of right now

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that I should have put live by now that I'm procrastinating

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on. And sometimes my procrastination is just thinking,

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not even getting anything done.

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That's why it's written halfway down my stairs and cross stage

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is so is it every time I walk past a gate?

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Yes, Chloe,

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keep optimizing,

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actually go and get it done.

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Put it live,

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see what the feedback is,

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then improve it.

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There you go.

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All right,

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let's go.

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The next time you walk by opera down the stairs.

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I want you to think of us and our conversation right

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here. And maybe that'll jolt you to action.

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That'll be your trigger.

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Sue says,

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you're going to feel guilty and do it well.

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We can always use the little pushes,

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right? So I think you're talking about with keep optimized.

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And I just want to add one more point is the

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perfection is one thing.

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Remind me,

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what was the other reason the optimizing One is to stop

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being a perfectionist and just put it live.

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And the other one is to remember,

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to revisit it and make it better because that kind of

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speaks to that angle where I see this a lot with

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Facebook ads in particular is someone they spend 10 pounds on

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a Facebook ad.

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It doesn't work and they write off Facebook ads forever.

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And it's like,

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no, you learn from that.

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And you reiterate and you try again and you try again.

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And often you're not going to get great success the first

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time. But if you keep optimizing it,

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then that's your pathway to great success.

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So it's kind of sticking at it,

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but also getting it live sooner.

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Yeah, I totally agree.

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And the other thought I wanted to come back to this

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point, because the other thing I thought of while you were

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talking about this is the world also continues to change.

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And so you also have to make sure that your products

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stay relevant to phone cases like you were talking about when

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phones go out of style and the sizes aren't available anymore,

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you need to make sure that you're updating what's available.

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So people will still want it.

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It's still saleable.

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All right.

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Well, let's talk about email marketing.

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Let's just dive right in here.

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What role do you feel?

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Email marketing plays now let's just specifically talk product based businesses

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here. What role does that play?

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Because I think a lot of people will say,

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well, I'm out at craft shows or people walk into my

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shop. Why do I need email?

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Wow. It's for so many reasons.

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But the core of it is it's your ability to communicate

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with your customer in a marketing channel that you are in

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control of.

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So yes,

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they can like you on Facebook.

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Yes. They can follow you on Twitter,

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Instagram, Pinterest,

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et cetera.

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But on each of those platforms,

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you're at the whim of the algorithm.

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Whether or not someone actually sees your message,

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you can't send a message to everyone you're connected to on

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Facebook and them actually see it.

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It just doesn't happen when you put up those page posts.

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But when you send out an email,

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it gets delivered caveat here,

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email deliverability,

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not getting into that today,

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but basically it all does get delivered to the people who

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have signed up.

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So it's your way of communicating with them,

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telling them what's new,

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telling them your story,

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building trust and a relationship with them.

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So the next time they're in the local mall and they

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walk past your store.

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They walk in because they know what's going on.

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They know more about you.

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They feel more connected with you.

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They're not going to walk past your store.

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They're going to come in next time.

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They see you at a trade show.

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They're going to come over because they already know what your

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new product is.

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And they know they want to come and see it,

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buy it,

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try it on taste step,

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et cetera,

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et cetera.

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It's really just another touch point and a touch point that

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you are way more in control of.

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I would say too,

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because let's say it's a craft show or a farmer's market.

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Someone might only go one time,

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but what if they bought your product and loved it?

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And then they wanted to know how to get back in

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touch with you because they want more Exactly.

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It's giving them a way of connecting with you to find

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out in.

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And it could be you're in that situation where they've come

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in and they've gone,

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Oh man,

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I really like that.

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Have you got it in this side?

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If you've got it in this color?

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Yes we do.

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Normally. But at the moment I'm out of stock,

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that's then gone.

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But you can say to them,

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sign up Tori,

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my newsletter.

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And you'll know when it's back in stock.

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And you'll know when we bring it out in 20 other

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colors for next year or whatever it is we're doing.

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So it enables you even for those who aren't yet buying,

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it enables you to build that relationship and that connection.

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So as once they're ready to buy,

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well, actually quite frankly,

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it accelerates them on being ready to buy because then they

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feel that connection and that emotional link to you and to

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your business.

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Right. And how do you feel?

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I mean,

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I know these days when someone wants my email,

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I'm very reluctant to give it to them because it's like,

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okay, now I'm going to be getting a ton of emails

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from you.

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They're all going to be probably sales emails.

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I like your product,

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but I don't like it every week,

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every day.

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And I'm trying to keep my inbox manageable.

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So do you have any clues or tips for us on

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ways to collect email addresses where people are so interested,

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they are ready to give it to you?

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They can't wait to give the address.

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Yeah. I mean,

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I think first of all,

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you need to not think that everyone's unwilling to sign up

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because signup rates are still as strong as they were five

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years ago,

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email performance and sales are still as strong as it was

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five years ago.

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So I think it's easy to fall into the trap of

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thinking, this is how I do it.

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So that's how everyone else does.

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So people,

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if they're interested,

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they're intrigued often email will be the first step before they're

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willing to give you money.

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So they give you their email address to see if they

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can trust you with that before they're willing to give you

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their money,

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which obviously is a far more committed point where they start

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handing over co-taught cash.

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So I think as though people want to sign up,

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but then of course,

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there's lots that we can do to encourage them to sign

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up. We've got kind of the incentivization side of it.

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So things like running competitions,

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we've got 10% off free PMP or free shipping,

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all these things that we can do to incentivize the signup.

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But I would always start without the incentive because until you

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know how many people you can get to sign up when

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you're just saying,

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we're going to send you interesting stuff.

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And I will expand on that shortly.

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I promise until,

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you know,

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what percentage of people you get to sign up,

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then you won't know if offering a discount or free shipping

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or the competition,

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the cost of that is worth it.

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Because what you don't want to do is to accidentally give

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10% off to everyone.

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When actually just as many people would have signed up.

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If you hadn't been giving them 10% off,

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because that 10% of you've sweated and labored over and you

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deserve quite frankly,

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Right? It comes right off of your margin.

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Any promotion you run is always about getting the customer to

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do what you want them to do as cheaply as possible.

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And if we don't need to give them 10% off to

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get our email address,

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then we shouldn't give them 10% off.

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You've got to start with a no offer one.

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And that means giving them a compelling reason to sign up.

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So often people get hung up on what we see in

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the info world,

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which is white papers or PDF downloads and that kind of

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thing that doesn't work as well in the e-commerce space.

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What you need to do is you need to think of

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what's going to be valuable to that person.

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Why is it they want to buy from you?

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So it could be,

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I have a friend who runs a fish business.

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They're a fish monger,

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online fish monger,

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and their email signup has a picture of boss of the

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business who knows all about fish.

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So it's immediately got that human connection.

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Cause right next to the most signup,

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there's a picture of the fish monger.

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Then they have little bubbles,

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which say recipe ideas,

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because if you're buying fish,

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you want some ideas of what to do with your fish.

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It says latest news from our fishermen.

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So they're going to get that as well.

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So you just giving them these kind of like little bite-sized

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bits of what they're going to get.

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If they sign up,

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you can also do some call it like monthly or weekly.

Speaker:

So you take away that fear that it's going to just

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fill up the inbox,

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but then you are obviously committing to only messaging that on

Speaker:

that kind of timeframe.

Speaker:

So think about the sort of things someone would want to

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know about from you,

Speaker:

the sort of things you're going to be sending them and

Speaker:

make that clear around your newsletter sign up.

Speaker:

And that can do a huge amount to increase the number

Speaker:

of signups you're getting.

Speaker:

Yes. And I would also agree that setting the expectation that

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I'm going to be emailing you weekly or monthly or whatever

Speaker:

it is with the enticement like you're talking about.

Speaker:

I love that example by the way,

Speaker:

because I would sign into that immediately.

Speaker:

I'd be so interested and it's not selling it's using their

Speaker:

product, but not selling,

Speaker:

which I absolutely love.

Speaker:

What are the rules though,

Speaker:

around when someone ops in don't you have to tell them

Speaker:

that they are signing up for regular communication with you.

Speaker:

Yes, there are email rules and we need to follow them.

Speaker:

We'll get into that right after a word from our sponsor.

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To be aware of whatever the legislation is in the area

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you're in,

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which is a complex complex area at the moment.

Speaker:

But the rough rule of thumb that everyone seems to be

Speaker:

going by is that as long as you make it clear

Speaker:

that they're signing up to receive marketing communications from you,

Speaker:

which could be a line as simple as sign up to

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receive our newsletter.

Speaker:

It could be text next to it,

Speaker:

which just says,

Speaker:

by signing up,

Speaker:

you will receive marketing communications about our products.

Speaker:

If you're going to do it that way,

Speaker:

I would add in two very important messages,

Speaker:

which encourage people to sign up.

Speaker:

One is we will never give your email address to anyone

Speaker:

else. And the second one is you can unsubscribe at any

Speaker:

time, so they know they're going to be able to access

Speaker:

it again.

Speaker:

And you should also have a link to your privacy policy

Speaker:

close by.

Speaker:

And that's mainly based on the European GDPR legislation,

Speaker:

but that's very,

Speaker:

very similar to what's being rolled out in various parts of

Speaker:

the U S as well,

Speaker:

Right? So you're setting expectations and then they're also in control

Speaker:

of their future.

Speaker:

You're not like latching onto them forever if they don't want

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to be there.

Speaker:

I think the other thing I want to bring up and

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I'm bringing it up because I have been guilty of this

Speaker:

myself is if you do some type of a contest or

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a sweepstakes for a prize,

Speaker:

with the goal of collecting email addresses,

Speaker:

you want to make sure that that prize is something that

Speaker:

relates to your customer longterm.

Speaker:

Oh yes.

Speaker:

Or else you're going to get potentially thousands.

Speaker:

Like I did of email submissions and the majority of them

Speaker:

just wanted to win something,

Speaker:

but would never really become your customer.

Speaker:

Yeah. You definitely don't want to be giving away an Amazon

Speaker:

voucher. You want to be giving away one of your product

Speaker:

or something very closely aligned to your product.

Speaker:

I think even when you do that,

Speaker:

you'll still get a lot of people who aren't going to

Speaker:

convert. So I think if you're going to competitions are brilliant.

Speaker:

I'm not saying anything against competitions,

Speaker:

but the other thing I would do as well as making

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sure that the is your product is I would make sure

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that you kind of track those respondents separately.

Speaker:

So you see how that list performs separately to how the

Speaker:

rest of your database performs and that you may be only

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send it a couple of emails with really big links to

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unsubscribes. So you encourage those who are never going to buy

Speaker:

from you to quite frankly,

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go away and get off your list.

Speaker:

But I'd also make sure that you're sending them really high

Speaker:

quality content,

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those first few messages you send them.

Speaker:

So as then,

Speaker:

you're giving yourself the best possible opportunity of someone who saw

Speaker:

a friend posting free competition,

Speaker:

and to now,

Speaker:

and they just entered.

Speaker:

They then get a series of emails from you to explain

Speaker:

who you are,

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why your product's great,

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why they should buy from you.

Speaker:

So is then they're qualified to make a decision about whether

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they want to be on your list or not.

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Okay. I'm going to put myself to a test and you're

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going to judge me.

Speaker:

Okay. Okay.

Speaker:

And total truth and total truth.

Speaker:

If you want to say,

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Sue, you are so wrong,

Speaker:

then go for it.

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Okay. So my very favorite is what you said about that.

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Fishmonger is exchanging an email address for something that relates to

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your product that is an enhancement to the product.

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So I like to use the example of,

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if you sell scarves different ways,

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you can use your scarves different ways to tie it or

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how to take care of it or things like that,

Speaker:

or candles could be,

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how do you ensure that you get the most out of

Speaker:

your candle as possible or places to put your candle that

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will affect your mood and you know,

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who knows what it is,

Speaker:

but enhances an add on to the value of purchasing your

Speaker:

product. So that's my first favorite thing.

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My second favorite is offering some type of a discount.

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When did they purchase?

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So saying sign up for email marketing,

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just like what we talked about before,

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and I'll send you a coupon code off your first purchase.

Speaker:

So they're not able to use that discount unless you have

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the email.

Speaker:

So in a way you're paying for the email,

Speaker:

but you get them on the list and you get the

Speaker:

sale at the same time.

Speaker:

What do you think of both of those,

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Your first example,

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about 10 ways to tie a scarf?

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I think I would start off with that one.

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See what kind of response you get.

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So how many people who come to your website who come

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to your store,

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come to your stand?

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What percentage of them sign up?

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I do that for a month and then the next month,

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the next event,

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et cetera,

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I would test the 10% off your first order and see

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how much of a difference that makes to both the number

Speaker:

of people you get signed up.

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And then the number of people who sign up who then

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go on to purchase,

Speaker:

because quite often that adding the discount,

Speaker:

it increases the speed at which someone goes from signing up

Speaker:

to buying more than it increases.

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The number of people who signed up.

Speaker:

And if that giving away that discount is worth it to

Speaker:

you. And often it is then carry on with it.

Speaker:

If it's not,

Speaker:

then go back to purely the compelling message.

Speaker:

And I think I just wanted to add something else because

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I thought of something else.

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When you were saying about that scarf idea,

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in particular,

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if, for example,

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you're selling scarves and you have his five ways to wear

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our scarf,

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you could do it as a,

Speaker:

rather than as a download or as a single email,

Speaker:

as a five email series.

Speaker:

So like you're signing up kind of to training.

Speaker:

So you get a series of five emails,

Speaker:

each of which shows how to tie the score for different

Speaker:

way. And then you're able to get in that inbox multiple

Speaker:

times with something the person's expecting.

Speaker:

And you're able to really go into depth on those five

Speaker:

different ways of tying it,

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which as you said,

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could work for any product,

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you know,

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candles, how your candle,

Speaker:

the best ways to position a candle in every room of

Speaker:

your house,

Speaker:

because then you're going to sell more candles.

Speaker:

Quite frankly,

Speaker:

if you've explained to them how to put it in the

Speaker:

downstairs bathroom,

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how to use it in the garage,

Speaker:

how to use it in the kitchen,

Speaker:

they're suddenly going to want them all over the house.

Speaker:

So there's ways of doing it where you could turn it

Speaker:

into kind of almost a newsletter training mechanism to get them

Speaker:

to sign up.

Speaker:

I like that idea.

Speaker:

It also is conditioning them that when they open emails from

Speaker:

you, there is something really good inside.

Speaker:

So they're starting that repetitive behavior with your emails specifically.

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Yeah. And it proves that you're going to give them that

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high quality content,

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which is highly linked to your product,

Speaker:

but it's showing,

Speaker:

you know,

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your product,

Speaker:

you know how people are using it.

Speaker:

You know,

Speaker:

the customer,

Speaker:

it gives them ways to connect with you.

Speaker:

And I keep saying about connection and emotion,

Speaker:

and it's one of the most powerful ways to sell.

Speaker:

And those of you out there who are making your own

Speaker:

products, who are designing your own products,

Speaker:

you are better at this than most retailers.

Speaker:

This is your,

Speaker:

I was gonna say your kryptonite,

Speaker:

but it that's completely the wrong metaphor,

Speaker:

completely wrong.

Speaker:

This is your kind of power is that you already know

Speaker:

how to build a personal relationship with your customers because they're

Speaker:

coming into your store.

Speaker:

You're dealing with them directly on social media.

Speaker:

They're coming to your stand at the craft fairs.

Speaker:

So, you know,

Speaker:

the sort of things they want to hear from you,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

about building relationships,

Speaker:

they come back and buy again,

Speaker:

email marketing is just another way of doing that.

Speaker:

So the more you can put yourself out there and you

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can give them that great advice that you would give them.

Speaker:

If they walked into your store up to your stand,

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the more you're going to build that relationship virtually to increase

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the size of your online business.

Speaker:

We really need to be thinking about email is just another

Speaker:

touch point with our audiences and Chloe,

Speaker:

no surprise what's happened this year.

Speaker:

Anybody who a hundred percent was relying on brick and mortar

Speaker:

for the most part,

Speaker:

but then also we have a lot of people here who

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go just from craft show to craft show,

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to craft show,

Speaker:

especially through the good weather seasons,

Speaker:

depending on where they live.

Speaker:

We're totally shut down for some time this year.

Speaker:

And I had an opportunity a few weeks ago,

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we have a very,

Speaker:

well-known very upscale art show that happens in my community.

Speaker:

And I went over there.

Speaker:

It was limited spacing,

Speaker:

social distancing temperature.

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When you go in,

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you know,

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like the whole thing,

Speaker:

but I was talking to a lot of these artists and

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they said,

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yeah, we've never done email before in our life.

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And we wish we would have been all this time because

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we wouldn't have lost so much momentum.

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They had emails from people they had sold to in the

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past, but not others who were anticipating the next time they

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saw them at a show or something because it was when

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all the shows had to go dark.

Speaker:

They were stuck.

Speaker:

So I think the mentality of email is one layer.

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Customer contact is a great layer.

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It gives you way more information to enhance your emails better,

Speaker:

but it all works together.

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It does.

Speaker:

And sometimes it can feel with email.

Speaker:

Like you're just sending something out into the ether and nothing's

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happening because on social,

Speaker:

you get the likes and the comments and all the rest

Speaker:

of it.

Speaker:

So you kind of immediately get feedback,

Speaker:

but email is still having a big impact.

Speaker:

It's still getting people to know,

Speaker:

like understand your brand.

Speaker:

And if you want to hear back from people,

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putting your email reply and let me know what you think,

Speaker:

let me know what you want more of.

Speaker:

So you can,

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you know,

Speaker:

if you're feeling it's a bit cold,

Speaker:

you can easily encourage that two-way comms when you're doing email,

Speaker:

just like you would on Facebook or Pinterest,

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et cetera.

Speaker:

Yeah. And I've heard that having people reply to your emails

Speaker:

increases the deliverability of your emails too.

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It does.

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Yeah. So I lost over deliverability earlier.

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So deliverability is all about getting your email into someone's inbox.

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So we all have that thing where there's someone,

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a retailer we like hearing from,

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and then all of a sudden we thought we haven't seen

Speaker:

that emails in a while.

Speaker:

And then we check our spam folder and all of a

Speaker:

sudden, although he must have gone into the spam folder,

Speaker:

that's because their deliverability has decreased.

Speaker:

And deliverability is basically based on the reputation of where the

Speaker:

black box that your emails are flying out of.

Speaker:

If you use trim your MailChimp black box,

Speaker:

if you use Klaviyo,

Speaker:

the black box at Klaviyo,

Speaker:

and that reputation is predominantly based on how people react to

Speaker:

your emails,

Speaker:

Yours specifically,

Speaker:

or your provider,

Speaker:

like I use what used to be infusion soft.

Speaker:

Now keep,

Speaker:

is it their overall reputation or your own reputation as a

Speaker:

business using that platform?

Speaker:

A mixture of the two,

Speaker:

but these days,

Speaker:

most of the sending platforms are very good at managing deliverability

Speaker:

on your behalf.

Speaker:

Because obviously if their deliverability went through the floor,

Speaker:

they didn't lose all their customers.

Speaker:

So technically speaking,

Speaker:

it comes down to the reputation of you and the other

Speaker:

people who are sending from the same black box as you,

Speaker:

because unless you're a huge company,

Speaker:

there'll be multiple people coming out of the same black box

Speaker:

and behind the scenes at companies like those we've mentioned.

Speaker:

And I haven't double checked that each of them do this,

Speaker:

but I'd be very surprised if they don't.

Speaker:

They have kind of like a hierarchy of black boxes and

Speaker:

the better your sender reputation,

Speaker:

yours personally,

Speaker:

the better black box you'll end up on.

Speaker:

Got it.

Speaker:

And if you're misbehaving a lot,

Speaker:

they'll put you on the lower list,

Speaker:

which is one of the reasons I said about when you

Speaker:

run the big surveys,

Speaker:

encourage people to unsubscribe in those first few messages after the

Speaker:

competition, sorry,

Speaker:

not survey competition,

Speaker:

because you want them off your list quickly because otherwise in

Speaker:

six months time,

Speaker:

they might hit spam because they forgot forgotten.

Speaker:

They signed up and that's a really bad sign for your

Speaker:

sender reputation.

Speaker:

Good signs for your sender reputation are people opening and reading

Speaker:

your emails and people replying to you is another great sign

Speaker:

for your sender reputation.

Speaker:

So that was a very long-winded answer to say yes.

Speaker:

Asking people to reply to your emails is a good thing.

Speaker:

We're working on getting better at cleaning our lists on a

Speaker:

regular basis.

Speaker:

I have two different businesses.

Speaker:

So we have two separate lists.

Speaker:

We've cleaned one.

Speaker:

Now we're working on the other one and Oh my gosh,

Speaker:

it breaks my heart that I have people on a list.

Speaker:

And the number's pretty big who have not opened an email

Speaker:

in six months,

Speaker:

let's say,

Speaker:

but it's in my best interest to get rid of them.

Speaker:

Right. I mean,

Speaker:

if they didn't open for six months,

Speaker:

most likely that they're not being seen is my guests because

Speaker:

let's face it,

Speaker:

Chloe. My information is so awesome.

Speaker:

If people see it,

Speaker:

they're going to open.

Speaker:

I'm just kidding.

Speaker:

But you're right.

Speaker:

It's like you're being a good emailer and you're putting things

Speaker:

out there which are interesting.

Speaker:

And then not going out there weekly or going up their

Speaker:

monthly and they haven't opened in a long time.

Speaker:

Then they're probably what I still call emotionally dormant or emotionally

Speaker:

unsubscribed. They're just ignoring you every time you come in.

Speaker:

What I tend to do with mine is every month or

Speaker:

so, I will send something really,

Speaker:

really strong out to everyone.

Speaker:

So occasionally I run a 99 Pence Kindle book event with

Speaker:

a number of different business authors.

Speaker:

And I think that's a really strong message that people are

Speaker:

probably going to be quite interested in.

Speaker:

So that email I'll send out to the whole database that

Speaker:

I'm legally allowed to send to.

Speaker:

So everyone who has an unsubscribed just to try and reactivate

Speaker:

a few of those emotionally dormant,

Speaker:

but most of the time,

Speaker:

I'm not sending to them.

Speaker:

And usually it's going to be,

Speaker:

when you do this for the first time,

Speaker:

do not be freaked out that it's probably going to be

Speaker:

more than 50% of your database,

Speaker:

that you're suppressing that's normal and it's okay.

Speaker:

They weren't buying,

Speaker:

they weren't spending money anyway.

Speaker:

Right. And I actually feel like a lot of them aren't

Speaker:

seeing, I mean,

Speaker:

I'll go into,

Speaker:

I use Gmail.

Speaker:

So if I go into my promotion folder,

Speaker:

there is so much goodness there.

Speaker:

I'm like,

Speaker:

wait, I want this,

Speaker:

I want this,

Speaker:

I want this,

Speaker:

but I don't go in and look at my promotion folder

Speaker:

every day.

Speaker:

I forget.

Speaker:

And for those of you guys who are listening in,

Speaker:

you're using Gmail,

Speaker:

go into your promotion folder,

Speaker:

you are going to see some gifts there because there are

Speaker:

people you want to know about.

Speaker:

And the way to fix that is you just move them

Speaker:

into your primary folder from your promotion folder And just drag

Speaker:

Them over.

Speaker:

So I honestly feel like a lot of them just end

Speaker:

up there,

Speaker:

but this is I guess,

Speaker:

all to the point of cleaning and making sure that your

Speaker:

list is relatively active.

Speaker:

And by saying that,

Speaker:

what kind of open rates do you suggest we be looking

Speaker:

for? So can I give one last tip on keeping things

Speaker:

accept? Oh yes.

Speaker:

Because I'm aware that I'm guessing the majority of your audience

Speaker:

are quite gift focused businesses.

Speaker:

So the end of the year is very,

Speaker:

very important for them.

Speaker:

So yes,

Speaker:

you should be making those dormant,

Speaker:

less suppressing those people who aren't responding to your emails,

Speaker:

but do not forget that a lot of your customers are

Speaker:

only interested in between September and December of the year,

Speaker:

or if you have a great mother's day,

Speaker:

they're interested at mother's day time or father's day time or

Speaker:

Valentines. So just be aware that you will probably be running

Speaker:

a suppression,

Speaker:

maybe January,

Speaker:

February, March,

Speaker:

kind of time when you're out of your core season.

Speaker:

But if you listen to what I was saying about emailing

Speaker:

everyone, when you've got something big on,

Speaker:

don't suppress them in January and not emailing them anything until

Speaker:

September, because that's a long gap,

Speaker:

which is bad for your deliverability because someone over nine months,

Speaker:

someone's probably gonna forgot they've signed up.

Speaker:

So if you're going to suppress them,

Speaker:

do send them and want to email them all.

Speaker:

When Christmas goes live,

Speaker:

then make sure you've sent them something maybe every other month

Speaker:

in between just to keep them a little bit warm.

Speaker:

And just though they can remember who you are when you're

Speaker:

doing it,

Speaker:

because I'd hate for you to have a sudden drop off

Speaker:

in performance in September,

Speaker:

because you suddenly email all the people you haven't emailed all

Speaker:

year and a load of them hit spam.

Speaker:

I would hate for that to happen.

Speaker:

So do you keep them a little bit warm through the

Speaker:

year if you're going to mail them when you get to

Speaker:

Christmas? Excellent point,

Speaker:

I'm really glad you added that in.

Speaker:

And so what would be the parameters when you're just going

Speaker:

to drop them from your list?

Speaker:

I would be looking at someone who hasn't like you were

Speaker:

saying, hasn't opened in six months.

Speaker:

If you're emailing weekly,

Speaker:

if you're emailing monthly,

Speaker:

I'd probably go as far as nine months.

Speaker:

And probably if someone hasn't done anything in three years,

Speaker:

I'd probably never do anything actually,

Speaker:

probably two years,

Speaker:

actually. I wouldn't ever mail them again.

Speaker:

Cause you kind of got the soft dormancy and then you've

Speaker:

got the hard dormancy.

Speaker:

All right.

Speaker:

That's really good direction.

Speaker:

Now I was mentioning earlier that I use keep and I

Speaker:

would not really ever recommend that for anybody who's in the

Speaker:

maker, business,

Speaker:

selling a product.

Speaker:

I just think it's overkill.

Speaker:

I use it because I have double companies,

Speaker:

just a lot of different reasons I'm using it.

Speaker:

What would you suggest?

Speaker:

And what would you recommend someone look at as they're analyzing

Speaker:

different types of email platforms that are out there?

Speaker:

I used to be an Infusionsoft partner many years ago,

Speaker:

which obviously was the previous version of keeps.

Speaker:

So yes,

Speaker:

I would recommend a retailer to use it,

Speaker:

but it's an amazing system.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yes it is.

Speaker:

I'm too entrenched.

Speaker:

That's my thing.

Speaker:

Plus, they are working well for me.

Speaker:

So I'll go with that.

Speaker:

The thing,

Speaker:

if it's working well for you,

Speaker:

then you should always stick with it only.

Speaker:

I think one of the things which can be quite easy

Speaker:

with these kinds of tech platforms is you see something exciting

Speaker:

and new,

Speaker:

and then you spend a huge amount of time and effort

Speaker:

migrating to it.

Speaker:

But actually there was nothing wrong with the original system just

Speaker:

because it's new doesn't mean you should necessarily shift,

Speaker:

but that's completely off topic of what I'm supposed to be

Speaker:

answering. So platforms I would look at MailChimp is very solid.

Speaker:

If all you want to do is send out newsletters and

Speaker:

mini welcome campaigns.

Speaker:

There's little follow-ups we were talking about with the scarf methods,

Speaker:

et cetera,

Speaker:

then MailChimp will give you what you want.

Speaker:

If you want to take it up a level,

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then the two platforms I'd take a look at are Omni

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sand, which is O M N I S E N d.com

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and Klayvio,

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which is K L a V I Y O I know

Speaker:

there's a V,

Speaker:

but they say it,

Speaker:

say it clay confusing.

Speaker:

Those are the two which will enable you to start with

Speaker:

all the right tech in place and all the right stuff

Speaker:

you can do.

Speaker:

They make it very easy for you to build up your

Speaker:

content and your automation,

Speaker:

as you become clever at what you're doing.

Speaker:

And they also grow with you.

Speaker:

So as you can start integrating with your Facebook ads,

Speaker:

so you can kind of real time sync your audiences between

Speaker:

the two platforms and you can bolt on SMS and push

Speaker:

notifications and all kinds of stuff to those two platforms.

Speaker:

Those are the two,

Speaker:

which I would take a look at if you want to

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do something more advanced.

Speaker:

But if you know,

Speaker:

in your heart of hearts,

Speaker:

all you're going to do for the time being is,

Speaker:

get people signed up and send them a newsletter once a

Speaker:

week or once a month.

Speaker:

MailChimp, Chimp is going to give you everything you need,

Speaker:

depending on your list size.

Speaker:

You might be able to get it for free and migrating

Speaker:

from MailChimp onto more advanced packages is really straightforward and often

Speaker:

they'll do all the work for you.

Speaker:

So that shouldn't be too much of a leap for you

Speaker:

when you get that.

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Okay. If someone has been emailing for a while,

Speaker:

I know for a long time,

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the go-to platform was constant contact.

Speaker:

Is that an okay platform to just stick with,

Speaker:

if you're already up and running with it,

Speaker:

or are there things that these others that you suggest?

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Well, let's just talk MailChimp because I think constant contact and

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MailChimp are pretty similar.

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Yeah. Fundamentally,

Speaker:

if the platform you're on at the moment is giving you

Speaker:

what you need,

Speaker:

then don't shift.

Speaker:

If you can see something on another platform that you think

Speaker:

you could use,

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that you can't do on the platform you're currently on,

Speaker:

and that you think you had a use and B would

Speaker:

drive your revenue,

Speaker:

then change,

Speaker:

or it would save you time,

Speaker:

then change,

Speaker:

but don't try and find solutions to problems that don't exist.

Speaker:

If you've not got a problem,

Speaker:

don't shift if constant contact you're on it and it's working

Speaker:

for you then awesome stick with constant contact.

Speaker:

As I said,

Speaker:

pretty much,

Speaker:

all of them are very,

Speaker:

very good at deliverability.

Speaker:

And that is the number one thing you are getting from

Speaker:

your email service provider is deliverability.

Speaker:

And all of them are great at enabling you to send

Speaker:

newsletters and to sign people up.

Speaker:

So in the last there's something you're missing that you want

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to do that you believe will make your business better stick

Speaker:

with where you are.

Speaker:

And there always is an ability to export all of your

Speaker:

contacts if you were ever to move anywhere.

Speaker:

So you're not putting time investing in gathering contacts,

Speaker:

kind of like on social media,

Speaker:

if you're on Facebook and then you get in Facebook jail,

Speaker:

and your account is dropped,

Speaker:

you lose all of your followers.

Speaker:

That's not the same way with email.

Speaker:

So I would say,

Speaker:

especially this time of year ramping into the holidays,

Speaker:

focus on getting more people on your list versus looking at

Speaker:

changing to a different method.

Speaker:

Oh yeah.

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This is not the time of year to be switching to

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stick for now.

Speaker:

And in your off season,

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that's when you should be looking at right,

Speaker:

I've got a week I can spend working on something,

Speaker:

I'm researching something.

Speaker:

And at that point go,

Speaker:

what is the biggest thing that's missing?

Speaker:

What's the biggest opportunity or what's the biggest problem to solve.

Speaker:

And then focus on that one.

Speaker:

Most of the platforms will help you to migrate and they

Speaker:

all have really good how tos and all that kind of

Speaker:

stuff. So there's some amazing platforms out there.

Speaker:

But if all you're doing is sending those newsletters,

Speaker:

getting the sign-ups stick with where you are,

Speaker:

unless you've got a problem.

Speaker:

Okay. So in talking and knowing my audience pretty well,

Speaker:

I think they really understand why email could be important,

Speaker:

but it's figuring out what to put in those emails.

Speaker:

That's the hurdle.

Speaker:

I'd be interested in your thinking,

Speaker:

what do we do when we don't know what to do

Speaker:

or we're uncomfortable?

Speaker:

Or we're not sure if we're doing it right.

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We do nothing.

Speaker:

Right? So I think there are a lot of people out

Speaker:

there who have started an email list.

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Maybe it's only their customers.

Speaker:

Cause clearly I've emailed us of customers.

Speaker:

Hopefully I can't say that guaranteed all the time,

Speaker:

but mostly,

Speaker:

but they've never really started anything in terms of a consistent

Speaker:

plan. What would be the first steps I loved when you

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said that?

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Because a couple of years ago I wrote,

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I think it was 18 ways to break newsletter,

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broadcast block.

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So I won't give you all 18 now,

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but I'll give you the P tenets because it's been a

Speaker:

perennial problem as a problem,

Speaker:

way back in the early two thousands.

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When I was sending my first emails,

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you kind of go,

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Oh God,

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what are we going to say this week?

Speaker:

And I was like that Monday morning problem.

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Oh no,

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I've got to send an email.

Speaker:

What am I going to tell people?

Speaker:

So my first tip for breaking this blog is to have

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a promotional calendar.

Speaker:

So a spreadsheet,

Speaker:

which has the weeks across the top and has your different

Speaker:

marketing methods down the left hand side.

Speaker:

Okay. So each column is a week and the first row

Speaker:

you're going to put in that is what's happening in your

Speaker:

business. So if you're going to a craft fair,

Speaker:

put that in.

Speaker:

If it's,

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when you're going to launch your Christmas range,

Speaker:

put that in.

Speaker:

If it's,

Speaker:

when you're on holiday,

Speaker:

put that in because for smaller businesses,

Speaker:

that's really important to go on that calendar.

Speaker:

And once you've got the stuff you're doing as a business

Speaker:

and add another row and the next row is going to

Speaker:

be big things happening in the world that relate to your

Speaker:

business. So when Christmas is Valentine's day,

Speaker:

father's day,

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mother's day,

Speaker:

international honey lovers day.

Speaker:

If there's such a thing and you sell honey anything which

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relates to your business,

Speaker:

which could be something which you want to drive some promotions

Speaker:

and drive some sales around.

Speaker:

So that gives you kind of the shape of your year.

Speaker:

And then the next row is going to be your email

Speaker:

marketing, right,

Speaker:

where you're going to put in what you're going to talk

Speaker:

about each week.

Speaker:

And you start off by filling in the big stuff,

Speaker:

which is the stuff based on those two rows you've already

Speaker:

had. So father's day is big for you.

Speaker:

Then bear in mind,

Speaker:

you've got to be able to ship it,

Speaker:

which obviously if you've got a physical store,

Speaker:

you've got a bit longer because people can come in on

Speaker:

the day and buy something,

Speaker:

but work out what messages you're going to send about father's

Speaker:

day. Maybe you're going to do one,

Speaker:

which is last minute father's day gifts,

Speaker:

or how to buy for the man who has no idea

Speaker:

what he wants or the man who has everything and fill

Speaker:

those in and do the same for Christmas,

Speaker:

for your sale,

Speaker:

for your five-year anniversary of being in business,

Speaker:

whatever those things are,

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fill those up.

Speaker:

You will probably find that that's half your year filled with

Speaker:

email topics.

Speaker:

So then we just have the rest of it to fill

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in. And for this,

Speaker:

I would go to,

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what are your best sellers?

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What are the key stories that people like from your business?

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What do people always talk to you about when they come

Speaker:

in, do an email about that?

Speaker:

What are the best-selling products?

Speaker:

What's the story behind your products and just sit down and

Speaker:

do a bit of a brainstorm about all the things you'd

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like to tell someone about your business and then work out

Speaker:

where they slot into it.

Speaker:

Now, ideally,

Speaker:

I'd do this for a full 12 month period,

Speaker:

but if you only have the energy to do it for

Speaker:

three months,

Speaker:

I understand,

Speaker:

but that will give you kind of a sketch of what

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to say in at different points in time.

Speaker:

Which means that when you get to Monday like,

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Oh God,

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we got to send an email.

Speaker:

What are we going to say?

Speaker:

You don't have to start off from,

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Oh my God,

Speaker:

what am I going to say?

Speaker:

You started from going,

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Oh, look,

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I wrote down that this week,

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I should be talking about how we source the yarn for

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our scarves.

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And once I know I'm talking about that,

Speaker:

then that's going to spark you with some ideas of,

Speaker:

Oh yes,

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we had that picture sent in of the sheep,

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on the farm X,

Speaker:

Y, Z,

Speaker:

let's put in the picture of the sheep.

Speaker:

Let's talk about the sheep and the yarn and everything.

Speaker:

And all of a sudden,

Speaker:

it's so much easier because you have that nugget of an

Speaker:

idea straight away.

Speaker:

So, and I would also keep piece of paper or a

Speaker:

Google doc where you write down ideas when they come to

Speaker:

you. Because often I certainly find when I'm away from the

Speaker:

desk is when I come with my best ideas.

Speaker:

And then when I need them,

Speaker:

I forgotten where I've written them.

Speaker:

So it's just a notepad of email ideas or blog.

Speaker:

Post ideas really helps when you've got those moments of block.

Speaker:

I would also add,

Speaker:

I think,

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shows that you're going to cause you know,

Speaker:

when those are and pictures of being at those shows or

Speaker:

making sure that people know in those areas that you're at

Speaker:

those shows.

Speaker:

So something like that,

Speaker:

if they're not in the area,

Speaker:

tell them,

Speaker:

watch my Facebook.

Speaker:

Cause I'll be doing some lives right?

Speaker:

From my booth,

Speaker:

things like that.

Speaker:

I'm thinking you could do exactly.

Speaker:

Another point for contact that came to mind as you were

Speaker:

talking, is what are people asking you all the time about

Speaker:

the product?

Speaker:

What are the questions that come in?

Speaker:

Those could be separate topic emails also,

Speaker:

right? That's perfect.

Speaker:

I'm seeing now that you could do like next week,

Speaker:

we're going to be at,

Speaker:

they show.

Speaker:

If you can't make it,

Speaker:

blah, blah,

Speaker:

blah. If you can X,

Speaker:

Y, Z,

Speaker:

and put all that information in,

Speaker:

then you kind of have a,

Speaker:

this week where at where you talk about maybe the key

Speaker:

products you're taking with you,

Speaker:

or look,

Speaker:

we just pack the car.

Speaker:

Here's all the great things which are coming with us.

Speaker:

And then the week after the event,

Speaker:

you can go.

Speaker:

We had a great time at this event.

Speaker:

This product was really popular link to buy it on the

Speaker:

website because we love to know what other people want to

Speaker:

buy. Bestsellers are always the more something sells,

Speaker:

the more something will sell.

Speaker:

If you tell people about it,

Speaker:

then you could encompass in that ask this really interesting question.

Speaker:

So I thought I'd give you all the answer.

Speaker:

That's three whole weeks taking care of for just one event.

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Oh my gosh.

Speaker:

That's brilliant.

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Yes. I love it.

Speaker:

I think one of the plays to one of the problems

Speaker:

I think we all have with content is that we go,

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Oh, there's an event.

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We'll include it in an email.

Speaker:

It's like,

Speaker:

no, an event could be three emails.

Speaker:

We often squeeze piece of content down into just one thing.

Speaker:

When actually,

Speaker:

if you think about it,

Speaker:

you can extrapolate out into lots.

Speaker:

So this is totally opposite of dieting.

Speaker:

You want to expand what you're doing?

Speaker:

Kind of like the suggestion that you gave about the tips

Speaker:

for scarf time into five emails.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker:

Same type of thing with email.

Speaker:

How can you expand the topic further then?

Speaker:

Weekly doesn't sound as hard because quite honestly,

Speaker:

as you were giving examples and laying out the calendar,

Speaker:

I'm thinking people are cringing for weekly.

Speaker:

Maybe we should start monthly,

Speaker:

but this makes it easier to do weekly.

Speaker:

Yeah, it does.

Speaker:

How long do the emails need to be?

Speaker:

As long as you need to get the message across,

Speaker:

which I know is a hideous answer and you'll be going,

Speaker:

Oh, that's so annoying.

Speaker:

But if you're doing an email,

Speaker:

which is we're going to be at this show,

Speaker:

then literally headline,

Speaker:

we're going to be at this show,

Speaker:

picture of show or product or something,

Speaker:

details of where the show is.

Speaker:

And if you can't make it to the show,

Speaker:

make sure you're following us on Facebook.

Speaker:

We'll be live streaming.

Speaker:

That's quite a short email that doesn't take a lot of

Speaker:

content or copy.

Speaker:

If your,

Speaker:

for example,

Speaker:

like a banker email for when you can't think of anything

Speaker:

else is to just send one,

Speaker:

which is our top five best selling products.

Speaker:

It will work.

Speaker:

And it's really quick and easy to put together.

Speaker:

That is actually going to be our top five best-selling products,

Speaker:

headline five products with links through to the website.

Speaker:

It doesn't have to be long or complicated.

Speaker:

And I think if it gets very long,

Speaker:

then you're probably better off putting the content on the website

Speaker:

as a blog post and then linking people through to the

Speaker:

blog and just giving them a taster.

Speaker:

Yes. Which is perfect too,

Speaker:

because you can,

Speaker:

if you're blogging,

Speaker:

there's a week right there too.

Speaker:

And that I would suggest could be a repetitive email every

Speaker:

six, seven months.

Speaker:

Yeah. The most popular blog posts on newest blog posts are,

Speaker:

have you,

Speaker:

what have you missed on the blog?

Speaker:

Brilliant ideas for emails,

Speaker:

Blog, post rundown,

Speaker:

popular sense,

Speaker:

this holiday season,

Speaker:

most important colors going into the spring.

Speaker:

You could just sit down with a group of girlfriends and

Speaker:

brainstorm a million things.

Speaker:

I think that could be fun.

Speaker:

Girls night out where you're brainstorming.

Speaker:

You're helping me with my business.

Speaker:

Sorry. I'll buy the first round.

Speaker:

Something like that.

Speaker:

Okay. So this makes sense.

Speaker:

So we were talking about blocks.

Speaker:

Are there any other blocks that you can help us with

Speaker:

just to get us started?

Speaker:

But another banker email,

Speaker:

which not enough people do,

Speaker:

but it's really,

Speaker:

really powerful is our top reviewed products.

Speaker:

So a bit like the best sellers,

Speaker:

but this one you'd have a picture of the product.

Speaker:

And then the quote from the person's review.

Speaker:

So our five-star products are top rated products and that is

Speaker:

a really easy email to put together.

Speaker:

I mean,

Speaker:

there's no thought involved at all.

Speaker:

Yeah. And so much easier when the words are coming from

Speaker:

somebody else and so much more believable,

Speaker:

I guess.

Speaker:

Exactly. That's another really simple banker go on to Google analytics.

Speaker:

Look at your top blog posts.

Speaker:

Look at the products that people are at the categories that

Speaker:

people are looking at.

Speaker:

All of that can give you ideas.

Speaker:

Like what people have been talking about on Twitter or Pinterest,

Speaker:

et cetera.

Speaker:

Talk about something cool.

Speaker:

That's been going on on social media,

Speaker:

which will increase the number of people.

Speaker:

Sign up to your social media.

Speaker:

There's infinite ways of doing it.

Speaker:

You've just got to kind of think there's almost about thinking

Speaker:

the entire time.

Speaker:

Would this make an email?

Speaker:

Yeah. I want to say the overall consensus is calm,

Speaker:

friendly. I'm starting to get,

Speaker:

not like the word authentic because everyone uses it already,

Speaker:

but you don't have to look all button tied up professional

Speaker:

with every single email.

Speaker:

Like one email might be,

Speaker:

you're not going to believe what happened in the workroom this

Speaker:

week. Yeah,

Speaker:

exactly. And some like major fail,

Speaker:

right? Yeah.

Speaker:

The customers will really respond to the love that kind of

Speaker:

behind the scenes feeling like they're in the inner circle,

Speaker:

super, super powerful stuff.

Speaker:

It's something which we all don't do enough of in our

Speaker:

businesses is let people in to see what's really going on.

Speaker:

And it's something which someone producing their own products in this

Speaker:

space. There's I said earlier,

Speaker:

this is what you have ahead of all the other retailers.

Speaker:

Is that humanity to the business.

Speaker:

Yeah. The other thing that I'm thinking for emails,

Speaker:

we're just like shooting off bunches of ideas right now,

Speaker:

brainstorming, right.

Speaker:

Is when people get on your list,

Speaker:

if they feel like they're treated as a special group,

Speaker:

so maybe they get to see the first new line that's

Speaker:

coming out.

Speaker:

Or if you're doing some type of a limited collection,

Speaker:

they get to see it first.

Speaker:

I have the best opportunity to get it before it's all

Speaker:

gone. Things like that,

Speaker:

that information then can be delivered in an email.

Speaker:

Definitely. And actually you can even take it to the level

Speaker:

before, which is share with them.

Speaker:

Pictures of your mock-ups,

Speaker:

your test products and go with thinking of doing one of

Speaker:

these for Christmas.

Speaker:

What do you think?

Speaker:

Or we're thinking of doing this,

Speaker:

but we're not sure whether it's doing green or blue,

Speaker:

which color would you like and get them almost a vote

Speaker:

and define what your new products are.

Speaker:

That's a great way of getting them involved.

Speaker:

Yeah. And if they reply to your email,

Speaker:

then that's going to help with your deliverability.

Speaker:

Exactly. And neuroscience tells us that if someone's been involved in

Speaker:

the creation of something,

Speaker:

they're more likely to buy it.

Speaker:

So then they vote for the green one.

Speaker:

Then when the green one's ready,

Speaker:

you email them and go,

Speaker:

you selected and here is the product.

Speaker:

You emailed the whole list and go due to your votes.

Speaker:

We did the green one.

Speaker:

It's now available to buy,

Speaker:

get it today,

Speaker:

et cetera,

Speaker:

et cetera.

Speaker:

And I thought of another idea that I really should have

Speaker:

mentioned earlier,

Speaker:

which is you should have an inbox,

Speaker:

not your normal inbox,

Speaker:

another email inbox,

Speaker:

where you sign up to other people selling similar product to

Speaker:

you. So as when you stuck for ideas or when you're

Speaker:

come at trying to come up with ideas,

Speaker:

you can go into it and you can just scroll through

Speaker:

all your competitor's emails and what they're up to and what

Speaker:

they're doing.

Speaker:

Or other people who are marketing to a similar customer group

Speaker:

or people whose emails you just think are really,

Speaker:

really creative.

Speaker:

And that will give you a huge bank of resources to

Speaker:

look at an ideas when you need it,

Speaker:

don't do it in your own inbox or it would just

Speaker:

become overwhelming.

Speaker:

So do it on a separate one,

Speaker:

Right? So that's just competitive research.

Speaker:

Yes. You're giving us permission.

Speaker:

It's not cheating or anything because you're going to add your

Speaker:

own spin to it.

Speaker:

Right. You're not going to totally copy,

Speaker:

but you're going to get inspiration.

Speaker:

Add your own spin.

Speaker:

It's just triggering ideas if you will.

Speaker:

Exactly. Yeah.

Speaker:

I love,

Speaker:

love, love that example.

Speaker:

All right.

Speaker:

Wonderful. So here's what we need to do is we need

Speaker:

to keep optimizing wherever we are right now.

Speaker:

We need to think about advancing our email strategy.

Speaker:

So if you haven't started,

Speaker:

it's time to start.

Speaker:

We've talked about the platforms you can use.

Speaker:

We've talked about how to attract people in so that they

Speaker:

will share their email with you.

Speaker:

And we've talked about how to put together a calendar and

Speaker:

millions of options.

Speaker:

Well, maybe not millions,

Speaker:

but lots of options on topics and content that you can

Speaker:

do for email.

Speaker:

And they don't have to be long either.

Speaker:

And you can schedule them out in advance,

Speaker:

right? Just like you can do the calendar,

Speaker:

you can schedule them out in advance.

Speaker:

Yes you can.

Speaker:

So maybe how would you direct people that you're working with

Speaker:

Chloe? Would you suggest maybe?

Speaker:

Well, I'm thinking of like five things at a time,

Speaker:

which is why I haven't started reading.

Speaker:

But one thing you could do is just say,

Speaker:

one day a month is going to be to do your

Speaker:

four emails or whether it's you or someone else on your

Speaker:

team. Who's doing them Monday afternoon,

Speaker:

first week of the month,

Speaker:

we're doing all of our emails.

Speaker:

Or you could also do a mass take,

Speaker:

not a hundred percent of your week.

Speaker:

I get it.

Speaker:

But like all the holidays,

Speaker:

you already know the things that are already set to go,

Speaker:

just schedule those in.

Speaker:

So that I would say maybe a good quarter of the

Speaker:

calendar could already be done if you really blacked off time.

Speaker:

Like the slow period,

Speaker:

that kind of thing.

Speaker:

When you're not tired and recovering from the holidays a little

Speaker:

bit after that Completely.

Speaker:

And even if it's something like we were saying about the

Speaker:

example where you have,

Speaker:

you've been to the event and you're going to do like

Speaker:

an email after the cross show to say what happened and

Speaker:

the key things you can set up,

Speaker:

probably 30% of that email before you even go to the

Speaker:

show. And then when you get back from the show,

Speaker:

when there's a whole load of stuff to do the week

Speaker:

after a show,

Speaker:

unpacking, fulfilling other orders,

Speaker:

et cetera,

Speaker:

et cetera,

Speaker:

catching up with everything you didn't do last year at the

Speaker:

show. So you reducing the workload that email by 30% a

Speaker:

makes it quicker to finish it and get it out.

Speaker:

But it also makes it less daunting.

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Finishing an email feels so much less hard work than starting

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an email,

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Right? For sure.

Speaker:

So all of this sounds really doable.

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And apart from overall sales,

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which I guess would be the obvious trigger,

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how do we know if we're doing well with our email

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marketing? Do you want to keep it The look on your

Speaker:

open rates and your click rates?

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So the open rates is the number of people who received

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it, who opened,

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which I don't like to give benchmarks because I think you'll

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be a real benchmark for these numbers is against how it's

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worked in the past for you.

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Because if you've only started recruiting,

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getting people to sign up to your emails in the last

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three months,

Speaker:

you're going to have a much higher open rate than someone

Speaker:

who's got three years worth of data sat there.

Speaker:

So it's all about seeing how it performed versus your last

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week versus the other weeks you've done.

Speaker:

And then you get an idea of what subjects work.

Speaker:

So keep an eye on the open rates broadly.

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They should be somewhere North of 20%.

Speaker:

If you're over 30% congrats,

Speaker:

you're doing really well,

Speaker:

but you've got to really engage list.

Speaker:

Then you'll click rates are the percentage of the people who

Speaker:

opened, who then went through to the website because obviously the

Speaker:

point of these emails is to get people to your website.

Speaker:

And that,

Speaker:

again, you're looking somewhere North of 15% is good,

Speaker:

but I'm double check what percentage you're looking at,

Speaker:

because sometimes you might be looking at a click rate that's

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as a percentage of the number you sent.

Speaker:

And what I'm talking about is as a percentage of the

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number of people who opened.

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So if you look at it,

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it looks terribly small.

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You're probably looking at the percentage of scent,

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not the percentage of opened.

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Okay. Which is one final,

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very important point,

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which is there should be some type of call to action

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or ability for people to get over to your website in

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every single email.

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Yes. But not necessarily promoting your products in every single email.

Speaker:

No, you're not necessarily putting the product in and saying buy

Speaker:

this, but you want to make sure there's links through.

Speaker:

So as if someone's inspired,

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they want to go and have a look around.

Speaker:

Yeah. It could even be something like,

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see more about company name with the link,

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things like that.

Speaker:

Okay. Wonderful.

Speaker:

This has been so helpful.

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So many ideas.

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I love that we just guide into all of these multiple

Speaker:

brainstorming ideas.

Speaker:

Cause some will resonate more with one group than another.

Speaker:

Yeah. You've definitely given some great content ideas too,

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which like we've talked about is often the stumbling block.

Speaker:

So thank you so,

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so much for all of this conversation and letting us pick

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your brain here with that.

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My pleasure.

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Will you share with us a little,

Speaker:

A bit more about what is encompassed under all of your

Speaker:

e-commerce master plan?

Speaker:

Yeah, sure.

Speaker:

So yeah,

Speaker:

an evolving feast is e-commerce master plan.

Speaker:

I think that you will find all of what I'm about

Speaker:

to mention our e-commerce master plan.com.

Speaker:

So it's the best place to go.

Speaker:

So we now have two podcasts because one just wasn't enough.

Speaker:

One. I interview a retailer every week it's called the e-commerce

Speaker:

most planned podcast been going for five years.

Speaker:

It astounds me how many people listen every week.

Speaker:

It's so cool that I get to help.

Speaker:

So many people improve their businesses and we just share retailer

Speaker:

stories. So everyone from huge businesses like Tesco and Yandy,

Speaker:

right? The way through to startups,

Speaker:

it's always something interesting and inspiring in that.

Speaker:

And then the other podcast is the new one that's called

Speaker:

keep optimizing.

Speaker:

Can you tell where I got the name and that one

Speaker:

each month we focus on a different marketing method.

Speaker:

So we get deep into it.

Speaker:

So it might be SEO.

Speaker:

It might be Google ads,

Speaker:

Facebook ads,

Speaker:

content, email,

Speaker:

and each week I speak to a different expert on that

Speaker:

topic. And then I've also written a number of books on

Speaker:

e-commerce the most recent one of which and the one which

Speaker:

most clearly ties into what we've been talking about today.

Speaker:

It's called e-commerce marketing.

Speaker:

How to get traffic that buys to your website and it's

Speaker:

on Amazon as paperback ebook.

Speaker:

So Kendall ebook and all the audio book.

Speaker:

I nearly forgot how to say,

Speaker:

but yeah,

Speaker:

so that's what I'm up to.

Speaker:

Wonderful. So loads of resources available to over there.

Speaker:

So make sure if you're interested,

Speaker:

jump over to e-commerce master plan,

Speaker:

we'll have the links in the show notes.

Speaker:

Of course.

Speaker:

Now, Chloe,

Speaker:

I'm going to put you a little bit in the future

Speaker:

here. You'd reference that you have a few things as you're

Speaker:

walking up and down your stairs that are in the back

Speaker:

of your mind of things that you need to do,

Speaker:

what would you be willing to share with us?

Speaker:

Where are you going in the future?

Speaker:

Wow. So the biggest thing I'm working on at the moment

Speaker:

is I am trying to stop doing any client work because

Speaker:

I've kind of been moving away from being a consultant and

Speaker:

towards being an advisor.

Speaker:

And so the big project at the moment is for 2021

Speaker:

for me to not do any client work.

Speaker:

So I'm trying to find a way which enables me to

Speaker:

still help retailers who need that one-on-one help,

Speaker:

but without me actually having to do it.

Speaker:

And that's the thing,

Speaker:

when you're in the shower,

Speaker:

you've gone for a walk.

Speaker:

That's the thing that's buzzing around in my subconscious.

Speaker:

Well, so you're ramping down one area and ramping up another

Speaker:

area. It sounds like,

Speaker:

Yeah, that's the theory.

Speaker:

So yeah.

Speaker:

Ask me in 12 months if it's worth Well,

Speaker:

you've got to have the vision before it can happen.

Speaker:

So I would say you're on the right track there You

Speaker:

do. And I suspect what I start with in January will

Speaker:

be completely different to what I'm doing to solve the problem.

Speaker:

And don't take it because I still want to help retailers,

Speaker:

but I don't have the bandwidth to do it as well

Speaker:

as I know it could be done by other people,

Speaker:

but it's how to put those links together.

Speaker:

Best of luck to that.

Speaker:

And thank you once again,

Speaker:

so much for sharing all of this fabulous information with us

Speaker:

today, I really appreciate having you on My pleasure.

Speaker:

It's been great hanging out with UCO and I hope it's

Speaker:

helped everybody.

Speaker:

You can't see me here,

Speaker:

but I'm jumping up and down with delight at what a

Speaker:

fabulous conversation this was.

Speaker:

I mean,

Speaker:

I can't even count how many great ideas we covered for

Speaker:

email content and we all know it to be true.

Speaker:

The hardest thing to do is to come up with what

Speaker:

to say in our emails.

Speaker:

Now you have topics galore next week.

Speaker:

We'll hear from a long-time business owner who almost shut down.

Speaker:

I mean,

Speaker:

she fell out of love with her business,

Speaker:

but catch this because of one very difficult client,

Speaker:

you'll hear how she reignited her flame to come back stronger

Speaker:

than ever for.

Speaker:

Now, thanks so much for spending with me today.

Speaker:

If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

Speaker:

please leave a rating and review.

Speaker:

That means so much to me and helps the show get

Speaker:

seen by other makers,

Speaker:

a great way to pay it forward.

Speaker:

Be safe and well.

Speaker:

And I'll see you next week on the gift biz on

Speaker:

wrapped podcast.

Speaker:

I just,

Speaker:

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

Speaker:

group called gift is breeze.

Speaker:

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

Speaker:

support each other.

Speaker:

Got a really fun post in there.

Speaker:

That's my favorite of the week.

Speaker:

I have to say where I invite all of you to

Speaker:

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

Speaker:

to show what you're working on for the week to get

Speaker:

reaction from other people and just for fun,

Speaker:

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

Speaker:

in the community is making my favorite posts every single week,

Speaker:

without doubt.

Speaker:

Wait, what,

Speaker:

aren't you part of the group already,

Speaker:

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

Speaker:

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.

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