211 – Why Email is Everything to Your Business with Abby Herman of Write Solutions

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped,

episode 211 and email address is your direct connection to building

a relationship with that customer Attention.

Gifters, bakers,

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Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.

Hi bear it Sue and thank you.

Thank you for joining me on what I hope is a

nice, beautiful warm spring day wherever you are in the world.

I'm in Chicago and it's nice and sunny here.

At the time of this recording when this show airs,

I actually am planning to be on a trip to Africa.

My husband and I are going on a Safari and if

you would like to follow along and see what antics entails,

jump over to my Instagram account and that is at gift

biz unwrapped and in my stories,

as much as I have connection,

I will be showing you what I'm up to,

what we're seeing,

all the fun stuff from over there.

Before we dive into the show,

I want to take you back about five weeks ago or

so now to a scary point in time and if you

have no idea what I'm talking about,

I know you will in a second,

March 13th who remembers what happened on that day?

Started off as a usual day.

Everyone's going about their business,

everything's fine,

and then terror and horror goes all across the country.

Dare I say a lot of the world.

Do you guys remember what happened?

Facebook and Instagram went down for 10 hours.

Oh my gosh.

You would think that the world was ending.

I got so many phone calls from people who couldn't get

into our Facebook group who were asking about the questions.

They wanted to respond to questions to get into the group,

and it just kept kicking them out and kicking them out.

Like everything was shut down and people were hysterical.

They did not know what to do.

Now finally,

when they understood,

okay, it's not my system,

my account didn't get hacked,

anything like that,

but it was worse.

What is going on with Facebook when it comes back up?

What is it going to look like?

You know,

there were conversations behind the scenes of are they changing the

whole platform on us?

Am I even going to have anything left when I gets

back? Did I get cut off?

You know,

are they reviewing all of the Facebook?

Like there were all these scary things because of course your

mind goes to the very worst scenario when these things happen,

right? I was even in a conversation with someone who was

speculating that the government shut them down.

Given all that's gone on in the news over the last

couple of years,

privacy and all that,

people's minds were exploding.

Well, luckily Facebook and Instagram came back on just like the

turn of a light switch and everything was fine,

but boy was that scary and if you hadn't heated the

messages that I and a lot of other people have talked

about now for a long time,

this was a great true life example of why you need

to be paying attention.

We often forget because Facebook and Instagram and other social media

platforms as well are so integrated into our lives and we've

come to count on them and we believe that many times,

many, I won't say all of us,

but many times we believe that the people who are following

us will be able to be connected to us forever more

so we have contact with all the people who are liking

our fan pages and following and interacting with us and DME

and us on Instagram.

We take the ability to connect with everybody on these platforms

for granted,

but guess what?

We really don't.

It's a false sense of security because had Facebook or Instagram

turned back on and all of our followers were gone,

how would you get them back?

So again,

I say,

if this wasn't a true life warning to all of us,

I don't know what is.

So what's the answer?

What do you do about this?

How do you take control and make sure that you have

continued connections with people that you're developing relationships with online?

The answer lies in emails.

Finding a way to get emails from all of those people

and relationships that you start establishing on social media regardless of

the platform.

Email is something that you own and that you control versus

the false ownership that a lot of us believe that we

have with social media platforms.

Now, I didn't time it this way,

it just so happened that it all worked out.

But our guest today is an expert on emails.

She's going to dive down a little bit deeper as to

why having emails is so valuable,

how you collect them,

and then what do you do with them once you have

them? How do you take that relationship?

To an even deeper level without wasting any more time.

Let's jump over and hear from our expert Today.

I am so excited to introduce you to Abby of right

solutions. Right solutions is a content marketing agency for business owners

who want to gain visibility for their businesses with personalized content

strategies and implementation.

She specializes in idea generation and content strategy and delivery so

her clients can keep doing what they love in their businesses.

Abby also creates courses to help newer business owners DIY their

content marketing because she knows from experience that there's nothing more

frustrating than not knowing where to start.

Abby lives in Phoenix with her 16 year old daughter and

three for babies and I just have to add this in

because we had a little bit of back and forth before

we did the recording of the show and so she says

to me,

well, we have to say this,

that we're recording this in early March.

I'm already in short and your still freezing your booty off,

Sue. So that's a great way to start this podcast.

Welcome to the show,

Abby. Okay,

thanks. And I know how much you love the cold.

So I had,

I love the snow.

Unfortunately the cold has to come along with it.

So there is that.

Okay, so that's super fun.

But now I want to get into another little fun thing

we do here on the show and that is getting a

look at who you are through a motivational candle.

So if you were to share with us a candle that

really talks all you Abby by color and then a quote,

what would your candle look like?

My candle would be Navy blue because I like to be

a little bit bold but not too out there.

So I don't typically go with the bright colors.

The scent would be like a clean women because I love

a clean slate,

like the blank word document,

the clean doc desk,

although it's usually not clean.

But I like having a clean slate and I know that

sometimes that freaks people out.

Like to see that blank word document,

which I know we'll talk about later.

And then my quote.

So I'm actually not really a Calvin and Hobbes fan,

but I found a cartoon somewhere with this quote that just

hit me.

I actually have it taped to my computer so I can

see it every day.

It says,

we're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us

that we don't take time to enjoy where we are,

and that has been so true in all parts of my

life, my personal life,

and my business,

and I just think that we don't spend enough time enjoying

where we are.

We're busy reaching for goals,

which is great.

Well, we have to enjoy the space that we're in right

now too.

Absolutely. I mean,

it's the journey,

right? Yes.

I think as entrepreneurs we're so tempted to get to that

next step and we see the next goal and when we

get to our first goal,

all we keep doing is looking forward and it causes a

lot of stress versus really appreciating where we are in the

moment. Yes,

absolutely. I had this conversation in my membership group just probably

within the last month.

Someone was frustrated and just really concerned about something and I'm

like, wait,

let's just take a step back and talk about the fact

that you are the business owner.

You get to call the shots,

this is what you've wanted to do.

And everyone was kind of like,

Oh my gosh,

it kind of hit everybody at the same time.

Like we really should feel fortunate because this is what we

bought into,

this is what we wanted.

Now we're sitting here and not even recognizing it.

Yes, absolutely.

And we look at what other people are in different stages

of their businesses and so it's hard to remember that we're

on our own path and it's okay to be right where

we are.

Yup. Absolutely.

Words of wisdom,

Abby, love that.

So when you were talking about the linen and the pure

sheet of paper,

I was thinking exactly what you said after that,

which is you gravitated to that which shows that you're exactly

where you should be because it comes natural to you.

But for so many of us,

it's that clean sheet of paper with nothing written on there.

That freaks us out.

Totally. How did you get to the point where you recognize

that this was something that you loved and that you have

talent with it?

Oh gosh.

I don't know.

I feel like I've always known that I can put things

on paper in that way.

I feel like it's something that I've always been able to

do. You know,

when I was a little girl,

I used to write stories and things in spiral notebooks.

Course. My youth predates computers.

I just used to write stories and come up with things.

I don't create fictional stories anymore.

That's really not my thing.

It's taking the ideas that I have that other people have

a surrounding their businesses and putting them down on paper that

I just feel like I have this gift for being able

to do that.

Well. Tons of respect because I don't,

that is not my place at all.

But let's dive now into the topic because this is something

that my audience has been challenged with a lot,

so I think you're going to bring a lot of good

direction and help to all of us.

But just to get started,

let's ground everybody.

So we're all starting from the same place in terms of

what content is.

So when you say content,

what does that encompass?

Content is anything that you put out there to the world,

to the internet to help market your business.

It can include blog posts,

it can include your thank you email to your audience when

they purchase something from you.

It includes video,

anything you put on social media,

it includes podcasts and it doesn't have to be your own

podcast. It can be like what I'm doing right here,

I'm creating content for your audience and I'll be sharing it

with my audience.

So it's anything that you put out there and it does

not necessarily have to be written,

although I think that that is where everybody's head goes when

it comes to content,

but it does not have to be in writing.

Right. And that's your specialty is the written portion,

which is what we want to zero in on.

But it brings to mind something that we've talked about here

on the show a lot and that is consistency with your

visuals. So like with logos and just the vibe of your

business and I'm guessing that that rolls over into content as

well. Yeah,

it does.

And thank you for bringing that up.

My head usually doesn't go to the visuals just because that

is totally not in my wheelhouse.

But yeah,

it absolutely does.

If you're putting graphics out there,

they should be consistent.

You should be telling the same story and have the same

message from your podcast interviews to your videos,

to your written content,

to your visuals.

So yeah,

it should all be cohesive and that doesn't mean it has

to be perfect.

It just should all kind of have the same vibe and

the same feel.

Right. So you don't show up,

like you don't show up here as a podcast guest in

one type of an image and then represent something totally different

when you're on your site or in your emails for example.

Absolutely. Yeah.

It all is consistent cause that also gains trust of your

customers too because they know what to expect from you.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay. All right,

super. I think what I'd like to do,

Abby, is start with emails because I've heard a lot of

people feel challenged about emails,

what should be in emails,

all of that.

So let's talk about best strategies for content as it goes

into email.

Okay. So there are a lot of different places we can

start. Can we start with when you gain a new customer,

what you can be doing when you gain a new customer,

whether it's online or in person?

Absolutely. I think that's the best place to start.

Isn't that a saying like you start at the beginning,

so that's perfect.

We'll start with a brand new customer for sure.

Okay. So any time you have a new customer,

whether they're purchasing online,

whether they're purchasing at a trade show,

you always want to gather their email address and you obviously

want to do that because if there's an issue with their

order, if you're shipping an order and there's an issue,

you want to make sure that you have that email address

so that you can communicate with them.

But it's also a way to communicate with people down the

road. So you sell something,

it's easier to maintain a relationship with a current client than

it is to find a new one.

So once you have wowed somebody with your thing,

whatever it happens to be that you're selling,

you want to be able to communicate with them so that

they continue buying from you.

You want to stay in front of their eyes and you

do that with email marketing.

And I can talk a little bit about what that looks

like, but when you're gathering their email addresses,

so depending on where you're selling your product,

if you're selling your product online and there should be a

field for that in any order form that you're collecting and

you're collecting that email address and putting it in an email

provider like active campaign or convert kit or MailChimp or in

Weber or whatever you happen to choose to use.

But when you're at a trade show and the transactions happening

right there,

they're giving you their credit card and you're giving them whatever

thing they're purchasing your product,

you still want to collect their email addresses.

And I've seen it done in different ways.

I have seen it done with like literally a notebook where

people are collecting addresses and then they're inputting them later.

I've seen people with a laptop and a spreadsheet and I've

also seen people use an opt in form on a like

an iPad or a tablet where you have the opt in

form for your email provider open and it's really easy for

people to just put their information in like maybe it's just

a first name and email address.

They hit submit and it goes directly to your email provider

and you don't have to do anything else as far as

that is concerned.

Yeah, you can't overestimate the importance.

I don't know if that's the right word to use,

but how important it is to collect the email addresses because

especially if you're at a craft show,

let's say,

and it's a weekend and it's all hot and there's a

ton of people at your table and you're selling like crazy.

These are all people who are now going to take back

your product and then how are they ever going to get

in touch with you again?

Yes. They may not keep the receipt or maybe you don't

have anything on your packaging that's going to show how they

can get back to you.

What if they want more?

What if they love it so much and then you've had

that one time to see them and then the opportunity for

them to reconnect to you is up to them if they

come back to a show where you are again.

Yes. I mean I know it's a little cumbersome specially in

that kind of a situation,

but so worth it down the road for just what you're

saying Abby.

I mean the best customers are repeat customers because they already

know and love your product.

Yeah, absolutely.

And email address is your direct connection to building a relationship

with that customer.

Especially if you're exchanging money right there.

That's your only connection with that person is that email address

because they're going to walk away a business card.

Okay. A business card is fine,

but that doesn't mean that they're going to go to your

website. They're going to lose it in their purse,

they're going to throw it away or recycle it when they

get home.

You want the email address And much better for you to

be in control than them?

Yeah. Even if it has to be that,

I'm going to say the old fashioned way,

you know of just writing it down like you're saying in

a notebook and then inputting it all manually because it's worth

it for sure.

Yes it is.

Okay, so we get it into our email provider and then

should we be tagging it in some way so we know

how we got that email?

You can honestly,

it depends on which provider you're using.

Some providers it's easier to tag people and tagging basically means

that you are indicating maybe it's what they purchased.

Maybe down the road you want to know where they found

you, like which show is it from,

which website did they find you at?

If it's at sea or your own website.

So there's ways to tag people so that you know down

the road who is on your list and you can actually

send emails that are customized to where they found you.

Maybe they're local,

maybe they're overseas.

There's a lot of different ways you can segment your list.

At the very least it should be that this is a

customer. Yes.

So you can talk to them in a little bit,

in a more intimate way because they've had some type of

a relationship with you and your product.

We haven't talked about emails with prospects.

I think maybe we'll get to that,

but in this case that we're walking through right now,

at least that they're a customer of yours.

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, so we've got the emails,

we had a great show,

Abby, and we have a ton of new people on our

list and they all bought product.

What do we do now?

Now you want to welcome them to your list and you

want to tell them a little bit more about you,

your product,

your business,

let them get to know you a little bit,

and you do that with a welcome sequence.

So the welcome sequence is exactly that.

It's just welcoming them.

One thing I will add,

if you are entering people into your list manually and they

did not sign up with a form,

it is a good idea to in the first email to

ask their permission to have them on your list.

So you have a record of that with GDPR,

which is basically the rules that say that you're not allowed

to spam people.

We do need to show that we have permission to send

people ongoing emails.

Well, so GDPR is mostly the European UK issue right now,

right? Correct.

But we also have canned spam acts here in the States.

So is it an automatic acceptance if they've purchased a product

from you or do you need to take that extra step

as well?

I would be safe and take the extra stuff.

I know that when GDPR came about what about a year

ago or so,

people were just basically having to delete a good chunk of

their list of service based business owners,

people who work primarily online and who have people on their

list who were overseas.

So a lot of people would delete it.

A lot of people in their lesson,

you work hard for that list.

So I would just take the extra step.

Now I think that eventually rules as strict as GDPR will

come to the U S and so I would just,

it's better to be safe than sorry.

So just ask their permission to have them click something in

your email saying,

yeah, you can go ahead and continue having me on your

list. Okay.

And let me ask you just one more question.

This isn't where I want to sit forever cause there's so

much good stuff coming up,

but could you say at a booth,

would it be all right if I take your email and

continue to communicate with you?

Would that be consent or does it need to be done

electronically as you were just outlining?

Honestly, I don't know the official answer to that.

I would think at this point it probably is consent,

especially if you have on the paper where they're signing up.

If you have like a disclaimer saying,

I'm going to add you to my list or you'll say

it a little bit nicer,

I think that that would be okay as long as you

hang on to that down the road.

I don't know if that will be enough.

Okay. And for sure,

no matter what GDPR or not,

you should always have an unsubscribe link on every single email

that you send out.

So it gives people the possibility that if they've decided,

and we all know how this goes,

we might love a business,

but there's a time when it's just too much or it's

not relative anymore or something.

You always need to have unsubscribe legally.

You always need to have an unsubscribe on every email that

you send out through any of these lists.

Yeah, and your email provider should automatically add that at the

bottom for you.

So just make sure that that's still there and don't delete

it As long as you have an email provider.

Yeah, I've seen some people send out emails just directly and

it's just something that you should know,

but using an email provider is necessary for any type of

tagging or any of this other stuff you'll want to do.

So, and it's not expensive.

It's not a big investment either,

depending on how many people you have on your list,

et cetera.

But let's not get stalled here.

Let's continue on and talk about the content because I think

this is where we get stuck back to that blank sheet

of paper and what to do.

So you're talking about the first emails that are going out

is welcomed just like you would do if you're meeting somebody

for the first time.

Right. So welcome and then a little bit about you.

So what does that mean about you?

So tell them about your business and how you got started.

If you tag your new email subscribers in a way so

that you know what they purchased,

or maybe you only have maybe have one product and that's

all that you sell,

you know what they have in their hands.

Tell them about the product,

introduce the product to them.

Maybe there are fun ways to use it.

I'll use like a lotion for an example.

So if you have an organic lotion that you're selling,

let them know that it's organic.

Let them know why it's organic.

Let them know that you can pronounce all the ingredients in

the product.

Let them know why,

and you'll do this over a series of a few emails,

but let them know why that's important to you and why

you developed a product like that.

I think,

yeah, telling your story makes it more personal.

It helps the buyer feel more connected to you and it

helps to develop that know,

like and trust factor that we talk about that you hear

all over the place,

but it helps them to trust you more because you're talking

directly to them and you're letting them know more about what

they bought.

Perfect. Yes,

absolutely. And different ways they can use the product for lotion.

Maybe even some fun ways like guess what?

This is even good for your dog.

Something like that.

Just different ways they can use your product,

thereby them needing more.

Exactly. Alright,

so let's flip this a little bit.

What would be some things you should not do in the

emails? We'll hear Abby's response to this right after a word

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So in your welcome sequence I,

so I called a welcome sequence of basically it's a series

of three to five or six emails kind of just getting

in front of your new audience every couple of days you're

going to send an email out to welcome them and build

that trust factor.

Don't send emails every day because you will overwhelm your audience.

You'll overwhelm these new subscribers.

And as business owners,

you know how many emails you get in your inbox every

day and you're selling to end consumers.

So it might be a little bit different,

but we get so many emails,

just give them tidbits of information every couple of days.

And you also want to be careful not to sell in

every email.

If every email you sent out,

especially in the welcome sequence,

if you're asking people for more money,

if you're asking for them to buy something with every email,

you're totally going to turn them off and they'll click that

unsubscribe button and then you won't hear from them again.

Yeah, I mean,

I think what you want to be doing is getting people

interested to know what's behind the emails.

So you're kind of training them to open it because there's

going to be something valuable for them that they're going to

want to know versus,

Oh my gosh,

here's another email.

What is she selling me now?

Yes, absolutely.

In those welcome emails,

you want to give them more value.

So let's say you're a Baker and you have a mom

and pop shop bakery,

so maybe you have events at the bakery,

let them know about the events.

You're not asking them to buy something.

You're asking them to come in and maybe it's a networking

event, so let them know about that.

If you're a Baker,

you can talk about spotlight a customer who has done something

neat in the community or spotlight one of your team members

who decorated this amazing cake that was used in some special

way, like find a ways to give them value,

to find different ways to use your products and that'll just

get them more interested in who you are.

I want to underline what you just said here,

Abby. I think this is brilliant.

When you talked about spotlight a customer of yours and something

that they're doing,

some other value that you were using,

the idea of a community,

or maybe they just ran a race note that it has

nothing to do with the product,

right? If you have cupcakes,

but they are a customer of yours,

so they're a customer purchaser,

but you're sharing their story.

That is so great.

I always feel like there's only so much we can say

about our products.

Yeah. You know,

you can get into other types of content,

but when people are searching for content,

but with customers,

there's a ton of things that you can say and it

shows also that you've bonded and are getting close and have

a relationship with other customers too.

So there's that indirect feel of the business,

if you will.

Yeah, and just piggybacking on the idea of like somebody who

just ran a race,

so I used to run a lot and my feet are

kind of gross.

And so if I had a product that could take care

of the calluses on my feet and you can spotlight that,

and so you want to get permission for using their photos.

I'm air quoting promotional materials.

These emails are promotional.

That doesn't mean you're selling something.

So if I see,

Hey, this lotion really helped with this person's runner's feet,

maybe it'll help with mines.

And maybe that's not how I'm using the lotion right now.

But if I see that email and I see it,

the results that that person got,

then that might prompt me to go buy some more.

Yeah, for sure.

Let me ask you a question I heard a while ago

and we're still talking about the welcome sequence,

right, so three to five emails,

not every single day,

maybe every other day,

but something that I do in my sequences and I want

to know if this is good or if I should pull

it out or what your thoughts are,

Abby is I was told a while back to give the

expectation to the reader and just say over the next week

and a half or so,

I'm going to give you a couple of emails just to

share with you what our business is all about.

Then emails will come less frequently so you're not setting them

up to be thinking,

dang, am I going to be hearing from this person like

every other day forever,

but if they see that it's a sequence for them to

get to know and kind of get started with the company,

then they're not as likely to unsubscribe either because they know

there's an end to all of these emails.

Yeah, absolutely.

I do think that that's a good idea.

And I actually have a template for developing this sequence and

an email one,

that's one of the thing.

Let them know what's coming,

let them know what you're going to do.

And then at the end of the sequence,

so when you're done introducing them to all the wonderful things

that you are and you do,

then you can let them know,

okay, so now you can expect an email once a week

or every other week from me moving forward.

Perfect. Okay.

I just heard you saying templates.

Are you going to share with us later what those are

all about or should we do it now or what do

you think?

Well, so I have a couple of things.

So I have an outline for like what you could include

in each email and then I actually have a template that's

basically cut and get like plug and play,

you know,

it's kind of mad libs style that I can give you

that actually has the emails kind of written out for you

and then brackets where you can fill in your personalized information.

So yeah,

I can absolutely share that with your audience.

Oh my gosh,

Abby, my audience will love templates.

Let's make sure to get that at the end and talk

about how they'll be able to resource the templates you have.

Okay. Okay,

great. Okay,

wonderful. So give biz listeners,

stay tuned until the end and we'll get you the link

for that.

So we've got our welcome sequence,

three to five emails over about a week and a half,

let's say.

Then what do you feel the right frequency is for continual

communication? So I usually say no less than twice a month.

So I would do it every other week depending on the

size of your business,

depending on what you personally can handle.

Cause I mean some people have other things going on in

their lives and publishing a weekly email is a lot to

commitment. Yeah,

it is.

It really is.

And so I would say start with every other week and

see how it goes.

Trying to develop a rhythm for how you structure your emails,

how you write them,

and then once you feel comfortable with it,

if business is good,

if you want to generate more traffic to your website,

then I would say increase it to every week if you

can. Yeah.

I think the big thing here is whatever you do,

be consistent with it.

Yes. You start out every other week,

then continue.

Have you ever gotten emails where you haven't heard from this

business for like a year and a half and now all

of a sudden they're sending you weekly emails out of the

blue? Yes,

and the first thing I do is unsubscribe.

Exactly. I mean,

because at that point you don't remember.

I don't remember how I got on the list.

I don't remember why I signed up for the list in

the first place and so it's meaningless to me,

so I usually will just unsubscribe.

Yeah. And I'll even go further.

I think it's a little presumptuous that they have had my

email for this long,

never talked to me and now all of a sudden feel

like they need to be sharing everything with me.

And most of the time it's a sale.

Exactly. You know why they're reengaging an email list because they're

eventually walking into some type of a sale probably.

And I think initially it might sound cumbersome if you've not

been doing emails at all to think even every other week.

But let's talk through again,

what types of things these emails could look like.

It doesn't have to be a lot of content.

It can be stuff that you're already doing,

right? So you can show behind the scenes like what other

types of things besides sales,

cause we know promoting something is okay sometimes,

right? Yeah,

absolutely. So you want to send in your regular nurturing,

so I call them nurturing emails because you're nurturing your audience,

your giving them.

Again, you're giving them more value.

So this is after the welcome.

So first it's the welcome sequence and then you jump into

nurturing. Correct?

Yeah. Okay.

So your main goal with your nurturing emails is to remain

top of mind for your customers.

So if you blog,

you can include links to your blog.

If you have YouTube videos,

you can include links to your YouTube videos so you can

drive traffic to your YouTube channel,

drive traffic to your website.

But in general you want to give them something extra that

you don't give anybody else.

And what I mean by that is if you are active

on social media and you're providing value and information on social

media, let's say,

I'm just going to use the lotion example again,

let's that you notice you have a YouTube video on how

you use essential oils in your lotion,

in your unscented lotion to create like a new product or

how a customer has done that.

Again, you are giving values so that you know people will

hopefully want to buy more so they can have different scented

lotions on your email.

You can direct people to that YouTube video,

but then also give them something extra.

Like somebody used this on their wedding day or look,

you can make these five-year-old girls birthday party.

They can make custom bottles using this on toxic organic lotion

or something like that where you're giving them something extra,

you're giving them other ideas and just having a little bit

of fun with them.

You're nurturing emails are about having a conversation.

They're about telling stories.

It's a great place to get a little more personal because

they, the subscribers will feel a little more special because they're

hearing something about you that you're not telling anybody else.

So it's really a great place to build a relationship and

to make that connection with your customers.

Love it.

And I also think this is really important because we all

know that when people know us or let's use our own

purchasing behaviors,

we'll support somebody in a community because we know them.

We love their story.

Yes, the product has to be good as well too,

for sure.

But we'll also pay more.

So a big thing for our audience,

Abby, is that we don't,

well, I won't say always,

but many times we don't price our products based on what

they're really worth because we're w,

you know,

tan made we make our stuff right.

But it costs more.

Also, we were talking lotions,

let's use soap like ivory soap versus hand poured soap that

has a beautiful scent,

limited quantity and all of that.

That is more valuable than the ivory soap and it's probably

worth five to seven times more because it's unique and it's

different. And by people knowing a story,

they're willing to pay more.

So I see email nurturing sequences as a way to bond

yourself further when you can't see a customer face to face

all the time,

they get to know you better and better and better.

Absolutely, yes.

When they get to see what goes into making the product,

the trust factor is elevated and they start to get to

know you as a person too and your values and what's

important to you,

which I think is huge.

And all of this digital stuff that we have,

you can practically live your life without actually talking to another

human being ever.

And so I think a lot of people are like crave

that human connection.

They crave getting to know people and who is behind their

products. And I know that sometimes it's difficult to put your

face out there when you're a product based business,

but it's so needed these days so that people can understand

who you are and where your product is coming from.

Right. So I think we've kind of established why it's important.

We've talked a little bit about the content and so I'm

pretty sure that most of the people who are listening can

buy into all of that,

but we still get to the point of,

okay, but seriously,

even two emails a month sounds hard and I want to

share with something that I've done an Abby,

then overlay this for me if you will.

Okay. I knew the value of emails and I used to,

okay, an email has to go out with this week.

I've got to pull it up,

I've got to create it.

What am I going to talk about?

Like it was such a stress factor because I never had

anything planned out.

When I started creating a structure,

it got so much easier.

And by creating a structure,

what I mean is,

let's say I'm doing every other week emails.

So that means I need six emails for three months.

Well for sure one of them is going to be some

type of promotion.

So I could say,

okay, week one is going to be a promotion.

Week two is going to be a customer highlight.

Like I would theme the emails.

Week three is going to be a behind the scene,

something we four,

so I didn't necessarily have the specific topic,

but I had the theme and that really helped me then

fill in the topic later without being so stressful and it's

not easy.

Let's face it,

we're going to fall off and not do it.

What do you think of that idea?

I mean I don't know that customers on the other end

get the idea that there's theming,

they just see different content,

but what do you think of that?

Cause that helped me so much.

I'm curious as to your thoughts.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I'll take your theme one step further so you can

absolutely do that.

I think that that's a great idea and a great way

to plan your emails ahead of time,

which is really important to do if you're going to be

busy or traveling or at a show or whatever.

And you can totally overlay these two ideas.

You can also plan your emails based on an idea,

like a content theme.

So when I plan out content and develop strategies,

I think about what's coming up for my business six weeks

from now,

12 weeks from now,

what is it that I want people to know about so

that they go and buy this thing?

So if you have a show coming up and you have

a lot of local people on your list,

let them know that the show is coming up.

Let them plan ahead so you can tease something like that.

You can tell a story about the shadow.

You could have a customer highlight about the show,

you can have a promotion for the show,

so all of the themes that you had sued.

You can piggyback that with an overall idea theme.

If you have a new product that you're launching,

you want to plan about 12 weeks ahead of time and

start teasing it and let people know about it.

So maybe you had beta testers for that product,

so felt like that and Hey,

this thing is coming on February 1st or whenever it's coming.

So tease it out so that when it's time to launch,

the thing that everybody's really excited about buying it and you

can do that with your theme ideas too.

Just kind of the to marry the two and it should

be a lot easier to develop those ideas Or substituted,

I guess.

Yeah, I would substitute it like that could be like the

basic general what I was saying,

but then if you have something big coming,

you replace it with what you're talking about,

Abby, for that whole portion of time I would think,

yes, I'm not good at this.

You're the expert with this portion,

but you're walking them towards what's going to be happening in

the future by topic,

but you're not necessarily saying anything about it yet.

Right. You're teasing it.

Yeah. You're teasing the ideas to get them to get their

interest peaked and then when it's time to say,

alright, here it is,

it's ready.

People are ready to click the buy button on your email.

So for our audience,

I'm thinking how to circle it back.

For people who are making products,

it could be a new line that's going to be special

for the holidays or it could be a product extension that

you're doing that you're just trying to figure out the packaging.

Or you could involve your audience in,

okay, I can't decide which color I'm liking for this new

product and have people help you decide which one it's going

to be.

You know,

things like that.

I've seen people do that before.

That's an that's really effective because the audience,

the customers get emotionally invested in what the decision is and

they can't wait for that next email to come so that

they could find out what the decision was.

Yeah, it's all being relationship based with your audience,

I guess would be a way to say it.

Okay. So now how long should these emails be?

I generally,

I mean it really depends.

It really does.

So there's really no like,

cause I see some emails that are so long,

honestly they're supposedly work really well.

I don't really have time to read that much text.

So I used to be an elementary school teacher before I

left to grow my business full time and I probably made

every future teacher angry.

I can tell my students.

Yeah cause they would always ask how long does it need

to be?

The answer is say what you need to say and then

which would be ridiculous but works well for one person,

it might not work well for you.

There's no point in trying to make it longer just for

the sake of making it longer.

So just say what you need to say and then stop

because people will know if you are trying to fluff up

the email and include more in it at the beginning.

If you've never done it before,

the probably will be really short and that's okay.

You're still getting in front of your audience.

As you get more practice with writing and developing ideas for

your emails,

it probably will get easier hopefully,

and you'll be able to write more.

So say what you need to say and then be done.

Okay. I like that advice.

I'm breathing a big sigh of relief here on that one.

Okay, so we've got our welcome sequence.

We've got our nurturing sequence.

What if something comes up randomly off schedule that you think

would be good for an email?

Is it okay to jump in with something every once in

a while?

Every once in a while?

Yeah, because once you get really consistent with your emails,

people will come to expect the email to land in their

inbox at noon on Monday or whenever you send her emails,

which I do recommend having a regular day and time that

you send them.

If something comes up on a Thursday that can't wait until

Monday, then absolutely go ahead and send it.

And I think sometimes those are the emails that do even

better as far as open rates and click through rates because

it was unexpected.

So it's gotta be something good as soon as sending me

this email on a Thursday and she never sends emails on

Thursdays. Right.

So it's,

it could be an attention grabber too.

Yeah. Okay.

Another thing that I think I want to talk about just

briefly and we had like a lot of things we were

going to talk about Abby,

and it's just not going to happen looking at the time

here. So we are just going to have to stay with

emails. Maybe you're going to have to come on the show

and we're gonna have to add a whole nother topic.

But what do you think,

cause I'm feeling like in this nurturing sequence,

this is also an opportunity to get people to know other

areas they can connect with you.

Such as if you have a Facebook group or possibly even

doing a review for the business.

You know that's an ask for sure.

So that's not a promotion by something,

but you're still asking someone to do something.

But I think those could also be topics without a money

exchange that could be part of nurturing.

What do you think?

Yeah. Because obviously you want people to follow you in different

places. You have an active Instagram account,

you want people to go to Instagram.

That helps you get noticed by other people.

Same thing with Facebook.

Even though Facebook is kind of tough these days.

Absolutely. So I recommend having a standardized footer that has a

photo of you.

It has your email address,

it has your social links on it that you have,

you know,

just an every single email and then when it comes up,

I wouldn't send people to a Facebook group or to a

podcast or wherever,

every single email because you want to be sending them to

other places too.

Like if you have a new blog post or a YouTube

video, you want to be able to pick and choose where

you're sending people to.

Cause if you give them too many choices,

they're going to choose to not do anything at all.

What about a specific email that says love that we're connected

together? Just want to make sure like that is the content

of the email.

Oh yeah,

absolutely. You can do that.

I would put that in your welcome sequence.

Okay. I would make sure in the welcome sequence that you

are mentioning that and maybe there's something special.

If you have a Facebook group,

six weeks down the road,

they've been on your list for six weeks or six months

or whatever and you have something special coming up in your

Facebook group.

Invite your email list to join your Facebook groups.

Some of them will already be in your group,

others may not.

And you know that's your ask to,

Hey, I'm doing this workshop live.

You want to go check it out,

join my Facebook group to get it for free.

Right. And sharing the value of them doing so.

Absolutely. Yes.

Perfect. Okay.

All right.

And reviews as well.

I guess that would go potentially in the welcome sequence too.

You don't want to have too many asks.

I'm thinking in a welcome sequence,

but having somebody review your product for you.

Right. And sometimes the product might be something that they need

to have for six weeks or eight weeks.

You can also set up a time specific email that goes

out to somebody,

six weeks,

eight weeks,

whatever, after they make the purchase.

So it's totally separate from the welcome sequence.

It's totally separate from the nurture emails,

but it's an email that goes out that says,

let me know how you'd like to the product,

what can I do differently?

Can you give me a review on Amazon or Etsy or

wherever where you're making that ask.

And that can be totally separate from the other emails.

Right. Perfect.

All right,

this has been so great.

You know,

so often when people think about content,

they automatically go to Facebook posts and Instagram stories,

you know,

and all of that.

And I think because email has been around before social media,

we often underestimate the value that it can have for our

business. And so I'm thrilled that you've come on and we've

really taken a deep dive into email.

I think that's really,

really important.

And you've given me some great ideas,

Abby. So I'm really excited about that.

I've got to go back and look at some of my

sequences now.

You know,

you've given me homework and you didn't even know that.

Yes, email.

Social media definitely has not replaced email.

Social media is a great place to get out there and

get noticed,

but email is where you really make that connection with your

audience. They each serve their own purpose,

but you need them both.

Yeah. Wonderful.

Okay, so now on behalf of my listeners and myself,

I'd like to offer you a gift,

Abby. It's a virtual gift containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

Heights that you'd wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What's inside your box?

Freedom. Ooh,

financial freedom to be able to travel when my daughter goes

away to college and a year and a half and to

make sure that she graduates from college debt free and I

want to be able to have the freedom,

I think that will allow me the freedom to follow whatever

passions to happen to arise because who knows?

Right? And then to help other people on their journeys in

the process of finding my own passions.

Love that.

And how can our listeners get in touch with you So

they can find me on my website,

Abby M herman.com

or on Instagram,

which is one of my favorite places to hang out.

Abby M Herman and yeah,

those are the two places I'm at the most often.

Okay, wonderful.

And then you were also talking about an offer that you

had for us with the templates,

right? Yes.

So I have templates that will allow you to do kind

of craft your own state ones and I also have a

challenge, a welcome sequence challenge.

It's totally free and it walks you through the steps of

how to develop your own welcome sequence and get it loaded

to your email provider and just start using it.

Oh my gosh,

that sounds perfect.

So you can access that at bit dot Lee slash your

welcome sequence.

All one word,

all lowercase.

Okay, you're welcome.

So bit dot Lee your welcome sequence and give biz listeners

I really highly advise you to go through and do this.

You know how sometimes Abby you get free offers or tools

or little bits of information and then you have to figure

out how to implement it and how to put it together.

I love what you're talking about here with your sequence cause

you're taking it step by step.

We've just talked about why email is so important already and

then implementing it and getting it constructed the right way.

Sounds fabulous.

And that's what happens here,

right in your sequence.

Yeah, absolutely.

I walk you through the whole process step by step.

It's called one week to your welcome sequence.

So you can actually do it in a week,

but you can also do it in one sitting too and

it will drip out the content to you immediately after finishing

each module.

So anything like,

I believe in telling people how to do things because when

I was first starting this online business,

I was really frustrated that I couldn't find my resources that

I need.

So anytime I can provide a resource like this for free,

I do it just because I think it's just so important

and it just helps people move their businesses forward.

Absolutely. Thank you so much for that.

And as I'd said in the beginning,

this is a topic that we've been talking about a little

bit and people have been challenged with in terms of where

does email fall within our marketing strategies overall and then what

do we do with the whole email topic in its totality.

So you've really clarified it for us here.

So thank you so much Abby.

It has been a true pleasure having you on the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

Okay guys,

no more white knuckling.

If Facebook,

Instagram, or any other platform goes down,

you now know what you should be doing and honestly starting

today, if you haven't already been collecting emails seriously starting today,

start capturing these emails.

Put welcome sequences and nurture sequence in play for your business

so that heaven forbid we have a another incident like we

did this past March.

You'll be protected.

You won't be sitting in a situation where you say,

Tang, Sue warned me about this and I didn't listen.

I don't want that happening to you and it ends up

being very fitting that my topic next week is going to

are new things on the horizon,

new ways to use our existing platforms,

experts, speculation on what the platforms are going to look like

in the future and the ways you can start using them

to your advantage today and the good news is I think

you're going to breathe a sigh of relief.

Stay tuned and hear all about it next Monday and until

then, have a great week everybody.

Bye for now.

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