September 30, 2024 • 47 mins
In this episode, we break down why email marketing delivers the highest ROI of any online marketing channel and why it's a must for growing your business. From boosting sales to building lasting customer relationships, we’ll show you why email marketing should be your top priority for maximizing success!
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Send us an email at femailsacrossthepond@gmail.com and tell us what you'd like to hear. Want more help with your emails? Follow us on Instagram: Angie: https://www.instagram.com/angiemachado_/ Clara: https://www.instagram.com/claratoombsconsulting/ Download Our Free Resources Get instant access to Angie's Free Email Planning Bundle Get Clara's 14 AI Prompts to Help Transform Your Email Game
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(upbeat music)
(00:02):
- Welcome to the Females Across the Pond and Beyond podcast.
Hi, I'm Clara.
- Hi, I'm Angie.
We're here to share all things email and beyond.
We go through the trials and tribulations
of running your own business,
being your own boss and sending your own email marketing.
- As email marketing experts,
we're dedicated to helping small businesses thrive
(00:24):
so they can have more freedom in their business.
- Ready to get started?
Let's dive into the episode.
(upbeat music)
- Hello, everyone.
We are so excited to get into this episode
send email marketing or get left behind.
We've been wanting to record this episode.
I think like ever since we started talking about the podcast
(00:46):
because we feel like, you know, as business owners ourselves,
it can be hard to prioritize email marketing,
but so often we see such a big gap in the sales
that our clients could be making
if they were to prioritize email marketing.
So we really want to bring to light
all of those wonderful reasons as to why email marketing
(01:08):
has such a high ROI and why big corporations focus
on email marketing over, I don't know,
a lot of their marketing channels,
definitely over social media because of the ROI.
What do you think, Clara?
- I'm ready to come forward
to this episode.
There's so much we want to share and yeah, really,
(01:32):
it's certainly something that comes up so frequently
in terms of, you know, like why is email marketing important?
And we're certainly going to dig into that today for sure.
- Yeah, but before we get into it, you know,
I want to hear what's going on with you, Clara.
I'm going on, I guess what you would call a holiday,
(01:53):
I would call it a vacation or like a small vacation.
- Hi.
- Soon, I'm going to Miami soon.
So I'm going to be taking some time off.
I don't know, I don't know if I'll be able
to actually take time off from work.
I definitely like blocked off my schedule,
but I already have people trying to get meetings with me
(02:13):
one, one I've like blocked off my schedule.
And I'm like, do I want the money or do I want the vacation?
- Oh, it's so nice to go to Miami.
I've never been before.
I've always wanted to go.
So yeah, I'd say just take it off and joy it.
Just, you know, put those boundaries up.
- Boundaries, boundaries are money, but yeah, yeah.
(02:35):
So my partners for Miami, that's why we go to Miami a lot.
We have a wedding to go to.
So it's going to be a lot of visiting friends and family.
I don't know, so it should be really fun.
I mean, I'm excited.
And really they are kids, which is kind of crazy.
I have two kids under five, so
it's going to be a little nerve wracking,
(02:58):
but also good for the parents, because the parents need some time.
- Definitely, you need a break.
You need a break and it would be so nice.
And I'm sure the weather, when do you go in a couple of weeks?
- Yeah, in a couple of days actually.
- Couple of days, amazing.
- I know.
I know it's been cold here, so.
- Yeah, I think people are now planning
(03:19):
that holidays aren't they, in terms of what's next.
But yeah, we want to go for like a long weekend,
somewhere either Rome or Madrid.
I've been to both cities, but my partner hasn't.
I used to work in Rome, like in a previous corporate job.
So I had a workshop.
(03:41):
Yeah, I used to have to go every six weeks to Rome,
which was absolute joy.
- How long would you stay?
- I'd stay for about a week each time.
- Nice.
- Yeah, I know Rome really well.
So I'll be showing my partner around.
We haven't decided between Rome and Madrid.
If it's Madrid, I've also been, but only once.
(04:03):
But this time of year is a really good time to go.
So both cities have amazing restaurants, sights to see,
and it's just a really nice way to spend a long weekend.
So yeah, a couple of those in Adir will be so nice.
I think around the bank holiday, yeah,
(04:24):
so really looking forward to that.
And I think, you know, as business owners,
we need these breaks.
- Yeah.
- We need these breaks, like anyone, right?
We work hard.
So yeah, looking forward to it.
- That's cool.
I went to Rome on my honeymoon and I--
- Wonderful.
- Yeah, I was like, I could live here.
I loved walking everywhere.
(04:47):
Like, I don't know, it was amazing to me.
- I found it hilarious because when I was there,
I was there on my own with work colleagues
and I just see all the Italian couples eating ice cream
and being romantic.
And I was there for work, but it was very happy to be there.
- Now you can go with your partner and be romantic there.
(05:09):
- Yeah, no, it's nice.
I think it's just such a great city.
And yeah, it's nice for us because we only live like,
it was two, two and a half hour flight, so it's really easy.
So yeah, I'm very, very looking forward to taking a little break.
- Well, I can't wait to hear all about it
(05:29):
because you know I'm asking you so many questions.
- Yeah.
- You're going to Miami a little bit different to--
- But each others.
- Each others.
Well, let me know how it goes.
- Oh, I will.
We know that it is going to be, I don't know.
Miami is a lot of high energy, you know?
Like people go out late at night and stay up really late.
(05:50):
So, you know, me from the Midwest, it's definitely a change of pace.
I'm like, I cannot keep up with you guys.
- No, I know.
It's probably like good for a short period
and then you come back.
- It's like Vegas, like you could have Vegas for a couple of days
and you know, kind of, that's the, that's how I look at it.
But all right, well, let's get into talking about emails
(06:11):
and you know, why email marketing could like support more vacations
and trips for you and your business, right?
I mean, definitely.
It could give you more freedom, right?
With the sales that it brings in for you.
- Yeah, that's what you want, right?
At the end of the day, like we want to make the most of our business
(06:35):
but also have the freedom.
You know, a lot of us start our own businesses to have the freedom
to do things we enjoy and you like going on holiday
or I like going on holiday.
So yeah, how do we, how do we make that work
as small business owners?
Well, this is a great topic for us to discuss today.
- Yeah, for sure.
(06:56):
The first thing I want to talk about is the fact
that email marketing, when you send an email, so, you know,
one of the core differences between emails
and social media, which makes emails so attractive
is because when you send an email, all you have to do,
well, all you have to do is make sure that it lands
(07:16):
in the inbox of your provider, which,
if you are following all the rules of deliverability,
which maybe we should have another episode on that,
basically if you're not spamming people
and you are following the laws,
you end up in the inbox of your leads or clients
(07:37):
and they see that you send them a message.
They see, at the bare minimum, they see your name pop up,
you know, which marketing 101, right?
Repeat of just, you know, seeing the brand,
reminding that the brand is there.
And so it is a direct line of communication to your audience
that you don't have to depend on any algorithm.
(08:00):
All you have to do is make sure your deliverability is good
and your email shows up and whatever message
you want to get across to your audience
is there for them to open.
- Yeah, it's brand building.
It's, you know, like, we need to show up in the inbox
even if people aren't opening every single email.
It's about being front of minds in your clients' minds
(08:25):
and making sure that you have that regularity in the inbox,
like any marketing channel.
But this, yeah, it's important to make sure we are still
staying front of mind when it comes to email.
- Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like, you know, billboards,
what are the point of billboards, really, just to be seen, right?
(08:49):
Why do people, why do businesses buy multiple advertising,
like commercial slots, you know,
because they want the people to just keep seeing their name,
just keep seeing the brand, you know?
It's just, that's just so impactful for your marketing general.
- Yeah, it's necessary.
(09:12):
It's just so important to be consistently in the minds
of your clients, of your customers.
- Yeah, an email is like that.
It's like a guaranteed consistency, you know?
Your client doesn't have to be driving, you know,
for you to, like, if you were to do a billboard
or something else, they don't have to be,
(09:32):
but everybody opens their emails every day.
- Yeah, absolutely.
How often do you check your emails?
I mean, like, we're not talking here once a week,
are we, we're talking multiple times a day?
- Yes.
- Multiple times a day.
- Yes.
So they could be seeing your name literally multiple times a day.
- Yeah.
(09:55):
Yeah, it's so, it's so important to, you know,
really think about what email can do for your business
and even just getting emails out the door, you know,
it's very much worthwhile in terms of, you know,
where your business is going and where you want to take it.
(10:15):
Email is such a core pillar of any business
and where we wanna share some insights today
about why it's important.
- Yeah, for sure.
I think another topic that I want to discuss,
I feel like that's a bad segue, sorry, Laura.
(10:37):
It's okay.
Another thing that makes emails so special, you know,
with that direct connection with your customers
is the fact that we can personalize it
and we can even send emails to specific groups of people,
(10:59):
what you like to call segmentation,
which we cannot do in any other marketing medium, right?
At least like, I don't know, maybe I'm not aware of,
but like with social media, I cannot make a post
that's like for my service provider specifically
and send that post specifically to my service providers,
(11:21):
you know, my whole audience is going to see every message
that I send, which can be a lot harder to, you know,
to niche down and personalize even within like your bigger audience,
whereas with emails, you can absolutely create
smaller segments of people and create messages
(11:42):
that are just for, you know, those specific groups of people,
whether it's people who have bought from you
or haven't bought from you,
or people who are living in one area of the country
as opposed to another area of the country, you know,
say you're doing local events and things,
like that.
I mean, you have the opportunity to really create
(12:02):
a unique and personalized experience
with your email marketing, which we keep seeing time
and time again, that people really respond to.
They love receiving messages and communication
that are specifically catered to that.
- Absolutely.
Personalization is such a fantastic way
(12:24):
to drive an increase in engagement of your audience.
So an example of what personalization could look like.
Let's give you a real practical example here is,
let's say you're a service-based provider
and you've just run an event,
and so you had a number of people turn up to your event,
whether it's in-person or online,
(12:47):
you can then take the email addresses from that event
and send them a follow-up, say thank you so much for attending,
and even either some kind of special offer
or some kind of connection request.
But in effect, you can personalize your message specifically
to that audience.
(13:07):
Now, if we translate that into social media,
that doesn't quite work because you don't have the functionality
or the ability to personalize that message
just for a select group of people.
Social media is currently mass marketing.
So everyone will see that message
and it doesn't make sense for everyone to see that message.
(13:30):
So one of the great things about email is the ability to personalize
and often we always see much better results
when message is a personalized right.
Yeah, we see from the data that engagement is higher
when we personalize as far as revenue,
we get more revenue from it or we get a higher revenue
(13:53):
and per recipient is a stat that is typically followed
for those kinds of emails.
And yeah, we just know that it just resonates with people,
hearing about offers that really make sense for them
that would be the next step for them personally
(14:15):
because everybody that gets on your list
is gonna be at a different point in their buyers journey
with you, right?
I mean, that's just the reality of it.
And so while you may not understand where everyone is,
you can get a good idea if you have these segments
and groups of people based on, oh, you know, what's an event?
(14:36):
Okay, they're just getting to know me
and their next step would be to do XYZ.
So you can lead them down that path.
People do also love to be led.
They love to be guided.
They love a roadmap to whatever it is that they desire.
So the more that we can really hone in
(14:56):
and on what their next step is for them,
it's super helpful for them too.
And they definitely respond well to that.
Yeah, and let's just, you know, like make it really clear
and let's like just go back to this point
around algorithm changes.
You know, we've had a few blackouts now on social media
(15:17):
that was one recently.
Yes.
And you know, if you think about the businesses
that invest all their efforts in their time,
their money in social media,
the smart and savvy businesses out there
were sending emails on that day and making money.
So think about your strategy in terms of, you know,
how much, how much do you rely on social media?
(15:40):
The algorithm is incredibly impactful
and it will affect who sees your content on social media
whereas there is no algorithm within email.
So you have a lot more autonomy and freedom
over how and when you send emails.
Yeah, which is a good segue into the next point here.
(16:03):
We were gonna talk about ROI,
but Clara and I have also had like a lot of discussions
about what does ROI actually mean?
We hear this stat thrown around all of the time,
you know, that, you know, you get for every $1 you spend
on social media, you get, you know, $32 back.
And I think, you know, seeing that and being like,
(16:26):
"Okay, how does that translate into my business?
What does it mean for me?"
Do you have any thoughts around that?
Because we do know, you know, from all of the data out there
about marketing, that email marketing
does get the highest return on investment
for online businesses hands down above any marketing channel
(16:50):
and like well above any marketing channel.
We're not just talking about like small numbers
that like social media is just a little bit behind.
No, like email marketing is just far ahead in the ROI
that you can see.
Do you wanna speak a little bit on that, Clara?
Yeah, so if you think about the kind of the term ROI,
(17:14):
like return on investment, so this is really more applicable
to more measurable for the larger corporate businesses
in the sense that they're spending X amount on a platform
and they wanna see a return financially
on what they've spent.
Now, if we take a solo planner or, you know,
(17:35):
someone running their business with a small team,
how can we make ROI more meaningful to you?
Well, let's break this down.
So if we think about how much time
we're spending on creating content for social media,
so if you were to take an average week,
(17:56):
how much time does it take you to create the reels,
the posts, the stories, all the content for social media?
I want you to then work out how many sales you're getting
from the time you're spending.
So let's say you've spent 20 hours
and you can then work out from that week,
how many sales you're getting from the content you've put out.
(18:21):
Now, then I want you to look at creating an email.
So an email, if you were to send one email a week,
it will not take you 20 hours guaranteed,
unless we wanna hear from you if it's taking you 20 hours.
But let's say it takes you one to two hours max,
(18:42):
let's say three hours, if there's additional content
you wanna include, from that,
then look at how many sales you're making.
Now, what we see in, I'd say, the vast majority of cases,
in fact most, if not all cases, is that
you're gonna make more money from investing
(19:03):
two to three hours a week on an email
versus investing 20 hours a week on social media.
That's a really good way to work out
how much time to spend on each channel.
Now, we are not suggesting that you stop social media.
It has a role to play in your business,
but we're looking at, we're asking you to think about
(19:24):
how much time you're putting towards each channel
and what the return is on your time.
So think about how many sales am I actually making
from social media versus sending one email,
how much am I making from that one email?
I think that's a, that's a really good way to look at this whole idea
(19:44):
of ROI, return on investments.
So rather than in turn on investment,
think of the investment as your time,
how much money you're making for your invested time.
- Yeah, we're just so important as small business owners,
because time is our greatest asset.
(20:05):
And it's one that we also find the hardest to manage
because there's not a lot of it for us
because we're doing so much.
So if you needed to make a sale this week,
or a couple sales, we're saying
you would actually see those sales column
(20:26):
if you spent the time on your email, sending emails,
then you should be focusing on emails.
If, however, you are simply looking to grow your audience
and you need more eyes and visibility into your brand
and you're looking to just nurture and not make sales,
well then yes, please send time,
(20:47):
I'll spend time on social media
because that's what social media is great for.
It's really great for brand building and visibility
and getting new eyes.
But as far as actually making the conversions
and making the sales,
that's what your email marketing does.
So when you need to make sales, send emails.
- Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
And I think another thing that we won't,
(21:09):
we'll touch on another podcast episode actually is,
when you get really into kind of setting up your email
in the right way, you can actually start to make money
from automated emails.
And that's another layer of passive income
that's about same in time.
- Yeah, you're making money in your seat.
But really the first step is to be really honest with yourself
(21:32):
and look at how much time are you spending
on each marketing channel,
such as social media and email
and just work out the return, work out how many sales
you're making from each channel.
That's certainly a really interesting exercise.
When I ask my clients to look at that,
it's quite surprising at how little people are making
(21:55):
on social media.
But we never talk about it.
We never, I don't think it's really,
it's this illusion on social media
that everyone's making millions and millions of pounds.
There's probably 1% of people making that much on social media.
- Just on the side here.
- Yeah.
- Those people don't just make their money in social media.
I do not believe.
(22:16):
They're heavily using their email marketing channels.
- Exactly, it's a combination.
So they're making money on social media and email.
But we want you just to take the exercise on board
and think about how, what does it look like for you
in an honest view of your business?
Where are you putting your time and where are you making sales?
(22:38):
- Yeah.
And it's not just about the sales this week
or the sales next week on the short term.
What the most beautiful thing about email marketing
in my opinion is the long term sales,
the long term growth, the long term effects
that your email marketing channel can have
(22:59):
for your business and for your customers.
Because the beauty with email marketing
is that it is a direct line of communication,
first and foremost, but to your return customers,
to your return buyers who have already gone through
all of that nurturing, they have obviously been sold
(23:22):
on your product, they like you.
It typically costs a lot less, takes a lot less time
to get another sale from them
and your return customers on average
spend way more than a first time customer.
So the customer building in the relationship
(23:44):
that is available to you through emails
once someone buys even after the sale
is also what creates long term growth for businesses.
- Yeah, 100%.
So one of my favorite things about email actually
is the building, the relationship
because people get to know you
and they get to know your business,
(24:05):
they get to know what's important about your business,
why you started, they get to know about your new product
or service updates, what's next.
But you also get to know your clients, your customers,
you really get to build that relationship
and there could be people on your list
that are simply there to learn more about you
(24:27):
before they're ready to buy.
People might take time to buy from you
or people might buy instantly from you
but the great thing about having them on your email list
is that nurturing aspect,
which is much harder to do on social media,
actually, I mean, like we said,
we don't hate social media, we love it for the idea,
(24:49):
the support around reaching new people,
reaching new markets,
but when it comes to really building that relationship,
email is a fantastic place to do that.
And also you can really build insights
about your clients, your customers through
(25:09):
understanding what they're clicking on,
understanding how they're buying from you.
There's so much you can learn through
the longer term relationship that you're building.
And yeah, like Andy used, like you said,
the whole idea of reaching new clients
is quite exhausting, actually, and takes time
(25:32):
and is expensive,
whereas if you look at the opportunity of repeat business,
it's huge when it comes to email.
I've had clients come back to me multiple times
through my email list,
and I've had that for my clients as well
because the beauty is once someone gets to know you,
they want to continue working with you
(25:52):
or they'll come back and work with you again,
time and time again.
So it's so important to build those relationships.
- Yeah, and what I love about emails,
I think a lot of times we feel like we're just sending,
I think one of the reasons why, at least other,
I've talked to other service providers,
why social media is so attractive
(26:12):
because they feel like it is more of a two way conversation
because of the likes that they are getting
on the content that they are putting out,
they are receiving validation.
And with email marketing,
you don't always receive validation,
especially if you're sending out emails
that might not even have a call to action,
(26:33):
which sometimes I do,
just to nurture my list or just to not ask
them for anything.
Like I don't always ask my audience for something
because I don't know,
I don't wanna always be asking them for something.
And so I feel like that can get pretty exhausting.
If you're sending messages and you're sending emails
(26:56):
and you're not, nobody's replying back,
nobody's clicking on the stuff,
it feels like nobody's paying attention,
nobody likes my content.
I feel like that's a story that we can easily tell ourselves
from the low interaction that we get from emails,
but that's just the way that kind of emails are.
But you can ask for replies.
(27:18):
You can send survey emails where you're saying,
I wanna make sure that I'm sending you the content
that you want to receive, will you fill this out?
And what I have found when we do that,
we get so much response, so many responses
because people do love to communicate back.
(27:38):
It's just with emails, we don't always say,
we don't always reply back or whatever,
it's just kind of not always like what we're doing with emails.
But when we do send those survey emails
and we do ask those questions
and we do make it more of a two way conversation,
we get so much, we do get to create that connection
(27:59):
with people and we see that people really do enjoy that.
So in some respects, I feel like while it may not seem
like there's on the surface, email is a very personal connection
because of, I don't know,
just like the act of sending emails back and forth
to people to me is very special.
And so I wouldn't discount that.
(28:20):
- Yeah, I feel like it's replaced writing a letter
in a digital world now, it's actually real time.
And I do think you can see,
well, you can absolutely see the effect of your email
by looking at the metrics such as your click rate,
are people biking through, are people opening,
(28:41):
are people buying?
So there is the, even though yet,
I totally agree with you about social media,
you get that instant validation,
but with email, you do actually get to see results instantly as well.
You get to see people are engaging with your content,
which is great, we wanna see that.
(29:03):
- Yeah, for sure.
And at the end of the day,
that nurture, that relationship building
is what really drives sales.
People buy from you because they know, like, and trust you,
because they have a relationship with you,
because they feel like they're in the know
of what's going on with your business
(29:25):
and the changes that you're making.
And the way that we make sure that people are in the know
and know what's going on is by sending those emails.
So yeah, I think that, you know, if you can do that
and you can keep people up to date on what's going on with you
just as much as you are in social media,
the return that you'll see in doing that in emails,
(29:48):
I don't know, there's a lot of opportunity there.
- Huge amount.
I mean, oh, Smithy, we are in the business of,
scaling our business, growing, reaching new people
and through our email lists,
we're building those relationships to ultimately,
eventually want to, you know, convert and return to us
(30:11):
time and time again.
And, you know, in many cases, email can represent
a large proportion, you know, 40, 50% of your business revenue wise.
So it's very much a core channel of your business
for many successful businesses
(30:31):
and it can be a fantastic salesperson
for your business as well.
- If someone's listening to this
and they're like email marketing is not bringing in 40%,
30%, not even 20%, 10% of my revenue, why?
You know, where can someone kind of get started
(30:54):
to focus on to like take the first step
to prioritize their email in your mind, Clara?
Like, what would you tell them
if they're not seeing that return?
- I think it's a really good question.
- Yeah, it's a great question.
I would look at your list, how was your list created?
(31:15):
How old is the list?
Have you noticed the list of you?
Have you ghosted them and then a year later
you started to email them every week?
You know, in terms of who's on the list,
are they the right audience for your services
and your products?
Are they interested or have you changed your proposition since?
(31:38):
So there are a number of things that we would look at
and ask you in terms of as a business owner,
you know, are these things in place?
Do you have an engaged list?
How big is your audience?
I mean, if we're talking 10, 20 people,
we highly suggest you focus on this building.
(31:58):
Relevancy is the content, you know,
is the content and what they signed up for?
So we wouldn't be adhering to GDPR
and making sure that people are receiving the content
they've signed up for.
And then I'd be looking at the type of content they're writing about
(32:21):
and how often they're trying to sell.
We want to make sure we've got a good balance
of educational, community, nurturing type content
versus sales.
If it becomes too salesy, that's really off-putting.
In fact, really your promotional email
(32:42):
should really align with your business
and your goals and your mission.
It shouldn't feel salesy
and that's a whole other podcast episode.
But these are the things I think, you know,
very minimum people should be thinking about.
Yeah, I think, you know, if someone's like,
"I'm not seeing this return on my emails,"
(33:02):
I would like you, I would look at, you know,
where are people like, who, where did they come from?
You know, has it been a long time since you email them?
And then I think I would probably just tell people
like just start sending consistent, a weekly email,
one email a week and have it be a relationship building email.
(33:25):
Like focus on building back the relationship.
Focus on seeing if you can get your email list to engage.
Ask them what type of content they want to hear from you.
Ask them why they are on the list.
Is it, then you can get a really good view of,
is it in line with what you're offering?
And then if it's not, send an email that's like,
(33:46):
"I've changed, I have different offers,
I have different services, or I have different products."
If you'd like to stay on, please, if not,
here's an easy way to unsubscribe.
I feel like the more transparent you can be
with your email list, the better.
Like you get, you get such a good response.
People really do respect you
(34:06):
when you're upfront and honest about what's going on
with your business inside your email account.
At least that's what I'm seeing with my clients.
Yeah, I totally agree.
I think a confused mind doesn't buy.
So if you were selling hats previously,
and now you're selling shoes,
and you hadn't announced why,
people are gonna get confused.
And they're gonna either unsubscribe anyway,
(34:29):
or worse, mark you with spam.
So be honest and say, "I've changed direction,"
or this is what I'm focusing on now,
would you like to keep it in mind?
Or I've taken some time off?
Yeah, be honest.
Like everyone has a story behind their business.
So if that's the case,
and you've had a bit of time out, come back to your list,
don't feel it's completely all lost,
(34:50):
'cause actually you can revive a list.
So yeah, there's a lot of opportunity
to bring your list back to life if that's the case.
But I feel like we should do an episode on that, actually.
No, right, a whole episode on reviving the list.
Yeah.
Building your engagement, right?
'Cause we, like you said, we know engaged lists buy.
(35:12):
You know?
Those are the most fruitful lists are the ones
where you have the highest clicks and the highest opens,
then you can guarantee that you'll get little sales from those.
So that's why it's so important to focus on building
those relationships and nurturing your customers.
And it really doesn't take long
to get back into the swing of that, you know?
(35:33):
It's not like, you're then it's gonna be like months
and months before you make a sale.
No, sometimes it's just starting to email regularly again.
It really is.
Don't be afraid of guessing back in the saddle and emailing,
even if it's just like, you know,
and she says just a simple update email.
(35:54):
Yeah, get people engaging with you again.
That's the first step for sure.
And then the last point that I had to make here
was just the fact that,
which you kind of touched on was the fact
of that we have ownership and control of our list and our data.
More so, you know, then we do of our other marketing channels,
(36:18):
which as you can see, when we have blackouts on social media,
I don't know, I think I told you this.
I don't know if I've told the listeners here this,
but last year my personal Facebook and Instagram accounts
were just taken away from me by Metta.
(36:38):
I just like logged in one time and was told that I violated
some sort of law there's, I don't know.
It was my personal account.
I'm not really sure I didn't really look into it much.
But yeah, they just like shut down my personal account
and I promise you, I wasn't doing anything crazy on there.
Like it was, it's just pictures of my kids and my wedding
(36:59):
and, you know, all of these wonderful memories
that I do not have access to anymore
because Facebook just decided to delete my profile
and as a business owner who I do use Instagram
to market my business, it terrifies me to be marketing
(37:21):
on Instagram because of that.
I'm like, any day I could wake up
and they're like, nope.
We just wanted to delete your account.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I don't know.
And you hear that happening all of the time.
And it's terrifying.
- It really is.
It's rented land.
Like you don't own the space you occupy on Instagram.
(37:44):
And while there's lots of opportunity
to reach new audiences and it's fantastic
for growing your business, it's rented land.
It's not something you own
where it's with email, you fully own the list.
It's completely all within your control,
the scheduling, how you manage your subscribers.
(38:06):
It's all within your control.
And I think that's really appealing to a lot of business owners
actually that you have this real ownership of your data
and you choose what to do, you know,
how you wish to use that data.
And I think it is an asset to your business.
(38:29):
Like if you were to look at all components of your business
and what where the value is, your email list is an asset.
It has value to your business.
So it's incredibly empowering, particularly
when we have a building on shaky land with social media,
who knows when the next blackout will be?
(38:50):
- I reckon there'll be another one in two months time.
Like who knows?
- We never know why, right?
We never know why they're happening.
So do you really want to do that with your business,
build it on unstable land, on rented land?
By your means, continue to use social media,
but just be aware that, you know,
people have lost their accounts
(39:11):
and they haven't gotten them back, like yourself,
which is really sad.
- Yeah.
- Because what happens to your, you know,
all your own photography and the images you have on there,
it's just, yeah, there's no reason given,
there's no apology, it's just gone.
- There's no customer service.
- There's no customer service.
There's no one to call.
(39:32):
- No.
- It's just meta deciding.
- Yeah.
- It's just like, this, it is like,
invisible force that just controls everything
and you have no idea what they're doing and why.
- Yeah, and personally as a business owner,
I find that terrifying too.
I feel like, and I've seen it happen so often,
where people just rely on social media
(39:54):
and then it's all taken away
and it's really, it can ruin businesses
because they're entire, following their entire strategy
is linked to social media.
So, you know, how can you protect your business
from these blackouts?
Well, yeah, start to build an email list
(40:14):
if you don't really have one.
If you have one, start to continue to,
or continue to nurture your list.
We just wanna make sure you're, you know,
one of the key takeouts from this podcast is to really
understand the power of owning an email list
and actually how much of it is in your control.
(40:34):
It's really powerful as a business owner.
- Yes, it is incredibly powerful
and why we recommend prioritizing it
above all your social media channels.
I tell my clients, ideally, you would have your email account
at least like a strategy, an email strategy
(40:56):
for sending consistent campaigns,
maybe even, you know, your welcome flow, a post purchase flow,
you know, those core flows set up
before we're even bringing people onto the list
so that we can leverage and maximize the revenue
up bringing those people onto the list
because your email system is really your sales,
(41:18):
your foundation for sales.
So get that in place, you know, first and foremost,
it's going to generate long-term revenue for you
as you are building your list and nurturing your audience,
you know, and bringing people into your sphere
from social media.
So emails really have the power to just, yeah,
(41:41):
really increase the sales that you're seeing online.
But have it set up, set it up so that I can do that
and it can work for you because I absolutely can.
- It really can.
- So, I think that's it.
I hope we've made our case to you.
(42:02):
If you have any questions, if you're like,
but emails feel hard, emails,
I get that all the time too that, you know,
emails do seem complicated, the accounts a little bit more
complicated, it's not so intuitive to maybe set up an email
or send an email then as easy it is to post on social media,
(42:23):
we understand that there are, you know, roadblocks
that can feel super intimidating.
And yet you keep hearing us say prioritize emails,
emails make more of a return.
And so it becomes like, oh, there's so much pressure to do emails,
but it still feels so hard to do.
What do you say to those people, Clara,
(42:44):
because that's my audience.
My audience is like, I know, I got it,
but I still don't want to do it.
I still have resistance to it.
- I would say it's not as hard as you think.
And I think there's so many email can,
and I went, you know, it can get highly complex
(43:04):
for the bigger businesses,
but it's incredibly easy to start.
And even if you just start building a list
on social media through social media
and start to get people to sign up to a lead magnet,
you're in a really good place because,
or you can have an email list,
even if you haven't got consistent strategy in place,
(43:26):
you're already putting foundations in to your business
that will help protect you against what we've talked about
today, social media blackouts.
So if there's one thing that you wanna take away
from this episode, it's to start building your list
if you don't have one.
And if you have an email list, start to send emails regularly,
(43:47):
start to nurture your audience
if you're not doing so already.
- And don't be so, don't put so much pressure on yourself
to show up like what you're seeing in your own inbox.
You know, what I actually see is when my customers
are when my clients kind of lean into their authenticity,
(44:07):
they lean more into what's going on with them
and how they can connect better with their subscribers
and kind of forget about what other people
are sending in the inbox.
I feel like that just creates like a more special
stronger connection.
So don't be afraid to be different or to be like,
(44:29):
just to put aside that little monkey brain
that's telling you, you have to have,
you have to be a certain way, you have to send emails,
you have to have, you know, you have to say this
or that you don't have to say or do anything,
just say what feels right, just send whatever feels right.
And that is what your audience will resonate with.
- Yeah, yeah, it's progress over perfection, right?
(44:51):
We wanna encourage you just to get something out there,
get some learnings, don't wait until you have
the most perfect email because it can take--
- It's never gonna happen.
- Yeah, just get it out of the door,
send what you wanna send, don't worry about perfection,
just take that first step because you'll get the learnings,
(45:12):
you'll get the momentum building before you know it,
you're sending regularly and you're starting to see
those relationships build, you're starting to see sales come in.
We get caught up in perfection,
so progress over perfection.
- And plus, you'll start to learn,
and that's how you learn what your audience response to
is by sending things and trying different things
(45:34):
and then seeing the stats, you know,
did the click rate go up when I sent this content,
I suppose, to this content,
and then let your audience tell you what they like to hear from you
and that will just take all the guessing out of email marketing,
which is, "Mwah, chef's kiss," you know,
send what the audience wants us to send.
- Definitely.
(45:57):
All right, you guys, thank you so much,
please send us any questions that you have on this topic.
We really wanna help you kind of get over this hump
of feeling like, you know,
it's okay to keep putting our emails to the side.
We really want to encourage you to prioritize your email marketing
because we want your business to make money.
(46:19):
And that is how you are going to create long-term growth
and long-term sales with your business
is focusing on your email marketing.
So thank you so much for joining us today
and we'll see you on the next episode.
- Thank you, thanks guys.
(upbeat music)
- You've just listened to females across the pond
(46:43):
and beyond podcasts with your hosts, Clara and Angie.
If you like our content, don't forget to subscribe,
rate, and review us on the platform of your choice.
Is there something you want to hear about for our next episode?
Email us at females across the pond at gmail.com to let us know.
Until next time.
(upbeat music)
(47:05):
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
(00:02):
- Welcome to the Females Across the Pond and Beyond podcast.
Hi, I'm Clara.
- Hi, I'm Angie.
We're here to share all things email and beyond.
We go through the trials and tribulations
of running your own business,
being your own boss and sending your own email marketing.
- As email marketing experts,
we're dedicated to helping small businesses thrive
(00:24):
so they can have more freedom in their business.
- Ready to get started?
Let's dive into the episode.
(upbeat music)
- Hello, everyone.
We are so excited to get into this episode
send email marketing or get left behind.
We've been wanting to record this episode.
I think like ever since we started talking about the podcast
(00:46):
because we feel like, you know, as business owners ourselves,
it can be hard to prioritize email marketing,
but so often we see such a big gap in the sales
that our clients could be making
if they were to prioritize email marketing.
So we really want to bring to light
all of those wonderful reasons as to why email marketing
(01:08):
has such a high ROI and why big corporations focus
on email marketing over, I don't know,
a lot of their marketing channels,
definitely over social media because of the ROI.
What do you think, Clara?
- I'm ready to come forward
to this episode.
There's so much we want to share and yeah, really,
(01:32):
it's certainly something that comes up so frequently
in terms of, you know, like why is email marketing important?
And we're certainly going to dig into that today for sure.
- Yeah, but before we get into it, you know,
I want to hear what's going on with you, Clara.
I'm going on, I guess what you would call a holiday,
(01:53):
I would call it a vacation or like a small vacation.
- Hi.
- Soon, I'm going to Miami soon.
So I'm going to be taking some time off.
I don't know, I don't know if I'll be able
to actually take time off from work.
I definitely like blocked off my schedule,
but I already have people trying to get meetings with me
(02:13):
one, one I've like blocked off my schedule.
And I'm like, do I want the money or do I want the vacation?
- Oh, it's so nice to go to Miami.
I've never been before.
I've always wanted to go.
So yeah, I'd say just take it off and joy it.
Just, you know, put those boundaries up.
- Boundaries, boundaries are money, but yeah, yeah.
(02:35):
So my partners for Miami, that's why we go to Miami a lot.
We have a wedding to go to.
So it's going to be a lot of visiting friends and family.
I don't know, so it should be really fun.
I mean, I'm excited.
And really they are kids, which is kind of crazy.
I have two kids under five, so
it's going to be a little nerve wracking,
(02:58):
but also good for the parents, because the parents need some time.
- Definitely, you need a break.
You need a break and it would be so nice.
And I'm sure the weather, when do you go in a couple of weeks?
- Yeah, in a couple of days actually.
- Couple of days, amazing.
- I know.
I know it's been cold here, so.
- Yeah, I think people are now planning
(03:19):
that holidays aren't they, in terms of what's next.
But yeah, we want to go for like a long weekend,
somewhere either Rome or Madrid.
I've been to both cities, but my partner hasn't.
I used to work in Rome, like in a previous corporate job.
So I had a workshop.
(03:41):
Yeah, I used to have to go every six weeks to Rome,
which was absolute joy.
- How long would you stay?
- I'd stay for about a week each time.
- Nice.
- Yeah, I know Rome really well.
So I'll be showing my partner around.
We haven't decided between Rome and Madrid.
If it's Madrid, I've also been, but only once.
(04:03):
But this time of year is a really good time to go.
So both cities have amazing restaurants, sights to see,
and it's just a really nice way to spend a long weekend.
So yeah, a couple of those in Adir will be so nice.
I think around the bank holiday, yeah,
(04:24):
so really looking forward to that.
And I think, you know, as business owners,
we need these breaks.
- Yeah.
- We need these breaks, like anyone, right?
We work hard.
So yeah, looking forward to it.
- That's cool.
I went to Rome on my honeymoon and I--
- Wonderful.
- Yeah, I was like, I could live here.
I loved walking everywhere.
(04:47):
Like, I don't know, it was amazing to me.
- I found it hilarious because when I was there,
I was there on my own with work colleagues
and I just see all the Italian couples eating ice cream
and being romantic.
And I was there for work, but it was very happy to be there.
- Now you can go with your partner and be romantic there.
(05:09):
- Yeah, no, it's nice.
I think it's just such a great city.
And yeah, it's nice for us because we only live like,
it was two, two and a half hour flight, so it's really easy.
So yeah, I'm very, very looking forward to taking a little break.
- Well, I can't wait to hear all about it
(05:29):
because you know I'm asking you so many questions.
- Yeah.
- You're going to Miami a little bit different to--
- But each others.
- Each others.
Well, let me know how it goes.
- Oh, I will.
We know that it is going to be, I don't know.
Miami is a lot of high energy, you know?
Like people go out late at night and stay up really late.
(05:50):
So, you know, me from the Midwest, it's definitely a change of pace.
I'm like, I cannot keep up with you guys.
- No, I know.
It's probably like good for a short period
and then you come back.
- It's like Vegas, like you could have Vegas for a couple of days
and you know, kind of, that's the, that's how I look at it.
But all right, well, let's get into talking about emails
(06:11):
and you know, why email marketing could like support more vacations
and trips for you and your business, right?
I mean, definitely.
It could give you more freedom, right?
With the sales that it brings in for you.
- Yeah, that's what you want, right?
At the end of the day, like we want to make the most of our business
(06:35):
but also have the freedom.
You know, a lot of us start our own businesses to have the freedom
to do things we enjoy and you like going on holiday
or I like going on holiday.
So yeah, how do we, how do we make that work
as small business owners?
Well, this is a great topic for us to discuss today.
- Yeah, for sure.
(06:56):
The first thing I want to talk about is the fact
that email marketing, when you send an email, so, you know,
one of the core differences between emails
and social media, which makes emails so attractive
is because when you send an email, all you have to do,
well, all you have to do is make sure that it lands
(07:16):
in the inbox of your provider, which,
if you are following all the rules of deliverability,
which maybe we should have another episode on that,
basically if you're not spamming people
and you are following the laws,
you end up in the inbox of your leads or clients
(07:37):
and they see that you send them a message.
They see, at the bare minimum, they see your name pop up,
you know, which marketing 101, right?
Repeat of just, you know, seeing the brand,
reminding that the brand is there.
And so it is a direct line of communication to your audience
that you don't have to depend on any algorithm.
(08:00):
All you have to do is make sure your deliverability is good
and your email shows up and whatever message
you want to get across to your audience
is there for them to open.
- Yeah, it's brand building.
It's, you know, like, we need to show up in the inbox
even if people aren't opening every single email.
It's about being front of minds in your clients' minds
(08:25):
and making sure that you have that regularity in the inbox,
like any marketing channel.
But this, yeah, it's important to make sure we are still
staying front of mind when it comes to email.
- Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like, you know, billboards,
what are the point of billboards, really, just to be seen, right?
(08:49):
Why do people, why do businesses buy multiple advertising,
like commercial slots, you know,
because they want the people to just keep seeing their name,
just keep seeing the brand, you know?
It's just, that's just so impactful for your marketing general.
- Yeah, it's necessary.
(09:12):
It's just so important to be consistently in the minds
of your clients, of your customers.
- Yeah, an email is like that.
It's like a guaranteed consistency, you know?
Your client doesn't have to be driving, you know,
for you to, like, if you were to do a billboard
or something else, they don't have to be,
(09:32):
but everybody opens their emails every day.
- Yeah, absolutely.
How often do you check your emails?
I mean, like, we're not talking here once a week,
are we, we're talking multiple times a day?
- Yes.
- Multiple times a day.
- Yes.
So they could be seeing your name literally multiple times a day.
- Yeah.
(09:55):
Yeah, it's so, it's so important to, you know,
really think about what email can do for your business
and even just getting emails out the door, you know,
it's very much worthwhile in terms of, you know,
where your business is going and where you want to take it.
(10:15):
Email is such a core pillar of any business
and where we wanna share some insights today
about why it's important.
- Yeah, for sure.
I think another topic that I want to discuss,
I feel like that's a bad segue, sorry, Laura.
(10:37):
It's okay.
Another thing that makes emails so special, you know,
with that direct connection with your customers
is the fact that we can personalize it
and we can even send emails to specific groups of people,
(10:59):
what you like to call segmentation,
which we cannot do in any other marketing medium, right?
At least like, I don't know, maybe I'm not aware of,
but like with social media, I cannot make a post
that's like for my service provider specifically
and send that post specifically to my service providers,
(11:21):
you know, my whole audience is going to see every message
that I send, which can be a lot harder to, you know,
to niche down and personalize even within like your bigger audience,
whereas with emails, you can absolutely create
smaller segments of people and create messages
(11:42):
that are just for, you know, those specific groups of people,
whether it's people who have bought from you
or haven't bought from you,
or people who are living in one area of the country
as opposed to another area of the country, you know,
say you're doing local events and things,
like that.
I mean, you have the opportunity to really create
(12:02):
a unique and personalized experience
with your email marketing, which we keep seeing time
and time again, that people really respond to.
They love receiving messages and communication
that are specifically catered to that.
- Absolutely.
Personalization is such a fantastic way
(12:24):
to drive an increase in engagement of your audience.
So an example of what personalization could look like.
Let's give you a real practical example here is,
let's say you're a service-based provider
and you've just run an event,
and so you had a number of people turn up to your event,
whether it's in-person or online,
(12:47):
you can then take the email addresses from that event
and send them a follow-up, say thank you so much for attending,
and even either some kind of special offer
or some kind of connection request.
But in effect, you can personalize your message specifically
to that audience.
(13:07):
Now, if we translate that into social media,
that doesn't quite work because you don't have the functionality
or the ability to personalize that message
just for a select group of people.
Social media is currently mass marketing.
So everyone will see that message
and it doesn't make sense for everyone to see that message.
(13:30):
So one of the great things about email is the ability to personalize
and often we always see much better results
when message is a personalized right.
Yeah, we see from the data that engagement is higher
when we personalize as far as revenue,
we get more revenue from it or we get a higher revenue
(13:53):
and per recipient is a stat that is typically followed
for those kinds of emails.
And yeah, we just know that it just resonates with people,
hearing about offers that really make sense for them
that would be the next step for them personally
(14:15):
because everybody that gets on your list
is gonna be at a different point in their buyers journey
with you, right?
I mean, that's just the reality of it.
And so while you may not understand where everyone is,
you can get a good idea if you have these segments
and groups of people based on, oh, you know, what's an event?
(14:36):
Okay, they're just getting to know me
and their next step would be to do XYZ.
So you can lead them down that path.
People do also love to be led.
They love to be guided.
They love a roadmap to whatever it is that they desire.
So the more that we can really hone in
(14:56):
and on what their next step is for them,
it's super helpful for them too.
And they definitely respond well to that.
Yeah, and let's just, you know, like make it really clear
and let's like just go back to this point
around algorithm changes.
You know, we've had a few blackouts now on social media
(15:17):
that was one recently.
Yes.
And you know, if you think about the businesses
that invest all their efforts in their time,
their money in social media,
the smart and savvy businesses out there
were sending emails on that day and making money.
So think about your strategy in terms of, you know,
how much, how much do you rely on social media?
(15:40):
The algorithm is incredibly impactful
and it will affect who sees your content on social media
whereas there is no algorithm within email.
So you have a lot more autonomy and freedom
over how and when you send emails.
Yeah, which is a good segue into the next point here.
(16:03):
We were gonna talk about ROI,
but Clara and I have also had like a lot of discussions
about what does ROI actually mean?
We hear this stat thrown around all of the time,
you know, that, you know, you get for every $1 you spend
on social media, you get, you know, $32 back.
And I think, you know, seeing that and being like,
(16:26):
"Okay, how does that translate into my business?
What does it mean for me?"
Do you have any thoughts around that?
Because we do know, you know, from all of the data out there
about marketing, that email marketing
does get the highest return on investment
for online businesses hands down above any marketing channel
(16:50):
and like well above any marketing channel.
We're not just talking about like small numbers
that like social media is just a little bit behind.
No, like email marketing is just far ahead in the ROI
that you can see.
Do you wanna speak a little bit on that, Clara?
Yeah, so if you think about the kind of the term ROI,
(17:14):
like return on investment, so this is really more applicable
to more measurable for the larger corporate businesses
in the sense that they're spending X amount on a platform
and they wanna see a return financially
on what they've spent.
Now, if we take a solo planner or, you know,
(17:35):
someone running their business with a small team,
how can we make ROI more meaningful to you?
Well, let's break this down.
So if we think about how much time
we're spending on creating content for social media,
so if you were to take an average week,
(17:56):
how much time does it take you to create the reels,
the posts, the stories, all the content for social media?
I want you to then work out how many sales you're getting
from the time you're spending.
So let's say you've spent 20 hours
and you can then work out from that week,
how many sales you're getting from the content you've put out.
(18:21):
Now, then I want you to look at creating an email.
So an email, if you were to send one email a week,
it will not take you 20 hours guaranteed,
unless we wanna hear from you if it's taking you 20 hours.
But let's say it takes you one to two hours max,
(18:42):
let's say three hours, if there's additional content
you wanna include, from that,
then look at how many sales you're making.
Now, what we see in, I'd say, the vast majority of cases,
in fact most, if not all cases, is that
you're gonna make more money from investing
(19:03):
two to three hours a week on an email
versus investing 20 hours a week on social media.
That's a really good way to work out
how much time to spend on each channel.
Now, we are not suggesting that you stop social media.
It has a role to play in your business,
but we're looking at, we're asking you to think about
(19:24):
how much time you're putting towards each channel
and what the return is on your time.
So think about how many sales am I actually making
from social media versus sending one email,
how much am I making from that one email?
I think that's a, that's a really good way to look at this whole idea
(19:44):
of ROI, return on investments.
So rather than in turn on investment,
think of the investment as your time,
how much money you're making for your invested time.
- Yeah, we're just so important as small business owners,
because time is our greatest asset.
(20:05):
And it's one that we also find the hardest to manage
because there's not a lot of it for us
because we're doing so much.
So if you needed to make a sale this week,
or a couple sales, we're saying
you would actually see those sales column
(20:26):
if you spent the time on your email, sending emails,
then you should be focusing on emails.
If, however, you are simply looking to grow your audience
and you need more eyes and visibility into your brand
and you're looking to just nurture and not make sales,
well then yes, please send time,
(20:47):
I'll spend time on social media
because that's what social media is great for.
It's really great for brand building and visibility
and getting new eyes.
But as far as actually making the conversions
and making the sales,
that's what your email marketing does.
So when you need to make sales, send emails.
- Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
And I think another thing that we won't,
(21:09):
we'll touch on another podcast episode actually is,
when you get really into kind of setting up your email
in the right way, you can actually start to make money
from automated emails.
And that's another layer of passive income
that's about same in time.
- Yeah, you're making money in your seat.
But really the first step is to be really honest with yourself
(21:32):
and look at how much time are you spending
on each marketing channel,
such as social media and email
and just work out the return, work out how many sales
you're making from each channel.
That's certainly a really interesting exercise.
When I ask my clients to look at that,
it's quite surprising at how little people are making
(21:55):
on social media.
But we never talk about it.
We never, I don't think it's really,
it's this illusion on social media
that everyone's making millions and millions of pounds.
There's probably 1% of people making that much on social media.
- Just on the side here.
- Yeah.
- Those people don't just make their money in social media.
I do not believe.
(22:16):
They're heavily using their email marketing channels.
- Exactly, it's a combination.
So they're making money on social media and email.
But we want you just to take the exercise on board
and think about how, what does it look like for you
in an honest view of your business?
Where are you putting your time and where are you making sales?
(22:38):
- Yeah.
And it's not just about the sales this week
or the sales next week on the short term.
What the most beautiful thing about email marketing
in my opinion is the long term sales,
the long term growth, the long term effects
that your email marketing channel can have
(22:59):
for your business and for your customers.
Because the beauty with email marketing
is that it is a direct line of communication,
first and foremost, but to your return customers,
to your return buyers who have already gone through
all of that nurturing, they have obviously been sold
(23:22):
on your product, they like you.
It typically costs a lot less, takes a lot less time
to get another sale from them
and your return customers on average
spend way more than a first time customer.
So the customer building in the relationship
(23:44):
that is available to you through emails
once someone buys even after the sale
is also what creates long term growth for businesses.
- Yeah, 100%.
So one of my favorite things about email actually
is the building, the relationship
because people get to know you
and they get to know your business,
(24:05):
they get to know what's important about your business,
why you started, they get to know about your new product
or service updates, what's next.
But you also get to know your clients, your customers,
you really get to build that relationship
and there could be people on your list
that are simply there to learn more about you
(24:27):
before they're ready to buy.
People might take time to buy from you
or people might buy instantly from you
but the great thing about having them on your email list
is that nurturing aspect,
which is much harder to do on social media,
actually, I mean, like we said,
we don't hate social media, we love it for the idea,
(24:49):
the support around reaching new people,
reaching new markets,
but when it comes to really building that relationship,
email is a fantastic place to do that.
And also you can really build insights
about your clients, your customers through
(25:09):
understanding what they're clicking on,
understanding how they're buying from you.
There's so much you can learn through
the longer term relationship that you're building.
And yeah, like Andy used, like you said,
the whole idea of reaching new clients
is quite exhausting, actually, and takes time
(25:32):
and is expensive,
whereas if you look at the opportunity of repeat business,
it's huge when it comes to email.
I've had clients come back to me multiple times
through my email list,
and I've had that for my clients as well
because the beauty is once someone gets to know you,
they want to continue working with you
(25:52):
or they'll come back and work with you again,
time and time again.
So it's so important to build those relationships.
- Yeah, and what I love about emails,
I think a lot of times we feel like we're just sending,
I think one of the reasons why, at least other,
I've talked to other service providers,
why social media is so attractive
(26:12):
because they feel like it is more of a two way conversation
because of the likes that they are getting
on the content that they are putting out,
they are receiving validation.
And with email marketing,
you don't always receive validation,
especially if you're sending out emails
that might not even have a call to action,
(26:33):
which sometimes I do,
just to nurture my list or just to not ask
them for anything.
Like I don't always ask my audience for something
because I don't know,
I don't wanna always be asking them for something.
And so I feel like that can get pretty exhausting.
If you're sending messages and you're sending emails
(26:56):
and you're not, nobody's replying back,
nobody's clicking on the stuff,
it feels like nobody's paying attention,
nobody likes my content.
I feel like that's a story that we can easily tell ourselves
from the low interaction that we get from emails,
but that's just the way that kind of emails are.
But you can ask for replies.
(27:18):
You can send survey emails where you're saying,
I wanna make sure that I'm sending you the content
that you want to receive, will you fill this out?
And what I have found when we do that,
we get so much response, so many responses
because people do love to communicate back.
(27:38):
It's just with emails, we don't always say,
we don't always reply back or whatever,
it's just kind of not always like what we're doing with emails.
But when we do send those survey emails
and we do ask those questions
and we do make it more of a two way conversation,
we get so much, we do get to create that connection
(27:59):
with people and we see that people really do enjoy that.
So in some respects, I feel like while it may not seem
like there's on the surface, email is a very personal connection
because of, I don't know,
just like the act of sending emails back and forth
to people to me is very special.
And so I wouldn't discount that.
(28:20):
- Yeah, I feel like it's replaced writing a letter
in a digital world now, it's actually real time.
And I do think you can see,
well, you can absolutely see the effect of your email
by looking at the metrics such as your click rate,
are people biking through, are people opening,
(28:41):
are people buying?
So there is the, even though yet,
I totally agree with you about social media,
you get that instant validation,
but with email, you do actually get to see results instantly as well.
You get to see people are engaging with your content,
which is great, we wanna see that.
(29:03):
- Yeah, for sure.
And at the end of the day,
that nurture, that relationship building
is what really drives sales.
People buy from you because they know, like, and trust you,
because they have a relationship with you,
because they feel like they're in the know
of what's going on with your business
(29:25):
and the changes that you're making.
And the way that we make sure that people are in the know
and know what's going on is by sending those emails.
So yeah, I think that, you know, if you can do that
and you can keep people up to date on what's going on with you
just as much as you are in social media,
the return that you'll see in doing that in emails,
(29:48):
I don't know, there's a lot of opportunity there.
- Huge amount.
I mean, oh, Smithy, we are in the business of,
scaling our business, growing, reaching new people
and through our email lists,
we're building those relationships to ultimately,
eventually want to, you know, convert and return to us
(30:11):
time and time again.
And, you know, in many cases, email can represent
a large proportion, you know, 40, 50% of your business revenue wise.
So it's very much a core channel of your business
for many successful businesses
(30:31):
and it can be a fantastic salesperson
for your business as well.
- If someone's listening to this
and they're like email marketing is not bringing in 40%,
30%, not even 20%, 10% of my revenue, why?
You know, where can someone kind of get started
(30:54):
to focus on to like take the first step
to prioritize their email in your mind, Clara?
Like, what would you tell them
if they're not seeing that return?
- I think it's a really good question.
- Yeah, it's a great question.
I would look at your list, how was your list created?
(31:15):
How old is the list?
Have you noticed the list of you?
Have you ghosted them and then a year later
you started to email them every week?
You know, in terms of who's on the list,
are they the right audience for your services
and your products?
Are they interested or have you changed your proposition since?
(31:38):
So there are a number of things that we would look at
and ask you in terms of as a business owner,
you know, are these things in place?
Do you have an engaged list?
How big is your audience?
I mean, if we're talking 10, 20 people,
we highly suggest you focus on this building.
(31:58):
Relevancy is the content, you know,
is the content and what they signed up for?
So we wouldn't be adhering to GDPR
and making sure that people are receiving the content
they've signed up for.
And then I'd be looking at the type of content they're writing about
(32:21):
and how often they're trying to sell.
We want to make sure we've got a good balance
of educational, community, nurturing type content
versus sales.
If it becomes too salesy, that's really off-putting.
In fact, really your promotional email
(32:42):
should really align with your business
and your goals and your mission.
It shouldn't feel salesy
and that's a whole other podcast episode.
But these are the things I think, you know,
very minimum people should be thinking about.
Yeah, I think, you know, if someone's like,
"I'm not seeing this return on my emails,"
(33:02):
I would like you, I would look at, you know,
where are people like, who, where did they come from?
You know, has it been a long time since you email them?
And then I think I would probably just tell people
like just start sending consistent, a weekly email,
one email a week and have it be a relationship building email.
(33:25):
Like focus on building back the relationship.
Focus on seeing if you can get your email list to engage.
Ask them what type of content they want to hear from you.
Ask them why they are on the list.
Is it, then you can get a really good view of,
is it in line with what you're offering?
And then if it's not, send an email that's like,
(33:46):
"I've changed, I have different offers,
I have different services, or I have different products."
If you'd like to stay on, please, if not,
here's an easy way to unsubscribe.
I feel like the more transparent you can be
with your email list, the better.
Like you get, you get such a good response.
People really do respect you
(34:06):
when you're upfront and honest about what's going on
with your business inside your email account.
At least that's what I'm seeing with my clients.
Yeah, I totally agree.
I think a confused mind doesn't buy.
So if you were selling hats previously,
and now you're selling shoes,
and you hadn't announced why,
people are gonna get confused.
And they're gonna either unsubscribe anyway,
(34:29):
or worse, mark you with spam.
So be honest and say, "I've changed direction,"
or this is what I'm focusing on now,
would you like to keep it in mind?
Or I've taken some time off?
Yeah, be honest.
Like everyone has a story behind their business.
So if that's the case,
and you've had a bit of time out, come back to your list,
don't feel it's completely all lost,
(34:50):
'cause actually you can revive a list.
So yeah, there's a lot of opportunity
to bring your list back to life if that's the case.
But I feel like we should do an episode on that, actually.
No, right, a whole episode on reviving the list.
Yeah.
Building your engagement, right?
'Cause we, like you said, we know engaged lists buy.
(35:12):
You know?
Those are the most fruitful lists are the ones
where you have the highest clicks and the highest opens,
then you can guarantee that you'll get little sales from those.
So that's why it's so important to focus on building
those relationships and nurturing your customers.
And it really doesn't take long
to get back into the swing of that, you know?
(35:33):
It's not like, you're then it's gonna be like months
and months before you make a sale.
No, sometimes it's just starting to email regularly again.
It really is.
Don't be afraid of guessing back in the saddle and emailing,
even if it's just like, you know,
and she says just a simple update email.
(35:54):
Yeah, get people engaging with you again.
That's the first step for sure.
And then the last point that I had to make here
was just the fact that,
which you kind of touched on was the fact
of that we have ownership and control of our list and our data.
More so, you know, then we do of our other marketing channels,
(36:18):
which as you can see, when we have blackouts on social media,
I don't know, I think I told you this.
I don't know if I've told the listeners here this,
but last year my personal Facebook and Instagram accounts
were just taken away from me by Metta.
(36:38):
I just like logged in one time and was told that I violated
some sort of law there's, I don't know.
It was my personal account.
I'm not really sure I didn't really look into it much.
But yeah, they just like shut down my personal account
and I promise you, I wasn't doing anything crazy on there.
Like it was, it's just pictures of my kids and my wedding
(36:59):
and, you know, all of these wonderful memories
that I do not have access to anymore
because Facebook just decided to delete my profile
and as a business owner who I do use Instagram
to market my business, it terrifies me to be marketing
(37:21):
on Instagram because of that.
I'm like, any day I could wake up
and they're like, nope.
We just wanted to delete your account.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I don't know.
And you hear that happening all of the time.
And it's terrifying.
- It really is.
It's rented land.
Like you don't own the space you occupy on Instagram.
(37:44):
And while there's lots of opportunity
to reach new audiences and it's fantastic
for growing your business, it's rented land.
It's not something you own
where it's with email, you fully own the list.
It's completely all within your control,
the scheduling, how you manage your subscribers.
(38:06):
It's all within your control.
And I think that's really appealing to a lot of business owners
actually that you have this real ownership of your data
and you choose what to do, you know,
how you wish to use that data.
And I think it is an asset to your business.
(38:29):
Like if you were to look at all components of your business
and what where the value is, your email list is an asset.
It has value to your business.
So it's incredibly empowering, particularly
when we have a building on shaky land with social media,
who knows when the next blackout will be?
(38:50):
- I reckon there'll be another one in two months time.
Like who knows?
- We never know why, right?
We never know why they're happening.
So do you really want to do that with your business,
build it on unstable land, on rented land?
By your means, continue to use social media,
but just be aware that, you know,
people have lost their accounts
(39:11):
and they haven't gotten them back, like yourself,
which is really sad.
- Yeah.
- Because what happens to your, you know,
all your own photography and the images you have on there,
it's just, yeah, there's no reason given,
there's no apology, it's just gone.
- There's no customer service.
- There's no customer service.
There's no one to call.
(39:32):
- No.
- It's just meta deciding.
- Yeah.
- It's just like, this, it is like,
invisible force that just controls everything
and you have no idea what they're doing and why.
- Yeah, and personally as a business owner,
I find that terrifying too.
I feel like, and I've seen it happen so often,
where people just rely on social media
(39:54):
and then it's all taken away
and it's really, it can ruin businesses
because they're entire, following their entire strategy
is linked to social media.
So, you know, how can you protect your business
from these blackouts?
Well, yeah, start to build an email list
(40:14):
if you don't really have one.
If you have one, start to continue to,
or continue to nurture your list.
We just wanna make sure you're, you know,
one of the key takeouts from this podcast is to really
understand the power of owning an email list
and actually how much of it is in your control.
(40:34):
It's really powerful as a business owner.
- Yes, it is incredibly powerful
and why we recommend prioritizing it
above all your social media channels.
I tell my clients, ideally, you would have your email account
at least like a strategy, an email strategy
(40:56):
for sending consistent campaigns,
maybe even, you know, your welcome flow, a post purchase flow,
you know, those core flows set up
before we're even bringing people onto the list
so that we can leverage and maximize the revenue
up bringing those people onto the list
because your email system is really your sales,
(41:18):
your foundation for sales.
So get that in place, you know, first and foremost,
it's going to generate long-term revenue for you
as you are building your list and nurturing your audience,
you know, and bringing people into your sphere
from social media.
So emails really have the power to just, yeah,
(41:41):
really increase the sales that you're seeing online.
But have it set up, set it up so that I can do that
and it can work for you because I absolutely can.
- It really can.
- So, I think that's it.
I hope we've made our case to you.
(42:02):
If you have any questions, if you're like,
but emails feel hard, emails,
I get that all the time too that, you know,
emails do seem complicated, the accounts a little bit more
complicated, it's not so intuitive to maybe set up an email
or send an email then as easy it is to post on social media,
(42:23):
we understand that there are, you know, roadblocks
that can feel super intimidating.
And yet you keep hearing us say prioritize emails,
emails make more of a return.
And so it becomes like, oh, there's so much pressure to do emails,
but it still feels so hard to do.
What do you say to those people, Clara,
(42:44):
because that's my audience.
My audience is like, I know, I got it,
but I still don't want to do it.
I still have resistance to it.
- I would say it's not as hard as you think.
And I think there's so many email can,
and I went, you know, it can get highly complex
(43:04):
for the bigger businesses,
but it's incredibly easy to start.
And even if you just start building a list
on social media through social media
and start to get people to sign up to a lead magnet,
you're in a really good place because,
or you can have an email list,
even if you haven't got consistent strategy in place,
(43:26):
you're already putting foundations in to your business
that will help protect you against what we've talked about
today, social media blackouts.
So if there's one thing that you wanna take away
from this episode, it's to start building your list
if you don't have one.
And if you have an email list, start to send emails regularly,
(43:47):
start to nurture your audience
if you're not doing so already.
- And don't be so, don't put so much pressure on yourself
to show up like what you're seeing in your own inbox.
You know, what I actually see is when my customers
are when my clients kind of lean into their authenticity,
(44:07):
they lean more into what's going on with them
and how they can connect better with their subscribers
and kind of forget about what other people
are sending in the inbox.
I feel like that just creates like a more special
stronger connection.
So don't be afraid to be different or to be like,
(44:29):
just to put aside that little monkey brain
that's telling you, you have to have,
you have to be a certain way, you have to send emails,
you have to have, you know, you have to say this
or that you don't have to say or do anything,
just say what feels right, just send whatever feels right.
And that is what your audience will resonate with.
- Yeah, yeah, it's progress over perfection, right?
(44:51):
We wanna encourage you just to get something out there,
get some learnings, don't wait until you have
the most perfect email because it can take--
- It's never gonna happen.
- Yeah, just get it out of the door,
send what you wanna send, don't worry about perfection,
just take that first step because you'll get the learnings,
(45:12):
you'll get the momentum building before you know it,
you're sending regularly and you're starting to see
those relationships build, you're starting to see sales come in.
We get caught up in perfection,
so progress over perfection.
- And plus, you'll start to learn,
and that's how you learn what your audience response to
is by sending things and trying different things
(45:34):
and then seeing the stats, you know,
did the click rate go up when I sent this content,
I suppose, to this content,
and then let your audience tell you what they like to hear from you
and that will just take all the guessing out of email marketing,
which is, "Mwah, chef's kiss," you know,
send what the audience wants us to send.
- Definitely.
(45:57):
All right, you guys, thank you so much,
please send us any questions that you have on this topic.
We really wanna help you kind of get over this hump
of feeling like, you know,
it's okay to keep putting our emails to the side.
We really want to encourage you to prioritize your email marketing
because we want your business to make money.
(46:19):
And that is how you are going to create long-term growth
and long-term sales with your business
is focusing on your email marketing.
So thank you so much for joining us today
and we'll see you on the next episode.
- Thank you, thanks guys.
(upbeat music)
- You've just listened to females across the pond
(46:43):
and beyond podcasts with your hosts, Clara and Angie.
If you like our content, don't forget to subscribe,
rate, and review us on the platform of your choice.
Is there something you want to hear about for our next episode?
Email us at females across the pond at gmail.com to let us know.
Until next time.
(upbeat music)
(47:05):
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