Are you sending the right emails?

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Hello, you fabulous person. Welcome to lesson two of unleash. Your email awesomeness. Are you sending the right emails? Hm, that's a good question. And it's one that I sometimes get from entrepreneurs or business owners who are just starting out and wanting to know if they're doing the right thing with their email marketing.
They aren't super familiar with the whole idea of email marketing and they want to make sure that the emails they're sending to their customers and subscribers are the right ones. And if you could see me right now, I'm doing scare quotes around the right ones. This is an interesting question to me.
Because, how can you tell which emails are the right ones? Well, I would say it's the ones that do their job, whatever that job might be inviting people to read your latest piece of writing, for example, or answering a question on your Facebook page or filling out a survey. Or visiting a sales page to learn more about an upcoming event.
If your email does a great job of inspiring people to take the action that you want them to take, then I would say that that is the right kind of email. Right? So having said that. All those different actions, you could be asking people to take all those different reasons why you might be sending out an email at all.
I would say they all fall into three main categories, and I really encourage you to be thinking about your emails in these terms. So what are these categories? Well, the first one is what I like to call relationship emails. These are the ones that you send out to cultivate a stronger relationship with the people on your list.
Like when you send them a link to your latest blog post, for example, or you invite them to join you on a free video call or some such thing. The next category is your sales emails. Now these are the ones that specifically invite people to buy one of your products or book an appointment with you. In other words, these are the ones that result in people pulling out their credit card or logging into PayPal to send you money.
We like those ones. And then finally you have your transaction emails, the ones that you send out to people after they've made a purchase or taken some kind of action on your website. So let's take a look at these three emails in more detail and discover why each category is so important to your business and how you can use each category to increase your client or customer engagement and your revenues.
Let's start with relationship emails. These ones are my favorite. Why because their entire purpose is to cultivate a deeper, more personal and meaningful relationship with your subscribers, the kind of relationship that mutually benefits, both of you. How do you use email to create this kind of relationship by offering the people on your email list?
Free, valuable, interesting, no strings attached content. And when I say cool content, what I mean is useful and engaging free information. For example, an article or a blog, post video pictures, infographics, and ebook, a webinar or an e-course that you deliver via email. There are so many different types of free content you can offer people that they will really appreciate.
And thank you for, but, and I'm going to go on to. But I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent here. So be warned when I say content to many business owners or entrepreneurs, many of them immediately think, Ooh, newsletter. They send out a newsletter once a month with links to their latest articles and offers and they think, yup, I'm good.
I'm sending out content to my list. And I have a bit of a problem with that. Here's why. Email marketing is about so much more than simply sending out monthly newsletters. And it should be if you want to build stronger relationships and inspire people to engage more with your messages, content, and website, and all of the things you offer newsletters are good.
If you create a lot of content and you want to give people a choice of different articles or blog posts to read. And they're also good for showcasing a broad range of everything you have to offer. If you have a lot of different products or services to sell, you know what I'm talking about, right? The typical newsletter will include things like links to recent blog posts, or articles, maybe a link to a business's FAQ page.
So people can find out answers to their questions. Or the businesses events, calendar, if they regularly host or participate in different events and want to remind people about them, they're also great for advertising any specials or sales. The business might be offering at the moment as well as any new products they offer.
Or any free giveaways or contests you might be running. So newsletters can give a nice broad overview of all of these different things that you offer. And that can be handy if you have a lot of these things to tell people about. And if you're already sending out a lot of emails to your list and are looking for a way to present these same important items of information to people in a slightly different way.
But as I said, I do have a bit of a problem with newsletters for two big reasons. First off, they are the most boring and least wanted opt-in offer that you could possibly give to people. And when I say opt-in offer, what I mean is the free offer you have on your website to encourage people to join your mailing list.
For example, here's the opt-in offer on bestselling author, Kathy bird site. This is actually a great opt-in offer as she's giving away the first chapter of her book for free to anyone who signs up for her email list. She's not just saying sign up for my newsletter. She's saying sign up for my mailing list and you'll get this awesome free preview of my book.
The fact is most people already have so many emails, bombarding their inbox. They're unlikely to say, Oh, yay, another newsletter. And if all you're offering them is a weekly or monthly update about what you've been doing and what you offer. But if you give them something really valuable, they're going to be more likely to say, okay, that's worth handing over my email address for you and you're going to get more signups.
Okay. So that's my first point. Newsletters make bad. Opt-ins here's the second point. They usually have way too many calls to action to be effective. For example, most emails tend to have a feature story at the top with the link to read the full article on the business's website. Like you'll see in this fake newsletter that I mocked up for this lesson.
Now I was in a bit of a ridiculous mood when I was putting this together, as you might be able to tell. So just bear with me and hopefully you'll be able to pay attention to what I'm saying, despite the fact that this picture is so ridiculous. Anyway, you'll see two opportunities to click through to the main website here.
First off, it's always a good idea to include a link on the picture that will take people to the main article. So if you click on the picture here of the horse head, dude, you're going to be taken through to the main article on the site. And this is good because a certain number of people are always going to mouse over the image to see if it's clickable, because they're going to expect it to be because on so many different pieces of web content, it usually is right.
So you may as well make yours. So, so that people who expect to see it clickable will be able to click on it. It's going to actually increase your conversion rate. If you do. But then beneath the image, you can also see that there's a clickable link in the article summary, where it says you'll really well, the Phillies, and then that short and obvious more, which is underlined and clickable.
And, uh, we'll take people through to the article on the main site. And then as you continue to scroll down, there's going to be more things for you to explore such as one or two more articles with images that people can click on to read the full thing on the website, maybe an announcement about a sale or a special as well as links to other articles and a whole bunch of other stuff.
And. Each of those links is a separate call to action. Each one is telling your readers to do something and they're telling them to do different things. Right. You can see, you can click on that picture of the funky Colton Medina dude. And that's going to take you somewhere. You can click on the check out link and that's going to probably take you to that same article.
You can click on the link in the holiday evening sale. And, uh, as well as all of those links under best reads of the week, those are all separate things that people can click on to go to different places on your website. And here's why that's a problem. The more calls to action you include in an email, the fewer clicks, each one gets.
Very few people are going to click on them. All, most of them are going to scan all of the options and only click on the one that catches their eye and interest the most. So if you have something really important that you want people to do, including it in a newsletter with a whole bunch of different options for people to consider, probably isn't the best way to get results.
That's why I encourage entrepreneurs and business owners to send out content emails that have only one call to action, read this one article, or download this free ebook or sign up for this webinar and do that one thing only because if you send out a newsletter that invites people to do all three of these things, your click-through and conversion rates are going to be much lower.
If you tell them to do only one of those things. So when you write a new blog post or you have an article to share or a video or something like that, I would encourage you to send out a short and snappy email that encourages people to do that. One thing, read that one blog post or article, or watch that one video.
I guarantee you're going to get a higher level of response. If you do same goes, if you have a free gift that you'd like to offer your subscribers. Send them an email that directs them only to the page where they can download that free gift. If you have a new product to announce, send out an email that links only to the sales page for that product, you are pretty much guaranteed to get better results if you do.
Okay. Speaking of emails that send people to sales pages. Let's talk about sales emails. Cause they're fun. As you can guess, the name is pretty self-explanatory, but to be clear, I'm talking about emails that were written for the sole intent of encouraging people to buy something. This can be a product or a service, or it could be a membership to a course or a program or a registration to an online or offline event, whatever it is you offer for money, honey.
Now, obviously this kind of email is extremely important to your bottom line. After all your business only grows when people buy something from you. So it's really important that you learn how to write sales emails that get the job done, and here's how they do it. Sales emails, encourage targeted clients and customers to click through to your sales page.
Now let's unpack this statement for a moment. First off, we're talking about sending these emails to a targeted audience, your sales emails, ideally should be speaking to a very specific kind of person, namely the clients, our customers who are most likely to want, whatever it is you're offering after all.
There's not much point in getting people who aren't going to be interested in your offer to click through to the sales page, because they're not going to do anything while they're there. So your sales emails should make it very clear exactly who your offer is for. And the second part of this idea is clicking through to your sales page, your sales emails, don't have to convince people to make a purchase decision right away.
They're not responsible for getting people to buy something, but they are responsible for getting people to the place where they can buy something. Um, and the reason why is because depending on the product or service that you're selling and how much it costs, people might want to see a lot of information that will convince them to make that buying decision.
And usually that level of information and the amount of it is more than you would ever want to include in an email. All your sales email needs to do is convince your ideal clients or customers to click on the link to learn more your sales page should then do the heavy lifting of giving them all the information they need to make a buying decision.
Okay. So our next type of email is what comes after someone has made the decision to buy from you or sign up to download a freebie or register for a free class or webinar or something like that. And those kinds of emails are called. If you remember transaction emails, Transaction emails confirmed that an action has been taken in a perfect world.
They should get sent out automatically. Whenever someone takes a specific action on your website, such as making a purchase or downloading something or registering for a course or event. Now you may think that transaction emails sound a bit boring since their main message is basically thanks for the action you just took.
Here are the details for your records, but that certainly doesn't have to be your transaction emails only message. I like to say that your transaction emails are the unsung heroes of your email marketing toolkit, or at least they can be, if you take full advantage of them and spoiler alert, guess what?
Most people don't take full advantage of their transaction emails. So if you do, you're going to have an edge on your competitors. That's fun. And here's why, who are the people who are receiving transaction emails from you? This is something that's really important for you to consider because. The people who receive transaction emails are the ones who have just made the decision to take a pretty significant action on your website or your social media page.
They've decided to invest their time, money, and or their attention in something that you offer. That means they trust you. And that is a very big deal. Not only that people who've made the decision to take some sort of action, tend to be really excited about it. And they're looking for some sort of reassurance or proof that they have made the right choice.
Your transaction email is the perfect opportunity to reassure them that yes, they did make the right choice and to invite them to take some other sort of related action. Since they're obviously in an action oriented mindset. For example, if someone has just bought a product from you, your transaction email can congratulate people on their brilliant decision to take that action and make them feel pretty clever for having done.
So, or you can share more valuable information about the product they just bought or signed up for to get them even more excited about it. Or you can give them tips on how to use it for best results. You could even make them fall in love with you by offering a free add on that will allow them to make even better use of the product.
For example, if they've just signed up for a webinar, your transaction email can give them a free workbook. They can use to put the webinars lessons into action, or your transaction email could introduce them to other possibly related products they might enjoy. For example, if they've just signed up for your course, maybe they would be interested in buying your latest book that covers the same sort of topics you'll be addressing in the course, or if they just bought a pair of earrings off of you, maybe they'd like the matching necklace or bracelet, right.
You can offer them complimentary things that will help them enjoy the first thing they bought in an even bigger way. You could even invite them to register for a different free class or webinar that you offer after all they've already made the decision to trust you. And that means they're probably curious to learn more about what else you offer.
You could even take this opportunity to encourage them to read your latest articles or follow you on social media if they aren't already. So they can stay in touch with you and engage with your content on an even deeper level. Basically, whatever action will help them get even more out of their relationship with you.
That's the value of a transaction email you can say, Hey. Thanks for doing this thing, you just did. Here's everything you need to know about it. And then you could open their entire world up by saying, you can do this. You can do that. Hey, have you thought about this and give them a few different options that you know, they're going to like, because guess what?
Since they've just taken action with you, if you give them the opportunity to do other cool things, right. They're going to be more inspired to do it than if you sent it to someone who hadn't taken that action, obviously. Right? So it's just a really great opportunity to build the relationship and, um, cultivate even greater trust in what you offer.
So those are the three types of emails you should be sending relationship emails, sales, emails, and transaction emails. Now let's take a look at some examples. So you have a super clear idea of what each kind of email can look like. Okay. So here's a relationship email that was sent out by my friend, Suzanne Doyle Ingram, owner of prominence publishing.
As you can see, she's offering a link to the replay of a free video training session that she just did. She asks people if they missed, it provides a couple of testimonials from people who watched it, which is a great way of using other people's words to convey the value of what you offer then gives them the link to the webinar.
Then in case they're not completely sold on it. She tells them what they're going to learn by watching her video. Then she gives them another opportunity to click on the link and watch the video. So it's really nicely structured. And I encourage you to look at this and think about how you can follow that same general structure when you send emails to people.
And here's another relationship email from my friend, Tia Kelly. She has a great opt-in on our site, inviting people to take her true North archetype quiz to learn more about their personal navigation archetype. Once you complete the quiz, Tia sends a write-up about your personal archetype. And then, because she's a very smart woman, she follows up with a series of emails that are written specifically for people with that archetype and offer useful information on how to navigate through life's challenges with maximum joy and ease based on their strengths and possible challenges that are involved in that archetype.
So as you can see, I'm a trailblazer archetype. Whoo. Um, I love that. Okay. So let's take a quick look at this email. As you can see, it has a couple of introductory paragraphs and then beneath those paragraphs, she has a short video message where she offers even more useful advice. This gives people a chance to see her in person and get a clearer sense of who she is and what she's like.
I think it's a great way for Tia to strengthen her relationship with her new subscribers. And here's a relationship building email from Ramit Sethi, whose list I've been on for years. I really like his emails. He's a good guy to follow. So here's an email. He sent out linking to one of his blog posts titled what successful people.
Don't tell you again, he's not selling anything here. He's simply sharing information that he believes will be helpful and interesting to his ideal clients. This is how you build relationships. Okay. So those are a few relationship emails for you. Now let's take a look at a couple of sales emails. Here's one from Anne Perry, founder of the ELs society.
She's opening up her schedule to take on five new clients. I love this email because it's so short and sweet. Her message is simply, you want to work with me. Here's your chance for people who have been on our list for a long time and are fully aware of the value she offers her clients. I imagine this email was very effective and I bet she didn't find it too difficult to find five people who were willing to work with her.
Oh, and here's what I wrote for one of my clients announcing one of their live events. This email was written with one purpose only to encourage people to click through to the sales page, to learn more about this event. It explains the value of the event and offers some testimonials from people who have attended previous similar events to show people who are reading the email, that those who have gone to the events really got a lot out of it.
And then it closes with an ending that encourages people to think of the possibilities and get excited about them and click on the link to learn more. And here's an email from Tiffany. Largie letting her audience know about her one day intensive training. Again, that is the sole purpose of this email to get people to click through to our event page and learn more.
Okay. So sales team, there you go. Now let's take a look at a couple of transaction emails. Here's one from my all time, favorite shoe company flu vog, it's a simple message asking me to confirm the account I just created on their website. It doesn't really ask me to do anything else, but it does include some personality with that.
Thanks for being awesome line. So, you know, I appreciate that. But now let's take a look at this really great transaction email that I received from vog. After I bought a pair of shoes from them. I wanted to show you this one to give you a sense of how much you could do with a good transaction email. Yes.
It's confirming a purchase order I made. And it's also revealing the secret knowledge that I have size 9.5 shoes, but it's also doing a wonderful job of showcasing the company's personality from the John flew. Vog thinks you're awesome. Header to all of the different options of actions I can take while I wait for my shoes to arrive.
Uh, it suggests that I can check up the FAQ's of the company to learn more about the business and how they run, or I could click on the link to see John flew bogs, beautiful vintage car. And it also gives me a link where I could even submit my own design for a future flu bug shoe. It's a really great way to encourage the customer to learn more about the company, engage with them even to the point of possibly designing shoes for them and to love the company more.
Flu bug is a really great example of a retail company that goes above and beyond to create a relationship and to convey a really clear sense of personality to the people who buy their products. And, uh, that's the reason why I love them so much. And then finally, here's another kind of transaction email from the lovely Dana Corey.
This is the email she sends out to people after they sign up for the free report, she offers called five things. People will pay money for it, reiterate everything. People will learn by reading the report and then gives them a link where they can download it. It's a very easy way to increase the number of people who download her report.
Right. So those are the three types of emails you should be sending relationship emails, sales, emails, and transaction emails. How well are you using them? Let's find out. Your next steps are to look at some of the emails that you've sent out recently and identify ways to make them more effective. And that's exactly what activity two is going to get you to do.
And if you haven't already started sending out emails or you've never even thought about it, I encourage you to do this activity anyways, because it's going to give you a lot of great ideas. And help you start to plan out your whole email marketing campaign in your head so that when the time comes to start sending emails, you already have a pretty good idea of what you want to be sending when and why.
So have lots of fun with it because small tweaks in your email marketing can yield really big results. That's it for now. And I will see you next time.