We’ve got another great episode on The Stephanie Kase Podcast for you today! We’re chatting about all of the things no one really talks about when it comes to email marketing. This is just the start of this conversation – and if you’re interested in learning more about how to go from your email marketing to making income, check out my newest course: Inbox to Income. I’m beyond excited to have this out in the world and be able to share more about email marketing with you! Now, back to the episode. I recently posted on my Instagram stories and asked for you all to send in questions about what you wanted to know about email marketing. Today, I’ll be answering those questions about email marketing tips!

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

#1: What’s your strategy for serving vs. selling when it comes to email marketing? 

There’s honestly SO much to unpack here regarding a strategy, but I’ll try to explain my thoughts. Now, obviously these things all depend on the type of business that you have. But, for most business owners, I recommend a weekly newsletter. This is definitely a nurture email – something that’s giving free value, helping to serve them, even pointing out where they can find other free content. 

Beyond that, I recommend having a live launch campaign every quarter. Now, this will vary depending on the business. So maybe it’s opening your service spots, a new product, or holiday sale. I recommend that because it keeps you top of mind and helps to drive urgency for your products. Just sprinkling in one sales email randomly won’t help you sell your mid to high ticket items. Of course, within your nurture emails, you might be able to add your affiliate links, low ticket offers, and other passive income items for you. We’ve done that before and we do see sales. I try to point out we have something available to help with whatever we’re talking about in our email. 

#2: How do you create valuable content on top of other social media content? 

Sometimes it feels like there’s SO much content to create. So, I know that you go to write an email and feel tired or aren’t sure what to write. But I will say that we prioritize email in our content creation. If i had to choose between sending an email or creating an Instagram post, I’d send emails. Remember, an email is meant to sell. Social media is meant to connect. 

So, when you start working on your email list, think about a theme to your list. We send out two types of emails – one on Monday that’s very copy heavy, related to a topic, whether it’s on my heart or an education post. These emails are very specific about whatever launch we have coming up or valuable education we want to offer. On Thursday, our emails are a content round up. We use our graphic templates to make them very visual and fun to read. It highlights our YouTube content, podcast episodes, and whatever else we’ve shared. 

Some other ideas for your email marketing are to make your newsletter exclusive – share more things about behind the scenes or something that’s raw and juicy on your heart that they won’t get on social media. Content roundups are always a good idea – you can also just share what’s live on your blog or platforms that week. Share a thumbnail and a few things they might learn. You can also consider re-sharing something from Instagram. Maybe a Reel that took off or a post, and then elaborate on the post in your email, too. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Work smarter, not harder! Hopefully that gives you some ideas to get started with! 

#3: Should I restrict my new subscribers to a welcome sequence? I want them to see my new stuff, too! 

Oh, I totally get this one! When we add people to our email list, we have a 2 day welcome campaign. It’s not super long. I don’t think it needs to be complicated either. Now, some of our freebies do have a 5 day email funnel – because those are really intentional and walking through a series of emails. When they’re in those sequences, our subscribers are excluded from the Monday and Thursday emails, just so it’s not too many emails. But as soon as that week is up, they’re on the live schedule. We’ve also built a super long nurture sequence that we can turn on when we’re not doing anything with a live launch. That makes our Monday emails automated, and we create the Thursday emails live. So, I think that’s a strategy to consider. 

If you have a longer nurture email sequence going, I would encourage you to check the bottom of your emails to drive people to your social media or other platforms where live content is going out, too. So, I hope that helps! If your welcome sequence is short, then I wouldn’t sweat them not being on your live list for a few days. 

#4: How do you come up with enough content to write weekly emails? 

I feel like this piggybacks off the second question I answered! But, I would go back to thinking about how you make your newsletter. Have a typical format and theme – like the roundup, or an exclusive. Also look at what your audience is asking of you, so you can consider writing emails on those topics, too. Remember, if you’ve got a live launch too, you’re going to have a series of emails for that – and before you know it, the quarter is getting filled up! Those weekly emails are going to help you prime your audience for that launch, so they’re more likely to be involved and purchase when you launch. 

#5: How do you actually automate sales and create funnels?

Yes! People don’t talk enough about this. Let me share an example of our Instagram Reels Mini Course. This funnel has converted really well for us. At the top of the funnel, the freebie that triggers the funnel is our on demand webinar of our Reels class (which is one of the freebies that leads people to our course). At the end of the class, we do pitch the Reels course. That does drive a lot of sales for us. But, if someone watches and decides not to buy, they’re put into a 5 day funnel about the Reels course. It ultimately pitches them the course with a discount again. Day one, I’m nurturing and giving away free value. Same thing for day two.  Day three I nurture and hint that I have something to pitch. On day four, I’m nurturing again but begin to pitch halfway through the email and then day 5, there are two pitches in the email. That’s a quick overview of a funnel we have. 

Whether or not they buy, they get put onto our email list.  If they do buy, they’ll also get a few day-long sequences that walk them through the course to encourage them to complete it. We also ask for feedback and help them decide on their next step with us! I hope that these help you understand how I’m automating some of our sales through email. I answer more of these questions inside Inbox to Income, too. We do a real deep dive into more automation and sales techniques here! 

#6: Tips to help the pressure of providing value when you sell a physical product

I can totally see how this is stressful. So much of the advice out there is about nurturing and providing free value, but it can feel different when you’re providing a physical product. I think, in the end, the way you give value is just different than other businesses… but it still matters. I talk about this a lot in Inbox to Income, but think about ways to showcase what you do. For example, I follow a boutique and they email out styling tips for the clothing pieces they sell on their site. 

Nurturing your email list with physical products is also going to look different, too. You’ll also probably lean more into the launches more than a service based business. Offering different sales might be helpful too, if you’re a shop that is selling products very often, that might be beneficial for you. Another example is the email list for Rifle Paper Company. Not all of their emails are sales. But they showcase their products and inspiration for them. They obviously point you to the product but it’s not all salesy. Again, just something to think about! 

#7: Can you share step-by-step how to set up your email marketing?

There are so many things to consider when setting up your email marketing. The whole first module of Inbox to Income is going to talk about this, actually. We do a little crash course in setting up your email list and freebies. But, let’s talk about it briefly now. First things first, select your email marketing software. I’m a huge fan of Flodesk (get 50% off here!). The emails are beautiful and it’s super user-friendly. It’s a flat rate cost – and won’t increase with the number of subscribers that you get. 

Once you’ve picked out your marketing platform, set up you freebie. If you don’t have a website, you can even create a landing page through Flodesk. Then you can begin sharing your freebie and start showing up for your audience. 

#8: How do you get people to sign up for your email list? 

I hear this frustration a lot. People are worried no one is signing up or opting into their freebie. Let me give you some thoughts here. First, when it comes to freebie conversions, you’re looking for a 20-30% conversion rate. That means out of everyone that lands on your page, 20-30% of the actually opt in. If you’re not hitting that mark, then you need to change something about the freebie or sign up page. If you make adjustments and it’s still not converting well, then it might be time to ditch that freebie.  

To get people to that landing page, you need to talk about your freebie. A lot. Until you’re sick and tired of hearing about it… and talk some more! People need to see something 7 times before they convert or make a purchase. It may even be more now, since the online marketing world has become so busy. So, we personally include our freebies in our content. We share them on Instagram – posts and stories, YouTube, Pinterest, podcast, Reels… everything. Include a clear call to action for you freebies so you can lead people to them.  Remember, those freebies help you get people from your social media to your email list – where you can make sales. 

I hope that these email marketing tips were helpful for you! If you’re looking for more in-depth strategy and tips, make sure to check out Inbox to Income! I hope to see you there! Email marketing can change your business – and now’s the time to create a strong strategy. 

Join our waitlist for our 4 week live program coming in 2024: Visibility!! Scale your business reach & income – without paid ads. Inside this program, you can expect to gain clarity on & finalize YOUR monthly content calendar that makes sense for your business. This is my roadmap to deciding where to post online, how to turn traffic into sales, grow my traffic to my email list opt-ins, and having magnetic marketing for your business.