Marketing Happy Hour - BONUS! Q+A Panel: Email Marketing

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, Marketing Happy Hour listeners, and happy Tuesday. We are so excited to kick off our first bonus Q&A panel, where we'll dive into specific topics with experts in a bite-sized crash course format. First up, email marketing. Join us as we chat with Carson, Josie, and Maria, three incredible copywriters and email marketers with amazing tips to share. Grab a pen and paper or open your notes app and get ready to learn alongside us. Then check out the show notes to learn more about our panelists and connect with us at Marketing Happy Hour. Hi, everyone. I'm so excited to be here with all of you. We have Carson and Josie and Maria here today, some amazing email marketing experts that are just going to be here to share a crash course on all things email marketing with you.

Starting point is 00:00:56 But before we get into everything, this is Marketing Happy Hour, so we do just need to know your go-to happy hour drink. Um, my go-to happy hour drink is either a Rose or a French 75. Um, I don't really drink a lot of alcohol. So I actually recently did an interview with Drew Barrymore, which is absolutely insane to say. And she said that her go-to drink was a, um, spicy margarita mocktail, which I hadn't even thought of that before, but now it's been my go-to too. Cause it's good enough for Drew. It's good enough for me. Basically every bar I've been to, I'm like, they're going to say no and they can always make it. So that's my go-to lately. Yes. I love margaritas as well. But since I'm in Pittsburgh, my drink of choice is contingent on

Starting point is 00:01:41 the weather. So in the winter months, I love a good glass of red wine. And in the summer, I love a classic margarita on the rocks. It's delicious, refreshing, and it's my go-to. Oh my gosh. Love that. Yeah. Everything you guys said, I'm a huge fan of, but definitely the, the mocktail Marg. I have to try that. That's a great idea. Amazing. Well, as Erica introed and teed us up here, we are going to talk about email marketing, a little bit of copywriting in general too, because I know all of you guys kind of live in that world in general. So super excited to chat about that as well. But just really quick, want to talk about email funnels. I know that's a word that is shared around in the

Starting point is 00:02:22 world of marketing quite a bit. So whoever wants to chime in, can you just share your definition of what an email funnel is and how it's used? So the way that I see email funnels is you're trying to turn leads into customers. And the way that I kind of visualize it is it's almost like a waiting room. So you have all of your leads in this waiting room, which would be the top of your funnel. And the more you understand about them, the preferences that you get from questions you're asking, what they're clicking on, what they're engaging with,

Starting point is 00:02:53 you're better able to send them to a different room and kind of get them to go down the funnel a little bit more. So just kind of seeing that and thinking of it that way helps. I think it's helpful to kind of see that you have all these people in one big bucket and then based on how they're interacting with your brand, then you can send them into different rooms and feed them with the content that they'll find most valuable and ultimately turn from a lead into a customer and brand advocate. Yeah. The only other thing I would add to that and just for

Starting point is 00:03:26 like visual people who are visual and they're trying to visualize like an email funnel because i feel like when we say email funnel we're picturing like a literal funnel or we're thinking about that like pyramid situation where it's like top of pyramid to bottom or whatever it is but it's just kind of like a predetermined series of emails, right? So it's, you can have multiple funnels for different goals within your business. And it's just, you know, a series of emails and someone's going to opt in and that's, what's going to kick off that funnel. They're going to go through those emails and, um, your goal is going to ultimately be to turn them, you know, like you said, into a customer. Um, and then there's kind of like an end to that funnel sometimes too, or, you said, into a customer. And then there's kind of like an end to that funnel sometimes

Starting point is 00:04:05 too, or, you know, you can send them to different places within your business, which is pretty cool. And then with that too, speaking to email content in general, or even just the content that you'd put together in a funnel, any tips for creating email content itself that nurtures those leads, kind of serves them, adds value, any ideas for the content or creative to implement in those emails themselves, whether you're launching a product, launching a brand, teasing a new brand that's coming out, or just hyping up brands or products that are already existing in the marketplace? I think for me, when it comes to any type of content, from a creative standpoint, I just try to think what do I like to look at? Especially it's helpful if I'm creating for a brand where I'm kind of in what the target demographic would be. But I think sometimes it's really

Starting point is 00:04:59 helpful to look at it from like, what do I want in my inbox? What do I not want in my inbox? What do I want to look at? What would I appreciate? Asking people who you know who might be the correct target audience, kind of these same questions. I think a lot of times on teams I've worked on, people are creating. And it's not that what they're creating is not great, but it almost feels like they're creating on autopilot instead of really thinking about, you know, if I was the consumer, would I want to get this email in my inbox or would it just kind of be an annoyance? And I don't know if I think for anything, social, email, any kind of copywriting, it's really about what would someone want to see. Agreed.

Starting point is 00:05:34 And I kind of see email marketing almost in the same vein as social media marketing in that whenever, you know, a brand posts, you don't want to be sold to in every single post that they share. And I think the same is, you know, can be said for email marketing as well. You don't want to be sold and, you know, it's always about the brand, you know? So I think, you know, being educational and intentional and what kind of content you're sharing, I think that helps build the trust and credibility. So when the time does come for you to ask them to do something or make a purchase or kind of buy into what you're selling, they'll be more apt to do that because they feel like you've taken the time as the brand

Starting point is 00:06:12 to build that connection with them. I couldn't agree more. Awesome, awesome. Well, I know that, Kirsten, you have a lot of insight for our next question here. So I kind of want to direct it at you if that's all right. Could you just share your favorite email copywriting tip for crafting compelling subject lines and body copy, and then anyone else can jump in after you. Oh man. Okay. I'll try to keep this

Starting point is 00:06:36 really short. So I think first and foremost, what I see a lot of times in the industry, it's kind of like, if I'm being honest, kind of a pet peeve of mine because I want people to like do the best that they can with their emails. And there was a study that went out recently. I think it was like, oh gosh, I'm just going to like give like a roundabout number. But I think it's like, you know, 60% of people will open your email because of who you are and 40% because of the subject line. But that's not to say that subject lines don't matter.

Starting point is 00:07:05 So a pet peeve of mine and a best practice is I often see when I'm looking at email on my phone, subject line runoff. So the subject line is so long that it runs off the screen of the phone and people are more likely to pass those subject lines off. So best practice for a subject line length there is around seven words, right? So always test your subject lines and use your phone.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Make sure it fits in a phone screen to really grab your reader's attention. And then I always like to open a story loop, right? So a really good way to do this is like thinking about your email. What is the middle of the story in your email? It is even if you're not telling a story, like what is like kind of that middle point in your email? And can you like pull that out and use it as your subject line um results so if like you're mentioning a result in an email you can use like so and so did this you know or ask a question and your email

Starting point is 00:07:57 kind of answers the question there but the important thing is you always want to keep the subject line related to the body of the email you You don't want to be using anything click baby. I love that. And I actually, to build off your point, I use a tool. It's a free tool from OmniSend where, you know, I'll kind of test my subject lines and it gives, you know, how many characters it is, how many words it is, what it'll look like, you know, on a desktop or mobile phone. So that can help with that runoff issue to make sure that you keep things kind of concise and to the point. Yeah, that's a really good point. OmniSigned and CoSchedule also does that as well. Thanks for mentioning that. Thank you guys for those tips. And I just want to go move forward into list building. So I know that's always a big question in the world of marketing. How do we get people onto our list in order to engage them there?

Starting point is 00:08:46 So just any tips around that specifically, and then any mistakes that you see brands make, clients make in looking to build their list as well? Just asking people to join your list, I think, is something I see people do a lot. They're like, join my email list, join my newsletter, when really what you want to be doing is asking or telling them what kind of value your email list provides and making that the main point. And then the other last thing I'll say is people forgetting to promote their email list. So, you know, people mention it once, they mentioned their freebie once, and they're just not talking about it consistently. That's a great point. And I think a mistake that that you know i notice is um whenever brands ask too

Starting point is 00:09:29 many questions right out of the gate because i think that you know friction creates frustration and so whenever you know a consumer feels like a brand just like sucking their time by having to fill out like forms and forms and forms of questions just to get, you know, admitted into the subscriber list kind of turns them off. So I think like trying to figure out what is the absolute most important information you need to start and then kind of find ways down the line to maybe ask additional questions to help kind of build their experience to be a little bit more catered to what they want.

Starting point is 00:10:04 But yeah, I think don't ask too much right out of the gate. I'm going to build off of what Carson said. I recently built for my small business. We were building up our email list. And yeah, we weren't just asking, hey, join our email list. We were saying, hey, if you want to see new products before anyone else, that's going to be an email list exclusive. Or if you're looking for discount codes or updates, we're going to send those via email first. And especially when

Starting point is 00:10:29 we're promoting new products that people are excited for, we always let them know, hey, email is anyone who's on our email list is going to be first to be able to have an opportunity to shop or to know when something drops. And so that was really helpful for us as well. Just again, not just pushing join our email list for no reason, but kind of reminding them of what value it can be for them. Hey, if you're interested in this drop, the email list will know first. And I'm learning a lot from these ladies as well. So it's super great to be able to chat with them. But yeah, it's been fun to kind of to build that list and just to try to find new ways to, to push that value. Yeah. Thanks for that, Josie. I was just going to ask you about that, but you chimed in and spoke to that. Cause I remember watching you all launch that brand and just seeing those prompts of, if you want to get first look at XYZ, join our list. And so again, having something to offer, I think is, is so incredibly valuable. Any insight to you on KPIs, things that you all look for, data in sending out these emails, best practices and numbers to look for? I know there's some blurred space around that area, but any insight that you can share on that as well?

Starting point is 00:11:39 I mean, I think open rates are important for sure. Average open rates, I think the last time I checked was it's consistently growing, but it's around 20% is what I would consider. 20, 25% I would consider like a good or average open rate. So making sure your open rates are healthy, which can tell you a lot, right? It can tell you that you either need to clean your list because, you know, the people that you gathered are no longer opening, or maybe you need to do like a little survey of questions of like, hey, are you enjoying the content I'm sending out? Or, you know, just reconfigure your content. Click rates, that's important too. You know, making sure that you're optimizing your emails

Starting point is 00:12:19 for clicks, if that's your goal. Looking at spam complaints, that's a pretty big deal. And then unsubscribes. Unsubscribes aren't always a bad thing, right? It can be a good thing because you don't want people on your list who don't want to open your emails or maybe they've just outgrown your list in a season of life.

Starting point is 00:12:34 But if you're experiencing a lot of unsubscribes, that could tell you a lot about the content you're sending to. And I just want to ask really quick, going back to copywriting, what is one way that somebody out there who maybe has like writer's block or can't really, you know, get into that creative mindset? What's a way that they can tap into maybe, you know, questions that their audience is already asking in order to build out those copywriting points? What's something that you typically do in that area something that I always do is it's a free way to do it is I jump on to social media a lot of the

Starting point is 00:13:12 times LinkedIn and Instagram as well Twitter you know the main profiles but what I do is I just use the native search function and I'll just put a keyword in there and I'll see you know what are the top posts what you know perform well what got conversations started, you know, what are people talking about? And then from there, I kind of think, you know, can I somehow weave this into my brand and how can I talk about this in a way that makes sense and doesn't feel forced? So I think that's a, personally, that's just a starting point for me to kind of get the juices flowing to see what other people are talking about. Yeah. I think for me, once I get those topics picked out, once I've already, you know, done everything that Maria just spoke about, once I get those topics

Starting point is 00:13:52 picked out, I'll kind of put them all on a sheet and start writing at least just like little bullet points or especially when, you know, we talked about writer's block because sometimes, you know, when we were launching a product, you're kind of sending out multiple emails about the same product. So at some point you feel like, okay, I'm just saying the same thing over and over again. If you've been doing a lot of writing that day, especially, so I'll write out kind of like, okay, here's kind of the subject or what I want this email to be about based on those topics I found. And then, you know, I'll build out little by little what that's going to look like to make them as unique as possible. So each email is kind of not just repetitive and annoying, but is serving some kind of purpose, sharing new information. And so I think

Starting point is 00:14:29 that can be really helpful, at least for me. Awesome. Well, this has been so great. I feel like we've covered so much. And there's just so much even more that we could cover. So we'll have to do this again. But thank you for coming on bearing with us this is our first time hosting one of these panel crash course things and this has been awesome um i do want to close with just like your number one tip even if somebody didn't listen to this only like 10 minute episode what's something that they can take away that is like actionable and something that they can act on right away i would say just send the email so if like you're thinking if you're dabbling in email marketing, and you're scared, a lot of people have like email sending stage fright, like what

Starting point is 00:15:09 if something goes wrong? What if there's a typo? What if I forget a link? You are you you just are like if you send emails long enough, like even the pros even big brands do it. So don't let that hold you back, like draft up your first email and just show up in people's inbox, they're gonna love it. I think I'm gonna branch off of that. As I already mentioned, you know, we have a small business. We're kind of learning how to implement email marketing for ourselves. And I think it's totally that I know my business partner and I totally get scared all the time. And we need to

Starting point is 00:15:37 just remember to do it more. I think the whole world is, you know, really caught up in social and all these different social platforms, but kind of based on, you know, what Carson and Maria said that email marketing is kind of similar to social. There's definitely some overlap there and finding ways to just continue to stay in touch in a way that feels organic and is providing some kind of service and value to people and just making sure you're keeping it top of mind. Because I think at least for me, email marketing can sometimes fall to the wayside because you do get that stage fright. So sending it and keeping it top of mind, making out a little calendar each week to

Starting point is 00:16:11 just send something that will build value. Yes. And something that I always remember, whether it's with email, copywriting, a blog post or social media is that I think that the average attention span of the average person is like eight seconds now. So keeping that in the back of your mind to not get too wordy and kind of take them on like a scavenger hunt to figure out what the main topic of your piece of content is, is a good way to go about it. So just really staying focused on, you know, one message point, getting to it quickly and kind of short and sweet is, is a good

Starting point is 00:16:45 way to kind of get started at least and get those creative juices flowing. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you three so much. I took a bunch of notes. I'm learning from the three of you and just love following everything you three are doing in your life and careers. So with that too, if you don't mind share, um, where everyone can follow you or the brands

Starting point is 00:17:04 that you're building, both of them, uh, anything you want to share where people everyone can follow you or the brands that you're building, both of them, anything you want to share where people can connect with you, let us know as well. You can follow me, Carson, on Instagram at Carson Murray. So it's actually Carson with a K. So I know that can be confusing, but it's K-A-R-S-E-N. And I'm sure it'll be in the show notes. But yeah, that's the best place to like meet up with me. Link in bio. You can join my email list. You can get some inspo.

Starting point is 00:17:29 Please do. Like even if you just join my list to get some inspo, please feel free. Awesome. And you can find me on LinkedIn. My name is Maria Marhefka. That's a mouthful of a last name. So if you want to look for the spelling, as Carson said, I'm sure that'll be in this show next to make it a lot easier than trying to spell that on your own. And I am Josie Maida on all platforms.

Starting point is 00:17:52 You can find me there. And from there, you can see everything I work on from our podcast to our jewelry brand. Everything can kind of be found from any social platform. Josie Maida from LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok. Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us. This has really been awesome. Like Cassie said, I've been taking notes over here too, and I'm just so excited for everyone to listen to this. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us. We are so excited to share that our first ever free marketing happy hour digital resource is now available. Download the dream career game plan today at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash

Starting point is 00:18:37 freebie. That's marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. This five-step workbook will guide you through defining your goals, building your network, diversifying your skills, influencing where you're at and investing in your growth. Cassie and I created this resource with marketing careers in mind, but the framework can be applied to any industry. Our hope is that this workbook will help you truly elevate your career, whether you're in the market for a new position or just looking to make your mark in your current organization. No matter where this resource finds you, we are cheering you on every step of the way. So go check it out at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie to download and make your career dreams come true.

Marketing Happy Hour - BONUS! Q+A Panel: Email Marketing

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