The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 47. Email Marketing with Allea Grummert

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Do you use email marketing along with your blog? Today on the podcast we have Allea Grummert talking about one of our favorite blogging subjects - email marketing. Allea is an email marketing strategist and she is here to bring all of the tips and share so much insight into email marketing and how you can use it with your blog. Tune in to hear more!Check out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out The Blog Depot. This is a community and course that we have set up for you if you need questions answered before you start your blog. Join the waitlist for The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, our online course and coaching that helps you build the blog that you have always dreamed of.SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode47

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Today, we are going to be talking about one of my favorite blogging subjects, and that is email marketing. And I'm so looking forward to learning more about this from our guest today, Allie Grummer. She is an email marketing strategist, and she has a company called Duet. So welcome, Allie. Hello. Thanks for having me. We are super excited. Thank you. Let's start out. Why don't you just tell our listeners a little bit about yourself,

about what you do, and kind of how you got into this pretty specialized niche, I would say, in terms of helping people. Yeah. So like you said, my name is Allie Gerbert. I'm an email marketing strategist and conversion copywriter. And I work one-on-one with clients to set up welcome and nurture sequences. So automated emails that introduce you to your blog readers and send traffic back to your site and help optimize conversions for sales and site traffic and brand loyalty, all that good stuff that you can do with email while you sleep, if you will. So I actually got started, oh gosh, I got started with a personal finance blog called

Ask Allie back in May of 2016 because what else does someone do on Memorial Day if they don't have a boat? They start a blog. That's what I did. So yeah, I started that blog and I ran it for like a year and a half. And I joked that it was my digital playground, my degrees in advertising and PR. And so, you know, and we learned a lot of like the traditional marketing, right? Like, like I remember designing print ads at one point in college and I'm not that old. I'm only 33. And so, but like Twitter came out when I point in college. And I'm not that old. I'm only 33. But Twitter came out when I was in college. And so starting a blog was like this whole other space. So I attended webinars on Wednesday nights and I would listen to podcasts on taxes as a self-employed person while meal

prepping dinner. And my roommates were like, you don't even have a business. You have a full-time job. And I was like, I don't know. I might need this someday. Little did I know, in 2018, I went part-time at my full-time job, started Duet later that year. So it's been over four years. So I got into email though, because it was one of those things that other people came to me with questions about quite a bit. Just kind of became clear that this is something that's easy for me and not easy for everyone else. And I'm an absolute nerd about email marketing. My boyfriend's sister was just asking me about it last night and she was like, so you love it? I was like, oh my gosh, I love it. I could talk about this so much more. And so I'm trying to reel it in because she is a nurse. She's like,

I don't even sit at a computer. And I was like, well, I sit in front of Google Docs and Google Sheets and do audience research and all sorts of fun stuff. And yeah, email marketing is a lot. It can be very complex, but I'm excited to talk today about just getting started and why it's important to begin with. I love that spirit of always wanting to learn new things. That's how I feel too. But I think I go in too many directions. So I love that you found the one thing that you love and you've gone like really deep into that. And, you know, I can relate. I think it is really exciting. I can just hear the excitement in your voice to talk about this. So I think one thing that might be helpful to explain to our listeners who are generally like thinking about starting a blog

or are new, are newer to blogging. So like what is email marketing? What does that mean? And is this something they should be thinking about from day one when they're thinking of starting a blog? Yeah. So I would think about email marketing similar to any like social media platform in a sense. Like you can build an audience on Instagram. You can build an audience on TikTok. The cool thing about email marketing though, is that if the gods behind those apps change the algorithm, you're out of luck. All of a sudden you can't talk to your audience. Your posts aren't showing up anymore because now they want video and it just gets really hard to reach your audience. Whereas email marketing, how often have you changed your personal email? I mean, like since you were in

junior high, I mean, I think I had like four because I was like, I want to try it again, more hotmail for everyone. But for the most part, people aren't changing their personal email addresses. So it's really easy to continue to stay in touch with your audience. And if you, even if you needed to switch like your actual marketing platform, how you're reaching them, you can literally just export a list of email addresses, move it somewhere else and upload it. And you can still reach your people. So email marketing is very sustainable. It's similar to like building your website and building up your like SEO and having really good content. It's kind of up there with those things. Like if you can do these three things really well, like I guess SEO and having good content kind of go hand in hand, but also

like email marketing. If that's the only way you could reach the people who wanted to hear about your content, it would be really reliable. You just go into your email platform and hit send and it will land in their inboxes, which you can't really do that with every other platform. That's not saying you don't care about social media. It's just that you don't want to rely or put all your eggs in that basket when you're not actually the one who like quote unquote owns that list of people. I have never thought about that, that we don't change our email addresses. Like that has literally never occurred to me, but that is a hundred percent true. Like we don't change our email addresses. We change what platforms we might go on,

you know, like there's a lot of people jumping from Instagram to TikTok now, except for me. Except for me too. Yeah. And so, you know, like they change where they spend their time there. But my email address is the same as it's been since I got married 17 years ago. Like, I mean, pretty sure anyway, because it's still a Yahoo. And I don't even know how many people still use Yahoo, but I do. Yahoo. And I don't even know how many people still use Yahoo, but I do. That's so interesting. I think that's a really valid point to make. We often say, especially to our students, that you own that list. And you just said that too. You own your email list. You don't own your social media followers. And so you have no control over what happens to that audience or that platform.

And we are very aligned in what you just said too, that we're not telling anybody that that's not important. We're not telling anybody not to be on a social media platform, but we are telling you that, you know, worry about your bread and butter first, which is your blog and your, I guess I should have said, worry about your meat and potatoes first. That would have made more sense. So your blog and email would be like your meat and potatoes. And then your social media and things like that, that would be like the dessert or the icing on the cake or whatever. Think about what's going to be sustainable. And I think that's what we're trying to do here on the podcast and also in our courses is build that sustainability and that longevity. Because if people have decided

to do this as a business, then we have to teach them how to create businesses that can withstand changing algorithms and just honestly, the distractions of the world and how things change. How do we stay relevant and how do we stay in front of our target audience? And I think that email marketing is a really great way to do that. Yeah. And like Jennifer had asked too, when is this a good time for people to actually start? It's like day one. I have clients who've been blogging for 15 years. They're quote unquote blogging dinosaurs. That's what they call themselves. They've been around the game for a long time. And this one client is launching her second cookbook. And people are like, and it's so fun because launching it to her list requires like no gimmicks. Her people just love her because she shows up and

she's authentic and she shares like recipes that they trust and they like her as a person. And so it's also just proven too that like email marketing is a better way to sell stuff. You can send reminders, you can send timely reminders. If you post anything on Instagram, you cannot guarantee someone will see it by a certain time. Right. Right? And so it's that simple. But I think that there's a fear perhaps that people have, or you might have this question. You're like, where do I get these email addresses? Where do I even get them? And I think if you don't go that far back into business internet era,

And I think if you don't go that far back into business internet era, you buy lists and people still do it. And it's not suggested. Wouldn't do it where you buy a list serve. I'm using quotes because I feel like I just popped into the 90s by saying that for my e-blast. But when you set up even just a simple form on your site, and by a form, we can talk more about what platforms this looks like. What it does is it allows people to give you permission to email them.

So there's a whole book, I think it's Seth Godin on permission-based marketing. It's this idea that if you give people good things, they are going to be okay with you emailing them about more good things, even if it means you're selling stuff too. So like Gina, the client I was talking about with the new cookbook, she has one opt-in on her site and it's like a plant-based starter kit. And it's just, that's all it is. And she's had that same opt-in for who knows how many years, but her readers really love her. And people are like, that would be helpful to me. So that's why they sign up. And that's how she has a list of thousands of people. That's amazing. And providing like that, that value is just a way you can do that so directly with the people rather than like in social media sometimes feels a little more impersonal.

I know when I send out certain emails, I, it feels so good because I'll have people email me back as almost like as if I had emailed just them. Right. And they email me back like, oh, I like this. Or here's my question. Or how do I get this on the table for dinner tonight? It just feels so personal to me when I'm emailing with my readers. It does.

I have a client that when we, and this goes to show to the relationship she had with her list before we worked together. But when we had launched her welcome and nurture sequence, like she announced it to her list, like this is coming. We turned it on. She literally got hundreds of replies from her readers, hundreds. And like, it's so fun because her mom grew up in Italy. So we're sharing pictures of like her childhood and like, that's the kind of stuff that like really draws you to someone. So, and that's, that's automations. That's different. You know, you know, if you're just getting started with email marketing, it just looks like letting people know you have a new recipe or you even have a new blog post. Yeah. It doesn't have to be all that complicated.

Yeah. Email marketing is an essential piece of blogging. Growing your email list is just as important as SEO and keyword research in our opinion. And in order to grow your list, you need a reliable platform that will allow you to connect with your community and turn them into email subscribers. That's where ConvertKit comes in. ConvertKit is the go-to marketing hub for creators like you that helps you grow and monetize your audience with ease. ConvertKit allows you to grow your audience and reach, put your funnels on autopilot

and earn an income with your email list, all with an easy to use platform that is approachable, even for beginners. Click the link in our show notes to learn more about the different plans that ConvertKit has and how it can help you propel your business to the next level. So let's kind of like break it down step by step. I think that'll be helpful for a lot of the new bloggers who are listening. So you start out by needing a platform or an email service. So what are the email service platforms that you recommend that a blogger would use in order to have email marketing software on their site? Yeah. So there are a few things you want to look for.

So I'll explain that and then I can kind of drop some names of things that if I just say them, you'll be like, what is that? But you want a platform that makes it easy for you to send one to many, which is like every email service platform. You write one email and it goes out. You need a platform that'll allow you to collect email addresses. So store them all in one place. Everyone who's giving you permission to email them, you need a way to get those emails. So some sort of forms. So if you've ever been scrolling on a site, like I'm trying to even think of one. I mean, you've probably been on a food blogging

site. You see like sign up here to get the ebook or sign up here to get newsletter updates. That's all it is. There are forms you can embed on your site. There are forms you can connect on the backend. Doesn't really matter as long as there's a way for someone to say, this is my email address. You have my permission to email me. So there are different platforms that do that. to email me. So there are different platforms that do that. My favorite is called ConvertKit. So I like it because it's really quick and easy to use and flip between stuff. I don't have the patience for pages to load. I will admit that. I don't know if that's a fault of mine or just ConvertKit is made for people like me. It's my attention span is like, on the land today. So another platform though is MailerLite. So not to be

confused with MailChimp, but MailerLite is very similar in ConvertKit as far as how they're built out. And what I like about these two platforms versus something like MailChimp is that it's really easy to like keep track of your subscribers and like where they came in from, what they've clicked on. You can add tags and different ways to organize your list. And you can have multiple forms. Like if you want a landing page that gives away this, or if you want to pop up on your site that gives away this, like you can do that. Whereas MailChimp is really limited to one form. And that's not great for long-term growth. So it might be fine for a little while, but eventually you'll want something that'll give

you a little bit more options as far as how you can incentivize people to join your email list. Yeah. And we were talking like before we started recording and you were showing us just some features that Amy and I hadn't seen before in ConvertKit, even though we use ConvertKit. So I know these tools are so powerful and somebody who's just getting started setting this up might feel a little bit overwhelmed with like all the possibilities. What are the things that you would tell them to do? Like when they very first start their blog, like what, like one or two or three things should they do right off

the bat, you know, and to kind of tune out the noise and just focus on what's really important. Yeah. So first things first would be to get a form on your site that says, that, you know, and to kind of tune out the noise and just focus on what's really important. Yeah. So first things first would be to get a form on your site that says, you know, share your email address and I'll let you know when I have a new recipe or new blog post. Like keep it as simple as possible. You don't have to promise them every week. You don't have to promise them every month. Just get the email address. That would be the first one. The second one would be to create a really simple branded template, if you will. So an email template that might have your logo at the top, or it just looks kind of like your blog. So that way you kind of feel more comfortable even writing a note

to your readers because you're like, they're going to know it's me because they recognize this, right? They recognize my branding and my name. That's the hope. And the third thing, this is super old school, would be an RSS feed. Basically, this is split into two options. Three, option A is an RSS feed where you can connect it to your actual blog. So when you publish a blog post, it'll send an email out for you automatically, which is pretty stinking awesome, especially when you're getting started. You're learning about photography. You're learning about SEO. You're learning about metadata. And I guess that's SEO. Can you tell I don't do it? And so you're worrying about creating good content. And so an RSS feed will send your emails for you. The other option is just to make

it part of your weekly or biweekly goals is to write an email and send it to your list. Now you also might be wondering, Allie, when does it make sense to actually send an email to my list? I have 12 people, right? We've been there. I think I started with 45. I was like, oh, wait until we get a little closer to 50 before I start emailing people. But really at any point, you can start sending out your content. Now what this does is it A, gets you less shy about the wonderful stuff you just created. Go share that dang stuff. They signed up. They want the information. They don't care that you're new. They don't care that your list is teensy weensy. They just want the recipe, right? And you're making their lives easier

or taste better or something like that. Yeah. I would say just start emailing your list as soon as you can. I think you said something really important there is that we all started somewhere. So while you want to grow your email list, hopefully to thousands of people, because those email subscribers, the point of having them on there is to connect with you, to potentially purchase from you if you have a product or something. They are your first line of customers, essentially. So just know that whether you have 5 people on your list, 5,000 or 5 million or however, they're all important. They really are.

And so I think that was great advice to show up to those first 5 people and connect with them because you have no idea the impact that you're making on their lives. And I genuinely believe that a lot of blogging is a word of mouth too. If they're like, well, I heard, so for instance, a friend of mine, we were out to dinner last week and she was talking about somebody that she follows or whatever. And she sent it to me. This is the blogger I was talking about. and she sent it to me. This is the blogger I was talking about. I go, I connect with that blogger.

I mean, that helps people. So those five people think if they each told a friend, you're up to 10. If they told a friend, it has this capacity to grow, but you have to have a way to capture them and to keep them there. So do make sure that you're nurturing your list, no matter how big or small it is. It's important to stay in their inbox and for consistency. So I think that that's really great advice that you said that. I've heard multiple times in my blogging career, like when we sit down to write a post, write a post as if you're writing to a million people who are already reading it. Put that, almost manifest that, that that's what we're doing. And in the beginning, we all started that way. We all started, you know, by writing a post and like, I'm wondering if you're going to see this. It took me like a glass of red wine and dark chocolate, chocolate chips. And like,

I had to put a fan on me. I was so, I was like, this is so stressful. Like I was writing about budgeting and you're like, you know, it's vulnerable to put it out there. And if it's stressful to think that you're writing to hundreds of thousands of people, write to one person. Who's the one person you want to help? Like for me, Ask Allie came from sitting across the table. This is my personal finance blog, sitting across the table from a friend of mine. And we started talking about student loans and her entire body tensed up. She was like, and I was like, girl, you're going to have to be talking. Like you need to figure out money because you need to know it for the rest of your life. Like, I can't have you be afraid of this.

Like you are cult educated. You got this, like, but you can't be afraid of it. So that's who I wrote for are the people who are like, you know, not really sure what to do when I get money. So, so with emailing your list regularly, and I will say this, even when I had my personal finance blog, if that was twice a month, it does not have to be daily. You don't even have to do it weekly. Just like be consistent in some way because it really keeps you accountable for sharing your message and getting practice doing that. It connects you with your audience regularly. They're going to see your name in their inbox and hopefully remember you, but also it's getting traffic back to your site and the brand new

content you just created that you're super excited about. And you can ask those readers in the email, hey, if this would be helpful to someone you know, feel free to forward it along. Like people would love to be able to do that. If it's a recipe that they love or a blog post, it's super helpful. And it doesn't have to be like viral TikTok shareable. It just has to be helpful and valuable in some way or creative that would be inspiring to someone that someone would be like, oh yeah, I'll forward this to my friend. Sometimes we just have to tell them kind of what to do. Exactly. I mean, I don't mean that in like a rude way, but like, I think it's, they might not have ever had that thought like, Oh, I should just forward this to a friend, like who I feel like could really benefit from that. Like, why

wouldn't I do that? Same thing goes with like a cookbook launch. It's like, Oh yeah, we need to ask them to leave a review. Same. Or our podcast. So if you're listening to this podcast episode and you're enjoying it, please leave a review. It really helps us be found by more people just like you. It benefits everyone. Yep. It truly does though. But you do have to ask. And I think that it's being a little shameless in that like, hey, I have a lot of goodness that I want to share with the world. And you're here for a reason. And you're on my blog for a reason or whatever, or you're opening my email for a reason. Like, how can I reach more people just like you who have the same pain points who have, who need the same solutions and stuff that I'm offering? Like it's likely that they know someone

similar to them who are having the same kinds of, I don't want to say issues, but struggles or whatever that, that they need that content. So why not very kindly ask them to just share the wealth? Yeah, absolutely. So even when you are emailing your list at this stage and you don't have anything to sell, it's still worth emailing your list. I think that you'll see a ton of stuff, especially when you get started with blogging. They're like, sell this, do a launch of this, yada, yada. Like what you're selling is valuable content and brand loyalty. And it's free. And it's free. It's free. And with time, you might create a product, right? But you're also gaining revenue from other places, right? From ad revenue.

You could always turn around and create like a $5 product. Like you get more money from that than you get like an Amazon affiliate, you know? So there are a lot of different ways to monetize, but I just, I don't want you feeling like you have to wait until you have something to sell to start emailing your list. Because then that gets awkward. People are going to be like, who are you? I don't know. Well, not only who are you, but why are you popping in here only to sell me something? People want free content. Your email, by providing value to them, will make them a lot more susceptible to purchase when you decide to sell a product or sell a service or something like that. If you've given them so much free content that they're like, well, geez, if she gives this much away for free, I can only imagine

what a paid resource that she provides would actually offer. So say you were a blogger who hadn't emailed their list in quite some time and well, that blogger is me. What could you do to sort of make that reconnection? How do you get back in touch with them without making it super awkward? Do you pretend like you were never gone? Do you address the elephant in the room? How do you go about getting people re-engaged after you've been quiet for a period of time? Yeah, that is a great question. I feel like part of it on the back end, you have to have your intentions set out for what your email list is going to receive from you going forward. You don't want to pop in and be like, hey, guys, I'm back and then go

some again. So kind of make a commitment, I guess, what I mean by intention. Like what is it going to look like? What am I going to be sharing? Because then that's the information you can share with them. It's so funny because on social media, when people are like, sorry, I've been gone for a while. I'm like, Lindsay, I didn't even notice. Like it's not all about you.

But I think in this case with your email list, you can be like, hey guys, I just want to remind you of who I am, why you signed up for the list in the first place. And then this is what I'm going to be spending over the next few weeks. So I want you to be able to look forward to that. And then you can just include if you've realized that, or let's see, you could say, if you've realized that you don't want these, you can unsubscribe. Or you could even include links of like, if you forgot who I am, that's okay. I went dark. I had a kid or whatever. Like it was a pandemic, but I'm back and I'm creating awesome stuff. And I'm excited to share it with you. Feel free to go over to the blog and take a look around at the new content. So just,

instead of just being like, here goes back, let them know what it is you want to provide them with. Give them a reason to stay there and not hit unsubscribe. Yeah. I love that. And let's talk about the unsubscribe. Oh, good. I'm so glad. I was like, let's talk about unsubscribing. Yes. Yes. I think this is like the fear and the heart sinking feeling of all new bloggers when they send out an email and they see unsubscribe. So let's talk about like, what does that mean? And what should you do? And how should you, you know, go about processing the feelings that come along with those unsubscribes? It's amazing how I felt that in my whole body when you said it. Cause I go back to like, I don't look at them anymore. Guys, don't click on it and see who it was. Do not.

Oh my gosh. I know I do that. And you're like, we've been friends since college. Or like, it was really funny. One time I was an ex-boyfriend and I was like, okay, bye. It took you long enough. Like, and then I had the other response. I was like, oh, I forgot you were on my list. Yeah. So don't do that. That's not good for your heart. You know, I'll even tell you a story. So like in January, my unsubscribes were like way more than usual, which I'm going to say isn't very much, but at the same time, I'm in my personal inbox, cleaning house and unsubscribing, right? There's also like a seasonality to people just like cleaning house, starting over. And they don't necessarily know that if they're following you

on Instagram, they should probably also follow you on your email list. That's part of what I like to explain to people in a welcome sequence of like, here's what you're going to get on the email list that you won't get anywhere else. That's why you should stay here. So you don't know. People are like, oh, I follow her on Instagram. I can just remove this. You never know. But in general, unsubscribes are a good thing. I say that with trepidation because you're probably like, but what? That's unsubscribing. They are leaving. They have left the party. Well, if they didn't want to be at the party, you don't need to be paying for them to be on your email list, right? Yes. Because you have to pay for the people on

your email list. That's an important thing to say. As your subscriber list grows, so does the fee for the said platform. So ConvertKit and MailerLite, you have a feed based on... A range. Yeah. Like a range of subscribers. So if they're not... Okay. I'll let you do this. Yeah. So if they're not actively participating or if they're not interested in what you're sharing, that does a couple of things. One, it's a cost that you have to pay. Another is that when you send out that email, they are one person who's not opening it, which looks bad to the email delivery gods. I don't know what they're really cool.

Those people, like the machines that say whether or not your email should hit someone's inbox. If people are receiving your emails and not engaging with them, it's going to make you look bad to them and can make it harder for you to show up in inboxes in the future. People could be marking you as spam. You'd rather just have them not be on your list at all. That's also why it's really important to stay in connection with your list. So if you don't show up or people join your list, even as a new blogger and you're not emailing them for like six months since you started your blog, they're going to be like, who's this person and why are they emailing me? You don't want them to hit spam. So even if it's a simple blog post here or there to stay top of

mind and to let them know who you are, like that'll reduce the number of people that unsubscribe over time because they know who you are, but also avoid getting the spam filter. So you can see your list. So you know, you know, how many subscribers you have on it, how many subscribers have unsubscribed or whatever, but you can also go and look at your inactive subscribers. So let's say you've been blogging for two years and you go to your inactive list. Can you kind of dive into that a little bit and talk about if you should do anything with that inactive list and what that inactive list is telling you maybe as a blogger? Yeah. So, you know, your inactive list isn't going to

mean a lot if you're not emailing your list because they have nothing to interact with. Right. But if you are consistently emailing your list, those are people that like, they just, they aren't opening your emails or they're not clicking in them, which everyone kind of goes through a seasonality of life too. So it's not that they're bad people, but they signed up with good intentions in the first place, or you had a sweet freebie that they wanted. But yeah, they're called inactive in MailerLite. And then in ConvertKit, they're called cold subscribers. But what I would suggest you do is before you just remove them, give them an opportunity to engage with you. So I call that a re-engagement sequence.

It can be a sequence of just two emails that you send out just to those people and ask for their commitment in a way like, hey, do you still want these emails? If not, you can hit unsubscribe. Totally fine. You can always come back. I just don't want to be popping into your inbox if you're not interested or if now's not a good time. Basically anybody who clicks in those emails, like I always include a link or a button that's like, yes, keep me on your list. You know, anybody who clicks those, like they don't get the second email, they stay on the list. It's fine. The platform should consider them active now that they've clicked. Then everyone else, you unsubscribe them, which feels a little bit like heartbreak

because you're like, I worked so hard for those 40 people or 400 people or 4,000 people. I just cleared off almost 8,000 people from a list yesterday for a client. So their list is mega, right? That that's their cold subscribers who didn't engage. Bonkers. So yeah, part of it is you've worked really hard for them, but you also, that number affects a lot of other things. Like we said, the cost of the platform, the ability of things getting delivered properly to the people who do want it, because if the people aren't opening it, it's not going to get delivered properly across the board. And that affects like knowing what your actual open and click rates are because you've got a bunch of, you could call them dud email addresses in there. People who aren't engaging. So you would clear them off your list.

You can end up paying a little bit less and you should see your rates go up. Because that's also important too when you are, you know, if you're, whether you're sending out a blog post to kind of be able to know about how many people are going to click over. So let's say you're a new blogger, you're not on an ad network yet. You haven't reached the sessions or page views that you need to reach yet. So let's say, you know, that you need 50,000 sessions to get on said ad network. And when you send out an email, you know, that you get a percentage of subscribers that are going to click into that email based on the data that the email marketing software is going to provide you. So then you can kind of like reverse engineer back and ask yourself, okay, 50,000 sessions

in a 30-day period, how many blog posts do I need to write in order to hit the 50,000 sessions? I mean, that's one simple way of looking at it as you're getting closer to that 50,000 sessions as you're growing. But that is one way to kind of reverse engineer to make sure that you're providing the content to an email list that's warm and wants to engage with your content. Right. And there are more complex ways of strategizing this too. You can send a weekly digest of everything. You can send daily emails to other people. You can segment your list based on how often they want to hear from you.

There are lots of different ways to do that. But I mean, I used to, I was a blog reader before I was a blogger and this is, and this just, so it might just be my personal preference and approach, but you know, oh my gosh, how many tabs did I open on that DIY home website of just one gal in her living room floor remodel? I was like, oh my gosh, I need to know what rug she got and the light and the whatever. And I'm opening all the things. I kind of approach the emails that I send for my clients like in a similar way. So not like, oh, and here are 15,000 links, but it's like, here's a main recipe and here are things that go with it. So by providing that you're giving your

reader more of what they want, like right in front of them. And you're getting more of those page views because they're clicking through to more, a variety of pages, not just one either. So there are a lot of creative ways to get eyeballs back over to your page. Do you want to start a blog, but you aren't sure what to do first? Are you still wondering what you're going to write about and who your ideal reader is? Have you researched blog platforms only to be left with even more questions and have a no idea what platform to build your blog on? Guess what? We created the blog Depot just for you. The blog Depot is a nine module course that was designed for someone who thinks that they want to start a blog, but wants to build a solid

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foundation in the blog Depot. And let's just talk a minute about creating that kind of content. So you mentioned sending out like for a food blogger, an email that has a recipe and then like side dishes that go with it. I think the beauty in that is you're not actually having to create new content. You are using the content that you already have in different ways. So like, I think that the thought is like, Oh my gosh, I have to sit down and I have to add the email on. But they can actually use what they have to create a lot of different things. So what kinds of ideas do you have for them to repurpose what they have and send out content to their subscribers besides just feeling like they're having to sit down and write a

newsletter from scratch. Right. So one of the reasons why I suggest writing more emails in a month than just one is because it takes some of that burden off of you to make this into a mega newsletter. And then it puts more pressure on you for everyone else to open it and engage with it. Like, why didn't they engage with me? I emailed them one time. And it's like, well, if you email them four times, you give them four different opportunities to see your name in their inbox. And it gives you more opportunities to drop in content without you like having to quote unquote,

save it up for the one newsletter. I just always think back to fifth grade when we had Microsoft Publisher and I was on like the newsletter team. We got to make a newsletter for the whole elementary school featuring our new principal. And like, that's what I think of. I'm like, yeah, it's like an editor and writers

and all of this. Like you don't have to do that. It can look as simple like for a lot of my clients, it's like the name of the recipe, an image, a blurb and a button. And you link like three times, like the photo should be linked, the button should be linked,

but also somewhere in the blurb, but yeah, a text link as well. The goal is you're incentivizing them to click over to the site. You don't have to give away the whole farm in the email. Some people do. They'll send out like the entire recipe, like in the RSS feed even, like here's the whole recipe in the email. I don't think that's the best reader experience. I'm not going to save recipes in my inbox. That is where Eddie Bauer sends me a $10 coupon every three weeks. That's not a place for recipes. Recipes need to be saved as blog posts, as bookmarks on Pinterest, places like that that make it easy for me to search for and

find later. So as far as the actual email goes, I think the blurb should be something that's still benefits driven. Like here are one pot recipes that you can make without having to destroy your entire kitchen. Also, I made 50 of them. They're all right here. Click through to get them, right? That's much, that's going to tell them what they're getting out of it without it just being about the recipe itself.

And maybe it is about the recipe. Like you won't believe these flavors, or this is a really interesting like cookie flavor combination or something like that. Or maybe it's educational. What will they learn on that blog post? So I even do that with my list too. If my email that I write to my list is getting really long, I'll turn most of it into a blog post. I'll tease out what's on it and just link them over there because that's a better experience for your reader as well. User experience is really important, not just with your blog, like we've talked about multiple times, but also within your emails as well. Making sure that

you're staying valid in what you're offering them. It needs to stay within your niche or something that they know that you do, but also providing value. You've said that multiple times in this podcast episode. It's something that we talk about all the time is that being a blogger is being a helper and it's adding value to other people's lives. And so when we can think about it like that, and instead of sending out an email and being like, oh my gosh, I hope I'm not annoying these people. Like have confidence in yourself and know I'm providing value and I'm helping someone today. And when you can come at it with that mindset versus I'm annoying somebody by showing up in their inbox, you're not annoying them because

they joined your list. You didn't buy the list going back to the very beginning here. Like you, you offered them the opportunity. You invited them into the relationship by being on your email list at any given point they can leave and that's okay. And they should. So this is also an invitation for you that if you are on people's email list that you hate getting, please just unsubscribe. Unsubscribe. Well, and I'll tell you too, kind of back to the unsubscribes. There was a gal that I followed for like two years teaching about, oh gosh, business and all this. And I freaking adored her. I learned about, I learned how to write a sales pageored her. I learned how to write

a sales page from her. I learned all sorts of stuff. She was the one who was like, you don't need a website to start a business. And I was like, okay, Courtney, I believe you. And that's how I did it. I had a landing page for a website for a year. And then I just went and hustled and met people. Well, eventually I needed to unsubscribe from her list because I had surpassed what she was teaching. If anything, I felt guilty. I felt a little bit guilty unsubscribing, but also wanted to be like, thank you for your service. I'm like that 1% of people who didn't need to buy a course from you. And I actually implemented everything that you shared. And that's the worst thing that happened. That's a good thing to happen as a content creator. Like that says more for Courtney than it does for other people who might be hawking services.

I don't need that annoy me. Like I know how much value she's had and I send people to her all the time. It's just, I don't need to be on her email list. Yeah. I think that's important to definitely recognize that your readers come to your blog because they're in a season that they need your content. Right. And it's okay. So maybe if you think of it like that, if you see an unsubscribe, like it's okay. Like they must not need this content anymore and that's okay. It's not personal. It's not personal. Try not to take it personal. Same. Yeah. I think when we can

remove that and not thinking that we're doing something wrong or, oh my gosh, all of a sudden I need to change something, then we can continue doing what we're doing, knowing that it's making an impact. I mean, if you still have people clicking through your emails and going to your blog and all of that, focus on that. Focus on the positive aspects of what you're putting out into the world, not just a couple of people that decide to leave. I mean, it's the same thing too. Not everyone is going to see every one of your emails. They're not. And they're not going to see every one of your blog posts. And so it's okay to send a reminder email. It's okay to say, hey, did you see this? Like, I like to think that if it's a really good recipe, they'd be like,

oh yes, I forgot about the lasagna. I should make that. You know, over here, you're like, well, I shared about the lasagna like six months ago. It's like, okay, share about the name lasagna. that, you know, over here, you're like, well, I shared about the lasagna like six months ago. It's like, okay, share about the dang lasagna. If it's your favorite and it's that time of year, go do it. I think blog content creators are just incredible. I mean, I create content for my blog, but it's not the same game as y'all who are doing it as a full-time job. It's incredible. And so think of yourself too, like you are a content curator. That's what these emails get to be. So when I'm on strategy calls with my clients, they're like, oh, I see that you lumped like all of the chicken

instant pot recipes together. I was like, I did all in one email. She's like, I never thought you could do that. I was like, you can't. Like you get to be like the magazine editor in a sense, but you're the subject matter expert on the content you've already created and how you can package all that up. So it doesn't have to be brand new content. You just get to use what you have and package it up in a new way. I've never heard it explained like that, but I actually just love that. Like you're just this curator, like this editor of your own content that you get to share in different ways. Love it.

And creating it over time, knowing that you don't have to continually reinvent the wheel. Like, you know, we have Jennifer and I, I don't even know how many blog posts you have. You probably have. Yeah, like hundreds, like over 500 on one of my blogs. Yeah, I have, I don't know, maybe 125 to 200 blog posts, something like that.

I don't, that's a large range that I just gave there. I have no idea. But some of that content for both of us, you can go back and say, well, this was shared four years ago, but why isn't it relevant now? I mean, if it's a recipe or if it's like helpful health and wellness tips or something like that, that's still relevant. Why not kind of bring that back to the forefront? Because this is kind of a different podcast episode, but all of that content can still serve your readers. Like you've created it, you've done the hard work. So why not continue to keep it in front if it's still valid and it's still something that you did just because you created it, you know, more than a year or so ago, doesn't mean

it can't still serve. And so why not pop that in an email? Say, Hey, just a reminder, this is helpful. That's also the curse of being a content creator. Cause you're like, well, like that's old news. And it's like, you know, I started out working with like personal finance bloggers and I still have some clients in that rate, that realm, but they're like, well, but it's old. I was like, is it budgeting? How much has budgeting changed? You know? And like, what is the problem that people are coming to you for? Something like that. And then maybe it's, you know, quick weekly dinner ideas or meal prep. Like that stuff doesn't get outdated because people always have questions about it. Yeah, you're exactly right. You have given our listeners so much to think about. I'm so glad you came on today. And we're actually going to have Allie

back. So stay tuned here in a couple months. She'll be back in the new year on the podcast. And I just love your fire and how inspired you are. It's contagious. And I hope that those of you listening feel that. I hope that whether or not you're already blogging or thinking about it, that you just go into email marketing and you don't feel overwhelmed by it. I hope that she helps you feel excited about it. So Allie, how can our listeners connect with you? Yeah, the best way actually, I have a whole page of like free resources on my site. So if you're just getting started or if you like, there's a whole video just on like, what's the difference between a broadcast and a sequence? Like, don't be ashamed to ask. Like that's, it's a lot of terminology. So there's a whole video on that. I've got a freebie on how

to write your first welcome sequence, but super fun. Once a month, I host a live round table where we tackle one email marketing kind of question or hang up or challenge that people have. Yeah, I'm just available to answer questions. Jennifer, I know you've come. This last one was so much fun because you get to basically see me on like email marketing speed. Like, I'm so excited. And I want to help you. I want to help you answer your questions so you're not hung up on these things that are keeping you from sharing your message with your audience.

So that's free to attend. It's the third Thursday at 3 p.m. Central every month. And I can attest it's very valuable. Awesome. Well, Allie, we will put all of those links in our show notes. And thanks again for being here today. You've inspired me. I'm going to go over to my email list now. Yep. We opened up ConvertKit and doing some work this afternoon. Yeah. So thanks for the inspiration. We are so thankful that you spent the morning with us. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the

waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.