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You hear a lot about getting sales from your list, but not enough explanation goes into what it actually takes. In this episode, we share exactly what you can and should do to write nurture emails that convert to sales.
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Alyson Lex 0:03
I know we've talked a lot about how building an email list will be, what grows your business, and we're sticking to that. Because it's the truth. You own the contact information. These people have raised their hands and said, Yes, I'm interested in what you have to offer. But you may be wondering, well, I have an email list, and they didn't buy from me. So now what? And this is where your nurture campaign comes in your nurture emails, and a lot of people think of them as weekly emails, or content or newsletters. But the truth is, is they are an opportunity to help your people get closer and closer to the sale. Are they always going to take action from your nurture emails? No. But when you send a sales email, they will be more likely to because you've given them what they need. In between. This is where we start to play the long game. And the long game is not the most exciting game. It's not the sexiest game, but it is the most profitable one. All right, so step number one in creating nurture, emails that convert is Jenny, it's your favorite word.
Jennie Wright 1:23
Consistency, it's actually has nothing to do with actually the writing, which I always leave to Allison anyways. But it's the staying consistent part. This is that disappearing tattoo that you should have on your arm or your forehead that shows up in like the? Have you ever seen those tattoos that they only show up? When you put like a black light on them? Yeah, this is. Yeah, this is those are cool. They are cool. I wouldn't get an on my forehead. But I think they're cool. But yes,
Alyson Lex 1:50
I think you should I you know, even do you hang out in black lights too often is this going to be
Jennie Wright 2:01
that time of my life is calmer? You know, there was a time there were some clubs, there was some there was some dancing and there was some black light. And you know, yeah, that's, that's, that's a distant past Jenny, that's previous life, Jenny,
Alyson Lex 2:15
you know what, the only thing that I would be concerned about with one of those black light tattoos is the Black Light monster mini golf down the street that my kid really wants to go to where you go in and it's all black light. That's the kind of black light action I get these days. So I'm there with you.
But even if you don't get the black light disappearing, tattoo, consistency is really important. Because everything that we're telling you right now can only work if they trust that you're going to show up regularly. If they don't, if your people don't trust that you're going to show up with what they need. They're not going to trust that you're going to do that if they pay you. Yeah, right. Absolutely. That's why consistency is so dang important.
Jennie Wright 3:27
It's beyond important. It's the you know, people really don't put enough effort into the consistency part. And I'm going to call some people out. emailing your list once a month is not consistency, it is consistency. But it is the frequency that's the problem. And emailing them twice a month is consistent, but it's still a frequency problem in my books, once a week is where it's at. And here's why. It's not about you. How often you want to write what you have to write about what emails you have to send, and your frequency has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with your ideal client, the person on your list. And the fact that if you're not the voice in their ear on a consistent basis, and your name isn't showing up in their inbox, somebody else's is. And if you think two weeks or an email every two weeks is sufficient. Somebody else is filling that space. You need to fill that space. That space comes with a weekly email. There are some people out there who are doing dailies, daily emails. That's a lot. And Allison and I are both going to totally recommend not to do that. Unless you can do it very, very well. And you're okay with churn and burn. You're okay with having a lot of people coming into your list from your lead magnets. And then the people who were Not your ideal client leaving. So if you're okay with a lot of unsubscribes than dailies, you can do them. But it takes a while to get up to that point. And yeah, a lot of them are pre written, by the way, and a lot of them are like put into sequences and stuff. But that's a completely different podcast. Okay, let's move on. Let's talk about oh, yeah, I want to talk about understanding objections, this is your space. So I'm really like, I really want you to kick into this.
Alyson Lex 5:22
So we talked about like, the basis of when you're going to send at least once a week, you are going to be consistent. Now what do we talk about? In order to get into this, I want to just take 30 seconds and explain to you the mindset of your person, where they are right now. They've just hopped onto your email list. they've downloaded your freebie they've gone to your Summit, they've watched your webinar or whatever they've just hopped on. They're getting to know you, they've probably gone through your initial like auto responder, indoctrination, welcome sequence, if you have one. And so they're like, Okay, I might know who this person is. I find enough value in what they're saying to stay on their list. But I don't know them enough. I don't know them enough. I'm not ready. I'm still exploring this idea. Depending on how they came in, you may have just opened up their eyes to a whole new part of their world. They are not ready to make a buying decision yet, or they would have. Okay, so that's the state of your list. They're not ready yet. The first type of content that you can create, is to understand, like Jenny said, understand what objections they have, and create the content to overcome those objections. Alright, this is where you can say, You know what, they think it's too expensive. What content can I create that shows them value in taking action toward this goal? They think they're not ready. What content can I create, to help show them that they are? Or that starting when you're not ready? is important. They've been burned before? How can I show them I'm different. They've X, how can I why? What I mean, list out every single objection to why they're not buying and create content to overcome it. And it does not have to be a one and done situation. You should have multiple pieces of content that speak to being ready, or starting before you're ready, multiple pieces of content that showcase the value multiple pieces of content that do this, right. Now, I want to take a really quick break and talk about what that content looks like. Because it doesn't just have to live in an email. Okay, and you can go on just about any business coaches website and read about content repurposing. Okay. But I want you to consider how that might look for you. Maybe you have this particular concept, and you do a long form blog post on it. Cool. I'm gonna do a blog post. But maybe before that you've done an Instagram Live and you've gotten that transcribed and turned into a blog post and then you give him the highlights in the email. Alright, now you're hitting the nurture points in three different places. Because email is not the only place that your people are engaging with you. Not if you're doing it right. Get them over onto your social get them onto your blog, get them onto your YouTube and give them that same content in all of those different places that was a really long ramble and I know John love your ramble didn't know it's good chance to get a word in edgewise.
Jennie Wright 9:16
When the master speaks, right, you just shut up and listen.
Alyson Lex 9:19
I mean, okay, you want to call me that's fine. Dress though.
Jennie Wright 9:27
I we get this a lot I get I get this a lot from clients as well. It's like, well, what do I write you know? Yeah, you can do the overcome the objections things by the way, I think it's a perfect thing to do. And the overcome the objections, emails are super important. They also, you know, it's really, really good as to also teach people the things that they know to help them to get ready to take action. There's a whole there's a whole dance, there's a whole bunch of steps before they buy, right. And you also have to think about like the objections come from your eye. ideal client. And you can also think about what they need to know. So that they're ready to buy. So as an example, a summit, I talked about these a lot, because they do a lot. But it's a good example, before somebody is ready to do a summit, they have to be in the right mindset, the mindset, the wrong mindset for a summit equals all sorts of problems. And I say that with a sarcastic smile on my face. Because damn Sr, you have to be in the right space for this. So one of the things that I do is, and I recommend that people do too is okay, like if your whole thing is you're going to be selling a course or one on one program or something like that. Look at what they need to know first, and share that with them. So hey, if you want to do a summit, here's 10 Things you need to know before you get into it. The 10 Things nobody's telling you. Before you do a list build that you need to know there. I just sexified it Alyson Lex style.
Alyson Lex 10:56
That was brilliant. I would even go further back. Why You Need To Do Lists build what you get from a list build?
Jennie Wright 11:06
Yes, the justification of why you need to do the thing that you need to do. So you know, why is losing like ever? Okay, let's use weight loss as an example, because that's something we can talk about as well. Like, why do you need to lose weight? Everybody's like, yeah, I need to lose a couple pounds, the I need to lose 20 pounds, 50 pounds, whatever. But why do you need to lose weight? Because and then this goes into elit? This plays into what Allison's taught me is asking why about six times until you get to the core reason. And then you can discuss it. So why do you need to lose weight? Because I want to feel better. Okay, but why? So I can do this, but why? So I can run around with my five year old. Okay, but why? Because he's running faster than me. And you know, I can't keep up. Okay. And you keep going till you get to that core reason, right? That's their, that's their core reason for doing it. And you can teach them. Okay, well, now that we know your core reason for doing the thing, here's the steps that'll get you incrementally closer to achieving the goal. Did I do that? Right?
Alyson Lex 12:11
You did. And what I want to do is help people understand that maybe I have a program that helps people go from
maybe I have a program that helps people go from, you know, eating, relative like watching what they eat, to really understanding how to eat to lose weight, okay, so I'm just going with the weight loss thing. And I'm trying to really create a segment. So my ideal audience in this case, they would understand that they can't live on potato chips and brownies. But they don't really know what else to do. Right? So they've got a start, but they don't have the full. That's where my program is. So if I look at my, my email list, I'm gonna have people on that email list who don't yet understand that they can eat potato chips and brownies, or like, exist on potato chips and brownies. I think everybody should be able to eat potato chips and burn it personally. But so now I need to educate people on my list about why existing only on potato chips and brownies is not going to help and give them step one, maybe step two, because my program is Step five. I'm giving away steps one through four. And this works for everything. If you help people create an online course, your program, start Step five, what are steps one through four? That's your nurture content. Your social posts, your Instagram lives, your YouTube videos, your tic TOCs, your clubhouse topics. Okay? I want to just be really clear that this is nurture content, we're talking about it in the space of emails, but it can be any content. Okay. What do they need to know, to be ready to buy? What do they and this comes from objections, but now it's also what you know, they need to know. All right. So when we talked about understanding their objections and using content, it's about kind of addressing them and now we're teaching them and leveling them up, so that they're ready to buy one of the things that I say and it's it's my moment of transparency. You know, when I teach people stuff I say I want you to be successful enough to afford me. That's what we're doing here. We're helping them get successful enough to buy. That's the kind of content you should be creating.
Jennie Wright 15:17
And before we tell you how to raise it, yeah, absolutely sorry. overcome objections, level them up. And before we tell you how to write those emails, which we're going to do in a second Alison's about to launch into her awesome five step formula, which I'm totally jealous of. This has to do with metrics. Remember, earlier, when we were talking about the fact this is a long game, everything that we're talking about right now has to do with the metrics. So if you and this is all has to do into playing into how to write a really good email, if you send an email, and your open rates are low, your click through rates are low. All the numbers look a little bit crappy, then there's things to look at. One, what are you sending it? To? Who are you sending it to? Actually, I'd flip that, who are you sending it to one, then when are you sending it? Right? If you're sending it at Sunday morning at nine o'clock? Is that the right time? If you're sending it to people who registered for a webinar six months ago, and you never reached out to them since? Is that the right audience? Right, like seriously. And then. And then the next thing is, is your open rates and your click through rates. If the open rates are low, it's your probably your subject line. So if you're in you should go back and I don't know what episode it is Allison, where we talk about our like having a swipe file and creating a swipe file and having like a email address, I know it's way back there. Allison's like, Oh, my God, I'm like thinking it's like in the episodes have like 20 to 30, like in Episode 20, or 30. I don't know. So Allison is going to look for it while I continue to talk, she gave me the spin keep talking signal. But in that particular episode, we tell you to go in and create a dummy email address. Now, we don't want to break any terms of service with Google or anybody else. But we basically create an email address that you know, is like the first name of our dog and the last name of one of our, you know, somebody else, a cousin or something. And we sign up to the lists of people that we find interesting, and we collect emails. And what we do is we look through all the subject lines, and I literally wrote an email to my list about this week and a half ago, where I said, I received 36 emails this morning, and here's the headlines. Here's the subject lines. So Oh, my gosh, was it quick tip number one?
Alyson Lex 17:39
It was quick. Tip number one was how to create a swipe file. And I know that that is one of the strategies that I share.
Jennie Wright 17:47
Yeah, way to go and find it. You're awesome. Her search capabilities like you do not want to try and hide from Alyson Lex. She will find you. So she's kind
Alyson Lex 17:56
of mad search. Okay, so first, we talked about blacklight issues, and now you're making me sound like a straight up. psycho stalker? I am not coming out good at the end of this episode. Um, I
Jennie Wright 18:13
know, you're coming out a little tarnish, but it's okay. It's all good. It's all good. So anyways, look at the subject lines, right? Take a look at them, see if they're good or bad? Like, would you open that email? Like if you got an email that said, open this email to find out more about how to, I don't know, get shredded ABS by Valentine's Day? Would you open an email?
Alyson Lex 18:39
Just asking. So figure that out. Yeah, we talked about subject lines, headlines again. This is like 2020 Revisited. In I think it's episode five. We talked about that. So go give that a listen. And yeah, so we've talked about the content. Now Jennie talked about getting it open. Now I want to give you the process. Okay. So before you do this process, what I want you to do is head over to system to thrive.com/content, grab the 128 topic, content, generator, content topic, whatever. It's the generator that you plug in stuff and it gives you ideas. Okay, that's my pitch. Go get it. Get some ideas for things that you can talk about. The other way to generate concepts now we're not talking about the details we're talking about the concepts still is to think about stories in your own life. There is and if I can find it, I'll put it in our show notes. There's a copywriter and this is collaboration, not competition. There's a copywriter named Ashlyn. And she talks about creating a story vault and I really like this concept, so I want to make sure I give her credit, but just every day in a journal or a diary document or you know, a Trello board, I don't care, jot down something that happened. So that you can remember, it might seem really minor, but you'll eventually have this vault of stories that you can share. And stories are becoming more and more important, people want to hear them. But we want to make sure that they have a purpose. So you're going to start with a headline, attention grabbing, this could be your subject line, but it should also be kind of like that intro, it was a dark and stormy night, type of which I think that is actually like won the award for the worst opening of a book, which is why it's so popular, but maybe we should say it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, right? So there's your, your, your thing, your attention, grabber, right, and you could actually use this, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, then you're gonna go into your story, I don't want you to make this a novel, I want you to make it quick. Tell something that happened. The key is that Next, you're going to pull the lesson out of it. Alright, so we have a client that just in random conversation, she was talking about how she booked this trip. And she was so excited to go horseback riding at this spa ranch thing. And she walked into where these horses were, but I guess she got lost. And she went to like the wrong horse place and ended up in this transformational horse care seminar thing that changed her life. Right? That was the amount of detail that she gave us. And immediately I looked at her I was like, why is that not one of the main stories that you're telling people? Because it's like she's in personal development. And life change happens when you least expect it. Hello, there's the lesson. Always look for opportunities stay open, she could have left, right, there are bajillion ways that can go, what's the lesson? What do you want them to grow? How do you want them to grow after hearing the story? Okay, so headline, grab their attention story. Tell them a story lesson. How do you want them to grow? Number four, make or issue a challenge to them? This is a very simple question. Or a very simple statement that you're going to make or ask. So for the let's go back to the horse story, right? The lesson is, growth happens when you least expect it. Maybe your challenge is what is one time that you least expected something in your life? And how did it impact you? To question you're asking them to think you're asking them to connect your story to their life. And then, here's how we turn it from content to conversion content. It's very simple. I think you're gonna all be very surprised. We're gonna have a call to action. Okay. So again, with the horse story, we've told them our story, we've issued our challenge, we've given them our lesson. What do we want them to do with it? It doesn't always have to be by my stuff.
But in this instance, it could be hit reply, if it's an email or comment below if it's a post and tell me because remember, I asked them the question, what was unexpected that changed your life and how? Tell me about it. Well, why is that? A conversion thing? Because I've started a conversation by starting the conversation, now I have the opportunity to take them further through their buying journey with me. Right now, it doesn't always have to be that kind of soft call to action a conversation starter it can be Do you want my help with this? Let's let's you know, hit reply. Let's hop on a call. That's a sales call, by the way. Okay, so I'll review it again. Very quickly. headline, dark and stormy night story. Wrong horse place. Lesson. Opportunity Knocks challenge. How has it done it for you? Call to Action, hit reply and let me know. That can be done with any type of content in any industry, to any audience. And the fun thing about the story, it doesn't even have to be yours. Any story will do. Yours should be part of the rotation. By the way, let them get to know you. Any story will do
Jennie Wright 25:10
headlines, things taken from the news, something you saw on Reddit, anything,
Alyson Lex 25:15
anything? Any story will do?
Jennie Wright 25:21
Yeah, we just don't recommend that you make them up.
Alyson Lex 25:25
No, I wouldn't make them up. But, you know, like, if I was going to talk about oh, I don't know, busy keeping up with trends in business. I'm gonna talk about Sears Sears company. Because they, they actually, this my soapbox and 30 seconds just give me that they had a widespread distribution model in place before Amazon was even a spark of an idea. Because Amazon is not an E commerce company. Amazon is a distribution and logistics company. That is the heart of their business. Sears had that before amazon before you know before. What's his name? When I'm gonna talk about Yeah, Buster B. Mr. B, even thought of it.
Jennie Wright 26:24
So your locations, pick up locations in freaking dry cleaners and like corner shops. And you can pick up your selling
Alyson Lex 26:32
on by catalog. Before
Jennie Wright 26:37
phones, like mail in Well, I remember the mail inform
Alyson Lex 26:41
mailing Yes, because that's how they got started. It was the Sears Roebuck company catalog. It was the mailing catalog from the what early to mid 1900s. And it was the thing and that is amazing. They had centralized distribution order processing all of the stuff that they needed to compete in an online space and because they didn't do it, they're gone. Little known fact,
Jennie Wright 27:10
I worked for them just before things went crazy in Canada. First for a whole span I was actually I applied to Sears. I got a job at Sears like in their head office, not at a store head office in Toronto. Yeah, super cool and never told the story. I was offered the job. I signed for the job. A week before I started, I got a letter from the CFO saying that there's been a sweatshop and we have to delay you working here. And they put me on a delay. And then they rescinded the offer not because they didn't want me but because they completely shut down the head office.
Alyson Lex 27:50
Yeah, there's a story there guys. Yeah, that Jenny can tell. We can pull lessons from that. Sure. The fun thing is, is that same story can be used in multiple ways with multiple lessons. Okay. So headlines, story, lesson challenge call to action. That's how you're going to format your stuff. You're going to use their objections, you're going to help level them up to where they're ready to buy. And you're going to stay consistent with it all. That is how you create content, or email nurture system sequences and systems that convert the end episode over. Just kidding, no. Don't forget to pick up your content topic generator at system to thrive.com/content. And we will be back soon answering another big question.