83: The 3 essential email sequences service-based businesses need
Let’s state the obvious: no matter how big or small your business is, you need an email list.
Your email list is a critical asset in your business because it is your list and your data. You own it, and these are your relationships.
Social media, on the other hand, is not something you own. TikTok owns TikTok, LinkedIn owns LinkedIn, Zuckerberg owns Facebook and Instagram, and they can change the algorithm and close down your account or remove posts without warning.
So needless to say, email marketing is important.
I know that the idea of having an email list can be overwhelming, so in this episode of ill communication, I want to demystify and simplify the three essential sequences you need in your business.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
Why email marketing is crucial for any business, big or small
The easiest email sequence you can write for your audience
How to create a sales sequence that converts every time
The most important email sequence of all
How to use the Dinner Party Framework to create a welcome sequence that wows
A well-written and strategic welcome sequence is universally considered to be the most essential email sequence in your business, and there are nuances to how you write each email and how you make your calls to action.
If you don't have a welcome sequence or if you know it's time to refresh it, you will want to come and grab your ticket to the Welcome Sequence That Wows Bootcamp I'm hosting in mid-March. Check it out now!
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[00:00:03] Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and change makers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hey, hey, and welcome to the Ill Communication Podcast. And can I just say I love hanging with you every week. I got such lovely feedback from an episode I released a couple of weeks ago, episode number 81 Why the World Needs to Hear from More Women in Business. And it kind of became a bit of a rally cry. The message seemed to resonate with my listeners, and I so appreciated hearing your feedback. Some listeners shared their own stories of dealing with overconfident dudebros, and many said it was a message that you needed to hear. So if you missed that episode, cue it up and listen to it after this one. But thank you for just joining me in that rally cry. But today we're diving into three essential email sequences service based business owners need.
[00:01:43] Now, before I get into it, let's just state the obvious and I'll agree. No matter what size of your business, whether you have a very boutique service where you provide one on one custom services, or you have a bigger business where you have group offers or digital products that you regularly promote and sell, you need an email list. Your email list is a critical asset in your business because it is your list, your data. You own it. These are your relationships, whereas your social media following is not something you own. Tiktok owns TikTok, LinkedIn owns LinkedIn, Zuckerberg owns Facebook and Instagram, and they can change the algorithm and close down your account or remove posts without warning. Now, I've recorded many podcast episodes about why email marketing is important, so I'm not going to belabor it. So let's just all agree. Email is important and email is overwhelming. A lot of the women business owners I work with believe that having an email list is going to be onerous, time consuming. They figure they don't know what to say and they worry about being consistent. So today I want to demystify and simplify the three essential sequences you need in your business. Now let's start with the easiest sequence to write your nurture sequence. A nurture sequence is the emails you send every week or every couple of weeks to nurture and steward your leads and subscribers.
[00:03:17] Now you can craft a very specific strategic nurture sequence where you thoughtfully plot out each email throughout the year. I'm a little less fancy and fussy. If I had to write nurture emails beyond about two months, I wouldn't enjoy that very much. I'm much more of a week by week person unless I'm heading into a launch or promotion. Then I would write a very strategic six week pre-launch sequence. But in general, I like nurture emails to be a good blend of education, entertainment, inspiration, and an invitation to something. So if you're sending four emails per month, which is about what I would recommend, so one per week, you might aim to have one email deliver value or education a teaching moment one email could be very inspirational, like a client case study or something that motivates your reader to take some kind of action in their life. One email might be totally entertaining, a silly story that happened to you, or what's on your Spotify playlist. And one of those emails might be an invitation to a free or paid event to hop on a call to fill out a survey, to answer a question, or to buy even a low ticket offer. It's not a huge sales moment, but more. It's an opportunity to train yourself, to ask for something and to train your reader to respond. And again, if you're not heading into a big launch, you can just keep these light and easy breezy without overthinking them.
[00:04:51] If you do need a little inspiration, go back through the Ill Communication archive to find any of the episodes where I share a writing prompt or a copy recipe. These writing prompts are great for nurture emails. I went back and I counted. There are at least enough prompts and copy recipes to write 24 emails, which is like six months of content if you send one email per week. So there are no excuses, you can and you should be writing your nurture emails. The next sequence all businesses need at some point or another is a sales sequence. So if you're going to be promoting an offer or an event like a workshop or challenge, you want to send several emails to sell it. For larger live launches with a high ticket offer, I write sequences that have 15 to 20 emails in them. For a flash sale or a smaller offer. You'll probably want to aim for around five emails, and there are five core emails you need to have in one of these kinds of email sequences. You need an announcement email. You need an email that empathizes with the struggles or challenges your customers are facing, and positions your solution to solve those problems. You need a case study or a story email. You need an objection busting email, and you need a future pacing email, something that allows your reader to see and feel what the future could look like after they buy your product or service.
[00:06:24] Now, depending on your offer, you will probably want to add in more advanced emails to shift beliefs, bust myths, or objections. But for any kind of a flash sale, a quick promotion, or a lower ticket offer or workshop, this is the five email sequence I recommend. And now let's talk about the most important sequence of all the one you must have in your business your welcome sequence. Your welcome sequence is the first impression you give to a new follower, so it sets the tone for your relationship. Your welcome sequence builds know, like, and trust with those new leads and it should showcase your authority, your expertise, your personality, your offers. And it should invite two way conversation and communication and lead your reader on to the next step with you. Now, just so you know how this fits in when people visit your website, or if they hear you speaking on a podcast or they see a video on social, you will want to give them a call to action to grab a free gift. We can call this a free offer, an opt in or a lead magnet. It's something that is attractive to these leads or potential customers. So when you have your lead magnet or your free gift, a new lead will give you their email address in exchange for that free gift.
[00:07:49] And just as an example, some of those lead magnets might be a checklist, a mini course, a quiz, or an assessment tool. After they give you their email, it's uploaded into your email service provider, and then they're sent an automated sequence of emails. Welcome sequences typically have 3 to 5 emails in them, though some businesses will send a lot more emails. But you know, I'm all about simplifying things and making our lives a little easier. Minimum effort for maximum reward. So I've created the welcome sequence called the Dinner Party Framework. It beautifully lays out the five emails you need in a welcome sequence that wows in the dinner party framework. You send five emails. Email one is the delivery email. You open the door and hand them the cocktail. You give your subscriber what they came for. Email two is the appetizer. Give your reader just a little bit more of a taste of your expertise, but not too much. A little attractive platter of quick wins or resources. Email three is your mind blowing main. This is where you sit down and serve up a showstopper. You tell your story or an incredible client story. You deliver something that allows us to see that you're the Martha Stewart of your industry.
[00:09:11] Email for is called the side dish surprise, and it's where you turn the tables on your reader and invite them to contribute something to the meal, to the experience. This is where you ask your reader a question. You get them to click a survey link or reply to your email with some kind of information and email. Number five is the dessert course. This is where you leave your reader at the end of the meal with a very sweet offer. You lead them onto the next step with you. It could be a low ticket promotion, or to book a call or to take some kind of next step. But this is the dessert course. A well written and strategic welcome sequence, is universally considered to be your most essential email sequence in your business, and there are nuances to how you write each email and how you make your calls to action. So if you don't have a welcome sequence or if you know it's time to refresh it, you will want to come and grab your ticket to the welcome sequence that wows Boot camp I'm hosting in mid-March. It's a five day guided workshop where you'll get training templates and coaching on how to write these five welcome emails in the dinner party framework. Each day, I'll share the recipe to show you how to write one of the emails in the sequence, and then you'll have time to write it.
[00:10:32] So each day will cover one of the five emails in the dinner party framework, so that by the end of the week, you will have a juicy, fabulous, and fresh welcome sequence for your business. Now, I've hosted a variation of this training in the past and it legit gets results. You will write a welcome sequence that gets people excited about working with you, booking calls, and buying your offers. Tickets are 80 bucks for the boot camp now. This includes the live training and the templates to write your full sequence. I'll be on hand to answer questions as you go, and you'll get access to replays for a short time. And if you're someone who likes a little more of the full service experience, there is an upgraded ticket with live coaching. That ticket is 150. It includes live copy coaching calls and templates for additional emails and subject line formulas to boost open rates. You also get to keep those replays forever. The Boot Camp runs March 11th to the 15th, 2024 in the morning, so by the end of the week, you'll have a full welcome sequence written and ready to go for the rest of 2024. So grab your tickets to the five day welcome sequence at Wow's Boot Camp at Kim Kilcommons Boot Camp. But before I go, let's review the three sequences you need in your business and how they all fit together.
[00:11:55] So you need the number one most important sequence. You're welcome sequence. Then after your readers complete that sequence, they receive your nurture emails, your stewarding sequence. This keeps your readers warm, close, and ready to buy. And then when you are selling something, you need a sales sequence. And I promise you, it's not hard. It's not rocket. Science just takes a little time to get all the pieces in place. And if you want me to help you write that most essential sequence for your business, you can join me at the welcome sequence that Wow's Bootcamp March 11th to 15th. Go ahead and get your ticket at Kim Dotcom slash bootcamp. As always, thank you for joining me. I'll see you next week. Hey, thanks for joining me for today's episode. But before you go, I want to make sure you've grabbed a new tool to help you assess the effectiveness of your sales copy. It's an easy to use tool that will help you identify what's working well and what could we improved among all of the copy assets you have in your business? Grab the Sales Copy scorecard right now to find quick and easy ways to improve your sales copy and boost sales. Get your free scorecard over at Kim Qualcomm's Scorecard. I'll be back next week with another quick tip writing prompt or sales hack for you.
[00:13:19] See you then.
Resources Mentioned
Listen to episode 81 - Why the World Needs to Hear from More Women in Business
Attend the bootcamp and write your welcome sequence in 5 days!
Additional Resources
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