102: Make Friends in Your Inbox! Using Email to Create Connection with Liz Wilcox
I’ll be honest, I know email marketing is important, but I have spent years being confused and overwhelmed with how I can actually use it – and I KNOW I’m not the only one. So when I got connected with today’s guest, Liz Wilcox, I knew we all had to hear from her.
In this episode, I talk to Liz, the Fresh Princess of email marketing, on why we should be using email to create connections and cultivate friendships instead of just sending stuffy bullet pointed lists. She reminds us of why email is so important, what we’re missing out on when we don’t use it, and how we can use it to support all other aspects of our business.
She’s also given us some great tips on HOW to use email to create those connections with our audience, so let’s dive in!
#1 | Remember what makes email so special! (It’s consent-based!)
First things first, email is so powerful as a connector with your audience, and that’s because your subscribers have actually chosen to be there! They didn’t just get served one of your posts by chance on social media, and they didn't just stumble across you on search by this point. No, they chose to come to you, and they signed up to hear more from you because they are interested in you! Use that to your advantage. You don’t have to use SEO-speak or do hashtag research – you just have to connect with them at a human level.
#2 | Focus your content on your expertise.
When it comes to actual content, think about what your audience actually came to you for in the first place. If you were offering a degree in something, what would that be and what content would support that big goal? Let that perspective inform the types of content you share with your audience. For Liz, that means everything she shares is somehow related to email marketing. For me, that means everything I share can point back to podcasting for small businesses. It doesn’t have to be the same content over and over, but it should stay relevant to your expertise.
#3 | But don’t make it too stuffy! Use your content to connect and show that you’re a real human.
Just because you stick to your expertise doesn’t mean that you have to make it boring. There are plenty of fun ways to write an email. Your email marketing content should aim for three things: to show you’re invested in the topics, to show your audience that you’re relatable, and to be consistent so that your audience hears from you regularly.
And outside of that, you can have fun! Don’t send a bulleted list of your podcast content, send them your favorite moment from your last episode instead. If you had production issues, let your audience know how much work it was to get the last episode to them and why you’re so excited about it anyway.
#4 | Utilize the Email Staircase.
The staircase is simple: follower, friend, customer. Maybe someone found you on Instagram and decided to follow you. Maybe they see your content regularly, maybe they don’t (it’s up to the algorithm gods, right?) But eventually, they signed up for your email list, which means they want you in their email inbox.
This is your chance to turn a follower into a friend. It’s your chance to connect with them more personally and more often! This is where you build that trust and deepen that relationship, because people want to buy from another human they can connect with. This is your opportunity to now go from friend to customer, and this staircase can help you to think about how you design your email content.
#5 | Give readers multiple options to content with the rest of your content.
There is a general rule floating around about only putting one link per email – and Liz HATES this rule. Don’t overwhelm your readers or your audience with too many options, but don’t be afraid to give them a few options to consume more of your content! Remind them about your course. Ask them to listen to your podcast! Add a tidbit about your podcast on every email as a teaser even if it’s not *directly* podcast related. Give them options!
#6 | Vary your content. Don’t get too predictable.
If every email you send is something like “Top three ways to….” it’s going to get old fast, both to you and your audience. Vary your content, vary the length, vary everything except the expertise that you focus on! We’re humans, not robots, so add a little more humanity into each email (what’s special about your day today?) to keep things interesting. You don’t have to overcomplicate things, but don’t get too formulaic either.
Alright, that’s it! Go forth and use Liz’s amazing advice write some awesome emails! We can’t wait to read what you come up with. Tune in for another awesome episode next week!
Are you looking for a partner who can help you add a little bit of humanity back into your podcast to create deeper and more meaningful connections? Check out our Podcast Strategy Intensive, where we help you focus your content and get the most out of your small business podcast, or sign up for a Podcast Refresh, where we help you strategize and then implement all the great ideas we come up with together!
Links:
Join Liz’s Email Marketing membership (it’s only $9 a month!!)
Check out our services to Launch, Uplevel or Grow your Podcast
Liz’s Bio:
The Fresh Princess of Email Marketing, Liz Wilcox is an Email Strategist and Keynote Speaker showing small businesses how to build online relationships, package up their “magic” and turn it into emails that people want to read and (more importantly) purchase from.
In the span of 5 years, Liz grew and sold a successful blog, got bought out of her second company, and built the third into a multiple six-figure party that just won’t quit! In other words, she now teaches online entrepreneurs to simplify the whole “email marketing thing” and finally master their sales in a way that leverages their personality, vision, and values.
She’s best known for her 1000+ users membership, 20 Minute Newsletter technique, and her Email Staircase framework she’s taught to tens of thousands of creatives, freelancers, ecommerce shop owners, and small businesses across the globe.
Offline, Liz lives in Florida, loves to run, and is a walking 90s pop culture encyclopedia.
If you’re looking for even more podcast information and inspiration, join my CLOSE FRIENDS list on instagram. Click on my CLOSE FRIENDS highlight to learn more.
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
102: Make Friends in Your Inbox! Using Email to Create Connection with Liz Wilcox
[00:00:33] Caroline Hull Are you ready to start a strategic podcast for your business and share your message in a way that feels wildly authentic? This is the place. Welcome to Podcast Your Business, where each week I share the strategy behind having a podcast that helps grow your business. I'm Caroline Hull, podcast manager, strategist and consultant, and I've seen the power of podcasts can have for your business. Let's get started.
[00:01:04] Caroline Hull I talk a lot on this podcast about how every piece of content you create needs to work together and create an ecosystem, right? So our podcast is working with our Instagram, is working with our blog, is working with our email. But if you are like me, email might be a struggle for you. I must say that in all of my years of business, my email list has probably been one of the things that has frustrated me the most and been the hardest to pin down exactly how to utilize it in a way that works for my business, just like how we talk about a podcast, right? So when I was introduced to our guest today, I knew that I had to have her on the show to share about email marketing, but I also just really love her vibe and her style, and I really think you're going to resonate with a lot of what she says on the show today. So let me introduce you to Liz Wilcox. She is the fresh princess of email marketing. She's an email strategist who shows small businesses how to build online relationships, package up their magic and turn it into emails that people want to read and more importantly, purchase from. She's also a walking nineties pop culture encyclopedia for a unique teaching style you're not likely to forget any time soon. We talk a lot about email marketing in this episode, but what I want you really to take away from this episode is how to use your emails to create connections. I think that is so, so important and something that I have definitely forgotten as I sit down to compose my emails every week. So enjoy the episode. And here is my interview with Liz Wilcox. Haley's Thank you so much for coming and chatting on my podcast today.
[00:02:53] Liz Wilcox Oh my gosh, I am so excited. Let's talk about electronic mail, baby.
[00:03:00] Caroline Hull I am so excited to talk about email first before we dive in too far because I know I can already tell that we're just going to get really excited and go on some tangents here. I want you to just introduce who you are and how you got into email and how you help people now.
[00:03:17] Liz Wilcox Yeah. What's up, friends? Let's get ready to party. So you know that feeling you get when you listen to an amazing podcast like Caroline's and there's some wild lady telling you that for every dollar you spend with email marketing, you can get 40 bucks in return. And she just really hypes you up. So you go, you know, you sit down at your desk after you're done listening to the podcast and you open up your MailChimp or your ConvertKit or whatever the heck you use and you decide, okay, today's the day I'm going to, I'm going to write my email newsletter, Dang it. And then you promptly feel kind of dumb because you have no idea what the heck to say to get people to actually click on your thing. Well, my name is Liz Wilcox. I am here today to help you eliminate that problem. And I actually started off as an RV travel blogger, believe it or not. So if you.
[00:04:12] Caroline Hull Watch I love.
[00:04:13] Liz Wilcox Yeah, right. So I everything that I'm going to teach you today, everything that I've created the last few years has come from this. And maybe you're listening and maybe this is you come from having to build my business in the margins of life. When you're traveling in an RV, number one, you barely even have the Internet. Number two, I had a toddler in 200 square feet while traveling the country, and so I didn't have time for complicated funnels and writing novels instead of newsletters. And so everything that I'm going to bring out today, when I say I really do want to make this simple for you, comes from that lens. So I just can't wait to get into this.
[00:04:58] Caroline Hull Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I love that you were an RV blogger because there was, like, a real hot minute where we were going to sell everything and buy an RV and live in the RV with our kids. We ended up not doing that. We ended up moving to Colorado, but we have a trailer and so we like pretend like we're RV ers every once in a while. So I loved I love it. That's all you got started. So, Liz, I have to ask, when I first came across you and went on your website, I fell in love with the colors and everything. I want you to just explain to people where you get a lot of your inspiration, because I feel like this is going to make a lot of people smile.
[00:05:37] Liz Wilcox Yeah, I love this question. So, you know, you're listening to the podcast, you can't see me, but right now I have like a frame and I have my logo on the screen and the zoom call I'm wearing like this crazy striped shirt with stars I'm drinking out of like a mug from 1997. My brand is very nineties and for me especially. So going back to the RV blog, my email list, my audience was like men in their sixties. That was like 70% that. So when I knew I yeah, I needed to transition out of the RV travel blog into this email marketing thing. I knew I wanted to bring more and Liz Wilcox into it, and I was born in 1988. I'm a nineties chick. I love N Sync. You can't see me. I've got two in in-sync pictures like posters hanging up in the background and I just wanted to have a lot of fun in my business. And we're going to talk about how to inject fun into your emails today. And I found that the more I dug into and the more I like leaned into this Nineties theme, the more fun everybody had. You know, Caroline said, Oh, I went to your site. I immediately was like, intrigued. I was checking out your products, you know, things like that. And so side note, if you can create a brand that is just so you, you're going to have so much more fun showing up just the same as when you're hosting a podcast, the more comfortable you get, the more fun you have hosting it is the same with your branding, so thanks for.
[00:07:09] Caroline Hull Bringing that up. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure our listeners really got a feel for that as we started chatting. So I wanted to talk to you today about email marketing because I feel like especially like as we talk about being online business owners and podcast hosts email, I don't know if everybody else feels this way, but sometimes it feels like I'm really doing well with it. Everything's going really great. And then I'm like, Okay, what is this for? Or I'll sit down to write an email and I'll be doing it like 11 p.m. the night before it's supposed to go up. It just feels kind of mystical sometimes and hard. And so can you just tell us why it's so important to make this part of our overall growth strategy and why we need to, like, really pay attention to it.
[00:08:00] Liz Wilcox Okay. So I would not be a proper email marketer if I didn't come on here and tell you and Caroline that. You own your email list. We do not own other platforms. We don't own, you know, social media. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Okay. Raise your hand if in the last six months you've heard anything about Twitter or Elon Musk, you know.
[00:08:27] Caroline Hull Raises hand.
[00:08:28] Liz Wilcox If you're if your whole business was built on your Twitter following and suddenly you met a billionaire, decides to buy it and implode it, then you're kind of screwed, right? So with your email list, you own that list. You can take it any way you want to go. One day, you want to use MailChimp, the next day you decide ActiveCampaign is for you. You can take that email list with you. And you know, I mentioned the for every dollar we spend, you can get 40 bucks. That's because email is consent based the same way Caroline encourages you to start a podcast because you can have listeners and grow like a really great following that way. It's the same with email. It's consent based. They opt in to hear from you the same way they press play to listen to your podcast. It's very conscious, it's very consent based. That's why you can see such amazing returns. And also, you know, it's a marketing channel, email marketing people tend to know right off the bat, Oh, if I opt in, I'm going to be sold, right? How many emails do you have from Old Navy right now in your, you know, in your inbox? Or, you know, if you buy from Etsy, once you hear from them again and again and again. Right. It is a marketing channel. People know that, but it is consent based first. Yeah, sure. You know, you click a box when you join Facebook that says, yeah, you can you can show me ads, but we don't really have any consent over what they're showing us. They decide. So in the inbox, you know, we the people have that power. And so that's what makes it so powerful. And why I encourage every single business owner, no matter what you do to start a list, because it's going to help you engage the community. Those are people that want to be there, and especially if you're adding that extra component of a podcast, it's going to help drive listeners and build like an even more engaged, solid community.
[00:10:29] Caroline Hull Yeah, I love that idea that you own your people and I think we we don't think about that enough. You know, we're constantly chasing like, okay, I need to be on Instagram, I need to be on TikTok. But that's not you're not going to be able to, like you said, take those people with you. And I always think about, you know, oh, gosh, what if Instagram went down tomorrow? You know, I have 4000 followers, but I only have much less on my email list. And so I've actually been thinking about that a lot. Okay. I need to start working on growing my email list and put the same effort that I've been putting into my Instagram and showing up there as I put with my email list. So I love that you brought that up. So let's talk about building an email list. So I think one of the things that I kind of get confused by and maybe I think probably some other online business owners do as well, I feel like when I'm sending my newsletter, I'm trying to tell them so much because I've got so much going on. I have my podcast, I have my business. And so when I'm when I'm building my email list, am I thinking about promoting all the things like what kind of mindset do I need to have when I've got so many things going on?
[00:11:40] Liz Wilcox Yeah, so Caroline is always telling us about our content ecosystem, right? When we're trying to build our list, we think of that as the ecosystem. We want people that are going to listen to our podcast, join our group programs, all the things right? But as far as the email content goes, you know, you can, you can vary it and in fact, that's really good. We'll talk about that later. But when you're building your list, just think about, well, honestly, I like to think of it as a universe. Think about your vision. Like if you were a university and your ideal person is walking across the stage, what degree are you trying to hand them? Right? Ooh. So I.
[00:12:27] Caroline Hull Like that.
[00:12:28] Liz Wilcox Yeah. Like, CHU. What is that degree that you're handing them? That's the big vision, right? And trying to find people to get on your list that want that degree that, you know, are aligned with that vision. For me it's make money with email like sure, I could talk to you about how to be a good podcast guest. I could share how I make awesome presentations and use sound effects, you know, But I, I'm an email marketer. That's what I want to talk about. And so my vision is make money with email. That's the degree. And anybody that needs that degree, I'm trying to get on my email list. So think about, you know, sit down, maybe, you know, pause this episode. For a few minutes and really think about what is that degree I'm trying to hand over to people, my university and how can I get those people on my email list? How can I get those people to listen to my show, etc.?
[00:13:23] Caroline Hull Yeah, it's so interesting because one of the things that I talk about a lot is giving your podcast a purpose and like making sure that your podcast has a job, that it's.
[00:13:32] Liz Wilcox Leading.
[00:13:33] Caroline Hull People somewhere. That's something we talk about a lot in my world. And so I love this idea. Like, I don't think I've really thought about it. My email is that same way. Like, okay, what is your job email list? Where are you sending people? What are you doing? And so I love that because I think we can really tie that into thinking about, okay, what is the purpose of my content? How is it serving me? And when we think about that in terms of email, it just makes so much more sense to me than just, here's my email list. I need to send a newsletter, you know?
[00:14:03] Liz Wilcox Yeah, absolutely. The purpose. So I teach something called the email staircase. First you have a follower, right? They find you on Instagram, you hear them on a podcast like Caroline's, whatever, Get them on your email list and turn them into friends. And now I don't mean you know your best friend you're sharing all your dirty laundry with, but somebody that you have something in common with and you want to talk about that thing you have in common often, right? You want to talk about how to grow a podcast with a purpose. You want to talk about where the men of NSYNC are now, right? Like if you had a NSYNC podcast or something, right? You know, whatever you whatever that mutual interest is. And then once you have a list full of friends, you can turn them into customers. You can say, Hey, I know X and Y about you. I created a group program that solves X and Y just for you, or I've written an e-book, I've got a special podcast series. You know, I do this for my Patreon members, whatever. But I think the main purpose of the email list, aside from sharing that vision we talked about, is it's the great connector, right? It's the thing that says, you know, Hey, get on this email list, get to know Caroline, get to know how I'm going to drive you towards that vision, how you are going to earn that degree. You know, with my podcast, my blog, my Instagram, my group program, my book, you know, all of these little touch points. The email list is the great connector. I mean, newsletter is a great like great word to use, but I think sometimes we get hung up on newsletter and we think like church program right where got it, you know, the broth or like the you go to a national park, you get this giant brochure, right? It doesn't have to be like that. We'll talk about the content later. But really it is this great connector to your content ecosystem. And if you follow that, if you climb that staircase follower, friend, customer, everything's just going to really fall in place for you.
[00:16:02] Caroline Hull Oh my gosh, I love owe so much. And we're going to be sure to share all of listservs, links and things in the show notes and then again at the end of the episode, because all these things she's talking about, like I've been on her website, I have downloaded the things, I've looked at, the things. These are all resources that she has available. So we'll share all of that to you if you're going, okay, I need more of this that you're talking about. We're going to make sure that we point you to that. Okay. So I want to tie this all a little bit more into the podcast episode specifically. So I'm a business owner. I'm using my podcast to build my authority and to serve as kind of like my sales team. You know, my podcast is on my sales team. That's what I always like to say. So when my podcast comes out each week, I want to send an email to my list and let them know, Hey, the podcast episode is out. Do you have any tips on how to write an email newsletter specifically to promote the podcast? And then I'd love it too, if we could kind of tie this into some of the business stuff as well.
[00:17:03] Liz Wilcox Yeah, absolutely. So what I want you to know about newsletter content in general. Remember, we're trying to make friends with these people and once we have that list full of friends, they're just naturally going to want to listen to your podcast. Okay. Remember, the newsletter is not like SEO or even Instagram where you're trying to compete with a feed or compete with Google's latest update.
[00:17:31] Caroline Hull Right.
[00:17:32] Liz Wilcox Remember, it's a great connector. So how to turn people into friends so that they actually care to click on your thing. You just have to do a few things. Number one, show that you are invested. Of course, you know, posting a new episode every single week shows, Hey, this person really cares about getting me to the finish line, right? But saying it very explicitly in the newsletter, saying, you know, it took me 2 hours to record this episode or I just spent $300 on a new microphone, so I don't sound like crap. Click here to check out the news now. Right. Something like that. And I mean, it seems so elementary, but I'm telling you right now, like, it will be advantageous to just be very direct. And also, we have to bring to the forefront of people's mind that this is a business, that this is something you are actively invested in. And the more you can show people that you are invested, the more content you share in that way that says, Hey, I just spent $300 on this. Hey, I finally got so-and-so on the podcast. It took me three months to find the right contact. This is my dream guest. The more you can show your invested, the more people are going to invest back into you, the more people are going to say, Oh wow, they worked really hard on that episode. I'm going to check it out. More so than listening. Hey, on this episode, we're going to talk about the top three email mistakes and what to put in. Nobody cares about that, but they will care if you say all the things that led up to the making of the episode, Right? We remember that show night, you know, hashtag nineties kid like making the band. You would people you would think people would only want to like listen to the songs like where's the song? Where's the song? Get to the music video already? But no, we loved watching the actual making of the band, the audition, the practicing. We love that behind the scenes stuff, right? So in your newsletter showing that you're invested, sharing that behind the scenes stuff is going to be so awesome.
[00:19:40] Liz Wilcox The second thing is share in a relatable way. And of course, all that stuff I just shared about you investing is relatable. But saying something like, Oh, my zoom link didn't work and I almost missed recording this. Or Hey, I just sat down to write this. It's been a really long day or, you know, it's been a great day. I took my dog for a walk around the park. You know, I met a friend for lunch. All of that stuff, you might think, what the heck, That's you're wasting real estate lives. I should be selling something. Or I just want to. They want to know what's in the episode. No, they want to get to know you. Remember emails, consent based. You're not the only person that talks about what you talk about, but they opted into your thing, right? I'm not the only email marketer out there, but I'm telling you right now I'm the only one showing up. And rainbow glasses and a headband and a Jerry Seinfeld mullet. Okay. There's a reason why I'm on this episode versus someone else, right? So allow yourself to be relatable.
[00:20:43] Liz Wilcox And the last thing I'll say about relatability is notice I didn't say interesting when we try to be interesting is when we fumbled the ball is when our 10th grade English teacher comes up behind us and is like, this is exactly how you tell a story. Right. But when we can just be relatable. Oh yeah, I just got done walking the dog or I almost didn't get this episode out on time because such and such happened. Oh, I'm three weeks ahead. This is the first time. Celebrate with me. Right. Those are all really relatable things. And then, of course, staying top of mind, making sure that you are consistent in your emails, whether you're like Caroline and you have to write the email at 11 p.m. the night before. Just making sure you get your butt in the chair and you don't even have to come to the table, you know, send an email out every single week. Because when you show that you're invested and you're really relatable, staying top of mind becomes so much easier. Right. So that's what I want to say. About the content.
[00:21:48] Caroline Hull I feel like I it's having like a million light bulbs go off while you were talking because I definitely think I have fallen into the trap of all my emails have just become very business like, you know, here's how I'm going to solve your problem. Here's how I'm going to do the thing. Here's what we talked about in the episode. And I'm realizing as you're talking, like I, I show more of myself on Instagram than I do in my email list. And I think somewhere along the way I thought to myself, my email lists had to be super like, I don't know, stuff in high value. May I'm not. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Do you find that that's a common problem, you see?
[00:22:27] Liz Wilcox Yeah, of course. Look, go to your phone right now and look at how many unread emails.
[00:22:33] Caroline Hull That's true. That's true.
[00:22:34] Liz Wilcox It's not because you hate email. It's because most people do it wrong. Most people are like Old Navy or the NFL, and they're just listing things and, you know, hey, check out this thing. Here's here's all the value I'm providing. But if you again, you know, write this down or, you know, draw it in a circle, if you're doing the dishes, you know, draw it on yourself, whatever you're doing right now, connect. Remember, you're just trying to connect the same way. You know, the best podcasts make us feel like we're in the conversation. Like you're sitting right next to Caroline right now, right? Those are the best podcasts. Those are the ones we like to tune into. The ones that are, you know, of course, we want to follow an outline, right? We don't want to be all over the place, but. You get what I'm saying? You make sure.
[00:23:24] Caroline Hull You're.
[00:23:25] Liz Wilcox Really connected. And the last thing I'll say before I forget about, you know, segueing into the episode, like getting people to actually click. You know, of course, you make the connection at the top. And then when you post your episode, instead of, you know, here are the five things we got. Here's some bullet points of what we talk about. Pull out points of intrigue. What was your favorite part of the episode? Caroline? And then put that, Oh, I can't wait for you to get to this 17 minute mark. Liz talks about this in such a way I've never heard anyone else explain email this way.
[00:24:02] Caroline Hull I love that.
[00:24:03] Liz Wilcox Yeah, maybe it's. Oh, don't you know, Skip, Skip to the three minute mark. I went off on a tangent. Unless you want to hear me on my soapbox. You know, you can skip that 3 minutes or whatever, or I just recorded a new intro. I can't wait for you to hear it. Those points of intrigue. What are your favorite parts of the episode instead of coming at it from? What value did I give? And it's just a little mindset shift, but it makes such a big change. Instead of trying to say, Oh, we we covered the three things. We did this, we did that, it's oh my gosh, this was the most juicy part. This was so exciting. Or, Oh my gosh, this is the craziest part. You know, depending on your person, I would probably point out the Crunchy seven personality, right? Me Do I know whatever that whatever that point of intrigue is, whatever your favorite part of the episode or whatever. That can't miss two minute mark, whatever put that there. You know, again, we're making that connection at the top. Oh, my gosh. It took me 3 hours to edit this podcast. Phew. So excited. It's finally out there. Oh. Click here to listen. Oh, by the way, if you only have 5 minutes, skip to the 1730 mark. I really want you to hear what Caroline has to say about da da da da da. That right That. Oh, I click and baby, I got 5 minutes instead of, you know, click here. We went over this, that and the other. You know, it's not a thesis, you know. Does that make sense? Is that helpful?
[00:25:35] Caroline Hull Yeah, that's super helpful. I'm like thinking in my head, I'm like reworking my newsletter in my brain as we're sitting here. You know, anything to that? That connection piece you're talking about is so important when we're also talking about like building authority and wanting people to click and buy, you know, we forget sometimes how important creating connection is and how people do want to get to know you. And I think that's something that's really changed in like online marketing and business over the last few years, is people now they really want to know who they're buying from, right? And so I love that you mentioned that because I do talk a lot about how you need to inject some of who you are, your personality, into your podcast so people get a feel for how you work and how you approach what you do. So when they hop on the phone, it's not like you were a totally different person on your podcast. And so I feel like that that is the same thing that we're talking about in the email. You know, my emails are so as I'm thinking about it, they're just so stuffy and direct and I'm like, That's not really how I am in person, so that doesn't make sense. So I will definitely be leaving this, this interview with some things to do and work on with my email newsletters. So if you're a listener and email newsletter subscriber, expect those to change a little bit. And if they don't hold me accountable and message me on Instagram about it.
[00:26:54] Liz Wilcox So I'm so excited I'm subscribing. I can't wait. I can't wait to see what you come up with. Yeah, yeah. Well it's ah, people buy from people they trust, you know. Yeah. And so the more trust you can build, the more you can say, Hey, this is who I am, this is my style of things. There's a reason why Nike, Coca-Cola, all these gigantic international brands spend millions of dollars trying to get us to think that they're humans, right? Yeah, but we have the advantage here. We are humans. We are most likely just a team of one. Maybe you've got, you know, upwards of five, you know, people, part time, whatever. We have such an advantage because we are actually that person posting. We are the lady behind the mic, right? And so we have we have this huge advantage and we've got to we've got to take advantage of that.
[00:27:52] Caroline Hull Yeah, I love it so much. So when we think about content for our email newsletter.
[00:28:21] Liz Wilcox Yes. Most email marketers will tell you one email, one rule. Well, if you can't tell by now, I'm a contrarian. I hate that rule. If you have one email, let's say three weeks in a row and three weeks in a row, I don't care about the thing that you shared with me. I'm not going to open email four, five, six, you know what I'm saying? So for me, it's like, you know, I'm going to curate a newsletter. And of course it's not going to be that church brochure or whatever we were talking about. But I, you know, I want to give my audience choices. So if I've got a podcast episode. But I'm also, you know, open and rolling this program down here. I'm going to put both or if I've got, you know, hey, I really want to promote my Instagram because I know I've got some fire reels coming out, but. Oh, yeah. Yes. Don't forget, I got my episode. I cannot wait for you to hear what Liz Wilcox has to say about email or whatever. That's totally fine. Of course. Don't. Five, six links. You know, that's too much. But two or three, if you want to condense that into one email and give people choices, honestly, that's not really going to get your click rate up because people. Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to listen to that episode or I don't have time for that episode, but I can follow her on Instagram. Sure. I didn't know she had an Instagram, right? Or Oh, that's a new blog post, right? Maybe you even curate at the bottom three episodes, You know, click here if you need this this week. Click here. If you need that this week, click here for my favorite episode of all time. You know, something like that is totally fine. But of course, to Caroline's point, if you want to keep them separate, that's awesome. You know, I always say the more emails, the better, especially if you're doing your following, not email staircase. You know, you're trying to make friends. That connection is the word of this episode, right? Then more emails. That's going to be great. That's going to get your opening click right up to because people, the more familiar you can become in the inbox. Oh, that's Caroline. Yeah. I wonder what she has to say. The, you know, the the more that's going to just grow your business.
[00:30:32] Caroline Hull Yeah. And I think you said earlier, like the key really was consistency. So like you said, like making sure that they're seeing you in your inbox consistently and often because you think otherwise it'll kind of get lost in the emails.
[00:30:46] Liz Wilcox Yeah, absolutely. So. Email. Your inbox is the same as your mailbox. You go out to your mailbox. Oh, that's a bill. I don't have to open that. Oh, that's for John. I really wish the United States Postal Service would stop reminding me of my ex. He moved out three months ago. Okay, I'm trying to move on and. Oh, my gosh, That's. That's a letter from Caroline. I wonder what it has to say. Well, she has to say I'm going to open it right away and everything else goes into that junk drawer or that pile on our right. It's the same in the inbox, if you can have that, you know, familiar like, oh, my gosh, Liz emailed me. I wonder what she has to say. But very the content. You don't want to be predictable. So this goes to Caroline's point of, oh, maybe I got an email about X, then I'm going to email about the show that I'm going to email about. Why? That's totally fine, because we want to like if Caroline sent me that same letter every single week and I was like, Oh, I know what's inside. And eventually that's going to go in the pile too. I'm going to save it for later. We do the exact same thing in our inbox. If I think that I know what's inside that email and I don't have time to listen to your podcast episode today, I'm going to save that for later. You know what I mean? I cannot tell you how many and I love them. I love you. If you're listening podcast hosts where it says like podcast, I know exactly. I don't even need to read the subject line. I know exactly. It's just going to be what we talked about, bullet points about what's in the episode and you know, somebody begging me to click the link. Now if they varied the content, if they sent more than one email week, I'd probably start to open them more and more because chances are not always whenever you send out the email, I might not have time to listen to the episode right now. So if I think that's the only thing inside the email, then I might not open it. You know what I mean? But if you vary the content, you vary the style. Sometimes it's long, sometimes it's short. You know, that's where you're going to get that. Oh my gosh. They emailed me feeling over and over again and get that open rate up.
[00:32:54] Caroline Hull Oh my gosh. Okay. And my brain is just spinning right now. I have so many ideas and things I need to go work on, which is why I'm so glad that you came on the podcast so we could talk about this. It's like it's very selfish. The guest I have on my podcast because I'm like, Oh, I need to work on this thing. Let me find a guest who talks about it because I know that everybody else probably needs to work on it too, if I do. So thank you so much. I would love for you to share some things that you have. So let's say we've listened to the episode and we want to get more of Liz and more of her great tips. Where would you recommend we start heading to your website and we see all the things. What would you recommend we do first?
[00:33:34] Liz Wilcox I'm so glad you asked. I'm an email marketer. I would love for you to join my email list if you want to see what the heck I'm talking about. You know, how do I make that connection? How do I show that I'm invested? How do I write newsletters that actually get people to feel closer to me? Just go to Liz Wilcox dot com in the top right hand corner. You're going to see a hot pink button. You cannot miss it. It says free email swipes. And you're going to get three newsletter examples that show you exactly what Caroline and I have been talking about this whole time. You're going to get one newsletter sample that shows you how to get people to click, which is what we've been talking about. Another to show you how to get people to reply, which is really important when you want that customer research, you're trying to survey your audience, etc., etc.. And the third, how to get people to buy directly from your newsletter. If that's not enough, if you're like, Oh my gosh, I'm just beginning. Where do I start? You also get an entire welcome sequence completely ties for you. It's like Mad Libs. You can go in, right? That welcome sequence. It should only take you about 30 minutes. I'm not joking. And of course, because I know writing from scratch totally sucks, especially if you're considering a podcast or you have a podcast, you're probably more of a talker than a writer. So I've got 52 subject lines completely for free with, well, cars.com, hot pink button. You can't miss it.
[00:35:01] Caroline Hull Awesome. Thank you so much. Those are amazing resources. And yes, I have downloaded those. I'm going to be working on that this weekend. I'm super excited to dive into it. Liz, it was such a joy to meet you and I'm so glad that we could connect and I could connect you to my listeners. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
[00:35:18] Liz Wilcox Yeah, thanks for listening. I cannot wait to see what everybody does with email marketing. Let's go. Yay!
[00:35:25] Caroline Hull Oh, I just love that episode with Liz. It was so good. I really hope you enjoyed it and took lots of notes and walked away with some things that you can actually go and implement today. I know for me, email has always been one of these things that I know I need to do and have struggled with, and since this episode was recorded, I actually did join Liz's membership. It's only $9 a month and it's kind of amazing. She literally sends out an email template each week and I feel like it's really up. It's my email game. It's also made it a lot easier for me to sit down and think about what I want to email about. I definitely have a content calendar and know what I want to share each week, but as you heard in the episode, I tend to be really just stuffy in my emails and so I've really appreciated all of Liz's help through her templates and her membership and just being able to, I don't know, just really up level my emails. So definitely go check it out. We will put the link in the show notes and I know we talked about all the ways to connect with her, but if you are not following Liz, I highly recommend it. It brightens your day and teaches you all about email at the same time. It's amazing. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed this episode specifically about email, please let me know. You can hit us up hello@wildhomepodcasting.com. I may have to do a part two with Liz down the road so we can talk even more about growing your list and conversions and things like that. So let me know if you'd be interested in that and I will be back next week with a new episode. Thank you for listening to podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram at Wild Home Podcast. If you're ready to launch up level or grow your podcast, head to WildHomePodcasting.com to get started today.
