Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / “We built our email list to 20,000!” Building Your Email List

Transcript

“We built our email list to 20,000!” Building Your Email List · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:10
  Oh, hey there. Hey there. I feel like we haven't recorded one of these in a couple of weeks. We haven't. It's been too long. It feels good to sit here with the mic again. You've been jet-setting. Well, I was jet-setting. And then you're jet-setting. We were both jet-setting. You in a much more exotic place than I was. And now we're back. Where were you jet-setting? I missed this.
• 0:37
  No, I was in Brisbane with my grandpa. Ah, yes, I remember. You were in, you know, French castles. Gallivanting in France. Could be worse. Yeah, love that for you. Oh my God, I still can't even get over that venue. I'm like, well, what the heck? It's gorgeous, hey? It's so nice. What's it called again?
• 0:59
  uh la chateau la champlatre i'm probably butchering that big time but it's just north of paris and it's gorgeous i'll send you some pictures they had some official ones made up i love that for you oh gosh it's on my list
• 1:15
  Last time we were going to start recording, I had on my list to talk to you about cold showers. And I think we never got around to recording that episode. So we never got around to having that conversation. And I remember you saying to me at the time, like, hold that thought. Let's not talk about it in real life. Let's talk about it when we record.
• 1:32
  Here we are. Here we are. A few weeks later. Refresh my memory. What were we about to talk about? You started doing cold showers. That's what you were about to say. I've started cold showers. Yeah. Okay, talk me through it. So basically, I don't even know why I started. I think I've just been feeling a bit like, blah. I had been, at least. And...
• 1:53
  doing a lot of podcasting and reading about different things that are kind of going on in the space and different things that you can do for wellness. I feel like I have a deep dive into this like every six months or so and then make some big life changes. Yep. Last one was meditation. Exactly. You just jumped right into that.
• 2:13
  Exactly. That's still going strong. Jumped right into that, did the multi-day intensive course and then started meditating twice a day for 40 minutes or whatever insane stuff you do. Love it. Exactly. This is the pattern. You know it by now.
• 2:28
  I was doing the same again without the intense retreat, but just kind of diving into the podcast. And it's also something that you've been talking about often. But I've always just been horrified by the idea because I'm in England and I really hate the cold. And that was just enough to put me off. But I was listening to a lot of Wim Hof, who is...
• 2:50
  the guy who is kind of seen as kind of the founding father of ice therapy and breathing techniques. And there's a lot to be said about kind of his method and way of working and not everyone agrees with it. But there are a lot of interesting studies out there about the effect that both of these practices together have had on him. And
• 3:13
  I listened to one that he did. He did it with a... I'm probably going to butcher this as well. I'm sorry. It's early. Please butcher it. Please. He did a study in the Netherlands where they...
• 3:25
  effectively injected an E. coli bacteria into his system to see if his body would be able to fight it. And they injected it into his system and like 20 other people. Everyone else got sick. And him, with doing the breathing exercises and exposing himself to cold therapy every day, was able to ward off this virus completely naturally.
• 3:45
  And this is a huge breakthrough in terms of immunity, in terms of, you know, strength and that you're able to do this yourself without any medication. These are two tools that you just have. Maybe this is why I never get sick.
• 4:00
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's really something to it. And first he was like, everyone was like, okay, this is great. This guy's able to do this. But it's one thing, one person being able to do this. And it's one thing kind of being able to replicate that in other people. So he trained other people with his method, which is,
• 4:17
  It's a breathing method, which you can very easily find online. I think you use it to calm down your nervous system before you go on stage, right? This like Wim Hof breathing. Yeah, I do the 11-minute guided one before I do anything that's like live public speaking. Like things where I can't control my nervous system as easily. Even if I'm not nervous before, I'll immediately get nervous on stage. So then I do like breathing exercises to really like...
• 4:44
  calm down my whole body and the state of difference from like A to B is so noticeable for me. Whereas like I could do meditation for 30 days and I would see zero difference and like feel nothing different and probably just be frustrated. Whereas this guided exercise of breathing and breath work is a noticeable shift for me in the moment. And I'm,
• 5:09
  I love things where you can see the difference. I hate taking a supplement and then you're like, cool, did that do anything? I don't know. I like the feeling of A to B. And so, yeah, I find Wim Hof just mind-blowing. It's such a good tool and also a good reminder that everyone kind of has their thing and that thing that's going to work for them, both kind of like practical time-wise, but also what's going to be the thing that you just end up sticking with.
• 5:36
  And yeah, he ended up teaching this other group of, say, 20 people his technique, and then they repeated that study on them and they had the same result, which was being able to ward off this virus.
• 5:49
  purely through cold therapy and the breathing exercises. So anyway, I've been diving into that seriously and feel great. So thank you. I love this view. You know, I convinced the chick down at the cafe, my local like coffee shop to start doing cold water therapy too, because I talk about it all the time to like anyone who will listen. And, you know, she was also like, oh my God, like I haven't been able to do it. I haven't been able to do it. I haven't been able to do it.
• 6:12
  And then one day, finally, she was like, okay, I started. I'm multiple days in. I'm hooked. I love it. Like, yes, I'm on board. I was like, oh, I love this view. Some people don't like it. Like PA, my husband, he doesn't get what I get. I get natural endorphins. I get like immediate mood boost. It was harder in the beginning. And I also started in Swiss mountains, middle of winter, glacier water. So I would like...
• 6:35
  almost be physically sick and need to cry but like just pushed past that and then it became like a habit but now it's like addictive and I look forward to the moment that I have a cold shower no matter the only time I don't do it is when I have my period because I really need the hot water like boiling hot on the back of my back and nothing else I can't do cold when I have my period it's just too fucked up
• 6:58
  But for me, I'm addicted to that feeling and I feel so good afterwards and like so alive, whereas for PA, he doesn't get that. He just feels crap. And so it's like I do know that it doesn't work for everyone. It's not a one-size-fits-all, but for me and now for you, I'm just like it's so good. Have I also told you what I take in addition to doing a Wim Hof thing in the mornings to like calm – sorry, not in the mornings. If I am doing a stage thing or like a public –
• 7:28
  thing that's going to make me nervous. I take half a teaspoon of L-theanine. Have you heard of this? Oh, no, I haven't heard of this. So my naturopath recommended it to me and...
• 7:40
  I can't remember. She'd recommended it to me and then I was telling her that I'd gotten a lot out of Wim Hof. And she was like, oh, yeah, like take these at the same time because basically what it does is it's kind of coming into, you know, this whole space of like Andrew Huberman and those guys, like these kind of biohacking sphere. Yeah, biohacking guys. They basically like –
• 8:04
  use it in the mornings. Let's say you have like coffee and you get the jitters or something like that. You know, that feeling like kind of in the middle of your chest, like under your neck, you can get the feeling of like flutters and you're like, like short of breath feeling. And so you can get that if you have like too much caffeine and you can also get that when you're anxious about going on stage or whatever, like you've got to control. Like that's the part of me that I can't control. My body's like nervous response happens in that part of my body where I
• 8:32
  kind of thing. Like I just need to calm that down. So the breathing definitely helps, but L-theanine takes away those flutters. That's like the response that it gives. So when you do both of them, you just, even if you might still be nervous and things like that, but you don't have that feeling of like, I need to take that kind of like gasp. And you can also take it, it's kind of like, you know, you get it at the health food store, like just off the shelf. It's not like anything weird or anything. Yeah.
• 8:59
  And you can also take it at nighttime just before you're kind of like winding down to go to sleep. And again, it like calms the nervous system and like prepares you for that thing. But it doesn't make you sleepy. It just calms the nervous system. Yeah. Oh, amazing. I'm going to look that up. Please send it to me after we record.
• 9:16
  You don't drink caffeine though, do you? So I feel like... I do again, yeah. Oh, you do again. One thing gets better and then another thing drops off. You can't remove everything. It's just not possible. We need to have all the joy. We need joy. Can't have it all. Yeah.
• 9:31
  But a good point on the period thing as well. And I think also with these Wim Hof methods, they say to not try it when you're pregnant. Also be careful when you're on your period. And I mean, also the same with this healthy, I mean, like obviously check all the things before with the health provider. Yeah, this is not health advice. This is, disclaimer, not medical advice. Simply sharing a personal experience. Yeah, totally. Totally.
• 10:00
  Okay, well, let's jump in today's episode. I am so excited about this one. I'm excited too. I think it's going to be an absolute gem because I think it's something that really like everyone listening, I know for a fact is busy with in some way or another and definitely needs to nail. And that's building an email subscriber list. Woohoo! Woohoo!
• 10:24
  My cup of tea. Let's get into it. Where do you want to start? Exactly. If I look at my work with FSC, one of my favorite buckets or favorite parts, and I think that's because you have this opportunity to have a real direct line with your most engaged and your most loyal fans. So it's kind of like the VIP club of FSC and also a contact list that you fully own. So it's not like with...
• 10:49
  Instagram or with TikTok where you're kind of succumbing to this algorithm and you're having to play this game and you're kind of at the mercy of this thing changing all the time and having to keep up with that. The email list feels like something a lot more sturdy and something where you have your people that have opted in to be there and that's your little VIP club and
• 11:11
  I just love it. So we're going to dive in today. I mean, 100%. If you think about like ads and the kind of journey of an ad, it's like you pay to acquire a customer, but you want to use your email list to be the retention of that customer and the ongoing nurturing of that customer.
• 11:31
  Retaining a customer is so much cheaper than acquiring through an ad because I think it costs five times more to acquire through an ad every time versus just like keeping that customer like happy and like a long term relationship. And once you've already paid for that customer, you want to make sure that you're leveraging your email list because then you're not paying again. You know, you own that list like you can reach them with the marketing like however often you're going to market to them. So, yeah, email list, absolute gold.
• 12:01
  It's key. Key channel. Key channel. How would you suggest kind of for someone starting out, either someone who already has a little bit of a following online and is looking to transfer those people onto an email database, but also people that are really just starting from scratch. What do you see as some of the more effective strategies for attracting new people onto that list? Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
• 12:25
  So, well, I've got like my perspective of how we build our email database and like our list. And then I've also got the perspective of how I help the clients that I work with and early stage founders who are going through the process too. So for us, as you obviously already know, but for anyone listening, for us, one of our biggest drivers to the newsletter, which has been totally free, it's been through an investment of time.
• 12:48
  has been finding these repeatable content series that I can do on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels that essentially drive people to the link in bio because they want to get this thing that I'm offering in the link in bio that they then download in return for their email address.
• 13:09
  One of our best performing lead magnets, and you might even have some other examples like Top of Mind that we've done, but the best performing one by far has been our grant document. So obviously, like I'd focused really hard on building our TikTok. It's nearly at 50,000 followers or my personal TikTok nearly at 50,000 followers. We've been focusing really hard on building our Instagram and my personal Instagram. But TikTok is where we were starting to see kind of a lot more of those viral videos. Yeah.
• 13:36
  And really early on, like last year or maybe even the year before, I started to post these videos about grants. And at that time, we didn't have the grant document. We just were posting like kind of videos of when I would find a cool grant that was relevant to female founders and early stage business owners.
• 13:55
  And, you know, I was getting so much engagement in the comments being like, what did I put? The call to action at the end was always something like, let me know where you're based and I'll find a grant that's relevant to you too. So call to action, engagement, viral video, basically. And so we tried like multiple different things. And then this was one that just seemed to start working and like stuck. And so I'd get like 30 comments and then that would start driving the virality of that video.
• 14:21
  And I'd start replying being like, okay, amazing. I'll put that on my list and I'll do it next, et cetera, et cetera. And then we would daisy chain. I think that's the term. We would daisy chain it to then do another grant video from that person's location. So I'd reply with a video being like, cool, you're in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here's one that's relevant to you.
• 14:41
  So those videos started to work. And I was like, wait a second, imagine if we then use this as an opportunity to capture emails. So that's when we fleshed out the grant document. We put it behind, you know, like a, not like a paywall, but like an email wall. So you had to basically put your email in to be able to download that thing. It was an automated process. They clicked through, downloaded it with their, like put their email in and then they'd get an email where they could download it.
• 15:05
  And so I set that up and then I would go back through like hundreds of comments at this point being like, hey, I actually just made a document that you can download. You know, I've linked it in my bio. And so then this started like a cycle and we just did rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat on that. And so, you know.
• 15:24
  I remember at one point, I think really early on, maybe 5,000 people were using it like really fast. And then people started posting about it on Twitter and people started posting about it on LinkedIn. And it became a bit of a thing that we were known for and ripped off by as well. Like a lot of people started doing their own grant documents and...
• 15:41
  And I was like, nice, this worked really well for us. And it's still a really big driver for us in the sense that we now have it set up in our, we use Beehive for our kind of weekly branded newsletter. And within that, it's set into our like referral loop. So if you refer three people or I can't remember what it is, maybe it's five people, then you'll get the grant document as well. So it's kind of like constantly driving new leads for us in different ways. And so that's what worked for us.
• 16:10
  And then how that's transpired across to the clients that I work with and my coaching clients is usually the clients that I have are gearing up to launch or they've kind of launched, but they're looking to get consistent with their marketing and drive that organic marketing. And as a bootstrapped founder, you're often wanting to use your time as the investment, not your money. So,
• 16:35
  For example, what we'll really focus on is starting to get that content engine working. We'll be building that consistent habit of posting, finding out what's working, testing different strategies for content that can go viral. And then once we're in a bit of a groove, things are starting to work. We're starting to get that viral moment happening on repeat. Then we start focusing on, okay, cool.
• 16:57
  What are the things that people are interested in? Why is this going viral? How could we then take these proven viral videos and create high value free lead magnets that people would definitely want to download? And we kind of, it's not like one size fits all. We really look at like, what are the signals that we can take for this and how can we then create something off the back of it? And...
• 17:19
  put it in the link in bio, get it all set up and start getting those emails coming in. And it's been amazing to see some of the results that we've had. So basically the key is, first of all, making sure it's all automated. So basically the only thing that you're doing on Instagram, you can automate with ManyChat and having the functionality that it'll reply for you instead of you having to physically reply on.
• 17:43
  Yeah, we'll link that in the show notes. That's a great, great note. It's a good one. But on TikTok, you manually have to reply. So it's kind of being like, you want to wait until there's like engagement there. And then you want to start going through and being like, hey, yeah, actually I've put something in my link in bio. And then the other thing that you want to make sure that you're doing is, and this is what I tell my clients,
• 18:02
  We don't want to spend 20 hours pulling something together. We don't want to put time into something that's not proven to be wanted. You want to basically take the approach of like, okay, cool, we've got some signals, we've got some simple ideas, let's whip something up as fast as possible. Like I'm talking like an hour tops.
• 18:20
  MVP style and see if it works because it might not work and this is the kind of stuff that needs to be like constantly cycled and like you rinse and repeat until it doesn't work anymore and then you've got to find the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. So it's like you don't want to invest 20 hours of time for something that's just going to flop. You want to kind of be, you know, giving yourself the best chance of identifying what it's going to be that your audience or your niche or your category would actually want and give their email for.
• 18:49
  And then you want to spend the least amount of time to get it kind of like set up, functioning, automated. And then if it's working, amazing, lean into it. You're creating more content and more content and more content that kind of points to it. And yeah, if it doesn't work, then you want to like go back to the drawing board and start that process again. But that's how you can start building your wait list and your email database at any point, really. Whether you have the brand launched or pre-launch, whatever, you can start at any point. But that system is set up to capture emails.
• 19:18
  immediately. And everyone should be doing that. Yeah, I love that. What are some examples of free lead magnets based on this process with the audience? Are we talking like templates or how, yeah, what kind of thing are we thinking of? Yeah, so it could be templates for sure. Like I've seen other creators, you know, Sim from Girls That Invest, she has this free template and it's kind of like a vision, a canvas style template for a vision board. And I'm,
• 19:46
  Again, she didn't strategically do that. What happened was she posted a video. It went totally viral, millions of views, and people being like, oh, my God, can I please have that? And so she was like, oh, yeah, sure, no worries. So then she just quickly set it up in the system, put it in her LinkedIn bio, and then started capturing the emails from that document that people were downloading. I've also seen something similar on...
• 20:09
  Andrea from Latinopreneur, I think that was her old account, but I forget what her last name is. But she also has some kind of like manifesting lead magnet that is really relevant for her audience. And it's free and like people just like love it and, you know, use that.
• 20:27
  And then if you're a beauty founder and you know that your audience is really into the dupes, you could put together like, you know, dupes are really like popular in the video style in TikTok where people are like, there's this, this is the premium version, but this is the version that I love that's, you know, half the price, whatever. You could be like, cool, I've put together this like epic list of dupes that do X or
• 20:53
  I think it's all about curation and putting something together that someone else can't find on the internet. It's like a personalized touch. Your audience knows you as a creator and like what you're doing. So they want the thing that you can give them that no one else can give them. And so it's not about putting it into ChatGPT and trying to find an answer or trying to like copy someone else's answer. It's about trying to look within you of like, what is the thing that I have? What is my special source that I could share that would be interesting based on, you know, the signals that I'm getting on social?
• 21:23
  So another example could be, and like, this is just not in depth at all, but like, if you're in the food space, okay, cool. Maybe it's like a specific kind of recipe book for that. Or if we take Monica Groney's podcast episode, for example, where she has her product is, you know, a supplement for women's like hormone issues and stuff like that. Like the things that we're missing, I think it's got like magnesium and all this good stuff in it.
• 21:48
  And her content is very focused on like lifestyle and how we should also be getting enough protein into our diet. So I could so see her having a lead magnet that's like, cool, here's all the recipes with 30 grams of protein that I make every day. And it's really simple. Here's my shopping list. You know, I do. These are like the lazy girl recipes. I do them in less than 15 minutes. I would totally download that, you know. So it really depends on...
• 22:12
  who you are and the kind of content that you're putting out and what the signals are that you can look for to kind of put an idea together. And then it's obviously like you want it to be within your niche or within your category, whatever industry that you're in, so that the people who are signing up to your wait list or your...
• 22:28
  email database by downloading this thing are then going to be excited about the journey you take them on. And obviously then the next step is having like a nurture sequence that's coming off the back of that download. So yes, they get the one email with the download, but then, you know, a new series of emails is triggered that is like, hey, welcome, like this is my story. And hey, welcome. This is why I built this brand. And hey, here's an offer if you'd like to try it, you know, that kind of stuff.
• 22:54
  What I love about this as well is you really get your engaged and relevant subscribers on board. So these are people that are really opting into the thing that you're creating anyway, and the thing that would be useful to them that then also kind of links back into your brand. And I think there are different ways to grow your email subscriber list. And I know like back in the early day, we were part of a giveaway at one point, I remember with a lot of different brands and you would end up
• 23:19
  With this big email subscriber list by the end of it of people that have signed up to you, but these aren't necessarily people that are going to stick around and they aren't the people that are going to be engaged and relevant. So there is also something to be said for the quality of your mailing list. Totally. There's different...
• 23:37
  I guess, a ranking that you would apply to, you know, a list that you're building through a giveaway versus a list that you're building through your audience where it's clear that they're coming through your channels and then you nurture those differently as well. So even if you do have a giveaway list that you've been building or you've been doing kind of like co-sharing lists with other brands, there are still ways that you can nurture off the back of that so that you only then capture the ones who actually want to learn more about your brand versus like dumping them
• 24:07
  you know, making the health of your email list go down. Yeah. And that health can look like, you know, a plummeting open rate or a click through rate that's very low. And then that then reflects back into, you know, if you would ever want sponsors on the newsletter or, you know,
• 24:24
  even for yourself, if people aren't going to be looking at that newsletter or something that they're opening, and you have an open rate that's very low, that's also not good for the overall health of the brand. I've seen some brands kind of pop into my email with a message of, hey, just checking you're still here. We're automatically going to remove you from this subscriber list unless you take XYZ action. I always think this is like a pretty brave approach to take, but it's interesting.
• 24:50
  Yeah, a lot of people, what they'll do is they'll go through like phases of clearing out the list. Because obviously, like, let's say you've got a huge list, you're obviously paying for this amount of subscribers. So if you've, A, like, got extra subscribers in your list that literally just, you know, in six months haven't opened an email from you and you've tried to re-engage and you've done these kind of campaigns to reconnect with them, then...
• 25:14
  Maybe it is worthwhile just removing that group of people. You could re-engage them in the future, but you wouldn't then be paying necessarily for those subscribers if they like bump you up into a different tier, like plan in your software, like hosting system. Or you can kind of just like filter them to the side and not count them in your stack of statistics or, you know, reporting and stuff. Yeah.
• 25:36
  you could, again, reactivate them or try and re-engage at another point or try a different campaign but not kind of include them in your month-on-month stats or week-on-week stats, however you're reporting. Oh, amazing. I love that. Yeah.
• 25:50
  To round off, I just wanted to get your take on if there are any newsletters that you're absolutely loving at the moment that you think people should subscribe to in terms of, you know, people that are doing a good job and have you hooked? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I am the worst being put on the spot. Let me just ponder for a second. Do you know any? I can go first. Yeah, I discovered one recently, which I don't even know how I came across it anymore, but it's called Sifted.
• 26:17
  And it's essentially, I don't know if you know it as well, it's a startup tech related newsletter that's largely based on the European startup tech sector. And I just love their layout. It's brilliant. They have really good information on there. And yeah, I almost want to see kind of a replica of this for every single region in the world. But it's brilliant. I'll send it to you and I'll link it in the show notes. Yeah.
• 26:41
  Amazing. Oh, I thought of one. I thought of one. It hasn't officially launched yet, but one of my clients is about to launch her newsletter on Beehive. It's called the Wellness and Spirituality Club. And she's kind of diving into all these different alternative practitioner therapies. So everything from things like, you know, what you would immediately think of, like astrology, breathwork, like witchy stuff, spells, but then right through to like
• 27:10
  Tantra and oh my god now I've forgotten like all the lists but there's like this huge list of really interesting like some of which I have never heard of before that she's kind of going to be doing deep dives and recommendations on kind of people who are also interested in this space that she's getting into so when it comes out we'll obviously shout about it on in our newsletter so make sure you're signed up to the weekly newsie yes and we'll recommend it in there yeah absolutely thanks
• 27:40
  Awesome. See you next week. That's the pod. See you next week. That's the pod.
• 27:48
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 28:13
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• 28:35
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show, and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.