Latest / The Unfiltered Tea with Evie / How to Write a Welcome Email Sequence That Builds Trust
Transcript
- Evie Tavares: Welcome to the Unfiltered Tea with Evie podcast where personal brands and service providers come for honest, anti-sleeves marketing advice that actually works. I'm Evie Tavares, founder of Evie Tavares Branding. And if you're tired of manipulative tactics, sleazy marketing strategies, and feeling like you're the only one who doesn't have your business altogether, you're in the right place. On this podcast, we're diving into a copywriting, personal branding strategy, business mindset, Okay, before you go, have one thing that I want to share with you and it's to do with this email welcome sequence that we just talked about. have tried a number of different email marketing softwares and I'm going to be honest, I write, I'm a good writer. I'm, I'm good at that side of things. I am absolutely horrible at graphic design or design ⁓ like making things look pretty. make things sound really pretty, but I cannot make them look pretty to save my life. And So what about the cadence? How often do we want these emails going out? What days do we want these emails going out? Obviously, you want the first one to be right away as soon as they get your freebie or sign up for your email list. You want the first one to be instant, right? like to spread it out kind of over a week. So let's imagine for a second that the person signs up on a Monday. I like to spread it out that they're going to get an email. Welcome back. ⁓ finally back with another solo episode. It feels like it's been a hot minute since I've actually had the time to sit down ⁓ just record a solo. ⁓ been recording some amazing guest episodes, which I'm so excited I recorded two earlier today as well. So good guest episodes and it honestly like still makes me pinch myself sometimes at like who's coming on the podcast and I want to take a quick moment just to thank you so much for joining me in this space just to encourage you that if there was anything that kind of sparked something for you or you felt like somebody that you know maybe needed to hear, please feel free to share the episode. ⁓ And you are excited to hear more, go ahead and subscribe and listen to more of the episodes. the second email on Wednesday, and they're going to get the third email on Friday. I like to space that out a little bit just because I don't like to overwhelm an audience. Some people do every day. Some do like consistent days. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Again, it's really whatever your preference is. My go is usually like one day, skip a day, send one, skip a day, send the third one. Just the things that we get to talk about are just, they just lighten me up so much. And it's, it's a reminder of why I started the podcast the thing that I enjoy most. think about the podcast, but I do love a good solo episode too. ⁓ this is, ⁓ I think I started a, a series about email marketing. I think I started one episode about kind of how to start email marketing. And then I promised to come back and talk about it more. ⁓ And like said, it's been a hot minute since the solo episode. So, and balancing business with kids and real life. I'll be bringing in some epic guests, including business experts share their insights and real experiences in life and business. You can expect real life stories, tactical tips, ⁓ and the spicy EV moment, all served up with your morning cup of tea. So grab your tea, get cozy, and let's get into it. Some of the programs that I was using before were like very hard to navigate, very hard to like customize different things and create templates. And I really struggled with it. I just wanted like a simple, clean process and like simple templates that I can just reuse over and over again. And I found Flowdesk ⁓ Flowdesk is so easy to use. The templates are beautiful. Even I can make my emails look good. And if I can do that, then anyone can do it, including you. I'm so excited that you're here and I can't wait to continue this journey with you. That's just my preference. At the end of the day, it's, you know, there's no right or wrong answer here, I don't think. If you're kind of looking at it, once you've got your welcome sequence going, you can look at the analytics and see what the open rates are. The open rates, click through rates, like make sure you're tracking your analytics on it. If people are unsubscribing after the second email, like let's say you do send them every day, three days in a row. If people are unsubscribing under the second email, maybe spread it out a little bit more. I want to dive into that topic again today, specifically around welcome sequences, because that's been something that came up. I was in the High Vibe Women community online. Somebody was asking about a welcome sequence and kind of what that looks like. And there were some that I was able to give that maybe not everybody really thinks of with their welcome sequence. So I want to dive into that. But before we do that, let's do a little bit of a catch up because it, like I said, it's been a minute. And I have good news for you as well. Everything with this can be like a little bit of an experiment to you, like anything in business, it's all an experiment. So look at the analytics, see what's working, and don't be afraid to tweak it a little bit. Figure out what's gonna work best for you and for your audience. What have I been up to? I have been recording guest episodes, like I said, it's been a very heads down season. I can't even think of when the last solo episode was. I honestly don't remember. But yeah, I've been doing ⁓ heads down with a lot of client work. There's a lot of big projects that were going on towards the end of March and into April. And also I'm traveling for most of May. I'm taking three weeks off, which is, I don't think I've ever taken three weeks off, or maybe I did. We took 20 days off, like way, way back 10, 11 years ago, I think, to do a Europe trip. but that was a very long time ago. And so, yeah, we're doing three weeks away. so I've just been like, as a Flowdesk partner, I have a special code for you where you can actually save 25 % off your first year with Flowdesk. And ⁓ makes big difference. So you get beautiful emails and you get to save and you can this beautiful welcome sequence for your audience. There's really no downside to this. So. ⁓ Go ahead and grab the link in the show notes if you want to give flow desk a try. If you have any questions about how it works or anything, let me know. I'm always happy to help. go have fun with your emails for goodness sakes. and make some templates that you love and that you can literally use over over again. prepping the business. I didn't book any projects for May, but I've been talking with my monthly clients, figuring out what they want for May so that I can deliver it in April. So it's a bit of a double up month for the monthly clients. Plus I have a website project I'm working on. Plus I have a couple of photo shoots that I'm doing. Plus I have ⁓ another video campaign that I'm planning for a corporate client of mine. We just wrapped on the first We've already filmed two. So one is wrapping up and will be ⁓ this week, I believe, which I'm so excited about. The second one we're working on editing right now, and then we want to start planning the next ones as well. So working on that, it's been super exciting. What else has been going on? Man, I'm just at my calendar here. Did a ton of photo shoots in March. then, well, April 1st was the This Mother Means Business Live event with Laura Sinclair. And Kelsey Riddle and I did an entire recap episode on that, which I think comes out on this Monday. So tune in for that one too. That's a little bonus episode for you if you want to hear about that event. That'll all be in there. And other than that, it's just been working hard and living life and spending time with the kids and praying for the snow to stop because we literally just got snow again yesterday in Ontario in Brantford and definitely not impressed. ⁓ to be a very self-professed winter person and am now a winter person saying that I'm sick of winter. So how bad does it have to get for that to happen? And really, honestly, I think we're good now. I think I have it on my calendar to plant my garden in a few weeks. So really hoping that that pans out. And yes, it is planting early. There's some things that you can plant towards the end of April. If you're curious about that, you can send me a message on Instagram. I worked with a garden consultant, Elmas. ⁓ I don't think that she's doing that anymore, but ⁓ I to work with her before. ⁓ And ⁓ yeah, like stuff like lettuce and like your onions and ⁓ your some of the herbs, I think. I can't I to double check before I plant them, but You can plant them late April and then you just like cover them if there's going to be frost. So, um, fingers crossed, there's not going to be any frost, but all of that stuff, I usually plant the last week of April and then it's ready to go for May. And then I plant like the other tomatoes and peppers and, um, all those other things. I plant them, uh, after the May 24 weekend. So the garden will get started and I need the snow to stop for that to happen. So fingers crossed with me, uh, I need you to support me in this and ⁓ pray for my garden towards the end of April. So that's a little bit of a recap on what's been going on. Let's dive into the email marketing welcome sequence. So ⁓ gonna break it down to the absolute basics for you. What is a welcome sequence for email marketing? A welcome sequence is usually like ⁓ specific number of emails. that are sent to new subscribers, whether they've just joined your list randomly, or if they're downloading a freebie, or if they've joined your program, or they're new to your email marketing audience. And you kind of those different avenues where people are joining your email list, it's probably a good idea to have. a welcome sequence for each of those things, but I don't want you to feel overwhelmed by that. Let's just keep it very basic. It can be, I would say the most important one is for your general email list, people signing up. Actually, that's a lie. If you have a freebie, you definitely want a welcome sequence of like three to four emails on there. The other ones can be one email. If you want to just do one email, call it a day and come back to them later, then that's okay. Let's start with the ⁓ three email sequence though, and what that can look like. I think people's instinct when it comes to writing their welcome sequence is for the first email to be like, hi, I'm Evie. This is who I am. This is my business. And just making it all about you. And while I personally love to hear about you, your audience is thinking about themselves. And I mean that in the best way. They want to know what's in it for them. So if they've downloaded a freebie and you're jumping on them of this is who I am, this is, this is what I do, this is my business. I want you to pivot that to acknowledging them, making them realize that they're in the right place and why are they in the right place? So you've given them your freebie, they've signed up for your list, whatever option we're looking at here. Acknowledge why they're there. So, hey, you signed up for this freebie, I'm delivering it to you. acknowledge that they're in the right place. So this is a space for people who ⁓ to learn about garden consulting. If you look at your garden every spring and you have no idea what to do with it, if you didn't know that you could plant in last of April, and your garden looks like it's dying like halfway through the year, this is where you need to be. So you want to make them feel right at home. It's like opening the door, them take their shoes off, taking their coat and hanging it up. You're welcoming them. You're not, you know, offering the wine and the cake and ⁓ the just yet. You want to welcome them in and make them feel at home. The second email is where we're going to start tying in who you are and. I usually, I love to do this through like storytelling. like tell them your story, but not the long winded version. We want these emails to be really simple and clear and short and sweet. we want to kind of give them a taste ⁓ what we have to offer. ⁓ telling your story a little bit, who you are, what your business is, who you love to help, still making it a little bit about them. We want to talk about who you love to help, which is actually probably them let them kind of relate to you and get to know you a little bit on that personal level. And then tie it in kind of open a loop for them at the end of like in my next email, I'm going to drop, you know, five things that can help you to keep your garden lasting all summer long. I'm really good with the garden analogies right now, apparently. And you want something that's going to bring them back into that next email. So then the last email is where we can give them an opportunity to move an opportunity to take an action with you. It doesn't have to be to buy from you right away. We can make it like, it's like, again, like now we're offering them the wine, we're offering them the dessert, we're offering them the whatever now that they're in our homes. we want to show them what's to them. you can drop other freebies that you have available, resources, blog posts, again, simple, don't overwhelm them. Give them something that you really think that they're going to benefit from. This is where depending on how they signed up for your list, you can kind of tailor this to, to that. So if they signed up through your general list, do you have a freebie that you can give them? If they signed up by your freebie, do you have a blog that you can put them to? Do you have a podcast? Do you have an Instagram post or offer them something free? And then you can also touch on what are some really great ways for people to work with you. that are paid Start with a low ticket offer or even the ⁓ I don't know you could be like let's hop on a coffee chat. Let's chat. Let's get to know each other. This is really going to be specific you and your audience but you always want to end this third email with some sort of call to action to try and get people to take a move or to make a move. Something that I want to add to you that I always like to do with a welcome sequence is in order to improve the deliverability on the rest of your emails. So that's whether they go to junk, whether they get delivered at all. if they're going to go directly into people's inboxes is to people to engage from the very first email. then so you can do like there's I think flow desk has you can do a poll in there so you can ask a question but don't make it like salesy like I said we're not selling until the third email you can be like what's something that surprised you about your garden last year or what's something you'd be interested in learning about gardening like or Just or even you can have them reply. So ask them a question and encourage them to reply and make it personal. Be like, I read every response. I can't wait to connect on this with you. I can't wait to hear your answer. I'm going to reply. I'm going to read it. them to engage in some way because the other thing that you're doing when you do that from the very beginning is training your audience to engage with your emails. So if you can get them to do it on the first email. Not only are you improving the of the rest, you're improving the chance that they're going to feel okay engaging with emails in the future, whether that's clicking a link or a call to action to book something with you, or even replying. Like I find a ⁓ lot of people that reply to my emails are people who have replied from the very beginning. if somebody's in the habit of just getting your email, reading it, and moving on with their day, that's okay, they're still reading it. But once already gotten in that habit, it's hard to get them to do something else like engage or take an action. So encouraging them from the very start to do that with you kind of builds that habit and trains them to be able to do that in the future. And the other thing that I like to do in the third email is kind of give them an expectation of what's next. So obviously they've joined your email list. They're going to go into your regular nurturing emails that you're going to be sending on a consistent basis. Right? Right? Maybe. You want to let them know what they can expect from those emails so that they're excited to open them. They're excited to read them. If there's a specific topic that you like to talk about or a specific value that you bring to the table with those emails. You want to make sure that you're sharing that with them as well. So that's usually my go-to for a general welcome sequence. That's kind of the flow that I like to have. And again, I don't want to overwhelm you or make you feel like you have to now go write these three emails for every single lead magnet that you have every single ⁓ sign up that you have. I don't want you to feel overwhelmed like that. Like if three feels like too much, break it down to one. The biggest thing that I want to say is like, keep it simple. Don't overwhelm people. Keep it clear. Make sure that it's in your voice. If you ⁓ using AI to write the emails, I'm not judging. I'm just saying read out loud in your own voice because I guarantee that if you even if prompt it properly and even if you had AI write it, I guarantee you that if you read it out loud, there's going to be things that you're like, ⁓ that doesn't sound like me at all. So go back, change it, add your personality, sure that your personality is in there and that people are getting to know you as a person through these emails. not just that they're like fluffy generic things. I think the next, the next time that I talk about this, the next part of this series is going to be around sales sequences. So we know what a welcome sequence is now. I want to talk about what a sales sequence is, where it can be used, how to best do it in a launch other things that I've kind of noticed have worked really well along with the sales sequences and launches. So be the next thing that I'd love to talk about. But if you have any other questions at all, my DMs are always open. I'm literally on Instagram, like way too much, unfortunately, but that means my DMs are open and that means I'm on there to read them. So go ahead and send me a DM on Instagram if you have any more questions about a welcome sequence. It is something that I offer ⁓ like writing the welcome sequence for you. So if that's ever something that you're in the market for, you like a welcome sequence for your email list. That's my cup of tea. I'm all over that. You can go ahead and reach out and we can chat about that. And yeah, just like make it your own. Have fun with it. Like email marketing is such a fun thing to me because it's such a great opportunity to, like I said, connect with your audience on a deeper level, show your personality, tell your stories and just have fun with it. It doesn't have to be like selling all the time. You want to make sure that you're nurturing and building that relationship with your audience as well. Okay, that wraps up this solo episode. I hope that you loved it and would love to hear your thoughts and what you would like to hear more of next. So thank you for listening in and we will chat soon.