Author's Edge: the Go-to Marketing Podcast in Publishing
Clear, honest insight on publishing, platform growth, and becoming the kind of author people pay attention to.
Each week, I break down what actually works in the book world—with unfiltered solo episodes and conversations with the people behind the scenes: literary agents, publishers, and bestselling authors… plus world-class marketers, business coaches, speaker mentors, and platform strategists.
Author's Edge: the Go-to Marketing Podcast in Publishing
How to Write Emails that Turn Subscribers into Book Buyers with Abby Combs | Ep. 67
Are you still relying on social media to promote your book? You’re missing the moment. Algorithms don’t build relationships… email does.
Allison sits down with email marketing expert Abby Combs to unpack exactly how authors can create authentic connections, build visibility, and launch successful books using email. From simple campaign tips to turning subscribers into buyers, this episode is your roadmap to author email marketing without overwhelm.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why email builds stronger author-reader relationships than social media ever can
- How to structure your author emails to avoid the wall of words
- What to send subscribers before your book launches, and how often
Resources Mentioned:
- Abby Combs’ The E-Studios Marketing website: https://theestudios.com/
- Connect with Abby Combs on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abbycombsceo/
- Email Marketing platforms:
- Flodesk: https://flodesk.com/
- Klaviyo: https://www.klaviyo.com/
- Design tool - CANVA: https://partner.canva.com/c/3658167/647168/10068
- Book Reco: Ever Mine by Laura Pavlov: https://a.co/d/i0YZZnZ
Timestamps:
- 04:12 – The dating analogy that reframes your email list
- 12:58 – Why newsletters aren’t what your audience wants
- 25:05 – The chips-and-salsa email strategy you’ll actually use
- 38:00 – Canva and email formatting that doesn’t suck
- 51:15 – The first step every author should take before writing a single email
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Could you imagine having 200 people just wanna buy when you say it's ready? That's the power that you have by creating a brand, providing value that it makes selling so much easier and you don't have to come out and say, please buy my book. It's gonna be so great. Nobody actually wants that. You're gonna have already created a relationship and established authority within your area of expertise that of course they're gonna buy their book.
Allison:Welcome back to the author's edge. I know why you're here because you're like, I am sick of trying to do everything myself. It's too much. I have a full-time job and a full-time life. And now not only are you relying on social media to promote your book. But if you're only relying on social media to build your brand, promote your book get people to your event you're not just missing the market. I'm sorry, but you're missing the moment because the real deal is that the algorithms don't build relationships. Social is about awareness. You are just getting in front of people like, I'm doing this. But email is about relationships'cause someone has to lean in and say I want this. So, they're asking for it. And if you're not using email, you are essentially asking for somebody's number and then not calling them. Have you ever gone out and thought, oh, they're gonna call me. I really like them. And back when you were dating, like when I was dating when the dirt was new, that was when I was on the market. And then they ask you for your number and you give them your number and then they never call, it stinks. Don't be that for your book or your speaking career. If you are offering someone the opportunity to get emails from you, to get updates, to get tips or a guide and you don't send email, you are a jerk. It's not nice Most people treat their email list like it's a last minute check the box or a place to send quote unquote newsletters that no one reads, but when it's used right, email marketing is one of the tools that has the highest return on the investment that you have access to grow your audience, to launch your book, to make real sales, to provide proof that you are the badass that I know you are. That's why Abby Combs is here. I'm so glad Abby's here because she runs a business that supports brands that turn subscribers into buyers. She's breaking down today how authors and experts can use the same principles to write smarter email sequences, nurture real connection and sell without being salesy.'cause no one wants to be sold to plus. She's super charming. She runs on sunshine and Diet Coke and a sixth sense for what your audience actually wants. So in this episode, she's gonna give us a download about what makes email marketing works. Abby, thank you. I'm so glad we met and that we're doing this.
Abby:I am so excited to be here. You gave a lot of really amazing analogies. I'm like, you should be my saleswoman for me. I've never heard it described as dating and that's exactly what it is. So yeah, I'm excited to be here and chat and break it all down.
Allison:First, before we start and get into everything most people who become authors, they'll probably write one. Book. Most people who write a book write one book, but the people I work with might write one or two, or they might have published a book with a university press, but now they have a big traditional press. And. They're still doing their full-time job, they're still running HR at a global corporation, or they're still a neurosurgeon, or they're still patients in their therapy practice. So, they're not used to sending emails about themselves, and all they know is that the email they get from Hollister with the daily sales is a bother. And they let them go straight to spam where they keep them in case there's a coupon. And I'm just saying Hollister,'cause I was there yesterday with my daughter who needed shorts that are made of sweatpants material. I don't know.
Abby:Yeah they're all wearing sweats now. I don't know.
Allison:You know what, I love it.
Abby:Blame them.
Allison:Yeah, I love first of all, be comfortable. When I was her age, the trend was DoorDash jeans as tight as you could possibly make them, and you would take them off and you knew they were the right size if the seam had made a wrinkle in the side of your leg.
Abby:An indent.
Allison:Yes, and it would stay there for a while. Ooh, that's the right size.
Abby:That's it.
Allison:The trend is super baggy sweatshirts love it,
Abby:Yes.
Allison:Super baggy sweatpants. Love it.
Abby:Yeah. If we see no shape to the body that's the right size.
Allison:And the other trend is massive skincare. My daughter and her daughter's friends have just peaches and cream, like nobody has
Abby:no,
Allison:pimples. Anything.
Abby:I
Allison:They,
Abby:I'm at the age where I'm asking my daughter like, what use Foundation? Is that a thing anymore?
Allison:no.
Abby:and we're
Allison:No.
Abby:eyeshadow. Okay. So, what are we doing?
Allison:Right.
Abby:Thank heavens I have this 15 and a half year old that's filling me in.
Allison:It's just about lip gloss, but the lip gloss is, it's just clear.
Abby:Yeah. Barely there. We're doing barely there makeup and I actually love it and I've had to rewire my brain that I don't need to be a full face of makeup every time I show up anywhere. And I feel really exposed. But it's been really good exposure therapy probably to like self-confidence. I'm like,
Allison:Exactly. It's all about the eyebrows now. It's like full brows.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:Getting put back into, I know everyone's getting emails from Sephora and Hollister and we're used to that, but we see those as sales'cause they are sales. Those are not relationship builders'cause Hollister is not a person I don't think.
Abby:And they have their own dedicated IP address, which US small business owners don't. And so they get to play by their own rules. We do not play by those rules. We have our own set of rules. We play in our own park that's blocks away from what they're doing.
Allison:Right.
Abby:Have a huge budget behind them and they don't care. They don't care if you unsubscribe.
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:You put'em in junk and spam because their opportunity is so much larger than ours. However, they are training the mass majority of the audience on how to consume content and information. So as a small business owner, which you all are, if you're gonna write a book then have to watch what they're doing to take notes and to play with what they're doing. And how do we take some of it that works for us and follow those trends. One example that I see that I could also see a lot of your audience not following is the big box stores. If you remember, Hollister or Sephora, they're sending mostly pictures. In fact, free people has some of my favorite emails'cause it's like window shopping every time you open their email. They're sending mostly images and pictures and things that are moving. And we, they want them in to look at that email for, two seconds at most, maybe three. And then click somewhere to get out of that email. A lot of small business owners are sending only text emails and they're sending these long paragraphs, especially if you're an author gonna be really used to sending lots of words, and
Allison:oh, the wall of word email.
Abby:I get it. It makes sense. It's what you're used to. It's what's comfortable. You have so much you wanna communicate. Also, if you're only sending one email a month or one email a year, then you've got a lot to communicate. And so you think that you should put all of it in an email. And if you're going to do that, don't do emails. Do not do text heavy emails because nobody has the time. I think also what happens is. small business owners forget that they're a consumer too. You are a consumer of emails. So how do you like to consume emails and are you the type that reads and reads emails, then great. But is your audience that way? Possibly you could be attracting an audience that loves to read, especially being in the, author space. However. We're still being trained that when we open our inbox on our phone or our computer, it's just quick information. We're either there for work and we wanna get outta there as fast as possible, or we're there to consume and we wanna get outta there as fast as possible. So we've really gotta watch what you're putting in emails. The good news is that it relieves the pressure of having to write these 17 page long emails. Leave that for a book. If you can write 17 page long emails, write another book, and then do graphic heavy emails to promote your brand. So yeah, we don't play by the rules of the big box stores. We learn from them. They are great teachers. We let them train the audience and then we follow along like little ducklings.
Allison:Perfect. So when it comes to email marketing, when people think they're starting an email list they learn they have to have an email service provider.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:If you're working. As a park ranger, you don't, that's not your job. Like you don't have a brand. And if you're writing, a environmental stewardship book, everything is new, right? So you are not behind. You're just been busy doing the thing that makes you freaking awesome.
Abby:Yes.
Allison:So let's just take that white noise out of the equation because that's not the problem. The problem becomes because you are busy and you know that you only check your email once a week. And when you do, you're just skimming for what actions do I need to take? But then you think I don't wanna bother people. So, I'll tell them ahead of time when I ask them to sign up for my emails. Problem number one, they'll only get updates from me once a month'cause I don't want it to bother them. Problem number two. Nobody ever thinks I'd like to sign up for emails. That's like to sign up for snail mail or robocalls. No one does that. They're just thinking, I would like you to send me some of your goodness. Whatever the thing is, whatever the tip of the day. The cat if you have one of those like Taylor Swift cats that are interesting looking. Send them that if that's your jam. Listing out the format that the tip comes in is not what people want. Yes, they are agreeing that you will send them information via email, but the email is not the draw. So stop.
Abby:That is so smart. And that's my like, number one thing. So I do a lot of email audits. So brands will come to me and then I'll take a look at what they're doing, what they're not doing, and give them feedback. And one of the first things I say is nobody actually cares about you. Nobody cares about your email. What they care is what's gonna be in the email. And that's why when people come to me for email marketing, we start with a strategy session because I need to know, who are you, what are you offering? And really the question you should be asking yourself is, what problem do I solve? And with writing a book, you're solving a problem. It could just be providing information, providing clarity on a topic letting them escape their current world and go into another world. Whatever the problem you're solving is, there is so much to that we can play off of with your emails. And yeah, we have to be incentivized to join an email list because everyone has an email and we're getting so many emails that they wanna know what's going on. Yeah, stop saying join my email list and I'll send you an email. No, shit. They're gonna, of course you're gonna send them an email. A lot of people do this, a lot of like clothing brands or shopping brands will say, join and get 10% off on your first order, or join the email list and you'll get early access to all of our drops that sell out every time. So, there's gotta be an incentive for them joining your email list. And if you don't know what that should be, then answering that question of what problem am I solving? Hopefully it will allow your brain to go through some creative ways of how are we solving that problem 16 times over.
Allison:Awesome. Okay, so we got that outta the way. Now, when authors when their book isn't yet out and they're a year before the book comes out, they know they have a book deal, they know it's coming out or they are looking for a book deal, but they still know that they need to create a conversation via email. What should they be emailing about?
Abby:Yeah, great question. Everyone asked me that. And then, the follow up question is, how many emails should I send? If I knew the magic number I would be buying an island and not being on this podcast and I would just be laying on the beach drinking my diet Coke for sure. So, there's not a magical number, but there some guidelines. So, we'll go through that and what do you email about? So, I had a thought pop into my. Oh, I was gonna say that we have to back up to the beginning of anyone listening that's wanting to write a book or has written a book and wherever they are. But like it or not, you are creating a brand and I know you're not used to that and it's not maybe necessarily your forte, and you don't know what you're doing and that's okay. We already established you are new to this and we're, all figuring it out. But trust me, I've worked with multimillion dollar brands that are still trying to figure things out. But you are creating a brand and I would get really curious around what that brand looks like for you. That question again, what problem are you solving is it's my favorite one to ask because it, when we start to think of that, we get really creative. When we're creative, we can think through all the things that we want and what we wanna build. And so when you think about your book, think about the people who are reading your book and the lives that you want to change. Are you gonna solve world hunger? No. But are you gonna change somebody's life? Possibly. Is it gonna be a massive change? I don't know. But probably, you're gonna have influence on them. And so, I would really think about who that person is. And how do they spend their day? What time do they wake up in the morning? What do they do in the afternoon? Do they drink coffee? Do they not drink coffee? Are they married? Are they not married? Do they have children? Male, female all of those questions you need to answer take into consideration to determine what kind of brand you're creating. Once we have that, then really knowing what emails to send becomes a lot easier. So, we wanna create a balance and a good cadence of emails that provide a lot of value. So, this would be really centered around the content that you're, writing or creating
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:that you wanna have and we need to sell. So, even if you're. A year out or more from the book launching. I still think it's important to do email marketing. I don't know that you need to do as much as you will when you launch your book and after launch. And also picture this. What if you started now creating a brand and really understanding that ideal customer or ideal reader providing value to them, and you build an email list of a thousand people. And then you're continuing those conversations and building trust and creating relationships. Then you launch your book and you have a thousand or let's call it 20%, if 200 people who are ready to buy your book. Could you imagine having 200 people just wanna buy when you say it's ready? That's the power that you have by creating a brand, providing value that it makes selling so much easier and you don't have to come out and say, please buy my book. It's gonna be so great. Nobody actually wants that. You're gonna have already created a relationship and established authority within your area of expertise that of course they're gonna buy their book. That's like a no brainer at that point because they know and love and trust you that the purchase is easy and at that point. You could sell anything. So if you wanna leave your corporate job, or you wanna leave what you're currently doing and eventually run this brand full-time, you have the option to do so because you have a brand and an audience surrounding you. And all it took was you just deciding who you wanna work with and what the value that you have, and just talking to them. So I would really focus on that cadence of let's provide a lot of value which comes from understanding your customer and your audience. And then also we have to sell and we have to send the ask. And it can be very simple. Some ways to get comfortable with, providing the ask or the offer is to ask them to go read something on a blog or click and look through this gallery of photos. Link here to go watch this video that I thought was really interesting. Get them to go do something. It doesn't have to be spending money, but training them to go do something from your emails will be really great practice for when it's time to actually spend money.
Allison:Ooh, good tip. Yikes. Now, can you talk about the difference between an email and a newsletter? Because a lot of people think, I wanna provide value. I think I'm going to, I'll start, I'll have it be a newsletter, and then it's long. So, it's not one topic. It's a couple of things in different sections. And how should people use one versus the other?
Abby:yeah, great question.
Allison:And please describe how they're different.
Abby:Yeah. I think you're saying I'll go over a few different kinds of emails. How about that?
Allison:Yes.
Abby:And I love and hate the word newsletter. I sometimes call them campaign emails.
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:Have automation emails or funnels you've heard like clickFunnels or Flows. And so, there's two buckets. You have the campaigns or the newsletters that you create, weekly, monthly, and send out manually to most, if not all of your list. And then, you have automations that you build and you tell your email platform who to send it to by from what behaviors they exhibit. Now, anyone who's brand new to emails, this is going to confuse you and make you a little overwhelmed. Don't worry about automations yet, or hire somebody. This is when you call me and you hire me to build out all the backend automations.
Allison:Yes.
Abby:All the time. We build it for you. We work through your strategy, and then things are there in the background. An example of an automation would be a welcome series, we call it, which you've all subscribed to probably hundreds if not thousands of welcome series. So, when you go to Hollister and you are on their website looking for something and something pops up and says, Hey, get 10% off or 20% off your next order, you put your email in and then automatically it gets an email into your inbox that says, thanks for joining. Here's your code. That is the beginning of a welcome series that is on the automation side. And so, you can build that to be basically a set it and forget it. That's already built and created, and it works for the most part year round. So there's some backend automations that you'll want based on behavior so that you don't have to constantly be managing it. Then your campaigns or your newsletters. I love and hate the word newsletter because
Allison:Me too.
Abby:what that is. So, I use that word a lot, but it also has this connotation that. It's just a bunch of texts on a screen, all about the business owner or the brand, and nothing to do with me, right? As the consumer. And so that's why we don't love the word newsletter. Campaign emails. Are similar. And so really the core of a newsletter is just basically a monthly, it could be weekly, it could be quarterly consistent communication. That's what's going on with the brand. And depending on your audience, they might want that, they might not. So, you're gonna have to do some testing. If anyone knows anything about marketing, it's a game of testing. So, know that you're going to try things and it's going to fail, but you're going to learn something and then a adapt to the next thing. Other ways that we use campaign emails is to sell, right? To showcase something and ask for a purchase. So, newsletters, I'm trying to think of your original questions about newsletter. I'm just kinda
Allison:The thing is the email, an email can be you don't even have to scroll down to see the end of it. It's like a glimpse. It's a couple lines. It's even the email that I send to let people know about this episode, it's one topic and
Abby:Yes.
Allison:There might be a couple of buttons in there of listen now or go here to watch on YouTube. But it all goes to the same thing.
Abby:Yes.
Allison:it might be two or three hot links, but they go to the same place.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:I've seen beautifully done newsletters, but they have kind of sections of here's what's going on with me. Here are the events I'll be at. Here's a podcast I'm loving. And no matter how beautiful they are, or like musings on summer, like I don't. Email is not where I want to get that kind of content from someone. And this is my personal thing, is when the someone does that, they usually only send it once a month. So, it does feel like it's comprehensive in a way that it didn't need to be. Like, why save up all your musings spoonfeed them to me. I don't want one big entree. I like, that's why everybody loves chips and salsa'cause it's just one,
Abby:It's easy.
Allison:chip at a time. Like I don't want the platter of enchiladas today. Just chips and salsa is good. So, you're think of emails as the chips and salsa. And a newsletter is like the total entree with the side of WAC and the, and it's just so much. And oftentimes I'm thinking that would be good if you wanted to start a substack, because then people could lean in and know that they're essentially asking for an article or something deeper or start a LinkedIn newsletter.
Abby:Yep.
Allison:Which is awesome'cause it's has so many SEO tools behind it. So, I highly recommend a LinkedIn newsletter.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:The titles are SEO enabled. But back to the email. So, email versus newsletter is I think it's the biggest. It's one of the two big problems that I see people have. One is getting over the hump of, am I gonna send people emails? Is two of what's the format going to be? And they think it has to be something super substantial, something small can be substantial.
Abby:Yes. No, I love that. And I love the analogy of chips and salsa because you get just full enough that you don't eat your whole meal, and it satisfies the craving and the hunger right then. But you really can never get completely stuffed off of chips. At least I can't. I would highly recommend your emails be chips and salsa, and if you have enough content for a newsletter that it's six sections long, that should be at least three emails. So that's the good news is if you're gonna pack this newsletter with seven different sections and topics. You actually probably just created three to five different emails
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:don't have to even come up with anything for the month, right?
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:I think if you have that much in your brain that you can share every month, and you can easily do email marketing. And we want to give them enough content that they're intrigued, that they wanna click to do something else, but we don't wanna overwhelm them. Unless you have a very loyal audience that is eating up everything that you give them, they can never get full, then sure. Go ahead and give them an entree every time. But I would agree there's other places that you could do that. And if you have an audience that captivated, then you could be monetizing that through Substack and have them pay to get that content. Especially those of you that have a specific profession that you have extreme knowledge in. People wanna have access to that and they don't wanna have to go schedule an appointment somewhere to work one-on-one with somebody for 30 minutes or an hour and pay, who knows how much to get that information when they would pay, 6 99 or 1299 or 20, whatever it is every month, to get that information delivered straight to
Allison:Right.
Abby:Inbox, and it's a way that you can scale your brain, right? So, if you're a neurosurgeon and you have content that we all need, and we need to learn about our brain, I mean, everyone wants to know about their brain and learn more, and how can we manage it now. There's an opportunity where you could really brain dump once a month. that over three to five emails and send that out and you could monetize it. That analogy really is if you're, if you think that this would be the whole enchilada, then take out 40 or of it and just send the 40%.
Allison:Yes. I love the whole enchilada as well. Sometimes I just love the chips and salsa. Okay, you hinted at something and I wanna ask you, tell me what to do'cause this is really when we met, I actually sat in on one of your workshops at the Mom 2.0 Summit. And I was in the room. I came in late. I was hobnobbing in the hallway. And I came in late and I sat down and I heard you talk for one minute and I was like, oh my God, this woman is the tits. You are the real deal. You are the shizz. You were lobbing prescriptive do this, not that to everyone in the room. And the side conversations of wait, what did she say? Wait, I'm not supposed to do that. No, I don't. I don't need to do, oh, like you were blowing people's minds. And these were people who knew about email and they understood, but they were, people need to know a little bit more.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:of the things that. After I tackled you in the hallway and I was like, we have to be friends. And you said the way that you set up emails is you use images, so you mentioned it before, using images. But I find that it's not the writing of the email that is the difficult thing I can vomit into my voice memo, look at the transcript, edit that, and I have the text. It's the putting it into my, email service provider and like making it look good. And you'd think cut and paste Allison, right? I do that. I do cut and paste, but then no matter what, the formatting is weird or some of the words are a different size than the others, even though I cut and paste from a Google Doc. So, I don't understand what gremlins are in the machine. But you have a solution for that. So, please tell me and everyone what to do.
Abby:Okay. Yeah, I think I know what you're asking so I'll give you how we do it.
Allison:Okay.
Abby:Start by saying I am not a designer. That's just not my creative talent. My creative talent comes in the form of calendaring and scheduling and planning. It's really fun for me, but the like typical creative, what we think about of these artists and being able to design stuff that is not in my wheelhouse, which is why I have a team and they do all of that first for my clients. But also I realize that's not a strength of mine. And so, there is a power in hiring that out. Do what you do best. And for those that are listening, what I'm knowing about you is that you have an amazing brain and access to knowledge and information that you wanna put out in the world. I think you should stay in that seat and there's a power in hiring it out. Being said, there's a couple of platforms, email sending platforms that make it really easy to design. And they all come with pros and cons. And so, I'll tell you one that makes it really easy to design, but doesn't allow you to do a lot of automations, and that's okay when you're first starting. So, flow desks, and you can put this in the show notes, F-L-O-D-E-S-K Flow desks is a really great platform that's so easy to use and they have beautiful, like 2025 version templates that you can just go in, pick what looks like beautiful to you and throw in your content and you're good to go. So, that's one place to start. When you're wanting to get into a more robust platform something like Klaviyo is what I love to use. Their templates aren't as pretty so you can use them, but you're gonna have to have an eye for design and I don't love their templates. And so, we create our emails from scratch just in Canva. And a lot of people know how to use Canva now. The pro is like$13 a month. It's very affordable. You're gonna need it for your social media, you're gonna need it for everything else on Canva and how we create emails is we actually, we want to see the whole email in Canva, what it's gonna look like. And we start with there's a ratio already built in Canva for the Instagram stories. So, Instagram stories already has it created, and in the top left corner, you can adjust the length of that image it's super long. You start with that and you can start to create your email in Canva, they have a lot of templates and graphics they're already created that you can use. And play with it and put your content in. And then, what we do is wherever there's to put a button, so some of the things that you want them to click, we now crop the image to right under that button. So, now what you'll have in Canva is several images long. And then you upload all of those into your email sending platform and then once you upload it, it formats all really seamlessly so you don't see the chop. And then, every image that you upload, you can link to wherever you wanted that button to link. So, now you can have multiple links within a button.
Allison:Okay. I need you to slow down.
Abby:I know. I'm like, I need to write down a tutorial.
Allison:Yes, in fact. Okay, so I have, I just opened Canva while we're talking.'cause when you told me that my mind melted a little bit.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:I'll tell you, I was like, oh my gosh, this makes it so simple because I can copy and paste my Google Doc into this Instagram story, and you adjust the length, so you make it like 3000 pixels instead of whatever it comes with. And since the link is only gonna go to one place, you could just have one image if you want.
Abby:Yes, you could. Especially if it's going to one place. If you're wanting to link, if let's say you're providing a really great newsletter or a campaign email that's about several different articles of one topic. And you want to link multiple things, you're going to wanna be able to chop things so that you can link go to this article here, go to this article here, and give them what they want. So, they have multiple options, but. If they're all going to one place, then don't worry about any chopping.
Allison:And so, when you do that. When I tried that out, I realized that you don't need to allow for margins within the Instagram story because the email itself has margins that. Is because I of course, tested it and I was like, why is it so small? So, I have two questions that are super practical. When you do this, what size font do you use for the text in the Instagram story?
Abby:Good question.
Allison:Okay.
Abby:It might depend, and also keep in mind for us, we're working with a lot of e-commerce brands. And so there's not as much text, but there is some so that the tech size will change based on the design of the email. So, let's trying to highlight something at the beginning,
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:Your first section is your hero banner or hero image that can be larger. And then, into the body of the email that should be a little bit smaller.
Allison:Okay,
Abby:I can see if there's a common text.
Allison:So, while you're doing that, usually the default email that pops up in my email service provider will say that the email, the default is 16 point type. And it's San Serif, right? So, when I did this in using your Canva Instagram story formula, I made it 16 point type. But when you import that image it seems on the small side. So, that's why I ask. And second question, when you download those images from Canva, what do you download them as? Because I was downloading them as A JPEG or A PNG, and somehow the text looks not as sharp, like a little fuzzy, so I think I'm doing it wrong.
Abby:Yes. Okay. I'm just pulling up one of our emails and literally within one small box, we have three different sizes. The solution to what size is to test it. You can start with your 16, then import it, and there's a preview link when you're creating an email. You should be able to preview it right on your screen. You also can send yourself a test email, I believe they're all free in every platform.
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:Even in your own email address and have it come in your inbox and see how you like it. Everyone's gonna have their settings a little different on the consumer side. So, they might have their fonts or really overall image will be larger on somebody's phone or desktop versus somebody else's. So, I don't know that matters as much as long as it plays the overall design and that it looks good to you and you can read it. Also, for example, a lot of my employees are in their early twenties, cute gals, and they would send me an email and I couldn't read it. And I'm like, I feel like I'm in my early twenties, but I'm not. And I just realized it because I can't read this. So, just have maybe a second set of eyes on things and know who your audience is. If your audience is young, 20 year olds, you might be able to get away with smaller fonts. If your audience is in their fifties or older, they're gonna want a larger font. So, really have an exact number, I would play with what the audience needs and how it looks on your phone and your desktop or laptop.
Allison:Ooh, that's a good tip. Make sure you look at it on your phone.
Abby:Yes, and you can in Klaviyo, which is a really robust email platform. You can see the mobile version. And in fact, a lot of platforms, you can see the mobile version.
Allison:In Kajabi, you can do that too. I love Kajabi.
Abby:Good. Yeah. Kajabi is really great, especially if you're doing courses. Kajabi has a pretty decent email platform, so you can view that in mobile. You'll want to make sure you're optimized for mobile part most audiences consume content on their phones. I've had a few brands across the years that you would think their audience would be on their phones would bet a million dollars. Their data says that they're opening on their desktop, which plays a whole story, right? So, watch your data and your analytics to see how that can help you make decisions. But for sure optimize for mobile to see how that looks on your phone.
Allison:Okay. And then, the images from Canva, you download as what?
Abby:So, you download as you should be able to do PNG. But if it's giving you some sort of error on sizing, I would download as an SVG.
Allison:Oh, okay.
Abby:You could try that. And then, also sometimes when you download as SVG, you'll have to resize, which you can easily do on your computer. You just change the sizing a little bit, and then you can upload. So SVG or PNG should. And I will double check with my optimization specialist and see if she recommends anything different. And then I'll message you and you can update the show notes.
Allison:Thanks. Yeah, I, that's the thing like if you don't know all of the little steps, you might stop before you get success. So, I was like, oh I did a test where I put text directly into the email platform.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:Then, the same text that I had imported for with an image from Canva and the text from the Canva image was a little bit faded.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:it wasn't as sharp.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:And I thought maybe it has to do with the format that I was downloading.
Abby:Yeah, that could be it for sure. I love the idea of testing native texts in an email as well. Sometimes that will help with deliverability. And that's the thing. We could spend hours talking about all the tiny things. My recommendation for everyone listening is just get started. And everything in business is going to eventually be really cringe. That's you know what the cool kids are saying,
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:Look back and be like, why did I send that email that was so cringe? But you're gonna learn something, so just get started. Even if you just get started and you are sending text heavy emails, at least you're gonna get in the practice of sending them and not feeling like you're a bother. People have asked to join your email list. They wanna hear from you. Really build out what the value that you're providing to this audience and what problem you're solving. And then, emails will be easy, and as you learn, you'll get better. And then as you grow, you'll end up hiring it out anyway. And then, they'll worry about the intricacies of email marketing. You did not write a book to be an email marketing expert. You wrote a book to make change and in influence. So, stay in that seat and eventually hire out all the experts.
Allison:So smart and yes. Now, I always ask this.
Abby:Okay.
Allison:What is a book that you are loving right now or that you can't wait to read?
Abby:Oh, okay. Well, I will say for me, I read to like escape and I'm not into like the fantasy dragon world yet. I'm curious, I'm intrigued, but I love a good romance and so I read all of Colleen Hoover's books. And that has always really like for me, honestly, like I used to scroll social media to kind of numb or you know turn my brain off. And now, it's such a work thing for me that I've really turned away from that. And reading has become my like, I've gotta reset my nervous system and I'm going to read. And so, I have had to have these just fun, like very probably young adults, easy to read books.
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:That's been fun for me. I read all of her books and then I've moved on to a very similar style, but I don't know the author and that is so unfair to her. She has at least I think four books that I've read, three of'em. So, that's been fun.
Allison:You could just tell me the name of them.
Abby:Oh, ever mine. And ever mine, like always mine. There's is always a mine in it.
Allison:It's the like small town romances, is it the Laura Pavlov books? Okay.
Abby:It might be.
Allison:Yeah, yeah, Yeah. Yeah, Like he's a hockey golden boy and I, you know, he's the man I've avoided for years. Yes, yes, Yes.
Abby:Honey Mountain. They live in Honey Mountain.
Allison:Yeah.
Abby:Yeah. It's been really fun. I'm like, wow, what a life.
Allison:Yeah, I love it. Oh my God, that's hilarious. I wanna end this by just asking you what is one thing that everyone can do today to get a hold of their own email marketing?
Abby:I mean, I should say just send an email, but I do think it begins.
Allison:I just meet so many business owners who are like, I don't even know where to start. And where you start is not in the email. It's creating your ideal customer and what problem you're solving and use chat GPT and pour your soul out to it and have it tell you what problem you're solving and give you ideas.
Abby:And so, really utilize AI. So, I would get really clear on the value that you wanna provide and the problem that you're solving. And then, emails become easy, and social media becomes easy.
Allison:So true. Abby, thank you so much for sprinkling your genius on us. Like rays of sunshine, we definitely need it. People overlook the tiny steps that actually can move you forward. And that's why people avoid email.'cause it's like, what? I don't wanna get all those emails. Well, you're not your reader.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:Who cares what you like? When someone raises their hand and says, please send me some of your genius. Are you gonna be rude and withhold that? Don't be rude. Be awesome.
Abby:Yes.
Allison:You have an edge here, and you are not bothering them. If they're saying, please share with me, because that's what they really want. Ugh.
Abby:We all need help. We all need each other, and I think that's one thing I've learned is that. We all need each other. And so, somebody out there needs what information you have. You already have that information. Other people don't and so you have a gift that you need to share with the world. And they wanna know don't be a jerk and give us the info. Give us the dets.
Allison:Yeah, don't hold back.
Abby:Yeah.
Allison:Alright people, you can leave Hollister now. And I know you've been sitting hiding in the corner you found a place to sit'cause I don't know if you realize, but stores in the mall do not have any places to sit. So, you know where I sit on one of the displays'cause screw you. You know my daughter's gonna be in the changing room for a good while and there's no place for the mom, which is the person who holds the credit card. Okay? If you are a store manager, please, a bench would be great. Otherwise, I will be sitting right up front next to the jean shorts. You can leave that place now and know that we are with you. And if this episode is helping you in the least, please leave a review and share the episode with someone who needs it, or PS someone whose emails you're like, I like them, but maybe they also could use this.
Abby:Yes.
Allison:Because
Abby:everyone
Allison:complains about email, but no one really knows the answer. And they think it's, oh I bundle my work so that I can really dig into the email writing like nobody wants to dig into the email writing. It sounds terrible. Yuck. No thank you. Move on. I will take the chips and salsa every time.
Abby:Every time.
Allison:Every time. Alright, I will see you next week. In the meantime, please lean in to your edge as an author.
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