How Estheticians Should Actually Use Their Email List with Dawn Richardson

Are you collecting client emails but never actually using them? In this episode of The Esthetician Podcast, Kari Jo sits down with Dawn Richardson from Flowdesk to talk about how estheticians can use email marketing to grow their business without relying only on Instagram. They break down what to send your email list, how to stay personal without sounding salesy, how to segment clients, and how email marketing can help increase bookings and client retention.

If you’re an esthetician who feels stuck constantly posting on social media, this episode will help you learn how to nurture clients, automate communication, and build a more stable esthetician business through email marketing.

Dawn also shares resources through Flowdesk, including her free masterclass for business owners wanting to better understand email marketing and automation Watch Dawn’s free email marketing masterclass here.

If you’re booked but not making money, you need to start with your numbers.
Download my FREE  “Diagnose Your Business” tracker in the show notes and I’ll show you exactly what to track.

Are You Ready to fix this in your business?

Apply for a free Business Breakthrough Audit:

https://forms.gle/Jkr27yUb6n6PYcba7

Transcript

What If Instagram Vanished

Kari Jo 0:02

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, the podcast for aestheticians who are tired of working nonstop, feeling stuck in their business. Hey, I'm Kari Jo, and I'm an esthetician of 20 years. I built and I sold my aesthetics company after learning the business side that nobody ever teaches us. And each week we are going to figure out what is actually happening in your business and what to fix first and how to build a business that actually is going to give you more freedom, more profit, and most importantly, more peace. So let's get into today's episode. What would happen in your business if Instagram disappeared tomorrow? Would you still be able to reach new clients or your clients? Well, today we're talking about one of the biggest mistakes aestheticians make, which is building their entire business on social media, but they don't own the audience. To help us unpack that, I brought on Dawn Richardson. Dawn is a tech educator with Flowdesk. And today we are talking about email marketing, audience ownership, why building an email list might be one of the smartest things that you can do for your business. So let's jump

Meet Dawn And Flowdesk Basics

Kari Jo 1:20

into it. Dawn, welcome to the Esthetician Podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today and dive into all things email, all that marketing and stuff. But for those who like maybe haven't followed you yet, can you tell us a little bit about you and what you do and how you got into it?

Dawn Richardson 1:38

Yeah, for sure. Well, Carrie Jo, thank you so much for having me. First of all, it's so good to meet you like face to face for the first time. Um, I am Dawn. I am a mom of two little girls. I own my own business, but I also run product education at Flowdesk. And I get to kind of live the life that a lot of your aestheticians are living of like being an entrepreneur, but also really needing a place of systems, right? Like I come from a software engineering background. And so I'm very technical, came into the entrepreneurial world. And what I learned was the thing that I loved, which was technology and systems, it was the thing that actually helped my business grow so much. So I took the skills and started teaching other small business owners how to do it, turned into a career at Flow Desk. And I use Flow Desk for my own business. It helped me make an additional six figures in one of my businesses when I first started using it. And it was just a game changer in email marketing, just changed the game for me. So I'm here to teach everybody how I do that and still do that in my business.

Kari Jo 2:46

Yes, I love that. That's incredible. And I I need an extra six figures.

Dawn Richardson 2:50

So we all do. We all do.

Kari Jo 2:53

So we are gonna figure it out together. But for those who aren't listening, because um I am familiar with Flowdesk, but if someone's not familiar with Flowdesk, what is Flowdesk?

Dawn Richardson 3:04

Yeah, so Flowdesk is an email marketing platform that is built for creators and small business owners. Now, when I say email marketing, that also might be a foreign topic for some people, and that's totally fine. But emails that you send like one-on-one to a client, like that's we call those transactional emails, or if you send like a receipt, things like that. Email marketing is like when you're marketing your business, you're sending a one-to-many type email. So think of like if you sign up for like an anthropology like discounts or something, like an anthropology sends you an email every once in a while. Um, that is email marketing. And all of these really big businesses lean into it really heavily because it is still the marketing channel that has the highest ROI. Even in this world of social media and all of these different platforms that we have access to, email is still the queen. She is still the best and she still brings $40 to every dollar spent in businesses. So we wanted to take that concept and make it accessible to solopreneurs, to creators, to small business owners. And that's how FlowDust came to be. We're woman founded, we're fully bootstrapped, we've been around since 2019. And we take what could be a really complicated topic. Um, and some platforms make this really complicated and try to make it very easy, very beautiful, and allows you to show up in the inbox in a way that you're really proud of. So that's us. Um, and we are a platform where we help you develop not only your emails, but also your forms that people can subscribe to your newsletter, or maybe you have an offer for them. We help you with automation. So when somebody does sign up for an offer, they get those automated emails. We also have a sales platform that we call checkout. Um, so we just kind of have like a lot of different products available for our small business owners to be successful without the big business price tag, but in a way that makes you feel like a good competitor to those big businesses that have billions of dollars to spend on their marketing.

Kari Jo 5:06

Exactly. What we need is to like start automating

Social Media Versus Audience Ownership

Kari Jo 5:10

this, right? Yes. So the owner Natalie of Flow Desk, she talks all about how social media, we it's we're basically just borrowing, you know, our clients, our audience, and stuff like that. I was wondering why do you think that so many of us rely on the Instagram or social media when instead of like building something that we actually own?

Dawn Richardson 5:35

You know, I think this is a really good question, Kari Jo. Um, I love this. Um, I so what I like to say is like social media is that handshake, like that, hi, nice to meet you, but email marketing is like, hey, let's go get coffee and like actually talk about this, right? It's that like deeper conversation. I think though that our world has an obsession with social media because we are obsessed with social media, right? Like, and as a business owner, I mean, as as anybody, as a mom, as anyone, like right now, like we're all scrolling, right? We all have the Doom scroll. We all get caught up in it, whether you're in Carline or you're waiting for your next client or whatever that is, we're always going to Instagram and scrolling. So I think it's very natural for small business owners to think of social media as the first place, right? Like, I'm on social media, I'm scrolling. Why don't I start there? And that's a good place to start, right? It's not that like we don't believe that you shouldn't do social media. We think social media should be part of your strategy, but you can go so much further with your marketing and be more intentional with it when you add something like email. And I think it's just I think like email has just been around for so long, and it's that thing that we also always do, but maybe not in the same um intoxicating way that social media gets a hold of us, but it is really important. And also when you look at the algorithms, right? Because you know, the people love to talk about the algorithm and what Instagram's doing, what they're suppressing, what they're not. Um, but your reach, even though you might have a thousand followers, you'll be lucky if 5% of your audience sees that. So even though it's something that's top of mind for us, it might not be the best way that you're spending your time, where I instead can send a single email, get it to my thousand subscribers very successfully, and I'm converting that email into real dollars, right? Like it's accessible. I have a link for them to book me, I have a link for them to purchase this DIY kit or whatever it might be, where on social media it takes a little bit more to get them to that purchasing point as well. So again, they're both really great parts of a strategic marketing plan. Um, but you want to make sure you're doing both and not putting all of your eggs in that basket because who knows what's gonna happen to TikTok or Instagram or whatever, right? And you can't like download your TikTok followers and go upload them to Instagram, but with email marketing, that email list is yours regardless of the platform. So it's just really great thing to invest your time in and it gets to go with you, um, even if you take a break in your

What To Send Besides Discounts

Dawn Richardson 8:05

business or if you move platforms, and that's really important.

Kari Jo 8:08

And I think one of the things that as staticians that we are so lucky that we have is a lot of us are in person, right? So when they come in, we are having them fill out intake forms. So we have not only do we have to try to get their their emails from uh social media, but we actually get their emails because they're coming in. It's like we have the emails now. What?

Dawn Richardson 8:34

Right. What do I do? Right, exactly. So many different things. And this answer can be different to everyone that I'm talking to because it really depends on your audience, right? So I have two businesses myself. I have a photography business, I have an online tech resource business, and those audiences are very different and they like very different things. So when I give this answer, just know you have to think about your audience, right? So, what is your audience excited about? So we're talking about skincare, we're talking about beauty. A lot of those people might be interested in like how to maintain what they just invested in, right? Or what are some things that they can do to enhance what they've invested in? I know, like even for us at work, we are very into the biohacking and like skincare and things like that. So that's something we're always talking about. What if you could be that resource that people are talking about at work, right? Like, oh, my esthetician just sent me this blog post that was telling me about XYZ. Like that is something that not only builds your credibility, but then when I, you know, my friend decides down the line that she's ready to go get that treatment done or she's ready to learn more about it, she has a source that is already trusted that I recommended to her and she's already learned from because of an email, right? So it's not always like um sign up for my list and get discounts on your session, right? Like, sure, you could do that. She can offer those discounts, but it's so much more than that. It's education, it's building trust, it's connecting with people, like moms. Like, if you're a mom and you're talking to moms and we all get it, like, you know, like what like my child pulled off my eyelashes. Like, what do I do? Like, there's different things that you can connect to your audience on, and you just relate to them where they are, and then you become that trusted resource. So we talked about the discounts, we talked about um newsletters are really popular. It's a really great place to start, even if it's something monthly. Like, what can you offer? Is it um, you know, different sessions? Are you learning something in your industry? Because I'm not keeping up to date with what's going on in the beauty world. I work in the tech world, so that's why I sign up for your newsletter to tell me what I need to know. Um, you can do uh freebies, like you can do something along the lines of like, like get our free checklist of like three things you should try before you schedule that laser treatment, or you know, five ways to prep for your X, Y, and Z. Offer that as a download. Um, that can get them onto your list, into your newsletter. If you offer digital products or something, that could be something that you're marketing towards. The list goes on and on and on. But everybody's audience, again, is going to be a little different. Um, me and my audience, they like quick wins. They want to know what they need to know and they're out of there, right? So that's kind of where they are. But I also subscribe to another um industry professional who's a wedding photographer that tells very long stories about her clients. And that their her audience for that is like very into like romance novels and reading, and they just want to hear the stories. So you just have to develop things that really make sense for your audience, and it's gonna take some trial and error, and that's totally okay, but that's what it's all about.

Kari Jo 11:51

So when you say your audience, for example, likes the quick wins,

Find Out What Clients Want

Kari Jo 11:55

but this other girl, her audience likes the longer format, and you're like, Well, it's takes some trial of like learning what works and what doesn't. How do we find that out? Like, how do I know what my audience actually likes?

Dawn Richardson 12:11

Good question. So, one mistake I see a lot of small business owners make is they get a form up on their website, and a form is something that says, like, subscribe to my newsletter, give me your name and your email, right? And they just have that one form and they're like, Okay, I'm done, right? What I teach and what I recommend is that you create forms throughout your online presence that are different. So maybe you have like at the end of an Instagram post or a blog post or something like, you want to hear more about our client stories? Like, sign up here and I will, you know, send it, send them straight to your inbox every month. Or and then you might have another form somewhere that's like, um, do you want to like, are you looking for five quick wins to get ready in the morning as a mom, like a busy mom? Like, you know, so and then you take both of those forms, you put them in different places, like on your social media, you share them on stories, and you use that data to see which one gets more traction, right? That's gonna kind of help determine your audience. Now, your audience might be split between the two, and that's also okay, right? You send a monthly newsletter with your client stories here. You send the quick wins to this audience, and maybe every month or so you send them a quick win, but that's that's okay. That's still two emails a month, right? Like that's not like you can have thousands of people in each of those segments. Um, but that data can help you determine where you should go, where you should pivot. Uh, for example, I launched a um an opt-in on my business, my coaching business called Tech Savvy Creative that was about AI. And I got a large influx of interest on that, what on that form. So that really helped me understand that, okay, my audience has concerns about this. This is something that they're trying to learn more about. And I'm gonna spend a little bit more of my time when I'm creating content and emails about this topic. And I kind of took the other ones that maybe were losing traction and kind of put them aside for a little bit. So using those forms a great way. Um, also, if you just have a generic newsletter, you can ask them in the newsletter. You can add what we call a poll block in Flow Desk and you can ask them and they can vote on which ones they want. Um, or if they you have, let's say, three different posts in your newsletter, you can track who is clicking what. And if they click on it, you can say, okay, add them to the segment interested in at home tips. Or if they click on the blog about the client story, you can say interested in client stories. You can use that information to segment that audience so you can then send the right email to the right people. Um, but it's gonna take some time and it's gonna take you starting it. That's always the hardest part is just starting it. So, no, nothing's gonna get done if we don't do anything here. You just kind of have to get going and see how your audience reacts and then slowly evolve over time.

Kari Jo 15:11

What I hear you saying is like with Flowdesk, we can kind of segment our audience into different categories. So, like, say, you know, we have some facial clients, we can set them all facial clients into one category and send them on an email section, or say we have uh, I don't know what I just said, a lash clients we can a category over to them, right? My question is is a lot of times I think esthetician, one of our biggest worries are but I want to be personal. Do you know what I mean? So where I guess like my my question is at what point does being personal actually cause you to be disorganized,

Segments That Still Feel Personal

Kari Jo 15:55

overwhelmed, and how do you manage it?

Dawn Richardson 15:59

Yes, good question. So the true magic of email marketing is the segmentation that we were just talking about. So, and like you said, in Flowdesk, uh other tools do this as well. They sometimes call it tagging, they call it grouping, it's different things. Um, but it basically adds a label to a subscriber that says that they are a past client and they are a facial client and they have clicked on your client stories and they have clicked on your discounts. Like you can have a subscriber in multiple segments. Now, when I hear people talk about like wanting to be personal, yes, of course. Like we want that to happen. Now, how personal you need to be, I think is where I want you to really like think about a little bit more. Um, because in these emails, you can obviously like add their name and they'd be like, you know, like Dawn, I know it's really hard being mom, right? Like I can add that type of like personalization to the email very easily in Flow Desk. Now, what I want to really encourage you though is that it doesn't have to be a one-on-one conversation with them that you talked about last time they were in your chair, right? Just saying their name and giving them information about a service or something that you know that they're already interested in can be the personalization that you need to be successful. Now, what I want to avoid is sending them something that doesn't make sense for them. That is where things get really kind of questionable. For example, let's say somebody has booked facials with you in the past, right? And you're not segmenting your list appropriately, and then you send that same person an email about why they should book their first facial. Right? Now we don't feel personal anymore because you're like, girl, I spent thousands of dollars with you already, and you just asked me to book my first facial. Like that's where you like lose the right. Or have you ever like bought something and then you get a coupon for that thing that you already bought, and you're like, what the heck, Apple? Like, or what the, you know, like yeah, like you're like, wait, I could have used that two weeks ago. Like, um, like that's the thing that we don't want. Um, and I think people just get really caught up on personalization, has to be this like one-to-one story where personalization just has to be showing up with the right message, and that is going to be successful. And a lot of times people don't realize that things are not personal until they get one of those mistakes. So we want to avoid the mistakes. We want to lean into that. And that's also like a really big powerful tool that social media doesn't have. Like, I can't take an Instagram story and say, only show this to moms. But in my email list, if I've identified who the moms are, I can send a list only to moms. And that's really special because maybe like uh there's a lot of people that are trying really hard to be moms. And if you are sending something about, you know, managing your kids to somebody that's having a really hard season in that, that's also a way to be very unpersonal, right? So leaning into that segmentation to make sure you're sending the right message to the right audience is really where that email marketing magic comes in. And it's very easy to do. It's just a couple of clicks. And whenever somebody clicks on a form or a different link in an email, you can add them to those segments. You can have as many segments as you want. I think if I look in my business, I have like 148 of them right now. Um, I know it's a lot, but it's really helpful when I'm trying to send a certain message. I get it to the right people, and that message converts well because I'm sending it to people that feel like I'm talking just to them.

Kari Jo 19:37

I have not yet heard that, but that makes a lot of sense about when you get an email that's like your first time facial, I'd be like, this is just going out to the masses. Like, and then that would make me distrust, and then that would make me not want to open the emails, which is why it is so important to do, you know, the different groups, the different categories. How would you recommend? Because if I have an email list right now of a bunch of girls and I'm like, I need to segment these, that's gonna be kind of overwhelming, right? What would you suggest doing?

Dawn Richardson 20:11

Yes. Well, we just want to get started at this point, and you want to use the emails that are going out. So let's say like a generic newsletter to help us segment that audience. Now, you can also, if you launch something new, like maybe a new um guide or a new resource on that form, you can also like add like a what we call form preferences that say like, I am a returning client or I am a mom, and they can check as many of them as they want. So you like reach out or like you incentivize them to sign up for this new offer or this new freebie you have at the same time, though, they are filling out that additional information to help segment. And even if they're already on your list, they're not going to be added twice. We're just gonna use the segmentation in there to say, like, one, they're interested in whatever that offer was, and two, whatever they checked is gonna add them to the appropriate segments. Now in emails, you can do this as well. So, like whether you are running like a poll, like it's say, um polls work best when there's not more than one answer. So if you maybe you have a group of clients that are getting married soon, you can say, like, what season are you getting married in? Right. And they can click like the summer, spring, winter, and fall. And that's information that you can collect for their emails. You can do it based off of what they clicked on that email. So if you have like a like a book now button on your email and they click on it, you can say, like, this is a warm client. They have clicked on your book email. So if they don't book with you, then you can follow up with them a couple days later because they're gonna be a lot warmer than a client that has never opened your emails before or a subscriber that has never opened your emails. But if you reach out to that one person who did click that. Button or the few people, and you're like, hey, like I saw that you went to book a set, uh book a slot with me and you didn't. Like, is there anything that we can do to help? And it might be availability, it might be pricing. Like you get that feedback and it might just be, I got distracted because dinner was cooking or I was at a stoplight or whatever, right? Um, but following up and like nurturing that relationship can be really helpful too. So that's what I would do. I would make sure that I'm using my forms to the best abilities I can, making sure I'm adding those segmentation questions on there, and I'm using what we call link actions in FlowDask to gather information on what people are clicking and segmenting them that way.

Kari Jo 22:39

Oh my gosh. Yeah, that is a good idea. Just get started and then ask the poll questions to create the segments for you.

Dawn Richardson 22:46

Yes, so easy.

Kari Jo 22:48

So easy. Like it's funny how much overwhelmed that we make things in our head. You know what I mean? We're like, oh my gosh, I can't do that. So um so easy. So let's say we segment them and now we need to nurture them to a cell. Do you have any tips or advice on like like how many emails should I be sending them or what kind of emails I should be sending them in order

Deliverability And Story Led Selling

Kari Jo 23:15

to make turn it into profit?

Dawn Richardson 23:18

Yes, great question. And this is something that um where I sit at Flowdesk, I also sit on the team that really looks into what's called email deliverability. And email deliverability is the heart, heart for lack of better words, of figuring out what Google sends to spam and sends to the inbox, right? So that's what we're talking about when we say email deliverability. What we've learned is that the content matters. If you are somebody that just constantly blasts, like, get your your session today, like discount, discount, discount. Google is going to see that and they're like, hey, like you're in your subscribers are probably not going to consistently engage in that kind of content. You are going to be penalized and eventually end yourself into the spam folder or in a folder you don't want to be in. What we see our most successful users do is a lot more relationship building. They're just sharing content. And this is also why tools out there like Substack are so successful right now. The people that are using Substack and writing these blogs are really just out there to share their knowledge. They're here to share what they're learning, they're here to share their experiences and what has happened and what news that they're following. And people really gravitate towards the knowledge sharing. They gravitate to the stories, the storytelling. Like whether it's, you know, tales behind the genius bar or in your chair or whatever that is, people are really connecting with that. And they just want to feel connected to people. I think that's also why we are so obsessed with Instagram, is because like we follow these people and we like we know their stories, right? We're like, oh, like, well, she has this kid, and like, you know, like you're following, you never met these people, but you become obsessed with them, not because they're selling you something, but because you're following them. You want to get to know them. Treat email the same way. Email is that deeper conversation. Bring them in. And in the process, you can bring them to your offers, right? Like you can tell that story about that, about your mom who tried to do something herself at home and how bad it was, and how like you stepped in and you tried to help her. And you know, like at the end of it, you can be like, you know, like my mom now will never do this on her own. She always books a session with me. And if that sounds like you, here's a link to do that too. Like, it doesn't have to be a like big billboard, right? Focus on that storytelling, focus on your everyday. I know it feels mundane, and like you said, like it's just crazy and overwhelming. And we were talking about May Sumber is upon us right now for us that have kids, and like just being that relatable person and sharing those stories can bring you so much further than any sales email will because it's all about connection, it's all about building that trust with people. And when somebody needs the service that you're offering, you're gonna be top of mind for them because they feel like they know you, they feel like they have become friends with you, and now they want to use you for that service. So lean into that storytelling, lean into just telling those everyday stories about what's going on in your life, what you're learning, what's working well, what's not. Um, I feel like the beauty industry has so much um exciting things to talk about. Like, even they could be like interesting things. Like, I'm really looking at red light therapy now. And like, does this gonna help me? Like, I don't know, but I want an aesthetician or somebody that knows more than I do to tell me. Like, and I will sign up for that. But um, going on a ramble here, um, I think it's just important to lean into your true self and share that. And the sale piece of it will come naturally after that.

Kari Jo 27:07

Uh huh, I love that. So it's not just sell, sell, sell. It's like, let's just have a conversation. Almost kind of like if you're podcasting by yourself, just sitting there talking about it. Yeah, like they're looking for it. Yes. Yeah, okay. I love that.

Dawn Richardson 27:21

And you so you say that, Kari Jo, but one of the best things for me and my businesses and how I kind of keep my head on straight is like when I am driving somewhere or walking my dogs or whatever, I'll just turn a voice note on, like on my phone, and I'll just start rambling or start rambling to Claude or Chat GPT or whatever your tool of choice is. I'll just start rambling

AI Voice Notes Into Great Emails

Dawn Richardson 27:45

and be like, so I really want to create this thing to help moms clean out their iPhone because we're all getting that storage full thing. And I don't know if it should be a blog post. Like, I just start kind of doing that thing. And I have either a conversation with my AI or I get into a voice note and then drop it into AI later to help me formulate a plan. But this is a great way to start sending your emails. Like kind of start rambling when you have a few minutes on your phone, drop it into Chat GPT or Claude or whatever it is you want to do, help it formulate a great email for you and use that to be your storytelling. It doesn't have to be this formal, I'm gonna sit down at my desk for three hours and create this email. Just when you're on the fly, think of those little things, and then use the tools at your disposal to make it easier to get that up and out the door.

Kari Jo 28:32

Yeah, that is so helpful. And you are like the genius of using AI. What do you think that we should be learning as far as AI before we are burned out?

Dawn Richardson 28:46

Yeah. Um, I think everybody's feeling a little burned out right now. It's like really overwhelming right now and it's everywhere, and you're just like, why? Why is this happening? Um, so even as somebody that works very close to AI, I'm feeling it too. So just know you're not alone. Um, for me, when I think of AI tools that I want to invest my time in that I'm investing my, you know, my subscriptions into, I'm thinking of something that can help me take what I feel is like a whirlwind of what is happening in my world and turn it into action, right? So even if it's, you know, I am trying to figure out what to make for my children for dinner this week, that's not gonna make them complain. Um, like just like talking to AI and helping me formulate a meal plan and it learns from me and knows that I can't have gluten and knows that my children don't like seafood. It learns these little things and it helps me formulate those plans so I don't have to spend the brain power to do that. Um, that's where I really encourage people to lean into is like for me, like I will be forever subscribing to Claude. Me and Claude, we talk all the time. And also don't hesitate to try the voice thing. I know that sounds really weird, but not just like take my voice and transcribe it into text, like the actual conversation is like a little like wave, sound wave, but you talk to it and it talks back to you like a friend, and then you talk back to it and you kind of have this conversation. It will help you just take everything in your brain and just like put it into a nice orderly way, and then you can do something about it, right? It just takes the overwhelm off of you. So I just encourage people starting there. Um, there are other tools that do other things, but unless you have a specific issue you're trying to target, um, for me, it's just like I need that like that side companion just to throw questions at. Or I even have a project in my Claude that's for my monthly newsletter. And if I see something on the news or if I see somebody talking about something on Instagram, I'll literally just go to that project and be like, hey, Claude, don't let me forget in May, I want to talk about my uh experience with Aura, like the ring, because they just replaced my ring for free. And I want to make sure I talk about that in the newsletter. So like I give it that. And then so when I sit down to do my newsletter, I just go to my project and I'm like, hey, what should I talk about in May? And it's like, oh, remember you told me this thing and this thing, and I'm like, oh, that's great. You know, it just use it as your like brain space that none of us have right now because none of us we're small business owners, we don't know what's going on, we're moms, we are all over the place. Just use it to be that second brain vault for you. Um, and it will become the resource that you don't know how you live without. So start there in the world of AI. Try not to let everything else overwhelm you, and this will definitely help you out every day.

Kari Jo 31:43

Well, Don, this has been so helpful because I feel like this is a good start to email marketing and getting it just getting started, get our emails and get start getting them segmented and then knowing what to like nurture them, talk to them like they're your friend. Um, not

Don’t Buy Lists Plus Next Steps

Kari Jo 32:05

so much sell, sell, sells, and you can use AI for it. One last thing before we go, if you want to say that there is like one mistake that you see people using in email marketing that you wish that you could let everybody know, but you've learned, do this instead. Yes, you're saying right now.

Dawn Richardson 32:25

Um, in the email marketing space, again, we have big inboxes. You have Google, you have Yahoo, you have iCloud, and getting to show up on that person's email list, um, like top and center is really important, right? You don't want to be in the spam folder. Um, but the biggest mistake that I see a lot of people who are new to email marketing make is that they try to buy a list or they try to use AI to scrape websites to find a list. And that is a guaranteed way to end up really damaging what's called your sender reputation. So I would make sure that you are not getting a list from somebody or a Facebook group or buy it off of some website. You want to be getting those subscribers on your own. Build the form, put it on your social media, talk about go on your stories and tell you like, hey guys, I'm launching a newsletter because I want to share all about X, Y, and Z. Here's a link to sign up to my newsletter. That's where you want to start. A small list can still be very powerful for you. I earned an extra six figures from a list of 400 subscribers. Okay. It does not have to be big. It just has to be people who are there for you that have given you that permission to email them. And just avoid lists that are not yours. That is a very, very quick way to really hurt yourself in the email marketing space.

Kari Jo 33:51

Yeah, that's super good. Cause one, I didn't even know that was a thing. But now when I hear it, I'll be like, oh, yeah, don't take that.

Dawn Richardson 33:59

Yep. It happens. People share lists, you know, they're like, oh, these are my clients, and like you can have them. Like, or if you go to a um expo, for example, like a show. I do they they do that in the beauty industry? They have to be like uh like a conference or something, and then the conference sends you the list of all the attendees. That is not yours to market. Like, do not use it. It does nothing but damage you at this point. Focus on getting subscribers that want to talk to you. So if you have, if you have a booth at one of those shows, have your own iPad, have your own sign up form that people want to hear from you. They explicitly sign up for you. Don't just take the list that the the event offers you. So that's really important right now. Um, and I see a lot of people really damage their sender reputation by using those lists.

Kari Jo 34:46

Ah, yeah, that makes so much sense. Well, Don, you are well, one, you're so fun to have on the podcast. Cause I'm like, I feel like we just relate because we're like totally moms and I know in the crazy time of year.

Dawn Richardson 35:00

I'm like, I'm here. I made it. And I'm so glad that my email's running for me and behind the scenes, though, right? Like, we have seasons like this. You guys have busy seasons, you have all of these things. And that's like, as a business owner, I know that if people sign up for my stuff, they're gonna get an automated email from me, they're gonna get a welcome sequence from me, they're going to get their newsletter when they're supposed to. And I don't have to spend a lot of time doing that. And the nice thing is like, I don't have to worry about my Instagram. I'll post on Instagram when I get there. My real business is happening in the email in the inbox. So um, yes, I'm there. I hope I hope that helps you, Carrie Joan, and anybody listening. Um, but we're all there in the thick of it, right there with you.

Kari Jo 35:43

Yes. Well, tell my audience if they want to learn more about email marketing, getting started, all of the different things, how can they find you?

Dawn Richardson 35:53

Yeah. Yeah. So of course you can find us at FlowDusk, F-L-O-D-E-S-K, and we're at FlowDusk.com. Um, if you want to hang out with me, um, I'm It's Don Richardson on Instagram. And if you want to sign up for my newsletter, tech savvy creative.com slash newsletter, we'll take you there and we'll come talk about all the tech things and learn about my aura stories from this month too.

Kari Jo 36:16

Yeah, I have I've seen those aura rings and I've considered getting one. Speaking of which, do you like it?

Dawn Richardson 36:23

I love it. It just tells me that I'm stressed out all the time.

Kari Jo 36:26

So yeah.

Dawn Richardson 36:28

I feel like I don't want to. I know, I know. It's actually been very, very helpful for me and has made some big like life health transitions. Um, my doctor uses the data very closely, so it's actually very nice. Big fan. I will always wear one.

Kari Jo 36:43

Oh, guys, there you hear it. So go follow her and go check into the aura ring. Apparently, I think we probably all need one. Um, thanks for listening, guys. We'll see you next week on the esthetician podcast. Bye, guys. If today's episode hit home for you, the next thing I want you to do is go and download my free esthetician weekly number tracker. Most estheticians are trying to fix everything all at once when really it's usually one number that is quietly breaking the business. One weak number creates the stress that you're going through. Low rebooks, low retail, low client retention, low average ticket. This tracker, it helps you figure out what number is actually hurting your business first. So when you know what to focus on, instead of feeling like you're all over the place, you can start changing your company. You can download it at carryjopatterson.com forward slash start. And remember, you don't need to fix everything at once. You just need to fix the number that is affecting everything else. I'll see you guys next week.