How to Turn Your Inbox into Hot Leads

Before you skip this episode because newsletters sound boring AF — trust me, this one might actually make you money.

Because if you’re a scaling female founder who is constantly chasing new leads, selling in the DMs, doing the most on social media… but then never following up? Babe. We need to talk.

In this episode, I brought back the queen of email strategy herself, Laura Haley, to talk about the thing I’ve personally avoided for FOUR YEARS in business (yes, embarrassing): email marketing.

And somehow… she made newsletters sexy???

We’re breaking down how to stop losing warm leads, revive your dead email list, create an email funnel that actually converts, and why your business might be running on hard mode without even realizing it.

Also, fair warning: I was apparently on my fifth espresso while recording this so… enjoy the chaos.

Inside this episode, we cover:

✨ Why email marketing feels overwhelming (and why it’s actually way simpler than you think)

✨ The biggest email marketing mistakes scaling founders are making

✨ How to stop losing warm leads after the DMs go cold

✨ Why retention and repeat buyers matter more than constantly chasing new clients

✨ What a high-converting welcome sequence actually looks like

✨ How to revive a dormant email list without making it weird

✨ The sweet spot between connection vs selling in your emails

✨ Subject line hacks that make people actually open your emails

✨ The truth about “pretty” emails vs plain-text emails that convert

✨ How to know if your email marketing is underperforming

✨ Laura’s favorite email platform (and why she’s not touching Mailchimp with a 10-foot pole)

✨ Why scaling female founders need systems that work without more manual work

If your current funnel looks like this:
Threads → Instagram → DMs → ghosting people forever because you forgot to follow up…

…this episode is your intervention.

Because the truth? Scaling your business isn’t just about getting more leads. It’s about nurturing the people already in your world and creating systems that sell for you.

And if email marketing has felt intimidating, overwhelming, or like “one more thing” on your to-do list — this episode is going to change your mind.

Connect with Laura:

Follow Laura on Instagram: @travelcontentwriting

Listen to her podcast: The Travel Creator Podcast

(Also yes, we produce her podcast 😘)

Want to connect with me?

DM me on Instagram: @yourgirlmedia

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If you’re ready to scale your coaching business, attract dream clients, and close more high ticket sales — I’m your girl. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Guys, today we are talking about the unpopular but really important thing that we all need in our funnel, and that's email marketing. Yeah, I know, but we actually have the funniest, bestest ever guest who's on to talk about it. So tune in, buckle up, and tend to find out what's going on in your emails and how to scale you with it. Hey y'all, welcome to Your Girl, podcast for six to seven figure coaches and service providers who are ready to scale their business and hit their gym numbers. I'm your host, Marie, the founder of Your Girl Media. I have a boutique agency where I'm scaling people just like you with podcasting and also with my badass networking community, Cocktails and Clothes. And today we have on the infamous Lara Haley, who has come on this podcast multiple times. Today I wanted to talk to her about her specialty, which is email marketing. And she'll agree with you, we gotta change the name for email marketing or newsletters. It's old, it's dusty, but it's making you money. So today we're gonna be talking about why email marketing might feel a little bit overwhelming, and how it's actually quite simple. All the biggest mistakes you're doing with your email. Again, it's probably simpler than you think. How you're losing warm leads through your emails, how to even revive a dead email list, and how to set up your email marketing so it's setting up you for success and to scale you. So I say let's get into it. For warning, I listened back to this episode. I was editing it and I was like, damn, I could tell I was on like my fifth espresso. So if I'm a little more hyper than I usually sound, which is insane because I'm very hyper, you might tell. Okay, enough of me, let's get into it. Okay, so we record. Yeah, what the fuck are we talking about? Um, we're gonna talk about emotion, which is or not mine. So it'll be fun because it's gonna go over my head, but I know someone in the audience is gonna be like, this is what I need to hear. So, again, we're gonna talk about emo stuff. But my first question I always like to ask is what's your favorite cocktail? But we already know that. It's the fucking mule. But I have to think of a second question for you. So, where would you like to drink your Moscow mule? Gribe the place.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

I would love to drink it actually on a beach in um Albania on the Mediterranean. Stunning, stunning, underrated. Think about a little Moscow mule on the Mediterranean, I believe. Love um, absolutely stunning. Nobody put that to your bucket list because I'm gonna go and I'm gonna be the only one there.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Um, I hate to tell you, Albania has come up four times for me this week. So now we do have to go to Albania.

unknown 2:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

And I have an even crazier story. My fucking neighbor. My neighbor is so sick, Joe. If you're listening, hey, she is a massive podcaster.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

She gets like a million downloads a month. Why am I never hearing about her until right now?

SPEAKER_01 2:51

She's a fucking captain. So she takes us on boats. Okay. She used to live in Albania, and she has this crazy story how she accidentally became friends with the mob for a year. I she's been hyping up Albania. She's like, guys, the best beach clubs, like the nicest people, the food. Like, and I'm like, what are we doing? I'm thinking for my membership, that'd be a fun retreat to go to Albania. Yep. Yep. Okay, so you're having your Moscow mule in Albania. Yes. And we're going there. So how exciting for us. Okay, but you are here to talk about emails, which is not my forte. That is your forte. So, what's your spicy opinion about email marketing that would get you fucking dragged on the internet? But you can tell us here.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

That would get me dragged on the internet. Okay, so it's like something that um piss people off. About email? Okay, I think like I don't know if how spicy this is, but I think everyone is making it so much harder than they than it needs to be. Everyone is making it so hard and intimidating, and I think it's because it's not it's not like fun and beautiful and cool. Um unless you're a writer.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I think only writers nerd out about email marketing.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Well, I think some of them do, and I still think some of them are like, I don't understand how to make it um simple and it's not that deep. So I guess I don't know. What would get me dragged is that everyone's overcomplicating it a surprise, sweetie. You're overthinking it.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Like I'm so scared of email marketing. And like year four, my business, I've never even opened MailChimper kit. Like, I just I'm so scared of it.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah. I mean, I guess it's so important. All the successful businesses are selling to you in their emails, like you've bought stuff off emails, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

I mean, yeah, like imagine if you walked into a department store um of like a major brand, and or I'm sorry, we're not walking into stores. You ordered something online and then you never hear from them again. Like you try, I think I'm still getting bath and body work shit from when I was like 12 years old. Like, you cannot escape this bullshit. So it's kind of like the same thing happens in our online businesses when someone comes across our stuff, buys something, downloads something, signs up for something. It would be put yourself in the perspective of these massive companies, treat yourself like that. Um, if those massive companies, if you never heard from them again, you would be like, what the heck? So why aren't we reaching out to the people who are signing? They're doing the same thing as the Bath and Body Works, the Matt, I don't know, I Bath and Body Works is the only company I can think of today, but any of them, we would be like, hello, I'm waiting for your emails, like subconsciously, and why aren't we doing that too? It's not annoying.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah, I think I think everyone here who's listening probably has email marketing because they're fucking smart and are scaling founders. It's just me personally, so that was a question more for me.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

But like they're not idiots, but um well true. You would be surprised how many people don't have it. It's the thing, it's always never the most important thing because it's a long game. You're playing like a long game here of trust and expertise. Can you have quick wins with email launches? Yeah, there's coaches who launch a course and just send emails and they make a lot of money from doing that quickly, but they built an audience before who trusts them. Um, and so it's never the most important thing to business owners unless they get it and they already have it. But if you don't have it, it's so easy to be like, this is not right now. I'm gonna go because what you're doing right now in your business is working. Like the reason you are what you are doing to sell spots in your membership is working. So it's like this feels like another thing I have to do right now. But eventually you'll get a reach a point where you'll realize, and I think you have, that it is it is something I need now and is important.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

I also think it's something like when you start to hit, when you start to scale and use it it starts to become like about volume because I can't be talking, okay. If I only need like five clients a year, like when I'm with my podcast company, I really don't need an email marketing. Like I could just text you. Like I know my five clients, you know, like why am I emailing you automatically, you know? So, but I think for people who are coaches, have memberships, you you are about volume. Are you serious? Are you gonna remember all these people? And are you gonna touch not touch them? Are you gonna like what's the fucking word? Whatever. Like, are you gonna talk to them? Each individual portion, no, like you're gonna need to like talk to them in a mass way. And if you want to scale, again, this podcast about scaling, you are an idiot for not having email marketing. And I'm yelling at myself, and I tell I'm telling that to you very lovingly.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

I think, like, yeah, I mean, it's a wonderful way to keep track of who's in your world because data tells us if someone buys something from you, they are 11 times more likely to do it again.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

And when we have something new we're launching or promoting or running a sale on whatever, don't we want to not talk to brand new people? We want to talk to people who've bought from us before. And so we need to know who those people are. So that is half of a lead sheet, but also having them in an email sending system where you're like, great, I can just go and quickly filter and grab these people who purchased this thing before to be like, hey, I'm now running tickets to my cocktails and clothes retreat. Now you have everybody. You're gonna first fill it out to just the members. Maybe you need to open it up to people who trialed it or whatever. You just need to know who these people are so you can sell them something where they're at. Like, that's why I think we're running our businesses a little bit on hard mode sometimes because we're like, oh my gosh, who's gonna be this person? How am I gonna sell this thing? Who am I gonna sell it to? It's like, whoa, let's just look at the actual data of who has purchased these things before and ask them if they want to buy something again. It's literally 70 times easier to retain a client than get a new one.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

And what do we do? We're always looking for new ones. I catch myself all the fucking time doing that. Yeah. And then like, wait, have I talked to Laura lately? Have I talked to Josie lately?

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Like, yeah, like what do you have that even like okay? A shout out to Alyssa. I was listening to her latest podcast, and she said something that reminds me of this. She said, sometimes like you just upsell your current clients. So she might say to client A, hey, what I've been doing with client B over here is I've been doing this XYZ lead thing and it it costs as much. Is that something we could do for you? I think it would really benefit you in this way, blah, blah, blah. Obviously, they're gonna say yes, one because they trust her and she's amazing at getting results and blah, blah, blah. And they're already like, oh yeah, you already understand my business, let's do it. Same thing. You can send emails to people who have already bought things from you to tell them little tiny add-ons like that. Or even it doesn't even have to be that deep, but just reaching out to people you're already working with to say, I'm starting this new thing. This is how much it's gonna cost to add it on for you. This is why it's gonna be amazing. Beep bop boop. Beep bop boop. Bim bim bop.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Bim bim bop. If okay, so like let's say I'm your client. Hello, I'm a successful coach. I'm here handing you my email list and my email account. What's the first thing you're looking at to diagnose why it's underperforming, why it's not selling?

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Oh, this is funny because someone asked me this identical question yesterday. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

So poser, okay. I'm not original. Fuck.

unknown 10:45

Fuck.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

This also is a chat GBT question, so I'm not original. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Ouch! Then hers must have been as well. Okay. Um, caught, caught you both. Um, okay. The first thing I do is I need to get, we need to get really clear here. What are we? Um, what's your main goal? Why are we doing email marketing? Besides you have this like undeniable guilt that you feel like you should be doing it. What's the purpose of doing it? And then we're gonna figure out what are you supposed to be selling and where are people joining your list if they are. Um also, if we haven't done this already, we're gonna get really clear on your messaging and brand to figure out who you are talking to and how you are talking to them. Because the way that you talk to beginner business owners is very different than the way you talk to those scaling to big number months. Um, so we're gonna get incredibly clear on um all of those things. And then if you've sent any emails before, we're going to look at them and figure out, okay, what's going on there. But then I would um we need to build a welcome sequence. And the welcome email, like email zero, as soon as someone puts in their their email, that very first email they get is the hottest place to sell them something because they're like, oh my gosh, I'm obsessed with Marie. I need to have her be my podcast producer. And that's when you're not discounting your services, but you're like, for the next X people, or if you do this in this time, you can get this added bonus. That is when you want to sell to them. And in the welcome sequence, the first like three emails are just gonna be totally educational in value so that they get in the habit of opening your email and actually taking something away. And it's not gonna be like every single thing you've ever learned about anything, it's like one actionable thing. And then the last three emails of the welcome sequence are I'm selling you this thing, I'm showing you how I did this with my clients or how I do this process, and this is your opportunity to work with me. Then they get dumped into a um like your regular newsletter until you need to get them, until you need to send them specifically, like, okay, great, so-and-so person subscribed via threads. I'm gonna go email my threads people separately. Um, and to put that all together, we're gonna build a beautiful form and make it all automated. And I've learned recently that like beautiful email templates are amazing. And I think for your newsletter, that's a great thing to have. But a lot of what's performing well is really boring emails, like very plain, because it seems like it's much more genuine than like this big production of a thing. I think for newsletters, it's great to have a template because it's predictable and it's something that um we want people to get into the habit of recognizing. But I think for one off like sales emails, I think it's fine to do don't go design crazy. Really? Those are the first things I would do.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Oh, interesting about the not like the more boring, basic looking. Maybe it's like less stimul overstimulating.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

I think it just feels um more genuine, like it feels like, oh, this person just wrote this right now and sent this to me.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense actually. Okay. Um, how how much should you be like selling versus like connecting in your emails? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Okay, so if you're if you have a newsletter, um, if you don't have one, I obviously think that you should, and you can start it once a month, twice a month, I don't care. And in your newsletter, it's going to be a lot of value, like 80% value, if not more, of the time. And then this is a great place to mention, like, hey, I'm going to be running a sale on this thing. I'm launching this thing. You guys are my trusted resty trustees. I'm going to tell you about it first here. Then you also have, let's say, um, other like sales sequences, because we don't want to just send our email, our newsletter with sales information all the time. It would be like if you texted a friend and every time you texted them, you asked a favor, you would be like the worst friend. So the same thing is happening.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Worst.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

The worst. The same thing is happening in your emails. If every single email you send, you are being like, buy this thing, buy this thing, buy this thing, then you are losing trust to people who have already opted in and have already decided that they're going to trust you to some degree. So you should run separately different sequences that are for selling. And a lot of the times that happens after, like, let's say somebody downloads a guide, you, a free guide you have on how to start a podcast. And then they're gonna get those emails. They're gonna get um, they're gonna get it delivered, they're gonna fall into your welcome sequence. Maybe they also get additional, like that welcome sequence should be a little bit um tailored to the thing that they downloaded so it makes sense. Um, and then they get dumped into your newsletter. And then again, if you're like, hey, by the way, you downloaded this how to start a podcast thing. I actually have a spot open starting in September for a client. I wanted you to know first, since you had downloaded this guide or whatever. So not all the selling is gonna come from like the newsletter or something like that. It's more when you're running different sales emails. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Okay. I'm just like fascinated. Like you're so passionate about this, and I'm just like holy fuck.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Like, what's going on here? Like, why do you love it so much?

SPEAKER_02 16:31

This is like I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

I think it's because it's I've just never seen anyone so passionate about sending a goddamn email.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

I uh I think it's because I it's not cool, and I love to do things that are not mainstream, but yeah, super annoying. Super annoying.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

I'm a hipster too.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

But it's also like I think it's really satisfying because when you are doing it right, you can see the results. Like I think it's it's fun to watch people win when it's like, yeah, I just made this thing and it works really well. And it's like it's not that freaking hard. I didn't have to go edit all this bullshit because also half the content is pretty much done for a newsletter. Like we're just going to things you've already posted on the internet and we are pulling them, and then we are adding a little bit of information that people can't find on your social media or your website that is more personal and why people actually subscribe. Um, I think it's, I don't know, it feels like an undercover job because it's not like it's not that crazy, but it's fun to blow people's mind with like, here's what we're doing, and it's not that insane. And like, yes, you can make this simple. Yeah. It's fun when I get to see that they're like, oh, this is how this all connects together. Like, I think that's what email is really doing is it's it's again, it's just one part of your marketing stream. It's not the entire thing, but it's fun to show people like, here's how it is coming together. That thing you're doing over here and that thing you're doing over here. This is where it connects. It's like the venue. This is like their wedding venue.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Oh I don't have email marketing, you just set mine up. And but I would say right now, what's happening in my business is I'm doing all this front-end work of connecting with people on threads, then getting them to connect with me on Instagram, then I'm selling you my stories, then we go into my DMs, I get I get their connection, and then if I don't continuously talk to these people in the DMs, it fucking falls off. I might as well just yeet and throw all those connections in the trash because I can't keep up with all these DMs. And but I and I could have just collected their emails and talked to them in a more automated way. Um, but instead, I'm doing a lot of front-end work and then being like, okay, bye.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Well, I think like there's insane value in what you're doing right now, which is really difficult. Um, I mean, you're giving like personalized conversations with these people, which that's huge. But I do think, of course, if you I mean, email marketing is a lot of upfront stuff. It is, and I think that's why I like it too, because it's like great. If we can sit down and do this, we're freaking set. Like you love systems, you love making things easier. I do. And for you, like in this case, if you have this flow or anybody listening does, where it's like social media, we're in the DMs, then it's like, see you later. I don't know when I'll ever speak to you again if you don't convert right now.

unknown 19:46

Literally.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I'm like, this is your our last chance to ever talk.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Like this, you're either it's a yes or no. And first of all, first of all, first of all, I heard this analogy and I thought it was so interesting. Like, if you meet someone at the dog park, you're not gonna be like, hey, I'm going camping this weekend. Do you want to come? That's like crazy pants behavior. We don't do that, as we know. Psycho. Um, and so leads like this are really just how our relationships and how we how we treat these leads as relationships. Anyway, anyway, anyway. Okay. I do think it would benefit you to, you're gonna hate this, but it would be.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Well, you're gonna do it for me, so it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

I think it's so vital to have a document where you have like voice, just like go on a walk and tell me things about the thing you're selling that you would tell me if I was sitting on your couch. You can use amazing tools like Whisperflow, which is a phenomenal dictation tool that I love. Um, but a voice note works if you're like, you know, out and about. And we're gonna transcribe that. Or if you want to actually write it, great, it's in a document and it's just all this information about what you want people to know that you're talking about in the DMs. Love. Like go back through some of your DM messages in Instagram. You can grab the transcript. This is a great task for a team member to do as well. And find the what are you actually saying in these voice messages? Are you constantly repeating yourself? Are you constantly saying the same thing? We're gonna write it down. Love. And then it's like, okay, how do we get these people onto this email list where the you're sending them all of this information and they're getting it automatically without you having to manually remember that so-and-so needs to hear this piece from me. What you can then do is be like, oh, okay, I sent this email consistently that um about all my program that I've been saying, and I saw that client, I saw that person, this person has opened it. Well, I'm gonna go back over to Instagram and be like, hey, I saw you open this, just wanted you to know I actually only have like 10 spots left right now, and I thought of you and our conversation earlier just. Wanted to make sure. So it's just another touch point of um getting people through the pipeline without doing so much manual work to actually get them on the email list. When they follow you, I think you need to DM them and say, Hey, I'm Marie. I am an this XYZ person. This is what I do. Um, right now I am running this. Basically, I'm I'm gonna send you emails on why this community is the best thing you've ever heard of in your whole life, blah blah blah. We're gonna tell them like a really valuable reason why they should be on your email list. Can I subscribe you so that you can hear about upcoming events we're having? Because that's true. And of course, to be to attend the event, they need to purchase or they need to free trial. And we know data tells us that when they free trial, they'll convert. So DMing new followers to get them onto your email list is super easy because again, it's kind of acting like that email zero. You're getting them when they're hot. They just looked at your page and they're like, wow, I'm obsessed with this. I want to learn more. Um, that said, I don't email, I don't DM every single person immediately as soon as they follow. Instagram can set up, they have like a setting now where it can auto-dM new followers. I've never done that. I just do it like I don't like that. Me either, because I know that it's fake because it happens automatically. If they had some sort of delay, I would consider it. But what I do is like once a week, I'll go through my DMs and send, I have a DM template and I'll send them that DM. And that is how I get my perfect target audience people onto my email list where we know email converts better than um selling on DM. Not selling on DM, sorry, selling on social.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Interesting. Wow. Okay. I also this is kind of going back to that same question. I have like, how much should you be selling your emails? We found out, like, okay, don't invite people to go camping with you too early, blah, blah, blah. But what are some fun ways we can be connecting with people on our emails? So, like, we're like, oh, I just love when Laura sends her Thursday email about blank. Like, what are some like, is it like, hey, here's the weirdest thing I ate this week? Like, can you can I send that?

SPEAKER_02 24:14

So you can send whatever you want, just so you know. But like you want to know some fun ways, like some things to put in email. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

So people aren't just like, damn, I'm gonna unsubscribe. Lara's always fucking selling to me.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Right. Yes. Okay, so we love patterns as humans. And so if you can come up with some sort of um predictable outcome they're gonna receive, they're gonna love it even more subconsciously. And if I open your email and I know every single week I'm gonna know what kind of mocktail your business feels like, I'm gonna be like, I wanna know what is it this week? Because Marie wrote a funny thing about that. So some fun, let's brainstorm some fun um things that you could put into your newsletter. I love doing, um, I've actually never done like something super, super fun. Usually it's like it's always kind of driven from value, but I do think it's important to have some sort of fun there. So it could be what you're looking forward to trying this weekend, what you um, I don't know, if your business wasn't mocktail this week, what was it like? And then it's like a business reflection on how did things go. That's how it can be more fun. That's what I kind of want people to take away is like it doesn't have to be that serious. I think people get um they like freeze when they think about email because they think it has to be so serious and formal because email is quite literally archaic, but it can actually be fun. It can be what the heck I'm I'm drinking, eating this week. By the way, here's like this product I've been using in my daily life that I can't I have to tell everybody about. I've been telling everybody about this thing. I don't even care if it's not relevant to my business, but it makes you connect with me more as a human.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Um and also you probably sell so much affiliate stuff in these emails. Exactly. Exactly, so much affiliate, like any tools that you're using or any like, especially if you're like an influencer, like what the hell? Like you could be selling.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Yeah, and um if you use a product in your daily life, okay, as someone who also does UGC, I will tell you that every single brand is happy to give out affiliate links for real. So if you've been using this product and you are like, I genuinely love this thing, I tell people about it anyway. Email them, DM them on Instagram and tell them that and be like, Can I get an affiliate link? I guarantee they will say yes, and you can just put that in your email then.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah. And it's like, boom, extra cash. Um, actually, this reminds me of a specific person, my friend. Um, she has 5,000 email subscribers right now, but that's like dormant. Like she hasn't talked to them in like a year. And she's doing a rebrand. So it's like if for anyone who's like, I actually have a massive email list, I don't know who's actually interested in my new business or it's it's still inactive. Like, how do we create like a re-engaging sequence for like a dormant list that is clearly a chat GPT question? Because I would never say those words.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Um, yeah. Also, it's a chat GPT question because I was asked this yesterday as well. Oh my god, this me, this girl.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Who is this girl? She stole my fucking questions. That's so fucking funny. Also, I use Claude, so I would thought it was doing she, I guess. I I I really don't, I just want to preface, I really don't like to ask Claude my podcasting questions, but I don't understand emails. So I'm like, I'm gonna ask the stupidest questions if I don't ask Claude this. So I want to preface that. Thank you.

unknown 27:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

If I was just me, I would be like, Laura, what font should we be using? Like, I just I would ask stupid stuff. So that's why I use Claude for this exact interview. So your question is from Claude, what does a re a great re-engagement sequence look like for a dormant list?

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Okay, yeah. So you have a list you've been ghosting. Cool. Um first I would I would ask, when's the last time you sent the email? Because if it's five years ago, you are probably not even selling the same services to these people or the same to the same people as it was, which basically in some ways can make this list like null. Um, but if you sent it six months ago, okay, okay, okay, okay, cool. What I would do, let's let's go the six month route, first of all. You've ignored this the these people for six months. Um, how dare you?

unknown 28:41

I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

I would email an email that's like, hey, I'm back from like again, this can be so funny if that's your brand voice than you want it to be, but like I'm back from the grave, or like talking to you from beyond. Like fun. Hee hee he. And this is essentially your opportunity to reintroduce yourself. So if you have a welcome sequence set up, I'm gonna guess that you don't since you've been ignoring at least your email list for this long. I would um we need to reintroduce who you are and what you do. We never want to assume these people know anything about you or remember. And we want to um, I can't tell you how many people I've actually opted into their stuff and then I get their emails weekly, and I'm like, I don't know, I don't remember who you are. This, I like what I'm reading, but I just don't need I need the context again. Um, and we're smart people, so we forget. We need to also tell them what to expect around here. Like now that you're re-engaging this email list, you can be like, hello, this is what I'm going to be sending you. And this is why. These are the problems I'm going to be solving for you. You can expect this once a month and be real, be realistic. You know, don't stay every day because that you're not gonna. You've just started this. Like, be so fun. Come on. Um, and then what's really cool is a lot of these email sending softwares actually have the option to embed a poll. So if you wanted, you could embed a poll if you're trying to figure out, like, okay, who is actually opening these emails? Let's say your target audience is business owners, but it's also it's it's really advanced business owners, maybe, but it's also a different type of person. And we want them to like kind of self-identify again. And so you can embed a poll and be creative in asking a question to get them to identify who they are. Um, and then you can be like, okay, I see that I've been targeting, or people who are on this list right now are this type of business owner. Okay, now I'm gonna let that inform the rest of the way I send my emails. So I would get them to reply, either do the poll and or get them to reply and tell them, like, what do you want to learn or what do you want to get out of this, or where's one place you're stuck right now, or whatever. Um, and then that's just like more market research of okay, now what do I need to do to inform the rest of the emails I need to send? If you've been uh ignoring list for five years, it's kind of fun because you get the opportunity to kind of start over. I would similarly send this email to these people. The same email we just talked about, six-month thing. Because now you can be like, hello, this is what I'm doing now. You subscribed a long time ago. This is what I'm doing. If you want to stay, I'm not gonna kick you off. You can if you want. That's a whole like if you actually wanted to really scrub people who you're like, this is not it. You could have them again re-subscribe, um, like reconfirm their subscription. And I believe your email sending software can uh help you do that automation. Or again, you could set up like a poll to be like, do you want to continue receiving emails like this? And then you kind of need to go back and re-think about where are you getting your leads from and how can I get the right people onto my list now that I'm kind of it's been a hot minute since I've sent anything, so I need to go back to where I'm getting people even into my world and where can I put an email? Where can I put in email to help?

unknown 32:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

That was for anyone who had that issue. Moving on. I just like it's just like this is exactly why I'm paying you because I don't you might as well be speaking Mandarin to me, but I know for someone else out there, they're like, I'm I'm literally foaming at the mouth. I this is what I need to hear. Yeah, because I think people just aren't it's just not utilizing it.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Yeah, and then I'll say, like, okay, in either one of those situations, let's say uh for the first couple of probably weeks or so, it's gonna always be some experimenting. It's never gonna be like, hell yeah, let's go right away. But you can delete people from your list. You should every like 90 days be going through your subscribers and seeing who is cold, who's never opened an email, who hasn't clicked in like the last three months.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

We're gonna boot them off because it's like it's gonna fuck with your analytics if you don't, like your open rates because like this dead weight.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Yeah, totally. And also, we would rather, exactly, because especially if you're a business owner who or even a creator who wants to get brand sponsorships, you can use email as an asset to do that. And we want your numbers to be looking as good as they ever could be. And brands don't care if you have a low number of subscribers, but the target audience is aligning and your numbers are looking really good, they'll go for a partnership versus someone who has a shit ton of subscribers, but their open rate is like 10%. I'd rather know for certain that I'm gonna pay money to have you email these 100 people for me and know that 60 plus percent of them are going to open it. Um, and so we'd rather again talk to a smaller audience of people who are actually gonna buy than a bigger one of kind of maybe sorta we might buy or think about it. Okay. So unsubscribes are unsubscribing and scrubbing, cleaning your list is a good thing, even though it feels like counterintuitive because you're lowering the number of subscribers, but it is is a positive thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Okay. My last couple questions, so kind of like hot seat questions. Um, what's your flavor flavor? Jesus Christ. What's your favorite platform?

SPEAKER_02 34:37

And I know it's not MailChimp. No, it's not MailChimp. I don't understand what's going on over at MailChimp. Um, I don't. I don't. Um, I love kit. I love kit because it is more than an email sending software. It's an e-commerce platform. You can run beautiful automations, you can build landing pages, you can build forms, you can do the whole bit and run your almost your entire business on this one platform. So I would consider that when you are looking for a new software. Just it's very count, it's very intuitive as well, and their customer support is wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Heard. Okay, what is what's a average email rate opening rate, and what's a fucking and you're already on fire, and what's one where you're like, oh, you're in trouble, you need to hire me.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

Okay, yeah. Um, an average open rate, I believe it's 20%. I'm gonna Google this and check. It depends, it's very dependent on um niche. Like, let's look at average open rate for online coaches. Yeah. So, yeah, exactly, because it's one, it's hard to be like, oh, the average of this the entire fucking business world is this when it's much more granular, you know. Um, like I know for travel creators it's more around the 20% range, but here, okay, this mailer light, this article came out in December of last year, says the average email open rate for online coaches ranges from 30 to 50. Industry benchmarks are closer to 40. Okay, so let's go with 30 to 50. I think that's amazing. Again, think about how if you sent, you sent, you yelled into the void of 100 people and you know 50 of them heard you. That's amazing. So anything that is above 40, I think is very healthy. Um, anything like I would say a sweet spot is like 50-60. And I don't think it's that difficult to get there if you are attracting the right people. And your email list health can kind of tell you if you are in alignment with um your the your actual target audience. Um, it'll also tell you if you're good at writing subject lines or not.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Where's the danger zone where it's like, oh shit, I need to have help?

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Yeah. I would say if you're getting 20% or lower as a coach, that's very concerning to me. I'm like, what's going on here? Because it can't be you. You can't be email can be easy. Let's think about this real quick. Is it the people we're bringing in that are not a right fit? Is it because you're selling to them all the time? What's going on? Um, that's what would be that'd be concerning to me.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Okay. My last question is what's your formula for like an eye-catching scroll stopping? This is the best subject line I've ever seen. Because I'm really, really bad with subject lines. I'm like, email is here for you. Like, I'm really bad at it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Yeah. I mean, okay. Subject lines are meant to make us be like, what the heck? They're pattern interrupters. They are like, think about when you go into your inbox next. Just like take a step back and look at the email, the subject lines that are in there. There's gonna be a lot that are very like, yeah, okay, I'm gonna scroll right past that. And think about why I am scrolling right past that. It's not piquing my interest, it's not incredibly specific to me. And um, it's also not weird enough. You could be weird with it. Like one subject line I wrote about that's in my newsletter, like flow that I send. I started a fire in the St. Louis airport. That was the subject line. That was literally true. And then, of course, you're like, holy shit, you started a fire in an airport? What? Again, we're not clickbaiting, we're just being like literally over exaggerating. No, I I started a fire.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

You really did.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

But if you think about like, all right, if you're sitting on your stoop outside your apartment or your house and someone is walking by and you have like a really good story to tell, what's like the one thing you're gonna yell to them? So they like double take like what did you just say? Like if you're sitting on the stoop and you're like, I started a fire, I'd be like, What the fuck did you just say? You know, because people are just like going along on their bike or their walk and they're like, wait a second. Why? I'm so sorry. Did you just say you started a fire? Um, so we just need to to pattern interrupt here. And then I like to use the preview text to um similarly do the same thing, but I never make the subject line and the preview text about the same thing. So if the subject line is about the the fire I started, then the preview text is going to be about something totally different else I'm talking about in the newsletter.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

Just don't clickbait people because they're gonna catch on quickly that, hey, you said you talked about this thing in the subject line or preview text, but I don't see it anywhere in here.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Yeah. Okay. Oh, that's really fucking good. That's really good. Okay. Um, okay. Well, to end on this part, we're going to cocktail hours, my favorite polishes. Um what's your magic trick up your sleeve? What makes you special? Why should people be throwing money at you and not hiring another random ass email strategist?

SPEAKER_02 40:10

So almost anyone can write good content, but not everyone has the brain to understand and see how what you are creating is actually going to make you money over and over again. I'm always strategically thinking about why are we doing this? The goal for every business is to increase revenue. So, what are we doing to do that goal? That's what I'm always thinking about. I'm never like, let's like I asked you earlier, I was like, don't do email just because you have this guilt that you feel like you need to do it. I literally, um actually, I'm not gonna tell you, I'll tell you offline.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

I'll tell you offline.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

Um but I'm always thinking about what's the bigger picture here? Let's think holistically about okay, in six months from now, is this still gonna work? In a year from now, does this make sense? Um that's what I feel like. Like anybody could write content, but not everybody is gonna think about what you're doing from a 30,000-foot view.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Period. Um, where can people find you, listen to you on our podcast we produce? Yeah, spill the tea.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Yes, if you want more. Um, no, I'm always so bad at doing these. Yeah, you can find me on Instagram at travel content writing. I am working on sharing more uh behind the scenes and how of how I'm doing all these things that I'm talking about so that you can run away and do them as well. You can also listen to me on the travel creator podcast. I would recommend it if you are a creator, but the things I'm talking about there could be applicable to you if you like the topic as a business owner.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Okay, yay, go follow Laura because she's funny as fuck. And I produce her podcast. So if you want to love me, support me, go listen to her podcast, The Travel Creator. Well, yay, let's go into Cocktail Hour, which is my favorite. You had a crazy last month. You had like every single text I was getting. I'm talking on our client, I'm talking to another weed. I was like, holy shit, this bitch is on fire. What do you think shifted?

SPEAKER_02 42:12

I realized I'm kind of talking to the wrong audience and make I have always worked with business owners and I love working with coaches and business owners, and I decided to do that more. I'm like, let me explore my warm network doing that, and guess what? It worked. Um, and do I still have like travel clients coming to me? Yes, but in a different capacity. And so I guess what changed is I kind of realized like let this doesn't have to be super hard. And I think I'm kind of tired of my own BS right now. I was like, I'm kind of tired of my own um same way of just like doing everything, like we have to figure something else out. So that I did that, and it turns out it's working, and I love to work with business owners, and I will always serve travel creators, but I have always at the same time, I've never served travel creators and not business owners at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Um you niche down too hard where you're like, no, you need to be this exact client.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Well, what I think I've done is, and we've talked about this before in my content and even on my podcast, a lot of the stuff I'm talking about is for people who are beginning, and that's truly not who I work with, and not the travel creators who pay me. Yeah. Um, and so I'm gonna be shifting my podcast content to talk more to the advanced creators. Yes. And because the beginning creators can still listen and they're still gonna find value, just like we listen to business podcasts that are ahead of us. Yes. Um, and we learn things. So that's the shift I'm gonna have. And I think that will be helpful. Um Um yeah, and this yeah, these next two months I'm having like literal blinders. Like I made a list of things I'm not gonna do because my only goal is to continue to get um recurring email marketing clients. Like that's what I want, and that is what I'm going to do. And I'm not doing a task if it's not going to get me closer to doing that, because I'm really curious what will happen if I'm actually really, really locked in on just that goal. Cause it's so easy to be like, let's do this, and oh my god, I have to think about Pinterest and I have to think about those things. Yeah, I do need to think about those things, and I will think about them, and I'm gonna intake this information and we're gonna put it in a parking lot for right now. Yeah. And it kind of honestly feels relieving to be like, instead of being like, Oh, I need to do I need to do, I need to like figure out how to be on Pinterest right now. It's like you don't right now. Same with like email marketing, you know, it's like we don't have to do this right, right, right now. Um, so let's do it when it makes most sense and when you realize you really, really need it or whatever. So it's kind of relieving to be like, all right, I'm gonna put that over to the side for a second. And that's cool, cool, learned, heard, moving on.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Yeah, and it's it's a bit scary to realize, like, shit, like I've been talking to the wrong person for a while. Because it's like you might be like running to the same walls or like, I don't have my knees. And I'm like, what? It's good to sometimes change up your niche, your ICA, and be like, oh, wait, who hasn't paying me? Because my first year in business, I was kind of working with passion project podcasts. Fun, loved editing them. Oh my god, like very story driven, very fun. But then they would burn out after about six months because they weren't making any money. And I was like, What the fuck? And then I looked and I was like, wait, who is still paying me money? And I was like, Oh, it's the high-ticket coaches, and because I'm making them money, so why would they fucking fire me? I make them money. So then I changed everything and I was like, no, I only work with high-ticket coaches, and I feel like my business is super stable, I feel super safe in that because I was like, wait, look, who is still paying you when it's the hardest month? Who's still paying you? That's your fucking client.

SPEAKER_02 46:11

What's crazy is my ICA has never changed, but I've never fully spoken to them in like social content. Like, I don't think as explicitly as I need to be. So I think the other challenge that I am maybe gonna have the people's VA, Glenn, help me do is like actually go and get in front of and actually try and make connections and have conversations with the creators who are my ICA. Because I think I'm like hee hee kind of dancing around them, and it's like, wait a why? Why so exactly? Anyway, that is and again, I need to decide is that a task that aligns and will help get more email marketing clients. Um, maybe I'm trying to question all my decisions moving forward the next month.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

I'm gonna talk about this actually probably my main monthly business podcast review, whatever. But I yeah, I just hired Glenn and I'm realizing I don't know what the fuck to do with a VA. I'm like, I'm because I'm so used to being in control that I'm like, wait, so you know what he told me the other day, he was like, let me handle it for you. He's British. And I was like, hot. Also, yeah, duh. Why am I doing more work? Like, I feel like I'm just like handing him tasks because I'm supposed to, but I'm like, wait, are these actual tasks that like are taking anything off my plate? Or am I just doing it because it's my first month with a VA? And I'm like, what am I doing? And so he's doing a great job. I'm not doing a great job. So I that's like my little monthly business lesson that I'm like, okay, like this is so new to me. Like, I need to figure out like what's gonna move in my business and what can Glenn do for me instead of me doing everything and still having a VA.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

Like, what? Yeah, exactly. There's some stuff that he can totally just own and do.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Very new experience.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

Yeah, and like don't give him tasks that you're like, like, for example, Pinterest is a great thing to bring up. It's like we're not on Pinterest, we know we should be. That's something we can give him to do for sure, but let's give him the stuff that is actually the reason why we hired him first, and then we can be like, Yeah, you've got that under control. Let's add this thing that we can add on.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

Um don't give him the wish list items, give him the yeah,'s okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

So I guess my last question for you is how do you want June to feel for you? What do you want from June?

SPEAKER_02 48:39

Well, I'm a little bit nervous, I'm not gonna lie, because the horoscope? My horoscope is really My horoscope is not great either.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

It was kind of saying things might get a little bumpy, a little stressful, and I'm like, wait, I'm going to France. Like, what are you talking about? Like, um, I think it's a little maybe it's just in the air. Everyone go read your horoscope for June.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

Mine says like someone is going to be it. It wasn't jealous or envious, but it was like, I don't even know if it was mad, but someone has someone has like feelings towards me or something, and I'll like know it, blah blah blah. And I'm like, I don't come on. Come on, just tell me.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Um wait, it might have been me. Because you had me spiraling for a week. This bitch didn't talk to me for a week, guys. Sorry. I was spiraling. I was like talking to everyone. I was like, what do I do? I was like, she's not talking to me. I was like, she hates me. I was like racking my brain. I was like, could I have said anything? Did I say something wrong? And then she was like, hey. I was like, what do you mean, hey? Just hey. You don't text me for a week and then you come back and you're like, yo, what's up? It's probably me. It was probably me and your horoscope. No, it was said beginning of June. This is that what that just happened.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

Can you tell me where I can find my horoscope again? What's the website?

SPEAKER_01 50:04

Okay, everyone, go download Daily Horoscope. It's a pink app. It's really good. It's really fucking weirdly accurate. It's called Daily Horoscope, and it's a I think it's pink. It's a pink app. Okay. I think we should go because I actually have so much work and I know you do too. But this was so good. I hope y'all learned about email stuff.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

So fun. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

Y'all need to go fucking hire Lara. Deadass. Like, if you want a strategist, not just someone who like clicks send.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Yeah, I do can I do strategy consulting. You can do all the things, and I'll just sit and tell you what I think you should do with the numbers that you have.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

When you did that welcoming sequence for me, that was mind blowing. I was like, whoa, you really thought of everything. Like you really thought about every part of like my business and how what we can be doing, what we can be making money. Like it was just it was not your average like strategy. I was, I was so mind blown.

SPEAKER_02 50:57

Yeah, we're thinking about all the things.

SPEAKER_01 50:59

All the things. Can he hire you just for a strategy?

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Yeah, yeah. So I it's really can be quite custom. For some people, I do like, I'm gonna set you up and I'll build um, I can build automations, fun fact. I can um like get it all set up for you so then you can let it run or you can let your team run, or I can actually do the whole also running of it for you. And that's either like welcome sequences, regular newsletters, whatever we got going on.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

Okay, go hire Lara, go listen to the Travel Creator podcast. Bye. Yay! I just love when Laura comes on. We just have so much fun. And also, I just love when I see her in her zone of genius, which is emails. This is why you should have friends in things that you just don't want to do or learn about. Because it's just like, oh well, I'll just hire you because I'm hiring Laura for my emails, and I already have. She did my whole email sequence. So if you ever get an email from me, that's from Laura. And yeah, I think it's important to have friends who do opposite things. Me and Laura always joke that if we were like found each other on Bumble, that we would swipe left on each other because I feel like we are just so opposite on paper, but we work so well, especially in business. So find a business besti that just thinks so different from you. I feel like it's just such a strategy. Speaking of business besties, as you're listening to this podcast live, we have 13 spots left in my community, Cocktails and Closed. And then no more free trials. So we're actually gonna go on a wait list after this. We are not doing any more free trials. So if you want to come and experience the community, come join the VIP expert events we're hosting, come to the networking speed date events that we're having, and more importantly, meet women who are going to open doors and change your business. And I don't say that lightly because it's happening in front of my eyes, and I'm like, oh my god, the women in here are so special. So if you want to come in, try it yourself. We have 13 spots left, try it for a free trial, and then we're going on a wait list. So that's your kind of your last chance to do that. So always feel free to DM me on Instagram. Instagram is at Yurgomedia if you have questions about the community before you try it on a free trial. But guys, it's free. Come on in, meet some people, have some fun. And if you like it, you can stay. So, as we like to say around here, as always, you're a bad bitch. And I will see you next time.