Email: The G.O.A.T. for Marketing Your Goat Business

Do you struggle with marketing your goat-based business? Or do you think you've got it covered because you have a website and a Facebook page? Or maybe you send out an email every month or two just to let people know what you're selling at the moment or what's on sale.

In today's episode, we are talking with Liz Wilcox, the Fresh Princess of Email Marketing, about how you can use email to build a relationship with your customers. We talk about becoming friends with your fans and followers, and not simply trying to sell your product in every email.

Liz has helped thousands of people dial in their email including a plumber, a podiatrist, and even a nun, and she shares lots of ideas for those of us with goat-based businesses.

See full show notes here >> https://thriftyhomesteader.com/email-marketing-goat-business/

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Transcript

Introduction  0:03 
For the love of goats! We are talking about everything goat. Whether you're a goat owner, a breeder, or just a fan of these wonderful creatures, we've got you covered. And now, here is Deborah Niemann.

Deborah Niemann  0:19 
Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode. This is going to be really different, because rather than focusing on goats, what we're going to be focusing on is businesses that involve goats. It's really for those of you who have businesses, you know, whether it's, like, selling goat milk soap, or cheese, or you've got an agritourism business on your farm, you've got goat landscaping... Whatever you're doing, we're going to be talking about how you can use email to grow your business and stay in touch with your customers, and to do it in a way that's not boring.

Deborah Niemann  0:49 
So, Liz Wilcox is joining us today, and her expertise is in sending emails. Welcome to the show, Liz.

Liz Wilcox  0:57 
Thank you so much! I have a feeling this is going to be my favorite episode of all time, because, like, who wouldn't want to help goat farmers, you know, grow their business? I'm so excited. And, as Deborah was talking, I realized, like, we're gonna be talking about email. And in my mind, email marketing is the G.O.A.T. of marketing; it is the greatest of all time. It beats out Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google ads, YouTube... It really truly is the G.O.A.T. of marketing. And, I think maybe that's the title for the episode. So, I'm really excited. Thanks for having me.

Deborah Niemann  1:39 
You're welcome! So, you have a great segue there. Can you explain to people why you feel like email is better than social media? Because everybody thinks, "Oh, I gotta have a social media page and be on all the platforms." And so, why is email better than all those?

Liz Wilcox  1:53 
Yeah. So, especially specifically in this industry, sure, like, social media is much simpler for you than it is for me. You can, you know, put up pictures of your goats and your soaps, and—we were just talking about goat landscaping, and yeah. I started Googling it. I was like, "Oh, yeah, I'm in immediately. This is a yes for me." So, social media, of course, can be fun and easy to make interesting. But, it's much harder to serve your people through social media; it's much harder to reach them with social media. Whether we're talking Facebook, Instagram, whatever new thing comes out in the next couple of years, you are there to serve an algorithm. The algorithm—I know. That's, like, a dirty word, right? It's, like, synonymous with big brother now, right? But the algorithm spits things out to you and me, right? It says, "Oh, Deborah keeps clicking on these things. I'm going to try to show her more of this." And, "Yeah, sure, she was interested in X," you know, "a few months ago, but now she's clicking on Y. We're gonna just kind of fade away X." So, they're making those decisions for you.

Liz Wilcox  3:02 
With email marketing, it is very consent based. Therefore, you can see a much higher return. It is Debra opting into Liz, Liz opting into Trenton—whoever. I say, "Yes, I want these emails. I am unequivocably, like, interested in this, I want to see this." And the way that email is, it's actually decentralized, so that there is no algorithm saying, "Let's put more of these types of emails at the top." It's just date based, right? You know, if you send it at 8:00 A.M., if I send at 9:00 A.M., I'm going on top of Deborah, right? There is, of course, the junk, you know, spam folder and the inbox; maybe you have an "other" or "promotions" tab. But, for the most part, it's very decentralized. You get to decide what you open; the algorithm doesn't, you know, mindlessly feed you things. So, that actually makes it better. It makes it so that we can curate our inbox to what we like. We're going to find those emails quicker for what we're interested in.

Liz Wilcox  4:09 
And, with email marketing, for every dollar you spend... Say, your service provider, you know, where you host the emails, where you send things, you know, you're spending 30 bucks a month, right? For every dollar you spend, when you do email right, you can expect up to $40, $42, $45 in return. Of course, you know, there's that asterisk: "when you do it properly," right? But that's hopefully what I can help you do today.

Deborah Niemann  4:34 
Yeah. I have a friend who has an online business, and I keep telling her she needs to email people more often, because she does it very sporadically. And she's like, "I don't want to spam people." And my response is, "Then don't spam people!" So many people—and I have not been able to get this through to her. But, so many people think that your email list, and even your Facebook Page or your TikTok or whatever, is just, like, this giant billboard or giant megaphone where you're going, "Buy my stuff! Buy my stuff!" And all they ever do is send out, like, "I'm selling this, and this is the price." And even if they're going to a farmers market, they're saying, "We're going to be at the farmers market today, and this is a list of what we're going to have for sale." And, that's all they ever send people for their email. And, I love—you think so far outside the box. What are some of the things that people can do other than spam people with all the stuff they're sellling?

Liz Wilcox  5:30 
Yeah, we don't want to spam people. That's... Let me back it up before saying, you know, what you can actually put, and I want to teach my email staircase. So, it's just three very simple things. First, you have a follower, right? You find somebody online, or in person, whatever, get them on your email list. And then, you can turn them into a friend. Now, I'm not talking about this best friend that you, you know, spill all your dirty secrets to, and they know your mama, and they know what your uncle was doing in high school, and all of this, right? But a friend that, you know, you have a mutual interest, right? You make goat soaps, and they love goat soaps. You know, you have a farm, they love visiting farms. Something like that. That mutual interest, that kind of friendship, that, you know, you are just keeping up with them.

Liz Wilcox  6:18 
I'm reminded of... So, I drink Mountain Dew, so I go to the gas station every day. And my favorite gas station to go to is the one where the cashier feels like a friend, right? Feels like someone I know. I mean, I don't actually really know her; we're not going to dinner. The same way, most of your subscribers, you might not actually know. But, it feels like a friendship, right? Even this morning, I went, and my, you know, cashier friend, she said, "Oh, Liz, I know every time you come in here, I compliment you. But, I just noticed what kind of truck you drive. I love your truck." I have an '89 Bronco. So, I get that a lot. But I was like, "Oh my gosh, yeah." And that was another layer to our everyday sort of morning friendship, right? So, that's how I want you to think of email. Every time you email them, you know, you're just making that other connection.

Liz Wilcox  7:09 
One of the things I didn't mention, as far as, you know, why email is the G.O.A.T. of marketing, is because email is a much more intimate channel. Again, social media is just feeding us things where we, you know, hopefully mindlessly scroll and we stay on social media, right? The longer we're on social media, the more money they make, right? With email, we can make real connections. It's a more intimate thing. There's no algorithm in there. We are reading only the emails we want to read, right? The rest either go unread, marked spam, or delete, right? And so, we're actually spending time looking through our emails the same way, when we go to the mailbox, "Oh, that's garbage. Oh, that person moved three years ago. Oh my gosh, Deborah sent me something? I wonder what it is," right? That kind of connection. We do the exact same in email, whether it's our favorite Etsy shop—"Oh, they've got a sale." Or, you know, "It's Liz Wilcox. Oh, I wonder what her tip is this week," right? That's the kind of friendship we want to make.

Liz Wilcox  8:12 
So, we've got that follower. Second step: Turn them into a friend. And then, last, once you have a list full of friends, a list of those connections, you can turn them into customers very simply. You can say, "Hey, I've got this sale going on. I've got three more spots for..." You know, I don't know, if you do baby goat yoga, or maybe you have—you know, at the time of this recording, we're recording in October. I'm thinking, maybe you do photo shoots on the farm with your goats. You know, maybe you've got a few spots open up. Instead of, you know, just posting on Facebook—and we don't know, maybe it shows to 1% of our audience—we can send that out to our email list. The people that are our friends—or, you know, are friendly with us in the inbox—are going to open that up. They're gonna see it; they're gonna book, or tell their friend, "Oh my gosh, I did this last year. You've got to check it out." Right? And so, you know, email staircase: follower, friend, customer.

Liz Wilcox  9:07 
Now, I know Deborah asked a question that I haven't answered yet. And it was, you know, what goes into those emails? What can we actually say? And, I just want to share three things with you. And then, of course, I'll promise to answer the question. So, with a friendship, you have to do three things. This is the same in-person and in email. And this, I promise, leads really well into, you know, what the heck to put into these emails. So, in your emails, you want to show that you are invested in the email list. You know, "Oh, I just spent three hours," you know, "changing to fall decorations on the farm. I just spent an hour," you know, "shipping out my goat soaps. I just got off the call with So-and-So." Show that you're a business. Show that you are invested in the business, even if these are people that just have a weird obsession with goats like you, and you love them for it, right? You have to show that you are invested; they do want to see that. The more they see that you are invested in your business and in your email list, the more likely they are to invest into you. If you're one of these businesses that, actually, people have to come to your farm, come to your property, then you definitely need to show that you are invested in the property, in them, for them to, you know, get their boots on, rally the kids in the car, and drive out to your, you know, property, right? You have to show you're invested first.

Liz Wilcox  10:37 
Number Two: Share in a relatable way. Spoiler alert, this is the simplest one of the three I'm going to share with you. People want to relate to other people. Even if I don't have a goat, if you share a silly story about, you know, having to chase one of the babies back into the gate, I'm going to be able to picture that. I'm going to think back to the fifth grade, when I went out to the farm and I saw a baby goat for the first time or whatever, right? It's actually very simple to relate to other people.

Liz Wilcox  11:08 
And then, Number Three: Stay top of mind. Deborah mentioned her friend that's very sporadic. And I get it; email feels emotional. I just said it was an intimate channel, so I get that it feels heavy. But, staying top of mind and staying consistent is really important. This doesn't mean that you have to email every single week. Especially with a unique business that you have, even once a month is probably enough for them to remember you, for them to stay engaged, et cetera, et cetera.

Liz Wilcox  11:41 
So, all that to say, what are some simple things that you can actually put in these emails? Again, remember, we're trying to show that we're invested, we want to be relatable, and we want to stay top of mind. So, this is actually pretty simple. In your newsletters, you can just share a personal update; that's where you share that you're invested, or that, you know, something relatable. And, this is just something that's happening around your business or in your life that has happened since the last time you emailed. So, maybe it's that, you know, story about chasing the goat. Maybe it's, you just had your biggest month ever. Maybe it's, "Well, I had to take two months off, because some family issues." You know, whatever is actually happening. You don't need to tell a big, long story; you know, get out your 10th grade English teacher in the background, you know, trying to write this five paragraph essay, right? It can be very simple, two to three sentences.

Liz Wilcox  12:37 
And then, you can segue into whatever content that you want to share, whether it's, "Hey, I just got on Instagram, and I'm making Reels," or "I actually have this YouTube channel now," or "I just revamped my website. Go check out the new selection of soaps." That works so much easier when you remember to share in a relatable way, stay top of mind, and show that you're invested. And you can do that in so many ways. And then, you can segue into all those things Deborah listed. Those are not bad things to share in an email. It's called "email marketing." People know that email is a commerce kind of thing. You know, they get their bills in there. You know, it's a mailbox, right? So, it's totally fine to market in it, but as long as you just add that top layer, right?

Liz Wilcox  13:27 
If somebody comes into your shop, you don't immediately say, "Oh, check out my new soap," and "Oh, we've got 20% off in the back." No, you say "Hey, how you doing? I like your boots. Where did you guys come in from today? Have you been here before?" And then, you say, "Oh, yeah, I actually," you know, "I spent the last couple of weeks making these pumpkin spice whatever whatever. Hopefully you can check them out. They're 10% off right now." Right? It's a conversation, so just be a human emailing another human, and, you know, the ideas are endless.

Deborah Niemann  14:01 
Yeah, I love that. And, I love the fact that you didn't go right to answering the question, because talking about becoming a friend, it just makes so much sense. And, I think it makes it really clear to people, like, if your friend came over, you wouldn't immediately start telling them about all the things you have for sale. Like, you know, the example you give of somebody walking into a shop, that you try to develop a rapport with them first, and get to know them a little bit, before you try to sell to them. And that's the thing with email. I tell people, like, especially with Facebook and stuff, that if you think this is, like, your free billboard or your free sale flyer, people are gonna start to do with your Facebook Page or your email like they do with those sales flyers they get in the mail.

Liz Wilcox  14:42 
Trash.

Deborah Niemann  14:43 
Yeah, exactly. You know, like, if they know like, "Oh, she's selling something again," and, like, you're never, never telling them anything else... So, like, that's really the key. Like, yeah, of course you can market through it. But, the most important thing is to develop a relationship with your audience.

Liz Wilcox  15:02 
Yeah. So, we have to use the online world the way that it's supposed to be used. So, the way that I use Instagram is not the same way I use Facebook; it's not the same way I use email. So, with email, like, it's literally electronic mail. So, think of it like writing an actual letter, right? Think about back in the day, elementary school, you'd have to read those old letters of the Oregon Trail, all of this, right? And so, you know, give some updates, and then "Please send food." You know, that was the call to action, right? So, in email, you know, give an update, and then segue into that content, that marketing, give a call to action, and then get out of there.

Liz Wilcox  15:45 
With Instagram, now they're trying to become like a TikTok. So, they want you to make videos; it's not even much about the interaction anymore. On Facebook, it's much more conversational. They want you to like, comment, share, right? It's right there on the bottom of every single post. They show you a feed. It's different than Instagram now, where they have stories on top; Facebook is still very feed-based. They want you to scroll, they want you to click those buttons, have conversations in groups, et cetera. With email, again, it's still mail. They want you to write things people want to read.

Deborah Niemann  16:25 
Yeah, exactly. In your email marketing membership—which is, like, a really cool program, because you send out an email every Monday that gives people, like, a template for the week that they can use to send out an email. And, it's kind of funny, because I got this one... I think it was, like, the end of June, early July. Basically, the year was about half over. And it was like, "Just send an email to your people letting them know that you understand whatever struggle they might be going through right now. That's it." And I was like, "Oh, man, that sounds like I'm wasting people's time." Because, I always want my emails to be very actionable. You know, it's like, "If you want to know how to deal with your goats' diarrhea or bloat," like, I'm always trying to help people with a problem. And, it never occurred to me to, like, just be friendly and say, "Hey, I know it's really rough right now." And it is. For people who have goats, like, or a farm, the middle of the summer is, like, a horrible time of year, because you had all these big plans, and here you are in the middle of summer, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, it's not getting done." 

Deborah Niemann  17:34  
So, it was really easy for me to actually write that email, because I thought, "Okay, well, I'm paying for this email marketing membership. I'm just gonna try this. Maybe she knows what she's talking about." And so, I sent this email that, you know, said, "You know, if you're feeling discouraged right now, I totally know how you feel, because I am, too. I know it might look like I'm getting all the things done, but I'm not. So, don't feel bad if you're not getting all the things done right now. Give yourself some grace." And, I got more responses to that email than probably any email I have ever written. And, most of them were like, "Thank you so much. I really needed to hear this today." And I was just like, "Wow!" Like, oh, it just gave me, like, goosebumps even, like, recalling that again. It was just so cool. Because, I was, like, really worried like, "Oh, I'm gonna be wasting their time." And like, yeah, so many people told me like, "This is exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you."

Liz Wilcox  18:31  
That's so awesome. Yeah, just be a human being. And, like, if you go to your inbox right now, if you pull up your Gmail app, or Outlook, or whatever, you probably have thousands of unread emails. Most of us do, right? That's because most people aren't being human in the inbox. They're leaning more on the marketing than the word "email," right, of "email marketing." If you can lean a little bit more into, like, "I'm sending an email to someone who I hope to connect with," right? I hope that I can say like, "Hey, I know, you know, summer is rough. You're halfway through the year and, you know, you are not even halfway through with one of your projects that you had to do." Notice how that would just stand out to you, like, as a user. Now, imagine if you do that in your business, too? It's magic. That's one of the reasons I love email, is I can make real connections. 

Liz Wilcox  19:30  
You know, I met Deborah—this is our second or third time meeting—and I remember the first time I was like, "Oh my gosh, goats! I'm in! I love this!" And I just couldn't believe that, like, through email, I was able to meet this amazing person who helps people build businesses around goats. Like, never in my wildest dreams, right? And I started off as an RV travel blogger, and one of my very first subscribers, I'll never forget him. And, when I sold that business, he said, "Oh, Liz, if I ever buy my RV, you'll be the first to know." And it was something like a year later, he texted me on my phone a picture of an RV. And, you know, I didn't have the phone number saved, nothing. He didn't say who it was from, but I knew exactly who it was. And that's what I mean by, you know, follower, friend, customer. When you can have that list full of people that know, "Hey, this person cares about what I'm trying to do," then it just makes a world of difference in not only those connections, but in your sales as well.

Deborah Niemann  20:39  
Yeah. One of the things I think is really cool about your newsletter you send out every week is that you give examples from things that I would have had trouble coming up with ideas for emails on. Like, because, you always give different versions of the same letter. And one time, it was a plumber. And I was like, "Wow, she's got, like, a fun email that a plumber could send to his list."

Liz Wilcox  21:05  
Yeah. So, Deborah is mentioning my email marketing membership, #SEO, if you know anything about that. And, I actually do have a plumber in the membership. I have a plumber, a podiatrist, you know, a goat farmer, just lots of different folks. You know, it's not just the typical course-creator, online-business type of person. Because I know, when I learned the power of email marketing, I literally thought to myself, "Oh my gosh, everyone needs this." And so, I really try with my template membership to show just how any kind of business, any kind of person, whether, you know, you are an extrovert, introvert, email scares the crap out of you, it doesn't bother you, whatever—I've really tried to make the templates so that everyone can use them.

Deborah Niemann  21:57  
Yeah. I think one of the things that I've really learned from it... Like, I get email now from other companies, and I'm like, "Wow, they could just do such a better job."

Liz Wilcox  22:05  
Correct. I tend to agree with Deborah on that.

Deborah Niemann  22:09  
Like, I recently got on the email list for a lady's clothing store. And, every single day, they're sending out the same sale email, and I'm like, "You know, I actually have some questions about, like, style and stuff. Like, why do you never include any information, even, about style or fashion or fit or, you know, anything like that?" It's just basically like a sale flyer every single day. And, whenever I get on these lists, I usually unsubscribe after a couple of weeks, when I see like, "Yeah, all you're ever gonna do is send me a sale flyer." And I don't need that many clothes; I am not going to be buying clothes from you every week. So, I think that's one of the things that we can all learn, you know? Like, people are not necessarily going to be buying your product—especially, like, if it's goat landscaping. Like, they might need to have you come out to their property once a year or twice a year to clean things up. And in the meantime, you need to send them some other emails to kind of stay top of mind, and also to help them understand that you understand their situation and their needs and how you can fulfill those needs.

Liz Wilcox  23:21  
Yeah, that's such a good point. So, let's say we've got 100 people on our email list. One hundred people, every single week, or every single month, don't need your product. You know, some might be, you know, wealthy enough to buy it anyway. But, most people are going to buy, you know, on occasion, or you know, around Christmas, or you know, when they stock up, whatever, right? But, staying top of mind and showing that you're invested over a long period of time is going to max out your number of subscribers. So, it's not about building this email list full of you know, 1,000, 2,000 people; it's about making sure that each one of those 100 are served when they need to be served, right? 

Liz Wilcox  24:04  
And so, that's why I say, you know, give this some kind of personal update. And then, you can segue into, you know, the content, whatever you want to market. Because, let's say, you know, you send out the same email to Liz and Deborah. Well, Liz might want it this week, but Deborah is not ready for four more weeks. So, making sure you send out that email again, you know, in two weeks, four weeks, whatever: "Oh, yeah, I remember the goat soap lady. Now's the week. You know, it happens to be pay day. You know, I said I was going to treat myself because of X, Y, and Z last week. Okay, I'm gonna get this soap. I really wanted it." Right? 

Liz Wilcox  24:05  
They say it takes an average of, what? Like, seven times for somebody to see something for them to say "yes" to it? So, that's why staying consistent, staying top of mind, is so important, right? I might be interested in the landscaping, but it's like, "My property really doesn't need it..." And then, six months later, a big storm comes through. And it's like, "Oh, maybe my property really did need that. I'm gonna call that lady." And then, you know, we look through the emails, right? If you've stayed top of mind, those emails are gonna pop up right away. Or, you might pop up next week, because you got a new email. Boom, we're off to the races, right? But, if you don't give email that chance, if you don't make those connections, if you're not putting you and your business out there consistently, then those connections aren't going to be made.

Deborah Niemann  25:32  
So, I'm going to put you on the spot now. So, instead of, like, just sending emails every week saying, "Our goat milk soap costs this much," or "Our cheese costs this much," what are some of the things that people can put in just their regular emails?

Liz Wilcox  25:47  
Yeah. With people that have goats, I want to see your goats. That's super simple. If you've got more than one goat, you could even have a goat of the month—"Enter your email to be part of the Goat of the Month Club," right?—and just have an image of each goat. Or, you know, you could even... I'm picturing, if you only had one or two, you know, you could dress them for the holidays. You know, Halloween is coming up at the time of this recording. We could have them, you know, around pumpkins. Around, you know, a Christmas tree. St. Patrick's Day. You know, get fun with it. The more fun and lighthearted you can be in your emails, the more they're going to stand out. 

Liz Wilcox  26:26  
Especially as, you know, a farmer—most people don't live on a farm. Most people will never own a goat in their life. And so, that kind of content is automatically better than anything Liz Wilcox is ever going to write. You know, putting images like that. Again, remember about 20 minutes ago, I said "Show that you are invested." And so, you know, even sharing images, or stories, or even just little updates about what's going on at the farm, what's going on with your animals. You know, you might have some barn cats around. Even sharing about that, that's a glimpse inside. That's why, you know, we get on our phones and we aimlessly scroll; why Instagram is trying to be the new Tik Tok, right? Because, we spend a lot of time consuming that type of content. So, putting a simple picture or, you know, a very short story—you know, I'm talking a few sentences—about an animal at your property is going to be so interesting for the mass, like, vast majority of your folks, especially if they're on your email list; you already know they're interested in that kind of stuff. Oh, my gosh, it's going to take you really far.

Deborah Niemann  27:34  
Yeah. I'll never forget, years ago, I was at a farming conference. And, a flower farmer there actually talked about how much people loved getting updated photos of her mums that she planted. Like, she just, you know, she planted the seeds in the pots. And, like, every week, she would send an updated photo of how big they were now, so that people could see, like, where the mums started that they were going to be buying in the fall. Which that—

Liz Wilcox  28:04  
Oh my gosh.

Deborah Niemann  28:05  
—blew me away.

Liz Wilcox  28:08  
Sorry to interrupt—that is such genius marketing. When we think about, "How do we get people to buy?" Really, the real question is, "How do we get people invested in this product," right? If she's selling mums—oh my gosh. Showing them as seeds? Are you kidding me? Whether or not she was doing this as a marketing thing, or that was just naturally her personality, from a marketing perspective, that's so genius. So, you know, if you make—again—soaps, sharing your process, even once a week. Say, okay, you know, "In the month of March, we're going to show you every step of the way of making this soap." You know, you spend four weeks with four steps, one email after the other over four weeks time. You bet your bottom dollar I'm buying that soap on Week Four, because I just saw it made, right? I feel like I'm part of the process. Your sharing that with me makes me part of the process. Therefore, I am invested before you even asked me for a dollar. That's genius. That lady is a genius.

Deborah Niemann  29:16  
Yeah. It was funny, in March of 2020, like, days before the lockdown, I was at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, and the closing keynote—there were, like, 3,000 people there. And I don't think there was anybody in the audience that appreciated his story more than I did, because he talked about how he had gone over to a friend's house. And he noticed, when he used her bathroom, that she had some kind of soap in there he'd never seen before. And he asked her about it, and she's like, "Oh yeah, that's goat milk soap that I buy at the farmers market." And he's like, "Goat milk soap?" And she starts telling him all about the farm, and the goats, and how cute the goats are, and just going on and on about the whole story behind the soap. You know, and he asked her how much she paid for it, and it was like $7 or $8 a bar. And he's like, "Uh, you know you can get soap for less than $1 at the grocery store?" And she was like, "Oh, yeah, but..." And she starts telling him more about the goats, and the milk that's in the soap, and all this kind of stuff. 

Deborah Niemann  30:23  
So, a lot of people think like, "Who's gonna pay, like, $7 or $8 for a bar of my soap when they could buy a bar for less than $1?" But, it's not just something to get yourself clean. There's, like, a whole story behind it, and a relationship and everything.

Liz Wilcox  30:38  
Yeah. I love that part Deborah just said about that relationship. What if we had an email list full of those people? "Yeah, but it's goat milk soap! I'm not paying $1. This is good stuff! And, let me tell you about the lady that owns it," or "that makes it," right? She probably had stories about that person at the farmers market she goes to once a month, right? 

Deborah Niemann  31:01  
Yeah. 

Liz Wilcox  31:01  
So, with email, even if you don't go to the farmers market, you can elicit those same types of relationships with email, where you can get that person that's like, "Oh my gosh," you know? "Yeah, that's goat soap, da, da, da, da, da, da, da," right? You can have a whole... I don't know, the only word that's coming to me is, like, a whole "army" of those folks, you know, sharing your process. Remember, showing how invested you are in your business helps them become part of that process. And those people that feel part of this are going to invest back into it.

Deborah Niemann  31:01  
Exactly. So, I want to talk a little bit about your email marketing membership. It's really funny, because I had an email list for, like, 5 years when I heard about your membership. And, I don't know how or why I ended up buying, other than the fact that I thought, "Well, it's only $9 a month. So, that's, like, a really tiny investment if it's really not helpful." Because I had a hard time believing... Like, "I've been doing email for five years. I don't know that there's really gonna be anything new here that's going to be helpful." And it has been. I'm still a member... I don't know, I think I'm getting close to a year now. Because, there are things—like, just sending people an email and saying, "Hey, I totally understand where you're at right now. Don't beat yourself up if you haven't been meeting your goals so far." So, there's a lot of really great stuff in there about that. 

Deborah Niemann  32:27  
Can you tell people a little bit more about the email marketing membership that you have?

Liz Wilcox  32:33  
Yeah. So, EMM is this—in my words—"amazing template membership." It's my favorite thing to do. It's pretty much all I do anymore. It's almost two years old. And, every single week, you get an email template to take and make your own for your business so that you are, you know, showing you're invested, sharing in a relatable way, and staying top of mind—all this marketing stuff. If you're like, "Oh, but Liz, I'm not a marketer. I'm just a farmer. I'm just somebody who loves goats." Whatever little thing in the back of your head is saying, you know, as I'm talking, this is the solution to that. 

Liz Wilcox  33:11  
I actually created it because I found my email list was growing. And I was, you know, talking about the email staircase I shared, and this and that, but people weren't doing, right? And I thought, "Well, how can I just get these people to do what I'm saying?" I said, "Well, I guess I'll just have to write it for you." So, that's what this is. Every single week, all that marketing stuff Deborah and I have been talking about, I take those; I create a template for you. Like Deborah mentioned earlier, you know, I'm sharing, also, examples. So the template is, like, a fill-in-the-blank type of situation. So, if you're not comfortable with email writing right now, use the detailed template; you can copy and paste, fill in the blanks, super simple. If you need more examples, if you think, "There's no way this can work for me. My people don't care about this," or whatever, I show you two A+ examples. They're called "swipes," where, you know, it's written in different businesses. So, you know, from a plumbers perspective. I think last week, I wrote from a nun in a convent. And, I actually have a nun in the membership. I wrote it for her, and she wrote me. She said, "Oh my gosh, this was so perfect. I finally get it." And so, you know, depending on your business, there's all sorts of examples in there. 

Liz Wilcox  34:32  
I also like to write—at least a couple times a month—ecommerce emails, written from the perspective of ecommerce. So you can see like, "Okay, yeah, but I'm just trying to sell my soaps, Liz," right? You can see what I mean by that personal update, what I mean by, you know, Goat of the Month, or whatever, right? And so, it's really simple. 

Liz Wilcox  34:53  
But, what I really think—especially for you listening—are the video walkthroughs; those are really gold. If you don't know anything about marketing itself; email, Facebook, whatever; if everything just feels like you're doing all the things and nothing's working, right? You're still mostly just working on referrals or barely scraping by—every single week, I give you a video walkthrough of the template, and it goes really deep into the explanation of why you would want to send this. How, as a goat farmer, as, you know, this landscape artist, as whatever—you could use this template. "If you," you know, "get anxiety around email, here's really why you want to send this," right? Or, "If you don't like the way I said this, here's an alternate way." And so, it's kind of like this mini marketing lesson every single week. It actually breaks my heart that not everyone watches them, because I feel like that's the real value of the membership, is it really teaches you marketing. We like to think, you know, we grow out of being a toddler, "Why, why, why?" But really, nobody does anything without knowing why. And that video walkthrough really walks you through why this email is going to help you, you know, turn those email leads into actual friends into customers. And it's nine bucks, baby! Try it out!

Deborah Niemann  36:18  
I know. I really felt like, "Okay, $9. That's a couple of coffees at Starbucks or something," you know? It's not that much, and— 

Liz Wilcox  36:26  
It's one bar of soap. 

Deborah Niemann  36:27  
That's right! Yeah, it's one bar of soap. So, you know, it seemed like a no-lose situation. You know, it's like, "If it's not any good, I can always cancel it." And it's turned out to be really great. And, I love what you just said about Goat of the Month. I'm like, "Everybody that's got a goat business could do Goat of the Month in their emails." You know, like, if you've got a landscaping business; you could talk about your goat of the month, or if you're doing cheese, or soap, or whatever, you know, talk about your milkers.

Liz Wilcox  36:57  
Oh my gosh, yeah. As you're listening, if you decide to do a Goat of the Month, I give you full permission to find my email address and add me to your email list, because I want to see that. Especially, think about, she just said the landscaping. Can you imagine if you did that, and then somebody hired you? They would know your goats when you got to the location, and it would be so, "Oh my gosh, that's Johnny! He was my favorite." Or, you know... I'm trying to think of weird goat names. But, you know, they would have their favorite goat. Do you think when that person goes to, you know, landscape their yard, they're not gonna hire you? Come on. That's... Oh, I'm so excited for you!

Deborah Niemann  37:42  
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us today! We will definitely have links in the show notes, so if people want to sign up for the membership, but I'm sure—I know—people got a lot of great ideas today just from tuning in.

Liz Wilcox  37:55  
I cannot wait to see what everyone does. And, if you just want to check this out, if you're like, "I don't know," you know, you can just go to LizWilcox.com. In the top right-hand corner, there's a hot pink button, and you can get some free templates first. So, if you've never had a proper welcome sequence, I walk you through that. And, I actually give you all those emails already written, just like the templates I was talking about. You can take and make them your own. You get three newsletter examples. So, if you want a sample of what Liz Wilcox and EMM has to offer, you'll get one to show you how to get people to click; you'll get another to show how to get people to reply to you; and the third, you'll get one to show you how to get people to buy directly from your newsletter. And, if that's not enough, I also give you 52 subject lines completely for free, because writing from scratch totally sucks. That's at LizWilcox.com in the top right-hand corner. You can't miss that hot pink button.

Deborah Niemann  38:52  
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

Liz Wilcox  38:54  
Yeah, thank you! I cannot wait to see what everybody does with email.

Deborah Niemann  38:59  
And that's it for today's show. If you haven't already done so, be sure to hit the "subscribe" button so that you don't miss any episodes. To see show notes, you can always visit ForTheLoveOfGoats.com, and you can follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/LoveGoatsPodcast. See you again next time. Bye for now!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai