176: Email Marketing Strategy with Jessica Stansberry
As an entrepreneur and business owner, you never stop learning. There are so many strategies for running a successful business, and different approaches work for different people. There’s always something new that we could learn and implement in our business that could really make a difference. On this episode, we get to hear from another expert on email marketing, Jessica Stansberry.
Jessica Stansberry is the Founder and CEO of Hey Jessica, LLC. She is a personal and business development strategist dedicated to helping women create and grow online businesses. Apart from hosting the weekly podcast Grit, she runs an extremely popular YouTube channel with over 80,000 subscribers. Through free content on her blog and online courses that teach #allthethings about starting and running a business, Jessica helps women “turn their dreams into dolla bills”.
Email marketing is powerful, and you can harness it in your yoga business. Jessica shares her tips about which email platform you should be using, how to create a nurturing sequence, and how to set up emails so students open them. We also discuss why having a huge email list is not as important as an engaged audience (which is why we need to trim our lists) and why you need to “make the ask” in your emails!
Email marketing is another handy tool to have in your arsenal to reach your ideal clients, so tune in to hear Jessica break it down in a way that’s easy to approach and implement.
Key Takeaways:
[7:02] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode – Jessica Stansberry.
[8:25] What does Jessica do and who does she do it for?
[9:31] What is the importance of email?
“The only thing you actually own is your email list.” ~ Jessica Stansberry
[13:00] Jessica addresses the concern of yoga teachers who feel their students may get tired of hearing from them.
“You want to land in their inbox, and to do that, you need to be writing emails like you’re writing an email to a friend.” ~ Jessica Stansberry
[14:41] Shannon and Jessica discuss “scrubbing your list”.
[16:46] What are Jessica’s tips for building your email list?
“They want to get on your email list because you gave them some piece of value for free to get there.” ~ Jessica Stansberry
[18:32] When it comes to email service providers, what are Jessica’s recommendations?
[27:10] What is something people aren’t talking about enough with regards to email?
[30:10] Should you include images in your emails?
[31:47] How long should your email be?
[33:56] We need to make the ask in our emails!
“Conversion rates from emails are higher, sales rates from emails are higher.” ~ Jessica Stansberry
[35:36] Shannon and Jessica discuss nurture sequences for new subscribers.
“[Email] is a place for you to nurture your people so when you’re ready to sell, they’re there and they’re ready.” ~ Jessica Stansberry
[37:40] Find out more about Jessica on her YouTube channel, Instagram, or listen to her podcast.
[38:46] What is one thing you learned that you want to bring into your own business?
Links:
- Jessica Stansberry
- Jessica Stansberry on YouTube and Instagram
- Grit Podcast hosted by Jessica Stansberry
- The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast Episode 139: Grow Your Yoga Business via Email with Tarzan Kay
- The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast Episode 072: Email & Content Strategy [Consultation Call] with Kristen Boyle
- The Connected Yoga Teacher Live Show Episode 9: Create and Grow Your Yoga Student Email List
- MailerLite vs MailChimp and ConvertKit, by Jessica Stansberry
- Schedulicity Town Hall
- Schedulicity Cares Grant
- ConvertKit
- ActiveCampaign
- Mailchimp
- AWeber
- MailerLite
- Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, by Gary Vaynerchuk
Gratitude to our Sponsor Schedulicity
This was a great interview with valuable tips! I am using an email list and consistently get about 50% engagement with my campaigns, regardless of how frequently I send emails. I am now wondering if this has anything to do with my Mailchimp emails with images being filtered by recipients’ email. I would like to know if I used fewer images, would my email be more likely to get through? I now realize I may need to change platforms, but would prefer to avoid or postpone doing so if I can just make a few changes in the way I design my emails.
I’d also love to learn more about how to re-engage inactive subscribers. This could apply to a mailing list, but also yoga students who haven’t been in touch for a long time. Is this a podcast-worthy topic, Shannon?
Thank you for this fantastic podcast!
First of all Kathleen — 50% engagement with your email campaigns is something to be very proud of! I would ask you next what is your open rate and click rate. And then, before we check that against other similar industries (which is so very tempting btw) — start to track this every week/email. This is something I am starting to do. That way your comparison is with you and your list.
Before you switch from Mailchimp — try sending some emails with 0-1 images. Does your open / click rate increase? Then try sending an email with less links. Remember the 1 email = 1 call to action rule that Tarzan shared with us in a previous episode. Try that and see how the open / click rate is.
I love your question about re-engaging inactive subscribers or students who haven’t come to class in a while. I love it so much that I am adding it to our podcast idea list.
I have a feeling that next weeks podcast is going to hold some answers for you about this as well…so stay tuned!
Wow I think this is the best information I have received on email marketing. Thank you so much for this episode. I learned a lot. I have just started an email list and have sent out 2 emails, full of pictures! I love receiving colourful emails, but after hearing about how those might get sent straight to the promotions or junk folder Ill have to tone it down a bit. I also really liked hearing about the 80/20 rule the give give give then ask. My final take away was about the nature sequence and connecting with our email contacts and nurturing the relationship. Cant wait to start implementing everything.
This is so great to hear Katelyn! I would love to hear an update on how you use this in your yoga business.
Hi! I listened to this episode and then listened to episode 139 with Tarzan Kay. Both have been extremely helpful for me. Almost immediately I began to implement what I learned. I was not being consistent with emails at all. So, I decided that beginning in August I was going to send an email once weekly every Tuesday. I actually started with the last Tuesday in July and apologized to my community for not being consistent and reset the expectation. I reduced the number of pictures I was using to just 1 in the header and now my emails are not going to spam–this alone is worth money, lol! I am also making the emails much shorter so that they can be read with only one swipe up on the phone. I forget which guest said don’t make writing emails hard and to make it a practice to sit down and write every day. I plan to start doing this since I have been challenged with writer’s block far too many times. Lastly, I’ll be writing out 12 weeks of emails so that I have them ready to go–of course, I’ll always have the option of changing them when needed or desired.
Thanks so much for these great episodes!
You are so welcome Alessandra! I love that this episode with Jessica and the other with Tarzan helped you to reconnect with your community. It is great how you have mapped out your plan going forward. Keep us posted.
Hi Shannon, Phew…that felt like a whirlwind. You both used the term “nurture sequence”, and I would love to learn more about how I can set that up to build my email list. I have about 350 people and about 20% read rate. I’m also definitely considering switching from mail chimp, and I just got started there, but I know I want to have auto forms, etc…and that’s been on my to-do list for awhile. From what I gather the nurture sequence is a way to interact with folks quickly, give them something in exchange for their email, and continue the conversation somewhere else. Is there an old episode or a future one about this specific question. Thank you! Lindsay McDonough
Hi Lindsay! Thanks for your great question. Yes, I should have explained a nurture sequence a bit more. Think of it more like a conversation of connection with a new yoga student. When they land on your website — what could they sign up for (a freebie) that would then get them on your email list? Then once they are there, how can you continue the conversation? That is the nurture sequence.
I was checking with Jessica about this because often when people are new to my email list I just send them 1 email with the freebie, then they just start getting my regular weekly emails. It would work better if they were sure to get a few starter emails before they get the regular ones (that sometimes have a call-to-action to purchase). Does that help?
I am trying to think if we have another episode to listen to. Did you already hear the one with Tarzan Kay?