The Email Marketing Show

Who should NOT join our community - The League of email marketing heroes? Because (news flash) The League isn't for everyone. Ready to find out who The League is perfect for and who isn't a good fit for our membership?  Let's go!SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (4:26) What types of businesses can join The League? (5:22) The League isn't for you if you're not ready to work on your email marketing.(10:18) The League isn't for you if you don't have a good product. (11:36) The difference between a product and an offer (and why you need both).(14:16) The League isn't for you unless you're prepared to be a student of email marketing for life. (16:14) The League isn't for you unless you're ready to work hard and make stuff work. (19:02) The League isn't for you if you're not making any sales yet.(20:07) The League isn't for you if you don't think email marketing is a key strategy in your business.(21:58) The League isn't for you if you're still obsessing about growing your email list. (26:44) Subject line of the week. What types of businesses can join The League of email marketing heroes?First thing first, you might be pleased to find out that the type of business you run has nothing to do with whether you're right for The League or not. It doesn't matter whether you're a B2C or a B2B business. It doesn't matter what you sell or who you sell it to. We've got members in all sorts of areas - some who sell courses online or run coaching businesses, all the way through photographers, and people who sell bonsai tree goodies.What you sell doesn't matter. Nothing that you sell can rule you out from being the perfect fit for The League.But other things can... The League isn't for you if you're not ready to work on your email marketingIf you're not ready to invest time and effort to focus on making email marketing work for your business, then The League isn't for you. Because email marketing isn't a quick fix.That's why we make The League a monthly commitment. So we can give you strategies you can start using as soon as you join to make email marketing into something of value for your business.To get the best results out of email marketing, we recommend you look at your business and ask yourself where you want to be in 12, 18, 24 months from now and understand how to use email to get you there. If you come in with the mindset that email marketing is going to solve everything really quickly, then The League isn't going to work for you. Truth is - there aren't many things in business that you can do once and will work forever. You need to master a skill and do it continuously and consistently. The other reason why we make The League a regular commitment is because when that monthly amount leaves your account, it acts as a little nudge - a reminder to re-focus on your email marketing. Because it's way too easy to get off track. We're all busy, right? But that monthly bill reminds you to focus and pay attention to your email marketing. The League isn't for you if you don't have a good product We can help you make more sales, but we can't do that unless you already have a good product and a good offer. If you don't yet, then focus on that first, and then come and join The League, so we can help you sell more of the thing. We work our magic on the promotion - the marketing and the psychology of selling products that already exist. And this could be your own product or something you're selling for a commission or as an affiliate or partner.The difference between a product and an offerSo we talked about a product and an offer as two separate things. Want to know a bit about the difference?The product is the thing you're selling - your deliverable. The offer is everything that wraps around your product. It's how it's presented, how much it is, how people pay for it, the positioning of it, the unboxing experience, the bonuses you get with it, etc. It's all the stuff that sits around your product. Your offer is the premise and context with which you take your product and offer it to the market. There are really good products that aren't selling because businesses don't have a good offer for them. And if your product or your offer isn't right, then no amount of using email to lead qualified prospects to your sales pages will help you sell. Email marketing alone cannot fix that. If the thing you sell (the product) or the circumstances people get (the offer) aren't good, then you're going to struggle with any method of driving traffic. So if you have a great product but it's not selling, play around with your offer. Think of different ways of prsenting the product. The League isn't for you unless you're prepared to be a student of email marketing for lifeYou've got to be in for the long haul. Because email marketing is the way you directly communicate with your subscribers. They open your email on their laptops or their phones and read your mind through your words. They understand how you think, why you're making them think something, and how you're making them feel. That changes how human beings respond.Think about it. Everything around us changes - the competition, the types of products available, the technology. etc. So one of the things we can do is to make sure we're always on the cutting edge of understanding how humans are thinking right now - what their positive and negative biases are to make sure that our email marketing responds to all that. This is why you need to be studying marketing - and specifically email marketing - trends, and human behaviours. This is why you need to be a student for life. The League isn't for you unless you're willing to work hard and make stuff workIn email marketing, just like many other areas in our lives, not everything is going to work all of the time.Whenever we introduce new email marketing campaigns into The League, for example, we test them rigorously. It's only when we're sure they work that we share them with our members. We give you proven campaigns and then we help you apply them.And sometimes our members need to be willing to push through and try and try something again and again until it works. Sometimes stuff gets difficult - you might have technical or delivery problems, for example. And when that happens, you have to be willing to work hard and push through. You can jump on our weekly call, ask us questions, and we help you figure it out and come out the other end. After all, statistically, email marketing is the highest ROI activity that businesses of all stages and all sizes. The channel works. So you have to be persistent in trying to make it work for you - for your personality, you style, your products, and your offers.The League isn't for you if you're not making any sales yetIf you have a great product but you're not making any sales yet, then you might want to wait until you're making some sales before you join The League. You see - we help you amplify what works. We help you put your offer in front of more people, but you first need to be sure that your offer works.You want to be at the stage where you've proven that this thing you're selling is something people want. You want your tech to be set up, be sure that all the buttons work, that people can pay by credit card, etc. So first start making some sales, and then come over and join The League, and we'll welcome you with open arms. The League isn't for you if you don't think email marketing is a key strategy in your businessEmail marketing isn't a tactic - it's a key, irreplaceable strategy in your business. You've got to keep in touch with your existing customers, and the only good way to do that at scale is by email. There is nothing else that will allow you to communicate with your customers at the same scale and with the same results.All successful businesses are using email somewhere in their mix. And it's definitely not a tactic that you can pick up and drop whenever you feel like it. It's a critical strategy in your business, so you need to have a good email marketing strategy in place. The League isn't for you if you're still obsessing about growing your email listIf you think that all your problems will be solved the minute you have a bigger email list, then we're sorry to burst your bubble. The people who will get the best results from being part of our membership and really fit into our community are those who understand that your focus should be about maximising the sales in your business from the subscribers you already have. We say this all the time, but the reason we got good at email marketing is that we didn't have the resources to grow our email list. We had to learn to make the most out of the subscribers we already had. And sure, you'll find resources inside The League that help you grow your email list, but there's more to it than that. It's about maximising the relationship and the sales you make from your list. And once that's in place, there's a lot more you can do to also grow your email list. Want to join The League of email marketing heroes?If you tick all the right boxes, then check out The League. We are passionate about getting the right type of people inside our membership because it saves everyone involved a lot of heartache and trouble down the line. If someone's not the right fit for it, then we don't benefit from that customer much like they don't benefit from being part of our community. And we don't want that. We want to help people we're in the best position to help. When you do join, you are surrounded by a community of people who are all on the same path. Email marketing clicks for different people and different businesses at different points. But when it does, it's about amplifying, refining, and mastering that skill to keep it present and relevant. We don't have a minimum  commitment, but we really do want people to join The League thinking of it as a long-term investment because that's when you get to see the best results.Subject line of the week This week's subject line of the week (courtesy of Kennedy) is "Important milkshake-related question". In this email, Kennedy shared a story about the fact that his other half always orders different milkshakes when they go out. But Kennedy always orders a strawberry milkshake. No matter what and wherever he goes. (Just likes he always wears a white shirt because there are no mental calories burnt in doing that!) So there's your choice - you can have different things all the time or keep things simple and always go for the same thing. That's what the email was about. But why did the subject line work? Because Kennedy took a trivial thing (milkshakes) and put the word 'important' in front of it. What on earth can be so important about milkshakes, right? Those words make the sentence unusual. He mentioned he was asking a 'milkshake-related' question. What could that be? There's no way you would know what the email is about just by reading those 4 words. It's bizarre, and that's what made people open and read. Brilliant, right?  Useful Episode ResourcesRelated episodes6 Lessons We Learned From Launching And Growing Our Membership Site.How To Improve Your Email Marketing – The 8 Unexpected Skills You Need.How To Grow Your Email List – 6 Unusual Lead Magnet Ideas.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingIf you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here. Join our FREE Facebook groupIf you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join our membership - The League of email marketing heroesNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community - The League of Email Marketing Heroes. We share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing. Best news yet? You can apply everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about The League of email marketing heroes) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes so more awesome people like you can discover the podcast. 

You're doing a launch. The pressure is on. You've got it all planned out. You know what you're doing. Your subscribers are getting email reminders daily - hourly even. But then the launch is over. And... silence. What now? What do you send your subscribers now? Today, our awesome guest Marley Jaxx helps us add an unusual (but extremely clever) step to our checklist for product launch.It's one you haven't thought about...It's one you don't want to miss out on...So are you ready to find out what to do after the cart closes?Let's go and find out with Marley.SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:48) Did Marley once really load money to a Shark from TV shows Shark Tank?(4:20) What happens when you launch a new product?(6:01) The first reason why people don't buy from you.(6:38) The second reason why people don't buy from you.(7:22) A look into Marley's post-launch email sequence.(10:55) How to add a high-ticket item to your funnel.(12:06) How to price your high-ticket items. (14:01) Handling follow-up conversations with your subscribers.(16:27) Time-bound urgency vs scarcity. (17:44) Subject line of the week with Marley Jaxx.What happens when you launch a new productMarley Jaxx is really prolific at creating and launching new programmes, so we were quite chuffed when we managed to twist her arm and get her to talk to us about what to do in those eerie, terrifying moments and hours after you close the cart after a big launch - be it a membership, a coaching programme, a new product... anything you sell.So you've closed the cart. What's next on your checklist for product launch? What exactly are you supposed to say to your subscribers now?Marley likes to think of the value ladder in her business like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" course. So let's say you're doing a launch, and it closes on Friday night at midnight. Leading up to it, you're sending out all these countdown emails, encouraging people to buy, adding bonuses and scarcity and urgency. The worst thing you can do after the cart closes is to ghost them, right?So the next day Marley sends an email out to anyone who didn't buy...The first reason why people don't buy from youNow, in this email, Marley covers the two reasons why people didn't buy the product she just launched.The first reason is that they weren't ready. Financially or emotionally, they just weren't ready to take the leap and buy. Maybe they need a bit more time with your business. Maybe they want a little bit more support before they make a decision. And that's fair. So what Marley does is to offer another programme or point them to a different low-ticket item she's selling. And if that's not right, then she invites them to take one of her challenges again to help them get some quick results and fix the problem they're experiencing. Clever, right?But the best part is this...The second reason why people don't buy from you (and that's unexpected!)The second reason why people might not buy from you is that they want more help! Maybe they want a done-for-you solution or one-to-one coaching. So this is where Marley tells people about her high-ticket items - like spots on a specific programme, for example. And if people want more information, they're sent over to an application page where they can pop their details in to book a call.Isn't that mind-blowing?! And just so much better than sending them a hint or a handy tip a few days later and then ghosting that subscriber until you're ready to promote your next launch?You've got to admit - pointing them to something that's less commitment is one thing. But would you have thought about offering your subscribers something more expensive?Probably not, right?It's genius.And it makes perfect sense. Because people are either going to spend more money than time or more time than money on something - depending on where they are in their journey. Sometimes, when people want results faster, they're prepared to invest in done-for-you solutions and spend more to get it done.The post-launch email sequenceWe asked Marley how she spaces out her emails and how she structures her post-launch sequence, and she explained emails are sent out over a period of 3 days. These are upsell emails that invite people to check out her higher-ticket item. After 3 days of promoting the high-ticket offer, people are re-directed to the original challenge or a different low-ticket product.How to add a high-ticket item to your funnelSo what happens if you don't have a higher-ticket item in your funnel already? How difficult is it to create one?According to Marley, most business owners already have a high-ticket item available they can sell. Perhaps you made a course - now you can add a weekly coaching call or a Q&A session. Or maybe some templates. And you could even double or treble the price. Because if you're selling something that will teach people how to make $100k, for example, it's reasonable they will be prepared to pay a good amount for that.But let's delve into price a bit more...How to price your high-ticket itemsA lot of the time, Marley says, business owners don't have a high-ticket item in their funnel because they're lacking the courage to add one on. But people pay attention when you price yourself as expensively affordable.Often, as business owners, we make the mistake of setting a price too low because of fear. The common misconception is that keeping prices low will make our products more enticing. But if you think that pricing yourself cheap or even free can reach more people, the opposite is actually true - you'll reach more people by putting a $ sign in front of what you offer because when people pay more, they pay more attention. Plus, it's better to have a small handful of $10,000 clients who are invested and getting results than hundreds of $10 clients who aren't, right?Handling follow up conversations with your subscribersSo you've done your launch, and you closed the cart. You've emailed the people who didn't buy to point them to other low-ticket items or to your high-ticket product. What happens when people have questions?Marley confirmed that in her experience, low-ticket items don't lead to a lot of follow-up conversations - the purchase decision involved isn't huge, so if the offer is right, people tend to just go for it. But when people access the landing page for the high-ticket product then they have a chance to fill in an application and ask some questions over a phone call.Of course, all this can be part of an automated sequence that you put together when you first go through your checklist for product launch, so after you've sent a few emails promoting one thing, then you can kick off other campaigns that could, for example, talk about your evergreen products. Marley uses a tool called Deadline Funnel to have multiple automation sequences running side by side with offers expiring on certain dates. This allows her to put into place what she calls the "Choose Your Own Adventure" course, where her clients choose the product that fits their needs while she continues to successfully grow her business.Time-bound urgency vs scarcityWhen we asked Marley whether she adds time-bound urgency to her offers, she confirmed low-ticket item products are left fairly open as some of them are evergreen. But when it comes to high-ticket products, that's when urgency comes in in the shape of "we only have so many spots open". And that works a treat.Subject line of the week with Marley JaxxMarley's subject line of the week is "time is running out" but written with the help of emojis, like this: "🕒👏is 🏃👏out". And why did it work? Because it's different and sassy, and it shows personality and flavour. Another genius move by the awesome Marley.Useful Episode ResourcesAbout MarleyIf you want to connect with Marley and find out more about her work, you can find her on her YouTube channel, on Instagram, and on her website.Related episodesLaunch An Online Course the Non-Traditional Way with Chris Orzechowski.The Psychology Of A Successful Email Launch – Being Desirable With Abraham Kallon.6 Lessons We Learned From Launching And Growing Our Membership Site.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingToday we talked about your checklist for product launch, but do you want help to write better emails? Come up with better content? Influence and move your readers to click and buy? Well, you can do that with this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.Join our FREE Facebook groupWe know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about adding an extra step to your checklist for product launch) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.

Will iOS 15 change email marketing? Is it all doom and gloom for people like us who rely on making sales from sending emails to our subscribers? In today's episode, we talk about the latest Apple update - iOS 15 - and a new product called iCloud Plus that comes with that release. We walk you through the changes, what they mean for you as an email marketer, and share exactly what you need to do to protect yourself. The good news is... as long as you follow our tips, it's not doom and gloom at all! Want to find out how to get ready for these changes?   Let's go!SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:48) Why Apple iOS 15 is tackling users' privacy. (5:04) iOS 14 and its impact on Facebook advertising (and Kennedy's feed).(6:42) What is Apple iOS 15 and how does it affect you? (8:30) Why you shouldn't rely on open rate reporting.(10:50) Why your click-through rate matters more than your open rate.(12:55) Why you should look at your Earning Per Subscriber Per Month (EPSPM)(14:23) What is iCloud Plus? (17:12) How does iCloud Plus impact email marketers?(18:26) Why you need to start paying attention to your engagement rate. (19:32) Subject line of the week. What is Apple iOS 15 and how does it affect you? iOS 15 is the latest Apple update, and it's big on privacy. It follows iOS 14, which changed how businesses run Facebook ads. And probably not in the best way, considering Kennedy receives all sorts of ads that aren't at all targeted. (Thoroughly recommend you listen to the episode to find out more about boyfriends and eye patches).So when the much-anticipated iOS 15 comes into play, open rate tracking is going to be proactively blocked. Now, open rate tracking works through a tiny 1x1 pixel (an invisible transparent picture) that sits in our emails. And when that pixel loads on someone's device, the email is considered open. This is how email service providers track open rates. However, with iOS 15, it's no longer going to be possible to track open rates. Either emails are going to be shown as being automatically opened or not opened at all. So it's going to be impossible for us to know whether people using Apple Mail app have opened our emails.Not great. But there's good news about this - open rate reporting was never reliable in the first place! Why you shouldn't rely on open rate reportingThe thing is, most Android mail apps already block the ability for email marketing platforms to track open rates, and some people automatically open emails without reading them. So your open rate has always been under-reported. Truth is - your open rates are probably slightly higher than what your email marketing platform is telling you. So please stop making decisions based on your open rate!There's something else you should be paying attention to instead. And that's your click-through rate. Why your click-through rate matters more than your open rateClick-through rates are going to be a lot harder for most platforms to block, and the reality is that it's much easier and more accurate for any email marketing platform to measure click rates. And it always has been. But the other reason why we, as email marketers, should be looking at click-through rates is that it's linked to something else - engagement. Think about it. When someone opens one of your emails, scrolls through it, and then deletes it, that email is marked as read. Right now, your email marketing platform classes that email as open. But is that subscriber really engaged? Probably not. But when it comes to click-through rates, things are very different. If whatever you said in your email was so compelling, so interesting, and so on-point that it made that subscriber want to click on a link you included in your email, then you know they're engaged. So instead of looking at open rates, train your subscribers to click. Because if you're not, then you're training them out of clicking. Your job as an email marketer is to build the behaviours that get people to click. Why you should look at your Earning Per Subscriber Per Month (EPSPM)Another metric we suggest you look at is what we call EPSPM - Earning Per Subscriber Per Month. To calculate this, you simply look at how much money you've made from your email marketing in a month and divide it by the number of subscribers on your list in that month (it could be the number at the beginning, in the middle, or the end - whatever you choose, just make it consistent). So for example, if you made $1,000 this month and you have 1,000 subscribers on your list, each subscriber is currently earning you $1 per month. Why is that good? Because it's trackable and comparable over time. It works when you have 100 subscribers and when you have 1 million people on your list. But if you look at open rates (or even click-through rates), as your list increases, these metrics will inevitably go down. Looking at how much money you're making per subscriber tells you how efficient and effective your email marketing is. What is iCloud Plus?  So will iOS 15 change email marketing? The short answer is yes, but there's something else we need to talk about, and that's a product called iCloud Plus. This is going to have a brand new feature called 'Hide My Email', and the way it works is by allowing Apple users to 'hide their email' when signing up to someone's email list, for example. So when someone signs up to your list, they'll do so with what we call a 'burner email address' (one full of random letters and numbers). Your emails are then forwarded from that burner email address to the subscriber's real email address, but your email marketing platform does not hold that subscriber's real address - only the burner one. How does iCloud Plus impact email marketers?iCloud Plus aims to stop businesses from sharing our data with third parties, so it's a good thing. But what it means for us as email marketers is that when a user decides to unsubscribe, their burner email address will disappear - become inactive. While the user unsubscribed, what we're going to see is a bounce. And that's problematic.So this is where you need to start to pay close attention to how engaged your subscribers are. We are quite strict on this in our business. If someone reaches 30 days without opening an email or clicking on a link from us, we count that person as disengaged and put them through our subscriber revival sequence. That gives them a chance to 'wake up' over the following 14 days. If that happens, they continue receiving our emails. If it doesn't, we remove them from our list.After the launch of iCloud Plus, doing this with your list becomes even more important. Because you're going to have all these 'burner email addresses' that could disappear and negatively impact the deliverability of your emails. So the solution is simple - keep an eye on your engagement rate, which you can monitor through clicks. This is how you'll be able to easily identify and remove people who have disabled their burner email addresses. So that's it. If you were asking yourself, "Will iOS 15 change email marketing?" now you know the answer. But you also know exactly what you can do to protect yourself. Subject line of the week This week's subject line of the week is, "Bringing home (too much) bacon". Rob used this line after opening a packet of bacon that should have had 10 rashes in there but actually had 13. He turned that into a lesson about what we think value means and the fact that having too much of something doesn't necessarily equate to value.The reason why the subject line worked so well? Because "bringing home the bacon" is a saying we all know. But Rob put a spin on it - he talked about having too much bacon (and added an emoji for good measure). By moving away from the saying a little, he triggered curiosity. And the email got opened! Useful Episode ResourcesRelated episodesIncrease Your Email Open-Rates: 13 Email Subject Line Tips to Stand Out in An Overcrowded Inbox #2018. Email CTR: How to Boss Your Click Through Rate.How to Email Your Abandoned Email List.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingIf you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here. Join our FREE Facebook groupIf you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes. We share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing. Best news yet? You can apply everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (will iOS 15 change email marketing?) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes so more awesome people like you can discover the podcast. 

Testimonials. How to write them? How to ask for them in the first place? Do testimonials and email marketing go together? Is there even a way to automate the whole thing?!You see - we're rubbish at asking for testimonials. It makes us feel grubby. So we don't do it enough. But we should, and we've finally convinced the awesome Monica Snyder, CEO and Founder of Birdsong.co to come and share her secrets with us.You're going to want to take some notes here because Monica gives us the exact questions you need to ask your customers to collect testimonials on autopilot so you can make more sales in your business.Ready?SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:59) Did Monica throw up in a helicopter or did Kennedy make that up?(5:09) Why do testimonials even matter?(5:54) When should we ask for testimonials?(8:10) What are the triggers for requesting testimonials?(9:49) How to ask for a testimonial as part of an automated email sequence.(11:39) How to ask your customers for permission to share their story.(13:37) How to deal with negative feedback and turn your customers into raving fans. (15:48) The 7 questions you should ask to get awesome testimonials.(17:57) So they gave you a testimonial. What's next? (20:08) Subject line of the week with Monica Snyder.Why do testimonials even matter?We all know testimonials are important. They are social proof. Most of us think we can rock up, create a product, put it on sale, have a bunch of people buying it, and then come back and rave about how awesome you are. But by now you probably know it just doesn't work like that. Truth is, people are more likely to say something about your product if they're unhappy and want to complain. They rarely come forward with the good, juicy stuff. Unless you ask them.But, as Monica says, it's our job as course creators to collect social proof. And testimonials are the strongest proof. So we've got to find ways to engineer a process that will give us awesome testimonials from our raving customers.When should we ask for testimonials? So let's say you've created a course. When's a good time to ask for a testimonial? At the end, right?Wrong.Because let's face it - sadly, a lot of people don't even make it to the end of the course!But Monica has another way. A much better way!And it's this. You've got to engineer some sort of win early on in the course. It doesn't have to be the final big hurray - it could just be a moment of clarity or a small win. As soon as people get that dopamine hit when they get their first result from your course, that's when they're happy to leave you a great testimonial. So make sure you build some sort of accomplishment early on in your course, celebrate it, and then ask for the testimonial.But how do we do it?Ask your customers to give you feedbackInteresting thing is, Monica doesn't actually call them testimonials. She asks her customers for feedback. Once her customers experience their first win, she sends an email out as part of her welcoming sequence to explain how to use the course to ask them to leave feedback.People get then taken to a landing page with a smiley face and a sad face, just like at the airport! If they click on the happy face, they're invited to share their story. If they click on the sad face, there's where they have a chance to leave their feedback. And Monica has a chance to take that on board and fix it. Simple, right? How to ask your customers if you can share their storyBut what happens when it's time for Monica to re-write and craft those answers into a testimonial that she can share? How does she ask for permission to share it? Does that take long? Can that be automated?Hell, yeah!So the clever way Monica does this is by asking her customers - in the same email where she asks for the feedback - to provide a link to their business or a headshot and logo to go out with the testimonial. So they don't just give her their permission - they actually get a bit of self-promotion out of it!Isn't this just pure gold?!How to deal with negative feedbackOkay, smiley faces and happy stories are what we're after here. But what about negative feedback? What if someone clicks on that sad face? Is everything lost?No way José.In fact, Monica says, bad feedback can also turn into a testimonial if you handle it well. Negative feedback is where you have the opportunity to turn an unsatisfied customer into a raving fan. And you can do that by simply taking the feedback on board and dealing with it.Sometimes it's just a matter of putting your hands up and admitting you missed the mark. Sometimes it's a matter of going ahead with a small fix. And sometimes it's a matter of working out how you can solve the problem that your customer had before they joined your course. Because if they're unhappy with it, then they still have that original problem that made them buy from you, right?So when you focus on fixing your customers' problems, you can turn negative feedback into raving, lifelong fans. The 7 questions to ask your customers to get awesome testimonialsNow, what kind of questions should we ask to get awesome testimonials that work? Because you know what? "The course is awesome" isn't really what you're after. It doesn't do much in convincing someone who's on the fence about buying your course to finally make that leap of faith and go for it. It sounds positive, but it doesn't work.So here are the 7 questions Monica asks. It starts easy, with:"What your name?"And "What's the name of your business?" Or, if it's a B2C course, "Where do you live?"Then you go into the juicy stuff, and you ask:"What was your biggest problem before buying my product?" This is where you're trying to get an idea of what life looked like before. You want to build the hero journey or the epiphany bridge.Then "What changed after you used the product?""What's one specific result you were able to achieve after using the product?" This is where you get those numbers and metrics that are so powerful in a testimonial.Then you ask, "What would you say to someone who is thinking about buying the product but is on the fence right now?"And finally the wide-open question, "Is there anything else you think is worth sharing or that you want to share but haven't been able to yet?" This question, Monica says, is always full of golden nuggets, so don't shy away from asking it!And that's it. These are the exact 7 questions Monica asks to get feedback from her customers. She then creates a handy headline and has a nice before and after story of how her product rocked someone's world.And isn't this great? Because we started off talking about asking for testimonials as something that feels grabby. But this is all about your customers. It's about them. It's about their journey. Their wins. And it's a lot more than just you bragging about your wins on your web pages!So they gave you a testimonial. What next?Because Monica does all this as part of her email sequences, it's all automated! She gets testimonials coming in without having to go out of her way and ask for them. And isn't this a great testament to the usefulness of email marketing as something that stops you from doing what Monica calls 'busy work'?Once the testimonial is in, Monica waits a couple of days, and then, if relevant and appropriate, she sends out the start of her new product launch series. Just. Like. That.Subject line of the week with Monica SnyderMonica's subject line of the week is "An $11,000 walk to the playground". And guess what? The email was exactly about that. About the fact that Monica took an hour out of her day to walk her kids to the playground, and in that hour, she made two phone calls and closed $11,000 worth of sales. Wow!And why did the subject line work? For a few reasons, actually. Because it had a number, and a number in subject lines is always good. Because it had an emoji. And because it triggered curiosity. Because making money and walking to the playground aren't usually things that go together. But in Monica's world, they do. Because that's exactly what she teaches - that making money and relationship building go hand-in-hand.Isn't this all levels of awesome guys?!Useful Episode ResourcesAbout MonicaWant to connect with Monica? You can find her on her website.Related episodesHow To Turn Customer Feedback Questions Into More Sales With Email.Turn Customer Feedback Emails Into Sales [Part 1].Turn Customer Feedback Emails Into Sales [Part 2].FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingWant to write better emails? Come up with better content? Influence and move your readers to click and buy? Well, you can do that with this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.Join our FREE Facebook groupWe know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about testimonials and how to write them) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.

Limited-time offers, also known as urgency-bound or scarcity-bound offers. We all know what they are. A flash sale, a bundle, an offer with a discount, something that expires at a particular time... Deals like these are all around us - they come in all shapes and sizes. But what do you do when someone gets in touch to say they've missed the deal and asks you to honour it? The only right answer here is NO!Want to know why? And want to know how to say no without damaging your relationship with your customers? Let's get stuck in then! SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (3:33) Extending an offer that's expired is illegal!(7:28) How hounouring an expired offer can lead your customers to start doubting you. (8:10) If you lose your customers' trust, they won't buy from you again. (10:00) What happened when we asked a company to honour an expired deal.(12:00) When you should still honour an expired deal. (13:59) When it's okay to offer your customers something different. (15:51) How honouring your expired offers impacts your relationship with your affiliates.(18:40) How to say no to expired offers while maintaining and strenghtening relationships.(20:10) How saying no helps you 'train' your customers for future sales. (22:15) Subject line of the week. Extending expired limited-time offers is illegalIf a deal ended on Friday night at 10 pm, then it ended on Friday night at 10 pm. You can't and shouldn't extend it.  Why?Well, first of all, it's not legal to state the terms of limited-time offers and then extend  your deal beyond those terms. Similarly, if you say a certain deal is going to be available for the first 100 people who buy it (that's a scarcity-bound deal), then you can't sell it to more than 100 people.It's as simple as that. Because the minute you start to change the terms, it becomes false and misleading advertising. Not. Legal.If you lose your customers' trust, they won't buy from you again!When you're using time-bound or scarcity-bound urgency to promote and sell your limited-time offers, it comes at the cost of saying no to anyone who asks for that deal once it's over. We talked about the fact that honouring an expired offer isn't legal. But it's not ethical either. Plus, saying no helps you 'train' your customers when it comes to future sales. Because the minute you change your mind and honour an offer that's expired, they're going to start wondering (subconsciously if not consciously) whether they should believe you or not. And next time you say that a limited-time offer or a deal will expire on a certain date, they might not believe you! They won't trust that what you say is true. And what happens when the trust is gone? None of us can make any sales.As business owners, we all have to build trust with our prospective customers. If people don't trust us - and don't believe they can get the results we're promising - they won't buy from us! We become dishonourable to the sale.So the minute we say yes to a limited-time offer that's already expired, we damage our future sales. Because people will stop trusting us.Think about it. They won't even bother rushing to get the deal before it expires. Because they know they can just drop you an email at any time and get it anyway. And when that happens, you have completely slaughtered your ability to ever use urgency with that customer. And you don't want to lose the ability to use urgency with your customers. That time when we asked a company to honour an expired deal...We have an example of this as customers. A while ago, we found out about this piece of software. They were running a great offer where they were selling their product at a discounted price. We didn't find out until after the deal had expired, but we still got in touch and asked to get the offer anyway. If you don't ask you don't get, right?And as consumers, of course you'd want to ask. That goes without saying! Know what? The company said yes. Hurray for us! So we got their product at a discounted rate, and the company got an extra sale they wouldn't have otherwise got. They were probably patting themselves on the back, but we, as their customers, have so little trust for them as a brand now that the next time they run a deal, we're not going to be in any hurry to go and grab it. Can you see how that doesn't work out in your interest in the end? When you should honour an expired dealSo, you don't honour an expired deal. That's the rule. But every rule has an exception, right? There are cases when you should honour an expired deal. And that's when you can see that your customer genuinely tried to get your offer but couldn't, because of circumstances outside their control. Obviously you don't just take their word for it. You go and check. You might be able to see that they tried to pay, but their card failed twice. Or that there was a problem with their bank. Or your website was down. Whatever.If they couldn't get the deal because of circumstances beyond their control, you should honour it. If it was genuinely not their fault and the purchase failed, then it's fair enough. Technology isn't perfect. And by saying yes to giving them the offer, you're not breaking their trust. But you still don't honour the deal if they dilly-dallied and stayed on the fence until the last minute. Or if your customer blatantly tells you they only found out about the deal after it had expired. That's when you say no and stay firm! When it's okay to offer your customers something else insteadSometimes you can still offer your customer the product you were selling at the discounted price, but that's only if you're selling that product already elsewhere, as part of another evergreen bundle or offer. For example, you may have had a limited-time offer that sold Product A at a certain price, as long as you bought Product A within a certain time frame. This means that once the time frame has expired, you can't sell Product A at that price anymore. The offer's gone.However, let's say you have another deal on your website. Let's say Product A is for sale on your website at that same price, but only if bought in conjunction with Product B. And that's an evergreen offer. In which case, it's perfectly acceptable and totally ethical to point your customer to that particular offer, which is an upsell at a discount. Because they could have found it on your website anyway. And this isn't the same as saying yes to a limited-time offer that's already expired. Can you see the difference? How honouring expired limited-time offers impacts your relationship with your affiliatesAnother good reason for saying no to honouring expired limited-time offers (as if we haven't given you enough already), is that it impacts your relationship with your affiliates (if you have any). So let's say you have affiliates who helped you promote your deal. If you say that your offer ends on a certain day at a certain time and then you honour the deal once the deadline has passed, most affiliates who are worth their salt won't promote your products ever again. Put yourself in their shoes. If you found out that someone you promoted did some shenanigans with false urgency or false scarcity, how would you feel? Would you promote them again? Becaus you, as the affiliate, could get into hot waters too, you know? But it goes both ways. If you have affiliates, then you need to be clear on what they are doing. You want to make sure they're not honouring expired offers either. Or equally, if you're selling an evergreen offer, and an affiliate makes it sound like it's a one-time-only or time-bound deal, well that's not right! You might end up having to give refunds and suffer from reputational damage, which isn't cool. So keep a close eye on what other people are doing with your offers!How to say no while maintaining and strenghtening your relationship with your customersSo hopefully by now we've convinced you you've got to say no to expired offers. But how do you do that wihtout damaging the relationship with your customer?Well, first of all you want to say you're sorry that they missed out on the discount. But while you'd love to be able to offer them the deal at the same price, you hope they understand that in order to be fair to everyone who bought on time, you can't do that. Otherwise, you'd be misleading all those people who grabbed your offer while it was valid. Plus, you want to mention that you'd be at risk of false advertising. This works for a few reasons. First of all, you've given them an emotional reason as to why you're saying no. You've asked them to put themselves in the shoes of the people who did buy the deal within the dealine. If that was them, wouldn't they be annoyed? And then you give them the legal reason too. Delivering the message in this way allows you to say no (in a nice way), but also lets you 'train' your customer and helps them understand that next time you have a limited-time offer that will expire on a certain day and time, you mean it. And next time they'll make sure they don't miss out on that discount! The urgency has just become more real for that person because they've now experienced the consequences of missing out on the deal within the deadline. When you stand by your limited-time offers (urgency-bound or scarcity-bound deals), your customers will become more responsive and more profitable as a result. Subject line of the week This week's subject line of the week (courtesy of Rob) is, "We can't be friends". Rob here was talking about the fact that when Facebook first became a thing, you'd become friends with just anyone. But now we're all a bit more protective of who we connect with on social media, and we're trying to strip down. So in this email, Rob was talking about his method of removing people he doesn't actually know on Facebook. Intriguing, right? Useful Episode ResourcesRelated episodesDress up your discount like this to make more sales with John Hutchison.How To Sell Without Price Cutting or Pushing with Mike Montague from Sandler Training.How To Sell To The Right People At The Right Time – With Steve Rosenbaum.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingDid you know that the 8 skills to improve your email marketing we talked about today come from books we've read and studied? If you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here. Join our FREE Facebook groupIf you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about limited-time offers and how to say NO) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.

Christina Jandali is a confidence-boosting, cash-creating Business Growth Strategist who helps coaches and course creators build a raving fan base and producing scalable profits through Facebook groups marketing.And today she shares her best tips on using a Facebook group to build your email list, so you can turn leads into buyers and make more sales in your business. We were scribbling down notes like mad, and you'll want to do that too - guaranteed!SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:27) Did Christina end up staying in the Caribbean for a month?(4:42) Do Facebook groups and email marketing work together?(5:50) What comes first - your Facebook group or your email list?(7:10) How do you sell in a Facebook group?(8:55) How do you generate 'purposeful engagement' in your Facebook group?(12:33) How long does it take to plan and create content for your Facebook group?(14:05) The type of content you can share in your Facebook group between launches. (16:11) What selling techniques work inside Facebook groups?(18:04) How do you sell evergreen products like memberships? (22:17) Subject line of the week with Christina Jandali.Do Facebook groups and email marketing work together?According to Christina, absolutely YES!As we all know, while we can leverage social media, we don't own those platforms. But email marketing is different. It's an asset we own, which is why it's important to market people in more than one location and use your Facebook group in conjunction with your email marketing.Facebook groups are awesome for creating deeper connections with your audience, so how do we use them as a tool for business growth?What comes first - your Facebook group or your email list? Should we populate our Facebook groups at the back of our email lists or start a Facebook group first to grow our email list? Chicken and egg situation, right?Well, they both work together, Christina says. And it all depends on where your primary source of traffic is. If you're using paid advertising, then you definitely want people to join your email list first. But if your traffic comes from somewhere else - like your podcast, for example - it's much easier for your audience to join your Facebook group. Because it doesn't take much effort for people at all.Plus, the more people join your Facebook group, the more Facebook introduces your group to more people, which can help you grow that audience even further. And once they're in there, you have plenty of opportunities to turn followers into email subscribers.But you always need to think about the two working together as two different entry points into your business. Your Facebook group should grow your email list, and your email list should grow your Facebook group.You can also create FOMO by telling people in your Facebook group what's happening in your email list and vice versa. It creates curiosity, so if you do this in your email list, you can get your subscribers to join your Facebook group. Generate FOMO in your Facebook group about your email list, and you'll get more people to subscribe. Genius!How do you sell in your Facebook group?Christina likes to think about using a Facebook group as a way to run campaigns. (Oh, and don't we love the sound of that?!)So when thinking about bringing people into your Facebook group, you need to come up with content that will lead to your offers. Use your content to attract, engage, and convert. Because the content in your Facebook group must evoke desire and demand for your paid offer.You don't want freebie seekers - you want leads that you can convert into buyers. So everything you do in your group needs to move people down that line of evoking desire and demand for your paid product or service.Makes sense, right?How do you generate the right type of engagement in your Facebook group?  So now that we've established that you don't just want anyone in your group - you want people who are interested in your paid offering - what can you do to nurture and deepen relationships with them?The key, Christina explains, is to stop focusing on 'mindless engagement'. You know, the type that comes from posts that ask people whether they're a tea or a coffee drinker. Or whether they prefer cats or dogs. If the answer to that question doesn't lead anywhere, don't ask it!What you want instead is 'purposeful engagement'. You want to ask questions that help you get in the minds of your ideal clients and move people towards your paid offers.So let's say you're planning a training session. You could start posting in your group and asking how people feel about that particular topic. What are people getting stuck with? What are their challenges? Allow people to share their frustrations and experiences - create the conversation around the topic, so you can use it later on.Because when you invite your audience to share their experience, you then have all this language (this copy) that you can use in your live streams, your emails, and whatever other type of content you're creating.How long does it take to plan and create content for your Facebook group? The majority of Christina's posts are one liners, so they don't take very long to plan and write at all!As business owners and marketers, we constantly feel under pressure to create lots of long content, but actually, that sometimes can kill engagement. So instead, Christina says, ask yourself what one question you can ask your audience that will start that conversation around what it is you're selling.She also suggests that you run at least one deep-dive core training a week inside your Facebook group. This can be around 10-20 minutes, but it needs to be value-packed. This is where you demonstrate your knowledge and evoke that need and desire for your paid product or service. So if you're planning for that content, you can jot down 3 bullet points for what you want to cover in that training, which is super quick.But the biggest mindset reframe that needs to happen, in Christina's opinion, is that you should aim to create community and connection with your Facebook members. To do that, let them speak to you, rather than you speaking to them all the time. And therefore your content should be 'fill-in-the-blanks' type of content, where you ask simple questions, break the ice, and invite your audience to speak about themselves.What content can you share in between launches? So this idea of creating campaigns and structuring your content around something you want to sell works really well when you're launching something new. But how do you keep your audience warm in between launches?Christina suggests you can still stick to just one value-based, deep dive post piece of content per week. And everything else should be conversational and connection-based - centered around the topic of your deep dive value post.So if you're not launching something new right now, what it is you want your audience to do? Listen to your podcast? Join your email list? Follow you on another social platform? What action do you want them to take next? It's important you give them one because you always want to invite your audience to take the next best action with you that moves people forward and closer to buying from you. You constantly need to train your subscribers to take some form of action, or they won't buy when you ask them to.What selling techniques work inside Facebook groups?When it comes to selling techniques, Facebook group owners take all sorts of approaches. Some use more direct pitches, while others employ more subtle techniques.Some business owners invite people to DM them. And that's powerful, because it allows you to have a one-to-one conversation with your leads, and if you're selling high-ticket items where a deeper enrollment conversation is necessary, then this strategy might work for you. But if you sell a lower-ticket item, can you really afford to spend your time answering DMs?What's important to take into account is how you want to present your offer. Then you can work backwards and figure out what sales technique is going to be most effective for your product. Should you sell through a webinar or a masterclass? A workshop? Look at the bigger picture and decide what sales sequence or strategy is going to work best for your offer.How do you sell evergreen products like memberships?We asked Christina for some tips on how to sell our membership - The League. It's always open, so how do we talk about it in our Facebook group without becoming boring?Christina suggests to always plant seeds. For example, you could say that a question came up inside the membership and you want to discuss it in the group. Or that you realised something as you were putting a piece of content together for your paying members. Plant seeds. Let people know about the thing you sell.But more than anything, use the content in your Facebook group to pitch the entry point to your sales sequence. Do you sell your membership via your email list? Then invite people to join your email list. Do you do a couple of larger, bigger-scale launches a year where you offer additional bonuses and bundles? Then point people to that.Subject line of the week with Christina JandaliChristina's subject line of the week is, "Hey!". It's one word, and it's soooo simple. Know why it works? Because that's exactly how you'd speak to a friend, and people can't help but want to open that email.It also works because it's super short, and it stands out compared to much longer subject lines that are perhaps sitting in people's inbox. So try it out for those conversational emails you send to your list.Useful Episode ResourcesAbout Christina Want to connect with Christina? You can find her on her website - Deliver your Genius.Christina also put together a wonderful bundle for our amazing podcast listeners. The resources Christina shared will help you find the perfect name for your Facebook group, write the best intro post, and then grow your Facebook group in 5 easy steps. You can get your paws on Christina's awesome bundle here.Related episodesBuild A Facebook Group To Build Your Email List With Arne Giske From Group Funnels.How To Grow Your Email List Using Facebook Pages (Without Ads) – Rachel Miller Moolah Style!How To Use Email Subject Lines To Do More Than Get Your Emails Opened.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingWant to write better emails? Come up with better content? Influence and move your readers to click and buy? Well, you can do that with this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.Join our FREE Facebook groupWe know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about Facebook groups marketing) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.

You've abandoned your subscribers. You sent them the freebie they signed up for or the product they bought, but you haven't emailed them in ages. They've forgotten about you. So how do you reactivate an email list? How do you go back to emailing your poor abandoned subscribers and keep them engaged and happy? Well, wouldn't we all love the know?!So let's get into it. SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:45) Why you can't just email your subscribers when you need something from them.(4:33) Why you should look at your email marketing from your subscribers' perspective.(5:30) Why you don't want to start bombarding your subscribers out of the blue.(8:48) Why you need to hold your hands up and come clean with your subscribers.(9:32) How to remind your subscribers of who you are and what you sell.(10:12) How to build expectations for what's to come.(13:00) Why you should give your subscribers permission to opt out.(14:30) How to decide on a frequency and stick with it.(16:05) Why the best time to reactivate your email list is now. (17:32) Subject line of the week.Is it time to reactivate your email list? So you've done what a lot of people do.You've neglected your list.The question is... how do you go back in their good books now? And what are some of the dangers of just emailing them out of the blue? Thing is, you can't just email your subscribers when you need something from them - when you have something to sell. It doesn't work like that. If you don't give your subscribers value on a regular basis, they won't be there when you need them. The dangers of emailing your list after a long timeIf you've abandoned your subscribers, fear not! There are ways to reactivate your list. You just need to do it carefully and with a bit of thought. And the first thing we suggest you do, like our friend Kath Pay suggests, is to look at your list from your subscribers' perspective.The first thing you don't want to do, in fact, is to suddenly start bombarding your subscribers. Because when you leave your email list for too long, your subscribers forget who you are. And if they can't remember you, you're the random guy or gal who's emailing them out of the blue because you want something. Not. Cool. So put yourself in the shoes of your subscribers (who, by this point, don't remember you or your business) and think about how you randomly emailing them will look like. They might be upset and frustrated and unsubscribe, right? Clearly, your relationship with that person isn't positive by this point, and you can't sell to someone you don't have a positive relationship with. This definitely affects your reputation as an email marketer.But there's more. It also impacts your deliverability rate. Because if you have a bunch of people who suddenly unsubscribe and report your email as spam on the same day and within hours of each other, then you might have a bit of a problem. So what's the solution? How to reactivate an email list Hold your hands up. Come clean and be honest with your list. Tell them you haven't emailed them for a long time, and that you know that's not very good of you. What you want to do now is to slowly start to re-engage them and bring them back in. Remind them of who you are and what you sell So get in touch and remind them of who you are and of what brought them onto your list in the first place. Did they sign up for a lead magnet? Did they buy something from you? Make sure you mention the product - people are more likely to remember the name of the product or what it did than your name. So remind them of who you are and what you sell. Manage expectationsThe other thing you need to do is to build expectations for what's to come next. Tell people what they can expect from now on and why this is going to benefit them. What will you include in your emails? What value do they offer to your subscribers? People don't care about your emails - they care about what they're going to get out of them. So tell them how often you're going to be emailing them and remind them of the benefits that your emails deliver to them. Inside The League, we share the Terrible Friend Campaign with our members. That teaches you how to seed a piece of content that's to come inside your email, so you can start to build an email campaign that isn't just about re-engagement and re-building and nurturing a relationship. You can weave in your product as well if you do it in the right way and embrace value-driven email marketing.  Give them permission to unsubscribeThat's right. You read that right. Because it's important is to give them a way out. Tell them what's coming next and, in the same breath, give them a chance to opt out. Spammy, bad people don't do that. So that sets you apart as a good guy. A good guy who made a mistake. Because let's face it - it's your fault. You're the one who didn't show up and maintain that relationship with your subscribers.And of course, by telling them exactly where the unsubscribe button is, you'll have fewer people actually taking that option because you've been honest and upfront. And because, hopefully, you've sold them the benefit of sticking around. Don't do it againAnd now you're on your way to fixing things, just don't do it again. If you said you're going to show up, show up!Make email marketing a habit. Because email marketing is the highest ROI activity of businesses of all sizes and stages around the world. And if you create an email habit, you'll find it easier to stick to it.We find it easier to email every day than to email once a week, for example. Because it's just a thing we do every day now - not something we need to remember to do once a week or whenever. So decide when you're going to email your subscribers, tell them, and then show up when you said you would!  The best time to reactivate an email list is nowWe call it Dreaded Dentist. The longer you put off going to the dentist, the worse the issue gets. Reactivating your email list is the same.The best time you could possibly start re-engaging your list was yesterday. Or the day before. Or last month. Whenever it went cold. The second best time to start re-engaging your email list is right now. And the longer you put it off, the worse off you'll be. So start now! Subject line of the week This week's subject line of the week is, "Dodo versus toenail". This is a subject line that Kennedy used at the back of a conversation with his partner Emma, where he used the expression "dead as a toenail". To which Emma said, "Don't you mean dead as a dodo?". So which one is it? Toenail or dodo?Anyway, that's the story behind the subject line.But why did the subject line work? Because Kennedy put together two totally unrelated things. Sure, the back story here linked them together. But you had to read the email to find out what it was all about because, at face value, the two concepts were unrelated. And that triggers curiosity. Clever, huh? Useful Episode ResourcesRelated episodesSubscriber-Centric Email Marketing with Kath Pay, author of Holistic Email Marketing.How Often Should You Email – Emailing More Often.What should I talk about in my emails? Email marketing content ideas you’ll use.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingIf you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here. Join our FREE Facebook groupIf you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode - all about how to reactivate your email list - and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.

Dave Rotheroe generated half a million dollars by mailing people grilled cheese sandwiches in the post. He's now the founder and CEO of Grip Advertising, and today he talks to us about how to build your list with viral ads.We talk about how to be creative, how to split test, and how to make ads that will go viral. You really want to find out what Dave has to say... honestly!SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (3:00) Did Dave really tour the world as a punk rock violinist? (And how awesome is that?!)(4:40) Dave's secret sauce to advertising (yes, he cracked by mailing cheese sandwiches!)(6:46) Ads and creativity (and where people get it a bit wrong).(8:52) How to go about being more creative in your ads.(11:34) The imprtance of split testing in your ads (and how to do it).(13:45) How to go about starting a list building ads campaign.(15:48) The 3 different angles you need when creating your ads. (17:34) How to sell free lead magnets through ads.(19:13) How to sell paid lead magnets through ads. (21:36) Subject line of the week with Dave Rotheroe.What's the secret sauce to viral ads?When Dave started a grilled sandwich subscription box, it went globally viral within a week. But Dave knew that virality moves on, just like trends. So he figured the only way to make his business sustainable was to start running ads behind it.But the key thing is... Dave used ads to amplify what was already working - something that had already gone viral on its own accord. And, in his own words, he became obsessed with trying to figure out how stuff goes viral and what makes people share and then applying it to various fields and industries through the awesome work he does.Is creativity important in ads?Creativity is one of those things that's really hard to teach, Dave says. Talking about strategies and best practices is much easier. But at the core of it all, you want to create ads that people want to watch and engage with. Having ads that are built around a funnel - that are targeted specifically to a cold audience and take them through to the consideration phase - is awesome. But if you can come up with a piece of creative ad that strikes a chord with your ideal customer base, then you can see improvements of 10-20x - much more than you could ever achieve with strategies and best practices. So here are some principles that Dave uses when coming up with ads. And we've seen this in action when we started working with Dave - his work massively elevated our campaigns!The principle Dave swears by is to use metaphors to describe what you do and to use characters that people know. This helps you create a bridge between what you do (and something that your audience isn't potentially familiar with) and what they know. So the idea is to create a Trojan Horse where your product is woven throughout a storyline that people can watch. This way it doesn't feel like an ad. It's something people watch, and they feel entertained and endeared by you. And while you're presenting them with a really entertaining ad, you're actually teaching them about who you are and what you do.How cool is that?! Dave's an actual genius!Split testing your adsSo now that you know how to create ads that people want to see in their social media feed, let's talk about split testing. An interesting fact Dave shared is that according to Facebook, 1% of the most successful 1% advertisers on the platform split test their creatives 11 times more than the average advertiser. That's a lot!For example, Dave did some split testing on one of our ads. He used the same video with exactly the same copy, but with different thumbnails. And he found that one outperformed the others by 3x! In other words, the ads were identical (except for the thumbnail), but one was 3 times more profitable and got a higher click-through rate than the others!This shows that you have to find the traction point first. Find an ad that works first and then split test on that. There's no point in split testing an ad that doesn't work!Another thing that's always worth split testing, Dave says, is the hook of your video, i.e. the first 3-5 seconds of it, as that can make a really big difference in how your ads perform.How to use ads for list buildingSo you've decided to use ads to build your list. How do you go about that? Dave suggests you start with a small budget of approximately $20-30 a day. Then you want to create one core ad to encourage people to opt-in for your lead magnet. Then you split test 2 or 3 different hooks and 2 or 3 different graphic headlines. You want your headline to be around 3 to 5 words but no more than 8-10 words - it's just to capture people's attention. And then you test and see what works best! (Nice little bit of rhyming there!)Dave also talked about the different angles he uses with his headlines, the key ones covering the "away from pain" and "towards pleasure" angles. This matters because when it comes to social media advertising, you've got to think about the purpose. Your job in creating an ad is not simply to 'sell a thing'. It's about creating every single element of an ad in a way that fulfills its purpose.So the purpose of the graphic headline is to get people to stop scrolling. Once they stop scrolling, you want them to read the actual text headline on Facebook. And the purpose of the text headline is to get them to read the main copy of the ad. And the purpose of the ad copy is to sell the click-through. The power of the artist is to sell the click-through - it's not to do the heavy lifting and get the person to buy the product. It's about selling the click-through to get them to the next stage in the process. It's all about micro-commitments and giving people breadcrumbs to move them to the next stage, slowly but surely.And that's how we should be thinking about ads!How to sell lead magnets through adsSo we can create ads to ask people to opt-in and download our lead magnets. But do we need to do things differently depending on whether we are giving away a free lead magnet or a paid product?According to Dave, people don't give a lot of value to free products anymore. Because let's face it, a lot of them are rubbish quality, and we all know that's true!But there's hope.You can still promote a free lead magnet through ads, as long as you focus on the problem you solve in the actual words your ideal customers use. When people see that, they automatically think you've got the solution for them. But if you focus on the fact that your lead magnet is free, then you're wasting your time. You're better off going after what's more valuable, which is the problem you solve.When it comes to selling paid products (or self-liquidating offers), Dave believes (and we agree) that you acquire a different and 'better' customer base by asking for some money in return for your lead magnet. People who opt-in for a paid-for product are better-quality customers who are invested in what you sell. They will actually use it and get results, and probably buy more of your products.The key to that is to come up with a product that solves a problem that's big enough for your audience to pay money for. And when you do that, then you build yourself a list of buyers, rather than subscribers who won't engage with your products.Subject line of the week with Dave RotheroeDave's subject line of the week is, "Keep your eyes peeled (graphic content)". Dave sent this at the back of his corrective laser eye surgery. He sent a story-based email to his subscribers, which led to a specific call to action. This email had a 7% open rate, and Dave puts this down to the power of intrigue and negativity.Because yes, the bit 'graphic content' he put in bracket suggested gore content. That, or an actual graphic contained in the email! How you interpret it is completely down to your own personality and preferences. But it worked a treat!Useful Episode ResourcesAbout DaveWant to connect with Dave? You can find him over at Grip. And if you want to get your hands on the eBook that Dave mentioned in the podcast interview, you can find it here.Related episodesYou’ve Got a Lead Magnet, Now What?How To Grow Your Email List – 6 Unusual Lead Magnet Ideas.17 No Cost Ways To Build Your Email List.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingWant to write better emails? Come up with better content? Influence and move your readers to click and buy? Well, you can do that with this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.Join our FREE Facebook groupWe know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about how to build your list using viral ads with the awesome Dave Rotheroe from Grip Advertising) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.

We all want to do better at email marketing, don't we? But how? Well, the good news is that we all learn skills along the way - in previous jobs and careers, through courses, or even hobbies. And some of these skills can come in very handy when it comes to helping your email marketing efforts. So today we look at the 8 unexpected skills to improve your email marketing. Ready for it? SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:07) Honestly, will #EmailMarketingWednesday ever catch on?!(3:20) Why you need to study awesome storytelling.(6:27) How to master offer creation.(9:18) Why you need to structure your emails in campaigns.(12:19) The reason why you need to learn how to write really compelling subject lines.(14:11) Do you know what your audience's hot buttons are?(16:42) Why you need to write as you talk (just like we do).(18:32) The reason why you need to edit your emails.(19:12) How to understand what strategies work in email marketing (and how to model them in your business). (22:36) Subject line of the week.So what are the 8 unexpected skills you need to improve your email marketing? When it comes to awesome email marketing, we think these are the 8 skills you're going to need to master: Storytelling.Offer creation.Creating email campaigns.Writing compelling subject lines.Understanding your audience's 'hot buttons'. Writing as you talk. Editing your emails. Understanding and modeling what others do consistently well. So let's break these down and dig a little deeper into each of these awesome skills. 1. Storytelling in email marketingStorytelling captures and keeps people's attention. It gets people to emotionally engage and has the power to transform people - it gets them to feel, think, and act differently. When all is said at done, at the end of a story, you've taken someone on a journey. A transformative journey. We think that, unfortunately, a lot of email marketing suffers from not going anywhere. But email marketing, just like storytelling, should move people from one place to another.Instinctively, we all like stories. We like telling them and we like hearing them, so how can we weave them into our email marketing? Our tip is to spend time studying good storytelling (from movies, books, TV series, video games etc.). Start to notice what hooks us in, what keeps us engaged, and what makes us binge-watch/read/play. And once you cracked all that, you can use that in your own email marketing and make your subscribers want more and more. Sounds like fun, right?2. Mastering offer creationThe second skill you're going to need to elevate your email marketing is offer creation. At the end of the day, the reason for emailing your subscribers is that you want to sell something - whatever that might be. But what if the thing you sell isn't particularly attractive or appealing to your audience? We think it's really important to study the psychology behind a good offer. What makes something an offer that your audience is going to want to snap your hand off for?You see, your offer is a combination of what you're selling, what it does for your customers, the way it's packaged and delivered, the price, and the angle you use to offer it. All these things make your offer. So it needs to be captivating. It needs to stand out, it needs to be unique, and it needs to tell your customers how it's different from anything they might have tried in the past.So spend some time and attention into figuring out how to create and frame an offer that people really want to buy from you. 3. Creating email campaignsThe third skill you need for your email marketing is the ability to create email campaigns. You want to have a reason to email your subscribers more than once. There's no point in emailing your list every day or every week if you're going to repeat the same thing over and over! It's boring, and it gives people no reason to open your emails.The thing is, those who buy from you on day one won't see your other emails. But the majority of your customers won't buy on day one - that's just how things are. So what are you going to give them on days two, three, four, etc. to help them make a decision to buy from you? You need to build your sale's argument, help them overcome objections, and give them more and more reasons to buy. That's why you need a structure. You need to put your emails into sequences (or campaigns) and say something fresh and interesting every time you send out a new email. We are obsessed with creating innovative email campaign structures that keep people interested. So have a think - what are the different ways you can grab your audience's attention? What content will you create for your email sequence that, email on email, goes above and beyond what you delivered in your previous email?4. Writing compelling subject linesSubject lines help you get your emails opened, so it's really important to write stuff that grabs people's attention and invokes curiosity. You want people to be curious enough to open your emails to find out what you have to say. Invoking curiosity means raising a question in someone's mind, even if this happens on such a subconscious level that they don't even know it's happening. So take a look at the subject lines you receive in your inbox. Keep a swipe file or folder of subject lines for emails you opened, and then start studying subject lines and the language they use. 5. Understanding your audience's 'hot buttons'What do your subscribers really care about? Do they want to make money? Save money? Save time? What is it that they're trying to do? Again, ask yourself the questions and start keeping a record of these things. Because once you understand your audience's hot buttons you can start putting a little bit of pressure in your emails by prodding these buttons.Let your audience know that your product or service is the thing that will help them overcome their problems or achieve their dreams. And don't forget - hot buttons aren't just pain points. It could be anything that your audience wants to achieve or do, so they can be really positive too. You may even notice that certain activities are hot buttons for your subscribers. For example, every time you do a webinar or promote an affiliate course, you notice that your subscribers engage. If that's the case, you've identified a hot button that's specific to your subscribers. Now use it in your emails! 6. Writing as you talkSomething else we think you need to master when it comes to skills to improve your email marketing, is writing as you talk. We do that a lot. And by all standards, you could say that our emails are poorly written. But people read our emails and 'hear our voices' in their heads. You want to build an audience of people who want to hear from you, so write as you talk. If you struggle with this, you can record yourself speaking and then use a transcription service to get the written version of what you said. Whatever you do, don't suddenly turn into someone else when you start typing your emails. Because no one wants that from you!7. Editing your emailsEmail marketing doesn't happen in real-time. We all know that. So why don't people edit their emails more?!  The beauty of email marketing is that you can type something out and then delete it or edit it later. And we really recommend that you learn how to master this skill.In particular, edit the beginning of your emails. Sometimes people take too long to get to the point, and in doing that, they lose the readers' attention. So type it all out but then edit it down - get into the action as soon as you can.  8. Understanding and modeling strategies that work in email marketingThe last skill we think is mega important when it comes to email marketing is noticing what works and modeling that in your business. Start to look at the approaches and strategies that you see other successful business owners apply in their business.  Because if you always try and invent the wheel yourself, you're going to end up making a lot of mistakes and try stuff that won't work.So instead, pay attention to what others are doing well and consistently - you don't want to start doing something just because someone else you follow was testing something out. They might do it once, work out it doesn't work, and never do it again. So pay attention to what you see them do day in and day out and try and implement similar strategies in your own email marketing. Subject line of the week This week's subject line of the week is, "You've GOT to stop learning." This was sent out by Kennedy, and the key message of the email is that it's time to stop learning and start doing. But why did it work so well? Because it was an unexpected thing to write in an email, especially coming from someone who sells programmes, memberships, and courses where people do learn. All the time! That subject line was the opposite of what people expected Kennedy to say, and it made people open the email to see what it was all about.You can try something similar by asking your subscribers to stop doing something that's key to your business or something that everybody does. If you sell gardening products, maybe you can say, "You've GOT to stop gardening." Or something like that - you get the idea. Why don't you try it out?Useful Episode ResourcesRelated episodesHow To Use Email Subject Lines To Do More Than Get Your Emails Opened.Writing Subject Lines Without Using Formulas.How To Write Email Subject Lines For Sales Emails (That Actually Work).FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingDid you know that the 8 skills to improve your email marketing we talked about today come from books we've read and studied? If you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how.We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here. Join our FREE Facebook groupIf you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode - all about the skills to improve your email marketing - and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.

Should you use comedy and jokes in your marketing? Should all brands be funny? Is that the right thing to do? We asked Adam Hunt, who helps brands and businesses do exactly that - be funny. So let's hear it from the man himself - how do you use humour in your marketing?SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:15) Does Kennedy really know what a Vespa is?(3:50) Should all brands try and be funny?(4:50) How to find the humour that's right for your brand.(7:00) Why you need to start from the truths that matter to your audience in the context of what you do.(10:06) How to sprinkle humour on top of your message.(12:15) Adam's easy process to find humour in things (and write jokes from them).(15:40) How to be a bigger and bolder version of you. (18:08) Why you shouldn't let the jokes get in the way of the message.(20:40) How to use humour for all the right reasons. (22:34) Subject line of the week with Adam Hunt.How can you find humour that's right for your brand? Should all brands try and be funny? Well, according to Adam, they should be funny in the right way. And what that means is that the right kind of humour for your business comes from brand essence and everything you stand for. Comedy done the right way is relatable content that happens to be funny.But how do we find the type of humour that's right for us?Adam explained that a joke is made of two things that shouldn't fit together but do, thanks to a cleverly placed twist. And the key to the twist is that it needs to be a truth that you're using to bridge the gap between those two things.When you're trying to make jokes that appeal to a specific audience, you need to go after their truth. In other words, what could you say to your audience that will make them go, "That is so true!"Use humour in your marketing by starting from your audience's truthsJokes are clever comparisons. And if you make the right comparison, you'll get the right reaction.So your first job here is to work out what matters to your audience in the context of what you do and how and why that helps them and their world.Adam and his team use a tool call Relatability Matrix, which is a grid that contains a brand's USP and values to start with. But it also looks at key ideas from sales pages and other types of content and at relatable truths for that brand's audience that can be combined with other elements on the grid.We can do this too! Adam's tip is to start by working out what you need to say to your audience in order to achieve your objectives. Then, you can come up with ways to express that in such a way that will move people to the right kind of action.If you tell jokes for the sake of it - if you use humour in your marketing in a way that doesn't serve your brand's purpose - then you're just being funny for the sake of vanity or engagement. And you could actually get the opposite effect of putting people off.How to find humour in things (and write your own jokes)The first step is to find a clever comparison. So start by making a list of relatable truths that you know your audience is going to agree with.Then make another list. It could be things that are going on in the world, or things that are relevant to your business - it doesn't matter what this is.The third step is to go through both lists together and try and connect two of the things you've got on them.You're not trying to be funny here - you're just trying to come up with some basic parallels, similarities, or differences. Once you've done this freewriting exercise, you'll end up with ideas that you can then develop and polish. Add your clever twist in the right place, and you've got your joke.Simple, right?Using humour in your marketing means being a bigger and bolder version of youJokes can be used to reinforce someone's awareness of the pain points they're dealing with. You can use jokes to help your audience focus on their struggles and make them bigger. You want to use jokes sparingly though - to encourage your subscribers to open your emails, for example. But don't overdo it.You don't need to put Michael McIntyre in someone's inbox because that's not you. Just put a bigger and bolder you in their inbox. You do that by starting with the messaging that matters and then layer additional thoughts on top. Come up with a way to explain why something is bigger and bolder with a comparison that can feel like a joke.But don't let the jokes get in the way of your copy. You want people to read, then read some more, and read some more until they're ready to buy. That's your goal. There is such a thing as a joke too many. And you don't want to trivialise your message. Never let a joke get in the way of your message. Instead, let the jokes support the message. The key is to use humour in your marketing for the right reasons. Make the right jokes with the right angle, using the brand's ingredients that speak to your audience, and you'll get something that works for you.Make jokes about the things that unite your audience.Find the truths they all agree on.And remember that comedy in itself isn't offensive - only offensive comedy is offensive! Use humour to bring people together, to show them you share their views, and to make them feel seen.Pretty awesome stuff, don't you think?Subject line of the week with Adam HuntAdam's subject line of the week is "Video for [First Name]".Adam had to reluctantly admit that this works every time - reliably and flawlessly. If you need someone to watch a video, this is the right subject line to use. It drives that curiosity that makes you want to watch this video, just in case the person sending it created this video just for you, and not for everyone else too.Genius, right?Useful Episode ResourcesAbout AdamWant to connect with Adam? You can find him over at White Label Comedy.Related episodesCustomer Archetypes To Inject Personality Into Your Marketing – Nate Wright.What should I talk about in my emails? Email marketing content ideas you’ll use.Write Emails Like A Boss – Even If You Think You’re A Crap Writer.FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketingWant to write better emails? Come up with better content? Influence and move your readers to click and buy? Well, you can do that with this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.Join our FREE Facebook groupWe know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.Try ResponseSuite for $1This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.Join The League MembershipNot sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes, where we get to share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing by applying everything we talk about in this show.Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcastThanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode about how to use humour in your marketing with Adam Hunt and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review on your favourite podcast player.Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes and get discovered by more awesome people like you.