42: How to Create a 100% Automated Email Marketing Strategy with Elizabeth McCravy

So many creative entrepreneurs dread sending out a weekly email. Maybe you feel you have nothing to say, maybe you forget, maybe you feel like you’ve already used your best ideas. Today I am welcoming back Elizabeth McCravy to the podcast, this time to talk about how her automated email system has improved her business and made her email marketing strategy so much easier. Elizabeth is sharing some of her key tips to get started on successfully automating your emails on your own and smoothing out your workflow today. 

The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast is brought to you by Dolly DeLong Education. This is a podcast for creative business owners who want to learn tangible steps to automate their business through workflows, systems, tools, and strategy in order to go from scattered to streamlined with purpose. Because even muggles can become automated wizards.

⭐️Want to learn Dolly’s framework for creating a Lead Magnet that leads to your offers (which does include email marketing as well)? Well check out the Lead Magnet Mini Course here 

Review The Show Notes:

Get to know Elizabeth McCravy (1:30)

Why entrepreneurs need an automated email marketing strategy (2:40)

Getting started with automated emails in your business (6:13)

Email sequences within email sequences (12:00)

Sort your topics into a list that makes sense (16:49)

You need to write the emails (20:52)

Set up your sequence and add people to it (23:33)

A few additional tips from Elizabeth (26:05)

Stay connected with Elizabeth (30:44)

Connect with Elizabeth ⬇️

instagram.com/elizabethmccravy

elizabethmccravy.com/podcast

⭐️Free Guide: Create the Perfect Opt-in Incentive to Grow Your Email List elizabethmccravy.com/5download

Free Guide: Create the Perfect Opt-in Incentive to Grow Your Email List elizabethmccravy.com/5download

Connect with Dolly ⬇️

instagram.com/dollydelongeducation

facebook.com/DollyDeLongEducation

pinterest.com/dollydelong

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Review the Transcript:

Dolly DeLong
Welcome to The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast where I help entrepreneurs go from scattered to streamlined in their creative businesses. I’m your host, Dolly DeLong, a wife, a mom, and a photographer turned systems educator. Join me every week as we have conversations centered around creating tactical workflows, and automations in your business. Now, let’s make some strategic workflow magic. Hi, friends, and welcome back to the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast. I have Elizabeth McCravy on as a guest. And if you guys have been listening to this podcast, you know, she came on a while back several months ago, and she spoke about the systems and workflows for creating and maintaining a magnetic website presents. And I know that I got a lot of great feedback from that episode. And so I am so honored to have Elizabeth back on the podcast. And she is going to be sharing more about how to have a good email marketing strategy in relation to automations and workflows. So, again, I know I say this week in and week out, but you guys are in for a treat. My goal of this podcast is just to make workflows and systems and strategies fun. And so she has some very tangible tips to share with you. If you are new here to the systems and workflow magic Podcast. I’m just gonna have Elizabeth introduce herself, just in case you’re new to getting to know Elizabeth just in case you haven’t listened to that past episode. So Elizabeth, do you mind introducing yourself to the audience?

Elizabeth McCravy
Well, thank you for having me back on your lovely show. I love your podcasts and your business and everything. Yeah, okay. So allow me. I’m Elizabeth, I live in the Nashville area. I’m a mom. I’m a wife and a business owner and I primarily sell ShowIt website templates. I’ve been doing that for a few years. And I also have online courses. My main one is Booked Out Designer, which is a course for branding website designers on how to create a book down in-demand design business. And I have other random things I sell it. So that’s kind of plays into even what we’re talking today of like automations for like, we have a variety of products you’re selling, and I do real estate investing, and all kinds of other fun stuff. So that was me.

Dolly DeLong
Elizabeth does it all and it becomes gold. I told her that earlier. It’s probably gonna embarrass her right now, but it is yours. So let’s dive in. Because this topic when you were talking about different just topics to talk about when it comes to systems and workflow strategy, when you threw this topic out, I was like, yes, let’s talk about this. Because I feel like creative business owners, we tend to overcomplicate email marketing, we think there have to be like 10,000 intricate steps. And when he threw out an automated email marketing strategy that like breaks it down into bite-size concepts. I thought, okay, yeah, we need to talk about this, because maybe this is something that, like, when this episode airs, we’re going into quarter four. So like we’re at the end of the year. So maybe a lot, a lot of things in our businesses might a lot of us might be revving up for the season, or we’re slowing down depending upon what season of business we’re in. So either way, these are things we can start implementing in our business during the slower parts so that we can know more strategic email marketing strategies.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, yeah. And I’m with you, I love people to automate this. And you’re right that people overcomplicate it. I used to overcomplicate it for a long time, which oftentimes leads you to just do nothing when you’re making marketing feel, harder than it is. So yeah, I mean, I would say, and many people maybe raise your hand alone in your car if you feel this way. But I mean, seriously, we dread sending the weekly email, we feel like we’re supposed to do it. It’s an item that gets pushed around your to-do list. Maybe you skip some weeks, maybe you like diligently have sent an email every week for months, and you’re not really even seeing much traction from it. Or this was me for a long time, I would write an email and I’m like, that was so great. I love it. I send it out. And then like, you know, the next week, you get a lot of new subscribers and you’re like, Well, man, now that those people are never gonna get to see that awesome email. I wrote it. So it’s like a hamster wheel of like always having to create new content. And yeah, I think because email marketing is not as front and center as something like making a new reel or if you’re a podcaster like Dolly and I like a new podcast episode. It can be easy to like, let it slip. And yeah, and I’m actually I’m not someone who’s going to tell someone they need to send a weekly email every week for years. I did it for years. I did like to send it in one week-ish. And then I had I’ve had seasons where I’m like, Yeah, I’m not doing that I’m focusing on my podcast content only. And then I kind of figured out this method instead and have been doing what we’re going to talk about for a while now. And I like to kind of explain what it looks like. Basically, I have an evergreen sequence that is a weekly email. So I’m setting it to send out just Mondays and Tuesdays right now. So it sends out every Tuesday. And as people get on my list, they start at the top of it, and it’s 27 emails, over a whole lot of weeks. Actually, I need to look at how many weeks it is, but it’s more than 27 weeks, it’s closer to like 35 weeks because I do intentionally have it skipped some. So not quite a whole year, but close to it. And it did not start out that way, which we can talk about it. But it’s that many emails. And then every time someone joins my list, they start at the top. So everyone’s like on their own journey. But I’m being able to like write a good email, and then not have it be only sent and seen by the people who are on my list at that moment. But as your list grows, as your business grows, like you’re getting that thing seen over and over again. So yeah, I’m excited to talk about like, kind of how people can do that for themselves.

Dolly DeLong
Oh, I love it. Let’s just, let’s just dive in Elizabeth, because exciting. I’m gonna take some notes too.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah. Okay, so, yeah. Okay, so like the first if you want to try this for yourself, let’s start by saying to kick this off as I said, minus 27 emails right now, you’ll hear other people who have done this whole year, two years, or something crazy like that, you could start out with one month like it doesn’t have to be anything super crazy to start the first time I did this, I want to say it was 11 emails, which is kind of a random number. Also, 27 is kind of a random number. So not even like a rounded number for you can start whatever makes sense for you. And I would say the first step though, is like thinking about a value-adding topic that you could use in an email, maybe it’s an email you’ve already sent previously to your list, but maybe it’s been a while it’s okay to like resend the people. There’s also depends on what email software, you use ways to like filter it to like the people who are already on the list, maybe skipping the first one, if you did want to, like reusing something more recently. But it could be something you’ve already sent. It could be a blog post that you’re going to pull tips from a podcast episode a YouTube show, like whatever it is you do that you’re creating continent, maybe it’s that you did a reel where you’re sharing like four tips about something. And you could take each of those four tips and write like three sentences about it. And that’s kind of your email. But thinking about like value, adding topics you could use in mixing that in with some more direct selling about your products or services. And I believe that should be a mix. So like you’re always willing to add value, right? So even though sales email should be adding value, the way I kind of do my sequence, and you guys can go get in it and like literally just see exactly what it is. And you’ll feel like it’s a weekly email, but it’s not like a weekly like live sent email. That’s not. But yeah, as I do, it’ll be like a few in a row that is just adding value. And then in intertwining with some that are more selling. So I’d make a list to start off like all the things you could possibly cover topics that you’re passionate about things you feel confident teaching things that would add value to someone who might be considering working with you and make a list and kind of start to think about rearranging it a little.

Dolly DeLong
So how when did you start implementing this in your business, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah. Okay. So I want to say early 2021, maybe, is when I first did it, and I actually just redid the whole thing again. So that’s something to note, like, once you have something set up like this, that’s a super automated system, you still need to revisit it because your offers changed, your life changes, and things need to be changed out. So I just updated a lot of it and actually added on like five brand new emails to it. So I still go in and change it. But yeah, I’ve been doing this for a while now. And then it’s cool to think about that. Because when I first started doing this, I want to say my list might have been more like 6000 people or so but now it’s at 14,000 at the time, we’re recording this and so like all those people are going through it. And again, like Battle email marketing is so powerful that’s more people than I have on Instagram or podcast listeners, and things like that like email is such a great place to like, connect with people with valuable information with things that feel very personalized and one-to-one. And to like sell your products and services.

Dolly DeLong
I love that I was going to actually ask you how often you go in and like do you do a quarterly refresh on the sequences? Or do you do like, do you do a CEO day every like six months? Like how like when do you determine that Okay, it’s time to hit refresh on the 27th email sequence or the 11 series email sequence?

Elizabeth McCravy
Let’s see. I mean a few times it’s been the odd just kind of notice of like, okay, I know there’s One email in here that there’s something that I should update on it. So sometimes it’s like, I’m just one day being like, Oh yeah, I should go update it. I actually don’t have a super good process though, for like evaluating when to update them. That’s something I should work on. But this past time, I’m more so it was like my offers, I’ve changed like I had booked out designer had come out in the time that those emails were still being sent out. And that was not mentioned. I also had my financial spreadsheet profit sheet come out. So it’s like both of those things weren’t really in there. And I also had had some other fun things happen in my life, like having a child where I’m like, I’ve written all these when I wasn’t a mother yet. And so like, what kind of language do I want to change in relation to that to like, keep it feeling fresh?

Dolly DeLong
And now when you do these days where or like, set aside time to update? Do you actually sit down and do it? Or do you work with a copywriter to like, hash this all out?

Elizabeth McCravy
Great question. Yes. So I have I we both I know you know her as well. I work with Emily Conley as bestie. She’s amazing. Yeah, so I’ve worked with her for a while now for copywriting. And she and I work really well together because I actually like copywriting. And like, I’ve not to, I think I’m a pretty good writer, like, like, I don’t think I’m like, Oh, I hate writing. It’s so horrible and hard. So a lot of times Emily, and I will do projects where I’ve like, written the gist of it. And then she spices it up. And other times where she really is like, like, here, that’s the tips I’m wanting to share. Here’s the meat of it. And she’s making it into an email in my voice. So hiring help with this is awesome, especially if you don’t feel like you’re a really strong writer. And you can kind of work on honing your voice even as a brand through working with a copywriter. But I think doing it yourself or with someone and in my emails like, gosh, I mean, there were 27 of them at the time we’re talking. It’s like, yeah, some of those I wrote myself completely alone. And then some of that I wrote with Emily, and then some Emily, like had more of a hand on than I did.

Dolly DeLong
Gotcha. I was going to ask you, okay, you’re probably going to answer this later on. But in these emails, do you infuse other lead magnets that lead into another sequence to offer more value? This is where the complicated part comes in, where somebody can think, Oh, well, I need to add this timer to this email. And then I need to have this. I don’t know. Like, I just feel like so many people complicate this. But I just want to know, like, do you because I do this. In my nurture sequences, when somebody downloads a lead magnet, I include another lead magnet within like email three or four so that they can get more value-added, but then it kicks them into a different sequence. So do you have sequences within a sequence? Yeah.

Elizabeth McCravy
No, I know what you’re talking about. You’re right. That is that’s a complicated thing about growing your offers growing your email list, like growing in terms of lead magnets. And it’s a funny thing, like and I also am, like, constantly have to be careful about this. But like making sure someone’s not in two funnels at once, for example, so that they’re not getting like two emails a day on completely different topics. So yeah, my whole email marketing system is basically completely automated. I’ve other funnels as well that people go into. And something to note, too, this was something I was gonna share later. But like, when you have something like this setup that’s sending once a week, you can always pause it. So I very regularly will turn it off, which just means that week, no one’s gonna get anything and I will send a live email. So I’m keeping you on your toes truly because sometimes you might get an email and you’re like, Is this part of the automation or not? And it might be that it’s actually not and I’m sending you a live email that week, but you can just always pause it and then people will pick back up wherever they left off in the sequence. So I do some of that. But then, like you were asking Dolly there is like because you want to still be selling in this house like to go check out another thing. And then if they do sign up for like you’re saying that would put them into that funnel, and I set my other funnels to never send on Tuesdays, so they’re not going to at least not going to double up on in that way. It is hard though to completely prevent someone from ending up in two funnels at once. And if you as you do grow your business and again, this is like this something that comes over time, but like for me when I really my primary offer was website templates, and I had that funnel, I had this nurture funnel that was simple, because just two things you just turn off Tuesday on the other one, and you’re good to go. But then when you start adding in offers that are for completely different audiences like Booked Out Designer, which is my course for designers and people who are going to my website templates are very different. And so yeah, completely different things, but it’s also very possible for someone to opt-in for things that put them in both and you just have to like a chat on the back and try to make that not happen. I have a few ways That like, are a bit complicated. I’m trying to prevent people from being in both at the same time. But yeah, so that’s unavoidable as you start to, like, have a lot of offers

Dolly DeLong
once in a while, get somebody who, and I’ve started turning off notifications, I use Flodesk, and I would get notified of when a new subscriber opted in. And there’s always that person that opts into all five freebies. Yeah, so then I know that they’re getting all five email sequences. So I haven’t really thought this through either. So yeah, this is something that I need to think through as well.

Elizabeth McCravy
Well, one thing I do that kind of help with that is what multiple freebies might all put people into the same sequence. So that helps not double up. So I tried to like, keep it to fewer sequences when possible, but like, I know, by the time this airs, actually, I will end up I will have new courses that are like another thing that’s another sequence to put someone in. And so it is like, yeah, you just have to be as organized as you can. And like I like to pretty consistently go in and like click on a subscriber and ConvertKit and just see like, hey, what’s happening with them?

Dolly DeLong
What are they tagged? In? What email sequences are they in right now? And then you can kind of find holes in your system, when you see like, oh, shoot this person is like in multiple sequences at once. And like, where’s that happening? And I didn’t want that to happen. Like, how can I set the digital delay? Maybe? Yeah, and that sort of thing. But people also understand when they sign up for a bunch of stuff that that might happen. Exactly, exactly. So okay, sorry. I just asked you so many questions. And so you had So some tips like I’m like just recapping it. So think about like topics that could add value to your email. So like repurposing a blog post or repurposing a podcast episode, repurposing other lead magnets.

Elizabeth McCravy
So the next step would be to like the sort that lists that you come up with. So you’ve kind of thought about, like, what are some general things I could talk about, maybe make some rough notes and like a Google doc on a sheet of paper, and then try to sort that listen to an order that makes sense. Again, thinking about like the customer journey, someone’s getting this once a week, what can make sense to come in an email after another one? So like, maybe you have one email that selling one of your particular offers. And then the next email is a value add. The next email is more of like a story from your own life that leads into like a tip that, again, would apply to your ideal client, we aren’t just sending tips for like, whatever reason, it needs to be very applicable. So it could be like for me to use an example, I do something like maybe a website, tip email, a tip on working with clients and like client boundaries, and something like that, then next email might be about working with a team and how to grow your business with outsourcing and delegating. And then the fourth email might be about selling my website templates and more of just like straight up, like, that’s the focus of this, even though the other emails also might be selling what you’re doing as well. So just kind of ordered around. And a cool thing too, about all these email marketing software is like, once you have it in there, you can keep rearranging it. So like, I very nicely, very often, I somewhat often will, like, just reorder mine, like, Oh, I’m just gonna switch that around that go better up here again. So you can totally do that. But I would say like, that just getting an order that makes sense is a good second step. And you use ConvertKit Correct? I do, but I know you use Flow desk, and I absolutely love them too. So like, Yeah, I think I’d be curious what you think Dali, but I think it’s like it’s better not to obsess over like finding the perfect. Oh, yeah. Like they’re all great. And I think that’s almost like people can wait way too long to get started with email marketing, because they’re like, which one should I use? This person says this, this person says that. Yeah, I’ve used ConvertKit. Basically, the whole time. I’ve had my business. I first started with mailer light, which that was before FLOTUS even existed, but mailer light was free, which was what I was looking for when I wasn’t even really doing much with email marketing. And then as I started to be like, Hey, I’m gonna like take this more seriously and send more emails, I switch to ConvertKit.

Dolly DeLong
Yeah, I totally agree with that statement the people might get so stuck because there are so many options like analysis paralysis, and I Yeah, encouraged just start with something that works within your budget. And also just like that works for your business. And like, for some people, that’s MailChimp, other people ConvertKit and I am currently like, this is where I am right now. I want to try to integrate everything under one roof as much as possible. And my teaching platform is podia. And I heard that they have like an email marketing platform as well. And I’m like toying with the idea of, oh, like, maybe I should make all of my email marketing funnels in Podio. But then that just like thinking about that, it’s awesome.

Elizabeth McCravy
I can so relate to that. Yeah, like Switching once you get really in with one it’s like, yeah, I’m never going to leave because it’s too much work. Yeah, I like to exit. Yeah, I’m with you, too. I use Kajabi. And they also do like email marketing as something I’m literally paying for but not using. Yeah, it’s like, that would be nice. But yeah, it’s tough.

Dolly DeLong
I got on Flodesk when they were still in beta. And so I got like that lifelong lifetime pricing. Yeah. And so I’m like, Well, I don’t want to give up this lifetime pricing. And so that’s just where the struggle is. And I just have to remind myself, like, oh, the fact that Dali, you’re like, pouring so much energy into this, like, it’s okay, you’re gonna be okay. Dolly, like you, are still, you are still communicating through an email marketing platform, and there’s no perfect, there’s no perfect solution, just do whatever works for your business. So, okay, let’s get into point three.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, so after you’ve kind of figured out like a general order, and like some kind of bullet points, and even like, what you’re going to talk about in the email, and what you want your style to be all that you need to write the emails, which that’s the most work. And I would say, that’s where I mean, we already kind of mentioned this, but starting with less having a month’s worth of emails automated, where then maybe people are in that sequence, and they’re getting an email once a week, or maybe you skip a week. And so it’s like, you actually have four emails, but it’s like, you know, maybe a month and a half worth of time, that’s awesome. You could start there, and then keep adding to add over time, or even start there, maybe people get a weekly email from you. And then it stops for a while. Like, that’s also okay, like, no one cares or notices that much. It’s the effort of doing it, I think that matters. And getting in front of the audience, I just signed up for your list. So yeah, I would say start writing it. You could work with a copywriter, you could work so low, you could have a copywriter or another business friend kind of like look over it with you after having someone on your team help. For me, the way I like to like get into the nitty gritty of writing emails is in Google Docs. That way you can collaborate with someone you can do comments, and like having multiple eyes on it, Google Docs is great for that. So that, you know, you can also improve it and you add links and get everything all ready to go. And I really enjoy it. Like I said, the email, the email writing experience, but it also is nice to like have help with it. So that’s what makes sense for you to go for it.

Dolly DeLong
No, I really like that. I do that every time I create a lead magnet, I have like the set lead magnet nurture sequence that I’ve created in Google like I haven’t Google. And so I just like copy-paste a new folder, and I update it to fit that lead magnet. And so that way, if I ever need to update it in Flodesk, I can just go into that Google Doc, see what I need to update, update it in the Google Doc and then update it in Flodesk. That sounds really complicated. But it’s not that complicated. I just made it sound complicated.

Elizabeth McCravy
I don’t know it does sound kind of complicated. You’re right. But that’s, that’s a good way to do it. Yeah, Google Docs. I mean, I do like my whole business. And yeah, in Google Drive, it feels so helpful.

Dolly DeLong
I love Google Docs. And then like, yeah, just like even if you don’t like Google Docs, like the whole point. Again, getting to the heart of this podcast is like finding a system and strategy that works for you. And Google is free. It’s free. So like definitely, like start out there. If you want to hash out like five emails or 27 be like 27 emails, start on Google and just like go from there. Yeah,

Elizabeth McCravy
So the last step in the process and then we can talk about some like little extra tips or any other questions you have to dolly but I would say it’s obvious last steps to set up as a sequence, start adding people to it, you could literally start by adding your entire list to it like because it’s going to be weekly email right? Or you could if you don’t want to add people who are already on your list, you could make it that all new people who sign up through various ways get added to it, it’s totally up to you but just like add everyone to it and then you know when you first set up some sort of automation like this you want to really pay attention to it at first to make sure like you didn’t accidentally set it up to only send to some people or to actually send like all at once or something crazy like that. So get it all set up add your people to it and then yeah, and you are ready to go and you have this taken care of and off your plate where you’re not every week thinking like oh no what am I going to send an email this week?

Dolly DeLong
That is so good. Like I actually had a question for you like okay if you are if you have the setup then like how are you talking to recruit Adi like everybody’s current audience but like your people that are on your email list so can you just like take your CSV is it your CSV file in.

Elizabeth McCravy
Oh yeah, yeah, in Flodesk or ConvertKit and just like add that whole file to the top or what the way I’ve done it is like when you have it I’m sure it’s the same in Flodesk and other ones but Like, yeah, you would go and select and convert Kaylee’s, you’d select like all your subscribers and then add them to that sequence. Okay, so it’d be that everyone is being added to it. And so you wouldn’t have to use the CSV like exporting file unless you were adding people that were from another place to another platform. Yeah, but it was already in there, you could do it that way. And like, like I was saying, I recently, like, went through an updated mine, like the whole thing. And I actually, like, added some people to it again. So it’s like it again. And that’s it’s complicated. Like, you might mess up actually having it. I had to happen where like, I doubly send an email like so I that happens when you’re doing this or automation, sometimes it’s okay. But yeah, I would say just, yeah, you add everyone or let it start fresh with new people. And it can be that like, maybe you go on Instagram and like, tell your audience, hey, I’m sending a weekly email, the first ones coming out in three days, like often here, and then you’ll get on my lesson. Here’s kind of like what I’m going to be talking about and get people excited and signed up.

Dolly DeLong
Okay, now, that is such a good point. I know you said you had some random tips to share with us in addition.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, so one thing would be this. We’re not trying to trick people. So before I say this, I want to make sure that like, you know that I’m not saying like we’re trying to trick people. But you want to make sure it works as evergreen content in the sense that like, it’s not super specific to what’s happening in your life, or in your business, right, at this moment. You’re writing it because then it’s not going to age well. So like, you know, say you’re writing this and black Friday’s coming up, and you’re talking about like Black Friday shopping, but then someone receives it in April. It’s like that as it makes sense. So you want to make sure you’re keeping it to where it will work for Evergreen. And again, that’s not so that you are making everyone think you’re sending it live. The truth is that actually doesn’t matter. Like it doesn’t matter if they know or don’t know, because it’s great content. And that’s what you’re doing. You’re trying to deliver someone great, helpful content, but you don’t want to put stuff in it.

Dolly DeLong
That’s going to make it feel dated quickly. No, that is so good. That and you can just like can you do this in Flodesk is like pausing people.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah. Yeah. So I don’t know if you can’t inflow to us. But yeah, and ConvertKit like, so anytime for me that I want to send a live email in. So like, say it’s a sale week, I’m actually going to be doing this soon of like, I’m going to pause that funnel, the nurture funnel, and then I’m going to pause other funnels that are selling things so that I can send emails all week and not have people getting a ton of stuff. And ConvertKit, the way you do it is you just turn off the days on the sequence. So it’s like so normally, you might have it set of like, I want this to send on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays Fridays, you just turn them all off. And then that pauses it and then you turn it back on people resume wherever they were. And again, you want to be careful about that. So make sure, all these platforms have directions. So make sure you’re not like actually booting them from the whole thing, but instead pausing them. But yeah, that’s really helpful. So that way, you can kind of have an integration of like, both live weekly marketing, but then also automated.

Dolly DeLong
I love that. Okay, well, this is encouraging me to check out Flodesk Help Desk, because this is something that I really want to start implementing within my own business.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, I mean, seriously, it’s so helpful and takes the headache out of what does often feel like a chore we’re not that excited about because for me, like with this sequence, I’m legitimately excited for every email, like I only have what I think is like the best stuff I’ve written, or at help writing, but like the best content I have is in this. So every week, I know when it goes out to like, whatever email they’re getting, I feel really good about and I’m excited for them to receive and it’s always so fun to because often people you know, will respond to your emails, which

Dolly DeLong
Yeah, I was gonna ask you if you get people who respond back. Yes,

Elizabeth McCravy
yeah. So yeah, it’s funny too. Because like on what like so as we’re recording this was it yesterday, today, two days ago? No, today’s Wednesday. Oh, my gosh, yeah. So Yesterday was Tuesday. So with that, just when my email goes out. And so we did have multiple responses. And they’re all responding to different emails because they’re all at different points. But it’s fun seeing, which ones people respond to. And there’s plenty that never gets responses back. But like there’s one email one of my favorites in the sequence that I share the story of Sara Blakely who’s the founder of Spanx, who I just adore, like she’s like, the queen of entrepreneurship, and I’ve been a fan of hers for years, but she has one of my coffee mugs from my Etsy shop. Yeah, and posted a photo of her with it. And it was just like, the day that I was like, what Sara Blakely tagged me in something. And so I share that story in that email and then talk about my Etsy shop, but it’s like, that’s great I would say that’s the Even a really good example of like a great sales email because it’s like the story and then some motivation and tips in a way, but then it also is like linking to the coffee mug shot. But like I get responses to that one a lot of like, oh, wow, that’s crazy that that happened. I mean, again, that’s so evergreen too, right? Like, I’ll forever want to be telling that story. So even though that happened, like a while ago now even, it’s like worth sharing again.

Dolly DeLong
I love that. Okay, well, you guys just to be 100% authentic. I’m going to be really listening to this episode and taking all the notes too.

Elizabeth McCravy
But I love it. I love we have an interview that you’re like, I need to I have to have an MRI to where I’m like, I need to listen to that again. If you’re the one that talked me through it, that’s fun. I love that.

Dolly DeLong
I love it. Okay, Elizabeth, um, you shared a lot of great things that we, including myself, we’re gonna take notes on. And do you speak of opt-ins to opt into your sequence? What freebie do you have to share with the audience today?

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, so this relates to email marketing, and will really if especially for someone who like hasn’t really done much with your email marketing yet, and you’re listening to this, you’re like, Yeah, I want to get started, I have a guide. That’s how to create the perfect opt-in incentive to grow your email list. So it’s literally a freebie on freebies is like how I like to phrase it. So it’s a freebie about creating freebies. It teaches you how to create freebies that are really helpful and that people want to sign up for. And then I teach in that download six different types of freebies that you could try out. And all of the work well I literally have the six I teach I do all of them in my business. So it’s things like, you know, the free PDF to like a quiz, all those different types of things. It gives you different email marketing software ideas to try, like all kinds of stuff. So that the link to it, I want to say is Elizabeth mccravy.com/five Download, is that right? Darling? Yeah, right now. Yes, yeah. So you can get that there. And then that it’s cool. So whenever you sign up for that, you’re gonna get a confirmation where you’re gonna get to download it. And then whenever the Tuesday hits, I think I do a delay, actually another random tip where he doesn’t. So if someone opt-in on Tuesday, they’re not going to get it immediately. So you’re gonna have a little delay, and they’ll be put into the weekly email sequence. So you can see how all that works.

Dolly DeLong
That sounds so good. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. And do you mind sharing with everyone how they can find you follow you and get to know you?

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, well, thank you for having me on. This is I’ve never gotten to talk about this topic, really. So it’s like fun, deep dive into this. I really enjoyed it.

Dolly DeLong
I’ve been enjoying it. So mastermind for me so far with me.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, so let’s fight like seriously, I’ve literally never talked about this in my pocket. I know you said that. You’ve heard me hint at it before.

Dolly DeLong
But I remember Elizabeth I, I take notes during your podcast, or I’m like, or blade scenario just listening together and so perfect.

Elizabeth McCravy
Yeah, well, okay, so places to connect. I’m on Instagram at Elizabeth McCravy. I’d love to chat on there. And that’s where I like the most hanging out and then also having a podcast called The breakthrough brand podcast. That is a very fun, listen, lots of marketing, design advice. And then more stuff like this, where it’s like behind the scenes of like what I’m doing in my business that works. So that’s what you’ll find there.

Dolly DeLong
I love it. Oh, thank you so much, Elizabeth, for coming on again. And please everyone, go and find her and subscribe to her podcast because you really will love it so much. Thank you so much again, Elizabeth, and everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful, streamlined week and I’ll talk to you later. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the systems and workflow magic podcast. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at Dolly DeLong photography.com forward slash podcast. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it with your stories, and tag me at dolly DeLong education over on Instagram. Until next time, go make some strategic workflow magic.