47: Week 4 of How To Automate & Streamline The Backend Of Your Lead Magnets (and Offers) – The Ultimate Crash Course to Setting Up Your First Nurture Sequence featuring Amanda Stores

Do you look at email marketing as a monster you don’t want to tackle? Maybe you want to dive into it someday, but today is not the day. This episode is for you if you need a little more hand-holding on setting up your nurture sequence and understanding why it can be so powerful in your business. In this episode, Amanda Stores shares her expertise about email marketing and nurture sequences in a way that will make you want to jump right in and take action. Get ready to listen in!

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

Automate the Backend of Your Lead Magnets

Are you ready to automate the backend of your lead magnets? I have put together the comprehensive checklist you need to ensure that all of your puzzle pieces are in place for your next opt-in, your next offer, or even your next bundle! Stop letting tech fears hold you back from automating and streamlining the backend of your amazing offers and opt-ins!

Grab the Guide

(Need more than a checklist? Sign up for the waitlist for the mini-course!)

Meet Amanda

Amanda Stores is an online educator providing a community and curriculum to help creatives like you grow an email list of subscribers.

Review the Show Notes

Why you need to take on email marketing (2:56)

Breaking down your lead magnet nurture sequence (6:59)

Incorporating your story into your nurture sequence (8:41)

Spacing out your emails (13:28)

For the listener who needs a little hand-holding (16:25)

Learning through the process (22:11)

When the last email sends (23:45)

Funneling your subscribers into periodic newsletters (26:34)

Becoming confident while dipping your toes into email marketing (31:21)

The Marketing Business Bundle (36:28)

Links Mentioned

Episode 18: The Accelerate Your List Email Summit Featuring Amanda Stores

The Marketing Business Bundle 

The Legal Paige

How To Automate The Backend Of Your Offers, Opt-Ins, & Even Bundles

How To Optimize The Backend Of Your Offers & Opt-ins (The Mini-Course)

Listen to the series

Week 1 – The Importance Of Copy & Having A High Converting Landing Page Featuring Ashlyn Carter

Week 2 – All About Lead Magnets

Week 3 -The Perfect Guide To Making Your Way Into Your Subscriber’s Inbox

Connect with Amanda 

Instagram

TikTok

Did you like this episode? Please share it on Pinterest!

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. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the systems and workflow magic podcast. I’m your host Dolly DeLong. And as always, I am so pumped and so excited, you have decided to join me today. Thank you so much. So if you have been here for a while, you should know we are officially in week four of my series called how to automate the back end of your opt-ins and offers. And basically, we are covering the various types of puzzle pieces, you will need to keep in mind for the back end of streamlining your opt-ins or your offers, or even your challenges. And even if you were asked to be a part of a bundle, these can be used for many different things. So as you put these essentials together in your creative business. Now, I wish everyone could have an integrator in their business because integrators are amazing. But I know that as solo business owners, we have to wear all the hats at the beginning of our business. And I am hoping to also use a series to help encourage all of the creative solo business owners out there. And a reminder that you’ve got this, we’ve got this and I want to, in a way help be an encouraging guide, and point you in a very fun direction of putting together these puzzle pieces. So to kick start off week four’s puzzle piece of the series, I’m going to be talking about the importance of creating a nurture sequence. So yes, an email nurture sequence on the back end of your newly created or newly maybe optimized lead magnet. And I want to invite Amanda sores back on the podcast again to share her expertise about email marketing and nurture sequences. If you want to listen in on another Amanda stores episode, she was on episode 18. And again, I am just so thrilled to have her back on. And if you want to re-listen to that episode, or listen to it the first time, I’ll link it in the show notes. And but before we dive into the heart of what the puzzle pieces of a nurture sequence are, and why you need to attach them to your lead magnet your opt-in, I wanted to have Amanda share a little bit about herself, what she does, who she serves, and just why email marketing. Why?

Amanda Stores
I feel like so many people with email marketing, come and they hear about it or like oh, no, not email marketing. You know, as they look at it like it’s this, I don’t know, a monster, they don’t want to tackle like one of those things like, Okay, I’ll handle that one day. But the thing about it is that there are a ton of marketing strategies out there to get your business seen in front of your right audience. But there aren’t too many of them that can say for every dollar spent on email marketing, there’s $36 every return on your investment. So I think of it like this, if you were to pull out your phone right now and look at your inbox, you would probably find 15 to 20 emails per day right? Now, let’s say that your subscriber is just like you opening up their inbox. Now, if they go on to social media like Instagram, basically, they would be competing with over 1000 people that they’re following, versus just the 20 that are in an inbox. So think of email marketing as a direct line of communication with your people. I mean, they are your people more than anyone because it’s really easy on social media to do a follow, and unfollow immediately just to try and trick the algorithm to get you all excited and then heartbreak all in the same moment. But I will say this, with an email marketing strategy, they have to trust you enough to put in their name and their email address. They are taking one step they’re almost giving you their phone number back in the 90s here, this was a big step for you. So they have a direct line of communication with you and you have this opportunity to serve them really well. So I’m Amanda Stores and I’m a mama of three. And I’ve been married to my handsome husband for almost 10 years. And we’ve known each other since elementary school. So anyhow, that’s what I do. I just serve business owners through email marketing and show the power of email marketing, but I also served my family.

Dolly Delong
I didn’t realize your husband and you knew each other in school. That’s adorable. Yes.

Amanda Stores
So like our families knew each other. We grew up in the same church together. Don’t tell anyone I totally dated as friends. You know, that kind of thing. But I will say that I feel like God just brought us together. Yeah, it’ll be 10 years next year.

Dolly Delong
Oh, well, congratulations,

Amanda Stores
Thanks!

Dolly Delong
That’s huge. Well, I love that I just started thinking about Cory and Topanga. I was like, oh, that’s like Cory and Topanga has have not known each other since elementary school. And we always joke around. Like, if we knew each other when we were little, we would not have ended up married to each other. Because we were very people back then.

Amanda Stores
It’s funny that you say that because I told him if I dated him in high school. Yeah, we wouldn’t be married because that was a totally different person. School than I am even now. So.

Dolly Delong
Teah, we’re always changing, always changing always. Yeah. So I love that fact. And I know that about you. Awesome. And again, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast, and being the resident email marketing expert, and sharing your love and passion for email marketing, because you’re at like, a lot of people. They don’t want to talk about it, or they’re just so overwhelmed by it. Yeah. So I’m glad you’re here to bring some joy, back to email marketing, and some just strategies. So I know personally, the importance of a good nurture sequence, and why it needs to be attached to your opt-in. But can you break down this concept into bite-sized puzzle pieces for the listeners, so that they can take action after this podcast episode? So I know, I’m overstating the phrase puzzle pieces for the series, because I just want the creative business owners to see like, Okay, I have this piece I just learned, how does it attach to this piece? And so this week, the puzzle pieces, as I mentioned, are talking about an opt-in nurture sequence that is attached to the lead magnet they just downloaded, or they want somebody to download. So can you break that down?

Amanda Stores
Sure. So let’s just walk through from your subscriber’s point of view. So let’s say they click on your form, and put in their name and email address. And then what you have done on the back end is you are delivering your lead magnet to them in their first email. So that means that you’re already building trust because you delivered what you promised you would deliver on the form. Then once they open that up, you don’t want it to sit on a digital shelf and just collect dust. Because at that point, you’ve created this really awesome freebie, but nobody’s going to use it. And if they don’t use it, they’re never going to be inclined to look at your paid offers. So what you’re doing between the point of them downloading and the point of viewing them starting a welcome sequence is you are really trying to get them to consume the freebie that you just created. So let’s say the first day, within a few minutes after they sign up, they get that delivery and their email or access to the delivery, whether it be a quiz, whether it be a quiz result or a PDF or access to a mini course, whatever it is, you’re giving them access. So you’re not really making a big deal within this one. Because you’re just like, here’s your freebie, here it is. I hope you love, that kind of thing. But following that you are trying to build a relationship with them. You’re incorporating your story and your nurture sequence. So you’re kind of talking about yourself a little bit you’re making it more about the freebie and why you created it. So one of your emails can be Why did you create this freebie Who is it for? So you’re trying to get them to realize, Oh, she or he made this for me. It was made for me so that I can X, Y, and Z my business. So that’s one thing you want them to relate to you another email that I put in a nurture sequence. And I don’t know if there are a lot of people that do this, but what you’re doing is you’re not only creating a relationship with them, but you’re trying to also get them to see the value of your freebie and want to share About It with others. So I usually have something in there that says, you know, I know how easy it would be to copy and paste this, you know, PDF somewhere, I know that you could just send this to anyone. But if you do, they’ll be missing out on the story behind it. And I emphasize that they will want to hear the story. And they will. So what you are doing in this email is you’ll say, if you have a friend that could really benefit from this freebie, could you do me a favor, could you just copy and paste this link, the link is the link to your signup form. So they’re not sharing a PDF, they’re not sharing access to what you created, what they are sharing is the ability for their friends and their audience to sign up for it. So the key to all of this is to create something that other people will want. Not something simple, necessarily not something you made in 30 minutes, but something you put a lot of heart and time into, because you’re serving your audience. And that is their first impression of you. Another email that you would put in this nurture sequence could be centered on how other people in your audience, have used that lead magnet. So you are making them realize that not only have they downloaded it, because they saw the value in it. But they have also seen the power used through your own audience. So usually, in that email, you would name somebody specific, and you are making it very relatable and say, Sara saw this lead magnet and was overwhelmed with how many pages was in the PDF. So how she did it was she decided to download one page every day at a time. And that’s how she was easily able to consume this PDF. Whatever it is, you are breaking it down for them and making them realize that there are a lot of ways to use it. It’s very versatile. So it does come down to what lead magnet are you creating, and is that good enough to be shared by others. So this nurture sequence does a lot of different things because you are basically telling them how to use it, how others have used it, and how you can share about it with other people.

Dolly Delong
Hey, creative business owner, Dolly here. Finally, put together that opt-in know that lead magnet your ideal client has been begging you, for now, and you were excitedly wanting to publish it. But here’s one thing holding you back. It’s probably the fact that you don’t know how to have an effective follow-through system and make sure the back end of your new opt-in or offer is optimized. stop sweating because the comprehensive checklist you need to ensure that all of your puzzle pieces are in place for your next often the next awkward, or even the next bundle you’re a part of this year, stopped living tech fears hold you back from automating and streamlining the back end of your amazing options and offers and dive into this free checklist today. Head on over to the show notes to get access to the link. And don’t forget,

Unknown Speaker
I am cheering you on.

Dolly Delong
I love that. So that sounds like a maybe three to the four-email sequence. Yes, and does it matter how far apart these emails are spaced out?

Amanda Stores
I would definitely play with it because I believe for mine I have it spaced out for one day in between each email. So a lot of people another challenge that they have with email marketing is they get so excited to add emails into a workflow that they forget to put time delays between them. So they get so excited to like I’m going to add an email here I’m gonna put four emails in this automation but they forget that between each of those emails needs to be a delay of one or two days because that means that your subscriber won’t get all four of your emails on the same hour because will surely make them unsubscribe and you don’t want unsubscribe.

Dolly Delong
But then there are also those subscribers who subscribe to I don’t know like three or four of your options at the same time. So they are definitely gonna get all the emails at once.

Amanda Stores
You can kind of stagger them if you wanted to like you do when that has when you know our time delay or when day time delay you can stagger in them like that. Yeah, but you really can’t control it, you know too much. The only thing I would say is they’re gonna say it for multiple options and you have multiple automations going on at the same time to make sure you’re not duplicating the emails. Because I was doing that when I first started email marketing, I’m like, Oh, this email is really good. I’m just gonna tag that second email, I’m gonna make it the same for this option. And this opt-in. So then it looks like they’re getting the same email. And they’re definitely going to get annoyed with it. They’re like, I just read this yesterday, why are they spending it again?

Dolly Delong
That’s a really good point. That’s something I was also guilty of. And I’m going back now, and I’m tweaking each like opt-in sequence to just talk about that often in the stories a little bit and change up what you’re calling social proof, because I have been getting social proof. But I love you all. This is really good advice. Because something that I know that as creative business owners, once we have something that works like an email, of course, we want to use that over and over and over again.

Amanda Stores
Right. And it’s really easy. I mean, even with like, your welcome sequence and things like that. You just think, Oh, this is a really good email. I don’t want to remake it again. And there’s a huge chance that they didn’t open it. Yeah, honestly, there’s a big chance that they had, you know, 20 emails that day, and they didn’t open it. And it’s totally fine. You know, you’ll see a lot of unopened emails, but at the same point, you don’t want the person to open all of them to come across them.

Dolly Delong
Yeah, no, that’s really, really good advice. So can I peel this question back even further for you? Sure. I know that you shared, various different types of emails. But let’s say you’re holding somebody’s hand, there’s a listener on this podcast, and you’re like literally holding their hand and you’re like, Okay, this is what you do. And now this is what you do. Like, I know that there is no tried and true, this is exactly the blueprint you need to use. But let’s say somebody is on the other receiving end, they’re listening in and they’re like, Amanda, I’d rather you just tell me exactly like in the beginning stages for me what to do because this is overwhelming for me. Email marketing is just so terrifying. So you like laid it out really well. Let’s just like take a step back. And so you said the first step is to attach the lead magnets, yep, to email number one.

Amanda Stores
So you attach the lead magnet to email number one, and you might put one paragraph on the email, I feel like another problem with emails is people feel like they have to put a lot in an email, but people do not have time. And they don’t care to read a book or an email. So in that first email, you’re just attaching your lead magnet or giving a button with a link that gives access to your lead magnet. And remember, each one of these automations has a trigger. So you are trying to say, let’s just say you have two different segments of your email list segment one, and segment two. So you want to make sure that when they sign up, it is going to the correct segment. So basically, at the very top, it’ll have, what’s your trigger, and the trigger is what’s going to start this automation. So once they started, they’ll get that first email and have an attachment in that first email, the other emails after that are not going to have your attachment in it, unless you want to just remind them, hey, here’s your access again. Because like I said, some people read their emails every day, and some don’t. So trigger, the first email time delay is next. So you would put day one for just put one day in between that first email and your second email, then you’ll go into your second email. And like I said, that can be for who was this created for? And then you’ll do another time delay of another day in between. And then you would make sure that you are telling them how they could share about it. And then another time delay, so it’s making sure that you have your emails have this time delays in between so that they’re not bombarded with too many of your emails at one time.

Dolly Delong
Okay, this is great. Thank you so much for breaking it down, even more, Amanda. I mean, because like, obviously, like, you know this, and I’m learning about this too. Remember at the beginning of our own business journey, we’re probably like, what does this all mean?

Amanda Stores
I feel like I was researching a lot and Facebook groups. Yeah, sometimes they hit the nail on the head. And then sometimes I would have to look through 20 comments to find it. Yeah. So I totally understand the struggle of it. But once you understand it, and if you’re on a really simple platform, to begin with. It makes it less intimidating because I tried several different platforms when I was first starting out. And it’s very intimidating to be on a platform that is very, very detailed. I mean, in the beginning, all you need is a very simple platform like Dolly might use Flodesk, some very simple platform to get started on and it’s just easy to understand. It’s beautiful, it’s on brand. And once you get in there, I don’t want you to focus on, you know, setting up all these automations, it can get crazy up in there, you don’t need that. The first thing you need is just to set up this really short and sweet nurture sequence. This can be your first automation and you can test it on yourself, send, or test that forms on yourself. Yeah.

Dolly Delong
I said tested on your grandma, because like, your mom or your mother-in-law might be the only one following you at this time. Have them tested out and they’ll let you know.

Amanda Stores
I mean, I had 350 people on my email list for about five years, I was not making any growth, and I didn’t see the value in it. And a lot of these people were friends and family. And I was definitely testing it on them. I tested on my husband all the time he subscribed to letters

Dolly Delong
I did that with my husband too, he’s like, Dolly. It’s a little overwhelming.

Amanda Stores
And then he says something like, when he unsubscribes I’m like, Why did you unsubscribe from me?

Dolly Delong
To do that, to me, I feel betrayed. This is a random story. For those of you who are listening, if you need a good laugh, my husband got to a point where he made a fake account for at the time we had a cat. She’s no longer with us. She’s over the rainbow bridge or whatever you want to call it. But anyways, he made a fake account for her to test all the emails because he was sick of like,

Amanda Stores
Tell me what the email was. Now I’m just curious.

Dolly Delong
You know, like, in the beginning, this was like, three or four years ago. And so I was just like literally testing everything out. Because I had just learned about email marketing myself. I can’t even remember, but I just remember he made an account for our cat named Bella. So I was sending emails to Bella. So funny.

Amanda Stores
Ah, that’s really cute. They had little profile pictures.

Dolly Delong
The things our husbands do for us, I’m like, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. But you learn through this process. And you learn. Like I know you didn’t say this, but I know you’re leading this with the value of consistency, but also the value of just testing and seeing what sticks. And then if there is an email that is working, don’t duplicate it, like work around it and make it compatible with whatever new lead magnet you’ve created or similar feedback.

Amanda Stores
And after you have been there a while you can go back and look at your analytics, you can see which one has the better click-through rate, and which one gets more replies. Yeah, I have one email in my welcome sequence that I can bet money that there’s going to be someone who replies to it because it was like that, oh my word. She’s talking to me about how to email. And when you get those, you’re like, Okay, I’m keeping us but then if you see there’s an email that there’s a lot of unsubscribes you’re like maybe that wasn’t relevant to my offer. Maybe it wasn’t relevant to the freebie or to them. So maybe I need to change this. So you are going to be continually tweaking so you can’t expect perfection and the beginning. What you can hope for is consistency and sending out newsletters. That’s a really simple way of starting.

Dolly Delong
Well, let me ask you this. I already know the answer to this. But I wanted you to remind everyone of this because sometimes it’s good to hear it coming from somebody else like an email marketing expert’s mouth and not just your annoying workflow and systems.

Amanda Stores
Cute pregnant lady, you are, you’re awesome.

Dolly Delong
But if you can remind everyone like Okay, so after they send, you send them through consumption sequences, somebody the puzzle pieces, they downloaded the puzzle piece of your lead magnet, as we spoke about a few weeks ago, what a lead magnet is and then they’re now opting in to receive a nurture sequence from you. Okay, so what happens after that very last email, like, is that it? Or should you segment them into a weekly newsletter? Like, what do you suggest?

Amanda Stores
So for mine, keep in mind that I have a lot of emails that are created at this point. So you can’t expect to have you know a plethora of emails to work from. But for mine, I usually do a consumption sequence of that freebie. So just talking about freebies and making them use them. And then I lead into a welcome sequence. And the welcome sequence is usually six to eight emails, and that’s where they get to know me and who I serve. So it’s more about my business. It’s more about testimonials. It’s more about pointing them towards, you know, the things that I do on an everyday basis. Getting them to get to know me. So I’m telling them even, you know, a quick story about my family or something like that. So they can relate to who I am. Yeah, and that sequence is a whole different beast. But yes, that would be the next one I would go into because you’re gradually gaining trust. And actually, there are a lot of different sequences that back up to one another. And once you get more established with your email sequences, then you’re like, you know what, I think I have a really good offer, I could add a sales sequence to my welcome sequence. So it’s just about dipping your toes in with this very first nurture sequence. And after you dip your toes in, then you get the email marketing bug, and you’re like, I can see the power of this, I can see that I don’t have to launch. So often, I can make this an evergreen marketing deal. So it’s basically marketing for me. And the back end, without much of my effort. Once I set it up from the beginning, I don’t have to do as much of the launch and depend on that launch as often. Because you’ll be getting a trickle of sales throughout the year. If you do take the time to set up the sequences correctly.

Dolly Delong
I love it. So this is more advanced for sure. Like you’re absolutely intermediate to advance. So like this is my frame of mind. And I wonder what your frame of mind is, would you recommend that a person after that like a very simple freebie, nurture sequence, or consumption sequence, whatever you want to call it, of that freebie? Would you recommend that they then funnel those people or subscribers into a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter that you send out?

Amanda Stores
It depends on how many sequences they have set up. So if you have nurtured, welcome sales sequence setup, filter them through those first, and then start with your newsletter. Because by the time they get to your newsletter they have already decided or decided not to have your offer and buy your offer. So the newsletter is more like staying top of mind. But they have already run through all of your offers from the beginning. And maybe they just need more time to get to know you. So the newsletter is really good for like sales sequence after they’ve already gotten familiar with your offers, your platforms, you all those things. By the time they get to a newsletter. That’s just staying top of mind. And even in your newsletter, you’re doing a PS at the bottom. Hey, would you like access to my webinar, aka leading to my offer? Hey, are you ready to get started linking to your offer? So you’re still making your offers trickle in. But they’re not the focus once they get to the newsletter.

Dolly Delong
Calling all creatives if you have an amazing opt-in offer. And you have been asked to be a part of a bundle with other creatives, which, by the way, is also awesome. But you feel stuck because you don’t know what steps to take to Automate, optimize and streamline the back end of said, opt-in offer or bundle offer, then listen up. You don’t have to hire an integrator because I have created a step-by-step mini-course to guide you through the process of putting together the puzzle pieces you need.

Dolly Delong
In order to lay the groundwork for this back-end process. I have created how to automate the back end of your options and offer many courses because as a system and workflow educator for creatives, I want to help you succeed as a small business owner. And I really want you to feel confident in your systems. After listening to the podcast, don’t forget to head on over to the show notes and click on the link for an in-depth look at what this mini-course entails. As always, stay magical with those systems you amazing muggle you. I gotcha, I gotcha this really good. So something that I do, and I’m like maybe I might revisit like revamp my sequences are from my freebies or opt-ins, lead magnets, whatever you want to call them. I’m gonna call them magnets. I usually have like a five-email consumption sequence because I really want people to see the value of this free. Like I put a lot of work into my freebies and so I want them to experience a win. And then as soon as they’re done with that five-part email series, which is normally in a span of two weeks, then they are funneled into my weekly newsletter. Okay, yeah, but I really do like the idea because again, it’s all testing it is we’re just testing everything out. I really liked the idea of a welcome sequence after

Amanda Stores
Yeah, because in that first consumption sequence, you’re only talking about your freebie, but they don’t know anything about you yet, really. So the welcome sequence right behind is really cool. Because you can really invite them into your world. And you make them the hero of your welcome sequence, you make them feel like Oh, my word, I understand this person like they get me. You know, that’s the power of copywriting. That’s the power of messaging. Once you go into that welcome sequence, then you can lead into that sales sequence, because now they have already, you know, gotten to know you, they know whether or not they can trust you. So you can gently lead them into that. But yeah, it’s a lot of tweaking and a lot of testing. You know, a lot of audiences, they would say, like, No, I’m just going to do newsletters, it’s a lot easier to do newsletters, and it is because you’re already creating that content, you can pop it into an email, it does take more effort to set up the email funnels in the beginning. But once you have them set up, they’re doing the work for you. By the time you do launch, you already have a wait list of people ready, because you have taken the time to prepare your audience well, and they already know that your offer is there.

Dolly Delong
Yeah, I love this so much. So if you are listening, Amanda just dropped two very different types of nurture sequences, actually three. But if you are just now starting out with learning about the puzzle piece of a consumption sequence from a lead magnet, then I would recommend keeping it as simple as possible, not complicating it for yourself. And then once you get down those four to five emails, and you feel like you are consistent, I think you’re consistently emailing your list, even if it’s 20 people, even if it’s 10, people like being consistent. And once you get more confident in your email marketing, that I say had the welcome sequence, attach that to the consumption sequence. And then once you feel comfortable with that, then once you have an actual product to sell, you may be starting, you may not even know what you want to sell, you may have a service, but you may not have a product or digital product. Or let’s say you don’t want to create a digital product, but you don’t know how to just talk about your services yet. That’s okay. Like that is okay, start off small.

Amanda Stores
And the key is, is just dipping your toes in, because that’s what you have to remember. And I feel like everyone looks at ID numbers when they think about their subscribers. So like, oh, I only have 15. Or I only have 20. They say something like I only have and what they’re not realizing is that if you put 20 people in a room, that’s a lot of people to walk on you. Do you know what I mean? That’s a lot of people. And you have to remember behind every email address a person with a story, and you have this opportunity to get to know them. And they have this opportunity to get to know you. So you can’t look at emails as like a number and you can’t look at them as being your email address from 1995. When you first set up your emails, you can’t look at it like that. You have to look at it like these are people. And when you finally I believe one of my welcome sequences has a reply to me button on it. When you finally get someone to reply to you. You’re like, Wow, I did not realize there were people reading this. And then when they do you’re like yes. Okay, birthday. And if you need to put that reply to my email on your welcome sequence, do it because it’s a reminder for yourself that there are real people with real stories that are reading what you’re offering.

Dolly Delong
Yeah, I just wanted to say to everyone, like sometimes a very small percentage of people will reply back and be just like mean and nasty. But the majority of the time, I’ve gotten really, really good responses. And really, I don’t know, I only share that because something really funny happened several months ago, when I had shared a story about my family in an email. And then I led them to like, the podcast episode, and somebody responded that I didn’t sign up for your emails, learn about your kids. Oh, my goodness, made me laugh. actually made me laugh. I was like, Okay, I was just sharing a little piece. It was really funny. So I think you start developing like either thick skin or like just skin to like laugh about things.

Amanda Stores
I mean, welcome sequence, your nurture sequence, you will have people that drop off because you’re like, I don’t want emails every day. But you can also specify in that first email, Hey, I’m going to email you every day for a week. And then I’m going to spread them out. Yeah. So you can specify because I had somebody email me with a nasty grim email and they said Hey, you’re crowding up my inbox. And I. So I replied, and I said, Thank you so much for communicating with me, let me explain how many emails you’re gonna get consistently. And then I’m going to spread them out. And you’re going to get amazing content because this is what you have to look forward to. But if you want to go ahead and unsubscribe, do it, because I really want to make sure I’m not crowding that inbox, because I know how annoying that can be. And you just call it out. You’re very professional. But you will have to have those people that only reply with negativity, but most of the time, they don’t most of the time, they are excited. And they want to reply because they feel like you gave them an aha moment of some kind.

Dolly Delong
Yeah, yeah. Or you might get like, if you have a call to action in one of your emails, like, follow me at my podcast, or follow me on my Instagram, you might get new DMS and your Instagram about the excited subscriber. And so yes, it’s worth it. Just like to get to know those people not to look at them as an email, but as a person, and you start developing relationships with them and getting to know them. It’s a lot of fun, for sure. Okay, So Amanda, can you tell the audience than a little bit more about why, why you love email marketing? You alluded to that a little bit. But there’s something happening this week, and I know you’re going to be speaking more about email marketing. And I want you to talk about just like what’s happening this week, and how can create a business owner to learn more from you.

Amanda Stores
So this week, there’s going to be a bundle, it’s called the marketing business bundle, and Dali is a part of it. But basically, all of these amazing entrepreneurs came together. And I wanted to focus on marketing because they feel like that is just this elephant in the room a lot of times, and it doesn’t have to be, and you can skip the line when it comes to learning how to market your business. Well, instead of having to watch a million reels to try and figure it out and piece it together. All these entrepreneurs are coming together from a lot of different points in marketing, in this business bundle. And basically, it’s going to be $99 for over $1,000 worth of profit and value. And so it’s really cool. Because if you were to individually price out all these says that’s like, Whoa, I would never buy all of that, right? But if it’s that discounted price, it’s really cool. Because you’re basically learning from the best people who are consistently marketing their business as well. And it’s not about just marketing, but marketing. Well, use your time well. So you might as well just skip the line and learn how to market from people who are doing it amazingly. And their business. So the Marketing business model is going to be awesome. Yeah. And there are over 15 contributors. So you basically buy the bundle, and then you get access to everything. And you can just have a downloading party. And two sequences. Yes, yes. It’s you just have this amazing downloading party, and you get to know all these contributors. And it’s just an amazing opportunity. So I love it. I’m really excited about it. And I was telling Dolly, there’s a lot of technology involved with the bundle. So that is a beast buy, it is definitely worth it in the end.

Dolly Delong
Yeah, well, I’m really excited. And I’m excited that you invited me to be a part of it. Thank you. Again, it’s an honor to be in that group of such great contributors. But for Amanda’s bundle, I created a private podcast that goes alongside the product to that I am contributing. And so if you like listening to podcasts like right now you’re listening to a podcast. So I’m, I’m assuming you like audio learning. So for this product that I’m offering, you have the option to listen and learn and not just have to sit in front of the computer and consume.

Amanda Stores
That’s awesome. I’m actually doing that to like an audio workshop, not for my specific thing. But I will say that I’m doing the audio workshops because I realized that even while you’re walking down the road or picking up kids from school or whatever, audio is such a powerful way of learning.

Dolly Delong
Yeah, I just love when I drive I drive a lot. I’m sure you do like pickups and drop-offs for your kids. I only have one right now I have one kid I’m about to have to, but I am constantly just driving with my son. So we listen to podcasts together and he actually really enjoys listening to business podcasts with me.

Amanda Stores
I’m like he’s gonna be an entrepreneur one day he’s gonna take care of you know.

Dolly Delong
I’m like, Are you gonna be an entrepreneur or a cage fighter one of those

Amanda Stores
memories time to write definitely.

Dolly Delong
So who knows it come back to me yet I don’t know in 20 years. We’ll find out later. So, he also enjoys listening to audio and he has his favorite podcasts that he will request, which is really funny. So yeah, you just use never know, like, what type of learner? You are. I don’t know, you just have to really lean into that. And I have discovered I love learning on the go. That’s awesome. Love consuming on the go. So, Amanda, thank you so much. I will be sure to link that bundle in the show notes. And do you mind sharing how people can get to know you and follow you where to find all that fun stuff?

Amanda Stores
Sure. So on tick tock and Instagram, it’s Amanda dot stores. And it stores like you’re going to the mall and looking at all the stores because everyone always says I don’t know how to spell that. It’s literally s t o r e s? They’re like Surrett? Like, I don’t know. Anyway, Amanda datastores. And if you want to direct message me, I love getting them. I love waste messages. And you’ll probably hear babies in the background if you do.

Dolly Delong
Oh, that’s okay. No judgment for me, my kids usually scream in the background about something. So I totally get it. I mean, thank you so much. And I really appreciate you taking the time to come out today. And can I just like add one more thing that I realized we forgot to talk about this? Yeah, like, this is something that I’ve been trying to hit on every week, just the importance of this. But from a legal perspective, make sure I don’t know where you put this, I usually put this on my landing page. But when you are giving a person an option to opt into your newsletter, make sure to have terms and conditions and a privacy policy at the bottom of your landing page. Only because like, if you are brand new to email marketing, and just like building out your email list, just make sure that you are doing it along the lines of GDPR compliance. I’m sure you can explain it way better than I do since you’re an email marketing expert. But how do you explain it to your students, I mean that because I know you, you teach this a lot.

Amanda Stores
So basically, with that, you’re just trying to make sure that they understand when they’re putting the name and email address in that they are agreeing to be on your email list and receive emails. So you need to make sure that you and I have the terms and conditions privacy policy on mine too. But basically, you need to make sure that they are given a choice to sign up. And in some countries, we are supposed to have a double opt-in. So basically, they have to put their name and email address, that’s often one. And then they get receive an email that says do you want to receive emails from this person, verify your email address, and they would click on that. And that’s a double opt-in. So they’re agreeing two times the thing about double opt-ins if you don’t have to use them, I wouldn’t because it’s harder to convert. Because if they never click that one email, and they never click that one button you cannot send them emails after. So if you’re in a country that does require that, then you need to go ahead and put in your double opt-in. But for that, the key is to give them a choice. Don’t assume that they want to be on there. Do not repeat after me. Take all of your contacts from your Gmail and put them on your email list because you want to see our higher number there. They’ll be on there, right? We all listen that okay, we have all done that. Do not assume that if you’re in a CRM and customer relationship management system if you’re don’t assume that all your friends from their businesses want to be on your account. Yeah. And on your email list, because they don’t Yeah, they did not sign up for it. So the key is to give your subscriber a choice to be there.

Dolly Delong
Yeah. And that’s what your lead magnet is for, they are choosing to oh, I want that lead magnet. So give them an option to opt-in. So I was just thinking through I was like, we didn’t talk about this. And I’ve been trying to hit up the importance of just the legal side of every puzzle piece. And so I’m so glad you explained that even more because I’m sure every week somebody’s like, what is Dali talking about? So I’m glad you again, spoke about in very simplistic terms, which is easy to understand. Thank you so much, Amanda. And for those of you who are listening again, I will include resources for the legal page. She is a lawyer who helps serve creative business owners with templates and legal advice. And so I will include a link to her website in the show notes. You can check that out and check out her Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. All that fun stuff, all the things that I’m probably butchering right now, but you guys, it’s really important to add to these different puzzle pieces. Okay, so awesome. Thank you so much again, Amanda. I really, really value just what you’re doing. I loved watching you grow as an entrepreneur in the last several years and so I’m excited to see Where this bundle will take you this week. I’m very excited for you.

Amanda Stores
Well, I’m thankful that you’re part of it. And thank you so much for having me on today.

Dolly Delong
Of course, of course. And thank you again everyone for listening in. And I hope that listening to this puzzle piece of email marketing is giving you a little bit more clarity about what puzzle pieces you need to work on on the back end of your options, challenges your offers. And I will talk to you next week about puzzle piece number five. Until then, I hope you have a magical and streamlined week. 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.