Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid w/ Allison Hardy
Look, there are mistakes we have got to stop making in our email marketing campaigns! Here’s what they are & how to stop doing that 😂
Surprise: We’re making email marketing SO much more complicated than it needs to be. And one thing you’re going to hear a lot in this conversation is this… “It can be easy!” So just prepare yourself for that reality, k?
Allison Hardy joins me to share what we’ve been doing wrong & what we can do better with our emails! From not selling to overgiving to self doubt (kinda wild how lots of these things have to do with us, right?)—let us all be done with the negative email marketing practices & make Allison proud!
Psst: do not forget your notebook with this one!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
How often you should send emails
How Allison broke my Zapier & why I love her for it
The impact social proof has on sales
Email marketing statistics
How to shift your mindset around email marketing
Where we’re missing the mark with social media & email marketing
How to use emails to get more visible online
What we’re doing “wrong” with selling in emails
Mistakes Allison is tired of seeing people make in their emails
How to reframe unsubscribes—because they’re not bad!
If cold pitch emails can even be done correctly
Mistakes we’re making in our email marketing funnels
How to spice up our email subject lines
Meet: Allison Hardy
Allison Hardy is an Email Marketing Strategist. She helps coaches and experts enroll more clients into their courses and memberships, through email marketing. Allison is the creator of the 6-Figure Secrets Podcast, a Huffington Post Contributor, has been featured in YFS Magazine, and was named one of Washington, D.C.'s most influential professionals under 40 by Washington Life Magazine.
Links & Resources:
Related Episodes:
Turn an Email into a Blog Post
Storytelling in Email w/ Breanna
Connect w/ Allison:
Connect w/ Brittany:
This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows
Welcome back to The Basic B podcast. I'm stoked that you're here, and I'm back with another amazing friend that I get to introduce you to. I'm here with Allison Hardy, and we're going to be talking all about email marketing mistakes, which I'm so excited to get into. But before I do, here's a quick intro.Allison Hardy is an email marketing strategist. She helps coaches and experts enroll more clients into their courses and memberships through email marketing. Allison is the creator of the Six Figure Secrets Podcast. A Huffington Post contributor, has been featured in YFS magazine and was named one of Washington, DC's most influential professionals under 40 by Washington Life magazine.Also, I have to tell you, if Allison ever, ever invites you to join a bundle, say yes. Trust me, figure it out later. Say yes. I had over like 200 new email subscribers. It broke my zapier. Zapier, however you say it, and it was absolutely fantastic. Welcome, Allison!
Allison Hardy [00:01:56]: Well, that was amazing. I love that your Zapier broke as a result of our collaboration.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:02]: It was fantastic. I was like, I didn't know I could break Zapier, but here we go.
Allison Hardy [00:02:06]: Yep. Well, it's great. Well, I'm very happy to hear that. So thanks for sharing that.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:09]: Yeah, thank you so much. It was really fun. I just had to say that in case anyone ever gets invited and they're like, I don't know, just do it. Yeah.
Allison Hardy [00:02:15]: Heck yeah.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:16]: All right, I'm going to hit you with the question that I ask everyone. You cannot mess it up. And then we'll get into our fun topic. Are you ready?
Allison Hardy [00:02:23]: Oh, I'm ready.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:24]: Which do you believe is the most important for sales, SEO, storytelling, or social proof?
Allison Hardy [00:02:30]: Social proof.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:31]: Tell me more.
Allison Hardy [00:02:33]: I think you can tell people how awesome you are all day long, but when someone else says how awesome you are, it's a whole lot more powerful.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:40]: Right? Yeah, I like it. Succinct, to the point. It's just, yeah. All right, let's. Let's get into email marketing mistakes. So coming off the bat with another intense one, what mistakes are you seeing happening around the frequency of email marketing? How often we're emailing people?
Allison Hardy [00:02:58]: Yeah, this is probably, like, the number one question I get when people are digging into email marketing. They're like, that's like, always the first question. How often should I be sending emails? And what I see a lot of times is people just aren't sending enough emails. Like, bottom line. And if we think of it about it from, like, a numbers perspective, and this is kind of the example I always give, if, like, 20% of the people are opening your emails, which is considered, like, good, I think you can get a lot better than that. But, like, that's considered, like, a good benchmark, that means 80% of the people aren't actually opening your emails that are on your email list. So if you want more people to see the thing that you're selling, you have to get more people to see the thing that you're selling. So how do you do that using more emails? It's always like, what comes first when it comes to the conversions and sales? Like, do I tweak the sales page? Should I focus on the emails? What's the lever? And I always go to frequency first because if you're not even getting enough people to the sales page to convert, you can't know if it's the sales page. So the first step is getting people to the sales page. And so for reverse engineering that, if we want more people to the sales page, we have to invite more people to come to the sales page. So you do that through sending more emails. So that's the number one mistake I see is you're simply not sending enough emails. You want to be, like, sick of yourself after you're done, like a launch, for example. You want to be so tired of talking about your thing. And that's probably when you've probably sent enough emails and maybe not even enough. Maybe, like, you need to be, like, really tired of yourself, but just send more emails. You'll get more sales if you send more emails.
Brittany Herzberg [00:04:30]: Yeah. And I'm on your email list and I'm guessing because I don't even open all of them, but I see your name all the time, so you're very top of mind. I mean, case in point, if I'm, like, using myself as, like, the example. But I would guess that you're in my inbox, like, I don't know, three, four times a week at least. Does that match up with what you're sending?
Allison Hardy [00:04:49]: Yeah, if you're not in a funnel, it's a little less. But if you're in a funnel, like, I'm in your inbox every single day, and that creates, like you just said, I'm top of mind. I'm always there. I'm hanging out. You can open the email if you want to, or if you don't want to, that's fine, too. But I'm always sharing something over on email because that's where the sales come from.
Brittany Herzberg [00:05:08]: Yeah, and why not? I mean, we have people who want to hear from us, right? So we have to talk to them. And that's not to say that I don't miss a week or don't have a day where I intended to send an email, and it's like, oh, crap, you know, here we are. It's 05:00 p.m. and I just want to go eat dinner and lounge.
Allison Hardy [00:05:23]: Right.
Brittany Herzberg [00:05:23]: But, you know, might as well take advantage of it. I remember it was sometime last year where I really made a conscious effort to go from one email a week to two emails a week. And there were a couple weeks in there where I had a couple promotions going on at the same time. And I, like, broke all of the rules, and I was like, I just need to let people know this. Why not? I'll just share it. And so I shared it, and I definitely had people buying, people clicking, people writing back, and that really helped me to get over the whole, like, don't email more than once a week.
Allison Hardy [00:05:51]: Yeah. And what you just said, sharing, like, you're just sharing information, right. So if someone wants to solve this pain point they have, and you share with them, hey, I can help you solve this pain point. That's much different of a mindset than, like, I'm gonna pitch these people. And yes, like, potentially, you're pitching them. But if we come up from a perspective of, like, sharing or inviting, I think that makes it not so scary or not so intimidating or not so, like, sleazy, because again, at the end of the day, like, we solve problems. So, like, if we're here to solve people's problems, we have to let them know how we can help them solve their problems. And so that happens in an email.
Brittany Herzberg [00:06:24]: Yeah, exactly. And you can lead in with like a story, or you can give some educational thing, or you can point them to one thing that I find myself doing a little bit more now that I have this podcast is like telling them about the podcast, but then also being like, hey, I'm running this email course and this topic ties in with this. So is there anything else, like in there that you could think of that we might be missing an opportunity with?
Allison Hardy [00:06:46]: Yeah, I think a lot of times we think of our, like, content, like podcast episodes, Instagram posts as being separate from email marketing, and they can actually work together. So I was actually just talking with a client about this like 2 hours ago, and she was like, I just have a really hard time coming up with topics for my email list. She's like, they're not in the final, you know, they're not current clients. So like, what do I send those people? And I was like, well, you post every single day on Instagram. You post really valuable content. I was like, so can you just take that content from Instagram and send it to email? Like, she's like, what if people are like, following me on Instagram and on my email list? I was like, that's okay. It's you being consistent with your messaging and they're gonna respond and interact with that content, whether it's email or Instagram differently. Instagram, you know, it's like a reel and it's 2 seconds long. It offers up like a tidbit of information. But on email, maybe you go deeper. So maybe you cover like a first step of a process, but an email, maybe you cover the whole process. So it's more like long form content versus short form content. And I was like, in different people consume content differently. So, like, some people might just want that short form content, some people want that longer form content, and that's okay. So I think that's something we can definitely focus on too. If you're having a really hard time, like, what in the world do I say to these people on my email list? What's the content you're already creating? And how can you just maximize that in a more efficient way through email?
Brittany Herzberg [00:08:09]: Yeah, I love that. And I'll even take a case study and, you know, if it's a done for you case study that I've written for a client, I'll be like, hey, here's how you can use it in your email. If you just like, copy paste the intro and then have a button and say, like, read the full case study here. I mean, it can be that simple.
Allison Hardy [00:08:25]: It can be that simple.
Brittany Herzberg [00:08:27]: I know you should probably pause there. It can be that simple. But we get so in our heads about making things so complicated and it really doesn't have to be. And talk about, you know, sharing the same thing on Instagram and in email marketing. I remember there was one week where with two different business owners, I saw them share essentially the same thing in slightly different formats on threads, LinkedIn, email and Instagram. And I wasn't annoyed by that. I was like, oh, cool, I see what they're doing. Oh, cool. Like, it's great to have that reminder. Like, I was not annoyed. So I think that's one thing that we also get in our brain spaces about where it's like, I'm going to annoy people. No.
Allison Hardy [00:09:04]: And if you do, they're not your people to begin with. They can unsubscribe, they can unfollow. Like, they can do all those things. Like, that's a choice that they can make. But it's your job to show up and to be, you know, staying top of mind because that's how you grow your business. You have a problem to solve. You can help people.
Brittany Herzberg [00:09:21]: Yeah, exactly. I know a lot of people do that with email. Some people do that with Instagram where they're just pushing out content and staying top of mind. I also, for me, the biggest thing that built my, like, people knowing my name was going and being in bundles, going and being on podcasts, going and being like, guest teaching. So whatever that looks like for you, just get out there, get your stuff out there, get your name out there, get your messaging out there, and people will start to associate you like I did with Allison. Email marketing, like, whatever your thing is, that's the whole point of doing this stuff. Get your name out there, get the recognition, and then get people coming into your world.
Allison Hardy [00:09:57]: Absolutely.
Brittany Herzberg [00:09:57]: So what else are you seeing done wrong with selling in emails?
Allison Hardy [00:10:03]: I see people being almost apologetic to sell and it's only a female thing. Let's call like it is. Why are we so apologetic for selling? And it goes back to, I think, not wanting to, like, take up space and not wanting to, like, bother people when in reality, I mean, the people I work with, I work with, like, experts and coaches who, people who have, like, done really amazing things within four people. They've, like, they are clearly, like, experts in their fields. They have degrees and certifications.And a lot of my people have, like, these really impressive nine to fives and for whatever reason, they've left that world and now they're in the online space and they're really freaking good at the thing they do. But for whatever reason, they're almost apologetic about telling people, hey, I can help you, when in their nine to five they didn't have that problem. So it's an interesting duality there. And so I think one of the ways that manifests itself in email marketing is you're just not selling. So you've created this culture on your email list of free value.And free value is great. It has a place and a time, but it's not going to be the thing that, like, actually helps people. Right? It's going to get them started. It's going to give them, like, tidbits, gives them little snippets of information. The best way you can help someone is by getting them inside of your program. So we create this culture of free value so that when we do actually sell to our list, they're like, wait, what?We have to buy things and that doesn't work. So you, you know, you barrage them with all this free content and then when they finally get the opportunity to buy from you, it doesn't work. And so then there's a whole story that goes on there. Oh, my gosh, my offer wasn't good or my sales page was terrible. No, it's probably just that you weren't selling from the beginning.So if you can sell from like the very first time someone meets you, if you could offer them like a $7, $27, like, digital product that maybe complements, like, the lead magnet, that's a great way to create that culture of selling and buying inside of your email marketing. So even if they don't buy from you, it's still like, okay, girlfriend's open for business. All right, now I know some information about that. So you're creating that culture of selling and buying inside of your email list so that when you do continue to sell to them or you enter them into a pitch sequence, they're not surprised. It's not like this, like what I have to buy things type of mentality. It makes it so they're like, okay, yeah, here we go. And again, if they don't like it, they could unsubscribe. That's okay.
Brittany Herzberg [00:12:32]: It's totally okay. And that's not something that you need to take personally. No, I think at some point I probably did take it personally, or at least for sure. But now I see them and I'm like, this is exciting. All right, you've graduated or you just, like, realize you don't need me. Like, cool, go make space for other people who are going to be on here and, like, go do your thing.
Allison Hardy [00:12:50]: Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg [00:12:50]: We get so in our heads about that.
Allison Hardy [00:12:52]: We do. I got 45 unsubscribes from an email the other guy. And I was like, oh, wow, that's a high one for me. That's like, that's a high one. All right. So I was like, okay, well, let's look at the email. And I read back to the email, and it was talking about some beliefs I have that I feel really strongly about. And I was like, okay, I'm pretty non negotiable on that, and this is my point of view. And so, okay, I'm okay with that. Those people are telling me they're not my people, and I'm. I'm actually okay with that. So I think we need to get in that sort of frame of mind when it comes to dealing with unsubscribes. Um, and you know what we're relaying? If someone's like, that is, like, a no go for them. Heck, yeah. Please unsubscribe. Like, do me a favor. Do everyone a favor. Um, and that's okay. We're allowed to have different opinions about things.
Brittany Herzberg [00:13:35]: Yeah, exactly. And that's saving you and them a headache in the future. You don't have to have some awkward clash. You don't have to have that conversation of, like, well, actually, we've already signed a contract, but I don't think that this is a fit. You know, like, it could be so much worse. And unsubscribe is, like, not a big deal.
Allison Hardy [00:13:52]: Yes. I've had nightmare clients before, and I, like, looked back at, like, the process in which they came to me, and I'm like, it's because the content that they came off of, it's kind of. It's, like, 95% me, but, like, maybe a little fluffy or maybe, like, sugar coated something. I wasn't, like, fully me. And I'm like, well, that's why they're not my person. And that's okay.
Brittany Herzberg [00:14:12]: Yeah, that's totally okay. And that doesn't mean you don't then put that content out there. It doesn't mean you have to be incredibly divisive every time you're putting some piece of content out there. But that's just good to know. And you can see that, and you can watch that pattern and be like, okay, that makes so much sense.
Allison Hardy [00:14:26]: Exactly.
Brittany Herzberg [00:14:26]: Yeah. Okay. Jumping back to sales and kind of coming at it from a different angle. You're gonna like this question. Can cold pitch emails be done well? Like, is that at all possible?
Allison Hardy [00:14:38]: I think that cold pitch emails have a time and a place and I think they can be done well when the person who is pitching you actually knows something about your business and maybe calls you by the right name. Just an idea.
Brittany Herzberg [00:14:54]: That would be lovely.
Allison Hardy [00:14:55]: I got a pitch for my podcast this morning and my name was wrong. It was Jennifer. And I was like, okay, not Jennifer. Like, nowhere in my name is Jennifer. And then I did change the name of my podcast like a year ago, but she referenced the old name and I was like, clearly we have someone didn't update a spreadsheet or something like, this isn't working anymore. I've actually cold pitched people before because of what they say.So, like, if someone's on stories and they're like, oh my gosh, my email marketing just like, isn't working. I'll be like, okay, maybe I could help them. So I will go and learn about their business. I will, like, maybe enter into an email funnel of theirs. I do research so that when I do, like, reach out to them and like, hey, I'd love to offer you maybe a free call or something to help you. It's a whole lot more heart centered and service based and value based than like, hey, buy my thing.So I don't think cold pitches are bad. I do think though, like, it takes a lot, like, you have to, there's a volume thing, right? So you have in a time thing, you have to send out a certain number in order to get a certain conversion rate. Usually you have to do that research. That all takes time. So my question is always like, is there a better way of just getting sales? Like, what can you do differently to create more sales? Is it you just need to generate more leads and get them into the funnel? Is it that you maybe need to launch an offer to your existing people? You know, what's the thing that can help you to achieve the goal that you have through selling through the cold DM's or the cold emails, the cold pitches that maybe would perform better for you? And if there's that, if there's a better choice, then make the better choice.
Brittany Herzberg [00:16:30]: Yeah, make the better choice.
Allison Hardy [00:16:33]: Makes it better.
Brittany Herzberg [00:16:33]: I'm going to stay stuck on that one. That is so true, though, because I recently, this is so well timed because I recently recorded an episode about cold pitch emails that are all about SEO services. And I actually broke down one email that one of my friends sent me, and she sent this to me. This was, like, the second time this happened in a very short span of time. And so she sent this to me, and I was like, can I just use this example and record this podcast episode? She's like, go for it. So she has an inquiry form. It's first name, last name, subject of the email. Even just in that space, this person used three different names. They used her email as the email. Like, it was just so poorly done. So I was like, that is just a cluster. And that is, like, a very extreme example, of course. But I like what you're saying. That really resonates where you're like, okay, just do some research first. Like, if you're going to try this, put a little bit of time and effort. And it's not something that's like a passive lead gen thing at all.
Allison Hardy [00:17:32]: No, not at all. You know, in the beginning of your business, when you don't have anything set up, you don't have any system set up. Like, you are hustling your face off. So, like, in the beginning of your business, like, yes, that might make sense for sure. So I'm not, I'm not, like, dissing cold pitches. I think they have a time and a place, but for a lot of us, I think there's just, you know, just think there's better ways of doing it.
Brittany Herzberg [00:17:52]: Yeah, there's other options available to you, but if you're gonna do that, just put in a little time and effort and research.
Allison Hardy [00:17:58]: Exactly.
Brittany Herzberg [00:17:59]: For all of our sake.
Allison Hardy [00:18:00]: The part of me that gets really frustrated about cold emails in particular is my inbox is really busy. It's got a lot of stuff going on in it. I pay someone to, like, manage my inbox. I have to pay someone. And, like, so part of her job is, like, managing those terrible cold pitches. So, like, your bad pitchers are costing me money, and that is frustrating. I get frustrated over that. So, like, do some work. I'm not anti pitch. I'm just, can we do some work ahead of time? Call me by the right name. I don't know.
Brittany Herzberg [00:18:27]: That's definitely gonna stick with me. Call me by the right name. It's not that hard. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so you've mentioned funnel. We talked about the funnels, and for anyone who's listening and you don't happen to be familiar with this, an email funnel is, there's a free thing. There's a welcome sequence that triggers when they get the free thing, and then they get into, like, your regular email, weekly newsletter, situation thing. If I'm like, boiling this way down, what mistakes are you seeing done around email marketing strategies? Whether it's like launch funnel or welcome sequence or even weekly emails, from a strategy point of view, yeah, I'm a.
Allison Hardy [00:19:03]: Fan of everything products. I think you should always be able to sell something. Like, there should be no reason why someone can't buy something from you every single day. And your email marketing, especially your email funnel, should be selling for you every single day. Like, you should have essentially a launch going on every single day in your business so that people can buy from you every single day. And so you can accomplish that through an email funnel.So it kind of goes back to this idea of creating a culture of buying and selling inside of your email list. I think when someone comes in off of a lead magnet, you should have something on the thank you page to buy. That's a trip player. And then from there, I actually think they should go into a nurture sequence and then directly into a pitch sequence. The nurture sequence needs to essentially be a launch that's passive.And this is where I think a lot of people go wrong, is if we think about the perspective of a launch, it's to help someone understand something right and to dig deeper into a pain point or work towards, you know, solving the pain point. There's some sort of, like, what's in it for me situation, the person that's reading the emails. So if we think of, like, those first couple of emails, it has to be like, what's in it for me? Otherwise they're going to lose interest, they're going to unsubscribe and they'll be like, this person's not for me.One of the things I see a lot of people doing in that first nurture, some people call it a welcome sequence, I call it a nurture sequence, is a lot of times in welcome sequences, it's all about you and how you can help them. And while you're great and awesome and you do awesome things with your people, it's just not helpful to that person. If that person has a pain point and they're like, I think this person might be the person to solve it for me, then you need to get them to some sort of place where they understand that you can actually help them.One of the best ways to do that is to actually help them. I had a colleague say that to me one time. She was like, Allison, one of the best ways you can help someone is by actually helping them. And I was like, yeah, for sure. And she was like, so, like, apply that to everything you do. I was like, okay. At the time, I was like, duh. Like, why would you even say that to me? But after thinking about it, I was like, that's what she was referring to.So, like, if the promise of your business is a certain thing, right, you help them do x, Y and Z. Help them do x, y and z in those first couple of emails. Because once you can help them do x, y and Z, and you can help them to see, like, yes, I've got you to this point, or you've done this work, or you're thinking about this thing differently. When you offer them up the opportunity to come into the program, that will help them to actually do the thing, like, fully 100%. It's a lot easier to say yes than, like, if you've just shared a couple of testimonials and, like, case studies with no, like, context, right? I think that's one of the biggest things I see a lot of people doing is those first couple of emails is, like, all about you and it's fine and great and you're cool, but, like, that's not what those people want to hear. They're asking themselves the question, like, what's in it for me? Why should I listen to this person? Why should I take ten minutes out of my day and watch this video that she recorded for me? Like, that's a big chunk of time. I've got a lot of things going on. So I think answering that question, I think, is a really powerful kind of shift in how we think about those first couple of emails after coming in off of a lead magnet.
Brittany Herzberg [00:22:01]: I like that a lot. And I'm even as you're saying that, I'm, like, playing back my welcome sequence, my nurture sequence, and I'm like, did I do? And I do think I do that. I'm sure I could do it even more. But, like, I know with my SEO basics checklist, I think it's email three. It might be a little bit further on in the sequence, but I send them a loom video which you can throw into double speed, which I love pointing out because I'm focused on efficiency.
Allison Hardy [00:22:23]: Yes.
Brittany Herzberg [00:22:24]: So you could throw that into two x, but I walk them through that. I guide them through it. So it's not like, it's not a full, full blown tutorial, but I'm walking you through that. I'm giving you some, like, practical next steps of, like, what you can do to actually make use of this thing that you got. So I love that whole idea. Now I'm going to go back and look at that sequence as well as, like, all my emails. I'm going to be like, am I actually helping them do the thing that they want help with?
Allison Hardy [00:22:49]: And, like, that's the point of a lead magnet, right? Is to, like, get them to know something or to understand something or the tool to help them speed up the process. So if we take that idea and put it in those first couple of emails, I think it kind of reiterates, like, your spirit to help people. I think it creates a better connection.
Brittany Herzberg [00:23:06]: I agree. And this probably feeds into the next question, but, like, what mistakes are you seeing that really, it's just not helping us to stand out from the crowd of, especially in a crowded inbox.
Allison Hardy [00:23:17]: Yes. Subject lines. So subject lines are, like, the thing that determines if your people are going to answer or open up the email. Right. It's the first, like, line of defense. So your subject line needs to. You're probably like, obviously your subject line needs to be captivating. But, like, the way we create captivating subject lines is we focus on it being captivating. I always think it's really helpful to show, like, some sort of transformation inside of the subject line. So from seven to 100 email list subscribers in one day, like, that's super exciting, right? All right, sign me up. Tell me more. Or, like, pounds lost. So, you know, it just depends on your industry. So if you can show numbers, that's really helpful. Putting in emojis can be really helpful because it helps to show your personality. I'm an elder millennial, so we use emojis very differently than apparently other people.
Brittany Herzberg [00:24:09]: Yeah, apparently. But whatever.
Allison Hardy [00:24:11]: Whatever. I have a va who's 23 years old, and she sent me a voxer and it was a skull, and I was like, why are you dead? Like, what's going on here? I was concerned.
Brittany Herzberg [00:24:24]: Why are you concerned?
Allison Hardy [00:24:25]: That is not what that means.
Brittany Herzberg [00:24:27]: Oh, it's not?
Allison Hardy [00:24:28]: No. Apparently it means you're, like, dying of laughter. Like, it's hilarious.
Brittany Herzberg [00:24:31]: Oh, that I've used.
Allison Hardy [00:24:33]: I didn't understand that. No. I'm almost 40. Like, I think it's just over my head.
Brittany Herzberg [00:24:38]: I think I'm like, close enough where I'm like, okay. But then there are words where I'm like, I don't follow, but emojis I usually can follow.
Allison Hardy [00:24:45]: Yeah, I know emojis. I'm too far gone, I think. Yeah. My son used the word sus the other day, and I was like, what the heck does that mean? Tell me more.
Brittany Herzberg [00:24:55]: Yeah, like, it's suspect. I actually was working with a chiropractor three years ago or something like that. And he said that in his chiropractic office. And I come from the background of, like, healthcare, where, like, most people don't talk like that. And I was like, I love this place so much. Like, we can just, like, talk and be normal people. Yes. Back to subject lines. I totally love using emojis in there. I have seen them use sometimes where it's like, the intention was that the emojis, you would read them as one would read emojis. But, like, I got stuck on that for so long and I couldn't figure out what they were saying.
Allison Hardy [00:25:30]: Oh, that's interesting.
Brittany Herzberg [00:25:30]: It was like, by one person, and I think for a while it was like, let me figure out what they're talking about and just like, click and open this thing. And then at some point I was like, I don't feel like doing mental math today. I just don't want to.
Allison Hardy [00:25:41]: This is too much work for me. So emojis are super helpful. Like, transformations are super helpful, numbers are super helpful. Anything that really shows what the work is that you actually do. I know this sounds, again, kind of silly, but, like, let's say you help people grow their email lists. So, like, instead of saying, like, 100% email list growth, again, that requires people to be like, what's 100% email list growth? What does that mean?Instead of, like, from 100% to 200% or from 100 to 200 email list subscribers, like, oh, okay, so again, it's like what you just said, mental math. It's less mental math. It's much more obvious. Or a subject line that's like, I find this to be really helpful. Do this. Or how I. Or how she can be really helpful. So do this if you want to grow your email list by 100 today, or how I grew my email list by 100 in one day. Things like that are like, ooh, tell me more. You know, you get that, like, curiosity, like, how did you do it? What's the secret sauce? How does that happen?I think those sorts of things can be really helpful to just increase that open rate. And you can also split test, you know, subject lines. So you could. I use convertkit for my email marketing. They have that feature where you can resend unopens. So if you don't open my emails, usually you'll get the same email delivered to you the second day, most of the time with a different subject line. So what I'm doing there is I'm split testing right. So maybe one is like the how to or how I grew my email list by 100 in one day.And then the second one might be from one to 200 email list subscribers in one day. And just trying to see like Twitch one works better. Obviously, the people who didn't open your first email aren't as engaged of email list subscribers, I would argue. But it's a good test. It's a good thing to like try out and just to see like, which one hits better and then just make a note of it. I like to use a tool called Aminstitute.com headline. It's free and they like actually score your headline. So headlines or subject lines, they'll score them, though. So they give them a score and then they tell you like, what categories they fall in. And so you can be like, okay, after like split testing, you'll be like, my audience responds best to these intellectual subject lines. So every time you run a headline or a subject line through that tool, your goal is to get it into the intellectual category. I have another client. Hers are spiritual. Her people respond to spiritual based subject lines, and she knows that because of that tool. So using tools like that to kind of inform you in your subject line creation could be really helpful, too.
Brittany Herzberg [00:28:16]: That is really neat. What did you say it was again?
Allison Hardy [00:28:18]: Aminstitute.com headline. It's the American Marketing institutes headline analyzer.
Brittany Herzberg [00:28:26]: We are for sure making sure that goes in the show notes. That is awesome. I think that's really great. And I do want to, if anyone ends up getting on Allison's email list, which you totally should, you do a great job of using headlines for case studies where I can tell before I even open it that it's going to be a case study. And I'm always just like, I'm so proud. I love, I love seeing that. It's so important and it's so impactful. And even just getting that from the subject line, it can be easier, again, than we think it might be. It's not that hard.
Allison Hardy [00:28:56]: Absolutely. Because when people understand what's happening, they're like, oh, I understand that. Okay, cool. Let's read more about how that happened.
Brittany Herzberg [00:29:02]: Yeah, exactly. Okay, one last question for you. Are there any rules that you like seeing broken or that you like to test or push the boundaries on?
Allison Hardy [00:29:12]: Oh, well, in the beginning, you said that you broke all the rules with an email marketing campaign. Not, I mean, recently you said you, like, promoted three things on a week.
Brittany Herzberg [00:29:21]: Or something like that. Yeah, yeah.
Allison Hardy [00:29:22]: I have no problem with that, with your email list. Now, if people in our funnel, that's different. But, like, if they're just hanging on your email list and getting your newsletter, like, you can scoop people up with different things every week. So, like, maybe your email on Mondays is about your podcasts. That's cool. That's great. That's for a certain part of your list. Some people are never going to listen to your podcast and that's okay. Middle of the week, maybe it's like a collaboration you're in. So maybe it's like a bundle. So you promote the bundle and then maybe end of the week you're like, I'm just going to flush sale this digital product I have. That's okay. Like, you can do that. Some people don't advise that. I have no problem with that because again, different people are going to interact with those pieces of content differently.Some people, again, not going to listen to the podcast, some people are not going to do the bundle, but maybe they're super interested in your digital product that you're flash selling. Cool, great. That's awesome. So it's kind of like a buffet, for lack of a better word, of, like things. They can interact with you in that week. So I'm always a fan of that and I don't think that those rules apply.
Brittany Herzberg [00:30:26]: I'm just thinking of a conversation I had the other day with a friend of mine who I could tell that she stopped emailing her people and she said something in our conversation and I was like, oh, wait, is that the advice that you heard? And then did that affect you? Feeling like you couldn't send out emails? And she was like, yes.And one of the things that was called out by this person that she was interacting with was that you can't have more than one link or you can't have more than one call to action in an email. And I was like, okay, maybe. But also most of my emails typically have two things, unless it's in that welcome sequence, and then I think usually there's just one. So I know that there's a rule, but I also know that my people on my email list have gotten to know me and how I write and what I do and what I share and how I share it. So I told my friend, I was like, please, just, like, go back to writing because, like, I love seeing your emails. And she was like, okay, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna go do it.
Allison Hardy [00:31:22]: And I think it's also important to note that I'm not saying that this is what happened with her, but, like, if you're hearing advice on the Internet, that person that's giving that advice, it's like, blankethe. It's not like an actual piece of advice meant specifically for you. Maybe it could be helpful, but, like, all things take it with a grain of salt.So, like, look at your business and be like, okay, does this advice apply? And if it does, then yes. But also, like, it's not always the most helpful thing for you. It's like, people on Instagram are like, use this viral sound and your Instagram account will get 10,000 followers. Like, that's not going to happen. Sorry. I mean, if it does, that's great, but, like, it's not going to happen. But, like, just because, you know, they have that opinion, it doesn't mean it's wrong. It just means, like, maybe your account's not primed for that type of growth right now, you know? So, like, take that idea and apply it to everything. If it's, like, blanket advice, like, I don't know if it's 100% worth listening to. Maybe 95%, but not 100.
Brittany Herzberg [00:32:17]: Yeah, I really think that has to go through our filter. I've had to become a much better filter of, just, like, I consume things. I'm out there, I'm looking at things, I'm listening to things. But that doesn't mean that I need to take it all to heart and, like, make those changes on my thing. And something that I'm noticing that's coming up in the conversation that I haven't called out yet is just, like, having the sense of playfulness and adventure and just, like, trying it. Just, like, go for it. So if you have an idea, try it. If you want to maybe go from not emailing your list to, like, once a week to maybe bumping that up to, like, three times a week or something, just try it. The worst that's going to happen is, again, someone's going to unsubscribe. Okay, like, don't let that hurt your feelings for too long, right?
Allison Hardy [00:32:57]: There's more people out there who are way more ideal, who are way more interested in learning about you and what you can help them with. And so, like, that person, unsubscribing is creating space for more of those people. So, like, if someone's angry because you email three times a week instead of.
Brittany Herzberg [00:33:11]: Two, they're not yours anyway, so they're not your people. Oh, my gosh. This has been wonderful. All right. Where can people find you so they can get more Allison in their lives?
Allison Hardy [00:33:20]: Yeah. You can come hang out with me. On Instagram. My handle is Allison underscore, Hardy underscore. And if you want to learn more about pitch sequences, those are my jam. I've created a seven email system that has helped my clients go from, like, zero sales to $100,000 in sales in 93 days. So I would love to have you grab it. It's called pitch perfect. And, Brittany, you said you have the link for it.
Brittany Herzberg [00:33:44]: I do. I made sure I have. I have that link. I have our headline link. I've got all the things.
Allison Hardy [00:33:48]: Amazing.
Brittany Herzberg [00:33:49]: Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for joining me. This has been really amazing.
Allison Hardy [00:33:52]: Yeah. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Brittany Herzberg [00:33:54]: Of course. All right, we'll catch you next time.