THE EMAIL GROWTH SHOW EPISODE 165
If you’ve ever used an email template that felt stiff or “off,” you’re not alone. Email templates can save time, but if they don’t reflect your unique voice, they can feel more robotic than relatable.
In the latest episode of The Email Growth Show, I sat down with email marketing expert Liz Wilcox to uncover simple strategies to make email templates sound like YOU while building trust and connections with your audience.
Whether you’re new to email marketing or looking for ways to refine your strategy, this post breaks down Liz’s advice so you can start writing emails that feel natural, authentic, and effective.
Click play to listen to this episode in full:
Why Authenticity in Emails Matters
When it comes to email marketing, authenticity is everything. Liz shared her “Email Staircase” framework, which emphasises turning:
- Followers into friends.
- Friends into customers.
By approaching your email list as a collection of real people who want to hear from you – not just numbers or sales targets – you can build trust and create deeper connections.
💡 Key takeaway: Treat your email list like a group of friends you’re chatting with over coffee, and watch the magic happen.
How to Make Email Templates Sound Like YOU
Using email templates doesn’t mean sacrificing authenticity. Liz shared her top strategies for personalising templates so they reflect your unique voice:
- Don’t Copy and Paste
Instead of directly copying a template, retype it in your own words. This naturally edits the text to match how you speak and write. - Read It Out Loud
As you read your email draft out loud, pay attention to any words or sentences that feel unnatural. Rewrite those parts to sound more like you. - Focus on a Conversational Tone
Write as if you’re talking to a friend. Use casual language, contractions, and even humor where appropriate. - Embrace Imperfections
Typos and small mistakes can make you seem more relatable and human. Don’t stress over perfection—it’s about connection.
The 20-Minute Email Formula
Pressed for time? Liz shared her simple 20-minute email framework to keep your emails quick and engaging:
- Greeting: Start with a friendly, casual “Hey [Name]!”
- Personal Update: Share a short, 2-3 sentence update about your life or work since your last email.
- Segue: Use “Anyway…” (yes, in caps if you want!) to transition into your main topic.
- Main Content: Share a tip, story, or resource that adds value to your audience.
- Call to Action: End with a clear action—whether it’s a link to your blog, a product, or an invitation to reply.
💡 Pro Tip: It’s a newsletter, not a novel. Keep it short and sweet!
Subject Lines and Preview Text: What Really Matters
According to Liz, the most important part of your email isn’t the subject line – it’s the from line.
When your audience sees your name in their inbox, they should immediately recognise and trust you. To build that familiarity:
- Be consistent with your name or brand in the “from line.”
- Provide value and connection in your emails so readers look forward to them.
As for subject lines, Liz recommends writing them after drafting your email. Focus on curiosity or clear benefits, and don’t be afraid to use your preview text to finish the thought.
“Email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated or stressful. By making your templates sound like you and focusing on building real relationships, you’ll create a list that loves hearing from you – and one that’s ready to buy when the time comes.”
Connect with Liz:
- Liz’s Website: https://lizwilcox.comand hit the hot pink button!
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Full Transcript:
Liz Wilcox [00:00:00]:
If things really aren’t working at all, like, no needle is moving, then that’s probably a disconnect. Who you think is on your list is probably not who is on your list.
Kylie Kelly [00:00:14]:
Are you a female business owner frustrated with battling the algorithm and looking for growth strategies that don’t involve awkwardly pointing or dancing online or throwing cash at paid ads? Welcome to The Email Growth Show. I’m your host, Kylie Kelly, visibility and email marketing strategist. I grew my email list from 0 to almost 10,000 subscribers in less than 2 years, and the same is possible for you too. Are you ready to build your email list and start making more money in your online business? Let’s head into today’s episode.
Liz Wilcox [00:00:47]:
Liz, welcome back to the podcast. I’m so excited to have you again. Oh my gosh. I feel so honored. I love talking electronic mail. So let’s geek out, baby.
Kylie Kelly [00:00:57]:
I love this. I love this. So we’re gonna dive straight on in. You would have heard anyone listening in the intro. I have linked the other episode that we’ve done together. So if you wanna know about Liz and how she got into this, go there. But if you’re ready to dive into all the juicy things around email templates, how to personalize them, all the good stuff. That’s what we’re chatting about today.
Kylie Kelly [00:01:16]:
Before we get into the template stuff, can we chat email staircase? Now I’ve been in your membership now for a little over 2 years, so I’m familiar with your email staircase. But for anyone listening, can you just share a little bit about what that is?
Liz Wilcox [00:01:30]:
Yeah. So my email staircase is basically the framework I use for your customer journey when it comes to email marketing. It’s really simple. I find, you know, email just feels like this knot you’re never gonna untangle. So let’s untangle it, really simply right now. So first, you have a follower. Right? You somebody finds you on Facebook, on a podcast, however you’re deciding to be visible and grow your list, get them on your email list. And once they’re on your email list, turn them into a friend.
Liz Wilcox [00:02:04]:
And once you have a list full of friends, you can have a list full of customers. So again, that email staircase is follower, friend, customer.
Kylie Kelly [00:02:12]:
See, I love how simple you make everything because when I heard that, I was like, oh, I can do this. Like, it just it feels more fun and more natural to focus on just making friends rather than like, oh, how many sales emails? What’s the percentages? How you know, like, getting into all of the, like you said, the not that never seems to come undone, like, making it simple. So I love that approach. Yeah.
Liz Wilcox [00:02:36]:
I I know email yeah. It just feels so complicated, but, really, it’s just a few steps. You know, we gotta grow the list. We gotta talk to our list. We gotta sell to our list. So if you can think of it as, okay, you know, follower. Right? How can I get followers? You know, what can I say in my emails to make friends? And then, really, when you have that list of friends, I I always say you can have that list of customers because you know what they want. Right? They’re your friends.
Liz Wilcox [00:03:05]:
They tell you things. You know, they whether it’s, you know, directly through replying or it’s through the metrics. Right? What are they clicking on? What are they opening? What are they buying? That’s all data that tells you something to guide and sort of direct what offers you create, what, what ways you talk about those offers, etcetera.
Kylie Kelly [00:03:30]:
I love that. And I think as well, for me, it took the pressure off of, like, what to send, and I know we’re gonna talk about templates in a second, but, like, thinking of your email list as friends on the other side is, like, what would I say to my friend if I was sitting down with a glass of wine right now? What would I complain about? What would I let them know? What stories would I share? Like, that feels so much easier than thinking we have to, like, have the button here and, like, follow this format or it just took the pressure off. So I love that.
Liz Wilcox [00:03:57]:
Yeah. I love that too. Oh, that’s so awesome. And when we say friends, it’s not like, you know, your best friend that you’ve known since elementary school. This is your friend that you have something in common. Like, what is your industry? What is the niche that you have? You know, for us, it’s email marketing. So we’re gonna dish on email marketing. You know, yeah, we’re gonna get friendly.
Liz Wilcox [00:04:19]:
We’re gonna share relatable stories, updates, etcetera. But when it comes down to our real conversations, it’s gonna be around email. You can’t see me right now, but I have Insync in the background. So I am on a newsletter, an email list that’s all about Insync. And every single, you know, month, maybe every couple weeks, they email and they dish about the guys. Oh, Justin’s on tour. JC just released an album. You know, Chris is doing this.
Liz Wilcox [00:04:50]:
Joey’s gonna be on Broadway next year. You know, Lance has a has a new book out. You know? And I know this. How do I know all this? Because I’m on this newsletter. We you know, I have a friendship with, it’s called Mission in Sync, that, you know, we dish about the things that we have in common. I signed up for the list to learn more about the happenings of my favorite boy band of all time. Right? And so when you join a list, you want that. Right? You want someone to, you know, in a friendly way, in a way that connects to sort of dish on the topic.
Liz Wilcox [00:05:26]:
And so, I I also love the follower friend customer because, yeah, it just makes it, like, oh, yeah. If I’m just writing to someone who wants more info on this, who also geeks out or wants to geek out about this, it suddenly becomes a little more simple.
Kylie Kelly [00:05:43]:
Yes. I also think as well, a lot of people are like, oh, how much do I share? And look, I’m an oversharer, so I probably share too much. Right? But if somebody listening is not an oversharer like me, I think that’s something to keep in mind because they can just think about what do they have in common with the new friends on their list, like you just said, which makes it easier not to worry about how much to share.
Liz Wilcox [00:06:05]:
Yeah. And when it comes to friendships, like online, in your newsletter, or, you know, in real life, it really comes down to 3 things you want to do. Right? Number 1, show that you are invested. Right? Because no one’s gonna invest in you if you’re not first invested in them. So in those newsletter is when it’s like, oh, what do I write? What have you done that shows you’re invested in the business or you’re invested in your future customer? Is it, you know, buy a new microphone because you’re a podcaster? Get a new computer so you can live stream? You know, just little simple things. Write a new blog post because you wanna share this information. Right? And then the second thing is relate to them. And this doesn’t have to be, you know, wild storytelling.
Liz Wilcox [00:06:50]:
Maybe you don’t consider yourself a copywriter or a very good one. But, you know, what are those little stories, those personal updates that you can share? You know, I just mentioned, oh, I love NSYNC. You might be, you know, driving. Oh, yeah. I love NSYNC too. Or, oh, I was a Backstreet Boys, Girly, New Kids on the Block. Suddenly, you’re relating to me. Right? You know, and I didn’t even have to tell a story.
Liz Wilcox [00:07:13]:
I just mentioned it. So, again, showing you’re invested, sharing a little bit of relatable content, and then, of course, staying top of mind, meaning, you know, write the newsletters, don’t forget about them. That’s really all you need to make a friend.
Kylie Kelly [00:07:28]:
Oh, so good. PS, I didn’t realize NSYNC was still like, look, this is probably not the right thing to say to you, but I didn’t realize NSYNC was still, like, going and, like, sending updates. I I know them, and I didn’t mind their music back then, but that’s so funny.
Liz Wilcox [00:07:42]:
Yeah. You know, honestly, this side note y’all, let my boy band Girlie come out for a sec. Forgive me. NSYNC, I always said, had the greatest business pivot of all time. They went from boy band to merchandising company where they actually release merch at least once a year, and they’ve been doing that for about a decade. And so they’ve been staying relevant to their fans, just by releasing new merch. I mean, they haven’t taken a new picture to get well, actually, last year, they took new pictures together. But, you know, we had to wait 15, almost 20 years for those new pictures.
Liz Wilcox [00:08:19]:
So, yeah, they definitely, are still in business, so to speak. And it just goes to show you this is a little side note when it comes to business. You know, maybe you can’t do the big giant thing you used to do. You know, maybe there’s something in your business or your personal life that’s making you kinda, like, you know, turn down the volume. You can still do stuff, and it’s still really relevant to your people. So that’s a little side note, little bonus for you.
Kylie Kelly [00:08:46]:
God, I love that. The power of the pivot, that’s so smart for them. And, yes, a good lesson for all of us. Right? I feel like I pivot a lot. I I get bored really easily, so I feel like I’m always pivoting a little bit. Yeah.
Liz Wilcox [00:08:59]:
What I mean, that’s the beauty of what I love about email and the follower, friend, customer email staircase is when you make friends, you can make those little shifts. You know, because people, you know, they’re invested in not just what you’re offering, but, you know, they’re invested in you too.
Kylie Kelly [00:09:18]:
Mhmm. Yes. I love that. Alright. We talked about just then that you mentioned about sending the damn email, which couldn’t have growth more. How can somebody save time and get it done quick if they’re like, oh, another thing? I’ve already got too much on my to do list. Like, what are some tips from yourself, Liz?
Liz Wilcox [00:09:38]:
Yeah. So number 1, don’t overthink it, babe. We just talked about, you know, just show you’re invested, share a little bit of relatability, and you’re good to go. But in a format, what does that actually look like? I I would love to share my 20 minute framework with you. So basically, you know, just a greeting, you know, hey, Kylie. Hey, Liz. And then a personal update, something you’ve done since the last time you emailed them. It again, it doesn’t have to be this big long story.
Liz Wilcox [00:10:09]:
It can just be this short relatable thing or this short, hey, I’m investing in you in this way type of thing. It’s just 2 to 3 sentences. I just, you know, today’s election day. So I went and I looked at the water to calm down. You know, before we hit, record on the podcast, my microphone went out and I had to plug it back in. You know, just little little things that are relatable. Right? And then segue into whatever content you have. A new podcast episode, you know, a TikTok you saw that you thought would be really valuable, what you’ve been up to in the business, you know, what the guys are doing in in sync this week.
Liz Wilcox [00:10:48]:
Right? Whatever your content is, and now I know I said a a big scary word. I said the word segue, and you might be thinking again, like, I’m not the best writer. I don’t know how to segue. I’m gonna make it really simple. Remember, we’re writing this in 20 minutes or less. That caps lock on your keyboard, I want you to use it. Turn the caps lock on and type in anyway What I really wanted to talk about today is whatever content. Right? Your podcast, your livestream, your blog post, the Instagram you found, whatever that content is for today, and then get the heck out of there.
Liz Wilcox [00:11:25]:
Right? It’s a newsletter, not a novel. If you can get in there and get to the point and get out of there, people will really, really love that.
Kylie Kelly [00:11:33]:
Oh, so good. Yes. And the caps. I love can I say how and everybody listening will agree, I’m sure, but it’s just so good when you see an email that has, like, different formatting, some spacing, maybe a GIF? Like, it’s so much more engaging than, like you just said, like a novel where there’s too much text and it’s not broken up. So I love that you said the caps lock thing for the the way to segue.
Liz Wilcox [00:11:56]:
Yeah. It’s just so simple, and especially like, if you have time to write and you’ve got a great story, please write that. But to Kylie’s point, you might not have time this week. It’s like, oh, this is just another thing I’ve got to do. I’m supposed to be doing. Liz and Kylie, every week that they tell me this or that. You know? So if and when that is the, you know, is the case, again, just greeting short little personal update. Caps lock anyway.
Liz Wilcox [00:12:25]:
Here’s what I need to say. Put what you need to say and get out of there.
Kylie Kelly [00:12:29]:
So good, Liz. So good. When you talk about consistency with weekly, I got so stuck. When I first started emailing, I was like, it needs to be 11 am on a Tuesday, which is bullshit, right? It doesn’t need to be 11 am, like the same time and day every week. Do you agree with that? Do you think anytime what do you follow when it comes to sending you weekly newsletters?
Liz Wilcox [00:12:49]:
Yeah. I whenever I can get my butt in the chair and write it is when I’m gonna send it. Right? I still, after 8 years of sending newsletters, I still have a hard time batching my content because I’m just one of those people that I want I wanna say what I wanna say in the moment. Right? And so I do try, you know, Tuesday afternoon, but it’s not like 1 PM. And if I miss it, it’s not, you know, the the end of the world. Right? You know, sometimes I’ll send Wednesday morning. Sometimes it’s like, Oh, I know Tuesday is gonna be busy. I’m gonna write it right now on Monday and hit send.
Liz Wilcox [00:13:28]:
What I want you to know about the inbox, is you wanna be familiar. Oh, I know who Kylie is. I know who Shahara is. But we don’t want to be predictable. Right? Like, oh, I know what’s in that email. They always send the same thing at the same time. I don’t have time to read it right now. Because if they don’t have time to read it right now, you know, it’s gonna go on page 2 and it’s gonna be forever unread.
Liz Wilcox [00:13:50]:
So when you’re building a practice, I do recommend, yeah, around the same time each week is great because it’s gonna help you build that habit. But once you’ve got that habit, don’t sweat too hard when you miss a week or, you know, it’s the next day. Oh, crap. I forgot. You know, just write it when the next time you remember and just keep going. That’s actually gonna help with that, you know, familiar, but not predictable aspect that you wanna be.
Kylie Kelly [00:14:18]:
Yeah. So good. So good. Alright. Let’s move gears, shift gears, move gears, let’s shift gears and talk about email templates because I know you have a membership full of email templates. I adore them. I love them. I get a lot of people tell me that I don’t know how to tweak templates to make it sound like them.
Kylie Kelly [00:14:36]:
Do you have any tips on how somebody listening could personalize a template so that it does sound like they wrote it?
Liz Wilcox [00:14:44]:
Yeah. So my first tip is don’t copy and paste the template. So maybe the template, like in my membership, you have to copy and paste it into your email service provider or something, instead or maybe it’s a Google Doc that you copy. What I would do is start with a blank document, and on one side of your screen, you have the template. On the other side, you have this blank document. And so instead of copying and pasting, I really recommend just writing it. You’re going to start editing the template for how you naturally write or speak. That’s just a natural thing.
Liz Wilcox [00:15:18]:
We can’t help but edit. Right? And so that’s really gonna help you. The second thing I recommend is after you’ve written something from a template, read it out loud. Any time you change the words, you omit sentences or huge chunks of text or you add something as you’re reading, that’s what you really need to edit. That’s what doesn’t feel natural about the template for your voice, and you’re gonna be able to say, oh, yeah. I said that out loud, so I’m gonna add it here. Right? Or, oh, I skipped that entire paragraph. I must think it’s kinda dumb.
Liz Wilcox [00:15:54]:
Let me just delete that and put in what I want. So those are my, first two things. And then, of course, when all else fails, our lovely friend, chat gpt, can really help you. If you train chat gpt on your voice, you know, you can put in a template or you could put in your written template, like, you’ve already written it and say, you know, write this in the voice of, you know, Liz Wilcox, Shahara Wright, you know, Roberto Candelaria, and it’s gonna help you make it sound more like yourself.
Kylie Kelly [00:16:29]:
I love that. Do you know such good tips? And I think that the main thing that I wanna just make sure everybody doesn’t miss is like write how you speak. I think that’s what people get stuck on because it’s like, oh, I don’t know how to write. I don’t know what how to be professional. No. No. No. No.
Kylie Kelly [00:16:43]:
Just write how you speak because that’s how you then connect with your email list. Right? That’s how you connect with the person on the other side.
Liz Wilcox [00:16:51]:
Yeah. Y’all, I I say, like, people like me and Kylie, we get paid quite a bit to undo everything that you learned in, like, high school or secondary school. Right? It you know, there’s always that 10th grade English teacher, you know, on your shoulder. You know, don’t start a sentence with a preposition. Don’t end it this way. You know, don’t say anything at the end that you didn’t say at the beginning. But that’s not how we naturally speak. An email is an online thing.
Liz Wilcox [00:17:22]:
Right? And the way that we read and write online is so different than the way we do with traditional print. So we have the luxury. We have the privilege of being able to just write how we speak. And, yeah, a lot of templates, like, even my templates, you know, the I tend to write it the way that I speak. I get of course, I give you examples in different, ways, but, really, again, don’t just copy and paste it. Type it out or even writing it out on paper first is gonna really help you edit as you go, because writing how you speak, that’s how, going back to the email staircase, we’re really gonna make friends. Right? That’s how we’re gonna, connect, how we’re gonna become relatable to our audience, how they’re really gonna see how invested we are when we use our true voice.
Kylie Kelly [00:18:14]:
Yes. And even spelling mistakes allowed, like, I can’t, like there’s been countless times when I, because I have my own email address on my list, right? So I always get my emails and I put them into a little folder so I can like keep, keep them if I need to find them again. Probably not the most efficient way, but that’s the way that I’ve been doing it. And so there’s so many times and I get my own email like, oh shit, look at that, that’s really a mistake or look at that or, but at the same time, I kind of also think that, well, people, you know, love that about me or hate it. Either way, it’s fine. Like stay, stay or go. Like, it’s absolutely fine. But I think that just shows the human on the other side.
Kylie Kelly [00:18:48]:
So I think as well, like don’t sweat the mistakes or the small stuff or how many times, Liz, have you gotten an email? It’s like, oh, I made a mistake. Here’s the real link, or here’s the right link, or here’s that thing that I you know, people make mistakes.
Liz Wilcox [00:19:00]:
So I think being human and being okay with that is important too. Yeah. I I love making mistakes because that’s really the fastest way to learn. Right? To learn to proofread. Right? Y’all what I once, sent an email that I forgot the subject line for, and it just said new broadcast. And guess what? That was that was the most open email I had had for, like, 6 months. Right? So, again, that remember we talked about that relatability? Making mistakes is so so relatable. So don’t shy away from them, my friend.
Kylie Kelly [00:19:36]:
Yes. So good. Alright. Can we chat about subject lines? Because I know people get so stuck on a good subject line. Like, what do I say? How do I do one? How am I gonna get one that actually gets opened? All the things. What do you think is the most important thing to remember when it comes to subject lines?
Liz Wilcox [00:19:53]:
Okay. The most important thing to remember when it comes to subject lines is that the subject line actually comes secondary. There’s a more important line, and I think Kylie probably agrees. The from line is so much more important than the subject line. We get really tripped up on the subject line. You know, it’s I don’t know. I I guess it’s like the sexy thing to worry about. Like, oh, subject lines.
Liz Wilcox [00:20:17]:
Right? But really, it’s the from line. Who is this from? That’s the first thing we look at when we open up our inbox. Right? Especially if you’ve ever had, like, a 9 to 5 that dealt with a lot of email. It’s like, Carl, I’m definitely not opening that till the end of the day. Oh, Kylie sent me something. She’s always so sweet. You know, I’m gonna get to her first. Right? And so there is a hierarchy with the from line.
Liz Wilcox [00:20:42]:
So what you really wanna do is write your emails in a way that give value. Again, show you’re invested. You become very relatable so that when they see your name, they don’t even really need to see the subject line. They’re gonna open right away. Do you have any opinions on that? Because I will get I’ll get to subject lines, but I’d I’d love this conversation.
Kylie Kelly [00:21:04]:
No. I love that so much, and I just it might be good when you’re talking about Carl because how how often even in now, right, as a business owner, like, oh, that can go in the later file. Like, let’s do that later. Great. So, yeah, absolutely. I totally agree
Liz Wilcox [00:21:15]:
with that.
Kylie Kelly [00:21:16]:
I think I did learn something from you that I still use, which I’m going to say and you can elaborate, but always writing it after. Like, I think I got so stuck on the subject line before I’d actually written the body of the email. So now I go back and do it at the end, and that saved me so much time.
Liz Wilcox [00:21:32]:
Yeah. So bringing it back to subject lines, you definitely usually want to write it after you write the email. Right? What’s the gist? Nobody is writing the title of their book before they’ve written the majority of the book. Right? And if they do, they probably change the title over and over and over again. Right? That’s the hardest thing to nail down. What’s the title? But, you know, you you I would be so surprised if there was any, you know, best seller where it started with the title. Right? You might have a working that’s what even editors call it a working title. Right? So you might have a working subject line, but don’t spend too much time trying to nail the subject line before you’ve written the email.
Liz Wilcox [00:22:17]:
So write the email and then think, like, what what’s the gist of this email? And, again, if I was just sending it to my friend who’s also, you know, geeking out over this industry or wants to know more, you know, what would that subject line be? Right? What’s the gist of it? What’s the subject line? And, of course, I’m gonna mention our friend Chat gbt again. You could put your newsletter into Chat gbt and say, you know, spit out 20 subject lines for me, and then you can find the best one. You could probably even up the best one because, you know, there’s nothing like human to human, and then go from there.
Kylie Kelly [00:22:53]:
Do you use preview text all the time, Liz? Or do you just use that occasionally?
Liz Wilcox [00:22:57]:
I use preview text occasionally. To me, writing the email, the first or the job of the first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence. The job of the second is to get you to read the 3rd. So I’m already trying to get those first few lines, really exciting, you know, max potential type of thing. So I don’t always need the preview text. But if you do come up with a subject line that is, like, oh, this is a little long, Maybe you can break it up into the subject line and the preview text. That way, they’re reading, both. Like, I think today, I mentioned, we’re recording this at the time of the United States election.
Liz Wilcox [00:23:42]:
And so my subject line was not about the election, LOL, open up, or something like that. And then the preview text was, you know, let’s talk about email instead. And so it just kinda finished the thought, while giving the person, like, oh, this is gonna be about email. Yes. I could use the distraction. I’m gonna open it up. Mhmm.
Kylie Kelly [00:24:05]:
I love that. I love that. Because, yeah, I don’t use it all the time either. I’m just wondering, like, oh, well, Liz tell me something different, or maybe I should be able to that that makes sense.
Liz Wilcox [00:24:13]:
Yeah. I find again, you know, we mentioned this at the top of the interview. Don’t overthink things. Keep it simple. If you can’t come up with a good preview text, just leave it, or just look at the first sentence of your email and, you know, is it exciting? Is it, you know, eye catching? If it is, you don’t really need a preview text.
Kylie Kelly [00:24:35]:
Now, as you mentioned, we are recording this at the start of November, and q 4 is known, especially for online business owners is like the feel like it’s a sales quarter. Right? Everyone’s selling. It’s bad to be black Friday. It’s it’s intense. I feel like it’s intense. What would you say to anyone that is wanting to use email to sell just in general and perhaps they’re just not seeing anything happen? I feel like that’s a bit of a vibe at the moment.
Liz Wilcox [00:24:59]:
Yeah. Well, you gotta diagnose your email list, I would say. Like, does your email list is your email list working right? Is it are the people that are on your email list the people you think are on your email list? Because that’s the first thing. Like, if things really aren’t working at all, like, no needle is moving, then that’s probably a disconnect. Who you think is on your list is probably not who is on your list. Right? So how I diagnose that is usually with some kind of wild flash sale or, you know, if it’s q 4, you know, do a Black Friday thing. If nobody buys on Black Friday or on a flash sale, you’ve got some real work to do over the next 6 months to clean up your list, to get new, people on your list, and to get that going.
Kylie Kelly [00:25:50]:
Do you poll your audience? Would you ask questions as the first place to go? Do you like a red introductory email of who you who you’re helping and then give them the opt out?
Liz Wilcox [00:26:00]:
Yeah. I would run some sort of wild sale just to see if anybody bites. Like, are you creating the products that they want? And then if if it’s doesn’t work or, you know, the sales were lackluster, not what you expect, then, yeah, you can definitely start to pull your audience. You know, why didn’t you buy? Or, you could even because chances are people didn’t really look. You’re not the center of their universe, said with love, of course. You could say, you know, which one of these products is more exciting? Or, honestly, what I would start to do versus polls is try to get as many replies as possible. I would go to my welcome sequence. Do I have a simple yes or no question in the first 3, 4 days of them, you know, starting, my list being on my list.
Liz Wilcox [00:26:50]:
So for me, mine is, you know, PS, do you have a weekly newsletter, or do you write a weekly newsletter? Yes or no? That’s in the very first email. So you’ve got to open up conversations to close sales later. So if you’re not making many sales, there’s definitely a disconnect, so you need to be opening more conversations. And, yes, this is work. I’m telling you, it’s work. I’m sorry. I know everybody and their mother wants to sell you an evergreen funnel, but if you’re not selling, you’re not there yet, babe. So you need to go back to basics.
Liz Wilcox [00:27:24]:
You need to open up as many conversations as possible, and you can start to do that with very simple yes or no questions. Don’t even ask too much about, you know, your offers, why they didn’t buy, you know, what what what would be the best part if I could wave a magic wand. I hate that, question. Only your super fans who have already bought are gonna answer that question for you. Right? That’s that’s a loaded question. Ask the most unloaded questions you can. Again, I’ve got a weekly template, membership. So I ask, do you send weekly newsletters? Yes or no? That opens up conversations.
Liz Wilcox [00:28:03]:
That allows me if I get a bunch of noes, I know I’m gonna have a bunch of customers. Like, sweet. This is great. If I get a bunch of yeses, then, you know, I can dig deeper. You know, do they need the next level? Are they are they working? You know, my next question then is, do you make sales from your newsletters? You know, yes or another yes or no question. If they don’t, awesome. Here’s some tips and tricks. Here’s my podcast episode.
Liz Wilcox [00:28:31]:
You know? And if you want, you can get into the membership. There’s sales emails in there. Right? And so you see how that sort of guides the direction. It guides the conversation. And then I know with certainty whether or not people actually need my products that are coming on my list. So start that from the beginning. Now if you’re saying, oh, that’s great, Liz, but I already have all these people, you know, whatever. Just start asking those questions.
Liz Wilcox [00:28:57]:
Ask those yes or no questions in your newsletters. Right? PS. You know, do you do x y z? Yes or no? Even a strict newsletter of the just, hey, quick question, you know, hit reply. Yes or no? Really? I mean it. I wanna know. Instead of getting them to click on something, getting a reply allows you to really, really open up the conversation so you can, again, know if your, you know, products are right. And then if you if you do talk to a few people or more, then you can say, oh, yes. My sales page is exactly what it needs to be, or I was talking about this in a way that is, you know, way too elementary or way too advanced.
Liz Wilcox [00:29:43]:
I need to change my copy.
Kylie Kelly [00:29:45]:
I love that. I love the fact that you said conversations as well. Let’s point that out because I’ve personally replied to people before and then never heard anything. I’m like, come on. When somebody replies to your newsletter or replies to you, you need to start that conversation. Like, that’s a that’s an open path to chatting more and finding out more about them. So they wanna communicate with you conversations. I love that you said that.
Liz Wilcox [00:30:07]:
Yeah. And then I would just make, in your newsletters, moving forward, as you’re opening up conversations, the yes or no’s, then you can move to, you know, click this or that. And then I would do lots of soft pitching. Right? So everybody and their mother thinks, oh, I gotta do a launch. I gotta do a big launch. I gotta do big prelaunch, big launch. But really, when you have products, you can soft pitch all the time. Right? If I wrote an email, I’m I just started a podcast, so I’m soft pitching my podcast all the time.
Liz Wilcox [00:30:42]:
It doesn’t even have to be a paid offer. Right? You know, maybe I write an email about subject lines. And then, oh oh, by the way, I just published a 15 minute episode on subject lines. If you wanna go deeper, if you really struggle with this, click here. Right? Or if that was a paid offer, you know, click here for my 30 minute workshop, you know, for $15. Right? Something like that. So do a lot of soft pitching. Have the email, you know, invoke curiosity.
Liz Wilcox [00:31:11]:
Give it give them a couple tips, and then invite them to go deeper with your paid offer. Another thing, I’m sure we’ve all heard it by now, is the super signature. Right? The footer of your email. PS, when you’re ready, here’s how we can work together. Here’s how I can help you. And putting those offers out there, y’all, people do not buy when you sell. They buy when you are when they are ready. So people buy when they are ready.
Liz Wilcox [00:31:37]:
I liken it to, my sister and I, we get gas from the gas station at totally different times. She drives a Volkswagen Jetta, and she hates getting gas. And she will drive it until it says, like, 5 miles to go. Right? Like, she’s pushing the limit. I, on the other hand, drive an 89 Bronco. It gets, like, 9 miles to the gallon, and I’m not gonna be that single lady on the side of the road, you know, begging a friend to come bail me out. So I get gas probably every 3 to 7 days. I get it all the time.
Liz Wilcox [00:32:12]:
And I work from home, like, I’m barely driving. So we have different buying patterns. Right? But we both get the gas when we are ready to get it. Right? But you wanna know something? The station on the corner is always open. Right? And so I can go when I’m ready. Patricia can go when she’s ready. And that’s what, you know, the super signature is or those soft pitches in every newsletter. You are always open for when your customer is ready to buy.
Kylie Kelly [00:32:45]:
Oh, I love that, Liz. That is a killer analogy. And I think as well for anyone listening that’s gone and done that big launch and maybe not gotten the results that they wanted, yes, there’s always things we can improve and tweak. But at the same time, perhaps your people just weren’t ready. Like, doesn’t that just take some pressure off too? Like, I think that feels really good.
Liz Wilcox [00:33:05]:
Yeah. I feel really good. That’s so true. Yeah. Okay. So I got this $9 offer, and I’m telling you this to just, hopefully, you know, we’re solidarity here. It’s $9. I write I basically write 80% of the newsletter for you.
Liz Wilcox [00:33:21]:
I think of all the marketing. More than half of my list is still not in on that offer. And I talk about that offer, I feel like ad nauseam. I’ve been talking about this offer every single day, just about every single newsletter for almost 4 years. P some people aren’t ready. And even, you know, I’ve got this Black Friday deal coming with it, and there are some people that say, oh, well, you know, my business isn’t there yet, Liz, but I’m gonna follow along because I wanna see what you’re doing. But there’s other people, oh, Liz, I’ve been on your list for over a year. I’m so excited you’re finally opening this up.
Liz Wilcox [00:33:58]:
You know, this is my time. Everyone, you know, they can come in and out when they’re ready. But guess what? Like, my shop is always open, baby.
Kylie Kelly [00:34:08]:
Mhmm. I love that. And I mean, it’s just up to us to do the work, right? To keep showing up and have that store that’s open, stocking the shelves, putting a smile on our face, welcoming the people in as they come and not stressing so much about the ones that aren’t ready yet. It’s up to them when they come in.
Liz Wilcox [00:34:25]:
Yeah. I love that. Oh, I feel I feel so much better. Thank you for saying that because my Black Friday is coming up. So I’m, like, starting to, you know, kinda tense up like, oh, there’s a lot riding on this list. You know, you got taxes to pay and, you know, salaries and all that. And but now it’s like, oh, okay. The the people that are ready will buy.
Liz Wilcox [00:34:46]:
So I loved I loved that so much. Yeah.
Kylie Kelly [00:34:48]:
So that was good for both us. That’s good. All right. Let’s wrap this baby up. So anyone that is listening, do you know what? Hang on. What is crazy? I went to a conference last weekend, 1st in person conference I’ve been to in years. It was for business owners. Do you know, 3 quarters of them didn’t do email marketing.
Kylie Kelly [00:35:07]:
I just gobsmacked because I was like, I feel like it’s a no brainer. I hate social media. I’m very rarely on social. So like email works for me. But I thought that was the same for most business owners. So with that in mind, if anyone is listening and they’re like, oh, that’s me, Kylie. I haven’t started yet. I’m not doing it yet.
Kylie Kelly [00:35:27]:
What’s one thing they could do today, Liz, to get started? Let’s leave them with that.
Liz Wilcox [00:35:32]:
Yeah. One thing you can do to get started with email marketing today, if you are not with it at all, is to choose your email service provider. Choose the tool you’re gonna use to get going with email. So an email service provider, if you don’t know that’s what, you know, holds all those email addresses when I say, yes. Here’s my email. It holds the emails for you. It allows you to send those, you know, that one newsletter too many. So go ahead and what I want you to do is just put 20 minutes on the clock because this could take you years.
Liz Wilcox [00:36:10]:
But we’re gonna we’re gonna do it in 20 minutes. Remember, 20 minutes or less. Right? So put 20 minutes on the clock. Go to YouTube and just type in, whatever email service providers you’ve heard of. Kit, formerly known as ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Flowdesk, Stan, any of those, and just put, like, review or over the shoulder. And watch a few minutes. What makes sense for your brain? What makes sense for your budget? Pick 1. Get signed up today.
Liz Wilcox [00:36:39]:
You will not regret it.
Kylie Kelly [00:36:42]:
I love that. So I’m I’m with Kit. I think you are as well. I love their rebrand. PS, I love the fonts. I love the I just love what they’ve done. So I’m really excited for the future of Kit.
Liz Wilcox [00:36:52]:
Me too. So good. So good.
Kylie Kelly [00:36:55]:
Okay. So anyone that is listening that wants more Liz Wilcox in their life, where should we send them, Liz?
Liz Wilcox [00:37:00]:
Of course. I’m an email marketer. Please join my list. You can go directly to lizwilcoxdot com, and in the top right hand corner, you can’t miss it, there’s a hot pink button. It’s gonna give you an entire welcome sequence templates already written for you. It’s gonna give you 3 newsletter, ideas. 1 to get people to click, another to get people to reply, which we already talked about, and another to get people to buy directly from your newsletter. And if that’s not enough, I know subject lines, we sweat them.
Liz Wilcox [00:37:31]:
You’re gonna get 52 subject lines for a year full of prompts. That’s all for free. Lizwilcox.comhotpinkbutton.
Kylie Kelly [00:37:39]:
Oh, my goodness. Amazing. I’ll put the link in the show notes and tell everybody to go there as many times as I can because that is an incredible, incredible offer. Thank you so much for being here. It was
Liz Wilcox [00:37:49]:
such a joy to speak with you today. Thank you, Kylie.
Kylie Kelly [00:37:52]:
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of The Email Growth Show. I hope you found valuable insights into the next steps you can take to grow your email list and boost your business without relying on social media or paid ads. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show and share it with others. Your feedback helps me reach more female entrepreneurs just like you who are ready to say goodbye to social media and leverage email marketing to grow their business and make a bigger impact. Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
