3 Email Marketing Tips with Meera Kothand
Branding with Friends | Episode 24
Featuring Expert Guest: Email Marketing Expert, Meera Kothand
Watch or listen to the video interview below or scroll down to read the transcription.
Meet Meera Kothand, Email Marketing Expert
Annie: Today I'm going to introduce you to one of my new friends in the business world. If you have been wondering about your email marketing and having an email list and what does that all mean, and how do I do it better? You're gonna love today's episode, my guest today is the wonderful Meera Kothand. Meera is an email marketing strategist and 3X Amazon Best-selling Author of the books The One Hour Content Plan, The Blog Startup & But I’m not an Expert!. She is also the publisher of MeeraKothand.Com, an award-winning site listed as the Top 100 sites for solopreneurs in 2020, 2018 and 2017 and the popular CREATE Planners. Using her unique Profitable Email System™ and ADDICTED Business framework, she makes powerful marketing strategies simple and relatable so that small business owners can build a tribe that’s addicted to their zone of genius.
Meera, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so glad you're here with us. I'm really excited to be here talking about one of my favorite topics email. We know a little bit about you already, but tell us a little bit where you’re based and how you became so passionate about email marketing of all things.
Meera: Sure. So I'm, I'm based in Singapore, born and bred here. So just to kind of give you guys a little hint, it's 8pm on my side of the world, so whenever you see me on a podcast or an episode like this, it's probably the other end of the world.
Annie: Like 12 hours from 8am here in Durham, North Carolina.
Meera: Yeah, exactly. So, but it's been an interesting journey. For me, I kind of got into entrepreneurship, marketing pretty much by accident. This is something that I've shared. So many times, I am the last person who should have ever become an entrepreneur, because it's not just something that we were told in my family, the way we were brought up, it was like, you know, you go to college or get a job. That's about it. And entrepreneurship was always for other people.
So for me, I had a kind of like a health scare and needed to stay home. And after I had my child, I just couldn't go back to work. So I was at home. And I was wondering, alright, what can I do to kind of keep me active, keep my brain working. And I just pretty much stumbled into blogging. I always had an interest in like you said, branding, which is, you know, your expertise, and then marketing as well. And just kind of sharing content out there. I just started growing an audience organically and everything kind of led from there. And email marketing was something that I was just kind of drawn to because I saw people doing it in so many different ways. And some of the ways that people kind of engaged with email marketing made me go, is that was the way you want to do it? I thought it was a little sleazy.
So I felt like an outsider when I started out because I felt like it's just really how it should be done. Can there be a different way? And I started kind of experimenting with different ways of talking to my audience, different ways of engaging and that's that's kind of like my story in a nutshell.
Annie: We're always trying to find we curate guests for the show. And me and my team are always looking for people who have diverse voices that have different approaches to things. Email marketing is just one of those things where I know I was very reluctant to do a list and to do traditional email marketing, because I am a consumer as well. And I'm just getting inundated with these really sleazy newsletters and people selling all the time. And it was just not my vibe.
And when we discovered what you were doing, I really loved that it seemed very authentic and genuine. And so that's what big reason I wanted to have you on today and to have you share your tips with us. So if you're new to Branding with Friends, this is where we share three tips from experts. Today it’ll be three tips for you about optimizing your email list and how to use that in a genuine authentic way, not a sleazy way. And we're gonna save that third tip for the end. So make sure to listen all the way to the end of the episode so you were to get all the value you can from from Meera.
I know you've brought these tips for coaches, consultants and service business owners about email marketing. So what do you think, you know, using your zone of genius? What's the first thing somebody should focus on?
#1 Action TIP
Start with the minimum viable approach
Meera: The thing with email is the the number one thing that people always say is that it's so overwhelming because you don't know where to start. There are so many different pieces, you know? How do you grow your list and okay, what happens after someone gets on your list? So the one I like to kind of share, is something I share with my audience as well is use a minimum viable approach. And do it in a way that you give your subscriber a complete experience, because you don't just want to grow your list, you want to nurture them as well.
And what a lot of people when they're starting out with email they end up doing is that they focus on let me have my lead magnet, let me start growing my list. And that's it. They don't think about what's the next step? What's the after? And the only thing about that, once they are ready to maybe they have a package that they want to sell, or they have some kind of a coaching program that really put it out there, then they're like, okay, I need to go to these people, but I haven't really talked to them for I don't know how long, you know, and that is when alarm bells go off. So you don't really want to put yourself in that situation. And you don't want to think about your list only when you have something for sale or only when you're kind of prepping for a launch. So the minimum viable approach is something that it starts with the attract phase, where you're attracting people onto your list, goes on to the nurture phase, and then obviously, you've got the conversion phase as well. So for me, I would say always start with one lead magnet.
Annie: Just so we can explain, it’s that free PDF or that video or that special thing that you offer that's valuable that people exchange give you their email address for. And the thing is one thing I want to highlight specifically for service providers and coaches, you don't want to offer a lead magnet that attracts a lot of DIY audience, because that's not who you're attracting. Yeah, I find that you know, it's wherever you write years ago when I needed to hear that information. And that's a trap that a lot of us fall into, because we create a lead magnet, and that ends up attracting the wrong audience. And it's no fault of the audience. It's just that this is what you offered, and that they know they're on your list.
Meera: So for service providers, one of the things that I've seen work very well, and I've seen this on a couple of sites are people who do quizzes that are related to their topic. And the thing about quizzes that work so well, because it leads you to kind of like the result. But it's very convenient for you to kind of swoop in seamlessly, right? Talk a little bit about how you can kind of bridge the gap or how you can help. So quizzes work very well.
Annie: I've seen people sharing like the framework or roadmap, kind of like this overview, this overarching view of their methodology, the process of working, so something like this, you know, like a quiz or a roadmap, it kind of stops you from attracting the DIY audience. So DIY audience, they're really attracted to like checklists, things that they can do it themselves, that they're not really looking for a coach, they're looking more for like a digital product, like a course or a membership, or maybe an ebook. And for service providers, you don't really want to fall into that trap.
Meera: So yes, lead magnet is one of the first things you should do, but pick the right one.
Annie: Right now, I do a lot of brand and marketing and business consulting with clients that have gone through the branding process and those who haven't. And our big question is, well, what should this lead magnet or opt-in be? And, and it comes back to you need to know what it is you're doing. You know, where is your focus? Where are you the biggest expert? And who do you want to attract? Who are your ideal clients? Because if you're a coach or consultant, you really want people to come to you wanting you to help solve their problem, not that you don't want to self serve the solution. And coaches in particular, I see it's a big challenge of, there's so much free value out there that they're providing transformations for free, basically. And so this, I think, having that right mindset of the minimum viable approach of, okay, I'm going to put something out there that's easy to digest. But that is that introduction to how I can provide a solution to your problem, not how you can solve the problem yourself, which is a totally different mindset. And I'm really glad that that's where you started. I think we should also take one step back, because I know that people in my audience are going, I don't even have an email list. So to talk really briefly about why we need to have an email list and, you know, just if you could just tell us really in like basic terms, why should someone have an email list? If they have a Facebook page, a LinkedIn profile, isn't it just, I know a lot of people feel like it's just one more thing. So tell me a little bit about that.
Meera: The thing with the an email list is you can actually swap, you know, you have email service providers, you've got your MailChimp, you've got your ConvertKit, and all of that. But you would, you can actually print out your email list, and you own that.
And you know, the thing with having a Facebook group and stuff like that, just to share, I had a kind of like a mastermind friend who had a Facebook group of about 15,000 people to kind of shut down overnight. So it's, she just lost that because of Facebook, her whole profile got hijacked by someone. Those things can happen, or you change the outline. Also, when you're posting the algorithm, or Facebook or whatever, not all the people who follow you can see what you post versus if you send an email, a large majority. See that what you said?
Not another story, but that's another story. Even though people are doing social media and stuff like that, there aren't marketing stats to show that the return that you get from your email list is, I don't know how many times more than what you would do on social media. And you're not at the you know, kind of like the fancy of any algorithm change,you know, you can kind of insulate yourself from from that if you have an email list. And it's not about the size of the list, I think this is where people get really bogged down there, like, you know, it's gonna take me eons to get to 10,000, or whatever that is, you can have an amazing, decent, amazing, depending on what is kind of good for you with a small list, what matters is the relationship with that list. So it's really not about the numbers. Because I know, when I kind of read certain income reports and stuff like that, they've got amazing, huge list. But the income that they get from that list doesn't really match up.
Annie: I like to say followers don't equal figures.
Meera: Yes, that's exactly that.
Annie: And you can have a huge list with maybe like 10% open rate, compared to someone with a smaller list, with a really good open rate, but you know, subscribers engaging with you, and they are really loyal fans. So the number is really relative. I'm really glad that you brought that up. Because I know that many of you listening to this may not have a list, or you may have a small list, I became a six-figure business with less than 1,000 people on my list. And I don't I don't have much more than that, at this point. I'm sure it will grow over time. But you don't have to have a million people. Followers don't equal figures. You see people have hundreds of 1,000 followers, that doesn't mean they have hundreds of 1,000s of dollars, I promise you here, I'll be the one to tell you that. You're hearing it from her today, too. And I know coaches who make multiple six figures who you know, one in particular, I'm thinking of who had 600 people on their list. It's not about numbers, it's about quality over quantity.
Meera: And again, that's why I want to talk to you, especially in the context of branding, because the smarter you are about it and more strategic, having the right people on the list matters? Yeah, as well. And that's that happens, where you're sort of advertising and say, hey, here's my free thing. And if you're my ideal client, you're gonna be attracted to my free thing. And if you're not, please stay off my list, because that's not good. You don't need them. Right?
Annie: I mean, you would rather not just add people for the sake of building up your numbers, you're gonna end up paying for that, for those people, and it's just not worth it, because it can skew your stats, and then you're not going to get a good sense of, are these people really interested in my brand in my business? Are they not? You don't want to get into that kind of thing. And please don't agonize over how many people maybe aren't clicking on things, or you put all this work into. It is such a, I feel like one of the things I've learned having had a list is 2015 is is such a long game. It's such a long game and just like blogging is and SEO is it's not settings. They're strategies and they take consistency and time. And value delivered takes time. And that's built you know, honestly, like when you think about the closest friends in your life, the people you rely on, those relationships did not happen overnight. They happened over years, and that's all businesses really doing is building up these relationships with people, especially in a service based context because you want people to hire you they have to know like and trust you. That doesn't necessarily happen super fast. It takes time. So I think one of the other things with the email list is really trying to be top of mind like you said, for service based businesses you want to be top of mind when they are ready to hire and sometimes it takes time. Like the buying the journey, the buyer’s journey is not the same people kind of think it's linear, like alright, I find you, I buy, I know but sometimes this loop and then they go find someone else or they don't get a good solution and they may come back to you. So the whole point for me is to be top of mind so that when they're ready to kind of hire someone, you are the ones that they go to. So it's really about building those relationships using email.
Well, and that's perfect and I think that you could have easily been describing branding. That's exactly why you do branding is to stay top of mind with people that constantly put your message out there. So that when people are ready, they are ready to work with you. They see they say, oh, yeah, I remember who you are. So, you know, we've talked that was you've given us a lot of value already. And just that one tip, minimum viable approach and all this other information about like, what an email list is why follower count is not the biggest thing to focus on? What is the next biggest thing that we should be thinking about?
#2 ACTION TIP
Have a nurture sequence and don’t be afraid to pitch in the sequence
Meera: Have a nurture sequence. So don't just stop at attracting people have that after the next step. And don't be afraid to kind of pitch your services during that nurture sequence. So some people call it the welcome email series and nurture sequence, it's pretty much the same thing. So you want to have a kind of like, this kind of planned out journey for your subscribers after they join your email list.
And you can do this pretty much on auto with a nurture sequence, or welcome email series. This is just about, it could just be maybe five to seven emails, you could do it slightly longer if you want to. And you talk about things that are relevant to your brand and your business. So you don't want to talk about everything under the sun. What is your end goal? At the end of that sentence? Do you want to get them on a discovery call? Are you pitching some kind of a coaching program? What exactly is that, and then work back on what you need to convince your audience to say yes to your end goal, and then structure your content in that way. So I think one of the mistakes that people make is that they have been talking about themselves which is good, but they don't really have a direction. So they don't really know what kind of emails to have within that welcome email series or a nurture sequence. So when in doubt, always think about the end goal, right? Like, what?
Annie: Yeah, exactly what do people need to hear from you in order to say yes? And then, don't be so focused on the how-to content.
Meera: Yes, correct how-to content can actually work against you. I think about changing perspectives, changing false beliefs, or any myths or mistakes that people have, these are the things that you want to bring out. And these are the things will get people to have those aha moments or those lightbulb moments, and they will all right. I never knew this, she is the one who brought this to my attention. And I think she's someone I can trust is credible, who's trustworthy. This is how it's going to lead into that. So my top tip, I would say after the minimum viable would be to have a dedicated nurture sequence a welcome email series.
And don't be afraid to kind of pitch your services, or have the appropriate ask at the end of that sequence. And it doesn't have to be a million sales emails.
Annie: I didn't have one of these for a long time, I was doing a good job of consistently sending out like an email a week on a newsletter, but I wasn't when you sign up for the list, you weren't getting anything for me. Until about a few weeks ago, I'm like a reformer, I finally got my act together. If you've never had email marketing or anything like that, you create a couple of different emails, you put them in an order, and then you set it so that when anybody downloads something free from you, they get this series. So they get a couple emails, and then you know, I typically do it where there's a welcome, couple emails, and then they get into a nurture sequence that sort of goes on forever, where they get an email from me a month that's like, hey, I mean, if you're watching Branding with Friends, you're likely on this list.
And so you're gonna get a tip for me for my greatest hits about branding. And that's a great thing. And one of the things that makes it wonderful is it's a system. And so this is something that makes life easier. And you're confident that you're sharing your brand story and your invitation to work with you. So, you know, I think it's great to say, don't be afraid to do that. You don't have to sell on every email. But the whole point of it is that you know, someone's interested in you to help them through the journey, what do they need to know to talk to you or to take that next step with the course because they came to you because they're interested in solving a problem.
And I think if you talk up the solution, you know, who doesn't want the solution to their problem, that's why they're there. So I love that you're sharing that and thank you so much for being here today. I know you've got one more tip for us. But before we get there, I know you have some great things you wanted to share with our audience. So what did you want to share with Branding with Friends today?
Don’t miss this special opportunity for “Branding with Friends” fans…
Grab Meera’s book, 300 Email Marketing Tips, off Amazon or check out her email course at meera.email/course
Meera: Yeah, so for anyone who kind of has email marketing on their radar, I do have a book on Amazon. It's called 300 Email Marketing Tips. It's very simple, kind of like a status illusion. You know, it talks a lot about getting started with a lead magnet, a welcome email series, and kind of what to do after that. So that's something that you can go and check out or I also have a free email course meera.email/course.
Annie: That's another way to kind of get to know more about email as well as where you can take lots of action with Meera’s help. I love that you have a book about it on Amazon, that's perfect. And if this episode's gotten you thinking, well, I have no idea what I would do for that content. I don't know who I'm really trying to target or who my ideal clients are, you can talk with me about that always greateststorycreative.com, just grab the free consultation button up in the top right,
Meera, I'm so glad you were here, you shared two really powerful tips with us, which were the Minimum Viable approach, and then have an intentional welcome and nurture sequence where you're not afraid to sell a solution to a problem. What is that third thing that we want to make sure we tell people today?
#3 Action Tip
Clean your list regularly
Meera: The third thing is something that a lot of people overlook. And that is to clean your list regularly. So don't just focus on alright, I'm going to hide more people on my email list, you want to make sure that you clean that list every three to six months. And this is because you know, it's very natural sometimes, and we are on so many different lists as well, we end up kind of subscribing and forgetting about it. And we just kind of end up dumping those emails. You know, deleting them, or some people might even kind of drag them into the junk or the spam folder, you don't really want to do this, because it kind of getting a little bit technical here. But whenever someone doesn't open your emails, doesn't engage with them, or they kind of dragged you into the junk or spam folder, it kind of sends a signal to the email delivery systems and the providers, you know, the Yahoo mail from Gmail, that hey, maybe this is spam.
So what ends up happening is more of your email ends up in spam even to people who, who naturally want to open your emails, or who have been opening your email. So you want to avoid all of that. Because you kind of get that sender score, and you don't want your score to kind of decrease. So, I don't really want to get too technical into it. But it's really good practice to clean your list. So, anyone who hasn't really opened your email or hasn't engaged with anything for some time, three to six months, it's good to just send out an email and kind of let them know that hey, you know, you haven't really engaged with my email. That's fine. But you know, if you still want to be on click that link below or otherwise. So if they click the good, if not, it's perfectly fine, you just go ahead and delete them. And what this does is you will see an immediate kind of bump in your open rates. And your click rates as well. And it will give you a better picture of your stats. A better picture of alright, this is something they like this email is really resonating with them. Because we don't have all of those people who are not opening or not engaging, kind of bringing down your stats, you know, people who are kind of just gone silent after a very long time. And this happens to all of us. Don't hesitate to prune your list and keep it small, keep it kind of healthy and agile.
Annie: I would say I love that you said that, like keep your list small is like a message no one is saying but it's quality, again, quality over quantity.
And keep in mind that like, you know, Gmail and Outlook and these other email providers, they talk back to the email marketers like ConvertKit and Flodesk and MailChimp. And they say, oh, these people are reporting this as spam. Because I've noticed a trend. I know I do it with some folks that have just added me, you know, but also, we didn't talk about this, please do not add people to your list without permission. Because I get added all the time to these, like people pitching me on, you know, can we offer these services? No, you can't. And I'll just hit the spam button. And so at a certain point, you want to make sure that you're not showing up that no one's sort of thinking of you as spam, like, but I think that three to six months as a check-in and also offering the email of, hey, did you still want to get these emails? You know, you're still offering them one more chance to kind of stay on the list, but I think treating it like a healthy plant that you prune is a great analogy.
Well, Meera, thank you so much for being here. It was lovely to talk with you about email marketing today.
Meera: Yeah, I had lots of fun, and I hope your audience and everyone kind of listening and watching they take a lot away from this and kind of start implementing a little bit here and there.
Annie: Absolutely. So we're gonna do our minimum viable approach. We're going to work on our welcome series, and then we're going to make sure that once we're growing our list and we're cleaning it and treating it like a healthy quality plant. But thank you so much. We hope you guys all enjoyed another episode of Branding with Friends. So many thanks to my special guests Meera Kothand. Tune in next time when we're going to tackle yet another topic where branding meets business
“Branding with Friends” Episode 23
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips on how to use email marketing to grow your service business:
Start with the minimum viable approach.
Have a welcome or nurture sequence, and don't be afraid to sell.
Clean your list regularly.
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To learn more about email marketing or to seek Meera’s help:
• Visit Meera at meerakothand.com
• Follow her on Instagram: @meerakothand and Pinterest: @meerakothand
• Check out Meera’s book 300 Email Marketing Tips here
• Check out her free course email marketing course here
