I can’t stress enough how growing your email list is such an important asset to your online business. This is why today on the podcast, we’re going to talk to Teresa Heath-Wareing, a social media and digital marketing consultant/trainer, and now, award-winning international speaker as she walks us through what we need to know about building your email list. She will touch on the topic of ways on how to build your email list, what you need to think about when setting this up, and how to leverage and make the most out of it once you’ve grown it.
Important Links Mentioned in the Show:
Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller
Action Takers with Angela Henderson
Angela Henderson Consulting Instagram
Women in Business Retreat 2020
Angela Henderson Active Business Facebook Group
Angela Henderson Facebook Business Page
Prefer to read How to Build Your Email for Business Growth? Here’s the transcript:
ANGELA:
You’re listening to the Business and Life Conversations Podcast with Angela Henderson, Episode 85.
Hey there, you’re listening to the Business and Life Conversations Podcast. My name is Angela Henderson and on this show, we talk about improving your business, life or both, by having amazing and rich conversations with brilliant guests who will inspire you and who will give you tips and tricks to help you grow both in life and in business.
Well, hey there amazing people and welcome back to another awesome episode of the Business and Life Conversations Podcast. I am your host Anj, from Angela Henderson Consulting where I am a Business Consultant and Coach who has helped hundreds of women business owners get all the pieces in place to have consistent five-figure months and then on to six-figure years without burning out in the process.
For many years, when I first started my first online business, Finlee and Me, I focused specifically on growing my social media, and also, I dabbled in a little bit of blogging here and there at the very beginning. I was also really concerned about numbers, numbers, numbers. But when I started to realize that numbers weren’t everything, things started to change.
But even more than realizing about the numbers, I kept hearing about, “Anj, you really need to focus on growing your email list. Your email list is an asset.” And I kept kind of putting it off and putting it off. But finally, I caved and I started to grow my email list. And let’s just say those people that kept telling me over and over and over again, they were 100% correct in growing my email list. You see, it has been one of the most powerful drivers behind my sales for both Finlee and Me and Angela Henderson Consulting.
So today, it’s all about how to build your email list and I’m so excited of my guest, the amazing Teresa, here, who’s going to share with us what are the benefits of building your email list, what are some ways that people can grow their email list, what do businesses need to think about when setting up their email list, and how do people leverage and make the most of their email list once they grow it. It’s going to be an epic episode, not to mention, I might just love speaking with Teresa and hearing her accent all the way from the UK.
But before we hop straight into this amazing episode, I’d like to remind you that if you enjoy this episode, I would love, love, love for you to share your key takeaway, a fun fact, or anything you’d love to share about the podcast over on your Instagram stories and then tagging me @angelahendersonconsulting. It would absolutely make my day.
This episode is sponsored by my 12-month group coaching program, Profit Pillars, which helps women in business create consistent 5k months and beyond. My 12-month group coaching program for women business owners is for women business owners who are ready to take action to grow a profitable business.
The program includes my Profit Pillar training system, which includes videos, PDF guides and more; monthly live strategy sessions, monthly hot seat calls, monthly mastermind sessions with my guest experts, 24/7 access to a private Facebook community, world-class member support, special bonuses and secret surprises, and so much more. To learn about my 12-month group coaching program, you can head to angelahenderson.com.au and click on, ‘I Want Help Creating 5K Months.’
Now, let’s jump into this juicy episode. Welcome to the show, Teresa.
TERESA:
Oh, I’m really excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
ANGELA:
Well, thank you. Thank you. Now, it is funny, for those of you that are obviously tuning in today, we have finally just pressed record on this podcast episode. This podcast episode actually started at 5:00 a.m. Brisbane time; I’m not too sure what time it was for you over in the UK, Teresa.
TERESA:
7:00 p.m.
ANGELA:
It was 7:00 p.m. your time?
TERESA:
Yup.
ANGELA:
It is now 6:36 a.m. We have just been waffling away for an hour and a half, and then we both kind of looked at each other. I was like, “Oh, we probably should press record at this stage.”
TERESA:
“We should do this.”
ANGELA:
“We should probably do this.” So it’s always fun, like…
TERESA:
I love it.
ANGELA:
Teresa and I first met at Pat Flynn’s event in March this year because we were both heading on to Social Media Marketing World. And really, we had a short conversation; it may have been a 45-minute conversation there. I think we’ve liked a few of our things on each other’s Instagram or Facebook’s or whatever. And that’s really been it. There’s been no other real other conversation between us. And so I feel…
TERESA:
But that’s just so funny that we come on and we just talk and talk.
ANGELA:
But it just felt like there was never; like, we’ve known each other for so long.
TERESA:
Yes. Exactly.
ANGELA:
So it is; when you value people and you’ve just got so much in common, so many good things happen. And I think so many people have fear around reaching out to people or asking people to have a conversation because of fear of rejection or are they going to think I’m weird?
But this is a prime example is when you ask someone, I mean since I’m asking you to come on the podcast, but when you do ask good things, good things do happen. So just be mindful that to ask because friend, you can be missing out on good relationships or opportunities. So, yes. So, it’s great to have you, great to have you here.
TERESA:
My pleasure, my pleasure.
ANGELA:
So now, before we jump into the podcast, I always like to ask a fun question so the audience gets to know you a little bit better. And so my question is I know you love a good book because if I and anyone looks at your Instagram account, there are so many legendary books on that feed. So my question to you is this, what book has impacted you the most in business and why?
TERESA:
Okay. I think it’s a really tough one because I’ve read some flipping amazing books that have impacted me, but I think the one I talk about the most is Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller. And the reason that one is so good is, one, it’s one of the early marketing books I’ve read. I don’t read many marketing books; I read lots of sort of business and self-development; that sort of thing.
But it talks about how to create your story about your business and how to market your business through words. So what it says on your website, what it says in your bio, how you pitch your business to your customers. And he uses the example of; he uses film reference, which I quite like, and he talks about Star Wars. And he’s like, “As a business owner, we are the Yodas in Star Wars, okay? We are not the hero, we are not Luke Skywalker, we are the guide.”
And often in marketing, people like to think that they’re the hero and it’s all me, me, me, me, me. And granted, as you and I both know, there has to be an element of us because people have to know us, and they’re meant to like us and trust us and da, da, da; the rest goes on. But for me, I really liked the way he pitched that in terms of where that have to go with people, their story is the best thing.
When I got a text at 10 o’clock last night and it’s a member of the academy, and she’s messaging me, saying, “I’ve just opened my car and I’ve just had my first paying customer,” like, I am like, “Yeyyy.”
ANGELA:
Like, “Hell, yes.”
TERESA:
So excited for them. So yeah, that book, if you are struggling with how to tell people what you do and how to sell with what you do but in a nice way, that book’s a great book.
ANGELA:
And can you please say the name again, just again, one more time?
TERESA:
Yeah. It’s Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller.
ANGELA:
Alright. And we will link that in the show notes. So just, everyone, if you’re frantically trying to find a piece of paper, we’ll add that to the show notes. And that is a beautiful way because as you know, we are talking about earlier before we press record is that people really do buy from people. They want to know about you and everything should really be about, again, you’re adding value first. You’re building relationships first. It shouldn’t be about the transaction.
And as many of you who’ve listened to me on my podcast know one of my favourite quotes that I have is conversations equal conversions. And in a place where people are so worried about having conversations with people, it is so important. So that sounds like a really lovely book to kind of capitalize on that.
TERESA:
That’s right. Yeah, absolutely.
ANGELA:
Love it. Love it. So tell us a little bit about who Teresa is; a little bit about your background, what are you up to? Let us know a little bit about you.
TERESA:
Okay. So I am Teresa Heath-Wareing. I am a social media and digital marketing consultant/trainer, and now, award-winning international speaker, which is pretty amazing.
ANGELA:
Yeah. I know. I just saw that; was that a few weeks ago? And I was like, “Hell, yes.”
TERESA:
Yeah. Yeah. I was excited about that and so pleased. And basically, I help businesses of all sizes, but really, my focus in the last few months and going forward is helping small businesses through my academy; online academy where I can teach them all the marketing tools, tactics, strategies they need and also support them in terms of trying to build their businesses forward.
So I’ve been doing marketing now for about 15 years. I have a podcast called Marketing That Converts and I love it. Like, honestly, I never get tired talking about it. I think it’s brilliant. There are so many options that definitely people make, but it’s totally overwhelming and people and business owners are looking at this stuff, going, “Oh my God. Like, what am I meant to do?” And they’re trying to do everything and they’re doing not very many things successfully.
So I guess my main job now is to help people understand what might work for them, what might work for their businesses and give them the kind of shortcuts. Because when you’ve done marketing for as long as I have, you’d learn what’s worth spending time and what isn’t worth spending time on and how to do things quickly to find out.
So, yeah, that’s pretty much what I do. I’m a mom, I’m a stepmom, I’m a military wife. And yeah, it’s all good fun. Hard work, but good fun.
ANGELA:
Yes. Exactly right. Like, someone was saying the other day, “Well, it just looks so easy.” And I’m like; or another comment was, “Oh, it must be nice to be you. Like, you don’t have to worry.” And I was like, “When you’re in a business, worry doesn’t just go away.” Right?
TERESA:
Yeah.
ANGELA:
But also like, you have choices. And I talk about choices all the time, but it’s like, there is an element, I’m not saying that you need to work hard to the point of hustle; I actually hate the word hustle. But there is an element that the initial years is hard work, okay? It is long hours, it is frustrating, there’s tears, there’s a variety of other things because it just is like; if it was easy, we would all be 7, 8, 9-figure business owners.
But it’s like, there comes a time where, I’m not like, “Don’t work harder, work smarter,” but you learn that through the journey. It doesn’t just happen overnight. But I do think that again, people always say, “Well, everyone has the same 24 hours in a day,” and I’m like, “Yes, we do,” but some of us, again, parenting, our hours look different, right?
But the thing is though is take away kids; if you’ve got eight hours and someone else has eight hours, and you are only able to commit, say two hours, and again, taking kids out of it. But you choose to only commit two hours, not because that’s all you can actually do; like do the math so, right? Like, statistically speaking, that person who’s got eight hours is going to move quicker than the person that’s got two hours.
And I say that for two reasons; one is you do have to put the hours in, but two, also to give yourself permission and to understand that it’s equally okay to go slower because you might have other commitments that are going on. You could be a fly-in, fly-out; married to a fly-in, fly-out person, you could be married to military, like you. There’s a variety of things that there’s other variables that could play into it.
So I say that for two reasons; one, it’s okay to go slower, but just know that if you go slower, that’s okay. But those that do have more time and hours are just going to go quicker and again, they’re putting in those hours and the hard work.
TERESA:
And I don’t think there’s a shortcut for that.
ANGELA:
No.
TERESA:
Don’t get me wrong. There are certainly things that I have done that I think, “Okay, I wouldn’t do that again or I would do that differently,” and therefore, I can advise how that might look. But in all honesty, when I’m talking to people, it’s like, “You’ve got to show up every day consistently; you’ve got to put that work in.”
And I did an email the other week to my audience and then it was about kind of this quick win how to make your business successful overnight. And basically, I was, you could say having a slight moment that that is true that there are very few overnight successes. And I was like, “Do you want,” how many Instagram followers does [Inaudible 00:12:17] have? About 200 and something based on Instagram followers. I was like, “Do you want that? Because absolutely, you can have it. This is how you do it. Post consistently every single day for seven years, which is what she’s done and that’s how she’s got all these followers.”
And it’s like, I’m sure people must have read that, “Oh, yeah, I want 200,000. Let me know, what do I have to do?” And then they read my slightly sarcastic comment of, “Just post every day for seven years.” But that’s the point, I think people are looking for shortcuts around, “How do I cheat this; get that quick, build following quick, get loads of customers quick.” And it’s like, “Do you know what? Sometimes, it just has to keep going and play out the way it has to play out and there is no shortcut.”
ANGELA:
There isn’t. And like you said is people forget about the longevity of what people have been doing. All they’re seeing is the current status of say, success or fame, but they don’t see having to work two jobs to bootstrap their business, or kids hanging on you while you’re doing an email, right? Like, people don’t talk about that. And so that’s why again, through this particular podcast is it’s important for me that we do talk about the realities of what it looks like.
I actually did a podcast episode, I think, I can’t remember what episode number it is, but it was like the 10 Realities of Entrepreneurship that People Don’t Talk To You About. And it’s like, the things I was talking about was like, “You will probably eat canned beans or on-toast, or not eat what you typically normally eat because you are having to fund the business.”
TERESA:
Yeah.
ANGELA:
And you’re probably not going to get a holiday, maybe for one of two years. You might get like a night away, but you might not get a proper holiday. You might like lose some friendships, right, throughout this process because you’re so focused. And I just talked about it and the amount of people that came back to me after that episode was like, again, it was refreshing to hear like actually this is what it’s like because they’re saying what they’re seeing online and through ads that makes it look like it’s so glamified when people aren’t talking about the behind the scenes because God forbid that happen.
TERESA:
You know, we were just talking about this about what we’ve been doing this year and that we’ve been busy, we’ve done; you did lots of travel, I did lots of travel. And I worked out the day that this year, I had done, by the time in December comes, I had done 26 flights. And people say to me, and I’ve spoken lots of different places, lots of different stages. And people go, “Oh my God. You’re doing so well, aren’t you? Oh, that’s so good.” And I’m like, “Go and check my bank balance because I can assure you what you see online and the reality are two different things.”
So like you say is you can’t take people face value because when I go and do a mastermind or when I go to an event that I’m attending, I pay for that. It’s not being paid for. So just because you see all this doesn’t mean that it necessarily is exactly what people think. And I think; like we’ve talked about, the word authenticity has turned around a lot, but actually, there’s still an awful lot of people that needs to be more authentic and more real about how hard this is and what you need to do and the work it takes and those rubbish days that everybody has and have to fight against.
So I think the problem is lots of people that start in business, they’re looking at these big people and they go in, “Oh God, my life isn’t as easy as that. Or I’m not, like, I haven’t sold six-figures yet. Like, what am I doing wrong?” And it’s like, “Absolutely nothing.”
ANGELA:
Yeah. Exactly right. You’re doing, you’re showing up every day and one of my sayings is done is better than perfect, right? Like, just keep taking action. Fail fast is another thing I talk about. Test something, fail fast, move on. But sometimes, people try and polish a freaking turd; you can’t polish a turd, like accept that actually that part could suck, but move on fast.
And one other thing that I also, I mean, you and I are very big about investing in ourselves and learning from people, but really, also about building those relationships. And so, I also think that what people, when you’re in this process about also growing and working hard is that we are also growing quicker because we’ve chosen to invest in the learning’s and the education and not trying to do it all alone.
And one of my kind of four main mistakes I see in business owners, but one of them is people doing it alone. And that you could only try and piece together YouTube videos and Google and everything like that for so long. Because if not, you’re going to become stagnant, frustrated, low all your cash, etc. So like, be mindful about that yes, you’re going to see certain things on Instagram and yes, we’re going places, but we’ve made choices about investing with these people to learn and to build those relationships.
And you know, I was speaking to someone; yes, someone said the other day, like again that, “Oh, it must be nice that you make all this money.” Well, I do make money, but what people don’t realize and I’m very open about it is at this stage, I’m only bringing home $1000 a week. Everything else that is coming through is getting tested on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, other events that I’m heading to, running the events; whatever that is.
TERESA:
Personal development. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ANGELA:
Right? And so I also think that people forget that like I’ve been doing it now for a decade, but this business for three years. It’s still; three years and it’s still infancy, alright? Like, it’s still very early days and that you’ve got to be prepared to know that you’re only going to probably draw down a very small amount of wage.
Now, that’s my choice because I’m choosing to scale and I do want to be able to impact more women in business. Now, if you chose not to, yeah, you probably could be rolling around in money, alright? And again, investing and it comes down to choices. So, yeah. So now, I know it’s not the podcast we are specifically about to get into, but I think these conversations are needed because there’s not a lot of people that I feel that talk about them on an ongoing and open basis. So, yes.
TERESA:
I couldn’t agree more.
ANGELA:
So now, you’d said a minute ago that you love talking about marketing. Like you said, you could breathe it, really, which is great because we’re going back to get into marketing and to email list. And so many people say emails are dead. Like, I hear that shit all the time. I see it in Facebook ads as kind of the headers; but I’m like, “Hell. no.”
I’m like, “My email list to me is an asset. I’m building my own race course.” And what I mean by building my own race course is that so many business owners; this is actually one of the second mistake I’m seeing businesses make is that they’re too dependent on the social media platforms; Twitter, Tiktok now even, Instagram, LinkedIn. I’ve seen multiple people’s entire profiles get taken down, their Facebook ads get shut down and their email list is either like minimal or non-existent.
And so, my thing is that it’s not dead, in my opinion, and that my email list remains an asset and that I’m building my own race course and not on other people’s land. Can you share with us what you think are the benefits of building an email list for your business?
TERESA:
Absolutely. So you said some great things there. First off, exactly what you said, these social media platforms, as amazing as they are, and I love them and they’re great, and they could do brilliant things; they don’t belong to you. They’re not yours and at any point, something could happen, or at any point, they’ll change the algorithm and it doesn’t work anymore, or they move something, or constantly, constantly changing platform.
So first off, although they’re brilliant, you can’t solely rely on those methods. Now, I have a great example and it’s a shocking one but a really good example of a friend of mine who came to work with me after this thing happened. But basically, she had run a business; she had got an online community membership where people were signing up to learn about how to be creative with their children.
And she’d used her Instagram account, she’s got this amazing Instagram account, like 70 something thousand people on her page. No small fee, as you all know, if you try and build Instagram, and she’s got loads of Instagram followers, she’s got so much beautiful content on there, because as you can imagine, teaching kids to do creative stuff is an absolute blessing in terms of images.
ANGELA:
Yes.
TERESA:
And creative stuff on social media. She’s done a brilliant job of building it. She’s got this great following. She got people signed up to her membership. And then, someone hacked into her Instagram account and wiped everything. Like, they didn’t just take down a post, they took down everything and she lost everything.
And of course, she came to me and she’s like, “What on earth do I do?” And I’m like, “Okay. We try to find some different things to try and get it sorted,” I was trying to help. But literally, there’s nothing. And with all due respect to Instagram, they don’t care. They’re not bothered. They’ve got lots of accounts and 70 something thousand might be a lot to us as business owners, but to them, it’s nothing.
ANGELA:
It’s nothing.
TERESA:
And there was nothing they could do. And she basically started again from scratch. And it’s like, we put all this time and energy into creating all this content, building these things, doing this stuff, and if something happens, what are we going to do? So for me, you’ve got to start putting people into an email list.
And the other thing is, it’s another way to market, okay? Granted, someone might choose to engage with you through social media and never open one of your emails, but it’s another option. And surely as business owners, we want as many options as we can to have a touchpoint with that customer. And it belongs to us; so that’s it. Once we’ve got someone’s email, and they’re happy for us to email them, that belongs to us.
So for me, it’s about not using that bird ground that you said. It’s about putting people on your list so you’ve got them. And also, it’s about, you can then use that data to then retarget. So go back and put that back into Facebook and do more ads to people. So there’s so many good things as to why you should have an email list.
ANGELA:
Yes. And I think like people forget because they’re all looking at the glam and say, again followers or Instagram. It’s better to have a small email list, a small Instagram following, a small whatever because quality is way better than quantity, right? So I know people are like, “Yeah. But I’ve got so many thousands on my Instagram and I’m going to have to start from scratch with my email.” We all have to start from somewhere; we all started at zero.
TERESA:
Yeah, yeah.
ANGELA:
But again, be thinking about the longevity of your business and what early interventions and mechanisms are you putting in place that if something gets shut down, your whole business isn’t going to collapse and you’ve got to go belly up because you haven’t built a following.
So yes, so many wonderful benefits, not to mention, like every time you end up in the email, again, it’s another branding; it’s another touchpoint. It’s moving people potentially closer to becoming one of your clients.
But they get to hear you, they get to know that you care about them, if, again, emails are done right. We’ll talk about that later. So, yes. So anyways. Benefits, fantastic. Now, obviously, you and I together, I think, collectively, we will answer this question. But what; you start with; what are some of the ways that people can grow their email list?
TERESA:
Okay. So for me, one of the most successful ways that I’ve grown my email list is through lead magnet. So it’s through giving people a reason as to why they want to sign up. Because at the end of the day, people don’t just do stuff because it’s nice to or because they’re kind to us.
They do it because there’s a good reason, and that reason is you give me something, whether it’s free information, whether it’s a discount code, whether it’s a checklist or something that’s going to help me and my business, and I will then give you my email address in return.
So I have a number of different lead magnets, which I have running all the time for different reasons, for different aspects of the business. But the aim is that I give them really good quality information, I give them quick wins. So my lead magnets aren’t massive; I’m not doing a 20-page e-book or a 20-part email series.
They are quick wins. “You want to know how to do this? I can help you. This is how you do it.” And you give them real added value and then ask them to come on to the email list. And in most cases, people are happy to; if you’re helping them, they’re happy to get on there.
ANGELA:
Yup. And I know like, again, a good lead magnet because you don’t want to just create something shitty because it’s going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. You actually do want to be producing, you said, quick and easy lead magnets. For those of you out there that might be new, going, “Okay, well, lead magnet. Will you describe it?” Can you give us some examples?
And I guess, my lead magnet, too, that do really well are my 50-Ways To Increase Clients and Get More Customers and Sales, right? Like, that’s a really great one, and of those 50, I think I’ve used 44 myself throughout the ten years of being in business. Another one I have is The Ultimate Business Roadmap; so it talks to you about everything that you need to do in business from like stage 1 all the way through. Those are some examples. Do you want to give an example what one of your lead magnets is?
TERESA:
Yeah. Sure. So I’ve got a few different ones. I’ve got 5 Things, 5 Ways to Build Your Email List, funnily enough.
ANGELA:
Yup. Funnily enough. Imagine that.
TERESA:
Yeah. That Most People Miss! I’ve got a sales page, the 10 Things I Always Include on a Sales Page. And then I’ve got some; you know the most popular lead magnet I have, which always kind of makes me laugh is my most popular lead magnet, which, the only place you can get it is on my website, the rest you’ll see through social media and things, it’s a 5-Part Email Series.
And it’s How to build Facebook Followers. And isn’t that hilarious? Like, I find that really funny because if you sat down and had a conversation with me or you see me on stage or you listen to my podcast, you will know that I say that’s not important. As you just said, I’d much rather have a small list, small following, but they love me.
So it’s funny that everyone is still, I say everyone; that’s a very [Inaudible 00:26:03] statement, but lots of people are still really concerned about, “I need more followers. I need more followers.” So I kind of do a different ones and I’ve just done one that funnily enough, as we are recording this today is just going out, which is about an end-of-year review, getting ready for 2020.
Now, again, that’s a little bit off what I normally do, but it’s something I do in my business. I’ve got this lovely workbook that I put together, people love that sort of stuff and it goes down a treat. So I think it’s about knowing who your audience is, knowing what they want from you because you’ve got to create something for them that they’re going to need.
And if you understand exactly who you’re talking to, then you know you’re going to be able to give them that thing and…
ANGELA:
And I think you said the key thing there is you’re going to be able to give them that thing. And one thing that I learned was a jargon word in business called message match, right?
TERESA:
Okay.
ANGELA:
And that some of my lead magnets weren’t meeting the message match. And what I mean by that is that I had this really, really great; it was my most popular lead magnet, which was 30-Days, 30-Ways of Instagram Content, right? Like, what to do. But even though it was great, it was my most popular, obviously, a lead magnet is just that – you’re leading them into getting to know you, trust you, like you, and then, obviously, you’re going to; you want them to become a client at some stage. You’re leading them in.
And so, I was leading all of these people in who weren’t my ideal client because I’m not going from an Instagram lead magnet to selling an Instagram course. I’m not going from Instagram not to being like an Instagram webinar, right? Because Instagram, though I love it, it’s not my zone of genius.
So what I learned was is my lead magnets had to be taking, for me, for my business, they had to be taking me on that journey of what they needed from me knowing that my end result, my offer, was going to be congruent with what those were only because I was then getting people on my email list and then paying.
Because as you know, the more email people you get, the more you’re going to start paying for the numbers. And then I was like, “Oh my goodness. I’m paying like all this money and they’re never probably going to buy from me.”
TERESA:
Yeah.
ANGELA:
So, yeah. So I do think it’s a message match. There was a disconnect message match because I’m not selling Instagram courses. So though people can still get that from me, it’s not something I use for my Facebook ads anymore because then, on top of that, I’ve been paying for a lead on Facebook and they just; they don’t really care about Angela Henderson’s work with me and my coaching program, right?
TERESA:
Exactly.
ANGELA:
My other thing that I also have done over the years with both the businesses is similar to what you’re saying as a lead magnet, but also, if you’re a blogger out there, don’t forget to include content upgrades. Again, universal word, it can be like, it is another; it’s a freebie that you’re giving them away that typically, it is congruent with whatever you’re teaching them in that article per se.
So for my blog, it works like knowing your ideal client, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. At the end, you can download a 10-page ideal client workbook, right? And so, they’re called content upgrades because you’re putting something inside of the content and upgrading it. And the reason why it works well is if you’ve got a thousand people that read one of your blog articles a month, do you want to have ongoing contact with them after they read the blog?
Well, most of us are going to say, “Yes.” But if you’re not capturing their email from that blog, you’re going to run into a problem. So I also have increased my email list through content upgrades. I also do 5-Day Challenges, 3-Day Challenges, 10-Day Challenges. Throughout my time, I think I ran probably about 10 to 15 different challenges.
Giveaways are another great thing. Can I just please say that though that if I see one on Instagram, it’s going to absolutely drill my head in. Read Facebook’s guidelines about what a giveaway actually is. If you’re doing like, “Like here, tag someone this,” like, you’re messing with the algorithm to start with. But two, you’re also going to like, you potentially risk like getting your page shut down.
So if you’re going to do a giveaway, take it off of Instagram, take it off of Facebook. Use stories and live to get them to where you need them to go, and then, again, collect their email. Because you can do those things and they’re like, “Oh, tag the person’s name below,” but they’re probably tagging their grandma for crying out loud, right? Just to get the entry.
TERESA:
Yeah. And that doesn’t give you anything other than another like.
ANGELA:
Another like and risk.
TERESA:
Like, some people like them, but it’s not actually building a list. It’s not doing anything. And like you said, lots of these competitions and giveaways I see are completely breaking terms and conditions all the time.
ANGELA:
Yeah. And they’re putting themselves in such a risk. So like, giveaways were great; it was one of the fastest ways I grew my other email. We would give away; we have Thermomixes over in Australia; I don’t know if you do in the UK. But Thermomix is massive and we would give those away but we would be collecting email data, right? And it was like, all the time. So we’re going to do a giveaway, do it so that they’re signing into something.
And webinars, they’re also another great way to be able to get people onto your email list. So between Teresa’s and mine, like you’ve got a variety of different options. And remember, just choose one. Set one up. You don’t have to go and do all of these. I mean, this is a decade that I’ve been testing these things. Find what works for you, but just start. Have a lead magnet on your homepage. Have an exit pop-up, but just; you got to start building that list.
TERESA:
And it takes time. Like, I constantly have about five running, but they didn’t go all up at once. They’re not all constantly all there all the time. It just takes time. And I’ve just literally, like I said, launched one today. And if you could see this piece of paper in front of me that has all the things you have to do or all the things I do, anyway, in order to put a lead magnet up, it does take a bit of work. So like you said, just start with that one thing and just have one really good lead magnet that you know your audience are going to definitely want to download.
ANGELA:
And that’s a nice little segue in there because my next question that I think and that I’m going to ask you and that listeners need to know about is great, you’re like, “I’ve got my lead magnet. We’re good to go now. I’ve got really; it’s great. People are going to love this. It’s a right message match. We’re rocking and rolling.” But then, businesses go, “Okay. Well, now what?” So my question to you is what do businesses need to also be thinking about when they’re setting up their email list?
TERESA:
So, basically, the one thing that lots of people get wrong when they’re setting up their email list is what are you actually going to do them, right? And I had exactly this. I was such a fool. I do this for a living. So don’t sit here and think we’ve got it all up because we totally haven’t or we don’t take our own good advice.
But basically, I was bringing people into my email list. So obviously, let’s just quickly touch on some of the tools and things. So I was using lead pages to create a landing page. I was then using; well, I’ve used several different email systems. But I’ve used Drip, I’ve used Infusionsoft, I’m now using Kajabi. So they put their details into a landing page, it then go through a thank you page and says, “Great. It’s on its way.”
And your email system, whichever one you’re using is then delivering the email with the thing in it. And then, you do a few warm-up emails afterwards. And what I was doing was like, I was doing all of that. That was all great. And then, I just left them and just didn’t bother emailing again. And I was just like, “Oh, well done me.” I’ve collected all these lovely email addresses and I’m doing nothing with them.
And I think that’s the point. I totally, totally believe if you are in business, no matter what business, building your email list is never ever going to be a bad thing. Everyone should do it and they should start today or yesterday, ideally. However, the other thing is you’ve got to think about, “Okay. If I am going to start building this email list, what am I going to do for them?”
Because there’s no point building an email list, never emailing them and then trying to sell something to that list who are going to be cold as anything by the time you do it. So they have to be hand-in-hand. You have to start building it as you start then deciding what you’re going to be doing and how you’re going to be emailing them.
ANGELA:
Because again, for those of you that don’t have an email list or again, or maybe you’re on a free software; so again, Madmimi, Mailchimp, etc. to potentially start with because you’re email list might be like, say a hundred or 500. You have to start really is that as your list grows, you’re going to get pushed up into other paying brackets and things start to become expensive as your email list grows if they’re not going to be people that buy from you.
So again, you’ve got to be able to go, okay, like what are you going to be doing with them? Exactly right. And how are you nurturing them? And you also mentioned like cold. So for those of you people out there that again, so that we’re all on the same page, an audience know that comes to you when they first get that lead magnet is they’re still cold.
They know nothing about you. Why should they trust you, why should they build their credibility that through your email list, whether or not that’s fortnightly or weekly, you’re going to want to be having conversations with them, giving them value, whether or not you’re linking them the blog post or a podcast etc. and then start warming them.
And then you want to start looking at, “Well, how can I then letting them know what my offers are?” So often, actually, I think, you and I, we were talking about this earlier is that you only hear from certain people when they’re doing a big launch. And it’s actually the number one thing that could be so detrimental to a launch because people; it’s a seagull analogy that I hear is people say actually she going to teach that from [Inaudible 00:35:28].
So often I see in Facebook groups; I’m very active in my Australian Business Collaborative group. But most of the other big players that I know, the only time I see them in their Facebook group is when it’s launch time.
TERESA:
Yes, just before. Yeah.
ANGELA:
And so they come in and they’re like a seagull. They shit all of their launch and promotions in there and then they fly back out. And I say, don’t be the seagull. Just, you genuinely still have to treat people whether or not that’s on Facebook or on your email list, you still have to be having conversations with them, you still have to have regular touchpoints, you still have to be adding value to them. So again, when you’re setting this all up, don’t be a seagull.
TERESA:
Yeah. I love that.
ANGELA:
The other thing is when you’re setting things up, like choose a platform, in my opinion, that you can move from. So I, personally, I used Kajabi, I used ActiveCampaign and I’ve also used Convertkit. With my first business, Finlee and Me, I did use the freebies because I was like, “Oh, that’s all I can afford.” And again, I do, as many of you know, done is better than perfect, okay?
But if this was one of the biggest things I wish I didn’t do in this instance was that the lesson I had to learn; when you start to get a lot of really juicy lead magnets going; so you might have that homepage, one; you might then have an exit pop-up; you might then be doing a challenge, alright? Little as you grow. And you have to switch email providers because you’ve outgrown the other one, you have to then re-do all of your landing pages. You have to recode them and connect them, okay?
So all I can say is if you haven’t started your email list or your email list is still very small, really ask yourself if I’m on one of those lower-cost point ones. Again, like I believe, Mailchimp, Madmimi; those ones. Consider moving now to another platform. And like I said, Kajabi, Convertkit, any of them are great that you’re not going to run into a ball because if not, I can’t tell you that hours and hours of having to fix things; they go with that.
TERESA:
Oh, we did this twice. Like previously, we went from Drip then to Infusionsoft then to Kajabi. The time we moved from Infusionsoft to Kajabi, it took five days to transfer everything across to recreate every single landing page, to recreate every thank you page, every funnel, every copy of emails, let alone that actually bringing across the people into Kajabi. So I totally agree.
If you are starting this, then I know it can be a little bit intimidating initially when you think, “I don’t want to spend any money because I haven’t got a massive list.” But if you are trying to do these nice things like lead magnets and funnels. And the other thing is you want to tag them. So every time anybody comes into my email list from any point, I tag them so I know how they’ve come in, I know what they’ve got, I know what they’ve downloaded so that I can see how warm that person is, but also, what they’re interested in. Because I do; I have a kind of method that I teach and it’s basically get seen, get emails, get sales, get fans.
And I have lead magnets that relate to each section of those things. And it’s like, I want to see where they are in their business so I can then have a conversation with them about it. So I tag them with everything. So I can look at anybody on my email list right now and I can tell you where they’ve come from, what they’ve downloaded, what they’ve done with me, how they’ve engaged with me. And again, the more expensive, the smarter systems can do that.
But I know, to begin with, people who are a bit like, “Oh, I don’t really want to spend that money,” and I get it. But if you’re going to be doing any of that, then I think that is worth investing in.
ANGELA:
And I think it’s about sometimes we play small at the beginning, right? Because we’re like, “What if my business doesn’t work out?” But what if you actually do invest a little bit more, like it might only be $20 or $25 a month. Like, we’re not touching a huge investment. But instead of thinking, “What if my business doesn’t work out?” What if we then go, “Well, my business is going to work out and I’m setting myself up for future success,” versus thinking, “Oh, I just want; oh, I don’t know.”
So that’s how I look at it. I’m like, you can always; if you need to, go back. But really, that $25 or that $30, whatever they are, based on how big your email list is, it’s so beneficial because the data you’re collecting is it helps you to plan for what other content is working and how you’re going to talk about that or bring that on a podcast. Or it could be what future programs you create, right? Or what future products you bring out.
So it is; it’s really important. And I know that some of this that Teresa and I might be talking about sound a little bit more complex, and it’s not to scare you all, but it’s about to try to give you the bigger picture. It’s not just about getting an email, right? It’s not just about getting that email address.
You really need to think about, one, what program are you going to invest in; and we’ve talked about a few of those ones today. Two, what type of lead magnets are you going to be doing and what is that leading to for you from a sale? And then three, also, nurturing them; what mechanisms are you going to be doing to put in place to nurture them?
One thing that I don’t know, what we haven’t talked about yet is when someone gets a lead magnet, like get to your lead magnet and it’s emailed to them, there’s a thing called a nurture sequence, right? And so, it’s typically 3, 4, 5 emails that might go out automatically on the system that you’ve chosen; ActiveCampaign or Kajabi, it just gives them a little bit more about who you are.
So once your lead magnet is developed and you’ve set it up on there, you then want to make sure that you’ve got your nurture sequence in place so that again, they’re not just getting one thing and you’re doing the seagull and running. So, yes.
TERESA:
Yeah. Absolutely.
ANGELA:
And for those people that are starting out, what’s like one little piece of advice that you would give them?
TERESA:
So I think for me, it’s about seeing my email list as a composition; like you just said, and as an asset, but as your community. So not just using them to sell to people, not just using it to shout in the marketing sense, but trying to start that conversation so that every email I send; I send an email every single Wednesday night. It’s written by me; I profess not to be the best writer in the world; there’s probably typos.
But I guarantee that I sat there writing it every single week and it’s my voice, and it comes from me, and I talk about things, and I share tips and tools. And then I might just whip around about something that happened that week or whatever. But what’s lovely is inevitably, during that email, I start a conversation and people email me back. And then, I email them back because they took the effort to come and email me.
So for me, I want you to see them that they’re your community, and therefore, you need to add value to them. You need to give them stuff that is going to help them with whatever it is that you are helping people with. So love them rather than seeing them as just another asset to sell to.
ANGELA:
Yup. And that’s what so many people I think, again, and that’s why you and I get along so well is that we’re treating them like people. It’s not just about the transaction. It’s about the long-term. Again, there’s some people that I never hear about, but also because I’m adding value, people are still talking about me to other people.
Just because they might not be ready to work with me doesn’t mean that they don’t know other people that could benefit from working with me or working with you or etc.
TERESA:
Absolutely.
ANGELA:
But again, if you lead by giving value first versus being the seagull, the longevity of your business is going to be far greater because again, they’re not just numbers for you.
TERESA:
Absolutely. And do you know what? When you do sell, because obviously, we’re in business, we do have to at times, although I find it particularly uncomfortable, but we have to do that. When I do sell, I don’t get loads of unsubscribes. I don’t get people being like, “Oh, God. This woman is driving me crazy.”
I get really kind of; I give people a very honest opt-out. I say to them, “Listen, I’m about to start telling you why you should join the academy and I’m probably going to send you a few extra emails than I would normally send you. If you don’t want to get them, just drop me an email back and I will take you off it. Not a problem.”
ANGELA:
Yeah.
TERESA:
And I had one person email me saying, “I love your emails. They’re brilliant. But I don’t want to join the academy. Could you please make sure I don’t get this.” And I emailed her back and I said, “Absolutely. No problem at all.” And I tagged her with a no, but she was the only one. And obviously, I’ve grown my email list for quite some time. I keep it trim, I keep it like, I do clean out and I do get rid of people who aren’t engaged.
But she was one person, I have thousands. So for me, it was absolutely worth doing that and having that honest conversation. But because I’ve added value for so long, they’re much more lenient and accepting when you do go into something like that.
ANGELA:
Yup. And what I also like there is that you touched upon briefly about unsubscribes, right? When we first start in business, I think we all are like, “Oh my God. Ten people unsubscribed from my list. Ahhh.”
TERESA:
And then you look at them and you’re like, “Why did they unsubscribe?”
ANGELA:
And so you start to go into mini freak out, right? Well, I know I did and most people I know do.
TERESA:
Yup.
ANGELA:
But remember, again, when we start in business, there’s so many moving pieces that we just want the best for everything. But just know that unsubscribes are part of the process. We unsubscribe from things ourselves every single day, okay?
So just remember that it doesn’t mean that it’s a, “No again forever,” or maybe it is, but the reality of it is that you don’t want those people on your list anyways because you don’t need to be paying for things and people that don’t want to be part of your community. So just know that unsubscribes are going to happen. I relish the unsubscribes because it means my list is actually more my people who I can help. So just don’t freak out about the unsubscribes.
And the other thing that you mentioned there, which I also think is good is clean your email list out regularly. Like, I just got rid of 2,200 people off my email list. Now, some people are like gasping probably. Like, “Oh my God. You got rid of them.” But with these tools like Kajabi, Convertkit, ActiveCampaign; you can see who’s been active, when was the last time they opened an email.
If they’re sitting there stagnant, but I’m now paying $150 US a month to have them, like, all of those people on my list because I’m in that next threshold, well, $150 US is close to probably $200 and something Aussie dollars a month. That’s like $200 a month. That’s $2,400 a year that I’m paying for people that don’t want to be part of my community. So you do have to clean, like once your list starts to grow, regardless of the size, you can always be cleaning your list.
TERESA:
Yes. And do you know what? I’ve worked with so many people who were like, “Oh, no, no. I’ve took ages to build this list.” But it’s like, but it’s absolutely pointless if they’re not doing anything; if they’re not engaging, if they’re not opening an email. It’s again, it’s that vanity number that we all like to; we want lots of followers, we want lots of people to like our stuff.
But in total honesty, in running a business, likes, email lists, followers, they don’t pay the bills. They’re not paying your mortgage. I mean, if only that would be it. But they’re not, and therefore, it’s pointless having them there because if they’re not engaging, they’re not going to buy, they’re not your customer.
ANGELA:
And also, like I used to be one of Australia’s leading parenting bloggers. And so, when I was, would get signed to work with a company, they obviously would want the metrics. And so, at the beginning when I first was getting signed with bigger brands to work with them, I was like, “Oh my God,” part of my email list was one of the functions a lot of people wanted because I had like 50,000 people on my email list at one stage.
But what we did though was, at the beginning, because again, you don’t know what you don’t know, I thought it was the numbers, right, that people wanted. They wanted, “Oh, I had 50,000.” But as I grew and as the people who were signing me grew, they wanted to know what my open rate was and what my click-through rate was. So again, what are they actually doing in that email?
And so when I started to clean my email list, I think I then went down to about 30,000 out of the 50. Once I started to clean that, if I had 50,000 people on my email list and my open rate was 15% and my click-through rate; these are just random numbers; 7%. But when I went down to 30,000, my open rate then went up to say 35%, and my click-through rate went up to say 20%.
And those were the numbers they wanted because when people, if you are in a business where people want to pay you to be able to get on your email list or to advertise in that email list like a marketplace or a directory or something like that, the reality of it is, a good business owner is the metrics they’re wanting is open rate and click-through rate because they know that their stuff is getting seen in front of these people. It’s not the 50,000.
Now, you do have some people that are just looking at the bigger number; you don’t want to work with those businesses anyways because they’re not going to understand the nature of what you do. So just be mindful that your numbers will start to increase because again, more people are doing it versus that larger number distribution. So, yeah.
TERESA:
Yeah, absolutely.
ANGELA:
So again, emails, I think we could keep talking all day. But we will wrap up, but I have a couple more questions for you. What is the big thing that you’re working on for 2020?
TERESA:
So it’s all about the academy. So I opened my academy last; a couple of months back. I opened it because I want to concentrate on the people in there. The carts are now open and will continue as far as I can see to stay open. And I just want to get as many people in there as possible so I can help as many small businesses in an affordable way.
Because as a consultant, I always get into a point where my daily rate was reaching sort of $3,000 a day and it’s just completely unrealistic. And people will come into me going, “I want to work with you,” and I wanted to work with them, too, because I just love helping and doing what I do and there wasn’t a way a could do that; not sort of financially viable for lots of people. So totally focused on the academy.
And doing more this year about; I did an email the other day about ego versus profit. I did a lot, I’ve done a lot of speaking this year and I’ve done a lot of travelling and I spend lots of money on things. And I think this coming year, for me, it’s about not spending loads more on things, being really careful around spending my money and just cracking on with it; just using these tools I’ve got, using the communities I’ve got.
I’m in a couple of memberships myself. They are brilliant and really focusing then on those things. And trying to weigh up everything that it’s lovely to go and be flown off somewhere to go and speak, but actually, what is it doing for the business? Because I think sometimes, we can be totally like just drawn in by the fact that I’m invited to speak in Istanbul next year. I am doing that one. But you know, actually what is it doing for the business? So that’s all my focus is – all on the academy.
ANGELA:
And it is. I think again you brought something up is about looking also at your time and money, right? Like, the ROI in what you’re doing and what is that meaning for your business. And I’m just on an Instagram live yesterday actually about that it’s okay to say NO. And it’s equally okay to say YES, too, but really be thinking about that for every time you say yes, you’re saying no to something else.
So I, too, have been to a lot of speaking events that I did this year. I was obviously saying no to other things for my family, right? And that’s okay because there was some ROI. But then, there’s other things that I said yes to that I was like, I didn’t answer my next question. So I always say, “What am I saying yes to? Which means, what am I saying no to?”
And I ask myself the question, “What is the ROI in this yes for both my family and my business?” So I look at them and they’re pretty much; there has to be ROI for both components for me to really be a hard yes on anything. Because it’s just, again, I’m getting older an my kids are getting older. I mean, I am only 40, so I’m not like, I’m not a granny or anything, yet.
But I think my priorities have changed over the time as I’ve grown older, right? And every one of our priorities is different, but yeah, I do appreciate it. We’ve got to be looking at the ROI when we’re saying a yes and giving yourselves permission to say no.
TERESA:
And like you said, I’m the same age; I’m 40. I’ve got a 10-year old daughter, I’ve got a 16-year old stepson. And when you travel, it’s not just the time you’re away, it’s the fact of prepping to go and clearing your desk and sorting out your work so that you can free up a bit of time when you’re over there. So I normally have to batch things before I go.
It’s then coming back and being exhausted from travelling or exhausted from speaking or trying to get over jet lag. So a week trip or a four-day trip can actually turn into a sort of eight days with the pain and where you’re taking away from your family. And I think, like you said, not only from a business point of view but for a personal point of view, I think I’m going to start asking myself a bit harder, “Is this absolutely worth what I’m doing or am I just doing it because it looks nice on Instagram?”
ANGELA:
Yeah, exactly right, because it’s Instagram-worthy, but it’s not profit or revenue or satisfaction.
TERESA:
Exactly. It means nothing.
ANGELA:
And I also do say to myself like, obviously, I do the ROI testing thing. But then, I also like, “But does this fill my cup?” Right? So it can still pass those first two tests if there’s ROI for my family and ROI for that. But do I actually want to be around this group of people?
TERESA:
Yes.
ANGELA:
Do I want to like; will I feel like happy and full? And does this event or does this thing that I’m buying bring me joy, right? And sometimes, it doesn’t make that third test. And I’m just like, “Well, then, what am I doing?” Like, if I get minimal time with my family and I’m going to go spend them with random strangers that don’t fill my cup up for four days, that’s like again, so I also look in my energy and what does that bring in and fill me in. So, yeah.
Now, I’ve got one final question. What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started in business?
TERESA:
Oh, man. Let me think. What do I know now that I wish I knew? I think for me is to work on me as a person. So when I started the business, I just thought, how hard could this be? I worked in marketing, it was 10 years by that point. I’ve worked in marketing in 10 years, I know what I’m talking about, I know what I’m doing, I’ve got all the tools and tactics, which lots of people don’t normally have because obviously, they’re doing their thing in their industry and my industry just happens to be marketing.
And I thought to myself, “This is fine.” And one thing I didn’t consider is the impact – my mood, my mindset and my own personal development would have on my business. So you could have the best tools and tactics in the world, you could have the best product, the best everything, but if you wake up in the morning and you feel like, “I don’t want get out of bed and I can’t be bothered, or I’m not motivated,” or you’ve got to deal with something difficult and it upsets you and it affects your mood, then basically, you’re in trouble.
And I think as an employee; because I was employed for 10 years before starting my own business; you can deal with that much, much easier. But as a business owner, when you’ve got to show up every day, you’ve really got to work on your mindset. So for me, that all changed when I got a coach and my coach was amazing and she is just brilliant at helping me see things, in helping me see how I react to things.
And you know the one thing that she said, which really helps me now is when things are tough, she would say to me, “What if you’re exactly where you need to be?”
ANGELA:
Exactly.
TERESA:
“What if this is meant to be like this now because you need to tell the story or because you need to learn that lesson or because it’s freeing you up for something else?” And I think in essence, what she was kind of saying is, or what it really helps me with is I couldn’t necessarily change if I lost a client.
Because we have an agency as well and that’s where my businesses is focused for the first three years and then I’ve been moving over this year, for service, I moved over this year. But like, if I lost clients or I didn’t win that pitch or whatever, the only thing I could affect was my own mood.
And I didn’t realize that before working with her and just reframing it and going, “What if I was meant to not get that client because another amazing client is on its way?” Or, “What if I was not meant to keep that client because actually, they’ve not been good for me and my mental health?” Or whatever it is. So I really loved that and that has helped me massively in my business.
ANGELA:
Yup. And it’s okay to put yourself first. It’s okay to take care of you and understand you and all of that goodness. Now, for those people that would love to connect with you, my friend, where can they find you?
TERESA:
Do you know what? Whatever your favourite social media platform is, go and find Teresa Heath-Wareing and you will find me everywhere. So if you check out teresaheathwareing.com as well, you’ll find me there. And yeah, pick your favourite platform and find me there and I would love to say hi to you.
ANGELA:
Well, fantastic. Well, thank you so much. It has been an awesome really, almost two and a half hours hanging out with you. And so, we will probably chat for a few minutes even after we hit the stop record.
But before we sign off, just a reminder that my team and I will also be putting together this whole transcription for this episode at angelahenderson.com.au. So we’ll have the book link there, we’ll have all of her social handles there. You can get that at angelahenderson.com.au. And as I mentioned earlier, if you enjoy this episode, I would love for you to share it, especially over on your Instagram stories and tag me at @angelahendersonconsulting. Or really, you can share wherever; that would totally rock.
And lastly again, if you are listening to this podcast and you haven’t subscribed or left a review, I would equally love that, too. Again, thank you so much, Teresa, for being here today and adding the golden nuggets around email list building.
And for the rest of you, have a fabulous day no matter where you are in the world and I look forward to you joining me next week for another amazing episode of the Business and Life Conversations Podcast. Have an awesome day everyone.
Thanks for listening to the Business and Life Conversations Podcast with Angela Henderson, How to build your email list. www.angelahenderson.com.au
