Today I want to tell you the story of two online business owners who have a similar business model selling their programs online, using their email list as a main form of converting buyers. 

Jane had been prepping for the relaunch of her course for the last 2 months. 

She had meetings with her team to go over the results of her last promotional period so she could repurpose what performed well and focus on making changes that would hopefully increase her sales this round. 

As she was reviewing her past emails, she noticed that her subscribers responded well to emails that had subject lines that invoked curiosity or spoke to a benefit of the program. She also noticed that the subscribers who registered for her webinar accounted for almost 20% of the total sales during her last launch. She also got really great program price point feedback from subscribers who hadn’t purchased the last round when, and she decided to make a few changes to the payment options she would offer this next launch cycle. 

Her launch 2.0 day was just around the corner, and she felt confident that this launch would perform better than her previous one.The night before her cart opens, and she leans back into her computer chair, breaths a big sigh of relief after doing one last check on her email timers before she heads to bed at a decent hour. 

Next, let’s meet Sarah. Sarah is also working on her Launch 2.0 for her upcoming course and she’s spent hours up late at night trying to write her promotional emails to send to her list. She hasn’t really emailed her list in a while, and she feels that pit in her stomach emerge as she scrolls through 14 pages on her google doc of launch emails she’s supposed to have finalized and loaded into ActiveCampaign tomorrow. 

Her last launch produced not-so stellar results for her, but she’s hopeful that her webinar content will actually grab people’s attention this time around. She spent so much time scrapping and rebuilding her sales page, rewriting her emails and throwing together some affiliate invitations to her colleagues will help her see better results this time around. 

The night before her cart opens, she whips out her phone to check a link in the first email that’s supposed to be sent tomorrow, and she realizes her sales page looks all wonky on mobile. That sends her into a scramble of slack messages to the team, desperately asking her team member on the East Coast if she can work on last minute sales page edits & formatting before the email drops at 10am tomorrow. 

The next morning, Sarah is “blesses and presses” send on her first promo email, shoots an apology to her team for the late night SOS and crosses her fingers that her unengaged subscribers will convert to buyers over the next 10 days.

She thought re-launching was supposed to be easier, not harder! 

Which story do you resonate with more – Jane or Sarah? 

If you’re feeling more like Sarah, today I want to unpack 3 big mistakes business owners make while trying to sell to their email list. 

MISTAKE #1: Not Paying Attention to Email Metrics 

They can be really daunting for business owners, especially if you’re “not a numbers person” like myself, but email metrics provide you with so much insight as to which emails are performing the best, and they give you clues indicating what changes you need to make based on open and click rate data alone. 

Focus on the Big 3: Open Rates, Click Rates, and Click Through Rates. 

CLICK rates are probably my favorite. Why? Because click rates indicate CLEAR ACTION from your subscribers . And that action of clicking the links in your emails gives you solid, true data to measure and will help you refine your funnel components. 

Jane was able to prevent rewriting all of her email copy because she used the email metrics from her previous launch to direct what changes needed to be made this time around. 

MISTAKE #2: Using “Dear Everyone” When Sending Promo Emails

Email list segmentation is hands-down the "power move of the pros" when it comes to selling to their email list. Why? Because segmentation helps you drill down into the most active and engaged subscribers who have taken micro-actions (like registering for your webinar, opening your emails, and clicking on your sales page) that indicate a higher level of interest from “everyone else” on your email list.

These segments will uncover warm prospects who have a higher likelihood of converting. Building in targeted follow up emails to warm segments of subscribers during a launch is essential if you want to monetize your email list. 

Segmentation also helps you derive important insights to improve your next launch - a great example is in Jane’s story. She had a “Non-Buyer” segment that she emailed for more information about why they didn’t want to purchase, and she uncovered that it wasn’t necessarily that her program wasn’t priced well; she needed to include additional payment plans to accommodate more buyers.

I bet Jane pays attention to how many buyers choose the payment option she added when she does her Post Launch Review. 

MISTAKE #3: Not Doing a [Proper] Post Email Launch Review: 

If you want to stop reinventing the wheel every time you launch, don’t make the mistake of skipping your post-launch reviews. This review period will allow you to gather important data and interpret it to see exactly what you need to optimize for your next launch. 

The post-launch review is also when you get to check out those segments we talked about earlier and see HOW & WHY those micro-actions and behaviors turned into conversions and buyers. 

What does “gathering email data & interpret it” actually mean?

• How many with X behaviors (webinar registration) had the buyer tag? 
• How many units were sold during each day/phase of the launch? What emails correlated with those dates and sales?
• Email open and click-through rates: What worked or didn’t? Did your message resonate? Did you see the correlation of sales page clickers with any particular segment?
• Sales page conversions: Did your sales page do as you expected? Look at conversions as well as time on page, bounce and exit rates.

Don’t forget about segments of non-buyers. This is a great opportunity to reach out and learn more about them so you can pivot strategies or re-segment them for the next launch or promotion.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM MAKING THESE EMAIL MISTAKES:

The Zen Marketing Method is so helpful for business owners who are trying to monetize their email list because it’s a proven framework that will insulate you from making these 3 big marketing mistakes. 

Following the internal stages of the Zen Marketing Method: (Review, Refine, Repeat) will make sure you’re paying attention to the correct segments and behaviors and will inform you on exactly what changes you need to make for better results next time. 

Instead of scrapping all of your previous marketing assets and email copy, you’ll pinpoint exactly which components need to be refined and optimized. 

And you can relaunch with confidence, without having to reinvent the wheel. 

Thank you so much for reading. I wish you all the best with growing your business and monetizing your email list. If I can support you in any way, let’s connect here. Have a great day.