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Did you know there are four billion daily users checking email every single day? Email is still king in the marketing world, and in today's episode, marketing and brand strategist Blaire Brown breaks down the top three email campaigns every entrepreneur should have in their business.

Blaire Brown is the founder & brand strategist behind Visionary Advantages Brand Strategy Group. Her group specializes in helping businesses and entrepreneurs with leveling up their marketing & branding strategies

Website // Instagram // Done For You Welcome Sequence Freebie // Curate Your Success Podcast

The episode:

Katrina Widener: Hello everyone. And welcome back to another episode of the Badass Business Squad podcast. I am so excited to have Blaire Brown on here today. Hi Blaire. 

Blaire Brown: Hello, hello! I'm the excited one here. 

Katrina Widener: So I'm really excited because today we're going to be jumping into email marketing. But before we dive into all the magical goodies, Blaire would you mind just introducing yourself to everyone who's listening and giving them an idea of who you are and what you do. 

Blaire Brown: Absolutely. So my name is Blaire Brown and I'm the founder and brand strategist behind Visionary Advantages, Brand Strategy Group. Basically what we do is we help businesses level up all their marketing and branding initiatives, and we also help the entrepreneur as well. So that's really the passion behind our business. We love helping entrepreneurs, so any pro tips, we will send them your way. 

Katrina Widener: I love it, thank you so much. So I'm excited because we're going to be talking about something that I don't think we've gone in depth on the podcast before, which is email marketing and like very specifically, which types of email campaigns are going to be best for everybody listening. So before we dive in, I wanted to quickly talk about why you find email to be something that is so beneficial for people. Because I definitely find it to be super, super beneficial, but I'm very curious what your thoughts are before we really dive in. 

Blaire Brown: Sure. Well, there's a million reasons why if you're running a business you need to be on email. Outside of just having your normal email address, you need to have a system in place. So that way it's doing the work while you're asleep, because anything I can set up and automate for my business in an authentic, effective way? I'm doing it, and email is the best way to do that.

Because let's say social media breaks down tomorrow, Instagram goes down, Facebook, whatever. It happens, it happened just a few months ago even. And everybody who runs their business strictly on those platforms went into panic mode. "Oh my God, what am I going to do? My business is going down. How do I get in touch with my potential clients, my following?" What would you do in that moment? So if you have an email system in place with subscribers, you would not be freaking out like that ever because you have direct access to them at all times, every time you hit send on an email, it's going to their inbox and your email is not going to break down. I'm going to knock on wood right now, but it's really not going to. It's different from social media. So it's much easier to rely on email rather than social media. Definitely get that in place. That's my number one thing. Then also there's 4 billion daily users on email every single day. 4 billion. So if you can get a part of that connected to your business, you'll be good. 

Katrina Widener: I love it. I 100% agree also for everyone listening, in my past life as a marketing specialist? Email is king. Because you own that, right? Like when it comes to email, you own your email list. You can download that, save it to your website, have it in Google docs. You can have that be something where it's like, "I can switch email platforms, but bring everything with me every single time." Whereas like you're saying on social media, if you were to lose everything, you'd have to start from scratch.

Blaire Brown: RIP! 

Katrina Widener: So now that everybody's like, "Okay, cool. I definitely want part of that, what was it, 4 billion?"

Blaire Brown: 4 billion. Lot of people checking their email a lot. 

Katrina Widener: Yeah. Everyone's like, "All right I want a piece of that pie." So where would you tell people to start? If we're really looking at email marketing, where are we starting off?

Blaire Brown: First go through the different email softwares, email providers that are available. What makes sense for you and your business right now? Whether it's MailChimp, ConvertKit, there's a million other ones. I personally use Flodesk. It all just depends on what kind of functionality that you want. So start there, sign up, commit, and then just start searching through all the different features that they have and put something into place.

Katrina Widener: Yeah. So I have also used Flodesk. I've also used MailChimp. I'm currently using Squarespace. So like also for everyone, who's kind of like, "All right where do I start?" There are so many options. So I 100% agree.

Blaire Brown: Yeah, it just depends on where you're at. You know, what features make you happier, you know?

Katrina Widener: Exactly. 

Blaire Brown: Are you really data-driven or are you more about appearance? Just depends. So just do a quick little, take one hour out of your day, go through some options. Talk to people like Katrina and they'll walk you through the steps of what they have done, and where they recommend you go. 

Katrina Widener: Exactly. Exactly. And there are so many types of email campaigns you can also do. So for the people who are getting started being like, "Okay, so I've done email in the past and I just couldn't commit to it. Or I'm just now getting started." There are a lot of different ways that you can tackle email. And I'm also really excited because that's some of the juicy goodness that I'm going to have Blaire tell you guys about. What are the best email campaigns that you would suggest to entrepreneurs out there? 

Blaire Brown: Right. So I think every entrepreneur needs three in their life. Always a magic number with most things marketing, so I'm bringing it on here too. First one being your welcome sequence. In a welcome sequence I would say, you need to have about four emails on average. You can have three, you can have more. Follow your heart, but four as a healthy number. And basically you're going to share all about yourself to your audience.

They hit subscribe. They typed in their email address. Actually, it's the opposite. They typed it in, then they hit subscribe. And then they are, you know, at your fingertips! They want to learn about you. They acted on that. So show them what you got. Tell them who you are, what to expect from you moving forward, like, "Oh I'm going to be in your inbox X amount of times per week. And I'm going to be sharing tips about my area of expertise, or I'm going to give promo coupons every once in a while," things like that. Just give them a little view of what you're going to be sending. So that way you're cosying up with them.

So that's a welcome sequence, and that can be completely automated. You sit down one time, you write them out, you get pumped about it. You brand the heck out of them. Set it up? Forget about it. The best thing ever. 

Katrina Widener: Yes. 

Blaire Brown: Then you're connecting with people while you're asleep. It's just they sign up, you're not working at that point, it's just doing its thing off into the sunset. 

So the second sequence I recommend every entrepreneur has in place is a nurture sequence. Now in the nurture sequence, you're past the honeymoon stage. Now you're really warming up and delivering value. So I think a common misconception about email marketing is people think, "Oh, I don't want to be salesy or annoying." It's not about that. It's about delivering value and building up that trust factor with your audience. And then if you're delivering tips and things to warm them up? It's going to be a great email relationship and they're going to want to see what you're delivering every week. 

So it doesn't have to be about sales. It can just be something cool that you're doing that you're updating them about, something newsy. Promote an awesome testimonial that just came in for one of your clients. Brag about it. You're not selling anything. You're just saying, "Hey, I'm pretty awesome. Remember?" Maybe the next time they need your service they're like, "Oh yeah. That testimonial came through. That's something I'd need help with." So it was just nudging them, reminding them that you're there. It's not overly salesy at all.

Katrina Widener: Yeah! So the nurture sequence, also just to throw my 2 cents in guys, I love it because it's a great way that you can also show exactly who you are and what your take on things is. I love that you were talking about the honeymoon stage, because when you think about a sales relationship like a dating relationship, it makes everything make more sense, right? You can start looking at things and being like, "Oh so I'm not going to ask someone to marry me on the first date. So I'm also not necessarily going to sell to them on the first date." My goal on that first date is to get a second date. 

Blaire Brown: Yeah! 

Katrina Widener: For me on my email, I do Q and A's with people, right? Someone might ask a business question and I answer it in video format and link that in an email because that's getting people an insight to who I am, to how I coach, right? All of this behind the scenes kind of stuff. 

Blaire Brown: That's awesome. 

Katrina Widener: And I feel like that's such the power of the nurture sequence. 

Blaire Brown: Yeah. And what's cool about that is that you said it's behind the scenes. It's something you're already doing, so it doesn't have to be hard. You could just use what you're doing in everyday life and then just putting it into video format or typing a few lines in an email. It's that simple. So I think a lot of times people think about emails, they're like, "Ugh it's just another task." But it doesn't have to be! If you're already doing it, why not just take what you're already doing and making it valuable content for your people that want to hear from you? That's a pretty cool little relationship going on. 

Katrina Widener: So before we dive into the next type of email campaign, I know you had mentioned for the welcome email campaign, maybe like four emails as ideal. How would you recommend someone set up the nurture campaign that same way.

Blaire Brown: So the nurture campaign, I like this little formula, and I don't even know if maybe it's not a formula. It's what I do. I like to send out two emails a week and if you're starting out, start with one a week. Don't kill yourself, build up. It'll get easier over time. It's like exercising a muscle, right? But have one super valuable, impactful email, and then the next email could be something like an invitation or sharing about a product. "Hey, come check out my Instagram channel." Maybe you're trying to boost your YouTube views or something, "Check out this video!" Like I said, it's not selling anything. It's just an invitation to some content that they might not have known about, but they want to know more about. So opening the doors to your life, your business. 

Katrina Widener: I love it. I love it. Okay, so what would be the next email marketing campaign you would suggest for people? 

Blaire Brown: All right. I wish I had a drum roll button here, but I don't have one... promotional emails! When you've all been waiting for, right? 

Katrina Widener: Yay! 

Blaire Brown: Jazz hands! Basically promo emails are so fun. You obviously are a business, you've got to sell stuff. Otherwise you're out of business. So you could do things like launch emails, maybe you're launching a new YouTube channel or you're launching a new clothing line, or even just a different detailed product. It could be literally anything. So launch emails, new product announcements, and build up. Contests? Maybe you're trying to build up your Instagram following. So throw in a contest! You have something where, you know, "Follow back. Comment this many times," put that in an email, why not? There's so much you could do in the promotional, discount codes obviously. You're promoting yourself. 

So you already have that welcome stage done, that's automated, right? Then you have your nurture sequence. That's also probably automated and you can just build on it. And then promo, it could be like a temporary campaign where you set up for X amount of time. Or if it's something that's evergreen, which is ongoing it's not really dated, you could also probably throw promo emails onto your nurture sequence. Once it's out of the little promo phase. 

Katrina Widener: I love it. I love it. And I think that's something that a lot of people don't necessarily always think about. They're like "I have to have a value based email, and then I'll just add in a promo one on top of that." Which there's so much conversation from people. I know this from my clients or even just my colleagues and friends where it's like, "Oh my gosh, I get so many emails!" I have one friend who, even at the bottom of every single value based email she sends out will promote something different. So she might one week be saying, "Get on this wait list," and then the next week be saying, "Here's this freebie," and then the next week be saying, "Here's this course you can buy," or whatever it might be. And I feel like so many people are afraid to ask for the sale.

Blaire Brown: No, you have to! Otherwise they don't know about it. How would they know? They want to know! Like I said, they typed in their email. They hit that subscribe button. 

Katrina Widener: Yes!

Blaire Brown: You did not force them to do that. So they want to learn about you. I think that's smart, what your friend did. Even if let's say you're a course creator and your signature, it could be your name, and then underneath what it is, "The creator of the whatever course." And then you just link it and it's not like you're cornering them to buy your course. It's just like, "Hey if you're curious this is what's going on with me as well." And if they like your email enough to like scroll through read it, they probably are going to be interested in what you're also selling. 

Katrina Widener: Yeah, I have a line at the end of all my emails that's just, "For whenever you're ready, here's the way you can work with me," is essentially what it says. It's not anything super overt or flashy, but it is just an easy way to even just remind people like, "Yeah, you're getting great content from this. Here's where you can get more." 

Blaire Brown: Dot, dot, dot link. 

Katrina Widener: Well, and we talk about it a lot in terms of eliminating any barriers to entry for our clients, right? We want to make it as easy as possible for them to work with us, to find out how to pay us. And putting a link in an email is literally the least you can do.

Blaire Brown: Yeah, it's so easy. And like you said, just make an easy customer journey. It's all about how are they going to find out what to do? So I guess the last thing that you really need for an email, it's just remember when you're writing these emails, every email should have a call to action.

Even if it's a value email that you're like, "Hey, this is my favorite quote right now." have a link in your email or call to action like "Go check out this blog post," or maybe something inspiring. If it's one of those inspirational emails like "Today write down your goals or write down what you're grateful for," things like that. I mean even that's a call to action, but it's so simple. You're having them actively think about, "Okay, what's my next step here?" Why am I reading this email?" 

Katrina Widener: I love it. And it's also one of those things where you are providing that value, it makes people more inclined to want to click that button to work with you for those promo emails. And so it makes complete sense to include it, because why wouldn't you? 

Blaire Brown: Yeah why wouldn't you? I think it adds a layer of authenticity as a brand, and that is just insanely important for every single business brand. People can see through, if you're trying to have a sales pitch at the end of everything, versus like, "Hey, they actually are providing value. I think I could imagine myself working with them in the long run." And that's what you want to be, right? 

Katrina Widener: Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So now everybody is all jazzed up and ready to make these amazing email sequences. So what would you say is the action that they can go take now to get started? 

Blaire Brown: Sure. So I think first, what you need to think about is what are your business goals? So I'm such a big person about goal setting. I love it. I'm really nerdy about it. Write down your goals. Handwrite it, if you type it print it out and have it on your desk, okay? So if you see your goals you're more likely to achieve them. Versus not writing them down, not looking at them, you forget about it.

So write down your business goals and figure out, "Okay, what do I want to provide out of this relationship, but also how is this helping my business at the same time?" You got to have this little balance here because you want to provide so much value for them, but also you're a business and you have to run. So how are you going to build up that relationship and really nurture it? Write that down and then come up with a game plan of, "Okay. Let's start with a welcome sequence." Start that out, four emails. 

Next step, get started on the nurture sequence. Over time, as you add emails onto that sequence, automate it. You're going to have this great machine working for you in the background, but it all starts with just sitting down and writing your business goals. So that would be the next step after logging off of this episode today. After you've binged through Katrina's podcast.

Katrina Widener: First of all I want to say I 100%, 100% agree. But also what I wanted to add too, for everyone who's listening to this who is a little bit intimidated, right? You have all this information, you know how to do it, you know how to write out your business goals. But then I know a ton of my clients in the past have been like, "Oh well actually sitting and writing the emails feel so intimidating." and I just want to call back to before we started recording. Blaire mentioned to me, that you wrote how many emails in what span of time?

Blaire Brown: I wrote 72 emails in three days. 

Katrina Widener: Yes. Yes. 

Blaire Brown: It was real aggressive but I needed to have a great workflow in place. So that way, after these three days of writing them, I don't have to worry about it except if I feel like adding something else onto it.

Katrina Widener: Yes. So just a reminder, just get started. It doesn't have to be the best piece that you've ever written that's deserving of a Pulitzer prize, no. It just needs to be authentic. Be true to you and aim for B plus. That's it.

Blaire Brown: Yeah. Honestly? Repurpose content you've already done. If you have a website up and rolling right now, use the content on your website. Nobody said you had to recreate the wheel. They already like your website. They subscribed, right? So just use that content. They're not going to remember that was on your website.

Katrina Widener: I absolutely love it. I love it. 

Blaire Brown: Yeah!

Katrina Widener: Okay. Well thank you so much Blaire for coming on here. This has been amazing. I am very excited to see all of the email sequences that come out of this podcast. But before we hop off, would you mind sharing with everyone how they can find you after the show?

Blaire Brown: Absolutely, I've had so much fun today, so thanks for having me. If anybody would like to be in touch with me, my website is www.blairebrown.com. And it's Blaire with an E. So www.blairebrown.com, and you can find me on most social media places. But go to Instagram, you can find me at @businessbyblairebrown, and I also have a freebie for you guys . It's a free done for you welcome sequence. So it's basically fill in the blank. Customize it, copy and paste. Put it in that new email provider that you committed to, and then you'll be off to the races starting your welcome sequence. So we'll give you a head start there and I will send that over to Katrina, so that way you guys can download it. 

Katrina Widener: That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. I am so excited for everyone who listened. Honestly guys, if you listen to this and now you're off and actually starting writing out these emails, let us know. I'm always excited to cheer people on as they're implementing what they've learned in the podcasts.

Blaire Brown: Yes, send us some screenshots! I'm excited. 

Katrina Widener: Yes. Yes. Okay well thank you so much, Blaire this has been amazing. 

Blaire Brown: Thank you, Katrina.

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