Reviving your email list & your enthusiasm
Welcome back to the Smart Send Authority Series, where we take your sleeping list to create a better business.
Trust me, this won't burn you out or eat up too much time. And here's what's really important: you want them to come almost pre-ready to buy.
They're ready to be your friends because they feel they know you, like you, and most importantly, trust you.
Welcome to the series. I'm Natalie Phillips, your expert email guide to growth.
Focus on these 5 backbone emails (even if you send nothing else)
You need some standard emails. These are the backbone of your marketing program.
These cover five different scenarios.
Email 1: The welcome email that sets the stage
This is your onboarding email.
What this does is set immediate expectations after your subscribers have signed up. After they've said, "Hey, I'm in."
You use it to tell them:
- What to expect
- What to anticipate
- How often you're going to email them
- What you're going to talk about
- How you can help them get started
This is the key: they're never going to be as ready as when they first sign up.
They want to know more about you. They want to know everything about you. They want the lead magnet or freebie you provided. They want to know about your workshops or events.
They're ready to explore your world.
The 40-minute rule that changes everything
Here's the key for 2025: while drip marketing is important, what people really do is binge.
If they want to know about a topic or subject, they'll literally go and Google it. They'll use ChatGPT. They'll use AI. They'll dive into your YouTube series and look at your blog.
The magic number: 40 to 50 minutes of content.
That's how long it takes most people to make a decision. That's how long it takes them to look at reviews and make up their mind to purchase.
This is especially true in the B2B world where people are time-stressed. While infotainment rules in the B2C world, it's reviews and referrals in B2B.
So for you, you want your onboarding email to establish that trust and pull them back to your website. Your YouTube channel. Your landing page. Wherever you want them to go.
Use that email. Craft it. It doesn't have to take long. It doesn't have to be a long email, but it needs to establish very early on what this is about.
It's no different from a first date. You turn up, you bring flowers, you dress nice, and you give them a kiss at the end if they permit.
Email 2: The educational email that builds expertise
The next email can also be part of your welcome series. This is the educational email.
They know who you are now. This is the getting-to-know-you email.
This is where you establish that you are an expert. Or that you're partnering with the best in the business.
You want to share content. This is where you say:
- This is my guide
- These are my tips
- Here's where to download it
If you sent them a guide previously (because they signed up for "Top Tips to Increase Your Business"), use this one to expand on it.
You can say:
- Here's another free gift
- Here's another way to use the guide
- If you're struggling, here's some DIY help
This is where you expand into what you can give them.
Remember: it's not a direct sale you're doing here. It's educational.
You want them to get from problem-aware (where most people are when they first meet you) to solution-aware (what you're offering).
You're taking them one step further down the path on that journey.
This can be part of your welcome series, or it can be standalone. Depending on how you're doing your marketing.
Yes, I'm always an advocate for emails, but you can do this with DMs. You can even send video. Loom is brilliant for that, by the way.
The idea is that you're driving engagement again. You can even build this educational side into a multi-part series that basically nurtures your customer.
There's lots of scope here for you to play with. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
This is email number two in your backbone arsenal.
Email 3: The case study email (you're either doing this or avoiding it)
The next one is something you're either going to think, "Oh yeah, that's easy. I've already done it." Or, "Oh my god, I've got to do this."
This is the case study email.
This is one you're probably already sending out when clients make enquiries. But you're not sending it to your leads.
This is where you want to:
- Talk about customer stories
- Give them proof
- Show testimonials
- Display client logos
- Demonstrate real-world results
It doesn't have to be a long email. It can even be: "This is the result I got my client. Find out more about it. Download the PDF."
Literally, that's all it needs.
Here's the thing: you might think it's hard work, but you can guarantee that every single person is going to ask at some point for reviews or testimonials. That's the kind of world we live in.
This can be part of your welcome series. This can be something that gets triggered when people download certain content or visit your website. This can even be something they see in a popup on your site.
Have fun experimenting - these channels are fast, low-cost and easy to use.
Email 4: The offer that respects their time
Number four is where we get into the nitty-gritty. This is your appointment, project or demo invite.
For this, you are making a straight call. You're respecting their time, respecting their judgment.
You're saying: "Look, you know a bit about me now. You know that I've got the experience. You know that I can walk the walk and do the work. Would you like to have a demo, free trial, audit, or consultation?"
The trick: keep the barrier to entry low.
Make it almost a no-brainer for them to say yes. "Yes, I want to know a bit more about your world. Yes, I can make it on this date. Yes, give me more details."
If you're booking an audit and need to meet face-to-face, make sure you include the calendar. If it's an event, make sure if it's evergreen that they can sign up at a time they're choosing, or they can see it on demand.
Remember: the whole point is not to put hurdles in the way.
We want them to get into your world and find out as much about it as possible. That magic 40-minute mark. That's what you need.
Timing makes or breaks your sequence
All these emails can be sent out one after the other, across an entire week in some cases, if people sign up.
Alternatively, you might want to do it across two weeks. But really, don't leave it any longer. People are busy and their inboxes fill up fast.
Email 5: The re-engagement email that saves dying leads
There's one final email in your arsenal. This isn't one you put into your welcome sequence.
This is one you use to re-engage people.
I call it the "hey" email, or the follow-up email. You can actually use it for two things:
First: You can send it out after a certain period if people go quiet after the welcome series.
"Hey, we noticed you haven't done your free trial. You haven't signed up. You haven't asked us questions. What gives?"
Second: Edit it a little bit and use it to warm up people who've been on your list a long time but haven't responded.
"Look, I haven't heard from you for a long while. Here's 20% off any of our plans. We'd really like to have you on board. Let us know what your main pain point is, and we'll sort it for you."
For example: get more leads, get more testimonials, get more time back.
The reverse psychology move that shrinks lists but grows profits
You can use some of these in reverse order.
If you're trying to win back a segment of your audience, take the bottom 20% of people that have never really clicked and have gone quiet.
You're like: "Right, we need to either get these guys on board, or we need to get them off the list."
That's where you can use re-engagement. Then in reverse, you can do the case study. You can share educational content.
And you can end with: "Look, we want you in our world. We're not sure you're interested. We'd be very happy to take you off the list if you need to. Feel free to unsubscribe."
That's the really bold move. Most people are terrified of their list shrinking.
But what you should be more terrified of is having a large list that doesn't respond.
Your next step
That's it for this Smart Send section.
Work on those five key emails (you can use my Little Killer Emails app to help you create them).
I’ll be back next time to talk about your sending framework.
