“I look at a welcome sequence as an extended consult call so it’s whatever you would say to a person if they were to join you inside your studio or workshop.” - Aleia Walker
Does email marketing make you uncomfortable when you hear the words? I get it because email can be intimidating but this week’s guest is going to take away all the guesswork for you. Aleia Walker is an email copywriter and she’s got a formula that she breaks down for you in a great way. She walks us through writing a welcome sequence so you can get started with this right away!
What is an email welcome sequence?
“A welcome sequence can help you put your personality into your work and also selling because it’s marketing without feeling like you’re saying ‘buy my thing’. You can still be yourself and connect to yourself.” - Aleia Walker
Thinking about creating a sequence for email can be really intimidating but I bet you were intimidated before creating your first yoga sequence too. I know I was! When I was in yoga teacher training and had to create a full length practice sequence I worked on it for weeks! I was nervous, I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing - even though I did, I just wasn’t confident. And that’s the same way you probably feel about writing an email sequence too.
But think about writing any emails as a conversation with your friend. Email can be casual and is often best used in a casual conversational way.
“Imagine you’re talking to your best friend and explaining whatever it is you do to them. What kind of language do you use? What kind of words would you for that?” - Aleia Walker
“Your welcome sequence is where you’re growing your know-like-and-trust factor. It’s where you’re helping them get to know who you are, what you do and how you can help.” - Aleia Walker
Welcome Sequence Breakdown
The first step to a welcome sequence is having something to provide to the person who will be joining your email list. I know it’s tempting to say “enter your email address to subscribe to my email list” but this doesn’t work very well. People typically don’t want to give you their email address in exchange for more emails.
What they want is to get something for free in exchange for their email address. Here are some examples of freebies/opt-ins:
Checklists
List of poses
Pose breakdown
Breath technique video
Meditation audio
Yoga flow guide
The list could go on and on with ideas but you get the point. You create something for free that you can deliver to your potential students. You create it once and it will serve many! How’s that for awesome?!
Once you have your freebie created, then it’s time to work on your welcome sequence. Aleia has a breakdown of an 8-email sequence that’s broken down into 3 phases. You can access her Welcome Sequence Guide for the full breakdown of these emails in a beautiful visual!
3 phases of your welcome sequence
Introduce and deliver - you need to deliver the free thing you promised them and then you share a little more about you over the course of a few emails.
Address their pain point - you want to show your new friend that you know what they’re going through. Sharing stories and examples are good for this.
Your solution - after you’ve shared that you understand their pain point, you can offer a solution that you have and invite them to buy/enroll/register for your solution. Over the course of a few emails you will also share other free resources you have on your website if they’re not quite ready to buy yet too.
While the idea of sending 8 emails could have you flustered in this moment, remember that teaching a 90 minute yoga class once freaked you out too. But you started slow and worked your way up to that point.
“Don’t give up if 8 emails feels like too much. Take in this concept and learn it but start with 3 emails and add more when you feel more confident. Remember, just because you don’t want to do it all doesn’t mean you should give up. Start slow and work your way up.” - Amanda McKinney
Subject Lines
When it comes to subject lines I know they can be tough so Aleia and I talked about this too. Here are some helpful tips and suggestions for coming up with them:
Look at your inbox and see what catches your eye, add them to a google doc
If you’re introducing something new you could say “Introducing…..”
Anything that brings up a strong emotion is eye-catching
“I’ve never done this before” creates intrigue and so does “I’ve got a secret to share”
“Writing your subject line AFTER you write the email often helps me too. It’s like trying to title a book before you write the whole thing when you try to write the subject line first. There’s too much pressure.” - Amanda McKinney
Repurpose Your Content In Your Emails
Also, remember that your emails can be inspired by other content you’ve already created too! You don’t have to start from scratch with email and you can allow your email to guide other content too.
“I'm the queen of repurposing content. I will do an Instagram story on a topic and the next day it’s an IGTV and then it turns into an email. I think it’s really important to use all the content to keep it working for you. We don’t have time to endlessly create new content.” - Aleia Walker
If you’re on my email list then you know that every Tuesday you will receive an email that is connected to the topic of my podcast episode. I typically share a story that leads into the topic of this week’s podcast episode so everything is connected. When you allow your content, all marketing content, to be connected it makes everything easier.
While this isn’t part of your welcome sequence, it is part of email strategy overall. Because let’s face it, once you have someone on your email list you need to continue to stay in touch with them.
Your next step
Write, or refresh, your welcome sequence with Aleia’s process in mind. Download her guide to have a template to use and get after it!
Until next time give yourself permission to write your email sequence and grace along the way.
About The Hill Creatives
A directory for black creatives that you can hire to help you in business. There are also live workshops that happen a few times a year as well. Be sure to check out the directory as well as the live workshops!
About Aleia Walker
Aleia is an email marketing copywriter who helps creatives turned educators create marketing strategies for their digital products. Sometimes that looks like delivering 50+ page launch playbooks & sometimes that looks like configuring the backend to ensure a smooth experience for her clients and their customers. She’s committed to helping her clients scale in a way that creates less stress and more sales because she doesn’t believe in waiting until you’re old and gray to live your life. A Creative Writing major turned web developer (with a few stops in between) Aleia’s found a way to blend her love of words and tech skills to create experiences that move customers and clients into action (aka cha-ching.) And that equals profits in your pockets so you can spend more time serving your people, building your dream business, and your dream life. When she’s not knee deep in spreadsheets, Airtable, or Google Analytics, she’s probably talking herself out of buying plant number 21 (who am I kidding, she’s probably already bought it.)
Aleia's Links:
Website - https://www.aleiawalker.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/msaleia/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/aleiawalkerdotcom
Welcome Sequence Map - https://www.aleiawalker.com/welcome-sequence-map
Learn More About The Hill Creatives
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