Email Marketing Success for Health-Focused Entrepreneurs with Tanya Brody

Welcome to profits through podcasting. It’s where we help health focused entrepreneurs generate leads and revenue for their businesses through podcasting.

I’m your host, Joel Oliver, CEO of east coast studio. And today we are talking email as a business owner. If you’re not doing something with email, you definitely should be. And today’s guest is going to help demystify email, help us understand how you can put email to work as an online health focused business owner to. To generate more revenue. And this includes how to come up with what to write about some common mistakes to avoid.

And if you’re not using email already, we’ll have a simple strategy that you can set up and get going today. Our guest is Tonya Brody and she works with small to medium sized businesses to improve their email marketing and overall messaging. So they can grow their relationships with their subscribers.

Get more sales and create happy loyal customers.

So your whole life is email and you’ve seen what it can do. You know, the merits of it as entrepreneurs, we can be stretched kind of thin. We’re being pulled in different directions. We’re wondering like, what should we do for marketing? What’s the most important. So. Let’s start with say if someone says they don’t have time to do email.

It doesn’t work for me. It’s not worth it. You obviously know that’s not the case, so what’s your like initial pitch to someone who is thinking those things, who needs to be doing email? How do you kind of sell it to them, let’s say?

I ask, why are you leaving money on the table? That’s pretty easy right there.

Yeah, honestly. So email marketing has the highest return on investment of all of the marketing channels, like everything, social media, print. Pay per click all of it,

Yes, you may put that broadcast ad, that social media, that print ad out into the world.

And yeah, people will buy. But there are a bunch of other people who saw that ad who might still be interested, but didn’t buy this time. And instead of having to continue to run that ad, if you had them on your email list, it’s cheaper and more effective to actually. Send them an email because when someone agrees to let you email them, when they opt into whatever it is you are offering, they are literally welcoming you into their inbox.

They’re saying you can come into this private space. That is just mine. Whereas, social media is. Nuts. And, , print and broadcast, you have no idea who it necessarily, it absolutely reaches. So you’re like, yeah, I think it’s working. there was a famous advertiser who said, I am sure that half of my marketing is working, I just have no idea which half,

hmm.

you really want email because you know exactly where it’s going.

You know, it’s going to that person. You can see when they open it. You can tell when they’ve read it and acted on it because they click. It is seriously one of the best marketing channels out there. And I’m always amazed when people say, Oh yeah, I don’t do email marketing.

That’s so old school. I’m like, do you breathe?

Come on, this is important. You know, yes, I’m biased. I am aware of that. However, when you think about the fact that let’s say you put an ad out. And it reaches a hundred people and one in 10 of those people buy from you. Well, there are still those 90 to 99 people who didn’t buy from you.

So if that’s the truth, then how are you going to reach those people again? Are you going to spend more money to run more ads or are you going to do something to get them on your email list? And it’s cheaper to reach them. And you can literally guide them along a path that will get them To the place where they are ready to buy from you.

And that path may take a week. It may take a month. It may take a year. In some cases it may take a decade, but that doesn’t change. The fact that that person is still opening your emails. And they’re still engaged and maybe they aren’t the ones going, Oh yeah, I totally need this thing. But they go, Bob, I keep reading this email from this person.

And I think this is exactly what you need.

then eventually that person’s like, okay, fine. This is finally time. I am ready. You know, whatever the thing is, it works. Email does actually work. It is more time consuming than Facebook ads or, whatever other thing. But it is considerably less expensive.

And it is, I personally think more effective.

So there, there’s my pitch for email marketing.

Right. And yeah, so first of all, we know email is far from dead. People are actively engaging with emails into their inbox. And one of my favorite things you kind of touched on there about email is yeah, you can really see over time a specific number. , no, not everybody’s going to react to every message, but if you look at how many you send out and how many people are getting it, you can get that number.

Like here’s the sales that come from doing this. So it’s very easy to see that ROI once you’re into it.

Right. And it’s, there’s another really interesting comparison, which is, yes. I mean, no one opens every single email you sent. Some of them, you know, they just don’t make it into the inbox. They get caught in the spam filter or they just don’t see them or what have you. No one’s going to open every single email, but you need them to open the right email, right?

You need them to open the email that engages them, that helps them at the stage that they’re at. In their buyer’s journey, and then they’ll take that step closer to the purchase.

It sounds like Everything else that you’re doing what you could be on social media or you could be running ads But if you’re not having some kind of email funnel set up which captures those emails when people are interacting with your website you are missing out on those future sales by not having that set up in combination with everything else that you’re doing.

Is that am I understanding that right?

Yes. Email marketing is a marketing channel. It is not the only marketing channel. You should have several ways for people to come into your environment. Email marketing is one of them, but there are several advantages to it. Number one, you own it.

Facebook, YouTube, all of these other things, TikTok, Those are all third party channels. If they decide that they don’t like you anymore or your account gets hacked. You’re out of luck.

If you have no other way of reaching your people, you’re stuck. Get them on an email list. Have both options, but make sure you have both options

There are definitely people who have A large portion of their business, let’s say relying on an Instagram account and they really are not thinking of that danger because you’re not really expecting anything to happen, but it certainly could and you don’t own it. If you just have that Instagram account and no email list, it can be taken away at a moment’s notice, which is quite scary,

I have a client who got hacked. And they are now trying to figure out how to get the information from their original account back so they can just keep running ads,

right?

Yeah, you think they’re just Instagram just steps in and saves you in an hour. That’s that’s

Oh no. No, this has been going on for a couple of weeks.

Mm hmm.

It’s a big, big problem.

Right. Okay. So we’ve we’ve outlined the importance of email. Let’s say we go back to what I mentioned at the beginning. Someone has had this idea that email doesn’t work for them and they don’t have time. So they have nothing right now. We need to start somewhere. What is like the bare minimum that you would suggest to someone who is an online entrepreneur, let’s say a health coach. So they have an audience, maybe they’re selling some kind of course or coaching. They have nothing with email right now.

What is the bare minimum that they should start with? How do they get going on that? And what is it?

Well, if you were currently an online business, you have a list of customers, there’s your start. So you send out an email to these people. You can either do it individually, one at a time, or you can load all of those emails into an email service provider and send a bulk email or broadcast email out to them saying, Hey, I’m starting this thing.

I’m starting an email, you know, newsletter, or I’m starting a weekly email. This is what it’s going to be about. And I hope you’ll stick with me.

If you’re not interested. Just reply to this email and I’ll take you off the list. If you send it out as a bulk email, you say, just hit the unsubscribe button at the bottom,

That’s how you can start an email list really simply. Then you have to keep writing.

That’s the whole point is. And honestly, that’s the biggest complaint I hear about email marketing. The two biggest complaints I get are, I never know what to write and I don’t have the time. And usually when they say I don’t have the time, it’s because. They don’t know what to write. So they spend hours staring at a blank screen, having no idea what to write until finally they either dash something off or they give up.

And that is something everyone says is I either, I run out of things to write, or I never know what to write. Well, people have questions, right? What are the standard questions everyone asks when they come to your business? Answer those every single question.

That’s an email

Easy.

Right. Yeah. And for most of our audience do their podcasters, they’re already coming up with content for a podcast that you can just, you You know, repurpose that into an email. You’ve got those ideas coming.

Well, and for that matter, if you’re a podcaster and you’re, you have a weekly or a monthly or whatever it is, podcast. Send out an email

announcing your podcast.

Right.

That’s easy. It’s short.

Hey, you know, here’s the latest episode. It’s with this person. We talk about X, Y, and Z. Come check it out. Done.

Right.

That is easy. Now you did mention those two things. I don’t know what to talk about, or I don’t have time, but do you have some general tips around that? Like, especially the time thing you said, it’s mostly because they just don’t really know what to write. Or are there other, things that people should be aware of that can help them find the time or make it work?

So first of all, I don’t think an email should take you all day to write.

Absolutely not. I mean, I don’t spend all day writing sales emails for my clients or for myself. I may take more time to write those, but you do not need to spend that much time on your emails. Actually, one of the courses that I have is, the 30 minute email workshop, which literally teaches you how to write an email in 30 minutes.

So you sit down 30 minutes, boom, you’re done, which is really how, especially what I call nurture emails, those emails that you send weekly to your entire list or to the majority of your list that, you know, it’s like, Hey, this is what’s going on. Hey, here’s the podcast. Hey, here’s what’s going on in my business.

Hey, here’s a sneak peek at our upcoming, whatever you’re promoting.

Here’s my latest blog post. You know, here’s an interesting thought I had. Those are something that you should be able to write quickly and easily. And the reason I say that is they don’t need to be a thesis.

This is literally something that you can put out into the world. And what you were doing is you’re reminding people of your existence.

Right.

You’re saying, Hey, I am still here. This is the reason you joined this list. This is what you said you were interested in. Here’s something interesting about that.

Go find out more about it here.

And every email should, in my opinion, have some sort of call to action. Because that way you are training people to click on your link,

the whole point of the exercise is to get people to Opening your emails, remembering who you are, and you’re building that know, like and trust factor, right,

Mm is another reason everyone should be sending emails because especially when we’re online businesses, we don’t necessarily get to meet our people face to face.

So we have to have a way of introducing ourselves and our businesses and our products and services. We have to have a way of showing what we believe, who we serve, showing people that they’re in the right place. We need to welcome them into our communities and email is a fantastic way to do that.

It’s also a perfect way to show that we are here to serve. The whole point of any business, regardless of what business you are in, is to help someone solve a problem

and that’s a really important mindset is business owners. We’re all about the bottom line. We need to make money, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It’s all about sales. It’s not first and foremost. It’s about helping your people solve a problem. Another really big reason people don’t like writing emails is they don’t like sounding salesy.

They don’t, it’s slimy. They don’t like it. You can feel it creeps them out. Well, if you’re coming at this from an attitude of I am serving you, how can I help you? How can I help you solve your problem and reach your goal? That’s a totally different mindset than I want you to buy my thing.

think about it that way.

It makes it easier on you and it gets you more excited about whatever it is you’re doing because you’re helping people.

Mm hmm. means that you’re going to be more likely to be excited about what you’re doing, which is going to rub off onto the person who is reading your email, which means they’ll be more excited about solving that problem, which means they’ll actually want to do it.

Yeah, I think that would also help with the mindset. I don’t know if everybody suffers from this, but I’ve had this where I, I’m gonna hit send and I think, I’m, I’m bothering everyone. It’s, you know, but if you’re, if you’re helping them, that’s a totally different mindset.

Yes. And that’s another thing to remember is if someone doesn’t want to read that email, they won’t read that email and it’s okay.

Right.

You are not required to open every single email, but when some subject line catches your attention. You’ll open that one

That’s what matters. there’s plenty of email lists that I’m on that I’m not really, I don’t need it right now But it’s kind of just like I specifically leave it there because I know someday I need something from that person or I just want to be reminded of it So people don’t have to open every email from you like you’re saying It’s just it’s kind of there for when I need it and I’m not unsubscribing and that’s fine.

Mm

Yeah. Honestly, I have emails, email lists that I’m subscribed to that. I just enjoy reading this person’s writing.

hmm I may never buy anything from them.

 I just enjoy reading what they’re writing because it’s interesting.

And frequently, I will refer that person to other people who do need that thing.

So don’t forget, email is not just about getting that person on the other end of the email. It’s also about reaching out to their community,

Mm hmm

because they may not be your ideal client, but maybe they know. Your ideal.

Great. Yeah. So we, we talked about the, the bare minimum and you said, if you have, you have a customer base already, you can start emailing them. What would be the next step from there? Are we talking, say a lead magnet with something on your website to get new people’s emails in? What’s the next thing up from that?

So yeah, that is the next step is to have some sort of lead magnet, opt in bribe, freebie coupon, whatever the heck you want to call it. Something to, that you can give in exchange for people’s email addresses. And you set that up with an email service provider so that people can. give you their email address and then get an automated response that you don’t have to think about that says, here is the thing that you requested. And that’s a key little point is do not put that thing on the thank you page.

Have a thing that says, thanks for getting the thing, go check your inbox. And you send the download link to the thing in the first email, which should be automated. And the reason you do this is twofold. Number one, it trains your humans. to open your emails. They’re like, Oh, I need to open this to get the thing.

Okay. That then trains the computer systems, you know, Gmail, Yahoo mail, Apple mail, that this person wants to hear from you. So they will let your emails through, which does something called increasing your sender reputation. So the more people who say, yes, I want to hear from this person. The more likely that your emails are to go through to everyone you send them.

That’s just something that’s really important is, you know, spam filters will take out things for a lot of reasons. But one of the reasons is if your email address is on a blacklist, which happens, it’s terrible. I know people it’s happened to, and you have to work so hard to get off of those blacklists and that can happen because, you hacked your account.

And spammed from your email address. It can happen because too many people marked your emails as spam. It can happen because you were on the same email server as someone else who was spamming and you had nothing to do with it. So the more you can increase your sender reputation, the more likely your emails are to get through.

There’s all sorts of technical stuff around that, but it’s really important to get that first email opened because it trains the computers as well as training the humans that this is something you want.

And then you can start to build that relationship from there. And you do that by sending those weekly nurture emails.

 I assume those, this is why the lead magnet. is so popular is because the days of just joining someone’s email list for no real reason,

they’re not really doing that. So we’re giving them something they want, collecting that email. And this is, I suppose, a lot to do with someone that lands on your website. They might be interested, but they, they wouldn’t put their email in otherwise, but you’ve got something there for them now.

So, Oh, go ahead. you guys are podcasters, I need to point this out. This is really important. you can give people that link, whatever link you choose, in your podcast. One of the podcasters I know, um, that I used to work with, what he always gave on every single podcast was the show notes.

Hey, if you want the show notes with a bunch of extra stuff, go to this link, put in your email address and you’ll get the show notes, you’ll get all of this extra stuff and you’ll find out when the next podcast is. That’s easy. Another thing to do is, especially again, because you’re podcasters, it’s an audio medium and people may not, you know, they’re out listening on their phones or what have you, is actually to have a text SMS option to opt in.

There are all sorts of different, systems that do that. A lot of the, email service providers allow for that. The CRMs as well. That is a perfect way for podcasters, you know, Hey, text, champion to four, four or five, five, five, and, put in your email address and, you know, basically it’ll just, Putting you on my list.

Okay. So it can be a little intimidating. Cause I know you can do a whole lot with this. Like you could have different lead magnets for different types of ideal clients or different problems that they’re having, and then you can get them in your list and they can get different chains of emails.

So. Is it okay to start out simple or do you recommend that where we just kind of have one main thing, then once they come in, are they getting a preset list of messages first before they say, join your normal newsletter or how should all that look?

All of that. Yes. First of all, yes, it’s okay to have several different channels, but start with one. My standard lead magnet is because I’m helping people with email and the most common complaint I get is I never know what to write. So here’s the thing about a lead bandit. You want it to be something that helps someone get a small, quick win, helps them solve a small part of whatever the big problem is.

Right. So for me, I never know what to write is the most common problem. So my lead magnet is a list of 30 subject lines to help you keep your subscribers opening and reading every email. And that’s literally what it is. It’s a list of subject lines and writing prompts that you can go that one. I’m going to use that today.

And it just gets you started. So you’re not staring at a blank screen. You have something you can write about, right? That’s what I want. I want to get you writing.

I want you to start. Then I will teach you all of the stuff about how to write better emails, but you got to start writing first. So that gets people going, that solves that small piece of the problem, right? Then once people download that, they go into my welcome sequence, which is a series of four to five emails.

And basically what that does is it first email delivers that lead magnet, whatever that thing is, that’s how you get it. The next email introduces you and your business. It says, this is who I am. This is what I do. Here are a few fun facts about me. You know, I have a picture of my cats in my welcome sequence because they’re part of my life, and then, that third email can be here’s some useful information for you.

And then on that fourth or fifth email, you can say, Hey, here’s that thing that you were interested in. I think it will solve your problem. Here’s a discount on the thing, you know, just get them going. And then you add them to that regular email sequence. So it’s a really simple welcome sequence. Again, this is another course that I sell on how to write that email sequence.

But you know, the point being you want to make it as easy as possible for people to become part of your community. So start by building that know, like, and trust , fast by saying, Hey, this is who I am. This is what I do. You are very welcome here. This is how I help you solve your problem.

Right. So that’s great. That’s like pretty standard thing. A lead magnet, bringing them on, having four to five emails that they get up front and then moving them into your mailing list. That’s easy for people to handle and should absolutely be done. Uh, do you recommend that they get some professional help such as yourself with those four to five first emails, or can they do that on their own?

Well, obviously, you know, there are billions of people out there selling stuff. And I, as I said, I have a course that teaches you how to do this and honestly gives you the templates to do it.

So, you know, if you, yes, I, I can actually give you that help directly. Not personally, unless you want to hire me to do that, which is of course more expensive than a simple course, but it is something you can do yourself.

And I actually recommend that if you need the templates, please, you know, buy the course and the templates. But I recommend doing it yourself because no one knows your business better than you.

You can tell me all about your business and I can try and capture your voice. And I’m pretty good at it. I mean, it’s what I do for a living, but you are going to be the most authentically you out there. So it is better for you to do especially something like your welcome sequence. And I honestly recommend. You may send hundreds of emails a year, but I recommend that you personally do one a week

or one a month.

That is specifically from you. And not necessary from your organization just to keep that authenticity and that connection to you directly. I think people should do their weekly emails. I do. I honestly believe this just because I think are the soul of your business. So that’s what people want to get to know, especially if you are the face of your business.

And if you’re the person they’re going to be dealing with anyway, the more they can relate to you, the better that interaction will be when that time comes.

That’s great advice, because I’ve even encountered that myself, when I’ve worked with, say, writers in the past. And yeah, authenticity, that’s so important these days. People want to, like, they relate to you, they, they start to trust you. So you want your emails to to have that same feeling because I’ve had some results where I, where I see it and say that kind of just sounds like every other email that I’ve seen. It’s not really. I like the idea of hiring someone to do it, but I don’t know, it’s kind of generic now.

So you’re actually suggesting that you should be heavily involved with that creation.

Well, especially, you know, in today’s world of AI, where someone can just say, write me an email about law.

And it usually comes out looking like something that a fourth to seventh grader wrote. It just makes sense for you to put your stamp on something, right. For you to actually take the time to do this yourself and to have it just be genuinely from you. I think, especially in this world of AI and, things being able to be like push button easy. The more authentic we can be, the more human we can be. Cause computers still don’t know how to human

Mm

as they may try.

They’re not there yet. And that’s good.

Right.

I think that’s really going to come across because, you know, we say we’re B2B or we’re B2C, but ultimately we’re all P2P. We’re all person to person or even human to human.

So I think it’s really important to remember that because. We’re all about relationships.

need to relate to each other. We like to think we’re all independent, but the truth is we’re all interconnected. You know, we rely on each other to get whatever it is we need in some way, shape or form. And as a business, you are offering that thing. So how can people understand and relate to you if what they’re hearing is from not.

exactly. Yeah. And I guess AI will get better. But I also hope that we as people become more attuned to like sniffing it out because I don’t, I don’t want to be getting AI emails. You know, I want to know better. And you want to have that connection. And I hope that we continue to see people writing that.

And that’s what eventually resonates with the readers, not just some AI regurgitated stuff, you know?

Right. And I think I just need to be really clear here. I use AI. AI is a great. tool, but it is just that it’s a tool.

AI can turn out a great messy first draft,

and then I can go through and edit that. So it sounds like me,

Mm hmm.

you know, but that way I’m not starting from a blank slate. And I think that’s what most people really get scared about is starting from that blank slate.

Whereas if you can give AI. You know, I need an email that talks about this, this, and this, it’s going to these people and it’s the call to action is this, yeah, that’ll get you a great messy first draft. Then you’ve got something to start from. And then you can go through and go, yes, this, you know, I like this.

No, that sucks. I’m rewriting that. And I need this to be different. And that’s not how the story went. And look, there’s an email. AI is a great tool, but do not think of it as the end all and be all.

And I think that’s, that’s the problem. People’s has, Oh, I’ll just get AI to do it. No, let AI give you a start. And then put your humanness into that.

Great advice. So we’ve covered the fact that a lot of people are, are struggling and not doing anything perhaps because they just don’t know what to write or they don’t feel that they have the time. Aside from that being a giant mistake and not really doing anything, is there something that you see if you start to work with someone and they need assistance, if they have been doing something, is there like a common mistake that you see that can instantly improve the results that they’re getting?

Or is it just that. People aren’t doing anything with email.

Two big mistakes I see. Mistake number one, getting someone’s email and then bombarding them with, buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff.

And then they wonder why people unsubscribe.

You have to build that relationship. You have to show people why they should buy your stuff. You need to show them that you are a worthy person to give their money to.

Also again, most importantly, above all, how you help them solve their problem, because you just keep throwing stuff at them thinking, Oh yeah, and they’ll buy this or they’ll buy this, they’re going to be like, what are you doing? Yeah, go away. And they’ll either hit the spam button, which is really bad, or they’ll hit the unsubscribe button either way.

They’re no longer in your orbit. And that’s bad. Uh, the other thing that I see business is doing is. They like hoard email addresses. They’ve got something that brings people in, but then they don’t ever email them until they’re selling something. And they expect that people will remember that they subscribed to this list six months ago.

And people look at them like, well, who are you? And why are you in my inbox? What the heck is this? So those are the two other big mistakes that I see. There’s the not doing anything to something, then there’s the, not doing anything until you’re selling something or all you do is sell.

Those are the two other big mistakes that I see. And again, it all comes down to sending those regular nurture emails. Build that relationship, get people to understand who you are, what you do, how you can help them in marketing. There is a standard question that every single marketer needs to answer for all of us, regardless of what you’re selling, what you’re doing.

The question is what’s in it for me, you and I. And every human in this, on this planet asks that question in pretty much every situation, not just as consumers, what’s in it for me? Why should I care? Why should I take the three minutes to read your email? Why should I buy your product or service?

What’s in it for me? That’s really what it’s all about. Answer that question. And it’s not just about, you’ll get this thing. It’s you’ll get this thing that will help you solve X, Y, and Z, or we’ll help you reach a, B, and C goals. Cause it’s not about you. It’s not about your product or service.

It’s about them.

It’s about the people you serve and how you help them.

Yeah, that’s a, that’s a great point. So we learned a lot here. We learned that you definitely should be doing something with email. We learned that it doesn’t take a whole lot to actually get set up. So. As we wrap up here, let’s hear a little about you. I know you’ve got some courses that you sell online.

You do some work as well on your own for, for people. So what’s your ideal client? What have you got to offer people who are looking for help with this? Let’s hear a bit about that.

So my ideal customers are actually you folks, people who have small businesses, who want to get the word out about their businesses in many different ways. And you know, you’re all podcasters. So, Hey, come learn how to write emails, a bunch of podcasts.

Awesome. Um, and seriously, I have, you know, I, I do recommend joining my email list.

Getting that lead magnet, you know, having that list of 30 things that you can write about that makes your life easier.

Um, come to the website. You can find blog posts on things like what kind of lead mags that you should write, how to set up an email funnel, all of that stuff.

I sell courses on all of that stuff as well, but really I’m all about getting people actually communicating with each other.

That’s really what I want is I want you to be heard by your audience so that you’ve got that relationship with them so that it’s easier for you to get them to buy and it’s easier for them to solve their problems.

That’s really what this is all about. It’s connecting people.

So, come check it out. It’s Tanya Brody, copywriter. It’s all one word.

As soon as you get there, that lead magnet will pop up and say, Hey, check this out. And I do actually occasionally take, , one on one clients, but primarily, I am selling courses and getting people to do this on their own because that way I can serve more people.

The other thing that I’d have that I recommend once you know how to write these emails is I have a group called the email writing accountability group, incredibly descriptive and original.

We literally sit down, As a group for 30 minutes and write our emails. And then we take another 30 minutes and we evaluate each other’s emails. So I actually look at everyone’s emails.

So that you’re getting feedback from a professional copywriter and then we take another 20 minutes. We edit those emails and then boom, you’re done. Your email is done for the week.

Love it.

Accountability is a huge thing. So that’s a great idea. I love that. Uh, so you said the website, Tonya Brody, copywriter. com of that and all of your social links and everything will be in the show notes, we have everything we need, we know that it’s important to, you know, you can make an ROI from this.

You’re arming people with everything they need to actually do it. So there’s no excuses anymore.

it’s very true. Go out there, write those emails, do it.

All right, Tonya, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

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