Your email follow up

Stuart: Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the book More Show. It's Stuart here with Betsy. Betsy Vaughan. How you doing?

Guest: I'm fantastic, Stuart. How are you?

Stuart: Very good, thank you. We didn't have a show last week because we had a bit of a family medical emergency. But a week later, fortunately, things seem to be going in the right direction. So apart from me being on a mobile recording setup, which basically is my laptop propped up on a desk with a towel draped around it to try and kill some of the sounds. So apart from that, everything's good.

Guest: We are high tech here. Not even a box.

Stuart: It is. We'll see how good the audio cleaning software is because the chair arm sat's on squeaking. My knee keeps hitting the desk so it bangs every now and then. So it might be. Let's hope that everyone's just listening to it in the car so the road noise will drown out all of the background noise. So this week we're going to follow up with the conversation from a couple of weeks ago. So we were looking at mindset number eight, the beyond the book setup of the book Breakthrough Scorecard. So this is looking at. Now your book is created. What can you do with it? We had a great first episode. I'll link it in the show notes. Then last week we had or last time we had a great call with Joe Yakovic as well, talking about how he was starting to use his book. So this is going to be a nice wrap up on some of the. Some of the next level things. We hit some of the low hanging fruit last time, some of the no cost low hanging fruit. So this time we're just going to look at a few more details of those strategies and then move on a little bit to look at some of the extended things that you can do.

Guest: There you go.

Stuart: I think you get a few questions about this as well. As people are joining or thinking about joining the program, it definitely seems to be something that's obviously front of people's minds, how they're going to use it once they get to the end of the program. Do you notice that picks up. Has that been picking up more recently as people are thinking about it a little bit more?

Guest: Yeah, I would say in the last six months, definitely a lot more. A lot more conversation, really. People wanting to dig in and it's not. It used to be after the fact, like, okay, they've got their books in hand and then I would hear from them. But people are really thinking about it either before they start the process or which is great or like during the process they kind of have an aha moment and go, oh my goodness, now I need to, this is real. And now I want to know what to do with it after the fact. So definitely seeing that people are a little more prepared, which I think is, is good because if you haven't really thought about it, I'm just going to give this out and then that's all you do. You know, you don't, don't put it anywhere, you don't put on social media do blast or you just sort of wait for people to come to you. You know, the book's not going to do what they, you know, what it needs to do, obviously. So being prepared and thinking about that and really wanting to dig into it, we're definitely seeing a lot more of that. And I think that's going to give people the greater success, you know, that, that they're wanting to have.

Stuart: I think you hit the nail on the head. That's kind of starting with the end in mind. We talked about it in some of the earlier mindsets in the preparation, but really thinking about how you're going to use it, it's not a build it and they will come type thing. There's no downside in doing it at all. Even, even kind of worst case scenario, just having the fact that you've got it and it's there to hand out as when you think about it, isn't a terrible thing. But some of the things we talked about in the last episode 55, I think it was, and in this episode, this is really now orchestrating some success out of it and really generating that traffic, identifying those invisible leads and moving the conversation towards educating and motivating people over time towards doing business with you. So with that being said, let's dive in. We're going to look at two things really in this session. We're going to look at the email sequence to immediately follow up with an opt in and then we'll look at some bonus things you can do, some things that aren't necessarily the first thing you might think of. So it's a bit of a grab bag of other things. And with that grab bag, the email element, this is something that everyone should do, the grab bag element. Some people are going to be more comfortable with one thing versus another. So there's something for everyone here today. So the email follow up in 99% of the time we're talking to people, we're really talking about the digital delivery of a book so that you can capture their name and email Address conversations that allows you to have a conversation with them afterwards. The same strategy, the same objective that we're trying to get kind of starting this conversation following up from the the person that opted in their initial thought, following through to move the conversation towards an action which at some point is doing business. That same strategy can be applied to physical delivery of books or if you're using them in a live environment, a conference type environment. So if those are something that you're thinking about, again, think about this strategy that we're going to go into. It's just the details are going to vary because we're talking about in the context of email delivery. That might not be the thing that you're able to do in a physical world, but oftentimes there is a way of following up with people. You might just have to do it in a slightly different way. So there's five steps that we're talking about really when we're thinking about the initial follow up and then after those five steps, we want to put people into what we refer to as a flagship broadcast. A reason to continue to mail people. So for us at the moment, this is really the podcast we, with the exception of last week, we mailed an email about the podcast weekly. It allows us to put in different pss or different calls to actions. We have a super signature in there. But the main follow up sequence that we've got, and I'm going to be perfectly honest, because we don't have all five dialed in at the moment, I think we've only got three steps in there at the moment. So in a kind of cobbler's shoes type environment, it's definitely better that you do what we say and not do what we do in this example. But it is something we've got on a list to get back to. So that initial five step follow up, once they're past that process, then put them into a regular follow up sequence. Because remember, we've said a lot of times in the past that one of the reasons for. One of the main reasons really for offering a book is that it attracts people who aren't necessarily ready right now. It allows you to identify those people, get them to raise their hand, you can start a conversation with them, but that point that they become ready to do business with you may not necessarily be today. The same with the email follow up sequence. There's that initial sequence to get those five star prospects who are ready to go now, but then all of the rest of the people who will become ready or the rest of the People who will become ready at a later date. You just need to make sure that you're following up with them or having a reason to follow up with them in the long term. So hopefully that makes, that makes sense in terms of the framework. Let's dive into some of the details. Okay, so five steps, five elements, five immediate touch points that we've got to email people immediately after they've opted in. So the context of the person reading the book, requesting the book, they've seen a headline, a book title that resonates with them. Hopefully that title has given them the promise of a solution. The subheading of the book has kind of amplified that. The COVID of it has really captured their attention as it's passing them by. All of these reasons are making people think this solves a problem that is on my mind at the moment. So at that point of interest, it's the most interested they are until they make the decision to take the next step with you. So email that you send out initially, it really just wants to fill that need. They've requested a copy of the book. They won't want to read through 20 paragraphs of a long form sales letter in order to get to the thing they want. So in all of our emails that we send out and the way that we suggest starting the conversation is just by delivering exactly the thing that they've asked for. So they request a copy of the book, ideally send them to a webpage where they've got a download link where they can hit it. Now also follow up, but worst case scenario, just follow up with an email and say, hi, first name. Here's a copy of the book title that you requested. Here's the copy of the 90 minute book you requested, Dean or Stuart or Betsy or whoever, that's all that initial email needs to say. Because in that first instance, you're not trying to convince them to do anything else. They've already expressed an interest. You don't want to say, I hope you enjoy it because that's relatively week. It introduces the concept that they might not enjoy it, potentially end with, you are going to enjoy it, you're going to love this, it's a great book. There's no problem with doing that. But again, don't get caught up with having too many words. It's just short, to the point, deliver what they wanted. Because now you've started this conversation, imagine the scenario where you were meeting in. Dean describes this a lot as the Starbucks test. And it's a trap that I fall into. I think I Was talking about this with Jo last week. That my corporate background, the language that I naturally write in is very caveating and covering. In fact, I can hear myself doing now, even the way I speak. It comes across that way. Try and put. Because there's never a right answer. So try and put. Well, there's never one answer. So try and put. All of the possibilities and permutations and little caveats, but that's not how you would talk if you bumped into someone in Starbucks. So if you saw them in Starbucks and they said, oh, hey, can I have a read of that book? You say, hey, yeah, here it is. You wouldn't say, hey, here it is. I hope you really enjoy it. I'm here if you ever need me on chapter three or something. Really, all of this blurb that it's easy to write in an email because we think that we've got to fill all of that white space on the page. So that is so true.

Guest: There's a psychological mindset there. I think that we have to say more. It is that. I mean, it is. You know, we're not. We shouldn't try to convince, you know, people. And we are always tempted to do that. And so I think we do. We fill our emails with just a bunch of. Of nonsense sometimes. Like you said, you know, hope you're having a great day and hope you enjoy this book and, you know, all that stuff. And people just. They just need to get to the point, you know, they just need to get to what? To the book, you know, so that'd be.

Stuart: I think there's a couple of reasons that happens. And that Starbucks test is. I mean, it's a real game changer. If everyone just stops listening now and takes that away. I think that would make a significant difference.

Guest: My hand is raised. I'm gonna make sure I make note as well, you know, so. Because sometimes I send emails on behalf of Dean. And it's funny because you can. I'm sure people look at it and go, this is really chatty, you know, so. And things that Dean would never say, you know, because that's. That's me. And I feel like it needs to have a little more substance to it. But I need to remind myself that really there's an actual purpose to the email and all the fluff is not needed.

Stuart: I think there's a couple of things. I think there's a couple of things that happen. One is that element of there's a lot of white space on the page. I need to fill it with more stuff because If I don't fill it with more stuff, there's that quote from someone that I'm going to butcher completely now that says something like, like apologies for the length of this letter. I didn't have time to make it more condensed that that kind of concept of if you don't put a lot of stuff in there that you haven't thought about it, when the reality is less is more. In 99% of the times, the corporate nature of language is very, is very caveating. And that's really the trap that I fall into a lot. There's also the element of it's the long form sales letter problem of the long form sales letter is there to provide overwhelming evidence in the context of passing traffic. So very often you're trying to get people to opt in for the first time. This might be traffic that you're buying from an affiliate source or AdWord ads. So when people land on the page, there's the need in that context to put as much information there as possible, to remove all of the boundaries and to give overwhelming social proof that other people have taken this step. In this context, though, we've got their email address ready. This is the beginning of a long, beautiful relationship together. It's not you trying to beat someone into submission in that one email. So that's the first thing to follow up. The second email then is what we traditionally refer to as a sifting and sorting email. So one of the easiest examples is in the real estate model that we talk about quite a lot. So when people first request a copy copy of the guide to Lakefront Homes in Winter Haven, they'll request it. We'll say, hey Betsy, here's a copy of the guide you requested. And that's it. The sifting and sorting email that then follows up still conversational, is hey Betsy, are you looking for a home to invest in or Sorry, tripping over my words. Hey Betsy, you're looking for a house to invest in or a home to buy. And the reason I tripped over my words there is because the language around that is important as well. So we've crafted that. So are you looking for a house to invest in or a home to buy? Buy house versus home invest versus buy. Different psychology. So that sifting and sorting question allows the real estate that's sending out that guide to put this person in the category of either investor or a buyer. Because then the follow up emails after that are likely to be quite different. You're going to categorize and tag and label these two people in different Parts the language around house and home means that it's the language that you then follow up with people on afterwards is going to be different because it's either going to be a head decision around financials or a heart decision around building a home. And it's short expecting a reply, which we'll get back to in a little while as one of the later emails. But that short expecting reply, it gives them the opportunity. We didn't lead the following day with one of the weakest questions of hey Betsy, did you have time to read the book yet? Or hey Betsy, I hope you enjoyed the book or all of those things aren't relevant. They don't move the conversation forwards particularly well. And it's not easy for someone to reply to because even replying to that, unless they just replied with yes or no, which really doesn't give us on the receiving end much information replying yes or no. I mean, if they then did go into a heartfelt reason about why they didn't enjoy it, I mean, with the nicest possible view, who cares,

Guest: right?

Stuart: The book isn't the product. It's not like you're asking for literary feedback so that your next book is more of a best seller. This is moving the conversation forwards towards educating, motivating people to make an engaging a buying decision with you. So that follow up email a sifting and sorting question where possible. So we were just working with. I was just going to give an example, but I've just realized that was one of the don't promote books. So let me think of another example. Who have we finished? One of the promote ones that we finished recently. For some reason, every time I talk to you and talk about thinking of examples, I always think about a florist when I actually don't think we've ever written a book for florists. So I don't know why that's not.

Guest: We haven't. We haven't. Maybe in your past life that was, you know, simply.

Stuart: I was a florist. I do have slight hay fever now, so maybe it's kind of a. Swings around about sinking.

Guest: Yeah, let me. Yeah, my brain is. So I was going to use that example, but that's not. Do not promote as well. So. Of course they're all popping up at

Stuart: okay, I can see.

Guest: Yeah, okay.

Stuart: No, go for it.

Guest: Real estate red fit.

Stuart: Okay, so the real estate example, that's probably a bit too close to the one that we've just given. Let's go with the florist. So writing a book about wedding Flowers creating the book about how to get the best possible deal, the best the on Trend Styles of 2018 for a particular region. Whether you're looking at a summer or winter wedding, whatever the book is that gets people to raise their hand in the first place, then having a follow up question of have you found a booked a location yet? Have you booked a venue yet? Have you got a photographer yet? All of these things start a conversation, give you an indication of how far down the track they are. It's not necessarily as on the nose as have you picked a florist yet? Because maybe that's a little bit, and I'm not saying that's not the right way to go, but maybe that's a little bit too whiskery straight out of the gate, you've given them some good value, then you're immediately on them saying, have you picked a florist yet? So some of these sifting and sourcing questions that engages them in conversation, but isn't maybe quite as on the nose as have you had an alternative to meet for your service yet? Is possibly the way to go. If you wanted to stick with more closely to the flower type question, it might be, have you booked a date? Do you have a date for your wedding yet? Do you know which? Are you getting married in state or out of state? Are you going overseas? All of these things that are a little bit relevant start the conversation, allow you to sift and sort. Another great exercise to do this is to sit down and imagine that the person's just walked in through the door of the florist shop. So whatever that conversation would normally be, because for 80% of all of the interactions, like the conversations that we have with people listening to this now or people who are thinking about coming on board, all of those things are. All of those conversations that we have are really 80% the same. So whatever that staged conversation is. So for us it might be, do you have your audience, do you have a target audience in mind yet? Do you have a subject that you want to talk about? Are you doing this for a particular event or group of people or the people you're trying to target? All of these things move the conversation forward. Okay, so that's the second one. So first one, just get it to them. Second one, ask them a sifting and sorting question that leads the conversation a little bit further down the track. Now the third one. So this is four or five days into the process. Typically you'd say, well, you would always send the first email on day zero. Typically you'd follow up on then on day one, day three or four, so four or five days into the process, then a follow up with either an email that's basically more of an informational email that amplifies the conversation that's already going on. So either an email that showcases the results and this is what we've got in the funnel at the moment. We've got an email that talks about some of the Facebook campaigns that we run and the opt in rates and the follow on sequences that we've got from that. So our informational email amplifies it by showcasing some results. Another option is to highlight a specific point in the book and add value or elaborate on a particular point because as we talked about in the content stage, there's always stuff that should get cut from the book because you don't have time to include everything. So there's always other things that you can talk about, whether that's another adjacent thing or whether it's amplifying further into a point. And honestly, the amplifying further into a point is always the better way of going rather than introducing a whole new element of the subject. But there might be some cases where that makes sense. So the amplify and elaborate type point would be hey Betsy, I just wanted to quickly follow up with some additional information. I've often or we've got a lot of questions in the book that talk about how to build a well, stick with the florist. 1. How to pick flowers that are going to be in season for your wedding, meaning that the availability of them is going to be more Some people fall into the trap of having to picking a wedding date because it ties in with certain things. But there's a flower that they really love, but actually those two dates don't correspond. And then it becomes a real problem. Either they can't get the flower that they want or it's very the demand for it is very high or the availability is very low. So I just wanted to elaborate on this one particular point. So in these particular and this is where my knowledge as a florist runs out. If I was a florist in a former life, that knowledge didn't transfer to this life. But you get the point. It's kind of elaborating and allowing you to add more value and take the conversation further by adding something that's additionally interesting and relevant and continues the conversation again, just like it might be if they came into the shop. So if they came into the shop, you'd ask them had they picked a date for their wedding? They said. Yeah. Have you picked a particular wedding? What you think about in terms of flowers? Do you have something in mind? Oh yeah. I really like this particular one. Oh, actually that's not going to work because they're completely out of season. So elaborating on that point in a follow up email with a call to action or a super signature at the bottom that says here are four ways we can help you today. P.S. if you've got any questions, I'm always available for Phone calls between 9 and 11 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so feel free to give me a call or here's a link to my calendar to schedule something. I'd love to chat about your wedding, all of these things. It's the objective to continue that conversation, enhance the conversation, add more value and give people more opportunity to raise the hand. As interesting as interested coming from the point of view of you're adding value, adding value, adding value. It's the Gary Vaynerchuk Vangluh tripping over my words again. Gary Vaynerchuk jab, jab, jab, right hook type model of give, give, give, give and then ask. So that's the first three good so far?

Guest: Yep, sounds. That's good. All good?

Stuart: Yeah, perfect. I've just realized what the time is, so there's no way we're going to get this to the bonus ones. So we're going to hit the last two of these emails and then we'll do the bonus ones in the next show just to give people a bit of a cliffhanger.

Guest: Sounds good.

Stuart: This is important. I think the bonus ones are interesting and they're other things and some of them are shiny and flashy and some of them are super interesting. But really this email is the fundamental and this is a building block. So 100% of people listening should do this one and then the other ones, like I say, grab bag, taking leave. So we've got the three. So the fourth one is then what we refer to as a spear email. So short, personal, expecting a reply. This spear email is really just directly asking them a question related to the whole subject, but not necessarily specifically referring to the book. So for us we've got spare emails that go out that say, have you listened to the titles workshop yet? It's short, it's personal and it's expecting a reply. Because in each of these emails the thing that we're trying to do is start a conversation. The thing that we're trying to do isn't just to bombard people with Seven emails, because someone suggested that seven is the magic touch point. And by that point people are ready to buy and they'll just click on a link. What we're really trying to do is engage people in conversation and get that dialogue going. Now, that doesn't scale. If you're trying to do hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands, it can probably scale at the low thousands because the pickup rate is in. Would then be in the high tens or, well, probably in the high tens. It's probably unlikely to get into the hundreds. So again, for everyone listening to this, there's always that. We have heard it so many times that people say now, but if I do that, what am I going to do with all of the replies? I get overwhelmed with the replies. And I think Dean and I on a podcast a while ago said, well, dare you. I dare you to send something out and then get overwhelmed with the replies. Because if you do, that's a damn good problem to have. And yeah, absolutely. Someone to have that to fill the responses. So the short.

Guest: Yeah, I remember that when I was in one of Dean's events and there was somebody that day, Dean was talking about the emails and. And she had gotten like 35 or 40 within the hour and was just like, oh my gosh, you know, like, oh my gosh, oh my God. And I'm like, just. And it's a client of ours. And so I'm like, that's such a great problem to have. You know, I mean, you've got the interest, you've got their attention, you know, that's the goal, you know, so it's working, it's working, you know, so, yeah, definitely a good problem to have.

Stuart: It's often the issue as well that it's a problem in the first email you send out or it's more of a problem than the first email that you send out. Because then the existing list of people who haven't had any conversation for a while then suddenly get a response. And that uptake is likely to be far more in the beginning, but it does tail off and you get into a gradual flow of it after a while. So much less of an issue than it's. Than it could be. Okay, so short. Personally expecting a reply. The last email then in the sequence of five is really then to make the offer because now you've had a number of conversation points with people. There's been opportunities for people to express an interest and take a step. So for us, we've got a monthly sequence. Are you ready to get started? Sequence and that again, is short person expecting reply. Like all of them, but really at the hey, Betsy, are you ready to start on your book this month? So depending on what business you're in, those words will change very slightly. But the overall premise is the same. It's just keep that short conversation going, but directly making the offer. Sometimes people are afraid or avoid that, try and be too subtle. But really, this is a good point in the sequence because after this, this is the end of that initial touchpoint sequence. So what we're going to then is weekly flagship broadcasts where it's just more of a generic email that goes out that again adds value, has a super signature that talks about here are four ways that we can help you today, but this is the last opportunity to make that offer. So again, relatively short and personal. Not necessarily expecting reply, but having a clear call to action. So those are the five.

Guest: Right. So from day zero, when we, you know, from day zero to the fifth email, I think I lost some. Can you tell the listeners. So we had day three was the amplify and then where are we in the final, Like.

Stuart: Yeah, the last two. So again, this will vary depending on who. What your own sequence is. So some things that are very complex might need more time and some things that have got a bunch faster turnover, it might use less. So the number of days are less important than the fact that it's going out. But generally speaking, I do exactly what you said there the first three. So day zero, day one, day three and then probably day five and day seven. That day five and day seven might squeeze that in a bit to kind of day four and day five, but every other day, apart from those first two, day zero immediately, day one, the following day, but the rest of them every other day. And that keeps it in a sequence where you're not overloading someone with just blasting them with too much email, but also you're not leaving it too long. So that's a nice balance of the two. And then for the flagship forecast, weekly after that is probably the way to go. Yeah,

Guest: yeah. I think people have to figure out what works for them or what works for their business. But I think sometimes people just need to hear a little more detail from us.

Stuart: Right, yeah. Because we're in it all the time and it's easy for us to forget about some of the basics, which is exactly the thing that we say to people not to do. So it's good to definitely have a starting point at least.

Guest: Okay, so this has been really valuable information. I mean, I know I Say that all the time. But I just think, you know, there's just some valuable information there. Just speaking, you know, about the five email sequence, you know, follow up sequence that is, that's easy, that's free. It's a few minutes of your time every couple of days and it's just a great way to stay keep in touch with your, you know, your audience or your active list or what have you.

Stuart: So put that sequence, put that on an autoresponder so that you don't need to worry about once someone's in the sequence that it's automatically going out. And if you don't have a system that can do that, then head over to gogoclients.com that's our system, the system we use. And that can definitely do it for you. But yeah, definitely automate it rather than relying on doing it yourself.

Guest: Yeah, very good.

Stuart: Okay, well, that I think is a good place to leave it. We'll pick up on the bonus ones next time. I'll put show notes and a quick bullet summary of each of these across@90minutebooks.com podcast and this is episode 57. So as you're listening to this, head back across, check out the show notes and there's a little more to detail, a little more detail there along with the transcript as well. So easy to skip through. If you're ready to get started, then obviously the very best thing to do is just head over to 90minutebooks.com start and there's all the details of how to get started. And then by the time you've got the book created, we can have had a conversation about some more of the beyond the book stuff so that you're really hitting the ground running. And I think now is a good time for people to get started as well because as we record this, it's mid April. This is really going to put us into people completing now coming into the beginning of the summer. And that's a great point to be at because that gives you the summer to get things started, get things moving with the audience that you already know and then puts you in a really good position in the fall for starting to hit new groups and people that you haven't necessarily spoken to in the past and really get that this is a good time frame to get started. Thinking about the next six months and planning that half year ahead.

Guest: Very good. Awesome.

Stuart: Okay, well, thanks for saying Betsy. We will catch up again next week and we'll do the bonus grab bag.

Guest: Great. Sounds good.

Stuart: Okay, thanks. Speak soon. Cheers.