#289 5 Tips for Jewelry Designers to Write Emails That Convert

2:02PM Feb 11, 2021

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Alison Haselden

Keywords:

email

cta

email marketing

sales

audience

segments

email list

subject line

business

brand

thrive

personalization

flourish

convert

great

allison

waitlist

product

customers

personalized

So, keeping that consistent color theme, the language that you're using any logos that are significant to your brand, and so on and so forth. those details add up in a big way for your customers subconsciously.

Welcome to Thrive by Design, the podcast for ambitious independent jewelry brands, looking to profit from their products, get ready to make more and sell more doing what you love, without spending every single waking minute doing it. Hey, and if you're a creative fashion or product based business, I want to welcome you to the show. I'll be dropping big tips on launching, growing and scaling your business. So you can spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? All right, let's do this.

Welcome to the Thrive by Design podcast episode 289. Hey there, it's Tracy Matthews, Chief Visionary Officer of Flourish and Thrive Academy. And I actually have a guest host on the podcast today. It's Allison Haselden, our marketing director over here at Flourish and Thrive Academy and she's gonna be dropping some amazing tips to help you create emails that are going to convert a heck of a lot better than usual. So I'm really excited about this, you know, 2020 told us and showed us many times over it's like, if you want to learn the lesson that email marketing is the thing that is actually going to increase your direct to consumer sales. And all the designers in our community, who had massive increases in sales last year, said that the number one reason why their sales increased is because they were email marketing more than they felt comfortable with, sometimes upwards of three times a week. And so Allison is going to come in here and talk a little bit more about some best practices for email marketing to help get those emails converting a little bit better. Or maybe I should say a lot better, and train your customers to actually buy from you online.

Now for the past two years, we've done this really epic workshop, it's called the Train Your Customers workshop, or the TYC. In fact, it is so great, because it's a really intense 12 week interactive workshop where we're going to help you basically increase your online sales and use tried and true practices.

We've run so many people through this program that actually work to convert offline shoppers, into on line customers. And to get more of those people who are already shopping from you online, buying more and more. So this is perfect for anyone who is trying to get more consistent monthly sales, they want to leverage their direct to consumer business model.

And they're not really sure where to start, ideally, because they don't want to have a single point of failure anymore. And it's literally transformed the businesses of hundreds of students by this point. So we've decided to run this interactive workshop one more time. And we're starting to build the waitlist for that. So if you're interested in joining us, we start in April.

If you're interested in joining us for the T yc 2021 version, we're going to only run it one time this year. You can head on over to flourish thrive academy.com forward slash TYC and get on the waitlist right there. And you will be the first to know when we open up for this round of applications. All right, let's do this. All right, let's dive into today's episode with Allison you are going to love it.

Hi there. Like Tracy said, my name is Alison Haselden, and I am the marketing director at flourish and thrive Academy and I am so excited to be guest co hosting today on the thrive by design Podcast.

I am so excited because today we're talking about one of my favorite things, which is email marketing. And email marketing is one of the most powerful tools that we have to make sales online, no matter what you're selling. So whether it's jewelry or a creative product, you really want to focus on building up a strong email list and developing a really killer email marketing strategy.

And today, I'm going to share with you five of our top tips for writing emails that convert because after all, while it might be nice to get a friendly update from your favorite brand, that's really the main point of emails, right? It's not a letter in the mail. It's not a diary entry. It's intended to help you and your business make more sales.

So writing emails that are designed for conversion is the name of the game. And the best part is is that you know, before you get worried about that, when I say emails that convert that doesn't mean that we're writing emails that sound icky or salesy or Make you feel just a little slimy, like your direct selling the whole time. That's absolutely not the case. And these five tips are going to help you make sure that you are able to sell and convert your, your email list in a way that feels very natural, that covers all of the details and all of your bases that you should really be thinking about.

So these five tips should get you set up for success. And we also have an amazing email marketing freebie for you. The link is down in the show notes. So make sure you grab that as well. So without further ado, let's dive on in to these top five tips.

So tip number one for writing emails, that convert is stick to your branding to your brand, whether it's personal or part of a bigger picture, it plays a massive role and winning over your customers. But you have to remember that branding doesn't start and stop on just your website or your social media posts, right, your brand needs to be consistent across every single marketing platform that you have. So while that does include your website and social media posts, that also should extend over into your email marketing.

So we've actually seen that there's a round of 33% increase in revenue from brands who are really consistent with their branding. And it might sound that sounds crazy, right? Like that's such a silly thing. It's such a seemingly insignificant thing. But it's it's amazing how, you know, keeping that consistent color theme, the language that you're using any logos that are significant to your brand, and so on and so forth. those details add up in a big way for your customers subconsciously. So whether they realize it or not, it can help create that consistency and trust that can lead to a sale.

So it's really important that you keep your branding consistent in your email efforts. And this means using the same language that you'd use on your website, or in your social media posts, ensuring your brand colors or logo are displayed prominently, and speaking to your customers in your emails, just like you would anywhere else.

And one of the cool things about this, this, I'll consider this like a bonus tip is that this is a really great way to think also about repurposing content. Because I know so many designers who are creating totally separate, they're working twice as hard, they're coming up with totally separate ideas for their social media posts. And then they have to come up, they feel like they have to come up with a totally different idea for their emails. And that's actually not the case, you can have a lot of crossover between your social posts and your emails, maybe you might have to, you know, tweak and expand or subtract information to best fit the platform. But this is a really good way to also make sure that your brand voice is staying consistent across all of your different marketing channels.

So tip number two is tailor emails for each segment. So on your email list, hopefully you have segmented out your list. And what this is, is essentially identifying the different subgroups within your email list. Right. So not everyone on your email list fits the same demographic, they might not have the same interest with your business, and so on and so forth.

So over time as they opt into certain things, and opt out of certain things. And depending on where they find you and how they joined your email list, you can create these subgroups, these segments, so that you have a clear understanding of the differences between the groups, and what they really want and like to see from you. And that could be wildly different between each segment. So it's important that you're also tailoring these emails to each of your segments once you understand who they are. So here's here's an example of this. And this is a really bold example. And you might not have this big of a gap between your segments. But it's still a good way to help you understand.

So let's say that you have two very different list segments on your email list. You have one part that is made up of Gen Z. And the other part is made up of baby boomers. So we've seen studies that have shown that Gen Z really enjoy getting GIFs in their emails, while baby boomers absolutely do not. Now, there's always exceptions to these things. But based on the data, using GIFs is a great strategy for Gen Z and not a great strategy for baby boomers.

So it would make perfect sense that you would want to make sure that you utilize that tactic of GIFs for your Gen Z audience. But you don't want to, you know upset accidentally your baby boomer audience. So making sure that you have those folks on two separate lists segments can help you adjust your emails as simply as as Adding a GIF into the Gen Z list and not adding a GIF for the baby boomer list.

Does that make sense? So having those lists segments, and then adjusting your emails accordingly, is really going to pay off big time. And you can continue to get to know your audience better and better, and pick up more specific details about what they do and don't like. And that can help you in email marketing and beyond on your other marketing channels. So be sure to take note of those differences that you pick up the variations of what works for one segment and doesn't work for another. And over time, this is going to help you develop your email marketing strategy until you are like a machine, you know your audience back to front. And it really can help you zero in on which specific strategies are going to help convert each list segment, ultimately making your business more money.

So tip number three is be brief. And I know this might be shocking to some of you. But the reality is, is that it's easy to get carried away when we're writing sometimes. But you have to remember, an email is not a one to one substitute for a social media post or a blog post, or a direct sales conversation. It's not a substitute for any of those things. And your audience is busy, like life is so busy. Even though we've been living in this pandemic world, there's still a lot going on, we're all very exhausted, there's a lot being thrown at us.

So it's important that emails get straight to the point. And that it's clear what these emails are about. There was this large study actually by HubSpot, and they determined that the best email length is anywhere from 50 to 125 words, I'm gonna repeat that again. HubSpot did a study, and they determined that the best length for emails is between 50 to 125 words.

And while this is a good benchmark, keep in mind that you know your dream audience and your dream client that always comes first. So like I mentioned, as you get to know your audience, as you learn their preferences and what they respond best to, you know, they might not fit into that 50 to 125 word outline, they might need more or less. So so do keep an open mind and always check in with your data and your research. But it's important to, you know, consider that maybe there's some areas that can be trimmed down or clarified, I find that that's one of the biggest ways that emails accidentally run long.

If you you know, are being a little bit confusing with explaining a concept, or maybe you realize that you accidentally explained the same point twice, but in a different way. Those are great areas to look at for seeing how you could streamline the messaging to make sure that it's crystal clear for your audience, and that there's no confusion.

But it's also important to think about, you know, your email length can vary depending on the type of email that you're sending. So for example, if you're just sending out a simple coupon code, or a sale, that is likely to be able to be verbalized, and much fewer words, and maybe in a clever way, then if you are announcing a collection, right, it's your brand new collection announcement, that's definitely going to warrant a longer email that you can share some stories, you can share some detail and insight, and kind of launch that new collection. So So keep that in mind as well, not every email has to be in the same number of words, it really depends on the intention of that email.

Tip number four is personalized when possible.

So a little personalization can go a long way. And I want you before we really dive into the nitty gritty about this, to consider the moments that you've had a personalized sales experience where you were the customer, right? Even things as simple as remembering your name and using it frequently in your conversation to having a personalized small gift, or, or just anything that made you feel really welcome seen, heard and understood, probably made you more likely to buy from the person who's selling to right?

And even if you didn't want to buy maybe it just wasn't the right time. It wasn't the right, you know, exact type of product for you. You probably walked away with a really great impression of that company. You might have even told your partner or your kids or your best friend about what a wonderful experience you had that day with that company.

And that's kind of the idea here about personalization, even an email marketing even when you're not in that face to face sales experience. personalization is possible and necessary. If you want to increase your chance of a conversion, either in that moment, or later on down the road, because remember, you know, once you have someone on your email list, even if they don't buy from you, the first time you send them an email, that doesn't mean that they're a total dud, and they're never going to buy from you.

You want to continue to nurture them, and get them ready to buy from you. And that might be after that first email, it might be after 10 or 20 emails down the line, you just don't know. And every audience is different. And like I said, as you continue to get to know your dream audience in your dream clients, you're going to begin to get an idea of how much nurturing they will need to buy certain products. But personalization is never going to be a bad thing, you'll never feel like it's a waste of time. Because even if it doesn't result in a sale, it can result in some incredible free publicity for your brand, that could get more people on your email list more people potentially buying from you.

So with email, personalization can come in a few different forms. So first of all, you can personalize the subject line of the email. And this is generally doable via your email marketing platform by adding a first name field in the subject line. So every platform is a little bit different. But you're going to want to look into whatever platform you're using, whether it's Klaviyo or MailChimp or ConvertKit. And make sure that you add the option for first name field in the subject line. And what this does is it puts the first name of each recipient, upon sending to your list. So that means that each person who receives the email will have their own name in the subject line.

And you can make it part of a sentence, you can make it part of your subject line. So it's not just gonna say their name, it'll say, you know, like, if it was an email being sent to me and say, Hey, Allison, don't miss out. And I'd be like, oh, oh, I'm paying attention. Now. They saw my mind, they said my name and and what am I missing, I need to go check that out. And so that would be different depending on the person and have their own personalized name. So that's a great way to do it, because it grabs their attention right away in the subject line.

Another great option that you should take advantage of is personalizing within the body of the email. So you can in the same way, as you did in the subject line, you can add your recipients first name to the introduction, or somewhere else in the text. And this can help make it feel like you're speaking directly to your dream audience within the email, which makes it more engaging and personal. So kind of like I was saying, you can, in some ways, recreate that one on one in person sales experience, with just a few little tweaks of personalization in your emails. So for the body part of the email, I highly encourage you add the first name, trigger within your email system to the the greeting. So if you say hi, first name here, so Hi, Alison, and then go into your email.

And I would suggest trying to find one other place within the body of your email to add in the name. And if that feels a little bit awkward to you go back to exactly what I was saying. And speak out your email, like dictate it, record it on your phone. Or if you have a tool that does a voice to text transfer, you could literally speak your email into existence. And that might make it easier to figure out where a good opportunity would be to add in the name of the recipient.

So make it more personal. And finally, tip number five, arguably one of the most important tips, because this is all about CTAs. So tip number five is to make the CTA strong and prominent.

Your CTA is your call to action. And that's the point where you're asking your audience to do something. So for example, in a product launch, your CTA would likely be a link to that Products page and ask for them to click the link and check out the product. Right. But in a sales email, your CTA is probably going to take the recipient directly to the sales page to buy now, right? So it's a little bit different. You could also have a CTA, that's a bit more relaxed, right? Like maybe it's respond to this email and say I'm in to join my facebook group, or click this link to sign up for our event next week that we're hosting like a virtual trunk show.

So a CTA could be a number of different things depending on the intention of your email, but it's essentially an opportunity that you are providing to your email readers to continue to engage with your brand. And like I said, that could be it in a number of different ways. But it's giving them the clear next step to continue to engage with Do your brand. So when you're crafting an email for your list, it's really important that your CTA is well worded, which would spur your audience into action, right? You want to inspire them to take the action. So you want to ask yourself, what is it that you want your audience to do upon receiving the email, then put yourself in their shoes and think, what would make me click this link? And take this next step? Right?

So for example, let's say that you're running a 20% off sale on some of your older items, you're trying to have excess inventory, and you're trying to clear it out, your email could easily end with a with a quick little button that says shop now, this is direct, but kind of bland, right? It's, it's, it's fine, it's clear, I would say that. But it could be a little bit more exciting to inspire that action that we want our customers to take. So another option to do this. And maybe a more exciting way is save 20% before these items are gone for good, right. So this version tells your reader exactly what they can expect by clicking the button. And it also uses the idea of FOMO, the fear of missing out to urge them into action, because you're giving them a time constraint, you're saying these items are going to be gone for good and you're going to miss out if you don't take advantage of this opportunity. So that's a really good way to encourage them and inspire them to take action.

One last little tip on CTA is is that you want to make sure that the CTA really stands out from the crowd. So in an email, if you have a bunch of text, it could get lost in the shuffle. So you want to make sure that maybe it's on its own line. It's not obscured by any other text or images, maybe bolded. Make sure you have that link attached. So it really pops off from the page and catches their eye. So they're more likely to see it, read it and click. And that's the beauty of a CTA. So that's it guys. Those are my top five tips for writing emails that convert for jewelry designers and creative product makers. I hope this was a fun episode for you guys. I'm so excited to do more episodes in the future. Do you want to learn more about email marketing for

your jewelry and creative product business? Like I said, we have a free guide for you. And the link is down in the show notes that is absolutely free for you to enjoy to continue to grow your email skills. And if you really want to take things to the next level, or you're feeling stressed out about emails, it's just not clicking for you or you don't have time, I would highly encourage you to check out the emails that sell bundle, the emails that sell bundle is a complete done for you set of templates and guides and checklists. We have 500 plus subject lines I think in there, which is incredible. And it basically streamlines your entire email marketing process.

We have calendar for you, we have the templates that you can just plug and play. So it makes email marketing really simple. It's a great way to help save yourself some time, and to start learning the process of email marketing strategy. And it's super affordable, it's on sale. And you can get that for your business at flourish thrive academy.com slash ETS. And I'm so excited about this product. So if you have just been stumped with emails, I hope that that is an exciting help for your business. But like I said, we have so many resources for you as well on the blog. You can check out more about email marketing there as well. And I am so excited for all of the growth that we're gonna see in your business and in your email marketing strategy. So until next time, I'm Allison Haselden and thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you so much for listening to the show today. This is Tracy Matthews signing off for Ellison Haselden the next time. Anyway, I wanted to remind you that our TYC workshop is starting up in April so we are starting to build the waitlist for this right now. If you'd like to dive into online strategies that work and train your customers to buy from you online.

Get on the waitlist by heading on over to flourish thrive academy.com forward slash TYT thanks so much for listening today. This is Tracy for Allison signing off. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. It's my mission to help 1000s of creative businesses inside and outside the jewelry space use their creativity to make money. Make sure that you're subscribed to thrive by design on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts are played. And we'd love to hear what you think. Please rate and review the show and if you're inspired, please share this with your friends. Cheers to seeing you flourish and thrive.