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Does the thought of writing your launch email sequence make you want to scream?
Don’t worry, because today you're going to learn how to write a killer launch sequence that'll actually get your audience opening your emails and clicking the buy now button.
Sales emails are a seriously important topic because they could make or break your launch. You want to make sure that you get them right.
In today’s episode of the Rebel Boss Ladies Podcast, Elli Runkles is going to share the most important strategies you need to know about writing your email launch sequence.
Elli is a sales strategist and copywriter who helps ambitious women entrepreneurs build the confidence and bank accounts to match their big vision. She helps her clients, from solopreneurs to seven-figure business owners, harness the power of written words in order to sell in their businesses in a way that actually feels good and gets results.
Today, we’re going to talk about how to write sales emails, what to include in your sales emails, how to write subject lines that actually get your subscribers to click and open your email, and how to make your sale sequences useful and engaging for all types of people.
Elli’s Move to Spain and Her Entrepreneurship Journey
Elli is a sales copywriter and strategist. She works with online coaches and creative entrepreneurs to help them write copy and create content that really connects with their audience. She teachers her clients to focus on both empathy and conversion, so that they can really hit on what their audience is looking for and what they need to hear so that they are really excited and ready to work with you.
As far as her entrepreneurship journey goes, Elli says that she’s always known that she wanted to own her own business. Her journey up to that point, however, was pretty winding.
“I actually am from the US but I live in Spain. And I moved here right out of college because even at that point in my life before I knew I wanted to start a business, I knew that I didn't want to go into the typical corporate 9-to-5 corporate America. So I moved to Spain kind of on a whim.”
Originally, Elli planned to stay in Spain for one year to teach English. That ended up turning into five years and she’s done a lot of different things like freelance work, which ultimately led to her starting a business.
What is Launch Copy and How is it Different from Traditional Copy?
Elli’s focus is on sales copy, which she says is very different than the more traditional copy you would write in content like blog posts. According to Elli, sales copy is “copy that you're writing with the specific purpose of selling something. And so in a launch, it's the copy that you're writing specifically to sell whatever it is you're launching.”
During a launch, you’ll need to write sales copy for a lot of different aspects of your launch. That means writing a sales page, email copy, social copy, and more, all focused on the one product you’re launching.
Elli says that there’s a lot that goes into writing copy for your product launch. “You're talking about one particular product the entire time, and so it can start to feel a little bit repetitive.”
According to Elli, this repetitiveness isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and there are ways to make sure that your copy doesn’t seem too repetitive for you or your audience. This means hitting your product from a lot of different angles and helping people see even the value of your product in different ways throughout your launch.
Sales Copy Repetitiveness: Why It’s Important to Be Repetitive and Send Emails
A lot of people hesitate when it comes to launching and creating a sales email sequence because they don’t want to burn out their subscribers by sending too many emails.
Elli says that this isn’t necessarily something you should worry about.
First, she emphasizes that you probably feel like you’re a lot more annoying to your audience than they actually perceive you to be, because you’re hyper aware and worried about sounding salesy.
“But for your audience, they signed up for your email list and they kind of know what they're getting into when they sign up for e-mail list… Some are going to be purely about you and some are going to be sales emails.”
Another thing Elli suggests keeping in mind is that not everyone is reading every single email that you send. You want to send more emails than you think, and approach the launch from a lot of different angles, because some emails will connect with certain people more than others. “By sending multiple emails, you're kind of hitting on a lot of different touchpoints that you'd miss out on if he just sent one email.”
Don’t forget that your target customers need a certain amount of information in order to make the decision that the product is right for them. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re sending them enough information to make them feel confident enough in your product to buy it.
Strategies to Spice Up Your Sales Emails to Avoid Sounding Salesy
Elli says that the best way to make your emails catch the attention of your subscribers and avoid sounding too salesy is to focus on the transformational nature of your product.
“I really like to focus on telling stories around the problems that your offer solves and the transformations that it creates for your ideal clients… I actually recommend starting with the sales page because that kind of gives you the foundational copy of what the messaging is for this entire offer.”
Elli suggests looking at your sales page and some of the pain points that you’re hitting, and trying to build out those pain points into separate emails that tell a story about the transformation your product will bring.
For each pain point, go into more detail in the email sales copy, tell stories about transformation and share your personal perspective on it. Identify what the audience may be experiencing, the outcome, and hit on those pain points from different angles. This will help you to reach people who may have different experiences or opinions about the solution you’re providing.
Sales Emails: What You Should Send and How Often You Should Send Them
Let’s say you have a five-day launch or open cart period. How many emails should you be sending during that time?
Elli recommends sending at least one email a day for that five-day period. She says that the minimum number of emails you should send is at least one per day, and then at least two on cart close. She also recommends that you shouldn’t go over this number by too much, just so you’re not draining your audience’s attention.
She sees a lot of people making the mistake of not sending at least one email per day, out of fear that they sound salesy. You need to send at least an email per day in order to show your audience the whole picture of what you’re offering.
A great way to avoid sounding salesy is to send different types of emails on different days. (Elli has a guide on how to do this – make sure you check out her freebie, included in the links below!)
On the first day of your launch, Elli recommends sending an announcement email to let everyone know you’re launching your product. She says, “depending on how you launch your product, it may be you're sending a webinar replay or you're sending a kind of recap, or final day of a challenge or whatever it was that you did to launch your product, send a kind of recap and then transition that into, ‘and by the way, now the product is available.’”
Over the next few days, you'll want to really go into more detail so that your subscribers can get to know what the product is. This way they’ll be able to make a decision on whether or not to buy your product throughout the open cart period.
Elli also recommends that it’s good to include one or two benefit-driven emails, which really focus on either how your product solves a particular pain point, or how it creates particular results that that your audience is wanting to get from your product. Make these as specific as possible, so you’re giving your audience the information they need to decide to buy your product.
Finally, Elli recommends sharing a compelling origin story, if you have one. “So that could be your origin story of how you started your business, how you got to where you are in business and how maybe the product that you're selling now helped you get there.” This story could also be about the origin of your products. What problems did you see in your industry and why did you create this particular solution?
Finally, it’s always good to send the traditional sales launch emails, with FAQs, testimonials and more.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that no matter what product you’re selling and what kind of email you’re writing, you want to include the who, what, where, when and why in every product sales email that you write. This is essential, because even though you know exactly what's going on in your head and with your product, it may not be as clear to the people reading your emails. You want anyone reading one of the emails in your sequence for the first time to know exactly what you’re trying to talk about, even if they’re jumping into the middle of the sequence.
Using Empathy to Show Your Clients Why They Definitely Should Buy Your Product
When helping her clients write copy, the first thing that Elli recommends is it all needs to start from a place of empathy and really knowing who your audience is. She elaborates that you need to know everything about your ideal client, including “what they're looking for and what problem they want solved, what they're experiencing day-to-day and how it's showing up for them and what their biggest concerns and fears and dreams are and how you can translate that into your products.”
She encourages her clients to conduct market research – you should be sending out surveys, getting on calls with people, and learning about what they’re experiencing and what they want to learn from you.
“Whether that's on Instagram, posting polls or having these conversations with your ideal clients so that you can really stay in tune with what are they experiencing every day, what's going on for them and how can I either create a product specifically around this or maybe reposition the products that I already have so that it's very clear to them how this offer relates to what they're experiencing every day.”
In Client-Centered Sales Emails, Focus on the Transformation and Not on the Features
Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in a rut of describing the features of your product, and all the bells and whistles that come with it. But you shouldn’t necessarily focus on that, because a lot of clients couldn't care less what the product is as long as it's something that is going to help them.
The mechanism of your product will always be secondary to the result that will come from that mechanism. Elli recommends always thinking in terms of the transformation that will occur because of your product, and the results your clients will experience.
Priming Your Audience During Pre-Launch to Get Them Ready for Your Product Launch Email Sequence
One of the mistakes that Elli sees often is that people don’t start preparing their audience for the launch in advance.
She recommends that you start increasing the frequency of emails that you send to your list in the weeks before your launch so that your audience will be used to receiving more mail from you when it matters. “I think that's important to make sure your audience is kind of ready and expecting and also kind of teasing what's coming is a good way to approach it.”
Elli says that you should probably be having about a month of ramp up before your launch to get your audience used to your increase in emails.
Before you launch, Elli recommends that you plan for “three to four weeks of the kind of priming content, so like getting people ready to buy, just through your normal blog or normal emails that you send people. And then maybe like two to three weeks before starting to send a second, an additional email.”
These extra emails could invite people to get on the waitlist for your product that’s coming, or invite them to participate in your webinar or 5-day challenge that will be the launch trigger. Both of these strategies are a great way to build buzz before your launch.
If you don’t regularly email your list, or don’t have a very engaged audience, we recommend that you start regularly emailing your list and making the pre-launch phase a bit longer than one month. They’ll need more nurturing than a list that is really engaged.
Thinking About How People Buy and Incorporating it Into Your Product Launch Email Sequence
Elli says that it’s important to make sure that you’re sending emails that touch on how different people buy. You may be able to think back and think about an experience where you bought a digital product and what it was that made you finally make the decision. Your audience is not necessarily going to have the same buying behavior as you, though.
Elli recommends thinking about different personality types and using what each different type is looking for as they’re getting ready or making the decision to buy in order to make your email sequence much more successful.
She uses a system based off the Myers-Briggs personality types. The first factors to consider are on the N-S scale, or Intuition versus Sensing. Intuitive people tend to think more big picture, and want to read about the overall effects and results of the product. What will they get out of this? Sensing people tend to be more detail-and observing, and will want to know all the details, features and what exactly goes into the product.
The other scale to consider is the F-T scale, or Feeling versus Thinking. Feelers will relate more to testimonials and will respond to an account of how they will feel after using your product. Thinkers will want to know more specific data or monetary results, for example, concrete numbers that show how your products will help them.
Elli emphasizes that different things and different strategies will work better for different people. That’s why it’s important to spread these concepts throughout your email launch strategy and sequence to address all of these different concerns and needs of your audience.
Writing Subject Lines that Actually Get People to Open Your Emails
Writing a good subject line that will get your readers to click on your email can be tricky. They need to be loosely related to what’s inside the email, because you don’t want to bait and switch people. But you also need to grab people’s attention and have them curious about what’s inside.
Elli recommends trying a few different things. First, you can make your subject line really results driven. Sharing information about the results that your audience wants can get them interested in the contents of your email.
She also suggests showing some of your personality in your subject line, especially if your email list is very engaged. If you have a good relationship with your email list, you can try to stand out a little more. “Maybe something that's like very you, or very on brand for you that maybe goes a little bit controversial or a little bit against the norm. So it's going to stand out in their inbox.”
Depending on your email service provider, you may also have the option to A/B test different subject lines. This can be very helpful, because your ESP will send out emails with both subject lines to 15% of your audience, and then will later send out the most successful subject line to the remainder of your audience. ConvertKit has a great A/B test feature, which can be a great way to use data to drive your product launch email sequence.
Tips for Entrepreneurs Who Are Hesitant (or Terrified) of Writing
If you’re someone who really struggles when it comes to writing in general, Elli says there are a lot of different ways that you can go about writing your product launch email sequence.
She recommends one strategy that a lot of her clients use. Some of them prefer to speak what they want to say, rather than actually write it out. These people go for a walk and do a voice recording on their phone, then transcribe and edit it into an acceptable email format.
Another strategy she recommends is working in two separate documents, one brain dump document and one final draft document. It can be a lot of pressure to sit down and write something with the intention to sell your products, because you may feel like it has to be perfect. If you’re trying to immediately write the perfect email, you may get stuck.
If you’re stuck staring at a blank paper and unsure of how to go forward, start with a separate document that you can just put all of your ideas with no pressure. “You get all your ideas out, and then from there you can kind of pull over onto your official sales copy documents the things that really stand out and work. And then you've kind of got something to start with so you're not looking at a blank slate.”
Another important thing to keep in mind is that this probably won’t be the only time you launch this product. Even if an email doesn’t work out this time then, you can learn from it for next time. It’s like an experiment – if an email or two fails in your sequence, you're going to be able to change it next time. That failure is just information that you have now that you can use to change your strategy the next time around.
Learn How to Write Launch Emails with Elli’s Guide – the Seven Types of Emails to Include in Your Launch Sequence
Still feeling a little wary about writing your email sales copy for your product launch? Don’t worry! Elli has a freebie that can help you work through the different types of emails to include in your sequence.
Elli’s guide breaks down the email launch sequence into things you’ll want to consider on each day of your open cart. It’ll go through how you can go about writing sales copy emails, which will make your next launch much easier and successful.
If you’re interested, check out the links below!
//LINKS IN THE SHOW//
Check out Elli’s website – http://ellirunkles.com/
Download Elli’s freebie, a Guide to Writing Launch Emails with the 7 types of emails to include in your launch sequence – http://ellirunkles.com/free/
Follow Elli on Instagram
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
This episode marks the end of season 1 of the Rebel Boss Ladies Podcast! I’m going to spend the next few months creating more amazing content. I’ve already got some amazing guests lined up for those episodes, so check back in February 2020 for season 2. Happy holidays!