How To Get Back On The Email Wagon When You Fall Off (Back To School Edition)

The Email Marketing Show

So you haven't been emailing your list for a while. You've fallen off the email marketing wagon and now you're wondering about the best way to get back onto it. With every day that passes, the thought of starting again fills you with even more dread. But there's a way to do it - emailing your list after a while doesn't have to be scary. And today we're going to help you re-start your email marketing, give you an easy-to-follow email reactivation template, and share a huge opportunity you don't want to miss.

Ready to learn the simplest way to get back to your list?

SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

(0:12) Our outrageous email marketing contest.

(4:44) Support our sponsor - Selzy.

(7:40) Why you need to get back to your email marketing.

(15:00) Wrap your fist email around an event or announcement.

(17:03) Reduce your resistance.

(19:44) Set lower expectations of yourself.

(21:55) Use templates and frameworks.

(25:57) Focus on the outcome.

(27:38) How to enter our incredible contest!

(29:07) Subject line of the week.

Our outrageous email marketing contest

We always say your marketing needs to stand out, and we often talk about having an obnoxious offer. So we’re doing a contest where we'll pay for a whole year of your email marketing platform, give you a full year of all our resources, campaigns, and coaching inside of our membership, The League, and we'll post you the 10 books we recommend everyone reads to improve your email marketing.

It’s outrageous and totally free to enter. All you have to do is go to this link to check out the details and enter. So what are you waiting for?

Support our sponsor

For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you’re supposed to make at least a $36 return. But that's hard to do if you're scratching your head wondering how to use all of these advanced email marketing features. This is why we're introducing Selzy, a tool where you don’t have to squint your eyes and give yourself a migraine to get started.

You’ll be able to launch your first campaign in just 15 minutes, create emails and automations super easily, and you can call for backup 24/7 from Selzy’s amazing support team. Selzy is sponsoring this episode of The Email Marketing Show, so if you want to give it a shot, for just $49 you can have a lifetime account with unlimited emails, automation, segmentation, and some advanced analytics. And that’s all of that for the price of around 10 lattes! You can grab this bonkers deal here.

Why you need to get back to your email marketing

Have you fallen off the email marketing wagon lately? We all start with the best intentions - and not just with email marketing. But often life gets in the way, and it's easy to drop the ball. Now it's time to get back to it though - just like children are heading back to school!

You see, we call this "the Dreaded Dentist". Because we've all been there - you go to the dentist, and you're told you haven't been in too long, you've left things too late, and now there's a lot that needs fixing.

And that's just how it is with most things - the longer you put something off, the more you dread re-starting it and the harder it's going to feel. Getting back to your email marketing feels hard today because you've already left it for too long. But keep leaving it, and it'll be even harder! And while you're not sending emails, your list is eroding.

So you need to get back into the game. And the good news is that the thought of doing it is probably scarier than the thing itself - this feeling you're sitting in right now is the worst you're going to experience. But you can escape this and feel in control again. Because if you don't, you're keeping yourself stuck. So don't wait until the job on the dentist chair becomes huge - get on top of this now.

Send the first email

So how do you get started again? The first thing to do is to email your list again. And a little shortcut to this is to wrap your first email around an event, an announcement, or something that’s coming up. This gives you an 'excuse' as to why you've not been emailing. And it's partially true - the reason why you haven't been emailing is that you've been busy doing other things.

It could be that you've been working on a virtual summit, a five-day challenge, or building a new sales page. Or maybe you took time off over the summer to spend it with family. Whatever it is, you haven’t been emailing because you’ve been busy doing something else. So tell them what that reason is – even if it’s just part of the reason or not the only reason.

By wrapping the first email around something that's coming up, you're making up for the loss with something cool. And that also gives you a reason to email because, as we always say, you can never send too many emails if you have a good reason for sending them.

And one of the problems you have when you first crawl out from under your rock and start emailing again after a long period of silence is that you now need a stronger and better reason to email. Because otherwise, you’re the person who turned up just to start selling again. And no one likes that. In fact, those are the email marketers we tend to avoid and switch off from. So mention the reason that explains your quietness and why you're now coming back.

Reduce your resistance

Now, it's easy for you to think that you can’t start emailing your list again until you’ve got your sales page created or your summit all organised. But that’s not the case - you don't need to have the product done yet.

The email you send now can be about explaining why you’ve been a bit absent and you telling people what you’re working on. In the next email, you can then send them a link to what you've been creating. But that first email can be the precursor email that does the bridging. That way, you've gone back into the dentist's chair. So get that email out first, and then go and create the sales page if it's not ready yet.

Also, remember that it doesn't have to be something new - it could be a re-launch, for example. Don't let the fact you don't have something new hold you back. Reduce your resistance to getting back onto your email marketing.

We talk a lot about resistance when it comes to the psychology of email marketing. Because we don’t want any surprise bumps that cause pain and get you stuck – we want a smooth ride. And one way to reduce your resistance is to not come up with something new so you don't have lots of things you're fighting all at once.

You want to have one thing. So if your current battle is getting back into the field of emailing again, don't give yourself the job of also creating a brand new product at the same time. Make emailing your list the only battle you’re fighting right now – the only thing you'll do.

So pick up an existing campaign (something you’ve run before, for example), grab one of our campaigns from The League if you’re a member, and run it to point to something that already exists. Don't create more friction right now.

Set lower expectations

The next thing we suggest you do is to set lower expectations of yourself. There are so many marketing and business gurus who say you should raise your expectations of yourself. But that’s a good way of creating stagnant people who feel stuck.

So lower your expectations. If you were sending out regular emails every day or 5 days a week, now that you’re getting back into it, you can start off with 3 emails a week. Just get those emails out and focus on the first thing that has to happen. Take one action and send that first email – that’s your first priority for today.

And then tomorrow you’ll carry on and start making email marketing your focus again. But don’t do that on top of creating a new webinar, a brand new funnel, a new automation, or a new product or challenge. Just make getting back on the email wagon your focus for this month and send that first email. It doesn't have to be your best one yet!

Use templates and frameworks

A great way of getting started again is to use templates and frameworks that make things easy and give you a nice shortcut back into your email marketing.

A tool we suggest you use is our Terrible Friend campaign, which is something we teach inside The League. If it’s been a while since you emailed your subscribers, you can send them this.

“Hey [First Name],

I've been a terrible friend.

A while ago you signed up to my list because [REASON WHY THEY SIGNED UP TO YOUR LIST].

And I said that I was going to email you with hints, tips, stories, and ideas to help you with [WHATEVER IT IS YOU HELP THEM WITH]. But life's got in the way. I've been working on this amazing thing, and that's really cool for you because of [REASON]. And now I know I can do better, and I can be back in your inbox.

So here's what's going to happen from Monday. I'm going to email you three times a week with valuable hints, tips, stories, ideas, and inspiration to help you get a better result with [WHATEVER IT IS YOUR TEACH OR SHARE].

Now, if anything's changed, and you don't want to receive these emails anymore, that's totally fine. Just scroll down and click the unsubscribe link. I won't be offended. We can part as friends.

It's been a while. However, if you do want to hang around, this is all gonna kick off with a really cool two-minute video that I've just recorded for you about [X] where you'll learn to do [Y] so that you can do [Z]. I'm gonna send it to you on Monday. Watch out for it.

Super excited!

Speak soon,

[YOUR NAME]”

And then the next email you send them delivers on that promise. In fact, this email can lead to a sales campaign that starts with that video. But the structure of this email will help you slide back into your subscribers' life in a way where you don't sound like that irritating ex-boyfriend.

Make a promise

This is about you holding your hands up and admitting this is totally on you. You've not been great, but you're going to fix it. You're telling them why and how and including your promise that everything is going to be good. This shows vulnerability, and making that promise to your subscribers is crucial. Because if you tell them you're going to email them 3 times a week from now on, you're much more likely to do it.

And you're absolutely welcome to make a promise to us, too! Because we want to help you get back on the email wagon. Whether you’re a customer of ours or not, we want to make the world of email marketing better. So decide what you're going to do and then head over to Twitter or Instagram and share your promise with us. When are you going to send that first email out? The simple act of telling us will hold you accountable.

Focus on the outcome

And finally, we want you to focus on the outcome. Because the reason why you do email marketing is that you want and need to make sales. And the last thing you want to be doing is to crawl back to email because your sales have suddenly taken a massive slump, and you're in panic mode. You have to both re-engage the list you’ve left to go cold and also make some sales.

So focus on the fact that when you send emails you're going to be making sales. But when you stop, your sales are going to drop because email is a super effective conversion mechanism and sales tool. The great news is that by pushing hard with your email marketing again, you're going to achieve a more sustainable and profitable business. Stay on the wagon, and you'll have money coming in.

Because you want to serve and help people but also make money. And you can't do either of those things if you’re not effectively selling what you have. If you email more regularly you build that habit, which makes it harder for you to fall off the cliff in the future. Email every day, and you'll get back into that habit faster.

Enter our outrageous email marketing contest

Did you hear we're running an incredible contest?

• We're paying for 12 months of your email marketing platform (and if you don’t have one yet, we’ll make our recommendations and help you pick one).
• We’re giving you a 12-month membership of The League, which means you get access to our tools, campaigns, and resources, and you’ll know what to do in your email marketing platform.
• And we also ship you a copy of our 10 highly recommended books to help you with your email marketing. They're not email marketing books for the most part, but they will help you level up your skills.

We’ve never done anything this crazy before and we’re super excited to help you have amazing success with your email marketing. This contest is closing soon though, so make sure you jump on it straight away. Check out all the terms and conditions and enter the contest for FREE here.

Subject line of the week

This week’s subject line is “I’m high.” And it's nothing drug related! We use this at the back of doing something like running an event. In this case, it was after running our email marketing conference Inbox 2022. But you can use it after a 5-day challenge, a virtual summit, a webinar, a launch – anything. It’s about saying you’re on a high and feel great.

Of course, this phrase has a double meaning that makes people think and wonder what’s going on. They want to read the email to find out more. So it’s a quick and simple subject line that gets people to open your email. Try it out!

Useful Episode Resources

Related episodes

How to Stop Putting off Your Email Marketing and Get It Done.

The Therapeutic Benefits of Writing Your Own Emails.

How To Do Your Email Marketing While You’re On Holiday.

FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketing

If you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.

Join our FREE Facebook group

If you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.

Try ResponseSuite for $1

This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.

Join The League Membership

Not sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes. We share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing. Best news yet? You can apply everything we talk about in this show.

Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcast

Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about how to kick off an email reactivation campaign and get back on the email marketing wagon) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.

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And please do tell us! If you don't spend time on email marketing, what do you really fill your working days with? We'd love to know!