Welcome to episode 2 of my series all about Welcome Sequence Wisdom and Wizardry! That’s not the official title of the series, but it rolls off the tongue nicely dontcha think?
Now, you may remember that In “How to Lose a Guy in 10 days,” Andie Anderson is an aspiring magazine journalist who is assigned a piece called How to Lose a Guy in 10 days. As part of this experiment, she starts dating a guy, aka Matthew McConaughey and she starts doing all the things women quote “shouldn’t” do when you start dating a guy.
Well in my version, we are going to talk about what not to do in your welcome sequence. Unlike, in the movie where Benjamin Barry puts up with all of Andie Anderson’s antics because he’s on his own little covert mission, the person on the other end of your email is not going to be so tolerant.
They signed up to your list for a reason and now the ball is in your court in terms of whether or not they stick around. So are you ready to dive into the most common mistakes I see service providers making in their welcome sequence?
Mistake No. 1: Not Having A Welcome Sequence
If you haven’t already listened to the first episode in this series, I go back to episode 14 where I break down what a welcome sequence is and why you need one. And YES, this is a really common mistake I see!
In the online world, we are all indoctrinated into this idea of building your list and creating a freebie, but then we forget about what happens next. Whether you are a service provider or a course creator, or you are selling a product, the welcome sequence is super important in building that know, like and trust factor and really building that personal connection between you and your potential audience.
Mistake No. 2: Making It All About You
Have you ever signed up for a webinar and the first 15 or 20 minutes is just the person telling their story? I’m not gonna lie, I exit those of webinars so damn fast because you have not earned my know, like, and trust yet. Teach me something I don’t know, share something inspiring with me, or prove that you can solve my problem before telling me your story.
The same goes for your welcome sequence and really anything you do in life. Your audience is primarily concerned with “what’s in it for me”?” and you need to have that question at the forefront when you write anything.
Mistake No. 3: Trying To Sell Too Soon
But Erika, in the last episode, you said it was OK to sell in your welcome sequence? And it is. But I don’t recommend going in for the pitch too soon. This is a nurture sequence, where you are really just warming up your audience, building that know, like, and trust so that when you do sell to them, they’re not put off by it.
Mistake No. 4: Formatting is Crazy
This tip is one of the least sexy, but it is actually one of the biggest reasons people will or will not read your emails. I am a huge proponent of a plain text email that literally looks like your mom or your bestie is writing you an email. I don’t do fancy headers or images other than strategically selected gifs.
You also want to control the width of your email columns and length of paragraphs. I recommend setting your margins to 400 by 600 PX wide. You may have learned that a paragraph needs to have 3-5 sentences. We are tossing that rule out the window. In fact, I recommend that you keep your paragraphs to 1 to 3 lines. Again, it’s just easier on the eyes. It helps guide the reader through your emails and makes them feel like they’re making progress and consuming your email faster.
Mistake No. 5: Writing to EVERYONE not just ONE person.
This is one of my personal pet peeves. I am just not in favor of emails that start with “Hey, guys! Or “Hi, everyone!” even if you have a course and you’re writing to dozens or hundreds of people.
This is all part of creating a more high-touch, personal relationship with your readers. It’s not about tricking them — yes your reader knows that everyone else is getting the same email — but it’s more enjoyable to read and it feels more personal, when it’s addressed just to you.
Mistake No. 6: Not Having A Clear Goal
Every email you send, including those in your welcome sequence, should have ONE overarching goal or purpose. Why are you sending this email? What’s the point?
I recommend writing at the top of your draft what the goal of the email is. What do you want them to takeaway or do?
So there you have it, those are the common mistakes to avoid if you don’t want to lose email subscribers in 10 days, or ever.
If you have a welcome sequence revisit it with this checklist in mind and if you don’t then you’ll have a really good starting point. Go ahead and take a screenshot of this episode and tell me what your biggest takeaway is.
Links mentioned:
If you want to see my welcome sequence in action head to www.erikaholmes.com/quiz and after you take the quiz, you’ll be added to my welcome sequence.
