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Stephanie: Hey guys, it's Stephanie Liu and welcome to a new episode of a Lights Camera Live where we shined a spotlight on the best and brightest marketers in the industry to take your business from unknown unforgettable. So if you're tuning in, go ahead and leave us some lights. Give us some hearts, let us know where you're tuning in from cause I've got an amazing guest for you. All right, you guys, let's go ahead and get started. Let me show you. Hey Vanessa
Vanessa: Thanks so much for having me. I'm super psyched to be here.
Stephanie: Oh my gosh. I am beyond excited to have you on the show because we even talking about email for ever like ever since I met you, I was like, oh, that's your thing. Let's talk about that. Let's do this.
Vanessa: I am, I'm an email dork.
Stephanie: So hey, shout out to George, who is tuning in from New York. Hey, we've got like Alton from Saint Louis. He was also tuning in. Oh, what's up Mike Lots of love for Vanessa. Vanessa, you're in Chicago, right
Vanessa: I am AKA Siberia.. Yeah, that's where I'm throwing down where, you know, the polar vortex hit us and it was, I think I'm a record low of negative 24 like three weeks ago. Why I live here I don't know. But yes, I'm in Chicago.
Stephanie: Come out to San Diego, which where I'm broadcasting from so
Vanessa: I know and when I'm done
Stephanie: When are you coming to San Diego?
Vanessa: I don't know. I want it to come for social media marketing world, but it's not going to happen this year. So I don't know. Maybe like on vacation, like a girls trip. I Dunno. But I need some sunshine. I could do that.
Stephanie: Sure, sure do it. Girls trip. I'd rather go to Vegas. So anyways, we'll talk about that. Hey, if you guys are tuning in, if you're watching in live, let us know where you're tuning in from. If you're watching the replay, go ahead and leave the comment hashtag replay. So listen you guys, if you are not building your email list or if you're struggling to grow your email list and then the, this is the episode for you. So definitely go ahead and grab your post-it notes just like me or get your notebooks tag your friend. You know that one friend that's always in your group. That's always like, I can't grow my email list, be like, Yo, you need to listen to this because we've got Vanessa Cabrera on the show and she is an award winning email marketing strategists. How do you even get it Award for emails is beyond me.
Vanessa: I help my clients, I help my clients grow their list. Finally I'm like, all right, let me see if I could do it.
Stephanie: That is very true so Vanessa Canberra and I, we actually met over at the Midwest digital marketing conference because she is an absolute pro not only in in email marketing but she also knows live streaming, which I was like, ah, love the connection. I like you for sure.
Vanessa: That's how we threw down in the panel that panel, the question of last year we got Midwest digital marketing conference because surprise, surprise, I surely was one of the ways I grew my email list.
Stephanie: Okay. So let's go ahead and talk about email right now and why email marketing is still important.
Vanessa: Yeah, so you got a lot of people saying, you know that email is dead, right It's antiquated. It's old school. It's not the fastest way to communicate. It's not sexy like social media, right Because there's just so many different ways to communicate via like direct message and personal message and that's just a lot faster and I get that right. However..really the number one reason you want to grow your email list is because you definitely don't want to put all of your marketing and your social media basket. Let's take a look at what just happened with Google+. Let's talk about that.
Stephanie: Okay, go for it.
Vanessa: Well, let's get into that because that social media channels going, bye bye. All right. And so maybe some people didn't even know that social media channel existed, but a lot of people did use it when it first came out. And so now there's a ton of people scrambling trying to figure out what to do there with their following. And so really the number one reason to grow your email list and really to grow your email list at the same time that you're growing your social media following is because that's the number one thing that you owned out, right Okay. I sound like a parrot when I say this and all the social media strategists are watching. Now you guys know this, right We say this over and over again, but you do not own your social media following. You don't even on your Facebook business page, you all mark Zuckerberg does. So if like you know, if, if that's the number one way you're communicating with your prospects and your clients is on Facebook or Instagram or any of that, you need to have a backup plan. Because I've known plenty of people who have been in who'd been thrown in Facebook jail. So let's say, you know, you have a Facebook group and that's the only way you're able to communicate with them what you gonna do boo when all of a sudden you are locked out of Facebook. This is for real, for real. You know what I'm talking about Stephanie. They're going to know the true story, right Like I had one client of mine, she came to me and she grew her Facebook group to over like 20,000 yards. It was so impressive and I will never forget this. I was on the phone with her and I'm like, okay, how big is your list And she goes, a hundred and I'm currently in faced with jail. Stephanie and my hands started to sweat. Literally. I was like, okay, all right, let's just breathe. She's like, that's why I'm on the phone with you. I need help. So that's still why, you know, email marketing so important and it's still one of the most cost effective ways to communicate with your prospects. It's still for every dollar that you invest in an email marketing program on average, you get back and he went between 38 bucks to $44 that to me is still a thick ROI to,
Stephanie: that's amazing. That's bad ass.
Vanessa: I ain't go nowhere boo.
Stephanie So I try to have these conversations with Vanessa because I try to be all like, okay, I'm going to be all proper and whatnot. And then she throws out the boo-boos and the throw downs
Vanessa: This is how I communicate y'all.
Stephanie: I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm thinking to everyone that Ben just dropped the hearts right now because Dora did micro like y'all are just crazy. All right, so how did you grow your email list, what was your like a killer list building tactic I would love to hear what you're doing.
Vanessa: Okay, so I email or online marketing in general is always trial and experiment. And I don't like to say trial and error. It's trial and experiment, right And growing your list is no different. So I have tried many ways to grow my list several ways. And from right now I'd say probably this past year, the number one way I have grown my list is through collaborating with others and together with doing webinars for sure. So, um, I'm speaker and I knew that as much as I love getting in front of people and speaking to them, um, you know, person to person. I know that when you do a Webinar, obviously you can reach a much wider audience online. All right So when I want to do anything on my own, that was great. I would get, you know, I would get a lot of traffic and new people coming in. How ever there was this one event that constant contacted and I'm partners with them, I've been partners with them forever. Um, they decided to do an event called digital day and this happened six years ago where it was an all day event. It's kind of like a summit. There was a speaker every hour, right And someone from like eight to nine. We talk about Instagram from nine to 10. We'd talk about Linkedin, et Cetera. And so I threw my hat in the ring and I'm like, all right, I'll throw down with this whole, we cow. My list grew just from that one event. I think it was maybe about 300 people that signed up just for my webinar. And I was like, uh, thinking Dang. So, you know, as Stephanie and I always say do something and when something works double down on that, I had been doubling down in that. So that's pretty much been the number one way I've been able to grow my list is by doing these webinars and my kind of looking for partners to collaborate with. Um, and they're also kind of coming to me when they've seen me speak at another, you know, online events and things like that. So, um, but when you're looking for people to collaborate, you have to make sure that you're getting in front of the right people, right, that you're getting in front of the right target audience. You just don't want to say yes to any summary or yes, to any of men. It's not the right target audience for you. Um, so that's probably been like where I literally hit it out of the park. I was, and I could only have a hundred people on the Webinar. So I was like, when I looked to my register once and it was 400 I was like, I called mt producer from like uh, we have a problem. It's a good problem.
Stephanie: "Hey I'm Vanessa Canberra and you thought I was going to get 100,but I got four times that. So you got to go upgrade that." And PS, by the way, shout out to George, he was like the only summit that he wants to attend is Dim Summit cause for y'all who don't know, I have all about food and didn't summit is going to happen at social media marketing world and I know that I'm going to see you Vanessa rate MDMC so we'll get down with some thumbs out over there too. I'll have Mike chauffeur. Thanks hilarious. I know about the dim sum summit. I have heard. Yes. That's going to be a thing. I swear like whoever's watching right now and just wants to like go above and beyond and be in my heart forever. If you want to make a flyer that says Dim Dummit, um, and, and the rest of the crew. Okay. Cool. So you said list building strategies for sure. Webinars. I totally agree with you on that. Cause I was just on sem. rush and it just opened up a whole new audience. And once I got that list back I was like, okay, how do I keep these people engaged because they met me like that one time. And how do I keep it in to still engage with the content that I have to share with them Cause I'm mostly talking about live streaming. So I'd be curious to hear how you keep the folks engaged after a Webinar.
Vanessa: Yeah. So it's all in the follow up, right So it's just you have to take advantage of these incredible opportunities. So let's say we did a Webinar, you knocked it out of the park, they're super impressed with you, right And then you send out a followup email. Always, always within 48 hours a day. Any event, whether it's offline or online, because after 48 hours, any lead goes cold. As we all know. Like we go to these conferences and we get a main thing, content. We're all super hyped and then we come back to our offices, back to life, back to back to reality... That's in my head. Sorry guys. Um, and then we forget, right We just get, we just forget to implement some of this stuff. So, um, absolutely send out a follow up within 48 hours of sending them more contact. Uh, you know, your PowerPoint slide, things like that. But that's just the beginning. And then after that, people either, you know, either get lazy or they don't know what else to send. So a sale or a conversion. So they say the sales expert, and I'm not a sales expert, but they say to convert someone, it takes anywhere from you. I've heard six to eight touches, right So from there you want to keep the conversation going. So you definitely want to have a follow up funnel to either lead them to your Facebook group or to continue to give them epic content. Like, hey guys, here's the pdf version of the PowerPoint presentation that I have. I get when you overdeliver on content following any event, I'm telling you if they didn't fall in love with you when you were speaking they will with the follow-up. And so this takes work cause he has that's over. So that's how you keep your list engaged. You just simply keep the conversation going. That's it.
Stephanie: Okay. I'd like like I get it, I get it. But I like riding bows. Damn emails. You know it's just ah, it's hard. But I mean you've got an amazing thing cause I hit you up. Okay. Sounds good. I'm going to like, okay, the list of questions. Okay. Cause I hit up Vanessa and I was like, Yeah Vanessa, I got like this email list. I've got people that aren't engaged. I'm about to Marie Kondo on them and just see, oh like do I make up or do I break up And she's like, let me show you my magic templates cause you, you were like, let me show you. And it was magic and I was like, girl, where have you been all my life? So you have like the followup when you say follow up emails. So you gave one example of like driving them over to a Facebook group, um, turning your PD or turning your slides into a PDF. Okay, cool. I'm like writing this all down. Even Marie's like, okay, 48 hours. Um, what was the other one in terms of how to engage your list
Vanessa: Um, content like g above and beyond. So the other thing I like to do is I like to give people who either watched a Webinar or watch when my seminars a content upgrade. So I just did this for my first Facebook live to the year. I wouldn't lie on Facebook and I gave 10 ways and how to grow your list. And then at the end of that live stream, of course I had a call to action to join my list, but it was through bots. Girl, I was testing chatbots. I'm getting all techie in the chat box. And so if they wanted, um, the 10 ways to grow your list, a had to subscribe to my Chat Bot, but I gave them like a bonus three other ways on how to grow their email list. So I gave them a content upgrade. So always like over deliver and give them like a wow experience. So when they open the guide, they were like, wait a minute, there's 13 ways on how to grow your list and this guide and you told me 10. So, um, so that's pretty much how I try to keep them engaged. You know, it's just to, to give, to nurture them and then eventually if they're in your group, you know, you keep that relationship going.
Stephanie: Yeah, I, I'd say that that's probably like my favorite way is that if I'm on a Webinar and I'm like, dude, if you just want to come and hang out and kick it and go into the strategist group, cause that's where it, like I'm geeking out, I'm messing around with my Facebook stories in the group and all that jazz have. So for those of you guys that are just tuning in and we're obviously talking about five killer list building tactics, we've already talked about speaking at conferences, right And creating a nurture nurture funnel around that. We've also talked about webinars, which is a really great way to just fast track your email list, especially if you're doing summit's virtual summits, if you're doing joint webinars and all that jazz. You know what's funny about the webinars is that when I was talking to my legal team and I was like, okay, Gdpr like ps, by the way, I also do this thing where I do webinars with the joint person and sometimes we swap the list and they're like, what do you do And I was like, yeah, we swept the listener. We need an update your privacy policy and your terms. And I was like, okay, you go, you go do your thing here. Thank you. Okay. Um, what are some other ways, cause that's too, and if I could throw one in there, really the one that I like is the pending members question for your Facebook group, right So you could ask those three questions and then one of my questions is, do you want the, the lights camera live workbook on how to launch your Facebook live show. And what's nice is people will go in and put their emails in there and if I know if, if they put their emails in there that I know that they're serious right there, they're like super interested in the content and not just like, oh well I just wanted to post and ghost and I was like, well no, let's not do that. So that's like one of my favorite ways is to, to do the pending member question and I use group funnels. Have you used group funnels Do you know what that is? I haven't
Vanessa: I haven't heard of it. I've never used it personally, but I also asked my members to answer three questions and it's not an email. However, normally, uh, how they even get into my Facebook group is that they're on my list first.
Stephanie: So you've already you've, you've already pre-qualified them?
Vanessa: Yeah, they're already there. Usually they cut. That's like just my, my system, my flow high lead them. So obviously they, they discovered me through like a seminar or Webinar or some sort of speaking gigs off stage or on stage. And then I get their email lists and like I said in my follow up somewhere down the line, I invite them into my Facebook group. So I already have their email list before they enter the event.
Stephanie: Why did I feel like that was like a dating metaphor of like, I need your email address. I'm like, I need the, I need that email address. Yes. Okay. So number four, um, what's another way to build your email list I'm also a huge fan of surveys, right?
Vanessa: It's not sexy, but yeah, it's so funny. I just prayed and serve it this morning. I totally just created this survey for a segment of my list. The other way to, to grow your list is when you're doing something like this and either being interviewed or doing podcasts or however, whatever tactic you're using to increase your visibility online. When someone asks you, you know, okay, how, okay, Stephanie, how can someone work with you How can someone contact you or get ahold of you A lot of people just flat out give their website, their web dress. Oh, okay. So you could just go to www dot Vanessa, um, Hyphen cabrera.com. But what I do, I rarely ever give someone my web address anymore with them and outfit. I'm like, Yo, I have something for your listeners. I have something special for your viewers. Check this out. You guys can get a copy of, you know, whatever opt-in, whatever guide, you know, the ultimate Facebook live checklist and you can get it here. So that's another way I'd go on my list is whenever want someone wants like my contact information. I kind of flipped the script and said, yeah, I have something for you that I can help you with. Go to this. Um, get the guide. And then within my follow up, there's always a way to contact me. It's usually like the offer at the end or something and they want a session or something like that. So always, always throw down your optin.
Stephanie: That's a very true And speaking of opt-ins, Michelle is, sorry, just said, I just signed up for Vanessa's Freebie and she recognized that you're using lead pages and she's like, I feel like such a pro.
Vanessa: yeah. I'm using lead pages, love, love, love, lead pages. I have been, oh my God, I've been using lead pages for, I don't know how long, but a lot of email service providers like convert kit or execute campaigns or things like that. They already have landing pages included with their tools. Unfortunately, constant contact back in the day didn't. So I had to start using lead pages, but I love it. Got It, got it. Okay. So here are some very quick but downloading the guide girl, let me know what you think. Yeah. Do your thing.
Stephanie: She actually had another question for you and her question was what do you think about email courses where each lesson is sent in an email and then drives people back over to an online course platform?
Vanessa: Uh, yeah, I think that's a great way of uh, you know, have it take two.
Stephanie: Do you want me to put the camera on me?
Vanessa: Yeah, for sure. Um, so I've had a couple of courses that I teach my students and it's usually delivered in an email. So I send them either weekly or monthly, depending on the curriculum. And they get an email saying, hey, I draw a brand new unit has been created. And it's about, you know, there's video, there's a pdf, you know things like that. So absolutely. And then the other, uh, tip I've used, especially when I'm releasing a course or working with within my group consulting program is when I'm on-boarding them, you know, one of the things is, okay, so here's the link to the membership platform and make sure to white list my email address, all that. And then I take it a step further and I tell them, I'm like, do me a solid boo. This is how I talk
Vanessa: Because so many people when they get my email, they're like, Vanessa, I can literally hear you, I can hear you in your emails. And I'm like, okay. You know, I think I've hit it where I'm just talking how I, how I taught. And so I take it a step further and I tell them, I'm like, do me a solid bu and create a new folder right now and label it, you know, Instagram incubator or Vanessa prayer, whatever it is. And then save all of my emails in that folder because we get so many emails on a daily basis. If you're looking for let's say course number two or whatever and you're looking through your inbox, I want to save you time. So, uh, that's another thing I try to engage my list in this. Tell them to start their own little, you know, Vanessa Cabrera folder or lights, camera live holder. You know what not.
Stephanie: That's awesome. That's cool. So shout out to Michelle has said that she's already downloading the guide is already multitasking and watching and listening at the same time. Cause be like I have Vanessa for like the next 30 minutes or so and I'm going to ask all my questions. So speaking of which Camille just joined the show, what's up Camille is saying, Hey, what do I do if I don't do any webinars and I want to do content upgrades Any points or tips around that?
Vanessa: Yeah. So if Mike Alton is still watching him, he's always wanting to, his shout up to Mike. So if you are a blogger, right So if you're blogging, one of the things I like to do is use content upgrades. With my blog, I don't blog a lot, but when I used to, I did write this blog, which was five ways on how to optimize your linkedin profile. Okay. So within that blog I wrote down all five ways and at the bottom it says, um, two was the optin asking people if they wanted the blog as a pdf guide because I figured if they're going to optimize their linkedin, I want them going back and forth between reading the blog and like trying to like, um, up their linkedin profile, right So I'm like, here, you flipped out. I'll say, yeah, just, just your linkedin profile, right So they would have the guide and then at the bottom I would say, okay, so here are the five ways to optimize your linkedin profile. But when you download the guide, I included an additional three ways on how to optimize your linkedin profile, so even if you don't do webinars, you can always, always offer your audience some sort of content upgrade, whether it's live streaming or just with an emails. It's just really just adding extra content and giving them more, more information. That's really all content upgrades.
Stephanie: Yeah, there's this. Cool. How would you even think I told you this yet, but there's this new website and I discovered called designer and it will literally take my live videos like this live video and then I upload it over to the site. It'll give me a transcript, which I could then turn into a blog post or if I lied to you, I can make it to like a really sick pdf and I'm like, Yo, email subscribers, you can get done. It's coming down. D,E.S I. G N.R R. Dot com.
Vanessa: Oh, okay. Yes. Yep. I have heard of it, but I've never used it. I didn't even know that's where it was for. I've heard of it, but I don't have a clue. Oh yeah, knock it off so we can turn this last year until like, uh,
Stephanie: yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, it's so sick because then I could, if I wanted to I could like pull in clips of like when you and I are talking and then add it to the transcript or add it to the blog posts and then it's, it's so sick. It's been one of the, I plan on doing it. Yeah, for sure.
Vanessa: Yeah. I love your tutorials for sure. Do it tutorial cause then I'll share my group. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like I even stuff we use tutorials or beyond that ass. They're awesome. I'm like, holy cow. The nugget you dropped, girls sit.
Stephanie: I think that's it because you and I, we're both nerds and I'm like, oh my God. Sorry you didn't see it. But I totally did like the t-rex dance. I was like, Huh.
Speaker 3: All right. So let's talk about, um, oh whoa. Something just happened. What is going on? What was that That was crazy. He didn't try this one more time. Okay. We are back laid back. I don't know what that was. That was stream Jack... Stream deck that was tripping but okay, where was I now Um, so content upgrade from Camille, designer content upgrades, designer DESiGNRR Dot. Io. Thanks Mario for dropping it in there. Um, let's also talk about like how to organize your email is because when you have these people coming in from different events, um, you're having them coming in from like your pending questions from your Facebook groups, you have them from your conferences, your webinars, you organize those people to make sure that they're in the right funnels and all that jazz.
Vanessa: Yeah. So what I've discovered now is, you know, sending out a blast, right A blast email to a ginormous list, which is what a blast email is. That no longer really works. And if you're worried about your engagement being down, your open rates, being down your click throughs, which is most important to me, but people clicking on my emails is down. It's probably because you're sending one email to a monster list. And if you are comment right now and let me know cause I know y'all are out there. All right,
Stephanie: I'm gonna put you on blast.
Vanessa: On blast! I'm like don't do that. Okay. No you can for sure. Like if you're promoting something or you have an offer or something like that for sure you want to send it out to your entire list. But really where email marketing is in 2019 it's so important to segment your list. And my best advice would I recommend to my clients is to segment your list based on the content that they want to get from you. Okay. So for example, I talked about all different types of um, seminars and topics. So you know I talked about Lincoln and I talk about Facebook, Facebook live, email marketing and an you bring them, right And so I know damn well that the people who are interested in like then don't want nothing to do with Instagram. Okay. So not everybody gets the same emails from me at the same time. They get it based on the content that they first subscribed to. So I have like a list for Facebook lives. Right. Um, I did a Facebook live challenge. Um, so I have a list for Instagram and I have a list for linkedin. So it's based off of the content that they first started their relationship with me. Okay. And then every once in a while I send out a blast. Right. Promoting either a new webinar or some sort of conferences I'm going to be at, or if I'm running a special on one on one consulting, whatever it is, then yes, I'll send it out to my entire list. But really, if you, if you're worried about your engagement and the open rates, you have to be disciplined. I know it's work. I know it sucks, I get it. But it's part of the online marketing deal. You've worked so hard to build your list and to get these people's attention, you have to take it that extra step and segment your list in 42 what they want to hear from you. And believe me, they'll tell you when they, you know, subscribed by getting your opt-in.
Stephanie: Have you ever tried, um, have you ever tried that tactic where you have them self select or self segment where you're just like, hey look, click this to if this best describes you, are you a marketer or a small business owner, Yada Yada. And then that will automatically create the tag and convert kit or constant contact. Have you ever done that
Vanessa: Yeah. So do you not know who I am Sorry. Yeah. Okay. So I'm an email dork but that, no, but I love it that you brought that up because that's really the number one I'd say tactic or thing I would focus on when it comes to email marketing is really focusing on what's now known in or the industry is behavioral email marketing. Okay. Now with all the tools that we have before, they were like tools that were like really over complicated and not user friendly and things like that. But now the tools are gotten much easier to use where it's called email marketing, behavioral emo Mark Week. So let's say you send out an email and you are, you know, on-boarding people are welcoming the new subscribers to your list and you ask them, Hey, I just want to make sure that I send you the right content. If you could do me a solid, a click on one of the, um, these three links below to let me know how comfortable you are with live streaming. Let's say. Okay. And so option a is I've never gone live. Option B is a gone live but I'm not really comfortable with it yet or whatever. And then option c is on the livestream. You pro and I want to know how to make money on last year, whatever it is. You know what I'm saying Go out profit money, right Cause that's all it takes. Oh, more lie and the cash and start rolling in. So when they kind of count on, when they get kind of linked, anyone of those links, what you can now do is because, um, they decided what category they're in. When they click on the link, you can now launch a whole new funnel for that person. So let's say someone clicked on the link and say, I'm brand new to live streaming. If they click on that, that person can be tagged or that person can be added to a whole nother list. And then you can then launch a brand new funnel where then Stephanie would be like, okay, so I know you're new to live streaming. You know, it's not scary. Step one is this, she's obviously going to talk to people who had never gone live very differently than she's going to speak to someone who go live all the time and they just want like, you know, strategies or whatnot. Um, so, so that's really what I think where email marketing is going. Whoa. Where it is not a new concept, but I don't think a lot of small business owners and marketing people have really taken advantage of this new tactic with any not marketing.
Stephanie: I'm so curious like how many tags do you have in constant contact and how many funnels do you have?
Vanessa: It's kind of, I mean, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but you know, I won't bullshit you. Let's see. I think I have 70 autoresponders and, but they're for different things. All right. So like they're not all optin. So like you know someone joy, I have an Instagram membership and so when someone becomes a member of the Instagram incubator, I onboard them. Right. Like I said, they get the welcome email, get your own folder and then they get another email, et cetera. So there's a bunch of different funnels are autoresponders in there, but I think I have like 70 and I don't even know how many texts I have to be honest with you. Wow.
Stephanie: Let me just tell you, she was talking about live streaming and last year when it comes and you get money and I was like look what's on my desk! yeah!
Vanessa: yeah, you shoot out money.
Stephanie: Yeah, I think so.
Vanessa: I want to get one and I just want to start a live stream like this. Like money, money, money, money.
Stephanie: Are you gonna have a gift that just goes across the screen. Or You could have like a Bitmoji of like you like Vanessa just pops up on the screen as well.
Vanessa : Yeah.
Stephanie: Ps, by the way. So Renee had left a message or is she had a question and she was saying, should she go live monthly in order to grow her email list And I'll let you answer that because I think it really depends, but go for it. Yeah. Yeah.
Vanessa: All right. So, um, like I said, live streaming was the number one way. I grew my email list in 2017 if I remember correctly. And so I don't think, I mean you definitely want to be consistent in becoming visible to your audience for sure. But I think when you go live streaming and it's an objective that's like your sole objective is to grow your email list through live streaming, which I think it's an absolute fantastic strategy and it works, but you have to plan it out. Like Stephanie will tell you, you have to plan it out. You have to make sure that you have your optin ready of, you know, how they're going to take that next step, why they're actually going to join your email list. Right. So you can have this killer livestream, but you still have to give them a reason to join your email list and then even before you go live, you have to promote it too. Right We were just talking about this before we went live that we both have class where they're like, well I went live and no one showed up. And I'm like, well did you promote it Well, no I tried to play hide and go seek.
Stephanie: Are you there?
Vanessa: No. I don't post in my Facebook group all the time! If you're specifically going to use last year, which you grow your email list and you have to plan it out. So I would say you know, at least a week, week and a half to promote it. So you know, I'm going live talking about x, y and Z. And then at the end of the last to make sure that your call to action is for them to join your list with the epic optime that you're going to get them.
Stephanie: That's right. So speaking of which, if you're curious, I'll throw it up behind my girl. It's her top 10 ways to grow your list because you didn't have that shirt. You are, you did, you were you like, oh my God, I'm going to be on Stephanie's show. I should totally know my brand.
Vanessa: No, I did not I just wore this shirt, but I had no idea you're going to, you're going to show that. So that's awesome.
Stephanie: Well good, good, good. Okay. So Renee has another question for you. And the question is, is there a difference between doing a Facebook live versus a Webinar on zoom?
Vanessa: Ooh. Oh, all right. So I actually attempted to do a Webinar live on Facebook. I will never do it again. It was, yeah, it was just a Webinar is just so different than a live street. Um, for me it was just like, I've just, we'll never do it again. And I think it was like the topic too. It was about like how to and Tuckey in. It just didn't flow for me. I got it. I'm like, okay, you do webinars separately from Facebook. But I tried it. So, um, I would say, so what was the question
Stephanie: I gotta get myself off the screen right now. Is there a difference between doing a Facebook live stream versus a Webinar on zoom
Vanaessa: Oh, okay. Got It. All right. Yes, there it is. So with zoo, first of all, I believe I used a different tool for my webinars, but I believe now with zoom you can do a Webinar and it will be broadcasted live on Facebook. Okay. Um, so the differences is, is when you're in a Webinar, and this is how I got tripped up, when you're on a Webinar, you're really there to teach something. All right You're not completely interacting with all of your students. Um, because when someone registers for a Webinar, like I said, I had like over 300. It's hard to interact with, you know, 300 people at the same time when you're trying to teach them something. All right. Versus like a live stream on me and stuff. They are like, you know, talking to you guys and you know, going back and forth and things like that. So you can, so that's one option is doing a webinar or via zoom and just have it broadcast. And live on Facebook, but not really interacting with the live viewers that you have on Facebook, but more concentrating on the students who actually showed up and registered for your Webinar. Does that make sense
Stephanie: It does. Yeah. I do feel like it's, um, it's a different feel, right Like I can't, like with live streaming, I guess the way that lights camera live, the way that it's set up, it's very fun and just kind of like, let's crack up, let's crack jokes, but let's also give you the content inside of it. So it's kind of like a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. And then with webinars it's just as good food. Dim summit anyway, but, and, and then I feel like with a Webinar or people have already established in their minds, this is how women are supposed to be, I'm going to close my browser's, I'm going to learn and take notes and Yada Yada. I did find that when I was doing a Webinar of my own, you know, it was very structured in that sense, but then sometimes you know, being a live stream and I was like, okay, wait a second, I need a jump back on camera. Right. Because I just want to like check in with you guys, see how you're doing it and then I jumped back into the slides. Right. So Renee, I think it really depends on how you want the flow and the feel of your Webinar to feel like, because yes, you can use zoom webinar or to go onto Facebook and you could do that jazz too. You know, one of the benefits of setting up something like a zoom Webinar is you could get the registrant list and all of that good stuff. Or if you're using something like Demio have you heard of demio Nessa?
Vanessa: yeah, actually one of my clients started using demio long time ago when we set up his first webinar. I haven't used it, but he loves it.
Stephanie: Yeah. Okay. So I love demio and it's because like when you do your Webinar and you want to like, you know, give them a handout, like with the pdf guide on 10 ways to grow your email list, you could actually see how many people from the Webinar of your 300 people that registered are clicking and downloading it right then and there.
Vanessa: Ooh,
Stephanie: yeah. And then you can have like your, your CTA button, like your buy now button or book a call. Now you could have that button come in at a certain point when you're doing like your cell face and then you could see when people are actually clicking on that button. And if they're not clicking on it, then maybe you need to have like a stronger hook, right Like maybe you need to throw in like another testimonial on why this is super important and all that jazz. So that's, I would say that's the difference. There's certain functionalities that you would find on a Webinar or depending on which platform you are versus Facebook live. Like right now, um, you know, Mario had put the link up for Vanessa's email lead, right Yeah, I know, right Shit. But I don't know how many people clicked on that. But if I had done that on Demio, I would know that like, okay, about 50% of the people, okay you know, 10 minutes left on the Webinar and now I have 80% of the people that actually clicked on the buy now button like that. That kind of gives you the instant feedback that you want.
Vanessa: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Webinars and live streaming, they're just a different feel. And again, it's based on your personality and how you deliver your content, where you are very similar. We like to engage where, you know, kind of silly and you know, we let our personal personalities out, but within a Webinar I'm getting more so like that too where just like you are. I'm like okay, I need to come back and engage to see if like are they so I've done that. Why come back and I'm like, are you guys still with me Yes. Let me see me, see the questions, all these questions part off and I'm like so bad has the live streaming. Yeah, for sure. That has the last year of your back, but then it's kind of going back to like, okay, I have like Xyz to cover and within your Facebook live, yeah you, you drop content. But for me it's really like engaging with my followers in real times. Just kind of like really checking in with them. We're webinars just like, I agree with you. It's a, it's a different field, but who knows where it goes.
Stephanie: Yeah, it's very difficult. I think like one of the other features that I really love about demio is that like let's say in your Webinar, Renee, right the last 15 minutes, you want to have a Q and a session on demio. You could actually say, okay, you guys, if you want to ask me a question, and you could either type it in the chat box or if you just want to go on camera and engage with me in real time, that way you could build that know, like, and trust factor. It just makes a stronger connection.
Vanessa: Oh. So like they can come on camera like this, ask a question and then Ooh Dang, I may have to check demio out.
Stephanie: No dude, it's so sick. I absolutely, I mean just the fact that you could see like how many people are paying attention and clicking on that. I know you guys are here for email and now we've talked about what and Renee had a question, this is what happens with email.
Vanessa: Then we talked about my streaming and webinars. There's a ton of ways to grow your list.
Stephanie: That's very true. So one more question from Renee and she said that majority of her audience is on LinkedIn and she's trying to decide between, you know, Facebook live or a webinar. And I would probably say Renee, that you might want to split test that to see where people want to go. Cause some people they have straight up told me like, Hey Steph, thank you so much. I love your emails and whatnot, but I'm not cool with joining a Facebook group right now. Like just because of privacy issues. And I was like, okay, that's totally cool. You know, what are your thoughts on that If you're, if you have a LinkedIn audience, should you direct them over to Facebook or to like a zoom webinar.
Vanessa: I would say just given the platform of Linkedin, which is, let's just be honest, it's a little bit more conservative than, you know, Facebook, they're just now coming out with live streaming. Um, so I would say for that audience, I would do a webinar because they're all on Linkedin, they're comfortable with Linkedin. And this is the confusing part of just social media in general. Like I saw a video, I can't remember who posted it, but it was hilarious as this woman speaking on stage and she's like, okay, join my list to get my opt-in and then, Hey, don't forget to join my group. Hey, I have a brand new video. Go to youtube and watch it. Oh, and by the way, you know, on Linkedin, so we're like leaving them all over the place to all these different social media platforms. So I would just keep it simple. Um, Renee, it wasn't Renais that ask a question. I would just keep it simple, Renee, and just focus on linkedin. They're super conservative and I would lead them from there to a Webinar, which is where you're going to shine with throwing down your content. So that's what I would do.
Stephanie: Okay. So I have another question for you and it's from George. Yeah. George says, I don't have an email list from my agency yet. Primary reason it's more content to develop and I don't have the time to create dedicated email content. Any tips about that?
Vanessa: Let me ask you this. George was the George White Yeah. Okay. So George, if you knew that you could make money from your list, would you make the time to email your list Think about that. Um, and then the other thing about emails is just like contact in general. You don't have to recreate the wheel. Like if you have a ton of content that you're already sitting on, then just provide it to your email list, whether it's video you've done or pdf, you know, an emails nowadays, you know, the best performing emails are short and sweet to the point. Like gone are the days of those newsletters. You've not hate that word, but newsletters, right Where it was a two columns. So on the left hand side or whichever way your audiences are the same, you can see all the linked articles, right And then on the right hand side you'd see like the title of the article, the picture and then the copy, right That type of format doesn't work anymore because it's not mobile friendly. Um, so the best types of emails are really one column templates and just short and sweet to the point because people just don't have time. So I won't even think about overthink about sitting down and writing like this long ass email because no one wants to get along asking email anymore. That's for blogging and you know, things like that. So I would say maybe just repurposing your content and just no shooting it out to your email us and saying, hey guys, I have brand new blog. Like, you know, check it out or I, you know, I have this new video on Linkedin, whatever it is, and just redirect them to your content down there.
Stephanie: That leads me to another question then. Um, what are your thoughts on plain text emails versus well designed templates and all that jazz.
Vanessa: Well, it depends on your branding and really like the objective of each email when you send out an email, there's gotta be a reason, right The last thing that you want to do is just send out an email just to send something out because you haven't said anything in like three months. Okay. Um, so it really depends on the objective of the email, the branding, the type of brand that you are, you know, things like that. I would definitely stay away from big images on your emails just because of the filters and things like that. When when a filter goes in and it's a big ass image, a lot of times those emails that had big, big images land in spam just because of the coding and things like that. So I would just be careful and definitely test, test these emails. And Dude, sorry.
Vanessa : He does see my hair. My father was my dad. I gotta I gotta pick up my kid in a minute. It's the life of a single mom in New York, real life. Um, and so, but also with these tools that we're using for email, whether it's constant contact, MailChimp, convert kit, you know, um, there's a way to test out whether it's going to land in spam. So it will like literally like do a scan of your whole email and if the, it's like there's too many images and things like that, it should tell you it's what it's supposed to do. Um, so there's definitely tools that you can use before sending it out to make sure it won't land in spam and all that good stuff.
Stephanie: Okay. And the.... that's exactly what I was gonna ask you. Cause someone else to ask me, are there certain words that you should avoid in your emails that way it doesn't trigger, um, like the spam flags.
Vanessa: Yeah. Um, so back in the day there was a lot of different, you know, spammy words that you would get, you know, land in the junk folder or the, now that g-mail promotional folder. Right. And so it's not, I like free or um, risk free guarantee, you know, things like that. Um, so again, like with it, I know within constant contact there's, you could click on a button spam when you're done and it, it scans your whole email. And if there is a like a red flag, it'll say free or take out this word or you know, things like that. Constant contact that yeah,
Stephanie: yeah. Dammit convert kit!
Vanessa: They may have it, you know, pm me later, they may already have it. I'd be shocked. I'd be shocked if they don't.
Stephanie: Ah, okay, good. Yeah, because Michelle is saying convert kit didn't warn her and one of the 11 email she sent plain text ended up in someone's spam folder.
Vanessa: Yeah. Got It. And it happens. I mean it was just part of email marketing. Like we all have to deal with those filters and those spam filters just like we have to deal with the algorithms on Facebook. Um, so my suggestion would be just, you know, from the get go when someone joins your list, tell them to white list you for sure. That's pretty much like the 100% guarantee that it won't land in Sam and it won't man in junk. But when they white list you, you have to give them directions on how to do it. And basically what life white, white listing means is that they literally have to go into their settings and filter you out saying never put in spam in layman's terms. Okay, but it's extra work for your readers and let's be honest, who's going to do that Maybe someone will. Um, but that's why where there's so many people with the g Gmail, you can literally just tell them, hey, just drag and drop me from the promotions folder to you know, the regular folder so you, so you won't ever miss an email from me. Stuff like that.
Stephanie: I was like, why didn't they call it white listing when they call it like confetti listing Like Ooh, who is like a human thesaurus Because Michelle is like, so then what's another word for free And he's like, no cost, no cost. Grantees. Yeah. George, the doors through down there too. You guys are awesome. You're amazing. All right girl. I know that you got to go and do your mommy preneurs stuff. So shat out.
Vanessa: You I got to go grab my son. Sorry guys. I had a blast though. Holy Cow. We could chat forever.
Stephanie: Oh girl, this isn't going to be a transcript of a blog post. A pdf on email. One Minute, one minute social media clip. Gosh, I know.
Vanessa : Especially if Alton's involved. I mean man,
Stephanie: He's already has a blog post and it already has like a thousand shares. Mike Alton,
Vanessa: I cannot wait to like go see his workshop at MDMC. I'm see, I've never seen someone convert content until like 30 different things in like a minute after the live stream. It's like, well how are you Yoda What are you doing Yes, I need to know. Very cool.
Stephanie: Magical. Okay, you guys well, thank you Vanessa so much. You've been absolutely amazing. For those of you that are interested in learning more about Vanessa again as a checkout her 10 ways to grow your list and your audience, she's absolutely bad ass. She's, Oh wait, I mean I know she's matching in this. Can you do that exact like pose Can you like tilt And then there you go. Hey, you guys should check out my girl. She'll hook you up and she'll let you know how you could win it with email marketing. So Vanessa, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for hanging out with the lights, camera, live career. You've been amazing. I've had such a blast, Stephanie, this was awesome. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. All right, you guys
Vanessa: get those emails out.
Stephanie: Hit Up, Vanessa. Bye y'all.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
While we all know the number of emails being sent out is increasing daily, did you know that the number of email users is also increasing?
The number of people sending and receiving email is projected to rise another 5% by next year to a staggering 255 million.
Oh, wait, I'm sorry... that's just in the US!
Listen if you want to side-step algorithms and have a direct line to YOUR audience, then growing an email list is absolutely critical.
If you’re struggling to grow your email list or are craving fresh ideas to breathe life back into your list, then you’ll love this week’s interview with Vanessa Cabrera, award winning Email Marketing Strategist.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN
5 Killer List-Building Strategies
Top 3 Email Marketing Tactics You Can’t Ignore
Powerful Strategies to Keep Your List Engaged
ABOUT VANESSA CABRERA
As a fun-loving, energetic, real and raw email expert, Vanessa Cabrera travels the country speaking to small business owners on how to grow their business via email + social media.
Her no BS, entertaining, and lively style of presenting makes her a memorable and standout speaker who jams every one of her sessions with countless tools, tips and advice in which attendees are able to implement immediately.
She runs a no question left unanswered program, and she prides herself on keeping the overwhelmingly confusing online marketing world simple for the small business owner to take part in. https://www.vanessa-cabrera.com/top10ways
Is building your email list really important?
“A lot of people will tell you that email is dead,” said Vanessa. “I get it. It’s not sexy like social media where you can send a direct message but you don’t want to put all of your marketing efforts in one basket. What happens if that platform goes away?”
Eek! So true. Does Blab ring a bell? How about Google+?
Yes you might have a huge following on Twitter but you don’t really have direct access to them.
Your content is limited by algorithms and other content that’s trending and competing for a social media user’s attention.
“If the number one way that you’re communicating with prospects is on Facebook or Instagram, you need to have a backup plan,” urged Vanessa.
Let’s imagine that you had a Facebook page with more than 20K followers then one day you got locked out of your account, how would that make you feel?
Well that actually happened to one of Vanessa’s clients and yes it gets worse…
Vanessa asked her how many of her 20K fans were on her email list.
The answer? 100.
A hundred email subscribers out of 20K fans?!
Did your palms just get really sweaty?
Have a backup plan friends, build your email list.
“For every dollar that you invest in email marketing, on average you get back between $38 - $44. ”
What are your 5 Killer List-Building tactics?
#1 speaking at conferences
Speaking at conferences is a sure-fire way to grow your email list.
After you nailed your presentation and have the audiences hooked, give them an opportunity to hop on your email list to get their hands on a PDF version of your slides and other freebies you have up your sleeve.
#2 Webinar collaborations
As a die-hard Constant Contact fan, Vanessa was invited to speak at their virtual summit. From that one event, she gained 300 new subscribers for just an hour of her time.
“Ever since that summit, I’ve been looking for partners that I can collaborate with for joint webinars,” she added. “Before you jump on any joint venture, you first want to make sure that the opportunity will get you in front of the right audience or you’ll be wasting your time.”
If you decide to go down the path of joint webinars, remember to update your Privacy Policy to let attendees know that you’ll be swapping their email info with your partner.
Need to brush up on GDPR? Watch “GDPR: What is it and How Does it Affect My Small Business?”
#3 FACEBOOK GROUPS PENDING MEMBERS
Have a Facebook Group that’s getting a lot of attention?
You can offer new members a lead magnet and capture their email addresses before they join the group.
Pro Tip: Read “How Facebook Groups Can Build Your and Help Your Gain Clients”
#4 use surveys to gauge your audiences interest
Launching a course or need new ideas to blog about?
Survey your audience to figure out what their needs are and gauge their interest. At the end of the survey you can offer your lead magnet and grow your email list.
When I was launching the Lights, Camera, Live mastermind, I needed beta-testers so I published surveys in Facebook Groups that had my ideal clients. After a week of promoting the survey, I had more than 300 people interested in beta-testing my new course.
#5 Content Upgrades
Vanessa shared a story about how one of her blog posts was gaining a lot of traction online. After seeing the analytics, she jumped in and edited the blog post to add a PDF download to take advantage of the interest and grow her email list.
How do you keep subscribers engaged?
#1 If you acquired new subscribers from a webinar, remember the 48-hour rule.
“You have 48-hours to send a follow up email before a lead goes cold,” shared Vanessa.
She recommended sending out a PDF version of your presentation then adding seven additional follow up emails before you pitch new subscribers with a sale.
#2 OVERDELIVER WITH CONTENT UPGRADES
Earlier this year Vanessa offered her livestream viewers an opportunity to download her 10 Ways to Grow Your Email List via a chat bot. Then when viewers opted in, she went above and beyond and gave them three extra tips that they could use to grow their lists.
“You’ve worked so hard to build your list - you have to take that extra step and segment your list according to what they want to hear from you. ”
#3 SEGMENT YOUR AUDIENCE
Vanessa is a huge fan of Facebook Group challenges for specific topics. As she grows her audience, she’s able to segment users by topics based on the challenges that they participated in. The only time she really sends an email blast to her entire list is if she is offering a special promotion for 1:1 consulting or if she has a flash sale.
#4 SELF-SELECTION
If you’d like to niche down even further with your audience, Vanessa also suggested using the tag functionality in your CRM.
For example, you can ask subscribers how comfortable they are with live streaming (e.g., Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). Once a user clicks on an answer, the correct tag will be applied to his/her name in your CRM.
Vanessa admits that she uses tags A LOT in her email marketing.
“I have 70 autoresponders and they're for different things,” she added.
Want more tips on how to grow your email list?
RESOURCES:
▸ Stephanie's Live Streaming Gear: https://bit.ly/2J523hL
▸ Join the Social Media Strategist Group: https://facebook.com/groups/smstrategist
UPCOMING EVENTS:
▸ Social Media Marketing World 2019: https://bit.ly/2MRY8Ko
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