In this episode of the Humane Marketing Podcast, I’m joined by Bev Feldman who shares her refreshing perspective on email marketing rooted in empathy rather than manipulation.
Together we explore how conscious entrepreneurs can build authentic connections through their email communications by prioritizing consent, transparency, and genuine value. Bev reveals her ALIGN framework that transforms traditional email marketing into a trust-building process, helping you connect meaningfully with your audience without resorting to aggressive sales tactics.
Whether you’re struggling with low engagement or feeling uncomfortable with conventional marketing approaches, this conversation offers practical strategies to make your email marketing more human, ethical, and ultimately more effective.
Discover how respecting your subscribers’ agency and meeting them where they are can create stronger relationships and better business outcomes.
In our time together, we talked about:
- The importance of consent in email marketing and not adding people to lists without permission
- How Substack functions as both a newsletter platform and community
- Best practices for email marketing with empathy, including the contrast with typical sales funnel approaches
- What engagement really means in email marketing (beyond just open rates)
- Using storytelling to build genuine connections through email
- Common mistakes people make with email marketing tools
- Finding the balance between automation and personalization in email marketing
- The upcoming workshop on April 2nd and Beth’s ALIGN framework for email marketing
Bev’s Resources
Sarah’s Resources
(FREE) Sarah’s One Page Marketing Plan
(FREE) The Humane Business Manifesto
(FREE) Gentle Confidence Mini-Course
Marketing Like We’re Human – Sarah’s book
Authentic & Fair Pricing Mini-Course
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Email Sarah at sarah@sarahsantacroce.com
Thanks for listening!
After you listen, check out Humane Business Manifesto, an invitation to belong to a movement of people who do business the humane and gentle way and disrupt the current marketing paradigm. You can download it for free at this page. There’s no opt-in. Just an instant download.
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Warmly,
Sarah
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Email Marketing with Empathy
Speaker 0: hello, humane marketers. welcome back to the humane marketing podcast, the place to be for the generation that cares. this is a show where we talk about running your business in a way that feels good to you, is aligned with your values, and also resonates with today’s conscious customers because it’s humane, ethical, and non pushy. i’m sarah zaneckroce, your hippie turned conscious business coach for quietly rebellious entrepreneurs and change makers. mama bear of the humane marketing circle and renegade author of marketing like we’re human, selling like we’re human, and soon also my third book, business like we’re human. if after listening to the show for a while, you’re ready to move on to the next level and start implementing and would welcome a community of like minded quietly rebellious entrepreneurs who discuss with transparency what works and what doesn’t work in business, then we’d love to welcome you in our humane marketing circle. if you’re picturing your typical facebook group, let me paint a new picture for you. this is a closed community of like minded entrepreneurs from all over the world who come together in two meet ups per month to hold each other accountable and build their business in a conscious and sustainable way. we all share with transparency and vulnerability what works and what doesn’t work in our business so that you can figure out what works for you instead of keep throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks. find out more at humane dot marketing forward slash circle. twice per year, i host my signature program, the marketing like we’re human, aka the client resonator program live. in a deep dive into the seven p’s of the humane marketing mandala, you will learn to market from within. this program is for you if you want and need to get more clients, but want to share your message in an ethical and humane way. if you want to make a difference with your work. if you are just starting out, or if you have been in business for a while, but haven’t really found the marketing activities that work for you. or also, if you are pivoting your business from business as usual to your life’s work and want to radically change the way you get clients. find out more at humane dot marketing forward slash program. and finally, if you prefer one on one support from me, my humane business coaching could be just what you need, whether it’s for your marketing, sales, general business building, or help with your big idea like writing a book. i’d love to share my brain and my heart with you together with my almost twenty years business experience and help you grow a sustainable business that is joyful and sustainable. if you love this podcast, wait until i show you my mama bear qualities as my one on one client. find out more at humane dot marketing forward slash coaching. welcome back, friends. today’s conversation fits under the p of promotion of the humane marketing mandala. if you’re a regular here, you know that i’m organizing the conversations around the seven p’s of the humane marketing mandala. and if you’re new here and are listening for the first time, you probably don’t know what i’m talking about, but you can download your one page marketing plan with the humane marketing version of the seven p’s of marketing at humane dot marketing forward slash one page. that’s the number one and the word page and for the non native english native english speakers, humane is humane with an e at the end. so human and an e at the end. this comes with seven email prompts to really help you reflect on these different piece for your business. so it’s a self reflective exercise and not just a seven step guide to follow. i’m talking to beth feldman today, whose values on email marketing are very much aligned with our humane movement. beth is a kit, formerly convertkit consultant and email marketing strategist at your personal tech fairy. her approach to email marketing is grounded in consent, human connection, and giving subscribers agency while also keeping things streamlined and simplified. though much of her time is spent in the digital world, bev’s an an analog girl at heart, preferring reading physical books over ebooks, doing jigsaw puzzles, and meeting in person with friends and fellow business owners. in our time together, we talked about the importance of con consent in email marketing and not adding people to lists without permission, how substack functions as both a newsletter platform and community, best practices for email marketing with empathy, including the contrast with typical sales funnel approaches, what engagement really means in email marketing beyond just opening rates, using storytelling to build genuine connections through email, common mistakes people make with email marketing tools, finding the balance between automation and personalization in email. and then, uh, beth also gives us a sneak preview to the upcoming workshop on april second and shares her aligned framework for email marketing. so if after listening to this episode, you’d like to join us for the live collab workshop and work on your welcoming sequence and more, then please join us in our community with a small donation. you’ll find all the details at humane dot marketing forward slash workshop. it takes place on april second, five pm central european time, and that’s eleven am eastern time in the us. alright. let’s dive in. beth, it’s good to talk to you. welcome to the humane marketing podcast. thank you, sarah. it’s good to have you here. email marketing with empathy. uh, i think that’s your spiel. right?
Speaker 1: yes. very much so.
Speaker 0: um, on your website, i’m gonna start with, uh, something i found on your website. you say my approach is rooted in consent, human connection, and strategies that align with your values. mhmm. tell us more about that.
Speaker 1: yeah. so and i think i think you’ve kind of alluded to how you’ve changed your marketing over the years, but i for me, it’s been very similar that i think we’re those of us who’ve been in this online business space for a while are very much have been bombarded with a lot of messaging on, quote, unquote, the right way to market our businesses. and i know for myself, i’ve tried a whole bunch of strategies that, you know, i did because they, quote, unquote, worked, but they didn’t ever fully sit right with me. and i think a lot of times the what we hear is a very much a one size fits all approach to marketing, but what works for one business model might not work for another business model. similarly, you can have two businesses that are technically the same business model and once a strategy that works for one person will not work or for one business will not work for another for another. so that’s really much about where i kind of bring in my approach that it’s looking at, does something sit right with me? and if not, then maybe you should be evaluated. and think about, like, not so much does this sit right with me, but if i’m on the receiving end of this strategy, how would i feel? and if you knew know that you it wouldn’t sit right with you, probably not a good strategy to use. uh, as a and then similarly or kinda not similarly, but going back going back to the other one, consent, that, you know, being here in the us, we have kind of some more lax rules around privacy and consent. and, technically, you can add people to your email list whether or not they have consented. and i think many of us have been on the receiving end of receiving emails that we did not ask for. so my approach is, you know, very much, did people ask to be on be added to your email list? it will not work with people who purchased the email list. that’s just it’s it’s not good for a whole bunch of reasons. so it’s not gonna help with your email showing up in people’s inboxes if you’re you adding people who didn’t ask to be there. so it’s just kind of this weird strategy that i think some people still use even though i really don’t believe it works because people don’t we’re all bombarded with emails, and we don’t wanna receive things that we didn’t sign up for.
Speaker 0: yeah. yeah. it that’s it it it always surprises me when i’m, you know, talking to someone, like, on linkedin, for example. and, yeah, we have a good exchange in the e in the linkedin messages. and then sure enough, like, two days later, i received their newsletter. mhmm. and i’m like, well, how do i say this in a kind way? but just because we talked, it doesn’t mean that i wanna receive your your newsletter. exactly. and yet some people still believe that that’s how it works. yeah.
Speaker 1: yeah. exactly. i actually had something similar happen where i was talking to someone and they messaged me and they said, oh, i’m doing this workshop. would you like the information? i’m like, sure. send it over. and they’re like, okay. i i added your your email to my list. and i was like, excuse me. that’s not what i said. i said, send me the information, not add me to your email list.
Speaker 0: yeah.
Speaker 1: and they also use an email that i very intentionally an email address i very intentionally don’t use to sign up for for for email list. and so they kind of also took away my own agency over deciding, like, should do i wanna sign up for it? which email address do i wanna use to sign up for it? so yeah. gonna feel good. and i do a lot
Speaker 0: of times, it’s well intentioned because they just want to, you know, share their good work, and i’m sure they’re doing good work.
Speaker 1: but yes.
Speaker 0: yeah. there’s some kind of, like, rules to to respect and consent is is pretty much the first one. right?
Speaker 1: exactly. and you can always still invite someone. say, oh, you know, in this situation, you know, if you connected with someone and i’ve done this where i’ve invited people. i’ve been given a little, you know, like, you know, if you like this conversation and you like what i share, you might be interested in receiving my newsletter. here’s what it’s about and here’s the link to sign up. and i’ve had lots of people, you know, i’ve had people say say, no thanks, i’m all set. i’m like, great. i’ve had other people thank me. they’re like, oh, thank you so much. i just signed up. mhmm.
Speaker 0: and i
Speaker 1: think it feels good on both ends, even getting that note. like it knowing that people had that ability to decide options. both.
Speaker 0: yeah. yeah. exactly. yeah. yeah. we recently talked about substack in one of my programs, and, uh, people asked me about it because they heard good things. and i shared that i really like the idea of having an a newsletter mixed with a community, and then always also the option to sign up. but you don’t have to because you can read the the content without having to sign up. so that combination, i think they really figured something out there that that it’s not every not everything is locked behind this email wall, and and it just really feels like a good platform. are you on substack?
Speaker 1: i am not on substack. not mostly because i’m so active on doing my newsletter on kit, formerly convertkit, that i didn’t i it just felt like i would be
Speaker 0: dividing it to my things. yeah.
Speaker 1: but i have seen people do that well where they have both a substack newsletter substack newsletter and then an email marketing software newsletter because i think it is a is an important distinction to make an important distinction to make. that substack is intended to be a newsletter. so it’s really for things more like thought leadership. and there’s it’s fuzzy because it’s not really a promotional platform even from my doing my research on this because i’m asked so often, substack versus kit, that it actually goes against their terms of services to be used exclusively right. to promote your your products and services. it’s not an email marketing software. but i have seen people kind of use it in both ways. um, i’ve also seen people who use an email marketing software for their business and use substack. they’ll mention what it is they do, but they use it more for something that’s maybe related, but not quite what they do for their business.
Speaker 0: yeah. i like that. the combination of both because to me, substack is also more community building. mhmm. because there’s the option to comment, and then, you know, there can be a conversation started where on email, well, if people do hit reply, it’s still one on one. it’s still yes. so it’s it’s not community based. so exactly. yeah. yeah. that makes a lot of sense. alright. so talk to us a little bit about best best practices when it comes to email marketing and using empathy. and maybe you can start with the anti, uh, you know, dough or the anti hero, uh, example of what it’s like, like the typical funnel, of course.
Speaker 1: yes. oh my gosh. i have such a clear example of this that happened just a few weeks ago. i was listening to someone’s summit and someone, one of the participants was had something that they were giving away. and i said, you know what? i’ll i’ll sign up for their freebie. and immediately, i was pulled right into this very intense sales funnel where i was getting with i think in the five days i lasted on their list, i’d received, like, seventy emails. i didn’t count exactly, but it was some days i did notice i was getting two emails, and i just signed up. and my options at this point were to delete or just delete them because i wasn’t interested in what they were selling at that time. and if i was just to full on delete those emails, it’s not good for the business owner. so when you think about email marketing, you want people to read and engage with your emails, and people not opening and just deleting your emails are one of the worst things that for a business owner because it can impact your deliverability or your email you know, the ability of your emails to show up in in people’s inboxes. so, anyway, my options were to delete them to really just to delete them or unsubscribe. and, ultimately, i went with unsubscribe because i was like, this is this is way too much. now, kind of the opposite of that, the more empathy driven version of it, and it’s something that i practice and i put in i will work with my clients to do is to to give people the option a couple things. to really set some clear expectations of here’s how many emails you’re gonna receive from me about x thing over the however many of days, and then you can you’ll expect to hear from me on whatever. even if they said, oh, you know, i email every day. at least gives me some indication. i don’t know. the other thing is giving people the option to opt out of certain things. so if this person had said to me, you know, i’m selling selling you know, over the next week, you’re gonna receive a bunch of a number of emails about this particular offer, and here’s why i think it will help you. if you don’t wanna receive those emails right now but wanna stay on my regular email list, you know, my regular weekly newsletter or whatever, click here, and i’ll do that. and that would have felt like that would have given me some control. it would have acknowledged that just because i signed up for this free thing doesn’t mean i wasn’t that it would it would have acknowledged that just because i signed up for this free thing didn’t mean in that moment i was ready to buy the bigger thing. but it still kinda left the would have left the doors open for me to say, well, maybe down the line. and that’s really how i approach email marketing that just because in this moment in time time you are selling something doesn’t mean the person on the receiving end is is a good time for them or they wanna hear about it. and giving people the option to opt out of things versus just getting every single thing you send is really the way to lead with empathy. and it it’s leaves people on your email list feeling good, and it also helps you as the business owner, again, to make sure you’re just sending the emails to people who want to hear hear from you.
Speaker 0: yeah. yeah. and and just the idea of selling in that welcoming sequence is kinda strange to me to begin with. like yeah. right?
Speaker 1: yeah. it felt it felt strange to me. and and maybe this works for that person, and that’s why they do it. but i felt as the on the receiving end, a little shell shocked, i guess. i was like, what is happening?
Speaker 0: well, it’s a typical funnel approach. it’s like, oh, i give you this free thing, then you want this, you know, low cost item under twenty bucks, and then i had got you hooked, and then you’re gonna actually. so so that’s the typical way that we’re taught to yeah. set up a funnel. right?
Speaker 1: oh, yeah. and just to be clear, you know, i did this too. like, this is how i was taught. i was like, okay, this is what i should be doing. and i had for my former business, i had a jewelry business and i did this. and i didn’t actually make that many sales from it, quite honestly. and it required at one point, i was you know, i paid for this extra extra technology that was just costing me more money than i was making. and then i was like, well, i can do it without paying for it, but then i manually had to go and update things and lead pages every week. and i was like, why am i doing this? this is such a waste of my time and money. and i’d rather just give people information, give them the option to always you know, here’s that thing. like, i can still link to it. yeah. the things that they can buy. but i was like, in retrospect, i’m like, what? what was i doing? but i think i needed to learn those lessons
Speaker 0: mhmm.
Speaker 1: so that i could do what i do now so much better.
Speaker 0: right. yeah. no. i totally hear you. like, all the retargeting strategies that we were learning, if they click this, then now sell them this and yep. all of that. and it might work for an ecommerce site, probably still works. but for something like us, where we are actually selling trust and human connection, that is just, like, the opposite of what should be happening in these emails. right? it should be trust building and not trust yeah. take a great trust, really. that’s what it does. i’m sure that’s how you felt with with these the the series of bombarding emails, wanting to buy. yeah. yeah. i
Speaker 1: was like, this is not what i signed up for.
Speaker 0: yeah.
Speaker 1: wow. yeah. it was a a very fast a very fast unsubscribe.
Speaker 0: right. you talked about engagement. right? in the end, that’s the ultimate goal always. and it’s always like, it’s this big word that we often use also on social media. in the end, like, what does that mean in a with an email list? you mentioned opening rates and what else?
Speaker 1: yeah. so so i will say that you have to kind of take open rates with a grain of salt. they’re not very accurate, and this is true across all email marketing all email marketing softwares just because of how things like apple has set things up, which which, you know, from a marketing perspective is frustrating, but from a, you know, consumer privacy perspective, i totally respect why they do that. so it’s harder to i wouldn’t necessarily use open rates as a good as an engagement marker unless it’s in kind of context. so, yeah, opening you know, looking to see if people are opening your emails, first step. better step are people clicking on your emails. and, again, that can be a little tricky to track because some email provider inbox providers will kind of use these bots to pre click things, i think, as a way to make sure that they’re not spam. so sometimes click through rates are also not very accurate. but things like replies, you can’t fake it. well, i guess you could fake a reply with ai nowadays, but chances are we’re not getting too many ai replies at at least this point in time. so if people are replying to your emails, that’s a really great indication of engagement. kits added a new feature called polls, and i don’t you know, i think different email marketing softwares have different things. but polls, uh, it’s like as it sounds. you give people you set up a poll, you ask a question, and people have to click on an answer. but because they have to actually click and then it takes them to a page where they have to confirm, it actually is more accurate because people have to take you know, a bot’s not gonna be able to click it twice.
Speaker 0: right.
Speaker 1: so, um, and i think and, obviously, if you see people purchasing things, but recognize that for, you know, a few things that depending on how your business is set up, you’re not gonna be able to necessarily be able to track a click leading to a purchase. um,
Speaker 0: or depending on the size of the purchase as well purchase as well.
Speaker 1: yeah. exactly.
Speaker 0: if it’s a five dollar purchase, yeah, then probably that came from the email. but if it’s a two thousand dollar course, well, that lead time is much longer. right? so
Speaker 1: exactly. exactly. and then, you know, it’s if you don’t so just because i’ll add you don’t see people necessarily replying to your emails, especially, you know, if you’re at full on asking for replies, it doesn’t mean that people aren’t engaging with your emails. i think people i’ve had people actually over outside of my emails just kinda come up in conversation. they’ll be like, oh my gosh. i loved your email about x y z, or i love reading your emails. i read every single one. and and it’s not like they and it’s not like they reply to my emails and tell me that. so sometimes you don’t even know, which is, you know, can be kind of the frustration.
Speaker 0: because because our subscribers are smart. right? they’re they’re they’re savvy. they know that this email goes out to a group of yeah. however many subscribers. so it almost feels a bit awkward, i think, to people to hit reply to to to an email, uh, that they know goes out to a large group. so i think that’s why people don’t necessarily always engage because, yeah, they’d rather tell you in person or yeah. in another email or or on social media or something like that.
Speaker 1: yeah. can i actually put give a fun engagement? i don’t wanna call it a trick, but a a thing you can try if you’re feeling frustrated that you’re not getting replies to your emails is asking people to reply with a a specific word. mhmm. because i can really open up the door for conversations. i’m actually i am real i’m involved with a local grassroots environmental nonprofit, and i’ve been doing a lot of the emails. and we hadn’t emailed in, like, a year to our group or, actually, we sent an email in the fall, but it basically had been a long time. but i had this idea for reading this book called climate action for busy people. so i didn’t wanna plan the whole thing until i knew there was gonna be people who are interested. so i, you know, used a storytelling email storytelling email, and i said, you know, i’m thinking about doing this book club to bring us all together. if you’re interested, just reply with the word book club. and within twenty four hours, i think i got seven or eight replies. and this is from a list of people who, like, they haven’t really heard from us very much. but i think giving people something a little bit easier to do can be really powerful and a great way to start a conversation.
Speaker 0: i love that. that that is yeah. that is very smart because you otherwise, you have to think about what am i gonna say. yeah. especially my subscribers, they’re kinda like on the introverted side and, you know, it’s like it takes us a good half hour to write an email. and so, yeah, just one word, and it’s fast and and easy, and yet it can start a conversation. i love it.
Speaker 1: yeah. and sometimes, honestly, even if you ask for a word or, like, give people give a poll, but, like, ask them to reply and just give them, like, choose a if you feel this way, b this way. sometimes you’ll actually get more than just that. i’ve had people reply with to a poll with, like, a, and then they’ll go on and write a longer explanation. i think mhmm. making it easy for people so we don’t have to get bogged down in the like, these big introspective questions that can feel like a lot to reply to, but make it you know, if you give peep make it a lot simpler for people, again, leading with empathy, recognizing how often we see something in our inbox that feels like, oh, this is really interesting. let me think about it. and then you just forget about it. and not intentionally. yeah. so much going on in
Speaker 0: our lives. you mentioned storytelling, so i assume that’s another way to, you know, to build this genuine connection via email. so not not actually make it sound sound like email marketing yeah. which it sounds like you and me both, we kind of, you know, learned that way. and and and now it’s like, well, actually, we don’t wanna make it sound like anybody else. we just wanna make it sound like ourselves. right? oh, absolutely. storytelling is is the best technique there. yeah.
Speaker 1: yeah. exactly. and you know what? i’ve had people say who replied to my emails or have had conversations with this about, and they’re like, well, you know, i love how you shared that. i wouldn’t feel comfortable necessarily sharing something like that. and that’s fine. i think it’s only sharing what you feel comfortable sharing about your about your life. like, i share a fair amount about being a mom because it very much impacts everything about my life because i’ve got two young kids, um, but i never show pictures of them. so for me, that’s kind of that boundary i set for myself. yeah. so i feel fine sharing some and i don’t share private information about them. i’ll you know, i might talk about doing a jigsaw puzzle with my seven year old.
Speaker 0: right. yeah. but, you know, we feel that’s an important, yeah, thing to state because there was this tendency to use vulnerability as a sales technique. right? so that’s definitely not what we’re advocating. it’s like no. you know, just, yeah, share what feels comfortable sharing. and also, it still has to be somehow related to, you know, the rest of your email, probably the rest of your yeah. just who you are, but not all of a sudden bring up, like, childhood trauma if it’s not at all related because you can overwhelm people with too much too much vulnerability. yeah. and you don’t want that either.
Speaker 1: exactly. yeah. and i think well, i think it’s okay, you know, to be vulnerable. but, again, like, what feels right feels right to you and maybe also giving people kind of a heads up if you feel like you’re gonna be sharing something that could be very emotionally triggering for someone.
Speaker 0: yeah. yeah. so in a way, it sounds like we need to find this balance between automation because that’s clearly what we’re doing. we’re using a tool to automate, and yet adding this personal touch to to our emails and to the way we communicate. right?
Speaker 1: yeah. yeah. exactly. and i i’d argue kind of going back to what i said earlier that that automation piece. so it’s not kind of meeting people where they’re at acknowledging now might not be the right time for you. now you might right now you might not wanna receive these emails about this thing, this promotion. at the end of december, i decided to keep going with my newsletter, but i gave people the option to stop hearing from me during that holiday period and and resume receiving my newsletter in january. um, i give people the option to opt out of my welcome sequence.
Speaker 0: so this is kind of how i’m using automation as
Speaker 1: a tool sequence. so this is kind
Speaker 0: of how i’m using
Speaker 1: automation as a tool to meet people where they’re at. instead of so almost giving them more agency to hear less instead of hearing more from me.
Speaker 0: yeah.
Speaker 1: or but similarly, if they are also giving people the option to express interest in things and using automation as a tool that way
Speaker 0: as well as well. yeah. i like that. the other thing that i liked when i was talking to ellie trier, she’s she’s on the spectrum, so she’s neurodivergent, and she shared something that really resonated with me. she, uh, and it has to do with the email personalization, you know, how we have this tool that lets you use the first name. mhmm. and she is like, i don’t understand how neuro normal people think that’s normal, that i’m just addressing you as dear sarah or dear bev, where i know for a fact that this email goes out to a lot of people. so to her, that just always feels really strange to to kind of trick her that, oh, it feels like we’re just talking the two of us. and i was like, yeah. that makes a lot of sense. so some of my emails, i just started saying, dear ones, or, you know, like, addressing the fact that it’s go that i know that it’s going out to to the community and not just one on one. yeah. and just, like, thought that fascinating. it’s like, yeah. we just all bought into this idea that we use these email personalizations, but to her, that was, like, really bizarre.
Speaker 1: yeah. that is such an interesting point. i wonder if i mean, i hear the the acknowledgment of you know, it feels weird when you get that you know, it’s not addressed to you personally. or rather, it is addressed to you, but, you know, it goes out to a bunch of people. but from that other perspective, just how weird that is.
Speaker 0: mhmm.
Speaker 1: and so i’m glad you brought that up. and, also, you think about sometimes people make errors when they’re putting their name in, so maybe they they’re like they miss they’re like they misspelled their own name or they accidentally write it in all caps. and then it looks like you’re shouting their name.
Speaker 0: your last name.
Speaker 1: at a time. yeah. so i i could definitely see the argument for just taking out that personalization feature altogether and do, like you said, you know, big ones or dear friend or whatever, you know, whatever fits with yeah.
Speaker 0: yeah. what you talking about mistakes, what what other mistakes do people people commonly make with these tools?
Speaker 1: oh, well, actually, speaking of the personalization feature, sometimes, for whatever reason, people don’t get, you know, have their names inputted into when you sign up for someone’s email list email list. so it’ll say you’ll get emails that say, dear, space, comma. so clearly, there’s intended to be a name there, but because there’s no name field, it just shows up as this this space. so i’ve been on the receiving end of that and i just find it very, like, it makes me chuckle a
Speaker 0: little bit.
Speaker 1: because i know i’ve done that too. right. um, forgetting to update the subject line, which we’ve all done. so you get you send an email and it goes, you know, new broadcast. that’s the subject line. right. or or were you meant to update the the whatever your email marketing software uses to pull in the name and it says so then you get an email that says, dear in, like, brackets, first name goes here.
Speaker 0: yes. exactly. yeah.
Speaker 1: i and these things i always like. those i’m just like, oh, they made a tech error. i know i make tech errors.
Speaker 0: so yeah. those are actually very forgivable. right? it’s more the the strategy ones where yeah. like, the the example you you shared first is, like, the overwhelm and the manipulation. those those are the bigger i’m missing. yeah. and then often it’s not their fault. it’s just that they’re following the wrong marketing person. they should follow you instead.
Speaker 1: yeah. and this is why i always recommend and this actually goes into what we’ll be talking about in the workshop is that i always recommend signing up for your own newsletter, freebie, lead magnet, whatever you wanna call it. i hate the act i actually personally do not like the word lead magnet because i think it dehumanizes this process if, you know yeah. i don’t like to think of people on my email list as leads, and i’m magnetizing them on. like, they’re people don’t like it. yeah. actually, i don’t like a lot of marketing jargon. but i always recommend signing up for your your your opt ins, your your freebies, and seeing what it’s like so you because i think we there’s so many moving parts that go into it that i think when you’re done, you’re, like, just so relieved. you’re like, oh, i got that thing out there. but it’s so important to test it up, test it out as someone going through that process who doesn’t know you yet and seeing what happens because here’s where you’ll you’ll uncover some some errors you made or you might realize like, oh, shoot. someone signs up for my thing and then immediately somehow i messed it up and now they got, like, three emails all at once, or i got three emails all at once. so that’s why it’s really important to really
Speaker 0: yeah.
Speaker 1: take the time to check it all out.
Speaker 0: and probably not just once, but, like, once a year because yeah. and i think that will be the benefit of go going through your workshop for all of us going back to, yeah, signing up to to our sequence again. i yeah. i have to say, i think probably last time i checked was last year to just go through all my emails again because i i don’t just have, you know, seven. i have a whole bunch because then i added some other ones. and but, yeah, some of the stuff’s probably outdated or links don’t work. so, yeah, you didn’t wanna oh, yeah. check them regularly. yeah. yeah. i
Speaker 1: and i know i have to i really need to clean up the back end of mine so bad. i just you know, it’s kind of a tedious process. but i think if i were to do it all over again, i’d probably just, like, make it a lot simpler. at one point, i tried to make it super complex, and i was like, this is my selling point. it’s like to make these really complex automations. and i’m like, no. people want something simple and straightforward. and i’m honestly of the opinion, the simpler you can make it, the better. yeah. some of these email marketing softwares can let you do really fancy things with them. but then the more the, you know, the fancier and more complicated you make it, the more likely it it is for something to get messed up or to break if you add something new in or take something away.
Speaker 0: i agree. and it just needs to be simple unless, again, you’re running an e running an ecommerce site or or something like that. but yeah. a lot of i don’t know about your clients, but a lot of listeners and my clients are coaches, consultants, and and, you know, they just want something that works, but it doesn’t have to be this complicated funnel, and it shouldn’t feel like a funnel anyway. it should just yeah. feel like a trust building sequence. exactly. yeah.
Speaker 1: but, again, the whole the term funnel, another one of those words. i’m like, why? i just can’t when i think of it, i just end up imagining, like, cattle mhmm. like, going down the slaughter. like, they’re just being fed in this one direction, and you’re like
Speaker 0: horrible. yeah. yeah. movie is horrible. yeah. tell us more about the the workshop that we have coming up on april second.
Speaker 1: yeah. so it’s based on what i call the align framework. so align is an acronym, and it’s really about the process that to look through when someone new signs up for your email list. so the first step is affirm consent. so we right off the bat, we’re we’re starting with consent. and so we’re looking at things like, the, you know, do you link to your privacy statement? it’s amazing to me how many people don’t real don’t have a privacy statement, which i think i imagine in europe, you’re probably required. i think even in the us, you’re supposed to have one.
Speaker 0: or
Speaker 1: at least certain states require it. so link into your privacy statement. if you’re giving away a freebie, giving people the option to receive that freebie without being added to your to your email list. and this is particularly important if from and i’ll put this little disclaimer out there that i’m not a lawyer, so don’t take this as legal advice. but, you know, with gdpr, you have to be extra careful with that. and from my understanding of it, people have to be able to receive that thing, that freebie without being added to your email list. um, and then so that’s, you know, thinking through these steps. and what’s nice about this framework is it’s tech agnostic. it’s things that we should all be doing regardless of which email marketing software we use. and then from there, um, oh my gosh, i realized i like forgotten what the actual acronym stands for, but i’ll just, like, go through the process because i think that’s easier that we’re looking at things like, oh, the second one is learn from questions. so your your opt in form can be a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about the people coming onto your email list and not in a, like, a creepy, stacker ish way, but really about thinking about it through that lens of empathy and how to make sure you’re giving people the information that they actually need. so, for example, i ask when people sign up for my email list, which email marketing software do you use? and if people say nothing, i actually send them a different welcome sequence because a lot of what i talk about is not gonna it’s gonna be kind of a little too high level. mhmm. so it it kind of helps them think through, for example, do you actually need a newsletter for your business? um, that one i actually invite people to reply and i’m realizing as i’m talking this through, i’m like, i don’t think anyone’s replying to that email. so maybe it’s time to revisit that welcome sequence.
Speaker 0: right. and and just ask a question with a one word answer. i’m sure that one will work better. yeah. yeah.
Speaker 1: um, and then the other steps are thinking through, um, you know, what ex oh, what expectations are you setting for people. so, you know, if someone signs up for your email list, making sure that they know what to do next. like, they should you know, inviting people or recommending that people go to your their inbox and check for this email and telling them, you know, what is the subject line of that email and also thanking them. and then in that first email, really setting some expectations. like, you’re gonna receive this many emails from me over this many days, or i send an email out, like, at this frequency. so you want people to know right off the bat, the bat, especially if you do have some sort of nurturing welcome sequence when people first sign up that’s at a more frequent cadence than what you normally sent. yeah. because especially if you’re marketing to to consumers, they don’t know how this all works necessarily. and if you sign up for someone’s email list and you’re suddenly getting an email a day, you’re like, well, this isn’t what i signed up for. but if people know right off the bat, you’ll get an email a day. and then from after that, you’ll hear from me about once a week. you know, it’s in recognizing people meaning
Speaker 0: people transparency. right?
Speaker 1: yes. yeah. it’s i’m all about how can we be as transparent as possible through this process. because i think a lot of times in marketing, we’ve almost been taught with this whole life system is that you don’t wanna be transparent. mhmm. would you
Speaker 0: have to be sneaky? you know? yeah.
Speaker 1: which is like, why if you need to be sneaky to sells sell something, i feel like that should send us be sending off some little warning signals there.
Speaker 0: yeah. and and it can’t it can’t attract the right clients. right? if yeah. if from the get go, they they buy into something sneaky, that yeah. it just can’t be a good thing. no. yeah. yeah. exactly. and then
Speaker 1: the last step is nurturing. so i do recommend that most people have some sort of welcome sequence. i think there are some instances where it does you know, you might not. and this is, again, where it goes into, you know, recognizing that there is no one size fits all approach to any of this. so even though for most people, i’m gonna recommend you should have some sort of welcome sequence sequence. if you are, for example, marketing to, like like, presidents and corporations or, like, high you know, c what we call in the us, c suite executives, a welcome sequence would probably be a little odd. yeah. so i wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to them. right. but but for the vast majority of us, i think it can be beneficial to have something to at least welcome people into your space.
Speaker 0: yeah. amazing. i can’t wait for further yeah. rolling back our sleeves and actually getting getting to work and having you guide us. so yeah. wonderful. yeah. that workshop is on april second. and if you wanna sign up and join us in the humane marketing circle, that’s at humane dot marketing forward slash workshop. we just ask for a little donation to join us in the community, and, uh, yeah, bev will be there with us live. so exciting. why don’t you share also, bev, where people can find you if they want to find out more about your work and maybe see you walk your talk by signing up to your yeah. rep.
Speaker 1: yeah. so the best way i recommend is to go to your personal tech personal tech fairy dot com forward slash newsletter. and there’s where i talk a little bit more about my approach to email marketing. and you can see what i just talked about, how you can sign up for my email list. and there’s, like, gonna be that question i just i just mentioned. so and you’ll you can kinda see how it plays out depending on what you choose. because i will say that, you know, if you choose kit versus a different email marketing software versus nothing, you’ll you actually get slightly different emails sent to your inbox.
Speaker 0: yeah. yeah. wonderful. well, i look forward to our collaboration and, uh likewise. thanks so much for being on the show today.
Speaker 1: well, thank you for having me, sarah.
Speaker 0: i hope you got some great value from listening to this episode. as always, find out more about bev and sign up for her newsletter to see her walker talk at your personal tech fairy dot com forward slash newsletter. and if you’re looking for others who think like you, then why not join us in the humane marketing circle? you can find out more at humane dot marketing forward slash circle to join the community, or just join us for this workshop with bev at humane dot marketing forward slash workshop. you find the show notes of this episode at humane dot marketing forward slash h m two zero six, um two zero six. and on this beautiful page, you’ll also find a series of free offers such as the humane business manifesto, as well as my two books, marketing like we’re human and selling like we’re human, and soon also my third book, business like we’re human. thanks so much for listening and being part of a generation of marketers who cares for yourself, your clients, and the planet. we are change makers before we are marketers. so please go be the change you want to see in the world. speak
Speaker 1: soon.
