Episode 635: How to Design a High-Converting Welcome Sequence for Food Bloggers (+Key Mistakes To Avoid) with Prerna Malik

EBT635 – Prerna Malik

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

Supercut  00:37

You are going to want to download our bonus supercut that gives you all the information you need to grow your Instagram account. Go to eatblogtalk.com/Instagrowth to download today. 

Megan Porta  00:52

Do you have an email welcome sequence set up for your email subscribers? If so, you need to listen to this episode. If not, you need to listen to this episode. Either way, you’re going to get so much out of this. Prerna Malik from Content Bistro is an expert with creating sales focused welcome sequences, and she talks about this in relation to food bloggers and their businesses, really, any detail you need to know about creating a welcome sequence so that you can not only share your valuable URLs and content on your blog, but also sell the courses and the ebooks and the cookbooks and the value that you’ve created to share with people without being salesy or icky. Prerna talks through every detail. She gives so many great tips. So much good advice. Within a few hours, you can sit down and create your own effective welcome sequence that is going to sell the things that you’ve made, because selling is serving. This is episode number 635, enjoy!

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Megan Porta  03:01

Co-founder of Content Bistro and a Copyhackers-certified, conversion copywriter, Prerna is the sales strategist and copywriter behind multiple million-dollar launches and 6-figure evergreen sales funnels in niches as diverse as astrology and homesteading! She has written for iconic brands such as Pat Flynn, Amy Porterfield, Copyhackers, Vanessa Lau, Handle the Heat, School of Traditional Skills, and 1000s of others! She is also the creator of the strategy-focused sales copywriting program — Ready-to-Sell. Prerna and her co-founder-slash-husband, Mayank have built an intentionally profitable business while living in India and raising their daughter, Manini. 

Megan Porta  03:41

Prerna, welcome to the podcast. It’s so great to have you on how are you doing today? 

Prerna Malik  03:46

Well, thank you so much for inviting me. I’m doing really well and very excited to chat with you.

Megan Porta  03:51

Yes, we’re gonna talk about welcome sequences for food bloggers who are looking to maybe sell some of those awesome products that are just sitting on the back burner before we get to that, we would love to know if you have a fun fact to share about yourself.

Prerna Malik  04:06

Okay, so fun fact about me is that I am all of five feet tall.

Megan Porta  04:15

Nice, you and I are, yes, the same height.

Prerna Malik  04:20

So yeah, and I yeah, I always like to say good things come in small packages. So yeah. 

Megan Porta  04:25

So true. You know, it’s funny, there are a lot of short, I should say petite. Some people don’t like being called short. Food bloggers and people in our space, when I started hosting retreats, I hosted this one retreat, and all of us were, like, under five two. I’m like, what? Oh, I love that in the world, this is so great because my friends, I’m used to having tall friends, and everybody towers over me, but I just thought that was so interesting that a lot of food bloggers were petite, but I’m glad to know. 

Prerna Malik  04:37

I love that. 

Megan Porta  04:57

Yeah. Yes, good things do come in small packages, right? Well, you have so much knowledge about email, I just love how you’ve dug into this in your business. Can you first of all share with us a little bit about Content Bistro? What is that? When did you start it? Yeah, just give us a scoop on it.

Prerna Malik  05:18

Sure. So we started in 2011 we start, did not start as Content Bistro be rebranded around 2015 and Content Bistro is where both my husband and I, we work together. We’ve been, you know, running this business since, yeah, since 2011 so 13 years now, and it is where we work with, course, creators, creative entrepreneurs, you know, anyone who’s got a digital product to help them increase their sales. Their sales, both on the front end and the back end, using email, using sales strategy, and, of course, a lot of copywriting. And another fun fact about the name Content Bistro is because I love writing, but we also love food. Like my husband and I both love food. Baking especially as my love language. So, yeah, we this was a name that just kind of represented both what we do and what we love. You know, it was, yeah, and that’s, that’s why it’s Content Bistro. 

Megan Porta  06:12

I love it. I love that it has a food theme too, and that you guys are foodies. That’s great, and your husband a foodie too.

Prerna Malik  06:18

Oh gosh, yes, yes, absolutely. He’s, in fact, he’s very fond of cooking. In fact, he made a really nice pasta for me for dinner right before I jumped on this call. And so he does more of the cooking, cooking, I do more of the baking. So, yeah.

Megan Porta  06:32

Oh, that’s perfect. What a good combo. Must work well in your kitchen. So I love your sales focus. I was telling you this before we hit record, that a lot of food bloggers, including myself, for so long, get in this trap of thinking that it’s all about the traffic, and we seem to just get laser focused in on, how can I get more traffic? Like, literally, that’s our only question. And we kind of forget that we’ve created ebooks and cookbooks and courses and these little things that we can sell to our people, and we have to be jolted out of it a little bit to remember that so you have some information about how to put a sales focus on a welcome sequence for food bloggers, so that we can maybe take our eyes off of the traffic a little bit and put the focus more on the awesome products we’ve made. Right? 

Prerna Malik  07:26

Absolutely, absolutely, because I, I’m totally there with you on the traffic part, but I also feel that sales is essentially you showing up to serve that traffic well, right? So yes, they’re going to get those the great recipes you have. Yes, they’re gonna, you know, learn more about how can you know they use what you’re teaching, whether it’s whether it’s a new dish, whether it’s a new way of making something. But then, when they’re ready, or if they’re ready, you want them to go ahead and either support your business by buying your cookbook or joining your membership. And it’s not just supporting your business, but it’s you serving them well as well, right? So it’s such a win, win relationship. And as someone like and I like, I shared. I I love baking. I frequent so many baking blogs, I am always looking for ways to kind of get Okay, can I buy someone’s cookbook, or can I gift someone, you know, like a bloggers cookbook to friends of mine? I’ve done that, you know, for over the last so many years. They’re like, amazing food bloggers, some who have, like, Gluten Free Recipes someone’s got, you know, someone specializes only in one pot dinners. So what better way to, you know, a, support your favorite food blogger, and B, give a great gift to someone you love than sending out a cookbook. So I feel like sales is at the heart of it. Is basically service, and we should be doing more of that.

Megan Porta  08:52

Yeah, and that reminder alone is so powerful. I remember hearing that line a few years ago. We all feel guilt. I shouldn’t say all of us, but a lot of us feel guilty for offering things like, oh, I don’t know if people want to hear about my cookbook again, or my course again, or whatever, but we forget that it’s actually serving. And I heard someone say selling is serving, and I wrote it on a post it note and put it on my computer. It was there for like, three years just to remind myself because I’m in the I got in that mindset too, or it was like, Oh, I’m I’m annoying people. I’m frustrating them. So that reminder is so simple, but it can make such a powerful transformation if you just get it in your brain that you are serving people. You didn’t create your cookbook just because you were bored. You created it because you knew it was valuable, and you know that it’s going to serve people, so get it out there and let people have it right.

Prerna Malik  09:47

Absolutely. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah. Sales and selling, they’re not sleazy, icky or pushy when you do them right. Sales and selling are both are they’re easy. They’re fun and like, like I said, there’s there is service when you’re selling to the right few people, when you’re talking to people who want and need what you have to offer, and when you’re tailoring what you have to offer to solve your audience’s struggle. And I feel like food bloggers are solving so many struggles. Like, seriously, I am so grateful for the work food bloggers put in to their blogs and to their recipes. And I’ve worked with so many, and I’ve seen behind the scenes the kind of effort that goes into recipe testing and and in fact, and I shared this with you, you know, like offline, that when I spoke at Tastemaker, I realized the kind of work that goes into, like, just putting a recipe together, it’s, it’s a lot of work. So I feel like sales, for for you all should is definitely, definitely it’s like such an easy, fun and such a heart centered way of serving your audience.

Megan Porta  10:57

That, yeah, that’s a great way to put it. And we do know those kind of icky sales people, and I think that’s where we get that mindset where it’s like, oh, I don’t want to be like them, but you know you’re not that. You experience that gross feeling you get from someone who doesn’t believe in what they’re doing they just want to make money. That’s not you. Food bloggers are different. You are different. So just try to get that in your mind, I think is for key point one, right? Like step one, go there, yeah, yeah. And then once we can tweak our mindset and change that a little bit, and you have a product to sell, and you likely do, because you’re a food blogger and you’re creative, and you create awesome stuff, you probably need a welcome sequence correct to take people through what you’re selling. So do you want to start off with, maybe mistakes that are commonly made? Is that a good point to start?

Prerna Malik  11:51

Yeah, sure. So first up, a welcome sequence is really a very, very easy way to get, get started with and get comfortable with the idea of selling, and even if you have been selling the past, but you’ve not been using your welcome sequence to do that. I think it’s a great way to kind of help people who are new to your world to know that here are different ways that a, you can benefit from my blog, and B, how I can continue to serve you. So I feel like a welcome sequence is a really great place for anyone to start, whether they’re absolutely new selling or even if they’ve been selling for a while, but they haven’t really used a welcome sequence well. So with that, there are a few mistakes you want to avoid. I would say like the top three mistakes you want to avoid is one using a very generic template, so one that you’ve either, you know, bought off the internet or someone’s given it out to you as a freebie or whatever. Like using a plug and play template isn’t the best way to go forward. And the reason I say that is why, because a food blog is a very personal connection, and you want your welcome sequence to be reflective of the brand and the connection that you’re building with your audience. The problem with most templates is either their plug and play, or even if they’re not and they give you like, you know, give you like some sentences and like a structure and things like that, it doesn’t feel as if it’s coming from you, and your welcome sequence is like that first impression that someone has about your brand, your audience, and if there’s a disconnect there that doesn’t really create for a great user experience. So avoiding a generic template would be the first thing you want to kind of avoid. And it’s not that if you don’t have a template, it’s going to be really hard to write. I’m going to, in fact, later on. You know, we can look at how to make this easier, but for now, just kind of keep in mind, like you don’t want to use a plug and play template. The second is, second is you want to wait, is sending one email and thinking it’s a welcome sequence. Not one email. One email is not a welcome sequence. It’s a welcome email. Maybe, maybe it’s your confirmation email, but it’s not a sequence. And the third mistake you obviously want to avoid is not sending a welcome sequence. So someone signs up, because I know a lot of food bloggers have, sometimes they have multiple freebies, right? So you may have one for I’ll give you an example. A blogger that I wrote for earlier this year. She has a cookie customization cheat sheet. She has a sign so baking course, she has a frosting PDF. So she’s got, like, a lot of freebies. The beauty of a welcome sequence is you can, you know, once you have a really good welcome sequence in place, you can actually replicate it with minor changes to pretty much every freebie you have. So it’s not like you need to create separate welcome sequences. If you’ve got like seven or 10 different opt ins, you’ll have like seven or 10 different sequences for most bloggers, and I’m saying most, because sometimes you may need separate ones. For most bloggers, you could take that same welcome sequence. Is maybe make a few changes and have it going out to everybody and give everyone like that great user experience. So you want to avoid using a generic template. You want to avoid sending out just one email and calling it a sequence. And you definitely want to avoid not sending a welcome sequence at all, because it just feels like way too much work.

Megan Porta  15:19

Yeah, the generic template thing really resonates, I know. So I subscribe to a lot of food blogger email lists, just to kind of see what they’re doing and how they’re putting their content together in email. And every time I see there’s a few standard flow desk templates that pop up and I’m like, I don’t like that, because it is, it feels like I’m in flow desk. And like, do I need to read this? I’ve already seen the templates in flow desk, so I totally know what you mean there. I don’t know that I would have been able to verbalize what you said, though, like, or put words to what I was feeling about other people’s but now I’m like, oh, right, that makes sense. That’s why I don’t like those emails. So, yeah, those are great. And then, speaking of welcome sequences, are there different types that we should be that have on our radar?

Prerna Malik  16:08

Yeah, sure. So the two kinds that I’ve worked on for years for you know, both food bloggers and other creative entrepreneurs, one is a conversion driven welcome sequence. The other is more of a connection based welcome sequence. Both welcome sequences, whether it’s conversion driven or connection based, can have a sales focus. A conversion driven welcome sequence is one where, you know, usually used by, say, an E commerce business, where the goal is, yes, to build to let people know about the brand. Let people know about but the goal is, we need to drive a conversion. Generally starts from like, maybe the first email, like, Oh, you got 10% off to use in your next purchase, right? And connection based, one is more popular with food bloggers and content creators and entrepreneurs. They lead with connection before we ask for a sale. So we lead with sharing why we’re doing what we’re doing. Why did we start this, or what makes us different and and we use we lead with connection, and then we ask for sale. So these are the two kinds of welcome sequences, both ours can be sales focused, but for food food bloggers, I’ve found that works over the years, having tested not just food bloggers, even like food photographers, anyone who’s like, you know, in building a more personal connection with their audience, I find the connection based sequence works really well.

Megan Porta  17:37

Is there any circumstance being a food blogger, where you would go with the conversion, or would you always do connection? Because, like you said, you didn’t add sales in there. So connecting sales covers all the bases, right?

Prerna Malik  17:49

Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Conversion driven is great if you your primary product is what you want everyone to go do with food bloggers, like we were discussing earlier. You know, the focus is, we want to get more people to the site. We want to increase traffic and our ebooks and our membership sites, and, you know, we want those to sell, but we want to lead by building that connection with our audience. Say your goal is, it’s actually goal based, right? So you want to think about what’s your goal? So let’s say your goal is this year, or with this, you know, with this particular sequence, I want to increase the number of people who are in my in my membership, definitely go with a conversion driven thing. You would still be, you know, you would still have connection. But our conversion would start from probably the first email itself, and it would also, you know, influence your opt in. So if you’ve, if you’re like, you know, if you’ve got a membership, your OPT in could be, you know, there are a few downloads taken directly from my make dinner in 30 minutes on weeknights membership. So when they sign up, they get that, and then from the very first email, we’re inviting them to join the membership. So that is the that is an example of a conversion driven thing, because that’s the goal. We want more people in our membership. That’s what we’re going to drive.

Megan Porta  19:08

Okay, but for food bloggers, I feel like, yes, they might have a membership, but there’s so much more. They also really deeply want to connect and engage. So the connection route is probably the way to go. 

Prerna Malik  19:20

Oh, yeah, absolutely that, like, tested that out so much over the years, you know, with with food, food bloggers in different niches, whether it’s like baking, homesteading, dairy, you know, it’s always, always worked really well.

Megan Porta  19:34

Okay? And then we talked a little bit about the salesy, gross stuff that I know a lot of people are worried about. They don’t want to be salesy and icky to their people. Do you have any tips for avoiding that gross feeling? 

Megan Porta  19:50

Oh, gosh, so many. So one of the things that I always keep in mind, and something that I always tell you in times, is. Like you should always be selling in a way that you would want to be sold to. So if you don’t want to be sold to in a way that feels like you need to take a shower afterwards, don’t do that. It’s like, not really that simple so, but certain things you want to keep in mind is one you definitely don’t want to make fake promises. You don’t want there is no room for fakery, trickery, chemicaly in in sales that actually feel good to you. There is no room for guilt tripping people or, quote, unquote, poking the wound, making them feel awful about their situation when when you’re selling. So we don’t want to sell in a way that makes us feel awful and or makes our audience feel awful, like, I’m not an advocate of sales that that just leave people feeling like, if you don’t get this, your life is pretty much all doom and gloom. 

Megan Porta  21:02

Yeah, that’s gross.

Megan Porta  21:04

Yeah, yeah. So you want your welcome sequence, or, for that matter, any email you write, you want that email to be something that encourages people that engages with them, that yes, talks about the pain or the struggle they may be experiencing, but at the same time, does it in a way that shows empathy, does it in a way that shows that you you get it because, like, ask yourself, you do get it, you know. So why won’t your emails reflect that?

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Megan Porta  22:22

Yeah, and it’s a kind of a fine balance. I think that for myself, I learned that over time with just a lot of practice, right? So start sending the email so you can get into the flow of it and get that feeling like, okay, yes, I’m being encouraging and I’m being empathetic, and yes, and selling my product or service or whatever, but you’re not feeling gross when you’re done writing it.

Prerna Malik  22:47

Absolutely easiest way to do this is so and this is something I do, and I know a lot of other writers may be doing this as well, but I always think of a one person like that I’m writing to them, I literally, like, whether I’m writing for clients or I’m writing for our own brand, I will always put the name of an actual person. For the longest time, it’s always been my name, because it just makes it easier. So I’m like, writing it to myself. And so I would write like, okay, hey, Bruno, did I tell you about the time when I did blank and I realized that I needed to do this. So when you write thinking about that one person, instead of thinking about the 400-500-5000 50,000 people that you may have on your email list, it becomes that much easier. Because you’re you’re actually having a conversation.

Megan Porta  23:37

Or like you’re talking to your aunt, your grandma or something. What would you not say to your grandma, what would you say to her? 

Megan Porta  23:42

Yeah, yeah, 100%

Megan Porta  23:45

Yeah. That’s a really great tip. I like that. So because we can tend to think of the masses like there are 1000s of people listening, what am I going to say to all of them? But what about just, yeah, just having a conversation with one single person that makes it totally different. Yep, love that so much. And I know you have kind of a recipe for this. Do you want to talk through that? Your six C’s?

Prerna Malik  24:08

Oh, yes. So yeah, I have recipes for pretty much every copy asset I would write. So, yeah, um, like I said, food and birds. They like, yeah, they’re my happy place. So even for sales focused welcome sequences, I call it the 6 C recipe. You the first C is you want to start by celebrating the sign up. So your first email is going to be, you know, hey, I’m just so excited to see you here, and I can’t wait for you to try out this frosting recipe and tell me all about how it was not grainy. It was just the right texture, not too sweet. And you know, your cupcakes look awesome, and here’s why I created it. And then you maybe have, like, a little story, or maybe you just talk about why frosting is important to you, or whatever. And then basically share what you’re all about. And how can you help them let them know what’s coming next. In the very first email, you want to let them know that, hey, over the next few days, I will be sharing more resources to help you do A, B and C. So keep your you know, eyes on your inbox. So, you’re letting them know what’s going to happen to your celebrating that they’re there. They’re part of your world. You want to go the next step let them know to find you on Instagram, or maybe direct them to your about page sharing, where you’re sharing more about your story. So welcome them to your world. The next C is all about connecting, and that is when you want to know, why is it that they would they read your blog. What is it about it? What recipe do they enjoy? Open up that door to a two way conversation with them. Emails is not you just sending a missive into the void and then hoping it lands somewhere. Emails is where you’re actually starting that conversation with the people with like real humans on your list. So the second C is connection. So you want to connect. You want to ask them, What is it you know that they’re hoping to learn. What have their struggles been? If it’s if you have a very specific focus for your food blog, you want to kind of talk about that. Like, Okay, what’s your if you’ve got, like, say, let’s say you’ve got a gluten free food blog you want to say, share your gluten free story with me, like, what? Where did it all start? What happened? What are you doing? What’s working for you? Here are a few resources I found helpful. Encourage that conversation and let them know what resources you have both paid and free, you can in your very second email let them know if you have a cookbook, like I said, if, let’s say you have a gluten free blog and you have a cookbook on gluten free baking or gluten free cooking, let them know about that. Because here is someone who’s like, raised their hand and said that they want to hear from you and said that they want to learn more about what it is that you do use that email to do that. So, yes, open up the door to conversation. Connect with them, but don’t hesitate to talk about what you have to offer, even if it’s a paid offer. The third C stands for cultivating community, which is where again, you want to talk about, what is your food blog community all about you want to talk about what is it that you stand this is where you would highlight your values, because in the first email, you’re celebrating the sign up, you’re sharing a little about your story. The second email, you’re connecting with them and wanting to know about their story. The third email is where you’re highlighting what makes your particular food blog different from others out there, and your values is where you can, you know, really shine. That is what brings community together. So use this email to do that. Use this email to to highlight because, let’s be honest, there are a lot of food blogs out there, whether it’s you know, and, and I know everyone’s like trying to narrow down and niche down, and everyone’s got their own points, but you need to talk about those points of difference so that people who are on your email list can see that and resonate with so I’ll give you an example. 

Prerna Malik  28:16

One of our clients Handle the Heat, Tessa. Her she has a baking log. And it there are a lot of baking logs out there, like I’m subscribed to, I probably think at this time, at least 15 of them. But what I love about Tesla’s recipes is that she does baking the old fashioned way, and she is very clear that you will not find Keto Recipes or, you know, substitutions, or coconut sugar, whatever. So I know when I want to bake the old fashioned way and use, like, her incredible knowledge of baking science, that is where I’m gonna go. So she’s, like, big on baking science, big on baking the old fashioned way. And it’s very clear, like, that’s what we focused on for her sequences, for her copy all that. So use what makes you unique, but talk about it both on your website and in your welcome sequence. So cultivate community by sharing your values, sharing what you stand for, and again, use that email to direct people to know where they could find more your fourth or this fourth C and these could you could actually just take this and turn it into one email, and you’d have like, a six email welcome sequence. So celebrate the sign up, connect and find out. Connect and Learn more about their story. Cultivate a community around your shared values. The fourth is convert. This is like a pure sales email. It’s all about, you know what your whether it’s your membership or it’s your cookbook, or it’s your ebook, or it’s your, you know, digital downloadables, whatever, or a course that you may have, this is a pure sales email, helping them see that you’ve got this freebie. You know more about me. I know more about you. You know what I stand for. Here’s how I can continue to serve you. So if you look at it, it’s like such a logical conversation. It’s also, you know, very simple and easy to kind of just put into play, because you’re not shoving sales down someone’s throat. You’re like, leading from helping them get to know you better, helping you get to know them better, and then helping them see what’s the next step. So the fourth C is basically convert. The fifth is connection again, but this time it’s more with here’s, you know, here are what other people are saying about what it is that we do. So this could be sharing reviews, sharing customer success stories, sharing questions people are asking about your either your paid offers, or even, you know, like struggles that they’ve had that you’ve helped solve all of that. And then lastly, you have close, which is again, your last email to them before you move them into your regular weekly newsletters, because you want to let them know that, hey, we’ve been chatting a lot over the last few days. I’ve shared this, this and this. Going forward, you’ll be getting weekly emails with me sharing our latest recipes, and I would still continue to love to hear from you. Here’s where you could find more resources that would help you as you move forward, and then direct them to your resources, but let them know. Prepare them for what’s you know, like, what happens after the welcome sequence? 

Megan Porta  31:27

Oh, that’s amazing. 

Prerna Malik  31:28

So, yeah, that’s six C’s.

Megan Porta  31:31

Those are so great. I loved it, and it all makes such perfect sense as you’re talking through it. I’m like, this is the perfect flow. Do you have a recommendation for how to space those apart?

Prerna Malik  31:41

So for welcome sequences, Megan, what I found works best is sending emails out one day after the other couple of reasons for this, we found deliverability really improves, and people have higher recall because they’ve just signed up. So you want to send that first email the celebration celebrating the sign up email right after they sign up, so that goes out on day zero, what you would call like they’ve signed up, and they get this first email, and then after that, every other email goes out one day after the previous email. So it really helps improve deliverability. It really increases engagement, and that kind of sets the cadence for all your future emails.

Megan Porta  32:21

Yeah, okay. And if people are really into your content and what you’re offering, they’re not going to get annoyed with that. They’ll be like, Oh, I got another email today from Prerna.

Prerna Malik  32:31

And yeah. And what you’re doing is you’re also in the very first email. You want to let them know that over the next few days, I will be sending you a few more emails for us to kind of get to know each other better and also sharing more helpful resources for you. So keep an eye on your inbox so you are setting that expectation as well, or what’s coming next. So it’s not like, Oh, I just signed up for this freebie, and now I’m getting, you know, a bunch of emails from you.

Megan Porta  32:55

Okay. So within this sequence, the 6c for food bloggers, if we have a lot to promote. So we want to promote some of our maybe most popular recipes, but we also have an e book, and maybe we also have a cookbook and maybe a membership. Is it okay to touch on all of that within the series, or do we limit it?

Prerna Malik  33:16

So there are a couple of ways you can go about this. For the sake of simplicity, what you want to think about is what would be the logical next step for someone who signs up to my opt in to tick and then use that as an offer. So let’s say someone signs up for a checklist of the art you know, like, let’s say someone signs up for a cookie guide, right? Like, okay, 12 cookies to make during Christmas that they’ve signed up for that, but you also have a full blown cookbook on Christmas cookies, right? So you want to, that would be the next logical step for them to take. So you want to, that’s like, the simplest way to think about it. If you want to get more advanced with it, you could, in your very first email, have people choose what they’re working on or what they would love to learn more about, and then have separate, you know, they put them into separate sequences, separate separate segments, that would get tailored sequences for every single offer. So you could totally do that as well if you want to get, like, a little fancy. And then, of course, the third option is you could just have every email have, like a standard footer, almost, which would say, hey, whenever you’re ready. Here are the three ways you can continue to learn from me, or you can continue to, you know, build on your baking skills or your chocolate making skills, or whatever it is that you do, and have all three options. So you could have the ebook and your physical cookbook, and maybe if you have a membership site, you could have all three there.

Megan Porta  34:48

Yeah, I use that. I call it the super signature. I Yes, the bottom of, or I guess, in the middle of all my emails, just like when you’re ready, here are three like. One is free listen to the podcast. And then I have a low tier offering, like, join the Accountability Group. It’s a low cost membership that will be great. And then my mastermind group, so I kind of offer a range, yeah, but I think that’s such a good way, because you can just leave it from email to email and let people click as they’re ready.

Prerna Malik  35:21

Absolutely. Some of the things you may want to keep in mind when you’re using a signature like that, or when you’re using like three different offers, something that we’ve tested over the years is a varying the offers and that, and then seeing which ones kind of get more clicks. That is definitely one thing. So you may want to vary the freebie or the paid offer. The second is showing your audience offers that they don’t have, because if you have this as part of your standard email newsletter that goes out, you may be sending an audience that already has, let’s say you’ve got a membership. You already have people in that membership, and if they continue seeing the offer for the membership, it’s not really relevant for them. So you could, you know, use conditional messaging to just show membership only to people who are not members, and show your mastermind to people who are in your membership as their logical next step.

Megan Porta  36:13

Ah, yeah, I like that. That’s really good suggestion. All right, lots of a lot to have in mind there. So I’m guessing that there are going to be people listening who are like, oh, gosh, I’ve done it all wrong and I have to go back. But what like you said earlier, it’s one of those things where once you have it in place, you can kind of just go back and update it and you can repurpose it for other things. So it’s not like you’re having to redo this every time you do a welcome sequence or a new opt in, right? 

Prerna Malik  36:41

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Once you have this in place, you could easily customize it. You could just make final changes. You could keep attaching it to all the different new freebies you’re launching. And honestly, like, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, Okay, this sounds like a lot of work, or, Oh, I’ve gotten this wrong. Honestly, you don’t, and it’s, is it a lot of work maybe to begin with, but your welcome emails don’t have to be very long, like in fact, I would recommend that you keep them nice and short and tight and engaging and like, write them the way you would write your regular emails. You don’t really have to overthink it, and it just makes it so much easier for anyone who’s coming into your world via email to just get to know you better. So when you think of it like that, then it becomes that much easier for you to write like you’re writing it to one person. You’re, you know, writing it in a way that’s like logical conversations, like, Hey, I’m so excited to see you here. Let me you know I’m here’s what I’m about, and I want to know more about you, like, tell me more about you. And then after that, okay, this is great. So here’s you know what you should know that I absolutely believe it and stand for in if that sounds great to you, I would love to continue to help you more, and here’s how I can help you more. So it’s more of a conversation than it is a code and code a sequence,

Megan Porta  38:07

Yeah. And if you just pick out a chunk of time in your week, next week, or next month, or whatever, and you just commit to sitting down and getting this done, it really is as simple as that. You’ll get done and you’ll be like, Oh my gosh, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. It’s one of those projects you over, I don’t know, you just you anticipate that it’s going to be way more work than it actually is, and then when it’s done, you’re so relieved.

Prerna Malik  38:33

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I would say, to make it easier, what you want to think is okay. So I in every email, I want to have, like, I call these my 3s elements. So you want to include these 3s elements, or 3s ingredients in these emails to make it easier you’re writing so you know that, okay, I’m just, like, I’ve got so you want a story. You want some specifics around either your offer or your content or your values, or whatever it is that that focus of the email is, and you want to share your smarts so you want stories specific and smarts. Smarts could be, it could be a recipe. It could be a tip that you like, a kitchen tip that you’ve, you know, discovered, for instance, I saw it was an email or a reel I don’t remember, but it was a tip that said, if you find it hard to put parchment paper into baking tins, an easy way to do that is to wet the parchment paper and then it just goes in. I say, I was like, Oh my gosh, that was in high school. I never knew this. So, like, I said, smarts, like that kind of really helps you connect, you know. So story specific smarts makes it really easy for you to go like, okay, yeah, and use this email. This is what I’m writing.

Megan Porta  39:47

Do you recommend having those three elements in every email or every welcome series?

Prerna Malik  39:53

I would say you could safely include it in every email. Like, that’s my goal. I want people to go away reading an email feeling like they’ve. That it’s done something for them. They’ve either learned something, they either feel good, they feel inspired, or they’re ready to, you know, like, take action about something. So I feel like every email, if you could include it in every email, that is great. 

Megan Porta  40:14

Oh Prerna this has been awesome. I am just soaking in every word. I’m feeling inspired to go to my I have a handful of welcome series. I need to go update those. So thank you for the inspiration. Is there anything you feel like food bloggers who are thinking about creating welcome series or need to update theirs, need to know that we haven’t talked about yet. 

Prerna Malik  40:38

You definitely want to keep your subject lines in mind as well. Something that we didn’t talk about today is our is the importance of your subject lines, because that is what you know your audience is going to see first, like they would read the email after they’ve read your subject line. So you want to approach your subject lines from the point of view that they have a job to do. This job of your subject lines is to get people to open the email. So think about your subject lines really carefully. And I found using in curiosity, using a little bit of fun, and making them again true to who you are, like how you would talk, how you would write, you know, literally again, think about the one person you’re writing to when you’re putting the subject lines together. What’s the benefit in it? For them, use your subject lines wisely. And for most, ESPs now have the preview text option because that is like the first line you see. You also want to keep the preview text option in mind and connect that to the subject line, because that gives you more room as well. So subject lines, you want to keep them like maybe a little short because so short because so they don’t get cut off, especially like the if you’ve got, like, the benefit at the end, you don’t want that to get cut off in the in, like, say, especially in on mobiles. So think about the preview text as well. Those are two elements definitely want to keep in mind.

Megan Porta  41:55

Thank you for all of this. This was so great and inspiring. We appreciate all of this value, Prerna, so thank you for being here with us today. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

Prerna Malik  42:08

Well, first off, thank you so much for inviting me. I mean, like talking about email is like one of my favorite things and welcome sequences definitely, like I said, it’s such an easy first step for anyone to get started with. So appreciate you. Megan, I yeah, I had so much, so much fun chatting and favorite quote, something that I will definitely at some point get it put on a t shirt. But that was something that I always, always say, is connections before conversions. So you want to lead with connection, the conversions will definitely happen. So and a welcome sequence is a great place for you to demonstrate that. 

Megan Porta  42:47

Awesome. I love that so much. We will put together a show notes page for your prayer now, if you want to go peek at those, you can head to eatblogtalk.com/contentbistro. Do you want to tell everyone where they can find you? And I don’t know if you have, I don’t know, freebies or something, to get food bloggers some help if they need help with email. Anything you want to mention or have to offer you can mention here.

Prerna Malik  43:10

Well, thank you so much. Well, I would love for you all to reach out and connect with me on Instagram. First, I’m at contentbistro. That’s like, very simple. So if you’re listening, head over to Instagram. Tag me in your stories. Let me know what was your greatest takeaway. I would love to hear from you @contentbistro. And if you’re interested in using emails to sell more of your offers, whether you’ve got a course, a membership, a digital product, I have a great five part email course for you, which is at contentbistro.com/secret-strategies. So that’s contentbistro.com/ secret-strategies.

Megan Porta  43:49

Yes, awesome. I hope people go grab that and then are you? You’re on Instagram, correct, as did you say? Content Bistro.

Prerna Malik  44:00

That’s right. 

Megan Porta  44:01

Okay, awesome. Everyone. Go check Purana out. Go grab that freebie. And I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you again, Prerna for being here, and thank you so much for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Prerna Malik  44:15

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time you.