Episode 659: 7 Common Email Marketing Mistakes from 7-Figure Earners (+How to Fix Them) with Allea Grummert

EBT659 – Allea Grummert

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. 

[00:00:37]  Megan Porta 

I always love knowing what seven figure earners are doing in their businesses so that I can emulate some of those things in my pursuit of being a seven figure earner someday. Allea Grummert from Duett joins me in this interview to talk about what seven figure earners are doing regarding email marketing. She brings seven mistakes to the table and not just the mistakes, but the solutions to those mistakes.

[00:01:06]  Megan Porta 

Regarding email marketing, she talks through how people under welcome new subscribers and how to take care of that in a really seamless way. She also talks about not having a welcome sequence that’s a huge mistake that a lot of people make and failing to personalize your content and other mistakes inside the episode.

[00:01:28]  Megan Porta 

Tune in. I hope you enjoy it. It is episod number 659.

[00:01:33]  Sponsor 

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[00:02:13]  Megan Porta 

Allea Grummert is an email marketing strategist and conversion copywriter and tech expert who helps bloggers make a lasting first impression through automated welcome and nurture sequences. She helps her clients create strategic email sequences that engage email subscribers, build brand loyalty, and optimize conversions for sales and traffic. She is the host of the Happy Subscribers Podcast.

[00:02:39]  Megan Porta 

Ally, welcome back to the podcast. How have you been? How’s it going?

[00:02:43]  Allea Grummert 

It is so good. Thank you for having me on again.

[00:02:47]  Megan Porta 

So excited. You’re like the guru for email marketing so I always love having conversations with you. This is such a relevant topic in our space. As you know, everyone wants to just devour email information, so thank you for being here.

[00:03:03]  Allea Grummert 

Happy to deliver all that information.

[00:03:05]  Megan Porta 

So excited to chat about this. To start, do you have another fun fact to share?

[00:03:11]  Allea Grummert 

Yes. So I grew up in a town of 118 people.

[00:03:15]  Megan Porta 

What?

[00:03:16]  Allea Grummert 

In rural Nebraska.

[00:03:19]  Megan Porta 

Okay, what is it? Where. What is the town? Where is this place?

[00:03:23]  Allea Grummert 

It’s called Jansen. J A N S E N. And then I would drive 10 miles to school and work and the pool and softball and all of that. We’re in Walmart. We’re all 10 miles away. But my little town is technically a village. And one of the things that’s so cute is that we kind of have our own lingo of, like, if I’m going uptown, I’m going to, like, Main Street, Jansen, which, believe it or not, there is a main street, but I’m going in town.

[00:03:48]  Allea Grummert 

I’m going into Fairbury, which is the big, bigger town where everything happens. So that’s. That’s been funny, like, introducing like, an ex boyfriend to this. I was like, oh, no, we need to get this lingo correct. When you say in town, it means this, and up means this.

[00:04:01]  Megan Porta 

And that is so funny.

[00:04:02]  Allea Grummert 

I think I’m tracking, so. And my parents have lived in the same house my whole life. It’s an old farmhouse that they moved in from the country next door to my grandparents. And so it’s pretty. Pretty idyllic for a kid.

[00:04:15]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s so cute. I love it. I grew up in rural Iowa, so I can kind. I mean, we’re not that small, but I can relate to the small and kind of that lingo that when people come visit, they’re like, wait, what did you just say? And, oh, here’s one thing that we would do that people got a kick out of.

[00:04:33]  Megan Porta 

So when you’re driving down, you know, the cobblestone street in Manning, Iowa, and you see somebody come, like, you pass a car, you do a. Like, your hands are on the steering wheel and you do a. Like, finger. Yeah, a finger wave. Like one or two. It doesn’t matter. And I had so many friends who were like, what are you doing?

[00:04:54]  Megan Porta 

Just a finger. Like, what. What is that? It’s a wave.

[00:04:59]  Allea Grummert 

It’s a wave. We do that in Nebraska, too.

[00:05:01]  Megan Porta 

Do you?

[00:05:02]  Allea Grummert 

100%. Yeah. I love it. Well, and then the bigger town was only like 4,000, so it’s still a pretty, like, small community. But I.

[00:05:10]  Megan Porta 

The big town, 4,000 people into town.

[00:05:15]  Allea Grummert 

That’s where the store was. You know, did you ever have it where you say, like, do you need anything from the store? Yeah, in my mind, I don’t know why. I’ve never needed clarification. But then I have friends from the city. They’re like, what type of store?

[00:05:26]  Megan Porta 

Like the store. Come on.

[00:05:28]  Allea Grummert 

The store. The store. Where the things are.

[00:05:32]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. We had one store as well, so the store was very clear. Yep. Oh, I love it. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, one more question about that. Is it eastern or western Nebraska?

[00:05:43]  Allea Grummert 

Eastern. Southeast Nebraska.

[00:05:45]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:05:45]  Allea Grummert 

So pretty close to Kansas, actually. I grew up seven miles from where the Oregon trail passed through. I know. And then like probably 10 miles from the Kansas border. And then my mom is from Kansas, so northeast Kansas I’m a little familiar with as well and kind of claim it as part of my.

[00:06:00]  Allea Grummert 

My upbringing as well.

[00:06:02]  Megan Porta 

Oh, Allie. Okay. We’re both rural minister. No, we’re rural Midwestern girls.

[00:06:10]  Allea Grummert 

Yes. Yes. I love that we found that. I found out we had that.

[00:06:12]  Megan Porta 

I know. I’ll do the finger wave to you next time I see you in person. Okay. You are here to talk about not rural Nebraska, but email marketing. You are a strategist and you do all kinds of awesome things for people in the email world. And you are bringing to the table seven common email marketing mistakes from seven figure earners.

[00:06:35]  Megan Porta 

Is that right?

[00:06:36]  Allea Grummert 

Yes. And the solutions to fix them and.

[00:06:39]  Megan Porta 

How to fix it. We’re not just going to talk about the problems. We’ll tell you how to fix them too. But first, tell us a little bit about Duett. If people don’t know about it yet.

[00:06:47]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah. So I run Duett. I started it by myself in 2018 and now I have a small team, but I consider myself a strategist, a copywriter, and a tech expert. And then I have a team that supports me to do done for you services for my clients. So we specifically write and set up welcome and nurture sequences for our clients.

[00:07:07]  Allea Grummert 

So the way I explain that is, as people are coming into your ecosystem or they’re joining your email list, how are we best introducing them to the content that you have, who you are as a creator, what sets you apart from just like another recipe that they found on Pinterest or on Google?

[00:07:24]  Allea Grummert 

And so how do we keep them coming back for more? And that starts with them having a really good understanding of who you are, how you’re going to help them, and what some of your best content is that they are just going to absolutely love coming right in the door.

[00:07:35]  Megan Porta 

Awesome. And you just Started a podcast as well that aligns with all of this, correct?

[00:07:40]  Allea Grummert 

I do have a podcast. I’m so happy. It’s called Happy Subscribers. So we talk about email marketing strategy for, like, bloggers, small businesses, like really anything online. And my hope is that we’re able to learn from different industries. But even if you just learn, one quick takeaway of whether it’s building your confidence with sending emails or a simple strategy to make things simpler every time you send an email or building up a team and having them support you, like, there’s so many different ways that we can make email more efficient and more fun and more effective.

[00:08:13]  Allea Grummert 

And so I just get to have interview, quote, unquote interview. Just conversations with friends and peers of mine, as well as a few solo casts where I just kind of brain dump little lessons of email marketing.

[00:08:25]  Megan Porta 

That’s great. So Happy Subscribers is available on all podcast players, anywhere you can find podcasts.

[00:08:32]  Allea Grummert 

Yes, yes, it is.

[00:08:33]  Megan Porta 

Good. Go check it out. I know so many of my listeners would absolutely devour that. So thank you for starting it. We appreciate you. So let’s dig into the seven email marketing mistakes. Do you just want to start with mistake number one? What is that one?

[00:08:49]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah. The first mistake is under welcoming your new subscribers. This is something that people just kind of skip over. You’ll set up a form, they join your list, you’re sending out newsletters, and you’re like, oh, yeah, I missed nothing. But there’s this little opportunity in there between when somebody actually says, yes, subscribe me and them getting your first email.

[00:09:10]  Allea Grummert 

And that is where I love to recommend having a welcome page. So the form, once submitted, redirects to this page. That introduces them to you in a really clear way of like, this is who I am. This is what I create here. This is why I’m glad you’re here. And then kind of sends them onto their next step, whether it’s going back to the blog or giving them a couple different categories to go browse on the blog or if you have a product, telling them about it there.

[00:09:36]  Allea Grummert 

Mine has a little video. I love video. I worked in video production for five or six years between college and starting duet. And so I just know it’s such a quick way to build that know like and trust factor because you actually get to, like, see the person, hear their voice. And I will say the video has done wonders for having a semi difficult, hard to pronounce name.

[00:09:58]  Allea Grummert 

So it’s Alli, but it’s spelled A L L E A. But by having the video, I Joke that I’m like, it’s really just there to tell everyone how to say, yeah, hey, welcome to my place. But it’s fun. I’ve run into people at conferences who have stopped me in the hallway saying, hey, Ali.

[00:10:12]  Allea Grummert 

And I was like, how do we know each other? Because usually everyone would say it wrong. She’s like, well, I’m on your email list. And I was like, oh my gosh, it works. But that’s just one part of it. But within like 60 to 90 seconds, just telling someone like, this is the kind of content create.

[00:10:26]  Allea Grummert 

This is what I hope you’ll be able to walk away with from being on my blog. Whether it’s I’m here to make dinners easier or I’m here to help you learn how to adjust to eating gluten free, whatever. It is like just saying the thing because we get so used to doing what we’re doing and you just assume that when people join you that they know that they don’t necessarily do.

[00:10:47]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So your welcome page is a unique page on your website, correct?

[00:10:52]  Allea Grummert 

Correct.

[00:10:53]  Megan Porta 

Okay, so you are sending them from the email to this page on your site. Just kind of, hey, this is who I am. Here’s a little video, here’s what you can find. And it’s. Yeah, like what else do you include or what do you recommend food bloggers include specifically?

[00:11:10]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, you could direct them back to your social platforms like also follow me on Instagram or also follow me on TikTok. That’s one way to do it. I would say just keeping them on your website to keep people clicking around would be really, really helpful. And if you have like a membership or a meal plan or something of that sort, at least giving them exposure to that below, below those links.

[00:11:31]  Allea Grummert 

And to clarify. So correct, it is a page on your site, but what you’re going to do is on the back end of the form in whatever platform you’re using. It’s actually where you want to enter. It’s a post, URL, redirect, post submit, redirect, something like that. So once they actually complete the form, it gets redirected.

[00:11:50]  Allea Grummert 

So that’s they’re getting redirected while they’re getting their first email from you being sent. Does that make sense?

[00:11:55]  Megan Porta 

Gotcha. Yep.

[00:11:56]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, so it’s just like bam, bam, welcome here. I will say if you feel like it’s kind of an odd thing, like a pop up to go, you know, pops up, they sign up and then redirects them, they kind of lose their spot. Like you don’t have to put it on the back of every form either.

[00:12:11]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:12:12]  Allea Grummert 

And then if you feel like it’s a really good introduction, you can also include a link to it in your welcome emails saying, hey, if you haven’t seen yet, here’s my welcome video. So you can repurpose it that way.

[00:12:21]  Megan Porta 

How long is your video?

[00:12:22]  Allea Grummert 

I think mine is 90 seconds, tops. Okay.

[00:12:25]  Megan Porta 

So very short.

[00:12:26]  Allea Grummert 

Yep. And I recorded mine on loom, which is easy.

[00:12:32]  Megan Porta 

And free up to a few minutes, right?

[00:12:34]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah. And free. And so that’s what I have in mind. And it’s fun. Like, I’ve had clients want to recreate it. It’s really just me being a little bit awkward. I’m like, this is me and I’m a real person in my own house. And it’s funny because people have said, like, that really resonated.

[00:12:49]  Allea Grummert 

I was like, yep, that’s just me being awkward. Glad that that stood out to you. Yeah. So. And, like, just short and sweet. This is who I am. This is what I provide. Here. Here’s what I hope you get out of following along with my content. And I’m just so glad you’re here.

[00:13:02]  Allea Grummert 

Like, it doesn’t have to be overly thought of. It doesn’t have to be highly produced. You don’t have. You don’t have to use B roll if you don’t want to. It’s just a face and a name for those new people.

[00:13:13]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Your name actually came up yesterday in my mastermind call because of this video. I’m not kidding.

[00:13:20]  Allea Grummert 

What?

[00:13:21]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So we were talking about email marketing, and I can’t remember who said it. Somebody was like, have you seen Allea’s video? It’s amazing. And they were saying exactly what you were. Everything you’ve said about it. Just like, it’s very short and sweet. It’s just a really nice personal touch. So. Yeah, I mean, this is random.

[00:13:43]  Megan Porta 

I am not making this up. You came up yesterday in our call, so love that.

[00:13:48]  Allea Grummert 

Well, and that’s where, like, you know, nobody thinks of this part of the process. We think of, like, the first email they get or whatever. But that’s really fun that somebody noticed it, because I think it’s an opportunity for sure.

[00:14:00]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Yes. So people should be welcoming people. New subscribers don’t automatically just know you because they’re smart and know everything about you. Right. Like, you have to fill them in on the details.

[00:14:14]  Allea Grummert 

Yes.

[00:14:15]  Megan Porta 

So do this and then anything else about that before we move on to mistake number two?

[00:14:20]  Allea Grummert 

No, I think that’s. I think that’s it.

[00:14:22]  Megan Porta 

All right, what is number two?

[00:14:24]  Allea Grummert 

Mistake. Mistake number two is sending a boilerplate incentive email or confirmation email. So if you think about it, this is technically the first email they get from you. So this is where you’re like, you get to kind of restate what you put in the video or what will be in your welcome sequence.

[00:14:42]  Allea Grummert 

Here’s the thing. When you’re get, when you get really clear about who you are, who you’re helping, what you want them to experience, you just want to put that everywhere. Especially with a new subscriber, it’s okay to be a little bit of a broken record. Like, I’m here to make dinner times easier so you can spend more time with your family.

[00:14:58]  Allea Grummert 

I want to see that in your welcome video. I want to see that in your incentive email. I want to see that in your, your welcome emails as well. So because what we’re doing is we’re building that familiarity, they still don’t know who you are. And so what I’ve often seen as a mistake is creators just using like the boilerplate confirmation email or incentive email from convertkit Sorry Kit.

[00:15:20]  Allea Grummert 

But it’s really basic. It’s like, click here to confirm your subscription, right? And I have a presentation where I show this, where I just like cover up the logo. And you’re like, it could literally be any creator. And so this is an opportunity for you to really set yourself apart a little bit more.

[00:15:35]  Allea Grummert 

And it’s going to be very concise. So just kind of use that pitch, if you will, and just say, I’m so glad you’re here. Click here to get your freebie. And then I always like to say, here’s what you can expect while you’re here. And it’s like three bullet points. But the best part is if you have automated emails going out, whether it’s the welcome or Nurture or quickstart guide or whatever, you can promise them that something’s coming because it’s already coming.

[00:16:00]  Allea Grummert 

You don’t have to say, you’re going to hear from me six times a week and da, da, da, da, and you’re going to get new recipes on Tuesdays. You just say, I’m going to be sending over foolproof recipes. Now that you’re new to the blog, I’m going to send over some of my favorite kitchen tools and hacks and tips.

[00:16:15]  Allea Grummert 

I’m also going to share with you more about my story and why I even created the blog or whatever. And so it gives them kind of an open loop. It’s what we use in copywriting kind of gets their brain like, oh, something’s coming. And then they’re more likely to kind of pay attention because they want to close that loop.

[00:16:30]  Allea Grummert 

Like, I want the thing that she’s just promised me.

[00:16:32]  Megan Porta 

That’s awesome. It’s like this big. I mean, it feels like this big complicated system, but it’s not. It just is really simple.

[00:16:40]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah. Yes, it is.

[00:16:42]  Megan Porta 

You just have to do the work. You have to like create the page and you know, like put in a little bit of extra love and time into all of this. But once you have it set, this is what I love about email. Once you have kind of those big things set in motion, you don’t have to do a whole lot of work to upkeep them.

[00:17:01]  Megan Porta 

You just like little tweaks over time. But you know, like upfront time is all you really need to invest.

[00:17:08]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, yeah, well. And so I had originally given this presentation over these seven common marketing mistakes, email marketing mistakes, to a room of six seven figure bloggers. Some of them had multiple seven figure businesses. @ the end they’re all like, how have I not thought of this? How have I not done this?

[00:17:25]  Allea Grummert 

So I don’t want to shame anyone for not having done it because the reality is what you’re doing is working to an extent. So this is me who has a hyper focused look at that new subscriber journey and wanting to give you. These are places you can inject more clarity, more personality, more friendliness and warmth.

[00:17:46]  Allea Grummert 

Right. So like you might already have your forms and then you create one welcome page and you just redirect a bunch of them there and you’re already taking it just a notch up than what you had before. So it’s also like there’s, you know, blogging is sequential. You know, once you learn something, you’re like, okay, now I apply it to this and then I learn something more and I apply it even more.

[00:18:04]  Allea Grummert 

And so without feeling like, oh, I have to do this perfectly every time, or like, yeah, just don’t, definitely don’t beat yourself up that you don’t have this. I’m presenting them more as opportunities.

[00:18:15]  Megan Porta 

Right. No email shaming. And I know you’re not here to email shame, but it is so easy to let something like this slip through the cracks because bloggers have a lot of freaking stuff going on. So grace for yourself if you are falling into that category. Right. But you know, put it on your calendar and take some action and things will improve in your email world.

[00:18:37]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:18:38]  Allea Grummert 

Especially in the season where like Email always crops up of like, oh, crud, we need to do more with email. Like, if you’re going to be putting your time and energy into it, then that’s where these details really, like, shine or going to like, cumulatively impact your open rates, your click rates, especially with this next mistake, which is not having a welcome sequence.

[00:19:00]  Allea Grummert 

Oh, this is.

[00:19:00]  Megan Porta 

Okay, so talk about that.

[00:19:01]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, this is what I consider like your housewarming gift for your new subscribers. If you think about, like going to an Airbnb, you know how they have like, some of them will have like a folder of, here’s what you can find in the area. Here’s within walking distance. Here are my favorite local restaurants or whatnot.

[00:19:18]  Allea Grummert 

Like, that’s what we get to do for all of your new subscribers. And I work with, I mean, I’ve been working with food bloggers since 2019. And what I hear over and over and over again, like, yes, email is this way they can make money, but they’re also feeling like it’s this way that they can provide valuable resources to their subscribers, but they have not taken advantage of it.

[00:19:41]  Allea Grummert 

You know, you have these resources, you know, you have this, like, wonderful content. You just haven’t figured out a way to actually deliver it in a way that makes sense. And so that’s where I get to work with my clients. Like, come on in, tell me about what content you have. And as somebody who’s not intimately involved in your business, every day, here’s how I would piece this out.

[00:19:59]  Allea Grummert 

And oftentimes as a creator, you’re like, working with anybody on the outside of your business, you’re like, oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. How did I not think of that? You know, I know. Yeah. So this welcome sequence can be anything from like, it could be one email, honestly, if you’re just getting started, but it could be three to five.

[00:20:17]  Allea Grummert 

I had six in mind for a long time and it’s just a little bit more of a concentrated experience for new subscribers. And I like to call it like your welcome or like you’re kind of like a brand hub. So, like, no matter where anybody comes from, if it’s the creator network, you know, they haven’t been even been on your site to somebody who sees a pop up or somebody who listens to you on a podcast or whatnot, sees you on Instagram or TikTok, it’s that we want to make sure everybody has this really solid introduction to who you are and the kind of experience you want them to have.

[00:20:48]  Allea Grummert 

I always ask my Clients, like, what’s one thing you want everybody on your email list to get? And it could be a blog post, it could be a video training, it could be, like, a handful of kitchen hacks that, like, once you know this, it’s going to make everything so much easier. It could be a checklist of Dominican ingredients.

[00:21:05]  Allea Grummert 

You know, like, if you’re new here, here’s what you need to be able to make most of these recipes so we get to think creatively about that. And so, yeah, consider yourself like an Airbnb host of, like, if somebody’s coming into my space, where do I direct them?

[00:21:18]  Megan Porta 

Right. And I think sometimes you just need to be asked that from another perspective. I feel like when we ask ourselves a question like that, it’s like, I don’t know, what do I want everyone to know? Or where do I want to direct everyone? But having you ask me that, I was like, oh, I kind of know exactly what I would say.

[00:21:38]  Megan Porta 

So isn’t that funny that an outside perspective is all it takes sometimes to just.

[00:21:43]  Allea Grummert 

Yes.

[00:21:44]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. To gain clarity.

[00:21:46]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah. Because you’ve been building things for so long, and so when you actually have to look at, like, okay, over this. Okay, I do have a lot of resources to choose from. Which one even makes the most sense for all new subscribers? Like, for me, I have, like, a content calendar that I created in 2020, and I am.

[00:22:01]  Allea Grummert 

I’m. I’m giving it away for free all the time. I’m just like, go do it. Go get this. Like, that’s the one that I wish everyone had. Because the struggle of knowing what emails to send and when is, like, a huge hurdle for so many people. So if you’re listening to this and you’re like, ah, I’m like, just know you are not alone.

[00:22:17]  Allea Grummert 

Like, and that’s what I want people to know when they join my list. Like, you are not alone. It does require kind of some habits. Here are some ways that you can make it easier, and here’s a resource for that. So kind of the reason why I recommend a welcome sequence in general, too, because you’re like, well, can’t I just send them to my newsletter?

[00:22:36]  Allea Grummert 

You can. And if you’re consistently sending out newsletters, that’s a great idea. I will support it, I suppose. But I would still say you could have one welcome email that’s just like, short and sweet and to the point. But especially if you’re not sending out newsletters very often, they might forget who you are in two weeks.

[00:22:52]  Allea Grummert 

When you do send out a newsletter or another thing I’ve seen with welcome sequences is people thinking they need a separate one for every opt in or type of resource that people come in through.

[00:23:02]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:23:03]  Allea Grummert 

And I just think that that’s making it far too complicated for you especially. And then especially when you involve like the technical side of email, you’re like, what if we just sent everybody the same thing? It’s like, okay, yeah, email’s hard enough as it is. We don’t necessarily need separate ones or worrying about if they’re in both like, and that’s where it comes back to the welcome sequence kind of being like a brand hub.

[00:23:23]  Allea Grummert 

So if people are coming in from instant pot or they’re coming in from air fryer or they’re coming in from like dairy free or whatever, the hub is where you tell them, oh yeah, I also have this or I also have this. Like click here if you’re interested in this. So it’s kind of cross selling, if you will, to other types of content, but also other platforms.

[00:23:41]  Allea Grummert 

Once they’re in your email list, send them on back to Instagram or wherever it is that you’re most active and make the most of your community there as well. We want them to be on both.

[00:23:51]  Sponsor 

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[00:24:09]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, simple is best. So that is a huge relief to hear you say that. We don’t need to create a separate sequence for absolutely every opt in. Now I do have a question about your welcome page that you were talking about. How do you incorporate that into the welcome sequence? So you mentioned linking to it from your welcome sequence or how.

[00:24:31]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, how do you introduce that?

[00:24:33]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, so I don’t link back to my welcome page. I just use it for most of my opt ins, but I actually think I use it for all of them. Okay, but if you were like, there’s a chance that people join my list and they haven’t seen this, you could just include it in your welcome, like so glad you’re here.

[00:24:48]  Allea Grummert 

And then if you haven’t yet, here’s a little 90 second welcome with my real face. Like, you know, like tell them, like get them to click on it to be able to like see you, hear you. You can include a little gif if you will of the video to get them to click through and just say like, hey, if you haven’t received your welcome from Me yet.

[00:25:06]  Allea Grummert 

It’s right here, you know, and so it just kind of doubles down on that personability. But using a video on a page you’ve already created.

[00:25:12]  Megan Porta 

Okay. Makes it much more clear. Thank you. So if you don’t have a welcome sequence, get one up. Even if it is just one email.

[00:25:19]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, absolutely. Yep. It’s gonna. One of the other things I want to mention with this, and this was really kind of. Kind of felt gutsy to say this in front of this room when I first gave this presentation to all of these really successful, like, seven figure entrepreneurs, which, by the way, I am not.

[00:25:33]  Allea Grummert 

So I’m like, why am I here?

[00:25:36]  Megan Porta 

Because you’re awesome.

[00:25:37]  Allea Grummert 

Because of. Well, thank you. But one of the things that I told them, and I was like, this feels gutsy. Is telling them, like, I didn’t know who 90% of you were before I walked into this room today. As big as you are online, a person who finds you today or tomorrow may have never heard of you.

[00:25:54]  Allea Grummert 

And so you kind of need to leave your ego at the door when you think about your new subscriber journey. Basically, we don’t want to assume that anyone knows who you are. So pretend you’re introducing yourself to someone who’s brand new. What would you tell them? And even if you’ve had a welcome sequence before, sometimes that changes with your brand.

[00:26:15]  Allea Grummert 

So just, like, think through it, like, with a clear lens of, like, has my brand shifted? Am I less this and more this? You know, less veggie packed and more meal plans or whatever. Like, and so just making sure that this first introduction feels really accurate for who you are as a brand now.

[00:26:32]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s such a good point. That even if you are a huge blogger and you assume that everyone knows you’re a vegan blogger, vegan, dessert blogger, whatever. That is not true. There are so many people in the world who have not found you yet and who have no idea who you are. So over explain and don’t ever assume.

[00:26:53]  Megan Porta 

I love that. Such a good reminder. All right, are we ready to move on to mistake number four?

[00:26:58]  Allea Grummert 

Yes. So this is where things get a little bit more technical. What was it on the podcast? It came out technical. Technical like Olivia and John. And I was like, oh, you need to make that a segment.

[00:27:08]  Megan Porta 

Love it.

[00:27:09]  Allea Grummert 

But the mistake number four is failing to personalize your content. So I’m not in the camp that, like, everything needs to be hyper segmented because especially in the food blogging space. Oh, my goodness. It could get so hyper segmented that you can’t even keep track of it, like, oh, I’m not going to send, you know, egg free recipes to these people, but I’m going to send like, it just gets really, really complicated.

[00:27:34]  Allea Grummert 

So at some point everybody’s going to get a little bit of something that doesn’t necessarily directly apply to them if you have that kind of site. But what we can do is allow people to choose what they want to get from you. So if we don’t go quite as granular, I think about my client Jason, who when we first started working with him, he really just had air fryer and instant pot recipes.

[00:27:56]  Allea Grummert 

Now he has expanded into stovetop and oven. But at the time it was like, if you don’t have either of these appliances, you can’t make any of these recipes. Right. And so what we did is we just allowed people to say, I don’t have an air fryer. And we’re like, that’s fine. And we just skipped sending them air fryer recipes.

[00:28:12]  Allea Grummert 

Both in the nurture sequence that’s automated. We just filter them out as well as new emails going out. We could just skip. Anybody who doesn’t have an air fryer just doesn’t get this air fryer recipe. Because at that point it just didn’t make sense if you don’t have the appliance. So that was a pretty cool.

[00:28:26]  Allea Grummert 

We use kit for that. So that each individual email you can filter out, you can say exclude anyone who has this tag from getting that one email and they just skip over and go to the next one. So that’s one example of personalizing your content. Thoughts? Question?

[00:28:40]  Megan Porta 

No, I mean, I think that makes sense, especially with the appliances. I guess like you said earlier, it is so it can be so complicated because there can be like methods of cooking or ingredients or seasonal. You know, there’s so many different. So how do you even decide how to narrow it down?

[00:29:02]  Megan Porta 

You know, like you could go so granular and narrow it down to a million things.

[00:29:07]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, well, and I first want to acknowledge the reason why we want to do that. And so. And it comes from such a good place, right? Like we want to give people this really wonderful experience of being on our list and not bother them with the things that don’t apply to them. So it comes from this really great place.

[00:29:23]  Allea Grummert 

It’s the execution that makes it tricky. So it’s one thing to exclude people from your different nurture emails, but will you remember to exclude them from your broadcast emails or newsletters if a recipe is entirely something that they wouldn’t want yeah. So I just, I just kind of encourage my clients to take it up a little bit more to a macro level.

[00:29:44]  Allea Grummert 

Like vegetarian, non vegetarian, like that. That’s a lot easier to think about every time you send out a newsletter or you repurpose it into a evergreen nurture email as well. So that’s, that’s one way. Otherwise, part of it is just knowing like, if people are going to be on this list and they have a lot of dietary needs, like they’re going to see some things that aren’t going to apply to them.

[00:30:07]  Allea Grummert 

But what we can do is make it really easy for them to scroll and skim the email and know if it’s helpful for them. So something that we’ve done with some of our copywriting clients is under the name of the recipe having like a smaller header that just says like vegan 30 minute stovetop.

[00:30:24]  Allea Grummert 

Like just make it really easy to know. This recipe is these types of things.

[00:30:29]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:30:29]  Allea Grummert 

Does that make sense as I talk with my hands on a podcast?

[00:30:32]  Megan Porta 

No. I am such a hand talker. I like knock over my microphone all the time. Yeah, it does. I just think of sites like mine that are just everything. I’m not a super hyper focused niche, so I don’t know, it just feels overwhelming to me to do this as someone who creates basically everything.

[00:30:54]  Allea Grummert 

Well, and honestly, in that case, Megan, I would say everybody just gets everything. Like that’s also okay. You know, it’s different if it’s like something where it’s like it’s a dietary need. Feels a lot different. But. And at the time when I worked with Jason, he had all these different, these two different appliances.

[00:31:13]  Allea Grummert 

Whereas like now that we’ve built it out with more generalized, like anybody can make a stovetop, anybody can make an oven recipe. Everybody gets those emails. We’re not nixing those. So at some base level, if someone’s on your list, they’re going to get a variety of content from you and you get to be like what I call the managing editor.

[00:31:31]  Allea Grummert 

You get to decide everybody gets this and that’s a decision that you’ve made. And it’s okay to have like a kind of smorgasbord of emails. I think that’s where understanding your brand promise to them that like, here’s what you’re gonna get from me, that that feels consistent throughout.

[00:31:46]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, right.

[00:31:47]  Allea Grummert 

So just keeping that on brand. The other thing that with, you know, personalizing your content is also allowing them to opt out of the frequency of emails. So say you have automated emails that go out Mondays and Wednesdays and you have new emails go out Friday, Sundays, and they’re like, no, I just want the new content.

[00:32:05]  Allea Grummert 

Great. You can just remove them from those automated workflows and they just get your new content. The tricky part is you can’t let them opt out of both because then why the heck are they on your list?

[00:32:14]  Megan Porta 

Right?

[00:32:15]  Allea Grummert 

So that’s where like, we still get to say, like, by default you’re just going to get all my new content then.

[00:32:19]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Well, I feel like this is kind of why. I mean, I want to say I’ve been lazy, but I think it’s more just that what you just said. It’s just easier to include everybody and everything for my, for my personal situation. I know that everyone is different and. But yeah, I definitely don’t personalize my content.

[00:32:41]  Megan Porta 

Allie, I’m, I’m so sorry to disappoint you on this mistake.

[00:32:46]  Allea Grummert 

That’s okay. Oh, and see? No email shame.

[00:32:49]  Megan Porta 

I know we’re not gonna do that. I just felt. Yeah, I felt bad and I shouldn’t.

[00:32:53]  Allea Grummert 

No. And well, that’s part of it, Megan, is just like having this conversation and then once you’re like, this is okay, then you just don’t worry about it. You’ve made the decision. You don’t have to wonder, like, am I serving my people well? Because you’ve thought through the pros and cons and like, when you’re a small team, like, guys, we are not target, we are not Eddie Bauer.

[00:33:11]  Allea Grummert 

Like, we are not sending four emails a day based on people’s league activity. Like to the nth degree. Like, we’re not using those kinds of platforms. That’s not how we’re built. And so that’s where like, at some point you just have to say, is it worth this level of granular investment?

[00:33:27]  Megan Porta 

Right.

[00:33:28]  Allea Grummert 

And so thank you.

[00:33:29]  Megan Porta 

I feel better. Thank you.

[00:33:30]  Allea Grummert 

You’re welcome.

[00:33:31]  Megan Porta 

And I feel like there was something else you were going to say about personalizing content.

[00:33:34]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, something else. On the technical side, what’s super cool is so like, I have my client, Christine. We created a seven day meal planning secrets opt in. Right. And so in emails where we were mentioning meal planning at all, we would pitch them to that opt in. So they’re already on her list.

[00:33:53]  Allea Grummert 

But it’s like, hey, if you haven’t seen this really wonderful resource, sign up over here for seven straight days of this. But what’s cool is that in Kit and in Mailerlite, for sure you can exclude people who’ve already gone through that quick start guide. Or whatnot. You could exclude them from even seeing that messaging.

[00:34:10]  Allea Grummert 

Oh, so same applies for a product. If they’ve bought something from you and you have a purchase tag, you can have the pitch in the email. But because they have that tag in their profile, when they receive that email, they will not see the pitch at all.

[00:34:25]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s so cool.

[00:34:27]  Allea Grummert 

It’s like my favorite thing. I joke, it’s like about National Treasure. You know how he has the fun glasses that he’s like, I see it, I don’t see it. I see more. You’re like, what? And so that’s one of my favorite things about personalizing your content as well. So yeah, or even just like, hey, I saw you came over from the bread baking quick start guide.

[00:34:45]  Allea Grummert 

You know, when they’re entering into the welcome sequence, like, there’s so much you can do. But then like the only people who see that are the people that have the tag for the bread baking guide. So that’s where it gets really juicy. And it’s awesome for like your automated emails because like you said earlier, you set it up one time and then it just continues to be this really fruitful experience for your new subscribers.

[00:35:05]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s cool. That’s really cool that you can do that. I didn’t know about that. But get in there, dig in there and find all these gems. I feel like these are just such good gems once you start getting into, you know, like really working this stuff. So anything else about personalizing content?

[00:35:23]  Allea Grummert 

I mean, just as if you’re going to go look that up within like kit. It’s called liquid tagging. I call it conditional content. They’re the same thing. And then in Mailerlite, I don’t know what it’s called necessarily, but if you hover over your section, there’s a little eyeball and when you click on it, you can say, show to everyone who has this tag or exclude from anybody who is not part of this group.

[00:35:44]  Allea Grummert 

Sorry, not tags.

[00:35:45]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:35:46]  Allea Grummert 

Groups in Mailerlite. So that would be like, if you’re like, okay, Allea, I want to go check it out. Those are the places to go.

[00:35:51]  Megan Porta 

Awesome. All right, Ally, what is mistake number five?

[00:35:54]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, mistake number five is not sending traffic to the top of your funnel from within your list. So oftentimes we launch something like maybe it’s like a free three day meal plan that leads to a paid plan. Right. And you launch it to your list or you make it available on your website, but you’re not really repeating it at all or talking about it.

[00:36:14]  Allea Grummert 

Anymore in your nurture content, your evergreen sequence that goes out once a week or even in your newsletters. So this is my encouragement to you of like, oh, be promoting that three day free meal plan. Put that in your nurture sequences, put that in your newsletter because it leads to the top of your funnel over and over again.

[00:36:33]  Allea Grummert 

And just because someone wasn’t ready for it when they first opted in doesn’t mean that like three months later they wouldn’t be like, oh, yeah, I’ve been meaning to try that.

[00:36:41]  Megan Porta 

So how often do you mention it? I mean, is it something that you can do weekly? And do you feel like that’s intrusive?

[00:36:49]  Allea Grummert 

Oh no, it’s a free thing. Intrusive. Spoosh, spoosh.

[00:36:52]  Megan Porta 

If it’s a free offering, like, I.

[00:36:57]  Allea Grummert 

Tried to make that rhyme and I couldn’t. But like, it’s free, you know, and so you can just tell people about it. Like, and I would maybe swap it out with some other freebies. Like, hey, just wanna make sure you know about this guide or whatever. Especially if you have that conditional content for the people who’ve already done it, they just won’t see it.

[00:37:12]  Allea Grummert 

And it’s just reducing noise for them. But I’ve also seen strategies, especially the service provider world. And this is why I love talking about this on happy subscribers, because I hope that we can learn from other industries. But at the end of an email, basically after you sign off, a lot of service providers will say like, okay, and here are three ways I can help you.

[00:37:30]  Allea Grummert 

One, two and three. And so it’s like a free, a smaller paid offer and maybe a bigger, like book a discovery call with me. So that could be a place where you’re like, if you haven’t yet, try the free meal plan. If you have tried it and you love it, get the next meal plan here.

[00:37:43]  Allea Grummert 

And then the third one can be, and I have a cookbook or whatever, it doesn’t have to be three, but yeah, in that case it’s just showing up in every email so they see it.

[00:37:51]  Megan Porta 

Okay. And then you can put that on social media as well.

[00:37:54]  Allea Grummert 

Oh yeah, right. Yes. Oh, can we have a little sidebar for social media? Absolutely. Here’s what I’ve heard from so many of my clients and folks on my free roundtable events. Like, they’re like, well, my, my lead magnets don’t work. My lead magnets don’t work. And then I’m like, well, where are you sharing them?

[00:38:12]  Allea Grummert 

And I go, sharing them. I’m not sharing them. I was like, okay, so this is. Herein lies the problem. We need to get them in front of people. So my recommendation has been share your free resources with your social media audience. Just weave them in the same way you would pieces of content.

[00:38:30]  Allea Grummert 

Just don’t forget about them. Because Instagram is not a really reliable place to reach out to your audience. If you’re selling something, we want them on your email list. And so just weave this in there. You don’t have to have a whole like, how do I grow my list strategy beyond that? If you’re not doing it yet, just turn it up a little bit and start sharing about your freebies on your posts.

[00:38:51]  Allea Grummert 

You can use manychat or Grocer’s list or whatever tools to be able to get them onto your list as well. So giving them reasons to join.

[00:38:59]  Megan Porta 

Yes.

[00:38:59]  Megan Porta 

Yes. Love it. Love the sidebar. Thank you for that.

[00:39:02]  Allea Grummert 

Thank you. I needed to get that off my chest.

[00:39:04]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So getting people to the top of the funnel is very important. And then that’s probably something that people don’t think about either. Like, oh, yeah, I do need them to go at the top and go all the way back down. Right?

[00:39:19]  Allea Grummert 

Well, yeah. And I hear, you know, I have, I do audience research for my duet debut clients. And it’s so interesting how many responses sometimes are like, oh, I didn’t know so and so had a cookbook. And so many people on their list didn’t even know they had a cookbook. Right.

[00:39:34]  Megan Porta 

Wow.

[00:39:35]  Allea Grummert 

And you’re like, my client looks at me, she goes, so we should probably tell them about the cookbook. We should probably do that. Right? Like, we should put that in the welcome sequence, you know, so even if they’re not buying it, they know that it’s there and then they’re going to hear about it here and there and everywhere.

[00:39:50]  Allea Grummert 

And that I think because we’re so afraid of selling, we don’t talk about things. And so it’s like, it’s just talking about it and making sure that they know that it exists. So similarly, yeah, getting Google with that. Something else. And I heard this back when I was in the personal finance space.

[00:40:06]  Allea Grummert 

I heard it in the food blogging space. A lot of times we think, oh, I wrote that blog post two years ago, or I wrote that cookbook five years ago. And they say it as though it doesn’t maintain value for many years. So that’s another thing that, like, if you’re like, oh, it’s like, oh, no, get that in front of people.

[00:40:21]  Allea Grummert 

Like, I don’t care if it was published in 2019. It’s still a cookbook and it’s super resourceful and the right person will still find it really helpful.

[00:40:28]  Megan Porta 

That’s the good thing about blogging and writing cookbooks is that they really don’t get outdated. I mean, everything you do can be reconsumed at any time. I feel like. Unless it’s something, I don’t know, like, here’s what you need to eat during the pandemic or something like that. Something very specific. Yeah. But most cookbooks and blog posts can be reused.

[00:40:51]  Megan Porta 

We need reminders of that, so thank you. Another good reason you’re here to remind us, Allie, what is mistake number six?

[00:41:00]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, mistake number six is keeping cold subscribers on your list. So chances are what you’re doing right now is you’re either just removing cold subscribers outright, just like if they’re cold, they’re gone, delete them, or you leave them on your list for way too long. And I know that if you’re using flodesk and you don’t pay more with more subscribers, you’re kind of like, whatever, I’ll just keep them on there.

[00:41:20]  Allea Grummert 

I know that some folks have received terrible instruction from other email marketers. None that I know. All the email marketing people I know are awesome. But they’re like, well, yeah, at least if I’m emailing these cold subscribers, at least there’s name recognition. I’m showing up in their inbox and I’m like, sir, if they have not opened your email in two years, we have a bigger problem like that name recognition is going to do nothing.

[00:41:43]  Allea Grummert 

But what happens is that actually impacts your, of course, your data. So if you have cold subscribers, you know, 22% of your list are cold. That’s impacting your open rates, your click rates, and really your understanding of the health of your list. And so. And it can also impact your deliverability because if people, if those emails are going to someone spam, that’s reporting back to the email.

[00:42:05]  Allea Grummert 

I don’t know. Gods and goddesses, I don’t know what they’re called, but the people who decide whether an email goes through to an actual inbox. Yeah. So when it comes to having a cleaner list, there’s a way to do it, kind of a best practices. And so I recommend setting up a re engagement sequence, like a two email sequence, or if you’re.

[00:42:24]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah, if you set up a workflow or in flodesk, you send them out as individual emails. But basically anyone who clicks gets removed from the cold subscriber group. Or a tag. And then the people who are left after a couple weeks, you know, they get the first email, they wait seven days, they get a reminder if they still don’t engage after another seven days, whoever’s still cold, then you feel good removing them.

[00:42:44]  Allea Grummert 

And then what’s left is a clean, happy list of happy subscribers who want to be there. And that’s what we want.

[00:42:50]  Megan Porta 

Yes. We were just talking about this in our mastermind call yesterday. Again, I can’t remember who which member was talking about it but she, I think her default inside of was it kit I believe was like 180 days or something like that. If somebody hasn’t opened one of your emails in 180 days that you should consider deleting them from the list.

[00:43:15]  Megan Porta 

I just felt like that was so long. Like 180, isn’t that like six months or something?

[00:43:21]  Allea Grummert 

That’s six months, yeah.

[00:43:23]  Megan Porta 

I feel like it should be much shorter than that.

[00:43:26]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah. So we have a couple strategies. So with removing your cold subscribers, if you don’t have something set up to auto clean them, which we’ll talk about second, this is like you kind of just send it out to everyone, get a clean list. But you kind of need to do this regularly because you’re going to have older subscribers who then choose who stop engaging.

[00:43:45]  Allea Grummert 

But there are different ways to kind of keep your list cleaner as people are joining as well. So what you can do is you can say in kit, for instance, have an automation that says anyone who joins any form like enters the automation and then you can wait 15 days or 30 days is what I’d recommend and you can decide kind of how conservative you want to be with.

[00:44:05]  Allea Grummert 

Like if they haven’t clicked I just unsubscribe them. Like I’m not even going to try and re engage them because they’re so new. If they haven’t engaged with my welcome sequence and my first couple newsletters, just boot them. And then another option would be, you know, wait 30 days and then send them a couple re engagement emails and then if they still haven’t engaged, boot them gently to the unsubscribe section of the automation.

[00:44:27]  Allea Grummert 

So that’s. Can you see how those two kind of work in tandem?

[00:44:29]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:44:30]  Allea Grummert 

Like one is because not everyone’s going to get added to that and you could go massive. We’ve done this for ours is like you wait 30 days and then still those people who were engaged, we wait another 90 days and if they still haven’t engaged then we kind of evaluate it there like you can go, you can set it up to be as like complicated as you want.

[00:44:48]  Megan Porta 

Right.

[00:44:48]  Allea Grummert 

That’s kind of why I like to have both. Like one that you just do a little bit more manually and one it’s running automatically.

[00:44:53]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:44:53]  Allea Grummert 

If you don’t want it to apply to every form, you can also just say like, these are the forms I want this to apply to. For instance, like the send me this recipe for instance or Slickstream or grow. Like if those are platforms where you’re like, these people just don’t seem like they’re sticking around very long for whatever reason.

[00:45:10]  Allea Grummert 

Like, you could also just kind of hand select those particular forms are the ones that you wait like 15 to 30 days.

[00:45:17]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:45:17]  Allea Grummert 

Remove them. Does that make sense?

[00:45:19]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So, I mean, it’s not a one size fits all situation. You can kind of figure out your own system and stick with it. But the general rule here is getting rid of those cold subscribers. Because doesn’t that just make your email list unhealthy?

[00:45:36]  Allea Grummert 

Yeah. Yep. I kind of, when I audit my clients stuff, I call, I put it under list health. And so we want, we want your list to be full of people who want to be there. I guess kind of along these lines is also the idea of do we require double opt in?

[00:45:52]  Allea Grummert 

That kind of comes into this too. I hadn’t thought of that until right now. Well, you know, I have a conversation with Megan in my mind is just like, what about this? Because this is another question I often hear and then I discuss with clients on through our audit. And it’s just kind of tricky because I prefer to be a little bit more conservative.

[00:46:10]  Allea Grummert 

Like I want people to click to say that they want my opt in or they want to be on my list and just have a smaller list. But I also see a good valid reason for saying like, okay, they’ve opted in. I don’t need them to confirm. I’m just having them on there.

[00:46:23]  Allea Grummert 

I’m going to choose to clean them off after 15 to 30 days a little bit more aggressively if they don’t engage. I don’t think either are wrong. One might be a little bit more legal than the other. Yeah, Nobody can see my face being like, you know, maybe that’s important. But as long as it’s really clear, of course, that they can unsubscribe at any time.

[00:46:42]  Allea Grummert 

That unsubscribe link is clear. I know I had a gal on happy subscribers who’s an attorney, my friend Jamie, who says like, yeah, having like a checkbox at the point of opt in is what’s legal, especially if you have any Canadians on your list. And so it’s just kind of a wild west out there.

[00:46:56]  Allea Grummert 

Like we have gdpr and I think that’s kind of where maybe my, my basis, I don’t know. That’s like a sliver of why I like double opt ins. But ultimately I just want your list to be full of people who have chosen to be there.

[00:47:09]  Megan Porta 

Yes.

[00:47:09]  Allea Grummert 

So it’s kind of a gamble. I mean like it’s a coin toss and I can see a client’s reason one way or another. And it’s ultimately up to you just knowing like, oh, I’m getting all these people on the list and they keep on subscribing. Okay, let’s go to the source. Let’s turn on that double opt in then just to make life easier for you and the health of your list.

[00:47:26]  Megan Porta 

Okay, great. Moving on to our last mistake. What is mistake number seven?

[00:47:31]  Allea Grummert 

Oh, it’s the least sexy of all the mistakes. I’m really glad I saved this one for last. No, it’s the mistake is not knowing what’s being sent to your subscribers and how I say it’s not that sexy because I’m an SOP person. I love standard operating procedures and most people don’t. So basically if you have all the information about what’s happening with your email list in your head, it’s kind of dangerous like because first of all, how are you going to inform your team or have some sort of system set up so that it’s really clear what’s all happening in your email marketing?

[00:48:05]  Allea Grummert 

So I recommend having an sop, a standard operating procedure of like, what are, what automations are going are turned on and what days of the week do they send out and then what days of the week are you sending out? Newsletters, like at its most basic, you should know what those are. And so yeah, even if you do have a team member and it’s all in their head, that’s not super helpful either because what if that person changes roles within your business?

[00:48:30]  Allea Grummert 

I have a team member who’s going to be on maternity leave. So like we just don’t want your business to stop and all it takes is writing it down. So that’s why I’m like, it’s not that sexy but like it is a, a lot of people just hold it in their heads. And that also can be really stress for you because you’re like, what day does my automated email go out that I set up two years ago, like just writing it down Means you don’t have to wonder or have to dig it up to think about it again.

[00:48:53]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, and he even getting help with that. Just if you do have somebody helping you, just getting it on paper is so valuable. But yeah, I can see what you mean. Like, there’s this sequence going on in the sequence and then I send out these weekly emails and like, ooh, that can get really just complicated in your mind.

[00:49:12]  Megan Porta 

So getting it on paper is not sexy, but valuable.

[00:49:16]  Allea Grummert 

Not sexy, but super helpful. Right. We have SOPs for like a checklist before a blog post goes live. You know, thinking through the same thing applies to your email marketing.

[00:49:24]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I love it. These are all great mistakes and great solutions to the mistakes. Is there anything else you want to mention, Allea, before we say goodbye?

[00:49:32]  Allea Grummert 

I mean, I have a bunch of resources, so if you’ve never written your welcome sequence before, I have a freebie on that called Your First Welcome Sequence. So you can find those at Duett.Co/eatblogtalk, and it’s D U E T T. co and eatblogtalk all squished together. So I have a bunch of resources there that I’m really excited to provide for you guys.

[00:49:53]  Allea Grummert 

And you can connect with me there or find me on Instagram alleagrummert.

[00:49:56]  Megan Porta 

I love it. I hope you guys go look at all the awesome stuff Allea has going on and listen to her podcast. I’m so excited about your podcast. I’m gonna go listen to Allea. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with today?

[00:50:09]  Allea Grummert 

Yes, I do. And I genuinely can’t remember what I said on the last podcast. So it might be the same one, but it’s my favorite for a reason. It’s. And this is probably not word for word, but from Julia Child, the chef, the baker, she said, whatever you’re interested in, remain tremendously interested in it.

[00:50:25]  Allea Grummert 

And I heard that right out of college. And it just gave me so much permission to like. I mean, I. I love music. Like, I know way too much about certain artists and things like that. And it’s why I was able to start a personal finance blog and just geek out on budgeting and then get into email marketing and be able to have a podcast that’s 100% about email marketing and to not feel weird about it.

[00:50:48]  Allea Grummert 

Like, everyone has their things that they’re interested in. And so I love that it’s the permission giving of whatever you’re interested in, remain tremendously interested in it.

[00:50:56]  Megan Porta 

I absolutely love that. What a great way to end this Amazing chat. Thank you for taking the time for us today. We’re so grateful for you and your interest in email marketing and for sharing it with the rest of us.

[00:51:09]  Allea Grummert 

Absolutely.

[00:51:10]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So we’ll put together a show notes page for you, Allea, if you want to go peek at those and all the resources that Allie has for you. We’ll put your podcast and everything in there. You can head to eatblogtalk.com/duett with two T’s and then number two. So, yeah, everyone go check Allea out.

[00:51:30]  Megan Porta 

Is there anything else you want to mention, Allea, before we say goodbye?

[00:51:33]  Allea Grummert 

No, just that I’m grateful to be here. Megan, thank you so much for supporting the food blogging industry. You know the space and I know how much of a helpful resource you are to food bloggers. I’m grateful for you.

[00:51:44]  Megan Porta 

Oh, well, thank you. That was so kind. Well, thanks, Ally. And thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time.

[00:51:52]  Outro 

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you posted it to your social media feed and stories. I will see you next time.