Episode 557: Build a Hungry Email List You Can Rely (regardless of Shifting Google Algorithms) with Emily Baksa

EBT557 – Emily Baksa

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. 

Megan Porta  00:37

Who wants to talk about email email is such an important topic this year. And I believe beyond this year, because of all of the changes going on in our industry with Google and just about every other thing is changing, it seems like so building a hungry email list is super important. Emily Baksa, from EmilyBaksa.com joins me to talk just about this. She is a food copywriter. She writes for a lot of food content creators, so she knows firsthand how important it is to build that really engaged, awesome email list that you can rely on, regardless of what is going on in our industry. In the episode she talks about thinking beyond just publishing new content in your emails. It’s good to think about publishing email series, either seasonally or about something that you’re really good at sharing your expertise in some area. She also has a few ideas that I’d never thought of sharing testimonials and reader favorites and also information about how to navigate your website and your emails. If you’re new to building an email list, she talks about how to create an enticing opt in to get people excited about your emails and your content and being one of your superfans so much good stuff in this episode. I hope you enjoy it. It is episode number 557. And it is sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  02:07

Hello there food bloggers are you wanting to tap into additional revenue and improve your site experience for your users? If you’re saying yes to all of this, then Chicory might be a really great fit for you. Chicory is a leading monetization platform for food bloggers, enabling you to integrate highly relevant shoppable ads into your recipe content and earn revenue from top CPG brands. Chicory’s Hyper contextual ads and shoppable technology will help you improve your site experience and engagement allowing your readers to go from inspiration to checkout in just a few clicks. Enjoy easy installation and ongoing access to the chicory team at zero cost to you. Chicory makes it easy to track your earnings optimize your blog content using recipe insights and connect with its team. Here is a testimonial from a happy chicory user. “Cooking and baking is my passion. Chicory makes it simple and easy for me to share that passion with the Where is My Spoon audience providing a seamless purchasing journey for my readers, and an effective monetization model for my blog.” that is from Adina Beck from Where’s My Spoon. Head over to eatblogtalk.com/resources scroll down to the Chicory logo and click that button that says learn more about Chicory or you can go to chicory.co/foodbloggers to learn more and to sign up. Now back to the episode.

Megan Porta  03:38

Emily Baksa is a food copywriter and content strategist who uses mealtime to make a positive impact on people and the planet. She writes crave worthy conversion generating copy for food bloggers, CPG brands, chefs, farmers and other culinary change makers to help grow their businesses. Emily welcome it to the podcast. How are you today?

Emily Baksa  04:01

Great. How are you? Thank you for having me.

Megan Porta  04:03

I am good. And I’m so glad you’re here to talk about a very important topic that we need to talk about more. We’ll get into that email list building and all of that good stuff. Before we do that, though, do you have a fun fact to share with us?

Emily Baksa  04:17

Yeah, I do. So I lived in Berkeley, California for about two years, which was a wonderful experience, especially as a food person. And when I was there I by happenstance found my way working a prep shift at a Shapanese the famous restaurant in town. And I long story short, befriended one of the sous chefs who worked at the cafe and she invited me to come prep with her for the day. So I like put on my chef, no bread, and I hung out in the kitchen in the restaurant and I did not do anything glamorous. I like pitted olives and shopped an insane amount of herbs. And 

Megan Porta  04:57

That’s still a dream though. 

Emily Baksa  04:58

It was wonderful. Yeah. It was a very, very cool experience. So

Megan Porta  05:02

A lot of foodies listening would be like, Yeah, that’s amazing. And probably some people, you know, not in our space would be like, Oh, that doesn’t sound very glamorous. But I think that sounds amazing.

Emily Baksa  05:13

No, it actually was, I mean, there, the restaurants, obviously just such an iconic place in the food world. And, and it’s kind of just as wonderful and magical behind the scenes as you might think it is. And everyone was so nice. Like, I’m just kind of this new random person there for the day. And everyone just welcomed you with open arms. And we had lunch together, and I got to see a few things. And it was really fun. 

Megan Porta  05:36

Oh, that’s one of my favorite Fun Facts I’ve heard in a while. Oh, so awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, of course. All right. Well, let’s talk about email lists. But I think to preface that, would you mind telling us a little bit about your business? I know you’re a food copywriter. Tell us about that?

Emily Baksa  05:53

So I am a copywriter and content strategist for food brands, I do work with a lot of food bloggers, as well as some CPG brands. And I’ve worked with some farmers and other kinds of like thought leaders in the food space, I really care a lot about how food, you know, really is just this vessel that we can communicate so many wonderful things with. So I work with love working with a lot of people in the food space, I help people write the copy that they use to essentially sell their offer their product or their service. So it can reach the right people in the right place and help their business grow. I started doing it about four years ago, and I’m the classic like, launched her business during lockdown kind of a story. I was working in campus food service, actually, I have a pretty long history of my career in food, which is mostly an accident, but I found my way there. And I really came to love it. But I wanted to do my own business because I saw this need for people who were really passionate about what they cooked and created, but needed a lot of help marketing themselves on what they do. So that’s where I like to jump in and help people tell their story and grow and feed as many people as possible. 

Megan Porta  07:05

Yeah, you are needed in our space. Because I think a lot of us like to do that. We like to create the food. And we’re super creative in the kitchen and on our computers, with graphic design and websites and all of that. But when it comes to marketing ourselves, it’s not always the easiest thing, not speaking for everyone. But for a lot of us that is kind of where we get hung up. So we need you, Emily.

Emily Baksa  07:30

I think that’s the case of everyone in every business, even like as a copywriter marketing myself is awkward and strange. You know, it’s just not, it’s not entirely natural. I think it’s that’s what I hope to help people do is they can kind of bring in somebody from the outside to get a fresh perspective on what you’re doing and what you’re creating. So that ways your message comes across really clear.

Megan Porta  07:50

Exactly, yes. I love that outside perspective is so valuable. And one of the things you help people with is building really good email lists, right?

Emily Baksa  07:59

Yes, I love writing emails, I just think they’re a lot of fun. And they’re full of a lot of personality. They’re kind of this sacred, wonderful space, where it’s a channel that you have complete control over. And you have kind of built this audience of people who are who have literally opted in to hear from you. So they’re excited to kind of hear from you. Oh, so it’s a really great communication channel for everyone. These days, and especially food bloggers,

Megan Porta  08:24

and especially now, in this space, where I should say in this time, where Google is kind of creating earthquakes all around, we don’t know what’s going on, like our rankings are getting shaken up. And it’s a little bit volatile out there. So I think well is more important than ever. Do you agree?

Emily Baksa  08:45

Absolutely. I’ve experienced this with my clients a lot in the last year with search results really just being topsy turvy all over the place. And I think what we’ve basically learned between search and social shifting algorithms is how little control you really have. But when it’s your business, and you’re working so hard on your content, you know, it’s such a frustrating experience to have to kind of ride these waves of change and kind of things getting flipped upside down. So that’s why I think your email list is your most valuable tool because despite what happens on, you know, Google search pages or on Instagram, this is a channel and a platform that you own completely yourself that you have complete control over. And that’s really contained in this nice kind of calming space. I think we all rely on a little bit more. 

Megan Porta  09:34

Yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly. I mean, there’s so much emotion right now tied to just the volatility of everything. So I think that this is a really good, calming, just topic to talk about outside of all of that.

Emily Baksa  09:51

Yeah, and that doesn’t mean that SEO optimized, the copy isn’t important it is but it’s more about distributing your energy to a wider assortment of channels and not relying so much on ones that can shift a lot. So you’ll still need to be writing those SEO optimized blog posts. But having other types of content can make writing those search changes, much more stress free.

Megan Porta  10:17

Yeah, and email is one of those channels that it’s just yours, right? Like, you don’t have to worry about how your writing is perceived by Google or, or other platforms, and the algorithm and all of that. It’s something that you own, it’s all you and I think that’s really special.

Emily Baksa  10:36

Yeah. And it, you know, it can play the same role as some of those, as the SEO optimization strategies that you do online, you know, you can talk in your own voice, and you can be really, truly yourself and not be too stressed about writing or sounding a certain way. And you know, any of that, but at the same time, you can still use it to direct a lot of traffic to your website, and still get a lot of those traffic boosts that you’re hoping for with search result pages and social content and all that kind of stuff, too.

Megan Porta  11:08

And I think for food bloggers, it’s really common to think of emails, it’s like, okay, I posted or published a new recipe. So I’m going to tell my users about my new recipe this week. But I think it goes so much beyond that. There are so many other ways to use your list to communicate with people, right?

Emily Baksa  11:27

Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s one of the common misconceptions, sometimes in the food blog role that everyone kind of knows, and has a habit of sending an email when a new recipe gets published. And that’s great, because, obviously, people are following you, because they want to see your latest and greatest kind of stuff. So that’s wonderful. But there’s so many other creative ways that you can communicate with your audience to really build relationships with people and keep your list engaged. And I think, you know, sometimes people are really shy to email too often, quote, unquote, but I really don’t think that that’s something to be too uber sensitive to, I mean, people when they’ve given over their email address to you, especially a food blogger, like a really personalized connection, you can trust that they want to hear from you. So it’s okay to communicate with them multiple times in a week and in multiple different kinds of ways more than just what your latest recipe is. They’re your, you know, they’re your crew, they’re your fans like, they are there because they want to hear from you. And if they don’t hear from you, they’ll opt out. Yeah, that’s totally okay. It’s better to have a list of people who are really 100% in there for you. So losing people off your list is not a bad thing, in my opinion.

Megan Porta  12:40

Yeah, I feel like some people avoid that. Like, they don’t want to lose the people. But I just think if they’re not your people, you don’t want them on your list anyway. So good riddance, right? Like go find a list that you want to be a part of. So you want the people who want to be there, that shouldn’t determine how many emails you send, I guess.

Emily Baksa  13:00

it’s really ideal to have a smaller amount of high quality people on your list, then a large amount of mixed quality or poor quality people on your list. It impacts your metrics, it also kind of makes it confusing to know who you’re talking to, and what is resonating if you’re getting kind of mixed metrics. So I like I’m totally okay with, you know, sometimes being more tailored in your messaging. And then if that turns some people off, that’s okay. Because you’re not for them, and they’ll find someone else. And it’s going to be just fine.

Megan Porta  13:32

Right, do you have suggestions about things that we can send to our email subscribers outside of just, hey, here’s our new recipe?

Emily Baksa  13:39

Yeah, totally. I think one of the my favorite things to work on with clients is creating email series, because these are kind of just ongoing conversations for people to learn more about a topic that perhaps you’re an expert in, or to give them you know, a sequence of things that are really top of mind at certain times of year. So like seasonality is a really a big thing with email, especially in food because food is very seasonal, we crave certain things certain times of year, obviously, when the holidays roll around, we all know what people are kind of searching for. So I think that things like you know, seasonal recipe ideas, or like a meal plans for certain seasons or times of year like Thanksgiving, or even like barbecue season, or spring picnics, you can do a lot of really cool things with and then if you like I said if you’re really an expert in something, I think that that’s the type of content that you can really teach to people in their emails too. So you know, if you have a restaurant background and you want to showcase some restaurant skills that perhaps you have had and that you apply in your recipes, you can highlight those kinds of things or if you are an expert on pasta, you can teach people how to you know, use certain types of pasta recipes certain times of year. I think there’s the, the endless the options are like really endless depending on who you are and what you have to say. I also think an element that I’ve seen people playing around more with that I’m really enjoying is kind of these kind of like community like testimonial type themed emails. So I’ve seen people share more things about like, here are our readers favorite recipes from this past month that you know, the recipes that we’ve shared that people are enjoying the most, or I really love seeing things like cooking and baking challenges taking place in emails. Or another thing I’ve been seeing is people sharing a lot of information about website navigation. So like how to save recipes for later like, especially when you add new like, integrations to your email features on your website. You can showcase this through email and help people feel like empowered to use your site in a way that’s adds convenience to them. So I think those are really interesting email topics too.

Megan Porta  15:46

I love the last two that you mentioned. I haven’t ever considered either of those the testimonials. So readers’ favorites, highlighting certain things from your site, and then info about your website navigation. That’s brilliant. Yeah, because especially if you have an older audience, I feel like website navigation can be really daunting. Like, I don’t even know what to do. But if you just show them and walk them through it, then that takes away a barrier. Right? Yeah,

Emily Baksa  16:12

yeah. And also, like you don’t, some people may have opted into your email list last month, and some may have been on it for like, four years. So if you have like new features on your website, like within the last year, you can put some of those older people on your email list can also be interested in learning some of those things, too. Like they might not have the latest information if they’ve been in your corner for a really long time. 

Megan Porta  16:33

Right? Yeah, that’s a good thing to consider. Yeah,

Emily Baksa  16:37

don’t always assume everyone kind of knows everything. Sometimes people really like learning that kind of stuff, because it makes them feel empowered. And testimonials are really important in emails to no matter what you’re sharing, even if you are sharing like collections of types of recipes, I always encourage adding reader testimonials to those types of things. Because when people get those emails in their inboxes, they love to kind of know somebody has tried that out before maybe see their testimonial and the transformation they experienced by doing something it really helps with click through rates on your recipes or content in your email list to show that a reader has had success with it too. 

Megan Porta  17:13

Yeah, that’s a great idea. 

Sponsor  17:15

Let’s take a quick break friends to chat about my favorite keyword research tool that I have found a so much success with. Rank IQ is a custom keyword library packed with low competition keywords that are easy to rank for and that also have High search volume. With the emergence of AI and question marks hanging over that topic as well as the Google updates and algorithm changes that happen seemingly weekly, it is so smart to find a way to get steady traffic that will continue to grow over time, including Rank IQ in your keyword research strategy is such a good way to future proof your blogging business. And here are a few additional things I love about it. The keyword research tool provides so many great ideas for content that support my existing database of recipes. Whether you’re a new blogger or a seasoned blogger, it can help add quality content to your blog. Also, it saves me a ton of time, I can typically get a new post kicked out in two hours, often even less than that. And I don’t ever have to guess about how successful a keyword will be before spending hours writing about a post on the topic. Go to rankiq.com to sign up and see for yourself how awesome it is. Now back to the episode. 

Megan Porta  18:26

And then for the series that you recommended. I love your idea of thinking seasonally and just, you know, like maybe a vegetable that’s popular during the summer or something. Is that something that you would recycle? Or just doing spur the moment?

Emily Baksa  18:43

No, that’s a great question. You could definitely you know, run a seasonal series and then see how it goes. And I would you know, once that period of time has ended, where it’s perhaps not relevant anymore. You could definitely look back on your metrics, see what worked and see what didn’t and maybe just consider tweaking and refining. I think that you could definitely recycle things. But I would consider giving it a nice polish or a refresh the next time around. In case you know, because honestly, you’ve probably had a ton more great content pieces that could filter into it within the past year. So you can update with more relevant links or other information you’ve perhaps learned last year, I don’t think you need to be too too concerned that people are going to like remember the what to do with your tomato series from last summer. I think there’s a lot of that happens between a year but if they do, if you’ve kind of given it a little bit of a polish, it will still feel new and shiny to them. 

Megan Porta  19:35

And all the ideas that you mentioned are really good ways to keep your people engaged, right and engagement is so vital for any platform but for email, I think that that can increase the click through rate that they’re gonna go to your blog, and then that just has like trickle down effects of like boosting SEO. I feel like it boosts everything when people start clicking from your emails. It’s like a signal to the gods of all traffic and that are like, Oh, this is doing really well, let’s increase the value on Google and Pinterest and everywhere else.

Emily Baksa  20:10

Absolutely. I think, you know, we kind of hunt for those top rankings in Google. So we get those clicks from those Google result pages. But that’s not the only place we have to hunt for those clicks. I think email definitely does that, the more and your email list is, well, it could be depending on where you are in your phase of business, you know, there’s all sizes of an email list. But if you have a pretty decently sized, highly engaged email list, you can, you can ensure a pretty decent amount of click through rates on your emails, right. So you know, certain email series can get a decent percentage of your list through drive traffic to that site, your website or certain blogs and, and really speak to Google tell Google that like this person is of interest and relevant, and people want to know what they have to say. So it really does give you some credibility. And you know, because you can feel free to email frequently throughout the week to you know, you could be having an assortment of readers clicking all week long through the different types of resources, and getting a lot of value on their end, and then also really helping you out by driving traffic to your site.

Megan Porta  21:12

Yeah, that’s a good point, too. What if there are people listening? Who, okay, so I know there are people listening who already have email lists, pretty big ones, but there are also going to be people who are just starting to build their email lists. Do you have any recommendations for them to get started and grow a really robust list?

Emily Baksa  21:31

Yeah, totally. I think, if this is where you’re at, I definitely encourage you to, to go for it. I think sometimes people are very hesitant to jump into list building, because, you know, they’re not sure what to say or what to do. And I always encourage people to build a list before they think they even are ready, you need to because it will come in handy for that day, you’re ready to send your email. So to get list building, you know, it’s really just about creating those enticing opt ins that really get people excited to share their email with you. I think, you know, it’s very common to go on all kinds of websites and see opt ins that say things like, subscribe to our newsletter, but my personal problem with those is that it doesn’t really showcase much value to the visitor, and or really show much promise of what they’re going to kind of get in return. Right. So if you’re asking, asking for people’s emails is kind of a personal thing, especially nowadays, I think people are protective of their inboxes. So if you’re going to ask for their emails, I think it’s really important to make sure your opt ins can showcase what they’re going to get in return and the value that they’ll kind of get from it. So I see people create opt ins that are like themed around certain things, I think is really interesting. So if you’re like an expert in making pizza, you know, like you can create like an opt in for people about everything, you know how to make perfect homemade pizza, and you can kind of people can hand over their email address in exchange for that information. And then you could trickle them through an email series that passes along all that info that you know that they want, because they’ve exchanged it for their email address, and then build that relationship with them right away off a topic that you know, that they’re interested in. And then along with that, of course, you’ll also be adding them to any other types of emails that you receive. But that welcome kind of sequence or series that you can create from an opt in for people is really powerful, it helps them get engaged. So get those opt ins, up on your website, you can even like create, you know, opt in kind of landing pages for your site you can link to on your social media platforms and encourage people to get involved. Once you kind of the hardest part is just kind of getting the ball rolling. And then once it once it gets rolling people will you know, when your reach grows, you can expand that faster.

Megan Porta  23:43

Do you have any recommendations for just finding what that creative option might be?

Emily Baksa  23:50

Yeah, I think it’s really dependent on who you are. I like to encourage people to really lean into what you know, we like what what are you an expert in? What are the things that define you as a food blogger in the very competitive space of food bloggers? What’s your unique selling point? What’s your unique set of ideas? Where’s your expertise, kind of why? If you have something like that, that you can lean on, then I think that’s the best route to go. But if you’re not, if you’re kind of figuring that out, or you’re not sure of that yet, I do think seasonality is another really great thing you can lean into for optins. Just because like I said in food, people are always kind of thinking about eating certain things at certain times of year. So you can really meet people where they’re at with their desires, as far as like cooking and creating menus. So if you want to offer things related to like seasonal seasonal ingredients, like we mentioned, or holidays, or whatever, you can kind of capture people’s attention really easily with those types of things at certain times of year.

Megan Porta  24:48

One of the compelling opt ins I remember seeing a few years ago, I don’t remember who offered this but I remember just being like oh my gosh, this was something that so many people can relate to because at the the end of like, July, early August, a lot of people have gardens that are just overflowing with certain ingredients. And we don’t know what to do with those ingredients. We’re literally putting them on our streets like, yes, please take my cucumbers or whatever. So I remember seeing an optin that was like, What are you going to do with all of this zucchini? And I feel like that’s something that so many people would click on, because we can all relate to having that problem.

Emily Baksa  25:26

Totally, I that’s like one of my favorites too, because I have been there with like, just an insane amount of tomatoes, or zucchini or cucumbers that I have no idea what to do with. And if someone and that’s, that’s a problem for me, you know, like, that causes me stress because I don’t want to waste food. And I also really want to enjoy them. So if somebody can meet me there and be like, Hey, I have a solution for you. You like you’ve already, you know, formed a really strong connection with me by offering that support where I am. So totally, I also see there’s also different kinds of opt ins that I see kind of popping up around two, which are really interesting, like, quizzes are really gaining popularity as opt ins, you know, there’s a lot of different ways you can host and create that but like, it kind of appeals to like, I don’t know, our old like Buzzfeed quiz like urges. And I think and but you know, more not implying that they should be kind of those that like level of goofy kind of clickbaitiness, I think they still need to be really helpful for people. But if you could create quizzes to like, help people pick, you know, whatever the assortment of recipes to, like, serve for a summer cookout, like, you know, how cool would that be your kind of very customized experience for people. But I’m really seeing those gaining popularity too. And some people also do, you know, like downloads I see as opt ins, a lot of times too, you can get like marinade guides, or you know, all types of guides that you can kind of download. I personally think sometimes those things get lost on people, which is why I often like to kind of trickle that text, same type of content through email, rather than a PDF. Oh, yeah. Because I think people engage with it more there.

Megan Porta  27:02

Yeah, that’s a good thought, too. Instead of doing like a one single download or ebook, trickling it out in just a little series, and then teasing each, so that people are excited about the next email, something like that. 

Emily Baksa  27:17

Yeah, that’s, that’s a really good best practice, actually, that you mentioned there with email series is kind of setting the stage for what people can expect next, because that makes people more engaged to kind of continue engaging with the series, right, as the series goes on. It’s, you know, possible to lose people that if they’re not finding the value, or they’re not interested. But theoretically, if you’ve created the right opt in, you should be able to guarantee that they’re pretty interested in sticking around for those series. But definitely, P.S and types of teasers can really help people know that. Yeah. Tomorrow, I’m excited to check that out kind of a thing.

Megan Porta  27:51

Kind of creating that intrigue. And then how do you feel about like, food, bloggers, digest type emails? Do those do? Well, from your perspective, just like, here’s what we did for the month here? Were our new recipes in those get a little bit long. So I don’t know how they do. But I’m just curious. 

Emily Baksa  28:10

Yeah, I think that like whenever you can make those types of messages more about the reader than about yourself, that will make them be more successful. So like, here’s what we posted this month. The flip on that would be kind of like what I said a little while ago, about like, here are our most clicked through recipes for the month, or here are the recipes with the most five star reviews from this month. Because it’s showing that read, like here’s the recipes our readers love this month, not like here’s all the cool things we did this month. I think that that little small reframe on a roundup can make all the difference because it seems less kind of like you’re trying to promote yourself and more like, hey, reader, here are things other people like you are also interested in. So we think you’ll like these too.

Megan Porta  28:53

That was the gem of the whole episode. I love this. It’s not about us and what we do. It’s about what we’re providing to you. And just that little reframe 

Emily Baksa  29:03

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, that is like probably one of the biggest takeaways I think people should consider about their emails to the way you write them. And that’s where, you know, like, a copywriter can help you with those types of things, too. Because again, it comes down to when you’re trying to communicate those things about yourself. It’s kind of our default talk from our perspective, right. But my role with my clients is to really help make it more of that reader forward and value forward message for readers because that’s what keeps people engaged. And that’s what make people feel like they’re connected to you because when you sound like you know, genuinely put them first and are trying to support and help them. That’s where that strong bond comes from.

Megan Porta  29:46

Oh, that was very, very powerful. Nice. Emily, is there anything else you think we should have at the top of our minds as we launch more into email?

Emily Baksa  29:56

Yeah, I think like one thing that I would love for you bloggers to start thinking about more is, you know, if you get to the point of having, like really investing in your email, like, the bonus of having, like, a strong relationship with an email list of really engaged readers is that your email can also become like a marketing channel for you, when it comes to the point of considering things like paid offers, I think this is a space that I’m really encouraging my clients to start considering and playing around and more, especially with this kind of shifting algorithms situation we’re all in, right, like our monetization strategies can be a little dependent on these very tumultuous platforms. So if you know as a, as a business owner, that’s what you are the food blogger, you kind of can create some additional resources to be able to showcase your expertise and, and offer them for sale. If you have this list of engaged readers, like you can communicate and sell these things to them and, and know with confidence that they’re interested, because they’re there with you. They’ve been following along, built strong relationships with them. And so I really want people to start be considering this more, because I think it’s just a much more empowering way to get control of your own business. And it’s an added benefit of really investing in your email. And, you know, it doesn’t have to be crazy to like, if you have a email list of 3000 people, and you sell a recipe book for $10. And a third of them buy it like you just made $10,000. Yeah, so it’s, it’s, you know, it’s an area that I think we could all be exploring a little bit more as we kind of gain control, which is kind of my theme around using email marketing more, especially in food blogging,

Megan Porta  31:41

And I think it should be the theme for a lot of us this year. 2024 and beyond, not just your theme, it’s a big, important priority, just to have control of what we create, and what we put out there. 

Emily Baksa  31:55

Yeah, you’re, you know, you’re coming up with these amazing ideas and, and recipes and, and tips and guidance to really empower home cooks, like I want more food bloggers have feel like they have control over those types of things and really, you know, connect with their readers and their audiences in a way that is both genuine and, and strong relationship building, but also creates a thriving business. Because, you know, both are really important for you to be able to stick around. 

Megan Porta  32:21

Well, you’ve made a very compelling case for us, Senator Emily, just diving more into our email list, and you’ve given us some great tips. So thank you so much for all of this value. And for being here today. We really appreciate you.

Emily Baksa  32:34

Yeah, of course, I’m so happy to be here with you guys.

Megan Porta  32:37

Do you have a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with today?

Emily Baksa  32:41

My words of inspiration, I think were a bit of an iteration of kind of what I just said is just don’t be afraid to think outside the box. I think food blogging, food bloggers kind of existed relied on things like SEO and affiliate marketing and brand sponsorships for a really, really long time. But there’s so many other tools out there like email, like so many things that you can use to take control of your business and just kind of feel more empowered. And I totally think that the future will continue to be bright for food bloggers, despite a lot of changes you’ve experienced lately. So don’t be afraid to think differently and try new options because I think that will be the future. 

Megan Porta  33:17

Oh, that was so inspiring. Thank you for that. I love it. We’ll put together a show notes page for you Emily, if you want to go peek at those you can head to eatblogtalk.com/emilybaksa and that spelled B A K S A. Why don’t you tell everyone where they can find you. And I know you have a freebie I believe to offer. Do you want to talk about that too? 

Emily Baksa  33:37

Yeah, you can all find me on my website is EmilyBaksa.com. And if you go to and leave emilybaksa.com/eatblogtalk, the name of the podcast I have a freebie there for anyone who’s interested in thinking about some creative email series ideas. I have a download I’ve come up with over 30 ideas for you guys, some of which I mentioned on the call today but a handful more as well so you can grab those and start thinking about how to use your email a little differently. 

Megan Porta  34:03

Awesome. Well everyone go check Emily’s freebie out and thank you again Emily so much for being here and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  34:16

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.