Email Awareness Sequence

A Crucial Step

We covered a lot of ground with Email Acquisition a few days ago. I hope the last few days have given you time to digest and think through the best way to grow your email list and possibly put into practice what we’ve covered.

Now that you have an email list in hand and are using an email service provider that has the functionality to automate sequences (remember Convertkit rocks at this!), I want to proceed to the second top homeschool marketing practice of Email Awareness Sequence. The concept behind this principle is using email to bring brand awareness in an automated sequence.

Think of it this way: you’re going to set up a series of 3-5 emails that automatically deploy over the course of 7-10 days. These emails will go to each new homeschool email you acquire, helping the potential customer understand your brand, expertise, solutions, services, and products.

A Few Crucial First Steps

Before we dive into these emails, there are behind-the-scenes steps between acquiring and deploying awareness emails that you need to ensure are set up correctly.

First, when acquiring emails, you should have a landing page with a form that connects to your email service provider (like Convertkit). This should also tag the email, and it should have a rule or automation set to deploy a sequence based on the tag, the email sequence itself, and the follow-up tagging from clicks within your emails in order to add your customer to your general email list after the first sequence completes.

That sounds like a lot of technical jargon, so let me give you an example.

A homeschool brand that sells a history curriculum for elementary and middle school is offering a one-page download on the five essentials for teaching history.
They create the asset (the download), they purchase an eblast and set up social media ads, and they have separate landing pages to measure results.
On each landing page there is a form that asks for three pieces of information: name, email, and grades being taught.
Behind the scenes, you will have these forms connected to your email service provider (again, use Convertkit!).
The new emails should be tagged with the grades they teach (each one separately).
There should be another tag that tells you this email is currently new to your list and in the awareness sequence.

The easiest way to connect multiple tags is by using plugins that connect your website to Convertkit. For instance, if you are using WordPress as your website foundation, Everest Form plugin is currently the most dynamic prebuilt API connection between landing page forms and Convertkit.

You’ll also need to create a rule or automation that sends the awareness sequence. Here’s where you can get highly customizable. At this junction, you can be more intentional about the solutions you mention by sending one sequence to elementary homeschoolers and a different one to middle school. If they have both, well, you can also have a third one that mentions both. Now, here’s a warning: depending on the complexities of your services and product, the possibilities could be unlimited, but you want to keep it simple. Don’t send any more than 2-3 sequences based on the answers to the initial form.

I know I mention Convertkit often, and it’s because it’s a powerhouse for growing your list and business. But I’m most impressed by their step-by-step tutorials. If the information above seemed to overwhelm you, but you know it’s the right step to growing your business, don’t fret. Begin watching tutorials, and you’ll quickly see it’s much easier than it sounds.

Starting the Sequence

Well, we can finally get to the actual awareness sequence! Start by determining how many emails you want to send in your sequence and then developing the content for each. There are a few standards here to help take the guesswork out of whether or not you’re doing it right.

Email #1

The Delivery Email

The first email always delivers the offer you are using to acquire the email. Here’s how to create your delivery email:

Use a subject line with the name of the offer, helping homeschoolers make the connection between their web browsing and email inbox.
Include an image that corresponds to the offer, again connecting.
The image should be linked to the download, and you should also include a button with the instructions “Download Now.” (Yes, you have to be very specific, as not everyone is computer savvy.)
You’ll want to have a header, something like “Learn the 5 Essentials to Teaching History”
Next add 1-2 paragraphs of text. This is where you have a few sentences about the download and then another paragraph introducing your brand.
Close with an ending sentence letting them know you’ll check back with them in a few days after they have had a chance to review the download.

That’s it. Short, simple and to the point.

Typically you’d follow email #1 with email #2, assuming they downloaded the asset. With today’s technology, however, you can tie the download link to tagging in Converkit and hold off sending email #2 until you are sure they have downloaded the asset. What if they don’t download? No problem. Simply deploy a reminder email. This is advanced automation, so if you’re a beginner, skip this step.

Email #2

The Touching Base Email

This email is where you ask how they are enjoying their download and begin to build upon the previous email on brand awareness, specifically highlighting your expertise. In the sample above, the brand is all about history. This would be the email where you add the story of how the brand began and why it’s different from others – in other words, where the expertise lies.

In this email you can mention your product or service in the text and hyperlink to your website, but this email is not a hard sale. You’re still in the “getting to know” you stage.

Email #3

The How You Can Help Email

In this email, you’ll want to connect the content of your download to the solutions you offer. Begin by diving a bit more into your topic, then present a problem your product solves. Be sure to include images, relatable copy, a video they can click to watch, and any social groups you may have. The goal here is to round the bases and bring home exactly how you can make a difference with your solutions.

At the bottom of this email, I’d include graphics of specific products and “learn more” buttons. Again, you’re not hard selling; you’re continuing to inform while soft selling.

From here, you can add your new email subscriber to your main newsletter list, where you will pick up the conversation in your Email Conversion Approach, which we’ll cover in a few days.

However, there are times where a fourth and fifth email is needed. For example, in the series that you’re reading now, the information is so comprehensive, I’ve had to break it out into 7 emails! That’s rare unless you’re teaching technical aspects. But if you have multiple products in different categories, multiple brands, or additional resources new subscribers should be aware of, by all means, add a fourth and fifth email.

Most importantly, be sure to end your last email of the sequence by letting the subscriber know they will be added to your general email newsletter and to be on the lookout for more information, important announcements, and even special subscriber bonuses.

If you noticed, there’s no hard selling in your awareness sequence, and that’s intentional. You want to form a relationship, understand the subscriber’s needs (yes, you can do that with ConvertKit tagging!), and develop a trust that eventually converts into sales and retains your new customer for years to come!

The Email Awareness practice is critical for bringing a new homeschooler to an awareness of who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. It’s just the first touch of many to come. In a few days I’ll be walking you through Social Retargeting and Email Conversion.

We’ve covered a lot of ground today, and there’s a lot more to go over. But in the meantime, if you need help with your marketing goals, feel free to reach out to Shawn at 716.867.6600 or shawno@hedua.com.

What To Do Next

As always, I like to end each new step in the process with a challenge, allowing you to take the information you’ve learned and put it into practice. Over the coming days, I challenge you to:

Determine an awareness sequence that ties to your asset delivery
Decide on the number of emails you wish to send
Develop the content for those emails

Good luck, and when I come back in a few days, we will focus on the day-in and day-out machine of marketing: the Email Conversion Approach.