This is an interview with Jena Bagley, an advocate manager for Aweber, a leading email service provider, and the very first autoresponder. Jenna works closely with content creators, podcasters, social media strategists, coaches, entrepreneurs, and more. Having worked in several different industries over her career, Jenna has acquired a wealth of knowledge about sales marketing and what it means to build a relationship with your target audience.

In this interview, they discuss how to quickly launch your email marketing strategy and the three-step plan you need to focus on, plus other email practices.

After working in different industries, Jena realized that businesses need to build relationships and trust with people. She said that it is also the same with email marketing, where you need to market your business because if you don’t, no one else will. Jena then mentions that email marketing should be called relationship building because you have a conversation with your audience then turn them into customers, fans, and loyal advocates. 

She then explains that she teaches people how to start their email marketing strategy to set them up for a relationship with their customers. This way, their customers will look for them when they have a problem.

Jena talked about the importance of email marketing and how it differs from social media and building relationships through those platforms. She said that you need to have harmony between social and media mail marketing. She explained that your social media will let people know about you and what you do, while email allows you to communicate with a customer on a more intimate level.

She also added that you are posting publicly in social media, but in email, your customers can sign up to receive your email which is more powerful. She also said that email marketing has more potential to reach more than social media and keeps you top of mind.

Jena then explained her three-step strategy. The first step is to provide a convincing and easy-to-find sign-up page. Rather than a whole website, you can create a landing page which is a standalone page. This page’s goal is to sign-up for a subscription, buy a product, or register for a webinar.

Step two is to send an automated welcome email. She explained that this email is important because the people on your list are the ones that are most likely to read your content. She added that you have to make sure that your emails get to your audience every time and set expectations. She adds that this is your opportunity to make your audience excited to get the following email.

Jenna advises using a mix of text and images in the welcoming letter. She went on to say that you can include one or two images in your email, but only if they are relevant.

The third step is to make sure you’re giving your customers a helpful newsletter daily. Jenna recommends sending emails at least once a month but suggests that entrepreneurs should aim for a frequency of once a week or once every other week.

When choosing a service provider like an email autoresponder, Jenna recommends that entrepreneurs should look at their goals and see what they want to accomplish. She says that they should figure out what’s important to them and what resources they are going to need to be successful.