Improve Engagement & Sales with a Carefully-Crafted Welcome Sequence

Sara is an SEO strategist who helps wedding professionals get more clients by showing up higher on Google searches. She’s a tech-focused teacher (but more like a friend!) who never makes people feel bad about what they don’t know.

Q. Sara, what was going on in your business when you decided to reach out to Allea about writing your welcome sequence?

I felt like I was doing a good job getting people to subscribe to my email list, but I noticed that a lot of them would get their freebie and unsubscribe. All I had was one welcome email that basically says, “Here’s your thing,” and then I added them to my main list.

It wasn’t an experience that actually led them from being someone who didn’t know who I was – or much, if anything, about the power of SEO – to actually knowing me and having some trust and being willing to buy something.

I felt like that was such a missed opportunity, because I’d already worked so hard to get them to give me their email address. I wanted to nurture them into potentially buying one of my trainings or becoming a client. I wanted them to feel my enthusiasm for SEO and be inspired by it.

“Everyone who talks about online marketing is like, ‘Get people on your list, get as many subscribers as you can.’ But nobody really talks about the fact that you’ve got to keep those people on your list. And I felt like I was doing a bad job of that.”

I decided that I needed to fix this problem. And I immediately thought of Allea because of the conversation we had a couple of years ago on Twitter, where she said, “Nurture sequences are my thing!” She always stayed in my mind because it was such a specific niche.

Q. How has your welcome sequence changed after working with Allea and the Duett team?

Allea is so thoughtful about the strategy and what someone needs to hear to build trust [and take action] over my new 15-email welcome and nurture sequence.

I’m more of a personal brand, so we ended up with emails that are about getting to know me, but also emails that are very focused on my ideal clients’ problems — like understanding the technical side of their website and how to show up in an impactful way. 

We also talked about the solution of search engine optimization overall, so they become familiar with the value of SEO and how it can impact their site traffic and business for years.

“I never would have been able to think through that entire customer journey on my own. I would have just been like, ‘Here are some resources. Here’s a picture of my dog. Are we friends now?”

Then we started introducing them to some of the services or digital products that I offer.

Once she had an automated welcome sequence in place, Sara was able to connect with her new subscribers in a way that was clear and intentional — as well as directing them to the trainings she has available to support them right where they are.

Q. You have a really technical topic. Were you concerned at all about Allea’s ability to understand SEO and communicate it properly in the emails she wrote?

Yeah, before we got started I was thinking, “Maybe she knows a little bit about SEO, but she isn’t an expert at the same level I am. Am I going to have to write half of these emails to make sure that the advice that’s being given is right?”

But you know what? She actually helped me develop the language to explain my framework and my own approach to SEO. She was like, “So basically, you do keywords, blog posts, and authority.” And I was like YES! I had explained it that way in my head, but I had never put it into words. I’ve actually started using that framework in other parts of my business, and the only reason I was able to do that is because Allea distilled it from everything that I had thrown at her.

“Not only was she able to grasp my technical topic, she was able to explain it better than I can, which was amazing!”

Also, I’m really careful about the way that I talk about SEO, because I think that people get talked down to a lot when they’re trying to learn something like this. So I really appreciated that Allea paid attention to my preferences about specific words I didn’t want to use, things I didn’t want to promise, tone and language that doesn’t fit with the way that I want people to feel.

Q. Speaking of tech, did Allea help you get stuff set up in your email service provider? Was that helpful?

I use ActiveCampaign and every time I talk to her I’m surprised by the ways she can make the tool work – ways that I didn’t even realize. I mean, there’s sections of the automation you would not believe, where there’s all these complicated lines – if this person does this, then they go over here, and then bring them back into the sequence down there.

We even did a segmentation – again, I never would have thought of this – but she segmented my list and had people self-select whether they were familiar with SEO or total beginners. And then we customized a few emails to really appeal to that person, so the more advanced people didn’t feel like they were being talked down to because it’s too basic.

Again, I think that’s something that will really help people stay subscribed to the list because they don’t feel like they’re getting the wrong information. 

“It was so nice that Allea’s solution included getting everything set up in my email marketing provider, getting that automation all connected. Because if I had hired her to just write the emails, I may or may not have taken the time to actually put them in the technology. She’s an email platform wizard!”

Q. What kind of results have you seen now that your welcome sequence is up and running?

When we were working on the email strategy Allea said, “What can we send people to? Like, what do you ultimately want them to do?” I have a “1 Hour SEO” training so we decided that one of the goals for this sequence was to get people to buy that $37 offer – because that product is one thing I know will benefit all of my readers.

Now I’m selling that product to new subscribers really regularly. And I don’t have to be paying for Facebook ads to get all of those conversions, because the system is working the way that it’s supposed to.

“I’ve actually turned off my Facebook ads because they stopped working, but I’m still getting sales on that product because the right people are getting introduced to it at the right time in the emails. It’s an immediate return on this investment.”

Sara’s Welcome Sequence Engagement

(3 months)

• Overall open rate: 87.59% (industry average: 50%)
  • Beginner segment: 48%
  • Familiar with SEO segment: 70%
• Overall click rate: 36.83%
  • Beginner segment: 5% 
  • Familiar with SEO segment: 13%
• An unsubscribe rate of less than 0.05%
• Consistent product sales directly from email (with no paid ads necessary!)

Q. How do you feel about your email marketing now that you have these new sequences in place?

I feel fancy! 💁‍♀️ I remember a Jenna Kutcher podcast from years ago, where she talked about how she had a welcome experience for her new subscribers that was 50 emails long, over six months. And I was like, “I’ll never be able to do that.” I felt like email sequences were for big influencers with teams who could figure that stuff out. So it’s really cool for me to now have my own nurture series with 15+ emails, where I feel like people are delivered a good experience and we can lead them toward the right things, even with my tiny little brand.