Her Welcome Sequence Solves a Real Problem (and Gets an 18% Click Rate) with Sara Ecklin

Allea Grummert (00:12)
Hey there, welcome to Happy Subscribers, a podcast that explores how bloggers and content creators can create more purposeful relationships with your audience through email marketing. I’m Ali Grimert, email marketing strategist, copywriter, email platform expert, and founder of the Done For You Email Marketing Agency, Duet. I started as a personal finance blogger in 2016 and have since helped hundreds of bloggers and creators like you maximize your email marketing for more impact, more traffic, and a better connection with your subscribers.

Be prepared for some advanced email talk as well as tactical tips to help get your valuable content into the hands of your audience faster and easier. I’m excited you’re here, so let’s do it. We can create a deeper, more meaningful connection with the community you love and serve through email.

Okay, guys, Sarah Eklund is the creator behind Clean Plate Mama, where she shares easy, wholesome recipes and practical clean eating tips. As a mom and recipe developer, she’s passionate about helping people navigate the grocery store with confidence and use real, simple ingredients without worrying about perfection. After leaving her corporate career to follow her passion for food, Sarah now inspires thousands of home cooks to make clean eating feel approachable and sustainable. So, y’all, I’m super excited to have Sarah here. Do us hi so I know you’re here.

Sara Ecklin (01:30)
Hi. So happy to be here.

Allea Grummert (01:32)
This is my first time getting to hang out with Sarah one on one. So we actually met through Kayla Burton’s Food Blog Coaching, where I spoke at one of her mastermind events. So that’s where Sarah was introduced to me. Or maybe she knew me from the podcast before. Anyway, tomatoes.

Sara Ecklin (01:47)
I

had yes. I had listened to your podcast before and then you were on you were a guest in Kayla’s group, so

Allea Grummert (01:53)
Then I never let you go, did I? I was like, you must listen to me. so yeah, after hearing me teach or whatnot, she took some things that I shared or got inspired by it, and she went and looked at her email list a little bit differently and more strategically. And so this is my first conversation with Sarah about this. She emailed me and was like, Girl, I’ve made some changes to my welcome sequence and it’s paid off.

Can I share about it with you and your audience? And I’m like, heck yeah. So you guys, we’re I’m learning alongside of you. I’m gonna do my best to ask good follow-up questions that you might be having. But the important thing is that you know her welcome sequence has seen an overwhelming 65% open rate and 18% click rate. That is why Sarah is here today. Y’all, she’s got a success story. Super excited to share it with you. yeah, and if at any point you’re like, I don’t know what to do with my own email list, you know you can reach out to me. This is what my team and I do all the all the time.

And I’m also a former blogger myself, so I’m a big fan of the DIYing in sorting it out. And so I’m really excited, Sarah, to learn lean into your story, how you made changes to your own email marketing and what we might learn from you today.

Sara Ecklin (02:58)
Well thanks, I’m excited to share with you and everyone else.

Allea Grummert (03:00)
Yay. Is there anything else I didn’t share that you feel like is important for listeners to know about you?

Sara Ecklin (03:05)
No, you do a great job. Thanks.

Allea Grummert (03:07)
She’s from the north, y’all.

Sara Ecklin (03:08)
Yes, so yes, if you see my my hear my Minnesota accent, I’ll try my best to tame it down.

Allea Grummert (03:14)
You don’t have to. I understand it. I love a northern accent. I’ve always said like I’m kind of jealous that I’m not from the north. Like I wish I had family or someone. I’m like where’s I need like a great aunt or somebody with a cabin. I wanna go to Minnesota. I wanna go to Michigan.

Sara Ecklin (03:29)
Cabin season is lovely, so it is great.

Allea Grummert (03:33)
I know. So great. before we dive in, I really kinda want to follow the arc of what got you thinking about email marketing? When did you start listening to the podcast or kind of dabbling in email marketing in the first place?

Sara Ecklin (03:46)
Yeah.

I think, you know, ever since I I started my blog, in back in two thousand seventeen was when I initially started it. I did not start taking it seriously till twenty twenty. So I kinda say I started it in twenty twenty. So that’s when I really started email like any blogger is like, Well, I should have an email so I can send my new recipes every week to people that sign up, which is how it naturally starts, of course. You know, so I’ve had an email list,

For gosh, going on now, probably what, six years does that make it? but probably in the last two years have I really started to transition and focus a little bit more on building my email list. I’ve heard from you, I’ve heard from multiple people in this space. Like the email list is the only thing you own. Like that is you own those, you know, you can control, you can

Contact those people directly. Google is constantly changing, as we all know in the blogging space, especially in the last 12 months. That’s all over the place. Algorithms change in social media. Your content may or may not be shown to people, but you can send an email once, twice, three times a week to to your email list. Like that’s the only thing that you control. So I’ve really tried to

shift and nurture my email even within like the last six months, especially as we’ve seen such a drastic change in Google. And being a smaller blogger, that’s something I feel like I can use to stand out as well. And really focus on not being like, I’m not just another food creator. I’m not just another recipe blog. So like you said in my in your intro, I really focus on using like wholesome nutrient dense foods.

Focusing on helping people navigate the grocery store. I’m not just publishing another, you know, chicken soup recipe. If I did, there would be some uniqueness to it, but I want to provide value. I don’t want to show up as just another person in this space. and where I can do that is through my email. And where I’ve seen the biggest success rate is in my welcome sequence. So I would say in the last year, I really transitioned over to nurturing that welcome sequence.

really looking, sitting down strategically, like what do I want my welcome sequence to provide my readers? And if I think about like my growth strategy, you know, I first and foremost solving a problem for them. I my welcome sequence is a clean eating guide. It’s it’s not necessarily like sign up and receive five free recipes. Like they’re gonna get a freebie that they’re not receiving on my actual blog. Like you won’t get this download until you sign up. So you get

a full guide that goes very deep into the different sections of the grocery store, what to look for, so I know up front I’m solving a problem for those people.

Allea Grummert (06:39)
Yes. And then it’s not so general that like everyone would sign up for it.

Sara Ecklin (06:43)
Correct. And I think what I’ve really started to realize too is growth to me is getting the right subscribers. It’s not getting subscribers. Like great, I could have 10,000 subscribers, but if they’re not clicking through, if they’re not providing value in my content, they don’t want to be there and I don’t want them there. So to me, it’s like I want to attract the right people that are there for the information that I provide for the information that they may not find elsewhere.

Allea Grummert (07:10)
I love that. Well and yeah, to have something so valuable. Have you had people reply back to you and tell you about its value or how it’s helped them just even in the first download?

Sara Ecklin (07:22)
a little bit here and there. If I’m being honest, I wish more people would, because I do ask in the very last of the welcome sequence. Actually in the first I take the back. In the first email when I provide the free guide, I do say respond back with questions. I answer every email, I read every email, or what are you still leaving wanting to know more about so I can update the guide? so I don’t get a ton of replies, but I will kind of at the end of the welcome sequence sometimes, because then I ask them again, like reply back with one recipe.

you’re looking for that you may not have found yet. Yes. so I do get people a little bit here and there or some people just saying, Thank you so much. Like I’m so excited to make some of your recipes. and that just feels good.

Allea Grummert (08:03)
Yeah. And did you know those replies really help get people in the in your inbox, like getting your emails into the inbox versus spam?

Sara Ecklin (08:13)
I did not. That’s a great little tidbit. Okay.

Allea Grummert (08:16)
So having those questions early on is getting that engagement and telling, you know, the inbox gods like these are these are real people replying, not like bot clicks or anything like that. It just it has the biggest amount of impact on showing up in the priority inbox.

Sara Ecklin (08:32)
Good to know.

Allea Grummert (08:33)
So well done. Yeah.

Sara Ecklin (08:34)
Thanks. I might have learned that from you actually. Like ask for something in the email. Yeah. Reply back.

Allea Grummert (08:39)
Yes. Yes. okay, can you tell me too? So what was it about like I mean, if there are any details from the mastermind presentation that I gave or any particular n things where you were like, This is this is something I can go execute on right now versus waiting on?

Sara Ecklin (09:01)
I think one of the things that really stood out to me is like ways to market your email list versus just like have a sign up on your blog, like everybody does, of course, but like other ways, like thinking outside of just like your subscribe page or your sign-up page, like how else can you encourage email signup? So I did start adding, so on each of my blog posts under the ingredient section, I do highlight like

Sarah’s clean food tips, like just a couple quick things. Like if you’re at the grocery store store shopping for bone broth, for example, here’s some things to look for when you’re looking at bone broth. And then right underneath that, now I added an email sign up. So looking for more, you’re struggling at the grocery store, looking for more ways to like help you navigate the grocery store, sign up for my clean food guide. And so they can just sign up for it right there. So I know if they’re gonna stop in the blog post to read that clean food tip, then right after that I’m gonna say,

Do you want more? Sign up here. so I’ve executed that. One thing I have that I’m working on that I have not fully executed yet is more on social. I don’t I haven’t in the past used use social to promote my email list. So I will start doing more like which I learned from your presentation in Kayla’s group is to show like five back to school homemade snacks and then reply for the list.

And then I can just send them an email, but grab their email in return for them getting the five recipes.

Allea Grummert (10:30)
So exactly. Yep. So it’s expanding on the strategies that you already have. It sounds like your current lead magnet is what is truly a lead magnet, which would apply to all of the content on your website and really fits in well with your brand. And then that’s where we also, once you have something like that set up that’s working, even if you’re not sure if it’s working, you can also create like different variants of like, okay, how what could I do that’s seasonal that people can grab now and also join my email list. So that’s like the back to school.

Sara Ecklin (10:59)
Makes sense. Yep.

Allea Grummert (11:00)
That’s very cool. have you been able to set up like Grow or Many Chat to be doing DM strategies through Instagram? He is Grow.

Sara Ecklin (11:09)
Yes, I do use grow. Yes. Yep.

Allea Grummert (11:12)
How has that been usability wise?

Sara Ecklin (11:14)
Usability-wise, it’s super convenient. It’s super easy. I love you can use different keywords for different signups or just different ways to like engage your audience. so grows, I mean, super user friendly.

Allea Grummert (11:27)
Good. I’ve heard that and I just wanted to confirm. Would

Sara Ecklin (11:30)
Yeah. Okay.

Allea Grummert (11:31)
have been terrible if you were like, it’s awful. I’m like, no, not on air, Sarah. Don’t tell Ben. No. I also use it as part of my team, but that means I have a team member who uses it. So I just wanted to hear your perspective because I’ve heard it’s really, really easy. Yeah. and then yeah, with that direct DM strategy now too, like you don’t even have to link to a landing page. They just reply back with their email address.

Sara Ecklin (11:55)
Right.

Allea Grummert (11:56)
And it gets connected. So that’s less that you need to create. You don’t need like a forward facing form to share it on social. That’s

Sara Ecklin (12:04)
And I use kit for my email service provider and I also think everything through kit’s so it’s easy connect things, it’s easy to navigate. It’s I’ve I’ve been very happy with kit.

Allea Grummert (12:14)
Okay, good. I have been too and I think like I’m kind of a linear thinker in that way. I’m like I like that it’s like in order and that like things just kind of feel orderly for me and alphabetical. Like things are aren’t like there are no surprises and and so it feels really good as a user. So okay, so when you say you went to go make changes to your welcome sequence, what did you have in place like a year ago or a year and a half ago?

Sara Ecklin (12:43)
I th probably about a year ago, I think I only had three emails in my welcome sequence. So I have now changed to five. I’ve always been more hesitant about like I don’t wanna bother people. I don’t wanna put too much in their inbox. And I’ve completely like thrown that idea to the side and have said it is okay. Like I

I’ve always like, I don’t want to bug people. And I’m like, that’s not I’m b I’m not bothering people. Like they signed up, they’re looking for something. So and I also have made sure each each email in my welcome sequence offers something different. so I have five emails in the welcome sequence now. So the first one is here’s your free guide.

Allea Grummert (13:26)
Okay.

Sara Ecklin (13:26)
The second one, and it it kind of follows a story. So here’s your free guide. Now the second one is your shopping list. So okay, you’ve learned about how to navigate, you’ve learned about shopping for like more wholesome.

Clean eating ingredients. Now here’s a shopping list. And it goes through like the sections of the grocery store, like condiments, flowers, baking goods, fruits, vegetables. that’s the second one. Then I wanted to one thing I added was to share more about like my expertise and my experience and share more about me in my email sequence. So my third one is all about.

Sarah and Clean Plate Mama, like how was where was Clean Plate Mama born? Like the story behind it, like the story behind how I got to where I was or how I got to where I am now. and then sharing a little bit about recipes that have been featured in different articles or different places, just to share a little bit more of that expertise, but also like to show up like authentic me, like to show up as who I am, build connection,

You know, I don’t want this space to feel robotic, especially in a world of AI. I want it to feel personal. so I added that in and I think that one’s you know, it’s a it’s a good addition to the welcome sequence.

Allea Grummert (14:42)
Yes. Okay, I wanna know about your f emails for five, but I do want to ask you about them the writing about yourself email. Because how how did that feel? I’m say I’m asking this as like a fellow Midwesterner. How did it feel talking about yourself?

Sara Ecklin (14:54)
See,

I know you gotta gotta gotta get rid of the whole persona of also like I don’t want to bother people. It’s such a Midwestern thing, you know? And I don’t

Allea Grummert (15:03)
Wanna talk about myself.

Sara Ecklin (15:05)
so no, actually totally fine because I have my about page. So I actually took my about page and I used chat and I said, here’s my about page. I’m writing a new email in my email sequence. Like, help me take this, but you know, synthesize it into three or four paragraphs. Here are the other things I wanna.

get across about me, like help me brainstorm how to bring this email to life. And it’s yeah, it’s very easy. It was comfortable. and I also have to put myself in the shoes of the recipient. Like I want to know who’s behind these emails. I would want to know who this person is.

Allea Grummert (15:41)
Girl, every time I think I have a question, you already answer it. So I’m like, no, no, what’s my next? Like, yeah. Because it is, it’s allowing people to get to know you, the host. Like you are their guide. And what’s so cool is that by this point, you have literally taught them how resource like with these resources between like the clean eating and the shopping guide, like you are their clean eating guide. And you get to say, here’s my journey with it, here’s how this started, or here’s what changed for me.

And I always say that that’s important because if someone else is reading that going, so Sarah’s had that same revelation, like the one that I’m having right now, she already had it years ago and that’s why I’m that’s why she’s here and therefore I can trust her. And if it’s not just that, it’s the credibility factor of like, here are the recipes that have been featured. Like that’s yeah, so much trust happens there when you’re sharing your backstory and your credibility and also your just like ability. So people will say, and your face. Is your face do you have a picture in there?

I’m in your about one?

Sara Ecklin (16:40)
I’m gonna go look and see if I do. I mean it links to my blog, which does, but I don’t know if there’s a picture in the actual email. I’m gonna go add it if there’s not.

Allea Grummert (16:50)
Yeah, add one of you like looking at the screen. Like looking through the screen right at the reader. That sounds so creepy. But just like, yeah, as much as you can say, like, this is me. I want to like make eye contact with you the best I can over an email. Yeah. That’s a really great way to build priority.

Sara Ecklin (17:06)
Okay.

Allea Grummert (17:06)
Yeah. Do you have a question or resource that you share in that email in particular?

Sara Ecklin (17:12)
I don’t think that one le links to a resource ’cause the first two link to resources and this one was just more about like who I am.

Allea Grummert (17:20)
Right. So it could be asking a question. That could be the call to action as well. Like the about page is one thing. But then with the call to action, you could ask something I’ve learned. It’s if you kinda ask like what’s agitating them, like that’s that gets people responding. You’re like, What is like what is it that changed that you decided to eat? Like for me, I just went to Europe for three weeks and I got back and I was like,

My gosh, like is anything here healthy to eat? Because over in Europe they have so many other like structural, like the government is like, this is unsafe. Like literally stuff in the United States cannot be served in Europe. So I’m coming back being like, my gosh, what am I what should I eat? Do I go organic now? Like I have no idea. And so

Sara Ecklin (18:02)
you could reference if you have some questions.

Allea Grummert (18:05)
Really? Do you have a post for that? So I will go I will be on your site downloading that later for sure. So yeah, but like that kind of like what what agitated you? Or maybe it was like a health symptom or something that like or maybe they’re going through something right now when they’re like, like I went gluten free last summer. And so who knows what somebody’s journey is.

Sara Ecklin (18:26)
Yeah.

Allea Grummert (18:27)
I tried it last summer, it ended up not helping at all. Cool, cool. So but you know what? Praise the Lord.

that tortilla chips are still gluten free. Because I was like, I’m glad that we have that. I can still I can still have chips. I can go to Mexican restaurants, all I please. So yeah, like if you can ask like in a kind way, but just to say like what brought you here? What’s yeah. Or or or what’s frustrating about switching, whatever that might be. Or making these changes. I think that’d be super resource.

Sara Ecklin (18:56)
I’m gonna do that too, okay.

Allea Grummert (18:58)
Yeah. Another thing, and you’re not I’m not saying you have to include it, but for listeners

Another cool thing could just be linking to the recipe index. If you have a really nice like recipe search page, that in itself is a resource. Like, are you just searching by entree? Are you searching by dessert? Like, or do you have certain ingredients? Just letting them know that that’s a place and just say like, hey, bookmark this.

Sara Ecklin (19:20)
Bookmark is their call to action. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (19:22)
There you go. okay, tell me about emails four and five.

Sara Ecklin (19:26)
So

then four is this one links to specific recipes. So this is kind of like taking the guesswork out of dinner. So as a busy mom, dinner is hard. Even as a food blogger, I always tell my husband, my least favorite thing in the world is to meal plan. And that’s what I do for a living is cook and document it. But I am always like, what are we eating for dinner tonight? And so the first one is about like five clean family friendly clean eating dinners.

and it just kind of links to the top most popular recipes, what I like about them, what maybe might be different from these versus another one you might find online. So that’s more like hopefully getting them more introduced then to the types of recipes they’ll find on my site and then encouraging them to give like one or two a try.

Allea Grummert (20:15)
If you have been busy and not keeping track of all the updates happening at Kit this year, that’s okay. That’s why I’m here. I’m gonna gather those updates and share them with you. One of the big things that has happened this year is the Kit MCP. So this means you can actually connect Kit with Claude. And instead of having to like pull data from Kit and add to a GPT in order to help analyze your data and what’s working, you can actually just connect it directly to Claude and say, hey Claude, which of my last emails in this format?

Or with this subject line have performed best as far as click rates go. And it will just go in your kit, gather that information, and report back to you. I recently did that. I asked about the different formats of how I’m sending out my podcast to my email list. And it said, actually, there’s really no difference between one way or the other. And I was like, great, thanks so much. So then I didn’t really have to worry about it. But if it had said, hey, using this button with this text actually performs better, then I would know that. So I want to make sure that you get the chance to sign up.

For kit, if you’re not already a user and get used to it, because that is a tool that is available when you’re on the creator plan. So go to duet.co/slash kit and sign up for my kit from scratch email series. It’ll make sure that you are up to snuff on how to use kit and how to get it set up and start working for you right away. If you are already a kit user, be sure to go connect kit with your Claude account. If you are an AI user, I highly recommend it. It does so much for you.

If you want to say tag everybody who clicked this link in the last five emails, it’ll do it in matter of seconds. It’s going to blow your mind. So if you are further along in kit, you’re already wanting to use it in that way, get in there, go for it. If you’re new to kit, go to duet.co slash kit to sign up for my free email series kit from scratch.

Yeah. With that too, I love that you’re if you can include the like what makes this different, even if it’s not explicitly saying that.

Sara Ecklin (22:14)
Yep.

Allea Grummert (22:14)
and maybe it does, but what that does is it’s reinforcing your unique selling proposition, the fact that it is clean eating, you know, and so and that’s what we want, especially in the welcome sequence. Like we want you to be known for this.

If they’re like, No, I just can never give up my like I had my boxed mac and cheese last night. I can never give it up and Sarah can’t change me, then I’ll unsubscribe and it’ll be like, Great.

Sara Ecklin (22:42)
So that’s that one. And then the last one that the last one I also recently updated, probably in the last six months, is the my clean eating guide wrap-up. So it’s also kind of just thanking them for being here, what they can expect from me. But then recently I added a call to action for them. Like which recipes are you most interested in?

like learning more about or making in the future. And I kept it pretty high level, but I did like clean eating breakfast, make at home snacks, better for you desserts, easy healthy dinners, and then just a general like clean eating, like tip links. And they all link to that category on my site. But then I also added a tag within kit so I know who’s clicking on which one.

So then in the future, if I wanna start sending like one additional email a week, I can say, okay, these hundred people said dinner recipes, so they’re gonna get the dinner, the extra dinner recipe email this week, or these hundred people said they want snacks. So I’m gonna send this group an extra email with a snack recipe this week. So I just started doing that.

Allea Grummert (23:52)
I love it. Can I give you more ideas?

Sara Ecklin (23:55)
Yes.

Allea Grummert (23:55)
Not why you signed up to do this.

Sara Ecklin (23:57)
So too, yes. I will take all the advice I can get.

Allea Grummert (24:01)
Super

fun. Well, if you have evergreen emails that would s like match any of those, you can just create a segment a sequence on kit to like on Tuesdays these dinner recipes go out. Even if you sent it out six months ago. I mean keep it somewhat season free or whatever. Or just say like lock this away for strawberry season or something like that. or just make it really clear like you can use fresh or frozen, you know, what do we need to do?

But because you’ve already sent out those emails or as you’re sending them out, like you send out a dessert email, it goes to everyone, you

Sara Ecklin (24:34)
Yeah.

Allea Grummert (24:35)
repurpose that into its own nurture sequence and you just pick a day of the week or a time. And so that when those people who get that tag get that email throughout the week. And maybe all five or six of them all go out on Tuesdays at the same time. But like that gets tricky because like what if they click twice? You know, they want more than one thing.

Sara Ecklin (24:55)
Yeah.

Allea Grummert (24:56)
so maybe just like spread them out.

Like it could be one for each day of the week or maybe they double up like one in the morning, one in the afternoon. If people so happen to have clicked on both. Yeah. Both the desserts in the afternoon and I don’t know what I’m gonna say, breakfast in the morning, ’cause that makes sense. so but that way you can really maximize that. And those people are getting stuff as soon as they click that when they are getting that final email.

Sara Ecklin (25:21)
okay. I’m gonna look at that. That is one thing I do need to do better is doing like the nurture sequence. Like is putting a little bit more effort into those. So that’s a great tip.

Allea Grummert (25:31)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then I was gonna say another option would be you could have like a general nurture sequence, but like all of those emails just live there, and you could just exclude anybody who doesn’t have the tag desserts. That way they would skip that email link kit and go on to the next one.

Sara Ecklin (25:49)
Hang.

Allea Grummert (25:49)
But if it feels good to have a

Sara Ecklin (25:51)
See what you’re saying. Okay. So just that specific email within the nurture sequence I could say do not yeah, exclude the people that do

Allea Grummert (26:01)
Do not.

Sara Ecklin (26:01)
not have that tag. Okay. Okay. Mm-hmm.

Allea Grummert (26:04)
Mm-hmm.

And then they’ll just skip that email and go to the next one.

Sara Ecklin (26:07)
Okay.

Allea Grummert (26:08)
So there’s that option, or if you wanted to have them as separate nurture sequences, you could definitely do that as well. Based on, you know, it might be different if you plan to like launch a product or something to have

Sara Ecklin (26:18)
Yeah.

Allea Grummert (26:19)
a little bit more control over that. lastly, if you wanted to add a sixth email, if you’re sitting in there going, Allie, what? What you could do is you could delay two days and anybody who didn’t click in the previous email gets a reminder.

To c like, tell me more about what you want. So if they don’t have any of those six tags, send them that email.

Sara Ecklin (26:40)
Got it. They do not have one of those six tags. Resend that email to those just those peop individual.

Allea Grummert (26:47)
Because if they do have any of those tags they did click, they’ll skip that final email and they’ll exit the welcome sequence.

Sara Ecklin (26:52)
Yep.

Allea Grummert (26:52)
But then anybody else who’s left, two or three days later will say like, Okay, before I start sending you new stuff, I wanna know more about what you want

Sara Ecklin (26:59)
Yep.

Allea Grummert (26:59)
in case you missed this the other day, just click one or

Sara Ecklin (27:02)
Okay. Yep. Okay. Okay. Would you recommend like a sixth email in general, or do you feel like those five kind of wraps it up pretty well?

Allea Grummert (27:14)
Good. One of the things that I always like, the tension I feel when creating a welcome sequence strategy for bloggers, it’s getting recipes to them as soon as possible. So like I would almost make that email one, except that you’ve made this really wonderful resource right away. So are there ’cause right now you’re not they’re not seeing any recipes till email four.

Sara Ecklin (27:34)
Tell email four. Yeah. This is a good yeah.

Allea Grummert (27:38)
Something to keep

in mind. So maybe that goes like email two. And then they it can be introduced to you and then the grocery like maybe just play around with that order.

Sara Ecklin (27:48)
Pad.

Allea Grummert (27:49)
So especially if it’s like a quick win.

Sara Ecklin (27:55)
Yep. Okay.

Allea Grummert (27:55)
So

it could be that could be email two and then email three could be we’ll see email two, here’s some recipes. Stay tuned tomorrow. I’m gonna send you my grocery shopping. So like pick out your recipes now and tomorrow I’m gonna show you how to what to look for.

Sara Ecklin (28:09)
So I could just switch swap those two. Mm-hmm.

Allea Grummert (28:12)
So then it’s like clean eating guide. What’s currently

Sara Ecklin (28:17)
Well that would be then the like about clean plate mama would be s no, no, no, sorry. Fourth. Yeah. The d easy dinner recipes.

Allea Grummert (28:25)
Mm-hmm. And what’s cool is that that segmentation email even moving sooner, earlier in the process. No, wait, that’s currently number five. Never mind, never mind, never mind. I was gonna say, if you did have it in there, that just gives people more time to click on it before they would receive your final email with the reminder. So it gives them like

Sara Ecklin (28:41)
Got all a few extra days.

Allea Grummert (28:43)
Those don’t

have those emails don’t have to be backed backed in order for that to make sense. That’s all.

Sara Ecklin (28:48)
that will be something fun to test, like move it around a little bit, the order of the emails.

Allea Grummert (28:53)
Mm-hmm. And just like, hey, top of mind, what do you need the most help with? And

Sara Ecklin (28:57)
Yep.

Allea Grummert (28:57)
then five days later or whatever, however after how many emails.

Sara Ecklin (29:00)
Yep. You’re asking her again. Okay. Cool? Great ideas, yes.

Allea Grummert (29:04)
So fun. okay, so because remember you had three emails. You added the about me, you added probably the wrap up email.

Sara Ecklin (29:13)
Yeah. I updated the wrap up one. Like I think it was very brief. Like, thanks for signing up. Glad you’re here. You know.

Allea Grummert (29:19)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sara Ecklin (29:20)
There wasn’t much to it. And now I’ve added the tags. Like, let me know what recipes you’re most interested in. So now I can tag readers in, you know, different categories. so yes, I beefed up my my last email a lot more than it was. Yeah. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (29:35)
Yeah. Put on a little muscle. Yeah.

then what does your usual cadence look like for sending emails out during during the week? So once the welcome sequence is done, then what happens?

Sara Ecklin (29:47)
My emails go out typically on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Okay. no huge rhyme or reason other than I feel like I have heard in the past those are the best days of the week to send emails. That’s a great question for you. Is that still the case? Is are there days of the week that are better?

Allea Grummert (30:05)
You know, that’s a great question. I have clients who send some like late Sunday night and they do well. So it really just depends on your audience and maintaining consistency. Actually, I think she went to go schedule it for Sunday morning and it actually went out Saturday night at like ten PM. She’s like, That proved freakishly

Sara Ecklin (30:19)
I’m

Allea Grummert (30:20)
well for me ten o’clock on a Saturday night. That’s what it was. so it really depends. And then I would say it’s more so about like consistency and just they know what to expect, what day of the week. I send my emails Tuesday, Thursday, pr also because I saw an article that was like Tuesdays at two thirty and I’m like

Okay. and now it’s just like that’s just I think I’d I picked ten AM both Tuesday for my evergreen emails and then Thursday for my new ones. I think my team changed it to eleven AM at some point. And I’m like, well whatever. Like it’s just it’s going out. And that’s where like if you build enough brand recognition, people will hopefully

Sara Ecklin (30:53)
People will see it come in and wanna click on it. Yes, yeah. So I do that

Allea Grummert (30:58)
I was say you can always play around with it.

Sara Ecklin (31:00)
Yeah. Yep. I do late morning. So maybe I’ll try like late afternoon and see if that changes anything.

Allea Grummert (31:06)
And I also know of other brands that launch that drop like six AM Central.

Sara Ecklin (31:10)
Okay. Okay.

Allea Grummert (31:12)
Definitely you can play around. And that might be something that’s more fun to play around with that those nurture emails. You just set it to send out like Wednesdays at six AM or Thursday at six AM and just see how people respond to that.

Sara Ecklin (31:25)
Okay. Okay. Yeah, I will look at that. yeah, so Tuesday, Thursdays, I recently also I have some emails that perform very well, like anyone, some emails that just kind of flop and there’s not huge engagement. So I have been taking the emails that have been performing really well, plopping them into chat and saying, analyze these emails, where are their consistencies? Like what do they all have in common?

and so I have started using more of a I’ve always had a template, but I’m trying to find follow a little bit more strict of a template ever since having chat kind of analyze my top 10, 15 performing emails. and I think even my weekly emails get high engagement rates. I did up I did delete cold subscribers probably about a year ago.

Which was very nerve wracking. I was like, I don’t wanna delete all these people off my email.

Allea Grummert (32:22)
Well, yeah.

Sara Ecklin (32:24)
but also now I don’t want them there if they’re not gonna open the emails anyway. So it was like so it was hard to delete them and it was over a thousand from the list. I’m like, I’ve gotta get rid of and but now they wouldn’t have opened an email anyway. So it’s okay. And I have very good engagement rate even with my weekly emails. and so now I’m trying to follow a very similar like template just to

hopefully encourage people and engage people with the emails and get them clicking more.

Allea Grummert (32:51)
I love it. Well, and it sounds like you’ve done a lot of the mindset work, Sarah. Like that’s like early on, that’s what I heard in our conversation. I’m just like, people are not annoyed with me. I have valuable content to share. My story matters and my the reason why people should listen to me needs to be explained. And then hopefully once they know that they know that they can trust me. Like

Even the idea of removing your cold subscribers, like it is not fun. I think that’s people avoid that a lot, but it has such a benefit. And there’s actually a way you can do it in kit now where it’ll actually clean up your list automatically for you. So once you do that big purge, which like breaks your heart, then it’s just like every 60 to 90 days, even 30 days, you can set it up that after a cold subscriber hasn’t opened in 30 days, they get a reengagement sequence. And then if they don’t click either those two emails, then they get unsubscribed.

And so my list just hovers around the same amount all the time. I’m like, well, I’m not like growing significantly, but I know that I’m pruning the people who are not the most interested.

Sara Ecklin (33:51)
Right.

Allea Grummert (33:51)
So yeah. Cold subscribers, man. That’ll get ya. That’ll get ya. But it it helps so much more with deliverability because you’re not sending emails to people who are not opening it.

Sara Ecklin (34:02)
Right. And like I said, I want the right people to be part of my list and the ones that are finding value in what I’m providing. And if you’re not, no offense, you don’t want to be there and I don’t want you there either. I don’t

Allea Grummert (34:14)
I don’t want to pay for you there, but also like just knowing the people who are left are the people who find this message valuable. When you have that, like you know that when you just sit down to write it, that it’s for the right people. Mm-hmm. And it removes that whole am I being annoying thing ’cause you’re like, if I’m annoying is I’m annoying about the one thing I told you I was gonna talk about. Right. Right. Like if you don’t want to learn about email marketing anymore, okay. Like that’s the one thing I promised you that I would yeah, for

Sara Ecklin (34:40)
Right.

Allea Grummert (34:41)
kingdom comes. So

yeah, and people have autonomy and reason they have an ability to leave. the reason why I asked about your current sending schedule before I forget was also like the idea of if you do want to start sending a third email a week or you wanna do like a I don’t know, like a specialty. I know some people do like Thursday deals or wanna feature affiliates or something like that. If you want to add in more emails, if at any point you feel like I need to give people options to get fewer emails, one way to do that would be to

Segment your list.

Sara Ecklin (35:13)
Okay. Okay.

Allea Grummert (35:14)
And that’s something you can just even explain in the footer. This is like two for two email podcast episodes where I’m mentioning Tony Okamoto from Plant Based on a Budget. But hers is just in the footer, like Monday is this, Tuesday is this, Wednesday is this, Thursday, Friday, whatever. And then you can click in your preferences to say, I want these emails and I don’t want these emails.

Sara Ecklin (35:35)
okay.

Allea Grummert (35:35)
So that’s an option, especially as you want to send more emails.

Sara Ecklin (35:39)
Yes, okay.

Allea Grummert (35:41)
That way you are really respecting the fact that like, yes, you’ve signed up for my list, but I’m increasing the number of emails than what you’re expecting. So here’s a way for me to explain that to you.

Sara Ecklin (35:51)
Okay. Okay. Lots to learn in kit still. I’m like for all these ideas, I’m like, I’ll have to learn how to do that.

Allea Grummert (35:59)
I I know. I need to host another workshop soon, just like on all the kit things. and then I was curious because early on I mentioned that your click rate in your welcome sequence is over eighteen percent. Mm-hmm.

Sara Ecklin (36:11)
My girl Yeah,

I pulled it this morning. What did it say? Eighteen percent. Eighteen percent. So yeah.

Allea Grummert (36:17)
Eighteen percent. Can you tell me like how that is played out in over the course of those five emails? Because it makes sense that the first email, because it’s a freebie, is probably going to be like exceptionally high. And that’s not usually a number I include in the welcome sequence because I set that up as like a lead magnet email. So I don’t always know. But I am curious, like you’ve got that. I think it’d be really sweet to know how many people are actually clicking to access the guide in that first email.

Sara Ecklin (36:42)
Yeah, so aside from the first email, the second email, which is my clean eating shopping list. the first one has a very high open and click rate because obviously they signed up to get the clean eating guide. It

Allea Grummert (36:54)
Yeah, but what is it? I want to know.

Sara Ecklin (36:56)
is so the open rate is this is in the last ninety days. So the open rate is seventy percent. Well the click rate’s like forty eight. So actually But just still good. But like you signed up for it, shouldn’t you? Everybody click on it.

Allea Grummert (37:10)
You’d think. You’d think. Yeah. And that’s also like why it’s really helpful, like in that final email, if you’re not relinking to it, maybe relink to it there.

Sara Ecklin (37:19)
that’s a good idea I will relink to it there. Okay.

Allea Grummert (37:22)
And then you’re like, and if you have any feedback or there’s other questions you have, this is a great time to let me

Sara Ecklin (37:26)
We know.

Yep. Yep. Okay. Mm-hmm. shopping list that’s sixty seven percent open rate and twenty two percent click rate. So that one’s still like

Allea Grummert (37:36)
Mm.

Sara Ecklin (37:37)
I said, it’s like I’m you know, I really focused on like I’m solving a problem for them, like I’m providing value and

Allea Grummert (37:45)
Yes. And then from the end of the first email into the second email, are you including what we would call an open loop? Where you’re like, and stay tuned for tomorrow. Yes. Okay.

Sara Ecklin (37:54)
Yes. Yep. I said to me like yes. Like day two, I will share this. And then at the end of day two, I say, stay tuned tomorrow where I will share whatever. Yes. But at the end of each of them, I kinda give them a little teaser about what they should expect the following day. And they each go out every twenty four hours in the welcome sequence. There’s no time lapse between them other than the twenty four hours.

Allea Grummert (38:14)
Were you a copywriter in your corporate job?

Sara Ecklin (38:17)
No, but I but I wasn’t learning and development. So I built training content for mm hmm. So I guess a little bit of a copywriter because I I created learning content, yes.

Allea Grummert (38:28)
Yes. Well, and there’s just so much and I’ve had clients ask me if I was ever a teacher and I was like, no. But I love thinking about how people are progressing through something. And it it takes a special mindset to think through if someone has never met me before, how do I introduce myself in a way that’s not overwhelming, but it’s building trust and I’m being helpful. There’s so much around a welcome sequence and that like all these different elements and I love it because to me it’s like a big puzzle like on the back of my behind me.

Sara Ecklin (38:54)
Okay, well, yep.

Allea Grummert (38:55)
It’s it’s like a puzzle. And like there’s not necessarily like one right way to do a welcome sequence. Like I’ve got all these different elements and things that I think are really important. So I would say it’s the way that I would do it. but yeah, like there’s a lot of playing around with that too. And I know that we talked about like rearranging some of your emails. If that ends up feeling weird, you don’t have to do that either. The information is getting shared.

Sara Ecklin (39:15)
Yep. Yeah. But all good ideas. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (39:20)
Thanks. Okay. And then are you getting good clicks through like the about page and then the segmentation email, food emails?

Sara Ecklin (39:27)
Yes, the segmentation email that has a six percent click rate. I just added the segmentation probably three months ago, so the number isn’t huge yet in each of the tags, so that’s still fairly new, a new addition.

Allea Grummert (39:42)
Have you asked your current list, everyone who didn’t get that email?

Sara Ecklin (39:46)
I have that email going out. I did just so I have yet to poll my audience. But that is one thing I did come in out of our things too. So I have the email ready to go. That is going out in September. I just figured people are busy in the summer, it’s back to school. I really wanted to get like good engagement with it. I also just sent out the email that asked users to add me as a preferred source to Google. Great. And I didn’t want to send back to back emails of like asks. So I was like, I’m gonna space these two apart plus

I thought maybe September kids are back in school, lives start to maybe like you’re settling down off of summer. So I have that ready to go and scheduled for early September.

Allea Grummert (40:26)
Okay. And I will say it’s not really an ask. You’re helping them get the content

Sara Ecklin (40:30)
Okay. And I do put that in the email. It is to like help me create content to help you. Yes.

Allea Grummert (40:36)
I mean, yes. Also it’s just like as I start sending out more content, what do you want more of? Yes. You tell you tell me. yes. I love that. So it’s going to go out and what you can do is you can another way to care for your subscribers would be to exclude everyone who’s already gotten one of those opt-in tags.

Sara Ecklin (40:54)
okay.

Allea Grummert (40:54)
So you just like under the second page when you’re kind of configuring the audience and just exclude anyone who has any advice because they’ve already told you

Sara Ecklin (40:59)
Those tags. I will do that. They’ve already told me. Thank you. I will do that.

Allea Grummert (41:05)
You’re welcome. And then similarly you can also send that email out a second time or add those parameters to the end of a next email. gosh, it’s getting so complicated. Maybe just send it as an individual email. Okay.

Sara Ecklin (41:18)
Unopens resend to all pins.

Allea Grummert (41:20)
Anybody

who doesn’t have that tag, just say like, Hey, one more time. I just want to make sure you saw this so that as I start sending out or as I’m developing content through the rest of the year and to next year, I want to make sure you get more of what you want.

Sara Ecklin (41:31)
Yeah, perfect.

Allea Grummert (41:32)
Yes, I love it. okay, so the biggest win w so would be definitely giving away the freebie in that first email, then the shopping guide. And then I love that you’ve added on the segmentation. and that you’ve got lots of really great questions to get people to reply back to you.

You’ve done a great job.

Sara Ecklin (41:51)
Thanks, Allie.

Allea Grummert (41:52)
It’s like you know your audience and w how they need to experience you and what resources you already have. Cause did you already did you create the clean eating guide as a lead magnet? Or it was something that you’re like, I need something for my audience, therefore I’m going to create this.

Sara Ecklin (42:14)
the free guide was for a lead magnet because I already have a page on my blog that’s like clean eating for beginners that anyone can access. The guide is much deeper than the page on my blog, so I created that as the lead magnet, yes, to offer them a freebie. Yes.

Allea Grummert (42:32)
Love that. Did you how did you land on that as your topic? Was that page getting a lot of action or did you just know this is something that every new subscriber on my list needs to know?

Sara Ecklin (42:41)
About?

a little bit of both, but also more so as I thought about really identifying like my ideal reader for my blog, questions I get from friends, questions I get from neighbors. I have people come over to my pantry, help me clean out my pantry. So taking that into consideration, like knowing real problems that people have around the topic, that

sort of was part of like the inspiration and where I landed on that specifically too.

Allea Grummert (43:13)
Yeah. What about the shopping guide? Is that something you created when you were like, I need something else for the welcome sequence to give away?

Sara Ecklin (43:18)
Yes, that was something yes, exactly. Like I want something else to follow that as well as I have yet to do, but I do want to set up now, like once I focus can start focusing more on like affiliate marketing too. Like create a my shop page and then start linking to that too. Because I also have people asking me, like, Well, what should I buy for X ingredient? What should I buy for this? So yeah.

Allea Grummert (43:40)
Well and that could end up being a really great first email in your nurture sequence that just like everybody gets it, but they just get it like a few days later after they’re getting you know So

Sara Ecklin (43:48)
Yeah.

Allea Grummert (43:48)
you know it they’re still getting it because it is yes, it’s an affiliate thing and yes, you’re like I you could be making money for it or you hopefully will be earning some commission. But it’s also the most helpful thing you can offer. Like when I wrote that for Pinchabyama, it was literally like for the beginners, we’re like, These are the cutting boards, these are the knives, this is the blender, like for beginners versus like the more advanced folks have got like

the $400 blender or whatever. Right.

Sara Ecklin (44:12)
Right.

Allea Grummert (44:13)
just as much as we’re like telling the beginners how to cut up an onion, how to like whatever, like in really yeah. So like what is it? It’s helping people with where they are at that moment. You can

Sara Ecklin (44:22)
Yes.

Allea Grummert (44:23)
include all that in an email. I know when I wrote that for Pinch of Young years ago, we included pictures and whatnot. And it’s been really cool to see Lindsay like she sends out an email. It’s just like eight bullet points. And it’s just like everything’s just linked. There’s no images. And you’re like, I

You know, it’s really like quick and efficient in that way too. Both for her to send her and our team to set it out, but also as a reader, ’cause I’m like, what a blender looks like. Just

Sara Ecklin (44:42)
Yeah. Right.

Allea Grummert (44:45)
open. You know, right. so there’s all sorts of different ways you can play around with promoting affiliates. But I would recommend er that that’s early on. Don’t make them wait two months.

Sara Ecklin (44:54)
Okay. Okay. Yep. And they are moved into my nurture sequence, which needs some nurturing itself, but once they finish my welcome sequence, they are immediately put in the nurture sequence. So

Allea Grummert (45:04)
Okay, they your nurture sequence and they start getting your welcome, your week email.

Sara Ecklin (45:07)
Here we can see. Okay.

Allea Grummert (45:10)
I love it. Sarah, this has been such a joy. I love

Sara Ecklin (45:14)
this has been wonderful. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (45:16)
so fun. Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience, what got you motivated. I love hearing that like I mean, you have a right understanding of email marketing, especially when things are super tumultuous on social or with SEO and AI and all this. Not only are you focusing on a platform.

That gives you direct access to your subscribers when you hit send. It’s also a place that you can build relationships and be a human, especially in your welcome sequence and sharing your story. And I’m just really excited about it because I think your list is lucky to be on your list. Your subscribers.

Sara Ecklin (45:51)
That means a lot. Thank you.

Allea Grummert (45:53)
Yes, well you’re being very, very intentional and I hope that they can feel and appreciate that.

Sara Ecklin (45:58)
Me too. Thanks.

Allea Grummert (46:00)
Well, as we wrap up, where can I send people to follow along with you? Where can they get your clean eating?

Sara Ecklin (46:06)
Yeah, so you can visit me at cleanplatemama.com. there’s a subscribe put subscribe page. There is just a my like clean eating guide for beginners is on there too. If you just want to introduce yourself to what clean eating is without subscribing yet, or you can subscribe and get the full guide, you can follow me on social, Instagram at cleanplate mama, Facebook at cleanplate mama, and Pinterest at cleanplate.

Allea Grummert (46:32)
I love it. I’m gonna link to all those in the show notes, guys, so you can go find her. I’m gonna beat you to it. I’m gonna go get her clean eating guide right now, as promised, and I haven’t pulled up on my web on on my browser. So Yay Yay

Sara Ecklin (46:43)
Yeah.

Allea Grummert (46:44)
Sarah, again, thank you so much for your time and your expertise and your willingness to share your story with us.

Sara Ecklin (46:49)
well thanks so much for having me. I had a great time chatting.

Allea Grummert (46:51)
We do.

Wanna get more strategic with your email marketing? Every month I host a few free 15-minute coaching calls for bloggers and content creators who want to make better use of their email list. Whether that means growing it more intentionally, making the most of the emails you’re already sending, or finally connecting the dots inside of your email platform. It’s a low-pressure, high-impact chat with me so that I can help you get clear on what you really want your list to be doing for your business.

We’ll also uncover maybe what’s getting in the way right now and identify one next step that you can take to feel more confident and in control of your email marketing. When you show up for this coaching call, you don’t need to prep. You don’t even need to know all the lingo. You just need to be ready to think about your email a little bit more intentionally. If that sounds like what you need, apply for your free call at duet.co/slash apply. We’ll talk one-on-one about your email strategy and your game plan to reach those traffic and revenue goals with email.

Again, that’s duet du e-t-t.co slash apply. It’s a one-question application, and I look forward to seeing yours land in my inbox.

Thanks so much for listening to Happy Subscribers in our conversation about email marketing today. I hope you feel inspired to take action, even if it’s a small change, so you can more confidently share your valuable message with your community through email. Special thanks goes to my team who makes it possible to produce and share these episodes with you. Seriously, thank you guys. If you want to hear more email marketing tips, strategies, and success stories to help you develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with your email subscribers.

Be sure to subscribe to Happy Subscribers so you don’t miss an episode. If you have a few seconds, I invite you to share this episode link with a friend or post it on social media so your peers and community can benefit from it as well. And if you have a few minutes, I’d appreciate if you’d leave a written review of the podcast, since that helps more people hear about it. And I believe we need more creators sending more valuable emails to their audience with more confidence. If you want to reach out to me directly, the best way to do that is to join my email list.

through one of my top freebies listed in the show notes. You’ll get regular emails from me that are packed with value. And if you hit reply to any of those emails, it’ll land in my inbox and I can’t wait to chat with you there. Until next time, let’s do it.