7 Devastating Mistakes TpTers Make With Email
Write an email. Link a product. Get a cha-ching.
It sounds so easy when other TpTers talk about their email lists. They batch 4 emails and they’re done. But, most TpTers aren’t telling you their click rates or their open rates. So if they are making $100 off an email list of 200, that’s great. If it’s 1000, that’s less impressive.
Unless TpTers are evaluating their list data regularly, they are not as effective at email as they think. The great thing is that TpTers have a huge opportunity with email lists because teachers want your products. All you need to do is highlight your product in a helpful way.
Before you listen to too much advice on email lists from other TpTers, snoop on their list to figure out if they are making these common mistakes.
Their Welcome Sequence is About Them
Been to a boutique shop? How do you feel when the sales associate tells you her (and her dog’s) life story? All you want is the perfect bottle of soap for your mom.
She doesn’t care about what you need. She’s telling you all about how and why she opened the store. But you’re busy. You need the perfect soap scent for your mom. And you'd like help picking it out… (which involves her understanding you. Not vice versa.)
The sales lady should be asking you about your mom: How old is she? What does she do for a living? What are her hobbies? What does she like to bake? What flowers does she like?
All of those would have helped the sales associate lead you to the perfect soap for your mom. But you are trapped in a never ending monologue.
Getting. No. Help.
You start looking for a way out. And in our email scenario, it’s the unsubscribe button.
This is what happens when you give your backstory in the first few emails.
Your audience gets overwhelmed. And booooorrrreed. They feel like you don’t understand what they need. They feel like you want a platform to talk about yourself.
And that isn’t you. Instead show them around your store in a way that shows them you know them. You want to help them find the perfect product that makes their life easier.
Show them how you help with your blog, where you provide teaching tips and hacks for free (with upsells of course). Show them your store where you’ve provided resources with teaching notes and other bonus items included. Show them your social media where you solve their day to day problems and interact with them about their lives.
Your business is about serving your customer. Not about explaining your store. Or shoving products down their throats.
Which brings us to the next easy to make mistake.
Their Emails Have a New Products Section
Do you get emails from a clothing store you like? Every week they send pictures of the newest sweater in their store. It’s neat. You open their emails sometimes. When you have extra money.
But those emails don’t get religiously opened. A new product section is a lazy boring way of shoving products in a potential customer’s face. What happens when someone does that to you?
"Here smell this.” Ummm, no.
You ignore them. You leave. And you don't want good subscribers to leave.
By the way, another automated way to get subscribers to leave is mistake #3 below.
Their Emails Are Only About What They Are Creating
They think their emails are full of behind the scene glimpses. Which can be cool when done well. But, they can also come across as selfish.
This is me making you a worksheet.
This is me coloring your worksheet.
This is me taking a break with my kids after creating your worksheet.
When you are writing emails that show the behind the scenes process, make sure they serve a purpose for your customer.
Show all the care, research, time that you are spending making resources for their classroom. When you show the time that it takes to create a resource, it is powerful. It can show why your product is at a certain price point. It can also encourage them to buy a product because they don't have the time to create it.
Speaking of time, you might feel like you don't have enough time for email. But, falling into this money losing "time-saving" trap is a mistake that even big name TpT sellers fall into.
The email strategy below is posed as a “set it and forget it” email marketing strategy. And if you only use this strategy, you can set it up and forget about making money.
Their Emails Are Only Based on Sequences
I've listened to podcasters rave about TpTers that are God's gift to email marketing. So I signed up for their list, only to be shoved down a funnel meant to suck my credit card dry.
There was no, “Hi! How are you? What are you teaching this year?…” email. There was no ranting and raving to commiserate with me on a topic we are both likely to hate. There was no attempt at connection.
Just a “Hi! Buy my stuff.” email.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for spending my money on other TpTer's hard work. But can we go on a date before you try to rip my clothes off?
Funnels and sequences are great money makers, when used correctly.
Don't shove someone into a sequence, ask for their money, then never email them again. That feels like a one night stand. That’s not going to lead to a long term relationship.
Instead, invite subscribers into a welcome sequence (yes, you can sell), but if they say no, keep emailing them. Form a relationship with them. They might buy later. They might never buy.
Even if they never buy, their replies and objections can be used in other emails to make you tons of money on other sales.
Before you master sequences and funnels, learn to nurture your audience. One quick and easy way to nurture your audience, is to stop using one word.
Their Emails Have More I’s Than Henry J. Waternoose
I is your enemy. I loses you money. I sounds selfish. Need to see it to believe it?
Blog post #1:
Something I get asked a lot is, “I want to start a TeachersPayTeachers store, but where do I start?” There’s a lot that I’ve learned since starting my store in May of 2014. A co-worker showed me that she had uploaded some of her resources to TpT. I thought to myself, “I can do that!” Since I had already created some of my own resources, I just had to upload them. I have decided to share my most helpful resources I have found in one spot to help save some possible new sellers time and frustration.
Keep in mind that creating materials and running a store is a lot of work. For my products, I have spent anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 months creating resources.
What they were trying to do is write from experience. But it came off a bit know-it-all-ish. As you can see.
So what do you do? Say the same thing you were going to say, but from the point of view of the customer.
You can see exactly how to do this in the second blog post.
Blog post #2:
You’re scared to start a TpT store. You’re worried that you won’t make any money. That your family and coworkers might laugh at you. That your stuff simply isn’t good enough.
You could hear 8,325 success stories. But those aren’t your story. Your story is the one that matters.
What do you want to do with your TpT store? Do you want to make Starbucks or Target money? Do you want to make Disney vacation money? Do you want to make I-can-retire-early money?
This is your dream. You decide the goals.
If they laugh—great! Hand them one of the white chocolate mocha’s that your worksheets paid for. Or, pull up your Disney World vacation picture on your phone that your year long bundle paid for.
Who’s going to be laughing then?
But that actually brings us (notice how I didn’t say me?) to the next mistake.
Their Emails Are All “Story” Based
A story done wrong is like nails on a chalkboard. A lot of TpTers use this formula.
Insert a story about your kids, laundry, grocery shopping or any mundane task. Which would be fine if we were all mommy bloggers. But we are teachers. Our stories need to be about mundane teachers topics. (Not grocery shopping.) That’s what makes you relatable. Being, or have been a teacher.
Then they use an analogy to compare said mundane task to the TpT world. And it’s not a bad email. But it could be so much better higher converting. It’s boring. It doesn’t really teach. It doesn’t help see.
All of these big name marketers (notice I didn’t say copywriters) say to use story. There is a way to use story effectively. But these emails taught by big marketers are analogies. Not stories.
This last mistake probably costs more unsubscribes than any other mistake.
Their Emails Only Come Near Sale Days
"Who are you? What are you doing in my email?”
This is a question many of us ask every Black Friday when some marketer suddenly realizes they need to sell their stuff like everyone else.
If you have to ask this question, then they’ve added little to no value to your life. So why should you buy from them? They didn't care enough to take the time to email you all year. They didn’t send you teaching tips. They didn’t send freebies. But now that you are ready to spend money, they are jumping up and down waiving their arms, saying, "Buy this thing!"
Ew. No.
Unsubscribe.
If you found these mistakes eye opening, check out more articles below on learning to be a better email writer.