Why Email Marketing Still Matters: How to Turn Subscribers Into Customers with Melissa Seideman

Summary

Social Media Decoded: "Why Email Marketing Still Matters: How to Turn Subscribers Into Customers"

Host: Michelle Thames
Guest: Melissa Seideman (Award-winning email marketing strategist)
Date: July 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Social Media Decoded explores the critical role of email marketing for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Host Michelle Thames is joined by Melissa Seideman, an expert in email marketing automation, to discuss actionable strategies for nurturing subscribers, common mistakes business owners make with their email lists, and the evolving landscape of email and AI. The episode is packed with real-world insights, memorable moments, and practical tips to help listeners unlock the revenue potential of email marketing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Melissa’s Journey Into Email Marketing

• From Classroom to Campaigns: Melissa shares how her transition from a 15-year teaching career to virtual assisting led her to discover her niche in email marketing.
  • “I started as a general virtual assistant. I was a teacher in the classroom for 15 years and…I just fell in love with [email marketing].” (01:26)
• Building a Business: Her passion enabled her to build a team of seven and fully transition out of teaching.

2. The Power and Potential of Email Lists

• Case Study Success: Melissa recounts working with a skincare brand, moving from $8,000/month to $200,000/month in sales primarily via email.

  • “We started with her in August and within six months we got her to 200,000 a month...with organic skincare line.” (02:38)
  • Key Point: You do not need a massive list—loyalty and engagement matter more than size.

• Quality Over Quantity:

  • “She didn’t have a huge list, but she had very loyal subscribers.” (03:29)

3. Common Misconceptions and Mistakes

• Visibility ≠ Revenue:
  • “Visibility is the thing that gets you noticed...but visibility alone does not build a business.” (03:55-04:17)
• Mistakes to Avoid:
  • Using free email providers instead of professional platforms (Melissa recommends Kit).
  • “You cannot use Google or Yahoo to send emails…use an email service provider like Kit.” (05:11)
  • Neglecting opt-in popups—promoting email sign-ups everywhere is crucial.
  • “Not adding a pop up to their website, not having their email opt in all over the different forms of social media.” (05:33)

4. Building Trust and Nurturing Subscribers

• The Ideal Customer Journey:

  • Welcome sequence steps:
    1. Deliver freebie & invite to connect on socials.
    2. Share your story and mission.
       3-4. Soft sell introducing products/services.
       5-6. Hard sell and deeper call-to-action.
  • “You can have a four email sequence of a welcome sequence or six email. If you do six emails, three and four are usually a soft sell.” (07:11)

• Simplicity Is Key:

  • Overcomplicating the welcome sequence often backfires.

5. Deliverability Tips & Avoiding Spam

• Technical Musts:
  • Use a paid domain, verify your domain, clean your list every 90 days, and be GDPR compliant for EU subscribers.
  • “You want to not be in the spam folder...watch what word you use. Try not to email too much. Make sure your domain is verified.” (08:42)

6. Debunking Email Myths

• Don’t Fear List Cleaning:

  • “When someone's a cold subscriber, you don't want them on your list for a lot of different reasons. One, it's costing you money...” (09:55)
  • You should sell regularly to your list—people joined for a reason.

• Embrace Regular Selling:

  • “Rip the band aid off and sell the email.” (10:35)

7. Emerging Trends & AI in Email Marketing

• Selectivity and Personalization:

  • Subscribers are becoming choosier; a strong, updated welcome sequence is vital.
  • More emphasis will be placed on real, human connections versus generic AI-generated content.
  • “People can often see who's using Chat GPT and who's not...I had a subject line, 'Why I refuse to use AI in my emails'. That was the highest open rate I've ever had.” (11:17 & 12:03)

• How to Use AI:

  • Good for subject lines, scheduling, and organization—not for replacing genuine voice.

8. Subject Line Strategies

• High-Performing Examples:
  • “Size doesn’t matter” — a subject line with a 93% open rate.
    • “The more curiosity they are with an open subject line, makes a big difference.” (13:16)
  • Best practice: 5 words or less, with a single emoji, optimized for mobile. (13:55-14:13)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On List Size:
  • “List size doesn’t matter.” (Melissa, 13:16)
• On List Cleaning:
  • “Don’t be afraid to clean your list. They’re just not your people.” (Melissa, 10:05)
• On AI Usage:
  • “Why I refuse to use AI in my emails...that was the highest open rate I’ve ever had before. It was an 85% open rate, which is crazy to me.” (Melissa, 11:51)
• On Email Frequency:
  • “They joined your list for a reason. You should not be afraid to sell to them.” (Melissa, 10:15)

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Important Timestamps

• Melissa’s background and business evolution (01:26–02:23)
• Skincare client case study & list size myth (02:38–03:41)
• Common mistakes with email lists (04:46–06:48)
• Masterclass on welcome sequences & customer journey (06:58–08:15)
• Deliverability and avoiding promotions tab (08:15–09:43)
• Myths that frustrate Melissa (09:55–10:45)
• Trends: selectivity, personality, and less AI (11:17–12:40)
• Subject line tips and best practices (13:16–14:13)
• Rapid-fire round: personal insights (14:52–15:58)

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Actionable Takeaways

• Prioritize a professional email provider (like Kit) and paid domain.
• Design a welcoming, simple, and strategic welcome sequence.
• Regularly clean your email list for better deliverability and ROI.
• Leverage curiosity-driven, short, emoji-optimized subject lines.
• Use AI as a tool, not a replacement for authentic connection.
• Promote your email list across every channel (website popups, social media, opt-ins).
• Don’t be afraid to sell—your list is there because they want to hear from you.

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Where to Connect with Melissa

• Instagram, Facebook, Threads: @NotAnotherEmailCompany
• Website: Not Another Email Company
• Upcoming Podcast: Not Another Email Podcast

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Closing Wisdom

“Visibility opens the doors, but relationships is what builds the trust. And after having systems in place that help turn that relationship into revenue.”
— Michelle Thames (17:23)

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If you’ve been focusing on social visibility, this episode makes clear that the real business growth comes from nurturing your email list. Take these insights, implement the strategies, and watch your subscribers turn into customers—and your business thrive.

Transcript

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[Michelle Thames]

Welcome back to Social Media Decoded. I am your host Michelle Thames and today I am excited because we're talking about something that I believe every single entrepreneur needs to hear. So many people spend all their time trying to go viral to get followers and create content. But what happens after someone follows and today's guest has built her business helping entrepreneurs answer that exact question. Melissa is an award winning email marketing strategist who specializes in email marketing automation and helping businesses turn subscribers into customers. Melissa, welcome to the show.

[Melissa]

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

[Michelle Thames]

Yes, I am excited to hear all your expertise. But tell everyone a little bit about yourself. How did you become the email person and was that always your plan?

[Melissa]

It was not always my plan. I started as a general virtual assistant. I was a teacher in the classroom for 15 years and I literally just couldn't afford my daycare bill. Our daycare bill was $36,000 a year with two kids. So with two teacher salaries, we basically were either one's got to stay home or one's got to work and we both didn't want to give up our jobs. So I found doing a virtual assisting on the side and then someone hired us for email and I just fell in love with it and loved doing it and people started talking and more people started telling them go to Melissa, go to Melissa. So that I niched down within like two or three months of just doing email and I fell in love with it and everything I did was about email marketing and we grew a team. Now we're a team of seven and I left the classroom four years ago and will never look back because I absolutely love waking up every day. I love helping business owners grow and scale their business with email marketing and I love being strategic with it.

[Michelle Thames]

Yes, I love that. I think email marketing is such an undertapped tool that a lot of business owners don't get into when they first grow their business. And I think it's very important to think about that. So what's the one moment that completely changed how you look, and at email

[Melissa]

marketing, I had a client skincare line and she started, she was making $8,000 a month with email, with just with her sales. 8,000amonth with sales with both promoting on social media and using her email list. And we started with her in August and within six months we got her to 200,000amonth with organic skincare line, which the products were like 20, $30, $40 each. So I was really impressed with that. And we ended up setting up funnels on the back end that made her $40,000 a month and just automated funnels that would just make her income on autopilot. And then I said to her, we're making significant sales every week, why don't we send two emails a week? So that's when we ended up getting her up to 200k within six months, a month. It was just unbelievable with email marketing. So that was the like aha moment. This is actually working and I have a great testimonial and a great client that you can say this worked for. So. But you don't need to have a big list to be successful. I always like saying that too. She was, she didn't have a huge list, but she had very loyal subscribers. They went through a welcome sequence. They loved her skincare line, they came back to buy it every time.

[Michelle Thames]

So yeah, and I think that's important to say, like you don't need 30,000 people on your email list. I think that's what I hear you saying, is that if you have the quality people and you build upon that, I think you can leverage email marketing

[Melissa]

in a different way.

[Michelle Thames]

So I love that because it just gives perspective of what's possible and what we can work towards. And one thing that I really tell people is, is that visibility is the thing that gets you noticed. Okay, like people will start to notice you because of visibility, but visibility alone does not build a business. And so why do you think so many entrepreneurs stop after they, you know, stop getting followers? Why do they stop?

[Melissa]

I think they just don't see the consistent email takes a while. It takes a while to nurture subscribers to be loyal buyers. So, so it takes consistency and time. You can't just, you could have something go viral overnight and then all of a sudden if they don't go through a welcome sequence, they're not going to feel nurtured, they're not going to be loyal to you, they're not going to have brand recognition, name recognition, all of those things. So I think that really matters and makes a big difference for Your email list if you have brand recognition, name authority, reputation, all of those things matter.

[Michelle Thames]

Yeah, I want to talk about some mistakes because I see so many people making mistakes with their email list and what's something that everyone thinks they should be doing they actually should not be doing when it comes to email marketing.

[Melissa]

Yeah. So you gotta make sure you go with a paid email provider. I recommend Kit. If you look for a paid email provider, Kit is a great recommendation to go with and it's a great platform that starts with a. You could start with a free $10,000 10,000 person newsletter plan and then it grows with you over time. I will never personally move myself off of Kit with my business because I found so much success with it with the advanced tagging and features. So, so you gotta go with an email provider. You can't use a paid, a free email address. You gotta use a paid domain email. So you can't use Google or Yahoo to send emails. You can't send in Google and Yahoo. You gotta use an email service provider like Kit. And I often find people make the mistake of not adding a pop up to their website, not having their email opt in all over the different forms of social media. You need to make sure you're promoting your list in all different ways with social media.

[Michelle Thames]

That's a good one. I have to remember to add my pop up back to my website. I think that popups are, are so much forgotten. Right. Because when somebody is on your site and they're scrolling it should come up at some point and you should ask them for their email and, or their phone number. Right.

[Melissa]

And Instagram handle. I've started adding Instagram handle to my opt ins and all of a sudden they give me their Instagram handle and then I go follow them, I leave them a comment, I leave them voice note. It's a great way to connect and create a relationship with somebody. And then also I, I've been evaluating the successive opt inside recently. So my email opt in was performing at a 10% conversion rate which I didn't like my pop up and I evaluated it and I changed it. So all of a sudden my hop up now says warning, you will grow your email list this way. And it has like a really clear like warning symbol and people are like instantly attracted to it. My conversion rate is now 40% with that open pop up. So it makes a big difference. The wording that you use on every form to get someone's email address.

[Michelle Thames]

Oh, this is really good. This is like a masterclass. We're getting a Masterclass here today. And this is what I love. So you kind of talked about this, but let's really dive deeper into this.

[Melissa]

Okay?

[Michelle Thames]

Building trust. Because this is what I think most people do not focus on. Someone downloads a freebie today. What should happen next? Walk us through what an ideal customer journey looks like.

[Melissa]

Yeah, the ideal customer journey should walk them through a welcome sequence to get the freebie right away. How to connect with you in that first email, whether it's following your podcast or going on social media or finding you on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or whatever you're using, connecting with you. And then the second email should be why you started your business, what it means to you to help customers or business owners around the country or whatever you're doing. So making those connections really right away and then asking them to reply to their email if they have any problems going on or if they want more support. And instantly you could be like, well, I actually can be your support and your resource. Email three and four can work in one or two ways. You can have it four email sequence of a welcome sequence or six email. If you do six emails three and four are usually a soft sell. Soft sell of my product and services, what I offer and how I can help you with the problem that you already said in email to. And then email 5 and 6 or email 4 depending on if you do 4 emails or 6 could be the hard sell. This is what I do. This is how I help people. Let's connect. Come follow me, follow my podcast. All of those things that.

[Michelle Thames]

And I think sometimes we try to complicate our welcome series. And it has to be 12 emails and it has to have all these things. And I think some people will have problems ending up in promotions. Let's. Let's talk about that for a minute. Because when I found that I changed my emails, I found that I stopped ending up in promotions because the subject line absolutely matters. The amount of links you have in there matter. Can you talk about that real quick?

[Melissa]

Yeah. So you want to not be in the spam folder for a lot of different reasons. You want to make sure your domain is verified on the back end using a paid domain email. People are using double confirm at Kit conference. I actually learned that you don't need to do double confirm as long as you are actively cleaning your list every 90 days, you don't need double confirm. Double confirm means they go to their email provider. They check a box that they confirm to be on your email address. But then again, make sure if you have people in the European Union that are GDP compliant. You got to have that box checked in the settings to make sure that they're GDP compliant. They got to double confirm that if they're from European Union. So how did that end up Spam? Watch what word you use. Try not to email too much. You want to make sure people are not reporting you as spam, so make sure they go through a welcome sequence. Build like trust. Know you makes a big difference. Visibility, authority, knowledge, all that makes a big difference. And that you want to just not end up in the spam folder. There's ways to avoid it. Those are some ways, yes.

[Michelle Thames]

Now this is so good. And I think there's a lot of myths around email marketing and so what are some common myths about email marketing that like absolutely drive you crazy?

[Melissa]

Yeah. People are afraid to delete subscribers. So when someone's a cold subscriber, you don't want them on your list for a lot of different reasons. One, it's costing you money. Two, it's affecting your deliverability issues. Three, it is dragging down your open rates and click rates. I had a client come to me with a hundred thousand person list and they wanted me to clean their list. And I looked at their list and I said, you have 25,000 cold subscribers. And she did not want me to remove them. And I said, if they're not opening your emails, they're not going to buy from you. They're not going to be your customers, they're not your people. You need to have a myth. The myth is like, don't be afraid to clean your list. They're just not your people. Another big myth is people don't want to hear from me that often. Why should I be sending them any emails? They joined your list for a reason. You should not be afraid to sell to them. Rip the band aid off and sell the email. Sell an email and don't be afraid to do that.

[Michelle Thames]

Yeah. No. And I think you told me that when we were together at Craft and Commerce and me and Melissa, we had a great time. If you all are looking to go to one of the best conferences in Boise, Idaho, you should definitely check out Kit Craft and Commerce. We learned a lot and trends. I want to talk about that because we learned some things. Just so many things going on at Kit. But what just in email marketing in general, what changes are you seeing right now and what should we prepare for? What should entrepreneurs prepare for over the next few years?

[Melissa]

I think people are being more selective in what email lists they are joining. So that would be one trend I would be careful. So, like, they're being selective on what they're joining and what. What email list they want to be on. So you want to make sure you definitely have that welcome sequence in place and then set yourself a reminder in six months, in a year to check that welcome sequence and reevaluate. If it still fits your business model and still fits you. If it's not in place, edit it, make it better. Don't be afraid to send the emails. And changes I see is people want more personality, they want to see more connections in real life and they also want to see more connections in email. And connections are what makes a huge difference with email marketing and nurturing relationships and all of that makes a huge difference. So I think that's why we're going to start seeing more and more trends, less ChatGPT, because people can often see who's using Chat GPT and who's not. So I had a subject line of why I refuse to use AI in my emails. And that was the highest open rate I've ever had before. It was an 85% open rate, which is crazy to me. But they all wanted to read that email because they're like, what is she doing? That's not using ChatGPT or AI to write emails. Yes. I use AI for my advantage for certain things, like I'll write the email in a Google Doc and then I put it in ChatGPT or Claude and have it do my subject lines. I have it do my tagging, my advanced scheduling. But you can use it for your advantage in that way. But I think it's going to be more human. Connections are going to make a big difference in the next year.

[Michelle Thames]

Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think people are tired of the ChatGPT emails and we need to leverage AI in a different way. If you're listening, we need to leverage it differently because people can tell and we don't. We don't want them to, you know, we just don't want to rely on, I think using AI in some of those ways. I think definitely the creative piece. Right. But using it as a tool to help us with our thoughts. So I love that. And that is so crazy that you're. That was your highest open rate. What other subject lines have you seen have really high open rates?

[Melissa]

I had the highest subject open rate that I've ever had was. It was a 92% and it was list size. Oh, it says size doesn't matter and it was talking about list size doesn't matter, but you can see my everyone's pies popped with it. The size doesn't matter. That was like. I think I had a 93% open rate with that one. The more curiosity they are with an open subject line. Makes a big difference. I like to keep subject lines five words or less. Why five words? Because on mobile, people are often looking at their phones for emails now. So you want to make sure it's optimized for mobile. So five words or less always do the preview in the email. The preview tells exactly what it is, but the subject line can be inquisitive. Five words or less with an emoji and you'll get higher open rates every single time. That's how we get 50.72% for all of our clients with that open rate strategy of that. Ooh.

[Michelle Thames]

So emojis are okay to use in our subject lines?

[Melissa]

Yeah. One emoji gets higher open rates every single time. Five words or less.

[Michelle Thames]

All right, y', all, you listen and test this out and tag us on Instagram. Okay? If you are listening and you test this out and you're like, melissa, I'm testing out this new subject line. I listened to the podcast and I had a really great open rate. Let us know. Okay. Because Melissa is dropping some fire gems on the social media decoded podcast today.

[Melissa]

And.

[Michelle Thames]

And I really want you all to take this and implement. Right? There's one thing to listen to this podcast, but it's another thing to actually implement what you learn. So, Melissa, this has been a really great episode. Now I want to get into one of my favorite parts when I interview guests, some rapid fire. Are you ready? The first things that comes to your mind.

[Melissa]

I'm going to get ready. I'm good. Go ahead.

[Michelle Thames]

All right. Coffee or tea?

[Melissa]

Chai tea.

[Michelle Thames]

Ooh, chai tea. Okay. Chai tea. I like that. Your favorite email subject line you've ever written. I think you shared that with us, though.

[Melissa]

Size matters. Site list size doesn't matter.

[Michelle Thames]

One marketing tool that you cannot live without.

[Melissa]

I love my asana for list organization. I love asana.

[Michelle Thames]

Yes, we love a good asana task management tool. One piece of advice for new entrepreneurs.

[Melissa]

Take it slow. Find ways to fit your life, the business around your lifestyle. Your lifestyle needs to come first and often. You can work too hard, but it's not worth it for neglecting your family and your passions and your hobbies. So find ways to make your business work for you.

[Michelle Thames]

I love that favorite business book I am reading.

[Melissa]

I got it right here. I'm Reading it right now. Rich Relationships by Selena. So that's what I'm reading right now about how to just form relationships in business. And that was kind of my word of the year is relationships. And I went to a couple conferences and I'm trying to form more connections and more relationships.

[Michelle Thames]

So I think that relationships are the most underrated marketing strategy that you just probably never thought of. Right. And I think it's time for us to get out like me and Melissa did, to go to more events, to network more and really build on those relationships. We can't continue to stay behind the screens. Okay, so get out, get to events. If you look on eventbrite or meetup.com there are so many amazing events happening in your area. So we have to get out side. This episode has been so good, Melissa. I appreciate you for coming on and sharing this knowledge. And I do know when, by the time we're listening to this, I've been announcing speakers and Melissa is going to be a speaker at the upcoming Connected and paid live 2026 here in Illinois in Oakbrook in the Chicago area. And I am so excited. So if you loved this little snippet of Melissa's expertise, just imagine getting in the room. Right? Getting in the room and. And listening to Melissa speak and go deeper about email marketing. I'm so excited to have you in Chicago, Melissa. But before we leave today, please share where we can follow you. How can we stay in tune? How can we work with you? All the things.

[Melissa]

Yeah, you can find me at Not Another Email Company on Instagram, on Facebook, you can find me on my website. Not another email company. Connect with me on threads. Not another email company. And I will be launching a podcast called Not Another Email Podcast very soon.

[Michelle Thames]

So, yes, I can't wait to listen to the podcast. I know it's going to be filled with gems. And if today's episode taught you anything, friends, I hope it is this. Getting noticed is only half of the equation. Visibility opens the doors, but relationships is what builds the trust. And after having systems in place that help turn that relationship into revenue. Okay. And so that's why I always say that we don't just need more content. You don't need more content. You need a complete marketing system. And that includes a email list. So if you have not tried Kit, you can click down below and try out Kit today. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. And if you want to migrate, and I know Melissa helps with this as well, if you need to migrate your email list over Kit has got you covered. Okay, so if you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe. Press that subscribe button of Social Media Decoded. Leave a review because every rating and review helps this podcast to be seen and heard by more people. But until next time, keep showing up, keep serving, and keep getting visible. I cannot wait to talk to you all in the next one.

[Melissa]

Peace.

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