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Success With Jewelry
118 - Laryssa and Liz Try to Convince You to Get Serious About Email Marketing Now
00:25:34
Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive. Welcome to episode #118! Laryssa and Liz are diving into email marketing strategies for...
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Success with Jewelry podcast where we invite you inside our conversations about business success and marketing for jewelry designers and entrepreneurs.
- [00:10]
B
We're Larissa and Liz, jewelry marketing experts with a combined 16 years of experience in jewelry marketing and proven track records and helping jewelry brands meet their goals. When you listen to or watch this podcast, you get an intimate and exclusive peek behind the curtain of all the things you wish you could know about earning success in this industry.
- [00:28]
A
Welcome to episode 118. This week we're diving into email marketing strategies for 2025. With more designers realizing they can't solely rely on social media, it's time to build sustainable ways to connect with your audience. And email is one of the best tools for that. We'll cover how to grow a list, craft engaging content, and optimize your emails for sales. Plus, in the bonus content, we're sharing some of our favorite brands to receive emails from and breaking down what makes their content so compelling. To access this exclusive content and get direct access to both me and larissa, head to successwithjewelry.com and sign up. Hey, Larissa, let's get into it.
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B
Ooh, you know it's my favorite topic.
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A
I know this is a good one. And we are a little bit delayed in this. Like, you know, I felt kind of weird saying email marketing strategies for 2025 because it is mid February.
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B
It's okay. We can always pick up and strengthen our email strategy at any time.
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A
I agree. And I think that, I think it was funny, the timing of our Instagram episode because it kind of came out when everyone was kind of like in this flurry of like, leaving or like, talking about, like, what can we do other than Instagram and like that little like, flurry of like blue sky conversations. So hopefully, you know, if people are still thinking about how to lean less on social media, this will be helpful. We've done a ton of email content in the past because both Loris and I believe in it. But yeah, so here, here's what's going on in 2025.
- [02:05]
B
Yeah, and I. Okay, I don't usually cross promote my podcast, but it just so happens the week this comes out, I'm doing an episode on quizzes and I'm interviewing this guy who runs a quiz company and we basically talk about email list building in, like the whole episode too.
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A
I love that. You should always be cross promoting.
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B
You should cross promote more. Well, check out the Joy Joya podcast, episode 323.
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A
We'll link it in the notes. But yeah, if people don't know that Larissa has her own podcast. I mean, I think most people who listen do because you had it.
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B
I mentioned it on my podcast too, but I don't know, maybe there are some people out there.
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A
Anyway, listen to Larissa's podcast. All right, so why email marketing still matters in 2025? I mean, I feel like we did an episode about email marketing at one point and somebody wrote to us that was like, I hate emails. I do not like getting emails, so I'm not going to do email marketing. Or, you know, people are like, oh, well, that's like kind of old school. Like email marketing. It's such a kind of. It's like a strategy, like thinking backwards almost. But it's not. It really is working. It was. It's. It's something that really does stand out to clients and it really does lead.
- [03:25]
B
To sales for every single one of my clients. I'm trying to think, are there any that it's not true? I'm pretty sure every single one of my clients. Email is their top performing marketing channel. And if they didn't have email, they would lose, like, a humongous chunk of their revenue.
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A
And I think that, like, we can't ignore the fact that there's like a decline of organic social reach. You know, social media is hard. It's hard to grow. The best way to grow, We've said this in the Instagram episode recently, and we've said it before, but, like, the best way to grow is, you know, cross promotion and being shouted out by other people and, like, getting in front of other audiences and stuff like that. I think that something that's really going to be important is leveraging that your. Your following that you have built there and move them over to email and get their email addresses. Because, you know, we've said this before, you all know this, but you do not own your Instagram following. You do not own your, you know, LinkedIn followers or your Facebook audience. So having email addresses, like, you just have more ownership over your list and your contacts.
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B
Yeah, I think you could have more fun with email, too. You can get more personal. You can get more engaging in a way that's like spec to your audience that you just can't do on social media. Social media is kind of just like, let's just like spray a bunch of stuff out there. Obviously there's a strategy, of course, but it's like, let's just put a bunch of stuff out there and hope things happen. Email is like, let's drive people to our website and then get information back from that and like, keep that back and forth going. And it's so much more controlled in that way.
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A
And even though it's not like a one on one thing, it feels that way. It feels more intimate. It feels like, you know, a brand is writing directly to you and you're right, you can have a lot more fun with it. Yeah, there's a lot you can do with it. And it's, it's easier to have a clear call to action. I think it's easier to come across authentically. I think it's a good starting point too, for like your whole strategy. You know, like, you have your theme, that's the email, and then you can kind of build out your social media content from there. So it's all kind of like aligning with like one idea and one topic.
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B
Yes, that's exactly how we work with our clients. Well, the website content, like the blog post kind of comes first as like a bigger picture, but email is the core and social media follows whatever email's doing.
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A
I find that I'm, I'm struggling with my own strategy now. Not so much my clients, because, like, I, I really operate with that too. Like the, the email is like kind of the heart of what we're talk this month and the Instagram kind of is all of that, like, kind of dispersed into like smaller, more like digestible bits. But for me, I have been posting on Instagram the past couple of months, like, with one project, like focusing on one project that I've been working on. And I'm about to transition to the, like, my next thing that I'm going to focus on. And in between, like, I almost put up a Valentine's Day post today. We're recording on Valentine's Day, and I was like, oh, but this feels a little bit funny because it's not coming from that bigger thought. And I think Instagram used to be this thing. Sorry, I know this is about email marketing. Sorry to share my thoughts on Instagram right now, but Instagram used to be this thing where you just put up like little thoughts and it would be quick and it wouldn't come from this, like, bigger strategy. But now I'm like, really thinking, like, oh, I want to be like telling like a more cohesive narrative there that really aligns with like, the bigger picture of what I'm doing.
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B
Well, this is also about Instagram also, because posts can, especially if they kind of do well in the eyes of the algorithm or whatever, they can keep performing for like a period of Time that doesn't end up being time bound. So like, I don't know, people aren't seeing things in real time unless it's like a story. Does that make sense what I'm saying?
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A
Yeah, that's so true. And the stories do. Like, I think some people really spend a lot of time in stories. So that has to like align with the emails that you're sending. It has to align, align with your post too. And it needs to be like some sort of narrative arc. It can't just be a random thing that you throw up. So like a lot of thought has to go into marketing and just like the more clear and strategic you are, the better. But circling back to email marketing in particular, one thing that people really struggle with when I mention this concept is, okay, well I don't have a list or I have a really small list. So how can you build that?
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B
Yeah, it's the ultimate question. Well, offering some kind of incentive is like the most basic way. And it doesn't have to be a discount if you're not about discounts. But at the same time, I wouldn't shy away from a welcome discount, even if you don't usually because it's kind of this like first time welcome, like inviting someone to take a chance on your brand. Especially if you only sell online 1015 off, like something to inspire them to come in if you. But if you don't want to discount at all, maybe some other kind of freebie. Like it could be style tips or a free ring size or whatever. Like makes sense for you, but make it compelling enough that people actually like want to sign up. Like let's be real, something like random nobody's gonna care about. So. And you can test different offers as well.
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A
Yeah, like a zine. I heard this idea recently, like a digital zine could be a cool lead magnet or which is essentially something that gets people to sign up for your list. Or if you're running like a gift with purchase promotion, like if you're on my email list and you buy something, then you get this gift with purchase that I'm only giving to people on my email list or something like that. I do like, you know, something that's kind of instant though. So, you know, for, for consultants like Larissa and I, having like a downloadable PDF is like a really great idea, like some sort of guide or some sort of information. And I've seen designers do it too in a really cool way, like, you know, a pearl guide or you know, something cool like that. But I've also Seen brands grow email lists with just like exclusives. So, you know, only people on our email list get access to this new collection that we're dropping or they get first access and it usually sells out quickly. So you could think that route too.
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B
If your jewelry is priced in a way that this makes sense, giveaways do really well as lead magnets. Also, quizzes are really fun. I've seen fine jewelry brands use quizzes when like, they have products that are more personalized to like, different kinds of segments of their audience. So the quiz, like, recommends products to them. That would work really well for our wedding jewelry business too. So there are lots of things you can do.
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A
Yeah. Or a business that like, like tells the story of the meaning of different gemstones or something like that could be a cool quiz. So there's a lot of fun that you can have with that. I've grown my list with webinars. You know, you have to be on my list to like, you know, come to this webinar kind of thing, which doesn't 100% make sense for like a product based business necessarily. But I love that you mentioned giveaways because I did a giveaway last year for the Stapold Collective, a free membership for a year. And I just had people comment on my Instagram because I wanted to keep it super simple and like, not have people do a lot to enter this giveaway. But this year I'm like, I need to do it to grow my list. I need to move people over to my email list.
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B
Yeah, the Instagram based giveaways. It'll give you more engagement. But like, for what? You know, for what.
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A
And I did get a lot of great comments, but I'm like, oh, how great would it be if all those people were on my list, which maybe a lot of them are, and they were like emailing me their response or I don't know. Anyway, so I'm gonna do that in March.
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B
Cool.
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A
But also, I really do believe too, like, I mean, just inviting people to join regularly I think is important remembering to like continue to tell people that you have a list because some of your, your audience on social media, like, especially like tapping into your LinkedIn network or your personal Facebook page to let people know, hey, I have an email list, tell them exactly, like how often you send what kind of content they're getting because that helps build trust and that makes people more encouraged to sign up. So that like just if you're regularly asking, like once a week on Instagram, doing a question box, like maybe every Couple of months, like letting your, your Facebook and LinkedIn audience audiences know. I think that that's a great way to slowly build too.
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B
Mm, totally. Can I tell you a really exciting case study about email?
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A
Yes.
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B
I literally just did it yesterday because I was so like itching to see like, how the progress had changed for this client. So I'm going to keep it kind of general because I don't want to give identifying information. But when this client came to us, they had an email list the size of which probably anyone listening to this podcast would like, die for, like multi. Thousands, tens of thousands. Okay. But their deliverability was very, very bad. So, like, when we tested stuff, emails were going to spam. They had like an abysmal open. Right. Really bad. They were maybe sending like two to three times a week. We did a bunch of re engagement campaigns to figure out, like, who was actually engaged on this list of multiple tens of thousands of people and called it down to under 2000, which would probably give anyone a heart attack. And I'm so grateful to my client for like trusting us for this because we were literally like, no, you have to get rid of like 15,000 people. We can't email them anymore. So we cleaned up the list. We actually started emailing more. We upped it to like four times a week, which also gives people heart attacks because they think like they're bothering their audience. So not only did we have a smaller group of people, but we were emailing them more. And at the end of a similar period as the one we were comparing it to, we increase the total revenue from email by like 25% or something with a much, much, much, much smaller list and more frequency. And I was, I was honestly blown away. Like, I kind of had a feeling that this would be the right direction. But when I saw the results myself, I was like, everyone needs to know about this. That size of list does not matter. And you need to be frequently touching base with your audience.
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A
I love that. That's amazing. I think that that's so true. And I know that it's hard. Like, it's a hard mindset thing to think about, but you do not need a huge list to have successful email marketing. Same with like, you know, any sort of following. Like, if they're an engaged audience, you're going to grow and it is going to be successful. So start where you're at and remember that like, you know, you could have a ton of. But they could just be spam or they could be old or like, you know, it could the Emails aren't delivering to them. Like, you know, there's a lot of things to think about and so having a small list is not a bad thing.
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B
Yeah, the list health part is like very overlooked. Everyone just kind of looks at like the total number of subscribers, but that means literally nothing. When I first meet with someone on discovery call, they could tell me like, oh, I have 100,000 subscribers. And I like won't care until I actually see, like, what is this doing? Like, how is this actually like performing for you?
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A
Wow, that's really interesting stuff. And let's, let's shout you out again because Larissa can help you with your email marketing. She's really good at it.
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B
You gotta trust me though, because these things are scary. These are really scary things for people. This is their audience, this is their list. Like, it's kind of. A lot of the ways to be good at email marketing are very counterintuitive.
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A
Yeah. And I think people get really like. I'm sure you've experienced this because when I even talk about it and I don't do much email marketing management for people, but when I talk about it with Stagold and stuff like that, it's like, you know, even like talking about two emails a month sometimes people are like, oh, I'm going to bother people. And I know that's like a hard thing for people to wrap their head around that people want to hear from you. You should show.
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B
Yeah. I mean, you might bother some people, but that's why the health and cleaning part is important. Because you want to keep weeding those people out because screw them. Like you don't want them there anyway. You want the people that are gonna buy from you.
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A
Yeah. You want the people who are gonna buy from you and that's all that matters. And I know I've been talking about this like, people are probably like, stop talking about this, Liz. But I do believe that the most important thing you could be doing in 2025 is reaching out to people outside of an email marketing strategy. Talking to clients and leads directly, nurturing them one on one. And I. It sounds tedious, but it's going to pay off in big ways.
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B
100%. Yeah. That one on one outreach, in addition to the emails, making your emails feel personal or mixing it into like the email strategy, having more like little notes kind of that you send to your list.
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A
Yeah. And I mean that kind of gets us to this next point of the importance of segmentation. And it's like, you know, I know it's a lot of People are kind of just starting out with where they are just trying to get regular with email marketing, but once you are really regular with it, thinking about how you can segment to speak more specifically to certain groups within your list.
- [18:00]
B
Absolutely. And that takes time too. Like, you kind of. You need to be emailing regularly to get to the point where you can do segmentation, because it's not going to make sense if you email like once every other month.
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A
Mm. So, okay, where do we want to go next? Let's.
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B
I went on a tangent, but I was so excited to, like, I love to hear that.
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A
I don't think people think about their list health. And I always love a reason to, like, help reset people's mindset about the size of their audience. But okay, let's quickly talk about, like, emails that convert. And then maybe I think we've done an episode about automation, but maybe we move that to its own episode to kind of recover that topic. But in terms of like, emails that convert. Larissa, do you have any thoughts on subject lines that get opened?
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B
Well, they need to be really short. That is the first thing that I see a lot of people getting wrong. Like, shorter than you probably think. 40ish characters, which is a challenge because how do you say what you need to say in 40 characters? But that's what ChatGPT can help you with, especially if you're like workshopping a concept and you're like, I kind of want it to say this. How do I, like, cut it down, make it punchy, like, make it intriguing. Don't, like, be sensational, but try to catch someone's attention with the subject line because you're competing with hundreds of other emails in someone's inbox.
- [19:38]
A
So many emails. And notice the ones that you open. I always think about that, like, what am I opening over here? I also always think it's interesting, like, especially like around, like, like specific holidays. How, like a lot of brands send out very similar subject line emails. So you do want to. Doesn't mean you, you have to like, do something totally crazy. But, like, think about how you can stay unique to your brand too. I think could be helpful because if you know somebody. Granted, I follow a lot of brands. I don't know if everyone else, like, you know, people who aren't doing this for a living. Like, I don't know how many emails they subscribe to, but think like, really in line with your brand and not what other people are doing in a sense. But also notice what emails you're opening. Like, what made you want to open that. About that subject line, like, what stood out to you?
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B
I was just thinking that this morning because it's Valentine's Day and I'm glancing over here at my promotions tab and there's like, it's like heart, heart, rose, heart, heart, rose, rose emoji, like in every subject line because it's Valentine's Day. But it's kind of cute. Like, even though they're all kind of similar and they have the same theme, I like the commitment to the holiday.
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A
Yeah, that's true. I love, like, leaning into a theme. Interesting. My promotions tab doesn't have as many hearts and one has french fries, which is fun.
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B
That one open just in one glance. At least 15 heart emoji.
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A
My. I'm gonna send you a screenshot of my inbox because it's not that much going on here. And there is an email in here too, about spring. So they're like kind of just thinking ahead, skipping Valentine's Day. I don't know.
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B
One person just said happy Valentine's Day, which I don't know if I like that because it's like so obvious. Like, it's such the obvious subject line.
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A
I have one that says happy Valentine's Day also.
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B
But I wonder if it's the same email.
- [21:44]
A
No, it could be. But I do have one that says because we love you. That's cute.
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B
That is cute.
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A
Roses are red, Hearts are too. There's some cute ones, but Happy Valentine's Day.
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B
I like that.
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A
Okay, let's get out of our inbox. We're supposed to do this for the bonus episode. And then I what else do we want to say? So the other thing that I like to think about the way I do emails is I alternate between more storytelling and more sales driven. I wouldn't be afraid of doing just a sales focused email. There's. I think that should be part of a strategy, but you also want to have ones that really tell a story too. And tell your story and give more to your audience and speak directly to them.
- [22:44]
B
Yes, I agree with that. I also think too, even in sales focus emails, like if you have multiple blocks in an email, let's say you launched a new gemstone or something and you've never worked with it before. And you also have a blog post that tells more about the gemstone. There could be more of like a story educational block. Like, even in a sales focused email. So even within one email. Both sides of that.
- [23:15]
A
Also, speaking of blogging, we should do a whole episode about blogging because you want to Be using your content in both places. Because the thing with emails is they don't have any SEO benefits or organic search functionality or anything like that. So getting some of this content you work so hard on onto your blog is a good thing. When it comes to design and layout, I tend to encourage people to keep it pretty simple and straightforward, but, like, also, like, aligned with your brand. So, like, if that's brand colors and make that the buttons to click on are, like, really obvious. Like, don't be afraid of using buttons, Liz.
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B
That is, there's like a fear of buttons out there, whether it's conscious or subconscious. And I noticed people will bury their one button in their email way at the bottom, where most people are never going to scroll to.
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A
I know. It's like, I think it's this fear of being too direct or too salesy. We're here to sell. Like, sales is a service. You want people to know where to click. And same with if you're using a hyperlink, like, say, click here, click here to shop. Click here to see this thing. You know, like, tell people what to do, help them. You know, like, craft your email and help people navigate it and tell them where you want them to go next.
- [24:40]
B
Yeah. I've started to change my mindset about sales in the way of, like, let's say you spend an hour working on an email, so you're gonna spend an hour working on this thing that you're afraid of it being a sales tool. Like, what did you do that for fun? Like, what did you spend your hour on? You know, so, like, milk it. Like, make it work for you because you're doing the work. Get. Get paid for it.
- [25:06]
A
I love that. That's great. I mean, that doesn't mean you're, like, putting buttons everywhere and saying, like, buy this thing. But, you know, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of it. Of having a strong call to action. You need to have a strong call to action.
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B
Yes.
- [25:23]
A
All right. Are you leaning into email? Let us know. Visit successwithjori. Com. And if you love the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message or leave us a review. Thanks for being a part of our community.