The Art of Online Business

Mastering Email Marketing to Generate $1,000+ a Day with Liz Wilcox

• Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie • Episode 813

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Imagine your business making $1,000 a day while you're on Survivor! Liz Wilcox, the fresh princess of email marketing, is back for another episode where she shares how she set up a business that not only runs itself but thrives. 

We dive into how you can spend less than 20 minutes a week on your emails and tweak your welcome sequences for better conversions. Plus, Liz gives away a powerful freebie that could transform how you handle your email marketing.


Get to know Liz in the episode 'While Liz Wilcox was competing on Survivor, her business made six figures' and get to know Liz Wilcox.



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Timestamps:

0:00 Email Marketing Success Secrets

13:45 Business Principles and Personal Branding

23:38 Email Welcome Sequence Strategy Discussion



Speaker 1:

So welcome back to an episode with Liz Wilcox. She set up her copywriting business. She's, by the way, is the fresh princess of email marketing and she's an email strategist and keynote speaker who shows small businesses how to build online relationships and package up their magic and turn it into emails that people want to read and, most importantly, purchase from to emails that people want to read and, most importantly, purchase from. But Liz, she's special. She set up her business so that she could go and participate in Survivor, the actual reality TV show, and she was away from her business for 90 days. Not only was her business running fine, but it was making $1,000 a day while she was gone and nobody could contact her.

Speaker 1:

It wasn't like she was doing Survivor in the daytime and then in the evening working another nine hours, you know, via satellite internet connection. To like keep the business afloat, like this lady is impressive, and so in this episode you're going to hear kind of how she did that. You'll also hear how you can spend less than 20 minutes a week writing your emails and actually have emails that go out, that convert, and if you're like me, you'll really love the part where she tells us, like what we're doing wrong in our welcome emails and what we can change to ensure better conversion rates, also known as sales. Does that sound good, liz? Can we do that in this episode? We can right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, let's get to it. I'm so excited.

Speaker 1:

For sure, Before we get to it, there might be someone listening who doesn't know who I am. I'm Quajo. I'm the new host of the Art of Online Business. If I'm completely new to you, then go down to the show notes below. There's two episodes there.

Speaker 1:

One you can find out where Rick is and what he's doing. It's a cool AI project that helps online entrepreneurs, online course creators, online membership owners and online coaches. He helps you figure out how to better use AI in your business to reduce your overwhelm and increase your impact and revenue. And then, if you want to see like why Rick chose me to be the new host of the Art of Online Business, he interviewed me and you can watch that episode it's linked up in the show notes below and just kind of see why he chose me, how I knew him. I used to work for him like three years now, and that's that. I want to talk to you, Liz. Where do we even can we start with what you said at the end of the last episode, which we linked up in the show notes below? But you ended that episode by saying that your business was making a thousand dollars a day, Cause I was asking you right before you took vacation a thousand dollars a day because I was asking you right before you took vacation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we were talking about, you know I got on survivor. I had to take five full weeks off but I ended up taking 90 days to rest and recover from the game and in those 90 days I made about a hundred ten thousand dollars. Uh, so over a thousand dollars a day. You know I really, on top of whatever survivor money I win, to be determined, can't say I was making over $1,000 a day while playing. You know a game, you know just a reality show game. So think quajo had asked how the heck are we actually doing that? Like, how was I growing the email list? How was I selling right?

Speaker 1:

because this is textbook selling or growing, doing the selling things while you sleep or while you are on survivor. So how?

Speaker 2:

right, while you sleep dot dot dot in the dirt with the bugs and the crabs and no blanket.

Speaker 1:

Oh my god, let me tell you I would come in last place. I am a city boy through and through. Don't put me in a tent if it doesn't have like zipped up mesh. I do not want bugs I hate mosquitoes, oh my gosh. So how do you do this?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I, first of all, I've mastered email marketing. I think Quajo said, oh, I'm the fresh princess of email. And so before the game started, before I went to Fiji, I made sure all my automations were going to be automated. And that is not to say you have to have automations. If I had been in the States, I probably would have just been sending these emails on a weekly basis, but I automated everything so that I could go play this game. One of the like real ways to be able to do that is to grow your email list right, and so my email list was growing all the time and I knew that you know in July which I still wouldn't be back at work normally I host a flash sale, and so I knew that was going to happen, so I wrote the emails for that, wrote the regular weekly newsletters leading up to the flash sale.

Speaker 2:

After the flash sale, and really my main source of leads I know Cuejo and the gang. They love Facebook ads, right, you probably love Facebook ads too. I've actually built everything. Like every lead that's come to me has been organic. I've actually never run Facebook ads before. Yeah, we mentioned in the before we hit record session that I'm a single mom and so I I started my business with like no money. I also mentioned I've never had like a real job, so it's not like I was coming from corporate with any sort of savings. You know, I really was starting at zero so I had to get really good at organic traffic, which my main lead generation tool is actually what I'm doing right now Podcast guesting. I have guested on over 300 podcasts done over private trainings and summits. So all together and summits, so all together I think it's. I think it's like over 200 individual podcasts and then it's repeat guest, private trainings etc.

Speaker 1:

Over how long of a period of time?

Speaker 2:

In three years.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've done. I mean, I did six just last week and I this is a slow week. I only have four this week okay, all right keep going.

Speaker 2:

I'm not even gonna ask, just keep going this is great and what I love about podcast guesting and what helped me while I was taking time off, is those podcasts are evergreen. You know, you heard at the top of this hour Quajo said oh, go back and you can hear our conversation about XYZ If you want to learn where Rick is, you know, check out this one. Right? That's evergreen content. That's content at the time of this recording. They recorded five, six months ago, but who knows, you might be listening to this in 2025, right, but you're still getting that content.

Speaker 2:

So that's why I've gone with podcast guesting. As you know, my lead generation tool, because it lasts pretty much a lifetime for as long as the podcast lives, and here at the Art of Online Business, we know it can live on, even when you know it exchange hosts, right, and so it's a great, great tool to grow your email list, right, and so it's a great, great tool to grow your email list, right, and so that's how I was gaining leads from podcasts. Like we might record this today and it might not come out for two months. So I was making sure all the podcasts guesting that I was doing in January, february, march was going to come out when May, june, july, august, when I was out of pocket, right, so I was getting those leads, the emails were emailing out and, you know, the sales were selling, so to speak.

Speaker 1:

Wow, can I ask the next question? Please yeah, I mean, this is a perfect segue into, like, the question that I really want to ask, which, thank God, it's what you want to talk about too, which is so for those of us that have lead magnets, which is most of the people listening right now. What are we doing wrong in our welcome email sequence? You know, after we deliver the lead magnet, like what could we change so that we can increase our sales that come from that email sequence?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love this question because this is where my superpower comes in. I really know how to connect with my audience through email. So, in your welcome sequence, it's the same as when Quajo sets up this podcast hey, you're listening to the Art of Online Business. Today we're going to have this guest. We're going to cover A, b, c and D. You know, stay tuned, wait to the end. When we share, you know X, y, z. Right, he's setting expectations. He lets you know where you're at, who should be listening and where you're about to be taken. We need to do the exact same thing in our welcome sequence.

Speaker 2:

Hey, I'm Liz Wilcox. I talk about email marketing. Here's where we're going to go. Here's my vision for you, etc. Etc. So what we're, what we're like, tend to make a mistake at like where our mistake is at. If I could stop fumbling over my words here, normally we try we're just trying way too hard, right? We're, we're over complicating this. You know, raise your hand. Maybe you're driving or doing the dishes, but you know, raise your hand if you tend to overcomplicate. Right, a lot of us do, most of all of us, really.

Speaker 2:

So, with our welcome sequence, instead of trying to throw the kitchen sink at them, instead of just, you know, creating this long funnel for our digital course. What if we just tried to connect with our audience as quickly as possible? And we can do this by sharing three things. Number one just a little bit of personality in that welcome sequence. A lot of us, we try to be too formal or too professional, you know we. You know we put on our suit and tie, but really people want to know us right. You know we put on our suit and tie, but really people want to know us right. There's a reason why. You know, rick said Quajo, you're the one to take over this podcast, right? There was something about his personality that said yes, you're the one right Of all the people, you're the only one I'm willing to pass the torch to right. There's also a reason why if you're running Facebook ads and you know your ideal customer sees your ad and decides to sign up for you, there's a little bit of that personality piece. When you do your Facebook ad correctly, that can really shine through and get people to sign up.

Speaker 2:

So don't hide away from your personality. And this is not to say you have to have Liz Wilcox personality. Oh my gosh, she's a, you know, she's on reality TV and she, you know, has NSYNC and Poppy and all this crazy stuff in the background. It's just this surface level stuff, right? This, you know, what kind of things do you enjoy in pop culture? What are you drinking every day when you come to work? What do you have for breakfast? You know, are you a morning person or an evening person? That surface level stuff. Put that in your welcome sequence so people can know like, oh yeah, that's totally me or that's not me at all, but gosh, I just love this about them, right? So, making sure that personality.

Speaker 2:

The second thing in your welcome sequence I want you to have is the vision, and this is the big mistake. You get the lead magnet but you don't tell people where they're going. Right, it's like, ok, I just got on the bus, but where is Kwejo taking me? Where is Nahaku taking me? Where is Liz taking me? We've got to share that immediately in our welcome sequence. Me, we've got to share that immediately in our welcome sequence. I usually say, hey, my name's Liz. As much as I love NSYNC in the nineties, I love the idea of you making money with email even more.

Speaker 1:

Boom yeah.

Speaker 2:

Okay, right in the first email.

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

And you can do that too. You know like for Kwejo it might be. You know as much as I love. You know learning new languages and exploring new places. I love the idea of you mastering the art of Facebook ads.

Speaker 1:

Suddenly.

Speaker 2:

I know, you know, I know a little bit about Kwejo. Oh, I, you know. Oh, I've always wanted to travel. Oh, I wish I knew a foreign language. That's cool. He knows that. And oh, yes, I, I'm in the right place. Master Facebook ads my gosh, have I been trying to do that. I'm going to open up the next email and the last thing is just your values, and this is not spew your politics. Everywhere.

Speaker 2:

There are certain principles that guide the way you do business, guide the types of clients you take or you want to take, right, and so sharing those in your welcome sequence, you know, is something I don't often see, but it can really align you with the right people. For example, one of my values is inclusivity and the right to an education. One of my values is inclusivity and the right to an education, and so my main offer is only $9 a month so that it can be as inclusive of an offer as I can make it. I share that immediately in the welcome sequence so people know why my price is my price, right, which we all know. You know everybody and their mother is going to argue the price, no matter what it is, so that and that aligns with a certain type of person.

Speaker 2:

It might not align with someone who is like, oh, if it's not high ticket, it's not worth my time. Right, they're going to go work with a one-on-one person and that's great. Right, I don't want them on my list. I, I want these people who are just starting out, who you know value the same things as me. So again, that's personality, vision and values. Very rarely do I see these set up in a welcome sequence, but when you do, chef's kiss.

Speaker 1:

Random question before the next question that has to do with our conversation. I am watching you and you are the only guest that I've ever had that has, let's call it, camera bullying. Like, how did you get this border around your image and your name, because it's not within StreamYard what we're recording on?

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh. So if you're not watching, we're actually recording on StreamYard, and so Kweju and I can see each other, and I have a border around my camera. I actually use a competitor of StreamYard which is called Ecamm. Ecamm is a Mac only software, and so it lives on my computer and it has a virtual camera. So wherever I show up online, so does my border, and so you know, if I wanted to give a presentation right now, I can actually just take over my screen and do lots of super fun stuff.

Speaker 1:

Wow that is so cool. Okay, I might have to figure out how to do that. Does it lower? Does it lower the like quote-unquote resolution or like the stream quality?

Speaker 2:

actually it can enhance it. So I can like, if you go to a zoom room and zoom, will actually zoom, will take over the resolution for the entire group to like I don't know like maximize everything and so I can actually override that within zoom, so that my camera has the resolution that I want, even if zoom is trying to lower my resolution force screen bling is what I'm gonna call it, because it's okay, I gotta write that down. I gotta share that with them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, it's your screen bling like because it's super noticeable, and I wanted to mention it before, but then I forgot. But then I was looking because it's super noticeable and I wanted to mention it before, but then I forgot, but then I was looking again. It's just like not only, like you know, do we have like a cool background going on, but this is like I'm not going to forget. I'm assuming it's it's branding, it's the same everywhere you go, right, so yeah yeah, so let's, let's talk about that With the screen.

Speaker 2:

That's part of my personality, right? You can see when I come on like, oh, wow, she's branded, it's very nice, it's her colors, it matches the background. You know, it's just that 10% more. That makes you 100% stand out, and that's what I teach in everything in email marketing, everything. It's not even the personality, vision and values that we just talked about. That's not actually doing a whole lot different. It's just adding that 10%. Oh, you know I'm Liz and I love the 90s, right? That's a very simple sentence, but it makes you 100 stand out, just like ecam.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to ecam and the fam right, okay, so so just that relating letting a little of your personality come out, showing somebody with words where they're going to next in the email sequence. That's it. Nothing else like really to increase sales or conversion rates.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so in particular when we talk about sales, because not and Kwejo, you know this not everyone's going to buy right now. People don't buy when you sell something. They buy when they're ready, right. It's like my sister and I you know, the gas station is always open on the corner. I'm going to get gas every other day, she's going to get gas once a month, right, like, we have different buying behaviors and even if you've got just one perfect ideal avatar, they've all got different buying behaviors.

Speaker 2:

And so, even if, like, if your funnel isn't working or you know you need to take a step back and consider why, I want you to add this one sentence, and this is going to flip the switch from oh.

Speaker 2:

I just got this. I just got this freebie right To. Oh, this person is a real business with real solutions. This is the exact sentence. I am going to offer you free and paid products. Free and paid services, free and paid resources whatever words you want to use. Again, there's a switch in the back of their head. That's right now. Switch to freebie, right? I get free stuff from this person. We're going to switch it to. You know, paid solutions. So I'm going to offer you free and paid resources to help you. X, y, z. Remember what's that vision? Mine is make money with email to help you make money with email. To help you run Facebook ads to help you. I used to be a travel blogger, so to help you get on the road full time and become a digital nomad, right, whatever the thing is. And I don't expect anyone to buy from that email, but we've got to let them know. The shop is open.

Speaker 2:

And you can even you can do sub bullets after the sentence, like my nine dollar a month membership, like my you know group program that's open you know, in April and September, like my one on one.

Speaker 2:

Blah, blah, blah, right. And so we give them those examples after telling them, hey, free and paid, like my A, b and C, and we don't expect anyone to buy from this, but we expect them to click, take a look. It's like, okay, I got this freebie. Now I'm in the shop, I'm doing some window shopping, right? The first time you walk into Old Navy maybe you don't buy anything, but you come back next week, you know, with your wife and you guys pick out clothes for the whole family, right?

Speaker 2:

So right now, everybody's just window shopping, so we need to give them that it's going to increase your click rate and it's going to increase your conversion rate next time.

Speaker 1:

And for Facebook ad spam. It's going to grow your retargeting audience if that person visits your website and you're retargeting your website visitors with ads.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh. Yes, well, definitely, oh my gosh. Win, win, win. We got them.

Speaker 1:

And so you're saying this is what should go in that first email that delivers the free thing, the free lead magnet, the free guide.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, that can be its own. So if we want to break down the emails, we can totally do that. I, I, I send out four emails. Let's, let's do it. The first email is just a quick delivery right. What did you promise them? Here's my freebie, here's my coupon code, here's my whatever right, just deliver that. And this is the part where you put that line about your personality and vision. Say, hey, here's my, for example, my freebie. Is this welcome sequence already written for you? So it's hey, here's that welcome sequence you signed up for. You know, click here to get it. Oh, by the way, I'm Liz Wilcox. As much as I love X, I love Y even more. Right. As much as I love the 90s, I love, you know you making money with email, even more. Okay, you know, I'll let you get to it. Bye, that email should be really, really short and sweet.

Speaker 2:

The second email is where we share some of our best content. Think of this email as if they don't open any other emails ever from you, ever again. What's the one piece of advice you want to leave them, what's the one piece of content you want to share? And you can even say that hey, I know we're new to each other. But you know, like, if I could only share one message with you, here it is. You can type it out. You can already have a podcast. You know outbound link, or what I do is I just make like a quick 60-second video. That way they're seeing my face right, they're making a face-to-face connection now and I say you know, hey, I'm Liz. You know you signed up for my email list, don't forget. You got that freebie yesterday. You got that welcome sequence. But you know I have the welcome sequence because that's my number one piece of advice for you. You've got to nail this welcome sequence. It is the firm foundation your entire business, you know, lives on. Okay, bye, you know, and so that's that. So, first email. Second email.

Speaker 2:

The third email is what Kwejo and I were just talking about setting the expectations email. I'm going to offer you free and paid services. This is where you tell them, hey, I'm going to email you once a week. I'm going, you know, on Tuesdays. Or if you know, hey, I'm going to email you sporadically because I can't get my ish together. Right, whatever's true, just write that. Just write the truth. That will. It will behoove you later to just be truthful. Right, hey, I'm going to send you emails about A, b and C. I'm going to send you these types of strategies right, whatever kind of content you create of strategies right, whatever kind of content you create. And then I'm going to offer you free and paid products. So that's the setting expectation email.

Speaker 2:

And then the last email and this is speaking to the mistakes we make. We try to put this first, but these people don't know us yet. They just got a freebie. So we don't want to share our story or our big why, our values until the end, right, and so we save that for last. And in this fourth email, we just share some of our values. We share a little bit of background. Again, this is an email. It's like a newsletter, not a novel. So you don't want to write a ton, but maybe like four or 500 words about hey, this is how I got into the work I do. This is why I love it. This is who I love to work with. You know, hopefully we can work together soon. Peace out. Those are the four emails.

Speaker 1:

So simple.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Very, very, very simple. And this, lest the listener forget, because I can't stop thinking about it this is the sequence that you have that's connected to the freebie that you give away. That is said when you are guesting on other podcasts, which you do on purpose, to the tune of did you say six to eight a week normally, or just six-ish?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I had six last week. I have four this week. No less than three a week, to be honest, nowadays. But yeah, if we want to bring this full circle, this really is the sequence that Liz Wilcox herself uses and has used. I've owned three online businesses. This is the sequence I have for every single one of them and this is the sequence that sets my list up to have over 55% customers to date. Just that one sentence I'm going to offer you free and paid products if you do nothing else. I really believe that's the main reason why I'm able to convert so well. It's because I set that expectation up front in the welcome sequence.

Speaker 1:

Schedule is being cleared from my calendar. Now I am redoing my welcome email sequence. Liz, that is so actionable and so simple. Like this is probably the thing that requires. So I've interviewed a couple of people over the past two weeks and gotten really good strategies, but this one is like a no brainer. Very limited, low amount of thinking on my behalf. Like this is so easy to do. I need to do it right now.

Speaker 2:

And I want to tell you, you're welcome, you're welcome. Geez, yeah, let's all do it. And seriously, honestly, I want to make this even simpler for you. This is where I put my marketer hat on right. My freebie is actually this welcome sequence If you're going to do a lead magnet, do it right.

Speaker 2:

If you're having a hard time conceptualizing, maybe you're driving or you're going for a walk right now. You couldn't write all this down. I've already written it for you. You can just go to lizwilcoxcom. There's a hot pink button in the top right-hand corner. You can't miss it. You're going to get all of this already written for you. You can take and make it your own. I really mean it when I say email marketing changed my life. I mean, heck, it allowed me to go play a game in the jungle and be on TV right, like. That's probably not your dream, but I know that you have a dream. I know that's probably not your dream, but I know that you have a dream. I know you know automations and simpler conversion rates and strategies is part of that, and this simple welcome sequence is really going to set a firm foundation for you. So I really want you to have it. It's yours for free, lizwilcoxcom.

Speaker 1:

Wow, thank you, liz. Like. This is ultra, ultra practical advice and I can't wait to see if you won the season of Survivor or not.

Speaker 2:

I can't wait to see either.

Speaker 1:

You can't wait to see either, right, so with that we're going to end this episode. Thank you for being a guest on this podcast and thank you for all that really good strategy that you just gave me and the listener.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, you're so welcome. I cannot wait to see what everybody does with email. It truly is a game changer in your business, especially if you're running Facebook ads. You've got to make sure the back end is, you know, as firm as a foundation as it can be. And, yeah, I just can't wait to see everybody get started.

Speaker 1:

Where can somebody catch up with you really quick, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Are you an Instagram?

Speaker 1:

person or how can we contact you.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I'm an email person. Please, I'd love for you to join my email list lizwilcoxcom hot pink button. On top of that welcome sequence, you're also going to get three newsletter samples. I'm going to show you how to get people to click, reply and buy from you, and you're going to get 52 subject lines for a year full of prompts. That's the best way to catch me. And if you're, I know it's a crazy freebie. Guys, I'm doing the most so you can get back to what you actually like to do. I love email. Let me do it for you. I'd love for you guys to check that out. And then, of course, if you're into Survivor, if you love the 90s, you can catch me on Instagram at the Liz Wilcox T-H-E. Liz Wilcox, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for being here and until you hear from me or see from me the next time, take care, be blessed and we'll chat soon. Bye.

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Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie

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