Listen to this on Podcast:

I've tried every email sending company out there for my own businesses or for clients.....and I'm going to show you my #1 pick of them all.

I've personally used:
• GetResponse
• Aweber (7 years)
• Klaviyo (7 years)
• MailChimp (3 years)
• InfusionSoft (5 years)
• ConvertKit (currently)

Here's what I personally have found from going through all these services:

The big stuff is almost all the same. Sending broadcasts, autoresponders, tagging. Every email service has this.

However it's the little things are important: How the editor works, editing images, being able to capture emails easily etc....

Here's the top things I've enjoyed about ConvertKit.

#1.) Easily write in the editor

This is such a big problem with most companies. The editor is often clunky and frustrating to write in.

In ConvertKit you write, and that's what it puts out.

Especially as an email gets longer, some email editors will "blow up" and mess up your email like an old Microsoft Word doc.

I used to always write blog posts on my website, then transfer them to emails. For almost a year now I've used ConvertKit as my default blog writing software.

One of the main reasons is the next point....

#2.) Edit Images on the spot.

Doing small edits to images is one of the most time consuming things I do (and for people who aren't good at this, often impossible).

For example, here's an image of an old advertisement I used in an email:

But I want to make it more informative by marking up the image...

With ConvertKit directly from the email editor I can do this:

This normally used to take many steps of importing/exporting the photo from Photoshop or another program like Canva. With ConvertKit I never left my email editor!

#3.) Autoresponder just click through and edit.

In the past my autoresponders looked like this:

While this LOOKS COOL, IT'S COMPLICATED AND HARD TO MANAGE.

Let's zoom in and look at this:

To make an autoresponder I would have to:

• Create and apply tagging rules
• Create a timer & rules for each individual email
• Link each email to the next
• Open new windows to edit an email
• Layout the emails so they fit on the screen
• View individual reports for each email

This was an utter disaster, and made wrangling my autoresponders super difficult.

ConvertKit solved this by making a brain-dead-simple layout like this:

Just click the email you want to edit....and edit right there on the spot.

I also HATED the reporting on other autoresponders. You had to click through each email one-by-one....but autoresponders are meant to be viewed as a sequence, not individually.

That's why when I saw ConvertKit displays simple reporting like this I rejoiced:

These might be very simple things, but to anyone who's living is made with emails, these things are huge deals.

I DON'T KNOW WHY IT TOOK SOMEONE THIS LONG TO MAKE AUTORESPONDERS LIKE THIS 😂

#4.) Accept purchases for products

I do consulting and sometimes accept random payments for sponsorships. Instead of invoicing software, I'll just create a product in ConvertKit, add the price, and send that link to the client, like this:

BAM. I just accepted payments.

It's little things like this that SHOULD be simple that I like.

#5.) Capture emails and grow list

Ugh, another bane of my existence is having multiple services to do email collection and email sending. Why are they not the same?

With ConvertKit I put this simple email signup form on CopywritingCourse.com/newsletter

In the past few weeks here's the performance of that box:

This means ~15% of the people that landed on that link entered their email address, and I picked up ~1,200 new subscribers from that.

Since I use ConvertKit for email collection AND sending, I set this form to start new signups on the autoresponder I mentioned above.

#6.) Send content upgrades in one

Sending a "Content Upgrade" is when someone signups for your email, and you send them a file:

This feature was nearly impossible with InfusionSoft, and required 10+ clicks and settings.

In fact I had to use LeadPages to handle this functionality.

However ConvertKit just let's you push people to a different page after they signup, or send them a message via email with the link:

Once again, this seems like such a small thing, but in practice is so difficult with many email services. So now I could send people relevant content downloads extremely simply, which massively boosted conversion rates!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post on the primary features that make me love ConvertKit.

Sincerely,
Neville Medhora

P.S. I made this whole email inside ConvertKit, including all the images.

P.P.S. If you are looking for an email editor, try out ConvertKit's free trial!

Hey Admin Lesley, let’s talk about writing emails for a second….more specifically, how to THINK about approaching them before ever writing a word.

Watch these 4 short videos and it’ll clarify how to properly think about sending email updates, newsletters, and autoresponders.

PART 1: Why you should not make your emails look like everyone else’s newsletter:

VIDEO 2: How and when to use an “Ethical Bribe” to get people to signup for your newsletter:

If you’re gonna use an autoresponder you have to have people subscribed to your email list. So to get people to signup, sometimes you can give them a little incentive to join. This is called an Ethical Bribe.

You know how you see people offer a free ebook or video in exchange for your email? That’s what an ethical bribe is. I use Ethical Bribes on SOME websites, and sometimes I don’t. Here’s what you need to understand these Ethical Bribes:

Personal Blog Welcome:

“Wantrepreneur” Concept:

Teaching Copywriting:

VIDEO 3: A sneaky trick for your emails that will do three things:

1.) Give you good feedback.
2.) Get you “email whitelisted.”
3.) Have customers tell you EXACTLY what they need help with and are willing to pay for.

Here’s some real examples of P.S.’s to use at the end of your emails: This one has worked for me shockingly well! People enjoy the novelty of it even years after my tons of voice in emails changed:

Here’s an example that gets people to tell me exactly what they’re having trouble with, and what they’re willing to pay for. Modify it to your own industry:

This one has been put on multiple autoresponders I’ve made, and worked pretty well:

This one doesn’t get people to respond, but it prepares them to lookout for the next email which is super-helpful:

VIDEO 4: An idea of how to write endless emails:

• Prey Email Copy: View full email ^
• Jeff’s Bad $455 email: View full email ^
• Jeff’s Bad $520 email View full email ^
• Jeff’s Good $1,670 email View full email ^
• Jeff’s Good $5,400 email View full email ^

Email newsletters are increasingly popular because:
#1.) You own the audience.
#2.) Email is still (by far) the biggest driver of sales.
#3.) The tools used to create and send a large newsletter are simple.

I've had a hand in getting millions of subscribers signed up to newsletters, and here's what I've learned (the most common questions asked):

Which Email Service Should I Use?

While you can use nearly any service, I specifically use ConvertKit on Copywriting Course.

Should I Use An Email Template?

Don't spend too much time creating custom email templates...they get large, hard to manage, and almost always you'll use a simple blank layout (or something very simple).

How Often To Send A Newsletter?

It depends on what type of business you are, but frequency can be once every 2-3 days, to once every month.

How To Think About Sending Email Content?

Email is such a powerful tool if you think about it correctly.

How to Build A Weekly Newsletter 

My method for sending out my Friday S.T.U.P.I.D. newsletter.

6 things I Like About ConvertKit

s

I've mentioned them a few times simply because "What email service do I use?" is the most common question I get, and it paralyzes people from taking action.

Hope these answer your questions about newsletters! Let me know if you have any other questions!

Sometimes you have a blog post that you want more exposure for. If you have an email list, those people have already signed up to hear from you, so send them your blog content! 

This is how I make emails with just good content such as blog posts or videos:
 

Steps:

1.) Put your blog content into your email editor.

2.) Read through it and make sure it flows (sometimes it’s slightly different for email).

3.) Test your email and make sure all links work.

4.) Send or schedule the email!

This is a table of all my past Subject Lines I've used on real emails.  The reason I'm including all these stats is so you can see what REAL subject lines yielded, how random it sometimes is, and how many unsubscribes each got. 

Here’s a bunch of emails that can use some work. See if some of them look familiar:

Here is my typical email to the appropriate person once they are identified:

Let’s say you’re trying to drum up sales for a B2B product you’re selling. Here’s some proven email templates that have brought in B2B Sales:

From: Gusto
Subject: thoughts on Gusto?

Hi [CONTACT FIRST NAME],

I know these sales emails can be a little awkward so here’s a picture of our company dog, Finnley, standing on a desk to break the ice:


Now that we’re old friends, if you had to give your current payroll provider a score between 1 and 10 what would it be?

If you didn’t just yell “10!” at your monitor, here are two very simple, very good reasons why we should have a quick conversation about moving [COMPANY]’s payroll to Gusto:

Things move faster on Gusto. Running payroll takes anywhere between 36 seconds and 10 minutes.

I promise to include another picture of Finnley in my next email. Looking forward to filling up your inbox with pics of this cute dog,

Admin Lesley
Market Development | Gusto
Book Me!

Gusto noun | (guhs-toh)
great enjoyment, energy, and enthusiasm ex: John hikes the Blue Ridge Mountains #WithGusto

Hey Admin Lesley let’s say you need to schedule a call with someone. These are templates you can use to get a meeting scheduled. They are geared towards getting meetings with potential clients.

This email starts off with a little flattery, and then goes in for an small 15 minute ask:

 
This email is a but more casual and fun:

Hey Neville!

Mind if we hop on a (strictly timed) 15 minute call tomorrow?



I’d love to:
— Show you what our top clients is doing to get more emails.
— Show you where you site is lacking conversions.
— See if I can improve your conversions on the spot.

Does 4pm – 4:15pm on Tuesday sound good?

Talk soon,
Admin Lesley

Let’s say you’re trying to introduce some folks over email. Here’s some helpful templates and examples you can copy.

Introducing two people who can work with each other:

Subject 1: [PERSON 1] + [PERSON 2] Introduction Request
Subject 2: [PERSON 1] meet [PERSON 2]
Subject 3: You two should meet!

This is a more casual introduction for two friends who may get along:

Subject 1:Hey [PERSON 1], meet [PERSON 2]
Subject 2: In town….meet up?
Subject 3: [PERSON 1] & [PERSON 2] sittin’ in a tree…..

This is a formal introduction for work acquaintances:

Subject 1: Introduction to [PERSON 1] and [PERSON 2]
Subject 2: Job search meeting.
Subject 3:[PERSON 1] & [PERSON 2] sittin’ in a tree…..

This is a fun introduction that combines personal and business:

Subject 1: [PERSON 2] has the cutest dog!
Subject 2: [PERSON 1] <--> [PERSON 2]
Subject 3: [PERSON 1] + [PERSON 2] = Best Buds!D

Dear [PERSON 1],

[PERSON 2] has the cutest dog ever….check him out!

That’s Donnie. He’s awesome.

[PERSON 1], [PERSON 2], and Donnie should meet up for a quick coffee this weekend. You all live in Hayes Valley, and can discuss working together on the new project!

CONTACT INFO:
[PERSON 1]: email@email.com, 333-333-3333, Facebook Profile.
[PERSON 2]: email@email.com, 666-666-6666, Facebook Profile.
Donnie The Dog: bark@puppies.com.

Sincerely,
Admin Lesley

This is a real email that was sent to introduce Susan to Ralph.

Subject: Susan, Meet Ralph; Ralph, Meet Susan

This is an email sent to introduce Marta and Jeff.

Subject: Introducing You Two for Networking

This is a real email that was sent to introduce Bob and Janice.

Subject: Susan, Meet Ralph; Ralph, Meet Susan

A follow up email is super important after several events:

• Following up after a sales call.
• Following up after a job interview.
• Following up after a client meeting.
• Following up after getting no response (but still being courteous about it).

Below we’ve included templates for each which you can copy/paste.

Follow up email after a sales call:
An easy way to follow up after a sales call, even if there is no planned next meeting, is to provide some value. In this example we are just linking a few of the cool tools we discussed over the sales call.

Just give a quick few links and stop.  Make your last interaction with them a pleasant/useful one!

Theme of email: Send them useful tools you may have discussed on the call.

Possible Subject Lines: Stuff from call. The links you wanted. Call notes. All the links you liked

If you’re selling to large companies, often times you’ll have one person who will be your “product champion” within the company. Arm this person with some helpful materials they can show their colleagues to convince them to use your product.

Theme of email: Send them materials they can share around the office.

Follow up email after a job interview:
If you’re really gunning for a specific job, it’s always helpful to stand out from the crowd, and go above-and-beyond other applicants.

Most people beg for a job and hope it works out.  Superstars however can go above-and-beyond to impress (see what recruiters are looking for in a job interview). For this template I created a one page Google Doc with an outline for the help I can offer the company.  This took me less than 10 minutes, and you can copy the template for yourself.

This is the kind of stuff that could push you over the top for a company to choose you. My buddy Noah got a job at Mint by making a full marketing outline for the entire company. He didn’t have to do this, but because he did, he got the job.

Theme of email: Go above-and-beyond by sending them a custom outline of what you can help with.

Hey Jim, it was great meeting!

I’ve included a small one-page document outlining the immediate problems I saw. I would love to help the team fix all of these!



Sincerely,
Neville Medhora – 555.555.5555

A quick followup with a little bit about you can always help solidify what happened in your interview.

Hi Linda,

It was fantastic interviewing yesterday! Would love to join the awesome team, and have a bunch of great ideas and work to contribute.

If there are any updates on the hiring process, please let me know. Look forward to speaking with you soon!

Sincerely,
Neville Medhora

Follow up email after a client meeting:
If you have a meeting with an existing client, it’s always useful to know the next step you’re taking together. This helps both parties understand what page they’re on, and avoids a bunch of useless back-n-forth emails later on.

Theme of email: Give a quick re-cap of what (and when) the next things are happening.

Another thing you can do is send a helpful set of notes from the meeting, or share any materials that were involved:

Theme of email: Send a helpful email with notes and materials.

Follow up after getting no response:
Let’s say you do a couple of calls with a person/company, and they ghost on you.  Here’s a simple email to get their attention and cuts straight to the point:

Here’s a classic email for following up after getting no response from a client:

Possible Subject Lines:Closing your file?
Your file will be closed.
Closing your account.
Close out this account?

This is a low-commitment email that just allows them to respond back with one word. I’ve seen in B2B that sometimes ultra-short and informal emails will get a reply quickly.

Psychological triggers to use in a follow up email:
Here’s some “triggers” with examples you can use.

For brevity sake I’ll only be using small snippets in these examples:

1.) Scarcity:
Make them think the deal is going away, or they are missing out.

2.) Extreme Honesty:
Show some real vulnerability and honest.

3.) Question Their Power:
I do not condone using this except in rare situations! This method might burn bridges, so beware.

4.) Use Specific Facts:
By quoting actual numbers, one of them might capture the attention.

5.) Intrigue them with stuff about themselves:
Everyone’s favorite subject is themselves, so maybe indulge that with some cool tools. I used PhotoFeeler a lot in my post on how to choose the right photo for your social accounts. I’ve found this to be an awesome little tool to run people’s public photos through, then send them the results!

Hey David, I noticed you’ve got different pictures on your LinkedIn and AngelList accounts. Ran them through a voting process, turns out the photo on the right performed 50% better!


From the results we’ve seen at our own firm, you might want to change your LinkedIn photo to the highest rated one. I know it sounds silly, but we see better results with our salespeople when they use highly rated pictures!

One of the first things to understand about cold email is the psychology behind it. This is crucial, as you can send thousands of cold emails and never get a response.

Understand “The Gatekeeper” is getting bombarded:

Here’s an interview with Collin Sutton. He’s the director of social media marketing for OMD. This means he’s constantly bombarded with 100’s of emails and calls to get his business.

This interview demonstrates how much he’s sought after, and why he answers only 1 out of 30 cold emails….and what ACTUALLY catches his eye in a cold email to get him to call them back:

Let’s write a cold email:

Watch as we type out a simple B2B email. It’s not as complex as some people make it out to be:

Let’s write a cold email (w/ Neville):

Same as above, but you get to see Neville in action 😛