Introduction: When It’s Been a Hot Minute Since You Emailed Your List
Breanna Owen (00:00)
Look, it happens, okay? You have the best of intentions, you mean really well, and then all of a sudden, days have turned into weeks, have turned into months, and maybe it’s been a hot minute since you last emailed your list.
That is real hard, especially when you keep meaning to come back and you don’t really know what to say, and you keep putting it off. And then all of a sudden, here’s what’s gonna happen. You will find that you have an offer to launch, or you are part of a bundle that you need to promote. There is something that starts acting like a pressure cooker, and you’ve got to be able to reactivate that email list and start sending something out.
What I hear from clients all the time is that if it’s been a while since you’ve last emailed your list, you tend to feel a certain way about jumping back in and immediately hitting the promo trail.
Maybe that’s because you’re worried about what people are going to think and how they’re going to respond to you. Especially if you are hesitating because you don’t want people to unsubscribe from your list. I get it. I totally get all of those things.
Earlier this week I saw something from Samantha Burmeister of Nomad Copy, who was actually a guest on episode eight, I believe, of this podcast. She said it a specific way and I just thought it was so right. It was essentially that if somebody is unsubscribing because you sent a sales email, they were never gonna buy from you anyway. So wish them well, peace be with them, and keep going with what you have to say and show up for your business anyway.
So let’s go back to this situation. It’s been a hot minute since you’ve emailed your list. You need to be able to send them something soon to promote a specific offer or service, and you’re not really sure what to send. I got you. I actually have three ideas for you that you can use for preheating your email list, so to speak. Here are three ways that you can slide back into the inbox without making it awkward AF.
Email Idea #1: The Recap Email
The first email idea for you is to give your people some sort of a recap. You’ve been off the grid for whatever reason. Give us a little bit of a glimpse into that. Recap what you have been up to during your time away.
This is really great if you’re one of those people who feels like you need to explain your absence. Most likely, people don’t really notice that you’ve been gone. You are not an airport. You do not need to announce your arrival or departure. But if you feel this need to say something like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been gone for so long because of yada yada yada,” the recap email is great for you. It allows you to give that explanation and that justification, if you will, without making it feel like that’s what you’ve been doing.
I did this when I came back from my summer sabbatical. I highlighted a variety of things that we did over the summer, ways that we had fun, what I was up to. I also got injured while on summer vacation, and that drastically altered how our summer went. I’m still recovering from this. And so I got to talk about that a little bit, right?
There are lots of different ways that you can approach this recap email. So let’s look at them based off of energy type.
The Recap Email for Projectors
If you are a Projector, you can take this recap email as the things that you noticed and saw while you were off the grid or away from your email. Maybe some insights that you have really been chewing on and ruminating over.
You can also talk about that self-recognition, for Projectors, of the things that you did that felt like a success for you. You could even position the fact that you haven’t emailed your list in so long as a win, as an element of success, because you were prioritizing something else instead. If that’s a win for you and you feel a huge amount of success for this, position it in that way.
As a Projector, you do need to be visible for people to be able to see you and invite you in and keep working with you. But you also need to be the first one to recognize yourself, so that other people can recognize you and then invite you in to work with you. This recap email can be a really, really great way for you as a Projector to do that, and to preheat your email list for what you are about to promote or launch.
The Recap Email for Manifestors
Okay, Manifestors. If you take this recap approach, you’re not justifying or excusing why you were away. You just were. You’re positioning this as, “Yep, I’ve been gone for a hot minute, and here’s what I’ve been up to.” You are telling them like it is, and then you are moving on. Welcome back to you as a Manifestor.
The Recap Email for Generators and Manifesting Generators
For our sacral types, Generators and Manifesting Generators, you can think about your recap email as a list of things that you said yes to while you were away.
I personally am a Generator, so a lot of my recap list was things that I really enjoyed doing over the summer. Ways that my kids and I had fun, things that we said yes to. I said yes to a lot of ice cream for dinner nights. We went to the theme park, roller coasters, a water park. I spent a ton of time in my garden.
What are the things that brought you joy? Where were you creative? What really lit you up and brought you so much joy and satisfaction while you were away?
It could also be things that you said no to, right? These are the things that I stopped doing while we were away. Anything with that kind of energy behind it is gonna be really, really magnetic and attractive to your people.
The Recap Email for Reflectors
Okay, our fifth energy type would be Reflectors. If you’re writing a recap email as a Reflector, talk about where you’ve been. Your physical environment, the rooms that you’re in, and the people that you’re around are really everything for you. What rooms were life-giving and supportive for you? Who were your favorite people that you spent time with while you were away?
You are this mirror, reflecting back what you are seeing and noticing in all of the rooms that you’re in. So what are the things that people are dealing with, experiencing, thinking, or wondering about, but maybe not really saying? Give us the temperature of the rooms that you were in and the people that you were around while you were away.
This works really, really well for Reflectors, because Reflectors work on that lunar 28-day cycle. Having a season away gives you all the more energy to be sampling and then reflecting upon when you do come back with your recap email.
Email Idea #2: The Look-Ahead Email
The second idea I have for you on how to slide back into the inbox without it feeling awkward AF is the inverse of a recap email. A recap email takes a look back at where you’ve been. Now let’s look ahead to what’s coming up.
This is really great if you have a lot coming up. If you’re like, “Crap, I have been silent for so long, and now I’ve got all these podcasts I’m on, I’m participating in two bundles, I have my own launch coming up.” If you are booked solid in this next season, which in real time would be the fall season, this look-ahead email is chef’s kiss for you.
This is a really great way to give your people a bit of a heads-up about what’s coming before it actually happens. Now, what you emphasize and how you emphasize it can absolutely be influenced by your Human Design. So this time, let’s look at your profile lines.
The Look-Ahead Email for a 1 Line
Let’s say you have a 1 line in your profile. It’s a 5/1, a 1/3, et cetera. There’s a reason why you’re doing what you’re doing. So when you say what’s coming up, tell us what it’s built on. What you have been studying and researching, what you’ve been finding, and why you are now doing this bundle, this launch, or this service because of that.
You are the one that builds that really strong, firm foundation. You tell us your processes. You’re the one who teaches us things. So use that as a launch pad for what you’re about to be launching and promoting. No pun intended there, but true nonetheless. Your people are going to trust you more when they understand the foundation it’s coming from.
The Look-Ahead Email for a 2 Line
All right, let’s say you’ve got a 2 line in your profile. You’re a 2/4 or a 6/2 or something like that.
The 2 line is this natural talent, and it’s also known as the hermit, because a 2 line really likes to do its own thing in its own little hermit cave. It needs to be reminded to come out of the hermit cave to share its natural gift, talent, and skill with the world at large.
So you can view this as your coming-out-of-the-hermit-cave email. You’ve been off in your own corner, isolated, doing your own thing, and now you’re coming out into the world to share it with us. Maybe this look-ahead is a behind-the-scenes of you in your natural element: the work that you’ve been doing and the work that you’re prepping for. Maybe you’re easing into announcing this launch or promo by showing us your natural talent and your gift.
Because when you give us a glimpse of the thing that you are just so naturally talented and good at, it makes us want it. So if you can give us a peek of what’s coming, we’re going to want it.
The Look-Ahead Email for a 3 Line
Okay, let’s say you have a 3 line in your profile. That 3 line is the experimenter, who lives and thrives off of trial and error. So how can you tap into that experiment element with your upcoming project, your launch, or the bundle that you’re promoting?
Maybe you position it as something you’d been working on through trial and error, and based on the results, here you go, now you’re offering this thing. Or maybe you position the thing as its own experiment.
This doesn’t even have to be a new service or a new project. It could be something you’ve done before, and you’re going about it in a new way this time. Maybe there’s something you’ve changed about your product, your service, or your offer. Maybe you’re participating in a bundle for the first time. That in and of itself is new and different, and there’s a little bit of trial and error for you, right?
The third way you can tap into this experimenter element as a 3 line is to position what you’ve got coming up as you leading people through an experiment of some kind. You’re helping them navigate the messy middle of some sort of process, and that is what’s coming ahead for you and for your people.
I know sometimes it can feel inherently like, “Ooh, I don’t wanna air my dirty laundry on the internet.” And if you’ve got a 3 line, people really, really crave and appreciate the realness that you bring to your business through your marketing and your messaging. People are actually going to love that from you. So lean into it, in the ways that you feel comfortable, of course.
The Look-Ahead Email for a 4 Line
All right, if you’ve got a 4 line, your people are the launch. It’s essential for you to be prepping your email list, your people, and your network for what is to come, because that is how you spread your message. That is how you reach people: through your inner network. Your opportunities are going to come from people who already know you. So letting your people know about what’s coming up is crucial for you, especially.
You can even let them know that you’re doing this for them, in a way that’s going to help their relationships. Maybe you talk about how you can’t really do this without them. Or you give them a tease, a sneak peek, and let them know that you’ll likely be asking them to help spread the word as this launch gets closer.
When you do it that way, you can position this message as, “Hey, I’m just letting the people who are really close to me know this.” That helps your people feel that intimacy a little bit more. It feels like VIP insider knowledge, and it makes people feel special. They love that.
The Look-Ahead Email for a 5 Line
If you have a 5 line in your profile, it could be a 5/1, a 3/5, et cetera, you are a practical solutions messenger. You’re gonna wanna position this thing that’s coming up as a practical solution to a problem that your people have.
As an introductory note, you can say: here’s the practical solution that I’m bringing to the table for you, here’s who it’s for, and here’s who it’s not for. Then you can get into the deeper details as the promotion and the launch continue on.
People project onto you. So it’s really good for you to draw the line in the sand of what you’re doing and what you’re not doing from the get-go. That way people don’t get an idea in their head that you’re doing something that maybe you’re not, because that’s really hard to overcome once those stories and narratives are already built up in somebody’s head.
The Look-Ahead Email for a 6 Line
If you are a 6 line and you want to give this look-ahead email to ease your way back into the inbox, there are two ways you could approach it that will work really well for you, based on your 6 line role model.
One way is to give the 35,000-foot view that the 6 line is just so stinking good at. Give us the bigger picture. Zoom out on the season that is approaching and tell your people what is coming and how it fits into the big picture of their season.
If I were a 6 line, I might even approach this episode that way. In the big picture, you have a launch coming up that you’re gonna wanna share with people and send emails about. And if you’re not already active with your email list, you’re gonna wanna rewarm them. You’re gonna wanna get them primed and ready to hear and receive, and then ideally take action on, the message that you have for them. So I’m zooming out on why this episode matters in the 35,000-foot view of it all.
The other approach you can take as a 6 line is to lead from your own example. People see you as a role model. So bring your lived experience into it. What have you walked, navigated, and lived through? How have you learned from that, and how has it shaped the offer or promotion that’s coming up? You can position it from the perspective of, “This is what I’m offering based on what I’ve learned, having come through the other side of it.”
How to Re-Warm Your Email List Before a Launch
So those are two of the ways that you can slide back into the inbox without making it awkward AF. You can give a recap of where you’ve been and what’s been going on with you, or you can take a look ahead at what’s coming up down the road for you.
What I like about each of these is that they should be relatively quick and easy for you to think through and put together, so that you can get the email sent. Because at this point, if you have been ghosting your list, if you’ve been absent for whatever reason, for however long, sometimes the hardest part is just sending that first email and getting back into the swing and the groove of things.
And if you want to email your way to more time, energy, and money, I’ve got an excellent free resource that shows you just how to do that. Grab your copy of it at the link in the show notes.
I’ll be back in the next episode with the third email you can send to your list after a hiatus to really ease back into the inbox. Until then, go own your mark.
