Here’s How to Simplify Your Email Marketing Workflow

Ok, that’s a big promise. In this post, I’m specifically referring to how I’ve simplified my email marketing workflow, which is reducing the time I spend sending marketing emails. Because I’ve been getting questions about what I’m doing, I’m sharing my experience with you because it may be something you’ve been thinking about doing too.

Here’s a look at the messiness behind the curtain…

I’ve been making some big changes with my business systems, specifically changing the email marketing service and shopping cart I use.

Decluttering has been a big theme during the Pandemic Age.

While my home could use some decluttering, my business is where I’ve been focused.

Recently, I attended Sue Painter’s Decluttering Your Business class (she’s running it again in December) and finally made the leap on something I’d been thinking about for at least a year…to move my email marketing systems and shopping cart to different online tools.

This is not a decision I take lightly and nor should you if you’re thinking about it. It’s a big deal to move email contacts (subscribers, customers, and clients) as well as affiliates, landing pages, automation funnels (formerly known as autoresponders), products, and sales pages, from one system to another.

Why would I put myself through this messy process?

Mostly, I wanted to cut expenses, save money, and simplify my workflow.

There are simpler systems available today than when I started using Infusionsoft. Most are much less expensive than what I’m currently paying for a system that is more complex than I really need.

Plus with Zapier, I can create “zaps” to connect any systems I use so they work together and no longer need an all-in-one system.

Shortly after Sue’s Declutter class I took the leap and bought the lifetime deal for ThriveCart. A lot of my colleagues use and love ThriveCart and appreciate its simplicity. I loved the deal of a one-time payment for lifetime use. With Infusionsoft I’ve been paying $250 per month for over 6 years! That adds up and I decided to do the moving work and let it go.

The catch with ThriveCart is that it’s not an all-in-one system. There’s no email marketing function. In addition to Infusionsoft, I’ve been using MailerLite for the intermittent fasting side gig I run, but it’s a bit clunky for creating email broadcasts so I kept looking for another option.

Enter SendFox

SendFox, part of the AppSumo family of tools, is a simple, clean, no-fuss email marketing platform. At $49 for a lifetime account, I was quick to sign up. It’s a small investment to make so I could check it out and see if it would work for me.

With SendFox I can create multiple lists (segments), landing pages, and automation (drip emails when someone signs up for a lead magnet, newsletter, or program).

All the complexity that I was getting bogged down with in Infusionsoft has been stripped away. Plus, I can use Zapier to connect it with ThriveCart so when someone makes a purchase, they will get confirmation and follow up emails.

After jumping in with the goal of being completely moved within a month, I realized that was wishful thinking.

As mentioned, I have a lot of content that needs to be reviewed, updated, and carefully moved. This project has been a good excuse to examine what I want to keep and what can be archived. This is where some of the decluttering has come into play.

I have over 600 ways to segment (tag) my community and I needed to simplify that, keeping what was most important in the way of being able to group people by interests and programs, then letting go of the rest.

I have hundreds of products and campaigns that I’ve created over many years. I’m looking at each one and again deciding what to move.

Only then do contacts and email campaigns (a.k.a. automation in SendFox) get moved AND I have to learn two new marketing systems.

Luckily, I like learning new things. The move though is taking longer than expected and I’m now working out of three marketing platforms for at least another month.

I’ve pared down years of content to just a few free things that people can sign up for:

• 5 Things newsletter,
• blog post updates,
• notification for free Community Connect calls,
• two freebies – How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog
• and 10 Ways to Repurpose Your Blog Posts.

(go ahead and check them out…sign up if that suits you!)

SendFox makes this process easy, yet it is time-consuming if you have a lot of moving to do! I moved slowly because I wanted to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Once I cancel my InfusionSoft account, that’s it. No more access.

If you’re starting from scratch, it will be a piece of cake because it’s so simple. You are prompted step by step through the setup.

Setting up your email marketing workflow with SendFox

The short video below will demonstrate how quick it can be to set up your SendFox account.

Here’s my checklist for moving contacts from Infusionsoft to SendFox (you could be moving from any other email marketing system, the steps will be the same):

If you’re moving from another email marketing service, it will save you time if you collect all the content you need before starting:

1. Your existing contacts exported from current service, as a CSV file with columns: email, first name, last name
2. Copy for optin landing page if you want to create them with the Smart Landing Page feature (click here to see what a smart page looks like)
3. An image for your landing page (high resolution, 1:1 square format works best)
4. URL for the thank you page you’re sending new optins to
5. Current or new copy for the automations – email drip sequence you send when someone opts in to get a new lead magnet or joins a program, your newsletter, etc.
6. Always test your optin landing pages, forms, and email sequences before you promote it. Not only should you test the system, ask someone else to test it as well to get their feedback. A different pair of eyes may see something you missed.

Once you’ve collected your assets, then it’s pretty quick following the prompts to set up your first list in SendFox.

At the time of writing this post, I’ve had SendFox up and running for about a month. I’ve been tweaking and learning the ins and outs of the tool. I’m getting used to the simpler workflow and have realized I don’t miss all the ways I could be slicing and dicing the segments of my contact list. I had made things too complex for myself because I could, not because it was making my business better or more profitable. And that’s not the smartest way to run a business!

So far, I’ve set up six smart landing pages which took no more than 10 minutes or so for each one.

I’ve created seven email automations for the optins and two products (that’s another story since they are connected to triggers from ThriveCart).

I’ve sent numerous email broadcasts.

It’s been easy to figure out how to get things done and when I’ve contacted the support team a couple of times, they’ve been quick to respond.

Maybe you’re wondering how SendFox compares to other systems like Aweber. While I’m not an Aweber user, I know they’ve made a lot of changes recently, but I cannot make the comparison. As someone commented on YouTube in response to a similar question:

“Hey there, comparing MailChimp/MailerlITE to SendFox is like comparing chocolate to bananas. Both tasty but different types of products. We are aiming to be more automated, affordable, and focused on content creators.”

Via SendFox on YouTube

The bottom line with this email marketing workflow is that it’s simple to set up and simple to use. However, if you want to create complex, detailed marketing funnels, then SendFox is probably not the right tool for you.

Next on my decluttering list … adding my services and products to ThriveCart, then connecting the sales process to SendFox so I can send clients and customers follow up emails. Wish me luck!

By the way, if you’re interested in Sue Painter’s Declutter Your Business class on December 29 then get it on your calendar now so you’ll be ready to turn the page on 2020 with your business systems organized. 😍

If you have questions about SendFox or ThriveCart, post them in the comments. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

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Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash