Email Breakdown #59: Tonia Kendrick Welcome Flow Part 3

(NOTE: This is part of a series. Check out the previous entry here.)

Plenty of brands pump out blog content for their audiences — both to be genuinely helpful and for SEO purposes.

Over time, as that SEO builds up, you climb the search rankings. You might start to appear on Google Page 1 for certain keywords or topics.

More people reach your site and (potentially) buy from you. Heck, they may even hop on your email list while they’re at it.

Here’s the kicker:

You can then use that email list to boost your SEO even more with a “content roundup” email.

A content roundup email contains links to several pieces of content. Now, those email list subscribers boost your SEO more by spending more time on your site…

Meaning better rankings and more traffic…

Meaning more sales and subs…

And the virtuous cycle continues.

There are plenty of ways to do a content roundup, but in this post, I’ll show you how one solopreneur used one in her welcome sequence. 

About Tonia Kendrick

Tonia Kendrick is a business coach specializing in helping female solopreneurs systematize their businesses and boost productivity overall.

I stumbled upon her site while looking for a way to store content ideas for my other business, Start Carnivore. 

I Googled “content ideas storage spreadsheet template,” and she was among the top few results. She had the best spreadsheet template, so I downloaded it in exchange for my email.

Lesson in there — she used this template as a lead magnet. I’ll talk more about that in the Takeaways section at the end.

The Email: A Content Roundup 

Our email here is a round-up of Tonia’s top pieces of content:

Same general format as the last two, but a little more broken apart for enhanced readability and visual attraction.

The Subject Line: “[Email 3 of 4] a quick roundup”

The subject line balances information/benefits (a quick roundup) with curiosity (a roundup of what?):

Tonia continues with the [Email X of 4] format to continue priming readers to look for these emails. Familiarity and all that works well.

Also, the copy outside the bracketed text is all lowercase. Catches the eye just a bit more.

The Body Copy

We kick off the email with the customary greeting containing a firstname liquid field:

Then, Tonia addresses an obvious fact — you’ve only been on the list for a few days. You need to check out some of her content to see what she’s about and how she can help you.

I like how Tonia put an ellipsis followed by a numbered list. That’s a technique I use in my own writing style. It helps break up the text and list out multiple items in a situation like this…

Without interrupting the flow of copy too much.

Now, we get into content piece #1:

The title is fun and personality-driven. The copy offers just enough of a compelling case to click the big, bold CTA link. It twists on a key pain point, teaches what to do, and then tells the reader to click through.

Next, we have content piece #2:

Again, a short set of sentences introducing a key business concept… then a link promising a content piece that shows you how to implement said concept.

Notice how Tonia once again capitalizes “HERE” to draw more attention to the CTA. Quite important when you have various formatting touches, such as bolded subheadings and whatnot.

Finally, we’ve got content piece #3:

Same few lessons from the first two content pieces.

I like how this one includes a number. Our brains love specificity. It always ups the engagement and clicks.

Now that the roundup’s over, Tonia goes right into signing off:

That’s a good move.

The whole point of the content roundup is to get the reader clicking through and reading. No need to compose another 3 paragraphs of copy.

And finally, of course, we have the signature block + website/social media links. Generally a good idea to throw in there.

Takeaways

Here are some big takeaways:

1. The Copy Mechanics

As with the past two emails, the copy here feels like a casual conversation. Line breaks, ellipses, and “incomplete” sentences help create that effect.

I like how Tonia bolded each content piece name. This helps her clearly separate each piece of content and its accompanying explanation.

Plus, the CTAs are bolded and have some all-caps to draw attention to, well, the CTAs.

2. The Email Structure

Honestly, there aren’t a lot of structure-related takeaways here. The biggest thing is that, when sharing multiple content pieces, you don’t want as little extra copy around the “roundup” section of the email as possible.

After all, you’re providing them with several links to different topics. That’s not bad for this type of email, but more ideas in one email can create distractions and indecision if you aren’t careful.

3. The Overall Strategy

Roundup emails are fairly versatile — you can tweak the framework as necessary to fit different audience segments.

In a welcome flow, they work best a little bit later in the flow. You don’t want to give the reader too many decisions to make early on. 

You want them to have one core idea about you first to make sure you have the right people on your list. You also want them to score a quick win with your lead magnet.

The roundup then comes later, offering your reader more ways to engage with your business and building a stronger relationship with them.

What to Do Next

1. Get on my email list using the signup form below for more Email Breakdowns and other helpful marketing content.
2. Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
3. Share this post with someone who would find it helpful or insightful.
4. Check out Tonia Kendrick if you need help organizing, systematizing, and streamlining your business!