“We’re asking our students all the time to sit in uncomfortable positions. Whether it be a in a warrior pose or in a back bending posture that really opens and makes someone feel vulnerable. Apply that to email and how you show up for your email.” - Tracy Duru
These words!!! Tracy has such an amazing way of communicating how to use email to connect with your audience in a way that feels good. But it comes by knowing that it’s going to be uncomfortable for a little bit.
Taking our own advice (that we share with students) to sit in discomfort, feel and learn about that feeling, then move forward is powerful!
Connection Over Perfection with Email Copy
We can fall into the trap of wanting our emails to be perfect. Or we try and appeal to a large audience so we write differently than we talk. This is something to be aware of as you’re writing emails as a yoga teacher.
Think about how you actually talk to your students before class and after class. How do you respond to them naturally? If one of your student’s emails you or sends you a message on social media, how do you respond to them. This is the voice that you want to tap into when you’re writing your monthly or weekly emails.
It can feel scary or intimidating to write emails but just like we ask our students to sit in discomfort in a yoga practice and really feel that and push through. We want to do the same with email marketing. Push through the discomfort to get to the sweet posture that will be valuable to you. Your email will be valuable to your students!
“Start to think about the emails you’re sending as an experiment. You’re trying to see what is going to work for your audience. What is going to get opened? What is going to get responses? And you have to start doing the work to figure that out.” - Tracy Duru
Be comfortable in the discomfort of unsubscribes
I know this can be a bad word and we really don’t like to see the number of unsubscribes but I want to challenge this thought for you. Start thinking about unsubscribes as a good thing. The person who clicks that button and says “unsubscribe” wasn’t going to be open to your future email messages.
When you first started teaching, did you have the goal for every student in your class to love your class? I bet you did because as teachers we want that. But it’s almost impossible to achieve this. And this is the case with emails as well.
“If you try and talk to every single person and your goal is that no one will unsubscribe, you’re not going to send the email that shares your story authentically and that really connects.” - Tracy Duru
Steps to Writing an Email
Step 1: Identify your goal
You want your reader to take action. This action doesn’t have to be a paid action but it needs to be something and you want them to do and just ONE action that you want them to take. Whether it’s signing up for your class, joining your Facebook Group, or replying to the email, what action do you want the reader to take?
Once you know the goal, how does this relate to your life right now? It’s great to weave in some storytelling into your email to really connect with your audience.
Step 2: Start writing
You can’t just think about the email, you have to actually start writing. This is the step where you can write as much as you want. Write it all. Don’t worry about length or grammar, just write. Don’t stop and overthink this step too long. Just start! You can’t get better if you don’t get started.
Step 3: Edit your words down
Now it’s time to edit the length of the email to make it manageable for your reader. For this, focus on what’s necessary for the reader to know in order to take the action you want them to take.
“When you are teaching, you are applying and using cues to get someone from point a to point b as safely and efficiently as possible. You’re only using what’s necessary. This applies to email too. Use what’s necessary and everything else you cut away” - Tracy Duru
Step 4: Google Docs Formatting
Using Google Docs for writing your emails will be a big help in this process. A few tips for using Google Docs:
Adjust the margins in Google Docs from 6.5 inches to 5 (or even 4) inches - this will help you see how the email will look on a device and how much scrolling the person will have to do to read your email
Spacing and bold font options - in Google Docs you will get a good snapshot of what the email will look like so you can find where you want extra spaces or bolded font.
Voice to text feature - if you struggle to type/write, use the voice to text feature in Google Docs to get started
Step 5: Test Email (send a preview to yourself and read it outloud)
Don’t forget to send yourself a preview of the email before you schedule it to send. And when you do this, read the email out loud. This is a great tool and last minute check to ensure that the email really sounds authentically like you.
Step 6: Schedule and Send Your Email
Please don’t do all the work with writing an email and not send it. This happens too often due to nerves or worry about the subject line but please embrace the idea of connection over perfection and the fact that you will experiment with this process.
Writing Subject Lines
Don’t let the subject line stop you from sending your email. You’ve done all the work and you have a great email to send your audience that will change their day! Here are some tips when it comes to writing subject lines:
Split Testing (choose 2 to see which your audience reacts to)
Write 25 subject lines, then pick one
Write the subject line after writing the email
Embrace experimenting with long and short subject lines
Use your inbox for inspiration and see what catches your attention
FREE Email Mini Spotlight Session Contest with Tracy!
Tracy is offering the chance to win a 30 minute mini spotlight session for her to review your email! Below are the details:
Contest submission dates: February 3 - February 9
Go to www.tracyduru.com/amanda to submit your name, email address and email copy
You can submit an email that’s written or an email that you’ve already sent
Tracy will select 3 random winners the week of February 9th and notify the winners
Your next step
Take advantage of the contest with Tracy! Go to www.tracyduru.com/amanda to enter to win a free email mini spotlight session!
Until next time, give yourself permission to write (and send) emails and grace along the way! Talk to you soon!
About Tracy Duru
Tracy Duru is an email copywriter for wellness entrepreneurs & course creators. A former yoga teacher and studio owner, she channels Warrior II when crafting email copy to help yoga teachers fill their courses and workshops with students they love. She's committed to conscious copy that respects the history of yoga and its culture, as well as the many identities, skin tones and body shapes that make it to the mat.
Tracy’s Links:
Website: https://tracyduru.com/home/
Instagram: @tracy.duru
Contest Offer: https://tracyduru.com/amanda
Praise for Tracy:
One of my Members used Tracy to help her with email copy and as soon as I heard this, I knew I had to have her on the podcast. Here’s what the Member said (shout out to Kate!!) :
"I just had an AMAZING meeting with a copy writer who only works in this industry. I thought she would take what I say and make it not sound anything like me, or scrap all of my ideas. But she just put them in a much easier way to read that was more personal and grabbed attention even more. She was amazing." - KATE
5 Weeks to Confident Yoga Marketing [Digital Course]
Did you hear? My brand new digital course is OPEN for enrollment!!! If you're ready to set your marketing foundation and grow your yoga business, this course is for you! Use the link to learn more and enroll today! Doors close on February 14th at 3pm Central! **If you catch this later, be sure to sign up for the waitlist so you can be the first to know when the doors open again!
