🐸 Jump little frog, JUMP!

We are sorting out welcome emails, reader nurture and our welcome email sequences! +Your invite to my 'Get it Done on Substack' week from Monday.

It’s Get it DONE (on Substack) Weeks - by Claire Venus 💫 next week - come join us and get your Welcome emails, drip funnels and subscriber flow SORTED! The first two days are free and the next three are for members only so it’s a great time to upgrade here at Sparkle on Substack .

Hi folks,

How’s your day going? I’m off to meet a friend for a cuppa this morning and I’ve got some bedding plants to dig in later on. Kendall Marie Platt 🌱 would be proud!

Here in the office, I’ve been ‘sorting’ out my “funnels” for over a year.

Funnels are a marketing term a sequence of emails that arrive to nurture ‘cold’ leads/ readers into your world. 🥶 Cold just means the people who are getting to know you. I actually like the energetics of it because actually our ‘right fit people’ will be more warm from the off. People spend years publishing regularly and wondering where there audience is and a lot of it is to do with the vibration and the energetics. You wouldn’t believe how many Substack’s I’ve seen where I simply don’t feel invited to subscribe. ¹

Drip funnels, nurture sequences, a good flow for your subscriber!

A few months ago Substack rolled out ‘drip emails’ at the point of sign up. It’s currently only available to bestsellers. It’s been a product request for a while so lots of folks were ecstatic… my brain did this…²

😫 🫥 🥸 😱

then this… 😀 🥳 🤩 💡✨!

Running a business with Substack at its core is tricky because there are rules and systems and endless distractions for our readers. We want to keep them, nurture them, not bombard them. Yes we understand subscriptions are NOT forever so there’s a delicate balance there too.³

Substack is a part of your business if you’re charging money for anything here…

It’s actually easier (especially if you’re in the UK) to see your Substack newsletter/ publication as a business from the off if you are planning to monetise it anyway. There are different rules for hobbyists because Substack is classed as a data processor, while you are the data controller for your publication here.

• If you are based in the UK and you have a monetised newsletter or an online business and handling data, you need to pay £35 a year to the ICO. and display a privacy policy on your website.⁴

• You also need to declare the income for tax purposes if you’re not already self employed or running a company. Then there’s GDPR to think through…

All that sounds heavy I know but, it’s just about ticking the boxes of being pragmatic and then using a fun analogy to help you master the rest… I know lots of people feel scared when it comes to managing business but we learn as we go and you get to feel proud of figuring out especially with a supportive community - we’re all on this beautiful journey together.

Let me introduce you to paths, rivers, lily pads and our cute little froggy 🐸 friends

Here’s how I run all the funnels including Substack…

✨ Our readers as frogs and lily pads as information/ emails analogy 🐸

---

Other welcome flows

1. Substack Notes route

• A new note gets some interest

• There are profile visits, an instant subscribe (from someone checking your bio)

• OR they reads a pinned post or your about page and subscribes from there

• They get your welcome email preferably with a gift in it AND a reason to reply.

2. Instagram route

• New followers get a friendly hello from my robot

• They get given the option to download a class, read my newsletter or go to my YouTube Channel

• They then get a follow up if they don’t click anything. This has captured 100s of email subs that would have been followers over there since I implemented it.

3. Website route…

• Someone hits a ‘landing page’ built on my website and signs up for a free class

• They enter my ‘new subscriber’ email funnel (6 spaces out ‘drip fed’ emails)

• As part of the funnel they are invited to Subscribe to my Substack publication

4. Sparkle on Substack or Creatively Conscious by Claire Venus Substack route (free)

• Someone signs up to receive Substack posts/ emails from me

• They receive a welcome email with a free video class inside

• There’s an invite to go deeper and sign up to my website email.

5. Substack route (paid - regular or 💎 Diamond)

• Someone pays to be in my membership

• They receive 3 onboarding emails via Substack drip emails to help them get settled in.⁵

And there’s more…

ALL roads, rivers and lily pads lead to my email list AND to my Substack publications!

I see my website email⁶ as the place that customers live and my Substack as the place where readers and members live. How we doing so far? You still with me?

Here’s some more info on Substack’s new drip emails/ funnells… hopefully available to everyone soon.

Want more support on the wonderful topic of welcoming best fit readers and setting up welcome sequences - come and join us for Get it DONE (on Substack) Weeks - by Claire Venus 💫 next week. We start Monday and we’ll be doing intros over the weekend.

I’ll be with you for five days of teaching, mentoring and implementation, the first two days are free for everyone! There will be daily emails and a beautifully supportive community to network and chat about Substack with.

So there we have it. ✨CLARITY is possible, just take the next right step? 💫

Claire

✨

P.S - My 💎 Diamond Membership Portal is RE-OPEN but there are only 15 spots before I close again. Do stop by if you’re looking for a transformational year long experience for your Substack. With ‘advanced’ Substack support, an annual audit from me, monthly hot seat mentoring and to meet a really special community of colleagues, business owners and supporters. We have cheerleading in droves! If you join in March you save £50 on the regular price and get my brand new class ‘Anyone can be an Affiliate’ included - Upgrade here.

1. As an Audience Development Consultant, I talk about the ‘know, like and trust’ factor with our audiences a lot… we are programmed to be cautious of new people, liking takes time and often times online it can happen one way or the other in a snap judgement. Trust also happens at different rates for different people. The main piece of the puzzle is to make sure your ‘right fit’ reader feels invited and CLEAR about why they should subscribe.

2. If it hurts your brain a little too, listen to this live chat with Russell Nohelty and I recorded just as Substack rolled our welcome drip emails?

3. Most email systems allow you to take out people who are in a ‘nurture sequence’ from receiving your regular emails until they’ve completed the sequence. It doesn’t work like that for the Substack sequences.

4. I also display mine on my about page on Substack.

5. These used to go through zaps via gmail - I turned them off when Substack introduced drip emails and saved some money too!

6. I use podia email as my website is built with them and it acts as a CRM for my customers - here’s a free class if you want to learn more.