Discover the secrets to crafting emails that convert with expert tips from today’s guest. Learn how personalization, compelling subject lines, and clear calls-to-action can transform your email marketing strategy. Joining us to share her high-converting email template is Allison Hardy, a lead generation and email funnels strategist. She helps heart-centered coaches create a six-figure passive income stream without being a salesy. Allison talks to us about having a profitable pitch sequence by streamlining and systematizing the whole drip process. Tune in to learn her secrets!

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I'm super excited about this masterclass training. I am here with the one and only Allison Hardy. Allison is a lead generation and email funnels strategist. She helps heart-centered coaches create a six-figure passive income stream without being a salesy. We don't need any of that. Allison is the creator of the Six Figure Secrets podcast and a Huffington Post contributor.

She's been featured in YFS magazine and was named one of Washington DC's most influential professionals under 40 by Washington Life Magazine. She and her husband, Teer, and two kids, nine-year-old Camden, and four-year-old Nora, live right outside of Washington, D.C. in Arlington, Virginia, and she's just an amazing human and a good person. I can't wait for you guys to meet her. So welcome, Allison. We're super excited to have you here.

Adrienne, thank you so much for having me. It's always lovely to connect with you.

Yes, I always love having a little Allison here in the room, and anyone who's been hanging around me for a while, you may have noticed. Allison and I hang out quite a bit. There's a reason for that, because she's someone you need to hear from. She's talking to us about having a profitable hitch sequence, which is something that I think a lot of us know we need to do.

If we opened up our email sequences or text message sequences or whatever they were and went to grade ourselves, we might say, “I need to clean this up.” I think a lot of us feel that way. I love that you're bringing this topic to us because I know you've done a lot of work in your business to streamline and systematize that side of it and you're wicked good at it.

It's been a journey, as entrepreneurship is. It was a huge focus of mine to really kind of life-proof the business after the last couple of years bested themselves because it's it's going to pop up. Life is going to happen, and you need to show up for it. Your business can do that for you. You can have the systems in place to make that happen. Why wouldn't you?

Why wouldn't you exactly? Email marketing is such a fundamental part of running an online business that of all the things to take a minute to just clean up and get it right, your email sequences, your pitch sequences, you have to be there. It's a non-negotiable must-have. The perfect thing to streamline and systematize your business.

Before we jump into all the good stuff and geek out a little bit. For anyone who maybe hasn't met you yet, they're just discovering you for the first time. Can you tell us just a little bit about your background, your story, and how you found yourself in the place where you are today, where you've kind of streamlined and systematized pitch sequences?

Allison’s Entrepreneurial Journey

My entrepreneurial journey started when I got laid off when I was six months pregnant with my now nine-year-old Camden. I was teaching college-level art. I had the fancy job, I had the fancy office. I was set at the age of 28 until I was 65, and that's what I was going to do for the rest of my life. In a minute, it was gone.

Number one, I realized how much of my identity was wrapped up in that job. That was a cringe moment. I also concluded after about a week of crying, which was fine. Let myself process and deal. I realized like, that I never want to put my income, the way I provide for my family, in the hands of anyone else. I had been laid off previously, and this wasn't the first layoff.

I've been laid off multiple times. Then every single time, it's the worst. Every single time I was like, “No, we're not going to do this again.” Then I'd go back into it. It was like the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't know if it was because I was pregnant or if it had happened enough that I finally was done. I started a personal training business because, why not? I would train my friends in my backyard. I moved into the online space.

In those three months before I had Camden, I was able to replace my 9 to 5 income, which is great and sounds super sexy, but I did it all at the expense of my health. I went to preterm labor a couple of times because I was working 24 seven. I was a hot mess behind the scenes. It was not good. When Camden was born, I had really bad postpartum depression.

When you are working around the clock, you have postpartum depression and you have this newborn, you have no idea what to do with it. You're like, “My gosh, why doesn't he just sleep?” It all came crashing down around me. That was another big moment where I was like, “This doesn't work. What do I need to do to replace me in the business?” That's really where the whole idea of automation and systems and email funnels and automated lead gen came into the picture. That's kind of been my focus since then.

What I love about your story is that it's so real. I'm sure tons of people reading this right now are saying, “My God, that's me right now.” We've all been there. Especially as entrepreneurs, we're different and we are not normal. We're all doing this for a reason, but almost all of us tend to overwork if we don't watch ourselves.

100%, yes.

That's part of why I'm so passionate about speaking with people like you about smart ways to streamline and systematize, because if you're not systematizing and streamlining, you're overworking and you're burning out. It just is what it is. Unfortunately, you had to go through that painful moment but I think it's part of what has made you so good at what you do though, too. You've had that hard lesson.

My husband was asking me the other day, I was telling him that I have like, these sorts of collaboration events going on. He asks, “Do you talk about when you got laid off?” I replied, “I do.” I talk about that a lot because, number one, I think a lot of people can relate to the story like you were saying. Number two, it still feels weird to say this, but I'm actually like super grateful it happened.

Otherwise, I would probably be in that, it wasn't a nine to five, it was eight to eight, making 40 grand a year. While I was happy doing that, I wouldn't have seen my kids. I want to be there for drop off, I want to be there for pickup. I would be there for the weekends. I don't want that. It sucked at the time. I'm super grateful for it.

Profitable Pitch Sequence

It was a blessing in disguise. It started you on a journey of amazingness. I'm excited that everything has played out so well for you. Let's jump into the topic of how to have a profitable pitch sequence. For those reading who are asking, what does she mean when she says that? Can you just tell us a little bit, like, what's the function of a pitch sequence? How do you define that? What does that mean to you? Why is it an important thing to have in your business?

A pitch sequence is a series of emails that get dripped out over a timeline that you set that encourages someone to do the thing that you want them to do. If you have something like a course or membership, it's usually, “Buy now.” If you have something like a mastermind or maybe a group coaching program, it's, “Apply now.” If you're doing one-on-one coaching, usually it's, “Book a call and let's talk about it.” The pitch sequence, whatever you're pitching, the function of the pitch sequence is to get them to do the thing that you want them to do, which is buy, apply, or book a call.

A pitch sequence is a series of emails that get dripped out over a timeline that you set that encourages someone to do the thing that you want them to do.

It's specifically designed to drip things out, to get someone hungry, to want to take the call to action. I know what I've noticed, and I'm sure a lot of those reading have noticed, people don't book a call just cause you tell them to. They have to want it. People don't buy just cause you say buy now, they have to want it. You have to create that desire. It's a little bit of an art and a little bit of a science to do that.

Yes, there's a sales psychology that goes into it. Also, the function of the pitch and the content that you're to be relaying inside of the pitch sequence is objection debunking. What is the main objection someone could have to enroll in my program? Cool. How can I create an email that's centered around that that shows them?

While I get it, I understand this is actually how this program can help you with this. Everything that goes before that pitch sequence is the information. Here's a quick win. Here's how this client did this inside of this program. I'm going to tell you about it here in a little bit. What I would encourage you to do is start to seed your program before you pitch anyone your program, so that when that pitch happens, when that pitch sequence starts, it's not, “What is this?”

Email Template: Start to seed your program before you pitch it to anyone.

They know the name. They know what you do inside that program. You've shared a client story with them and helped them to see, “That person did it. I could probably do that too.” You've sort of seeded that already, and it's already in their brain so that when you get the pitch sequence, they already are sold. It's an easier yes or no, in or out.

It doesn't feel like it's coming out of left field. It feels like it's a natural extension of the conversation you've been having.

Yes, and I know a lot of people, who're concerned about seeing sales that are inauthentic or slimy. That's how you get out of that. If you're the way that people perceive sliminess or salesiness, is usually because it seems like a bait and switch. Whereas if you're just super upfront from the beginning, “In a couple of days, I'm going to share with you more about this program, but for today, let's talk about some stuff.” It doesn't feel so salesy and slimy anymore.

Fatal Funnel Flaws

Yes, they know what's coming, and they can either tune into it and enroll in it, or they can ignore it if it's not their jam, like, “Whatever.” You're getting them hungry for it every little step of the way. I know you work with lots of clients, helping them perfect this process. What are some of the big mistakes that you see over and over again that people make when they're trying to create their pitch sequences and they're learning that art and science? What are the huge mistakes you see commonly?

I love this. On my Instagram account, I do a series called Fatal Funnel Flaws. It's part one, part two, part three. I talk about this over there. There are so many things where that people do inside of pitch sequences that just kill their sales. Number one, there are too many calls to action. There's, “Check out the program.” There's, "Wait, if you don't want to check out the program, book a call instead.” Or, “Let's go to this podcast episode because I talk about the program inside of this podcast episode.”

The confused mind isn't going to do. It's going to freeze and it's going to be like, “I don't know what you want me to do.” You're the expert in the room. You need to tell the person who's reading this email the one thing that they need to do. I know we do that a lot. We have these multiple calls to action to serve people. “I want to make sure that you understand what this program is.” “If you don't want to buy, let's get on the call and talk about it.”

No, it just's too much, and think about it like this, too. If your lead, the person inside of your funnel, is looking to you to help them solve a pain point, that's hard work for them. Regardless if it like actually if you think it's hard or not, it's still hard work for them. The minute you make the pitch sequence or any sequence seem hard, they're going to think, “If this is hard, the program's going to be even harder.” Making it easy for them to understand, this is what she wants me to do. That's the key, I think.

If you have five different potential calls to action, make it five different emails. Don't try to cram them all into one.

Exactly. Something else that people do is it's too long. People need to make a decision. There's no point in extending your pitch sequence out to be weeks and weeks long. That's exhausting, and your lead is going to lose interest. Shorten that pitch sequence. If you have a course or membership that's under $500, I would encourage you to make it a three-day pitch sequence.

There's no point in extending your pitch sequence out to be weeks and weeks long. That's exhausting, and your lead is going to lose interest.

I know that doesn't seem like a lot of time, but for someone who wants results and is seeking out the solution to their pain point, they usually just need to know that this is what I have to offer you. Take it or leave it. They don't need this big, long pitch sequence that just goes on and on forever. Shorten the pitch sequence, whatever you think it should be, probably cut it in half, and that's how much it should be.

Yes, which I love because writing a pitch sequence can take time. You have to put real thought into it and in each email, you have to be thoughtful. “Everyone, we just got permission to cut our work in half. By the way, it's going to convert better. That is not a bad thing. I love that.

Let's go over a third fatal funnel flaw. The third thing I see is that you aren't sending emails frequently enough. I just shared this. It's kind of funny that this went live. I shared a funnel trying to report inside of my membership. We had this client, and she wanted to increase conversions inside of her funnel. She didn't have more money to spend on meta ads or Facebook and Instagram ads.

She said, “We're converting at 9%, that's good. I want to convert higher.” I said, “Just send more leads to the funnel.” That's the most obvious way to do that. She said, “I don't have any more cash.” I said, “What can we do?” We sent more emails. She had a five-day open cart period and originally she was just emailing once a day, and that worked for her.

I got the job done. A 9% conversion rate was pretty good for her price point in her offer. We increased it to 15% by sending two emails on days number one and two, three emails on day number three, and two emails on day number four, and I think it was three emails or maybe four emails, either way, three or four emails on day number five.

We increased the amount of emails that we sent out. We shortened the frequency and it went from a 9% conversion rate to a 15% conversion rate. We didn't change anything else. We kept the original emails there, we just added more in. Don't be afraid to continually, often, frequently, and daily, I've got multiple times a day, to share the invitation for someone to work with you through your program. That was profound.

It makes sense, sometimes they miss the first email and they catch the second one. Not everyone's obsessively refreshing their email inbox. They're just more likely to catch your communication when you're doing that. How nice for her to go from 9 to 15. I'm sure she was having a happy day.

I was so happy to hear it too, because she's getting like $4 a lead. She's spending around $400 to get 100 people in. That's a good chunk of change for her, but then when she went from that 6%, she upped the conversion rate by 6%. It made that cash flow come in faster, and she was able to spend more money on ads and it just all compounded the fact.

Now she's getting 15 sales out of every group of 100 coming through, that's a nice bump for sure. Especially on $4 a lead, my gosh, that's smart.

I know. She's so good at her marketing.

Seven (Plus) Emails

I love it. We've covered some of the mistakes. That's good. Now we're all moving in the right direction. What are the seven emails that every pitch sequence should have? What are the fundamentals that we have to make sure we have in this sequence?

Your pitch sequence, I have to disclaim this, may have more than seven emails. That's great, and that's awesome. I want you to make sure that you have at least one of these types of emails in your pitch sequence. I wanted to say that first because I think people get it when I say that you only need seven emails like you do, but you don't, so you probably need more. The first type of email you need is the Open Cart email “Programs open, here the deliverables, your offer, and your timeline. Bye.”

Cut to the chase and tell them what it is.

Yes, that's in both emails. The second one is that Frequently Asked Questions.

Here are some questions I've been getting inside of my inbox since I opened the doors. What frequently asked questions are their objections? Anytime someone has a question, even if it's, “How much is the program?” I would argue that the person is probably concerned about money. If your program helps them to make more money, it's a great way to address that.

If they ask, “How much time should I expect to spend every week doing this work?” They're concerned about time. How do you have features or deliverables inside of the program that help them to not spend as much time? Everything always goes back to your program. Any objection, the solution is always the program. How can you portray that?

Email Template: Any objection, the solution is always the program. How can you portray that

The third email is an engagement email. This is the email that's like, “Name of person, I saw you've checked out the sales page for the name of the program, but you haven't enrolled yet. Do you have questions? Hit reply and let me know.” Super simple and looks like a Gmail email. I get tons and tons of responses whenever I send that out. Last year, that singular email was responsible for selling $80,000 worth of my courses and memberships. Just that email, because it makes you a normal person.

It opens the door to a conversation. The more conversations you can have, the more likely someone is to buy.

Those were the first three. We have the Pain Point email. The one that's like, “I know this is what you're experiencing. I can help you through this program.” While we don't love to hit on pain points, it can be uncomfortable for a lot of us. You've got to hit on it. You have to help them to understand, “Yes, I get you. I understand what you're experiencing. I can help you.” Maybe that's sharing your story. Maybe that's sharing a little bit of a client story, but it's helping them to understand that she gets it. She's on the same track. She can help you.

I know tons of people are afraid to dig into the pain points because they feel like they're being mean but honestly, it's an act of kindness because if you don't, that person's going to sit in that place of struggle for months or years. That's worse than getting one email that makes them say, “I'm feeling that pain.” It's an act of kindness in my mind.

I agree. Also, the more successful you get, your success is evident sometimes. People look to you as an expert. People can feel you are getting farther away from them. That gap between them and you is getting bigger. That pain point helps you to reduce that gap and be like, “I do understand you.”

It just helps you to relate and be a real person. We have an Open Cart, Frequently Asked Questions, Engagement, and Pain Points. The next two are stories. One is a client story, and one is your story. So here's your client. They were experiencing this. Your program came along, help them to get rid of that. This is what they saw. This was their transformation.

Even if your leads can't 100% see themselves as that client, they can relate to parts of that story. If you have the right people in your network, you're pitching to the right people, there's a part of that story they can pull out and be like, “That's me, I get it.” It just helps them to envision themselves as your client, which is a really powerful sales tool.

The second story is your story. Who are you? Why do you do this work? Why is this important? What was your experience in doing this work? How did you become an expert? Why did you become the expert? When you can share your story, it helps them to understand again, she does get it. She understands where I'm at. She was me at one point. She did this work. It's possible for me. I would even get that, I can keep going. That again, is a really powerful sales tool.

Yes, helps them believe in themselves. Sometimes believing in yourself is half the battle.

My gosh, yes, agreed. That was six. The last one is the Pleasure Point Aspirational email. This is always the one I like to send at the very last minute. “Three hours left for you to enroll. Let's talk about what's possible for you.” This speaks to those people like at Enneagram 7 who are like super positive all the time and upbeat, and everything's going to be awesome. This is meant for them. This is the transformation. This is what you're going to do in this program. This is what you're going to experience. Let's do this, let's go, yey, woohoo. That email. That's the last one.

Getting them excited, getting them to feel a little FOMO, “I don't want to miss out on all this greatness, let's go.”

Exactly. Yes. What I find is those people who comment on that email they're the ones who buy, they get the confirmation email, they get the login link, they log in and they start to consume right there and then. They're the super-hungry ones because they know they waited until the last minute to buy. They're like, Let's get going. They're motivated. They're just a different type of client, which is kind of cool. Those are the seven emails every single pitch sequence needs.

Proof Of Concept

Now let's be honest. How many of you reading are thinking, I just want to keep Allison in my back pocket at all times and just pull her out any time I'm working on emails and say, “Allison, what was number five again?” Let’s be honest, you're thinking that right now. We all know it. I know that, of course, you've taught tons of people how to set up these pitch sequences in these emails, avoid the mistakes, and follow the framework that works. Do you have some examples of client results or stories you'd love to share of what happened when people started implementing these things?

I had a client, I was trying to think what program this was for. This was for a course that was around $1,000. I think that was the offer inside the funnel. I think her program was 2,000, but she cut it in half for the funnel. She and I got to work on her sequence, and she was doing those fatal funnel flaws we talked about in the beginning.

Her pitch sequence was long. She wasn't emailing super frequently. Her calls to action were kind of a little wonky, and her pitch sequence didn't make sense. The flow of emails they are very disjointed from one another and they didn't even feel like honestly, that they were really like from the same person almost. They seemed very different. They had different styles, we'll say that.

We were able to tweak it. We shortened everything. We added more emails in there, and she was able to run on autopilot. She didn't do a live launch. It was all passive. She was able to hit a 100K in sales. I think like 180 days. It was a really short amount of time. Full disclosure, she went all in. This was her main focus for like two months and then she spent some money on that ad to get people through the funnel but because of that work, she was able to see those results.

That was cool to witness and be a part of because, at first, it was a little messy. It was like a funnel that had some leaks in it, we were able to tighten it up. Leading into the data was key there and helped us to figure out what needed to happen and how it needed to happen. That was exciting.

Who doesn't want a result like that? It was just cleaning up the email sequence, honestly. She didn't change her offer. She didn't change the structure of it. Her offer was solid. It was just the communications around it.

It was how can we more appropriately relay to these folks who need this program that they need this program. When you can come at it from that perspective, I think it makes it a lot easier. I do have to say this, I think we often overcomplicate pitch sequences. It's just an invitation to transform whatever thing it is that you want to transform. When we can think about it like that, I think it helps us to wrap our heads around what needs to happen instead of, “I just need to do this and this and this.” “No, here it is.” We know exactly what it is.

Sometimes it's the fundamentals that, if you just focus on cleaning up your fundamentals, that has the biggest impact on your business. That's not the fancy new strategy in the shiny object. It's like, “Girl, clean up your emails.”

It can be as simple as that. We're allowed to do that. It can be easy. That's what we want. It's such a powerful tool that we often forget about.

It's like, if you're going to do it, do it well. Now, I know you have a gift. I'm sure people, when they heard that you made $80,000 from one email, were thinking, “The what now? Say it again.” I know that you have a gift for anyone who is reading and thinking, “I need that.” I know your gift can help them to do exactly that. Do you want to tell us about your gift?

It's a template of that email. Super simple. The $80,000 email. I give you what the email looked like from my business. My wording and all of that, but then I took it and template it for you. It's super easy. You can implement it in 10 minutes. It's color-coded. You can go in and like plug in your stuff, get it sent out, add it to your pitch sequence, and see some results from it.

It is kind of like a mad lib. You just fill in the blanks as it makes sense, and then plug and play and see what it does in your own email sequence.

Absolutely, mad libs for email marketing.

Yes. It's kind of the way to go. You might have a different business type than Allison, but it's the strategy of the email that makes it work. If you fill it in the right way, it can work for you too. I'll be honest, I'm going to scoop that bad boy up. Why wouldn't I? I want it too.

Everyone should.

I love that. Now for the VIP ticket holders, I know you have something extra special for them too. Do you want to talk about that one?

It's Simple Emails That Sell. You not only get the $80,000 email, but you get 19 other emails that you can use instead of your pitch sequence. I share, again, basically the same thing, what the goal of the email was, what the program it was that I was pitching, like the price point, an actual real-life example of that email, and then a templated version for you to copy and paste and plug it into your email marketing sequence.

I love it. If you're reading this, you're realizing, “I know I need to streamline and simplify it.” Honestly, I think cleaning up my emails is where I need to start. You guys, grab Allison's gifts. If you're not a VIP ticket holder, what are you doing? Grab that VIP ticket. Grab all those VIP gifts. A lot of these are things that the speakers normally charge a lot of money for, and they're just putting it in the VIP ticket bundle to be abundant.

Grab that stuff. You're getting a massive library of gifts for a ridiculously low price. Then go out and streamline, systematize your emails, clean that up, and connect with Allison. As you can see, she makes it super easy. She breaks things down in an easy-to-action way. She's just a darn nice, good person. She's an email list you want to be on. Grab her stuff and connect with her. She's definitely in your corner and with amazing energy to boot. Thank you so much, Allison, for being with us.

Adrienne, thank you so much for having me.

You guys can find us in the Facebook group. Each day, there will be an opportunity for Q&A with the speakers of the day. Come find us there. If you have questions for Allison that you're kind of kicking me and you're asking, "Adrienne, how did you not ask this question?” Go to the Facebook group, ask the question, and you'll have a chance to interact with them there. We'll see you inside the group, my friends.

Important Links

• Allison Hardy

• The $80,000 Email

• Freebie Audience Explosion

• https://www.facebook.com/groups/6.figure.strategy

About Allison Hardy

Allison Hardy is a lead generation and email funnels strategist, and she helps heart-centered coaches create a 6-figure passive income stream, without being “salesy”. Allison is the creator of the 6-Figure Secrets Podcast, a Huffington Post Contributor, have been featured in YFS Magazine, and was named one of Washington, D.C.'s most influential professionals under 40 by Washington Life Magazine. She and her husband Teer, and two kids, nine year old Camden and four year old Nora, live right outside of Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Virginia.