Advertise on podcast: Easy Email Marketing with Yael Keon

You bought the thing. You set up half of it. A month later nothing's resolved, and the subscription is still coming out every month because surely one day you'll finish it. You're not doing it wrong. When things aren't working, a new tool feels like the right answer, because it's the visible, buyable part of the problem. In this episode I give you a way to tell the difference between a tool that takes work off your plate and one that quietly adds to it. It's a five-step ladder I've built called the Tech Load Ladder. In this episode you'll learn: Why a new tool so often creates another gap for you to carry across, instead of closing oneWhat the five rungs look like, from being the system yourself to tech that works as a strategic thinking partnerThe five questions worth asking before you sign up for anything newOne filter to take away from this episode: before you sign up, ask what this tool will take off you, specifically. Not what it could do. What it takes off your plate. By the end you'll know where your most frustrating process sits right now, and whether a new tool is the fix at all. Resources mentioned in this episode: The Tech Load LadderThe Process AuditWant to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeonBook your Process Audit1-1 Systems Consulting

There is no software in sight in that pantry, and that is far closer to how I think about systems in business. In this first episode of That Systems Show, I unpack what I mean by the word and why so many systems fall over. In this episode you'll learn: Why a system is a repeatable way of doing things, tech or not, and what changes when you stop looking at the tools and start looking at how they connectThe three overlapping pillars behind The Sane Systems Blueprint, and which one nearly everybody skipsHow I ran a snack drawer through those three pillars, and the same three questions applied to a business processThe line I keep coming back to is this. A system built around your reality gives you consistency without you having to be the consistent one. That is the difference between something that looks brilliant in week one and something you are still using in month six. By the end you'll have a way to look at the thing in your business that keeps falling over. And a far better answer than telling yourself to be more organised. Resources mentioned in this episode: The Sane Systems Blueprint companion blog postWant to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting?Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeonBook your Process Audit1-1 Systems Consulting

Easy Email Marketing is now That Systems Show. Same Yael, wider lane. In this short one I share why the name changed, what I kept finding under the bonnet of every email marketing job, and what you can expect from here: your strategy, your tech and tools, mixed with a dose of reality. There's plenty coming. Episodes on what a system is and the misconceptions that trip people up, behind the scenes of this repositioning (which threw up a fair few systems problems of its own), and interviews inside other business owners' setups so you can see what's possible and pinch what works. Follow the show in your favourite podcatcher so you don't miss one.

If you've ever stared at a blank screen wondering what to write in your next email, there's a good chance you've been skipping straight to the content without doing the thinking that matters first. Before any strategy, any automation, and any single email, there are three questions worth asking. And once you start using them, you'll never approach email the same way again. These questions work at every level of your email marketing: from your big picture strategy all the way down to the individual email you're about to send. They cut through the noise and get you clear on what your emails need to do. You'll learn: The one question that stops you writing emails that feel "valuable" but completely miss the mark Why every email needs to ask something of your subscriber (even when it has nothing to do with buying) How to reverse-engineer your email content from the outcome you want, so nothing you send is wasted effort Most email marketing advice focuses on what to write. These three questions are about what to think before you write anything. They push you to get clear on who you're talking to, what you need them to do, and what is standing between them and a yes. The result? Emails that feel relevant, build a genuine two-way relationship, and move people toward your offer. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get the Free Mini Training: Beyond Words Join Engaging Emails 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You've seen the templates. The step-by-step formulas. The "just be consistent" advice that makes you want to throw your laptop across the room. And maybe you've started strong, followed the ideal system... and then completely fallen off. Not because you lack discipline. Because the system was never built for your real life. In this episode, I flip the usual email marketing conversation and ask a different question: instead of "what's the best strategy?", what if you started with "what's realistic for me?" You'll learn: Why building your email marketing around an idealised version of yourself is what's setting you up to fail How to work with your natural style (starter or finisher, batch creator or inspiration-driven) instead of constantly fighting against it How to factor in your real season of life and create a minimum plan that actually gets used The non-negotiables that still need to happen (and how to make peace with them without overcomplicating things) Most email marketing advice hands you a swipe file and says "copy this." But when something stops working or life changes, you're stuck, because you never understood the why behind it. This episode is about understanding those principles so you can build a version that fits your brain, your business, and your life. A system you use beats any perfect system sitting in draft mode. Every time. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get the Free Mini Training: Beyond Words Join Engaging Emails 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You've seen the ads. Fill-in-the-blank templates for every week of the year. Swipe files with "my exact welcome sequence, word for word." Custom GPTs that write your emails for you. The shortcut economy promises you can bypass the hard part of email marketing if you just have the right resource. But a shortcut only works when you know where you're going. You'll learn: Why the shortcut economy keeps most people moving faster in the wrong direction Why swipe files aren't useless, but why reaching for them first is the long way around The three real email marketing shortcuts that do the work once and keep paying you back The appeal of a shortcut is real. When you're juggling client work, family, and everything in between, the idea that one template or one prompt could just get it done is attractive. And that's exactly what the shortcut economy is built on: the promise that you can skip the part where you have to think. But the thinking is the part that makes it work. The three shortcuts in this episode aren't about skipping that. They're about doing the thinking once, properly, so you never have to do it from scratch again. You stop starting over every time you sit down to write an email. You stop second-guessing whether your design is actually showing up in people's inboxes. You stop missing the moment when a new subscriber is most ready to hear from you. The work you put in once keeps going without you. That's what a real shortcut looks like. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get the Free Mini Training: Beyond Words Join Engaging Emails 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you've ever spent a Saturday afternoon pouring over a swipe file, customising it, hitting send, and getting absolutely nothing back, this episode is for you. Not because you're doing it wrong. But because you've been sold the wrong solution. Email writing is not email marketing. And the reason your results have stayed flat has nothing to do with your copy. You'll learn: Why swipe files, custom GPTs, and copywriting courses keep delivering flat results (and it's not your fault) What email marketing actually is, according to the formal definitions (spoiler: none of them mention writing) The 7 areas to look at when your email marketing isn't working, so you can pinpoint the real problem I used a garden analogy to explain this in the episode. I took it too far, and I stand by every second of it. The short version: copy is the pretty flowers. Everything else is the system that keeps them alive. The good news? You don't need to tackle all seven drivers at once. You just need to figure out which one is your gap, fix that, and watch what changes. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Watch the free mini training Beyond Words: The framework that shows you why your emails aren’t working (and what to do about) Join Engaging Emails 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sales is the whole reason you're doing email marketing. But if you've been quietly helping, hinting, and hoping your subscribers will magically buy without you ever actually asking... this episode is for you. This is the fourth and final episode in The Engagement Fix series, and we're wrapping up with the one everyone really wants to know about: how to increase sales conversions from your emails. You'll learn: Why not asking for the sale is actually doing your subscribers a disservice How to use design and content strategy to create a constant sales runway (without every email feeling promotional) Why automated emails convert 2,361% better than campaigns, and how to use that to your advantage How segmentation removes the fear of annoying people who aren't interested Email marketing has the highest conversion rate of any online channel because you're marketing to a warm audience who already said yes to hearing from you. But conversion doesn't happen in isolation. It's the result of deliverability doing its job, subscribers opening and clicking, content building trust over time, and automations that catch people at exactly the right moment. The sandwich sales strategy, behaviour-triggered automations, and smart segmentation aren't just tactics. They're how you make selling feel like a natural extension of serving, not a reluctant PS at the bottom of an email. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear picture of how the full engagement system works together, and why fixing each layer compounds into real, consistent sales from your list. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your subscribers are opening your emails. But they're not clicking. Sound familiar? If your open rates look fine but your click rates are flat, you're not alone. And you're probably missing some of the easiest opportunities hiding right inside your emails. This is part three of The Engagement Fix series, and today we're diving into what makes people click (and reply), why it matters more than you think for your inbox placement, and the biggest mistake most business owners make with their calls to action. You'll learn: Why low-commitment click opportunities are the secret weapon most business owners ignore (and how they boost your sales clicks too) The underutilised email real estate that 79 to 90% of readers scan but most senders leave empty How email automations achieve 332% higher click rates and what that means for your strategy One filter to take away from this episode: before you hit send on any email, ask yourself, "What do I want my subscriber to do as a result of this?" Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your open rate isn't just a subject line problem. And in this episode, I'm going to show you exactly what else is going on. This is part two of The Engagement Fix series, and today I'm diving into opens: what's actually driving them (and what's quietly killing them) beyond deliverability and copy. You'll learn: The six factors that impact your open rates that most people never think about Why sending more frequently can actually improve your overall engagement numbers How automations outperform broadcast emails on opens by around 52%, and how to use that to your advantage Open rates aren't a perfect metric anymore, but they still matter. And there's a lot more you can do to move them than tweaking your subject line. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You spend an hour writing the perfect email, hit send, your software confirms it's delivered and then nothing. No opens, no clicks, no replies. Sound familiar? Before you rewrite your subject line or blame your copy, there's something more fundamental worth checking: are your emails actually being seen? This is episode one of a four-part series on fixing your email engagement, and we're starting at the foundation. Because there's no point optimising your open rates if your emails are landing in spam. You'll learn: The four engagement steps every subscriber moves through (and why most people are skipping the first one) Why deliverability is a quiet problem and the tools you can use to check yours right now How your email design, send frequency, automations, and segmentation all impact whether your emails reach the inbox Copy is only 20% of what makes email marketing work. The other 80% is everything happening beneath the surface: your design, deliverability, content strategy, automations, and segmentation. It's why the swipe file didn't work. It's why the email you asked ChatGPT to write got crickets. The words weren't the problem. Deliverability issues are fixable and most of them are simpler than you think. A lot of it is a one-time setup job and then good habits from there. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You've heard all about what AI can do for your marketing. But what does it look like in practice, day to day, inside a real business? This is the final episode in the AI series, and it's the one where theory meets reality. I'm pulling back the curtain on five specific ways I've been using Claude AI in my business over the past few weeks, from organising a decade of scattered content to streamlining client projects and slashing hours off my reporting process. You'll learn: How to organise and catalog years of content into one searchable system (and my suggested system for managing this) A practical content production workflow that saves one to two hours per podcast episode How AI can fill the gaps in client projects without blowing out the scope of work The biggest shift hasn't been about creating content from scratch. It's been about connecting what already exists. Getting 10 years of blog posts, podcast transcripts, and course lessons into one place where Claude can reference them has changed how quickly I can produce content, build sales messaging, and deliver richer work for clients. And this isn't a "set it and forget it" situation. Every single output still goes through human eyes. Every skill gets test-run first. Every client deliverable gets reviewed. The AI handles the heavy lifting so I can focus on the strategic thinking, the problem solving, and the parts of the work that need me. Whether you're ready to build your first skill or you want to streamline one small process, start with the foundations. Get your content in one place. Build one bite-sized piece at a time. And ask Claude for help when you get stuck. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're using AI to speed things up. But you’re always wondering…. does this still sound like me? Or am I just publishing the same generic content as everyone else? Trust is at an all-time low right now, and audiences are getting better at sniffing out the AI-generated stuff. But it’s not all bad news. Small businesses are still the most trusted institutions out there. You have a real advantage, if you stay human. In this episode, I'm sharing six practical ways to use AI with integrity, so you get all the time and energy benefits without losing your voice, your values, or your audience's trust. You'll learn: Why "rubbish in, rubbish out" is the most important AI principle you'll ever apply How to use external research in AI without accidentally publishing made-up statistics The overlooked goldmine sitting in your existing content (and how to feed it to your AI) A simple way to weave your real stories, opinions, and personality into AI-generated content How to build a checking skill that reviews your content against your brand before you hit publish The businesses that will cut through the noise aren't the ones handing everything over to AI. They're the ones using it to free up time and energy and then showing up more, connecting more, and sharing more of themselves. That's your edge. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you've been using Claude like a chat box, you're leaving the best part untouched. Skills are what transform AI from a helpful tool into something that genuinely works for you, running in the background, knowing your voice, following your process, without you having to explain it every single time. This is part two of my AI upgrade series (go back and listen to Episode 149 first if you haven't, as it sets the whole scene). Today we're going deep on the five types of skills you'll want to build in your Claude account and exactly where to start. You'll learn: The five layers of skills every business owner should have (from brand voice to client-specific systems) Why skills are different from just attaching a document to a project (and why that distinction matters) How to create your first skill in as little as 2 minutes, even if you've never done anything like this before Think of a skill like writing your team a procedures manual. You document how you want things done, your voice, your frameworks, your process, and from that point on, Claude just knows. No reminding, no reattaching documents, no micromanaging. It follows the playbook every time, whether you're in a chat or a project. If you've got a brand voice document sitting somewhere already, this is the perfect place to start. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If AI still feels like something you dip in and out of for the occasional email subject line, this episode is going to change how you see it entirely. What if instead of a chat box, you had a fully functioning marketing department, one that knows your voice, your clients, your frameworks, and your way of thinking, available to you 24/7? This is the first in a series where I am pulling back the curtain on exactly how I have been using Claude AI to build out the kind of marketing system I have always wanted but never had the time to create. You'll learn: The key elements of Claude AI (from chat to deep research to projects to skills) and what each one actually does How to think about AI as a marketing department rather than just a tool you prompt Where to start if you are overwhelmed, and why one or two small workflows can make a bigger difference than you think This is not about prompts or custom GPTs. It is about building something that runs in the background, does the thinking with you, and stops you from having to repeat yourself every single session. Whether you are a total beginner or already dabbling, this episode lays the foundation for everything that comes next in this series. If you have not yet tried deep research mode, that is your first quick win. Send Claude off for 20 minutes to do a target market sentiment analysis and see what comes back. It is genuinely a gold mine. Want to see more of what I get up to when I’m not podcasting? Hang out with me on Instagram @yaelkeon Get my freebie: 80+ Fill in the Blank Email Ideas Get the FREE getting started course: Get Started with Email Marketing Shop The Email Marketing Superstore Join The Email Experience 1-1 Consulting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.