Happy Subscribers

Email marketing strategies for bloggers, content creators and influencers who want to better connect with their email subscribers. Explore creator journeys, challenges, and solutions for using email marketing — and how this will help you better connect with your audience too.Hosted by Allea Grummert — email marketing strategist, copywriter, email platform expert, and founder of the done-for-you agency Duett — she has a way of turning complex strategies into actionable next steps. Her goal is to help you build seamless automated email sequences, explore segmentation, and boost your revenue and site traffic by welcoming and strengthening your relationship with email subscribers.Tune in to "Happy Subscribers" to learn about email marketing, get inspired, and most importantly, take action.

Happy Subscribers is a business podcast hosted by Allea Grummert, with 97 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Allea Grummert hosts Happy Subscribers, a business show with 97 episodes published.

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  Episode #97

  Sam Vander Wielen Needed Her Email to Work Without Her, So She Kept It Simple

  Sep 29, 202646 minS1

  Episode Summary: I built my business around a line: here's what people can expect from me, here's what I expect of myself. I drew it early, and on purpose, because I started Duett in a season where I didn't have a lot left to give. Sam drew a line too. Hers got drawn for her. Sam Vander Wielen is an attorney-turned-entrepreneur, author of When I Start My Business, I'll Be Happy, and host of the On Your Terms® podcast. She built her evergreen funnel in a chemo room in 2018 while caring for her dad. Everyone online told her she had to go live first. She couldn't — so she created a funnel that's still supporting her business (and her audience!) today. What I didn't expect was how simple she's kept everything since. Two audiences on one list, both bought in, both buying. A welcome that's two emails long. She segments, and then mostly doesn't act on it — and she'll tell you exactly why. Her reason isn't laziness. It's that people change, and she wants room for them to. None of it is her being behind. It's a person who figured out what she could actually sustain, and then refused to make it more complicated. In this episode, you'll learn about: What Sam built when she ran out of time, and the one part she didn't write herself What Sam sends a brand-new subscriber The email that fills her inbox every morning with replies from subscribers Her process for building an email, start to finish (and why she loves writing it so much) The two audiences who make up her list — and whether they get different emails How Sam keeps a pulse on what her people actually say — then uses that language in her email Check out this episode's blog post Connect with Sam Vander Wielen: Sam's last free live legal class of the year, Monday, October 19 When I Start My Business, I'll Be Happy (Sam's book) Sam's Sidebar (Sam's weekly newsletter) On Your Terms® podcast Sam's Instagram Episode Resources: Kit Manychat Free Duett Resources Join the Duett newsletter Check out Duett Services Book a FREE Discovery Call Instagram @alleagrummert

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  Episode #96

  We're Nothing Without Our List: What Kept Healthy Foodie Girl Afloat When 60% of Their Google Traffic Disappeared with Shawna & Ella Clark

  Sep 15, 202647 minS1

  Episode Summary: Friendships are my number one hobby. I'm always on the phone with someone — a friend who called, or a friend I've phoned between errands just to stay in touch. My friend Jenna and I met the first day of college nineteen years ago, and we don't really do phone calls. We go the distance instead. She had a baby two days after I left Nebraska last time I was home, so this fall I'm flying back a whole week before my brother's wedding, just to meet baby girl and get real time with them. You show up for the people you decide matter. Shawna and Ella Clark do that with an email list. The mother-daughter duo behind Healthy Foodie Girl came on the show after we bumped into each other between sessions at Kit's Craft + Commerce in Boise this summer. And they showed up with a number that should get your attention: they lost 60% of their Google traffic to AI Overviews. Not slowly. Not gradually. Their email list is what's keeping them afloat. Shawna reads and replies to every single reader email — including one from a man who needed a very specific muffin for his wife's 30th anniversary... the next day. (She made it. Just not that fast. You'll hear how that turned out.) And if your traffic hasn't dropped yet, Shawna has a warning for you: "Maybe you haven't lost your traffic, but at some point you're going to. I'm sorry. It's just what's happening. It's like SOS. If you've got it, grab it." In this episode, you'll learn about: What it actually feels like to lose 60% of your Google traffic to AI Overviews (!!) Why half of their email signups now come from YouTube — and the guide + landing page setup behind it How they use the Kit MCP with Claude to spot what their audience is most interested in — then build the lead magnets to match The muffin request from a subscriber that turned into a whole new recipe, blog post, then email Not every email needs to feature a recipe — you have all sorts of options to choose from Check out this episode's blog post Connect with Shawna and Ella: Website Instagram YouTube Facebook TikTok ​​ LinkedIn Episode Resources: Join the Duett newsletter Check out Duett Services Book a FREE Discovery Call Instagram @alleagrummert Free Duett Resources

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  Episode #95

  From 1% to 4%: How Carissa Erzen Rebuilt Her Email Foundation and Finally Knows Her Audience

  Sep 8, 202639 minS1

  Episode Summary: The one time I've been to Germany, I went to Berlin and Dresden, and then out to western Germany to see family. Their cemeteries over there are gorgeous — so well kept, all flowers and bushes. One afternoon my family wanted to walk through an old church and the little cemetery beside it, and one thing really surprised me — the last names on those headstones were the same ones I grew up with in small-town Nebraska: Busing, Hansmeier, Hermsmeier, Tegtmeier — and then Grummert. It was like a whole German village had picked up and moved to southeast Nebraska together. So I've got a real soft spot for what Carissa Erzen is building. She runs Humbly Homemade, a blog for authentic German baking — cookies, cakes, breads, pastries — and it's such a delightful, specific niche: it lets people revisit the flavors of their childhood, or the years they lived there. Or people like me, who never lived there but want to make something that actually tastes like the Germany our families came from. Carissa is also my client. We rebuilt her email foundation together last fall — and it's the kind of turnaround I love to point to. When she first came to me, her list had just crossed a thousand subscribers, but her open and click rates kept sliding. She was doing all the "right" things and still felt like she was sending into the void, wondering who was even on the other side. So we gave her the pieces she was missing: a welcome sequence (she didn't have one), a lead magnet that actually solves a problem, a cold-subscriber cleanup that keeps her list healthy on autopilot, and segmentation simple enough to keep up with. Now her newsletter click rate has gone from about 1% to 3–4%, her open rates are the highest they've ever been, readers reply from as far away as France, and she's sending four emails a week without people unsubscribing. Best of all? She finally knows who's on her list. In this episode, you'll learn about: Why Carissa says a welcome sequence isn't optional anymore — and what hers now does for every new subscriber How the Duett team taught her to create and market a more magnetic lead magnet How cleaning her list (and cutting it in half!) made her deliverability and engagement stronger The simple segmentation that lets her send more emails, not fewer, without losing subscribers How knowing her audience has become a content flywheel — replies, requests, and recipes people actually want The weight that lifted when she realized email is hers — a channel no algorithm can throttle, driving her own blog traffic on her terms. Check out this episode's blog post Connect with Carissa Erzen: Carissa's Instagram Carissa's Youtube Carissa's Website Episode Resources: Free Duett Resources Join the Duett newsletter Check out Duett Services Book a FREE Discovery Call Instagram @alleagrummert

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  Episode #94

  Her Welcome Sequence Solves a Real Problem (and Gets an 18% Click Rate) with Sara Ecklin

  Sep 1, 202649 minS1

  Episode Summary: What if the goal of your email marketing wasn't more subscribers, but the right ones — the ones who stay engaged? Your lead magnet is what attracts them, and your welcome sequence can be the filter that keeps them active (and gently clears out the ones who aren't a fit). I got to talk all of this through with Sara Ecklin of Clean Plate Mama. We first met through Kayla Burton's Food Blog Group Coaching, where I spoke about email marketing. Not long after, Sara emailed me: she'd reworked her welcome sequence and was seeing a 65% open rate and an 18% click rate, and she wanted to know if she could share it with my audience. My answer? YES. As Sara walked me through the five emails she's updated and created, I saw that not only did she make some really smart changes on her own, but I was able to give her some free coaching on a few more details to consider and embellish to make it even more strategic and more caring for her subscribers. One of the things that impressed me most about Sara was all of the mindset shifts she's gone through to really use email marketing as a proactive part of her business. Before, she was worried about bothering people (I get it. I'm also from the Midwest, and that's just something we struggle with). In this episode, you'll learn about: Why real growth is about attracting the right subscribers, not just more of them How Sara's lead magnet solves one real, specific problem for her readers What's in Sara's five-email welcome sequence, and the story arc she uses to carry readers through it How Sara wrote a whole email about herself without it being cringy The segmentation she set up so she can start sending subscribers more of what they actually want The mindset shifts that had her sending her list more emails and deleting cold subscribers (over 1,000) — and how it's only made her more confident Check out this episode's blog post Episode Resources: Free Duett Resources Join the Duett newsletter Check out Duett Services Book a FREE Discovery Call Instagram @alleagrummert Clean Plate Mama Instagram Clean Plate Mama Facebook Clean Plate Mama Pinterest Clean Plate Mama's Free Clean Eating Guide Kayla Burton's Food Blog Group Coaching

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  Episode #93

  The Most Insanely Valuable Content Wins with Chenell Basilio

  Aug 25, 202647 minS1

  Episode Summary: I've sent a weekly email since October 2019 — which is no small feat when you're starting a business, living through a pandemic, and riding all the emotional ups and downs of running something online (plus the economy, and everything else). But it was something I always said I'd hold to, because I knew as soon as I got out of that rhythm, it'd be really hard to get back into it. And some of those early emails? Not all that strong. Fairly weak, honestly — a few paragraphs, maybe some links to resources that weren't even mine. Whenever I just needed something to fill the gap, I'd pull three of my own blog posts, find the thread between them, and hit send — sending my list back to revisit content they might find helpful at a whole new point in their email marketing journey. That consistency-first, value-first approach is exactly what my friend Chenell Basilio teaches — and she'd know. Chenell runs Growth in Reverse , where she reverse-engineers how the best newsletters online actually grow and make money (her own list is 50,000+ strong). I asked her what really makes newsletters effective — for both the reader and the creator — and I was surprised: it wasn't about list-growth hacks or the latest trends or tactics for what goes in the email. She said it comes down to one thing: insanely valuable content. "The people who have the most insanely valuable content win hands down every time. It's not the growth tactics — it's the content." — Chenell Basilio In this episode, you'll learn about: The subject-line sweet spot between descriptive and intriguing — and why "Did you hear?" worked How to start a newsletter without burning out What actually belongs in a hearty weekly email — and the surprising "fun links" section that excites readers and reveals your most engaged subscribers How to engage your readers right from your welcome sequence What's working in list growth right now (surprisingly, quizzes are back on top — plus a few others) Why "people follow you for your taste" is the one thing AI can't replicate — and Chenell's soapbox on staying huma Check out this episode's blog post Episode Resources: Free Duett Resources Join the Duett newsletter Check out Duett Services Book a FREE Discovery Call Instagram @alleagrummert Growth in Reverse — join Chenell's email list Chenell Basilio on LinkedIn Toni Okamoto — Plant Based on a Budget (her Happy Subscribers episode)

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