In this episode (originally recorded in 2021 but still packed with timeless insights), Dr. Sapphire breaks down the exact list-building strategies she used to attract 250+ leads in only 5 days. From choosing the right lead magnet to leveraging multiple platforms, this episode is a goldmine for business owners who want to start, grow, and monetize their email lists.

Ready to finally grow your audience?

The Start & Grow Club is for business owners who want to start, grow, and monetize their email list but don’t know how to get started. Simple strategies. Real results.

Click on the link here: https://forms.fillout.com/t/kfsUW8gtjSus

LISTEN OUT FOR

✅ Her journey from Canva design to email marketing

✅ Thinking long-term when building your list (leveraging different audience buying journeys)

✅ Picking a lead magnet that solves your audience’s real problem

✅ The “Exact Strategy She Used” for rapid list building

✅ Balancing content marketing vs referrals and how to use both effectively

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE

⏰ 2:11 – What Dr. Sapphire does now in email marketing

⏰ 3:52 – Why and how she started building her list

⏰ 5:27 – First strategy she used: choosing the right lead magnet

⏰ 6:11 – Making your lead magnet irresistible (packaging + format)

⏰ 8:05 – Positioning and promoting your lead magnet

⏰ 8:38 – How she leveraged Instagram for lead magnet promotion

⏰ 9:11 – Front-end promotion (Twitter, WhatsApp) + back-end referral strategy

⏰ 12:09 – Promoting your lead magnet via WhatsApp

⏰ 12:37 – Extra tips for generating leads with these strategies

⏰ 13:22 – Quick recap of all the strategies

⏰ 14:49 – About the Start & Grow Club (helping business owners start, grow, and monetize their email lists)

⏰ 16:08 – About the Email Marketing Briefcase (for those managing email lists for local & international clients)

🚀 Struggling with email list management? The Email Marketing Briefcase is your all-in-one toolkit for running professional campaigns — with templates, strategies, and resources to simplify your workflow. 👇

Use this code: %Episode28% and get a discount off The Email Marketing Briefcase here - https://nestuge.com/briefcase

CONNECT WITH HOST;
Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari), and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

Work With Me:
Website-
https://sapphirelearninghub.com/services/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sapphirelearninghub/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/


Online Email Marketing School🎓 -
I believe anyone including you can master email copywriting and marketing and get paid to offer it as a service to local and foreign clients.

In our online s

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/

What if writing just one story, one email, and one offer a day could grow a thriving business without burnout? 🚀

In this episode, Jacob Peg shares his Modern Maker framework for daily email marketing, breaking down how he uses stories, lessons, pivots, and offers to create engaging emails that sell without sounding pushy.

If you’ve ever wondered how to avoid email marketing mistakes, keep your offers fresh, and improve deliverability—this conversation is for you.

This show is built for email marketers like YOU. If you got value today, leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify,here👇

https://open.spotify.com/show/2Re61PaZY3sGPbkTB84Ed6?si=9kJkHtyWSoeMo7__rXVihg

It helps our community grow and keeps us bringing you expert strategies every week.🤗

GUEST RESOURCES:
Guest: Jacob pegs

Website: http://jacobpegs.xyz

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jacob-pegs

Link to community: https://skool.com/modern-maker



LISTEN OUT FOR

✅ How Jacob uses story, lessons, pivots, and offers to send “predictable unpredictable” emails

✅ Turning your audience into online assets and leveraging them for long-term growth

✅ The difference between an offer and a product—and how to use each in email marketing

✅ Does he segment his daily emails or keep it simple?

✅ His go-to tools for better email deliverability




HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE

⏰ 6:40 – Jacob’s journey into email marketing

⏰ 11:46 – His “Open Rate Confession”

⏰ 16:54 – Inside the Modern Maker framework

⏰ 23:50 – Choosing the right story and aligning it with offers

⏰ 29:52 – Making a daily offer without overwhelming subscribers

⏰ 33:35 – Signals to know when to bundle or unbundle offers

⏰ 38:12 – The most important metric in email marketing

⏰ 39:03 – Myth #1 about email marketing

⏰ 39:14 – Myth #2

⏰ 39:41 – Myth #3

⏰ 40:29 – His thoughts on email deliverability

⏰ 41:50 – Where and how to connect with Jacob

⏰ 42:36 – More about the Modern Maker framework

CONNECT WITH HOST;
Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations and conversions all through email marketing.

Work With Me:
Website-
https://sapphirelearninghub.com/services/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sapphirelearninghub/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/



Online Email Marketing School🎓 -
I believe anyone including you can master email copywriting and marketing and get paid to offer it as a service to local and foreign clients.

In our online school, we use the PIE framework to ensure you get practical implementation and experience. You see confidence and skill comes from doing. And in here’ that’s how we roll.

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/

If your emails keep landing in spam, you’re not alone. In this episode, my guest Chijioke shares how he used AI (Gemini) to rescue his campaigns, improve deliverability, and finally get consistent open rates.

From list segmentation to using the right AI prompts, this is a practical deep dive into avoiding spam filters, boosting engagement, and running email marketing more efficiently with the help of AI.




👤 GUEST RESOURCES

Guest: Chijioke Chukwuekem (The Kontent Guru)

Website: https://reputationengine.com.ng/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chijioke-chukwuekem-7a637a27a/




LISTEN OUT FOR

✅ The changes he made that lifted his open rates

✅ Why he turned to Gemini to diagnose his email issues

✅ How long it took to fix his inboxing problem (and what he tried before)

✅ Segmentation strategies: engaged vs unengaged subscribers

✅ How he leverages AI to streamline email marketing tasks

✅ Why the unsubscribe link is more important than you think




HIGHLIGHTS FROM EPISODE

6:15 – His journey into email marketing and how he started

⏰ 11:39 – 🚨 Open rates confession: his biggest mistake

⏰ 16:23 – The brand he worked with & how he found out emails were going to spam

⏰ 21:25 – The 2 issues Gemini uncovered that killed open rates (and how he solved them)

⏰ 24:14 – The exact prompts he used to get results from Gemini

⏰ 27:14 – Deliverability improvements beyond Gemini

⏰ 31:55 – His advice on using Gemini for email marketing (beyond the obvious)

⏰ 41:48 – How marketers can adapt to ever-changing deliverability rules

⏰ 45:33 – One email marketing myth he wants to bust

⏰ 48:58 – His top deliverability tip for new email marketers

⏰ 50:55 – How to connect with Chijioke

⏰ 52:08 – How to work with him

WANT MORE GOOD STUFF😉? Subscribe to our newsletter here👇

https://emailmarketingexperiments.substack.com?r=8qx30

CONNECT WITH HOST;
Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations and conversions all through email marketing.

Work With Me:
Website-
https://sapphirelearninghub.com/services/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sapphirelearninghub/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/



Online Email Marketing School🎓 -
I believe anyone including you can master email copywriting and marketing and get paid to offer it as a service to local and foreign clients.

In our online school, we use the PIE framework to ensure you get practical implementation and experience. You see confidence and skill comes from doing. And in here’ that’s how we roll.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/sapphirelearninghub
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sapph

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463021/episodes/17495095Every email marketer has that one campaign they wish they could erase. In this special Open Rate Confessions episode, 5 expert guests reveal their biggest email marketing mistakes — the kind that tank open rates, lost subscribers, and left money on the table.

Instead of keeping them hidden, they’re sharing these confessions (and the lessons they learned) so you can dodge the same pitfalls in your own email strategy. 🚀



💼 Stop losing sales to bad emails. With The Email Marketing Briefcase, you’ll get the tools to write better emails, nurture your list, and convert with confidence. Get the briefcase here 👇;

https://selar.com/theemailmarketingbriefcase





HIGHLIGHTS FROM EPISODE:

⏰ 0:56- Teecee’s open rate confession

⏰ 7:37- Rihanna's open rate confessions

⏰ 9:52- One mistake that affected Felly's open rate

⏰ 10:51- Kornelija’s biggest Email Markerting failure

⏰ 17:56- Shannon's biggest Email marketing mistake




🎧Want The Full Story? Listen to each Guest's Episode Here👇:

1. Episode with Teecee Okore: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463021/episodes/17340085

🎙️ Title: Reading Your Email Analytics to Drive Smart Financial Decisions with Teecee




2. Episode with Rhianna Clavering: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463021/episodes/17495095

🎙️Title: Out-of-the-Box Email Marketing Strategies with Rhianna Clavering





3.Episode with Felly Day: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463021/episodes/17094119

🎙️ Title: The Three Email Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid with Felly Day




4. Episode with Kornelija Vukasovic: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463021/episodes/17454672

🎙️Title: My Webinar Email Sequence that “Works like a Charm" – With Kornelija Vukasovic




5. Episode with Shannon Vondy: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463021/episodes/17759990

🎙️Title: The $14K Email Campaign That Brought Clients Back with Shannon Vondy






CONNECT WITH HOST;
Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations and conversions all through email marketing.

Work With Me:
Website-
https://sapphirelearninghub.com/services/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sapphirelearninghub/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/



Online Email Marketing School🎓 -
I believe anyone including you can master email copywriting and marketing and get paid to offer it as a service to local and foreign clients.

In our online school, we use the PIE framework to ensure you get practical implementation and experience. You see confidence and skill comes from doing. And in here’ that’s how we roll.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/sapphirelearninghub
Instagram - https://ww

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn seasonal buyers into loyal repeat customers using email marketing, this episode is packed with strategies you’ll love.

My guest, Shannon, breaks down how she built an email system that generated $14,000 by getting her client’s customers to rebook their yearly program early. From smart CTAs to discount vs. bonus decisions, Shannon shares what worked, what didn’t, and how you can apply the same strategies to your own email list.



👩‍💻 GUEST RESOURCES

Guest: Shannon Vondy

Website: http://theemailclub.co

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrs.vondy

LISTEN OUT FOR

✅ The problem she spotted in her client’s emails (and how she fixed it)

✅ The exact sequence she used to boost rebookings

✅ How she encouraged customers to book earlier than ever

✅ Discounts vs. Bonuses: which works best and when

✅ Crafting CTAs that work on cold audiences

✅ The unexpected surprises she faced running this campaign

✅ What she’d do differently if she ran this again

✅ Other results she counted beyond sales growth

✅ Are double opt-ins a waste of time? Shannon’s take

✅ How email marketing fuels her business model

✅ Her exclusive Email Marketing Membership Club




EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS & TIMESTAMPS

⏰ 1:56 – Who Shannon is & her journey into email marketing

⏰ 9:12 – 🚨 Her biggest email marketing mistake (Open rates confession)

⏰ 11:13 – The client backstory: how the $14K campaign began

⏰ 16:05 – How many emails she sent in the sequence & her timing strategy

⏰ 16:21 – What she considers when building an effective funnel

⏰ 22:49 – Dr. Sapphire’s take on using discounts wisely

⏰ 26:18 – Other actions Shannon used to encourage early bookings

⏰ 29:57 – The type of CTA she used for this offer

⏰ 31:21 – The tech stack behind this campaign

⏰ 34:33 – Her top tips for converting subscribers into paying customers

⏰ 40:25 – Myth #1 she wants to bust about email marketing

⏰ 40:36 – Myth #2 she busts 🔥

⏰ 45:00 – How she calculates conversion rate correctly

⏰ 47:10 – How she tracks which sales come from email

⏰ 53:04 – Her thoughts on the time-to-conversion metric

⏰ 57:00 – Where to connect with Shannon & learn more about her



CONNECT WITH HOST;
Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations and conversions all through email marketing.

Work With Me: https://sapphirelearninghub.com/services/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sapphirelearninghub/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/



Online Email Marketing School🎓 -
I believe anyone including you can master email copywriting and marketing and get paid to offer it as a service to local and foreign clients.

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/

✨ Ever wondered what it looks like to build an email strategy in real time? In this live coaching session, Dr. Sapphire walks Michaela Saber through practical steps to grow her email list, nurture her subscribers, and stay consistent while building trust and conversions.

This episode is packed with real strategies you can also apply to your own list — from audience growth to storytelling, segmentation, and creating a powerful nurture sequence.



🔗 GUEST RESOURCES

Guest: Michaela Saber
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmdynamicduos

Link to community: https://www.skool.com/digital-duo-academy-7318

Website: https://www.mmdynamicduo.com




LISTEN OUT FOR

✅ Michaela’s journey with growing her email list

✅ Past strategies she tried (what worked & what didn’t)

✅ The key factors that influence email marketing success

✅ The “Borrow” method (one of the 3B’s) for list growth

✅ How to collaborate with aligned audiences

✅ Training your list to adapt to your sending frequency

✅ The power of knowing your audience & defining key messages

✅ Using stories, product spotlights & Q&A for nurturing

✅ Building deeper relationships through your emails

✅ How service quality influences upselling

✅ Actionable strategies Michaela can implement right away





EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
⏰ 1:23 – Meet Michaela Saber

⏰ 5:12 – Why this episode is different (a live coaching session)

⏰ 7:42 – The hardest part of email marketing for her

⏰ 8:07 – The issues Dr. Sapphire identified in her approach

⏰ 8:52 – Dr. Sapphire’s ANCO Framework (Attract, Nurture, Convert, Optimize) explained

✨ Attract
⏰ 10:34 – How Michaela grew her list to 300 subscribers

⏰ 12:24 – Dr. Sapphire’s advice on attracting more subscribers (practical strategies)
⏰ 16:05 – Leveraging collaboration to grow your list

⏰ 17:04 – Which strategy Michaela is starting first

💌 Nurture & Convert
⏰19:52 – Michaela’s 3-part email sequence

⏰22:11 – How to engage new leads right away

⏰23:35 – How often should you email your list?

⏰26:00 – The importance of welcoming new subscribers with intention

⏰27:00 – Sending the right messages to segmented audiences

⏰35:05 – Key messaging as the North Star for your email list

⏰36:09 – How to structure conversations inside your nurture sequence

⏰37:45 – Tips for building an engaging welcome sequence

⚙️ Optimize
⏰41:26 – Following up with people who didn’t buy initially

⏰45:49 – Nurturing past buyers into repeat buyers

⏰53:04 – Engaging students already inside the course

🚀 Action Steps
⏰59:06 – First action point & how to implement it

⏰62:04 – Second action point: VA to OBM transition

⏰64:41 – Michaela’s community & how to follow her VA services

⏰67:57 – How Michaela feels af

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/

In this episode, I’m joined by Comfort Essien (aka theCopy Babe) — an email marketing strategist who ran a powerful Black Friday campaign that not only 5X’ed her client’s email list growth but also led to unexpected sales conversions.

She breaks down her experiment, the mistakes she made along the way, and what every coach, service provider, or business owner can learn about email sequences, subject lines, and list-building strategies.



LISTEN OUT FOR
✅ How she leveraged Black Friday campaigns to drive sales

✅ Why knowing where your subscribers and traffic come from matters

✅ The 4-email sequence she used — and the exact content she included

✅ The unexpected challenges she faced while running this email experiment

✅ Her favorite subject line ever written (and why it worked so well)

✅ Incorporating email marketing in your business beyond having a website





📌 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE

⏰1:57 – Her journey into email marketing

⏰4:29 – The biggest mistake she made with open rates

⏰7:34 – The client backstory: 5X list growth explained

⏰17:55 – Identifying gaps during email auditing

⏰28:34 – The sequence she sends after sign-ups

⏰30:19 – What she would do differently if starting over again

⏰40:26 – The first email marketing myth she debunks

⏰44:41 – The second myth she busts

⏰47:31 - The third myth she debunked

⏰54:32 - One email marketing metric she'd choose if she's to track one and why

⏰56:21 - How to connect with her

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/

In this value-packed episode, Peace Okuns shares her proven strategies for making email marketing work for service-based businesses and coaching brands. From overcoming the fear of “sending too many emails” to mastering A/B testing, she breaks down the steps to create valuable, engaging, and high-converting emails—without burning out or losing subscribers.

Whether you’re a coach, consultant, or service provider looking to boost your open rates, click-throughs, and conversions, this episode will give you practical steps and the confidence to make your email list your most profitable asset.



🔗 Guest Resources

Guest: Peace Okuns

🌐 Website: http://www.crestwords.com

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crestwordscs



👂🏾 Listen Out For

✅ What the guest loves most about email marketing ❤️

✅ The expectations she had when starting out email marketing for service providers

✅ What exactly she was testing when sending out her emails 🧪

✅ Important questions to ask when creating valuable emails

✅ Handling the fear of bombarding your list 📩

✅ How long it took her before she started seeing results

✅ Some of the biggest lessons she learned from testing her strategy

✅ The one piece of advice she’d give coaches/service providers ✨

✅ The importance of A/B testing for email success





Highlights from the Episode

⏰1:19 – A little bit about the guest (Peace Okuns) and her email marketing journey

⏰ 3:02 – A weird response she has gotten from email subscribers

⏰ 5:35 – Her thoughts on ConvertKit Creator's Network

⏰ 7:55 – The key difference between how e-commerce and service providers do email marketing

⏰ 11:52– What she learned from the test she did when she started

⏰ 14:37- Other struggles service providers/coaches face besides not knowing what to write

⏰ 15:58 – The email strategy she used and how she implemented it

⏰ 18:21– What a valuable email is, and how to know you’re sending valuable emails

⏰ 22:13 – Where formulas come in when creating valuable emails

⏰ 23:46 – Implementing this strategy during a sales season or launch

⏰ 26:44 – The results she saw from implementing this strategy

⏰ 30:35 – How long it might take to see results when trying this strategy wfor the first time

⏰ 35:12 – What she uses for this strategy besides email service providers

⏰ 37:54 – Can people with an already established list still apply this?

🚨 Open Rate Confessions👇
⏰ 39:33 – Her biggest open rate revelation

⏰ 44:32 – Her favourite subject line when crafting emails

⏰ 50:35 – Advice to her younger self on email marketing

Support the show

Connect With Host

Hi, I’m Dr. Sapphire (Ayebanoa Sapphire Benwari) and I’m always excited to help you start and grow your list with my team. My goal is to help you build community, conversations, and conversions all through email marketing.

• Work With Me: Click Here to View All Email Marketing Services
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sapphire_/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayebanoabenwari/