From Cold to Warm — Working Your Engaged Leads and Building the FinTitan FICA Follow-Up Campaign
Live Webinar with Vanessa Roberts
(Raw transcription; not proofed for grammar or spelling.)
Click here for Google Doc of the transcript.
[0:01] Good afternoon, everyone. Happy Monday. Hey, Adele. Yep, I had an amazing weekend. I hope you did too. I spent the weekend at the Ponce City Market in downtown Atlanta with my sister-in-law and best friend. She is the same person, so it's just the two of us. She is an artist. She's a local artist and I help her a lot on weekends at artist festivals. I keep her company in the booth and deploy my marketing experience in person with folks and talk about art and plants and cutesy little things that she sells, and so yeah, we had a beautiful weekend, perfect weather. I spent all day Saturday with her, and then on Sunday she actually forgot her chairs to sit behind the booth, so I wasn't meant to work with her, but my husband said, “Hey, let's just go, let's go to the festival. Let's be shoppers and walkers and pursuers.” So we loaded up the chairs and brought them to her. And I got to stroll through the beautiful Ponce City Market. Not the market, not the market where there are stores and stuff — it's a park down on Ponce. But it was stunning, it was lovely. So yes, I hope you all had a great weekend too. Softball's kicking back up. So starting next weekend, I will be back in the dirt with my slugger. So I'll have great stories, hopefully, of her conquests to share with you on Mondays.
[1:39] Hey, Hazel, hey Sven. I see Steve, Brant — hey, thanks for joining us. Sheldon and Tim — hey, great to see you, Tim. I responded to your ticket. Really excited to get started helping you. I see Ramaji and Peter and Pauline. Lots of folks, everybody's here. Melvin and Mason. Hey, so everybody hears me good and sees my screen. I won't prattle on too long and let us get started once I make sure everybody's on. Thanks, Pauline. Pauline says audio visuals are good. Awesome. Excellent. Hear you fine. Great, great, great.
[2:17] I will say my headset has taken to sporadically and without warning dropping off Bluetooth, so if all of a sudden you can't hear me and it feels like you should be hearing me, please tell me and I will dial in by phone. Okay, so if y'all can have my back on that one — Nikki is not here with me today, I'm all alone. And if I just start rambling off and drop, I have no idea, so let me know if you lose audio. All right, fantastic.
The Real Goal of Small Batch — Going from Cold to Warm
[2:50] Vanessa: So we've been working a lot on — I'm sorry, working on the three-touch email campaigns, and that is still going to be our working sessions, we're gonna keep going with that. But the great news is I'm getting feedback that folks are warming up their cold list and are piling up those warm leads. So remember the goal of SmallBatch — while it would be great if cold email converted into a sale or a purchase or a conversion with a single touch or a single campaign, yes, that is absolutely the dream. But in reality, what we're really doing with SmallBatch is going from cold to warm. Our goal is to warm up a list and build a relationship so that we can get to the conversion, be it a sale or a lead generated for a partner like FinTitan and the FICA program or the Illusional Telehealth program.
[3:55] So I saw a conversation on Facebook that inspired me this morning, and it was folks saying, “I've gotten a lot of opens, I've gotten a lot of clicks, but no conversions.” And it felt like the energy of those comments were negative. And while I understand it's not superior, fantastic, “I just made $1,000 off a cold email” — really the perspective of what you've achieved is exactly the goal. We are warming up these emails, we're identifying from the cold the people who are paying attention, who are raising their hands, especially the clickers. With the three-touch call-to-action reply campaigns we've been working on, of course those replies are coming back — if you're using that approach, that feels like a bigger win. But a click can still be, you know, from the onset, the clicks are the wins. The opens are progress to the clicks, and a click is the win. So what I wanna talk about today is turning interest into conversations, and your campaigns are working — now what?
[5:04] Right, I saw folks talking about, “We've sent 10,000 emails.” Fantastic, awesome, amazing. How many of those are warm, right? That's what we want to see. So people are opening your emails and some are clicking. That means you have warm leads sitting in your CRM right now. So now what are we going to do with them?
The Engagement Amplifier — How the Small Batch CRM Works for You
[5:18] Vanessa: Okay, so your Go High Level through the Small Batch CRM. So for everybody who's using Instantly or Brevo or Mailgun or Yesware — like if you're using a different tool, this does not apply to you. But everybody who's using the Small Batch CRM that's built on the Go High Level platform — you have active in your system the proprietary Engagement Amplifier system that I built based on my processes and methodologies that I've used with Brian for the past 20 years. And what that means is we identify — and you don't have to do any of this, this works on your behalf in the background in real time inside your CRM — the Engagement Amplifier. There is a live workflow that works constantly on your behalf with every single email you send. So any time a contact takes an action — opens an email, clicks a link, replies, etc., etc. — it automatically applies a tag to that contact, measuring it from warm to hot. So that means everyone who has sent through the Small Batch CRM system 10,000 emails, and you see that you have opened, you see that you have clicks — what you've got is the warm contact list that you're ready to send larger batches of emails to.
[6:55] Again, that's the whole goal. We don't wanna be sending only small batches forever. The goal is to move someone out of the cold small batch into the warm where you can send thousands of emails per day. Now, remember the Small Batch System — in order to send more than 100 emails a day, you do have to upgrade to Pro. But if you have 1,000 or 2,000 or even 500 warm emails in your CRM, you're ready to scale up, right? You're ready to take it to the next level. So these tags let you filter and group contacts based on their behavior, so you always know who is engaged and who is not, right? Does it make sense? You don't have to go through and say, “Okay, this person clicked, now I need to do something with it.” You've got those tags already segmenting things for you. So the warm tag is your most engaged contact. Well, hot, but right now we're working with warmth, right? So contacts that are tagged as warm are the people who have opened or clicked your emails. Okay, they've shown interest, they know your name, they're familiar, they've possibly engaged with your content — replied, read it, clicked on it, gone to your landing page, etc. These are the contacts most likely to respond when you reach out again with the right message.
[8:17] So remember, it's not just one and done. Even if you have a multi-touch campaign and you've sent them 10 emails — okay, and that's how you generated the open, that's how you generated the click — now you've identified them. Now we're gonna follow up with a different message. So warm leads deserve a different approach. And we talked a lot about this in the initial training, and so I'm glad we got to review it. I like to say you don't talk to someone who you already know or who already knows you the same way you talk to a stranger. You don't go and reintroduce yourself to someone you've been at a party with and in a networking event and then talked on the phone with. It would be embarrassing if you say, “Oh, hi, I'm Vanessa.” “Well, I know. We've spent many hours together.” So that's not the approach you want to take with someone who was already engaged. That's the philosophy behind it. Your warm leads have already engaged, so the next campaign should acknowledge that. Does that make sense?
[9:17] So you sent them the 10-touch email. You got them warm. They saw you over and over again. Now we're gonna change the approach, change the messaging. A tailored follow-up campaign converts at a much higher rate because it means it meets them where they are. It means you are not just spray and pray, not just wide netting it, right?
Crafting a Follow-Up Campaign for Your Warm Leads
[9:45] Vanessa: So step one — we're going to craft a new campaign, okay? Depending on what your goal is, with the offer you're sending, you need to tailor and craft your campaign. I can help you with it, but this isn't something that is pre-delivered for you in the Small Batch variables, right? Does everybody understand that? I will absolutely help you. We can do workshops. Send me a ticket if you have questions about what to do. But we will talk about this on this call on how to craft a new campaign. We'll pick an example, we're gonna work it out — that's my final slide, that's what we're gonna do. So I'm not gonna leave you in the dark on that. But it is something you must initiate and craft because it is tailored to your offer. It's a follow-up on your email sequences. You know what you said in the initial emails that got them to pay attention — now what are you gonna do? And you have a fork in the road. Are you going to continue the same approach? If your initial emails sent them to your landing page — let's just use the FinTitan FICA tax credit, for example, just so that we're all on the same page, right? So if your first 10 emails sent them to your page and you can see that they opened and you can see that they clicked, and maybe you even went into your FinTitan agent platform dashboard and reviewed the analytics and identified there that these are unique IP address clicks and you know who your visitors are — are you going to send them another email with different verbiage, encouraging them to return to the FinTitan landing page and complete their process? Or maybe instead you're going to use the call-to-action reply approach, right? So we can explore either way, but you decide how you want to take this relationship to the next level.
[11:54] Hey, Ken. Ah, Ken's telling me he's from Hawaii. And honestly, at this point, it just feels like he's bragging. My weather's doing great too, Ken. No, I hope it's beautiful out there, Ken. Thanks for joining us. Okay, so you craft a new campaign. We've worked a lot with AI on how to create and fine-tune and hone in on what you want the campaign to be. What we have found to be very effective — it does not have to be a call-to-action for a reply if you don't want it to be. However, you can dramatically change the tone after you've used the canned 10-touch email sequence. If you want to shift to the tonality that we've been working with in the three-touch call-to-action reply emails — the very casual, the very friendly, the follow-up — you can do that as well. You can mix the functionality and the goals and the approach for what works best for you, what speaks in your tone of voice, how you want to proceed. If you don't ever want to talk to someone, that's okay. You can draft a follow-up campaign driving them back to the page and encourage them to start the process because they will speak to an advisor at FinTitan. You can offer human connection without you being the human that's connecting, right? You can take that approach.
[13:05] So really it's completely up to you. But that second follow-up email campaign to your warm leads needs to be for the same offer, right? If that's how we're following up — if your goal is to enhance the results on that one offer, if you're sticking with the same offer, now they're your warm emails. You could change the topic if you wanted to, but for this thought exercise that we're doing, we're going to say that we're going to stick with the FinTitan FICA tax credit lead generation plan. They were responsive in some fashion to the first email. Now we're going to change the approach to get better results on a warm list result. Okay.
[14:09] So you craft a campaign after you decide your approach, okay? After that, it's totally simple. You use the exact same steps that launched your first campaign. You request a done-for-you campaign, you simply provide the email campaign that you wrote in step one. The done-for-you team is going to build and launch your campaign in your Small Batch CRM. They handle the technical setup, you focus on the messaging, and yes, they segment by selecting your existing warm contacts — again, done automatically for you in the Small Batch CRM. In the done-for-you request form, there's a dropdown where it asks if you have a list, and you say yes, I want to use a list of existing contacts — they are my warm tags. It's a dropdown, it's very simple on the request form. All you have to do is select the option that basically says “use my warm leads,” and that's it. That's all you have to do.
[15:08] So indicate that the done-for-you team should use the warm — yep, simple. It's a default selection on that DFY. The team will target only the contacts who already engaged with your previous campaigns. All right, very, very, very, very simple. And last — click send. Submit your request. It shouldn't even be its own step, honestly. But that's it, because we are going to set it up and launch, draft, launch, send it out to all of your warm contacts for you. You wrote it — literally the done-for-you team handles the rest. Okay? So once you submit your request, the done-for-you team builds out your campaign — and that doesn't mean write your campaign. They don't create the content for your campaign, but they build the workflow in your Small Batch CRM so that all of the clicks and replies, etc., that happen on that email campaign are also monitored by the Engagement Amplifier, right? You don't have to worry about the technical setup, scheduling, or the delivery. Focus on your message. We handle the execution. If you are driving replies, you will need to monitor your account to receive the replies, because they do come in through the Small Batch System CRM, right?
Live AI Workshop — Five-Touch Warm Follow-Up Campaign for FinTitan FICA
[16:24] Vanessa: So that's the process. So what I would like to do now is use Gemini, like we've been doing for the three-touch campaign — I'm gonna make a three-touch campaign that can inspire you to be the follow-up campaign that you send your warm leads to the FinTitan campaign. Is that good with everybody? All right, we're gonna use the three-touch reply email that we've been learning about, but the goal is going to be to communicate that we know that they saw our previous email, and we want to help them further. So let me grab a Gemini window. All right, and we're gonna start from absolute scratch, and I will tell you honestly, I've not written one of these before. So we're gonna do it together, and we're gonna learn what works, what doesn't work, we're gonna inspire each other.
[17:25] If you have a different warmed list, Ramaji is asking me — would they know which list to use in done-for-you? You can tell the done-for-you form which tag you want them to use to filter. So if you have a tag that, for example, is “warm FICA” or “warm FinTitan” versus “warm Illusional” versus “warm biz op” versus “warm affiliate,” yes, you can tell them which tag you want them to use. Great question.
[18:00] “I've been going with a one-touch reply. Three might go better.” Absolutely, Sheldon. That is good. Yes, anytime you can automate multiple follow-ups, I highly endorse it, because I ignore 80% of the emails I get. They're either filtered out for me because I set up rules. I'm not saying that Google filters out, but like, I have a rule that's set up that if there is an unsubscribe — if the word “unsubscribe” happens anywhere in the email — it goes to a folder and it doesn't show me. And that's not a spam filter. That's just, that's where all of my, anything that comes from a mailing list or a CRM at all, by default, it has that unsubscribe button. So I have my Gmail look for the word “unsubscribe” and if it appears anywhere, it just goes to a different folder. And then I manually go to that folder and I read what I wanna read, but it means that I'm out of sight, out of mind, right? If you were sending me a reply and it had the word “unsubscribe,” even though it's a one-to-one real human email, I might not see it. I'm not saying lots of people do that, but that would be the case with me. So you are sending me three, five, 10 emails — you're upping your chances and not being abrasive.
[19:19] My principle — we're planning a lot of three-touch emails, and that really applies strongly in the cold world. But if you're doing follow-up for someone that has gone warm, five, seven, 10 touches is totally reasonable. I, and you'll hear me say this a lot, I will email someone until they give me a reason to stop. And there's only two reasons. They do what I want them to do, right? They opt in, they buy something, they become a lead, right? Whatever my goal is, I will stop when I reach my goal or when they opt out. Right? And opt out means, right, if they reply and say, “Don't talk to me,” they click the opt-out button. Okay. If they get angry in a reply — it has happened — and I'll stop then. But I'm never going to take myself out of contention by just deciding I've sent them enough emails, right?
[20:15] I won't send you any emails with the word “unsubscribe.” And, you know, some places have gotten really smart about it and they don't use the word “unsubscribe” — they change the hyperlink to “contact us” or something or “prevent further emails,” but the hyperlink is the unsubscribe. So people are clever, but it's just how I can keep my box clean. So that's funny. So Ken says, “So you will not get examples from my newsletter if it says unsubscribe?” I will get it — it just goes to a different folder, and then I set aside time to go to that folder. I will stay engaged if you can, yes. All right, okay, so where should we start?
[20:59] So what I like to do when I'm starting from absolutely nothing is just talk to the AI about what I'm doing. “I have been sending cold emails about my offer of assistance with the FICA tax credit for restaurants and bars. From those cold emails I have identified the warm contacts, those who have opened and read and clicked my emails. Okay, I want a five-touch sequence following up with them, as if I am replying because I know they saw my email. I want my tone to be business casual, leaning towards more friendly. The messaging is offering help, answering questions, and getting them a no-cost, no-obligation estimate of how much their refund may be. Okay, what do we know works? Keep the emails under five sentences. The call-to-action goal is for them to reply to the email I send them. Make this feel like I am speaking to a familiar — what's more than an acquaintance but less than a friend — associate, right?” Let's see.
[23:30] I want your feedback — what do you think about this prompt so far? Before we get started, should I change anything?
[23:45] Sandy, yeah, I recommend that you go through the MicroReach Mastery training course if you want to start over from scratch. We don't really have a default one-to-one training, but if you want to send me a ticket, we can talk about options. I want to help you get set up because it really is doing great for a lot of folks, so I definitely want to help you.
[24:03] “Why are you using Gemini rather than ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or Flexity?” Ken is asking me. Because this is a free version of Gemini and I want to use a tool that is accessible to everyone without spending any money. You can use the same prompts, the same procedures on any AI that you have, but I'm using Gemini because it's free.
[24:26] Would you mention not using spam phrasing here? Fantastic. Let's add it on. “Be careful of spam trigger words. I want to land in the inbox.” Right. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, any other questions? Any other feedback before we hit send? I will take this and copy it. Good catch on the spam. Yes. Sheldon is congratulating you, Cynthia — it was a really good catch. Okay, so I'm gonna say — oh, look at me, what can I do? I don't have Pro. Thinking solves. I don't think it's a complex problem. Let's see what thinking says. All right, I'm gonna send.
[25:16] All right, now I'm going to start a Google Doc for our project today. All right, let's see. We're gonna call it “FinTitan FICA Warm List Follow-Up Five-Touch Email.” Right? And as we've been doing, we're going to call this Prompt. Prompt. All right. Initial prompt. I don't want it to be bold. Right? Let's see what we've got.
[26:01] All right. The five-touch sequence is designed to feel like a natural reply to a previous thread. Good. Acknowledges their interest without being creepy about tracking, maintaining a vibe of helpful associate rather than a salesperson. All right, can I see the whole script? Sandy, what script are you talking about? Let me know and I'll get it for you, right?
[26:30] Okay, so the very first email is a top-of-mind nudge. “I noticed you had a chance to look over my last note about the FICA tax credit. I wanted to see if any specific questions came to mind while you were reading it. Most owners I speak with are surprised by how much they can actually recover. Are you open to a quick chat about how this works for your specific location?” Oh yes, Andy, I'm gonna share this prompt with everybody. The document is gonna have absolutely everything we built today, and then I'm gonna include it in the page in the members area where we do the replays. So you'll have this entire video, and all the prompts, and all the emails, everything. Yes, definitely. Very, very welcome. And it's a great question because I want everybody to know that yes, all of this will be shared with everybody.
[27:20] Okay, email two, low friction. “Following up on my last note from the other day” — I don't like how they keep saying “notes,” so I'm gonna keep in mind that I don't love that. “Following up on my last note from the other day, I can pull a quick no-obligation estimate of what your potential credit looks like, if that's helpful. It usually takes less than five minutes of your time to get the ball rolling. Would you like me to send over the two or three details I'd need to run those numbers for you? Hope your week is off to a great start.” Now, I like this because it gives them — it tells them what they can say and what they're gonna get out of it.
[28:08] Okay, and once you start this conversation, if they reply with this information, your response is “Hey, thank you for this.” You take it one-on-one. It's either a phone call, which I recommend, or an email where it says, “Thanks, I've got what I need. Do I have your permission to give this to FinTitan to get an associate to call you and start working with this?” Basically, once you get them on the hook and they give you permission, you are authorized under your FinTitan agent agreement. It is okay to go in and type their business name, number, etc., into your form once they agree to talk to an associate, right? You can't just find a business, a restaurant, with a name and a phone number and just plug it in. But once you have made real human contact and they are “yes, on board, ready to talk to a FinTitan associate,” you can fill out the form on your page, right, to get them in as a lead.
[29:25] Okay, so “two or three details I'd need to get those numbers for you.” And if they reply back, “Yeah, of course” — the details you need are business name, cell phone number, like the information you need to fill out the form on their behalf, right? So that's what you're asking for there. You're not asking for it in this email. “Would you like me to send over the two or three details?” Let them come to you and then you have the conversation about what you need, right? You're not asking for their cell phone number in what essentially is a warm email, right?
[29:59] All right, third email, that goes if they don't respond. “I was just thinking about our conversation regarding the FICA credit. A lot of bars and restaurants I work with initially think they don't qualify because of the specific tip structure. Usually that's not the case. Does your team handle tips in a way that makes you wonder if this applies to you?” Okay, I really like what Gemini did here — making the business owner start to ask these questions, prompting them what they can reply back with. Like this is a question that other people have. If you're having the same question, that's validating, right? That makes the business owner feel like, “Okay, I'm on the right track. I'm not alone in this. I'm not overly skeptical. I'm not a dummy who doesn't get it.” Like these are common questions — if you're having the common questions, then you're normal and we know how to help you, right?
[30:50] Okay, “FICA tax credit for restaurant name” — great way to use merge fields, right? You've got the contact information from when you uploaded their list. It stayed when they became warm. You can definitely merge fields in their restaurant name in the subject line. I love it. “I didn't want this to get buried since I know you've been looking into this credit. Since you're already familiar with the program, I'm curious if there's a specific piece of info you're missing to move forward. I've helped a few other local spots navigate the paperwork lately and would love to do the same for you. Drop me a quick reply if you're still interested in seeing those refund numbers.” It's a little heavy-handed with how much you're involved. I think I'm gonna ask it to pull back on that — the personalization of how they're gonna get the support — because you're not doing the processing, but you're facilitating. So we're gonna — I'll do that and make that adjustment in the prompt.
[31:45] And let's see the permission to close. “So I'll take the hint that now might not be the best time to dive into the FICA credit details. I'll stop the follow-ups for now so I don't clutter your inbox. If you ever wanna run that no-cost estimate in the future, just hit reply.” So I don't love that close, but I know what I'm gonna do. Remember how we did the pivot? Okay, so these are my three mental notes.
[32:07] Don't use the word “note” to refer to the communications I have been sending. Don't present me as the person who does the calculations of the refund. I have a team of CPAs and experts that will provide that type of support to my customer — phrase this more so that I can connect them with a specialist, expert, account executive that will provide personal support. For the last email, I do not like “take the hint, cluttering the inbox” — this is too negative. Use the approach of a pivot where I say I may not have reached the correct person, ask the contact to connect me with the person who handles payroll for the business, so I can work with them to get the estimate.
Refining the Campaign — First Adjustment and Results
[34:46] Vanessa: All right. Thank you for reading aloud the prompt as you write it, even though it sounds clunky. Honestly, Ken, that's really funny — I just can't stand dead space. I can't handle silence, so the thought of typing without narrating it gives me anxiety. But I'm glad that it works for y'all. Okay, so now what I'm doing here is everybody wants to see the first initial email that came out. So I'm gonna add “Email one from initial prompt.” Right. And then for prompts over here, I'm gonna say “First Adjustment.” So after you get your first set of emails, if you don't like it, right, you make an adjustment. That's what we just did. And then the email that comes out after it will be “Email two from first adjustment.”
[35:56] Okay, does that make sense? Anybody who hasn't been here with us for the workshop, I want everybody to know how I'm laying out the information, right? Ken says, “I can handle silence all day long. However, your reading aloud in this context is helpful.” Well, I'm so glad. All right, so “these revisions position you as a professional bridge,” right? And that is the goal, right? You aren't going to be doing the work. This sets the customer's expectations up that they can work with you, but they're also going to be helped by another pro, right?
[36:27] “I noticed you had a chance to look over my last email about the FICA tax credit.” Good — took my note about the “note.” “I wanted to see if any specific questions came to mind while you're reading it. Most owners I speak with are surprised by how much our specialists are actually able to recover.” I like that we're building the authority to FinTitan subtly, right? It's not heavy-handed — “these are our specialists and they can recover good money.” “Are you open to a quick chat about how this works for your specific location?” Okay, that's a good one. Hold on, I need a sip of water.
[37:09] Okay, oh, okay, good, it came back. “Following up on my last message, I can have our CPA team” — again, authority — “pull a quick no-obligation estimate of what your potential credit looks like, if that's helpful. It usually takes very little time to get the ball rolling. Would you like me to connect you with an expert to see what those numbers look like for you? Hope your week is off to a great start.” Do you like it? Very, very friendly.
[37:38] Okay, Ken says, “And please keep sharing how to keep your attention when communicating with you rather than going into the no or little attention zone.” Are you talking about clients in emails, or are you talking about me specifically? Because I'm my ADD, my way straight out of a conversation. That's really funny. Okay, so I like this follow-up. I like that we're talking about a CPA team. I like that we're introducing the no-obligation estimate, very little time, low barrier to entry, and “connect you with an expert.” I like it.
[38:14] Yeah, coming to these calls really and engaging in the chat, that helps me help you. So if anyone is looking for ways to get personal support and assistance, these calls are really the way to do it, because I think helping one person really helps everyone. So I love doing these kinds of workshops like this. All right, so the industry insight. “FICA tax credit for restaurant name.” Again, we know the benefit of merge-fielding it up. “So I was thinking about the FICA credit in relation to your business. A lot of bars and restaurants I worked with initially think they don't qualify because of their specific tip structure, though that is rarely the case. I'd be happy to have one of our specialists clarify how that works for your team. Does your current setup make you wonder if this applies to you?” Again, fantastic. Everything we loved about the first batch is still here.
[39:07] Okay, “I don't want to get lost since I know you've been looking into the credit. Since you're already familiar with the program, I'm curious if there's a specific detail you're missing to move forward. I can introduce you to an account executive who has helped several other local spots navigate the paperwork. Drop me a quick reply if you're still interested in seeing those refund numbers.” I love it. And five, the pivot. “I'm starting to think I might have not reached the right person for this particular conversation. Since I'd love to help your business get that credit estimate, would you mind pointing me towards whoever handles your payroll? I'm happy to work with them directly to see how much our team can recover for you.” I love this. Okay, I want to know what you guys think. I mean, if we've stumbled onto a great campaign with only one adjustment. I mean, that's — I think we're just getting better at writing prompts together. But is there any other feedback you wanna see made, even if it's just to see how it goes, right?
Tone Shift — The “Sitting at the Bar” Version
[40:06] Vanessa: So this is prompt two, right? So that's the entire chat result from prompt two. So let's see if we're gonna do another adjustment. Oh no, can I ask you a follow-up question on that? I sent you a sample message. Right? Got it. Fantastic. Okay. All right, everybody. So are there any different prompts, anything we want to try? I remember we had some feedback about “make this conversation feel like I am sitting at a bar,” right? Speaking to the manager over drinks. Yes? Okay. So let's try that just to see. “Give me another version of this sequence with the tone being sitting at the restaurant's bar with the owner, having a drink, discussing getting him his FICA refund on tax paid on tips.” And how about this — let's toss this in. “I'd like to include that this is different from the big beautiful bill where servers do not pay tax on tips. Rather, this benefits the business owner because it's a refund on tax they paid,” right?
[42:21] So we're going to call this under prompts — “tone shift adjustment, talking to the owner over the bar.” And let's see what we've got there. All right, “the sequence shifts to be more neighborly. Imagine you're leaning on mahogany.” Ha, the game's in the background and you're just looking for a fellow professional. All right. “So I saw you were checking out that info on the FICA credit. It's basically a way for the house to get back some of that tax money you've already paid out on tips. Most owners I chat with are surprised by how much is just sitting there waiting to be claimed. Want to see if my team of specialists can dig up a refund for you?” Love this. “Just to clarify, this is different from the big beautiful bill you've likely seen in the news where servers wouldn't pay tax on tips. This credit is specifically for you as the business owner, to get a refund on the taxes you've already paid into the system. My CPA team can run a quick estimate to show you the difference it makes for your bottom line. Sounds like something worth a five-minute look?” Yes, all right.
[43:41] “And I know how busy the floor gets, so I'm not looking to give you more homework to do. I have a team of experts who handle the heavy lifting and can tell you exactly what you're owed. All I need is your green light to connect you with a specialist who can walk you through the numbers. Ready to see what they find?” Boom, right there. That's where we get their green light and then you can fill out the form for them. Great segue.
[44:04] “Bottom line, just check back in so you don't leave any money on the table.” Okay, I love that visual. I'm sure I've said it a hundred times. We're talking about tips, which is money on the table. So “don't leave money on the table” — I just think I like that. “In this industry, every bit of overhead we can claw back makes a massive difference at the end of the month. My account executive is ready to help you navigate the paperwork whenever you have a second to reply. Should I have them reach out to get that estimate started?” Yes, all right.
[44:34] And lastly, “I might be barking up the wrong tree by reaching out to you directly for this. If you're not the one handling the books, would you mind pointing me towards your payroll person? I'm happy to work with them directly to get your business that estimate from our CPA team. Let me know who I should speak with.” Okay, I think this is the winner. Gold star. And these are definitely — you can take the two separate five touches and make it a ten, right? Daisy chains them together. Sitting at the bar. All right, all right. So what do you guys think? What do you think is best? Is sitting at the bar too casual? Do you think that's the right approach? What do you think about what we've put together today?
[45:25] Okay, Ken says, “The casual wording is really appropriate. That's what I like about it. I think a lot of sales emails, especially those crafted with AI, come off very sterile, very clinical.” I think it's unexpected to sound casual, and I think it's a winning approach, right? We are all very new with this. I literally just wrote this. I can't tell you it's been split-tested. I can only tell you that after 20 years in the industry, and I've gotten pretty good at it, I would like to think my instincts are good about what works, but that does not mean that it's end-all, beat-all, you know. Absolutely, I would love to hear how it works for you with this approach. There are some clever lines too — “leaving money on the table.” Yeah, I love it. “Unexpected to sound casual, a winning approach.” Great. Okay, awesome. I like that you guys are picking up what I'm putting down and like the vibe works. Like we want to be professionals, but we don't want to be professional salespeople, right? Just cranking out stuff that everybody's seen 100 times before.
[46:43] But my awareness is that this is not an offer that is hammered. This is not something they're seeing a lot of. I'm sure these folks see a lot of reputation management. They see a lot of icebreakers for, you know, “get more reviews,” that kind of thing. This, as an icebreaker for all kinds of local marketing opportunities, is great because you aren't asking them for money. You're doing something. So it's a pattern interrupt in the offer. They've probably not seen anything like this. And it's a pattern interrupt in your approach, right? An icebreaker for all kinds of local businesses. Exactly.
Bonus Topic — Serp Sling, Answer Engines, and Building Your Authority Online
[47:33] Vanessa: If you have other services you are looking to offer — maybe you're working with Serp Sling. I don't know, do you guys — did you guys get my emails about that? I know I held a small party last week. It's so cool. So, imagine — okay, I live outside Metro Atlanta. If I'm looking for a new restaurant, let's say I want a gyro. I've been — honestly, this is real life — I've been wanting a good gyro for so long and I can't find a good Greek restaurant by myself. So if I go into Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, whatever — I go into AI because it has replaced Google for me on almost everything. I would say, “Do some research — what Greek restaurant within a 10-mile radius of me has the best reviews online and the highest customer satisfaction rating? Give me the three closest with the highest ranking.” So I set AI out to find me — maybe I want the best falafel even — anyway, I'm asking this AI to do this research for me. With Serp Sling, you're able to feed into the AI engines — the answer engines — they're not search engines, they're answer engines — you feed into them what you want the AI to give your customers. So if I want my Greek restaurant to be known for the best falafel, I can use Serp Sling to get that out there. And then when Vanessa searches for “what's the best falafel 10 miles from blah blah blah,” my results come up.
[49:27] Okay, so all of that to say — that ties into not only augmenting your ability to promote the FinTitan FICA, you start building out the answer engine that you have the solution for FICA tax credits. But also, once you land this business with FICA tax credits, that's a service you could sell them — bars and restaurants. If you help the answer engines — you've already proven your value to them by helping them get this tax credit at really no expense to them, right? So you've helped them, you've put money in their pocket, you've shown that you're a professional that gets results. Now you can offer them a local marketing service. Sorry for my segue, I got excited.
[50:26] A great point about how to promote concepts like FinTitan. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And I think he extended it through today and there's like free hosting so that you can make a FinTitan FICA bridge page, and there's just all kinds of great stuff you could do for promoting, and not just lead referrals for FinTitan. If you have affiliate products, you can become the answer engine expert on those affiliate products, and an email — like capture the lead from the answer engine, right? They get your answer from ChatGPT, they go to your page, you've got a lead, etc., etc. Then you can follow up with Small Batch because they come in as a warm lead at that point if they come in through your lead capture page. So the tie-in between those — sorry, excuse me, I sneeze, it's really strong.
[51:27] “Vanessa, would you please give three examples of what you are calling answer engines?” Oh, any ChatGPT. Anything you ask a question to where, for example, if I say “What restaurant has the best falafel within 10 miles of my current location?” So I could ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Manus, Claude, etc. It's not just searching for a term that I've plugged in, which would be “Greek restaurant.” I'm asking a full-bodied question and it's performing AI research and giving me an answer. So instead of a search engine, it's an answer engine. Yeah, I think we all are using it that way, but that terminology of “answer engine” — it was new to me over the past couple of months. And I think it's very, very interesting because search has evolved with the ability to ask complete questions instead of trying to figure out what is the one magic word that's gonna give me the results I want. The ability to ask a full question is powerful, and being able to capitalize on it, right? Like “I'm a Greek restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. I have heard about the FICA tax credit — do I qualify?” Right? And so maybe Gemini or Manus or ChatGPT or Claude or whatever comes back and prompts the right questions. “Do you W-2 your employees or are they 1099?” Okay, they're W-2. “Okay, yes, you do qualify. Who can I reach out to? Like, who can help me?” And then, “Oh, look at this — Vanessa Roberts is an agent right by you. Here you go,” right? Depending on how I plug in my answers to be found.
[53:11] People who aren't just going to Google and searching “FICA Tax Atlanta” — and the skepticism, right? Over at Google, you can buy your way to the top, right? You pay for ad space. When I Google something, I scroll down to the bottom of the page. I don't look at the top three, four, five, six, seven results because I know they're ads. I don't necessarily believe — no, I don't believe — that they're the best answer or the most topical or the most relevant answer. I think those are the people who have paid the most money, right? But when I go to Manus — Manus is my favorite — or Gemini, or ChatGPT, or Claude, and I ask for objective feedback, I trust that response so much more, me personally. I mean, I'm still skeptical. Like, I don't — if GPS told me to take a left into a lake, I know to use my common sense. But I like it better than a Google response.
[54:21] “Why is Manus my favorite?” Brian had me start using it last — I think it's almost a year now, last June or July. He had me run it, and the results I've gotten from it have been spectacular. It does what I need, right? So different AIs will do different things. Manus makes really great HTML websites. It listens to my feedback and makes changes very correctly. And on any images it generates, it allows me — so like, you know, if they misspell a word, and most AIs, if they misspell a word, and you tell them they misspell a word, and you tell them to go back and do it, the integrity of the image just keeps getting crazier and crazier and crazier. And that's how you end up with 37 fingers and four eyeballs. With Manus, it's really cool because you can click on the exact thing you want to edit and give a very specific edit to this. Like, “You misspelled this word. This word only has one I.” And then type it in correctly — “Spell it like this.” And then it changes just that little bit. I just really, really like it.
[55:35] “How do you determine which are the top questions to be found under Ask AI?” The top questions. Oh, is that specific to Serp Sling? Yeah, I'm gonna have to defer to Josh — Josh Zamora, who produced Serp Sling — on that. He has full training and has identified all of the niches and the best way to get identified through them. And yes, the questions, and yes, what to say. He has all of it. I mean, what you get for this launch price is kind of insane, so yeah, definitely check it out if you don't.
[56:01] Sheldon says, “Man, this is my favorite for graphics.” Absolutely, mine too. I love it. But I really like using this free version of Gemini. I like the emails they're coming up with. I have to remember it's not a human being, because I mean this particular intro — like this one, gold star — I really like it.
Wrap-Up and Next Steps
[56:34] Vanessa: Okay, so we're coming up at one o'clock. I hope we've spent this hour well. I hope you have benefited from this hour with me. Again, don't feel like not getting a sale from a single cold email campaign is a failure. Look at every single open and click — that's your goal, right? It's a bonus, it's a plus. It's a win. If a cold email campaign gets you a sale, that's awesome, right? But our goal every day when we're filling up our funnel with those cold emails is to get them to warm. And once they're warm, that's when we start the work of pulling them in and getting a conversion, getting a sale, getting a lead capture. I hope what we did with the workshopping the emails was beneficial. The feedback of everyone who's chatting with me — it sounds like it's good.
[57:33] If there's any questions — oh, yep, let me grab the link to the Google Doc here. It will be with the replay, but I can share it right now too. Everyone with a link can view — copy link and chat. Here we go. All right, everybody, let me know if you've got it. Fantastic. If you think of any questions later, if you wanna continue the conversation about how to craft these emails, how to make them more personal, we can talk in the Facebook group. If you have a private conversation or a private question, please don't hesitate. Go to getsupport.biz, submit a ticket, and we can work.
[58:13] Ken, yes, I think I saw that you asked me to give you a three-touch and a five-touch sequence. I absolutely will. Very specific niche, but yeah, Ken, I can help you with that. I'll do it. I wanted to make sure I gave you that sample sentence. I just wanted to make sure I was on the right track because I didn't want to go too far into the weeds. But yep, no, good deal. I hope we can connect. Yeah, absolutely can, definitely. Excellent. Okay, I'm glad I was on the right path with that.
[58:43] Okay, so what we're gonna need for next week is we're gonna continue our email workshops. What niches, industries, offers do you wanna work with? All right, so hit me up on Facebook because I'd love to chat about it, and we'll get the word out so that everybody gets excited about next Monday — what emails we're gonna write, what niches, industries, and offers. That's it, fantastic. All right, everybody, thank you so much. I hope you have a great lunch. I hope you have a great week. I hope you have lots of success. And please, please, please come into the Facebook group and let us know what you're working on — that you've got warm leads, that you are working on your email campaign. You can post your campaign and we can talk about it. If you want feedback, that's what it's there for. Not just for me letting you know when the training is, right? We can talk about lots and lots and lots. All right. Come into Facebook and let us know what we're working on. Yeah, absolutely. All right, fantastic everybody. Thank you so much. Have a productive, successful, excellent week and I'll see you next time. Thanks everybody, bye bye.