174: Academy Student Spotlight with Magan Ward
It’s easy to get lost in the noise and overwhelmed by all of the thoughts of so-called “gurus” these days, so it’s important to know how to find your own way. In this episode, Magan Ward, a student of mine in Speaking Strategy Academy, joins us to share how she was able to ignore all of the noise and carved her own path, specifically when it comes to growing her email newsletter.
Listen in as we discuss what’s popular in the email marketing space, the unique strategy Magan took to grow her email list, and how she adapted our resources in Speaking Strategy Academy for her business.
If you loved this episode and it motivated you to work on more polished presentations, I’d love for you to leave a review on iTunes and tell me about your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag me @jessicarasdall.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Meet Magan
An entrepreneur since she charged $0.25 for a single cracker with spreadable cheese from her lunchbox at the Kindergarten lunch table.
Magan is an email marketing strategist (with a strong southern accent) who knows 150% what the struggle is when creating an email list, the opt-in, the welcome sequence, and the millions of other details that we handle while doing all the things as we lead the digital biz life.
Going Against the Norm
If you follow any marketing or business gurus out there, you’re likely hearing the same advice as your competition in regards to how to run things in your business or marketing campaigns. How do you set yourself apart, but also find success? Let’s find out!
What You Need to Know About Email Marketing
With social media constantly being highlighted in marketing strategies, it’s easy to believe that email marketing doesn’t matter. Here’s the truth: email marketing is not dead. There is so much value in growing your email list, connecting with your audience, and building an audience off social media.
Connecting with Your Email Subscribers
You may be thinking that email is another platform that will take up too much of your time and not be valuable. The performance of your email list is based on the value you provide and the connection you build with each of your subscribers. Don't just be another email in the inbox, but focus on creating connection with that list and ensure that you’re only building a quality newsletter.
Building a Quality List
In addition to creating quality content for your subscribers, you want to make sure you’re building a quality list of subscribers. You can do this through creating valuable and specific opt ins for your audience. Your opt-ins allow you to provide value, show what you know, and grow your list.
Consider what options you have to set yourself apart with your opt-in. For example, Magan created a Pop Up Podcast event that served as opt-in for her newsletter. In this limited time event, Magan released four bite-sized episodes that were only available for 6 days. In order to access them, you had to be on the opt-in list.
Take a Look at Your Numbers
Once you’ve created an opt-in and are reviewing at the success of your strategy, a few things you should consider are:
Landing Page Conversion Rates
Retention of Campaign Engagement
Upon review of Magan’s Pop Up Podcast opt-in campaign, less than 10% of landing page viewers converted to subscribers, 97% of people that signed up, showed up to listen to episode 1, then 68% listened to all four episodes. Now, to compared to the standard rates for webinar style campaign that is so popular, only 35-45% of sign ups actually show up.
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Review the Transcript for this Episode
Transcript for Episode 174:
Jessica Rasdall
With so many gurus strategies, templates, blueprints, swipe files, you name it. floating around on the internet, it's easy to get lost in the noise and kind of lose your voice. On today's episode of The speak to scale podcast or going behind the scenes, with one of our very own speaking strategy Academy students to find out what she did to clear the noise and carve out her own path.
Jessica Rasdall
Welcome back to another episode of The speak to scale podcast, where we're helping small business owners just like you grow and scale their companies by speaking on stages, podcasts, webinars, and so much more. I'm your host, Jessica Rasdall, and I'm so excited to spend today not only diving into a bunch of incredible email marketing strategy, but going behind the scenes with one of our very own students. Magan Ward is an email marketing strategist. And she's fully understands the struggle of creating an email list, opt ins, welcome sequences, all the things that go with that. And over the last year, a little bit more than a year actually, Magan has been a member inside of our speaking strategy Academy. And as she has been working to honing in her own message and sharing it with the world, she discovered something new, something incredible, and a strategy that we can all use to not only get new people and more people onto our email list, but to create a deeper connection with the people who are joining our email list. So in today's episode, Magan is going to unpack for us what's happening in the industry what we need to know. And we're going to take a behind the scenes peek into her brand new, unique strategy. That was simple. That was quick. And that grew her email list by 78%. So if you're somebody who's been wanting to up your email game, today's episode is for you. But more importantly, we're gonna get to hear directly from Magan, what her experience has been like inside of the academy, and how she has adapted our resources to fit and create this new model, and what that experience has been like. So whether you just want to soak up some email marketing knowledge, or you're looking for some behind the scenes insight into the speaking strategy Academy. Today's episode is for you. Let's have a listen.
Jessica Rasdall
Listening to the podcast is a great first step. But I want you to go take action. So if you are ready to apply everything you've learned here on the show, listen up, we took all of our best resources, like our plug and play crafting your story workbook, or how to select your speaking topics workbook, resources on crafting your talk, finding and pitching events. We put them all together inside of the speak to scale vault, and we put them in order so you know exactly what to do and when to do it. to scale your business was speaking, ready to unlock the entire vault, head on over to speak to scale vault comm or click the link in our show notes. But be sure to use the code podcast for a special discount for me. Both before we dive into the nitty gritty of all things, emails, and opt ins, give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do.
Magan Ward
Well, as you all already know, my name is Magan Ward, and I am an email marketing strategist and educator and I teach fellow entrepreneurs the power behind their email list, and the strategy that goes along with building connection with your audience. So I've been a student in the speaking strategy Academy for a little over a year now. And today, I will be sharing a little piece of my signature presentation on today's episode.
Jessica Rasdall
I'm so excited. You know, it's one I love having you in the academy, but to watching your evolution inside of the academy is definitely one thing I want to talk about later today. But especially for those of you I want you to listen and close if you're somebody who is like I don't have dreams of being on big stages or like that's not the main focus for you because what Magan has done the clarity she's achieved in her business and the way she has you know, I'm not gonna ruin it. I'm just gonna let that unfold for you just have to listen. So let's talk email marketing first because that's your area of expertise. Like that's what you speak on. Right now the conversations in the online In a world tend to be very polarizing, either people feel like emails dead, you know, with all the privacy changes all the things like that's just not happening anymore. People are overwhelmed. Or on the opposite side of the spectrum where people feel like social media is too risky. Things are always changing. You need your email list, email list is gold. How do you feel about email? And what do we really need to know? Like, strip away all the he said, she said, what's going on?
Magan Ward
So yeah, so that's definitely a common misconception. Email marketing is dead, you you're going to see that throughout Facebook groups, and in other places. And it's it's not true. Because I can tell you firsthand, it's not because I grew my email list by 70%, in less than a month, this year. Well, last year in 2021. And I know email marketing can be overwhelming. And we often think like, is anyone reading this? Or do I even know what to say? Or I don't think it can work for me. And none of that's true. Because someone's reading, you do know what to say, because I help my students do that, and it can work from you. So I teach everyone how to set themselves apart to not just be another email in the inbox, but how to build connectivity with your audience, the moment that they hit the subscribe button, and how to build a trustworthy relationship with your subscribers. And right from a place of honesty, and inclusivity, that is conscious of that patriarchal bias that our industry has in how small changes can make a really, really big difference.
Jessica Rasdall
And I think it's so incredible, because we I, at the time, we're recording this, I just watched Magan's presentation yesterday, she delivered her presentation inside of the Academy because we are students can present for us. And it stuck out to me so much how you like your heart behind email. And so often I feel like the the teachings, the lessons, the strategies that are out there are so focused on numbers, and not the numbers of the engagement rate or the open rate. But surely list size numbers and like, what can I do to get more people on my list? What can I do to, you know, to increase my subscriber number and like, you don't focus on that at all? Like, that's not the angle. So if our subscriber even though you grew yours, massively with one incredible strategy, if this subscriber number itself, isn't that important? What is it that I know? You just kind of hinted at it? But what is it that we really need to be paying attention to, especially as we're getting people on the list, like with our opt ins,
Magan Ward
it's definitely the quality of those subscribers 100%. And while yes, I did see a lot of growth, I saw a lot of growth with the right people. And that's that's key. Because it wasn't just a rant this these Brando's from the internet, it was yeah, people who wanted to learn from me, people who thought what I had to offer was different than anything else that they had seen before. And my list grew it. It grew with people that were replying to my emails, people who were showing it but my DMs saying I loved your email today, people who are actually clicking through and taking the actions that my email is asking them to do whatever that is. And so that's such a big difference, the the quality over the quantity.
Jessica Rasdall
So when we look at that, and we want to say I want to get more quality subscribers on my list, not just more, you know, people to up that number. How do we get that started from the beginning, like at the point of them opting into our list? What do options look like? What are ones that are performing or not performing industry wide? Like? How can we bring the right people onto our list and not just people?
Magan Ward
Yeah, and it all starts with that opt in, or that lead magnet that you have in setting yourself apart from that moment? And we all know, PDFs have been like our go to. It's what the industry has been teaching for years for decades now. And what if, and this is a little piece of my presentation, but what if we could steer away from that sea of PDFs that everybody else is doing? And maybe take a step away from that narrative that the marketing gurus have been teaching us for the last two decades about growing our email list? What if you actually did something fundamentally different than everybody else? Because that's the key. That's what's going to set you apart from the get go when someone comes across your Instagram. Maybe they come across a podcast that you were on and you were pitching an opt in. Maybe you actually ran Facebook ads, whatever it is, if that thing you created is just different enough to pique They're interests that can make the world of difference and set you apart from everyone else in your industry.
Jessica Rasdall
My goodness. And I think that's the perfect segue into what you did. Because like you hinted at this earlier that you grew your list by what was it 78%? With? What was your optic, what was the thing that you did that got not just an incredible increase to your list, but people who were responding and gauging purchasing all of that.
Magan Ward
So this all occurred in May of 2021, I hosted my very first pop up podcast event. And that's what grew my email list by 78%, in less than one month, just from this one event. Now, let me pause and define what a pop up podcast is. Because Jessica, you're familiar with what I've been up to. But for your audience, the pop up podcast was a limited time event. It had four bite sized episodes. And those are only available to listen in for about six days. And then they went away. So it was a refreshing alternative to the old school webinar or a masterclass. And it met my audience where they were at, because they could listen on the go, which was the biggest thing that people loved. And I allowed them to choose when and how to listen instead of having to listen when I scheduled a webinar showing. And that's, that's when it hit me that this pop up podcast was a lead magnet in disguise. And it was exactly what my audience was craving. Because they could show up when they wanted and how they wanted. If their hair was a mess laying on the couch commuting to work, whatever it was, I met them with my content, where they were at. And that was that lightbulb moment that we collectively in this digital business world need to think outside the box of using those PDF downloads as lead magnets to set ourselves apart. And I encourage business owners that we don't have to stick with what the marketing gurus have taught us. Not that PDFs don't convert because they still do but that we might just be able to bust through the industry standard conversion rates for signups. But providing something that our audiences are craving something different, something that they haven't seen before. And in my case, it was this pop up podcast that people had not seen before.
Jessica Rasdall
So you've mentioned the standard rates, what does that look like for somebody who maybe isn't very immersed in their email marketing or in like webinars or things like that, what to standard rates look like? And what did your rates look like in doing the pop up podcast?
Magan Ward
So the rates, typically for a landing page there? They're pretty low, less than 10%.
Jessica Rasdall
So less than 10% of people who go to that page,
Magan Ward
but land on that page? And yes, yes. So about less than 10% of people that land on that page, actually hit the subscribe button and wind up on your email list. And in my case, I don't have the exact number in front of me, but it was over 50% of people that landed on that page. I think it was in the 60s. And I mean, that was the game changer. And it wasn't there was nothing fancy about the landing page. It just said this is what this is, this is what you're going to get when you sign up. It was very simple, but because it was different. That's what was making the difference in people wanting to hit that button and listen in.
Jessica Rasdall
Right even just the like, I feel like you go to webinars sign up or a challenge, sign up a video series sign up a replay of a masterclass whatever thing it is. And one you're looking at these takeaways on the page like is this going to be for me, but you're also a big part of what you're thinking is? Am I just going to sit through somebody talking about themselves for an hour? Am I going to sit through a pitch fest? Is there actually going to be anything in this for me? And it feels like going to your opt in page for that. Like, we didn't already have a bad experience of a pop up podcast in the back of our mind. This was totally new. So not only did we see the value for us, we hadn't been burned. We didn't have to overcome that like bad breakup in the back of our mind. But also there's this level of intrigue of Well, I don't know what that is. And even if it's not amazing, I want to see like I want to see what this thing is and being creative and coming up with something different I'd I want to segue into that a little bit because what you did was incredible and it was so neat as somebody who was who got to see the behind the scenes of this in the making. You took what you had in front of you and you adapted it. Like I remember going through your podcast scripts for this ahead of time. Right like you didn't start from nothing you used our speaking templates, like you used our webinars stuff you use the stuff we already had, and adapted it to fit you. How on earth did you come up with this idea? Like, what? Where did this come from?
Magan Ward
So I, I guess I can talk about this a little bit. I had way too many people in my ear, I. And we all know,
Jessica Rasdall
I think we've all been there, he feels so easy to say that.
Magan Ward
So easy to get caught up in that. And we all know it's easy to want to learn all the things and want to hire all the people that are supposed to help us and I got so overwhelmed. I was nearing burnout, I was trying to chase the next shiny thing that I saw others doing. But I just I began to lean into another direction. And honestly, I rejected that whole narrative that this online business industry has been teaching us. And those false scarcity tactics that that shady dishonest stuff that's claimed to be the only way to generate income. And I decided to put my blinders on and just start doing things the way I wanted to. I even stepped outside my comfort zone and with speaking and not just with emails and on Instagram, but about inclusivity about how small changes can make a very big difference. So when I stopped doing the things that the way others thought I needed to be doing them, that's ultimately where this idea of pop up podcasts was born, because I wanted to steer away from the webinars and not that webinars are bad. You know, we there's people in the academy that have the most amazing webinars I've ever seen. Thanks to you, Jessica.
Jessica Rasdall
Joined the Academy from me delivering essentially a webinar. Yeah, in someone's community. So they Yeah. But I'm with you, most of them are trash, manipulative trash.
Magan Ward
And so I just wanted to have something like I've said the whole this whole time, something different. That just said, it was easy to put together. That's the other thing. There was no video, I was sitting here in my leggings, and probably a dirty sweatshirt to be honest hair and a high messy bun, you know, and no one knew, but I was able to show up authentically me and teach about email marketing.
Jessica Rasdall
Oh, my goodness. And it was, it was so neat when you remember when you submitted your work for review in the academy to look through. And you're like, I got this crazy idea. And it was so cool. Because you didn't just you know, I think it's it can be scary, especially when your coach and mentor, whatever and you hear one of your people telling you they have a crazy idea. It's a little scary sometimes. I know that's how my team feels every single week when I have a new idea. But you went into this with such intentionality. And you didn't know what steps would have to be taken because you were creating this as you went. But it was executed so well, because you focused on your people. And you focused on what was this experience going to be like for them? Where what were they going through? What were they struggling with? What did they need from you? And what what state would they be in when they were listening? And because you focused on them? You were able to create exactly what they needed. And you kept them coming back for more. What are the numbers? I know that numbers but just so everybody can hear as far as how people like so that we know they didn't just opt in, but they listened. Tell us a little bit more about what that looked like. Yeah,
Magan Ward
they showed up. Over 90% of people that signed up showed up. I believe it was 97 point 26% of signups actually showed up and listened to Episode One. And 68% listened into all four episodes. So I mean, that's a huge difference, because the show up rate for webinars is 35 to 45%. Maybe, you know, and that's on the high end. So I could not believe it when I saw that happen. And that's when it hit me like this was the golden ticket. This is what people were craving. This is what this is what people needed and wanted.
Jessica Rasdall
Okay, and so just in case there's any naysayers are out there. And they're just like, well, Magan, it worked just because it was a new shiny thing. What did you just do?
Magan Ward
I just did it again. Tell us about that. So I did not go all in this time like I did last time as far as I didn't advertise it as big as I did last time. But I still grew my email list. I think it was about 30% which is not seven 8% But that's still a huge jump. And I was reading some stats the other day, I was looking to see if I have them in front of me. But I believe 70% showed up this first time around.
Jessica Rasdall
And that's why I'll because we're recording this in November. And if you know, like November is just a wild time, there's a lot going on. There's there's holidays, there's people out of office, there's all these black friday promos people are very distracted. And the fact that you didn't put in as much time energy, all the things to promoting it, you still gotten incredible results and people were engaged. That's the piece is they, they wanted to be involved with this.
Magan Ward
Mm hmm. That was what was exciting. That that was so exciting. Oh,
Jessica Rasdall
my goodness. So when you when you look at this, when you look at how this has impacted your business, I always, I'm always like us on the back end at the academy, we're always analyzing, you know, how you guys take what's in front of you and use it for your business differently, and how incredible that is, right. And the ones are students who see success the fastest. And not to say, somebody is better than anybody else, or anything like that. But it's the ones it's our students who are willing to create their own platform that propel their speaking success so much faster. Meaning that I, I know you've been getting summit requests and podcasts requests, I don't know, maybe this one, you've been getting these opportunities coming your way now, because you were willing to not sit around and wait for someone to hand you a microphone, but you said, I have something important to share. It's going to make a difference for my audience. And I'm going to show up and deliver it to them. And I feel like the people who are willing to do that, whether it's a popup podcast, a YouTube channel, a podcast, a summit, doesn't matter. But when you're willing to say, I have something to share, and I'm ready to share it, it propels your speaking success. I'm curious to know how you feel about these pop up podcasts? How has that impacted your business? How has that helped you kind of clarify your own speaking goals and things like that? Oh,
Magan Ward
yeah, I mean, that it was it just blew me away, and made me realize, you know, getting out of that comfort zone, even though it wasn't on a stage it was behind the refuge of my computer screen. But that, I mean, goodness, the impact that that had was was enormous. I remember having conversations with peers the month before that this pop up podcast started and and I think that it all happened because I knew I wanted to teach him wanted to get in front of people. But I didn't exactly have the capacity for live classes do the kids and COVID and distance learning. And I saw an ad that a fellow Academy member actually shared about Hello audio, and I read about their private podcast feeds. And that's kind of where this idea was born. And of course, I had no idea how successful it was going to be. But this just proves that the pure simple fact that speaking and getting our message and voice in front of others grows our audience more than just showing up on Instagram does chat on stories, and we all know it deep down we know that's the truth. But when you actually put it on emotion and do it and actually see it happening, you see, the subscriber counts increase in your email list, you see emails coming in inviting you to speak at an event, or be a guest on a podcast, if somebody who saw you at a prior summit or people who listened in to the podcast that had heard about it from a friend, you know, it's those little things when you begin to see the needle actually move and see conversions increase for your own programs and services. While those things are technically intangible that that feeling of excitement and seeing your hard work pay off. It's it's nearly intangible stuff
Jessica Rasdall
makes my heart so happy. It's your it's easy for you know, your coach or the internet gurus or somebody to tell you like get visible, be visible go in all the places but visibility alone does not move the needle. And when you go like like you did with such intentionality. And you didn't just like wing it, you scripted it like you created an intentional outline, you used our speaking formulas to make sure you were moving your audience through a transformation and delivering value like you went into this with a speaking strategy and it has paid off so beautifully. And I know that so many of our listeners, I actually want to talk about this right now. So many of our listeners are probably at a place where they want to really get a handle on their email and they want to be not just the person who's upping that number but the person who's making a difference with what they're sending and connecting with the people and engaging and creating that connection. How can they connect with you and learn more about email and pop up podcasts? Let us know before we keep going. Because, yeah, people just need to know right now.
Magan Ward
I'm always on Instagram at the Magan ward. And I do spell my name differently. You'll probably see Jess has it, I will link
Jessica Rasdall
it in the show notes. You just click and go. Yeah, and
Magan Ward
of course, just Magan Ward fot com. And if I do have a program, the School of email, if you want to check it out, it's the school of email.com. It's how you can get there.
Jessica Rasdall
Beautiful. And a little birdie told me that there's information about the pop up podcast there. So you should go there. So for you what, what is next, when you look at speaking and pop up podcasts and all and now the school of email being live your new baby? What are the things that you are going to be focusing on this next year? What are the priorities for you? What do you have coming up?
Magan Ward
So as far as speaking goes, specifically this year, I want to not only find myself as a guest on more podcasts, but I want to be a speaker at an in person speaking event. That would be my first one. But I think I think I'm ready. Whether it really whether it be just a smaller local event or a larger conference, my ultimate goal is to just get on stage somewhere that's not behind the comfort. And as I said earlier that refuges my computer screen.
Jessica Rasdall
Well, I'm going to hold you to that. Oh, I know you will. I know that you will. Um, and selfishly I just love to hear like for if somebody is listening
Jessica Rasdall
in who's been thinking about joining the academy, what has your experience been like what has because I know it's different for everybody like how, because for you obviously like you're right, you're sharing that you haven't spoken on an in person stage yet. And now that's the goal for you. That wasn't necessarily the goal when you came into the academy. And it's going to be different for everybody. So maybe to our listeners who that's not their big goal yet. They're just, I won't put words in your mouth. What is your experience.
Magan Ward
So you already know this, the Academy has my heart, I love the academy, I've met so many. Oh, I have met so many amazing people have made several friends. And I've been invited to participate in online summits and podcasts of people that are in the Academy, which has helped placed me in front of audiences that I may not have previously been exposed to. So even if you're not ready to get on a stage somewhere, that's the speaking strategy Academy is so much more than just that. It helps you deliver your messages even better. Even if you're just showing up more on Instagram Stories, it literally it really helps you focus those messages in the way that you deliver them. And not to mention, Jessica, the push from you to push myself out there. Like I said, the accountability, and they're positive and encouraging pushes, but that pushes they are committed to safe space and you push us positively and encouraging Lee so we can move toward those goals that we spoke life into when we joined the academy in the first place. And I know I mentioned the accountability, but my goodness when when you all post in our Facebook group asking where we're at with what we said we were going to work on, I feel seen. But you know, it's good for me to know that I've got somebody in my corner that's not just going to follow up and ask okay, where are you at with that thing you said you were gonna do? You always ask, How can we support you to help you get there? And this accountability works for me. I think it's probably just so deeply rooted from being that kid in elementary school that never wanted to get caught with their homework not done. But yeah, it's just been so amazing. Because you are holding me accountable and and pushing me to do the great things that I can do.
Jessica Rasdall
That makes me so happy to hear because, like that's something that we're really, there's more coming this year, man, we got more accountability coach. We are you know, when we sit down as a team and we talk about the United Academy has been around for a while we no new offers no like we're your team, make it better not make something new. And we're always looking for ways to dial it in. And we when we look at why programs work, why programs don't work. And when I mean work, I don't mean that they sell I mean that people get results. And for us it's like you can purchase the most amazing course that there is out there you can join the most amazing coaching programs, you can hire the most expensive person, but if you don't do anything with that knowledge that you're absorbing, you don't get a result and in turn your audience doesn't get a result and that ripple effect is halted. And so we really are focusing our back on the back end of supporting you guys have not like, what more resources do you need, you don't need more resources, you have everything you need. But you have three things in the academy. But how can we help you implement? Like, how can we give you more opportunities to present? How can we hold you to the things you said you're going to do? Right? Like all of that is our main focus. So that makes me so happy to hear that that has been beneficial for you. Because we do we want to see you not just have a big dream, but we want to see you achieve that big dream. Yes,
Magan Ward
I love it. And y'all do y'all do do that. So I'm excited for what the for 2022 has to come for,
Jessica Rasdall
you know, we're so excited to I can't thank you enough for joining us today. I really, truly believe and I'm going to say it here now. So I can get credit for it later when you're big and famous. You uncovered something incredible, with these pop up podcasts. And I think you have only scratched the surface. And I'm just going to forecast it now, though, that you are going to be speaking and educating and teaching other people how to use pop up podcasts and other unique events, opt ins lead magnets to create more connection with their community, not just more numbers to their email list sites. So yeah, I'm ready for you to change the game in the industry.
Magan Ward
Let's do it. I'm ready for it.
Jessica Rasdall
Yes. Well, thank you so much for joining me and everybody head on over to the show notes so that you can click over and find Magan on Instagram and go to the school of email and binge all magical things that are Magan,
Magan Ward
thank you so much for having me. Jessica.
Jessica Rasdall
Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of The speak to scale podcast. It would mean the world to us if you could just take a second and head on over to iTunes and leave us a review. Your support of this show allows us to continue creating this content for you each and every week. And we appreciate your reviews and you sharing about the show more than you know. As always, I will be over here cheering you on friend. I'll see you next week for another episode of The speak to scale podcast.
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