Are you experiencing feast or famine income in your business? Then you need to start putting in the foundations to build a truly stable business.
In this episode, I put to bed the lies that email marketing is dead and show you why you create better prospects with email. Plus I share a few truthbombs about the big flaws of using social media to connect with your leads.
Even if you have email marketing plugged into your marketing methods – are you nurturing your list or is it growing cobwebs? If you’re not making the most of your email list then you are leaving money on the table.
Listen on the player above or read the blog below.
Building a business with email marketing
Having an email list can feel like a lot of hard work and it might not be where you’re making your money at the moment. However, an email marketing list is incredibly powerful. It is crucial to each of my businesses and email marketing has brought millions in revenue. Without email marketing, my business growth would not have happened. And there would be no stability in the business.
If you are relying on social media, you are relying on outside algorithms to help your products show up to potential clients. You are relying on people actively checking their social media. People have been enjoying their summer and not being as active on social media. Yet, you can be sure that they are checking their emails each morning.
When time gets short, it is usually social media that people let go because they do not see it as important for paying attention. Where as they do see emails as important to give their time and attention.
Consider your behaviours around covid, you get emails about test results. Email is the place where you receive formal information. This is why people are still using email. If you are not using this method of reaching people, you are leaving money on the table.
Flaw with social media
I hear people talk about doing a soft launch to their social media channels. Now, you should absolutely be using social media to promote your products. But the flaw in solely using social media is whether you are answering questions that your audience is asking or is it what you want to answer? People are not committed to social media.
The same is true on podcasts. People are not committed to sitting to the end of social media. This is why you will hear me give a call to action at the start of the podcast episode. This is something that I cover in my Elevate programme. You can book a call with me to see if you’re suitable for the programme and find out what you need to focus on right now.
It is rare for someone to listen through or watch social media right to the last second. You can absolutely do calls-to-actions at the start of things like Facebook Lives but the engagement with online broadcasts is not high.
People are doing other things at the same time. And they do not prioritise what is happening on live broadcasts over what is happening in the room. It is not a formalised experience.
However, you cannot afford to disregard email because you need it for so many important activities.
Social media can be effective but in terms of a launch – you are much better to get people into a Zoom room. If you are on a Zoom meeting and interacting, being held accountable and have full engagement then you will have their attention far more than on a Facebook Live.
Value of email marketing
Yes, you can offer value through social media and creating Lives but people can find you valuable and not buy. What you need is for people to find you valuable and keep their full attention so you can educate them on why they need to buy right now.
This may not happen straight away on that initial piece of content. So, we need to think about driving traffic to our list. Think about using a CTA to get people onto your list. For example, get people to pre-register for that Zoom call, which may be a masterclass. You now have their email address and can market to them.
If you’re using a Facbeook Live, you can promote a free opt-in but you don’t have their email address from the get-go.
I’m not saying don’t use social media. Instead, think about it strategically. How are you planning to sell to these people on a real launch? How can you get all the pieces of the puzzle in place?
Often people need more than value. They have questions, fears, and assumptions. You need to overcome these objections and educate them. You cannot do this with 10 minutes of attention on a Facebook Live. You can do this over the course of emails in the coming weeks. If you are giving value in the emails, it means people look forward to having them.
Daily emails
Some people send daily emails. This is only too much if you are constantly selling and not supplying value or entertainment in the email. You can remind them in each email that there is another step. Plus you can use these emails to give value, build credibility and demonstrate your expertise.
Email is powerful for all of these things. You can link to videos, podcasts and Facebook Lives but get their email address.
Continue the conversation
Email allows you to continue the conversation with your potential clients as it might not be the right time for them at the moment. You may have the solution to their problem but it may not necessarily mean it is the right time. If it’s not, then you can continue to nurture them. So that when it is the right time, you will be top of their minds.
It also means you are building a list of great qualified prospects that you can tap into at some point. You want to run a campaign for a new product – you have your email list.
Segmentation
You can also use your email marketing to get your audience to segment themselves. Ask them to click which is their particular situation. Then you can sell them the right product. You can use it for market research and making sure you are talking to the right people.
You can’t do this on social media. I see people relying on social media, algorithms, their posts showing up. It just doesn’t happen consistently. You can’t control it. Your email list is the one thing that you have control over more than anything else.
Create the right list
You should create an email list as it’s powerful for selling and gives your business a backbone. When you need to sell – you want to sell to your warmest audience. When you’re niche enough, you’ve nurtured them and pre-qualified them into your list through your opt-ins – then you have a powerful list of potential clients to sell to.
Where I see people go wrong is that they have the wrong call-to-action and wrong lead magnet. Your lead magnet may get people onto your list but how does it relate to your product and what you sell? You have to make sure you pre-qualify who signs up to your lead magnet and that it congruent to what you are selling. In which case, you need to turn off the people who you don’t want on your list. Else you will be building an email list to too broad an audience.
When you do it right, you can build a powerful list of people who will buy from you time and again.
Danger of relying on social media
But social media is too easy to switch on and off. We are seeing more people switch off from social media because they cannot stand the negative messages. Social media can be too overwhelming, especially for mental health over the past year.
If you have not yet got the message yet – do not put all your eggs in one basket. Stop relying on social media for your income. If you do this then you will find yourself in famine.
Make creating emails easy
Yes, building an email list is work. Coming up with emails is hard work, especially if you have not written marketing emails before. What do I write about? How do I structure them? How do I find interesting ways to talk about my products?
The thought of emailing regularly makes you feel sick. If this sounds familiar, this is the support we provide in Elevate. Once you start the process, it becomes much easier. It is important that you recognise it is hard, to begin with, but with practice and guidance, it gets easier.
No matter how big a monster it looks, harness email marketing. If you don’t, you will get left behind and end up in famine mode. Do make sure you invest some time over the rest of this year to look at how you will build a stable business. A business that is not a flash in the pan or in feast and famine mode. A business that you can build.
Email list as an asset
Your list is an asset to your business. If we were to sell Evertrek, the email list is part of our audience. Our community and who we guarantee to get in contact with is an asset to our business and worth so much.
People want to buy from you. They want to get your sales emails and are interested in your products. Else they would not be on your list and would unsubscribe. They are interested in how you improve their life. Yes, you can give them some freebies but it is not about giving away everything in one go but giving some tasters.
People appreciate the tasters but don’t expect it for free. They hate to be sold to but love buying. Make that buying experience great for them. Show them what’s involved and help them make the decision to buy. Address their fears and objections.
So stop ignoring email marketing and start harnessing the power of this communication tool.