It’s Marketing May and I’m going to focus on one of my favorite types of marketing: Email Marketing!
Email marketing is a great way to build trust with your audience. It’s a great way to bridge the gap from your social media platforms and your website. Why? Because when someone finds you on social media and clicks over to your website, they may find it engaging and consider working with you, but they aren’t quite ready. That’s where email marketing comes in. If you capture the email address of your website visitor you can continue warming them up from a cold lead to an actual client.
My favorite Donald Miller (author of StoryBrand and Marketing Made Simple) quote is “People will buy when they’re ready, but only if you’re still around.” Email marketing is the way you stick around! You stay top of mind and even if people aren’t opening every email, your emails are like a tiny billboard in their inbox.
Here’s an analogy for you:
You’re at a party and you meet someone. The party is loud and crowded. It can easily distract you, but you finally focus in on someone and have a conversation. This is social media.
You agree to a first date with this person. You learn more about them and actually start to like them. This is your website.
But what if that person never called you again? That would be the end right? You might see them at a party again (social media), but you’re not building the trust and relationship to move to the next step. You need to date to do that.
Email marketing is dating. It’s slowly allowing a person to know, like, and trust you so that they can take the next step. With dating that next step is getting married and with business, it’s becoming your client.
You typically don’t meet someone at a party (social media) and immediately ask them to marry you (become your client). You need to grow the relationship.
So I’m going to let you in on my three step strategy to a successful email marketing campaign.
1. Lead Magnet
As I mentioned above, when someone visits your website, you want to capture their email address so you can continue to build trust and grow your relationship with this person. A lead magnet is how you do this.
A lead magnet is essentially a free resource that you offer to a visitor of your website. It’s an exchange. They get a free resource that helps them in some way and you get their email address. And it is mutually beneficial to both of you because you both get a chance to grow the relationship.
Some great examples of a lead magnet that I’ve helped my clients with:
- Fit + Pricing Guide: I have helped so many of my clients create this valuable resource and it has become a fan favorite. Why, you ask? Because the most common question people have when they are going to work with a service provider is “What is the cost?” And there are so many opinions on whether you should publish your prices or not. So I have a middle man. You get to know the pricing before jumping on a 30 minute call and wasting everyone’s time, but you have to be serious enough about working with this business that you’re willing to exchange your email address. This also helps weed out the price checkers. But there is more to the Fit + Pricing Guide than just pricing. The prospective client gets an inside look at your process, packages, and who you are! It’s been a great converter for my clients.For a live look at some great Fit + Pricing Guides check out:
- A free PDF: This is the gold standard of lead magnets and there is a reason. They are easy to produce (hello Canva!), give value, and allow you to display your expertise in your field. Some great client examples of this:
- An email series: An email series is a great way to guide your client through a journey of learning. I feel like this is a great option for coaches and teachers. If you have a larger amount of content to share with this website visitor, then an email series allows them to take it in in small doses.
- A great example of this is my client Scott with Stop Clowning Around. His lead magnet “21 Days to a Transformed You” is packed full of insight and paradigm shifting FREE content. It would be too much to hand out on day one in a PDF, so Scott broke it down into 21 days. It’s powerful and really highlights the type of coach Scott is.
2. Sales Sequence
When someone requests your lead magnet, they are now considered a “warm lead.” They have visited your website and are more interested than ever in what you have to say. This is why you need to “strike while the iron is hot” and serve them a highly intentional sequence of emails that guide them toward working with you. These emails can say many things, but here is what I recommend:
- Deliver the lead magnet.
- Identify the problem and give YOUR solution
- Client testimonials or case study
- Overcome a common sales objection
- Final (and brief) sales email
Once you create this workflow, you have an automated sales process that at minimum, builds confidence in your business and in the best cases, is turning your visitor into a customer.
3. Nurture Emails
Once someone completes your initial sales sequence, it’s time to nurture this lead. Perhaps they are not ready to work with you now, but if you continue showing up with great content, you have a real chance at converting them in the future. There are countless strategies to what kind of content should be included in these. You can offer tips, resources, blog posts, promotions, newsletters, and more. The current strategy I’m using with my clients is to serve 75% of the time and promote 25% of the time. I believe this is a great way to build trust with your audience. They learn that you are an expert in your field, are giving of this knowledge you have, and aren’t overly pushy about converting them. Here’s how this looks practically:
Say you plan to email your audience four times per month. Three of those emails should serve your audience. Free resources or information. I have been especially fond of blogging so that you can offer a bit of information in your email, then drive that traffic back to your website to read the rest of the post.
The fourth email can be devoted to promoting your business. Are you running a sale, have a new service, launching a new course, or just want to highlight a current offering? These are great ways to promote your business.
You can repeat this each month. Create a blog post that your audience would find to be a great resource, email each week highlighting a different point of that blog post, then set aside one week to promote your business. I would usually recommend tying the offer and the blog post together. For example, in this blog post I’m talking about email marketing, so if I were to do a promotional email (foreshadowing perhaps?) I would promote my email marketing services.
I hope this post has been a helpful resource to you! If you liked it, please share it to anyone you think would find it helpful. And if you’re looking for a done-for-you service, check out my email marketing option and we’ll start building your list and growing your business!
