This round up is for anyone who has at least one person (not your mom) on an email list. Unless your mom is an ideal prospect.
Wait, that word “prospect” — it’s so cold, so salesy.
Rewind. “Unless your mom is your dream client.”
It’s also for those who have a list that numbers in the hundreds or thousands.
It’s for those who have a list they’ve been ignoring; a list on life support for lack of your attention. Like that plant in the too-small pot; the one you know you should do something about but, well, it’s all just too much.
For the email skeptics reading this who have heard that “email marketing is dead” or “You need a big list to sell anything,” read on… neither is true.
And although I won’t be able to diagnose the exact problem if you aren’t getting engagement with your list or the right potential dream clients to opt-in, (unless you want to see what it might look like to work together,) I will point you in the direction of places to look.
For those of you who think you don’t need a list because you’re killing it on social media, think again.
Why care about a list? Because you own those names and email addresses. And it costs you little anytime you want to communicate with these people.
Why let @Jack or Mark of the book of faces hold you hostage when they decide to, yet again, change their algorithm or charge you increasingly more of your marketing dollars when it suits them?
Let’s tackle the myth that email is marketing so yesterday’s news.
The most recent stats I could find come from Optinmonster.com’s article titled “Is email marketing dead? Statistics Say: Not a Chance.” This is a content monster so here are some highlights for the TL;DR crowd.
- For the “Big 3” of social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), the engagement rate isn’t even 0.6%. Compare that to email’s average open rate of 22.86% and even its click-through rate of 3.71%.
- 99% of us check our email every day.
- Some of us check our email as much as 20 times a day. With the rise of mobile use, checking email is super easy, after all.
- More than half of us (58%) even check our email before doing anything else online (probably before even getting out of bed).
If that’s not enough, according to the Direct Marketing Association, “email marketing sees a 4300% average return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the US.”
What’s more important than ever for successfully using email to market and build engagement is sending relevant content and offers.
It’s likely that your lead magnet is a slice of a bigger pie of your work. Your new subscriber who opted in for “Grow tomatoes bigger than your head” will likely enjoy content that includes other gardening tips, recipes for using those giant red beasts, your must-have gardening tools, resources for plants, and gardening clogs, etc. If you sent a random article on improving your golf swing, you’d either confuse or piss off your reader enough to warrant unsubscribing.
How big is big enough? A list with one hundred engaged, happy, action-takers built by attracting people with targeted, enticing free offers will do more for your business than a list of 1,000 people, only 5% of whom open, read, and never click a darn thing.
Those social media followers who click, like, and share your posts? Give them a way to join your list and take that PDA (public display of affection) to a deeper level.
What to do when you’ve got a stagnant list? Diagnose the why.
Is what you write about or share with your readers relevant to them, within the context of the free offer you brought them in with?
Have you polled or surveyed them to narrow down their interests or learn a bit about them? (Showing my panties here, I have not yet done this here in BMM land but it all happens next week. Keep an eye out for an email with the subject: “5 Minutes is all I need”.)
Separating your readers into silos of interest or demographics means you can send targeted content and offers to them. I just joined a list for writers and in the welcome email I was asked “Do you currently have a blog? Are you hoping to start a blog?” The owner of that list can create copy and products to help people start a blog and send it to the right people. People who have a blog already wouldn’t want that information, would they?
Do you mail worthwhile content on a regular schedule, or did you at one time and it’s been too many days to count since your last confession communication?
Here’s what to do to get back on track.
- Put together a really meaty value packed piece of content, and queue it up for delivery
- Prepare for unsubscribes and remember that a small list of people who want to read what you sent is better than a vanity number
- Be honest and keep it simple. Saying something like “I’m sorry, I know I promised to be in touch, but I fell into a deep hole of self-doubt” or whatever your reason is for falling off the schedule. Offer them the freebie and give them the new schedule for your upcoming goodness.
This article from MailMunch has 4 symptoms to use in diagnosing your list’s illness; Starvation, Boredom, Annoyance, and Apathy. Find yours and you’ll plan a more effective reengagement campaign.
If you’ve got a list, show it some love. If you’ve been stingy with your brilliance, love yourself first and remember why you started your gig in the first place. What is it that you absolutely know you do well, maybe better than anyone else?
Get personal, give strategically.
Email marketing isn’t dead or gasping for air and even if you think your list is, it’s worth trying a little subscriber CPR. Some of those people who were excited to hear from you once might just be thrilled when they see you in their inbox again.
If you are that person with one subscriber or 5, build slowly and connect consistently. Your dream clients will show up if you do, often when you least expect them.