The secrets of successful email marketing

How many times a week do you delete unwanted emails?  How often do you find that something you signed up for to get something you wanted has resulted in endless sales messages?

OK!  That’s how NOT to do successful email marketing.  I guess some people must respond to it, but it’s not you - so clearly that particular company is working on a numbers system, not a targeted approach.

A very long time ago I got involved in selling encyclopaedias door-to-door.  Yes. It was before the internet took over our lives and people used books to find things out.  Anyway, we had to learn a script - both for the initial doorstep contact and for the presentation when we were invited back later.  

Obviously, the doorstep script was designed to get interest so we were invited back.  However, for a bet, two of the guys worked either side of a street and knocked on doors with the opening line ‘I’m selling encyclopaedias, do you want some?’

Surprisingly, one of them actually got a ‘yes’ answer - and won the bet.  This is the numbers approach - if you send enough emails to enough people, someone will say ‘yes’.  However, that usually depends on a massive list.

Content gets engagement

If your list is smaller your emails need to be better - and good enough to engage your reader.  You are probably on a few email lists yourself that you like the kind of content you get.  It might be entertaining, informative or just feel like the writer is speaking directly to you.  

To achieve this you need to know your potential client inside out.  

• What problems are they suffering from (that you can fix)?
• What are they worrying about?
• What do they need to do, but never have time for?
• What would help their business grow, but they don’t know how to do it (but you do)?

These are the things that your emails need to address.  And your subject line needs to give people an indication of which pain the email will address.

Style is important

Clinical corporate copy doesn’t capture the reader, but conversational copy does.

Write as though you were talking to just one person - imagine you’ve met someone who matches your ideal client profile perfectly and they’ve just expressed frustration about something you could help them with.  What would you say to them, without coming on too strong with a sales pitch?

• Empathise with their situation
• Show you understand what they’re going through
• Ask them if they’re tried X or Y so far?
• Outline what life might be like if this problem was solved (benefits)
• Give them an overview of how you could help.

This is the kind of approach your emails need to take.

One is not enough

A single email to your list is not enough.  People have all kinds of reasons for not taking action.  They may have a busy day on the day your first email arrives and just not have time to read it.  Or they may read it and mean to check it out, but forget.  You know how it goes.

To overcome this send a series of 3-7 emails over a period of time.  My advice would be to address a different pain point in each email (and subject line) to reinforce the message.

Or - if you don’t want to do it yourself, get professional help (TIP: we can help you with this!)

Why do you need a sales funnel?

You’ve probably heard of sales funnels - you may even have a lead magnet on your website, but why should you invest what is at least a couple of days of effort in building one?

A lead magnet in isolation doesn’t constitute a sales funnel.  It’s what you do with the people who sign up that make it into a proper lead generation system.

In order to understand the value let’s look at what a sales funnel can do - providing it’s constructed properly in the first place.  It can:

• Identify people who are your ideal clients 
• Engage with them over a period of time
• Deliver great value to them on an ongoing basis
• Persuade them to buy low cost items
• Upsell them to higher cost offerings
• Turn them into raving fans and loyal advocates

So that’s what it does - and the reason that’s important is because, if you’re busy working with your current clients and don’t have time to do marketing and sales, it keeps restuffing the sausage machine for you.  A well-built sales funnel will keep attracting and generating potential business.

So that’s what and why - what about how?

If you are going to build a sales funnel that really works for you, then first you need to be really clear on who you want as a customer.  If you really understand your ideal customer it makes the rest of the process easy.  

Let’s revisit that bullet point list above and dig deeper.

Identify people who are your ideal clients 

If you know who you want to attract as customers or clients, you can write a lead magnet that appeals directly to them.  The fact that they choose to download it is the equivalent of them putting up their hands and saying ‘Please can you solve my problem?’

That means that everyone on your list is a potential client.

Engage with them over a period of time

A lead magnet alone is not a sales funnel - it’s just the process of opening the door.

Because you know (from your ideal customer profile) exactly what they need, your email autoresponder series will tick all their boxes. 

Deliver great value to them on an ongoing basis

If your lead magnet is followed up with a series of useful emails tailored to your ideal client’s needs, their opinion of you is going to grow positively.

Not only will they appreciate the useful tips and ideas you share, but they’re being educated subliminally about your expertise.

Persuade them to buy low cost items

Because you’re given them great value, they’ll be happy to buy in if you offer a low cost item, such as a book (you have written one, haven’t you?), a webinar that shows them how to do something that will help their business or an invitation to an event.

This is simply a part of your email campaign - either as part of your autoresponder series that follows up the original sign up or, for date-related events, a separate campaign.

Upsell them to higher cost offerings

Once they’ve got to know you and bought a low cost item, they’ve already demonstrated their interest.  The next step is to offer them something in your main product or service range.

This may be by inviting them to a webinar which demonstrates a product or explains a service or by holding a Q&A ‘Ask the expert’ session where you also pitch your products or services. 

Turn them into raving fans and loyal advocates

If your emails continue to deliver great value, useful advice or tips and interesting articles, your list will start to recommend you.  You’ll become the first name they think of when anyone mentions your kind of industry.

So, those are the outcomes - are you ready to start building your sales funnel?

Read all about it!

Getting press coverage is the nirvana for many businesses.  After all, it’s ‘free advertising’, isn’t it?

The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’!  No editor worth their salt would publish a blatant ad free.  There has to be something in the piece that they think will interest their readers.  

However, you may have heard that any press is good, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative.  I don’t agree with that - anything published that damages your reputation is not good news.

For a small business, coming up with interesting news even once a month, is a challenge.  You can submit a hundred press releases and there’s no guarantee any of them will get published.

Q: What’s the alternative?

A: Hire a PR agency or do it yourself.

What can a PR agency do?

They will work with you to generate good stories and then work on their press connections to get your story published.  A good agency has strong connections with a range of publications and knows the ropes and they’ll look at other options to promote your business too.

They will usually have professional writers in-house who will craft press releases to tick the boxes for the chosen publications.

They’ll also be able to suggest publications that might be good targets for your business.

Is there another way?

If you have some time and can write fluently, or have someone on your team who can, you could go about getting publishing from a different angle.

Instead of trying to come up with a story, think about your knowledge and how could you put your expertise in front of your target audience.

Firstly, you’ll need do some research.  You need to know:

• What your clients read - and the easiest way to do that is to ask them where they keep up to date with business news and their industry updates.
• What kind of content those publications feature.  You need to be able to deliver something that matches their style and tone, if you don’t want it either rejected or edited out of all recognition.
• Whether each publication accepts external content.  The best way to do this is to ring up and try to speak to the editor.  Explain that you have some articles that might be a good fit for their publication and ask if they would be interested.  It’s all about building relationships.

Realistically you won’t get through to the editor of the Times or the Telegraph, you’ll be doing well to actually get to talk to the Business News Editor.  However, this isn’t the kind of publication you’re targeting.

Most people read their industry journals or specialist publications for the area they work in.  These publications are often smaller and frequently run by a commissioning editor who engages freelance journalists to write the majority of articles.  In addition they may pick up syndicated items (articles written once and published in several different publications).  

Even if they have a couple of in-house journalists they are likely to be interested in good content.  There are no guarantees, but nothing ventured, nothing gained!

When you call up any editor you should:

• Be friendly 
• Know the publication you’re calling - you need to understand what they publish so you can make intelligent suggestions
• Ask questions and be interested
• Don’t talk about your business too much, the purpose of the call is to find out how you can help them, not the other way around
• Have at least three potential articles with a title and one line summary ready to pitch

What not to do

If the publication agrees to publish one or more of your articles don’t:

• Miss the deadline
• Give them 1500 words when they’ve asked for 800
• Include ANY sales copy for your products or services (you can include your name, company and website at the foot of the article, but you’ll know what this particular publication allows from your research - won’t you?)
• Chase them to find out about publication dates
• Complain if your article doesn’t appear in the issue (if something hot comes up it may get pushed to a later edition)

The plus is that if you write good quality content and stick to their rules, they’ll probably be happy to have more content from you.