Email marketing is a key component of content conversion strategy.
And business owners who use email marketing to establish connection and nurture relationships get more sales. But this isn’t the case for everyone and it doesn’t always happen with ease. And, more importantly, when it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to lose hope.
Without results and revenue, frustration sets in and many business owners burn out and give up. They think that no one needs another email in their inbox so why should they bother.
This is where they go wrong. It’s not the quantity of emails that gives email marketing a bad name, it’s the lack of quality.
Email marketing that helps your audience connect with you and get value each time you email leads to them opening more of your emails. And the more emails they open, the more opportunity to connect with you and your solution.
Before We Get Into Email Marketing
The customer journey has a few steps before we get to email marketing.
Generating more sales begins with clarity. As a business owner, you need to get clear on your core message and your ideal audience. From this you can start the process of capturing leads and building your email list with an effective lead magnet or opt-in.
Then you create offers, packages, service listings, and figure out your pricing. It seems like you have everything lined up and in place … but the sales don’t come.
Lead generation begins with a compelling free gift that invites your specific ideal prospects into your world and on to your email list. Then there are a series of critical steps that invite these prospects to become paying clients.
Are all of these statements true about your free gift or lead magnet?
Highly desirable content topic.
Easily consumable format and delivery.
Establishes your expertise and credibility.
And initiates meaningful connection with your audience.
If you can’t confidently say, “Yes!” to each of these, address what’s missing because you need this foundation before focusing on email marketing.
Email Marketing: Nurture Sequences
Having an email nurture sequence is a standard way to follow up your opt-in with a series of emails that helps subscribers put your free gift into use. This series, typically called an autoresponder sequence, is filled with opportunity that many business owners fail to optimize.
Email marketing is the fuel to ignite sales or the firehose that reduces them to soggy debris. And the process begins with this first email marketing sequence of autoresponders.
It’s not enough just to have these emails in place and loaded up for delivery. With the right strategy, the way you communicate during this early stage in the relationship can set the stage for connection that leads to sales. Yet, many small business owners don’t recognize the hidden potential here.
Following up with new leads by initiating and nurturing relationships is the foundation for generating more sales.
Your Practice for New Leads
Review your current practice for new leads. As they join your email list, what comes next?
Assess Your Email Nurture Sequence
Assess your nurture series of email autoresponders against this criteria:
Are you acknowledging new subscribers with a timely, warm welcome?
Are you delivering high-value, actionable content?
Have you introduced yourself and highlighted your relevant experience?
Do your emails invite conversation and engagement?
Are you sharing outcome-based results your solution delivers?
Do you address the cost of not solving the problem?
Are they saying “yes” to your next step offer?
How well do you cover these? Are there holes in your process? This is your opportunity to create a foundation that leads to more sales.
Better Email Marketing
After assessing your current email marketing practice and your nurture sequence, make a commitment to address the shortcomings you discover.
Use the criteria to make improvements. Revise emails that can be more impactful, add ones that are missing, and remove content that doesn’t contribute to establishing a meaningful relationship with your new leads.
When you use email marketing to set a system in place to create this connection, more sales follows. Help new leads see you as their best option so more of your ideal clients purchase from you and recommend you to others.
Connection that Leads to Sales
Connection is one of the pillars of my 4 C Method for content that leads to more leads, clients, sales, and referrals. Learn more about how to use this strategy to serve more people and generate more revenue with immediate access to an on-demand masterclass here.
But what does content strategy have to do with that?
Everything.
How Does It Work For You When You Buy?
Think back to the last time you bought something online … a product, a course, a program.
Who did you buy from?
Was your purchase interaction the first time you learned of the person you bought from?
Did they show up somewhere online and you consumed the first post/email/video of theirs and buy?
Probably not.
So, how did you decide to buy?
The Customer Journey
More than likely, you knew this person that you bought from in some capacity. Perhaps you:
Opted in and became a subscriber to their content.
Had a positive experience using their free gift when you opted in.
Read their emails and connected with their message.
Engaged with them during a live video on social media.
Followed them on social media and felt they “got you” by what they shared and how they interacted.
Experienced value from them even before your purchase.
Whatever the process, you consumed content. Their messaging spoke to you as if they knew what it was like to deal with the challenges in your path as a business owner.
You were bettered by their content.
Content Conversion Is In The Details
Their content worked for you.
The messaging was concise, compelling, and action-oriented.
They engaged with you when you hit reply and emailed them. There were responses to your comments on social media. You felt connected through their communication.
This is what good content strategy does for you as a buyer.
Are you doing this with the people you’re meant to serve?
How’s Your Current Content Marketing Doing?
Do you have a comprehensive and consistent content marketing plan that:
Attracts the right people?
Offers a compelling, aligned free gift they want?
Builds a library of helpful content on your blog?
Includes regular email communication people actually open?
Brings you new connections and engagement on social media?
And the million dollar question …
Are you repurposing your content across all these channels to save you time, money, and effort, while reaching more of your best customers?
So many business owners are not checking all the boxes on their content marketing plan. And I get it. It can feel like a lot. And it’s only part of what you need to do as a business owner.
But listen up, content marketing strategy is your most important part of your business if you want consistent lead generation and more sales.
What’s Next If I Need More Clients?
My business is about getting you more business. I want to help you get you more clients. My number one (and only) way is through your content strategy marketing plan. And there are several ways I can help you do that … from one time strategy sessions, to customized private strategy, to a group program.
All of it is single focused: Plan, create, share, and repurpose a comprehensive, streamlined content strategy that attracts and converts more qualified people into your best (and raving!) clients.
Isn’t it time you streamline your content process so you can get more (and better) clients?
Better content makes for better clients and more revenue. Still, content creation and then what to do with that new content continues to challenge business owners. In my guest expert interview on Melanie Benson’s Amplify Your Success Podcast, I share strategies for content that converts; the same strategies I use to help clients get more of their best paying customers.
Even better? It doesn’t have to be as difficult as we sometimes make it out to be!
Listen In by clicking the image
Content Strategy Is Powerful
Using content conversion strategy before creating results in more powerful messaging. When you map out your language with a focus on what you intend it to do, you’re more likely to attract the people you’re meant to serve. And by using the words your ideal clients use themselves, the recognize you as someone who understands their challenges. It’s critical to take the time to clarify the language and to choose your words and craft your message with care.
Why Content Doesn’t Convert
If your website copy isn’t bringing new leads into your world, something is likely “off.” And lead magnets that don’t regularly attract quality prospects are useless, even damaging to your brand. Just like writing blogs or creating videos no one seems to read or watch, it’s futile. And there are many reasons why this isn’t building your business. Some include:
You don’t have a clear core message.
Your content doesn’t align with your core message.
Blogs and emails are written without intention and strategy.
And your overall content conversion process (creating, sharing, and repurposing) doesn’t map out a customer journey.
What Works
Often, business owners are aware that their content is not converting, or at least not at the rate they need to have a sustainable, thriving revenue stream. Yet investing in a process and the support to assess and improve doesn’t rise to the top of the To Do list. Why is that?
Because when we are so close to our own content, we can’t see the holes in it. We know in our hearts what we mean to convey and when we review our own content in our minds we fill in the gaps. However, that’s not how it shows up to our prospects, our subscribers, even our clients. They notice the gaps and that causes pause and a lack of confidence in your solution.
Instead of continuing to create without a plan, it’s critical to make time for content conversion planning:
Clarify your core message.
Create language to convey it in a way that is meaningful to your ideal clients.
Use this foundation to create all your content (opt-in, website copy, emails, blogs, social media, EVERYTHING).
And pay attention to its impact …
Are the right prospects consuming the content?
Is there engagement and feedback as you share?
Is the content helping ideal prospects to convert to paying ideal customers?
This is our goal for content that converts.
Listen in to the podcast here and let me know what it means for you and your content conversion. Drop me a comment below. Or reach out for a discovery call here.
Email marketing is a core component of effective content conversion strategy. And yet, many business owners aren’t using it to attract and convert more of their best paying customers. Dispel some of the myths and assumptions about your email practice to nurture the relationship with subscribers.
How Often Should I Email?
The first place many people stumble is when it comes to the frequency of emails to their subscriber list.
Some almost never email, believing they don’t want to “bother” people on their list or promote their business too frequently. (More on Email Marketing Assumptions here.)
And some bombard subscribers with emails, using almost not discretion about what is valuable enough to warrant an email.
Neither practice works for most of us. Rather, it’s important to find a cadence and a schedule to guide your email marketing practice in a way that delivers value, engages, and builds relationships.
What Gets in the Way of Emailing?
There are endless reasons why business owners don’t use email marketing to effectively nurture subscribers. Let’s get some of them out in the open here. Some of the ones I hear most frequently include … I don’t:
… have that much time.
… know where to begin or what to write about.
… want to sound overly promotional.
… think it’s long enough since my last email.
… want to email when I haven’t done it in months.
And even more challenging are the ongoing mindsets we cling to about email marketing:
I’m not good at it.
I’ve always hated writing.
They don’t want to hear from me.
And the list goes on. One of the most common thoughts about emailing is “I only want to email when I have something of high value.”
Defining High Value
By telling ourselves we only want to email high value content, we allow a boulder of an obstacle to get in our way. After all, high value is relative. And we many entrepreneurs don’t give themselves enough credit for what they know. So this becomes an easy way to cop out of sending an email.
Yet, if we take a moment to examine this we would recognize that the very content, tips, and strategies we use daily ARE high value to our subscribers. In fact, what comes easily to us is often the very reason people subscribed in the first place. They want, even need, for us to share our knowledge and skills in the area that they find challenging. And when we don’t email consistently with this value, we’re not holding up our share of the arrangement.
How to Choose Your Topics
There’s an endless supply of email and content topics unique to you and your business. They are so close to us, we often don’t recognize them. And when we do, we then fall back into thinking they’re not high value enough. Let’s dispel that right now. Here are a few of the ways we come up with content topics in The Content Conversion Lab.
List the components of your core service or program.
For each component, identify the related challenges, solutions, and first action steps.
Decide on a short series of content from just one of these lists and begin creating the content.
Come back to the other lists and either do a next series or mix and match between lists for even more variety.
Your Next Steps
Today I’d love you to your imagine your ideal customer out there in the world struggling with the challenge you solve. What one piece of content can you share with them right now to make a difference?
Write that down. Then email it to that person and all the rest of your email subscribers.
Create.
Show up.
Be the solution.
And each time you do this you’re nurturing the relationship with that person who is getting closer to a decision about hiring or referring someone to you.
Email marketing best practices include analyzing data about customer behavior rather than making assumptions.
In this video we’ll examine some of the common assumptions that drive email marketing decisions.
Common Assumptions
When creating content to share with your list of email subscribers, it’s easy to get caught up in assumptions. Here are some of the most common:
“No one wants another email in their inbox.”
“They already know about this. (So why email again?)”
“They’re not interested.”
“If they cared, they’d be clicking.”
These are just a few of the things we tell ourselves when we pretend we know what our clients are thinking. And often, these are not in the least bit true.
What Does the Data Say?
We have access to data that tells a more accurate story about email marketing behavior.
Email platforms typically have data in the reports for each email. At a minimum, statistics on what percentage of subscribers opened the email and what percentage clicked on particular links are common. Even if you were to have excellent open rates at around 30%, this means the other 70% never even opened the email. Which (of course!) also means that same 70% certainly didn’t even see the links or consume the content.
So, an assumption that “They already know about this” doesn’t really hold true at all!
And yet, many small business owners won’t send out a second email about the same offer because they buy into this assumption instead of the reality. Don’t let this be you!
Not only is a second email in order, but there needs to be a series of emails to give subscribers ample opportunity to consume enough valuable content to help them make a decision to act on the offer.
Another Costly Assumption
Let’s take a look at click rates and behavior. Yes, actual data. Click rates tell even more of the story.
What links were clicked?
Where were they in the email?
What information was shared before the link?
The data informs on whether people made it over to a sales page or a shopping cart or your blog. Once again, if we assume they don’t care about our content or “already know,” that is impossible if they never even saw the information to begin with.
Take Action
When a subscriber gives us an email address in exchange for our opt in or lead generator, we are responsible to deliver. And as part of that delivery, we need to show up consistently with content and action steps to help them with the challenge we solve. This is a relationship and we need to be active to nurture it.
Look at the data from your email marketing. Analyze it and make decisions based on what you learn … not on what you assume.
You don’t “do” relationship marketing. It’s more about who you are.
What is relationship marketing?
Relationship marketing has a slew of definitions. They cover everything from strategy that fosters connection; a primary focus on current customers; and goals of satisfaction vs. sales transactions. I was struck by an observation in a Forbes piece that talked about “emotion” as a missing key word in many definitions.
After all, emotion is the means to connect between two people and from one to many. I like to think that when I write to the masses I’m actually speaking to each person as an individual. I believe relationship marketing happens one connection at a time.
How do we learn relationship marketing?
I have to admit, I don’t think it’s easy to learn (or teach!) relationship marketing. Some are born connectors. Some are not wired that way. It doesn’t mean you can’t improve your ability to connect but it may take a bit more doing … or unlearning, at first.
Getting started
I’ve worked with clients who openly admit they don’t feel they’re natural connectors. Not surprising to me, the very fact that they acknowledge that tells me they place a value on connection. When all is said and done, they’re often some of the best connectors. They just need to be supported to show up in their business and online more of the way they are.
Relationship marketing is about relaxing into who we really are and what we’re all about.
For many of us in service-based businesses, our clients do want to know a bit about what makes us tick. They’re interested in what’s important to us. How we got to where we are. Why we care to help them reach their goals. These are the connective pieces. They’re important. They matter.
For relationship marketing, share who you are
In a recent post on Facebook, I shared a story about how I love language. It’s about what I do in my business, but the post focused more on my personal interests. It speaks to how I got to this place of supporting business owners to create better content that helps them get more of their ideal customers.
And you know what? I wrote it in a few minutes. I tried not to overthink it and just tell a story. Do you love language, too?
How do you connect?
Connecting in relationship marketing is about relating. Can you see yourself in the story? Do you understand how the writer may feel? Are there components that connect to your own story?
These building blocks of connection in your content helps attract the people you’re meant to serve. They make is easier for them to decide if you’re a contender to help them. The more they know that relates to how or why you can help them, all the better.
Can you relate?
Do you relate to the post from Facebook? I’ll share it again here:
“I find language so interesting. Always have. I’m not sure when I realized that I had this weird ability to key into how people say something, the intonation in their words, the pitch of their voice, the letter combinations that they used in a different way.
Not that I’m the only person who does this but I hear lisps where others don’t, or up-talking, or a higher pitch when people are nervous. I hear their “live streaming” or “video voice.” I hear their “I’m so uncomfortable talking about this that I could melt into the floor” voice. It’s ok. Really, it is. And I’m not saying I haven’t done this all, too. It’s actually all quite normal.
And yet there is a way that feels and IS more natural. More conversational. And more effective.
Oh, and I also have a thing about remembering what people’s mouths look like. A new person reminds me of someone else based on their mouth or how they speak and sound.
I’m sure this sounds weird and maybe makes me weird, too. I don’t care. It’s helped me key into language in a way that helps me serve my clients better.
Language connects.
How we say things. The specific words we choose. How we even breathe through our nerves when we live stream. It all tells a story.
And if the story ends with an invitation for how we can get to know the person better or buy their “thing,” well, we better have had opportunity to connect with who they REALLY are because we don’t just hand our credit card over to anyone … even for a “high-value-priced-to-move offer.”
We are people first. Before we are buyers, we are just people. People wanting to understand what you’re saying and why you’re saying it and wondering about the way you’re delivering it and why it’s important to you at all. We want to know what you’re all about. At least I do. Especially before I buy.
I help business owners connect with that part of themselves that often gets overlooked in their own marketing. It’s the REAL them. Are you sharing the REAL you?
You may know how this plays out.
When you script your message too much, it seems inauthentic even when you are the most real person around. You see, we trade in who we are when we step into who we think we need to be to market our business.
We don’t have to step into anything new. Trust me on this.
Take a step back into who you already are.
That’s what people want.
That’s enough.
Dare I say, “It’s perfect”?”
Moving beyond the story
This post (above) from my Facebook page wasn’t created to sell something specific. I wrote it hoping to reach people by telling them more about me. I wanted them to know more about me long before I even thought about becoming an entrepreneur. I posted it to share the me who thought she was going to be a teacher, a doctor, a psychologist and ultimately landed on the path to my own business.
It’s funny how it happens, isn’t it? You probably have a story about your journey, too.
Do you share that story in your business? Will you share it now? How about sharing just a piece of it in the comments below? I’d love to hear it. Really.
Speaking of connecting, let’s connect!
As you think about your own relationship marketing, are you are interested in reaching more of your ideal customers? Do you want to create better content that helps them buy from you? If you are wanting to use relationship marketing in your business more, I’d love to help. It’s what I’m all about and I’ve met some awesome people along the way by practicing it as part of a content conversion strategy. And not just because it’s effective (it is!), but because it allows me to be who I am and trust that the right people will connect with me. Are you one?
If you’d like more content like this in your inbox, you may want to subscribe. And when you do, you’ll also get my 3 Costly Content Mistakes Guide (so you can learn what to do instead). I hope to connect with you further so I can hear some of your stories.
