In episodes 10 and 11, I shared with you why I think it’s better for people with a full time job to create a side hustle that sells their knowledge and expertise rather than their time, and I gave you the basic steps on how to get started building your website and setting up your email list..
If you missed that, you can find it over at www.shannonmattern.com/10 and forward slash 11.
The next few pep talks are all about what’s next after building your website – the path from building a website to building an audience through online marketing, and turning your audience from casual subscribers into paying customers.
So What is next after building a website?
Building an email list.
And I’ve been hearing this since I started my business back in late 2014, and you think, you know, things change so fast, is email still really the best way to market to people?
And what I’ve found in my own business and in my research, yes, absolutely.
Marie Forleo’s recent B-School promotion talked about how building an email list is still the #1 key to success of any online business.
Michael Stelzer, the founder of Social Media Examiner, said on a podcast in 2017 that he believes that email is still the most important tool in a business owner’s toolbox.
Every marketing podcast you’ll ever listen to talks about the end goal of every marketing strategy being getting subscribers on your email list.
Even online retailers know the importance of this. Places like zulily where my husband works won’t even let you browse their website without giving them an email address. WHy? So they can let you know about their daily deals to keep you coming back.
Here’s why building an email list is so important:
- Organic reach (unpaid) on social media is at an all-time low.
- Competition for attention
- This is your customer list.
- It allows you to scale (one to many instead of one to one)
- It’s the best way to engage.
- The engagement is measurable.
- This is your tribe – an email list is the absolute best way to attract your tribe.
This is how you make money online. Here are that stats:
| If your product costs $50 or less, you can usually turn 3% to 7% of your subscribers into customers. |
| If your product costs $50 to $200, you can usually turn 1% to 3% of your subscribers into customers. |
| If your product costs $200 to $1,000, you can usually turn 0.5% to 2% of your subscribers into customers |
It’s predictable income.
Email is how you cold traffic – people who have never heard of you who came to your website from someone else’s social media post or a Google search, into warm traffic – people who know, like and trust you and want to learn more from you.
Email is how you sell online. You don’t sell online by putting up a sales page on your website and sending social media followers or people that find you through Google to it.
The #1 purpose of your website is to get people on your email list. Everything you do, from your homepage, to your about page, to your blog posts should all be designed to get people onto your email list.
And now that I’ve convinced you of the importance of building an email list, tomorrow I’m going to share with you how to get started.
Click here to register for my Free Master Class, So You Have a Website, Now What?
In this live master class, discover the path from building a website to building an audience through online marketing, and turning your audience from casual subscribers into paying customers – using the foundation you already built in the Free 5 Day Website Challenge!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
