A question came up in the WP+BFFs Facebook Group recently, and I’d put money on it that many of you who are trying to get traction in building your websites and your businesses feel the same way!
Cheryl H. helps people self-publish their books, and she posted in the group that she’s totally overwhelmed with email marketing sequences, specifically that “It’s like I’m trying to drive somewhere when I'm not sure where I'm going.”
She said she’s thought about getting rid of the email opt-in altogether and simply putting her email address on the site and asking people to contact her if they are interested in working with her.
I was reading that post as I was getting out of the car to go to dinner with my husband, so I told her to hang on and that I’d be right back to explain why I think she should NOT do that!
My answer to her is below, and I hope it helps you understand WHY we’re putting an email optin on our website, why we’re giving our knowledge away for free and why we’re not just putting it all on our blog and asking people to email us if they’re interested in learning more.
“I love your analogy of feeling like you're trying to drive somewhere, but you're not sure where you are driving!! So, imagine me as someone who is wanted to self-publish a book, and I happen upon your website.
First, you've done a great job of telling me on your homepage exactly how you can help me, and then I see that I can even more help from by opting in to your email list. So when I landed on the site I had no idea who you were, now I'm opting in to get this free map to self-publishing, and I'm getting to know you a little bit better.
Then I get an email from you with your freebie, and you solve a big problem for me – guiding me through what I need to do to self-publish my book.
So if you stop communicating with me right then and there, then I take my free guide, and I go on my merry way and either try to do it myself or I keep researching it and find other people to help me.
But if in a couple days, while I'm still interested in self publishing and I'm still researching it, I get another email from you with even some more value – just for me because I'm on your email list, you've qualified me as someone interested in the topic – on what the next step is, then I'm thinking, okay, I feel like this person might be the right person to help me.
And then, if a couple days you send me some more detailed information on exactly how I can work with you to self-publish my book, information that helps me make a decision on how I want to move forward, then I'm probably more likely to hire you than just by landing on your site and looking at your services page.
So that's where you're driving – you're capturing people interested in your services, positioning yourself as a credible resource, and then offering your services – not just to everybody that lands on your site, but people that are going to be a good fit.
So keep it simple. You don't need formulas and templates. Deliver your free thing, a couple days later, follow up on it and deliver more valuable, actionable information, and then in a couple days, let them know how they can work with you to self-publish – if they are still reading, they are interested, and after that, deliver your blog posts as you publish them.”
So here’s the deal: no matter what tool you’re using to do your email marketing, keep it super simple:
- Deliver your freebie.
- Follow up with some more valuable information.
- Share what products/services you have to solve the problem.
- Send your newsletter or blog posts after that, with opportunities to buy sprinkled in.
When you provide value, you position yourself as a credible expert – and people will know what they can expect from you when actually purchase something from you!
So tell me in the comments below – did that help you? What do you struggle with the most when it comes to email marketing?
