Why you must have a marketing and sales strategy:
Growing revenue, getting more clients. That's what it's all about. I know that for me, I started building my email list way too late in my business. And in this blog post, I'm going to share why it's critical to start it no matter what stage in your business you’re in. I just want you to remember that you're never too soon in your business to list build!
As a reminder, here are the top 4 things I always say any business needs to do to grow:
- New lead strategy
- Nurture strategy
- Sales strategy
- Client delivery strategy.
The really cool thing is that email marketing is a very important part of all four pillars! When you bring new emails into your email list, you've just created a new lead, so that's part of your new lead generation strategy. When someone's on your email list, now you can nurture them. When someone's on your list, you can now sell to them. And once they're clients and they're on your list, you want to be making sure that you are giving them the information they need to be successful in email as well!
Listen to the Corresponding Podcast Episode:
Are you noticing these things…
I want to talk about a few things that you might be experiencing and why this is so important. First thing is, you might already see that everyone that you encounter is not ready to buy today. That’s not to say they won’t buy from you in the future, they just aren’t ready right now, and that is totally ok! You need a way to be able to continue to follow up with these people in a way that is value driven. So, if you are experiencing the less than a 100% conversion from lead to customer, which I don't think anyone has 100% conversion, you're going to want to be making sure that you are getting the emails of the people coming into your consults, your free sessions, wherever you're bringing them into, maybe it's a free Facebook group, you want to be able to have an email so that you can continue to contact them in a very powerful way.
The other thing is that maybe you've noticed that you’re battling the algorithms of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok. Go take a look! I'd love for you to take a look at your last Instagram post or your last TikTok or wherever your last post was. How many likes or views did you get on it? What is the percentage of your total followers that represents? The data that I've seen is that when you post something, maybe 9% of your followers will see it. I don't know about you, but I would not want to bank everything on that one social media platform or any of them. It's a piece. Your goal is to get them off of that platform and into your email list. You don't want to be at the mercy of social media algorithms for your content, for your marketing, and ultimately for your sales.
Another important thing is you might be wanting to be a guest on other people's podcasts, or you currently are getting a lot of guest spots. Where are you sending people after the episode? If it's to follow you on Instagram, we just shared the problem with that. If they go to follow you on Instagram, what happens? Maybe there's a 91% chance, they won't see anything from you after they follow you. I don't know about you, but I don't like those odds. I would advise to create a value driven freebie or opt in to get them on your email list.
I was on so many podcasts where I ended the podcast with either, “Go follow me on Instagram,” or I would say, “You can go to my website.” And on my website, I did not have a way for them to be able to exchange information with me, so I would never be able to get in contact with them again.
The other problem that I experienced, you may too, is that sales on social media alone hardly ever happen. I can honestly tell you in the five years that I've been in business, there has been a tiny percentage of clients that have ever seen a post on my Instagram and then immediately signed up for a program or started to pay me. It usually doesn't work that way. It's a real grind to try to just do all of your selling on social media alone. Email is so important to help in your sales strategy. We definitely want to use social media as a way to connect to new people and help nurture, but it can't be the only thing we do to make offers.
Are you seeing a trend?
I'm hoping you're seeing that you need to have a way to exchange information with potential clients in order to have more one-on-one interactions with them.
Just go to julieciardi.com/beceo
I strategically built the BE the CEO Membership so that we're doing workshops each month to ensure you're actually taking action in your business. Because if you're anything like me, you love to consume content, but we need to take action in order to be able to see the results and that's what the BE the CEO Membership is all about. It's being able to take action towards big things you need to accomplish in your business. Building your email list, having a way to create that list from all the other work that you're doing is really, really powerful.
I also built the membership on the fact that it's on a month to month basis, so come join us for a month. If it's not your cup of tea, if you don't like my style, if you didn't get a ton of value, that's it. You can leave. The door's open. I am such a fan of that because I've gotten locked into things that didn't really give me value, or I didn't show up and get the value that I could have. And so, I've made it simple. If you want to join us in the List building workshop, it's happening on February 9th in BE The CEO Membership. Join us here!
What causes some of the problems with list building?
A lot of this is mindset, to be honest with you, and this was my problem, too. One of the below might be you! Let me know! I'd love to hear on Instagram if you feel like you fit into one of the buckets below. You can DM me at @julieciardi!
You might be thinking that your business is not big enough yet to list build
This was my mistake. For some reason, I thought that my business needed to be bigger, more established before I ever went down the list building road, before I ever created some kind of cool free offer that was valuable for my listeners, followers, or audiences when I was guesting on other people's podcasts. I thought I needed to be bigger. I have no idea why I thought that. It was a mistake, and I wish that I could go back and change that. My business could be literally double its size. Not my list, my business. My revenue could potentially be twice its size right now had I started list building a lot earlier. It is that important. So get rid of that thought that, “Well, my business isn't ready.” Your business is ready the second you open its doors.
You don't know how, AKA, the tech
As entrepreneurs and CEOs, don't be afraid of the tech. Yes, you can always have help or get some help, but it's not that hard to set up a very simple opt-in form with your email provider so that people can get whatever that free offer is in exchange for their email to build your list. Stop saying you don't know how. Stop thinking that tech's going to hold you back. If you could take a couple of hours or even one day to figure it out, wouldn't that be worth it if you are building this email list that can create a ton of value for you and revenue? I would think so!
What am I even going to say once they join my list?
Email marketing might seem very daunting, so you think, “Well, if I don't have a list, then I don't need to email” or “My email list isn't that big, so I don't need to start emailing them regularly, right?” Yes, you do. And it's really costing you in your business if you're not. And here's what I'm going to tell you. Email marketing is awesome. And if you change your mindset on it, which we're going to talk about in a few minutes, trust me, it gets so much better.
You don't want to annoy or spam people
Here's what I want you to know. That is also just your thinking. I want you to think about any retailer whether it’s Nordstrom, Anthropology, or wherever you love to shop. Do you get annoyed at them for sending you an email? I never do. And in fact, I would say that there are mentors, especially mentors that I really value, that I love to see emails from.
How to get started:
- Just start! ASAP! You are losing potential clients every day that you don't list build.
- Change your mindset about staying on top of mind with your leads. People that want and need your help need to hear from you, and email is a great way to do that!
- Email is the only way you own anything in your business related to leads and clients. You don't own your Instagram followers. You don't own the people in your Facebook group. I have a Facebook group that has 7,000 people in it, and no one sees anything that I post. But I have an email list of 10,000 where almost all of them see what I post or what I email. Really important to remember, you own your email list, you don't own your social media platform. Another change your mindset type of tip!
- Don’t let tech stop you! As I like to tell my clients, everything can be figured out. You ARE ready, and list building is an important business builder for you in 2023.
So again, the four things are to start doing your list building ASAP. You're literally losing potential clients every day that you don't list build, so start now. Change your mindset into thinking that you'll stay top of mind with your leads, and these leads are actual people, they're humans that need and want your help. You want to also change your mindset about emailing because it's the only thing you will own as an asset in your business. That’s really important to understand. Lastly, just make the decision. The fourth thing is just make the decision that you're going to do it regardless of not knowing how or thinking you're not ready because it truly is going to be an important part of your 2023 growth.
Let's Recap!
Email is not dead. In fact, email is the only thing you own when it comes to leads and clients, and is a critical component of making sales. If you’re not already building your email list, start growing it ASAP.
If you've already started, good for you! Let's get you more effective at actually emailing your list and growing it. So again, I want to invite you to our very special workshop on list building. We're doing it on February 9th in the BE the CEO Membership. I'm going to work with you in a workshop style with worksheets with support. After the workshop, the way that it works in the membership is that you can actually come and get coaching. We meet every single Thursday. It's the second Thursday of the month that I workshop, and the workshop this coming month for February 2023 is list building. The beautiful part is that when you join the BE the CEO Membership, once you do the workshop and you put in the work, you can come back and get help. You can come back and let me look at what you've put together. Maybe we need to look at your free offer. Maybe you're struggling with what your free offer is going to be to get the person’s email. I can help you through that!
Come and join us. We're going to show you how, we're going to coach you, and we're going to help you take action to make sure that email list building is something that you are focusing on inside of your business in 2023.
If you want to ask questions around the BE the CEO of Membership, you can jump into ignitehersociety.com, and we can help you make that decision there! But I'm telling you right now, that email list building workshop is going to be gold in your business for 2023, and we would love to welcome you into the membership even if it's just for the month.
All right, my beautiful friend, have an incredible rest of your week, and I can't wait to see those of you that are joining us on February 9th in our email list building workshop! Click here to join us!
xo,
Julie
