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The Cornerstone of a Successful Marketing Strategy
If you want to build a loyal audience and boost your sales, you need to focus on email marketing. And while I focus on cohesive marketing as a marketing strategist, if I had to choose one most important area for you to focus on? It would be email. It truly is the cornerstone of a successful marketing strategy.
And today I’m covering:
➡️ Why Email Marketing Matters – The Unique Benefits Of Email Marketing Instead of Instagram Marketing
➡️ Choosing a Platform – My Top Recommendations for Email Marketing
➡️ How to Get People on Your List – Creating a Lead Magnet that Converts
➡️ What to Send Your List – What to Do with Your Audience Once They’ve Subscribed
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Want even more help simplifying your marketing and business? Love the Chasing Simple podcast? If so, I want to invite you to join me on Monday evenings at 4:00 pm Pacific time/7:00 pm Eastern time for my weekly YouTube Lives! amandawarfield.com/youtube/
- Gaffin Creative: https://gaffincreative.com/podcast-production-management/
- This week’s action step: Start your email list!
- This week’s book recommendation: She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica
- Find me on Instagram and tell me you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield
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Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!
*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate
Email marketing was one thing that I started right away because as I did research of how to run an online business, how to market an online business, it was one of those things that everyone said, you gotta do.
So I started one, but I didn’t really understand how important it was until much later on. And so it’s something that I want to really encourage you, as an online course creator, to start now, if you haven’t already started. And, if you have already started, to put more time and energy into it. What I tend to find with my clients is that they put more time and effort and focus and energy in their Instagram marketing.
Then in their email marketing, which last week I talked all about why you shouldn’t be posting daily on Instagram any longer and why that doesn’t work in 2024. So check that one out if you haven’t already, but often I find clients wanting to put all of their time and effort and energy into Instagram marketing and they neglect the email side of things.
But in reality, the cornerstone of your marketing strategy should be your email marketing, even more so than your long form content, your podcast, your blog, your YouTube, your email marketing is that cornerstone that you really want to send everyone to from your different content avenues. And when, whether you’re doing nurture marketing or you’re doing growth marketing, which I’ve got an episode explaining that you can check it out here as well.
The difference between the two and why you need both, whether you’re working on nurture marketing or growth marketing, you should be sending everyone back to your email list, which is why it’s truly the cornerstone of what it is that you are doing with your marketing as a business owner, and especially as a course creator, and here’s the thing.
I was at a conference earlier this year, Lily Amati’s creative educator conference, and Natalie Frank made the comment that. Everyone has equal access in the inbox, and that has stuck with me ever since then. It’s something I think about all the time, and it’s just so true. Because the reality is, is that every post you put out on Instagram, only 10 percent of your following actually sees that post.
So, take whatever your following is, And then multiply that by 10%. If you have a thousand followers, a hundred people, only 10 percent of people see any given posts that you put out there. That’s not many, but when it comes to email marketing, 100 percent of the people on your list, a hundred percent, see the emails you send, it may not all read them, they may not open them, but they’re going to see it in their inbox as they’re cleaning their inbox out.
Right? So definitely to keep in mind, you’ve got equal access in the inbox. Another thing to keep in mind is that there is a three times higher conversion rate for emails than for social media. And so every email you send, if you put that same content on social media, the conversion rate is going to be higher in the inbox than it is on social media.
And I would keep going on and on with these stats, but one more when it comes to return on investment, ROI. For every dollar spent with Instagram, you only get a $5 to $10 ROI return on that investment for each dollar spent. For email marketing, you get a $36 ROI for every dollar. It’s clear, right? Email marketing is where we should be focusing the majority of our marketing efforts.
It should be the cornerstone piece of your marketing and it should be the piece of your marketing that you send all the other aspects of your marketing back to. If you haven’t started your email list, let’s talk about choosing a platform. I have three recommendations that are my top recommendations that I have used.
I’ve used all of these personally. Three different email platforms. If you are just now starting your business and you’re not making any revenue yet, my suggestion would be MailerLite. This is who I started with. They have a free version that will help you get started and get up and running so that you can start an email list without having to put any of your revenue into it yet, especially if you’re not making any money yet.
It’s a great starting place. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles. It’s not the prettiest of all of the different email systems out there, but If you don’t have an offer yet, if you’re not making revenue yet, if you are just trying to figure out this whole system, this whole marketing thing, it is a great place to get started.
If you are making revenue, and you do not need an all in one system, which we’ll get to in a second. So you’ve got, you’re making revenue, you’re making money, you don’t need an all in one system at this point, the Lodesk would be my recommendation. Again, I’ve linked to that in the show notes. They’ve even started checkouts, they’ve got all kinds of new features, they’re constantly rolling out new features, and I’ve used this with clients.
Many times, if I didn’t need an all in one system, I would be using flow desk personally, myself. I cannot recommend them enough. They have all kinds of great features. They also are continuously rolling out new features, which means that they’re continuously listening to their audience and what they need and want, which is huge.
But then also on top of that, they’re beautiful. They are the most beautiful platform for emails, period. And that means that you get to showcase your branding. You get to just make what you’re doing, your touch points with your audience. That much more fun and that much more you. So, that would be my recommendation.
If you do not need an all in one, that’s what I would suggest. Now, if you already have offers, if you have your courses already, and, or, you are getting ready to create your courses, maybe you already have your courses in Kajabi or something like that, and you’re not going to move them, then, I would suggest Flodesk, but if you are planning to create your own courses very, very soon, like within the next like month, you are getting ready to get them set up and running and you don’t have any kind of system yet, I highly recommend Kartra.
Kartra is very similar to Kajabi, um, but it is a totally all in one. I can create quizzes. My quiz opt in, if you go to AmandaWarfield. com slash quiz, you can find out what growth strategies are best for your business. That quiz created totally within Cartra. Uh, my in marketing is all within Cartra. My, my tripwires, my upsells, my checkout system, all of my offers inside of my shop, all of my courses, my membership, all of that is hosted inside Cartra.
It is an all in one system. It is pricier because it’s an all in one system, but I don’t have to pay for a million different pieces. I don’t need to pay for Deadline Funnel, and Flodesk, and Interact, and Vimeo, and it hosts videos, all of that. There are so many pieces of the puzzle for an email marketing strategist.
And for an online course creator that you need for selling your stuff for email marketing and just for marketing in general, that Kartra does it all. So, if that is you and that is something you need, if you need an all in one system, I highly recommend Kartra. So those are my top three, kind of depending on where you’re at with your business, what you’re needing right now.
Either MailerLite, Flodesk, or Kartra would be my recommendations. I’ve been using Kartra since 2021. And from 2018 to 2021, I used MailerLite. And like I said, I have used Flowdesk with numerous of my clients at this point. A lot, a big majority of my clients actually use Flowdesk. And so, I recommend all of those.
They’re all great to work with. Cartra is a bit more of a learning curve for those that have absolutely never done anything like this before. But if you have worked with some systems in the past, it’ll be a piece of cake for you. But Flodesk is an easy drag and drop, beautiful emails. They’re constantly updating and adding to what they’ve got, and so I cannot recommend that enough.
Now, you’ve chosen a platform, how do you get people on your list? You need to create a lead magnet that is going to convert, and for those of you that are in Chase Invisible Marketing, the community, we do have an entire quarter based on creating a lead magnet that converts, because it is such an important piece of this puzzle.
You want to make sure that the lead magnet you’re creating directly links to your offer, but then also directly links to what it is that your people need right now. So I actually had a whole conversation today with a client about, you’ve got great lead magnets already, but the lead magnets you had aren’t hitting on the pain points that business owners, that your audience is needing right this second.
And so if you already have lead magnets. Even if they’re converting well, if it’s converting, you know, crazy bananas, you’re probably good. You don’t need to recreate another one. But if you’re like, I have lead magnet, it doesn’t convert as well as I’d like, and it also doesn’t upsell into my course very well, take some time and think about, okay, if this is my course, what is the step for my course that someone needs?
And then what are the pain points that I’m seeing consistently right now in 2024 of my audience? What is unique right now? What is something that I’m hearing about over and over again, that I’m getting questions about over and over again? What are people struggling with? What are my potential students struggling and create a lead magnet around that you want it to be the step before your course, though, so that way, at the end of the lead magnet, you’re able to say, and if you want to take this a step further, or now you’re ready for the next step, which is my course, and you want to promo your course within lead magnet so that you have a higher chance of converting those people straight from the lead magnet into your course, and if they don’t, you put them in the sales funnel for your course, and then that’s them on their way.
So, different types of lead magnets. Quizzes right now, converting really, really well. Private podcasts, converting really, really well. But, you could also do things like a flow chart, or a decision tree, or a PDF, a challenge, a workshop. There are so many different options for your lead magnet, but the key is to choose your topic and choose what it is that your lead magnet is going to do.
What’s the win that your audience is going to be. Get when they download your lead magnet, choose that first and then decide what kind of container you want to create around that lead magnet. Don’t say, okay, I’m going to create a quiz. What do I need to create? Don’t do that. Create the topic, create the win, know what you’re going to give your people, and then say, okay, how does this work best?
What is the best format for me to deliver this? So once you’ve got your list set up, you’ve got your platform, you’ve got your list set up, you’ve got a lead magnet, what do you do once people are on your list? You want to give them value. Serve them really well. If you have long form content, Blog posts, podcast, YouTube, share about your new content.
Every time you put out a new podcast episode, share about it. Now, the best way to do this is by talking about, like share the big tips, the big, either one tip or sharing or whatever it may look like, give them value and then say, Oh, by the way, I’ve also got a podcast episode about this. You don’t necessarily want to just go Hey, I’m going to podcast episode out like give them the value and then make them go.
Yeah, I want more of this, right? So that’s the best way I think especially if you’re already creating long form content Repurpose what you’re already doing and send it to the people on your list because they’re going to want that value too, right? So that’s one thing you can do but you can also just write up an email if you only email Every other week or once a month.
That’s enough as long as you’re making sure that you’re sending value and you are Talking to your audience and saying I know this is what you’re struggling with and here’s how I can help right now So that’s what I would say to send your list Repurpose your content or let that be your long form content and just really pay attention to what are people struggling with right now?
How can I help how can I help my audience? That’s what you should always be asking yourself now your action step for this week is simply to start your email list if that means that you need to take one of those top recommendations that I mentioned and You know, get started with one of those. That’s your starting step.
If it means that, okay, you’ve got an email list set up, but you’ve done nothing with it. Maybe that means you need to start with creating a lead magnet, right? Whatever it is that you need to do next, let’s get started with it because an email list is truly the the best weapon in your arsenal is the best way I can describe that off the top of my head right now.
It’s the best way to move forward and it’s truly a cornerstone for your marketing. Now, this week’s book recommendation is She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica. It is a psychological thriller, but their trigger warning, it is based heavily around suicide. So I’m just going to throw that out there. May not be the book for you, but if.
If you’re not triggered by that and you like psychological thrillers, I highly recommend I’m going to link to it in the show notes for you. And until next time, my friend, I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.
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