What I’ve learned from sending 20 emails to my list in one month!
I’m an email marketing believer.
I started my email newsletter very early in my business life — some of you have been readers for over 15 years! For a long time my email list was my #1 marketing tool. But recently, the results from my email list tailed off. Fewer people wrote back. Fewer leads came in. Open rates dropped.
So I started looking around for a different way to do email marketing and what I found was a bunch of folks sending a LOT more emails than I was, some as frequently as every day! I was puzzled, who wants to get marketing emails every day?
But I’m desperate for a solution so I signed up for Jill Salzman’s daily email, (she’s my podcast partner). I also found Jonathan Stark’s daily emails about the madness of hourly billing and Philip Morgan’s daily emails about how to send daily emails to see how it felt.
I loved them.
No really, they are all great emails. All three of these people put real value in almost every email. They are teaching me things, encouraging me, giving me insights. They have made my business and life better! I look forward to getting their emails. You should sign up for their lists and see for yourself!
That’s when I had an insight…
It isn’t about the frequency, it is about the quality.
The frequency enables me to keep my emails short but still maintain a conversation. It builds a relationship faster and (perhaps most importantly) it makes people who aren’t getting a lot of value from what you are writing unsubscribe!
Yes, unsubscribes are good. The people who stay on the list are engaged, they are people you can build a relationship with. Those others aren’t really in your target market, let them go!
But if you are going to earn the right to be in someone’s email box 20 times in a month you’ve got to send really good stuff. Believe me, I feel the pressure to make each one of these emails valuable for you. If they aren’t you are going to vote with your feet and leave the list!
Figuring all this out made me want to jump in
I knew I had a lot to say that would help you, but I was still jittery about it. It’s a lot of work and I was still nervous that you wouldn’t want this many emails! But at some point, all the analysis is done, and I had to leap.
I’m glad I did. The feedback I have gotten has been overwhelmingly positive!
The overhaul has allowed us to have a more intimate connection. And many of you are seeing improvements in your life and business already just from reading a few emails. I love to hear these stories and I’m so humbled by your trust! (And I’m working really hard to make this material as helpful as I can.)
Is this something you can do in your niche? Do you have years of experience that just isn’t making it out into the world? Can you help your audience do better by sharing your knowledge in a new way?
DO IT!
My next challenge is to grow the list and it’ll be yours, too, if you get going! So if you know another business owner who would benefit from what we discuss, would you forward this to them? I’d really appreciate it.
INTERESTING READS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
CLIENTS DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT THEY’RE BUYING
Blair Enns describes 3 ways you can sell your services to your clients, you can sell inputs (hours), Outputs (deliverables) or Outcomes. Each way of selling comes with associated risks and opportunities. I think this is an important read for anyone selling services. It really made me think… Don’t miss it!
A new study confirms that the way our brain responds to our business mirrors the way our brain responds to our babies. To our brain, entrepreneurial love is strikingly similar to parental love. In this article David C. Baker explores some of the implications of that finding! Check it out.
Why You Should (Almost) Always Offer Severance Pay
When I talk to business owners about providing severance to someone they are firing I tend to get pretty quizzical looks. Suzanne Lucas does a great job laying out the argument for paying severance when you are firing someone. Read On.
QUICK HITS
The three most underestimated things in life:
- eating properly
- sleeping deeply
- exercising consistently
~ @michah
Entrepreneur tip. Knocking a single thing off your todo list a day is a reasonable goal.
Here’s a strange thought about value. F1000 companies have entire procurement departments dedicated to lowering costs. Why don’t they have entire departments seeking to maximize value/deliverables? Teaching best practices and how to work well with the company? Bass awkwards.
Interested In having Brad speak at your next event?
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