Do You Have An Email List?
Jun 24, 2020
Do you have an email list that you actively use to nurture clients and potential clients?
After I polled my audience on Instagram Stories last week I learned that a staggering 70% of you dont have an email list - and that blew my mind!
In the world of network marketing, the importance of an email list is not necessarily discussed. There's no real talk about the importance of nurturing your community online outside of social media.
A few months ago, Instagram and Facebook had a huge outage, which made a lot of business owners panic because they realized that social media was their primary way of interacting with their audience. But the fact is, social media can disappear in the blink of an eye and you can be locked out of your account for absolutely no reason.
So I want to ask you this, could your business survive without Facebook and Instagram?
For many of you, the answer is no.
Common reasons you don’t have an email list
- I don't really read emails so I don't think my audience does either
- I don't know what to say
- I'm afraid I'm going to annoy people
All of these are huge misconceptions.
Even if you don’t open every single email from a person or a brand, you still see the name of the sender and the subject line when you open your inbox. This means that if someone doesn't see the full email, they still get exposure to you by seeing your name, which is the power of email. You may even be surprised by the number of emails that are actually opened.
Lots of people turn off their social media notifications, but oftentimes they will keep their email notifications on or they will actually check their emails so it's possible to reach your audience even when they don't check their Instagram for a week.
Building your email list
So you want to build an email list, but you’re struggling to sign people up. You’re not alone. Just putting your email list out there, doesn’t mean people will automatically flood to it. Saying you’re putting out a weekly newsletter will not entice people enough to sign up.
Newsletters were a big trend online in the mid to late 2000s when smartphones and emails were still fresh and new. People would subscribe to almost everything. These days, people are way more choosy about who they give their email to. Many people have multiple email addresses, and we want people to give us the good email that they check regularly, not the junk email they give at checkout when someone asks for their email.
Entice people with a freebie
A weekly newsletter isn’t going to get people on your list but a freebie will. Not just any freebie, though, it has to be a show-stopping-knock-your-socks-off-oh-my-god-it's-so-juicy freebie. You want your audience to hit refresh on their 10 times because they cannot wait to open it.
What is a freebie?
A freebie is a free resource or a download that gives someone something extra special and extra juicy as an incentive for subscribing to your list. In exchange for their email, you are giving them something awesome and provides them with quick wins.
Your freebie has to be some of your best stuff. It has to be a high-value resource to the questions your audience is searching for on Google and Pinterest.
An example is My Top At Home Fatloss Boosting Tips. This is very specific, very catchy and very searchable with keywords. This checklist form of freebie always performs well because it’s simple and measurable and people can tick off their wins as they move through the checklist.
Creating your freebie
Use very particular keywords that tell someone exactly what they're getting and what form it will be presented in, for example, a mini-course, an E book a guide or a PDF. Let people know you are sending it straight to their inbox as soon as they opt in.
Just because it’s free, doesn’t mean everyone will race to download it so hype up your freebie like you would any other launch. Get people excited. Talk about it on stories and on your feed and put the link in your Instagram bio so that you can funnel people to your download.
Share any social proof that comes through. If someone DM’s you and says they downloaded it and they love it, make sure you screenshot that and post it to your stories, just like you would social proof for any other launch.
Get your audience so excited that they get FOMO and share their email with you because they don’t want to miss out. Incentivize them with something they really want, not just something that they need. You can give them something they need inside of it but you've got to lead with what they want so it excites them enough to give you their good email.
What is the benefit of a freebie?
You have them on your list, now what? It's really important to nurture your email list and give them special content separate from the content on your social media.
Here’s a funnel example that shows you how to go from social media to email list.
- Post on your Instagram feed with two tips
- In your call to action, direct them to your Instagram stories where you will share your third tip
- Give them the third tip on your stories, and let them know if that was helpful to go to the link in your bio to download your freebie
- They download your freebie which addresses their particular pain point or question
- Continue to nurture them with email specific content
This is a super simple funnel that sends people from your Instagram feed to your stories and then to your email list. They’ve already spent so much time with you developing that relationship, that being on your email list will only continue to strengthen that.
Make sure you give them original content that isn't exactly the same as you're giving on social media. Maybe you give a little preview on social media but the VIP members on your email list are getting the best of the best. We don't want people avoiding your emails thinking it's the exact same information that you're posting on social media.
Use posts from your social media as a template for the email, but add in something special like an exclusive tip that you didn't post on social so that people know when your emails come through they are valuable.
What open rate should you have on your emails?
The goal is 30%. So if you have a consistent 30% open rate you are in a good place. A lot of us have to work hard to get there.
If building an email list and creating a show-stopping freebie is something you want right now, I want to invite you to my Freebie Creation Lab Masterclass. I'm going to walk you through how to create a showstopping freebie and an opt-in page so you can start attracting leads who can be nurtured to upsell into your courses, your programs and your challenge groups.
