Transform Your Email Contacts into Loyal Customers

Get ready to turn your email list into a powerhouse profit generator with yours truly, Erin Olson! Discover the game-changing strategies that catapulted my business forward when social media and online storefronts just weren't cutting it. Imagine harnessing the raw energy of those contacts you've been collecting, transforming them into a sales force to reckon with. It's not about hounding your audience with buy-now emails; it's about the finesse of tactful marketing, nurturing leads, and building lasting customer loyalty.

This episode is your golden ticket with practical tips you can implement right away, I'll guide you through the nuances of email marketing that promise a higher ROI than those fleeting social media ads. Whether you're a fledgling business owner or a veteran in the entrepreneurial arena, join me for an exploration into maximizing your reach, sidestepping the pitfalls of platform dependency, and unlocking the full potential of your email contacts. Tune in for the insights that will take your business from surviving to thriving!

Resources:
ConvertKit
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vee
List Builder's Society Amy Porterfield

Thanks for listening! I'm glad you're here.

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See ya next week!
Erin

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to the Quality of Life podcast. I'm Erin Olson, a wife, a mother and a serial entrepreneur. After starting three successful businesses, I've learned some hard lessons regarding the ins and the outs of starting and running a small business. My intention is to share my knowledge that I've learned from the School of Hard Knocks so you don't have to learn it the hard way like I did Each week, I hope, to guide you to the next level in your business or in the business that you work in. So let's go. Hey guys, welcome back to the Quality of Life podcast. Erin Olson here to help get you from business idea to big business.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Last week, we talked about my love-hate relationship with trade shows, and one of the things that I mentioned was to gather people's contact information to add to your email list. Well, this week's episode is all about what to do with that list once you have it. Now. I know most people have gathered contacts on their social media accounts and spent the most time marketing there, but you gotta listen. If, for some reason, your account gets hacked or you get locked out and you want to still have sales, then this episode is for you. Or if you have an Etsy or a Square or a Shopify store that collects all your customer data and you think you're good. This is also the episode for you, because that platform owns your contacts unless you export them to a file. Keeping an up-to-date email and contact list is so important, and this week I'm going to give you an overview of how to leverage it to grow your business and sales. But first here's why I started customer and potential customer emails in the first place.

Speaker 1: 1:52

Let's go way back to our first trade show at HX. We had this brand new product that had never been made before, and so trade shows were the best way to get the word out there of what we're doing. We had 12 products to sell Like total, it was all the product that we could afford to bring and guys, guess what we sold out? We also took orders for more to make. We were so excited and happy. That is until we got a call from one of our new customers saying that the seam had blown out of her new net oh crap. So we called the company that we had sewing our products at that time and they had made them wrong Double crap. So we had to get a hold of all of our new customers and fix the problem before word got out that we were selling a crappy product. But there was another problem. If they hadn't written us a check, we had no way to contact them all. Thank God we only sold 12 items. We ended up finally tracking them all down via Facebook, believe it or not, and we made the problem right and replaced all the defective products.

Speaker 1: 3:06

But it was then that we started collecting all of our customers' info. But it was also then that we started to collect potential customer emails as well, you know, just in case. So every show we did, we did a drawing to win free products in exchange for their emails and phone numbers. At some of the shows we would get hundreds of entries. So we would spend the hours putting them all into an Excel spreadsheet, but then we didn't do anything with them. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. Then, one day, when we needed to make some sales, we got the bright idea to send out an email to see if anybody was ready to buy, by telling them all that we were having a sale. Holy crap, did we get busy? We sold so many things we couldn't believe it or keep up. Our email list was a couple thousand people at that time. But even if you only have 12 names, you can use those emails to make sales too. But it's not just sending out an email blast saying bye, bye, bye.

Speaker 1: 4:08

There are some tactics that I'll share with you today to grow your business in a good and tactful way. All right, having an email list is a direct communication channel with your customers and leads. Now, leads are just business lingo for potential customers, and having direct communication with them is way better than trusting some algorithm to show your content to all of your potential customers. This is not instead of social media posts and ads. This is going to be in addition to them. Statistics show that your ROI, or return on investment, is higher from email marketing than social media ads. And guess what? It's easier than you think, and you don't have to and shouldn't do it every day. And with the software out there, you can tailor your emails to certain groups within your email list.

Speaker 1: 5:03

So let's dig in. How do you grow your email list? First, add all your existing customers to a simple spreadsheet. Add all the existing contacts you have too. Even grab out that stack of business cards in your drawer that you've collected over the years. Second, like we talked about in last week's episode. You can have a drawing at trade shows or on social media for something of true value, free product or I've even seen companies give away things like a Chromebook or Amazon gift cards. But please do not give away free estimates or consults or something like that. You're not going to get enough emails for something like that. People like tangible things. Third, you can add a pop-up on your website to collect emails for your newsletter. This is something that's super easy and most platforms already have it built into their abilities. And fourth, you can create a lead magnet and a landing page to get people to opt in to an email list in exchange for some special piece of content or something of value.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Now, don't let opt-in and lead magnets terminology scare you. Lead magnets are things that create irresistible value that gets people to opt in to giving you their email. Now, some examples that I've seen are checklists, webinars, ebooks, quizzes and pretty much anything that people will find value in and can get them more curious about your products and services too. Basically, it is a free appetizer to get them interested in your company, which is dinner. A lead magnet has to be free in exchange for their name and email. I will expand on how to do this in just a minute.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Okay, so, now that you know the four ways to collect emails, we're going to do something with them, but first you need a software or platform to send emails through and where you can create those lead magnets and gather the info from your opt-in pages. The most friendly and free or almost free platform that I've used is ConvertKit. I will link them in the show notes. They are an all-in-one platform that can link directly to your social media and your website to create a lead magnet, an opt-in page, and send out emails to all of the emails that you have collected. I really love what you can do with ConvertKit, and they have tons of videos to train you all about the how-to's and best practices so you can learn directly from them how it works, because I am NOT an expert here, but I highly suggest that you check them out.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So what are some basic etiquette and ways to engage with your email list? First, a welcome series is a great way to introduce yourself to your new audience and to let them know what to expect from you in the future. Basic info is given here, like how often you plan to email them, the fact that they will be the first to hear about any news in your company and that you plan to provide value the fact that they will be the first to hear about any news in your company and that you plan to provide value from the start. Oh, and, of course, that they can opt out at any time. Second, regular content and newsletters are a must, but not all of them should be sent with the goal of selling to them. There's a great book called Jab Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary V, that digs really deep into offering so much value that, by the time that you have something to sell them, your customers cannot wait to buy. Things like educational series, promotional emails behind the scenes or stories are great ways to offer value and to keep your emails from being deleted before they are even opened.

Speaker 1: 8:53

We are not spamming our list with useless crap. Oh and, by the way, while I'm recording this podcast, I am personally realizing how much better of a job I can be doing too, so I am preaching to myself here, guys. Third, look at all the analytics and metrics to tweak your approach. What works for some emails won't for others, and you can track all of those metrics through ConvertKit. Once you gain more contacts and start speaking to them directly through carefully curated emails and newsletters, your traffic and your sales should increase very quickly.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Now, I learned so much from attending Amy Porterfield's program, the List Builder Society, and I highly recommend it to anybody looking to build and use their email list effectively. The website is lbsamyporterfieldcom and is super good at explaining in depth the steps to doing it in the best way possible. I will link this in the show notes too. She does have a free webinar, but her program does cost money. But I will tell you, guys, it is worth every penny.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Okay, guys, I know that this was a ton of information in a very short amount of time, but I hope it gets you to pay some more attention to an underused and almost free way to increase your visibility and your sales. So, guys, I got to get to going and building my email list, just like you do, so don't overlook this marketing strategy. And now, guys, I got to get to go and building my list so that I can have more visibility and sales myself. Thank you so much for listening and please rate and share this episode. I would very much appreciate it and, guys, I will see you next week, see ya. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the Quality of Life podcast, facebook and Instagram pages and our website, thearenolsoncom, for downloads and more information. That is T-H-E-E-R-I-N-O-L-S-O-Ncom. Stay up to date by joining our email newsletter. Together, we can improve all of our quality of life.