One of the reasons that email marketing is so powerful is that it scales. You probably already understand that whether there are 100 or 10,000 people on your email list, it’s the same amount of effort to send out an email once your systems are in place.
Awesome, right?
But consider your sales efforts for a minute. I told you that I first discovered the power of email marketing when I was in sales. (If you haven’t heard that story yet, you can get it here. If you know anything about sales, you know that it’s a numbers game. The more contacts you can make, and the better your approach, the more likely it is you’ll hit your sales goals.
Email marketing is the perfect tool to automate your sales process. Think about the people that come to your website or your business but leave without converting. Are you convinced that they are getting the exact follow up sales messages that you would like them to receive? What about the people that walk out of your store without buying—are they getting the perfect follow up presentation every single time?
Here’s how email marketing can help with both of those situations:
Let’s say you have an inside sales team, or at least someone who answers the phones at your business. When a prospect calls in, or is called, what happens? At a basic level, either a sale (appointment, consultation, next step) is made or it isn’t. When it isn’t, why not make sure that person gets a handcrafted series of email messages that will close the sale? With the proper set of trigger messages in place, your salespeople can at least build enough rapport to ask for an email address so that he/she can “send more information.” Now the salesperson with a few keystrokes is able to launch the perfect sales presentation to that person. This isn’t just one email, but a series of them designed to be consumed a bite at a time.
Let’s be realistic—how many of your salespeople are following up religiously at least once a month with every single prospect they’ve ever had? I’m going to guess, um, none. Why not? It’s because they run out of time, and eventually give up.
An effective email marketing campaign turns this sales fantasy into a reality, and that is a business owner’s dream come true. All you have to do is set up a series of drip messages (also called sales funnels or email automations) that are designed to educate, enlighten, entertain, inspire, and/or motivate your prospective customers to take action, e.g. set up a meeting or call you or learn more. Now, with each contact that doesn’t result in an immediate “next step” or sale, immediately put them in the automatic selling machine and watch it work for you. Whether you have 10 prospects or 10,000, the amount of time you’ll spend following up is the same: zero. You’ll weed out the leads that were never meant to be and what’s left will be pure gold. It really works and leaves you with a list of truly hot prospects.
And, if you have a website, your prospects will do even more data entry for you. What does that mean? You want each and every web visitor to sign up for emails, right? (The answer is yes.) But asking them to give you their personal information can be a barrier. If you offer your visitors something of value in exchange for their first name and email address, however, you’re more likely to capture potential leads. Once they sign up, you can then automatically send them a series of handcrafted email messages that have been proven to work. And you didn’t even have to lift a finger.
If you think this is possibly the most important change you can make in your business this year, you’re right. And what’s more—using our system, you’ll find out who the hot leads are, and whom to follow up with by phone… but that’s just getting ahead of ourselves. You’ll get that insider secret next.
If you can’t wait that long and would like to get expert help with your email marketing now, go ahead and schedule a free 20-minute consultation. We would love to get the conversation started and see how we can help you grow your business this year.
