Imagine you had a brick and mortar store and you only had two kinds of people walk through the door:
- People who were interested enough based on your marketing to walk in and check it out, but once they got inside, they looked around and then walked right back out without buying
- And people who liked what they saw enough to buy something, but then never came back a second time.
How long do you think you’d be in business?
Yep, not very long.
That’s kind of what it’s like, trying to run a consulting business without an in house email list.
You’d always be out there chasing new leads with your marketing and you’d have no way to capture them and get them to look at what you have to offer over and over again until they WERE ready to buy.
It would be like trying to sell your services only to people seeing you for the first (and only) time.
Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
And yet, I know so many educational consultants who are doing just that…
Putting up a website and hoping (probably praying, too) that the people who find their way to their site are so impressed on that single visit that they go ahead and reach out to hire them.
In case it hasn’t sunk in yet…
That’s a CRAZY way to try to run a business!
Well, I have good news for you…
There’s a much better way–building an engaged in house email list of your biggest fans.
What IS an In House Email List?
Now, as you know, I’m in the process of walking you through my Consulting Business Blueprint.
We’ve already talked about the various elements of Phase One, which is Positioning.
And in my last post, I gave you a quick overview of the key elements of Phase Two, Marketing.
Today, I’m starting my breakdown of these key Marketing elements, starting with the most important element of them all: your in house email list.
So, do YOU have an in house email list? And by “in house list,” I don’t mean that you have a bunch of business-related email addresses in your gmail account address book.
If you don’t have the capability to write a single email to all of those people and send it to everyone at once with the touch of a single button (whether you have 100 people on your list or 10,000), you don’t have an in house email list that you can leverage to build your business.
And if that’s the case for you, I want to share how you get your email list (the most valuable asset in your business) set up.
6 Key Elements of Your In House Email List Building System
There are six things you need in order to create an awesome list building system for your business. Here they are…
- You need marketing to drive people to your website (we’ll talk about how to do that in upcoming posts). A (very) few people who land on your site will reach out and hire you right away.
- For the 99%+ of the people who land on your site and don’t hire you right away, you need to offer them a “lead magnet” (it’s called this because it attracts people into your world, where they become “leads,” or possible clients). A lead magnet is something of value for which people will gladly exchange their contact information. I’ll do a deeper dive into lead magnets in my next post.
- You need an opt-in form for people to use to sign up for your lead magnet. Basically, the form gives the title of your lead magnet, a few short words about it, a picture of the lead magnet, fields for the site visitor to fill in (minimally, first name and email address), and a call to action button for them to click.
- You need email service provider (ESP) software to capture these opt-ins on your list. But this software (the ESP software I use to deliver these emails to you is called Kit, and it’s my favorite, but there are a number of options out there) does more than just capture the names and email addresses and add them to your list. It also can be set up to automatically send out a welcome email that welcomes people to your list and gives them a link to access the lead magnet they just signed up for.
- You need a “welcome sequence,” which is a series of emails (typically 3-10, most commonly around seven) that welcomes your new subscribers, introduces yourself to them, starts building a relationship with them, and explains to them the products and/or services you offer.
- After new subscribers have gone through your welcome sequence, you need to nurture these new opt-ins by sending them regular emails to provide ongoing value, establish yourself as the go-to expert in your niche, and continue building the relationship.
Now, I understand that this can look like a bit of work, but it’s really not that bad.
If you create a good lead magnet, you can often use it for a long time (sometimes years) without having to replace it.
If you write a good welcome sequence, you just have to create it once and your ESP software will deliver it to all your new opt-ins for you without you lifting a finger.
And today’s ESP software is so much easier to use than it was in the past. You don’t have to be a tech wiz to use it (hey, I use it and am definitely not tech wiz material).
The Importance of an In House Email List
Now, you may be wondering why it’s so important for you to have an in-house email list.
Because, once someone joins your list, you can send them emails anytime you want, that’s why.
- You can give them valuable content that cements you in their minds as a knowledgeable expert.
- You can tell them about upcoming events you have on the calendar.
- Anytime you have something new to offer (a new keynote topic, a new workshop, a new book or online course for sale), you can tell all your peeps on your list with a single email.
Bottom line, your in-house email list is a captive audience of your biggest fans.
And, as a result, many of these people will turn into paying clients over time.
Want to know how crazy valuable it is to have an in-house list? I’ll leave you with a quick story to make the point…
You Never Know When Your Email List Will Pay Off
A few years back, when I was still doing national speaking gigs, I received an email out of the blue, asking if I would be a featured speaker at an education conference in Colorado.
I looked at the person’s name and it sounded vaguely familiar, but I was pretty sure that I’d never received an email from her before.
So, I did a little digging and found out that this lady had signed up for my email list (at that time, I sent a weekly newsletter to my subscribers about brain-compatible instruction topics) for seven years, but while she regularly opened and (I assume) read my emails, she had never once replied to any of them.
Turns out, when she first signed up for my list, she was a classroom teacher. Then, at some point along the line, she had become an administrator, and finally, she had risen in standing in her professional organization to the point where she was appointed to the Board that chose speakers for their annual conference.
And when she found her way onto the Board and the others in the room asked her if she knew of any speakers that would be good for the conference, she said, “Yeah, I know a guy.”
And that “guy” was me!
That just goes to show you how valuable an in-house list can be. Some of the people who opt-in will already be in a position to hire you. Others may be on your list for years before they find themselves in that position. But if you provide value and demonstrate your expertise during that time, when they DO find themselves in a position to hire you, you’ll be top of mind.
Alright, I hope this quick run-through of the basics of starting an email list for your business has been helpful.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll dig into some of the different pieces of this topic and go a little deeper.
Till then…
To Your Success,
Willy
P.S.–Like I said above, the process of establishing a list-building system for your business isn’t all that hard.
But if you’re thinking that you’d like some help with getting everything set up, I can do that for you.
We’ll get all the pieces created and hooked up so you can start growing your own business-generating list in no time.
Interested in learning more?
