Happy 2021 to you and welcome to a new year.  This is my first ep for 2021 and I am already a little exhausted if I’m honest.  I hosted 5 parties in 7 days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, including Christmas, my eldest’s 21^st and a New Year’s gathering – so, yes a little exhausted.

How about you?

Well, that’s enough complaining, welcome to ep 105 (I’ve officially been doing this for 2 years now – never expected that!) and thank you, as always for lending me your ears today.

For many, and especially us border residents, of which I am one, 2021, so far, hasn’t been the promised land with border closures and business, once again, decimated from mass exodus of tourists due to those border closures.

So, if this was you, you didn’t quite get the start to 2021 you wanted, then you’re in my thoughts and I stand with you. 

Please reach out to me or my community in Like Minded Business Owners if you need any help, assistance or a shoulder!

As business owners, we need to look for the lessons which 2020 either taught us or tried to teach us – and for me there were a heap!

A heap as a business owner and a heap as a business coach.

One of those big lessons, if you choose to see it, was having a business that had 1 income stream or 1 strategy for marketing (for example only using social media).

Businesses who had either of these things, came unstuck, as the world shifted and what our clients or customers want changed.

In fact, just on that, I would encourage you all to take some time to talk to your customers or survey your audience and see what it is that they want from you – see if it’s different to what’s it’s been or different to what you think.

I get very sad when I see small business owners only using social media for their marketing.  Back 8 or 10 years ago, that may have worked, but now, being at the mercy of a platform you have little or no control over, can ruin a business overnight.

And I could sit here and fill the whole episode of clients, acquaintances, and audience member stories, of just this.  Business one day, social media gone, no business the next.

So, in January, and probably throughout the year, I am on a crusade to help you see the power of email marketing.  It’s the 1 marketing strategy you need in 2021.  Not the only 1 but definitely the 1!

The stats are undeniable, and the methodology simple – well it will be once I’ve finished my crusade!

I’m not going to barrow you with stats, I’m just going to get into it.

How to use email marketing as a strategy in your business.

Like I said, this is going to be part of series of podcasts over the coming weeks, but this week we are going to start at the start.

To be able to do email marketing, you need an email list!

A list of people who know, like and trust you enough to say, yes, here’s my email address, I give you permission to email me.

I’ll admit – it used to be easy, now not so much.

You might get an email address but is it the one the person reads.

Not sure about you, but I have an email address, that people who want an email address, but I really don’t want to give them an email address, get.

So not only do we need to get an email address, but we also need to get that email opened and read!

I did a blog a little while ago on just that, the link is in the show notes:

https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/14-tips-to-get-your-emails-opened-and-read/

So how do you start your email list.

Well, you need an offer, a carrot – something that the person needs or wants, and wants it enough, to exchange their email address for it – the one they read!

Commonly, it’s called a Lead Magnet.

The Lead Magnet should be a free piece of content, but something people would be willing to pay for – as in it has to be that GOOD!

It should be solving one of your clients or customer’s biggest challenges, problems or roadblocks.  If it does this, people will download it in droves!

Many Retailers use a 20% your first order voucher as their lead magnet – which is great, and often not only gets your email opened and read and a sale, but perhaps we could do more, do better?

As you may know, after my days in law, I purchased a retail store with my bestie, it was a kitchen shop – The Kitchenware Queens it was called – sometimes I miss that shop (or miss working with my bestie every day!).

A lead magnet for that business, besides the 20% off first order thingo, was something that took time and effort to get too.

My mentor at the time was a huge help.

The lead magnets we needed up with were recipe books, we used to print 500 copies of these as giveaways and then you could download them from our website (once you subscribed of course) and an eBook about choosing the right cookware.

Both thinking of meals to cook everyday and choosing the right cookware (because there’s so much to choose from) were two challenges or problems, we consistently heard from our customers.

Again, we didn’t come up with these ideas in 5 minutes, it did take some time and it did take some listening to customers and thinking and brainstorming.

So, if you’ve been struggling with an idea for a really good lead magnet, think about the most frequently asked questions are from your clients.  What do you see coming up on social media, time and time again, from your ideal client – perhaps in Facebook groups?

These are the little pieces of gold you need to create a free piece of content around.

In my social media business, my 108 Social media content creation ideas is, hands down, the best lead magnet I have created.

Small business owners are always stuck for ideas to post on social media.  They get writers block or posters block as it were!

So, when I brainstormed ideas, actually for a presentation a long time ago, I came up with 38 ideas for contention creation.

When I did the presentation, almost everyone in the room stood up, with their phones, and took a screen shot of that slide – it was in that moment that I thought – this would make a good lead magnet.

So, I went home, brainstormed some more and got to 108 social media content creation ideas – put it into a downloadable form and put it out there!

That one lead magnet has been downloaded over 5,000 times.

If you don’t have it – you can still get it at www.108social.com.au

However, it is undergoing a facelift in 2021 and won’t always be free – so get it now if you don’t already.

A lead magnet doesn’t have to be a PDF document to download – there’s LOTS of ways you can create a lead magnet.

In fact, I have a little sheet for you that’s got 69 of them – 69 Irresistible Lead Magnet Ideas and funnily enough, you don’t need to give your email address for it – just click the link and up it will come!

If you want to see the list of 69 Irresistible Lead Magnet Ideas go to https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/magnetideas

I have used email marketing successfully in all my businesses.

When you look at the life cycle of a customer

Attraction

Nurture

Sell

Ascend

You can see how email marketing can play a big roll in attracting new business but also nurturing your existing customers until they are ready to buy again.

Next weeks on the podcast, we’ll dig a little deeper into using email marketing to nurture your list, a lead magnet, like we’ve been chatting about today, tends to sit at the top of any attraction model – sometimes, it the first thing they get of yours via email.

I’ve worked in businesses, I’ve owned businesses, I’ve worked with clients’ and have seen time and time again, that more sales come from email marketing, than from organic social media. Period.

I want you to embrace email marketing so much that I’ve decided to help you.

But not with a course – a self-paced, download the lessons, do the workbook course, nope – with me.

Yep, I want to guide you through your email marketing.

I’ve decided in February to put together a 6 week mastermind training on email marketing.

Each week, for 6 weeks, we’ll get together on a live group call (a small group, numbers will be limited) and go through each of the steps needed to create your email list, engage your email list and nurture your email list.

You’ll get your lead magnet done, you’ll implement all the tech and have the sales funnels ready to go, we’ll plan out and start using your welcome email sequence and you’ll put together a strategy and plan to your ongoing list building and nurturing of your list.

All with me holding your hand, guiding you through.

If email marketing is something you’ve had on that “to do list” for a while now – this is your opportunity to get it done and dusted, implemented and churning out qualified leads in the first half of 2021.

We’ll have a private Facebook group so that you can ask questions as you go, and live calls each week as well as some 1:1 private coaching call so I can help you where you are getting stuck.

Interested?

Places will be limited, but if you’re keen head to: http://bit.ly/emailmastermind

The price is $1500 plus GST – again if it’s been on your list to do, this will be the best money you might spend in 2021.

Email marketing is powerful, and I love it.  And I’d love to teach you exactly how it works and how it could work for you.

Head to: http://bit.ly/emailmastermind

Ok, so that’s it for the first ep of 2021 – ep 105 – I’ll be back for 106 next Thursday – look forward to chatting again then.

In the meantime, though, head into my private Facebook group – like minded business owners and let’s chat email marketing in there too!

Have a fabulous week. 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, which if you have listened to here – you hopefully are, don’t forget to subscribe, share this episode with another superstar business owner who’s doing the daily grind and would appreciate someone making their business simpler, and leave a rating or review to show how much you are loving this free weekly content.

See you next week

But whatever you do,

……..remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!