Latest / Imperfect Marketing / 167: List Building 101: Creating and Growing a Responsive Email Audience with Host Kendra Corman

Transcript

167: List Building 101: Creating and Growing a Responsive Email Audience with Host Kendra Corman · Imperfect Marketing

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back to the Imperfect Marketing Podcast.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, kendra Corman.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We've been focusing a lot on email marketing strategy lately and today I want to zoom in on one of the most important pieces of the puzzle list building.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Growing and nurturing a responsive audience for your email campaigns and newsletters is truly the foundation for success.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Whether you're just starting to build your list or looking to expand an existing one, this episode is going to give you tangible strategies for list building the right way.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: So let's dig in.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I encounter a lot of entrepreneurs who sort of skip over the list building basics in a rush to launch their business or their businesses based on referrals, so they don't think that they need a list because they're getting enough referrals.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Collecting contacts needs to be intentional.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: In a thoughtful process.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: It's focused on quality over quantity.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Your subscribers are real people, not just metrics to hit certain targets or impress investors or other marketers.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: One of my recent guests on Imperfect Marketing actually shared that she was embarrassed to say that her biggest marketing lesson learned was that she needed an email list.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: She had a huge following on YouTube and was shadow banned.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: She had no way to reach those hundreds and thousands of people who used to watch her episodes on a regular basis.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I was so appreciative that she shared it, because I was the same way.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I was so busy working in my business and getting referrals that when I went to evolve my business, my list wasn't where it should be.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: The first time I sent an email to those few hundred people, well, a lot of them weren't used to hearing from me because I had a sometimes once in a while email and a lot of them unsubscribed or they weren't the right target.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know many business owners who don't know the fact that they need to be nurturing their email list and building it.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I do know a ton of business owners who have created rationals that allow them to not focus on it.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I don't want to bother them, or I don't like getting spam.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Or who needs another email?
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes and yes.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Don't bother them.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Don't send spam.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Add value.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Who doesn't want a value added email?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Sign me up for value that is relevant to me and what I need.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I will sign up for those emails all day, every day.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: So where do you start?
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Well, I recommend starting with an irresistible lead magnet.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Identify the biggest pain points for your target audience and create free offerings, guides, templates, trainings that are going to provide solutions.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Share these on your site and social channels to capture emails in exchange for access.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: People are paying with their email address for access to your awesome and amazing content that they need.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Now, one thing I'd love to share, because if you build it, they're not coming.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, if you build it, they are not coming on their own.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: You need to market the heck out of this, right.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Here are five things that you can do to market your lead magnet.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: One be a guest on relevant podcasts.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Ask hosts to share your freebie as a show offer.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I happily do that all the time because if it's value to you, my listener, I want you to have it, and if you want that connection, awesome.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I am so happy to have been able to facilitate that conversation.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Now, promote the offer on your own social media channels.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe you can run a Facebook ad campaign pointing to your lead magnet.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: You don't have to spend a ton of money.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Provided as a thank you to some of your loyal customers.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I regularly give my lead magnets to my subscribers without having them sign up again for another list.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: They're already there.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: They don't need anymore right, and I know what they want to get.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Consider collaborating with a micro influencer to co-create and co-cross promote the offer.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I remember a friend of mine did a free service late in 2023 for an organization, a nonprofit.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: They were so thrilled and appreciative of the report that he was able to give them.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: They wanted to pay him for this free service because they were guilty that they couldn't afford his paid services.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: He was a little frustrated and lost on what to do.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Invoicing for the service and coming up with a dollar amount was going to be a little bit of a pain for him.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: So I told him.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I said well, why don't you ask them to spread the word and tag you on their social media pages, or have them leave a review in exchange for paying you right?
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: That way they're adding value and it doesn't cost them money.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: He loved that idea and he's going to get a lot more out of it than a few hundred dollars that he was able to get, a few hundred dollars that he would have otherwise received.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Now it's equally important to follow up in a way that nurtures relationships with subscribers, not just promotional content.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: So you want to set up automations to deliver a predefined email sequence over several weeks, adding more value before ever making a hard pitch to purchase.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I always love it when people talk about email marketing as dating.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: You don't go on a first date and then go, hey, let's get married.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: You need to get to know them, then you can propose right?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: So let's work on this dating game and give them more value, while staying in front of them and keeping yourself top of mind Over time.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Closely analyze the metrics around open and click-through rates within your list segments to determine interests and refine messaging.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Removing inactive subscribers is really also important.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: List hygiene has grown in importance over the last few years keeping deliverability scores healthy and keeping your email out of spam.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: So funny story.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I was working with a client and told them we got to get rid of a lot of people on your email list.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: They're not active, they're not opening, they're not clicking, they're not doing anything.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: And their response it took so long for me to build that list.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Well, they were paying for people on their list who weren't getting their emails, not engaging with their emails.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: It doesn't send good signals to email services providers, so you can end up in spam more often with the people that do read your emails.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: So don't focus on the number.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Focus on a clean list and make sure it's growing.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: The work of intentionally building a responsive audience through stellar content that's value-added and genuine relationship building is tough, but the long-term rewards for your business make it so worthwhile.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Avoid shortcuts and stay focused, playing the long game.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: All right, everyone.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: That's a wrap for today's episode on strategically growing your business.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for tuning in and have a great rest of your day.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: See you next time.