The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 323: The Number One Asset in Your Business

Today, I am diving into your single most important asset as a business owner. We are going to chat about why this asset is so important to your business. I’m also going to share some tips and tricks to help you improve it.

The Number One Asset in Your Business

BY: MELISSA LIN

I'm so excited for this episode because there's a little rumor that's been going around for quite a few years now that email marketing is dead and I really just wanted to clear the air and also share my insight on email marketing and how important it's been because of a few things have happened inside of my business a few years ago.  If you are part of my community in other areas outside of the podcast you probably know what I'm talking about, wink-wink. 

 So let's get into today's episode. Today I'm going to be going all into my take on email marketing, how I use email marketing in my own business, my tips and tricks to improve your email marketing, and so, so much more. 

TARGETING YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

The first thing I want to get into is this big question: is email marketing dead? I have heard so many people say that it is, but I want to politely and kindly say that it is not dead. I do not believe that email marketing is dead and I do not believe it will be anytime soon. Email marketing has actually really served my business in the past few years because of something that has happened and I'm going to get into that in just a few minutes.

If we think about our ideal clients, I have quite a few different ideal clients because each of my programs serves a different ideal client, but my Fierce Business Academy, for example, serves anyone who is wanting to start their online business and start to really grow it. These clients are looking to hit their first $5k months and their first high-ticket clients, and most of those women are either in their nine-to-five wanting to get out, or maybe they’re part-time in their nine-to-five, or maybe they’re part time in school and wanting to start their own business. 

Most of the women are doing something else and their business is their side hustle for now, not forever, but for now. If I think about that ideal client, where are they most of the day? They're most likely at work all day long, and something I can remember from when I was in my nine-to-five a few years back is that I wasn't really able to sit there and scroll on social media all day long, however, I did have one thing open all of the time and that was my email. My emails consistently came through all day long. So think about your ideal client. Email is something that's very consistent across the board. People still use it for everything and it's not going away anytime soon. In my family all generations still use email, so think about your family as well. Where do you see that? Again, I don't really don't see it going away anytime soon. 

HOW EMAIL MARKETING CAN KEEP YOUR BUSINESS THRIVING

Now I want to kind of share an experience that I went through a few years ago, and some moments that showcase how an email list can really serve you. One thing that does happen often each year -  I know this happened at least once or twice within the last month and multiple times throughout the year. There was an entire day where Instagram and Facebook were both shut down. Things happen, life happens, technical difficulties happen, things shut down temporarily. I can remember everybody freaking out when this happened. Something that I know for my business is that nothing can truly ever take my business down. We always have our email list. You can always still sell to your email list, even if social media shuts down for the day, or a week, or for a month. It is always there to serve you and your business. It's really the only thing that you actually own. Your email list is the only thing that you actually own, right? If you look at your Instagram followers, you don't own any of that information, any of those contacts, you don't have any of that. Same with Facebook, same with TikTok, any social media platform. None of that is really there for you long term. 

Another example that I want to share with you is something that I personally went through a few years ago. My Instagram account was hacked and we were not able to retrieve it.  I do have an entire podcast episode where I dive more into my experience, shifts my business made, how we were prepared, and more.  However, I knew at the end of the day that it was not going to affect my business and a big part of that was because number one, my email list and then number two, I already had something set up in case social media ever did shut down in terms of my content. I did not lose one piece of content even though my Instagram was hacked and shut down or disappeared, wherever it went. I'll dive even more into that in another episode. 

Again, my email is the only thing I actually own, so it still serves me. We were still bringing sales in, even on the week that my account was shut down, the week after, two weeks after, even this week. We just had one earlier this morning, so we're always bringing new sales in, regardless of what's happening to social media. We have dozens of different ways that leads are being brought into my platform every single day. I want you to start to think even bigger outside of social media. If Instagram were to shut down today, or whichever platform you're on, if you're mostly on LinkedIn, or mostly on TikTok, if that platform were to shut down, how would you run your business? What would that look like? A big part of it is most likely going to be, at least for part-time, your email list until you start to grow on a different platform or start to bring in leads in other ways. Start to grow that list because you can truly utilize that. Again, we make so many sales every single week from our email list and you can too. 

CREATING DIFFERENT PERMISSION SLIPS

The last thing I want to say about email marketing, whether it's dead or not, I think I've made my point that I don't think it's dead. I don't believe it is and my business has proven that and created that evidence for anyone who maybe needs to see that, but at the end of the day people need different permission slips. What I mean by that is, let's say that you were over on Instagram and you're talking to your Instagram story, you're talking to the camera and you tell someone to DM you if they're interested in your program. Not everyone's going to feel ready to take that next step and actually DM you. Some may click one of your email links to apply for your program. Some may click your Instagram caption and then go to your link in your bio and then apply for your program. Some people just need a different permission slip, and email marketing is a permission slip for some people. Some people may feel a little more comfortable taking that next step through your email campaign that came out that day because maybe you have a little bit more detail in that email. Maybe you've got a few more testimonials because you can have more in an email than you can an Instagram caption. 

Some people just need different permission slips and email marketing is a great way for that. I reminded my clients of this as well, and any time a client leans more and more into their email list they’re like,  “Okay, Melissa. Yes, you're right, people do, read my emails. People do buy from my email.” Just continue to lean into your email addresses because some people are going to prefer to grab your content that way and some people are going to prefer your other social platforms. Again, at the end of the day your email list is the only thing that you actually own in your business in terms of your leads that you have coming in. 

HOW I USE EMAIL MARKETING

So, how do I actually use email marketing in my business? I have mentioned a few times in this episode that I use it in my business and it helps bring in sales in my business, so I want to share a few ways that we use it every single week and all throughout the year. It is such a great way for me to connect with my audience and share news and add value. We actually send at least one email every single week to my email list. We usually share the new podcast episode of the week and anything else that we have new coming for the week, and any other value we have. We're always posting new captions over on Instagram, new videos, mini trainings, and so we like to share that information in our emails. We also like to share ways to work with me and if we've got any bonuses that month or that quarter for any of our programs. Our email list is such an easy way for us to share that information. What I would say is, if you are only emailing your list maybe once a month or twice a month let's see how we can start to add to that. I'm going to go into a few examples a little later in the episode on how you can do this and how you can do it very simply without really adding too much work.

I would say that my email marketing is very similar to my social media approach in terms of the types of content that we add, so I add a lot of value in my emails that we send out. We also add storytelling and inspirational posts, very similar to our Instagram content, and then also sales emails, we do a great mixture of the four and are very consistent with it. Again, we send at least one email per week, if not more, and then everything that we do in terms of our funnels. So any of our lead magnets that we have, any of our free trainings that we have, everything is connected via email marketing. All of our funnels are through landing pages and emails, so all of the sales that are coming in are through our funnels and through our emails that are connected and basically create that funnel, so email marketing is not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. I can almost promise you that unless something so crazy and out of this world happens, email marketing will be around for quite some time, especially with all of the funnels that people are creating and in the new softwares that are being created to support those funnels. 

If this term is something new, I do have quite a few podcast episodes around this, but funnels are a great way for me and my business to be able to sell without actually being in my business 24/7 and it's something that we help our clients creates inside of the Six-Figure Mastermind and also inside of Fiercely Scale, so our higher level programs. We really focus on creating funnels so that you can be selling more and more without necessarily being in your business 24/7, because that’s not fun, right? We want you to be able to grow without adding more hours. I've got so many other episodes about that and what that looks like in terms of growing your business and then adding more hours, but I wanted to share with you some of those ways that we use email marketing. 

So we connect with our audience, we share big news, and when my Instagram account went down, for example, we sent out an email and we received so many sweet and touching emails from so many of you checking in and all of that was via email. It's such a great way for us to connect with our audience, share news, add value, and also share  client testimonials and client case studies and so much more. And then also all of our funnels, all of our trainings that we create, all of our freebies, our lead magnets, everything is being emailed. There's also so much more that you can do with email marketing and I highly, highly recommend getting on it ASAP and starting your list today and starting to grow it. Keep in mind that what you focus on expands and grows. Don't feel that you need to increase your list by ten times today in order to have a successful business, however, keep in mind and ask yourself how you can add one person or two people to your list today. Those baby steps are going to really add up into that compound of things that we can create. So it's just about little by little how can I be adding to my list today? Soon it's going to be, okay, how can I add ten people to my list today and 20 people. Start with the one, to the two, to the three to start adding to your list every single day. Soon we're going to have this huge amazing list that you can always sell to and you can always add value to for those days when Instagram does shut down, or social media shuts down, or who knows what's going to happen. So get that started. 

TIPS TO IMPROVE EMAIL MARKETING

With that being said, I want to get into some of my tips and tricks to improve your email marketing. So if you feel that your email marketing is not where you want it to be, let's say that your email open rate is a little lower than you want it to be, or your email click rate is a little lower than you want it to be, definitely get into testing different things. Test different subject lines, test different graphics, test the different lengths of emails that you're sending out, maybe adding and different banners, or different gifs or memes. Start testing different things to see what your audience really reacts to and what they really love. Email your list very regularly. Again, we email them a minimum of once per week, and most of the time it's at least twice per week, but email them. 

Keep it simple for you, especially if you're in the very beginning stages of your business. If you're not sure what to be adding to your email list or what to share with them every single week, expand upon some of your Instagram posts. Not everyone's going to see your post on Instagram or whatever other platform you're on. You're allowed to repurpose your content to your email list and send it as a newsletter, or send it as a campaign that you've got, you are definitely allowed to repurpose. We do this a lot as well because we know that not everyone over on Instagram with how the algorithm is set up these days.

So a few tips, again, test different things, don't be afraid to. Take a look at some of your numbers from previous launches. Let's say you just did a launch this year. How did that launch go last year with some of your emails? See what you can do differently and really add some fun into it. Ask yourself, how can you have a little bit more fun with this? Is it you creating a video to add into your email that goes out? Is it you testing some different graphics? Is it you adding in some more of the personal side? Maybe adding in something fun? Any big wins? Anytime I travel I love to share photos from when I travel over on my email list as well. So how can you add more fun to it and also add some of that personal side as well? Just play around with things in your email list. The last thing I would say is really ask yourself, okay, when is my ideal client most likely going to be actually available to open my email? Test different days of the week, different times of the week. Every person's audience is going to be different. So for example, my email list loves opening emails on the weekends, which is unheard of, right? Most people will say the best time to open an email is Monday or Tuesday mornings. Not my audience. My audience loves the weekends or like Monday mornings for podcast episodes. We definitely get great feedback from that and a few other times throughout the week. Start to test that. Test different days and different times to see how that works as well. 

Today we touched on my take on email marketing, how I use email marketing in my business, my tips and tricks to improve your email marketing, and so much more. We're already getting excited for next week's episode and cannot wait to share it with you. We will see you next week in another brand new episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast bright and early next Monday morning!