2011 marks the thirteenth year that Focus Consulting and Training has been in business. As I look back at all the brilliant and less-than-brilliant moves I’ve made over the years, there is always one that sticks out.
I wish I had started my email marketing list on day one of my business in November of 1998. The ability for you to capture one-time web visitors and stay in touch with them is relationship and marketing brilliance. When someone is initially shopping, they will visit several websites. On each of those websites the average user will stay less than 30 seconds. They will leave and never come back again. In a couple of minutes, they will have forgotten all about the most recent sites they visited.
Your online presence needs to have a built-in way to capture and stay in touch with shoppers. And you need to take action TODAY to do this. A good long-term email strategy requires planning and multiple toolsets. But there are steps you can take today to get on the right track. If your competition is taking those steps and you are not, they have an advantage over you. When the prospect is shopping and comparing your two companies and the prospect signs up for your competition’s email list, your competition can immediately start building a long-term relationship with that prospect. As opposed to you who lost them after they left your website.
Check out the impact of email on this infographic from SmarterTools . Click on the graphic to see it full size. And then keep reading below to learn how you can get started today on your own for free:
If you are interested in more information about planning and building great email campaigns visit our Contact Page and let us know about any questions you may have.
We use Infusionsoft for our email campaigns because it is an amazing platform that can make your life easier and make your days go by stress-free.
What you can do today on your own to fix this disadvantage (This is the oversimplified version. Contact us if you need help setting this up.):
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Design a 5+ page report on inside information that you would share with a hot prospect that you took to lunch. Get that report proofread and looking great. Make sure you include plenty of visuals. Ensure your contact information and website is all over that report (in the header and footer). Save it in PDF format.
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Get a free Mailchimp email marketing account. Create a new empty email list in your account.
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Set up an “autoresponder” for that new list. This means when people subscribe to your list Mailchimp will automatically email that report.
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Use your new list to design a sign-up form for the left or right side of your site.
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Add that Mailchimp form to your site. Offer that report that you designed for free. All the prospects must do is fill out your form.
Even though this is oversimplified I hope you get the basic idea. You want to offer your brilliant report for free if they give you their contact information. I use this method and generate a continuous stream of new, free leads every day.
So, what are you waiting for?
While you have been reading this blog post it is likely new visitors have come to your website, shopped around, and then left. Don’t let that keep happening. Get your email marketing list started today. Trust me – you don’t want to regret it 13 years from now.
Take care my friend,
~ Patrick