It still surprises me when business owners new to email marketing (yes, they most certainly DO exist even today) come out with their parade of resistance to the tried-and-tested greatness that is email marketing.
So let’s all get together and demolish a few of those fears and misconceptions right now.
Got game? Let’s go!
1. “I don’t want to send email too often” – they’ll think bad of me and my company and never buy again.
To that I can only say: Poppycock! š
Here’s the first shocker: your subscribers do NOT read your every email. Even if you’ve done your relationship building flawlessly (which is a rarity) and they’re waiting with baited breath for your next email…
People skip emails. A fact of life. You know you do. And on top of that, sometimes they’re just too tired to read. Next time, they say. Or there’s something weighing on their mind and they need to weed out distractions (yes, even you can be a distraction, even to your best clients). An off day. Just not paying attention.
Don’t take it personally. All it means is, if you email more than you used to be comfortable with, they will probably not even notice. Especially if you’re providing real world value with each message. Try it!
2. “Email is passĆ©” – we’re focusing on social media now.
It may be true that clickthrough rates from email are down considerably from where they used to be about five years ago. So there’s that.
However… the same holds true for everything online! The difference with email still is, that when people DO open up, they consider it something valuable. And when they do, sales is a much more likely thing to happen.
Besides, you should use email and social media hand in hand. Social media to capture fans and followers, and email to capture them for the long term, build a relationship and drip out offers.
3. “I couldn’t sell anything via email, it’s just tacky.”
Well sure. If you do it in an “I hate marketing” kind of way, chances are your readers will catch the same vibe. Little surprise there.
However. When you weave your offer as part of the story you’re telling, as a logical answer to the problem you provoked with your message, or maybe just a timely reminder – hey, have you bought your valentine gift yet?” – then you’re not selling, you’re doing them a favor.
The difference is staggering! And both of you will be better for it that day.
4. “I want to amass a bigger list before I start emailing more and selling”.
This is perhaps the most damaging misconception of all.
One of the worst things you can do is let a list go cold. You let time pass by, and your readers will forget why they opted in in the first place. Then you’ll have to start all over again, or really work the list hard to get the relationshipback on track and the response rates back up. They probably still won’t fully recover.
Even if you have a list of just 1,000 or 100 or heck even 10… you should still treat them well and send the valuable information you want them to know you for. Then you will always stay at the top of your game, and you will condition your subscribers to look forward to your emails.
5. “I don’t want to hit them right away“, I want to give them some breathing room first.
This is a close cousin of the previous blunder. It’s borne of the misconception that people who join your list won’t want to hear from you. Pretty counter-intuitive, wouldn’t you agree?
People join your list because they want something that you convinced them you have. Something that’s valuable for THEM. So why would you torture them and NOT give it to them, and pass by an opportunity to build a relationship for life?
That’s what the autoresponder is for, so go for it!
6. “I don’t want to risk them unsubscribing”.
What most business owners new to email marketing fail to realize is, is you really WANT to have the people who don’t jibe with your vibe unsubscribe.
Email marketing is NOT a popularity contest (neither is social media by the way – there’s a reason Facebook Pages were originally called FAN pages).
You want to win over the people who see things the way you do, and give them more and more reasons to listen to you, and at some point buy something from you. And give it to them in a way that fits both your personality and their buying habits.
Believe or not, the people who unsubscribe wouldn’t have been very good customers for you anyway. And if they come across your material again and decide otherwise, they can always re-subscribe. Let them go happy, and serve YOUR people.
Word to the Wise
I hope you enjoyed this quick list of email marketing misconceptions. Once you start trying out email marketing for REAL, you’ll quickly come to see the truth in all this.
If you’re still sitting on the fence about email marketing, or think it’s no longer effective, I wish you best of luck with the more labor intensive marketing avenues available to you.
For the Lover of the Effortless though… email marketing is still pretty hard to beat. š
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