Fully Automated Email Marketing is Dead: Unlock the Power of Segmentation, Boost Engagement and Ascension with Proven Email Marketing Strategies

Let’s talk about email marketing today. Because you probably fit into 1 of 3 categories.

Category #1: You’re not doing it.

Category #2: You’re doing it. But you’re not trying that hard.

Category #3: You’re crushing it.

If I had to guess, I’d say 50% of you are in category #1, 49% are in category #2, and 1% (or less) are in category #3.

And then there is category #4, where you think you are category #3, but you are category #2.

Step 0: The Newsletter

At a minimum, you need to have a weekly or monthly newsletter.

In this newsletter, you can do several things…

• Update people on what you are up to
• Talk about current deals or promos
• Provide valuable content

This is part of the “nurture” process. You are getting people to understand who you are, what you do, and how you can help.

But it is STEP ZERO.

It’s the minimum. If you want to TRY HARDER, read on.

Segmentation (automated)

What is segmentation?

Segmentation is getting someone to take further action to engage with your content at a deeper level.

It’s getting someone to ‘raise their hand’ to dive deeper than the general newsletter.

So what does this look like?

Here are a few simple examples…

• Ebook
• Webinar
• Video Series

Here’s my example:

That is a webinar page where people can sign up to learn something. In this example, I am asking people to sign up for a webinar where I talk about coaching, programming, business, what the future looks like, etc.

Only some people on my email list are interested, so I will send 1-3 SEGMENTATION emails to get people to sign up.

Here’s what it looks like with an email list of 1,000 people:

• I email all 1,000 people asking them to register for the webinar.
• I will send anywhere from 1-3 emails
• If they register after email #1, they wouldn’t get email #2 & #3
• Let’s say 100 people register out of 1,000

Let me be clear: I get this question any time I cover this. YES, YOU HAVE PEOPLE RE-ENTER THEIR EMAIL ADDRESSES.

People ask: Why would I ask for their email address if I already have it?

You want someone to take additional action. You want them to ‘raise their hand.’ The only way to do this is to add a small step that needs to be taken on their part. That small action, in this case, is registering for a webinar.

It would be the same for an ebook, video series, exclusive podcast episode, etc.

I now have a segment of 100 people interested in the upcoming webinar. On the other hand, I have 900 people who either have yet to open my emails or are not interested (which is good to know).

Segmentation Complete.

Next, engagement.

Engagement (manual)

Now, it’s time for the most critical part: ENGAGEMENT.

Engagement is where a lot of people screw it up. Most people think that they can start selling segmented products/services after they have a segmented list.

That may work for an e-commerce company, but not any company where the nurturing process is longer.

Now, we ENGAGE with our audience and see who engages back.

A big part of the engagement phase is providing free value without expecting anything in return. We’ve all signed up for the free webinar that sucked and provided exactly 0% value.

Don’t do that.

If I have 100 people who raise their hands, I aim to engage with everyone and have them engage with me.

Ways to engage:

• Send webinar prep emails with homework assignments and get people to respond back
• Individually email those who signed up and ask them what questions they want to be answered before the live training (and answer the questions you get!)
• Follow-up after the webinar; if they attended, ask for feedback. If they didn’t show, send them the replay, etc.

So if the webinar is at a specific time:

• Who showed up?
• Who had questions?
• Who responded to your emails?

Engage with these people.

Do you see how none of this is automated?

The days of automated online money-making are dead. I don’t know if those days ever existed.

A business is about building authentic relationships with your customers and providing value.

If you think individually emailing 100 people is “a lot of work,” my question for you…

Are you sure you want to run a business?

• If you have an email list of 1,000 people, you’re crushing it.
• If 100 people are even remotely interested in your webinar, you’re crushing it!!!
• If you can build a relationship with just 10 people, you’re crushing it!!!!!

You have to EARN your business every day. You deserve nothing.

The above statement is not lost on me. I’ve been at it for over 10 years, and I am 100% aware that I deserve nothing. I have to continually earn what I have created; there is no auto-pilot.

Ascension (manual)

Ok, don’t get me wrong on all the “free value” talk.

Yes, you want to provide REAL and FREE value, but we still have to make money.

That’s why you will have a call to action at the end of your webinar, for example, scheduling a call to learn more, buying something that meets their need, etc.

Let’s say you built a relationship with 10 people; of those 10 people, 6 are a perfect fit.

Meaning: What they need and where they are at is a perfect match to what you provide and how you can help.

You would make an offer to those 6 people.

Let’s say 3 of them are in.

With price points of $1-5K, you’ve just made $3-$15K. So now, you can spend most of your time taking care of your customers while simultaneously prepping for the following segmentation-engagement-ascension sequence.

Rinse and repeat!

,

There is A LOT that goes into email marketing! Even 1,000 words deep, and I could have gone deeper and more nuanced.

If you have specific questions related to email marketing, reply and let me know!

And don’t forget…

Try harder,

JM