If I were a service provider not getting sales from email marketing, this is what I'd do
If you're a service provider and your:
Inbox is dead
Replies are non-existent
Sales have dwindled to 0 from your emails
I want you to know, it doesn't have to stay that way.
If you have a slam-dunk over that's been proven to provide value, you should be able to make consistent sales through your email messaging. It's very likely that all you need to do isAll you need to do likely fine-tune the basics you have.
In this blog post, I'm going to go over the exact steps you should take if you are a service provider who either wants to start or revive your sales through email marketing.
Re-evaluate your outreach strategy
If you want to get more sales from email marketing, think about how you're reaching out to clients.
Is social media your outreach method of choice? If so, wonderful! The question I'd ask you is, how are you using social media to grow your email list?
Having an Instagram profile is helpful, but if you rarely, or never, post about your email list, encouraging other business owners or followers to join, you're not going to have many email conversions, simply because you don't have people on your list to start with.
What you should do is use your social media content as a marketing funnel. This means that you create content, perhaps in Stories, or in your feed as a Post or Reel, designed to bring your followers onto your email list.
Another technique to jumpstart your email list building is creating a lead magnet to email list funnel.
The steps go like this:
Create a freebie that provides insane value to your audience
Link it to your email list
Promote your freebie like crazy! Include a link to it in your bio, post it at least once a week on Stories, and create problem-awareness posts positioning your freebie as the solution
Watch your list grow!
In addition, you could also run Facebook ads to your freebie. This is another great way to add people to your list. Obviously this is paid, so be ready to spend a bit of money on this digital marketing technique. If you choose to go this route, I'd recommend starting with $10 per day funneled into three different ads. At the end of 10 days, see what's working the best and pool your resources into that ad.
Yet another way to add subscribers to your email list is by doing either IG or FB lives! Hopping on a live video, chatting for a few minutes with your followers, and encouraging them to subscribe to your email list directly is a great way to get people on your list.
If this social media stuff doesn't apply to you at all because you don't have a profile, that's ok! You don't have to have an instagram account to grow your business. Just make sure you have a content marketing funnel somewhere online to organically grow your email list. If not, you'll have missed opportunities to expand your email list.
Consider the Relevancy of Your Emails
A possible reason you may be seeing low or no email conversions is because your audience doesn't feel your email are relevant to them.
When you collect email addresses on your landing page, make sure you have clear messaging about what subscribers can expect from your email list.
Answer the 4 w's: who, what, when, and why.
Who is the email list for (aka who is your ideal client)?
What will you send in your email communication?
When can your subscriber expect to hear from you (this one is vital. Emailing too little or too much unexpectedly reduces the likelihood your subscrivers will buy from you.)
Why are you sending this email, or what's the value that your subscriber will have in their life as a result of getting your emails?
Having clear expectations from the onset will help you keep and retain your email subscribers.
People respond well to people who do what they say they will do. Act according to the expectations you've set for subscribers!
Utilize Segmentation for Relevance
Beyond ensuring your email marketing is providing what subscribers believed it would, you can segment your audience within your email list for maximum relevancy.
As a general practice, you shouldn't be sending out your email newsletters to your entire list. Your regular email communication should go to the most engaged subscribers.
Additionally, you can send out email sequences or campaigns to certain pockets of your email list, or you can have them sent out based on pre-determined behaviors.
For example, a post-upsell sequence sent out when a subscriber purchases a digital product is a fantastic way to upsell (side note: if you sell any kind of product, digital or physical, you are letting money go down the drain if you don't have a post-upsell sequence. Ok, back to the regularly scheduled programming.)
Then, after they've bought, you can put them on a past purchase segment of your audience and send them targeted communication related to their past purchase.
Separating your email list based on past actions taken, needs, or interests, is one of the best ways to increase conversion rates because the messaging is more specific.
When we feel like someone is speaking directly to us, we're more likely to pay attention, and respond, either through email conversations or email conversions.
If you don't have any segmentation in your list, it's time to change your email approach.
A good place to start is with these basic groups:
people who have purchased within the last 30-60 days
people who have opened and clicked your emails
people who have visited your website
inactive users (people who haven't opened an email in 60-90 days)
Create a Welcome Sequence
If you don't have a welcome sequence as a part of your email strategy, you are leaving money on the table. I can promise you that much.
A welcome sequence is an important part of your email marketing because it nurtures the warm leads who want to be in your community.
It's your way of letting your subscribers know what you're about, positioning yourself as an authority in your field, and providing a clear path on how someone can work with you.
In your email marketing system, you'd need to trigger this sequence to get sent out as soon as someone signs up for your email list.
Send out 4-5 emails over 4-5 days. Make sure your marketing message is on point, with your brand voice capturing attention as you explain what you do and how you do it.
When a welcome email sequence is in place, and working correctly, it nurtures and sells on auto-pilot for you.
If you don't have a welcome sequence, as soon as you're done reading this article, open your email marketing platform and write it out!! OR, you could have me write it for you. :)
Here is your basic outline for your welcome sequence as a service provider:
Email 1: Thank your new subscriber for joining the list, talk about some of your values & work, then a clear call to action into a service or how people can work with you.
Email 2: De-bunking a common misconception in your industry or giving a hot take
Email 3: A quick win (here's exactly how I'd do "x" if I were "y", 3 ways to boost "x", why "x" isn't happening for you). Make sure to tie this back into your freebie offer
Email 4: A client win
Email 5: More values + all the ways people can learn from you
Use Storytelling to Engage
Maybe people aren't buying from your emails because they're boring.
Sorry! Didn't mean to be blunt, but I'm here to give you the truth in love.
If your emails can't hold attention, they're not going to convert.
As a business owner with an email list, one of the most powerful marketing techniques you'll ever learn is how to tell a story.
Storytelling is as old as time. Human beings have used storytelling as a means to entertain, to warn (a story with a moral), and to pass down oral history.
The technique of storytelling is responsible for 90%+ purchasing decisions you've made in your life.
Storytelling is powerful in digital marketing because it resonates with our limbic system, the part of our brain that processes emotions.
Humans decide to purchase with emotion and justify the purchase with logic.
So when you write a story that tells about a time you helped a client overcome a barrier to get a big win, you're connecting deeply with the audience and priming them to buy.
Storytelling is by far the best way to do this, because we often see ourselves in the story. When we hear a story about someone who went from a to b, we think "maybe that can be me."
Then, when you follow-up that story with logic, like how your program has helped hundreds of people, or how your courses have a 100% success rate, you are setting yourself up for selling success.
Long story short: start telling meaningful stories that circle back around to your business.
You don't have to write about the "exciting" parts of your life. 80% of life is boring for all of us. Your stories aren't meant to entertain as much as they are meant to connect.
Writing about your busy life as a spouse, parent, student, or working professional is more than enough to keep your audience engaged.
Stop Ghosting Your List
I don't know who needs to hear this, but stop ghosting your list!!
If you want to be a service provider who makes money regularly from email marketing, you won't get that when you show up only at launch time.
What you're doing by not emailing your list regularly is training your subscribers to tune you out.
They're not going to connect your voice with any kind of authority because they haven't seen you establish that authority through consistent email communication.
Further, when your email marketing schedule is touch-and-go, or if you think "I'll only write when I have time", you're not showing yourself to be a consistent business owner.
Especially if you promised youe email subscribers to communicate with them regularly.
I don't want to do business with flaky business owners, do you???
I didn't think so.
Stop showing up as a flake, and starting showing up as a reliable, consistent business owner.
Coming through on the little things (email marketing) will help your audience to know that you can be trusted with the larger details (your services).
This will, of course, improve your email conversions too!
Analyze Audience Behaviors and Needs
My last step for you to take in order to increase conversions and sell more is to take stock of who's in your audience and what they need.
Let me ask you a question: when was the last time you polled your audience? If you can't remember, or if it was months ago, your email approach is off.
As a business owner, you should be consistently polling your audience to better understand their needs and what they want from you.
If you don't ask them what they need through very direct messages, your marketing is guessing and isn't grounded in data.
Ask your email list very direct, specific questions in order to learn their needs.
Here's what I want you to try.
Send out the following email to your email list within the next week.
Subject line: A quick question
Preview text: Could you please answer one question for me?
Body copy:
Hi there [First name],
I want to learn how I can better serve you and the rest of my audience.
In order to do that, I need some information from you:
What are your biggest problems right now related to [YOUR FIELD]?
If you could please hit reply and give your answer, I'd really appreciate it.
Thank you!
---
Why this email works: It's short and sweet, and asks your subscribers to do one thing that's very easy.
When you're trying to get data or feedback from your audience, you need to make it easy for them.
Don't overcomplicate it. A simple survey with a few questions, or an email with one question, sent out regularly, are wonderful ways to find out more about who your audience is and what they need.
Once you have those answers, you can begin to position yourself as the person ready and able to meet their needs.
Conclusion and Next Steps
Those are all the tips I have for you today!
I encourage you to choose one thing I mentioned and implement it within the next week. You don't have to do all the things, but doing nothing is going to keep you in the same spot you're in.
Be bold! Take a step towards optimization so you can move closer to selling in your emails.
Don't forget I'm here to help you with allllll your email copy and email strategy needs!! Holla at ya girl if you have questions or need anything!
