Over the last seven years I've read a lot about the power of email lists in business. But, it wasn't until this past week that I realised the extent of it. With more than 5,000 subscribers currently on my database for my business Upcycled & Co., it's a good number, and I do communicate regularly with these people. This week however I was able to make record sales by sending just the right email, at just the right time. Let me tell you what I did.
You will often hear me talk about listening to my intuition, in business, and in my personal life. It's that little voice that we can so often discount that has been key to some of my biggest successes in business. The combination of listening to that voice, plus some very quick-thinking that sealed the deal this time. It was Tuesday afternoon and I'd been in discussions in a business group around who was and who was not an essential service (as defined by the New Zealand Government in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic). Of course everyone wanted to be in that category, and I can certainly understand why, but to continue to argue the toss with a group of people who clearly didn't want to listen to anyone other than themselves, I quickly left the conversation and focused on my business. At this point I was acutely aware that the next 12 hours could mean the difference of no sales for the following month or at least a few if I made the right decision in the next 30 minutes. My decision: To send an email to my database to inform them that I'd be closing my online store at midnight Tuesday (as per the directive given by the New Zealand Government that all non-essential businesses must close from 11.59pm on Wednesday 25th March 2020). This gave me enough time to receive, pack and dispatch order on the last courier on Wednesday morning. What happened next floored me! Between 5.49pm and midnight I took more paint orders than I usually take in a month. Literally I had no idea this would happen. None. Zip. Nada. I thought at best I might get a few orders with a combined value of maybe a thousand dollars if I was lucky. Astounded I was. So, my message here is simple. Start building your email list today. If you don't know what an email list is, here's what you need to do:
Create a one page website (if you don't already have one). I use Wix.com to create my sites. Or create a landing page in MailerLite for this purpose if you're not ready to create your website just yet.
Develop a valuable piece of content your website or landing page visitors can download for free in exchange for giving you their email address (a cheat sheet, checklist, video, e-book or something similar).
Set up an opt-in where visitors can leave their email address in return for your freebie.
Start driving traffic to your website to get people to opt-in. You can do this by running a Facebook ad, create a Facebook and website cover image to tell your audience about your free download, post about it, do Facebook lives about it and have it front and centre on your website on every page.
Don't know how to do some of these things? Get onto Google and YouTube to find out. As a business owner we all need to become master researchers, and this is how I have learned everything I now know about business. Now, I want you to do 3 things: 1. Check out my FREE Resources to start taking action. 2. Come and join my FREE Facebook group here. 2. Like, Follow & Select See First on my Facebook page here. See you there,
p.s. Want to know when my book, Flourish, will be ready for pre-sales? If so, sign up here.