More Clients Memorandum
Groundhog day
Posted on 22nd February 2023.I got interviewed for a video podcast last week and the first question was basically “how did you end up doing email marketing?”.
It's something I remember really well, and with more than a little embarrassment.
After I started my own business back in 2007 I got into blogging big time and was doing very well. At least in terms of visitors and ranking in the search engines.
But it wasn't converting into sales. Almost all my sales still came from more traditional methods: referrals from my old contacts and doing live presentations at events.
My big hope was that online would generate a good proportion of my sales because I knew the referrals wouldn't last forever. But it just wasn't happening.
Then out of the blue I got an email from someone who'd found my blog. He made some insightful comments about my content so we got chatting. And then he uttered the words which started it all…
“Ian, how come you're not doing email marketing?”
I'd like to tell you I immediately jumped at the idea and became an email expert overnight.
But what actually happened is I said…
“Because it's 2008 Lee. Email marketing is dead. Blogging is where it's at”.
Eventually, of course, I did try out email. And it turns out Lee was right. After a few months I started to get enquiries from my email list about coaching and training that I'd never managed to get from all those visitors to the blog.
Since then, email marketing has been pronounced dead at least half a dozen more times. And each time it's continued to thrive.
When I used to speak at marketing conferences about email I always used to amuse myself by looking at the websites of the other speakers who majored on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or whatever was “hot” at the time.
The amusement came from the fact that without exception, the most prominent thing on every social media speaker's home page was an email signup form.
But to be fair, they weren't being hypocritical. Email marketing works brilliantly hand-in-hand with social media, not against it.
Social can be a great way for people to find you (as can search or paid ads of course). Email isn't great for discoverability.
But where email rules the roost is follow-up. Keeping in touch on a regular basis to build credibility and trust until someone is ready to buy.
And because almost every significant sale needs a lot of follow-up, that's why email has stayed top of the pile.
I suppose someday someone will proclaim that email is dead and actually be right. Nothing lasts forever.
But it seems from all the data that email has a good few years left in it yet. It's still generating the most sales of any medium.