Do you have an email list?
You probably do or will have one soon. Now let me ask you, how do you use that email list?
- Do you run a newsletter and keep a weekly schedule, sending your latest blog/podcast/video content to your email subscribers?
- Do you feel a sense of pressure? A never-ending deadline because your newsletter constantly demands new, fresh content? (if your blog needing fresh content wasn’t enough already!?)
- And do you feel like sometimes you’re sending an email just because you’re supposed to, because you read it was a good idea but don’t really understand how your effort translates into making money?
- Or perhaps you do make some sales already, but as soon as you stop promoting offers to your email list, the sales stop coming in, so it’s not exactly an ‘automatic’ income stream?
I’ve been there.
I’ve had an email list for a LONG time. I was one of the first bloggers to preach the power of email marketing back in 2006, and I still consider it the smartest addition I ever made to my online business.
The problem I had, like many people have today, is not really harnessing my email list for what it can be…
…An automatic money-making machine, which runs like a ‘back-end’ sales department, all on autopilot.
That might sound like a pipe-dream or scam, since any time you read the words automatic + money together it’s probably spam.
Let me rephrase this into another question for you, one with more business-systems language…
Do you have an automated email marketing sequence that operates as a sales engine, delivering specific solutions to the problems your audience has, and sells your related products and services as a byproduct of helping your subscribers?
Or to put it even more simply – do you have a series of automatic emails that sell your products for you?
Chances are you don’t. For a long time I didn’t either.
The Internet Is A Crowded Place… So How Do You Stand Out And Get Customers?
I’m about to state something obvious, but it’s important I remind you of this…
The internet is incredibly crowded.
There’s too much information fighting for attention. As a result, attention spans have decreased significantly.
With so much content to consume, everyone exists in a mild state of agitation, feeling as if we are missing out on something because… well, we are!
It’s a guarantee that every single day you are online you miss most of the best content because no human being can possibly consume it all.
This is why we bounce around looking for quick ‘hits’ of entertainment, barely paying seconds of attention to any one piece of content because we have to get to the next article, video, or funny animated gif (it’s channel surfing taken to the next level!).
This is why Google has risen to so much power. They specialize in helping us to find the best content from within the huge library that is the Internet and came up with a way to make money from providing the service.
I want you to imagine a scenario…
You go to your local newsstand and instead of finding five, ten or twenty magazines to choose from, there are ten thousand.
Besides the obvious physical challenge of displaying 10,000 magazines, it’s pretty clear that deciding which one to read suddenly became a whole lot more difficult.
This is what we face every day online. Your website and email list is just one publication sitting on the virtual shelf along with thousands of others.
How can you stand out?
What’s the point of working so hard to produce all this content, publishing fresh blog posts and publishing an email newsletter if you are lost in the sea of options online?
Thankfully there is a better way, but it requires you make a strategic shift…
Step 1: Solve A Specific Problem
The first choice is to adopt the mindset that your website and email list are NOT a source of entertainment, of helpful tips or generic advice.
It’s time to get SPECIFIC.
The one time when you can capture a person’s attention is when they are desperate to solve a problem or meet a need they feel strongly. This is when they stop channel surfing and start paying deeper attention to the content they are consuming.
You have to make the commitment to focus on a group of people with a specific need, which you are going to offer a truly great solution to.
Most content creators today, even though they try to help people, throw random advice, generic tips, and ‘feel good’ ideas that don’t specifically address anything.
This is like reading an inspirational quote as a cure for chronic depression. It’s not going to solve the problem.
Blogs and email newsletters have their roots in content distribution platforms that are akin to the magazine and newspaper.
These are regular periodicals of light content. They create awareness and entertain, but they do not solve problems in any meaningful way.
Your website, and in particular your email list, must go deeper. People should walk away from your content with real tools to help them make real change.
Step 2: Automate Delivery Of Your Solution
When I say build a “machine,” I mean you use a sequence of followup emails that are designed to solve a problem using evergreen information. This means your content helps people whether they sign up today, tomorrow, next week or next year.
Instead of producing a random newsletter you produce an email course that has a specific sequence with a start and an end, guiding people through an educational experience.
Instead of offering a generic list of short ideas, like “10 Tips To Cure A Bad Back” for example, you take them through a series of five emails, starting with the science behind how you get a bad back, then exercises to help repair and strengthen your back, advice on nutritional therapies to aid back repair, then what doctors can do to fix bad backs, and you share your own journey to fix your bad back.
See how much deeper this experience is, and how much more focused and sequenced it is. Generic tips might be helpful, but they don’t create the transformative experience you need to give your audience for them to be ready to buy your product.
Then you setup this sequence of content so people can join any time, and let your email autoresponder do the work delivering it (I used AWeber as my first email autoresponder).
Once created you no longer have to worry about constantly sending a fresh newsletter week after week, thus reducing your workload, yet increasing the long-term value your email list provides.
Step 3: Embed Offers In The Machine
The final piece of the puzzle is to make sure that your email course has a related product offer.
This is a next step offer or a related tool or service they can buy from you to continue the process your email course helped them start. This should ideally be your ‘front end’ product – see the Blog Sales Funnel for more details.
Note your email course must offer standalone value.
It’s not just teaser content like a carrot you dangle in front of your audience to get them to buy your product. Your website and email content provide a solution, and your product helps even more to get them to realize that solution.
By embedding many offers for your product in your email course you make sales on autopilot.
Just as you make offers via your newsletter with specials and deadlines to drive sales, you do the same with your email course. The difference is that you automate the offer making process, hence the ‘machine’ works even when you are not.
This Is Email Marketing 2.0
The three steps I’ve just broken down for you are how you should do email marketing today.
You create a process that runs automatically, not something that increases your content production demands and has no specific strategic purpose beyond simply giving more content.
This is a light introduction to the core principles I teach inside the Blog Mastermind 2.0 course, where I teach you how to create your first ‘Blog Sales Funnel’ (blog website + email list + product = autopilot sales).
When you build out a full-scale Blog Sales Funnel you offer multiple email sequences like I just described, as well as followup sequences that drive people to your various products, all on autopilot once set up.
If you’ve ever wondered how people create true lifestyle freedom businesses with content, I’ve just handed you the formula.
This is a completely different way to look at an education or coaching business…
It’s important you realize most of the content creation advice out there is not like this.
Other people will have you working your butt off creating all kinds of content all in the hope of building a large enough audience to make a living from advertising, sponsors or selling affiliate products.
That is not a smart path because it does not contain leverage, it lacks a sound strategy and it’s not sustainable.
If you stop working, you stop earning.
Let’s Work Together To Build An ‘Automatic Selling Machine’ For Your Online Business
If you’re interested in taking the next step with me, learning the exact emails I recommend you include in your email course, and how to build your blog as a true money making platform, then I invite you to join Blog Mastermind 2.0.
This is the original and still the best blogging course, with more successful graduates than any other program. Here’s the link:
Take my program, gain knowledge of a blogging strategy that actually works, and then apply what you learn to build an online platform that sells your products on autopilot.
I’ll see you in the program.
Yaro
BlogMastermind.com
Hi Yaro,
Happy New Year! The started very busy for me and that’s just why I’m here for the first time in 2015 😉
I have red every word of this post and must say it has real value and explains the reason why some bloggers with little traffic are making more money than some with 1000s of daily readers.
I’m using INinbox autoresponder and it really is awesome with all the features Aweber has.
I’m taking a closer look at The Blog Sales Funnel so to grab some useful materials to help me through in this new year.
Thanks for the value in this post. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead
Yaro you rock.I love your works and you are a source of inspiration to me.
Keep up the good work bro.
Regards,
John Ukonu.
I spent my first few years online trying to figure out exactly what you’ve laid out here. By the time I figured it out, I was overwhelmed by selling services–still better than working for someone else, but not exactly a lifestyle business. This year, I’m moving a to a product-based model.
Candice, I visited your blog and your credibility with me was blown in less than 3 minutes. Here’s the reason.
You are requesting email addresses and you say “No Spam. Ever” Yet at the top of your blog you have a link to Cialis. Your blog and possibly your email list have been compromised, or you’re sending the wrong message.
You only get 1 chance to make a good first impression.
Experience is the best teacher and I heavily discount the advice of people who recommend Aweber as their prime email marketing tool since I know that their system has been hacked at least twice in the past.
Aweber’s recurring affiliate commission may be the real reason many birds chirp the same song.
My time and email address are far too valuable for Cialis commercials and hacks.
Hi Dennis,
I used AWeber for 8 years, during which time it was the main tool I used along with this blog to sell over a million dollars worth of info products. Yes there was some down time over that period and they had some issues with security, but on the whole I have no problem recommending them. I’ve yet to find a perfect software provider for any service, even the biggest companies have issues.
I do recommend people look into GetResponse as well, as they have a lovely interface based on what I have seen from some friends who use them. I personally use Ontraport for my email autoresponder, which has been my main system for the past two years.
Yaro
Automated funnel: yep, love em. My free list is up to 70, have people buying all the way through that. Just have to feed the system with traffic (paid, for me).
Paid customers are also up to 50+over half of which are about helping them improve at the skill that the product (videos and ebook) is about (putting, golf).
I Have a couple of free sub lists tied to other products at about 20 emails each; todays task is to add another 1 email to two of those funnel.
Aweber sends my emails. Easy to use, and solid. But, I “should” switch to Ontraport, so I can track customer records more easily than the laborious process I have in place now. I dread changing over, but, it is the thing to do once you have grown to a certain level.
Cheers, Yaro,
P.S what State are you living in now? Tasmania? You “get around” 🙂
I was in Tasmania for a holiday at the middle of last year Anthony. Now in Brisbane, although about to head overseas in March…Asia then settling in to the west coast of the USA for a few months.
Yaro
Hi Yaro,
I have become a fan of yours recently, I have really enjoyed your last month or so blog posts on the sales funnel and automatic money machine.
I have a list, a successful blog and a good following audience. As of last November I create my first ever product (video course teaching guitar skills), and I will be launching my second product in Feb.
Your blogs have been perfect timing because I need to set up an automated money machine and have a stable consistent sales funnel.
Thanks again.
Jack
p.s. Cool to see you on Sky this week.
Thanks Jack!
It sounds like you have all the pieces of the puzzle together. The teaching guitar marketing is a proven money maker too (even on late night TV!) so you have a good opportunity there to create a solid business. Good luck!
Yaro
Hey Yaro,
I wish I had read this some years ago. I really did turn into a content producing slave LOL… I was writing short blog posts every other day and I thought I was really doing something special.
Well apparently I ran out of gas and a lot of the marketing that I set out to do suffered a lot. Especially with email marketing. So it was definitely time to change. I started writing a post once a week and emailed once a week.
But you know what? I feel that this isn’t enough. So you know what they say, everything is real is subject to change. So I have to be real with myself and follow these tips. I’m going to check out the course which I believe is much needed!
Thanks for the share and a Happy New Year to you Yaro! Take Care!
It looks like a need a refocus to my blog. In trying to be as helpful as possible to as many people as possible it looks like I have ended up too generic within my niche.
I’m also going to have to sort out a decent funnel with a powerful attractant and a series of products that can be associated more closely with my target sub niche.
Thanks for these pointers in the right direction.
Regards,
Steven Lucas
Yaro, awesome content as usual, I have a question about your funnel segmentation, correct if I’m wrong, but toward the back-end of the funnel only few people remain, those who were prequalified because they took you up on prior offers (front end product, mid range, etc), so not every body will get the back-end flagship offering. Or does everybody get the same messages and go through all phases of the funnel, even if they don’t buy the initial offerings? Thanks
That’s sort of correct Tawfiq. I promote my back end products directly to my house list too, not just after a front end purchase. The key is I don’t interrupt anyone who is going through a funnel with back end offers. My list is quite segmented and people are going through all kinds of different sequences independently – some for front end offers, some for back end offers, and then I have broadcasts to my house list, which is everyone not on an active sequence.
Yaro
Great advice…I never thought email sequence is another powerful tool to use on a blog. I’ve always aiming for my next topic not knowing this could be done by emailing.
I have mark down that down.
What a great recipes to produce!
Thanks for the great advice.
Great post Yaro,my first time over here.
Really informative post on building a sales funnel and attaching it to your blog.
I have already started to implement some of you tactics.
This is great info!
James
Awesome! That was something I really wanted to know about e-mail marketing, Yaro. I have had a confusion on its preciseness these days– whether it’ll work out or not as people find less time going through their mailbox. I mean, they can find everything online instantly. That much faster the world is now. You don’t actually need to make things work out like before, but things would work out in a bit more easier manner these days. Thanks to technological advancements that are improving day-by-day.
My question is whether email marketing still work out like it worked out before?
Have a good day, Yaro! Cheers.
~ Rahul
HOW do you add a timed deadline to something that’s automated??? Arghh! Been pulling my hair out over this for over a year! The only way I can add a sense of urgency to get people to buy is to use Broadcasts which means MANUAL emailing. If I were to add a deadline in an automated email, I would have to manually change the offer to go back to the regular price on a certain date and when to do that since each person signs up at a different time? I’ve noticed 3 sales from a Broadcast and none from a Followup series except one just recently, and starting the list at beginning of this year. Do you just say, “Take advantage of this deal now before I change my mind,” but never actually change your mind?? Lol. Love this topic and thanks so much!
Hi Ruth,
There are two ways you can make a timed deadline.
1. Create two versions of your sales page/checkout page, one with discount, one without. Then during the special week emails you only link to the discount page. The issue with this method is people can go back after the deadline to an old email and still find the active discount, so it’s not perfect.
2. Use a tool like http://www.deadlinefunnel.com which allows you to track deadlines to the individual using cookies. It’s more complicated to setup but it holds the deadline pretty strict.
Yaro
Thank you! Wow, a response from Yaro the great. I think I have done the first one before awhile ago and forgot about it. Maybe I can also try a 50% off first email offer and then 25% off 2nd email offer to try and encourage people to buy right away.
Yaro: Congratulations! An impressive program that can easily be followed… I plan to be on board within a short time.
This is a timely post for us, as we’re trying to evaluate the value of blogging vs creating more evergreen content.
Glad that you talked about email list Yaro. Undoubtedly an email list can be a money making machine online. Just make sure to focus on the building quality subscribers instead of focusing on building thousands of subscribers who don’t even open your emails.
You need to test a lot of things along with the email list building sources such as giveaways, quizzes, content upgrades, email optin forms, paid ads and so on to find out what works best for you. Also try to find ways to make money from your email list as soon as possible instead of waiting for 10k or 20k subscribers.
If you can’t make money from 500 or 1k subscribers, you won’t make money with 10k or even 100,000 list of subscribers. That’s what I personally feel. So learn how to sell from your list without sounding like a sales guy.
Most online people don’t buy from strangers or unknown brands. Here’s where an email list comes into handy where you can build relationships with your content to gain trust.
Make sure to use email newsletters and autoresponders to help people upfront (before asking for a sale). Once you’ve strong rapport with your subscribers, it becomes so easy to make a sale.
Thanks for the write up Yaro, keep posting more.
I think that finding the problem to solve it is a key point to make the blogging successful. If I am not passionate about the solution, then i won’t believe in what I am selling. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks for sharing very informative article.
Hi Yaro, thanks for this information. I’ve now realised the importance of email marketing and have implemented it into my blogs. Also i’ll be sure to use your methods in order to get the most out of my campaigns.
Cheers,
Samuel