Permission To Land...In Your Inbox

I was talking to a prospective client this morning who was taking the typical shotgun approach to marketing her business. She’s spreading herself thin across all kinds of social platforms plus a number of other avenues. She admitted to spending 6-8 hours a day on business development and very little time on client work. She wanted to know where to focus her time in order to maximize her sales opportunities.

Honestly, she seemed nonplussed by my unsexy advice which I will share with you here.

I told her to focus her time on permission marketing. Yup. My advice to her—and to all of you—is to grow your email list. By subscribing to your list, people are saying they want what you’re offering. It’s a tiny, soft close. A little sale just happened. By hearing from you on a regular basis, they get to know you. And Knowing, leads to Liking and Trusting. That’s the trifecta how business takes place.

What you do with that email address can vary. Use it to send an RSS feed, a weekly email blast, or a podcast. What stays constant is the PERMISSION to interact—and your promise to continue to provide them with valuable information worth the interaction.

Here’s how permission marketing is different:

1. It Converts.

Email has an average return on investment (ROI) of $40 for every dollar spent on it. Hot damn—that’s a high return. It’s higher than social media and paid search combined.

2. Low Barrier to Entry.

It’s practically free. There’s very little hard cost associated with appearing in a prospect’s inbox. Plus, there’s few barriers to your email actually showing up. Provided they add you to their contact list, your email is going to have eyeballs on it. I want to point out how different this is from other media. Just because a person likes your Facebook page or follows you on social, does not ensure they will see your posts. Social is a pay to play model. You do not own your connections. Social Media is a fickle medium carried by the whims of an algorithm.

Here’s the bottom line: attention is precious. It’s the most valuable asset in your sales & marketing arsenal. The value of your target customers opting to hear from you via their email address should not be understated. They are raising their hand. They are saying, “Yes,” to hearing from you again.

If you’d like to talk about ways to grow your list or provide your list with valuable content, contact me here.