3 Major Mistakes in Your E-Mail Marketing Strategy and the 3 Steps to Fixing It

Could y’all imagine in one year building a group of 41,000 people that are not only your die hard fans, but they’re opening your emails too? Sarah Mueller, a blogger turned email cranking queen did exactly that. Her e-mail marketing strategy was so effective that it produced a really hot list, which generated the majority of her revenue. 

E-Mail Marketing Strategy Step #1: Building the Community

Before we jump head first into e-mail list building. Let’s set the foundation.

We need to transition potential followers from strangers to community members. We need eyeballs, friends! If you’ve already equip yourself with the Pageview Strategies e-course, you already have all the resources you need to do exactly that. If you haven’t enrolled yet, try these 25 Conversation Starters to get your page growing.

Building a community of die-hard fans is HUGE, right? But having an engaged page or group isn’t the ultimate goal, is it? Noooo! 

You want to take them to the next level, build relationships, and really connect so they become “influencers” in their own way! The power of word of mouth advertising is priceless. 

Top 3 E-Mail Marketing Mistakes

So what does Sarah say about the biggest mistakes when it comes to e-mail marketing?

Mistake #1 People just don’t e-mail.

It’s so much work and it’s just so much trouble and you know, and then they start to be afraid or don’t want to bother my readers. You know, I hate getting lots of emails or you know, they make it too big of a deal.  

Mistake #2 Overcomplicating the e-mail process, turning it into a big production.

People often try to cram too much into their emails. They’re like, hey, I wrote this blog post and then there’s this great pin on Pinterest and then here’s 14 other blog posts, this email that just goes on and on and on.

Simplify your e-mails, PLEASE! I have a hard enough time deciding what’s for dinner. I don’t have time to walk through a novel of an e-mail.  Make your e-mails direct and to the point. Tell your subscriber exactly what you need them to do. Like Sarah says, “Train them to take an action.”

Keeping it simple kind of removes those friction points that just paralyzes us from getting that one to-do completed. So I love, LOVE the tip of keeping it simple!

Mistake #3 Being too formal.

You don’t need a fancy template. You don’t have to proofread it 14 times. The way that I approach e-mail and the way that I teach people to do it is, treat it like you’re emailing a friend.

Now, let that sink in for a minute. Doesn’t that make complete sense? In order to turn your fans into hot buyers, you need to build that relationship up. So why wouldn’t you e-mail them as if you’re having a regular conversation?

E-Mail Marketing Strategy Step #2: Gaining Leads

In the Facebook LIVE with Sarah Mueller, from Early Bird Mom, we discussed generating leads. If you’ve already signed up for some our Moolah worksheets you’ll see we absolutely agree with Sarah’s suggestion. 

Create something that’s super, super valuable but also like really, really easy to implement.

I’m a fast action thinker, so e-books and workbooks as opt-ins don’t capture me. The reality is, it doesn’t attract a ton of people because it takes too much effort. We want to give our subscribers quick results because that’s the fastest method for building our credibility. They are celebrating their wins and loving you for it!

Promoting your lead magnets or opt-ins should be a duplicatable process. I personally use landing pages that I can easily replicate and update for the latest opt-in.

I then link those pages organically in blog posts or share them across all my social media platforms. 

E-Mail Marketing Strategy Step #3: Engaging Your List and Keeping Them Warm

So, now you have a list growing through lead generation, what next? There’s no need to recreate the wheel. I’m sure you have content whether it’s a great Facebook post you want to expand on, a story you want to share, or a blog post that’s creating a ton of discussion.  Use those to keep your list engaged. 

When you start to see the replies it’s amazing, right? Questions, comments, and all that good stuff just creates more content and e-mail topics for later. 

…if one person has that question, then 100 others do.

Guys and gals, you need to keep your list warm. You can accomplish that by asking your readers questions, answering them using social media posts. You can do that all while using your list to engage in other places. Keep the conversations going!

AND… Remember, your email list is only one part of the “leads puzzle” – those same people you should create a custom list on Facebook – and you should be targeting them with your content.  They should be on your messenger lists and getting subscription broadcasts over Facebook messenger chats, and if you have a group they should be in there – as your leads, engaging with you.

Keeping your leads warm is a wholistic endeavor.  Our readers are everywhere and we need our marketing to be there with them too.

P.S. This Means You’ll Need More Than Just E-Mail Marketing, Friends!

So this is another thing you need to know about leads. You don’t want them in just one place. If you just have them in e-mail you’re not getting the full picture of that person’s life. If you just have them in a group, well, you can’t retarget them the same way. They don’t buy as much as if you have them in your e-mail as well. And if you don’t have them on a page, well the ads, I mean we all want ads and we want cheap ads, we don’t want to spend money for every eyeball, right?

So we kind of need all three to work together. And I love how, how well Sarah was able to unite the three. 

Here are my suggested resources to start your marketing journey to increasing all three of these major areas. 

• Inbox Invitation (e-book) – This one’s packed with actionable content from our Facebook LIVE guest Sarah Mueller. You thought the information in the replay was good. There’s so much more she shares in this e-book.
• Facebook LIVE video topics – Keep the conversations going with these live topic ideas.
• The Ultimate Audience Growth Pack – Jump right ahead to the full pack of worksheets to get your business to the next level.

If you haven’t enrolled in my Page Strategies e-course yet, make sure you get on the waiting list!

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