A new study out shows that email, not Facebook or Twitter, is still crushing it in terms of converting readers to customers.
Can I hear a “DUH??”
But let’s step back for a second.
How do you get people to sign up for your emails?
Well, having a good opt-in offer is a good start—a free ebook, report, checklist, coupon, or other goodie that people can download in exchange for giving out their email address. And that’s great; that gets your foot through the proverbial door and your messages into their email inbox.
But how do you get them to keep opening and reading your emails after they’ve downloaded that goodie? Because they have to be engaged with your business enough to be actually reading your emails if you’re going to convert them to a customer.
That’s where blogging comes in: Blogging provides amazing content for new readers to find when they come to your website, and it becomes compelling content for your newsletter that shows up in potential customers’ inboxes.
In other words, if you thought you were doing your social media duty by putting up photos of your employees on wacky hat day and tweeting out what everyone was having for lunch, you’re missing the big picture.
Your blog should be the nexus of your social media strategy. Without strong content (ie: your blog), your social media efforts will fizzle and die. You link to great content on Facebook and Twitter, you send it out in your emails, you pin it on Pinterest: it all starts with content.
This is a great Blog and the content is so true, everyone seems to have gone social media mad, but that is no good without lots of great content to back it up,
Mike
Thanks Mike!
Thanks Lacy. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s post. Is there any danger of ‘overdelivering’ in a blog? I’m curious about your point of view here. Thanks…Marsha (from UBC)
Hi Marsha,
In my opinion, NO, there’s no danger of over delivering on a blog. And here’s why: the more you give away for free on your blog, the more likely people are to buy from you.
Infoproducts guru Eban Pagen calls it “moving the free line”—giving away MORE to prove to your audience that you know what you’re talking about and that they can know, like, and trust you.
The other half of this equation is that even if you’re writing about everything you know on your blog, people are still going to be willing to pay to have it delivered to them in a neat package. That’s been proven over and over again.
Plus, there’s probably some “special sauce” you have that you just can’t give away in a blog post. For example, I can answer questions here all day long and write everything I know about blogging on this website, but it’s still not going to help someone as much as sitting down for an hour with me in person. That’s my special sauce. So I’m not afraid of giving too much on my blog, because I know I simply CAN’T give it all away.
Does that make sense? What do you do and what are you afraid of overdelivering?
Thanks Lacy, makes sense to me too. But I still hate those email piling up in my inbox. My solution is different email accounts for different purposes which means I can ignore those marketing emails if I want to.
Absolutely, Carol. It’s our customers’ prerogative whether or not to keep reading our emails—so we have to make SURE that we’re providing so much value that they WANT to keep reading! That’s why I try not to do too much selling in any of my email newsletters. I’m there to provide value first and sell second.