The Missing Component to Your Online (and In-Person) Growth
|
|
Let's skip the hidden answer you get from posts that tease the title line.
The missing component to your growth is of course email newsletters, but perhaps not in the way you think. Take a moment and focus in on newsletters and how pivotal they are to your success as an individual and organization. Because newsletters primarily deal with your internal audience and then reach organically through an audience with shared interest, they are quite predictable and grow according to the scale of your organization. In fact, a well considered newsletter should have new and returning clients grow month over month, especially as you add new content. Don't understand? Well, let me lay out three areas that are specific and measurable AND directly relate to you and your continued success.
A Healthy 5% MoM Growth Baseline
Your newsletter should be growing by 5% month over month. A newsletter that is not growing is a newsletter that has both lost its voice and is not bringing value into your client’s lives. Your content should bring value enough to both engage your current audience and attract a new audience. Anything less than 5% tells us we need to fix something. What do you need to fix? Could be your website, the way you shape your emails, how you attract and attach new subscribers, the wording or phrasing, or even the email newsletter platform; doesn't matter. What does matter is making sure you are reaching that 5% MoM minimum standard of scale.
35% Open Rate and Minimum 9% Click-Through Rate
Your newsletter should have an open rate well above 35% with a click through rate above the minimum standard of 9%. These minimum standards show us that what we are sending our audience is both working and bringing value to their lives AND the lives of our prospective clients. Not there yet? DO NOT STRESS! Look above at the 5% MoM rule and then see what you can tweak that will help you get there. A well-opened and clicked email shows you that your audience is into you and that you are not just a one-time service, content, etc... moment in time. They like you and want to keep receiving things from you.
Now, some of you may be freaking out because I mentioned the 35-9 rule, right? Well, average newsletters seek the basement numbers of 17% open and 2% click-through rate. If you're hitting that, then congrats; you're hitting the minimum. And honestly, that's pretty good. But if you're niching down, then you can crush those numbers (more on that below).
Transition Users from an Online Visitor to an In-Person Guest
Your newsletter should act as a continuous funnel of value to your audience. While they may come in for a specific service, your newsletter should bring on secondary and tertiary waves of value that your audience either needs or will one day need. If you never contact them throughout visits, then you are only serving their bare minimum needs and their loyalty only rests with you as a service and not as a service provider. Help them make that transition with you through value and trust over time.
Bonus Area: Niche down!
Props to you if you have an email newsletter. More props if you are consistently sending out quality content. Even more props if you are engaging with your audience and they with you. But just sending that email is not enough, you have to niche down that funnel. Here's the thing: if you send an email to your entire audience, there's a really good chance that not all of them want to see that email. We've all got silos, right? Well, every one of your verticals should be a tagged audience, which takes your funnel narrower and narrower, so you make certain that the only people who get that piece of content, are those that have opted in for that specific vertical. What you're doing here is niching-down and your audience will thank you for it, and so will your open and click-through rates.
Bottom Line
Your newsletter serves as an important reminder to both you and your audience. It reminds you to consistently bring value into their lives, not just when they need it. It reminds them that you are there for them all the time, and not just in times of need. It helps bridge the gap between service and service provider, putting a human face on the service and not just a paid doctor visit.
If you run an affective newsletter, you will grow, scale properly, and become the most searched and sought after business in your immediate area, not just because you have the right answers, but because you have the right answers and the right relationship with those who know and trust you.
Have questions?
Just reply directly to this post and I will walk through things with you. Not everyone can be great at email marketing, but everyone can get better. I wasn't great when I started this whole email marketing thing, but I've gotten better over time and have consistently had open rates above 55% and click through rates over 25%. I guess that's what happens when you find your right audience 🤷🏼♂️