Three Reasons Why Your Email List Isn’t Working For Your Business With Jennifer Wilson

Three Reasons Why Your Email List Isn’t Working For Your Business With Jennifer Wilson

Welcome to this episode of The Determined Mom Show. Today I am with me Jennifer Wilson, and she is the CEO of Jennifer Wilson Marketing. I’m super excited to have you because you will discuss email today, which is a huge deal.

And we’ll talk about three reasons your email list needs to be fixed for your business. And I know that that’s something that a lot of us struggle with, especially as you’re getting started and trying to figure out that email marketing component.

Many people don’t think email’s sexy or fun, but it’s a necessary evil, right? To grow your business. So I’m excited to be here and hopefully deconstruct some of that for your listeners. 

My oldest son is now 17, and I must have started this journey when he was born because he was probably like you. Many others listened to this show when they had children as things changed. I mean, they do. That’s just how it is, right? 

At that time, I was working a corporate job. I still work in corporate, but it made me reevaluate. Is this really what you want? You’re spending all your time here and dropping off your five-month-old baby with somebody else. So anyway, it started with that and I.

A whole bunch of different things. I tried all these things, but eventually, I realized I wanted to do something I could do on my own time because I was still working my nine-to-five job. I had the kids, so it wasn’t like I could do anything during the day. And so I landed on blogging. 

I will do this blogging because I like to write; I can do it at night when the kids go to bed. When you get into that blogging world, you start to hear all, and this is years ago, a long time ago, but start to hear all about how you will make money with your blog.

You need to build a list. As I heard, Pat Flynn was one of the first people that I started listening to podcasts a long time ago, and he’s like, my email list; I wish I had built it earlier, and this is the most valuable thing you can have. I tried to teach myself because I’m a DIY kind of person. I can figure it out. But it took me so long, and I made every mistake in the book, but I built a list, and then after I built the list, I realized that’s only half the problem.

And so that was the second half of the problem. And then I started helping people with those things, and that’s how I ended up where I am today, where I help people.

Writing emails that will help you know them, get them opened and read and clicked, and make money from your list, but also to speak to your audience is something that I’m still doing on the side. I still, you know, my kids are at home. I’m still working my corporate nine to five, but it’s something that I can do in the time that I have worked on it.

What are the reasons why the email list isn’t working?

The first thing is at the very top of your funnel. It is the lead magnet if you’re getting people into your world. Your lead magnet needs to be more compelling. So that’s the first thing. 

Your email list needs to be fixed because, number one, you’re not getting people to opt into your list, so you don’t have a decent amount of people on your list. And number two is that even if you are getting people to opt into your list, You could be getting the wrong people on your list who will not buy what you’re selling anyway.

It’s two things you have to get people to opt-in. And the second thing is that you have to get the right people to opt-in. And that speaks to making sure that your lead magnet is thoughtful. You thought out basically on the front end. What you’ll offer on the front end has to leave them down the path and prepare them to buy your offer at the end of the day.

What do you think the best way is to find the best lead magnet?

I would be surprised if we had like different, or if you disagreed with this, and that is that you have to know who your ideal client is. So if you have yet to learn who that person is, you’re throwing something out there and won’t attract anyone that way.

So it’s going back and doing that research, which I will tell you that I resisted it like I knew I had to do it because everyone’s telling. Who’s your ideal client? Please know who your perfect client is. I didn’t do the research. I didn’t sit down. Cause it’s boring. I didn’t want to do it. 

And then when you do sit down and do it, you’re confronted with a lot of stuff that’s hard for some people can be hard to deal with because now you’re looking. What are other people in my space doing? It would be best to look at that and get into the comparison game.

Then you start to feel bad about yourself, so doing that ideal client stuff is not easy but super necessary because if you need to know what problem you’re solving, the point of your lead magnet is to solve a problem for your ideal.

You need to know who your ideal client is to solve a problem for them. And if you don’t know who your perfect client is, you don’t know what problem you’re solving. You can’t hook them to get them to join your email list. So the most foundational thing you need to start with is knowing who your ideal client is, and then you can figure out from there what problems they are struggling with and what you can help them with.

What can I offer my people that will make them opt in? Like, could you tell me what it is? Like, is it a pdf, is it an Ebook? Is it a video series? Is it a challenge? And the answer to. It goes back to what you and I just talked about, knowing your ideal client and what they want.

So I can’t tell you. PDFs are performing gangbusters, or you know, you can say generally, like based on the kind of audience you have, this type of lead magnet or this format might be better based on where they’re in your world.

If they’re cold traffic, they might need something quicker and easier to consume versus someone a little warmer and can invest more time. But still, people are always. What is it like, like what’s working now? If you have something that speaks to your ideal client and their burning pain point is something they want to be solved now, it doesn’t matter what format comes in.

You could have like this simple. PDF thing, and if it answers their question and speaks directly to them, they will want that. And so I want to dispel this thing like you must know exactly what’s working in the marketplace. There might be trends, but it goes back to knowing who your ideal client is and what they want, what’s easiest for them to consume, given their lifestyle. And that’s how you figure out what to offer and how to deliver. 

For if you’re trying to sell them into an offer that will convert for you the best. Because you’re going to get, like you said, that no, like interest factor, so definitely, I mean, if that’s working, if that fits in with the type of business that you have, and you know, it’s where your clients are sort of in the buyer’s journey, I think that’s great, it’s a great idea.

Let’s say that you get past that whole lead magnet hurdle. And you’ve got the right people opting into your list, but something needs to happen with your list. So could it be that you’re promoting or trying to sell too much to them because some people are like, okay, I’ve got them on my email list?

The whole purpose is to sell them something, and I will sell them this. Yes, you do want to sell them something, but at the same time, my whole way, I teach people. There will be people teaching this completely different across the spectrum. Still, the best way to get people to buy your stuff is to build a relationship with them through email.

Email is like this; people always grumble about emails. I get so many emails; people are spamming me with emails, but, The email inbox is where people need to check for their most important things. Bank statements for my kids and everything from their school come in an email, right? Their schedules, um, all of that stuff, come in an email.

So whether people like it or not, it’s like this sacred place where you must check it. And so we should—that way. We should treat it that way. So when I teach people, I teach them you should be building your relationship, giving value, and creating this bond. Let’s use the 80-20 role most of the time, but use it for 80% building relationships and 20% selling.

Number three, maybe your emails aren’t working because, They’re not compelling enough to be open, and think about who you open emails from first. If you had an email from your friend in your inbox, you’d be opening that first, and that’s what you’re trying to create. 

To write their emails. Of course, again, there will be different people teaching different things, but that’s just how I do it, right, is like you said, creating that personal connection has always been meaningful. But now because of Covid, And we’re all online and, so people are craving that kind of, you know, connection with other people, and you can do it in email, I think from working with a lot of women and female entrepreneurs, there’s a lot of fear about sending these emails. 

First of all, okay, so they don’t even want to send emails because they’re scared. They don’t want to be spammy. But, second of all, when we talk about personal connections, putting your voice in, creating a story in your emails, they’re afraid to do.

There, there’s real fear in being seen, and that’s a mindset thing that we all need to work on, that if we’re going to have these businesses and if we’re going to leverage the power of email marketing because let’s face it, why should you spend all this energy. , thinking about your lead magnet, driving traffic to it, getting people in for the, your emails not to convert for you in some 

It converts for you by creating that personal connection and selling less, right? Creating that relationship. And that is exactly what you said. How do you build that relationship in your emails? And the first step is to understand; People want to hear from you if it’s done right.

Tips on great ways to craft a subject line, like certain elements that we need to include

Here’s my opinion on that because there’s a lot. People are like; you must use several characters that respond well. It would be best if you used emojis. And all of that are great guidelines. 

It shouldn’t be too long; the subject line shouldn’t be run on. And you can use emojis sparingly. You’re not going to use emojis in every single email. People are going to get tired of it. But I would. The way to get this real personal connection is that you have your ideal client, right?

Here’s my ideal client, and you write your email like you’re talking to that one person. So I always suggest that I have this perfect client worksheet. You print out a picture of who you think best embodies that with their characteristics, and you post it right by your computer so that when you’re writing your emails, you’re writing to Julie.

You’re not writing to the 200 people on your list or the 1500 people on your; you are writing to Julie. Okay. And when you think about your subject line, think about how you would talk to Julie. Like how would you write an email to a friend? I guarantee you it wouldn’t have all caps in it. Like every word is capitalized, like a headline.

I love the idea of helping people on the same journey that have kind of a shared vision of what they want their life to be and how, and a lot of the women I work with have the same; I guess it’s a vision of being that sort of what it means to. I still work my corporate job for many practical reasons and because I actually like my corporate job, but I still have that vision.