The Greatest Weapon of Solopreneurs and Sales Professionals

If You do sales, whether you are a solopreneur or a sales professional, you can generate a lot of leads without spending tons of money on advertising using messaging campaigns.

Some People already know about Email Marketing But others don’t. But for you both, this article aims to give you a comprehensive guide to start your first email marketing campaign

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The most important thing in marketing is to know your goal, have a strategy to reach that goal, and set your KPIs to know if your strategy is succeeding or failing. And this doesn’t exclude Email Marketing. This is how you build a comprehensive view and that’s exactly what you are about to learn today in this article

Note: Even if you can hire someone to do email marketing for you, having a comprehensive view of how it works, can help you guide and strategize this part of your marketing and be able to get the maximum results through both strategy and execution

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In a nutshell and simple language, What is Email Marketing?

This is how I like to describe it; A Branch of Marketing where you send through email a valuable message to achieve a specific goal to a group of people who have an interest in what you do

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Before starting into the details, please keep the following in mind ( If you will get a single piece of information from this article, let it be this one )

The basis of email marketing is sending the right message at the right time to the right person

So whenever you are about to send a campaign or optimize your email campaigns in the long run, PLEASE ask yourself those questions: Am I sending the right message?? Is this the right time?? The right season?? The right hour?? And MOST Importantly; Am I sending it to the right person??

?So Let’s Dive into it,

Are You Ready ??

Why Email Marketing? No One Opens Their Emails

Before answering this question, how about looking at the data??

In 2022, the number of global email users reached 4.26 billion, which is nearly double the number of social media users. While it’s true that many people have more than one email address, this statistic underscores that email is the currency of the internet. Typically, you need an email account to set up a social media profile. Although not everyone checks their email daily, almost everyone does so at least once a month. Later, we will discuss how to leverage this to your advantage.

90% of emails get delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox. How many of your fans on Instagram or Facebook see your post in the news feed? Statistics say it’s only 2%. I will leave the comparison for you.

Email marketing offers an average return on investment of 3,800%. For every $1 spent on email marketing, $38 is generated. In contrast, the ROI for Facebook ads can vary significantly based on what the product is. In the best cases, you might achieve an 800% return (i.e., $8 for every $1 spent), but it can drop to 200% (i.e., $2 for every $1 spent) in less favorable scenarios. I’ll leave the calculations to you

Furthermore, 87% of B2B sales use email for marketing. If you’re selling high-ticket products or services, email is where your potential clients are likely to be. Instead of relying solely on ads and waiting for results, focus on where your target audience is most active and engage with them directly.

Think more of it as way to add value to your clients and the people you serve. Educate, advise, and share updates. Focus on the value you add, and, in return, you will warm your clients and set yourself as an authority. You are the person to trust and buy from. But again, don’t focus on that, focus on the value.

Finally, it's important to remember that email campaigns are sent to people who have already shown interest in what you offer—they’re not random recipients. These individuals are likely familiar with you because they’ve interacted with you before. Since you have an existing relationship, you can tailor your messages specifically for them, leading to higher engagement. Additionally, you can conduct surveys to gain deeper insights into their needs, allowing you to further customize your messages in advance

That’s Why Email marketing should be part of your strategy

I don't have an email list, how I can send a campaign?

You might not have an email list yet, but you already know people. Additionally, you meet new potential clients every day. The people you know also know others. By adding value through your campaigns, you can encourage these connections to bring others to you. Remember, focusing on adding value is key.

So your first step is to send a message to the people you know to subscribe to your email list in order to receive your weekly market insight for example ( later I will share how you can create a link from which people can subscribe ). When you meet others share the link with them as well, and ask them to share the vale with those who might be interested as well. Pitch the value of the subscription, not what you sell.

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OK, what is The right way of building an email list

I know that you want to get leads, but you have to understand that; you get tons of qualified leads when you add value, And you get a little unnecessary leads when you spam and promote. And here I’m going to tell you how to get leads when you add value :

1. Create Lead Magnets: Lead Magnets are any piece of value that you create and offer for free in exchange for an email subscription. It could be something like an annual report, step-by-step guide, a course, free consultation, etc.. whatever you can create where you really add value by putting your experience in and your potential client needs it, can be considered as a lead magnet. So create One or two and keep optimizing them. And start sharing the link to download it or schedule the time for getting it, in exchange for the subscription to your email campaigns

2. Pitch your email subscription to your social media; Use Content Like Podcasts and reels to mention about the value you send to your subscribers on a weekly basis via email. Remember, you want to own them by having them on your email list not by just creating a video and posting it on social media

3. If you have a Website ( personal one or for the business), Create a pop-up on the website: Just make sure that the pop-up doesn’t show up if someone came to the page from your email campaign (in which case, they were already signed up), and also doesn’t pop up on a sales page. Don’t distract the client from the purchase process. Most importantly, Customize your CTA (call to action) to relate to people and not make it feel like an ad

4. Run awareness ads on Facebook for people to join your email list. Pitch the Lead magnet that you created, not the subscription

Let Me Know in the comments below if you want a guide to easily publish an awareness ad in Meta (Facebook and Instagram)

?5.?Encourage offline signups with QR codes; Whenever you meet people, (and can’t encourage you enough to go out for networking and prospecting) make sure you pitch the lead magnet and let them scan the link QR code to subscribe to your email list and receive the value.

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Now you have started thinking the right way, but let's put the question as we agreed in the right way;

How to Get Plenty of Qualified Leads by Adding Value?

Let me make it easier for you and give you detailed steps;

1. You have to prepare, sending what to whom. Write down all your client segments (who might be interested in x, who lives in y, who does z, etc..). The reason why you want to do this is because you have to tailor your message to the right audience.

2.?After that think of what can be valuable for each segment and prepare a message that answers that segment's questions. It depends entirely on what you do or sell, but for example, you could provide a comparison between a couple of options that your audience is considering buying. Share your experience to show them what might be best for them. At this stage, avoid promoting yourself; instead, focus on building trust and delivering value. This could be a guide on using a specific tool, navigating a particular market, or sharing valuable market insights and updates. Think deeply about what is genuinely valuable, and I’m sure there are plenty of ways you can add value. If you still feel stuck, don’t worry. I’ll be sharing a full article soon about the most effective value-adding emails you can send.

Extra Tip: You can turn your value into a series and send it in installments. This way, your audience will look forward to the next email and stay engaged with the content you provide.

3.?Dig deeper; When people click on your email, send a retargeting email. If they don’t click, send a follow-up with a different message. If they are opening your emails but never clicking, send a survey to better understand their real interests and the reasons behind not clicking. If they are not opening your emails at all for months, then you should delete them. They are not interested and do not value what you do, so why continue sending to them?

4. Share success stories: What have you done for your clients? How did you make them successful? What do they say about you? This will build trust like no other.

5. Share about yourself: What makes you different? What have you learned over the years? What have you achieved so far? It all matters.

6. Recommend your business or your services: Don’t ask them to buy from you. Recommend it as an option and explain how you do it. If they’ve been following you from the beginning, they already know the value you bring to the table. They can see and expect a lot, and overall, they trust you.

7. Dig deeper again: If people have inquired about what you sell, segment them and send a thank you email. If they haven’t, segment them as well and send a retargeting email with a different message. They may not be ready now. If they are not engaging at all, you might need to run a new survey to understand where each person stands in the funnel.

8. Do A/B testing: What works for some people doesn’t work for others. Discover people's preferences and behaviors through A/B testing. Test subject lines, preheaders, call-to-action placements, images, and different designs. All of this is part of the journey of discovery. Find out what works and what doesn’t.

9. Be consistent: You need to do it again and again in a creative way. I call it the art of relating to the audience—the art of sending the right message at the right time to the right person. If I receive valuable emails from you about my interests, there’s no doubt you’ll be top of mind when someone needs your service. Even if I don’t need it in the future, I’ll refer you to others who do. You’ve provided me with a lot of value, and I want to give back some in return.

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I’m going to keep it short for now by guiding you to have a good start

1. Personalization is key when crafting your email message and design.
2. Images and visuals are very important for attracting attention.
3. The placement of your CTA (call to action) is crucial. Your goal is to have people engage with your email, not just see it.
4. Subject lines and preheaders should hook the audience to open the email. If they don’t open it, then everything we discussed doesn’t matter at all.

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Ok cool, How do send those email Campaigns

Using one of the following tools, you can design an email, create a link for people to subscribe to your list, send campaigns, measure results, set up automation, and much more:

• Mailchimp
• Substack
• HubSpot
• GetResponse
• ConvertKit
• MailerLite
• Klaviyo

(If you feel confused, don’t worry. I will be sharing a comparison between these tools and a complete guide to help you choose which one will best fit your needs.)

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If you’ve reached here, then you really deserve a gift. Comment below with a challenge you’re facing, and let me help. Also, if you have another recommendation, let us learn from you by posting it in the comments below.

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Think of who might benefit from this article. If you reach so far, don’t keep the value for yourself, share it with others and make a dent.

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Also If you are passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation, Don’t forget to watch the latest episode from My podcast MUBTAKIR, where I meet with innovative people to learn from.(Find the episode link in the comments)