Why your email list is taking so $#%& long to buy

90 is the new 30

Conventional wisdom used to be that the first 30 days on your email list were your money makers.?

Theoretically, in those 30 days, your job was to dazzle your new lead, squeeze them through as many funnels as you could get them to open, and enjoy the sweet, sweet cash flow.

Some businesses went so far as to boot email subscribers off the list if they hadn’t bought in a relatively short time frame.?

This mindset was driven largely by the ability to buy a lot of cheap traffic. You could toss folks into the funnel, turn the crank, and cash came out the bottom.

And you wanted to make back that ad spend as fast as you could, then move on to the next pack of suckers ... er, valued potential customers.

Never mind that all of this usually worked a lot better in theory than in practice.

Even putting that to one side, this year has been different.

Here’s what I’m hearing lately from digital business owners and OBMs behind the scenes:?

Offers that used to convert in 30 days are now taking more like 90-180. And sometimes longer.

A mountain of stress has taken a toll on us — and on our subscribers.?

Longer lead times are one symptom of that stress. People need more reflection time to make decisions, especially decisions that involve spending money.

And it doesn’t matter how brilliant your sales page is, if the person who shows up to read it doesn’t feel ready. *

You can rail against longer sales cycles, or try to “manifest” something different. Or maybe you’ll find “one weird marketing trick” that changes things.

I prefer to work with the reality we have in front of us.?

So here’s what I recommend.

Keys to planning a longer client nurture cycle

Create an environment of conversion

Back in my Copyblogger days, we didn’t talk much about “leads,” “prospects,” or even a “list.”?

We talked about audience.

At a time when some high-profile marketing folks were literally advising you to treat your email list like your personal ATM, we were talking about building trust and long-term loyalty.

These days, I think of it as creating an ecosystem of conversion.

• Some folks on your list need your offer right now. (Don’t play games, just let them give you their money.)
• Others won’t be ready for months, or potentially years. They need to know why your approach works so well, and why you're the right person to deliver it.
• And others may never be ideal buyers — but they play a valuable role that I call the Second Customer.

I use the word conversion because you’re probably not trying to create a global nonprofit collective.

You have a product or service to sell.?

It’s not 2008 any more. And you don’t have to feel like you should be writing a million words of content and then hoping people pick you.

You have every right to be smart and strategic and ask for the business.?

And you don't need to turn into a funnel-grinding creep to do that.

Move “at the speed of trust”

My friend Jung Starrett uses this phrase a lot, because it’s so core to how human brains navigate change.

(Stephen Covey wrote a whole book on The Speed of Trust.)

When we’re facing serious stress, we react from a predictable menu of responses.? Four of the most common are:

Fight. Flight. Fawn. Freeze.

The Freeze response gets a lot more attention these days, as we understand more about how trauma works.

But those old-fashioned marketing guys have been on to Freeze for a long, long time.?

Freeze is the source of the sales cliché,

“The confused mind does not buy.”

When your message creates stress (which it will do if that message is confusing, toxically aggressive, or misaligned with your buyer’s values), people will do one of two things.

• A, mark you as spam and move on. (Flight, with a sprinkle of Fight.)
• B, park your sales page on a tab while they decide if it’s ok to trust you, if they’re going to feel dumb for buying, and if this is a safe path toward what they want. (Pure Freeze.)

Again, none of this is new. It was already old when I wrote about it in 2009: The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy.

You know, the good old days, back when the flu was just the flu and David Bowie still walked the earth.?

It was true in the 1950s and the 1850s and probably the 1750s.

But it’s especially strong now, because everyone’s nervous system has been on hyper alert for so long.

So, how to create that environment of trust so buyers can move forward??

There are a lot of answers to this question, but let me start with three of my favorites, specifically around how you build out your email list.

#1 — Start strong and clear

Start by making a strong first impression and letting folks know what you do, how you do it, and why you do it that way.

You also need to make it clear that you're safe to be around. That is, that your values aren't sharply out of alignment with theirs, and that you do business in an ethical, principled way.

If you don’t feel amazing about your email welcome sequence, put it on your priority list.

Note: Your opt-in magnet can't do the job all alone

Great opt-in incentives are useful, but their primary purpose is to get folks onto your list.?

It’s well worth your time to make those incentives as great as you can make them!

?But getting people to actually read the messages you send is an entirely different task.

Your subscribers need to feel safe and informed before they’ll be ready to move forward with a purchase.

#2 — Keep your offers visible

It shouldn’t come as a weird shock to your list when you make an offer for a paid product or service.

And failing to mention your offer early is why some folks have enviably large lists that don't include enough buyers.

As you build out your email marketing, particularly your sequences,

• Make sure you’ve aligned your marketing to attract the right buyers for your offers.
• Present your offers early and often.?
• Vary how you present offers so they don’t become invisible.?

?And be careful about falling into the “pure content/dirty content” trap. All content you build for your business should serve a business purpose.

One of the smartest ways to do this is to create one or more evergreen email funnels.?

(I don’t love the term funnels, so I call them paths to purchase. But it’s the same idea — a repeated sequence that presents a powerful sales argument and gives all the information needed to make an informed decision.)

There's no reason these should feel like aggressive robo-pitches.

But you have every reason to regularly show your subscribers why you’re such a good choice for your preferred buyer.

That means you put your offers in front of subscribers, early and often, and make a great case for choosing them.

#3 — Use a human voice

AI has its place in modern content creation. But it’s too often used to crank out a high volume of words.

We didn’t need to add to the volume of verbiage on the internet before ChatGPT. We extra triple do not need to do that now.

One of the greatest benefits of creating smart email sequences is that you can use your strongest messages over and over and over again.

Instead of streaming out more words, you’re getting the right words to the right people at the right time.

When you’re creating an environment of trust, especially when you're using smart automation, people want to know there’s a human on the other side of that email address.

That means that, in order to do their job, email sequences need a strong, unique voice — paired with a solid understanding of the business goals those sequences serve.

In other words, a seasoned human copywriter who can give your project a strategic eye and plenty of G.A.S.

Need some help with that?

I’m dedicating my client copywriting calendar to email sequences in 2024.?

Because relationship-building sequences are some of the best, most enduring ROI you’ll get in your business. And because I’m damned good at them.

If you want to talk about options for your business, drop me a connection request here on LinkedIn.

If I’m not the right person for your project, I’ll do my best to steer you to someone who is! I know a ton of fantastic copywriters who can do a great job on many different kinds of projects.

There’s no reason to stay stuck with weak conversions and an audience who won’t move forward with you. Drop me a line and let’s get it handled.

Sonia

* No shade to brilliant sales pages. Once you have an environment of trust and an appetizing offer that’s impeccably matched to your buyer, the right sales copy can make a huge difference in your conversion.?

But in my experience, the pre-work — what Robert Cialdini calls Pre-Suasion — is the smartest place to start if your conversions aren’t where you want them.

Photo by Terry Sayegh on Unsplash