If you’re reading this article, you are probably still on the fence as to why you should put up a mailing list. You probably have heard of the old saying, “the money is in the list.”
If you are anywhere like the average normal online marketer, you probably have also rolled your eyes when you came across that phrase. I can’t say I blame you. It’s very easy to become skeptical of all the marketing hype and common sayings out there.
Still, there’s a tremendous amount of truth to that saying. How come? Well, let me ask you a question. When was the last time you bought from a complete and total stranger? It doesn’t matter how much money is involved. Maybe it’s a dollar, maybe it’s five hundred dollars, the dollar figure doesn’t matter. Chances are, your answer would be, “absolutely never.”
I can’t blame you. You worked hard for your money. The last thing that you would want to do is to entrust it to somebody who’s a complete and total stranger.
People buy based on trust. That was true before the internet, that is true now, and will probably continue to remain true hundreds, if not thousands, of years from now.
Trust is essential to any kind of commercial transaction. If you want to sell anything, you have to get people to trust you. And it turns out that one of the best ways to do this in an online environment is through email. Seriously.
In marketing survey after marketing survey of heavy-duty online marketing firms and digital agencies, email or list marketing almost always comes out near the top five, if not the top slot. The reason for this should be quite obvious.
When people sign up for your mailing list, they trust you enough to at least want to talk to you. They may not trust you enough to buy from you, but they think that you’re credible enough to at least give the benefit of the doubt to.
When you send them update after update, you get them to become more at ease. When they read your emails, they get the impression that you at least know what you’re talking about. This level of credibility increases as they read more and more of your emails. Eventually, you are able to direct their attention to certain sets of problems.
In other words, they feel that you truly know what you’re talking about and at least give you the benefit of the doubt as to what solutions to talk about. They’re still not buying from you, but they like you and feel that they know you enough to want to keep receiving your emails. This is crucial to the sales process.
The LKT Process
To sell to somebody online or offline, you have to go through the LKT process. First, you need to get people to like you enough for them to keep listening to you. Next, you must get people to feel that they know your solution enough for them to keep focused on it. Finally, when they think that you know enough about them and their problems, and that you truly care, they would trust your recommendation.
What follows next, of course, is the point of conversion. That’s when you make the sale. Believe it or not, all sales transactions go through the LKT process. For some people, this is almost instinct.
You just need to say certain words at the right time or you need to be a certain type of person, and it’s a done deal. Other people require a lot more time for the LKT process to totally unwind and work its magic.
The great thing about email marketing is that you’re able to work with people regardless of their timeline. For some people, they just need to receive one email, and they are convinced. Other people take a lot more convincing. It may take them months to get off the fence and whip out their credit card and buy something.
Regardless, when you are able to communicate with them through email because they signed up for your list, you are able to let the LKT process work for you.
The Best Part About Email Marketing
As you can well imagine, in an offline setting, the LKT process takes a lot of work and attention. You’re basically going to have to keep calling the prospect, develop a relationship with them, take them out to ballgames, and otherwise keep working on them until they close the deal at some point in the future.
With email, this can take place on a pre-scheduled, automated basis. When somebody signs up for your mailing list, you can set up your email list software to send an email based on a specific preset schedule.
Maybe you can send them email once a week or every other day, it doesn’t really matter. The important point is that all of this takes place on an automated “set it and forget it” basis.
That’s what’s so awesome about email marketing. You can be selling to thousands of people at the same time by sending them different scheduled emails and you don’t have to break a sweat. You don’t have to lose sleep. You can be traveling halfway around the world and your mailing list can be converting these people.
Sounds awesome, right? This is the number one reason why you should really, seriously consider selling via email.