It’s time to look at how to sell that course of yours
Welcome to the Selling your Course series – Episode 1.
This week we are talking all things “lists”
What is a list?
A list is a database of email addresses from people who have asked to hear more about your stuff. They are subscribers to your blog, people who have signed up for a free gift, or people who want to hear more about your products and/or services.
We seem to make “list building” a bigger deal than it needs to be. We panic about size (Insert inappropriate joke here) and how we can make it bigger (seriously… how are we not making penis jokes right now?!)
When we start to build our lists, we seem to forget that the people on the other end aren’t just a number, but are in fact a real human being. Yup, it’s true.
The people on the other end are real.
But the clients I talk to seem to forget that.
When they look at their list and see they got 10 subscribers this week, or that they only have a list of 100, they seem to forget that those are actual human beings.
A client with a list of 65 said to me “my list isn’t very big”. It’s true, in email marketing terms, that is a small list,
BUT
When you start to imagine them as humans, all standing in a room together, your list is bigger than you think.
For example, 10 people would seem like a tiny list, but really 10 people is a decent gathering. Imagine having 10 people over for dinner.
And if you have a list of 50? Well, that’s a pretty decent party! Put 50 people in a room together and you have a fair sized crowd.
If you have a list of 100 or 200, now you’ve got a big event.
Remember back to when you’ve been to a conference or event with 100 plus people… it’s a lot of people, right?
So while 100 might feel like a small list, that’s 100 real life people who are receiving your emails… and that’s not a small thing.
The truth is, you have people out there, who signed up for your stuff and actively want to hear what you have to say.
So, you need to treat them like humans.
Talk to them like there are real people.
Have a conversation
Rather than looking at ways to automate everything you send, why not reach out to some people on your list and send them personal emails. Start a two way conversation.
And rather than looking for ways to automatically respond to every question you get asked, take a little time to give them the information they want.
Sure, if you want to scale, you will have to automate some of your systems, but remember…
Treat them as a person, not just a number.
Copywriter Ed Dale presented at an event I attended, where he said, except for the initial email sending them a free thing, none of the emails he sends are automated.
Instead, he reaches out personally and sends them an email that says, Hi I’m Ed, can I help you? (definitely not a direct quote, I’m sure his email is much nicer than that!)
Obviously if you have a list of 10,000 or 300,000 then that is much harder to do, because then it really is like a numbers game, but you can still reach out to some of them.
So, today isn’t about the numbers (although we will talk about growing your list in upcoming emails). Today is about connecting.
My challenge for you today is to reach out to people on your list, and start treating them like a friend.