If I Were Starting Over…
I was watching a video this morning about advice to college grads (yes, it was a GaryVee video) and it got me thinking about what I would do if I were starting over (sidenote: if you’ve never done this exercise, it’s fascinating. It’s also a great place to start whenever you’re feeling stuck. How I answer this question today is very different than how I answered it 5 years ago).
I can’t really go back to when I was in my early twenties because the internet as we know it today didn’t even exist (#feelingold). It was a very different world, but at the same time, fundamentally, people don’t really change.
When I started my business 10 years ago social media was in its infancy.
Content marketing existed, but the term wasn’t popular and there wasn’t any real strategy behind using it to grow and scale your business (you could still game the system to a certain degree with keywords and ‘black hat’ tactics, not that I knew what they were, I was still wrapping my head around building an online business at ALL, let alone gaming the system).
One thing that hasn’t changed until recently though was the concept that ‘the money is in the list’.
Internet marketers have been preaching “grow your list” for as long as I’ve been doing this.
The problem with the mantra of ‘grow your list’ is that it always missed vital information. What to DO with that list once you had it. I don’t mean the technical aspects of what to do (follow-up sequences, lead magnets, etc.).
It was often touted as ’email money’. Write an email, hit send, and watch the cash pour in.
What was missing?
For starters, two things:
1) How to figure out who was on your list (outside of name and email)
2) What they wanted (beyond your lead magnet)
Which lead to people chasing a list that had a large quantity of people, but possibly zero quality.
If I were starting over…
I’d spend more time having actual conversations with people.
I’d pay attention to the details: what they were clicking on, the lead magnets that converted better, personal follow-up, and ready for this? I’d make more offers for things my subscribers told me they wanted.
I always had an opt-in on my site and a quick follow up to download the lead magnet, but the conversation pretty much stalled after that. I had way too much fear around ‘bothering people’, because I doubted myself constantly. Especially in the first 5 years of my business.
Here’s the crazy thing…
That all shifted for me when I went back to basics. Producing content, marketing it, talking to people, and (novel idea here), selling to them.
There isn’t a tactic out there that will outperform consistent action with core principles (create, market, sell). Internet marketing has a bad rap because as consumers in this space, we don’t have patience. We want the latest tactic for video, or selling through Instagram, to solve all our problems (and then we blame the marketers instead of accepting responsibility).
Those tactics work, but only if you do the work AND they’re backed by a solid strategy.
What if you could sell more to your list today?
Regardless of how big (or small) your list is?
This isn’t some pie-in-the-sky concept, but it’s absolutely possible when you do this correctly.
I’m hosting a free training this Thursday on exactly how to do this.
Join me at 1:00 PM PST on Thursday the 17th where I’m going to show you exactly how to make more money with the list you already have.
This will be recorded, but you need to register to receive the replay.
On that note, I’m off to top off my coffee before a podcast interview with Max Weber of Storrito!
