“It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man.”
Objectives of this post:
- First, to demonstrate that email marketing is almost certainly not dead. (Either that must be the case, or I am a severe anomaly. But I am not a severe anomaly.)
- Second, to offer a bit of straightforward, practical insight on what’s been working for me.
You might want to start with the following podcast on how I run my business.
Why Email Marketing Is Almost Certainly Not Dead
I don’t know exactly what counts as success in business these days, but I feel what I’ve done is worth bringing up if for no other reason than I’ve done it all through email. My little, home-grown operation currently generates between 60-80k/month depending on what I’m up to. I have help, but that help is either: 1) my wife and/or 2) freelancers. I have no employees as part of my online business. (I do have employees as part of my offline business, but that’s for another post.)
I understand that some people aren’t comfortable sharing numbers, but to me that has never seemed right for people offering business advice. When you assess how somebody is doing at the guitar, you have every right to want to hear them play, especially if you are about to hire them for lessons. Further, when you assess how fit a person is, you look at how they move and the amount of weight they can lift, etc. So the only reason I can think for why a person wouldn’t give evidence of their bottom line as a businessperson is probably because they don’t have anything impressive to report. People who are good at things typically don’t mind demonstrating their ability.
And how are we to assess a person’s performance at business if there is no way of measuring success; no way of even defining what success looks like? Do we just take their word on it? I mean, is that it? For a field where so much money is being exchanged for advice, I think it is only reasonable to want a little more assurance that the person you’re hiring at least knows something of what they’re talking about. Say what you want about profit as the source of happiness in life (it isn’t), it just seems perfectly levelheaded to assume economics is still the most, if not only, effective way to measure how a business is doing.
All that said, here’s a recent screenshot form my Infusionsoft account to show where I’m at.
People are often surprised to discover that my email list is not “enormous.” This is true. But it is lean. I target my audience quite selectively and remove people from my subscriber base who aren’t a good fit. This allows me to be precise with my messaging and do more with what (seems) to be less. I know people who have email lists ten times the size of mine who are making anywhere near the amount of money. (I also know people to have smaller lists and are making more.) So, size only sometimes/kind of matters.
Primarily, my sources of income come from:
- Online coaching and business consulting. (Starting at $1300)
- Strong ON! monthly membership. ($99 upfront + 20/mo after that).
- Programs, courses, and challenges. (Ranges from $27 – $499).
I have other income sources as well (like books) but I hardly count those as revenue because they, quite frankly, insignificant. (This is how you know I must truly care about my newest book. Books for me are a passion project, not a primary income stream.)
My business model itself–based entirely around email–is simply this:
- Get people onto an email list.
- Build a relationship/provide value.
- Sell.
- Then, sell more.
- Then, sell more again.
- Etc, etc.
More than 95% of my business comes through email. Indeed, there are people out there saying email marketing is done and dead, but these are the same people who have 1) been asserting this false prophecy since at least 2004, and 2) always seem to announce their doomsday scenario through email while selling a course on social media. Please ignore these people whenever you run into them. They really have no idea what they are talking about.
By the look of things, email marketing either isn’t dead (or even close to dead) or I am a severe anomaly. But I am not a severe anomaly; there are lots of people who are doing not only as well as I am, but better. Therefore, email marketing isn’t dead (or even close to dead).
So now that that’s settled, let’s move on to how this is actually done, at least from 10,000 feet up.
I build my email list mostly through targeted advertising campaigns which I run every couple of months, along with organic efforts such as appearing on podcasts, writing articles for other websites, etc. Some people advertise continuously, but for whatever reason I tend to go in blocks. This forces me to hash out new campaigns and sequences in between promotions to my email list. I think of this process sort of like writing and launching a book, or a music album. There’s a lot of grinding, but then (hopefully) followed by a lot of payoff.
My method for advertising is very straightforward. I create some cool thing that I believe people will want. For example, a 101 Kettlebell Workouts guide, or my 9 Minute KB Workout, or my 5 Day Kettlebell Fat Furnace, or whatever. Then, I run ads around that thing to a page which invites people to join my email list. (Link below.)
Tip: Always have something that attracts people to join your email list and that can be advertised. For me, that’s my 101 Kettlebell Workouts guide.
Other ways I build my email list: Through podcasting (I appear on 2 – 3 podcast/week), writing articles for other websites (again, usually 2 – 3 articles/week), and general social media activities, though these are nowhere near as effective as people generally seem to believe. Occasionally–and I do mean occasionally–I’ll run a joint venture with someone, where we mention each other to our email list. Joint ventures can range from highly effective to utter disaster. It all depends on who you’re doing them with, and how much of a match their audience is to what you offer.
Once people are on my email list they are then introduced to my brand of Generalism and provided with (I think) a lot of value. All selling is building trust. If you want people to do business with you, you need to prove yourself. You need to show people that you can help them, and the best way of doing so is by–big secret ahead!–actually helping them.
This means my content is often a mix of helpful, actionable advice, plus an offer of some kind. It’s rare that I’ll send an email where there isn’t an option to buy at least something. But it’s also rare (though admittedly less rare) that I’ll send an email where there isn’t something useful or educational or at least entertaining. The exception is a dedicated sales promotion, of which I’ll run about one per month.
For logistics, I use Infusionsoft, which I say is like the Photoshop of internet marketing. It’s expensive and has a high(er) learning curve, but can do powerful stuff based on behavioral-based segmenting, follow up sequences, etc. If there’s a point I want to drive in this post–and, indeed, it’s a point I drive throughout my recent book–it’s that success, especially in business, comes down to skills. Either you’ve got the chops to pull these kinds of things off, or you need to practice more. Please stop wasting time on looking for tricks and hacks and start investing in real-life, tangible skills, like copy-writing or learning Infusionsoft.
One of the best pieces of business advice I’ve ever heard comes from Gary Halbert. Gary said because of the skills he’s acquired (like copywriting), he could never be poor. At most, he could only be broke if he acted irresponsibly (which he sometimes did), but that at any point he could write another sales sequence and remedy his financial woes. The point? People can take certain tools and platforms away from you as a business owner and so can a bad economy, but nobody can rob you of skill.
None of the success I’ve had, if you think I’ve had any success at all, has come from learning some “cool, weird trick.” Everything I’ve done is the result of getting better at things: Getting better at writing, or exercise, or piecing together behavioral based marketing campaigns. These are all skills, and skills take time. You need to work at them, and you need to know how to be effective at practicing.
As for what I’m doing these days? Most of the time I spend on my business is on 1) building out new email sequences, 2) creating new advertising campaigns, 3) writing daily emails to my list.
That’s about it.
But just as importantly, is what I’m not doing: Spending time trying to get as many likes and shares as possible on Instagram. Let me tell you an important secret. I grew my Instagram following to over 30k followers in three months and that did pretty much nothing for my business. So, I stopped. I was getting far better results advertising and talking to my email list. As much as those thousands of likes makes a person feel good, they weren’t adding anything positive to my bottom line.
As a business owner, you must learn to be effective and that means knowing when (and what) to quit. If all you do as a “business owner” is chase vanity numbers because you can’t help yourself, then I would suggest you are a very needy person, and that you may be getting into business for the wrong reasons, and will never find the satisfaction you’re looking for.
I got into business because I wanted to bring value to people and give myself the financial independence to do all the other things I love: Write books, record music, practice martial arts, study philosophy, and spend time with my family.
But that’s probably enough for now. I’ll continue this series another time, maybe. Or, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below.
In the meantime, hop on my email list (you can do that here – or over on the sidebar) if you’re interested in learning more about email marketing, or taking part in my Mastermind with Som. I’m also putting together an online course–that is, an Email Marketing Masterclass–to break down everything I do through email which has lead to the results above. You can find out about that through my email list, as well.
Or, if you’d like to work with me directly, email PatFlynn(AT)ChroniclesOfStrength(DOT)com with the subject line of “consulting.” I offer month-at-a-time consulting packages.
Serious inquiries only, please.
– Pat