Is Your Private Goldmine So Private Even You Don’t Know About It?

I work with dozens of small business owners and see so many of them fail to use the FREE, priceless resource that could be using to promote their business. And it’s perfectly suited for generating leads right away. For lack of time, discipline, priorities, whatever, they end up wasting what could otherwise be a fueling their sales pipeline.

What is this mysterious goldmine?

THEIR LIST OF EMAIL CONTACTS

People constantly use email to reach their contacts - friends, family, business acquaintances, anyone really. You share information with them. You ask them questions. You set up times to meet or talk to them.

Why would you NOT turn to these people for help promoting whatever it is you need promoting?

Now I’m not suggesting you blast everyone you know with nagging sales email. I am suggesting (more like strongly recommending) that you reach out to everyone you know via email every 3 to 4 weeks with something that:

• Showcases your expertise,
• Reminds them of what you do or
• Requests their help with some aspect of your business.

Please notice I did NOT say,

“Send emails with blatant sales copy describing the products and services you offer or information on your price reductions for the week.”

That might work if you have a list of clients that buy from you frequently. It won’t work with the general list of contacts I’m describing. You do that to them and they’ll eventually opt-out of your list with hopes of never getting anything from you ever again.

Now let’s do the numbers of this. On average, people have 300 to 600 contacts in their Outlook or email contact lists. Of those people, they are probably tight with about 100 to 200 of them. That’s 100 to 600 people who are very likely to want to help you if they can.

I recorded an audio message “Email Campaign Goals That Work” a few months back along with a transcript for the message that includes suggestions on what to write.  What I want to focus on here is how to grow the list.

If you do a fair amount of networking, you can easily gather 10 business cards a week. You simply ask anyone who gives you their business card, "Would mind if I send you information so you know more about what I do?"

Who’s going to say no to that?

If you do this consistently, you’ll grow your list by 40 people a month. That’s 500 or so people a year.  If you get creative you can probably up that number significantly. Set a target for yourself and drive towards growing your list – your goldmine – even faster.

And it’s not necessarily the raw size of your list that matters. It’s the reach. You’ll run into people who you think wouldn’t have the slightest interest in what you sell.  What you don’t know is if they have a wife, brother, father, son, daughter or best friend that does have an interest.

For example, my wife is a personal stylist at an upscale department store in Coral Gables.  She lives and breathes the stuff you wear.  So I pay attention to fashion related email messages that might be of interest to her.  If you avoiding sending me that kind of stuff, you would never have made the connection with my honey who does.

So remember.  Your once a month message is getting you access to your contacts AND to everyone they think should get your message That’s where the power of email marketing – goldmine style –goes to work for you.

One final note: Collecting all those email addresses can be a real drag. It’s tough to do consistently when you have other pressing responsibilities. That’s why I’ve included entering 20 to 30 business cards per week in my Keep the Message Going Package. It’s such a critical factor in the email marketing campaigns I recommend that I’ve made it a part of the program so you’re assured it gets done.

Hope this helps!