Lantern Marketing is now part of Guide MKTG. 🎉 Read about the acquisition here.
If you’re like most small business owners, you pride yourself in stretching your marketing dollars to the max. If so, effective sales emails need to be part of your marketing strategy. Sales emails are highly effective when done well. They don’t have to be spammy or annoying. In fact, a sales email can be helpful, and even welcomed, by your potential customers. Learn to sell in a way that is helpful with the Marketing Made Simple sales email sequence for small businesses.
In Marketing Made Simple the author, Donald Miller, outlines a proven sales email sequence anyone can use to sell without sounding pushy or overly aggressive. It is a series of six emails that focus on educating your ideal client about how your product or service can help them survive and thrive.
The automated email sequence begins by delivering your lead magnet. The next five emails show what your potential customer’s life could look like if they choose to do business with you. Instead of talking incessantly about the product itself, you are focusing on the transformation your product or service can provide to your ideal client. Each email should include a clear call to action, telling people exactly how to take the next step toward doing business with you.
Email 1: Deliver the lead generator.
Email 2: Outline the problem your ideal client is facing and explain your company’s solution.
Email 3: Share client testimonials to show the transformation your ideal client could experience by doing business with you.
Email 4: Refute an objection that often keeps people from purchasing your product or service.
Email 5: Present a paradigm shift. Describe a new way of thinking about your customer’s pain point.
Email 6: A full sales letter, which generally follows the StoryBrand BrandScript format.
The Marketing Made Simple sales email sequence is an incredibly effective tool for small business owners. It allows you to:
Small business owners are often reluctant to sell to their customers, fearing that they will come across as too pushy or aggressive. However, with a well-crafted email marketing campaign, you can sell to your customers in a way that is professional, engaging, and helpful.
The structure of the Marketing Made Simple sales sequence shows you how to sell without coming across as aggressive.
When someone gives you their email address in exchange for your lead magnet, they are giving you permission to email them. They are telling you they are interested in learning more about your solution to their problem.
By sending a sales email focused on how your offering can solve their pain point, and what your ideal client’s life could look like after working with you, you are providing them with a clear path forward. After reading your email campaign, they will feel grateful that you understand their problem and are offering a valid solution.
Donald Miller compares your sales emails and clear calls to action to the cash registers in a traditional brick-and-mortar store. Miller challenges readers to imagine going to the store, picking out an item to buy, and then having to search the entire store for the cash register. Finally, a sales clerk informs you that it’s hidden in the third stall of the women’s bathroom. After going through all that, you’d likely feel frustrated and decide to leave the store empty-handed.
Yet, all too often businesses create beautiful websites that hide their call to action obscurely in a corner, or fail to include one at all. Some businesses dutifully send emails to their customers each week but fail to explain the clear solution they offer for their client’s pain points and how people can do business with them.
Although Donald Miller’s example sounds ridiculous, when you neglect to tell people how and where to buy your product, you are essentially hiding the cash register in the restroom. Putting the cash register out in the open where you are sure everyone can find it is helpful, not pushy.
Not only is email marketing one of the most effective ways to reach your customers, but it’s also one of the most affordable. In fact, on average email marketing has a return on investment (ROI) of 3600%. That means for every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect to see a $36 return.
As a small business owner, you carefully monitor each dollar to keep your business in good financial health. I would venture to guess that there is nowhere else in your marketing plan could you get an ROI this good. You’d be crazy not to use email marketing to grow your business.
Small business owners are often stretched thin, wearing more hats than their heads can carry and juggling more tasks than time realistically allows. The beauty of an effective sales email sequence is that it can do some of the work for you. It is basically like adding a 24/7 salesforce to your team (without hiring anyone). Your sales emails can go out any time of day, any day of the week.
Instead of investing your time hanging flyers, addressing mailers, or making cold calls, you can allow emails to explain the story you are inviting your prospective customers into and the transformation your product or service offers them.
If someone decides they are ready to move forward and schedule a call, buy your product, or make an appointment outside of regular business hours, your sales emails provide them a way to move forward anyway. Instead of only making sales from 9-5 on weekdays, you can watch sales, appointments and meetings with prospective clients roll in at any time.
Automated email sequences allow you to create a series of emails that will be sent out automatically. This saves you the time it would take to contact each person individually. Plus, you can write your email sequence once and continue using it for years to come (though a refresh every now and then is still a good idea).
As soon as someone downloads your lead generator, they get a welcome email. This offers an instant connection with new subscribers.
After that, they will receive your automated sales email sequence to educate them about your offerings and the story of transformation that your business is inviting them into. By receiving emails that resonate with their problem and paint a picture of success, potential customers feel seen and understood. Each email increases the amount of trust they have in your business. When they are ready to move forward, thanks to your clear calls to action, they know exactly what steps to take to start working with you.
Thanks to automation, all of this can happen while you are busy doing other tasks to grow your business and serve your existing clients.
When using this proven formula to write sales emails for the small businesses we work with, we’ve seen some amazing results:
We know the Marketing Made Simple sales sequence works and we’d love to watch it work for you. If you want to save time, grow your team (without actually hiring anyone), and increase your revenue, it is time to put a sales email sequence to work for you. Schedule a call today to get started.
Discover how the ‘curse of knowledge’ could be sabotaging your marketing strategy and get 8 effective tips to help you regain clarity.
Discover the 5 pillars of responsible AI use and how to create clear company policies that explain how to use AI responsibly in marketing.
Learn to differentiate between self-promotion vs marketing. Effectively engage your audience by shifting the spotlight from your greatness to your customer’s success.
Strategic marketing takes more that an inactive social account, set-it-and-forget-it Google ads, and messy messaging. Sign up for our weekly marketing tips to take your marketing to the next level.
