Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:
Today’s question is, should we be selling all the time online, or is there a better way to convert leads into buyers without exhausting your email list? That’s what we’re gonna cover today in this week’s podcast episode, so stay tuned. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week’s podcast episode. I’m your host, Marisa Shadrick. I’m an AI marketing coach and certified copywriter. And I’m excited to talk about this topic, about sales and organic sales, and should we be doing it all the time? Are we gonna exhaust our list? How do we do this? Because what I’ve noticed is that many people will go through all the effort of growing their email list and then nurture and nurture and nurture. And once in a while, they’ll promote something. Here’s what inspired this conversation. I am currently writing my book, and so this has forced me to really double down with my systems, the things that I have already in place online, my website, my flow as far as the funnel, and really fine tuning some things so it works behind the scenes to give me time and space to work on my book.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:15]:
And so as I was thinking about it and improving some of those things, I thought I would share that in a podcast. And I think it’s important to know that the answer to the question, should you be selling all the time, is yes. You may think, oh, I don’t wanna come across salesy or pushy. You won’t. You’re not gonna be doing it to everyone on your email list, and you’re not gonna be doing it all the time on social media. You’re gonna be giving value, and as people decide to opt into your free resource or your strategy call, then you’ll be able to bring them into a funnel. So we’re gonna break this down so it’s really clear for you. So selling isn’t really waiting until that perfect moment or doing it just quarterly because we don’t wanna exhaust our list.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:02]:
It’s about having a clear and intentional strategy to move your audience from awareness to action. And when they’re ready to do that, it can vary, but we always have something working in the background. So we’re gonna look at a couple of different ways to do this organically, and this might help you rethink some of the systems that you have working on the back end. So let’s start with content creation, because a lot of people that are solo business owners are very busy week to week with content creation. They’re creating posts for social media. They’re creating YouTube videos. They’re creating podcasts. They’re creating, creating, creating.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:43]:
And I see often that there’s less selling. Now what we need to do is to realize the reason why we’re doing a lot of this organic free content is to bring people to our email list. We’re trying to get them to take an action and see the value of what we have and take the next step. So, really, without even going into great detail, we need to have some great lead magnets. We need to have some great resources. And that can include a strategy call, but you don’t wanna call it a strategy call because that’s very vague. People don’t want solutions. They want transformation.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:22]:
They want results. So, what could you provide in a strategy call that would give a slice of what you do and give them some quick wins, some results? It’s the same thing as a PDF resource. It gives them that quick win. It helps them reach a small milestone on their journey to the outcomes that they want. I’m feeling very distracted because I have a fur baby at my feet that is whimpering right now, so I’m trying to ignore him while I do this podcast. But in any event, I may show him to you if you’re watching the video. For those of you in the audio, you won’t be able to see him, but he’s a French bulldog, and he’s a pistol. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:03]:
Anyway, back to this. So what we’re trying to do is, with the strategy call, have a clear outcome, and that’s going to help people when they do visit your website or you offer it on social media to realize what they’re going to get, what the transformation is, what the outcome is. And that’s gonna help get more calls booked by doing that. For example, instead of just saying, you know, contact me for a free strategy call or contact me for a discovery call. Again, we don’t know what that means. But if you say something like, if you’re ready to break through overwhelm, schedule a call with me and we’ll identify what’s draining your energy and help you regain focus. So that is a slice of what maybe you offer in one of your programs. And so you can position it that way for a free strategy call.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:57]:
Or another example would be boost your productivity. Learn one time management skill that saved me hours. Book a free call so you can position it in a way that they know exactly what the outcome’s gonna be when they schedule a call with you. Another example would be LinkedIn profile audit. Schedule a free thirty-minute call to optimize your profile and increase connections. You see the difference? Rather than just say strategy call, discovery call, or book a free call, you’re taking something that you know is of interest to them, and you’re saying, hey, let’s connect. I’m gonna give you one tip to help you with this particular problem. Another idea could be validate your business idea.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:42]:
Book a free call, and I’ll give you some tips on how to validate your business idea before you invest time and money. So by changing the wording, it helps you use that as a free resource or a lead magnet to get more people to book a call with you. And then you could put that on social media as well and have it definitely on your contact page. So I updated recently my contact page to include some different things on it because I need to have a lot of these things really crystal clear and working behind the scenes so that I have more margin to work on my book. So when you have this really crystal clear free offer, which in this case we’re talking about a call, scheduling a call with you, then you can put that on social media if you want. If you’d rather not do that and you think, oh gosh, if I do this and I do get people booking calls, then my whole calendar is gonna be freckled with appointments, and I’m not even sure if they’re ready to buy yet. That seems like a lot of time. I get it because sometimes we just don’t have the bandwidth.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:50]:
Now, it’s always great to get on calls if you can because then you get to have a conversation with someone and you can get a lot of market research. But I understand if you’re working another job or if you’re working on something else and there is just no margin, then you wanna have some type of free resource they can download, and that makes sense. But you can still have a funnel and lead them to a sale as well. So with the free strategy call, the idea is to really kind of figure out where the gap is and to let them know that if they would like to pursue this further, that you do have some options for them. And if they are interested in finding out more, you’d be happy to go over that. But you don’t wanna be pushy. You just wanna let them know that there are options for them. And hopefully, you’ll have a variety of different offers from low end, medium, to maybe your signature offer that you can decide when you’re talking to them what would be the best fit for them.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:47]:
Now, for those of you that do not want to do the strategy call and do not have the bandwidth for it, then a free resource would be a good idea. And you can have a funnel that leads to a sale as well. Now, when you have a free resource, whether it’s a PDF or maybe it’s some type of free community that you have, whatever it might be, they opt in, you have their email, and what happens is most people will start with the email nurture sequence, the welcome series, but they don’t know what to put in these. And so they often ask me, what should I put in it? Well, there’s a lot of strategies around this, but I’m gonna keep this really simple. If it’s something like they subscribe to your podcast, They have opted in to be one of the listeners to receive it in their inbox, email inbox. But in the welcome series, you can suggest another episode that you know has an offer or promotion in it. And so you can go ahead and lead them there. They’re gonna listen.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:54]:
They’re gonna get value. They’re gonna be educated. They’re gonna be inspired. And there, they’ll hear how they can continue that journey through some product that you have. So you can very easily be selling them without feeling salesy or pushy. Now, if you have a free resource that you have them download and it’s something valuable that brings them to that next milestone, you have a welcome series, but it doesn’t have to just be a welcome series and then lead them to your main list to get all the other things that you have. You can take them through a journey of unpacking maybe that resource and explain why it’s important and leading them perhaps to a free training. Now this free training doesn’t have to be an automated webinar.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:42]:
It could be a video that you created, maybe it’s unlisted on YouTube, and it talks about why that resource is so important and why it’s the first step. And the second step would be whatever your product is. So you can lead them in that welcome series, and you can make it three emails, five emails. It depends on their awareness of the solution and the problem that they have. If they’re oblivious and they’re just kinda testing the waters, you might want to explain a little bit more. If they’re ready and it’s some kind of resource where you know they would be ready for that next step, then maybe you only need three emails. It just depends on the industry and the market and where you think they are in that customer journey. So if you have in the welcome series a link for them to watch a video or to register to a automated webinar that’s going to teach them something, then they will hear about the offer there.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:41]:
So you can always be selling without feeling salesy because, keep in mind, you’re not sending this to your entire list. You’re just bringing new people in through a funnel, helping them, giving them a little bit more value, and saying, here’s what’s next. There’s a free video or there’s a free webinar. And from there, you’re leading them to the offer. So there’s different ways of going about this, but you should think for every free resource you have, how can I lead them to the offer? Because that’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to generate leads, and organic traffic is hard enough of just creating something that people are gonna download or register to or book a call. So you wanna make sure once you have that dial in that you have an offer on the back end through a funnel. And you can always do order bumps and other things, but you wanna think that through.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:36]:
That’s something that you wanna take time and spend maybe an afternoon and think through how each one of your free resources are going to lead people to a next step that equals revenue. That way, if you have order bumps or something that they can download or something they can access for $17 or $15 or $29 or $49, if you want to run ads, it’s gonna help offset the ad cost. So you always wanna be thinking, how will I continue selling with every opportunity that I have without being pushy and without exhausting my entire list. Now when you have a traditional promotion, then you can create a campaign for your entire list. And maybe those people that have just opted in, maybe you don’t include them because they’re in a funnel right now. So you wanna make sure that it makes sense in how long that funnel is before you bring them in to your main list and they start receiving the other content that you have. So that’s why segments are great and tagging people are great because you can decide who should get this promotion and who shouldn’t. So when you think of the organic funnel, you want to, yes, create content, but don’t just stop there.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:54]:
Create content, but with the intention of having them register, download, book a call, and always, always share the transformation, the result. Because people don’t just want a solution, they want results, they want transformation. So always let them know what that result is going to be. So that lead magnet, yes, they go into a nurture sequence, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t tack on and offer the next step because that’s how you can help them and go deeper to give them the transformation, the results that they’re looking for. So the key to strategic email marketing is just remembering the journey and the state of awareness. You know, how aware are they? Do I have to unpack this and explain this from the beginning? Do I need to clarify? Do I need to give examples? Do I need to teach more before that offer? You have to figure out where they are. And using automated webinars or videos is a great way to sell because it’s educational, people like videos, you can keep it short. If you don’t wanna do a full blown out webinar, you don’t have to.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:03]:
You can just create a short, maybe ten-minute video or seven-minute video that explains something and leads them to that next step. So you don’t have to create an automated webinar. I just like them because they opt in, and so I can use that outside of the email sequence. I can use it as a standalone lead magnet and offer in other places. So using those videos can be very helpful, especially if it’s a low-end offer, and then creating that pathway that naturally leads them to the next funnel, whatever that might be. That way, these things are working behind the scenes while you’re creating new opportunities or speaking or those other things that are gonna move your business forward. Because looking for opportunities to speak, prospecting, targeted leads, all those things take time. And so if you’ve got a variety of ways to be able to bring people into your ecosystem, all the better.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:01]:
So a final thought here is you don’t wanna keep your audience waiting and just get them on your email list and just send them newsletters and information without ever selling them anything. You wanna create those opportunities to truly help them. And you can periodically also send small promotions with your newsletter that’s not a full blown promotional campaign, but you can drop maybe something that you’re promoting at the end of a newsletter, and you can mention that this is still available, there’s still slots available, or the doors are still open, whatever it might be so that they know. So use all your resources to be able to make sure that you’re leveraging them and bringing people in, putting them in a funnel, making sure that they’re taking those sequential steps toward low offers, mid-range offers, and maybe your signature offer. So leverage those things and use the free resource and strategy calls to be able to get more leads and sales. So I hope that was helpful for you, and until next time, take care. Bye bye. Here’s the fur baby that looks small but weighs a ton.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:15]:
Meet Moose. I know. A face only a mother would love. Anyway, Moose, you gotta, like, chill.