This marketing tip was prompted by an upsetting story I was told.

I’d hate for this to happen to you, so I’m highlighting the problem and suggesting a solution.

Are you too reliant on social media?

1. Connections on social media can disappear overnight

12,000 followers on Instagram gone in a flash.

The time, energy and mammoth effort that goes into making connections and growing an audience on any social media platform is significant, whether you have a few hundred or many thousands.

It’s rewarding too. When relationships are built, then leads and sales follow.

To lose all of that in an instant, if your profile gets hacked, is sickening and heart breaking.

This is exactly what happened to someone I know.

And unfortunately, I know first-hand how she feels; violated, angry and physically sick.

This is a good reminder that we don’t ‘own’ our followers and connections on social media. If you do something wrong your profile can be suspended and in a worst case scenario, you can lose it all together and not get it back.

It’s dangerous to rely on social media alone to nurture potential customers.

I see social media as merely a steppingstone in the relationship building process.

So, how do you mitigate the risk of losing your connections and continue to develop deeper relationships?

A great way to do this is to give your connections a jolly good reason to join your email marketing list.

2. Email marketing builds meaningful relationships that generate sales

In majority of cases, you gain new clients once they’ve had a chance to get to know, like and trust you.

Whilst some of this can be done through posts and engagement on social media, there’s nothing like delivering detailed, valuable tips and insights straight into the inbox, to take the relationship to the next level.

You are gradually positioning yourself as the expert in your field, which puts you in pole position when your email recipient’s situation has become such a burning issue that they need to do something about it, or the time is right to get your help to move them forward to realise their aspirations and dreams.

Through sharing great value, you become the obvious choice.

Your email marketing strategy can be as simple as committing to write and send one (or even two) value packed emails each month.

And here’s the bonus.

Not only can you email your content and watch the enquiries come in, you can also:

  • Add the article to your website to generate traffic and leads
  • Repurpose the content to create several social media posts
  • Create a video for YouTube talking about the topic
  • Use the content as a presentation to your networking group

The value is in your email list.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter in my online network about reducing the reliance on social media and focusing more on email marketing.

Even if you’re not that active on social media, email marketing is a great way to stay in touch and further develop the relationships with those you meet networking, which is equally a time consuming activity.

If you’ve been thinking about using email marketing, I hope this has encouraged you to do so. Or perhaps you have a list but not using it and this has been a timely reminder to reactivate it.

I realise you may now have questions, such as:

  • How to get people into your list
  • Coming up with content ideas so you’re not worried about starting something that fizzles out after a few months, or
  • The techy bits to make it all happen.

Whatever your question, I’d love to help you get your email marketing up and running.

And if the issue is you don’t have enough time to create a monthly value packed email, I have a solution for that too, in my ‘done with you’ service – Attractive eNewsletter Package.

So, if you’d like to book a chat, here’s my Calendly link so you can choose a convenient time or email me.