How To Attract Email Subscribers

(00:01):

Hello everyone!

It's Jen Kilbourne Obermeier - I'm excited to check in with you guys today.

I decided that Monday is going to be our Q&A day. That just means you can ask me anything.

I'm going to use this opportunity to answer a few questions that were follow ups from the videos that posted last week.

And then if you're joining live, you can ask me anything about anything that you were working on with your online business projects.

Let me know how your weekend was that thing.

Yes.

Just a couple of little tiny announcements, while I'm waiting for people to log on, if you are interested, I am doing a free webinar on virtual project management.

It's not quite exactly an online business topic per se, but it is part of a, online virtual conference that is being held for the interior design community.

(01:06):

But this topic of virtual project management is really something that can be, across used across several industries, especially if you are working from home right now.

And you're used to being able to just walk down the hall and talk to your coworker, or you go and meet with a client in person and you have a lot of FaceTime.

Not only will you learn a little bit about how to adjust to having to work remotely, but also, how to manage your own <laugh> to do list from home -- an unofficial, you're moving into an unofficial project manager role, particularly when you don't have your normal resources.

Rob is here and Rob said, this is a good topic for any business.

I'm not really promoting my webinar per se, but, I'm just sharing that I am going to be a virtual speaker on that, in that event next week.

(02:03):

And there'll be other topics and other experts related to the interior design industry and the ways that they're adapting to change right now as well.

It's a really cool - if you think about it from just a meta perspective, it's pretty cool.

How the organizers of this event saw the need because their normal annual in person industry conference was canceled or postponed.

And so they pulled together a virtual online experience in an industry that is not used to doing that type of thing.

I found the whole thing very inspiring.

They're really hustling to put it together and I was really pleased to be asked to be a part of it.

So as you're thinking about growing your online endeavors, whatever they are, I just think it's pretty neat to think that, if you are in a particular expertise that people can call on you to do that thing.

(03:01):

So, it's definitely a first time opportunity of that nature for me.

But I just want to share that with you guys, because it's just a part of everything we've been talking about making connections in your community.

We talked yesterday in my Sunday book club about those intangible assets that you're building as you are getting to know other people and having a network worldwide.

That is just sharing behind the scenes about that for something that I'm doing.

Definitely have at least one question that I know I'm going to answer for Suzette - Suzette wrote in to me and asked, she said she's been working on her website and working on an email list opt in.

Just to catch you up to speed on this topic, I have done an email list "101" video over the past couple weeks.

(03:54):

You can go back to the list of videos in on the Jen Kilbourne Obermeier Facebook page.

And hear more about what I said about this topic, but as Suzette has actually been listening to me and implementing what I've said, she brought a new question to the table.

That is where that came from.

And she said, do I have any tips for really getting people to actually opt into her opt-in? So if Suzette shows up Suzette, you'll have to give me a little more detail, if you wish, about what your strategy is here.

Like what, it sounds you've already created the opt in and you're really defining or perfecting your website and thinking, okay, now that I have this thing, it's probably a very valuable thing, whether it's, an email series or some type of PDF workbook or a free worksheet even, or even a mini free training, whatever the thing is, you want it to be valuable enough and the entire, methodology behind this is that it's something valuable enough and good enough that people who are interested in your topic cannot help but want to learn a little bit more from you and are definitely willing to pay, not real money, but pay with their email address to be able to access that.

(05:11):

And then that helps you build a list of people who you have now confirmed that they're interested in this topic and it's something that they want to learn more about.

In the future, while, you might not know yet what it is that you're going to monetize this email list one day email list with one day, it might be a one-on-one offer, or it might be another mini course or something else.

(05:35):

The catch up about email list.

Opt-ins I see everybody saying hello, thank you guys so much for being here.

Suzette asked a question about how to actually get people to opt into the opt-in.

And I thought about this earlier for a while earlier today, just to be able to come up with some creative tips and this is my biggest tip:

My biggest tip is to think about, assuming that you've already created the thing, whatever that is, think about how you can show people the value of what this thing is.

That's free, show instead of tell, I think that's a common phrase, when with you're a writer, you're writing coach will say show don't tell.

I think really often we believe that we're telling people, Hey, we have this thing or downloading my free ebook about this topic, or here's a free worksheet or, whatever.

(06:27):

We tell them a lot of places.

And I think that the tendency is to believe that if you tell them in enough different places on a website or on a blog or in your social media, that they'll just be okay, <laugh> sorry, I'm hitting my microphone.

They'll just be - I'll opt in. Here's the problem with that?

The problem with that is that, and you guys have probably experienced this, when you're learning something online, maybe you follow somebody on YouTube who does really good content and they have as their call to action.

We talked about this phrase last week, too, their call to action in their YouTube caption or in their Instagram bio, or on the sidebar of their blog is, oh, and by the way, I have this free email series, let's use the free email series because that was my first email list building tool.

(07:20):

I know that it works.

But if all I ever did was just place that and tell people by placing it everywhere, or even doing one of those pop ups, that's Hey, don't leave without getting this thing.

That's a no judgment from me.

It works apparently; the statistics show that pop ups work to get people's email addresses.

But I don't use them because I personally don't sign up for pop ups.

Like I just, I "X out" of a pop up faster than I can even read what the box says.

So, that does not mean it doesn't work.

Don't just take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I'm saying you can have it everywhere, but if you are neglecting to really integrate your freebie into your content naturally - you are really missing the opportunity to show them, instead of just tell them. It can be an "afterthought" in a million different places, but I think what's more effective in what you might want to think about Suzette is, how can I go take it further, always be thinking about how you can take it further and be even more generous with people.

(08:25):

For example, if you have, let's say in my example that I have this free email course, free email series, write an entire blog post about the premise or the why behind the free email series and then have the call to action throughout that blog post be, and you can sign up for it right here, show them what it's about and show them what it's going to cover and show them what it, what they're going to learn, sell them on it, even though it doesn't cost them anything.

And another, really important thing is, and, I believe you guys know that I feel really strongly about this, that you need to be doing video content.

Talk about it naturally in your video content, don't just make it the little comment at the end of your video description, where it's oh, and by the way, that was my call to action.

(09:10):

And you don't ever talk about it naturally because if it's that good and it should be that good, it should come up all the time.

So, let me give you an example of this real life in my business now.

And for Pro Organizer Studio, I have a podcast, we publish content weekly, biweekly right now we're publishing even more than usual.

But at the very end of every podcast, there's a, there's an "outro."

If you will, there's an intro that says welcome to this with Jen and here's what you learn every week.

It's the same intro every time.

And then there's a little recording at the end.

It's the same outro every time.

And it always says, our call to action is download the free roadmap to starting and growing a professional organizing business.

(09:56):

And we tell them verbally because we want them to remember it and just go type it in, because on a podcast it's very audio based.

Right?

So, we say go visit  www.poroadmap.com.

That gets put as the afterthought call to action every time.

But I don't leave it at that though, because when, it's appropriate in the podcast episodes, I bring it up and I talk about it.

I say, oh yeah, that's exactly what we have.

Like we have a roadmap of just here are the basic steps in phases so that you're not worrying about phase five when you're still at phase zero or one of just beginning and researching.

So, I bring it up naturally and then we still, we also have it, we similar to what I said a minute ago.

(10:43):

We have it placed in a lot of different places on our website.

But what you could do to take this even a step further Suzette, especially as you're getting started is even, record yourself.

Do a video, do a video chat that is just about your freebie topic and then say, and by the way, you can now a video version, put it in as many different types of formats that people to consume content.

Some people love watching videos.

Some people just to listen to podcasts.

Some people like to read.

Think about visual, kinesthetic, auditory, all of those, different ways of learning.

Those will be different ways of getting people to opt in.

So, that is my next level tip is to be really creative.

(11:31):

If you have a, let's say if your opt-in was that free email series and you even did a tutorial, a little short tutorial video, on your website that said, here's how to navigate to your free PDF and free login.

And it's just a 30 second video, but it's something that helps people see visually oh, if I sign up for this, here's the download, I'll receive it in my email.

You are literally showing them what you want them to do instead of just telling them, that in itself might not be as effective if we're just talking about signing up for an email series.

But let's say what your opt-in was, a free mini training of some kind you could post a 30 second video teaser of that exact training and say to get the whole thing, opt in here.

(12:22):

Lots of different creativity.

Again, just keeping in mind the show, don't tell: how can I show about this and not just tell about this, because you want it to be, you want it to not overwhelm them, but keep in mind that nobody takes in information in all the ways that you send it to them.

Just I was saying a second ago, my eyes just they look right over pop up windows and I don't even notice them anymore.

I don't even read them - make a graphic about your opt-in and put those, put your graphics, interspersed in a blog post.

Every once in a while it's like a mini ad that's for your own thing.

Does that make sense?

You can be thinking of some ways to catch their attention, and also showing them here are the benefits of what you're going to get out of this.

(13:11):

Another thing that's really powerful is to even have testimonials about your freebie.

And I did do this with my original free email series was I had, I had almost, it was almost a sales page just for the freebie.

And it was people -- I'd pull actual quotes, obviously, anonymous or with their permission or whatever that said the <laugh> "the information in this free email series was so good that it got me going on these, first three steps or whatever, and I was already making money."

Don't be afraid to sell it in the same way that you would sell a paid product and you do want it to be something that's really valuable for people so that they want to keep it and use it and remember you for it.

(13:58):

Suzette says she likes the outro idea.

She said, I always forget to mention it when I'm recording, but I could record an audio over my logo and tie it on the end of every YouTube tutorial.

I love that!

So, and with something that, with an outro, you have to remember that maybe most people won't listen all the way through and that's fine, but let's say they do listen to five of your videos all the way through.

And by the time they get to the end of the fifth one, they're thinking, she's been mentioning this freebie thing she has, I really think I'm ready to go sign up for that now.

Repetition is key.

Repetition is definitely key.

And then, yeah, don't be afraid to make a promo video just about that thing and share it a lot, and share it often.

(14:43):

Like you don't have to feel you're being overly promotional when it's your main freebie, you know?

Bring that up in all of your social media platforms, once or twice a week, because you're trying to drive people where the source of your good information, your home base is on your website.

You want them to come there.

And then I have one more next level tip, super not advanced, but a next level tip about the opt-ins before I go to Rob's question, which he wants to talk about video content creation, which I am all about.

So, the other tip about the lead magnet to actually get people sign up for the lead magnet.

I mentioned to you guys in the video that was called the quickest and easiest way to build your audience.

(15:35):

We talked about Facebook ads and, we'll definitely still have to go into a deeper training or, chat about this, but there is a small piece of copy and paste code.

<laugh> It's not as complicated as it sounds.

It's not that technical, but you get it from Facebook.

After you have set up your Facebook page for your business...

You go into the back end of Facebook's business manager and you get this tiny little piece of code, they call it a pixel.

Which just means it's a fancy tracking tag, that you copy from Facebook and you paste it into your website.

One time! You do not have to do it ever again.

It is a five minute problem and solution -- now the visitors to your website, even if they did not opt into your email thing.

(16:28):

The fact that they visited your website is now an opt in all on its own because once you are tracking (you're not tracking individuals obviously, that would be against privacy rules) the whole group of people that are not identifiable to you as a person, is being stored somewhere in the depths of Facebook ...and love it or hate it....

This is the way that marketing is, and it's the magic of Facebook ads and, it's wild.

It works so well.

But it's being stored somewhere in Facebook's records and they allow you to, you can set up a custom audience of people who have visited,any page on your website that your pixel is tracking.

You want to make sure that you're setting up your pixel to track everything on your website.

(17:24):

And even other platforms, theoretically, that's, we'll get into that topic on another day, but I just want you to understand that let's say that Suzette has been doing these awesome YouTube videos and driving people to her website.

And she can tell that she's getting a lot of traffic to her website, but that people are not opting into her email freebie thing. Is all hope lost?!

No, because as long as she has had that pixel installed on her website, again, that was a one time thing...

She can now run a Facebook ad fairly cheaply to that audience of people and what she might want to try - and this is what I would suggest in this situation is if she's getting a good, solid, consistent traffic to her webpage, proving that people are interested in her in her thing.

(18:13):

But her, but her email opt in thing is not quite working...

I would say let's run a three day test where you're retargeting with again, a really cheap Facebook add you're retargeting, your you're warm audience of people who already know you.

Let's try a different opt in, or let's try presenting it a different way, or let's try doing one of these videos where you tease it and tell them more about it so that they do opt in.

There's a lot.

Yeah.

Suzette, says she forgot about her pixel.

Sometimes when I remember the pixel, I'm just oh my gosh.

It's remembering that you have this buried treasure somewhere, because it is literally an asset to you, that if you know how to use it, you don't ever have to worry about lost customers because they came to your website.

(19:02):

But you didn't even HAVE TO have an email opt in, as long as you get that pixel set up.

And I'm such a mean mom about this, because I'm how could you not be doing this?

Get that pixel set up.

As long as you have that pixel set up, you have time to figure out your email thing.

And then you can still reach back out to all these people later.

It is to me the most game changing thing in modern business history.

And think about it.

Let's put this in context of the changing times and the pandemic, let's say you have a huge audience of people that you you've built up.

And now let's say now the thing that you have been selling or the thing that you have been the service you have been providing, or what you're known for is not quite in context right now, you can tell that it's not a match to what people really want and need and are willing to pay for right now.

(19:59):

Because let's say that you happen to serve an industry where lots and lots of people are laid off and it's yeah, they still love you.

They still like you, but they're not going to be spending money on your course or coaching or program or whatever anytime soon, what you could do is test, you could reach back out to them and test a little bit of a new direction.

Maybe before you commit to it a hundred percent, you could test a new direction by doing some Facebook ads.

Suzanne said, when you check it, what does it show?

Tell me Suzanne, give me more information about what you're referring to, because there's a little bit of a time lag between when you type it.

And when I see it, but anyway, just to wrap up my thought, especially in these times, if you have been building up an audience, but now suddenly what you sell is not in alignment, then you can use a Facebook ad to test a new offer and gauge interest before you start working on a whole new thing because then know when we get into our entrepreneurial mindset and we're all "this is the next best direction" or whatever, what you want to do is validate it somewhat before you start spending a lot of time on it.

(21:10):

Because time is precious.

Suzette said I'm mean, oh, I'm a mean mom.

<laugh> That's so funny.

I'm still waiting on Suzanne to tell, me a little bit more about what she meant about when I check it.

What does it show?

I'm really trying to rack my brain about what it means.

Alright, so I promise I'll just jump back.

Rob, wants to talk about things about video content creation, equipment logistics course versus Facebook life.

And let's see, what time is it Rob?

If we dedicated a whole day to this tomorrow because I will start talking and I won't stop for an hour.

Because that would be a great topic for tomorrow.

I don't have anything else planned yet.

And I can go ahead and pull together my resources.

(22:05):

Then you'll have all the links for everything before I just start talking, and then forget, I'll have more of an outline.

But for sure!

And I've mentioned, and I've mentioned this in passing at least in some of the other.

He said, Woohoo. I'll take that as a yes!

That's what we're going to do tomorrow.

I've mentioned this in passing before you can definitely start doing videos with the equipment that you have, meaning your phone and some natural lighting that's coming through a window.

It does not have to be fancy, but I will tell you, or I'll share a few things that have been really helpful.

And okay, now he's giving me some more specific questions. I'll definitely pull that together for tomorrow.

Going back to Suzanne, she said, when I check it, what does it show?

(22:49):

She said she was talking about the pixel.

Suzanne, the way that this works and, I'll tell you what, we'll talk about Facebook pixel and specifically tutorial or training on how to set that up for sure later this week, too.

But when you check it, Suzanne, when you say check it, you mean check to make sure that it is installed or check it to make sure that things that you did the copy and paste correctly.

Is that what you mean?

What you'll see is just a confirmation in Facebook's business manager that this literally a little green, light <laugh> says yes, this, Facebook page is receiving data from sweetspaces.com.

But in order to actually see your traffic and your audiences that are being built up, you have to go in and create, or you have to define what type of audiences you want Facebook to start making.

(23:46):

One really good one would just be all website visitors, if you were -- let's say you had a business that you had a couple of different pillar topics, you might want to put one audience of people that had visited the blog posts, make you literally put in all the URLs of the blog posts that were about that one topic.

Now Suzette's given me even more video content question for tomorrow, what to include in YouTube descriptions, such as hashtags and keywords.

And I feel that's even another separate day from the video tools, so, we'll go really deep into video stuff this week.

My dad actually, one of my other Q&A Mondays was Monday Q&A's.

I just got off the phone with my dad a little while ago.

(24:37):

He is finally at that moment where he's about to really launch his Facebook Live show and he's been perfecting the sound stuff to a T.

And that also falls into our video topic when it comes to tools because he's wanting to stream his professional sound system through Facebook Live.

And so you have to have the right video tools, the right microphones, and all that stuff.

And then Rob has a bonus question, how to handle negative comments on the videos.

I'll tell you what, Rob, you will know you have made it in life when you have haters.

Because if you haven't had any haters yet, then you haven't been talking to enough people.

I will totally reframe that for you and make you feel good about it.

And of course, how to handle it a champ because definitely I've been there.

(25:27):

And it will happen.

And I wish - that's so funny.

And I'm glad you asked that, because I think that was probably one of my big fears about putting myself out onto the internet was that people would be hateful and trolling and who knows what else?

And really the percentage of negative things is so tiny.

It <laugh>, he said, he said, wow, he's successful already then.

Well, alright Rob, we need your first internet hater that doesn't know you, that has nothing better to do than to tell you that you suck and that you don't speak right.

I've gotten that one more than a few times.

Anyway, all right guys, I am now striving to keep these a little bit more bite size because I know I tend to go on at length.

I'll see you guys tomorrow and I'll go ahead and post on my page a time and topic for Tuesday, time and topic for Wednesday, since we have already, you guys have helped me decide, see we're doing exactly what I teach y'all, which is to just let it flow and see what people really want to hear about.

That makes me very excited and I'm so glad you guys logged in.

(26:42):

Will follow up on that pixel thing too, to get you, to get your question answered.

And I hope you guys have, a lovely evening as best as possible.

Alrighty. Talk to y'all later. Bye!