145 - Marketing for Life Coaches Part 4: Grow Your Email List

Are you ready to grow your email list? Yes! Marketing is the ATM to your business, and when you have an email list, you can interact with potential customers who want to spend money on your services.

In today's episode of the Life Coach Business Building podcast, I'm diving into the fourth part of the marketing for life coach series. I'll be talking about email opt-ins. If you have yet to listen to the previous episodes, go back and listen to them because I've covered various topics, including narrowing your niche, crafting your marketing message, and learning how to talk to people.

Now, for the fourth part of the series, I'm going back to the most reliable medium for building and maintaining relationships with your customers: emails. According to research, studies show that even younger consumers prefer to make buying decisions through emails because they would rather make an independent decision instead of being sold in a face-to-face conversation.

That being said, it's safe to say that email marketing IS still the way of the world. Think of email marketing as an introvert's best communication avenue. When you have an email list, you can communicate directly with potential clients. You can wake up on any day, create an offer, then email your list, and bingo; people could buy from you!

I hope I have your attention.

Email marketing makes you money. If you're curious about email opt-ins, what you could create, how you're going to create them, and how you'll deliver your freebie, then be sure to listen to the full episode because I'll be sharing all the details!

Watch the podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gd4IXC8jVrU

Transcript

Don't be sloppy about it. Make sure that you find one that does give your client a win that does provide a way for them to know, like, and trust you. Once you get that all set up, and you do all the other things you need to do in your business. You're gonna get to a point where we want to be thinking about your million dollar opt-in. I know that's a stretch at this point, but we wanna think about the thing long term that is going to make you a lot of money. So you start out with one opt-in, you add on a few other ones, and you just test and try till you find the thing that people really love.

Hello, I'm Debbie Shadid, the host of the Life Coach Business Building podcast. If you are ready to have more clients in your life coach business, then you're in the right spot. Each week I'm gonna teach you super simple strategies to grow your business without feeling overwhelmed and without spending money on paid ads. If that sounds interesting. Stick around and let's get started.

Welcome to today's podcast. Today we're going to be talking about your email list. We are in part four of the marketing series, and you guys are loving it. I mean, I want you to go back and listen if you haven't listened to the other episodes. We talked about your niche, we talked about your message.

We've interviewed Erin Thompson. You guys loved that interview. We talked about networking and today we're gonna talk about your email opt-in. I will tell you email is the way of the world. I have done research recently and I want you to know the stats prove even for the younger generation, that email is still the best way to communicate.

In fact, people who are younger than me, the younger generation, whatever that is. They said that they actually want to make buying decisions via email because they would rather make an independent decision instead of being sold. So there you go. When you have an email list, you really have an opportunity to make money when you're ready.

I think email marketing is the ATM to your business. So let's talk about your email opt-ins, what you could create, how you're gonna create 'em, and then how you're going to deliver your freebie.

One thing I want you to think about when you create your email opt-in is you wanna assume that the people you are talking to feel unsure about you. We know that coaching is a luxury, as I keep saying, and we wanna make sure that you provide the information they need in the email opt-in to help them have some confidence in you.

This is the way that they get to know you, they get to like you, and trust you. Your person really needs to know that the opt-in is a way for you to create connection with them. So you're going to either do that through an actual product that they get. Maybe it's a video series or it's going to be something of value. 

Let's talk about building trust. Let me ask you this, what feels trustworthy to you in the coaching world? If you guys are in my world, why did you opt in and follow me? What have you already opted into? What looked professional to you, felt authentic to you? I want you to think about that.

First, I want you to think about all of the opt-ins that you have signed up for. I want you to think about which ones you actually watched, read, used. That's gonna be an indication of what kind of opt-in you might want to create. We wanna create something that somebody will actually use.

When you create this, we wanna give your potential client a glimpse into your expertise. We wanna give them something that will help 'em gain some awareness so they can have some kind of maybe mini transformation through the value that you provide. we also want this to be part of what I would call the courting process.

So imagine that you're dating someone. They now have given you their number, which is their email address, and now you guys need to get to know each other, so you're going to court them if you guys are familiar with that. As if you were dating them, and so you don't wanna rush. You wanna give them all of the information that they need along the way as you nurture them. 

All right. Let's talk about all of the different kinds of email opt-ins, the options that you have, what you might provide for them, and then we'll talk about how you could deliver them. We wanna find an opt-in that really fits your expertise. So what might that be for you?

Let's talk about weight loss or you health coaches out there. You know, a recipe book, a shopping guide, a something to do with counting something or some kind of fitness video series or some kind of fitness at home with no equipment series. That could be a single checklist that you create in Canva. You guys know I love Canva.

You can create some amazing professional things, but it could also be a video series or maybe it's an audio series that they can listen to while they go on their walk. If you are, you know, helping women like create their next chapter, maybe you wanna have a journal that you send out journal prompts on. This is the way that I want you to think about it. What is it that would be best for your person? 

All right, I've got a list here that I wanna share with you. We can think about a planner. So you could have a planner for all kinds of things. Some of you guys are like habit coaches. You could have habit tracking, you could do some kind of mini training. Some of the coaches that we know that are the most successful have a three-part video training. You could do that.

You could do a Facebook group where they opt in to come to your Facebook group. By the way, you use this piece of software called group leads. And that will help you track the registrations in your Facebook group, because let me just tell you, if you start a Facebook group, when they answer the questions, those questions are not logged anywhere unless you have that connected with something like group leads and it then all of that data will go to a spreadsheet.

All right. You could also do a challenge. You could do an evergreen webinar. Many of you guys have been to my webinar about Canva, building your coaching brand, your professional coaching brand in three simple steps. Many of you guys have been to my webinar about building a professional coaching brand.

You could do a resource library of the favorite tools that you use that will support your clients. You could do a book list. That would be amazing. I saw somebody the other day had their favorite Amazon finds, and again, it was niche-related. I was like, I wanna get that one. I was curious what this lady had on her list.

You could do a round table discussion that they opt in. They could opt into free coaching. And I don't mean a consultation because that's different than free coaching. Don't ask somebody to opt into free coaching and then try to sell 'em. You just opt in to get free coaching. It could be, as I mentioned, a round table discussion.

You could have screensavers. I know one of the coaches that I work with sends screensavers every single month for whatever is going on for that month. You could have an audio training, a video training, you could have a meditation recorded. Somebody that I work with helps people with anxiety and that meditation is something they can put in their ears and their earbuds and listen to when they are really feeling anxious.

You could do a workshop. I love workshops. You guys know I do those two times a month. If you are not on my mailing list, you should sign up so that you can then get notification of when I do my workshops. You can do many, many, many things. 

So that's just a taste of what you could do. I've listed several options and if you guys want more options on what to do for an email opt-in, just go to Pinterest and search email opt-ins, and you will find so many things according to your niche. I would love though for you to shoot me an email, debbie@debbieshadid.com 'cause I would love to hear what your favorite opt-in is. I know that's an odd request, but I'm always talking to people about how to utilize their opt-ins and I'd love to hear an interesting opt-in from you. 

All right, the next key piece for an opt-in is you have to pick a title that matters. Remember, your title is kind of like your subject line. It's kind of like the hook in a social media post. So we wanna pick a title that is really compelling. Most of the titles are going to be something like Seven Ways to End Anxiety, something like that if there's seven ways. And four things you could try before you something, three steps to do today to reach your goal of whatever it is. So it's gonna be a formula where there's a number, then whatever it is to get to X. All right? You can come up with some other kind of title, but those titles that have a number and a solution in it are actually very intriguing. Again, you might have my favorite book list of, you know, top reads of 2023, something like that. That would be something else that would be compelling.

Remember, you have to sell your opt-in. Nobody just gives you their email address. You have to compel them with a title that is intriguing. A couple other suggestions are how to titles those really go over well. The top 10 Best ways to Do Something, you could say Increase your Metabolism or in Increase Your something, your confidence in one mini session.

There could be insider's guide to something. The one thing you must do before you try X, the real truth about X. I will just tell you again, you guys can google this stuff. I can work with you on getting a title that seems right, but there are many formulas to writing titles for workshops, for email opt-ins and those kind of things. So go ask Google what your title should be. 

Now we wanna talk about the value and the time. When you are asking somebody for an email address, you want to consider that you're asking them to give you time. You're not just asking for an email address that they now know that you're going to start emailing regularly. You're also saying, Hey, I want you to trust me. I'm gonna give you this one thing. And so let me ask you this. What is the value of an email address to you? And when you have given your email address to somebody, what do you expect in return? You wanna pick kind of a number, like $20 worth of value that somebody should get from your email opt-in.

Now, maybe it's much more than that, I'm not sure, but we wanna think about what that is. If you were going to do Facebook ads, And I run Facebook ads so I know exactly how this goes. You would be spending somewhere between five to gosh, I even have a coach that is in my coaching group that spends $38 a lead.

So five to $38 for every single email address you collect. This is why it is important to have really great opt-ins with a really great title, 'cause that's what gets 'em to click and give you their email address so you have to sell it. So make sure that you're offering something that they will really fall in love with.

I also recommend your email opt-in should be something that somebody can consume or do or watch in less than an hour. And honestly, probably much shorter than that. You wanna fix one problem, just one thing. So what is the one thing your ideal client needs? What is the one thing that you can provide in a very simple process, a few steps to be able to give somebody a transformation, to give them a solution so that they can have an immediate win with the optin that you are giving them in exchange for their email address.

Let's talk about where you would share your opt-in, because it's one thing to create the opt-in. It's another thing to be able to get people to sign up for your opt-in. So of course you can do it on social media, you could do it on a website pop-up. In fact, if you guys go to my website, debbieshadid.com, you'll see it's right in the header, the very top bar. There's also a popup and there's also something in the footer, so it's in three different places. You could have it in your social media links, not just social media posts, but in your social media links. You can ask people to share it. You guys, all you have to do is ask. When you put this like on your personal Facebook page, and then ask your friends to send it to their friends.

Will you forward this to your friends? Make sure that you have the share settings set, so that somebody can share it for you. You could invite friends, you could put it at the end of a blog. You can put it at the end of your podcast. You could, put it on, gosh, many places. All of the social media platforms for sure.

You could ask a partner, a friend, a coworker, another coach that you went to certification with, somebody in your coaching group, somebody in your mastermind. You could say, Hey, let's partner together. Let's do joint interviews, maybe on Facebook or maybe on Instagram or Zoom, and let's invite each other's audiences to come together and let's exchange opt-ins so that you both have a form where you collect each other's email addresses. I just wanna tell you, there is enough business for everybody. The clients that are meant to be yours will be yours. The clients that are meant to be whoever it is that you partner with or collaborate with will be their clients. So the more collaboration you do, the more of that you do, honestly, you guys, the bigger your list will get. And remember, your email list is your ATM to your business. 

Let's talk about delivery. We're gonna talk about delivering your opt-in. Now you can either make it really complicated or you can make it simple. Now I like simple, so let's talk about how we could make it simple. The first thing is, is that if it's a pdf, you can just literally download it and attach it in the email that you will send as soon as they give you your email address. It can literally just be attached in there. It could be uploaded into Google Drive, and there could be a link that's from there too.

If you had a video or an audio, something that was a little bit bigger, you could also upload your video like to YouTube, which is free, and take the link and put it in the email. Now that is the easiest way to do it. You do not have to have anything more complex than that. You could also just send it to people.

If you were on social media and you said, Hey, drop your email in the chat and I will DM you your freebie or DM me your email and I will send you your freebie. There's many, many different ways to get that, so that could be something that you consider. We wanna just make it easy. 

So maybe as you think about delivering that freebie, maybe you're thinking Uhoh, I need some help with this. And I'll just tell you very quickly, you guys, if you don't know what fivrr is, F I V R R, or Upwork, there are many places where you can go and just hire somebody to put something on your website. I mean, it could download from a page on your website or it could play on your website. You know, my webinar, my Canva workshop plays on my website. Somebody could do that for a very small fee and put it up there.

All right, so what do you going to pick today? What does your person want? What would be the easiest for you to create and the fastest thing for you to deliver? How are you gonna create it? How are you gonna keep it simple? Let's decide today. Just pick one thing for an opt-in, just one, and then complete that today. So I say you pick the easiest thing first. Do not overthink this. Pick something super easy. 

If you work with me inside the business building boutique, I have a quiz that everybody uses my quiz. It's in Canva. It's ready to go. You just change the questions and the questions honestly, you just change the end of the question.

You'll be all branded for you. That's the easiest. It's a one page quiz. Do something like that. If you are ready to do something more complex, then go ahead and go for that. You might even do something interesting like freebie Friday. I had a client that did that. She said, you know, every single Friday I'm gonna introduce a new freebie.

I'll email my list about it. Like on Wednesday, I will, post about it on social media. I'll share it in my Facebook group. She had a plan and she was gonna do it weekly until she really figured out what freebie was the best freebie. So right now I'm talking to you guys about creating a freebie to just get it done and to have something there to start capturing email addresses.

Now, don't be sloppy about it. Make sure that you find one that does give your client a win that does provide a way for them to know, like, and trust you. Once you get that all set up, and you do all the other things you need to do in your business. You're gonna get to a point where we want to be thinking about your million dollar opt-in.

I know that's a stretch at this point, but we wanna think about the thing long term that is going to make you a lot of money. So you start out with one opt-in, you add on a few other ones, and you just test and try till you find the thing that people really love. And I will tell you for me, this Canva workshop that I've been talking about, in fact, I'll just leave a link in the show notes. That has been really a winning email opt-in.

All right, so what questions do you guys have? I hope that you see the value of making your opt-in really, really simple. Creating something that will get somebody a win that your ideal client would want, that they would be willing to exchange an email address for. Again, it could be an Amazon list with your favorite items on it.

It can be something super, super simple, and then I want you to get out there and market it because even if you just have the freebie on your website, nobody is coming unless you tell them. There's always one more step in this deal, and that's what you've got to talk to people again and get 'em there. Sell them on giving you their email address.

Are we good? Let's get to work you guys. I say go for freebie Friday, why not? Do as many freebies as possible? Just really go all in on growing your email list, because here's what I have to say in closing, there is money in your list. When you grow an email list, people on that list will buy from you. So that's what I have to say about my email list.

There's money in your list and that's a beautiful thing to say. So get your ATM going by growing your email list. All right you guys, until next week, take care. Bye-bye.

Okay, ladies, that is it for today. Before we go, I want to invite you to head over to debbieshadid.com. I have this incredible Canva training, specifically designed for life coaches where I'm gonna teach you how to use Canva to create beautiful graphics to market your life coaching. All right. Have an amazing week.

I'll talk to you very soon. Bye bye.