What kind of business are you REALLY in?

👉 it makes a huge difference to how you should email

We had a bit of an epiphany in Kathy’s business last week.

Kathy’s main product is a membership site, so one of the big things we’ve done over the years has been to try to improve member retention rates.

And honestly, a lot of the stuff we’ve tried hasn’t worked.

We’ve implemented pretty much everything from the “best practices playbook” for membership sites but last week I realised why most of it didn’t work: we don’t actually run a membership site.

At least not a traditional one.

Kathy’s site is a regularly updated collection of interviews with experts that people join partly for their own professional development, and partly because they’re just interested in the topic.

So really it’s more like Netflix or Disney Plus than a traditional goal-oriented membership.

And that means the “best practices” we should be learning from aren’t from marketers running membership sites. They’re from Netflix and Disney Plus.

Understanding what your business truly is makes a huge difference when it comes to email and newsletters too. Like us, if you pick the wrong model you’ll implement the wrong strategies.

One big mistake I see all the time is trying to copy the email marketing practices of people who are in a much more short-term business than you.

You see, the reality is that most people who teach email marketing and newsletters make their money from online courses and coaching programs.

And unfortunately, most (though thankfully not all) tend to assume that the way of email marketing that works best for them also works best for all businesses.

That’s why you’ll see such a focus on flash sales, tripwires, daily emails, “persuasive copy” and the like.

A few years ago I got to take a peek behind the scenes of some of the biggest names in online marketing. And I discovered that many of them had email lists that basically died after a month.

In other words, if someone didn’t buy from them in the first month, they were never going to. In fact they were unlikely to even open their emails any more.

Not surprisingly the marketing strategies these big names taught were all about building big lists as fast as possible and getting as much money out of them in the first month as possible.

Because that’s what worked for them.

And if your business worked the same way, those strategies would work brilliantly for you.

Unfortunately, those same strategies were being peddled to people selling high-value services with long sales cycles. Where building credibility and trust over time is vital.

Not surprisingly, the “push them to buy in the first month” strategies didn’t work so well for them.

So with email it’s vital to be honest with yourself.

The idea of penning a clever new subscriber ascension sequence with ultra-persuasive copy and clever deadlines and offers may feel quite exciting.

But if you’re a consultant selling 6 figure projects that need the buy-in of senior decision-makers from across your client organisations…well…they’re hardly likely to work.

In your case, a regular newsletter that shares new thinking and practical tips about the big problems your clients face is going to do you much more good.

Kind of like the electronic equivalent of Bruce Henderson mailing “Perspectives” to senior executives to kick-start the growth of BCG.

And rather than trying to push potential clients to buy some low-cost product that isn’t suited to what they need in the hope that once they’re a customer they’ll “ascend” to buying higher priced stuff: focus your calls to action on actually getting to talk to them.

Because in the world of high-value services, conversations lead to clients.

And look…

…I really do know how easy it is to get sucked into all the excitement of online marketing and the clever little tips and tricks that promise to double your conversions and “skyrocket” your traffic.

But you must ask yourself: are these strategies really designed for a business like mine? Does the person selling them only know how to do things this particular way?

No matter how cool they are, now matter how charismatic the person selling them. If they’re not proven for a business like yours then steer well clear and focus on strategies that might not be quite so sexy…but that will work for you.

- Ian