I recently interviewed Micheal Stewart, founder and CEO of SEEN Marketing and Promotions.

His entrepreneurial career began in 2014 when he started his flagship business, Stewy’s Greetings. It’s an inspiring story of disrupting the status quo and charting his own path to success while being a husband and father of three children.

But, what’s even more inspiring is how he used direct sales strategies to significantly increase the income of his flagship business. Those strategies are what drive the work he does with SEEN Marketing and Promotions.

Our interesting conversation highlighted something many Jamaican entrepreneurs (and small business owners in general) lack – marketing automation.

It’s great to build a personal brand. But, that’s a very LONG TERM strategy. Winston Henderson, The Content Marketing Guy, took two years to build his brand to the point where he started getting clients. My conversation with him captured the essence of what it takes to build a successful personal brand.

The truth is that many businesses need sales immediately.

Not next week. Not next quarter. Not next year. NOW.

That’s why marketing automation is so important. It’s what transforms cold leads into paying customers.

The marketing automation we’re specifically referring to here is email marketing. Tapping into people’s inboxes provides a goldmine of opportunity!

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is essentially the process of using email messages to transform cold leads into paying customers. It’s how you use email to subtly (or overtly) promote your products or services. A key point to note here is the difference between cold leads, warm leads, and paying customers.

What’s the Difference Between Cold Leads, Warm Leads, and Paying Customers?

Cold leads are people who have never heard about your product or service. These are the leads who need to be nurtured the most so that they can move from awareness —-> interest —–> decision ——> action. This progression is called the sales funnel.

Warm leads are people who are interested in your product or service, but have never purchased. You need to put the right content in front of them for them to make a purchasing decision.

Paying customers are exactly that – paying customers. They have gotten to the decision stage and are ready to fork out the cash or input their credit card details to buy something from you. These are the customers you want and your email marketing strategy will help you get them.

Micheal’s 3 Tips for Using Email Marketing to Get Direct Sales

Micheal offered a lot of wisdom in our interview ranging from social media advertising to email marketing tips. Both strategies have provided him with the best online sales results. Combining them helped him get direct sales fast.

But, the strategy that stood out to me the most was email marketing. Relationship building is critical if you want long-term customers. Email marketing is the foundation for online relationship building with customers.

Here are the top three tips from the interview. Feel free to reach out to Micheal if you need help in any of these areas.

Be Known for ONE Thing

One of our biggest downfalls as entrepreneurs is trying to push all our products or services at once. As Winston Henderson eloquently said, “Trying to be a generalist is the quickest way for no one to pay attention to what you’re doing.”

Focus on what you want to be known for. Stewy’s Greetings is known as the wedding paraphernalia experts in Jamaica. But, they offer so much more. That was a deliberate move.

Focusing on one thing helped Micheal build an email strategy that works. It’s a strategy that transforms paying customers into returning customers. As he said, “Our sales funnel doesn’t have an end. It’s evergreen.”

Create a Hyper-Specific Lead Magnet

Lead magnets are the secrets of email marketing. The right lead magnet will put the right warm leads into your sales funnel. But, the wrong lead magnet will put the wrong leads into your sales funnel.

Micheal gave a great example in our interview. Remember that his ONE thing is wedding paraphernalia. Imagine him creating a lead magnet entitled “The Top 20 Hotels in Jamaica”. Sure, a couple would be looking for hotels for a honeymoon. But, there are thousands of other people who are looking for hotels for vacation, conference, and work purposes.

That lead magnet would get him thousands of leads. But, he’ll soon realise that his email marketing campaign is a bust. These leads won’t engage with his automated emails that follow the initial lead magnet download because those emails won’t speak to their needs.

A lead magnet that has worked for his business is a simple wedding checklist. Anyone who opts-in to download that checklist is most likely to be someone interested in wedding services. Boom! Mic drop! Problem solved.

Encourage Leads to Engage With Your Email

One of the biggest challenges with email marketing is getting your emails into someone’s inbox. There are so many spam filters and ad blockers that your emails can end up in junk, spam, or promotions. You don’t want that.

Micheal suggested two things to avoid this conundrum. The first is to avoid using images and videos in your emails. Plain text is fine.

The second is to encourage leads to engage with your email. It could simply be asking them to say, “Yes! I love this!” The response moves your email address from villain to hero in an email service provider’s algorithm.

Final Thoughts

Email marketing is the best way to build online relationships with customers and get direct sales. Combine an email marketing campaign with a solid paid social media advertising strategy and you’ll reap timely direct sales results.

Do you need help creating a lead magnet? Schedule a FREE 15 minute strategy session with me by clicking the scheduling button below.