Email has always proven to be the king of marketing. In this episode, the guys go over the best lead generation strategies for growing your email list. They go over how to attract people that are in your target audience, ways to create niche specific leads, and repurposing content for email. They also talk about the importance of the quality of your audience when you build your list.

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This is a direct transcript. Please forgive any grammar or spelling errors.

Jason: When you do it badly, you don’t build a relationship. When you do it the right way you do build a relationship.

Kevin: I think you have to just think about it as if you’re just trying to collect an audience around your product, like with similar interests and niche down what your audience is so that you can bring in similar people.

Jason: I’m seeking out people who are like minded.

Jen: You’re listening to eCommerce Uncensored with Kevin Monell and Jason Caruso.

Kevin: Thanks for joining us on another episode of eCommerce Uncensored. My name is Kevin Monell and I’m here with

Jason: Jason Caruso.

Kevin: So I want to mention this again, our done for you emails, startup service that we’re still taking applications for. So if you need some help with your Klaviyo account, getting your, your flows, going, your campaigns going, or like general setup of your Klaviyo account email, I’m sorry.

Text email 2 8 4 4 6 4 3 0 7 4. And you’ll get a, uh, a link back to kind of tell us a little bit about your store, what you’re going through, the software you’re using, and you’re looking like you’re going to say something, Jason. Yeah. I

Jason: want to say, yeah, you want to text the word email?

Kevin: Right. Yeah. Text the word, email EA.

I’m working on this E M A I L to 8 4 4 6 4 3 0 7 4 5.

Jason: Right. And this is a paid service guys. Just the heads up because. Obviously, we’re getting text messages from people. And I think there’s a little bit of ambiguity in what we’re talking about here, but this is a paid service because one of the biggest questions we get in our emails is I don’t know how to set up a flow.

My flows aren’t working. I don’t know how to set up, uh, you know, my campaigns or segments or lists or whatever. So we, we kept hearing this over and over from people. So we’ve decided that we’re going to help out, but it’s, it’s obviously. There’s obviously a fee to it because we can’t help everybody for free.
And, um, so, uh, yeah, I just want to give a heads up and be clear about that because I think we’re getting, we’re getting a lot of emails from people and they’re thinking that we’re offering this service as a free service, but it’s

Kevin: not. Yeah. And after, after we get your questionnaire back where you give us some more information, we’ll look over what you’re doing and we’ll see how we can help and kind of give you a write-up back and, you know, see how.

Right today. We want to talk about, you know, obviously we continue to talk about email. We’re really bullish on email. And, um, today I want to talk about like different ways that you can collect emails. And I think that a lot of people have a mindset. Like if they have any commerce store, like with an info product, I think it’s a little bit easier to, to develop.
A free download or an ebook or a video or something. But I think you, you could still do the same kinds of things with an e-commerce store. It’s just like, you have to have the mindset that it’s not necessarily something like that is going to drive a sale from that ebook or anything like that. You don’t have to think about it that way.
Like how do I, for instance, if you have like a, a clothing line or something like. I think people struggle with like, okay, well, how am I going to make an ebook? If I sell a shirt? I think you have to just think about it as if you’re just trying to collect an audience around your product, like with similar interests and niche down what your audience is so that you can bring in similar people.
So. For instance, if you have a little

Jason: bit, just let me just stop you. What you’re saying. I think what you’re saying there, cause it w it was a little muddy for me, but I think what you’re saying is that you’re trying to attract people that are your target audience. So you’re trying to attract people who would like your products, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that they would buy instantly, but over time, Building this, this audience or this list of people will bear fruit is basically, I think what, what the crux of that is.

Kevin: Right, right. Exactly. Like, um, uh, if you are going to like, have like some kind of seminar or something, consider it like in a person thing, like you want it to get all these people in the same room. So how would you attract them? How would you get the same? The people who are a target. That you can then present your product to,

Jason: and I think that’s a, that’s a really good analogy because that’s really what you’re doing is like you’re trying to build a audience of people who actually want what you’re selling and, and, you know, seminars are exactly that, right?

Like you, you learn something or you’re taught something and then someone tries to sell you something. And, um, all they’ve done is just brought like-minded people or brought people who are in their. To one room and you’re kind of doing the same exact thing. So, um, it’s a really, that’s a really good analogy, Kev.
I think that, uh, you know, kind of encompasses what, what the purpose is. And I think as store owners, you know, and we’ve struggled with this as well with our clients, like most businesses who hire a, you know, marketing firms, There, they think that they’re hiring magicians who know how to sell products that nobody wants.
Right. So they think that that’s what they’re hiring you for when really what you’re hiring a marketing person is this because they just, they know the strategies, they know how to, you know, do lead gen or they know how to do conversion, or they know how to do, you know, whatever Facebook ads or Google ads or email marketing or whatever it is.
Having a more holistic sort of view of your business, um, is I think important because you never know when that email is going to get you out of trouble. And we’ve been in trouble before with some of our businesses and we’ve sent emails that instantly gone gotten us out of trouble.

Kevin: So yeah, I think, I think the word, you know, lead gen is important here too.

Email captured is just another version of lead capture. Right. You know, when you think, I think when you think about lead capture, sometimes you think about like a service industry or like, you know, a lead gen, what did I say leads? You said lead service, lead gen. So when you think of lead gen, you don’t automatically think that that could work for e-commerce, but it’s really what you want to do is like, you want to pinpoint that person.
And acquire some, some level of information from that person and then sell it to them later.

Jason: Yeah. You know, and it’s interesting. We were talking about the whole relationship building in an email and I I’ve really come full circle this because I think there’s so many people that do it badly. And when you do it badly, you don’t build a relationship when you do it the right way, you do build a relationship, but to have why don’t we get into some of the ways that we like to generate leads.

And again, I think what you were saying is, before I cut you off, is that as an e-commerce brand, like you don’t think that lead gen is necessarily something that is necessary, right? Like you’re just trying to create ads to get people to buy stuff, but. You know, in the world that we live in today, it takes a lot of time for people to buy unless they know the brand.
I mean, that’s, that’s a different story. I mean, um, if you’re, uh, maybe Coca-Cola where you’d like to use them a lot, but if you’re like, Coca-Cola, they’re taking like a long view or a long, uh, approach.

Kevin: I was thinking about this last week when we were talking about. Actually, I don’t remember what we talked about last week, but I know it was on my mind.

And I wanted to mention it is that I was reading that book, reading, listening to that book, the illusion of money by. I can’t remember his name. Cece Ryan cease. I think his name is Susan amazing. It’s interesting. I’ve never finished it. Like I start books on airplanes and if the airplane, if the, if the plane ride is not long enough to finish the book, like I never, I can’t get back into it.
I need those. Uh, Kyle’s. Kyle, right? Yeah.

Jason: I have a couple in here that I just couldn’t couldn’t continue listening to like the big leap. Like I start them. I

Kevin: just can’t finish the, a bit of the same too. Right. You’re like, I get it like, okay. Right. And

Jason: the illusion of money, that guy kind of does the same thing over and it talks about the same thing,

Kevin: but I was thinking about it cause he starts out the book talking about like acting, acting so desperate for money will actually push money.

Yeah. Right. When you kind of like, um, don’t worry about the money necessarily. And, uh, you build relationships like we’re talking about, which is kind of, kind of like where that fits in. It’s like with a lead capture or a lead gen situation or an email capture campaign being desperate for money, I think pushes people away.
So I think when you can change your mindset and just think about it that way, that you’re just trying to gather people. Okay. And build relationships with them. So right now there’s some, yeah, there’s some standard ways, like the obvious ways are obviously, you know, just a pop up on your website. Right. And there’s two different ways that we usually do this depending on where people are like, there’s the offer?
Pop-up right. You can get offered 10% off, but like, if you’re just starting out and people don’t even know what your product is, it’s kind of weird to offer them 10% when they’re coming to your website. So that’s where we get into like more of the, you know, giving something away for free, like some kind of ebook or some kind of information and eBooks can be, you know, we’ve done it in the past.
We’ve just found information online that we can then create into a PDF. So for instance, uh, if you were, had some kind of fitness clubs, That, that you’re selling, maybe creating a, a guide to being fit a guide, a workout guide, or even a, um, 10 steps to get fit or something like that. Or we’ve done it in the past.
We did it. We had a, a couple of years ago, several years ago, we had a, a fitness, uh, training facility that we worked for, that they needed to bring leads in. And we just created like this menu. What was it like? Uh, you remember that company that we did business for Jason several years ago? God,

Jason: no,

Kevin: I don’t the place downstairs from our office.

Jason: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I do remember, but we did. Yeah, we did some sort of, I forgot what it was.

Kevin: It was a guide to getting fit or something like that. So what you’re doing is you’re not saying anything about your product. You’re just offering a piece of content that will attract the right person. Who would eventually potentially be interested in your product

Jason: Right. And the idea is, is to, you know, it’s funny because I heard this quote from Matt Furey, who is a email copywriter, and he said that, and he, he must’ve got it from somewhere else, but I heard it from him.

He said that money rewards speed. Right. So why I’m saying that is because if you don’t have a guide that is yours, just go grab somebody else’s online. You don’t have to say that it’s yours. You could say things like 10 tips to ironing your clothes. Uh, so they never get. And does it have to be yours? You can just go on the internet, search 10 tips for ironing, your clothes, grab the PDF, and then you just give them credit or you just don’t change their branding or whatever.
The point is not really the thing you’re giving away having to be yours. The point is that you’re just trying to attract the people that would potentially buy your product.

Kevin: Yeah. Maybe if you see that work, then you can eventually, you know, create your own type of guide that to make it more authentic, maybe, and optimize it and do it that way.

But to wait until you have all this information together, it’s just a waste of time because he knows if it’s going to work. Yeah.

Jason: And then, like the other thing is that we’re seeing with one of our clients is that, um, that email list, and this is something Kevin, I don’t think we’ve ever talked about, but I see it happen.

With rev air. And that is basically you get people on your email list. They may not buy for awhile, but they get your emails. Then maybe a friend of theirs gets the product. And now when like, like, uh, w you know, because of all these supply chain issues, uh, you know, everybody’s kind of going out of stock with their products.
Those people are there waiting for your product. And we see that now, like whenever that product goes out of, out of stock, it’s like, we’re like, oh crap. But then the minute it comes back, it’s like we sent an email and the thing just blows up.

Kevin: And during that time we continue while they’re out of stock, while people are signing up to just get notified, we’re continuing to send them emails to just keep them on the leash, so to speak so that when it does happen, they’re there.

Right? And speaking of speaking of them, we, we do a lot of this email capture for them. And we do have our, you know, 10% off opt in. On their website. And that does work because they have a, you have a large audience at this point and they have a lot of, uh, brand awareness. People know who they are. So when people come to the site, they, um, We do get signups from that just organically, but we also have a big presence on their blog that we’ve built over the last two years that just offers up, you know, more information about hair tips and things like that.
So in those instances, when you’re bringing in organic traffic to a piece of information, you know, a 10% off coupon, like I said earlier, really isn’t if that’s their first touch point with your brand, it’s like, wow, W w with 10% off what, like, I don’t, I’m, I’m here to gather some information now, what does this mean?
So that’s where we bring in some, uh, we have a guide for hair tips, you know, it’s called the healthy hair blog or something or healthy hair handbook or something that we offer up on those specific pages. On the product pages and on the, you know, the brand page on the specific e-commerce side of things, that’s where we offer the, the, the pop-up for 10% off when they’re just looking for information, that’s where we offer them more information for their email.
Right. So you have to know,

Jason: understand the psychology

Kevin: of the visit, right? Exactly.

Jason: So a guide is one thing. What else you got on your list there?

Kevin: Kevin? No, you can use the guide. They take that guide and then you can just turn it into a video. Uh, people love, you know, for me, I don’t, I download guides. I sign up the guides.

I never.

Jason: Uh, 75% of everybody who does that, that’s what they do.

Kevin: Right. I think videos can make it easier to consume. So take that information and turn it into an easily, more easily consumable piece of content, which would be a video for me. I’ll sign up for like a video training or a webinar, things like that.
And I’m more likely to go through those types of things. Then like a PDF that I have to take time to read.

Jason: Yeah. And also I think everybody consumes their

Kevin: content differently too. Yeah, absolutely. So to have both, I think is a, is a really good strategy. And again, like, I feel like when you, when you mentioned webinar or quote-unquote video trainings, you’re like, well, how am I going to like, do a video training on my t-shirts?

Right. Like that’s but that’s not the point here. The point is to attract the right person. That’s it like do a training on. Hiring, like Jason said, ironing clothes. Like if you have a, you’re selling an iron two best ways to iron your clothes, you just got

Jason: to find a problem that some that, that, that your audience is Experiencing.

Kevin: Yeah. So those two things like the videos and the PDF guides are just like free information, those kinds of things. I also think that, uh, giveaways is also we’ve. We’ve made a lot of money on, on giveaways throughout the last few years. And again, maybe if someone doesn’t know what your product is necessarily, you’re trying to build a brand, maybe giving away your product.

Isn’t that enticing. Maybe you find something else that you can give away. Uh, a tangible thing that you can run a giveaway toward that will bring more people in to your email list and then the right kind of people in, and then you can sell them on your specific product that you want to get them involved with later.
And then the last one on my list, Jason is just the abandoned carts. Um, that’s like a no brainer for me. Make sure you’re bringing in those emails as they’re going through your shopping cart. I know Shopify does it, but make sure those emails are flowing into your. Uh, platform as well. What does that lead gen?
It’s not really lead gen. It’s just like one of those things that I think people don’t realize is that you can just, especially on Shopify, the two step Shopify process is that you’re gathering those email addresses on that first step. And then they get to the second step where they have to give their credit.
And a good percentage of people are leaving at that point. You have captured that email at that point. Yeah. I mean,

Jason: and then they also, there is software that will collect emails on your checkout page as well, before they even submit anything. Um, you know, another thing that you can do is like a, like a three parts, uh, video.

We we’ve done three part videos, uh, with our golf course. Um, we’ve done one video for our wildlife photography business. We’ve done, you know, another thing that you can do, and we do this a lot with the wildlife photography business is, um, instead of reinventing the wheel, just we grab an article out of an already, uh, released.
Magazine. So the journal of wildlife photography, which is one of our businesses, is a digital magazine. And all we do is take an article out of there and we use that as a download. So that’s another thing that you can do. Um, you know, there’s several, there are several, uh, you know, pieces of bait that you can use.
And the idea with all of it is a to build your list, but to build it with people who actually, um, You know, are, uh, connected or looking for help with the product that you’re selling. So if you’re selling, you know, golf clubs, you don’t want to have like, um, a download for a basketballs, right? Like that doesn’t do any, any good.
And even if I’m selling golf clubs, I don’t necessarily want to get people on my list who, uh, like golf carts or, you know,

Kevin: specific. Right,

Jason: right. You want to make sure that you’re attracting the people who would actually want your stuff. So for instance, um, right now we have a golf ad going on Facebook, um, and the ad talks about how.

I used to be or how I took this test to become a golf professional, um, and how I lowered my scores really quickly. And then at the end of the ad, I say, if you want more tips on how to lower your scores, sign up for my newsletter. So, right. The idea is that I’m, I’m, I’m seeking out people who are like minded and who.
Want the information or the

Kevin: physical, and you’re just not looking for people who like golf or who it’s like a hobby of theirs. You’re looking for actually people who want to improve what they’re doing, right. Because

Jason: you’re a golfer and you don’t really necessarily try to improve what you’re doing.

You’re not my target audience. I mean, just because you play golf a few times a year, that’s not really who I’m looking for. I’m looking for the guy who like me has clubs sitting around his office and every time I get up, I grabbed one and I’m trying to fix.

Kevin: Yeah, exactly. So be specific niche down.

Jason: Yeah.

And you’ll, you’ll be surprised at what that email list can do for you, um, over time. And we’ve seen it over and over whether it’s with Rivera air or whether it’s with the journal of wildlife photography or whether it’s with the golf business. Um,

Kevin: yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. Once again, Text the word “email” 2 8 4 4 6 4 3 0 7 4 5.

To get involved in our emails, startup program, um, service, I guess you can call it and we’ll get back to you with a little, a link to fill out a little application where you can tell us about. Your store and what you’re looking to do, and then we’ll look at it. We’ll get back to you and see how we can help.
That’s right. Thank you guys so much for listening as always, you can check us out at eCommerce Uncensored.com and we’ll talk to you guys real soon

Jason: Later.

 

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