Collaboration and Email Marketing //
HOW TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS USING EMAIL MARKETING
Email marketing still has one of the highest ROI’s and in this video we’re going to talk about how to build your brand and drive revenue using email marketing and collaboration.
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Hi, I’m Kirsten Graham with Six Figure Business Coaching and in this video I’m going to share with you strategies that our clients are currently using and share some examples with you. I’m also going to go over these same strategies and how you can use them in your business. Because every business is a little bit different, please stay to the end of this video and I’m going to tell you how you can get specific strategies for your business.
Small businesses can and should support each other. Let’s face it, we’re all part of a community, a local community. Your business is a part of that community, you’re part of the community, your clients are part of the community and everyone on your email list either lives or vacations in your community, so it’s always a good idea to find ways to collaborate with other local businesses. This provides value for your customer, your business, and the other business. It’s literally win-win-win.
We’re going to go over two simple but very powerful strategies.
The first strategy is quite simple.
We’re going to talk about spotlighting another business.
Let’s say you’re an interior designer and you work with a fabulous contractor. In your email marketing you could showcase an article or what we will refer to as a ‘spotlight’ about the contractor. You can say things like, “this is a contractor that I’ve worked with on many projects. He or she does a fabulous job and I highly recommend them” and then you could showcase some of their work. Show some images, talk about what they did that was so fabulous, talk about how they’re always punctual and how the client always enjoys working with them and that makes your job easier.
So spotlighting another business owner is a great way to promote their business to your email list and hopefully what they will do is then promote your business to their email list.
Another thing that you can do is testimonials.So if you’ve done work for a local business and it could be something, you know, not even a collaborative effort so let’s say for example, as a business coach let’s say I use a local auto mechanic and I really enjoy working with that person. I get great service. I feel like they’re always honest. I can showcase their work. In my email marketing I can say, ‘hey guys I want to talk about incredible customer service experience I had at ABC automotive. I’ve taken my car there three or four times they’re always really honest with me. I feel like they explain what they’re doing to me. I feel like their pricing is fair. I feel like they’re respectful of me.” I mean sometimes as a woman you feel like you can get ripped off and at an auto mechanic so I can talk about them and then showcase a picture of the business or a picture of the owner, a picture of me and the owner or the mechanic.
There’s so many ways to do this but what’s going to happen is people who are on the email list in my local area, they may start using that mechanic and that’s fantastic. It shows people that I’m part of the community. It kind of makes me human that lets them see that I’m doing normal things like getting my car fixed but it also builds really goodwill. When your email marketing is not all about YOU it showcases to the person who’s reading your email, ‘hey this person really cares about me and they’re sharing information that can really be valuable to me and it’s not just about them and their business.’
So spotlighting other businesses and using testimonials from other business owners can be fantastic.
Now this auto mechanic may not even have an email list and he may not want a spotlight my business or use a testimonial for me and that is fine because it’s not always back and forth. I would simply be doing it because I enjoyed and appreciated the service that he gave to me and it’s a way to contribute and help a local business so that is one strategy that you can use.
So in the comments below type ‘YES’ if you plan on featuring a spotlight or a testimonial from another local business owner.
So the second strategy is co-marketing with another business.
This is actually employing a marketing strategy for both businesses and I want to share one that happened with me about five years ago.
We were working with a local French bakery, a little Bistro and she did a fantastic job. Every Thursday she did a $4.99 special. It was the sandwich of the day with a drink: coffee, tea, or soda with refills for $4.99 and that was going really well for her but one day local chiropractor came in. His office was less than a half a mile away and he ate there quite often and he was quite a foodie so he came in to her and he said, “I’d like to do some co-marketing with you and this is what I have in mind. I would like to pay for the first 100 people that come in for your special one Thursday every month.”
So we all sat down and talked about that and ultimately a hundred people was just too many because with her indoor and outdoor seating that would have just been a little packed and it could have caused problems so we decided to start with 50 people. So he would pay for 50 people, the first 50 people to come in and have lunch on a particular Thursday. She promoted it to her email list which she did every week. On Wednesday she sent out what the Thursday special was – what sandwich she was featuring for $4.99.
In this particular week she promoted that this particular chiropractor was paying for the first 50 people’s lunch and he also marketed this to his email list he said, “hey, I love this little French bistro I eat there often and tomorrow I’m going to pay for the first 50 people who come in for the lunch special and the sandwich of the day is this.” So he marketed it too he marketed to his email list and she also marketed it to hers like she normally did. It was a great success. They had tons of people come in. People were sitting at each other’s tables, sharing tables, it was great conversation he was there shaking hands. It went really well and they decided to start doing this one Thursday of every month.It really built and it just became a great marketing tool for both of them.
She also does a lot of catering so what she decided to do is while people were waiting in line each week she started featuring one of the items that she caters to her clients with and that was awesome. It gave them an opportunity to taste some of the appetizers that she does. It also gave them a great opportunity to just know and remember that they offer catering.
Now the chiropractor also offered specials to his clients and to her customers. ‘Come in for an adjustment for a special price’ ‘come in for a free chair massage’ all kinds of great things.
The two of them just ended up becoming great friends. They ended up becoming accountability partners and they both grew their email lists and grew their businesses. They ended up – after about a year – they added another component to this, which I think was just amazing, they were both dog people. So they ended up partnering with a local shelter. I don’t think it was the SPCA, I can’t remember the name of the organization right off the top of my head but every Thursday that they did this which was once a month, they would have on the shelter would bring in a few
animals, cats and dogs that could be adopted, and so it kind of became a big thing. Their customers ended up giving donations, bringing in dog food, cat food, litter, toys, dog beds, so it became this great way for the nonprofit to raise money and get supplies that they needed, animals were getting adopted, it obviously showed goodwill for both businesses that they were supporting a charity, and this has been going on for five years now.
So when you think about collaborating with other people don’t limit what could happen because there are so many fantastic ways that you can co-market with each other and then promote that through your email marketing list.
Another example of great collaboration with email marketing is we have a photographer, a wedding photographer, a florist, and a cake maker along with a videographer who all co-market together.
Each quarter they host an event where they answer questions from people who are about to get married about different packages that they have different options, what flowers are in season at that particular time of year. They host this event collaboratively and they email out the invitation to all of their email lists. So what happens at these quarterly events is that they’re each meeting people that came from the others email list and then they ultimately do a drawing so they’re building their own email list and it’s a great way to collaborate.When you think about your email marketing list think about how could you share your list and help other business owners and how could they share their lists and help you?
In the beginning of this video I said to you, “stay to the end and I’m going to tell you how we can help you come up with ideas like this for your email marketing.”
First of all, we have two free offers for you.
The first one (oh and they’re both in the link below), the first one is we have a guide on how to build your email marketing list and how to build a strategy around your email marketing but the way we’re going to help you come up with specific ideas to email market and co-market is if you go to our Facebook Group which is Six Figure Business Life, again it’s in the description below, if you go there, join the group and ask us a question just simply say, “I’m in this business, this is my ideal client, what ideas do you have for collaboration with other local businesses?” we will be over the moon excited to help you with that. Don’t be shy. We’re hoping a lot of people will ask because we can all learn from each other and you know sometimes one person gets an idea, and the next person expands on that.
So if you would like actual, specific ideas for how you can use collaboration in your email marketing go to Six Figure Business Life over at Facebook and tell us the name of your business, and the industry that you’re in and, if you like, your ideal client and Jeanne and I are happy to give you some ideas of how you can use this strategy.
We are truly excited to be a part of your entrepreneurial journey Please make sure to hit the LIKE button, SUBSCRIBE to our channel, and ring that bell to get notified when we post new videos. Also, share this video if you know someone else that it could help.
I’ll see you in the next video and until then DREAM BIG! you
