By Jay Williams, TwoBrain Mentor
How often do you reach out to your mailing list?
Assuming you have a mailing list…if you don’t go get one then come back and read this.
It’s likely if you have a list that you email on average once or twice per month.
You put together a monthly newsletter with your most popular posts, or announcements of upcoming events and courses, and maybe an athlete of the month.
If you’re like me, you figure out how to use Mailchimp, find a cool looking template with lots of pictures and colors, spend 3 days gathering info and making it “just right”, then hit send and hold your breath.
Behold! The newsletter your list has been waiting for!!!!
I would do this every month, and it always fell flat. I’d get a few clicks and a few responses, and many of my members still didn’t know what was going on when I brought up events in class.
Half the people on the list never even read the email.
And why would they? Look at what your email has to compete with in their inbox?
After months of doing this, I was ready to quit emailing people altogether, because it seemed like a waste of time.
But you always hear about how email is the best way to reach people if you can do it right.
So I did some research in my own inbox.
Which emails did I actually read?
They all had a few things in common:
-they were short
-they didn’t have pictures or colors
-they told stories
-they had one or two calls to action max.
-they showed up in my inbox 2-7 times per week!
I dug a little further and found out most of these emails were from people running 6 and 7 figure businesses online.
Maybe they knew something I didn’t.
So I decided to run my own test.
What would happen if I emailed my list every weekday for 30 days?
Worst case: I’d annoy everyone and they’d unsubscribe
Best case: improved sales, better retention, more personal connection
The biggest challenge I’d have was figuring out things to write about…so I started by making a list of topics, based on:
-notes/results from “top 10” client interviews
-frequently asked questions
-member stories
-content I’ve already produced (lectures/blogs, etc)
-stories/experiences from my life
With this list, and the rules above, I started writing and sending.
Every weekday.
At first, it was scary…out of 500 people on my list, I got 30+ unsubscribes the first 3 days.
I also got clicks…
and responses.
A LOT of them.
I sent an email asking a question and I’d get 30 responses.
An email about nutrition coaching sold 15 spots in 3 hours.
An email about our kids program sold it out in 30 mins.
Two old came back and started new memberships.
Some of the MIA members started showing up to classes.
Current members came up to me between sessions and thanked me for the emails.
At the same time, I also DID annoy a lot of people, and overall 100 people unsubscribed.
I even offended one person enough to write a negative Yelp review about my business.
But the whole experience changed my perspective on marketing.
My 30 day experiment turned into a 5 month experiment, and I still write emails every day.
Because despite the negative reviews, the unsubscribes, and the annoyances…every month since it started has been the best revenue month we’ve ever had at the gym.
It turns out the people who don’t like it aren’t right for your gym anyway, and shouldn’t be on your list.
We sell out our programs, bring new people in, make all the announcements, and keep in contact with our current and former members.
It’s the best marketing/retention/connection tool I’ve ever used…and it takes 30 minutes per day.
People who have expressed interest in your gym actually LIKE hearing from you!
Why are you only contacting them once per month?
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