Archives for May 2018

If you are anything like me, your email inbox is stuffed to the rafters with unopened messages. Just for fun, I logged into an old email that I no longer use and there's more than 30,000 UNOPENED MESSAGES!

Over time, we subscribe to a variety of different email sources which is the reason why we get bombarded with so much crap – and that doesn't even include spam. However, there are certain emails that get opened by me to the exclusion of others on a regular basis. Does any of this sound like you? As an online marketer the $64,000 question is, why is it that some emails get “the royal treatment” while others get completely ignored – and how can I get my stuff opened?

If you rely on email marketing as part of your core marketing strategy like I do, the most important thing is that your emails get opened. However, many marketers find themselves frustrated with their email open rate and can't figure out the problem.

Today I will share with you 6 mistakes that email marketers make and what you need to do in order to avoid making them. Let's dive into it.

MISTAKE #1: YOUR EMAIL SUBJECT LINE SUCKS

There's usually two extremes when it comes to your email subject line; either its too bland, or its over-hyped. If its too bland, there's little chance it gets opened. If its over-hyped you're likely just using click bait to get it opened and that's a dangerous strategy.

Dan Norris, Co-Founder of WP CURVE says, “The one mistake I see is overhyped subject lines. Writing headlines is a fine art and while the BuzzFeed style baited headlines might get more clicks, people forget about the impact on the trust of their brand. It's OK to encourage people to click but if they are constantly let down when they get into your content, it will have a long-term impact. I would rather sacrifice a few clicks to maintain the integrity of my brand.”

Since it takes time to develop the skill of writing good headlines, I wouldn't suggest winging it. Here's a cool tool that will give you the power of a pro headline writer.  A great website that teaches copywriting is CopyBlogger.com.

MISTAKE #2: YOUR EMAIL CONTENT STINKS

If I open your email, you better make sure that I'm better for having opened and read the content. Did you answer a question? Did you solve a problem? Did you relieve pain or make my life easier? Did you deliver VALUE? If not, say goodbye to me ever opening another email or just flat-out unsubscribing from your junk.

Noah Kagan, CEO of AppSumo says, “Focus on your emails being so valuable your potential customers read them, share them and are excited to use more of your product and pay you money. Just ask yourself if your emails are valuable even if your potential customer never buys.”  This advice is pure magic. I suggest you take it seriously and adjust if necessary.

MISTAKE #3: YOUR EMAIL IS SELFISH

How do you know if your email is selfish and self-centered? When it's more promotion that substance. Are you pitching and promoting, or are you serving and helping? If you are constantly thinking about how you can get someone to buy from you, bingo. You're an ego-maniac running wild.

Matthew Smith, creator of Really Good Emails says, “Emails should serve the customer not the product. Often times the marketing team, not the product team is in charge of the email flow and their directive is to grow. If you get myopic about that task you forget that the most solid growth comes through simple, repeatable, service that is so good it's sharable. Serving customers comes by meeting them in their email client with simple tasks and giving them more than they expect or more than they are paying for with their time.” This is a great filter that you should run your next email through.

MISTAKE #4: YOUR EMAIL IS WAY TOO LONG

Have you ever opened an email to the shock of what looks like a million words? My eyes glaze over every time I see an email like this. “Delete.” Next. Like the one viral video says, “Ain't nobody got time for that!”

“I often see people spending hours, even days, crafting long emails filled with many topics, ideas and news that would need a minimum of 10 minutes of uninterrupted reading to get through,” says Dan Levitt of Mad Mimi. “These monster emails lower your engagement and worst of all, they suck up your time and energy and become a chore. Keep it short and simple! Pick a goal and write a simple, short email that leaves the reader in no doubt what their next step is. It should be engaging, fun to read but most of all, it should take a few moments to grasp and act. If you’ve got a lot to get off your chest, send short emails more often.” ENOUGH SAID.

MISTAKE #5: YOUR EMAIL SHOWS YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER

Jimmy Daly, head of content at Vero says, “The biggest mistake I see all the time is marketers ignoring behavior.
Here's what I mean. You see a lot of promotional email, lots of newsletters, etc. That's the easiest place to start with email marketing so people focus on it. Then, you get lots of content around optimizing subject lines, writing better copy, when to send emails, etc. We're missing the point! Email marketing campaigns should be sent as a direct result of data and behavior. If a user is inactive, they get a nudge to come back. If they are active, they get emails about features they haven't tried yet or inspiration to engage at an ever higher level. Data-driven lifecycle email is so, so, so powerful. And I believe it's where most businesses are missing the boat on email.”

I love the way Matt Hodges, Senior Director of Marketing at Intercom puts it: “Not considering your audience. It's like writing a love letter and then addressing it “to whom it may concern.” OUCH. Don't do this, please.

MISTAKE #6: YOUR EMAIL IS SENT TOO INCONSISTENTLY

Are you sending your emails too much, or too little? According to a recent survey, 53% of consumers reported getting too many emails from retailers, while only 44% said they get the right amount. Here are a couple of tips that can help with knowing how to keep things in balance:

1. Just ask up front. Find out from your subscribers how often they want to receive emails, either at the time of subscription or shortly after. You can then segment your list accordingly. Didn't think of that, huh?

2. Get to know them better. Survey your email subscriber to learn more about them, and not just to find out how often you can send emails. If you know them, it will help gauge frequency because you are more service focused.

YOUR NEXT MOVE

Hey, there are other mistakes to avoid and a ton of things to do that are awesome, but at the end of the day its all about making sure you cultivate a “loving” relationship that stands the test of time – and gets them to buy eventually. We train on this subject here at Legendary Marketer. Grab a copy of David's book, its a great place to start your learning.

Go Forth In Victory,

Coach Larry

I have the pleasure of being around Legendary Marketer's founder, David Sharpe, every week as I take the 55 minute drive from my home in Odessa to the corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida.

We are located on the second floor of this building.

When you are around a person on a regular basis, you get to see them up close and personal. I've said it many times that it is important to get within “arm's length” of highly successful people so you can witness for yourself what makes them so successful. I can remember when I first met David about 3 years ago when a buddy of mine dragged me to meet him at the office of his previous company.

I had only known David in passing at that point, but I had great respect for his success especially knowing his back story of overcoming multiple addictions and severe health challenges. When we arrived at his office, he appeared in the doorway and greeted us. I can remember very vividly being quite uncomfortable in his presence. At the time, I didn't understand why I had that experience, but looking back on it I realized that his very presence challenged me. Not the fact that he's slightly taller or that he had a nice smile. It was his energy. He exuded something that was more than just, “I'm successful,” or “I make a lot of money.” I believe it was, and still is, a deep sense of self-worth, humility, and clarity of purpose that forced me to return home and do an inventory of myself.

In the time since our first meeting we lost contact. Then one day a mutual friend put us in contact with each other, and the rest is history. Today I want to reveal to you 5 habits that I've noticed that make David Sharpe a true Legendary Marketer and continue to propel him and the company into amazing levels of success.

HABIT #1 – David Walks To Work

I'm not sure if this was intentional, but the corporate office is less than 5 blocks from David's personal residence. I have tried to get to the office to catch him walking down the street, but because I don't know his schedule of arrival its difficult. At least a couple days a week, David scrolls down the street with his leather briefcase hanging off his right shoulder. In this time, he's able to get some free time to mentally prepare for the day and get some fresh air.
HERE'S WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT. Many of us don't take enough time to stretch our legs or feel the warm sun in our face. We tend to be in a hurry all the time and fail to take time to simply think. We don't live in the moment enough. When was the last time you WALKED ANYWHERE? How often do you take time to think, be thankful, or prepare yourself mentally for the day? I respect this as one of my favorite habits of David.

HABIT #2 – David Packs His Lunch

I have the bad habit of eating on the fly, and I find myself in a drive-thru more often than I care to mention. There's a lot of money spent being unprepared and this is one of those things that David pulled my coat tail about. One day I asked David very directly where he felt I needed to grow. I braced myself for what I knew would be a very straight forward answer. My insecurities were on high alert and I became a bit tense. His answer shocked and surprised me. He said, “Figure out what you are going to eat everyday before its time to eat.” He went on to tell me the importance of removing this from my mind in order to leave room for more valuable things to think about.
HERE'S WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT. Too often we live our lives with the “drive-thru” mentality. If we're honest, we spend the bulk of our day flying by the seat of our pants. Little to no preparation goes into our day, other than the fixed schedule given to us by our employers. I struggle with forming this habit, but by watching David flow through his day I realize how this little habit yields big results for his productivity.

HABIT #3 – David Takes Care Of Himself

It's no secret that David has struggled with addiction as he shares this regularly. If we are honest, many of us do a very poor job of managing and caring for our minds and bodies. I've had many candid conversations with David about some of my own issues, and he's gently pointed me to the fine art of self-care. He takes time to unwind to be with his wife and young daughter. When he's working, he's working – and when he's not, he's REALLY not. He has surrounded himself with a tremendous support system that keeps his mind and spirit clear and in balance. He's careful to remove himself from anyone or anything that would challenge is sobriety or sense of well being.
HERE'S WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT. It's very difficult, if not impossible to operate at a level of peak performance if you are out of balance in your mind, body or spirit. Ignoring our self care is a big mistake and could cost us more than we care to lose. Today, I have sought out a professional therapist and joined a group to help me to overcome some of my demons and work for a plan of genuine self care. David won't take credit for that, but I will say he has directly influenced me to do that. I told him just the other day that his influence regarding self care is making a difference in my life.

HABIT #4 – David Loves His Family

A few times throughout the week David's lovely wife, Erin, pops into the office. Sometimes she's there just to visit, while other times she's helping out in some aspect of the day to day operations. You may think this is a weird observation that “proves” how much he loves his family, but I saw him kiss his wife goodbye one day and it wasn't one of those half-second near miss swipe of two pairs of lips. As a husband of 21 years, I know how routine it can be to “kiss goodbye.” That's not how David kissed his wife. That kiss was one of a man who honors and respects his wife and doesn't put his work, passions, or pursuits in front of her. He works to be the best husband and father he can be. Yes, I saw all of that in how he kissed her goodbye. I also know that outside of work he's dedicated to getting tools, resources and support that further builds his skills and keeps him accountable.
HERE'S WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT. Many ambitious men sacrifice their families on the alter of success and use their hard work as the excuse for not pouring into their lives. Too often we hear about how successful a man is in the boardroom, but a total failure at home. Not so with David. He's not perfect, but he is actively working on being the best husband and father he can be, and I can only respect that.

HABIT #5 – David Honors and Values Integrity

One day David pulled me into his office to participate in one of our many brainstorming sessions. On this particular day, I could see that he was uneasy and clearly troubled. He started off by telling me that he wasn't comfortable with the level of value being delivered in one of our products. So, for the next 2 hours we dissected that product until we came up with a new set of deliverables which met his expectation of genuine value. For our members, they now know this as the Builder Masterclass 2.0, Leader Masterclass 2.0 and Traffic Rolodex 2.0.
HERE'S WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT. The moment that David felt in his soul that there needed to be a change, he changed. He didn't continue selling something that he came to believe wasn't good enough. Many companies will knowingly continue to sell their stuff simply because its selling with no regard of whether the end consumer is getting everything they should. I wish more people could have seen his anguish because it would be apparent how much he really does care about his people.

I could list 100 more habits that I've witnessed in David since working with him that I admire and respect. In the world of internet marketing, there's a ton of unscrupulous owners who hurt people and give our industry a bad name. I guess I'm just proud to be around someone who's not drinking his own Kool-aid and feeling himself. If you know David like I do, or he's done something to positively impact your life do me a favor and give him a shout out. These days he's not one for a lot of attention, but sometimes you just have to give credit where its due.

Go Forth In Victory

Larry Beacham (Coach Larry)
Dir. Of Training

GRAB A FREE COPY OF DAVID'S BOOK

On last Friday, one of our members posted a pretty bizarre message in our Facebook group that tells the story of how so many people misunderstand what it really means to make money from home. I'll share with you what they said in a moment. In the meantime, I'd like to talk very frankly about what may be your thoughts about making money from home, and whether those thoughts will help or hurt you.

 

As a coach, I often cringe at some of the things that people say about their “make money from home” beliefs, and it shows me two key things:

1. Most people have formulated opinions and conclusions about a home based business that will cause them great frustration

2. Frustration leads to anger, and that anger will lead to them leaving the home based business industry with a bad taste in their mouth

I remember when I first joined the home based business industry at the age of 19. A mortgage broker attempted to introduce me to my first home based business in the conference room at my job. As he began to get into his presentation, my boss at the time burst into the room and threw the guy out. I was horrified and afraid for my job. It turned out that my boss was involved in the very same opportunity that this guy was pitching to me, but he'd never shared it with me. Later that week, I came to a business meeting at our office. Upon seeing “circles” drawn on a white board, I became mesmerized by the potential and, after borrowing the enrollment fee from my boss, I joined this amazing home based business industry.

 

For nearly 10 years I struggled to make any money in that opportunity. In that stretch of time I never made more than $500 in any one month. Depressing, right? It wasn't until I hit my mid-thirties and started working with a mentor that I began to see where some of my challenges came from. The bulk of my problem is the same as the guy who posted in our group.

He said, “I've been in Legendary Marketer for about a month now, and I still haven't made any money. Showing people this thing, and they aren't signing up. I'm doing everything that I'm being told to do, AND ITS STILL NOT WORKING. What am I doing wrong?”

This is a very common complaint, and its unfortunate that many people feel this same way. So, here are 3 misconceptions about making money online that have to be addressed before you can ever make any real money.

MISCONCEPTION #1: “Making money online is quick and easy to do”

The home based business industry has a lot of blame here. The constant promotion of “easy steps” and overuse of terms like “simple,” “effortless,” “quick,” and others perpetuates this faulty belief. It is “easy” once you do the work to learn the basics and master them. However, its painful to make changes in any aspect of life. Learning a new skill like marketing online is not exempt. As it relates to “quick,” that a matter of personal opinion. Entrepreneurs who understand business don't focus on “quick.” That's an expectation that will deplete your energy. Don't put a 2-week paycheck expectation on a business opportunity. It's apples and oranges.

MISCONCEPTION #2: “Working part-time from home will make a full-time income”

Have you ever heard this one before? I hate to admit it, but I've actually said this many times with full belief that it was true. Of course, I did this during the time when I still had a full-time job and I just trusted this to be true. To be clear, you don't need to work “full time” in the same manner you would on a typical 9-to-5 job to be successful. However, a full-time effort is absolutely required to create the leverage necessary to have the option to work “part time.” In other words, you have to build a system that works for you when you are not “working.” Until then, you'll need to do EVERYTHING (i.e., marketing, lead generation, list building, etc.). David Sharpe, CEO of Legendary Marketer, doesn't work “part time.” All of the great and successful online entrepreneurs I know work “full time” even though they could technically work “part time.” In the beginning, you will most likely sacrifice time away from things that matter to you in order to get things working, or to educate yourself well enough to take actions that yield results. This isn't a negative. The good news is, some day you'll have the CHOICE to pick whatever schedule you want, but not in the beginning. Get your head out of the clouds!

MISCONCEPTIONS #3 “Making money from home can be done with no investment”

NOT! This one right here is really misleading and gets a lot of people into trouble. This belief is usually centered around the marketing of the business opportunity. I'll speak to this in a moment. At the very least, you need to invest in quality training in order to understand what you need to do to get things to work. You can't expect to build a solid knowledge base googling everything, or searching all day on Youtube. Most of the time that stuff is fragmented or just enough information to get you taking action. What happens when you run into the gaps in your understanding or have questions? Help costs money. Also, if you are signing up for “free” or low cost opportunities, you'll soon realize that sooner or later SOMEBODY has to spend money for YOU to make money. If not, its probably not a legitimate opportunity. There is an exception to this rule of “no investment” (assuming you are involved in a legitimate opportunity) and its surrounding the idea of free marketing. If you are going to work a “free” marketing strategy, get ready to wait a LONG time to get a return because its not quick. Also it will require a ton of your personal time. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try these strategies. I'm just bringing you to a more realistic perspective about what it will take to get results.

In the Legendary Marketer's membership area, we have a lot of training on how to work in a home based business and get real results, whether you use our affiliate program or not.

I want you to get the success you dream about, but you can't do it in a cloud of fantasy beliefs. Millions of good people have been able to use the work at home industry to leave their jobs and live their dreams. That much is completely true. In order for you to join them, someone has to tell you the truth from the beginning with no B.S. We can help you. Just reach out to us and we'll be there for you. For now, grab a free copy of our book to get started.

Go Forth In Victory,

Larry Beacham (Coach Larry)
Dir. Of Training

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