Sales automation has long been associated with spammy email content and pushy sales. In fact, a lot of the early marketers are responsible for the way women in general think about marketing.
- They perceive it as icky.
- They believe marketing is sleazy.
- They are afraid of marketing.
- Marketing confuses them.
And that’s just a start!
The good news? People like me, a new generation of marketers, have committed themselves to setting the record straight by educating our peers.
I won’t lie to you, it’s a tough job at times, because something that is so ingrained in society like our HATRED for marketing requires patience and education to level out.
The problem is that most women throw ALL types of marketing into the same bucket. It’s like parking a Ferrari next to a junk car and then comparing the too.
If you’re guilty of the above, you’re insulting marketers who care!
Please STOP it already. Because no two marketers are the same. The way I see it, you have an obligation to yourself and your business to learn how to become a better marketer, otherwise you’re going to be left behind.
No scare tactics necessary! It’s simply common sense.
Don’t believe me? Allow me to press play on two scenarios.
Meet FEAR and OPPORTUNITY.
FEAR is a 40 something business coach who has ignored all opportunities to learn marketing automation.
Her reality is this:
She is confused about what she should be doing to get more clients.
She is scared about techie stuff — that stuff freaks her out — and so, she just ignores the topic and goes back to playing CandySaga on Facebook.
Because of her lack of clarity FEAR is pulled in too many directions all the time and spends the little money she has on bright shiny objects (BSOs) in the hopes that THIS thing is going to make her rich.
FEAR doesn’t see the obvious. Her self destructive behaviour is making OTHER people rich — other people with AUTOMATED sales funnels.
She struggles to make enough money to pay the bills. It causes her a huge amount of heartache and stress.
Her idea of marketing is to attend boring networking meetings (where the same crowd of people seem to hang at the bar in the hopes of snatching a free drink) and no one is really interested in buying something.
FEAR’S highlight is when she can collect a bunch of business cards to take home. She thinks those are the holy grail and if only she had enough, she would become a success story, like that speaker she so adores.
She desperately wants more clients, but doesn’t know how to reach them.
Her stress and lack of income affect her whole life.
She struggles to focus because she is always tired and doesn’t know how to make room for everything in her life including family and so — the negative vibes keep feeding her fears.
FEAR has no list — except an ancient spreadsheet of outdated contacts on her hard drive, and she doesn’t KNOW that she may be violating international Spam laws by pitching her business to a list of people from her personal email account.
What saddens me is knowing that FEAR could have a fighting chance to build a successful business.
OPPORTUNITY is also a woman, she is 53.
OPPORTUNITY has worked hard on getting her sales funnel set up, but knows that she is in control now — she is no longer controlled by her fears, because numbers NEVER lie.
She starts each day with a cup of coffee, while reading her subscriber and sales statistics. What once felt like this HUGE scary beast feels actually almost joyful and fun now. I mean, what’s not to like about seeing that you made a couple of sales while you were dreaming about running naked on the beach?
OPPORTUNITY understands that her sales funnel is working for her and that in order to make more money she simply has to drive more traffic to her landing page. She’s excited about the possibilities and she now knows that automation is helping her keep her sanity.
OPPORTUNITY no longer worries about those tiny repetitive tasks that used to suck so much time out of her working day. She now has extra time to play and do with as she pleases.
Actually implementing this automation thing with the help of her mentor has taken away the fear about marketing and OPPORTUNITY can’t wait to replicate her new knowledge for that super sexy new program she is keen to launch.
OPPORTUNITY wasn’t afraid to make the difficult choice to up level her business because she knew that unless she changed her attitude to marketing, she would continue to get the same lame ass results of the past.
Do you feel like you know FEAR or OPPORTUNITY?
Where do you think you fit in?
Look, we’re having a pretty damn scary conversation here right now. This stuff is important! For you and for me.
Because we need sales to feed out children or our ambition.
You can choose to make easier sales or hard sales. It’s your choice entirely.
But before you let FEAR keep ruling your decisions, allow me to tell you a little more about the 5 Myths About Marketing Automation — and BUST the shit out of them!
Deal? Thank you.
Myth #1 — You believe that marketing is sleazy and hypey.
Sure, it can be. But it doesn’t have to. I bet you can think of at least a small handful of women in business whose marketing you adore, because hello… you signed up to their lists and even brought their stuff.
Well, marketing done well is really about building community and relationships with clients worldwide.
But you CAN’T do that if you don’t have a sales funnel and no leads.
You can’t nurture the relationship, unless you pick up the phone and call the people whose business cards you collected. And you need to keep calling them often to build a relationship.
Nurturing is like dating. It’s a slow process that requires multiple touch points you can automate or semi automate. This is something you can never do with networking meetings and business cards.
Think about it.
What I do know is that people CRAVE real life connections these days. And that’s exactly why an automated marketing strategy will come so handy because once your list grows, your popularity grows. And as your popularity grows the demand for you to speak on all sorts of stages will grow.
So you’re getting automation + real life connections.
Myth #2 — You think that marketing automation is sending a number of spammy emails.
Look, I cannot blame you for thinking like that. Because it’s those pesky email spammers that have given marketing such a bad reputation.
In reality, if you focus on sending your subscribers value-rich content they’ll love you for it.
Early this year I did an email marketing test that got me an opening rate of 93% by segmenting my list and sending them strategic emails full of value.
The results turned out way better than I was hoping for.
Imagine how your business would improve from just doing email marketing better. That’s just one of the things I’ll be teaching you with SPARK Automation when it launches in May, when you decide to join us.
Myth #3 — You still think that marketing funnels have to be complicated to work.
When you read this blog, you’ll likely change your mind.
OR, click the image below to get access to a FREE video tutorial that shows you how you can create simple funnels.
Myth #4 — You secretly hope that once you put a sales funnel into play you can go spend your days beach hopping, or yoga retreating or coffee dating.
Make no mistake! An automated sales funnel WILL save you tons of time. Time you’re wasting right now on mundane tasks. But it won’t be the holy grail of riches and success, unless you work it baby!
- A sales funnel without traffic is like a car without fuel — it goes nowhere.
- A sales funnel needs constant tweaking — to optimise the results you get which really is just another way of saving you precious dollars.
- Regardless how many of these funnels you have, your business will always need some manual input from humans like you — not robots.
So the best way to look at a sales funnel is to imagine that Ferrari being driven by a Gentleman driver, consistently bringing new people to your ‘hood.
These people are interested to learn more about you. They crave solutions. Once they get deposited in your ‘hood, your sales funnel and YOU work together to turn them into raving fans, then clients, then fans for life.
Make sense?
Myth #5 — You think that automation may be good for some, but it’s not really ideal for your business.
Let me ask you a question: what is not ideal about driving a consistent stream of leads and new paying clients into your sales funnel?
Unless you don’t like money I’m not buying your excuse. And even if you DON’T like money, I’m pretty sure you would LOVE the choices you’ll get when money flows freely.
- The ability you’ll have to donate time to whatever causes you like.
- The freedom to sponsor people into your programs, because you can.
- The joy in being able to change more lives because money gives you those privileges.
Exactly!
Money is not the problem? Your attitude to money is if you honestly believe that money is evil.
Look, at the end of the day it’s up to you what you do or not do with your business. If you felt called to side with OPPORTUNITY in this blog then I’d love to invite you to become a SPARK VIP.
Once you’ve pressed play on your first simple sales funnel, you can repeat the process as often as you feel called to launch.
Before I wrap up this blog I want to take the time to thank you, for sticking around till the end. I’m sure you’ve got lots to think about, lot’s to digest.
Before you go, please take a minute to share with me your biggest learning from this post in the comments below. Make my day! You’re adorable.
Love
