(Note: This article was originally published to JamieMcSloy.co.uk on January 8th, 2019. I’m going through an old backup of the site, which has hundreds of posts that aren’t currently uploaded. As I’m working hard on updating the site – and releasing The Vault, letting these old posts be the daily posts for a while.)
Email Marketing and Automation
Today, I’ve been working on planning out an email marketing strategy for the year.
Now… my biggest strength and source of guru wisdoms isn’t that I’m a genius at online marketing so much as that I’m good at building systems that are replicable and universal.
Many internet business guys get the one thing that works, the one website, the one business model; and that’s all a bit fragile for me. So I do the website thing; the multiple income streams, the niche site and multiple email lists.
Very few people do a thing dozens of times and constantly tweak. Presumably, those people have more fun lives than I do, but whatever.
Regular readers and sufferers on the email list will know that for this project, the personal brand, JamieMcSloy.co.uk, my emails are sporadic at best.
That has to change in 2019, because I’m taking it all a bit more seriously.
Here’s something that gets me about business online…
Bilocation
To add to the, “Jamie… you’re a weirdo,” thing, I have a growing collection of rare and out-of-print books on occultism.
Weird hobby, but OK. (Unless you’ve read the Pirate Investing Guide which is somewhere on this site, and then it makes a lot more sense.)
Now, among the most famous schools of occultism are the famed alchemists. They’re mostly known for their quest to turn lead into gold through transmutation… that’s I suppose if you read things literally, which I don’t think you should.
Anyway, lead into gold is the one-hit wonder that everyone knows. But alchemists often sort a ton of weird other stuff; the ability to levitate, the ability to extend their life spans, and something which is relevant to this article, believe it or not.
Bilocation.
Alchemists believed you could physically be in two places at once. There are historical anecdotes about it happening and it’s considered a miracle by the Catholic Church.
Naturally, sceptics will claim this is impossible.
I personally can’t be in two places at once physically, but now we’ll get on to the topic of the day.
Internet Business Tools Make Bilocation Easy
You get used to new things pretty quickly. You establish a new baseline as you walk through the world.
There are two things in business I’ve never gotten used to though:
- Waking up to find I’ve made money overnight
- Being able to schedule things to work when I’m not there
The first is self-explanatory. The second is where the bilocation thing comes in.
But where both are concerned, my mind still gets blown on a regular basis. I can sit in front of the screen (and I mostly do,) all day, or I can write my emails, blog posts or whatever and then go and do something completely different.
It makes a difference to me, obviously, but the rest of the world really has no idea.
I can schedule tweets for a week in advance and go sit in a cabin.
I can write an auto-responder and let it run once every week for the next twelve months.
That blows my mind.
Your Job… Decide What You Should Automate
As you can probably tell from the above… I’m not a genius.
Part of the big plan in 2019 is to start actually using this technology for my benefit, and that brings me to a potential email marketing strategy.
I’ll go into depth in the next issue of the Direct Response Newsletter, but I haven’t written it, finished planning or anything. These are a few considerations thus far:
- Set a frequency/number and work backwards
- Think in terms of what you need to do in real time and what is timeless
- Worry about metrics as you go along
The key one for this discussion being number two.
Some things you can plan in advance; timeless lessons, permanent offers and the like.
Some things you can’t plan in advance; limited time sales, date-specific promotions.
Understanding this is the key to setting up your campaigns right.
Final Thoughts
At a certain point, you have to start leveraging technology with increasing efficiency otherwise you’ll burn yourself out, or otherwise simply bleed potential due to your own inefficiency.
One of the ways you need to do this is to take yourself out of the equation. Whereas most people suggest getting Virtual Assistants or otherwise hiring folks… there’s plenty in the well before you have to hire anyone.
Your marketing can basically be done by yourself and your automated army.