Understanding how you should be using the system’s components starts with understanding the process you’re taking the person through to maximize conversions.

That process is

Call their name

People identify themselves by more names than just their given name. People in emergency services perk up and listen when you call “First responders.” Yet you still don’t have it focused enough to have their complete and undivided attention. If you call for firefighters specifically or police officers specifically, you have narrowed down the call to a specific segment. How narrow your focus is, will directly correlate to how much of their attention you have.

Identify and contact the people who need or want your product/service. Then get their attention. This can be accomplished with some time and effort using a business fanpage. You can also look for forums or groups where your target market is and contact the admin to advertise.

Capture their information

Get their information. That is the prize that allows you to continue to send messages that lead to sales. You may have noticed that this process is constant, meaning you don’t just do it once. Each offer has its own entry to the main list, yet has its own follow up sequence. That ensures that the person signing up gets messages interesting to them.

You cannot reach them again if you don't capture their information. Think about how many people that come to your website, store, trade show booth, etc. and do NOT buy. That number is a LOT bigger than those who do buy right? What if you could reach out to those people and nurture them until they are ready to buy?

Confirm that they need or want your product/service

The content you write should be of interest to them specifically. This is a problem or frustration they need a solution for or a desired result they want to achieve. Both needs and wants are powerful enough to get people ready and willing to pry their wallets open for.

Make the offer

Now you send them to the sales page. Use links or contextual ads for your product/service placed within or at the end of the post that link to the sales page.

Call to action (CTA)

Once they’ve finished reading your sales page, it’s time for them to act. Send them to a place where they can get your product/service that fills their need or want. That would be your payment processor for your product or a contact form for your service.

The process in action

You call a person’s name. This will most likely be on social media. Call their name. Give them an action (click a link) to take. That action leads them to your funnel. The destination of that action can vary. It can be a post, a video, a capture page, etc.

Your goal (at first) is not to sell. Your goal is to get the person on your list (Capture their information) to begin building the relationship. If they buy from you, that’s cake. If not, that ok because you have a way to build the relationship up to the point where they are ready to buy.

Your relationship with the customer is not “I sell, you buy.” It is “You come to me with a problem, I find out exactly what the problem is, and offer a solution (your product/service) that solves the problem.” You want them coming to you. When you have them coming to you, you have confirmed that they want/need your product/service.

Whether they’ve bought from you or not, you have captured their information in your email marketing system. Whether you’re talking to buyers or lookers, your email marketing should engage the reader to take action. That action can and should vary. If you send the same thing, people discount your emails as “Seen it” and hit delete or just ignore them.

Most times (75% or higher) you will be sending them content (a post on your site) and the CTA will be to continue reading. You can have a CTA at the end of the post to comment. Somewhere in the article or at the end, you can place an “ad” for your offer. Of course that offer will correlate with the content they just read.

Sometimes (that remaining 25%), you will send a primer for an offer. It is almost a sales letter in itself. But it really just sells them on going to the sales page.

Then of course they will get to the end of the sales page that makes a clear and compelling case using the benefits, solutions, and results. That’s where they find your final Call To Action, the buy now button.

So now you can see what should be done…

What should be done with social media

Use social media to find the people where they are. Social media isn’t just Facebook and twitter. Youtube is not often thought of as social media but it is. In fact, Youtube can generate more traffic than other social media channels because it has the ability of getting your message across in a multimedia package. You have an audio/visual medium combined with the text and link feature to make it easy for people to get to your site.

Your site (your home field) is where they will get more info about your business, offer, and hopefully your email list.

What your emails should be

Every email should have a purpose. It should have a single, specific, and clear Call To Action (CTA). That action should take them to where you want them to go. You want them to go to the next step in the process.

Keep in mind, the CTA is not “Buy this now.” It is go here for more. You leave that action up to them, giving the reader control leads to less feeling of sales bombardment. Thus, less unsubscribes and more opens. Start by not annoying the subscriber.

Simply not annoying the subscriber is not enough. You can take it up a notch by sending messages they want to get. These messages should appear to be pure content. (Remember I said every message should have a purpose and CTA.) The message should be helpful and give them information on their need/want. The CTA sends them to get more information or to a sales page to get the solution you offer.

Do you want to prevent sales fatigue and increase opens? Send the occasional free gift. Remember, you don’t want freebie seekers but you do want to reward loyal and active readers.

Your posts should be

Content marketing or educational marketing is based on having content that people want to read. People don’t want to read a sales message unless it relates directly to their want or need. What your content should do is talk about the want or need, not just your product or service that fills that need. In fact, the less you make it about you and your offering, the more genuine and helpful you will appear to the reader. That’s what gets them coming back. Do the terms Know Like, and Trust ring a bell?

Your posts should not be selling directly. They should lead to capture pages and/or sales pages on your site. That is where the selling should take place.

Don’t ever be afraid to use the favorite tactic of television, “To be continued…” You don’t have to be all inclusive in your posts. Save some for next time and your readers will have something they'll want to come back for.

Keep an eye out. I've got an upcoming post that will cover the Online Marketing System in depth.