Time to read: 4 minutes 20 seconds
In my last email, I wrote about the steps I'd take to transform a Muay Thai gym from 'me too' to 'must go'.
I got lots of responses.
Thank you, because I never 'know' what resonates with you until I get real feedback - and it's the same for everyone.
You never 'know' something in business until you send it out there and see what happens.
It's why email is such a good tool.
Unfortunately, many business owners and freelancers aren't using properly or even at all - which is crazy, but another topic for another time.
With email, you can get real-time feedback from your subscribers and chat with them like a normal human being - imagine that!
It's also the best kind of market research because it's unfiltered and unprompted. People are going out of their way to give you their thoughts.
This feedback trickles in with every message you send out and allows you to tweak the things you're doing to ensure you're on the right path.
Good or bad doesn't matter in this case, because it's all helpful (as long as you learn from what people are telling you).
That's why at the bottom of every email, I've got a little prompt asking if you liked the message or not. Click that and you're sent to a feedback form, where, if you wanted, you can leave some more details.
But the cool thing about my feedback system is that even if they don't leave a review - because let's face it, no one really wants to spend 5 minutes to think critically and then write these thoughts down - I'll know whether you thought it was 'good' or 'bad', because I can track the clicks on these icons; it's a '2-step' feedback system.
And what's even cooler is that I've got this linked to a bigger, automated system.
So, anyone who clicks the smiley face will get a tag added to their name. This tag then triggers a little message to get sent after a day or so - but only once every so often, and you'll see why in a moment.
In this message, it basically asks for a referral, a review, or if they'd like to work with me.
Why?
Because I know that this person has just read something they liked. Something I wrote. They're likely thinking of me in a positive light. They may even have had a little 'aha' moment. Or they're considering whether the topic I wrote about will be something they could use in their own business.
Then - boom - a short little message appears asking if they could help me out or if I could help them out.
And it works!
There's no crazy pitching or underhanded tactics... it's just simple messaging delivered with what's called behavioural marketing.
I simply take the contextual cues from someone's actions to send them things that will likely be MORE useful to them, right when they need it.
In this example, a lot of people feel good when they refer their friends to a new email list - they're seen as a curator almost, with a finger on the pulse.
Conversely, a lot of people also take these emails to see if I have availability, or ask more questions about whatever it is that piqued their interest earlier.
And I don't need to think about sending messages like these at all!
It just happens like clockwork, any time someone clicks the smiley face.
And this is also why the triggered message is only sent every so often, because it'll get annoying if you're sent that message too much.
Want to know something?
I set up this '2-step' feedback system in around 2012... I've tweaked it and updated it every few years, but largely it just sits there doing it's thing. And when I get random referrals, reviews, and subscribers trickle in from it, I still get a little smile on my face.
And I've done the same with clients who decide they finally want to make email work for them.
Because it's an Email Marketing Automation system, it works at scale.
Throw as many inputs as you want into this thing and it'll process them every time, 24/7, better and more accurately than any sales person ever could.
No leads are dropped, no one is forgotten, and all your subscribers are getting something relevant at the time they need it.
Which makes the whole process of educating new subscribers simple, turning those new leads into sales or appointments effortless, and then keeping these new customers engaged with your company actually doable.
There's lots of other things EMA can do for you too, but I think this one has gone on long enough.
Anyway, enough about how I use email, and back to my last message.
After sending that last Muay Thai message out, a lot of you then asked about the story I alluded to with my own boxing gym when I was just getting started around 2009.
Well, I'll give a full breakdown of what I did to turn that gym around next week, so for those of you that asked (or even those who didn't but were wondering) there's your answer.
So keep an eye out for that one - this time next week!
