The first piece of a marketing engine is building your e-mail list.

When we start talking about building a simple marketing engine, many people think that you have to build a sales funnel because that’s the “bro speak.”

Like, if you don’t use the word “sales funnel” are you even in marketing?

But it’s just a marketing engine and the first piece is to convince people to give up their e-mail addresses so that you can continue the relationship with them.

So, how do you get people to give you their e-mail address? It’s like fishing – it depends on what fish you’re looking for. If you’re fishing for halibut in Alaska you’re going to have a totally different strategy than if you’re fishing for marlin in Florida.

There is a basic cycle in a good marketing engine.

The basic cycle is that somebody gives you their e-mail address, they get access to your opt-in, then they get on your list. They learn more about what it is that they should be doing differently than they have been doing. Then some of them buy your offer, they tell other people about your offer, then those people join your list and the whole cycle starts over and repeats. If you haven’t created a new opt-in in a while it’s probably time. New opt-ins are exciting, they are fun, and they start the cycle spinning.

When you create a new opt-in and somebody gives you their e-mail address, you’re often sending everybody to the same place. I can use myself as an example: my business all leads to me doing stuff for people. Either I’m helping you with your copy, or your design or both.  Maybe I’m building a logo or a branding package, or I’m working with you to develop your marketing strategy.

I just released a very small project that I’m working on with a tiny group of entrepreneurs to help them build something that I only released to my list. When you join my e-mail list you’ll get ideas on how we can work together – all the different opt-ins lead back to ways that we can work together.

Your list is also a really good place to decide who you’re going to be working with and how you’re going to help them and all of that, and to see if you want to roll something out that’s bigger.

When you create an opt-in, it can be part of a larger framework that I’ve outlined here – the 30, 40, 30 framework where you spend the first 30% of presentation on the transformation, the next 40% percent on teaching and the last 30% telling people how they can work with you.

If I were to create a new opt-in, I would record myself doing that on a webinar, and it would probably be on demand because there’s no need for urgency, and also my time is limited. I don’t want to have too many people doing it at any given time and sometimes live webinars work a little too well and are better for things that scale.

An on-demand webinar can help you double, triple, quadruple your e-mail sign up. A new person takes your opt-in and gets access to your stuff. You give them a high level overview of what you can do for them. Then you ask for a tiny commitment; you need their e-mail address. Then they get on your list and they learn about the transformation process.

I’ve built a new coaching page, and I’m really excited to get more people into working with me. Maybe it’s a one-time strategy session or maybe it’s a book of coaching call because you want to get your marketing engine off the ground. Either way, check out how I can help you take your marketing to the next level!