Is it actually possible to sell while you sleep? Thanks to evergreen marketing strategy, yes it is. And once you actually get it set up, it’s not as hard as you think. When it comes to using evergreen strategies to sell, there’s often a big fog surrounding how to get started. And that fog often makes it easier to not do anything and bank on tactics that you know will work. Tactics like relying on referrals, repeat customers, and one-off consult calls. Tactics that work but aren’t exactly scalable.
And in the land of business, scalability equals sustainability.
So, what’s the solution to move from hustling after every client to more scalable efforts? Here’s how to increase small business sales: develop an evergreen email marketing strategy, aka one that works all the time bringing a steady stream of vetted leads to your front door.
4 tips on how to increase sales with an evergreen marketing strategy and email sequence
Step 1: Figure out what you want to sell in your email sequence
Step one to having an evergreen marketing strategy that generates sales is knowing the end goal. If you don’t know exactly what you want to sell, you won’t be able to actually sell it. If you’re stuck on what you should be selling via email marketing, don’t think you have to create something brand new. Here are some suggestions on things to sell via your evergreen marketing automations:
- A low-cost digital product (i.e., a PDF guide, template, or swipe files)
- A masterclass or online workshop
- An online course
- An in-person workshop
- An in-person conference
- A strategy session
- A coaching package
- A service package
This offer dictates all the other content in your evergreen email series. For example, you wouldn’t offer a consult call for a low-cost digital product but you may consider offering one as a follow-up for a $5K branding package where you’ll be working with your client more closely.
Step 2: Plan out your email sequence
Once you have the offer in place you can start working backwards and planning all the pieces that will lead your client to purchase your final offer. Those pieces include:
- An opt-in (a free piece of gated content that allows you to collect leads’ email addresses like this)
- A tripwire (an opt-in, low cost offer presented to your lead immediately after opting in)
- A welcome sequence (more on that in step 3)
- And a system to sell your offer (i.e., a sales page + consult call + client management system like HoneyBook).
All of these pieces of content should be directly related to your final offer. Properly set-up they all build upon one another leading to your final offer.
For example, if I have built out an evergreen email sequence with the final offer of purchasing a course on creating an evergreen welcome sequence, my stack would look like this:
- Opt-in → A PDF download of a “Welcome Sequence Map” that shows people which emails belong on your welcome sequence
- Tripwire → A limited time discount on a digital product, “Win your Welcome Sequence Guide”
- Welcome Sequence → Built around the pain point of not having a scalable business
- System → A sales page built in LeadPages and set up to sell in my platform on Podia
Once you break down exactly what you’ll need to make your evergreen marketing strategy work for you, you’ll feel the overwhelm starting to disappear.
Now that you have your offer in place and a way to sell it, what’s the next step for how to increase small business sales? Use this email welcome sequence strategy!
This strategy is based on an 8-email sequence with the goal of introducing you, what you do, and how you help your audience. It does this first by selling a tripwire (optional) or your larger offer by finally introducing them to what resources they can expect from you if they stick around on your list.
I go into more details about topic, cadence, and the strategy behind each email in this blog post but here’s a quick rundown of the purpose each email provides.
- The Confirmation Email thanks them for downloading your opt-in and how they’ll benefit from using it.
- The Real Intro Email breaks down specifically who you are and how what you do is most helpful to your lead.
- The Pain Point Email introduces one of your audience’s frequent pain points and begins the work of showing how you can help them solve it.
- The Future Pacing Email is a fun one! This email paints a picture for your lead 3, 6, or 12 months in the future with their #1 pain point solved!
- Email #5 is The Testimonial Email or The Feature Email. This mostly depends on whether or not you have testimonials available:
- If you have testimonials, use this email to introduce how your offer has helped a client fix the pain point your lead is most struggling with.
- If you don’t have testimonials, use this email to introduce how a particular feature of your offer will help fix their pain point.
- The XX Reasons Why email is the last email where you’re actively selling your offer in the welcome sequence. It does the job of breaking down why your strategy/offer is most helpful in guiding your lead towards reaching their desired solution, in listicle form!
- The What Comes Next Email shares what they should expect by staying on your list. For example, what kind of topics will be covered, how frequently will you email your lead, etc.
- The Bridge Email is a teaser of exactly what a weekly newsletter looks like from you. Ideally, this email speaks directly to a secondary pain point that your audience has.
- Note, you don’t have to start this email from scratch! This is a great opportunity to repurpose a previous successful newsletter email. Pick the email with the highest open and/or click rate in that deals with the correct pain point and stick it in your sequence!
Step 4: Share your opt-in
Once you have everything set up, now it’s time to sell! Take care of low-hanging fruit by placing your opt-in in all your social media bios and letting your current email list know about it (especially if it’s a brand new opt-in from you)!
Truthfully, an evergreen email marketing strategy is most effective with a more active starting point. Putting it in your Instagram bio is good, but sharing it with an audience already engaging with you is the key to making it work. Here are places to share your opt-in:
- Instagram Stories (make sure to do this routinely!)
- Podcasts
- Online summits
- Joint Venture (JV) webinars
- Or paid ads (paid ads are great for lead generation where the lead is not being asked to spend money via the the ad).
Want to see what this all looks like in action? Grab my Welcome Sequence Map and learn how to build your welcome sequence. The icing on the cake? You’ll get access to my welcome sequence as I introduce you to who I am, what I offer, and how I can help you.
By learning how to increase small business sales with an email sequence like this in place, you can stop trading all of your time for money and start watching the sales come to you!
Ready to sell well & book more clients? Get our Small Business Sales Strategies Ultimate Guide.
Plus, 5 more posts you might like:
- The communication framework that helped me close 90% more sales
- How to Increase Your Sales with Printed Products as a Photographer
- How to boost small business sales with brand photography
- The best small business sales strategy: Lead with Emotion, Not Facts
- How Having a Clear Customer Journey Can Improve Your Small Business Sales Process
