None of your email subscribers are buying what you’re selling!

It’s infuriating, I know. To work so hard on something, put in all the marketing time for your social media pieces, craft a clever email announcing your new launch or product / service, only to get crickets. If you’re not getting sales from your emails, or wish you had MORE sales from your email marketing campaigns, then this is the post for you to read.

And in full disclosure, at the end, you’re going to want to get The Story Your Email List Tells straight away to start fixing this specific issue you’re having, but I’ll explain why later.

Whenever someone starts talking to me about how they’re not getting sales from their email list, a zillion questions pop into my head. Why? Because there’s a lot of things that could be happening with their 1) email list management (growth and outbound/inbound marketing) 2) audience demographics (workflows & segmentation) 3) presentation of the product / service (design / visuals) and 4) messaging (ability to communicate, know like & trust, and sell with words). These are the four variable categories that I’ve seen (and experienced myself <blushes>) and have helped people overcome, simply with presenting questions and forcing the discussion around the topic.

Which one of those categories do you think is your true problem? Do you even know? I ask, because knowing the source of the problem is the first step to addressing your challenge.

You can see the utter frustration in online forums, small biz Facebook groups; even TikTok marketing help channels. Not everyone understands sales, and a lot of people will actually FAIL at it. But not you. You’ve chosen this path to read this post and learn more about how you can actually succeed at sales, and identify which of those category variables you’re actually struggling with.

The truth is, there are so many variables on why your email list isn’t buying from you. TONS of variables means there may not be a clear place to start, unless you start answering some essential questions. But those variables are all part of the above-mentioned four (4) variable categories. So let’s talk about the reality of getting those sales from your email marketing campaigns.

The Reality of Generating Sales from Email Marketing

The core root of this challenge stems from a variety of source issues. There’s perception, value, know like & trust factors, features vs. benefits, ordering experience, accessibility, as well as the awareness involved in getting your reader / customer from point A to point B in your product introduction process.

That’s the reality.

There could be confusion, apathy, not enough priming, amongst other issues. Which is exactly why I created The Story Your Email List Tells, so you can start asking yourself some key questions and put some tactical tasks in play as part of a larger goal strategy to start generating those much-needed sales on the regular.

Customer apathy actually has a lot to do with why you may not be making sales. And it’s been my mission as your “leader” of choice on this topic to discuss this more in-depth in both The Story Your Email List Tells, and more indirectly in Storytelling for Creatives, where we talk more about connecting with emotions and how to effectively communicate all the things you need to whenever you’re placed in that hot sales seat.

Just for stats, each email issue I talk about in the Challenges with Email Lists and Email Marketing has over 6000 words associated with it in The Story Your Email List Tells in providing various solutions and advice, plus all the tactical tasks you need to be focused on, the metrics you need to strive to attain, and so on. These are not issues for a quickie vague blog post. They are serious problems that require more than just a glaze over. And because I take your concerns and issues with your email list seriously, I most definitely do not glaze over ANYTHING in my resource.

Placing Generic Blame on Vague Reasons

If you’re specifically been researching this issue, then you’ve probably read a lot of blog posts with seemingly helpful information about how you need to focus on talking about the benefits of your product / service as well as the features of your product / service. This is well-intentioned advice; it’s accurate. You do need to do that-of course!

But I can list off over a dozen other issues that might be a factor that you ALSO need to focus on. Some other experts might say that the issue is in your checkout process, or getting your audience from Point A (your email message) to Point B (your checkout page). That can be true, as well.

It’s not enough to say that you need to focus on the benefits vs. the features of your product and service. It’s not enough to just say “test your checkout process and make sure it’s working”. What if there’s not a “need” for what you offer? What if there’s a perception problem in the messaging that isn’t addressing WHY the product / service is a must-have?

I know, there’s a lot to consider.

There are also two specific questions your email has to answer, as well. (Discussed in The Story Your Email List Tells). Or, at least your product / service page has to answer those questions, at least.

All of the things you need to check go well beyond your need for checklists and email launch prep lists. You need to ask yourself some hard questions – some of them even before you get to the completion part of your product development [I know, the truth hurts].

Diagnosing Why You’re Not Getting Sales from Emails

So, let’s start diagnosing quick, just to give you a preview of what’s inside The Story Your Email List Tells. I’ll help you DIY-diagnose your problem, and we’ll start with these simple questions, but just know that in “The Story Your Email List Tells“, I provide a lot more questions, quick solutions, and activities to do to fix these problems.

• Is your method of priming your audience as effective as it could be?
• Have you used or considered implementing the advice of a beta team or trusted people (like me) who will give you an honest answer and not just blow smoke up your skirt?
• How much of your issue is related to customer apathy and how do you plan on overcoming that specific challenge for each of your products / services? [Hint-customer apathy needs to be a focus on each product.]

Here’s a few things you absolutely need to know, just as a precursor to The Story Your Email List Tells, about dealing with the “no sales from emails” issue you’re having.

1. When you consider your overall sales issue, you’re going to have to factor in the metric health of other factors, like open rate, click-through activity, as well as landing page activity on your website. Ignoring those factors completely will not help you arrive at a proper diagnosis of your issue.
2. Never assume that your price point is what is wrong with your product / service. Especially if you’re in a competitive market or even an over-saturated one. Nine times out of ten, (9/10), it’s not your price point. In fact, there are instances where you might be even undervaluing yourself. Shocker, I know. In fact, it could be something as simple as lack of emotional connection to the product itself that could be resolved by writing in a story.
3. Testing from three angles (product launches, tripwires, and nurturing funnels) is going to help you determine where your hang-up is in getting sales. I know this sounds a bit odd, but testing each one exclusively actually reveals a lot about what’s happening from the point of email to your checkout process. And I promise you, you’ll figure out quickly which of the variable categories you’re actually struggling with. In The Story Your Email List Tells, I show you how to test for all three, and what metrics you need to work on attaining. Why these three? We want to figure out if you’re having a presentation issue with your product launches, an audience / demographic issue with your tripwires, or a messaging issue with your nurturing funnels. Each one is going to reveal your weaknesses, and once you know that information, you can proceed to fix the core issues at hand.

So the question is, now, are you ready to start diagnosing and learning about this issue from someone who actually does this kind of thing for a living? Not to mention, having been through a similar problem myself? Hekkin right, I too have had a product launch where NO ONE bought my amazing solution. And it was that moment, where I had spent weeks on something I knew was a difficult problem to fix, where I had to diagnose this very issue and heavily contemplate MANY factors that went into those emails and product.

If you’re ready to take this issue seriously, pick up your copy of The Story Your Email List Tells. I truly believe it’s going to help you. Yes, it’s wordy. But in it, I ask the tough, unexpected yet beautiful questions to help you arrive at which tasks included inside are the ones you need to work on.

Want me to do the writing of your emails and product landing pages instead? Tired of trying to DIY it and want to call on the battleship guns to take of things for you? I’m down for that, too. Just hop on my Work with Me page and you can sound the bell for a distress call.

This is a 160+ page interactive guidebook that walks you through specific email list challenges and provides 10 solutions/activities to work on for each situation. Plus, you’ll learn metrics you can work on and what to look for, how to encourage more sales from those lurking & downloading, but never buying, and how to set up workflows that combat inactivity, low open rates, download dashers, and more. And finally, you’ll learn an easy to implement system to get your funnels organized, and create a smooth transition from one to the next.

10 challenges with tactical & strategic solutions for the creative email list marketer. A 100+ page interactive guidebook to help guide you through 10 different email list challenges, including:

• Not enough subscribers (list isn’t big enough – I need list-building help)
• List never grows and shrinks with every email (list growth doesn’t outweigh unsubscribe rate)
• Unsubscribe right after freebie (download and dashers)
• Downloads all freebies and resources but never buys (lurking but never investing)
• No sales from emails (no one is buying)
• Low open rate (are my emails boring or lack value?)
• Low email to blog rate in nurturing sequence (no one reads all my helpful tips and added value content)
• My email sequences are all out of whack and unorganized
• I’m not telling any stories in my emails (not relating to my audience)
• I’m not selling unless I’m emailing (need help with nurturing and nudging)

Inside you’ll receive activities, tactical solutions, and a larger strategy to make your email list building and management effective and easy.

You’ll learn:

1. What the problem seems to be (the cliche response) versus what the problem actually is
2. Tactical steps to improve each scenario
3. Strategies to implement that will align your brand with a bigger picture result
4. Metrics to shoot for at various stages (beginner, advanced, intermediate)
5. Goals (both long- and short-term) to work on each month
6. My own story with each challenge and what I did to correct them (a behind-the-scenes look at my funnels, stats, and more)
7. Workflows to set up to conquer download dashers and set up rewards-based system to give favor to your most loyal readers
8. What to check in diagnosing any of these challenges
9. How to test and measure results
10. Quick fixes (for the short-term results) and long-term solutions (for achieving those big dreams of yours)
11. Other thoughts and suggestions I’ve given clients I’ve worked with and implemented myself that have been helpful

Ready to finally solve your email list challenges once and for all? Download the guidebook today!