The power of context

Plus why taking a stand in business matters

May 6

Welcome to Connectable #020 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

I am so thrilled to have you here!

I want to help your business succeed. I want to inspire change. I want you to question your current processes and align yourself with the needs of your audience/community. I want you to attract the right people, solve the right problem and create superfans.

The medium? Email.

📮Want more email fun? SIGN UP to my personal email list.

🕸 Want to work with me? Visit my website.

Taking a stand in business matters

Liz Plank @feministabulous

Every single corporation that posted a flowery international women’s day quote should be releasing a statement supporting reproductive freedom.

Remember last month when I did a whole newsletter on the wishy-washy, sales-orientated, didn’t-take-a-second-to-understand-your-audience emails that were sent out on International Women’s day (read here)? The events of this week have really brought this to light.

You cannot claim to celebrate women and then stay silent when their rights could so brutally be taken away. You cannot promote the strength and leadership of women and scream “GIRL POWER” on one day and then say nothing in support of your female employees and customers at a time like this.

Liz Plank @feministabulous

If you’re a company that’s bragged about hiring women, do you care if they’re still alive?

Liz Plank @feministabulous

23 states are openly bragging about banning abortion entirely. Why hasn’t a *single* company threatened to stop doing business with even one of them? nbcnews.com/data-graphics/…

I wanted to draw attention to this because not only is this vital to your email marketing and communications strategy, I believe it is vital, now more than ever, to stand on the right side of history and that goes for my brand and business too.

Stay educated, stay informed, and think about what your brand means to you and your audience.

The power of context

This week I’d like to briefly talk about context. I would like to remind you that your audience is not inside your head, they do not know exactly who you are or what you’re thinking and above all, you need to show your ideal customer that you are everything THEY need, not everything everyone needs.

Context becomes especially important in your opt-in forms or sales pages where you’re trying to convince someone to sign up to receive your course or ebook or whatever you may be offering.

Many of us, however, very often skimp on context (on purpose). We give very little away in order to spike curiosity, to make our prospects have to give away their email address to find out more, not before.

Brands are collecting email addresses through curiosity and stamping FREE all over the place. Yet high opt-in rates are simply vanity metrics, and ‘free’ isn’t really a benefit. Fear of losing any prospect (forever) has trumped attracting the right customer.

Lisanne Nausner 📧 (she/her) @LisanneNausner

The current lead magnet goal: maximise # of leads. Here’s the issue: by trying to maximise your # of leads, you’ve taken the focus completely off the customer. Maximising the # of leads is a far cry from you working towards creating happy customers down the line.

While you’re out promoting your lead magnet with the hope of maximising the NUMBER of people you interact with and get information from, you’re also causing harmful rippling effects as to the TYPE of customer that’s being created for longer-term relationships.

I would start by crossing out the idea that FREE is a benefit. Instead, try to increase the perceived value of free. Make the opt-in an amazing opportunity for the prospect to get their hands on more down the line.

Yes, you’ll have to get used to fewer people putting their names down, but imagine if everyone who signed up was actually interested and invested and continued to interact with your long term—these people are your future superfans.

Less is always more.

And the key to doing this is context. It’s placing context above curiosity, it’s NOT one-size-fits-all marketing, instead, it’s a “context-driven squeeze.”

Consider not talking to everyone, or doing business with everyone, and be crystal clear on WHO you wish to do business with, taking the leap to do business only with them.

This is a magical moment.

You’re emotionally affecting a certain group of people on a deeper level and helping them look at the world in a new way.

“When this is done well, it PULLS people towards you. So that they WANT to opt-in
Not because of some freebie carrot, but because of the ATTRACTION to higher-value further down the rabbit hole.
And for some people — the people purposely attracted — they see you and your products as the ONLY VIABLE PATH to helping them solve the problems which matter to them.”

- by André Chaperon & Shawn Twing (p.s. they have some excellent sphere of influence training which I recommend you all to check out.)

🌟 Takeaway: Remind yourself daily that as a marketer you do not actually have to do what everyone else is doing. Be brave to do better for your prospects.

Something awesome for the week 🚀

🍋 Grace Baldwin: B2B SaaS Copywriter @heygracebaldwin

Feel like your writers aren’t delivering on what you want? Chances are you’re not giving them good feedback. I’ve given feedback to literally HUNDREDS of writers. Here are 4 tips on how to give better feedback (and which makes your writers love you). 👇

An excellent and important thread by Grace. Please go check it out, understanding feedback is crucial for both the sender and the receiver.

Article of the Week 📜

You Aren’t Customer-Centric (Unless You’re Willing to Walk Away)

by Michaela Mendes

“But being customer-centric doesn’t start when the prospect becomes a customer. It starts a lot earlier.
Being customer-centric means figuring out who your prospective customers actually are, not who you want them to be. It’s identifying who has a problem you can solve, and marketing directly to those people.
If you’re letting the wrong customers in the door for the sake of growth, there is *no way* you’re designing a customer experience that gets them excited.”