Leanne Cooper made around £22,000 in sales in three months by fixing her email marketing. She is a career advancement strategist with a large LinkedIn following and a list she had been ignoring. We worked together for three months on strategy, list growth and automated sequences. Here is what changed, in her words.
Who is Leanne and what was her email marketing problem?
Leanne Cooper is six years into her business as a career advancement strategist, with a strong sales process and a big LinkedIn following. Her problem was simple: she had an email list she was not growing and not emailing consistently, so it earned her nothing.
"Email marketing has always been my weak area. It's always been the thing that I'd never cracked. And I knew as a result of that that I was basically leaving money on the table."
When she did send an email, nothing much came back.
"I was never sure what to send, when to send them, and the ones that I did send, I never felt that they landed. I never got replies. I never got calls booked in, and I certainly never made sales as a result."
If you have ever written an email, pressed send and heard nothing back, you will recognise every word of that. It is the single most common thing I hear from business owners who are otherwise really good at what they do.
Why hire an email marketing expert instead of working it out yourself?
Because buying expertise is faster than buying time you do not have. Leanne has two children, a business to run and a fondness for a holiday, so teaching herself email marketing from scratch was never going to happen.
"I decided that I was going to focus on this, and I knew that the fastest way to get results was to invest in expert support and guidance."
A friend of hers, a former client of mine, made the decision easy.
"Her words were: do not hesitate on working with Kelly."
What does a three month email marketing strategy actually involve?
Three things: a plan for growing the list from the audience she already had, a reason behind every single email rather than sending when guilt struck, and automated sequences doing the warming up in the background.
Leanne already knew how to sell. She told me early on that if she could get the right people onto a call, they generally converted. So we did not reinvent her business. We took what was already working on LinkedIn and rebuilt it inside her email marketing.
The automated sequences are the part that keeps paying afterwards. She did the work, too, which is the bit people skip over. Leanne turned up, wrote the emails, tested things and kept going, and that is exactly why she got the results she got.
How much money did email marketing make her in three months?
Around £22,000 in sales, directly from the emails and the strategy we built, on top of what her business was already doing.
"I think tangibly it's got to be the sales that are generated directly as a result of our work together, and the emails that we created and sent out and the strategy that we built. Latest count up is about £22,000. So that's £22,000 that would not have happened had we not worked together and I'd not got your help."
Three months of focused work. One investment. Twenty-two thousand pounds of sales that would otherwise not exist. That is the whole argument for email marketing in one line, and it is why I ask people to count the return rather than the hours it took to set it up!
What changes besides the sales when your email marketing works?
You stop guessing. Leanne now knows what to send, when to send it and how to word it, which is the change she talks about most.
"Now I understand how to approach my email marketing more strategically. I know what to send. I know when to send. I know how to word the emails to get the desired outcome."
No more sitting down on a Sunday night and wondering what on earth to write about. She plans the income-generating activity first and writes the email strategy off the back of it.
"I'm working much more proactively, rather than sitting down and thinking, hm, it's been a while since I sent an email, better think of something to send. It's the opposite of that now."
Why is an email list better than a LinkedIn following?
Because you own the list and you only rent the following. Leanne's leads used to come almost entirely from LinkedIn and referrals, on a platform that can change its mind overnight.
"My list is growing and I'm converting that list. So I feel like I'm in a much stronger position working that way than just relying on LinkedIn, which is obviously something that I don't own and haven't got any control of. Could disappear tomorrow."
How do you write a month of emails in one sitting?
You plan the month's income-generating activity first, then write every email against that plan in one go. Leanne does hers at the start of each month, which is how she takes time off without the leads drying up.
"I do my emails at the beginning of the month for the entire month now. Leanne of three months ago would never have thought that was a situation."
That is a whole month of emails written in one sitting, by someone who three months earlier was not sure what to send at all.
"I've got the sales and the leads coming in without me having to be reactive and step up my LinkedIn presence if I need to. It just feels much more of a well-oiled machine now."
Is email marketing worth it when you are short on time?
Yes, and Leanne is the one to say so, not me. I asked her what she would tell someone who knows they should be doing email but keeps putting it off.
"My advice to you would be to stop thinking about it and actually do it, because every single day that goes by is a day where you're not making the money that you're capable of."
"The return on investment that I got was incredible. It was a fantastic decision to work with you, Kelly. You're an absolute dream. I'm so glad that I did it. I wish that I'd have done it sooner."
Every day you leave your list sitting there is a day it is not earning. That is the whole lesson I wanted to share here, and Leanne said it better than I could.
How do I get email marketing results like these?
Start with the list you already have, then give every email a job. If you have a list you are quietly ignoring, that is exactly the problem I solve. Start with a 14-day trial inside my email marketing membership - The Spark.
Watch the full interview with Leanne here: