Today we're going to be looking at reasons why you should think carefully about putting all your eggs in one basket with regards to social media. 
 
Hello. And welcome back to Tech Talks and Soul Walks with myself, Julie Kubiak. And today, if you've noticed the flip-flopping around, it's a Tech Talks one today because every other one is a tech one and every other one is a spiritual based kind of soul walks one. And today we're going to be looking at reasons why you should think carefully about putting all your eggs in one basket with regards to social media. 
Now I'm not talking just about where you place all your content. 
What I'm talking about is relying heavily on having access to that one particular social media account. If your social media account got hacked, be it Instagram TikTok, YouTube, whatever it is. How would you be able to set up a new account? You might think it's pretty easy, 
you just create another account. But what do you do with all those followers that you've lost? How did you contact them? And this is a bit of a dilemma that I know quite a few of my friends have had over the years where they've had accounts hacked, accounts blocked, and they're having to start again from scratch. Now, typically you could reach out and just say to friends, family, people like that. Yeah, this is my new account. 
And that's great if it's a personal account. But when you're dealing with a business, your own business, business account... 
How do you contact those people? 
Now I for one, myself, when somebody said to me, you need to get into email marketing and I'm like, 'No, I'm a YouTuber' or I'm a business person. I don't need email marketing. 
I don't need to create affiliate links. I don't need to do this, this, this dah, dah, dah, dah. But. Slowly it is hitting me in the face. Almost like in slow motion. That. I'm sometimes my own worst enemy thinking that I know what's best when really I have to go with a flow. So a few years ago, I had a problem with my Masquerading website. 
It wasn't hacked, but it had malware. And it could have had detrimental effects. But what I'm saying is if it had been my Facebook page. If it had been my Instagram stuff. Then yes, if that had been taken down, if it got corrupt, I would be absolutely stuffed. I wouldn't have any way to contact people. But in this day and age, people are thinking, oh, but you know, I can just contact them on Instagram. 
We'll have a second account. That's fine. If you want to do that. But. At the end of the day, if you have an email for somebody, you can contact them direct into their. Email inbox. You can contact them for numerous different reasons. And that email list is yours. And no matter what happens on social media platforms or even your YouTube account. You have control over that list. 
Now there are a few technicalities that I'm not really going to cover in this episode with regards to things like GDPR, which. The General Data Protection, G D. 
. Regulations. I don't know what it stands for. I just pay it every year. But you do have to adhere to the GDPR with regards to holding people's information. Businesses like MailChimp can actually help you out with that because what you're doing is your going under their umbrella with regards to the legalities of holding people's information let's say. So you just need to pay attention to what the rulings are at any given time. And at the moment as it stands, if you were to use something like MailChimp, then yes,
you're kind of covered. But when you actually hold the information on your own server, laptop, phone, whatever it is. Then that's when it kind of becomes tricky. So. For my business, for Masquerading Limited, I do adhere to all the rules and regulations, and I pay into their little pot of money every year. 
So I am covered with regards to holding people's information. And you have to say how much you're going to hold on to what information is relevant to the business, how long do you prepare to hold onto it for, or whether or not it's just literally for a one off email or for a particular contact reason. 
So, like I say, I'm not going to get into all the intricacies of that because it's, it's very legal, very technical, and that isn't what this podcast is about. YouIf
 you haven't thought of it before, look at email marketing as a direct form of communication, direct into somebody's mailbox. You have control over what they see, what they learn about, and you're giving them information that you want them to see, direct, in front of their eyes. If you're relying on the algorithms of social media, chances are those people aren't necessarily going to see or know about what your alerting them to. 
You could be contacting them by email and telling them about a new product, a new product launch. You could be telling them just simply there's a new video online, or to go and check out your social media for X, Y, Z reasons. It doesn't really matter. But it is direct and it gets seen and it is in their inbox. 
So you no longer have the problem of if there's a problem with the social media account or your YouTube channel, you still have the contact with those people. And it is direct. So it's all well and good wanting to get those emails. And I know now more and more higher end sort of premium businesses, are now doing WhatsApp or text messages to alert people to different things. But it doesn't give that information and that chance to read something at their leisure, as and when they prefer to. If it's a pop-up, say a WhatsApp text message, or Telegram, or Signal, whichever one they decide to use. It's there, it's quick and they can easy sort of swipe off it. A bit like when it's actually in social media, on the channel. But with an email, usually somebody will sit down, read through emails and okay, yeah, they could swipe away from them, but you've got their attention because they're sitting there and there is a reason that they're sitting there looking through their emails. So you could then put images, texts, links, erm, as much information as you want. It's not just restricted to basic text and probably a gif for two, actually in the message. 
So there's a lot more content that you can be giving and sharing to your customers, your email list, the people that want to follow you, by nurturing and having this email list.
 
So, how would you go about having an email list? What can you do to obviously offer them an incentive to exchange that information? What people do is something called a Lead Magnet. Now a Lead Magnet is where your giving them something 
in return for their email address. And it's usually a freebie, or some kind of offer code, discount, sharing some information with them. And it's this kind of exchange. So it's like an unpaid transaction. But you're saying, 'if you give me your email address, I'll give you X, Y, Z.' So big businesses use this, believe it or not, Tesco's with Tesco Club Card, Nectar with their Nectar Points, and what they're doing is they're saying 'you give us your data, you give us your spending habits, and we'll give you money off. We'll give you these codes. We'll give you access to sales information before it goes live...' anything like that. And the same is as exactly the same with email marketing. This is where you have to put your head into business mode. And okay, 
hands up. I have said for many years, I'm not going to do email marketing. But with more and more of my friends, like I say that are having their pages taken down by Facebook or Instagram, have decided that they potentially not who they are and they were apparently mimicking other people when it's clearly their own pages. There's a lot of this is going on and either it's out of spite or if it's just Bots that just haven't got a flipping clue. But either way you need to be nurturing your community and building your email list. You
Now you want to build your email list organically. 
You don't want to be buying email lists because you want these people to actually read your emails, interact. You want them to be the genuine followers of the information that you're going to be sending out. Otherwise what's the point. It's just a goal then that you've set yourself to get so many hundreds or thousands of emails on an email list and you need those people that really want to read what you actually sending out. So don't make it an ego boost. It has to be purely organic. 
So let the people that want the information kind of find you. And then you can reach out then with your email. The beauty of also having them organic is that you could segment this email list into different categories, depending on where they're found you. So you can have people that find you via Instagram or TikTok or YouTube. And it could also be maybe at an event that you've been at. 
Maybe it's a regional event and anything that they're interested in, they might want to know when you're talking at a particular event, maybe in the Northwest. Or in London. And with all these different 'Tags" as they're called, you can then adjust your content and adjust the people who you send out your emails to, however frequently it is. But by building it up at the beginning and putting some thought and effort into how you would want to contact these people; why you would want to contact them, and what information you'd want to share with them. It's kind of plotting the bigger picture of how you're then going to use it and how it's then going to be the payoff for you in the end.
You
 What information should you be asking from your users or your followers? Well in simple forms, two pieces of information. Name and email address. That's it. The reason you'd want their name is so that you can put their name in the 'to' field. And you can personalise their emails. And obviously you need their email address so that you can contact them. 
Isn't that what this is all about. 
So just those two key pieces of information. Anything else you don't need to worry about at this point in time. You can ask for that, people can then update their information with you as and when is necessary. But at this point, that's all you need from them.
So thinking from the very beginning then, why would you want to be doing email marketing apart from the social media side of things? Well, first of all, it's a very cost-effective way of contacting the people that are your followers, your community. You're not having to pay for Facebook ads. You're not having to print off leaflets, posters, you're not doing a mail drop. They have given you their email address. 
So they have given you the thumbs up to say, 'Contact me, contact me with whatever you want'. It's then down to them to decide if they want to stay subscribed, or if they then want to unsubscribe from your email list. 
Oh, so as well, the moment the email comes through to them. They get the choice then as to when they read that email. 
 It could just be any time where they're just sitting there, having in a five minute break and just skimming through their emails. So you've got them there and then. Maybe if they're in a work position, they're not allowed to go onto social media, but there's nothing to stop them checking their emails. 
And again, you've gone straight into their email box. You can also personalise the emails that you send to the people, obviously with the first name that will be personalised. But if you decide to go down the route of tagging certain people, maybe from location or what they've purchased before or where you've met them. Then you could send out specific emails to that target audience using these tags. So you can filter out and just say, I only want to see people and send this email to those that have bought a dog lead or those that have asked for information of when I'm next speaking at a public event, something like that. 
So then that email is targeted direct to them and it's not just everybody receiving the same email. 
 Email marketing can obviously be automated as well. So you could create an email and have it scheduled to go out once a week or maybe once a fortnight or simply just once a month. And it could have key information in there for each of the different people viewing it, as I've said already, it can be specific and targeted, but it could have things that you want them to click on. 
So you want them to go and view your new product launch or go and see your new video. And you can actually track how many emails are opened. And how many people have actually clicked through. So the Click Through Rate (CTR). And those kinds of information is manageable and trackable. And you can then actually see which emails are working and which content is working as well. Because don't forget it is also down to how much information you're giving back to them. 
It's also making the people aware of your brand or your business. And also on your day-to-day sort of life, what's going on with you. If let's say you were taking a break from social media, you still have access to these people. You can still contact them. If you've got a few things going on in your life and you're taking a step back, for instance, work-wise. You can actually let them know this as well. 
You don't have to put it all over social media. It's also a nice way of giving them exclusive content. So you might want to do a hidden video let's say in YouTube. And you're only wanting to share that with the people on your email list. And that's a good way of tempting them in, is by saying what they are going to get back, from signing up to your email list. 
You 
So with regards to what you're actually going to give them, in this email. And it's not just a one-off email. This has to be something that has to be consistent with whatever you and your timeframe is likely to be, so don't over work yourself. Try and put out maybe one email a month. And even if it is just targeted to everybody that's on your email list, it's a start, and it gets them to follow up. And you can then track at the beginning, their Click Through Rate, what they're reading and the interests that they're showing for certain things that you're putting in your emails. So just a few ideas then of what you can actually do. 
So like I said already, it could be a product launch. It could be an update or some kind of announcement about you, your business, anything to do with what's going on with regards to information that you would want to present to them. Because don't forget even you as yourself, are a business and therefore it is that brand awareness that you're trying to highlight to them.
It could be educational content that you're sharing with them. So if you've read an article somewhere and your referencing this in your email. Good example is my accountant once a month will send me an email, especially around about the time of the budget as well, saying this has happened, that's happened, you know, here's the full article. 
 And it's usually just something that you just get maybe a paragraph on, and then there's a link underneath it so you can go and read the full article. But it's just enough information there to think, am I going to continue scrolling through this email or is this relevant to me? 
If you've had some customer feedback, or reviews let's say, maybe you just want to highlight them within the email. Just to let everyone know how well your business is going. Or, the flip side, ask them to reply back with a review of how they feel your business is or when they've had an interaction with you. It can work both ways that you're giving them the information, but obviously you're requesting something back from them. And the fact that they've got to read that email. And just take a moment, maybe even if it was a poll to go on and just say, you know, how well are you doing? 
You know, how much you liking these emails? Or, like I say, ask them for review on a product, a service, something that you've actually delivered to them.
With regards to your business, it could also be that you're just telling them about how the last six months have gone in the business. You know, what successes there have been or where you're planning to be moving to in the next six months? Be it a projection business wise or physically, if you're relocating. Because that's another good one. 
If you actually are sharing your postal address with people for, you know, sales purposes. They can then make sure that they have the most up-to-date information in their contacts.
 
And obviously giving your readers of your email reason to open it up by offering them a discount, a perk, information like tips and tricks, anything where there is a purpose and they're going to gain it for free, let's say, and that will get them to interact with your business again, off social media. 
You
So the way that you actually create your emails. Very standard, very rhythmical you could say, in that every single one has the same pattern. Every single one will have the same style. And that is by having a subject line or a hook. The actual content of the email and then a Call To Action (CTA). So the subject line or the hook is trying to get them to open up that email. What is it that you're going to say, offer, tell them about, and it's got to be short and punchy. And it's usually the first few words or can't say paragraph cause that's just too much. Like the first sentence that you put in the subject. That is going to be the thing that kind of hooks them in to click, to read, and open up the message. So let's say you had a hook and it was a Flash Sale. And they know that it's come from you and therefore they want to open it up and see what is on sale. Then the actual content within the email, blah, blah, blah. 
You've got a link. You've got photos, whatever it is. Then the final part is the Call To Action. So the call to action is what exactly you want them to do, now they've read your email. So you want them to either go off and make a purchase or go off and have a look at the sales items. Or it might be that you want them to reply back with some information. So those three elements.; The subject or the hook, the actual content and the call to action, 
you need those three elements in every single email. Otherwise there is no point in doing it. Subject line obviously is going to be different every time. The content of it is going to be different. The call to action could be different, but the way it's laid out, photographs, links, images. 
The actual body of the information is going to change and it's going to be different to everybody listening to this podcast. But those three elements, I cannot not stress enough, becomes like a template. And once you've created one email and you've tweaked it and you know, it works, then all you've got to do is change the content of it, so the words. And I really wouldn't advise you use Chat GPT or anything like that, an AI tool, because it's not coming from you, and it's not coming from yourself, and you know your brand better than anybody else. And therefore it's not going to sound as though it is you. Now don't forget people buy from people and if you're being genuine and your spilling out all your heart in these emails with regards to your business and how much you're passionate about it. Why would you get some thing? 
Sorry ChatGPT if you're listening in! Why would you get something to actually write everything for you? Surely you can just do it yourself, even if you just make notes, add to it every few days, things that you would want to put in an email. And by the end of the week, you've got content there and you can then send that to your email list. 
You
 
So, how do you actually get people to hand over their email address to you? The majority of the time, if you go on any websites or any link in bio, it will come up with 'sign up for my newsletter or sign up for my email.' And it will ask you just for those two key pieces of information. Sometimes it might ask for more, but predominantly it will be asking for first name or full name and their email address. Another way of getting their email address is to offer what's called a Lead Magnet or freebie. And that is to lead them to the point where they are going to exchange the email address for whatever you've got on offer. And it is a physical exchange. So it's almost like being in the solicitors. And you're signing one thing, they're signing something. 
And then there's like exchange of the paperwork across the desk. So you're tempting them in, by saying, if you give me your details, then I will give you this freebie. And it works. 
The freebie or whatever it is that you're actually giving. It could simply be a discount code. It could be an offer or, some kind of information that you're giving them in exchange for the email address. But it has to be something that has caught their attention and therefore they will be interested in.
You
 
Your Lead Magnet or your incentive that you're giving in exchange for your email list, is. necessary for it to be brand or business specific. I wouldn't send out or give a colouring in book PDF for an email address because that isn't something that I do. And the people that would sign up for my emails, obviously wouldn't expect to receive a colouring in book PDF. So with regards to what you offer them, it has to be something that they are interested in for this exchange to happen. And don't forget as well. 
Once they've exchanged that and you have their email address, you need to keep fostering that community, that One-to-One contact that you have with them. So don't just send them one email and then never contact them again. At least send them something once a month. So it alerts them to go back to your website, your Facebook page, your instagram account, whatever it is. 
And even if it's as simple as once a month just saying, this is the new content I've got online. Um, have you heard about the new offers that we've got in the shop? Have you been into the shop? Have you seen that we are developing this new course? So, whatever it is, you have those emails. They are yours and you can then drive your information direct into their email box and they can see it, without all the fuss and the hassle of all the social media. And without all the first and hassle of asking them to go on and watch something or read something because you've sent it direct to their inbox. 
You
So, if you haven't thought about email marketing up until now, then have a little brainstorming session with yourself. Grab yourself a drink and just jot down some ideas about what you could actually be offering first of all as a lead magnet or freebie. There's so much content on YouTube that is suggesting that you can use Canva to create a freebie. Do it, if that's going to be the easiest way for you. I'd prefer to spend a bit more time and make sure it's more personalised and give value rather than just a one-off PDF of a list of things. I do find that probably because of my IT background and training that I probably give too much value. Too much information, but that is just me. 
And I sometimes like to see that return to me whenever I signed up for something. So have a little brainstorming session about what you could offer as your free lead magnet. Next then if you need to create it or generated, if it's not just a discount code then head over to Canva. It's free. I'm not affiliated in any way, shape or form with Canva, but it just makes it easy for you to create something. 
So hope this episode of Tech Talks has helped you with regards to your business. And I look forward to seeing you and the next episode.