by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Aug 8, 2015 | Access Your Inner Guide, Uncategorized
If you are still collecting emails, stop! You’re wasting your time and energy.
Part 1 of this blog showed the research, statistics and reasons behind the decline of the email which is having a negative impact on many entrepreneurs, tele summits, internet based and terrestrial events. (Insert link here.)
Part 2 focused on the reasons, research and statistics. (Insert link here.)
Part 3 focuses on:
• Shifting to solutions you already have in place
• Building on them to overcome these challenges
• Attaining success.
What is an entrepreneur to do with the decline of emails as a means of contact with potential clients?
Shift with the changing times. Case in point: I was invited to be one of twenty five experts on a telesummit titled
“Whole Food Love-End to Diets”. (Published on LinkedIn on June 2, 2015;
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/whole-food-love-yes-please-kathleen-o-keefe-kanavos/edit) How about:
One of the stipulations for presenting was a list of at least 5,000 contacts or more for promotion. I was one of the most successful presenters in terms of promotional reach. For my telesummit success I combined strategic emailing with my social media contacts and cross-pollinated the information on my sites through blogging (my own and several guest blogs), radio shows, and the telesummit itself so they were picked up by web-crawlers and displayed on Internet search engines for optimum client reach.
You can see how I did this in the links below.
Links with an asterisk denote telesummit promotion. Watch for telesummit and event #cross promotions as well.
*Personal blogs- http://bit.ly/1f7p3Nt
Professional Blog- Patheos http://bit.ly/1GBlETa
Websites- http://SurvivingCancerLand.com/
http://AccessYourInnerGuide.com/
http://www.WickedHousewivesOnCapeCod.com/
5 Facebook Pages-
Surviving Cancerland- http://on.fb.me/1Kf8HPI
Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos- http://on.fb.me/1EVnrMU
Access Your Inner Guide- http://on.fb.me/1Tfvq15
Wicked Housewives on Cape Cod TV- http://on.fb.me/1y8W5UB
Wicked Housewives on Cape Cod Radio- http://on.fb.me/1dzYjnI
Twitter- https://twitter.com/KathleenKanavos
Google+ https://plus.google.com/110046891122942716504/posts
LinkedIn- http://linkd.in/1QQxsk3
*Columns- Women’s Voices Magazine- Home section: http://bit.ly/1dzYEqr Soul section: http://bit.ly/1KJfmB1
*Radio Shows: Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos Show http://bit.ly/1Gxw7gB
#Wicked Radio – http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wickedworldradio/2015/04/15/kat-okeefe-kanavos-show-w-hci-books-pres-author-peter-vegso-feeling-great
Telesummits, conferences, events, trade shows, etc., still work and are great ways to help spread your message
across the world and speak directly to global niche audiences to gain credibility, recognition and publicity.
For speakers, business leaders, business/personal development coaches, it allows for collaborative business
relationships between business and professionals who want to share the cost and time of marketing to grow
client bases and establish themselves as experts in their fields.
However, rather than wasting time collecting and sending emails, redirect that time to promote yourself as an
expert and let people who are interested in what you have to say, sell or teach find you.
I learned long ago that if you walk quickly with an arm full of delicious food toward a starving dog it will run.
Why? Because it is natural to flee from something chasing you. As much as that dog NEEDS that life-saving food, self-preservation and the need to flee will overrule hunger. However, if you stand quietly in a deserted parking lot with food hidden in your pocket, a starving dog will find it and you, and bring its pack. The moral of this story? Don’t chase what you want. Be authentic, and it will find you.
How does this story reflect the topic of this blog? Don’t chase potential clients by emailing the bejabbers out of them. Establish yourself as a professional expert with a pocket full of irresistible information. Everyone who is hungry for that knowledge will find you and will bring their friends.
Establish yourself as an expert in your field using social media, which continues to grow in leaps and bounds, and let success find you.
How true and important is this suggestion?
• An interview on The Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos Show above with the # in front of it, on the Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod Network, was the catalyst for the president of a publishing company to invite me to author a book with him.
• Social media networking helped propel my book Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing to the Amazon International Bestseller list. It went on to win two more book awards: The 2015 IPPY Award and the 2015 International Book Award for Health: Women’s Issues IntlBooksAwrd.com (By the way, I got a publisher for my book without using an agent or big email list.)
• My internet presence attracted the attention of the Vice President of a TV/Movie media company who personally contacted my publisher at Book Expo America in New York pertaining to turning Surviving Cancerland into a TV miniseries.
If I did not believe in what I have just written, I would have a link below for you to click for a FREE gift so I could spam the heck out of you later today and then follow up with more spam emails during the week. But, I won’t because I know you know it would be a waste of both our time.
Instead, I invite you to follow me on my social media pages to see if the mini-series becomes a reality. I also post what I am doing, share tips for success on being a successful published author and radio host, how to “Celebratize Yourself” and the workshops I hold on how to establish your expertise and monetize your message. You can check it out when it fits into your busy schedule… and I’ll personally follow you back.
Now isn’t that civilized and professional?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kathleen O’Keefe Kanavos is a TV Host/Producer of Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod, Author of International Bestseller & Multi-award winner Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing, & 3x Breast Cancer Survivor whose dreams diagnosed cancer. She’s published in medical journals. Kat believes dreams diagnose your life. “Did you have a déjà- vu or dream-come- true?” Kat’s interpretations are in American Express Open Forum. She’s a Coach & “Go-to authority” on Beauty, Health, Wealth & Relationships, Keynote Speaker/Panelist/Presenter at International Associations, Columnist, & blogs on many professional sites. Kat taught Special Education and Psychology at USF. http://SurvivingCancerLand.com/ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Aug 8, 2015 | Access Your Inner Guide, Uncategorized
“Knock Knock…” “Delete!” Is this happening to you?
Are you still collecting emails and trying to use them for promotion? Stop! You’re wasting your time.
Promotions are dying because email blasts are dead.
Part 2 of this 3 part blog explores:
• Three important studies on declining email rates
• Marketing statistics that help shed light on the current problem of emails as a promotional tool
The recent decline in in-person and Internet-based events is not because of a lack of interest in the subject
matter, but largely a lack of the reach required to fill the venues.
(Yes, there really are three parts to this blog. And Yes, I too have been the victim of the marketing trick of posting Part Two of a one part blog, as a means of self-promotion, so readers will search in vain for Part 1. I no longer follow their blogs, and I’ve blocked their email. )
So what is an entrepreneur to do concerning email marketing?
Shift with the changing times. Case in point: I was invited to be one of twenty five experts on a telesummit titled “Whole Food Love-End to Diets”. (Published on LinkedIn on June 2, 2015;
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/whole-food-love-yes-please-kathleen-o-keefe-kanavos/edit)
One of the stipulations for presenting on the telesummit was an email list consisting of 5,000 contacts or more for promotion. My list is around 8,000, but I chose to use it as a strategy, rather than a blast, because I knew email blasts don’t work. For the telesummit I used a different technique and had more opens (percentage of recipients that actually opened the email), click-through rate (percentage of people who opened the email and clicked at least one link in the email), secondary clicks (from media sources other than emails), and follow ups than those who with their larger emails lists. The studies below answer the question, “Why?”
3 important studies with statistics help shed light on the current problem:
1. According to Silverpop’s Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study, average email open rates continued their downward path during 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.
2. Email Stats February 2015 shows email opens from an Apple iPhone lead at 27%, followed by Gmail at 17%. Traditional email opens, such as via Outlook, are at 5%, Yahoo 4%, Windows Live Mail 2% and AOL Mail 1%. Who is your audience? Do they belong to an age group that is skilled in phone mail?
3. Research proves that fewer people are sitting home waiting for the jingle “You have mail.”
That jingle was popular years ago at the birth of emails. Everyone wanted to get an email. It meant you were tech-savvy and connected. Emails replaced phones. It was so popular it was even used as the snappy title for books and movies.
UPDATE: Current statistics show “You Have Mail” is now the “Jingle from Hell” for most people.
The abuse of emails has resulted in an entrepreneurial backfire. Emails are being treated with such distain they have become the modern day telemarketer. When blocking and delegating is not enough, people are reporting entrepreneurial emails as spam, the kiss of death for many online businesses. Modern society has become educated to email abuse, and the statistics prove that they have responded in numbers that are having a worldwide effect.
In Part 3 of this blog, I show 4 ways you can overcome this email challenge by reaching clients looking for you in ways that:
1. Are tried-and-true
2. Are techno-forward
3. Build on what you have already developed online
4. Actually work
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kathleen O’Keefe Kanavos is a TV Host/Producer of Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod, Author of International Bestseller & Multi-award winner Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing, & 3x Breast Cancer Survivor whose dreams diagnosed cancer. She’s published in medical journals. Kat believes dreams diagnose your life. “Did you have a déjà- vu or dream come true?” Kat’s interpretations are in American Express Open Forum. She’s a Coach & “Go-to authority” on Beauty, Health, Wealth & Relationships, Keynote Speaker/Panelist/Presenter at International Associations, Columnist, & blogs on many professional sites. Kat taught Special Education and Psychology at USF. http://SurvivingCancerLand.com/ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Aug 8, 2015 | Access Your Inner Guide, Uncategorized
Three Reasons Why Email is Dead! Research, Data and Statistics (Part 1 of 3) (749)
Are you still collecting emails? Stop! You’re wasting your time.
Part 1 of this three-part series explores:
1. How terrestrial and cyber events are suffering because of the death of email
2. Three researched reasons why it’s a waste of time to collect email addresses
3. How emails meant promotion
4. Tried-and-true solutions to help solve the resulting challenges
(Yes, there really are three parts to this blog. And Yes, I too have been the victim of the marketing trick of posting Part Two of a one part blog, as a means of self-promotion, so readers will search in vain for Part 1. I no longer follow their blogs, and I’ve blocked their email. )
What do telesummits, terrestrial or Internet-based events, and emails have in common?
Nothing anymore.
Email lists and group blasts are going the way of the carrier pigeon.
A hundred years ago a once-mighty species which used to carry messages became extinct. Emails may be the next messenger to become a thing of the past.
Rumors circulating the internet state that telesummits and other internet-based means of promotions no longer work. Why?
Experts think it is because of a lack of interest in events, especially Internet-based events.
I disagree! The problem is not the message. It is in the messenger: Email!
In fact, Internet-based promotions can be more successful than ever before for five reasons:
1. Attendees have the ability to enjoy them from the privacy and comfort of their homes
2. Attendees don’t have to spend money on travel, hotel rooms, and meals
3. Promotions can be viewed and/or listened to live or replayed later at the convenience of the attendee
4. Promoters of internet based promotions do not need to secure expensive venues like hotels
5. Experts/presenters do not need to travel to a land-based venue
Reason number three is especially important for attendees with job or family responsibilities.
So, what is the problem? Email!
Unfortunately, the decline of email is having an enormous impact on many of internet and non-internet-based business-building programs that have relied on them to connect with potential clients.
For instance, it is standard for literary agents to inform writer-conference audiences that an email list of 10,000 is necessary for representation, because publishers would not sign an author unable to self-promote with email reach.
Email- meant promotion…Once Upon a Time.
Large lists were the lifeblood for physical and virtual events, such as:
• Telesummits – Online multi-speaker events that assemble a series of experts to discuss a specific theme and often used for email list building.
• Conferences – An important or notable planned occasion, social gathering, or activity.
• Product launches – A site-based or virtual launch party around the release of a new product.
• Networking events – For making new contacts, leading to new clients, partners, and vendors.
• Seminars/educational events – For professionals or the public with single or multiple speakers.
• Trade shows – A way to position brands as an industry leader and to generate new leads.
Remember when:
• People bought email lists
• Phone Apps were developed to collect emails at events to grow contact lists
• FREE gifts were an enticement for clients to double-opt into email lists
• Clipboards were passed around at events or presentations for email collection
That was then, and this is now. Email addresses don’t matter anymore, because emails are no longer being read, so potential clients are not being reached. This has resulted in a general trend of virtual and in-person event attendance is declining.
If you are an entrepreneur attempting to connect with a high-level clientele by using emails you are wasting your time. Most of these clients don’t read their emails, and hardworking middle-class clients don’t have time to read countless daily emails.
Time is money. It is a precious commodity in our fast-paced world.
I used to read my emails… until I was overwhelmed with more than 350 a day, many of which I had not signed up for (my address had been purchased somewhere or otherwise shared without my consent). I tried to respond to some of those emails, but mine went to Info@, never reaching the person who had sent it. They had no problem spamming me, but did not want to be contacted, except through a link that sold me something. Out of necessity I began to block and unsubscribe to newsletters, blogs and emails, which took time.
But not anymore. Today, my virtual assistant does it for me. And many of my friends and clients, who do not have personal assistants to delete their emails, have special emails that do not allow for unsolicited contact. This is part of the death of email and the end of email blasts. Events which relied heavily on email contact are also dying.
Too much of a good thing became a bad thing.
Abuse killed emails. It is going the way of phone solicitations and the Do Not Call list.
Join me for Part 2 of this 3 part blog which will explore:
• Professional marketing studies that shed light on the decline of the email
• Solutions for the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kathleen O’Keefe Kanavos is a TV Host/Producer of Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod, Author of International Bestseller & Multi-award winner Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing, & 3x Breast Cancer Survivor whose dreams diagnosed cancer. She’s published in medical journals. Kat believes dreams diagnose your life. “Did you have a déjà- vu or dream come true?” Kat’s interpretations are in American Express Open Forum. She’s a Coach & “Go-to authority” on Beauty, Health, Wealth & Relationships, Keynote Speaker/Panelist/Presenter at International Associations, Columnist, & blogs on many professional sites. Kat taught Special Education and Psychology at USF. http://SurvivingCancerLand.com/ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com
