The fundamental problem with social media marketing is that you’re trying to promote yourself to people who didn’t ask to hear from you. This means you’re marketing in an environment where you’re not in control. The prospect can ignore you or eliminate you from their feed.

The next problem is that the platform has infinite power to make it difficult for you to be seen. You don’t own the social media channels or the audience. You have very little control over how many people actually see what it is you’re trying to share.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use social media, but it does change why and how you should use it.

The Importance of Email

Digital content marketing is important. It’s the only way you’ll promote your business 24/7 without paying a lot of people a lot of money to do it for you. Digital content marketing is the most efficient way to get the right message out to the right people so you can get them to take the next step: engaging with you.

Because of the limitations of social media, the only medium you truly own is email. If you have your target customer’s email address, you have the most powerful digital marketing tool known to man.

Email is better than text. It’s better than someone following your page on social media. It’s better than having the prospect’s physical address and phone number. It’s better than a digital advertisement or magazine placement. Email is your best marketing tool.

When you have somebody’s email — and permission to use it — you have the ability to control the messaging. You control the next steps to get the prospect to engage in conversation. That’s powerful.

The primary function of social media, then, is to get people to visit your website. You don’t own the social media platform, but you do own your website.

Unfortunately, the odds of getting people off social media and onto your website decrease every day. Social media platforms make it increasingly difficult and expensive to get noticed, which means it’s almost impossible for small companies to get seen in social media feeds.

Even worse, the rise of AI-generated content has the potential to inundate social media feeds with distractions, misinformation, unhelpful links, and counter-programming that will undermine whatever messages you’re trying to get across.

This doesn’t change the fact that if you do get people off social media and onto your website, that moment is extraordinarily important. You’ve been given the opportunity to capture attention. If you can get the prospect to subscribe or share an email address, you go from having no control to having a lot of control.

This means you need to capture emails. The entire focus of my website is to capture an email address, contact information, or an appointment where all those things will be captured.

Tips to Better Leverage Your Email

1. Look at your website and make sure it’s clear WHO you’re talking to.

If your homepage talks about what you do instead of what your ideal buyer does, you’ve missed the point of having a homepage.

Any calls to action you present need to be clearly meant for your ideal customer. The call to action is where you capture an email address, whether it’s to add the visitor to a mailing list, provide them with a lead magnet, or set up an appointment to have a conversation. Make sure it’s clearly targeted at your visitor, not you.

There’s plenty of time and space to talk about what you do, but first, the customer wants to make sure they’re in the right place. Make them feel at home.

To learn more about driving new leads to your email system, enter your email here to see it in action:

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2. Once you have the email address, teach the prospect to open your email.

Now that you have the prospect’s email, your first job is to be instantly helpful. Don’t immediately try to sell them something.

Instead, explain how you’re going to be helpful, then send them three or four helpful things over the next couple of weeks. This can all be automated.

There’s a whole chapter on this in my book “Demand” where I show you how to post on social media and share the best online marketing tools for your AV business.

3. Avoid Urgency

When you reach out to people through their email addresses, don’t convey that there’s some sort of deadline or urgency to do business with you. Let customers work on their own time. They’ll buy when they’re ready.

If you’re anxious for engagement, invite the customer to a networking event or create opportunities to meet in person that aren’t tied to doing business. Don’t look needy. Work on their calendar. It’s a great trust-builder.

Don’t try to manipulate with urgency. Build trust for the long haul.