The secret is out: Teaching = Marketing. Follow the step by step guide to automate the entire process with Mailchimp.

Imagine if you could wake up every morning to iPhone messages from happy customers that have placed orders overnight while you were sleeping.

Automated email marketing funnels can make this a reality for you, super quick. Collecting emails and adding them to your list over time is one of the best ways to boost your business.

Here’s the thing:

Most people just starting out don’t even collect emails from their website until way later.

Question for you:

Why don’t they bother, even though it’s common knowledge? Because it can be really stressful and overwhelming to get everything working properly. It’s easy to just keep putting this off forever.

But you aren’t going to fall into that trap. You’ve got an excellent guide to make it super easy and avoid any overwhelm.

If you follow this step-by-step guide you will learn how to:

1. Keep all of your customer email addresses in one place.
2. Set up your first email list in 15 minutes without spending a dime
3. Get more subscribers with opt-in forms on your website
4. Create your first drip campaign to get more customers and get more sales

Before you begin…

You’ll need to have a website that you can update as needed. The most common website / blog platform is WordPress. Getting all of that setup is outside of the scope of this how-to guide.

STEP 1: Create your Mailchimp account to keep your email subscribers in one place (5 minutes)

Mailchimp is an email service provider and they are experts at doing two critical tasks for your business: keep your email subscribers organized and send your emails

This is a trickier than it sounds and that’s why you want someone to take care of it for you.

If you’re just getting started, just use Mailchimp. It’s free to get started and costs just $9/month for advanced functionality. Don’t over think this step. Just create the Mailchimp account and move on to Step 2.

1. Head over to MailChimp.com and click the “sign up free” button
2. Fill out all of the information required (name, email, address, industry, etc.)
3. Check your email for the confirmation message and log into your account

I created a 2 minute video walk through so you can see exactly how this is done.

STEP 2: Get ready to send out that first educational email (3 minutes)

If you have some emails to add already, here’s where you will add them in. If you don’t, that’s okay too. Mailchimp lets you create a bunch of different lists to help you reach different subscribers. For example, you might have one list for monthly newsletter subscribers only and another list for people that have bought something recent.

For now, just follow these steps to create your first list in Mailchimp.

First, login into Mailchimp and click on the “Links” section in the navigation menu

Next, click “Create List” and then “Create List” again. There are some advanced options that you can ignore for now.

Last step: fill out the required information and click “Save”

STEP 3: Install SumoMe to collect email addresses from your website for free.

SumoMe is a WordPress plugin that creates all of the opt-in forms for you. It’s a free tool that’s easy to use. It’s got extra features if you need them in the future. There are also other opt-in plugins like OptinMonster, LeadPages, etc. that I’m not covering here. If you don’t use WordPress, then you can skip this step and check with your host for more info.

For now, just follow these steps to install SumoMe and create your first opt-in form

Step 1: Log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins > Add new
Step 2: Search for SumoMe in the search bar
Step 3: Follow the instructions to create a free SumoMe account
Step 4: Install the ListBuilder app and connect it to your Mailchimp account.

Step 4: Automate everything so that subscribers BEG for your next email

Quick explanation:

You should focus on teaching for your first email marketing funnel because it’s a quick way to deliver tons of value to your subscribers without taking up a lot of your time.

Mailchimp makes it really easy to send out emails to your subscribers over a few days. This is a great way to teach your customers something new and get them to know more about you, trust what you have to say, and eventually buy something from you. Some people call this a drip campaign or an email course or a mini-course.

Bottom line: Give them a personal lesson through email and they will be asking for more. It’s perfect!

Step 1: Think of a few topics you are interested in and your subscribers would likely be interested in learning more about. (More on this below)
Step 2: Create a new Mailchimp Automation sequence to teach your subscribers something interesting over a few days

The best part is that everything is delivered right to their email inbox.

Not sure what you can teach? Use this super easy technique to get your creative juices flowing in 5 minutes or less.

The good news is that someone has already figured out EXACTLY what your readers want to know about. You can figure this out by using the TOC Technique.

Here’s how the “TOC Technique” works:

Step 1: Go to Amazon and type in a general idea related to your topic. You don’t have to over think this step. For example, if you specialize in health and fitness coaching for multiple sclerosis sufferers, you simply type in “multiple sclerosis nutrition” into Amazon. Select the first book that fits best for you.

Step 2: Click the “Look Inside” button at the top of the book image to view samples and excerpts from the book and check out the Table of Contents to see all the major topics covered in this book.

Step 3: Write down each of those topics on a piece of paper.

Optional: Follow the same process for the first few books on Amazon to get more ideas.

Why the “TOC Technique” works:

Best-selling books on Amazon have lots of high ratings from lots of customers. The quickest way to come up with topics to teach your email list is by looking at highly rated books on Amazon.

Each topic becomes an individual email for your subscribers.

Be sure to add in your own personal content to help teach them about that topic (don’t just copy/paste!)

For example, this first topic from the best-selling book on “multiple sclerosis nutrition” is “The Real Cause of Multiple Sclerosis”. Now you can take that topic and add your own insights to create an awesome email that teaches your audience what causes MS.

Quick recap of what we have so far:

A nice 4 part email mini-course that your subscribers are sure to love!

1. Welcome email: 1-2 paragraphs about you, your experience, and the topic outline you’ve put together. Be sure to include any testimonials, expertise, credentials, or other qualifications to boost your credibility.
2. Causes of Multiple Sclerosis: 1-2 paragraphs about what causes MS. You don’t need to go crazy with every detail in your email. Think of it more as a conversation starter and not a college lecture.
3. Solutions for Healing MS: 1-2 paragraphs about how to cope with MS symptoms.
4. Treatment Plans for MS: Include a step by step email that your readers can go through to develop their own plan with doctors and loved ones.
5. Wrap-up: Include a recap of the mini-email course, highlighting what they’ve learned links to previous emails and maybe even a link to buy something from you if appropriate.

You can get even more advanced over time by adding in extra emails like recipes, meal plans, lists of foods to eat or avoid, etc.

One thing you shouldn’t forget:

You are using your email automation funnel to teach your readers something new and let them know that you are an authority on your topic. Over time, your credibility will skyrocket and you’ll be the first person your subscribers reach out to if they need something related to what you’ve taught them.

I’m a big fan of the outdoors and a few years ago, I wanted to take my hiking to the next level. So, I decided to try a super challenging winter hike up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

However, winter hiking is MUCH different than hiking during the other three seasons. I had to learn a lot of information in a short of time. I had to have the right gear. I had to be in good enough shape to hike quickly before freezing to death (just kidding, kind of).

I found tons of information online but really, I just needed someone to show me how the entire thing worked: what advice, tips, and gear was actually required to accomplish my goal.

Recently a friend reached out to me because she wanted to take her business to the next level. Since she was already familiar with boosting posts on Facebook, she wanted to promote her website with Facebook Ads.

Here’s the deal:

Facebook Ads can be daunting at first, just like a climb up 6,000 feet during the freezing cold. Fortunately, you can follow the step-by-step instructions below to create your first Facebook Ad in about 15 minutes. Once you learn the basics, you’ll be able to customize as needed.

What you will learn in this guide

1. Mistakes to avoid before creating your first Facebook Ad Campaign
2. How Facebook makes it easy for you to save time with optimized defaults
3. How to create an ad that gets attention (bonus material download)

Read More

Here’s the thing:

You know it’s important to pick the best possible metrics to quickly and accurately determine the health of your business. It’s easy to make mistakes at any stage of your business. Fortunately, there are a bunch of smart people that have put together easy to use frameworks and checklists for you. The best marketing and measurement frameworks are useful at any stage of your business. The “Pirate Framework” can even be used on new marketing initiatives to make sure things stay on track and are always moving in the right direction. The framework and the name was developed several years ago by Dave McClure, a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and founding partner of 500 startups. There are 5 steps to the framework and the first letter of each step spell out “AARRR” like a pirate.

Use the five step Pirate Framework to understand the health of your business at any stage.

1. Acquisition. Let everyone and anyone know about what you are up to. Get attention through conventional and unconventional means. Create a blog, Facebook page, YouTube videos, etc. You can also meet people in local small business groups in your community. Ultimately, you will want people to visit your website where they can learn everything that you have to offer.
2. Activation. Get those website visitors to engage with you. If you have a compelling offer (something that your visitors actually want) and call-to-action (they know how to find that thing on your website), your visitors will want to get plugged in with you by signing up for your newsletter, liking your Facebook page, or even making a purchase!
3. Retention. Now you have to turn one-time visitors into recurring visitors. What kind of value are you able to consistently deliver? Give them a reason to come back to your website or Facebook page on a regular basis.
4. Revenue. Get paid! In this step of the framework, your visitors are engaged and returning regularly to see what you have to offer and have already generated business results. In some instances, this isn’t even necessarily actual money (although that’s certainly the best kind of business result). Maybe it’s high customer satisfaction scores, ad clicks, or using your product.
5. Referral. Now your customers have become your biggest fans. You don’t have to spend so much time ACQUIRING new prospects, because your current customers are acquiring them for you. There are a few ways to generate and track referrals, but the most common is just word of mouth feedback. Retweets and Facebook shares are other types.

Conclusion

This may all seem totally overwhelming and confusing…and that’s okay! Because all you need to do is think about which step of the framework your business is currently at and then focus on one metric that will quickly and accurately tell you the health of your business over time.

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