#002: This Needs To Be Your AI Strategy

Read Time: 9 min

Thanks for reading the AI for Marketing newsletter, a daily series where I’ll share actionable, AI-powered strategies, news, and prompts that organizations can use to build better marketing campaigns and client attraction systems (while saving 20+ hours a week and thousands of dollars).

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Here’s what to expect in today’s article:

1. The best strategy for generating sales on-demand
2. The prompts you need to create the content
3. How to gain market share from your competitors

The Best Strategy for Generating Sales On-Demand

10 years ago, a business coach of mine shared with me one of the greatest lessons to business success (which still holds true today), and I want to pass that along to you in today’s edition of AI in Marketing.

He said,

If you never want to worry where your next sale or client will come from, you need to control your content distrubution.

What Does It Mean To “Control Your Content Distrubution?”

When we think about content distribution, what we are really saying is, you want to build a relationship with a database of ideal customers who know, like and trust you.

Moreover, you want an easy, and free, direct line of communication with this audience who will respond to your calls-to-action.

The best way to do this: Email!

Yes, boring old email.

With control over your content distrubution via email comes an abundance of opportunities: no more searching endlessly for potential customers; no need to attend stuffy networking events; no more spammy LinkedIn outreach; forget worrying about asking acquaintances or contacts for referrals!

(Referrals are great, but unpredictable).

Instead, imagine having your ideal clients reach out to you everyday, presold on doing business with you.

Now, that may sound like a pipedream to many. It certainly was for me early in my career.

I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to generate sales on demand, or even have a prospective client call me for my services (instead of the other way around).

When I first started in financial services in 2006, I never knew where my next client was going to come from.

Some months were great, while other months I would stare at a dried up pipeline.

It was a rollercoaster ride of sales, month after month. It was stressful, to say the least.

But there was a reason for it.

I didn’t have an easy way to get my message out to the world.

Put another way, I didn’t have a systematic client attraction system that would allow me to build relationships with prospective clients, so that when they were ready to “buy,” they would reach out to me.

I know this is the case for many businesses, and frankly, it’s why many businesses fail.

Kevin O’Leary talks about this frequently. He was speaking at a conference and said the following,

80% of businesses fail within three years for one singular reason: they are unable to get their customer acquisition costs below their lifetime value. Simply put, they go bankrupt advertising.

This is the problem that email marketing solves.

According to a study by Campaign Monitor, email marketing has an average ROI of 4200%, meaning that for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is $42.

And according to a study by HubSpot, segmented, personalized email campaigns can result in a 760% increase in revenue.

But even with those stats, in today’s world of social media, email is often becoming overlooked and underestimated.

You may even be thinking, “I thought email marketing was dead? People don’t read their emails anymore, do they?”

Well, I’m here to tell you that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, email marketing is not only alive and well, but it’s also one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience and drive conversions. And the key to success lies in building a high-quality email list of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

One of the most significant benefits of building an email list is that it provides you with a direct line of communication with your audience at virtually no cost.

Plus, you don’t have to rely on social media algorithms or hope that people stumble upon your website.

For example, let’s say you’re launching a new product or service. Instead of relying solely on social media or paid advertising to get the word out, you can run a launch campaign to your subscribers using a series of emails, letting them know about your new offering.

Because these people have already expressed interest in your business by opting into your email list, they are much more likely to be receptive to your message and take action.

Similarly, if you’re hosting a webinar or event, sending multiple email invites to your list can be an incredibly effective way to increase attendance.

(Don’t forget to send an email 2 minutes before you go live. It will boost your attendance by 20%. Try it!)

Take my latest webinar for example.

I wanted to host an impromptu webinar on how private school marketers can leverage ChatGPT.

By sending just 2 emails, we had 986 registrants.

$0 was spent on advertising.

The only way this can happen is by having a database of contacts that we’ve built a relationship with everyday through our content (which fortunately we have at our company. Thank you ISM).

But it’s not just about promoting your products or events. Having an email list also allows you to nurture your relationship with your audience over time.

This is the real power of your email list.

By sending regular emails that provide value, such as informative blog posts, or exclusive offers, you can keep your subscribers engaged and build trust with them. This can help turn them into loyal customers who are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your business to others.

In fact, according to a study by Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that email relevant offers and recommendations.

But therein lies the rub.

I’ve hosted multiple workshops over the past 3 years on inbound marketing and the importance of building an email list.

But I consistently see the same issues arise that prevent organizations from actually implementing an email marketing strategy:

• The time it takes to build the email list (ie. the bait you use)
• The time it takes to create the content that you’ll actualy send to your subscribers
• Committment to consistently emailing every single week (what do you actually write)

Hello ChatGPT

With the emergence of AI, and specifically ChatGPT, those should be issues of the past.

With that said, I understand that the initial allure to marketers and businesses is the massive amount of content that you can now create in just a matter of minutes.

My question is, what are you doing with all of this content?

Are you trying to create SEO-friendly blog posts to rank in Google?

Are you creating even more social media content?

All of that is good, but what I am suggesting to do is tie these efforts to a bigger strategy — building your email list.

Because with ChatGPT, it’s easier than ever to create lead magnets, e-books, and automated email sequences.

So, while you are creating your daily blog posts and 162 pieces of social media content per day (Gary Vee style), think about how you can direct that traffic into your email database.

ChatGPT Prompts

Now, let’s get our hands dirty and start putting some of this into action.

Open up ChatGPT and try some of these prompts for creating content for your email sequences

EMAIL SEQUENCE PROMPT

Use the prompt below to create an automated email sequence for your subscribers

You are an AI that specializes in writing email sequences. You are an expert in writing, copywriting, marketing, sales, psychology, behavioral psychology, strategy, and entrepreneurship. You are not generic and your output isn’t generic. Any advice you provide is advanced and uncommon.

Your Email Topic Is: [add email topic here]

Please write a comprehensive Email Sequence consisting of 4 Emails as a plain text code block that begins and ends with ““`”. Organize the information inside the code block in a neat hierarchy using markdown syntax.

Additionally, please use the AIDA formula to write three potential Subject Lines or hooks for this information. Focus on triggering FOMO (fear of missing out) with the attention and interest component. All Introductions should be 1 sentence long, and each sentence should be concise and clear. Each sentence in an Introduction should be a direct statement that ends in a period. Return these Introductions as a plain text code block that begins and ends with ““`”. Organize the information inside the code block in a neat hierarchy using markdown syntax.

You always follows these rules:

All sentences should be direct statements that end in a period. The tone should be playful and conversational, and the language should be written at a 5th grade level. Bias toward short, concise sentences. Avoid buzzwords and jargon. Avoid being salesy or overly enthusiastic! Use figurative language and metaphor when it makes an idea more clear, memorable, or emotionally-stimulating.

SUBJECT LINE IDEAS

Generate 10 email subject lines that are more attention grabbing than [insert current headline]

EMAIL OUTREACH OUTREACH FOR SUBSCRIPTION SIGN UP

I’m looking for a [type of email] that will convince my [ideal customer persona] to sign up for my [program/subscription] by explaining the value it brings and the benefits they’ll receive.

CONTENT IDEAS RELEVANT TO YOUR IDEAL READER

I’m looking for a [email content/blog] ideas that will provide valuable and relevant information to my [ideal customer persona] about [subject] and attract high-quality leads with a strong call-to-action.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with ChatGPT to solve your email and content creation problems.

My suggestion, if you haven’t already, just open up ChatGPT and start playing with it. Start with the prompts I provided and expand. Try to come up with your own creative ideas.

If you find a prompt that works great for you, I’d love to hear it! DM me or comment below with your prompts.

Note: In tomorrow’s edition of the newsletter, I will provide you with the exact ChatGPT prompts you can use to create a lead magnet in minutes.

How To Gain Market Share

Finally, I want to discuss how you can massively overtake market share from your competitors by building your email list the right way.

In your market, there are 3 audiences:

1. People who will never buy from you (we want to try to avoid marketing to them)
2. Customers who are ready to buy right now (Today Customers)
3. Customers who may buy from you at some point in the future (Future Customers).

Everyone is focused on the Today Customers because they want sales now.

Who doesn’t?

But take a look at this image which is a representation of your entire market

When it comes to building your email list, it’s important to focus on attracting future buyers, rather than just trying to convert people who are ready to buy today.

The truth is, the number of people who are ready to buy from you right now is likely a very small percentage of your total target audience.

Plus, this is who your competitors are targeting as well. That’s why it’s also more expensive to reach this audience.

If you only focus on marketing to this small group, you’re going to miss out on a much larger audience of people who may be interested in your business but are not yet ready to make a purchase or book an appointment.

And the good news is, if you focus on attracting your Future Customers, you will still capture the Today Customers. But the same cannot be said if you only focus on the Today Customers.

This is how you can build a massive audience in your market, establish goodwill, and get the Future AND Today Customers to do business with you instead of your competitors.

That’s it for today. I hope you found the prompts helpful and inspired a few of you to start building a massive email database.

In tomorrow’s edition of the newsletter, I will show you exactly how to do this with real case studies. Plus I’ll provide you with the exact ChatGPT prompts you can use to create a lead magnet in minutes to help you build your email list

Thanks for reading, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

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• Inbound Marketing
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• Copywriting
• Conversion Optimization

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