Can ‘Boring’ Businesses Still Benefit From Email Marketing?

Marketing and SEO consultant Shae has a tough problem:

I have a couple of clients in the recruitment (bricks and mortar biz based in Australia and has two target audiences: job seekers and employers) and an online life insurance broker and I’m trying to convince them to send daily emails the way you do. But they keep saying their industries are boring, no one would want to hear from them on a regular basis and just can’t see that this email approach would work for them.

I disagree completely but I keep getting resistance. Any tips you could provide or perhaps some real life examples from similar niches?

Two thoughts on this:

1. They’re dead wrong.

Period, end of discussion.

Both of these businesses could churn out some AMAZING emails—all it takes is shifting your perspective so you’re looking at what you do from your customer’s point of view.

For the client in the recruiting arena:

Ever hear about a job interview that didn’t go quite according to plan?

My wife once helped interview a recent college grad who broke down and started sobbing because the “questions were too hard.”

My business partner John once swaggered into an interview at Microsoft—and got his teeth kicked in.

I once had an interview where I realized I was totally unqualified within 10 minutes, but they kept grilling me for another 4 hours. One of the most humiliating things I’ve ever experienced.

Think you could spin a few of those into compelling emails? Hmmm?

How about the life insurance biz. Now THAT’S super boring, right?

Sure, until you remember that 32-year-old guy who finally decided to get that policy his wife had been begging for for years…

What finally spurred him to action?

His SUV did a barrel roll after he skidded on some ice, and afterward he realized his wife and 2-year-old daughter could have been out in the cold…

Nope, nothing interesting to write about there.

The truth is, “my product is too boring” is nothing but a copout.

There are no boring products, only bored marketers.

So the advice Shae’s giving her clients is spot on.

Here’s the problem:

2. It doesn’t matter.

This is a mindset thing.

The client is fearful of trying something different.

And it’s going to be a long, hard slog to convince them otherwise.

Small businesses are often small for a reason, and it has to do with how the owner thinks.

If I were in Shae’s shoes, I’d propose a small-scale test.

Maybe slice out a small segment of their customer list and send a few emails.

I wouldn’t kill myself to persuade them on this though.

Probably only 1 client in 20 will do it.

That effort is better spent finding clients you don’t have to browbeat into letting you do your job.

Related posts:

  1. The Noob Mistake That ‘Kneecaps’ Your Email Marketing Recently a subscriber asked for my feedback on an email he’d written. The email caught my attention instantly with the first few lines. He was telling a story that I could relate to, and I was eager to see where he was leading me. But a few short paragraphs later,...
  2. How Having an Email List Means You Can Benefit from Nasty Critics My all-time favorite quote from Mark Twain is: “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” When you have an audience, whether it’s an email list, blog or social media “tribe,” that means YOU are the one with the storage room full of ink. And when...
  3. Does Email List Building Work for Brick and Mortar Businesses? A couple years back I consulted with a business owner who wanted to grow his email list. His idea was to hire me to turn me loose on his home page, which at the time was a kind of a “showcase” for his services… And have me rework it into...
  4. What Converts Better: “Clever” Copywriting or Boring Benefits? Recently I tried something “clever,” and it totally went down in flames. Here’s what happened… My business partner John has this phrase that he uses a lot: “For a software developer, creating a blog is like building your own lightsaber.” In the Star Wars universe, every Jedi knight is required...