I used to suck at email marketing. I hated writing emails, and my subscribers didn’t read them because they were boring. After going through an email copywriting program, I made a shift in the way I wrote emails, and ever since, I’ve been known as the email guy. Now people come to me, the guy who used to hate writing emails, for all things email marketing.

The truth is there’s a lot of bad advice out there about email marketing. Some of it is downright spammy. So if you’re building an online business and following the conventional advice about email marketing, yet still struggling, I’ve got good news. There is a better way to do email marketing.

What I’ve discovered is that most people are approaching email marketing from the wrong perspective. And one change in that perspective can make it easier for you to write emails that your subscribers will actually enjoy reading.

If you’re ready to jump into my FREE email marketing course, you can get access by enrolling in BADA$$ Online Marketing University and completing the Online Marketing Foundations course. And when I say free, I mean FREE. No upsell, tricks, or gimmicks.

What You’re Probably Doing Now

If you’re following the standard advice about what email marketing should be, chances are that this is what you’re doing:

You send an email every week and pay attention to open and click-through rates. 

Basically, you’re focused on conversion—on how you can get people to open and click the link in your email to check out your content or buy your products.

That approach was what I was doing in the past when my emails sucked. I’m gonna tell you… that’s not the right approach.

But before we talk about what the right approach is, I want to touch on why this is the conventional wisdom. This focus on conversion makes sense if you’re a conventional business.

For example, bigger companies like Old Navy have an email list and their purpose is to get people to buy, not to like Old Navy. They consider email as a closing tool for sales. That’s conventional email marketing.

A lot of people who teach us email marketing in the online business space are people who are conversion copywriters. Don’t get me wrong… conversion copywriters are great and have amazing skills to get people to take action.

But those people tend to start with the assumption that everything should focus on making the sale. So, email has become a selling tool.

Why You Should Stop Thinking About Conversion

Now if you’re a coach, a strategist, a service provider, a course creator, a membership site, or anyone building a business that focuses on your personality, the traditional email marketing approach doesn’t fit your business.

There’s something fundamentally different about the kinds of businesses we’re running, which I call personality brands. People want to connect with us and that’s part of their purchasing decision.

People will ultimately buy from us because they feel a connection to us as people. That sets us apart from traditional businesses. We build a personal connection so people feel like they have a relationship with us. They consider us friends.

So, the little tweak that we’re talking about that could change how you do your email marketing is to stop thinking about conversion and start building a connection.

Instead of thinking about email as a selling tool, think about how you can use email to connect with your audience. Let them into your life.

How Will That Change Your Business?

For one, thinking about connection, not conversion, takes the pressure off you. If you know you aren’t good at writing conversion copy, you would no longer feel that pressure to write perfect emails that get people to buy or click a link.

Instead, all you need to do in your emails is think about how to let your audience get to know, like, and trust you. Your goal should be to find stories from your life that will let you connect with them.

When I stumbled upon this approach and applied it, it changed the trajectory of my email marketing. That’s when people suddenly started opening my emails as soon as they hit their inboxes.

They didn’t even care about the subject line. They were opening my email because they knew it was gonna give them some value and emotional connection to me. They even liked seeing typos in my emails because they knew it was just me being me.

When you cultivate your email list, people feel like you’re one of their friends. This is how you get those coveted word of mouth recommendations, one of the most valuable pieces of marketing. And studies have shown that most people value the opinion of a friend or a family member over any kind of advertising in making purchasing decisions.

The Impact Of Connection

What if you thought of email marketing, the stuff you did day in and day out until you were in an active sales period, as a way to establish yourself as a friend? Think about the power that gives you.

When your people think of you as their friend and you say you have a product they might need, you know what they’re gonna do? They’re gonna buy because hearing from you doesn’t feel like hearing from a faceless brand anymore. So that’s the shift that I want you to take: stop thinking conversion, start thinking connection.

If you want to know more about email marketing, I created an online course that I now offer completely free in my online training program, BADA$$ Online Marketing University. This is my signature program and it won’t cost you a dime. No gimmicks, no tricks. Just pure information giveaway.