Thor ain’t gon’ be happy about this one…
Check out this sobering story I got for you today:
Sometime last week, one of my clients signed up for a new SMS service.
(psst: SMS is a simple way to make your offer more valuable and make more sales from your list.)
And this new SMS software also offers an advertising wing.
They’ll help you (and even fund your) ad account and run conversation, SMS-based ads for you.
We decided to check it out and see if it brings in any leads or sales.
But for some reason they needed a separate ad account than the one we already use. (This particular client outsourced his Facebook ads to an agency—after I told him I agreed we should try it.)
Well, turns out, that couldn’t have been a bigger blessing in disguise.
Here’s why:
We spent a few minutes setting up a new Facebook ad account. Annnnnd a few days later, Facebook banned our advertising account.
The company hasn’t even started running any ads yet.
Neither of us have any idea why Facebook banned us.
And while we’re reaching out to Facebook’s support, they’re notoriously unresponsive.
Reminds me of one of the most powerful business lessons I’ve ever stumbled across from the legendary Dan Kennedy himself:
“The most dangerous number in business is one.”
Here’s how it applies to this sitch:
Relying on one method for attracting leads and customers is a good way to put your biz in an early grave.
Especially if your method for growing your business is social media.
I don’t care if it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other platform.
(Don’t think Donald Trump or Alex Jones are back on Twitter despite Elon owning the platform.)
And you know what?
I’ll take this one step further:
You shouldn’t only rely on email either.
But there’s a massive difference between running your business on social media and running it through email:
Yes, your ESP can drop the ban hammer on you too. (I hear-tell of many and many-a cautionary tales about insidious ESPs banning customers, especially one of a certain chimp variety.)
But you know what?
If your ESP bans you, you can export your list, sign up for a new ESP, and import your list into it.
Which brings me to the rub:
You *own* your email subscribers.
You *own* your SMS subscribers.
You *don’t* own your social media followers.
When you rely on only one platform or strategy, your days could be numbered.
Luckily for my client, we already have a big, healthy, and growing email list.
We’re already sending multiple emails per week which people love opening, reading, and, yes, buying from.
And he already has a secondary Facebook Ads account which is running profitable ads.
But if he didn’t?
We could be shyt outta luck.
In fact, something similar happened to this client back in 2015:
He relied too heavily on SEO and organic traffic to grow his business.
Well, one day, Google updated the algorithm, and he went from ~100k monthly visits to under 20k.
Even worse?
This was 4 years before I met him, and we started working together. (aka he didn’t have his email strategy dialed in like it is now.)
Moral of the story?
Build your mf email list.
And more importantly: Send emails to your mf email list that make sales and morph them into lifelong, diehard customers.
Don’t know how to do that?
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