“Do things that don’t scale.”

Entrepreneurs are obsessed with how to 10x everything with the least amount of money and time spent. In this lesson you’ll learn how trying tactics that don’t scale can add real value to your business by making more personal connections with your customers.

The three tactics that don’t scale at a glance:

Collect emails in person.
Add an insert into each shipment you send out that includes instructions.
Leveraging partnerships

Resources:

App recommendation | PostPilot: Automatically send personalized, profitable postcard campaigns

E-commerce entrepreneurs are obsessed with scaling. And if you aren't really familiar with that term, it's kind of like growing but growing in every way. You're getting more customers and making more revenue, all the while, your operations run smoothly and don't come apart at the seams. We're obsessed with how to 10x everything with the least amount of money and effort required. Of course, I'm on board with scaling and believe email is one of the best tools you can use to scale.
However, I'm also a big fan of tactics that don't scale. Tactics that require you to roll up your sleeves and get in the weeds with customers and not hide behind the screen. Perhaps, even have a real face-to-face conversation. In this lesson, I'll teach you three easy tactics that don't scale that you can implement no matter how big or small your business is. The first tactic is to collect emails in person.
You can collect emails at a live event, a conference, or if you own a brick and mortar store, you can enable email collection at checkout. Add all to anything, we collect them over the phone. The second tactic you can use to collect email addresses is to insert into each shipment you send out that includes instructions and a call to action to sign up for your email list. Ask your customers to register their product online, for example.
The third tactic is leveraging partnerships. I've seen companies like Bonobos and BaubleBar literally explode their list sizes overnight by partnering with each other. In fact, I received the Bonobos order the other day and a BaubleBar offer was inside the box. All I had to do to redeem that offer was to sign up at baublebar.com. Bingo, BaubleBar got my email through Bonobos.
These kinds of partnerships are straightforward to line up. Start by thinking of complementary but not competing products and brands that your customers consume, then pick up the phone and call those brands, pitching them on a partnership. It does require some legwork, but Shopify stores like Huckberry and TRNK, spelled T-R-N-K, have grown a lot in a short period of time through such old-school partnerships.
Think beyond your website when growing your list. Do things that don't scale. In the next lesson, we will explore using influencers to grow your list.

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Tactics That Don’t Scale

Course content (38 lessons)

Overview

01 |Get Started with Email Marketing

02 |Create Your Welcome Series

03 |Optimize Your Shopify Store

04 |Grow Your Email List

05 |Measure What Matters with Email Analytics

06 |Advanced Email Strategy

“Do things that don’t scale.”

The three tactics that don’t scale at a glance:

Resources:

Build an online store for your business with your new skills.