When you’re an artist, the truth is that you’d probably like to spend most of your time creating.
Not shipping out packages, fielding customer service questions, or working on all the other admin tasks that come along with being a small business owner. But you might find yourself in a place where all you’re currently doing is filling the demand for some small prints or original paintings with no downtime to create something new.
And you may have heard of this elusive unicorn method of how to earn some extra income that will also free up your time over the long run. Passive income seems to be the way to go.
While passive income takes a lot of initial work up front, you can reap the benefits of it over and over for months to come. I’ve personally built up a recurring revenue from Skillshare classes, launched my membership and other courses to earn thousands and thousands of dollars that usually lasts for several months at a time, and I’ve even had affiliate sales that have earned me extra unexpected money. All of which can be considered passive income.
But if you’re at the beginning of your journey with creating passive income, you may wonder how in the world you’re going to make this thing work.
The biggest tip I have for you is to really utilize your email list to its fullest potential.
Your email list is where they say “the money is”. You can actually start predicting how much income you’ll make and predict the outcome of launching specific products based on your list size. This is honestly a place where I geek out. (Although I mostly hate math now, I was, believe it or not, a mathlete in my early high school years).
So the question you might be asking is how can you boost your passive income sales by simply utilizing your email list?
Today I’m going to share with you a few tips that I’ve picked up along the way:
Tip #1 – You can use your email list to share with a large group of people all at once that you have a new product available for sale.
After you spend all the time to initially get your new product up and running, you need to tell the world that it exists. And while sharing your product on social media can sometimes feel like shouting into an endless void, sharing your product with your email list is bound to get you sales.
First of all, you can send a series of emails to pique your subscribers’ interest. All you really have to do is send out that first email and grab their attention. Then when you send following emails, you’re just working to answer any questions they might have or squash their objections.
By sending out multiple emails, you should expect to have a few people who are totally not interested in what you’re offering and who might also leave your email list. But you’ll also have a small section of people who really want or need what you’re offering. (If you need ideas on passive income products, check out this recent post.)
The key is, though, to send out several emails depending on the cost of your digital/passive product. With the recent launches of my membership, Creative Biz U, I’ve sent out five or six emails with really good results. Believe me, if you do this right, you will have sales.
Tip #2 – Sending emails to your list allows you to really answer questions and objections that people might have.
While you’re sending out emails about your newest passive product, you can answer all of the questions, hesitations, objections, etc. that your interested audience might have. This means that you can help them with their decision.
Sometimes people need a little extra help or guidance to know whether or not a product is for them (or whether you’re right for them). Sometimes they might have a question about how something works (like the payment process or how they’ll get your product after they’ve paid).
By taking the time to think about or listen to the common questions that people have, you’ll be able to answer those questions. This will likely lead to more sales. Your audience needs you to help during the sales process, especially when the price is higher.
Think about your own hesitations when you buy something online and try to think about what your potential customers are struggling with when it comes to the commitment of buying.
Tip #3 – Sending emails to your list allows you to ask for the sale.
To be honest, I see so many of my clients saying that they’re posting to social media, that they’re blogging their hearts out, and that they’re providing quality products that they know someone out there will love.
But the biggest problem I see is that these same ladies struggle with asking for the sale. It is outside of their comfort zone because it feels salesy and spammy. But this is a part of the conversation that NEEDS to happen.
Without asking for someone to actually buy, they are subconsciously going to tune out from what you’re saying about your product and you’ll get fewer sales. By being direct with your communication and saying “buy,” you’ll have more sales.
Asking for the sale can totally happen via your email list. By sending out a few emails and inserting a big buy button, you are “asking for the sale”.
If using the language “Buy Now” feels weird and uncomfortable, you can test out other copy that will still move them to make a decision, like “Join Now”, “I’m in!”, or “Count Me In”. BUT you need to have a link to your check out page and it needs to big, bold, and center.
We should never apologize for trying to make a living. And in order to make a living, we have to ask for the sale.
Tip #4 – You can set up an automated sequence and create a sales funnel that is always working behind the scenes to earn you money.
This is honestly my favorite part of the whole deal.
Because sending out emails in the moment can be really tough if you feel emotionally invested in the moment. This is typically the case if you feel rejected when you see people leaving your email list right after you sent your email. (Yep, I see you refreshing the page over and over to see if people are opening…and even worse to see if they are unsubscribing.)
But there is a different way!
By setting up an automated sequence of emails, you can start making sales on autopilot.
You’ll have to use an email marketing program that allows you to create automated sequences and funnels. I personally use Active Campaign* but used ConvertKit for a very long time too.
Inside of Active Campaign, I can set up automation that will run for me in the background. I can move people from one automation to another based on the actions that they take. Then all I have to do is funnel people into the automation.
If this is too techy for you, I recommend that you simply write out emails ahead of time (in Google Docs or in your Word Processor) and then schedule them out during your launch. This will take away some of those feelings that you might have of being too salesy.
At the end of the day, utilizing your email list is really going to help you to bring in more sales when it comes to passive income. Without emailing your list, it will be like shooting in the dark. I love being able to see how people are responding and using the data to make adjustments the next time that I launch my product again. And none of that would be possible if I didn’t use my list.
Where are you at when it comes to using your email list? Do you struggle to send out emails? Let me know in the comment section below!
* This post contains affiliate links, which means that I receive a small commission if you decide to sign up. Please know that I only recommend things that I use personally, and that I truly love.
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