Hi!

Before I get to the fun story for the day, don’t forget I’m, co-hosting an amazing workshop on Jan 17th on content planning – sign up free here while spaces last:  https://www.planthatsocial.club/jan-2023-content-planning-workshop 

Once upon a time, I started a Facebook Lead Ad Campaign for website leads… Here’s a little story of how that’s going for me (in case you feel like “Ya… I’d like to try this whole Facebook lead ads thing”…)…

It all started one day back in December 2022 when I got this brilliant idea to set up a lead ad (these are the ones where the person fills out their name and email while on Facebook) to access something or get information from you.

I thought I was an absolute freakin’ genius when I got my first lead within hours of setting the ad up. I knew the leads were going to cost me anywhere from $10-$60 PER LEAD, but if I spent $1000 before even one converted to a website sale, then… WIN!

The leads kept rolling in, but no one was replying to my emails with the quote attached.

So I added a few more emails to the drip sequence (three to be exact). The cold email marketing pros of the world will tell you that you have to follow up 7-10 times in order to get a reply… it seems excessive but if you’re giving up before 5 touch points at the very least, you’re throwing away an opportunity. 

Then I realized… “Wait a minute… I’m sending these emails from Converkit (my email marketing software of choice), which means… some of these might be going to spam boxes… maybe that’s why no one is replying”.

So I decided once a week I would send out a personal email, you know… from my personal email inbox… not a newsletter software to make sure they received the quote and offer to hop on zoom for a free coffee chat and consult to answer any questions they might have.

So off I went… to send some follow up emails offering this extra support to answer any burning questions.

What happened next was somewhat expected… 

I heard back from 1 out of 34 people and his response was:

“I appreciate the hustle but you have sent me 15 emails since I first reached out it’s way TOO much please remove me from your mailing list. And I suggest you control your emails because it’s spam and no one likes that”

I almost went into full defense mode but then thought… no Brittany, you cannot control how someone talks to you… but you can control how you respond.

So I replied (probably my first mistake) with:

Hi _____,

You’re officially the first one to reply to my follow-ups – can I still chalk that up as a win? Hehe 

Thanks for the reply anyways, I do appreciate it so I can update who is interested and who is not 🙂 I will also look at my email marketing system and see if there’s a way to filter people out of the main weekly newsletter with stories and tips that I send until they are completed and lead workflow they might be in – I do appreciate that feedback as well, I follow all CASL anti-spam legislation but I certainly don’t want to bombard anyone with too many emails.

Would you be willing to let me know if you did receive the quote when you originally signed up for it? I’m trying to determine if my Facebook ads are worth it or if I’m just flushing money over to good ole’ Zuckerberg haha

Cheers!

I thought surely this would defuse his annoyance with me (you know… for sending a follow-up for info THAT HE REQUESTED)…

But instead, I get this:

Where is the UNSUBSCRIBE button my god Brittany work your s*** out 

At this point, you might say, “no, please don’t give him the time of day Brittany”… but you know… I like this game… so I replied with:

Ouch. I am a human behind this keyboard – The newsletters are the ones that have the unsubscribe link at the bottom, and my personal emails (like this chain) don’t have a way to unsubscribe. 

I hope you don’t talk to other people this way, it was really uncalled for, and honestly when someone is working hard to build their business and follow up with people who had requested info, it’s pretty hurtful to talk down to them like that.

I will unsubscribe you from convertkit now if you haven’t already… it only shows 5 emails total that you received by the way 🙁

(screenshot)

My intention was to let the person know that:

1. I don’t need to be talked down to, I was trying to be kind and send him what he asked for, and
2. That I did not send him 15 emails as he claimed, he received 5 total

It gets better though… 

His next reply:

Don’t spam ppl with 4 emails a day. It’s a complete turn-off from me wanting to work with you. You don’t scale a business by spam, you scale from one to one! Owner to the client. Pretty simple

Ok so I was ready to no longer carry on this nonsense, so, I let him feel like he got the last word (little does he know I’m actually getting it by sharing this story with you LOL).

Aside from being upset for half a day and letting someone ‘mansplain’ to me how to grow my own business, I am no longer phased by this. 

Here’s why:

1. This is BOUND TO HAPPEN when you are running a business, sometimes it’s the trolls on social media, and other times its people that you just can’t reason with that join your email list, it is what it is
2. Sometimes people show their true colours and you can see that red flag before you start to work with them. Could you imagine what it would have been like to work with this guy?

The whole point of sharing this with you today isn’t to out this particularly rude fellow (although I must admit it feels sort of good) 

The point is actually to share with you that you cannot let one person out of 100 knock you off course.

Whatever it is that you’re promoting, selling, or sharing… There are people out there that need you. Keep going!

And don’t ever let anyone dim your light. It’s yours to shine on with.

Until next time,

Brittany