How to make your first (or next) six figures even with a small email list

Written by: Joy Bufalini • August 09, 2023

Image Source: https://unsplash.com/@thisisengineering

Six figures tends to be the “first golden goal” for online business owners. It’s that number at which you start to see more cash in the bank and perhaps even bring on a team member or two.

As part of building to six figures, you’ve probably heard the following advice a lot…

“Create new lead magnets regularly to build your email list.”

“Don’t forget to grow your email list because you don’t own social media”

And this IS good advice.

However, advice like this often comes from the belief you need thousands of people on your email list to make six figures—or that you need to have tens of thousands of subscribers to make a million.

That’s because the traditional marketing experts say that only 1-3% of your audience will buy from you.

So using those numbers, if you have an email list of 300 people you will have between 3 and 9 clients in total unless you keep growing that list.

And what those 3-9 clients means to you in terms of revenue depends on your pricing.

Using that 1-3% metric for an email list of 300 people…

If you’re selling a $997 offer, then your income potential maximum is about $3,000-$9,000.

If you’re selling a $5,000 offer, then your income potential maximum is about $15,000-$45,000.

Then you’d have to double your email list to double those numbers.

Reading that might just make you feel a bit deflated if that were the only model for growth.

The good news is you’ve got a ton of “untapped income potential” well beyond six figures with a different model.

It’s been fun to see this model in action both in my business and my client’s businesses.

The year that I made $250,000 I had an email list of only 500.

When one of my clients had her first six-figure year, she had an email list of only 250.

You can blow up those 1-3% statistics when you get out of the mass marketing mentality and shift your focus to a more efficient business model.

Most of the women in my world have a lot on their plate. They have kids, aging parents, or a lot of relationships they navigate and nurture while running their businesses.

They really don’t want to spend all day online marketing their business with little ROI. They want to attract clients with more ease and simplicity so do the work they love and make great money.

The Path to My First Six Figures

When I started my business in 2011, I had 11-year-old boy/girl twins and a 9-year-old son.

Because my twins were born extremely premature, my daughter experienced significant brain damage at birth resulting in her not being able to walk (or talk) and her brain wasn't able to develop past the 18-month-old level emotionally.

Her brother had fewer challenges but needed a ton of extra support academically and behaviorally (which is not unusual when you’re born at 2 lbs.).

So, to say I had some extra things on my plate in addition to my business would be a bit of an understatement.

I took all the traditional marketing programs and courses and got bogged down in a lot of tech. I assumed that what they were teaching was the only way to grow your business.

So I worked hard. Every day, when the kids left for school and my husband left for work, I was “heads down”.

But Clients were not coming in. I wasn’t making much money.

FIVE YEARS went by, and it was 2016 and I never made more than 20K in a year!

The Turning Point

In 2016 it all came to a head. I either needed to figure out how to start making more money in my business or I had to go get a job!

Even though my husband Brian was making good money in his corporate job, it still wasn’t enough to cover all the extra expenses we had from having two children that needed so many extra things that insurance or the education system wouldn’t pay for.

Up until this point, I had set many monthly and annual income goals, but rarely hit them and was often disappointed.

What I did not realize is that I was implementing too many strategies at once and none of them were working. I was making my path to six figures way too complicated!

I had what Brian now calls the “pillow moment”. This was pivotal for me as it was a new level of commitment internally. Something shifted!

I threw a pillow across the room and said “I’m going to figure this out!”

I went into my office and wrote down three things and said, “I’m just going to focus on these three things”.

It’s interesting to note that after all the things I’d learned up to that point that wasn’t working, I now intuitively knew exactly what I needed to do.

I had an email list of 250 and I was going to make it work.

That year I made $104,000. And I worked less and started actually enjoying my business!

Whoa – I was onto something.

What were those three “rather magical” things that were the foundation of my “new model” that helped me break through to six figures and continue to multiply that many times over?

These three things may seem very simple (maybe even obvious). But everything I had been learning up to this point from the “mass marketing methods” had overcomplicated the basics.

#1. I shared consistent valuable content

Do you know what “valuable content” is for your specific email audience?

The subject line that they would find compelling enough to open your email in the sea of words in their inbox?

The copy that will keep their eyes glued to the screen and have a big insight as a result?

Most people don’t.

While maintaining consistent email communication is important, it won’t bring you clients if you don’t really understand what your “YES client” would find compelling to read.

Your “YES client” is the person who would be a perfect fit for the work that you do. They want to know that you understand what they are thinking and feeling. That you understand their desires and challenges. That you have a unique expertise that is exactly what they need. That person WILL read your emails and hire you as a result.

They are in your subscriber list already, but if your copy is random or general, they’ll scroll on by and forget about you.

If you want to know what “value content” you should be using in your content, consider doing client surveys, paying attention to insightful comments on your content, looking at notes from sales calls, and doing polls to your current list.

Once you know how to speak to your YES client in your content, you’ll have WAY more than 1-3% of your list buying from you!

#2 I focused on selling only one high-ticket offer:

Not 5 packages or 10 different ways to work with me. Just one way to work with me.

At the time, it was a 1:1 coaching package priced at $3,000. I helped clients get clear on their niche and the simple strategy for them to get clients that matched their lifestyle and personality.

When I shared about the coaching offer, some asked for one-off sessions or discounts.

I would politely decline.

I knew I had to stay focused on just that one offer and price point. I knew from the first five years in business that splitting my focus would just slow me down.

I’m so glad that I maintained my simple focus because the results spoke for themselves.

In my first six-figure year with an email list of 250, I enrolled 30+ clients into that offer.

If you’re following along with the math, that’s a 12% conversion rate (as opposed to the “traditional” 1-3%). That certainly got me hooked on this new simpler model!

I got “proof of concept” that this was worth continuing to follow for the long term. I’ve now built a 7 figure business by just adding on two more high-ticket offers for business owners that are more established or have completed my first level program.

If back in 2017 I had continued selling my $997 offer instead of increasing it to $3,000, I would have only made 35K instead of 104K that year.

I would never have been able to create the beautiful life for my family or been able to serve so many wonderful clients over the years.

#3 I promoted my offer regularly

How did people know exactly how to work with me? I made it super easy for them because I talked about my offer by name, who it was for, and what outcomes they could expect when they worked with me.

In the past, I had only vaguely mentioned “reach out to me if this resonates” or “book a call if you want to know more”. Which was usually a dead end.

When I shifted to “Reply back to inquire about the Quantum Leap program if you’re a service-based expert who wants be selling your 3K+ offers with ease”, then that resulted in people replying back asking about my program by name (and usually booking a call and buying!)

Instead of just any random person asking about working with me, now I had an educated prospective client who knew my offer by name and how that offer specifically could help them solve their current challenges.

Conclusions and Next Steps

Too many online business owners are stuck spinning their wheels with a meager conversion rate with multiple offers to a small list.

If this is you, you are probably feeling the frustration of working so hard with little ROI.

Before this dynamic can shift however,, you first want to make an internal commitment to more simplicity.

This means that there will be things that you eliminate from your offer suite, your to-do list, and your calendar.

In scaling to six figures, what you say “No” to is almost more important than what you say “yes”.

Commit to the mastery of selling one core offer for your first or next six figure year.

Then shift your dairy focus to, sharing consistent content (at least twice a week), decide on a higher price point that values the work you do, and don’t be shy talking about your offers regularly.

Talk about your offer by name and be clear who is the “YES client” for that offer. Those that read your regular content and say “that’s me!” will be reaching out and enrolling.

It’s a simple and efficient model that’s easy to multiply to six figures and beyond even with a small list!

If you want to know the four simple “C’s” to focus on daily despite your long to-do list, check out my Daily Needle Mover’s Cheat Sheet.

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