In Part 1 of this cool little hack (if you haven’t checked that out yet, you can read it here) I talked a little about the “customer garden” – each of your customers are in different “stages” of their customer lifecycle, and all have different “pain symptoms.”

Emailing your users on a regular basis and asking if they have that specific pain, or reminding them about the pains that you solve will ensure that when they are ready (“ripe”) they become a paid user.

Now comes the big question: “What do I email my list of inactive or free trial users? How can I nurture that garden without burning them out??!”

This is one of my favorite topics…

Because many folks are afraid of burning out their list – annoying the heeeeccckk out of their users.
And no one likes getting nasty “remove me from your list” emails.
With this hack, you can actually get your users to look FORWARD to getting emails from you.

I have a pretty big library of Non-Fiction books…
…mostly business, sales, self help type books.
(My wife makes fun of me because to her they are the most BORING books ever ha).

Whenever I read a new book, I’m usually pretty critical of it and can judge how valuable a book is by how many “nuggets” I get from it.
A nugget is a phrase, passage or idea that sets of fireworks in my head…
…it’s when I pull out my trusty Pilot G-2 and start underlining the heck out of it…funky arrows and all…

It changes the way I see the world and connects ideas in my head that I didn’t connect before. It is like a light that gets turned on in my brain.

To me, these nuggets are so valuable that even if there is only 1 or 2 in a book, I don’t consider it a waste of my time (and sometimes, that’s all there is).

We live in a world where it’s hard to find these nuggets. There is pa-lenty of information out there, but there is a difference between “information” and specific, actionable helpful advice.

When I get emails from folks that send me “information”, I may try to filter through it at first, but after a while I start to feel… guilty…!
It’s probably great “information,” I just don’t have time to read all of it.

Then after a few weeks of dumping more and more “great information” into my lap, I feel so guilty and overwhelmed I just unsubscribe or start ignoring them altogether.

Maybe you can relate?

The secret to building a great relationship with your users is not to send them more and more information (blog links, videos, articles, posts, etc.)…
…it’s to give them helpful advice (nuggets) that will help them take action and improve their lives. Soon, they will LOVE hearing from you because you have taken the time to share a very powerful piece of wisdom or actionable insight that they can implement immediately.

Sometimes, these nuggets can be in the form of articles or videos, but they don’t ALWAYS have to be.
To quote one of my favorite authors, Jay Abraham:
“Information is inconclusive. Giving helpful advice is definitive; good advice is converted into action. Being specific is incredibly powerful.”

(Be careful not to confuse helpful advice with FAQ or tutorial videos for your SaaS. They definitely have their place, but in the customer nurture garden, it’s like pouring a dump truck of water on a tiny blossoming flower. That little flower is gonna be hurtin’…)

Can I give you real quick example?

Let’s say you sell a tool that helps marketing agencies organize their marketing plans more effectively.
The pain is that your clients don’t have an effective way to organize their social media campaigns.
One of the many symptoms of that pain is that clients email the AE and complain about posts not being made on time, posts getting delayed, or that the wrong post was made last week.
(By specifying a symptom of that pain, you’ll immediately connect with the AE that has had that exact thing happen to them before).

In the email you can touch on a very specific strategy that will help agencies plan their marketing better. Here’s a quick example:
“One way to make sure posts aren’t missed is to create an editorial calendar with columns for content, images, headlines, and dates those posts should go live. Most clients will want to review the post before it goes out, so 1 week ahead of time, send your client a link to that spreadsheet and have them approve every post. That way you can have a week’s worth of content ahead of time.

If you do a lot of scheduling for your clients, we have an awesome tool that will allow you to create posts inside an editorial calendar, preview them, create automatic re-posts and reschedule posts, all automatically. We’ve found that with 3 posts a week, this tool can can save you about 12 hours a month. If you think this might be helpful for you, click here for a 30 day free trial.”

This could use a little more finessing, but you get the idea…

By sharing some helpful advice, you’ve shown your client that you know what you’re talking about, you know how to fix their problem and that if they’re interested, even have an easier way for them to do it.
And if your software solves a lot of small problems like this, each email can be tailored to a specific problem…
You’ll end up with tons of helpful pieces of content that your users will love (even if they don’t sign up right now! In a few months, they might get tired of the spreadsheet and be ripe and ready for your software).
This “Nugget” Hack is so powerful that it could easily add an additional $3k, $5k or $20k a month to your MRR (all depending on your customer list).

If you keep nurturin’ that customer garden with rich, tasty nuggets of helpful advice, over time you’ll see more and more of that list turning into paid users that LOVE your service.

Not only that, they will LOVE getting emails from you.

If you’re struggling a little to find some of those nuggets, would you send me quick message? Let’s sit down and have a chat and maybe you and I can find some good ideas.