In this solo podcast episode, Ruth Kusemiju (the Social Media Boss Lady) explains how entrepreneurs can uncover and activate a substantial pool of email contacts they likely already possess but have never leveraged. She argues that every interaction—customers, colleagues, friends, business cards—generates an email address, and that most businesses have 2,000‑3,000 usable contacts hidden across various sources. Ruth outlines five concrete places to harvest these emails: (1) export contacts from personal and business email accounts; (2) export LinkedIn connections; (3) pull email addresses from existing customer records; (4) use social‑media lead magnets to capture new opt‑ins; and (5) digitize business‑card information via scanning apps. After gathering the data, she cautions against bulk‑mailing strangers, recommending a warm‑up sequence that starts with a thank‑you message and a lead‑magnet offer to re‑engage dormant contacts ethically. She provides a clear 5‑step action checklist, suggests delegating or hiring help for tedious data‑entry tasks, and invites listeners to join her exclusive Facebook/LinkedIn group for further mentorship. The episode ends with a motivational analogy about a bee swarm, reinforcing the value of loyal, engaged contacts.
Chapters
Hi guys, it's the Social Media Boss Lady, and I have to say it is good to be back again with you guys this week for another episode on marketing tactics for entrepreneurs. I did say— I would say rather that I had fun the last time. I mean, it was my first episode, yes, but, um, it was good to just like, you know, let everything you have in there all out. And I know last episode we talked about the 3 important words for growing any business, which is trust, relationships, and efficiency. And last episode was all about talking to get you on board. Now today I am delving into the tactics for every entrepreneur, every business owner. Okay, all right, so today I'll talk to you about how to unlock basically an amount of leads that you never knew. Yes, that you never knew you had. And I'll show you definitely how to do that, because as a business, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, you need customers to grow your business. And the fact is that you are surrounded by customers. The fact is knowing the right places to look and how to get them and how to introduce whatever products or services you you have to these people. Okay, now there are actually 2 tools which I use frequently. Um, one is LinkedIn, 2 would be my email list. Okay, now I want you to listen and pay close attention to what I have to say to you today and try not to ignore the tactic that combines these 2. Okay, so because if you really want, uh, I mean, more revenue, uh, you want more money in your business, you want more customers, you have to pay close attention. Okay, now the fact is that everybody has an email address. I mean, think about how much you use your email on any given day. I'm sure you use it quite a lot if you're like me. A lot. Then think about, um, Where you use that email? You probably use it on social media, right? Yeah, I know there are hands going up saying that yes. Or if you're trying to add an app to your phone, or maybe you're trying to use it as a username for an online software. So the fact is that we use email addresses in every facet of our daily lives. Everyone, everyone, I mean everyone literally has one. So it makes sense that everyone that has interacted with you, with your business, would also have an email address or 2 or 3 or 4. And if you're like me, maybe 10. So the fact is that the list is right in front of you. There's a significant amount of information present in nooks and crannies of our various businesses. And the fact is that as business owners, we definitely have more email addresses available to us than we think. I mean, email addresses are ways you can personally identify people, right? So it would only make sense that email addresses of, um, old customers, colleagues, friends, and contacts— all these addresses are actually available to you if you know where to look. In the right places. Okay, and it's— I mean, it's, it's a given fact that any established business, small or large, should have at least 2,000, uh, to 3,000 contacts available. So basically, it's just up to you to find them. Now I'm gonna give you 5 places to look for hidden email addresses. One, first look, uh, at your email accounts, whether it's using Apple Mail, whether you use Gmail, whether you use Outlook, whether you use Yahoo. Export all your contacts to an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file. Okay. 2, export all your contacts from LinkedIn. So basically, an average user on LinkedIn might have up to 500 contacts. I mean, while like the average CEO, the average business owner on LinkedIn has around like 900, well, I have over 2,000. So just my first connection. And so that basically is like a potential of 500 to 900 extra contacts for your list. Okay, now not only that, it is a list of people that you have already connected with. Remember, you connect with people on LinkedIn, so this leads— this potential clients, so to speak— they are already warm. I mean, for some to export all that, I know definitely it's not going to be an easy task, but export all. Okay, 3 um, would be like— so as business owners, you definitely would probably have customer records, okay? So go through your customer records and remove and move their email addresses basically to a spreadsheet, okay? So I know it's not fun, it can be tedious, it can be stressful, but it's for a good cause, I promise you that. So basically, your customers are people that have already purchased your product, so you have a pretty good shot at basically getting them to buy again. All right, actually, when they had a good customer experience. So it's basically potential revenue, and it's definitely worth the trouble. But it depends on how, um, far back your records go. And so if it's going to be something tasking that's going to take a lot, a lot of your time, you might need to delegate it to someone on your team. Or if you don't have someone on your team, you can delegate it to or hire a freelancer. Okay. That's 3. 4 would be social media. Now, social media basically is a great place to get email addresses from interested friends, okay? So post, um, on your social media a lead magnet. Basically post an offer, a lead magnet on social media, um, a free— a freebie, yeah, to get people you know to join your list, okay? So basically this lead magnet would allow you to attract and incentivize people you already know who may be interested in your services. And five, the fifth place to look, which is the last but not the least, the last and final place to look is through your business cards. I mean, every business person has them. So go grab them from that dusty box that you have sitting on your desk or that dusty folder. I have actually two to three sitting on my desk. Definitely. The good news is that there are actually phone apps that you can use to move all the business cards that you have, all the information on the business cards. Into a spreadsheet. So basically you could use those apps and get those contacts. 5 places to look: you have, um, your email accounts, you have LinkedIn, you have your customer records, you have, uh, social media, and then you have your business cards. So what do you do after you've gotten all these contacts from these 5 different places? All right. Right, so if you look at all these 5 places, you see that you could gain about 2,000 to 3,000 contacts, or even more, if you didn't— that you probably you felt you didn't have. So now the next thing is that, do you think you should just add these emails to your regular email newsletter and start sending to people? Please do not do that. Nope. That's spamming. I mean, if you're not sure of what the spam laws are in your country, I think you should inquire from a lawyer. But please do not do that. If what, uh, because most people— I mean, I wouldn't appreciate it. I mean, if you just throw me into a regular newsletter and just started sending me, um, mails that I did not subscribe to, because most people naturally would not appreciate being thrown into that. So perhaps what you can do is to start with a thank you message, okay? Offering a friendly gift. Thank this network of contacts for supporting you and your industry and whatever it is that you do, but do not forget to also include a lead magnet that would allow them to join a smaller and more frequent newsletter. That way you can wake up the dormant contacts and better target leads that are interested. Yay! That's the simple tactic you have to do for this week. Okay, so basically, what are your action steps? I'm gonna just give it to you straight up. It's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, export your contacts from your personal and business mails onto a CSV file or an Excel sheet. 2, export your contacts on LinkedIn to a spreadsheet. So that's about 500 to 900 possible contacts. 3, Look at your old customer records and then enter them into a spreadsheet. If, if it's the task, it'll be too much. You can hire or delegate someone to do the task. 4, post the lead magnet on social media and get people you know to join your list. 5, move your business cards onto a spreadsheet. You can use an app to do this. What's your result? Basically, you gain new subscribers to your list from warm lead sources that you didn't know you had. Potentially, you're adding 2,000 to 3,000 new leads. The important thing of this whole tactic is that your email list is your most important asset. So basically, this tactic should help. So go out, go do it. So, but if you need help, um, for me to teach you how to use LinkedIn, you need someone to mentor you through this process, then join my Marketing Tactics for Entrepreneurs Facebook or LinkedIn group. It's an exclusive group today. You can add me on LinkedIn and then invite me to your list. and I'll give you feedback, but you need to do it right. Okay, so connect with me on LinkedIn. Look for Ruth Kusemiju or Social Media Boss Lady on LinkedIn. Okay, and, um, don't forget to scan your business cards and then your paper records and all that. So add your contacts to your email list, and that's it. Yay! Okay, I'm just wrapping up, and, um, so I want to close out with this thought I had. Someone actually said this one a long time ago. I don't know actually who said this, but, um, said that a swarm of 20,000 bees once followed a car for 2 days because their queen was inside the car. If you didn't get that, I'll say that again. A swarm of 20,000 bees once followed a car for 2 days because their queen was inside the car. You'll never find staff this dedicated, but aim for loyal and engaged team members. All right guys, so that's it for Marketing Tactics for Entrepreneurs episode 2. And it's your story, go live it well, and I'll see you guys next week. Take care. Bye.
