Why you NEED an email list
Ahh, the email list. Everyone’s always talking about it, you know it’s something you should be doing, but honestly, it just seems too daunting to tackle.
I haven’t talked much about email lists on my blog because, truthfully, it took me a long time to get mine going, it took a long time to get a following and I hadn’t really been seeing any results (you gotta start somewhere, right?).
I always knew that I needed an email list, and that I was doing the right thing by pursuing it, but I wasn’t ready to give out ‘advice’ on my blog, because I didn’t feel experienced enough in the email marketing world.
But in the last couple of months my email list has finally taken off. And with all of the new subscribers coming in I tidied up my act. I quit MailChimp, signed up to ConvertKit, wrote a killer welcome series that has been getting lots of attention and made sure that I’m sending out newsletters once a week.
So before I talk about why you need an email list, I just want to make it clear that it’s not always easy to get subscribers, it can be a bit of a slow game and we all start from a big, fat, 0. But, it’s one of those things in business that you’ve just gotta do, and it’s never too late to start.
“The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago, the second best time is now!”
- so relatable with email marketing.
So read through this post and get to it ASAP!
You own your email list
Ok, you’re probably thinking “well, I own everything I do”, actually, you really don’t. As amazing as social media is, have you ever thought about the fact that it could be taken away from you in an instant? What if tomorrow Mark Zuckerberg decided he wanted to delete Facebook and Instagram? Or if there’s some sort of terrible glitch, and you lose all of your followers? Potentially years of hard work crafting the perfect feed and growing your followers, only to have them all taken away from you
I realise that’s pretty unlikely to happen, but it’s always a good feeling knowing that everyone on your email list is yours. If you lose all of you followers, you will still have your email list.
No Social Media Algorithms
And while we’re on the topic of comparing your email list to social media, let’s talk about those pesky algorithms (cringe). Social Media is a bit like screaming into an empty void hoping someone will hear you. It’s becoming harder and harder to get your message in front of any people, let alone the right people.
With email, you don’t have to compete with any algorithm. Once you have those people on your list, your emails go straight into their inbox, it’s super personal and kinda impossible to miss.
Subscribers are Already interested
The people you are emailing have already signed up to your list, which means they’re already somewhat interested in what you have to offer. That makes it SO much easier to serve them and sell to them.
Again, similar to the reference above about screaming into an empty void hoping someone will hear you or be interested in what you have to say, email marketing is going directly to people who are already interested. They have already given you the green light to show up in their inbox, which is a pretty big deal. It also makes it way more likely that they will care about what you're saying and will be interested in purchasing something from you.
Get to know your audience, build a relationship
This sounds corny, but it’s true. Getting to know who’s following you is not only fun, it’s so good for you business.
There’s two sides to this:
Getting to know your tribe is great for you because you can continue to serve them with content that they actually want. You can really refine your target audience and content by having conversations with the people who are already there (email is the perfect place to start conversations!). What are their biggest struggles? Why are they following you? Start a conversation with them, show interest in them, and you may be surprised by their answers.
On the flip side, getting to know your peeps is awesome for them, because more often than not they want to get to know you too! The more they get to know you, the more they trust you, and the more they become one of your loyal #squad members.
Ask questions
I touched on this above, but something effective you can do with your email list is ask them questions, in particular, send them surveys.
Anything you need to know about them, their life, your products, your emails, product testing, ask away! Sending targeted surveys to your email list is much more effective than putting out surveys on social media. Not only because usually more people will answer, but because these are your people. They are invested in you or your biz, so they will answer truthfully and helpfully.
High conversion rates
If this last point isn’t going to convince you, I don’t know what will!
In a word where social media rules all, people tend to forget about email marketing, or think that it’s just not important. So I’m here to bust that myth with some crazy stats.
Let’s compare some important points about email and Facebook (the highest performing social media, by a long shot).
The total number of users on Facebook is 1.7 billion, but email still trumps it with 2.6 billion.
91% of email users say they check their email daily, while only 57% of Facebook users check their Facebook daily.
77% of email users prefer email for promotional messages, compared to only 4% of Facebook users preferring them via Facebook.
Email takes the cake for users who made a purchase as the result of email marketing, with a whopping 66%. Facebook not so much, with only 20% of users making a purchase as the result of Facebook marketing.
Email reaches 79% of the people you send it to (this is the average inbox placement rate). While Facebook’s (organic) reach is around 1-6%, depending on your total number of followers.
The list goes on, and you can check out the statistics source and learn some more here. But the numbers are clear to me:
Email marketing is more effective than social media in almost all instances, so as a business owner, you need to get an email list started ASAP!
Social media is great, but it shouldn’t be your only marketing platform. Instead, try using social media as a way to convert leads onto your email list.
What do you like/dislike most about email marketing? Have you had success from email marketing? Let me know in the comments!
I use ConvertKit for my email marketing! It’s an incredible platform and if you want to really grown your email marketing and start making money from it, I would definitely sign up! You can get a 30 day free trial by clicking the banner below.
