Do you need clients or customers? If you do, then you need an email marketing provider.
When I first started out in my business, I thought email marketing only for people who were selling programs for big groups or online courses. And beyond that, I thought email marketing was only for established businesses. Basically, I didn’t even give it a second thought.
Now having owned and operated my brand for over ten years, I know better. Ladies, take it from me: you want to begin collecting an email list right from the get-go.
The universal truth for all online businesses is that finding clients and customers is about the long game.
Not everyone who lands on your site or your social media profile is going to hire you. Nurturing leads is what is going to turn “maybe” into “yes” – and that’s what email marketing does best.
Today I want to highlight the important things you need to know about having an email marketing provider connected to your digital footprint.
Let’s start with the basics.
Essentially, email marketing is the software that handles the transaction of collecting an individual’s name and email address, allowing you to communicate with them via their inbox. This allows you to:
- Establish a direct contact with your customers.
- Manage your contact list, divide users into groups, and track the performance of your emails.
- Build relationships with your subscribers.
- Make it easy for your subscribers to opt out if they decide they want to.
An important thing to note is that it is not okay to just add people to your subscriber list. Contacts must opt in themselves. Not only is this ethical, but you’re also not going to get a happy customer by dropping into someone’s inbox uninvited.
Now you know what email marketing is, let’s dive into the 11 reasons you need to start an email list today.
- Performance.
Now I know this might shock you, but did you know that email outperforms social media more than five times over? That means that you can get five new clients from email marketing compared to every one client from social media. SERIOUSLY. - Builds loyalty.
The more your audience can connect with you, the more loyal they will become to your business. Generating an email list and sending out regular emails or newsletters builds that brand loyalty by sharing information that makes people’s lives easier or better. - It’s personal.
One of my favorite things about email marketing is that it is more personal than any other form of marketing. Why? Because it starts the connection with your email followers and begins to nurture your client relationship. You can optimize this by getting personal intentionally: for example, when someone subscribes to my email list the first email I send out is a “get to know you” email. - It’s personalized.
It works 24/7 (so you don’t have to). Once you set up an automated sequence, it goes to work on the schedule you specify. You don’t have to do a thing except watch the results and tweak it over time as you get to know your audience. - Keeps people coming back.
This is where email marketing is different from other kinds of marketing. Emails demand action. You have to do something with them in your inbox: you can’t scroll past them if you want to achieve inbox zero. They guarantee an impression, leading to more people returning to your website. - More page views.
As a business owner, the number one thing you want is more traffic and more page views on your website. Email marketing helps you accomplish this goal by looping subscribers back to your website with links to posts, downloadables, and more. And while they’re there, they may check out what’s new – you could easily get 10 new page views per person on your email list. Not bad for a day’s work! - Great for sales.
People on your email list are more loyal than your social media followers. Why? Because you’ve built trust with them. You’ve consistently shown up with useful information in their inbox. So when it’s launch day, they’re more ready to sign up and even share with friends. - You own it.
The number one reason I rely more on my email list than social media is that I own my email list. I make the rules when it comes to what my followers see and how often I show up in their inbox. The same is not true about social media, where platform rules change all the time, meaning businesses have to adapt. Your list, your rules. - Target marketing.
Let’s say you have a business that targets people who want to learn more about blogging, parenting tips and saving money. There is a lot of information that can be covered in those three categories! You can make it so that the bloggers only see blogging info and the parents only see the parenting info. Your readers are happy because they only get the information they are interested in, and you’ll get more subscriber engagement. - Less competition.
There is a lot of noise on social media. Everyone is sharing content with everyone else, and it’s a challenge to set yourself apart. Email marketing is the opposite, and so has far less competition. If you create a good-looking email with great content people will take the time to read it. At that point you have captivated your audience without the worry of any competition. - Increase followers.
Having an email list is the number one way to increase your followers directly on your website by creating an opt-in offer that people want to read. They exchange their email address to get your freebie or lead magnet: that’s the deal. Once you create that magic, people will subscribe to your list. The more subscribers you get the more loyal followers you will have.
There you have it: what email marketing is, what it can do for you, and why you can’t ignore it as a business owner. Trust me, you don’t want to wait long to sign up.
Interested to know what email provider I use and recommend to all me clients? Click here to check out the how I use ConvertKit for all my email marketing needs.
You heard it here second !
Have you heard about my podcast, How Can This Be Easy? Every week, I’m showing women over 40 how to stop spending so much time navigating the software, systems, and strategies of an online business.
In episode 15, I go deeper into this topic and get into exactly how I make the most of email marketing – and how you can use it in your business to rake in leads. You can take a listen here.