Why does your business need an email list?

The first thing I did even before I launched my new website was to start building my email list. Why is it essential to build an email list for your business?

When I decided to rebrand my website I knew I needed to keep a list of all the people who could potentially benefit from it in one place. That, and listening to a lot of creative entrepreneur podcasts made me realize that I needed to start building my email list.

Why is this tool the most important tool in your toolbox when it comes to your business marketing? Lets start with some interesting facts :
“91% of consumers check email at least once per day.” (ExactTarget)
Email open rates average 18-30% depending on your Industry (MailChimp)
Compare this to 5% of your Twitter followers viewing one of your tweets (on average) or 6% of your Facebook fans seeing one of your posts. (Andrew Bruce Smith & TechCrunch)
“For every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $44.25” (Experian Email Marketing Study)

Are you convinced now?
No? Let me explain in detail.

Do people actually read what you share? How many people actually READ a post when you post it to Facebook or Twitter or Instagram? Can you see the posts by everyone in your friends list on your wall? The answer is NO! Remember that I am not talking about Personal profiles here. I am talking about Business Pages. The algorithm of these posts is complex and it results in a feed that will show you posts from people you interact with regularly. What is interaction? 'Like' or "Comment' is an interaction. So if one of your post gains attraction and a lot of people read it, automatically it will start showing up in THEIR feed. But to go beyond that you will have to PAY. WHY? Because these are real companies out there to make profit. You don't think Mark Zukerberg is sitting in his office to run a huge empire like Facebook only to help people connect with each other, do you? He is there to earn profit. And that profit comes from YOU. The social media platforms want you to pay to promote your posts every time. Not everyone of us can afford to invest in running advertisements across social media.

Do you want to scream or whisper? What do you do when the probability of your posts and announcements do not reach your customer? Imagine standing in a crowded stadium and shouting "Hey! Look, I have got this _____ here. It can help you do ____." Now, imagine meeting each of your ideal client in person. Saying softly, "Hey! Are you struggling with _____. Here's what I can do for you." Which one would you choose? Would you still go out into the stadium hoping someone will hear you?

Your social media followers are not yours to keep. You don’t own your social media followers, and you never will. But you own your list, not your email service provider. Even if you use something like MailChimp or Convertkit. You can always download the .csv file from your email service provider, and those emails are yours. Nobody else can post ads to them, nobody can legally send them emails except for you. It is like having a huge billboard all to yourself!

Your emails will reach your each person in your audience. Most people check their emails daily (in particular, people working in companies). When you send an email out, you can immediately drive traffic to your website, landing page or sales page. This means that when you’ve something to sell, people will be there to listen and perhaps buy. However, when you post something on social media, there is no guarantee that your followers will see them. At any time, only a certain percentage of your followers will see your posts… (and a very small percentage at that!)

An email inbox is a personal space. When someone invites you to their inbox, it is a sacred, personal space! Unlike in social media, where everyone is shouting at the top of their lungs, someone’s inbox is more private. What does this mean for you? You get more air time for them to know, like and trust you. And build a relationship, of course.

You can send cutomaized and automated emails regularly. With a good email service provider like MailChimp or Convertkit, you’re able to send customized automated emails to people without you lifting a finger. For instance, you can send a particular email to people that’ve subscribed for 5 days, or you can send a particular email when someone clicks on a link in an email you send. This means that you can send different things to different people. Isn’t that amazing? As your subscribers are at different stage of the buying cycle, being able to customize what you send them according to their needs is a powerful tool indeed. For instance, I would recommend sending a welcome email to new subscribers. while during launch times I would  recommend sending more real-time emails.

Your customers ahve already chosen you. I could put a ton of reasons and go on and on and on… but the bottom line is this: When someone is a subscriber, they are more likely to end up buying from you. They have CHOSEN to hear more about what you have to offer. And it is easier to convert an interested person into a buyer than someone who is totally uninterested.

Your subscribers are more likely to convert into buyers. To put it real clearly, if you have more subscribers, you will have more people opening your emails and clicking on what you send them.When you write a blog post, you can drive more traffic to your blog post. When you have a webinar, you can drive people to sign up for your webinar (and pitch them something later). When you’re an affiliate, you can drive people to buy your product so that you can get more commissions. When you offer products, courses or services, you get more people going to your sales pages, and this results in more profits.

Page views aren’t as important.Social media shares aren’t as important.No. of followers aren’t as important. They are good to know, and of course having a greater number of followers and visitors is good. But at the end of the day, the metric that you really want to focus on (aside from profits) is your number of subscribers.

Have I convinced you to start building your email list yet?