What is Email Marketing : 11 benefits of building an email list
What Makes Email Marketing So Special?
Let me start by saying what email marketing is not:
1) It is not just about sending marketing messages by email.
2) It is not about collecting emails from different sources i.e buying databases.
3) It is not about sending unsolicited emails.
If you are doing any of the above, then you are violating the CAN-SPAM ACT and that is something to be concerned about.
Now let’s look at what email marketing is:
“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering expected, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them.”
What Email Marketing Can Do To Your Business?
When done right, email marketing converts prospects into customers, and eventually into loyal and raving fans.
Researchers have found that a whopping 70% of professionals rely on emails to spread the word about their business!
And why wouldn't they? Experian, in 2012, reported that for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you get $44 return on investment.
Why should you use Email Marketing?
- Email marketing has a potential return on investment of up to 4400%
- Out of 100 people with active email accounts, 91 per cent of them check their email every day.
- More than 50 % of people who were surveyed said that well-written email campaigns compelled them to buy stuff they otherwise would not have bought.
Email marketing helps you build relationships on a personal and deeper level.
You can write your emails in a way that the reader feels you are writing just to them,
You can achieve this by a combination of great writing and segmenting your audience based on their actions.
Laser-focused targeting can be achieved in email marketing today by segmenting your subscribers.
I have written a blog on email list segmentation here.
The most important of it all,
Email marketing is a portable asset.
It is an asset owned by you and not by someone else.
No company can get up tomorrow and put a halt to the reach of your emails.
Advantages of Email Marketing:
Let's discuss the advantages of using email marketing for your business.
1) You own your list:
You must have heard the horror stories of people who have had their social media handles deleted without any prior warning or intimation. One morning they wake up and see that their account is now no longer active.
They spent thousands of dollars and so much time on building that social media audience, but now all is gone, never to come back.
Sucks, right?!
2) An email has a larger reach:
With over 2.4 billion monthly active users on Facebook, we can be tempted to believe that social media is the most effective way to market our business.
But here we rarely talk about the number of people that have email accounts.
Email is the global currency on the internet and anybody online has an email account.
With the recent and ongoing data breaches, plenty of people are exiting some social media channels for good.
3) Email delivers your message:
Many clients ask me if I should build an email list first or a social media audience as the first step when I am just starting out.
My answer always is to build that list.
There are two key reasons:
First, 90% of emails get into the intended person’s inbox, while only 2 % of your social media posts reach the people who are following us on social media.
4) Email drives conversions:
Most marketers are laser-focused on driving conversions.
The goal of all marketing activities is to turn potential customers into paying customers.
And for conversions, email is the most powerful channel there is.
https://www.superoffice.com/blog/email-click-through-rates/
5) EMAIL MARKETING RESULTS are measurable:
With good email marketing software, you have real-time access to metrics like opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, etc
This helps you in evaluating your campaigns and change them based on user behaviour.
6) It gives the reader control:
For many, social media is something they like to keep only for friends & family.
Email is meant for business and people don't mind receiving emails as they have the choice there on what they want to read.
When people check their emails, they are more ready for business talks and are paying attention to what you have to say,
Studies show that 72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media.
7) Email is an open platform:
Email isn’t owned or controlled by one particular company.
Many companies provide services that you can use for email marketing.
With so many email marketing platforms being available to us, no one party can make changes that would have a widespread effect on us business owners.
If you invest the time and money into building and nurturing an email list.
You’ll be able to nurture and market to this list for years to come, which is priceless, as there are many people who are on your list for years before they buy from you.
8) Email is not going anywhere:
There have been so many social media platforms that have come and gone over the years.
Imagine investing significant amounts of time and money to build an audience on a platform only to find it disappearing later from the face of the earth.
On the other hand, the email goes a long back.
The first promotional email campaign was sent in 1978 to 400 people, and email has been growing consistently since. Even today email has the highest ROI compared to any other form of marketing.
Email Marketing is for people who want to be in business for the long haul, it is not for people who just want to make a quick buck.
Nurturing your audience is a major component of email marketing and nurturing takes time.
9) Cost-effective:
The costs of email marketing are tiny when you compare it to other forms of advertising, think any form of ads or paid promotion.
10) Easy to set up:
When it comes to email marketing, you can start simple and get complex later, there are different email marketing platforms you can use based on the level of complexity you want with your campaigns.
11) Time-saving:
Automated email sequences are a marketer’s best friend, one that works for you when you are busy doing other things.
They make the reader feel you are in it with them, without you having to be taped to a laptop all the time.
With email automation, you need to do the work of mapping them and setting them once and they keep working for you at the backend like a good employee.
There is email software for everyone.
Let's discuss what are the use cases for email marketing
- Brand Awareness: Keep your company and your services top-of-mind so that when they or someone they know needs someone who has the expertise you have; your name comes to their mind.
- Content Promotion: Use email to share great valuable content with your subscribers.
- Lead Generation: Build your email list by sharing something in exchange for an email address.
- Promoting your offers: Promote your products and services via emails.
- Nurturing: Develop the know-like and the trust factor by showing up constantly and nurturing them with great valuable content.
There's so much more I want to tell you about emails, like the various kinds of emails that can help you get the best possible results. For that, you need to check out my blog on "Different types of emails to use in your business".
If you are a Kajabi click here to grab a Conversion Focussed List Building Template
Click here for resources that will help you build an email list.
If you need help with any aspect of email marketing, then I have a few resources for all stages of business listed here.
