You’d think that in the age of social media, ads, and artificial intelligence, email would be extinct, but it isn’t. In fact, email has proven to be a reliable tool and medium of communication. The email has completely replaced the letter, and it has proven to be extremely durable. And I believe it will remain very resilient. Until we all end up living in a Metaverse or something like that…That being said here is why every business should build an email list.
Email Is Innovative
One of the most important reasons for any business, large or small, to build an email list is that it is a marketing and sales channel that has withstood innovation. Despite all attempts to replace it with different messenger tools, email has withstood the test of time when it comes to business communications.
Consider this. Creating an email list enables you to communicate with your target market whenever and wherever you want. There is no need to wait for something to be approved or to encounter a delay. It is a relatively low-cost channel for communicating with your target market.
Even if you’re sending in large quantities, Email is a low-cost medium and you can get multiple touchpoints in there.
The other advantage of email is that it is not controlled by a large technology company. Yes, a large number of businesses are involved. However, you are not using a filter between you and the customer. If you’ve optimised your email for deliverability by verifying your domain name, the quality of the emails you’re sending, or the quality of the list you’re building, there’s nothing standing in your way. There is no dreaded algorithm standing between you and your customers or target audience.
Email is not controlled by an algorithm.
When you think of social media, you think of posting on your page, profile, or platform. There is a barrier between you and your message, as well as the people who have chosen to follow or subscribe to you. That is the algorithm. That algorithm only shows people what they would like to see, or what the algorithm thinks they want to see. In contrast, with email, you can send it to anyone.
Remember a few years ago when Facebook made a slew of algorithm changes? Pages went from doing exceptionally well to being almost invisible.
If Facebook, LinkedIn, or any of these channels decides to change their rules your accounts go from visible to invisible, and your workload will have doubled overnight. Obtaining the same result will require additional work and time.
An algorithm does not govern email. There is no large, monolithic tech empire standing between you and your customer. You can just send the email. It’s awesome really that you can do that.
Understand Email is a channel you control.
Yes, I am a firm believer in social media. But, I would encourage anybody to build their marketing model on a sustainable platform like email. I practice social media and I implement it every single day. But, I know that behind that has to be an email list. If there’s not an email list, I lose the ability to speak to the crowd and put my hands, 100%, into channels that other companies control.
I put my hands in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. And, almost every other form of marketing places your success in the hands of another company based on an algorithm, a cost, or whatever. Email is the only channel where you have it in your control.
What About Keeping an Engage Audience Engaged?
Consider this, you could have a really engaging campaign on, say, social media and then become inactive, losing all of your followers. Unlike your email list, where users have the option to remove themselves, platforms are removing you on behalf of your audience.
You can revitalise an audience more easily through email than you could with a stale page or profile. If you do it well and in an engaging and relevant manner for the customer, you can rebuild again from email much easier.
Email is probably one of the most powerful marketing tools you’ll ever have, even today, because you can reach out to people whenever you want and at a low cost. It has withstood technological advancement, and if you’re targeting B2B, people will check that email. You can get in front of them and know that your message is being delivered to the correct inbox. And you can bet they’re checking their inbox because it’s most likely their work email address. As a result, it is not only one of the most powerful tools, but also one of the best converting tools.
Building An Email List
Email is a marketing conversion mechanism used to get people to click and buy, as well as to prompt people to buy. It’s a fantastic, fantastic tool. So, why don’t people prioritise building an email list? Why do they place such emphasis on the following? Why do they focus on the crowd? Actually, you do need both. The crowd is required to establish the list in order to build the list.
Now, I’ve got a little course at Maverrik that shows you how to build an email list from the ground up, step by step. But one thing that people overlook when building an email list is that it’s not the number of emails on the list that matters.
You can make a lot of money by using (and marketing to) a list of 250 people. Similarly, you can have a list of 50,000 people and make no money. The quality of the list is the primary reason it works.
In other words, what attracted that person to join your mailing list?
Why should every business create an email an email list?
Every business should create an email list because it gives you more control over your marketing. It’s a channel you can shape, a channel you can develop, and it’s not going anywhere.
Every company should maintain an email list. If you don’t have an email list and have questions, please contact me on Instagram or LinkedIn. You can find me on Twitter as well, my handle is the same – @deanseddonio – Come tell me about your email experiences, as well as your email list building challenges.
Hearing those helps me to create more content around it to help you as well, so that I can direct you to some of the resources we have available to you, both free and paid, to help you build your list and monetise that list into something fruitful for your business.
