Why Building an Email List is a MUST for Your Business
Email is used in our everyday lives.
It’s a way to communicate with one another and it’s also the most persuasive form of communication in the business world.
According to the Radicati Group, “the total number of worldwide email users, including both business and consumer users, is increasing from over 2.5 billion in 2014 to over 2.8 billion in 2018.”
Whoa… That’s a lot of people!
Email is vital to the online experience as you need an email to sign up for just about anything.
Think about it, do you even know anyone that doesn’t have an email address?
Email marketing provides you with a way to target and segment your subscribers.
Your campaigns can be customized to fit each user’s interests so that you can stay relevant to them.
Although social media is a great way to reach out to potential customers, email marketing will always win.
Why?
Because it reaches out to them, unlike Facebook, it isn’t just something they are scrolling through in their news feed while drinking their morning coffee.
When you write a post on some form of social media, you are addressing your audience as a “whole”.
An email is more personal because it shows someone took the time to send them an email right to their inbox.
Don’t get me wrong, social media is a great way to reach out, build a relationship, and really connect with your subscribers; however, email really seals the deal in terms of communication.
Here’s something else to think about…
Social media paid advertising costs money… right?
Email marketing is way more cost effective.
Ironically, by nature we are trained to react to an email one way or another, whether it’s a reply, forward, click-through to a landing page, buying, etc…
Another big thing; when you choose to use some kind of email marketing software, you are then able to track many components such as:
- email opens
- click-throughs (as well as which links were effective)
- unsubscribes
- etc…
You are also able to test which emails remain more effective over others.
The most popular type of test is called “A/B Testing”.
A/B testing is when you split your email list in half, then take version (A) of an email and send it to half of your list, and then send version (B) of the email to the other half of your email list.
Whichever email produces the most opens and click-throughs, proves more effective.
So, if you are a small business with a tight budget, it would be very smart to aggregate email marketing into your business model.
Start off with a free email management software such as MailChimp or Constant Contact.