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Email Lists: The Foundation For Your Marketing Success
Have you ever received unsolicited mail to your home address, like a toy catalog, and immediately tossed it in the trash? As a business owner, you may have assumed most people do the same with email marketing messages–virtually trashing them in nanoseconds.
Here’s why that isn’t true and why building an email list should be one of your first goals as an entrepreneur (spoiler: it has to do with audience building). Let’s examine why email marketing is essential and the best way to build yours.
Why Email Lists Matter
Email marketing is not dead. On the contrary, it is the crux of business success–a crucial funnel for driving sales.
Unlike unsolicited mail, your list contains self-selected potential customers who have already shown interest in you. Your audience has found you, making it an excellent starting point for targeted advertising. You get noticed and appreciated because the recipients agreed to hear from you.
Target different sectors of customers and tailor your promotions through email campaigns. Send periodic updates, announcements, and promotional material more often. Email is a direct line of communication, keeping you visible and top-of-mind.
Email lists help entrepreneurs meet two vital objectives: increase revenue and maintain a company’s growth. It is the most cost-effective means of advertising, costing almost nothing to create and send.
Establishing Expectations
First, let’s talk honestly about what it takes to grow your email list. It’ll either take time or money. Organic growth costs little but takes months and months. Paid advertising and traffic from social media opt-ins and referrals help it grow quicker but are pricier. Additionally, paid-for traffic doesn’t guarantee conversion. Of course, you can also blend the two approaches.
Email Etiquette
Keep a few rules of etiquette in mind as you build your email list. Ensure your emails and lists hit the right chords with the following:
- Consent. Don’t buy someone else’s list. Those people didn’t authorize you to contact them. Permission is necessary for buy-in.
- Validity. Boost your engagement rates and prevent ill will from disinterested participants by regularly sweeping your email list and clearing out invalid/bounced emails.
- Relevance. Communication must relate to your audience’s needs or pains. Avoid confusing or off-brand messaging with consistent content.
- Easy segmentation. Avoid sending unfit messaging to your potential customer list. Separate by demographic, purchase history, interests, engagement level, etc., for better outcomes.
- Opt-out ease. Don’t try to bury your ‘Unsubscribe’ link to keep an unwilling participant. Give your audience a clear way out. Instead, automate an incentive for them to stay when they head for the unsubscribe button.
Additional Valuable Email Attributes
In addition to the above conventions, monitor the following and adjust as necessary.
- Engagement: Track your email activity. At the very least, you want your audience to open your emails. Those most likely to make purchases will also click within emails and respond.
- Growing numbers: It’s a sign of mismatch when your email list doesn’t grow. Try different strategies, such as social media promos or lead magnets.
As promised and without further ado, let’s get to the fundamentals of establishing and growing an email list.
Create An OptIn Funnel
Give potential customers a way to stay connected with you through email. Your site and landing pages must contain opt-in buttons. Intuitive software, like ClickFunnels, helps you effortlessly establish an Optin funnel and additional elements, like a Thank You page.
Give Value And Incentives
You have to convince your potential customers to part with personal information. Luckily, that’s psychologically easier to achieve than getting them to commit to purchasing.
Give them something of value upfront or quickly deliver on the promised value immediately after signing up. Consider what free valuables you have to offer. It might be knowledge, like a how-to guide, a free trial, or a sample size.
Still, customers could need more persuading. Providing testimonials helps build trust and a desire to enjoy what others have. Exclusivity language establishes you as an authority and piques their interest. Urgent terminology helps them overcome buying apathy or evasion.
Provide a Call-to-Action (CTA)
Clearly define your audience’s next steps with a call-to-action (CTA) button. You want them to see the advantage of signing up, so include language that tells them the value of it. For instance, instead of ‘Subscribe,’ tell them what’s in store for them when they do. Here are five examples:
- “Yes, I want exclusive access.”
- “Yes, I’d like more information.”
- “I want my free guide.”
- “Take the quiz.”
- “Sign up to receive your free toolkit.”
CTAs and even the ‘no thanks’ language on the opt-out button can include a bit of humor or sarcasm to make your audience pause and think (i.e., “No, I don’t want to learn how to get rich.”). Running A/B testing can help determine where the opt-in button works best for your audience.
Foster The Relationship
Businesses must put the customer relationship first to grow. The best way to build relationships is with regular communication.
Use autoresponders to help you handle many customer communications. Regularly send educational emails relevant to your industry to keep lines of communication open. Use emotional stories to grab your audience’s attention. Ask questions to improve engagement.
Harness The Power Of Emails
Many entrepreneurs are surprised to learn how fruitful an email list is. It is the foundation of any successful business. As the swiftest and most accessible route to customers, it’s also the least costly.
Emails must be relevant to the audience, good quality, and plentiful. Start leveraging the power of emails today with these fundamentals.
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