Why Build An Email List?

Email marketing is one of those touchy subjects. Some love it. Others fear it or don’t understand it. Some recent conversations on Twitter say it’s dying or (fill in with new technology of the day) is an email killer. When I hear these statements I know this means it is a marketing method that will be around for a while.

While building and maintaining a list can be a little work, the rewards are well worth it. I’m not going to go into list maintenance, segmentation or, marketing strategies here. I want you to understand why email is important to you today and why you want to build a subscriber list as soon as possible.

Only a percentage of all people online have a Facebook or Twitter account. Although many people are flocking to drop their brands in these playgrounds, they’re only hitting a fraction of the online population.

If you were to sign up for Facebook, Twitter or any other site on the Internet, what’s the one thing they’ll ask you for before letting you register? Yes, they’ll probably ask you for your name or set up a username and password but all sites ask you for an email address. Why is that?

Because everyone has an email address.

People read their email (I’m going to ignore spam and email delivery issues here). Unlike most social media options, email sits in an a recipients inbox waiting patiently to be opened. It doesn't matter if your reader is on vacation. In seven days, when they return from the beach, your email will still be sitting there waiting to be read and it will be one of the first things they go through when they’re back online.

Which leads me to…

Many people hop on to Facebook everyday and see what aunt Gertrude is up to in Florida. They play their games and share links and patriotic sayings but they don’t wonder what’s the next important business message I’m going to get?

Email is different. We check it regularly to see if anything important has come in. We even have it automatically load on our phones so we can be accessible for business where ever we are. Email is where we go to really find out “what’s happening?”

Yes, we all expect some junk in the inbox. It’s just like traditional snail mail. We sift through it eagerly searching for something more exciting than the new process for covers on the TPS reports. We want to see what exciting friend has emailed us. We check to see if smelly Stan down the hall was fired yet.

This is where you come into the picture. This is where you provide a small escape from their day-to-day boredom of life. You have the opportunity to give your list something of value and brighten their day.

If you’re mixed in with friends and business, you’re on the same playing level. You’re important and that is where the money is.

Over the past couple of years the online marketing masses have flocked to Facebook and Twitter. They preach loudly, “You can communicate directly with your audience.” And, they’re correct. These are wonderful tools to do so. There’s real time interaction and the ability to create a quick and easy following with hundreds, thousands or, hundreds of thousands of followers and fans with a few simple clicks. But, what if?

What if, with a few simple clicks, Facebook deletes your personal or fan pages? What if Twitter’s fail whale makes a permanent appearance and never leaves? Chances of it happening are slim, right? But, what if?

These are great places to start a conversation and engage readers however, once you’ve been kicked off you’re out of the conversation. You don’t own your content. You don’t own or have access to your market anymore. And, if you don’t have an email list of your subscribers you have absolutely no way of contacting your readers to tell them what happened.

An email subscriber list is yours. It’s yours to have and to hold, until death (or unsubscription) do you part.

Because it’s your list, you can download a copy and save it to your hard drive. If you have issues with your email provider, you can move it to another provider and magically continue business with little interruption.

And, since it is yours, it’s becomes an asset to your business. If you someday decide to leave or transfer your business you’ll have a tangible asset of value you can sell to a buyer.

When a reader signs up for your email subscription they’re raising their hand and showing interest. They want more information. Give it to them.

If you’re using a double opt-in email provider (you are using double opt-in, right?) you’re ensuring the subscriber actually wants you to contact them. First they give you their email address. Next, they click a link in their email to confirm they signed up. It’s a qualifying mechanism. Now it’s up to you to keep them happy.

Many big shot marketers get you on a list and then pummel you with affiliate offers for every big launch that comes up. That’s not a great way to run a strong permission marketing list. It does work but you’ll lose a lot of the list over time and constantly need to look for new subscribers. If you want to keep your list responsive provide value more often than you’re promoting offers.

Send a newsletter every month or two weeks. Make sure it contains special content you aren’t providing on your site. Give them a reason to stay subscribed. Always hint at the next big idea coming to their inbox soon.

They’ve given you permission. They’re not just a fan or a follower, they’re a member of your list. A member is more valuable than any fan or follower.

Give your subscribers a reason to stay on your list because you want to scream…

Visitors come and go. Maybe they’ll click on a banner ad or buy your product but once they’re gone, they’re gone. If they subscribe via RSS then read your content in a 3rd party reader and rarely visit your site missing all your money making mechanisms.

Email allows you to send them the post, a teaser, or whatever copy you want to use to drive your subscriber back to your blog. This forces them to see the ads and other money making mechanisms on your site.

Plus, and here’s the fun part, you can email affiliate offers or direct offers for your products without publishing it live on your site. If you want to have a special money making weekend you can send an email or two that lead back to a hidden page on your blog with a special offer just for subscribers. Or, you can send an affiliate offer of a product you recently fell in love with and want to share with your subscribers. Either way, it’s a more responsive way to making money than publishing a post to your site and hoping people will see it.

If you have any experience with direct marketing you may have heard, “the money is in the list.” If you haven’t started building an email list then I hope this is a friendly jolt to start building your list today.

It doesn't require much effort to maintain and, just like other pieces of the online marketing puzzle, once you start you’ll wonder why you didn't do it earlier.

If you’re using email now, what motivated you to start building your list? If you’re not, what’s stopping you?

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