Even though some people still claim it: Email marketing is not dead. And if you have postponed setting up an email list for your blog you need to get started with your email list right this minute.
Email marketing has an astounding 3800% ROI – that means for every 1$ you invest, you can earn 38$.
Email is not an option that you can choose. Email is your best chance of ever turning your blog into more than a hobby. If you want to take blogging seriously you need to grow your email list and start to send newsletters to your subscribers. Here is why your blog needs an email list.
#1 It is a (targeted) audience you can grow
online marketing is all about growing an audience. As with any social network, you can grow your email audience. By collecting email addresses you get access to a targeted audience that you can reach any time with any message you want to send.
If you follow some best practices this audience is going to be highly targeted and open to your updates.
Before you read on - we have various resources that show you exactly how to use social networks to gain massive traffic and leads. For instance, check out the following:
FREE Step-by-Step Twitter Marketing GuideFREE Pinterest Marketing Ebook
(Don’t try to take a shortcut and buy an email list. If you did not earn your subscribers your email list is not worth half as much and will not have all the benefits of an earned audience.)
There are many ways to grow your email audience faster with free offers in exchange for an email address or other stuff. If you want to grow your email list fast(er), check out this guide to getting more subscribers.
#2 You “Own” your email audience
While in social media and some of the other channels like Google search you depend on the owner of the platform to allow you to reach your audience. While your audience and the possibilities to reach it in any other channel are constrained by any change in algorithms, feed, and functionality of the network, your email list is yours.
#3 Email allows you to stay in touch
In some marketing channels like Twitter or Pinterest, it is hard to assure that you reach the same people over and over again. In social media, you depend on many factors like when you post and how the reach algorithm works to get your content in front of your audience, even though they are your followers, with your email audience you can send a new email any time you choose and everybody on your list will see it.
#4 Email is a great way to build relationships and get to know your audience
Since you can reach out to your subscribers whenever you want to and modern email technology allows you to save information about your subscribers, you can use your email newsletter to build up a relationship to your subscribers.
#5 Email allows you to deliver value in a variety of forms
As with any audience you build for marketing purposes you want to build trust. The best way to do that is o deliver value for your audience.
Hey, before you read on - we have in various FREE in-depth guides on similar topics that you can download. For this post, check out:
FREE workbook: CREATE AWESOME BLOG POSTSFREE Beginner's Guide: START A BLOG
Emails are a very flexible medium. They allow you to use a broad variety of content types to package your value. Here are some ideas:
- give a quick tip in the email text
- attach a pdf, for instance, an ebook or worksheet
- Send a link to your latest blog post
- Answer a question you think your audience has
- embed a video
- link to a landing page for a download
- send an invitation to a webinar
#6 The competition for attention is less
In some channels, you compete for the attention of your audience on many levels. First, you compete in the algorithm most channels have in place: to even show up in the feed of your followers, you already need to compete – and often pay for visibility. Then when your update shows in the feed, you still have to compete for attention with a million other tweets or some shiny Facebook ads.
Your email will end up in the inbox of your subscribers no matter what. It is up to you to make sure that it gets opened. You can help your email open rates with better subject lines and by always delivering value. The higher the expectations of your audience to receive something outstanding the higher your chances of your emails getting opened.
#7 Email will be your highest converting traffic channel
Many bloggers and business owners do not see email as a traffic channel. But it is.
Even if you do not use your subscribers to drive traffic to your new blog posts, you will still use your email marketing to drive traffic to landing pages, download pages, webinars or even sales pages.
And email will be your highest converting traffic channel. Whenever you want our audience to take action, your best chance is with your email audience. You may be surprised if you compare the conversion rates of your emails to the conversion rates of a tweet or Facebook post…
#8 Segmentation allows better targeting
Most audiences are hard to segment.
Yes, you can segment your advertising audience – but have you ever tried to send a tweet just to a part of your Twitter followers? or tried to regulate who sees your pin on Pinterest or tell Google to only show your content to searchers who have already bought an ebook from you…
That is where email marketing becomes extremely powerful.
You can send a welcome series to new subscribers. But that is really basic. You can even segment your new subscribers into different categories. For instance, you can ask them if they are beginners, advanced or pros and send a different welcome sequence to each of the groups.
Even with long term subscribers, you can segment by a ton of different factors:
- people who opened a specific email
- people who took action on a specific email – for instance, people who registered for a webinar or who watched a video
- people who bought a product
- …
With all segmentations, you can make sure that every subscriber in your email list gets exactly the content they need – or find interesting. This way, you will keep your audience happy and avoid annoying anybody with unmatched content.
#9 Your email list will make you money
There is money in the list – no kidding.
There are various ways to use your email list to actually make money:
- You can promote a blog post that contains an affiliate link
- You can send an email sequence that leads to a sales letter – or a sales letter as such
- You can invite your audience to a webinar that is targeted at selling a product
- You can invite your audience to a free trial that will lead to some sales
You can also “sell” your email list and advertise other people’s products. But this can hurt your reputation more than the money you earn is worth.
Conversion rates for email differ very much. They depend on the niche AND the person running the email list and how well they use their emails to build a relationship with their audience. But no matter what, your conversion rates for your emails will be higher than or any other channel or audience you have.
Final words on why your blog needs an email list
Yes, even with email the competition grows. Everybody and their grandmother are building an email list today. But it is a fact that people who know you and trust you will much rather buy from you than “strangers” who saw your blog just now for the first time in their life.
But!
Email marketing is not something that you set up and it will fill your bank account the next day. You have to listen to your audience and figure out what they like and what they do not like. Even with email marketing, it will be a lot of trial and error. You may lose some subscribers with one email, you may not convert the most sales with another. But in the end, your email list will be worth all the effort you put into it.
Do you want to start your email marketing? Do you need some help with the basics of list building and newsletter best practices?
Get our free ebook “Email Marketing Recipes” – and get email marketing tips that will help you start your email marketing the better way.
