Wondering if you need to start an email list for your small business or blog? The short answer is ABSOLUTELY! There are several reasons to start an email list…here are my top 4.
Social media is unreliable and always changing.
Facebook and Instagram can be great tools for engaging with your customers and your warm market. Pinterest and LinkedIn are fantastic for growing your warm market and finding new customers, clients, and followers. Social media is fun and it’s always changing and evolving. The downside to all social media platforms is that they are unreliable. There are outages, privacy issues, and constantly changing rules on usage. And while as small business owners, we may spend a lot of time on social media…not everyone uses it. As your friends and family, how often do they use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest? You will be able to rely on your email list for your small business when social media experiences outages or customers aren’t using those platforms.
People check email frequently.
Most people check their email inboxes a few times a day. I don’t know about you, but when I turn off all of my social media and text alerts…I never turn off my email alerts. It’s the one place I filter the information I receive. Everything in my inbox is something I asked for, need, or want. For example, I may not open every email from Target, but I signed up for Target emails to receive information that is useful to me. If I book a hotel reservation, that information is in my email. When my son’s soccer schedule changes, that information is in my email. People trust and rely on email every day. With consistency, your customer will come to rely on your emails!
You own your email list.
When you build your email list for your small business, your subscribers are choosing to engage with you. Whether through a lead magnet, a transaction, or subscription, they are literally opting in to receive communications from you. The best part, that list is yours forever and ever. If you are relying on social media to reach your followers, you are essentially rolling the dice on who will receive and view your content. Plus, if Facebook and Instagram go offline (which happens) or your account gets hacked will you be able to reach your customers? Likely not. While social media is a great tool for reaching your followers, an email list gives you more control.
It’s FREE! (or at least affordable)
There are several email services that are easy to use and affordable! Personally, I prefer Aweber. It’s an easy-to-use email marketing platform that comes with templates for emails, sign-up forms, and even landing pages! You can also get a 30-day free trial to test out all the bells and whistles.
Make sure that no matter which email service you decide to go with that you do your research. Get familiar with their policies and test out as many features as possible before making a decision.
If you don’t have a website yet, MailChimp is a decent option to get started. It’s not as user-friendly or robust as a paid email marketing platform, but it’s where a lot of people get their feet wet. MailChimp is free to use for up to 2000 subscribers.
Are you ready to start building your email list?
The best time to start building your email list is NOW. If you start your email list, let me know! I’d love to hear about how you are making your email list work for you. If you have any questions about starting an email list, drop your question below or contact me!
If you need help getting your email newsletter off the ground, I can help! As a Virtual Assistant, I offer email management services as well as social media management packages. You can check out my current packages on my Work With Me page.
You can also learn about how to find the best email service for your business here.
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