Building An Email List Is The Most Cost-Effective Way To Grow And Monetize Any Business
When I first started getting my toes wet in digital marketing way back in the last century (literally), we used to collect email addresses individually – like, one email address at a time…
I built my first list of 200,000 email addresses over a dial-up connection.
There were no Email Service Providers (ESP’s) that automated the process of building a list and sending out campaigns.
Imagine if you will, two-hundred-thousand emails being spewed out by a desktop PC on a dial-up connection.
Creating content was the easy part.
Fortunately things have changed. Now there are numerous ESP’s dedicated to helping you to collect email addresses and design and send email campaigns at the click of a button.
Download the free email service provider comparison cheat sheet
So what’s the biggest email marketing mistake you can make?
By far the biggest mistake is not building an email list now!
I don’t care what industry you’re in – whether you run an online life coaching service, or if you own the gas station up the street, or if you are a financial advisor.
If you have a website – in fact even if you don’t currently have a website – you should be building an email list now.
Why Build An Email List?
According to Campaign Monitor, email marketing results in a 3800% ROI and $38 for every $1 spent.
Think about that…
For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect to get $38.00 back! And that’s not just for online businesses.
Emails addresses are sticky
If you do have a website, then chances are that as soon as someone leaves your site they’ve forgotten about you – “I’ll be in touch” means ‘goodby forever’.
When you get an email address you’ve been given permission to keep the conversation, and the relationship, going.
Think of it this way, the email addresses you collect are your customers and potential customers, who represent potential revenue for you. Maybe not today, but maybe tomorrow when you might really need the business.
Collecting email addresses is easy-peasy these days
There is a bit of up-front work, but once you’ve set your system up, it runs on autopilot for you.
Email Service Providers make the whole process easy.
Download the free email service provider comparison cheat sheet
Start an email list and you will be growing an asset that you own, that you can leverage, and that that no one can take away from you.
What You Need To Start Building An Email List
- A platform to collect email addresses from
- An incentive for someone to give you their email address
- A way to capture the email address
- A place to store and send email addresses from
A Platform To Collect Emails From
Where do you get email addresses for your list?
- From people who visit your website
- From people who visit your Social Media accounts
- Joint Ventures Partners
- Offline Venues
Your Website
All of these mediums are simply that – platforms for you to attract leads. The number-one goal of your website should be to begin a relationship – and just like dating, you introduce yourself and you exchange contact information. Your website should have a way for people to sign up for your list.
Your Social Media Accounts
The same is true of your Social Media accounts – introduce yourself, show that you have something to offer and exchange value for value – your prospects’ value being their email address.
Joint Ventures (commonly called JV’s)
This is where you and someone else agree to promote your services to each other’s lists. You don’t ‘rent’ or ‘give’ your list to someone else – that would be a big no no.
But if you know someone in a complementary market – say you sell CD players, and you know someone who sells CDs – it makes sense that you would strike up a deal where you would promote each others products to your respective lists (for a good commission of course).
Brick and Mortar stores
People walk in, people walk out. They walk out and they’re gone. But what if you could get their email address – there are a hundred and one ways you can do this. Find an incentive (an exclusive discount if they sign up to your list, etc). Remember, your best customers are always those who have purchased from you in the past. Getting customers on your list should be a priority.
How do you get people to part with their email addresses?
An Incentive
You give your prospect something of value, and they give you something in return – that something being their email address.
I won’t get into all the possible offers here, but suffice to say that there are a multitude of ways you can give value, but some of the more common incentives are Lead Magnets, Discount Coupons, Free Trials, Content Upgrades, and more.
In fact, this is a Content Upgrade right here:
Download the free email service provider comparison cheat sheet
When I started out we offered a free, ‘lite’ version of our website design tool – WebDwarf Free Web Page Maker. That one offer has brought in over 2 million email address and continues to bring in leads 20 years after we first made it available.
An email address is a lead, and therefore has a value. Think about what you can offer in exchange for an email address.
How To Capture Email Addresses
As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, finding a way to capture email addresses and send out campaigns use to be a pain, to say the least.
That’s not the case today. In fact, you have an embarrassment of options, to the extent that it makes it difficult to know where to begin.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the major ESP’s
Each of these companies targets a slightly different market, and there is a wide range of features and, of course prices.
I have put together a free Email Service Provider Comparison Guide to make it easy for you to decide which ESP is best for you. Click here to download it now.
A Final Thought…
If you put the work into building your email list, make use of it. If you don’t send to your list regularly, then all the work you have put in to create the list will have gone to waste.
Your Turn
Have you begun creating your list? If so, which service do you use?
This is really helpful and inspires me to adjust my business strategy. Thank you.
Happy to help 🙂