Why Growing Your Email List Should be a Top Priority
On February 1, 2024, Universal Music Group (UMG) and TikTok failed to reach an agreement to renew their music licensing. This means that the company that owns almost every major label took all of their songs off of TikTok. This also means that creators who were using trending audio in the background of their videos are now left with silent content.
On top of that if you run a quick Google search you can find countless forums where users are asking questions like, “Is Instagram down right now? “My reels disappeared and no one seems to be able to help me.” Help, I’m in Facebook jail.”
And anyone remember MySpace?
But Why Should You Care?
Well because, you don't own these platforms or what they do with the content you create for them and if you rely solely on them to reach your audience, you may end up being disappointed.
Thankfully, this is where your email strategy comes in to save the day.
Your Email list is valuable because:
It has a large reach. Not everyone is on every single social platform. And, if someone is on your email list it is because they signed up for it. They want to hear from you, they are interested in what you have to offer.
Emails have the highest and most measurable Return on Investment (ROI), on average $36 for every $1 spent.
Social media is great for sharing photos and sending quick DM’s but conversion happens in the inbox. Setting aside the fact that algorithms are always changing and your brand may not get seen by the right people, the expectation is that most people want to receive information about products/services via email.
It gives you a direct line of communication with your audience which creates opportunities for engagement, brand visibility, and ultimately, conversion. With each email you send, you have the opportunity to build a sense of connection with your subscribers' interests, needs, and preferences.
BUILD
Let’s look at some methods you can use to build a list that effectively captures email addresses from interested prospects.
Create a lead magnet (ex. ebook, pdf, free consultation )
Host a Webinar and/or virtual summit
Add links to Social bios and your email signature
Opt-in forms on your Website
Ask those you know to refer people who may be interested in your niche
Run a live challenge
Do a freebie giveaway
Create an interactive quiz
The key lies in delivering valuable and compelling content that incentivizes subscribers to join your list willingly. You want to provide content that addresses their pain points, solves their problems, or offers exclusive benefits.
NURTURE
Once you've grown a list of subscribers, the next step is to engage and nurture them through personalized and targeted email campaigns. Nurture emails are different than a Welcome or Indoctrination Sequence. The goal here is to provide information and value to your audience without overwhelming them.
Let your personality come through, subscribers signed up for your lead magnet because they are interested in what you have to offer. Share why you do what you do and explain how you’d love to help them.
Pose a question and encourage them to respond directly to the email to encourage engagement.
Write what you know about to build trust. You may feel that you are repeating yourself but it’s rare that someone is going to open every single one of your emails.
You don’t have to be hard selling in every email that you send, it just needs to be valuable to your audience.
Measure Your Email Marketing Metrics
You’ve done your research, drafted these amazing emails and sent them out to your dream list. Now’s the best part - track and analyze key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates.
These metrics provide valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns, help identify areas for improvement, and help you refine your email marketing strategy for effectiveness.
The good news is it’s really easy to calculate your ROI on email marketing. You can use the formula [ROI = ((Revenue - Cost) / Cost) x 100 ] or make it really easy and use Omnisend’s ROI Calculator
For example, let's say your email campaigns generated $5,000 in revenue, and the total cost of running those campaigns was $1,000.
Plug your numbers into the formula:
ROI = (($5,000 - $1,000) / $1,000) x 100
ROI = ($4,000 / $1,000) x 100
ROI = 4 x 100
ROI = 400%
Here the ROI would be 400%, indicating that for every $1 spent on email marketing, you earned $4 in revenue.
Growing your email list is a gradual process that does take time and effort, so patience is key here. Unless you are in a launch you don’t need to send an email every day, but emailing once every 6 months is not going to keep you in your customers' minds. You want your audience to remember who you are and why they signed up in the first place. Have a consistent strategy in place, so your audience isn’t tempted to hit that unsubscribe button.
And if you need help to dig deeper, streamline your email process, or write your emails - Shoot me a message!
