What is an email list?
An email list is the list of people that have signed up to receive content from you via email ie. at some point they would have “opted in” (said yes) to receive emails from you, either when they signed up to receive your free lead magnet or possibly when they bought something from you in the past and you added them to your list of subscribers automatically at that point.
So your list is the collection of email addresses that you have accumulated of people that have given you permission to send them content.
You can collect these emails within an email marketing platform such as Activecampaign or Convertkit or you can have a small list of people that you email regularly from your Gmail account.
It doesn’t have to be fancy to be classed as an email list.
Now let’s talk about email vs social media…
My Top 3 Reasons Why Building an Email List is Important
1. Email Marketing is Still the Most Lucrative Form of Marketing
The statistics on this type of marketing are insane! Your return on investment can be as high as 4400% which means that for every dollar (or pound) you put in you get $44 out.
Those are crazy high returns and online mail marketing still outperforms social media for return on investment.
2. Your List is Yours
It’s easy to get carried away with posting on Facebook and Instagram and worrying about how many likes we get on our posts but the problem with that is that you don’t own your following on Facebook or Instagram.
If those platforms shut down tomorrow your whole following could be gone.
Your list is yours, if your email marketing platform decided to shut down all you have to do is export your list of email addresses and move it to another service provider.
3. It Feels More Personal
When you post something on social media it’s out there for everyone to see and comment on but an e-message is being delivered straight to a potential client’s inbox.
They read it alone, often it has their name at the top (I suggest trying to add it into the subject line and throughout the email too).
If done right, it can feel like you’re talking only to them.
So I hope I have convinced you why building an email list is important today.
