Here’s Why You Need to Build an Email List

By now, you already know that Facebook has changed its algorithm to focus more on the interaction between family and friends and less on marketing-type content. It’s the reason why fewer posts show up in the newsfeed of the followers of your business page.

Only a fraction of your followers will see some of your content if they see them at all.

If your business invested a lot of time, money, and resources to build Facebook business and brand pages, you need to create relevant content that matters to the community you serve.

This goes to show that our over-reliance on social media platforms for marketing campaigns could spell trouble for businesses. Social media platforms are great for businesses, but we simply don’t have control of them. If they change their business model or, God forbid, they close down, businesses that rely on them will be forced to make drastic changes.

So, this should remind us of the importance of building our own assets--the assets that we have total control of. Among the assets that a business must have is an email list. Before Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, there was the old-fashion email. Email is a tried and tested marketing tool that continues to be effective up to this day.

If you’re not convinced, here are more reasons why you should get started with building an email list:

With an email list, you can promote your business whenever you want without a social media giant suppressing your content.

It’s a powerful asset that can be integrated into any marketing campaign.

• It’s cheaper and easier to set up.

• Automation allows for strategic email scheduling.

• It’s measurable and trackable. You can get data about the number of clicks, popular links, number of unsubscribes, source of sales, and level of engagement, to name just a few.

• It can generate more leads because people can share the email with their friends who might be interested in what you have to offer.

• It can boost traffic to your website.

• It can convert to actual sales.

When building or growing your mailing list, don’t expect people to just give you their email addresses simply because you asked for them. It just doesn’t work that way. People don’t like giving their emails because they don’t want to receive spam messages.

You have to give something of value in exchange for their email addresses. They have to opt-in to what you are offering them.

Here are some tips on how to build and grow your email list:

Create an opt-in page, squeeze page, or landing page where you offer something for free in exchange for email addresses. It could be a free eBook, a case study about your product, a video, a discount coupon, or anything that offers value to potential customers.

1. Offer a trial of your product for a limited time. For example, if your product is a software or an app, ask them to try the product for two weeks or a month.

2. Run a free webinar or a mini course. People will sign-up for a course that will help improve their skills.

3. Always have a Call to Action in your blog posts or video content.

4. Make your contact form short and sweet. Keep the number of fields to a minimum (name and email address).

5. Use lightbox popups when people are about to leave the site. Offer your freebies again. Just don’t create multiple popups because they can be intrusive and can ruin the browsing experience.

The combination of email and current technologies make for a powerful marketing tool that can trump social media any day. Even when social media platforms disappear, you can still carry on with your marketing campaigns with your email list.