Building an email list and sending email newsletters is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your business. You can attract new customers and keep current ones engaged.
Some of the specific benefits…
You can start quickly and for minimal cost (sometimes $0)
You create a direct, personal connection with your customers (and potential customers) without having to worry about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You establish an open communication channel that helps you stay on customers' radar
Sending regular emails builds your credibility and strengthens your brand recognition
For non-profits, sending emails has been shown to increase both the donation rate and the average donation amount
Email newsletters help drive traffic to your website
Marketing via email converts (turns readers into customers) 10 times better than social media campaigns
According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing has a 4,300% return on investment (ROI) - for every $1 spent on email marketing, businesses see $43 in revenue
“Out of all the channels I tested as a marketer, email continually outperforms most of them.” – Neil Patel, Online Marketing Expert
Email subscribers tend to be your better customers - they signed up because they want to hear from you
You control your email list, not Google, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube
People read email more frequently than they look at social media sites or do web searches
You can reach people quickly - a recent study found that 21% of recipients open an email within the first hour of its delivery
You can ask your customers what they want (and then provide it)
Your “welcome” email (the first one people receive after confirming their subscription) is a great opportunity to showcase your products or services.
— You can also offer a discount or trial to get your product or service into people's hands so they're more likely to become long-term customers.
There are a lot of factors involved in effective email marketing such as the day and time you send your newsletters, how often you send them, the amount and type of content, how to avoid triggering spam filters, how and why to use subject line “A/B” testing, and many more.
— Get in touch for more details or if you want to see a separate article explaining them.
Using lead magnets (free and useful giveaways) is a great way to grow your list and attract new customers.
— We're thinking about writing an article on lead magnets - let us know if you'd like to see that.
Good email service providers offer features that let you segment and tag your list so that you can send more targeted emails to various subsets.
— You can also create automated “sequences” where pre-written emails are sent to certain segments on a predetermined schedule. You just write the emails once and forget about them - the service kicks in and takes care of the rest.
A good email newsletter is skim-able, since people don't read every word. It will have no more than 3 clear “calls-to-action” (things you want the reader to do, like clicking a link). And it will either be in plain text or minimally formatted HTML (like a web page).
Finally, an important tip is to never buy an email list. Not only will its quality be poor, but most of the addresses will bounce, and you'll likely be tagged as a spammer by the large email services.
Regardless of the type of business you run, your industry, or how high your website ranks at Google, building an email list and sending newsletters on a regular schedule is a very effective marketing technique with proven results.
Let me know if I should write another article with more details about exactly how to start building a list and sending an email newsletter.