As a marketing strategist, the question I get asked by business owners often is simply, “do I need an email list?”
The simple answer is yes you need one. An email marketing strategy alone isn’t a marketing plan but email should be a component of your plan to reach new customers and engage with current customers.
Here are a couple of stats that I learned from Constant Contact, which is one of the many email marketing tools available.
- There are roughly 306 billion emails opened every day
- 21 percent of opened emails are opened within the very first hour of delivery. By the end of hour three, that number jumps up to nearly 41 percent.
- mobile devices account for about 60 percent of email opens.
- 60 percent of consumers say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email they received. Contrast that with the 12.5 percent of consumers who say they’d consider using the ‘buy’ button on social media
There are three main objectives or fears around using email as a marketing tool. My objective is to open your eyes to the opportunity, rather than any roadblocks that might stand in your way.
Social Media is Enough
The first objection you might have to start an email list or an email marketing strategy is that you are already posting all the important info on social media. Posting to social is definitely a must, social media is a necessary part of a marketing strategy as well.
But less than 2% of your followers are seeing your content on any given day. And, you don’t own your social media following. And what I mean by that is if Facebook or Instagram or TikTok went away tomorrow, you would have no way of reaching the people who follow you.
In addition to that, social doesn’t provide you with any details about how engaged someone who likes or comments or shares something on your social channels.
If you are a hair salon and you post a photo with a dog in it, there is a good chance that someone could like or engage with that content who isn’t in your local area or has any clue about what you offer. They might just really like your dog.
A like doesn’t indicate an intent to purchase in the same way that subscribing to an email list, opening an email, or clicking through an email does.
Complicated Tech
Objection number two is that the tech is overwhelming. Just like any other skill you have learned in your business, email marketing can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
Email marketing has a couple of components to it. First, there is collecting the email data from the prospective customers. The data needs to be stored somewhere, in some type of database for you to use when you are ready to push out communication to the emails inside of that database.
Then there is the process of creating the emails to send. A novice might stop there but those with more advanced intentions might also add steps that involve analyzing the data to look at open rates or click thru.
One step beyond that is using automation which is a way to segment your lists and coordinate the communications in a flow designed to react automatically with triggers based on how the email is received. It can be a lot if you are just starting. You don’t have to go all-in right off the bat.
I shared some low-tech ways to generate leads and all of them were simple ways to get people to give you their information. Start with a simple pen and paper list, put it into excel, and communicate to the list using your free gmail account.
That’s email marketing. It’s not to the same scale as a brand like Gap but its also not any less effective for your audience.
Another option if you are overwhelmed by the idea of the tech is to outsource your email marketing completely. There are many experts in this specific field who can jump in and provide a done-for-you service.
What to Say
Objection three is you don’t know what to say. From my standpoint, that’s not a good enough reason not to start collecting emails. This tells me you are overthinking it.
Again, you can make the email communications as simple or as detailed as you want and it’s going to depend on your specific objectives.
Communication typically meets one of three objectives. It can inform, it can entertain or it can educate. It can also be a combination of these as well.
It’s not that different from a content strategy for other channels like a blog or social media. In fact, there is no rule that states all emails have to be only original content.
You can and should repurpose because like I shared earlier, not everyone is seeing everything you put out into the world.
Just Start
The bottom line with email marketing is that you don’t have to figure it all out to get started. No matter what objection you can come up with, at the end of the day you just have to be willing to give it a try.
There are so many benefits to collecting emails.
By giving you an email, that person is giving you permission to communicate. They raised their hand because they already have some level of interest in who you are and what you offer.
Look at the email address as a starting point to the customer relationship. You only build on it from there, you nurture it so it grows into something profitable for you.
I highly recommend starting with research. Tune in to podcasts, read blogs and take a dive into some of the tools available to help you get started. Or, tag in an expert. Reach out to me or someone like me to learn more and discover all the ways to use email to your advantage.
