Do You Need an Email List?

I've built several email lists over the years for various enterprises. My music email list grew to about 3500 people over 20 years. This isn't huge compared to the efforts of others, but it was grown a couple of enrollments at a time when I was playing for small audiences consisting of mostly the same people.

My current email list is less than 500 people, and I write only a few emails yearly. Most of my marketing for coaching is face-to-face, and I've not had much to promote through email. I'm not someone who will tell a new business owner that they MUST do anything regarding tools and tactics. I think we need only to concern ourselves with two questions - how will we make and maintain connections with customers, and do our methods work adequately?

My social media experience goes back to MySpace. I've experimented with every platform except WhatsApp and Snapchat. None of the social media platforms have been as reliable as email for reaching people I need to stay in touch with, especially for my business. Even though I have a small list and only email sporadically, I still get better responses from my email list than any other social media platform. 

My open rate is usually between 65 and 70 percent, and click-throughs tend to be between 3 and 5 percent on my email messages. So email reaches about 300 people consistently. With a following of around 2500 on Facebook, my most successful personal posts reach about 200 people and get less than 20 interactions. I know all the engagement tricks, but email doesn't decide who gets to see my messages. It goes out to everyone who signed up for it.

MUST you have email and build a list? No. But tell me how you intend to communicate with your clients. The postal service still works, and landline phones are amazing, especially if you deliver high impact high-ticket services. But if you want to reach a lot of people easily and reliably, build your list and serve them high-quality, valuable inbox experiences.

I mentioned my friend, Jess Kotzer, again in this video. She gave a hyper-cool presentation on automation today that I hope she'll offer again soon. Until I can give you a link for the workshop, check out what Jess is up to with Self Pub Hub on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/youngyessington

#marketing #email #automation