Firstly, what do we mean by an email list? Put simply an email list is a list of email addresses of people that have subscribed to your website/newsletter. You would use this email list to contact them regarding your website products, services, industry news, etc. You would contact them by emailing them – for example, in the form of a newsletter. The people who sign up to your newsletter are known as subscribers. Emailing people in this way is also known as Email Marketing, and it is a very popular and lucrative form of marketing.
There are lots of benefits to having an email list such as:
1. Cost Effective – Email marketing has been shown to be 20 times more cost effective that other forms of traditional marketing. For only a few pounds you can contact thousands of subscribers, telling them about your products/services. Email marketing has a very high return on investment (ROI) – better than direct mail, telemarketing, newspaper ads, etc.
2. Converting New Prospects – The fact is most people are not ready to buy on their first visit to a website. If you are able to encourage them to subscribe to your website, then you have a much better chance of converting them into becoming a customer. If they receive regular newsletters from you then you will keep in the front of their minds. You will be able to provide information which regularly stimulates their interest in your products/services, thereby encouraging them to make a purchase from you.
3. Understand Your Audience – You can organise names & email addresses of people who are interested in your products/services. As long as you collect your email list correctly you will be able to determine whether your subscribers are male or female, plus over time as you measure your subscribers and their actions you can then communicate & market to them in a way which is most appropriate to that segment.
4. Ability to Measure – With most types of marketing and advertising it can often be difficult to measure your efforts. The great thing about email marketing is you can accurately measure your activities. You can see how many people opened your email, how long they had it open for, which links they clicked on, etc. How many subscribers went on to visit your website and make a purchase? Over time you will be able to learn what type of newsletters/mailshots your subscribers like – what products they interested in reading about, what news stories they find most interesting, etc, and what they respond to most.
5. Easier to Make Follow Up Sales – You don’t have to go looking for fresh traffic each time you have something to promote. You can publicise new products, etc, to your email list – people who know you and are more likely to buy from you. Your email list gives you the opportunity to have immediate communication – with your potential customers quickly finding out about your products/services.
6. Increase Customer Loyalty – People who have subscribed to your email list have done so because they are interested in your products/services. They want to be kept up to date about what you’re doing, and on what’s happening with your company/organisation. Sending a regular email/newsletter enables you to develop a relationship with those customers. Over time a deeper and trusting relationship can be developed. This will mean they are more likely to purchase your products or services. It’s also a relatively inexpensive way of establishing & developing a relationship with your customer.
In time, as you grow your email list, it can become an important and valuable part of your business.
It’s recommended that you make it easy for people to subscribe to your website – promote it on your home page and offer an incentive for signing up. For example, Easyspace has a newsletter which is promoted on our homepage. To encourage people to subscribe we offer “10% off your first purchase”. Over the years thousands of people have subscribed to us, which allows us to tell thousands of people straight away about any new products/services that we have just launched – as well as inform them of any industry news, interesting articles and discount codes, etc.
It’s important that you organise your email list properly, and abide by email marketing industry rules, and best practice – such as making it easy for people to unsubscribe from your list. One easy way of doing this is to manage your email list with an email marketing company. For example, Suite 26 is a UK email marketing company that you can use not only to send out emails to your subscribers, but also to help you collect, manage and grow your email list. You will also be able to track & measure your emails i.e. see who clicked on various links, who opened their email, etc. The sooner you start building an email list, the sooner you’ll see the benefits from having one – so start building one today!
