“Build an email list, it will help grow your business.” That’s what all the marketing gurus say. (Okay, I say it too, but I’m not a guru.)
And yes, you should have an email list.
But if you don’t use that email list properly, it’s not going to help your business.
And you’ll have wasted a lot of time, money and effort building it.
Your email list has a lot of value for your business. More than you probably realize.
What is the Value of Your Email List to Your Business?
An email list’s value is to bring in customers.
That’s why you go to all the trouble to offer something to get people to give you their email address. You want them to raise their hands and say “Yes, I’m interested in what you’re selling. Tell me more.”
Then, your goal is to do just that. To tell them more. To show them why they were right to be interested and to get them to buy.
Here is where most people go wrong with their email lists.
All they do is sell.
“Wait,” I hear you say. “I thought you said that was the point.”
Yes. Selling is the point.
But you also have to give value.
A lot of companies only sell.
As soon as they get an email address, they’re shoving products into their subscribers’ virtual faces, yelling “Buy my stuff! Buy buy buy!”
They don’t take the time to show why someone should buy. They don’t explain how their products and services will make life better for the person they want to sell to.
They don’t answer the question their subscribers are asking: “What’s In It For Me?”
Because these business owners go with the “buy buy buy” method as opposed to the nurturing, then selling method, people don’t buy. Instead subscribers may unsubscribe from their lists without buying anything.
Which is disappointing to the business owners. So, they stop emailing their subscribers at all. Or they only email every once in a while, when they’re having a sale, to see if that helps.
By then, their subscribers have forgotten about this company and why they were interested in its products and services in the first place.
An Email List’s Value Isn’t All Up Front
There’s a weird perception that as soon as someone subscribes to an email list, they’re ready to buy.
Sometimes, that’s true. Most of the time, it isn’t.
You have no idea where someone is in their buyer’s journey when they opt-in for your lead magnet. Don’t expect that they’re ready to fork over their cash right away.
Continue to provide value to your subscribers. Many of them aren’t sure whether your product or service is the perfect solution to their problem. You have to convince them that it is.
Out of 100 subscribers, you may get 10 who buy right away. If you’re lucky.
This is actually good news. You still have 90 subscribers who you can nurture into becoming customers. Over time, that will happen, which means you’ll have a steady stream of new customers as you add more subscribers to your list and convince more of them to buy.
Which is why you’re wasting your money, time and effort if you’re not emailing your list regularly.
How Much Have You Spent on Building Your Email List?
This is where that whole “email list value” thing really comes into play.
It costs money to build an email list.
- You have to pay a monthly fee for your email service provider (ESP).
- You may have to pay a copywriter to write your lead magnet and a designer to make it look good.
- You may have to pay that same designer to create an email template.
- You have to set up a lead generation funnel to collect email addresses.
- If you’re running Facebook ads, you’re paying for those, and possibly for someone to run the ads for you.
Then, there’s your time.
You may be the person doing all of the above. On top of that, you have to come up with topics for your emails. You have to write them (or pay someone else to do it.) You have to create a content and sales calendar, so you know what you’re offering when.
You have to keep track of the analytics, so you know how well your products and services are selling or what your subscribers are most interested in.
Sometimes, you have to respond to subscribers and customers who respond to your emails. Yes, this happens.
And it’s a good thing. It gives you a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with that person, to learn more about who they are, what they want and what problems they face that your products and services can solve. (Plus, that back and forth makes the ISPs happy and ensures more people get your emails.)
When you add all of this up, it’s easy to see how your email list is a valuable asset for your business.
But not just in terms of what it cost you to build.
Your Email List’s Value Beyond Its Cost
Yes, your email list has financial value. If you really want to find out what that dollar amount is, there are subscriber value calculators out there that can help you do that.
But your email list value extends far beyond money.
Here are 3 ways you can use your email list to grow your business that won’t cost a lot and will prove exactly how valuable a good relationship with your subscribers can be.
Your Subscribers Can Help with Product Development
Who better to ask for new product ideas than people who are already interested in your current products and services? Not only will you find out what problems your subscribers and customers face, you’ll be able to create the perfect solutions for them, based on their ideas and feedback.
Collect Stories and Testimonials
Every couple of months, send out an email that encourages your subscribers to respond to your email with their own stories of how your product or service helped them overcome the problem they were having.
When you receive good stories, ask the sender whether you can use their response as a testimonial.
If you receive stories that aren’t so good, it shows you how to improve your product or service, your instructions and onboarding and your customer service.
Ask Your Customers to Recommend You to Their Friends and Family
Your current customers are your best source of new customers.
Who better than your current customers to gush about what your products and services have done to transform their lives, and to convince new potential customers that those products and services are right for them?
You can set up an affiliate or “recommend a friend” program that offers rewards, or just ask your customers to recommend you to a friend. Either way, you’ll get new customers without having to spend a lot of money and effort.
Now that you understand the monetary and deeper value of your email list…
Don’t Be Scared to Email Your Subscribers
I am always stunned when I hear marketing gurus say, “Don’t email your list unless you have something to sell.”
I disagree wholeheartedly.
Keep emailing your list regularly, whether you’re selling or not. Use this time to build trust and authority in their minds. Then, when you are ready to sell, they’re more willing to buy.
I have also heard business owners say, and no, I’m not kidding, “If I email my list, people will unsubscribe.”
Yes, they will. You should appreciate the fact that these people are removing themselves from your list because they’re no longer interested in what you’re offering.
I think there is a mentality of “I need to build a huge list of email addresses” as some sort of mark of success.
If you’re not sending regular emails to those email addresses, you’re not successful. You’re a business dragon, sitting on top of a hoard of email addresses that does nothing but bring you some weird satisfaction for having collected them.
To truly have success with an email list, you need to communicate with those subscribers, so they remember who you are and why they were interested in your company in the first place.
I have to ask. When was the last time you emailed your subscribers?
Are you keeping up with them regularly? If so, awesome! Go you!
If not, it’s time to apologize.
As I wrote about in a recent blog post, if you haven’t written to your subscribers in a while, think 3 months or longer (depending on your chosen cadence) an “apology sequence” is a great way to re-engage them. This is a simple, 3-email sequence that lets you:
- Reintroduce yourself to your subscribers.
- Explain why you disappeared.
- Apologize for disappearing.
- Commit to writing regularly and ask them to commit to opening your emails.
I walk you, step-by-step, through the entire process of writing and sending that apology sequence in Revive an Old, Cold Email List.
This 6-module course helps you re-engage your subscribers, remind them of why they signed up for your list in the first place and rebuild your relationship with them, so you can become the trusted, reliable business that your subscribers want to buy from.
Along with the course itself, you get 2 live Q&A calls with me, where you can ask questions and get help with your copy. Plus, I’ll review each of your emails before you send them out, so you can hit the “Send” button with confidence.
Very seriously. If you’ve put all that time, effort and money into building your email list, don’t squander that. Instead, re-engage these subscribers with an “apology sequence” and get that investment back, so you can make money from those subscribers again.