Building An Email List – It Matters More Than You Think
No matter how large your social media following may be, growing your email list should be a top priority. Whether you are building a personal brand or growing a business, having a robust email list can make the difference between success and failure.
Now, I recognize that that sounds pretty fatalist, but it’s the truth. Recently, there was a bit of turmoil in the online business world when it was announced that TikTok would be banned in the US. Although that decision has been revised, and we have yet to see what the final outcome will be, there were quite a few online brands that went into a scramble to try to recover what they thought would be a huge loss. These brands and influencers suddenly realized that their preferred platform was the only way they had access to their followers, and with TikTok disappearing, they ran the very real risk of losing their businesses.
You don’t own your social media profiles.
We’ve seen this happen on other platforms as well. An influencer will spend years growing their following on Facebook or Instagram, only to lose everything when their account gets hacked, or even worse deleted altogether. Trust me, it happens. And when it does, these brands have a steep uphill climb to try to regain what they spent years building.
Imagine waking up one morning and discovering you had lost access to your entire client base. That’s exactly what can happen if your focus is only on growing your audience on social medi a platforms, instead of driving that audience to your website or a landing page that then captures their email and other pertinent information that can keep you in touch with them directly, no matter what happens to your social media accounts.
Here are the top 4 reasons you should be focusing time and attention on building your email list.
- You Own Your Audience. Social media is an amazing tool for marketing and to grow the reach and recognition of your brand. However, you don’t own your audience on a social media platform, they do. You could have a million followers on Facebook, but at the end of the day you don’t own that audience, Facebook does. So if they decided to shut you down, you will lose that audience, and there won’t be anything you can do about it. But if you’re redirecting that audience and they’re opting in by giving you their email address directly, then it doesn’t matter what happens to your social media profile, because you can still contact your followers directly if need be.
- It’s a Warm Audience. When people take the time to go to your website or landing page and give you their email, they are opting in. They are literally saying, “Hey, I like what you have to say, and I’d like to hear more.” People who opt-in in that way are more likely to convert to paying customers than random profiles that follow you on social media.
- You Have a Captive Audience. Sending an email isn’t the same as writing a post on social media. They can be personalized in every way imaginable. And since they go out to the individual and not a group, the messaging can be much more specific.
- The Algorithm Won’t Affect Your Bottom Line. The changes that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms make to their algorithm on a regular basis can disrupt a brand’s ability to keep themselves in front of their audience, and this can affect businesses’ bottom line. With a solid email list, and email campaign strategy, the algorithmic changes on social media don’t have to impact your cashflow.
Growing your email list isn’t something that is going to happen overnight, but with the right strategy and persistence, you can own your audience and not have to rely fully on a platform that is owned and controlled by another company.
Photo by Onlineprinters on Unsplash
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