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A lot of us bloggers and digital creators tend to run after numbers like:
- 10K Instagram Followers
- 50K Facebook Page Likes
While social media followers are great and nice to have, for a blogger (note: I didn’t say influencer), the size of your email list trumps all other numbers.
Social media numbers act as a good extension of your personal brand.
They validate that you are liked and have authority in whichever niche you are present in.
Whether your followers will buy anything you sell to them, or listen to your commercial recommendations is a whole other story though.
In this post, we’ll talk about why as a blogger, nothing is more important to growing your audience and income than having a strong and engaged email list.
We’ll also talk abut how to build an engaged email list the easy way.
1. You own your email list.
The most important reason why you should care about growing your email list is because it is owned entirely by you.
Algorithm changes don’t throw your business under the bus.
Every follower you own that is based on a third party platform such as Facebook or Instagram or Youtube is not owned directly by you.
The minute a new algorithm change or a spam policy effects your account, everything you have worked hard for has the potential to go bust.
I’ve heard of countless Instagram influencers whose accounts have been wiped out based on suspicious activity or fake reports.
While, I fully support ambitions of growing on social media and myself spend a lot of time learning strategies, I have come to realise that the ONLY audience that you TRULY own is the ones on your email list.
While social media platforms have come and gone, email lists have been around for over four decades.
2. Your subscribers WANT to listen to your recommendations.
The point of a big debate right now.
Do you really have influence if no one buys what you recommend?
While influencers are struggling to prove their real influence to brands, bloggers have been making money recommending products( via affiliate marketing) for over two decades now.
This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon or trend.
The real reason why email subscribers are VERY different from social media followers is because of the nature of communication.
Posting a photo on a third party platform is very different from sending a personal email to some one’s inbox showing and recommending a product or service.
Your email inbox is a very private and selective place. Your email subscribers OPTED IN to hear from you.
Whereas your followers may simply just want to see your beach photos and never buy a thing.
If you don’t believe me, here’s another image based on a study:
Source: Optin Monster
Think about it. When was the last time you went looking for a deal or a discount on a product on Facebook? And how often do you open promotional emails that you have subscribed to.
This is not to say that people cannot make a living using social media.
They definitely can. But the “intent to buy” is very hard to measure and control.
If you get blocked on your platform, how do you reach or communicate with your followers?
3. You can monetise and measure your influence.
Having an email list gives you direct access to data.
Things like:
- Open Rate
- Click Rate
- A/B Tests
- Conversions
The level of testing and insights you have access to with your email list is far greater than any insights you can aim to have through social media.
Combine this with direct one to one access, and you already know what’s my next point.
Once you have direct access, you’ve build trust and authority, you are in a prime position to CONVERT your subscribers into customers.
Whether you sell affiliate products or your own ebooks or courses, there is no limit to what you can sell and earn from through an email list.
The next step is naturally to ask, how can I build my email list.
The best way to do it is to use an email marketing tool.
What is an Email Marketing tool?
An email marketing tool is a platform that helps you set up, grow and manage an email list of subscribers specific to your blog or business.
Ever saw those pop-ups which ask for your email in exchange for a freebie or a newsletter?
Yes, those are the front-end of email marketing, with the backend being the tool where these emails are stored.
With an email marketing tool some (but not all) of the things you can do are:
- Send newsletters to your audience with the latest blog posts, discounts and any other news.
- Create freebies or lead magnets to understand what type of content your audience craves.
- Use sales funnels or automated email sequences to build a personal relationship with your audience.
- Track conversions and landing page performance on your website and grow your business.
Which Email Marketing Tool Should You Use?
I’ll be honest.
In the last three years I’ve tried and tested a bunch of email marketing tools from free to paid, simple to complex, basic to powerful.
I’ve also narrowed down the parameters through which I judge an email marketing platform to these 3:
- Affordability
- Usability
- Scalability
After having reviewed a bunch of tools, I have come to the conclusion that Constant Contact is one comprehensive tool that meets all these criteria.
Criteria #1: AFFORDABILITY
As a new blogger, it is SO important to have a tool that fits your budget.
There are fancy tools that exist in the market but are so outside your budget that hopping on to them is just not feasible.
One of the reasons why I recommend new bloggers and online business owners to use Constant Contact is because it is extremely good value for money.
The best part about switching to this tool though?
They have a 30-day free trial for every plan. You get to test, play around, import sample leads and basically see everything you need to before you make the commitment to pay.
The monthly plan is progressive and increases based on your list size with plans starting from $20/month to upwards of $100 per month for large list sizes.
Criteria #2: SCALABILITY
As a blogger or a business owner, you need to use tools that can grow with you.
For me, this has always been a priority and I love using tools that help me grow my business in an affordable manner.
Some of the features that I find super useful are:
List Segmentation
A useful feature if you happen to serve more than one generic audience.
For me, my website has three to four segments in which I tend to target my email marketing and newsletters.
For a growing business, being able to segment is not only recommended but also beneficial.
WordPress Widget Integration
Want to integrate neat forms to your website and have them directly land in your email tool?
You can do that easily using the Constant Contact WordPress plugin which connects your email marketing backend to your WordPress driven website.
Criteria #3: USABILITY
The third but also very important parameter to judge an email marketing tool is how easy it is to use, setup and integrate with your website and business.
In this context, Constant Contact provides amazing features as well.
Some of these that I love using are:
Drag & Drop Email Builder
Do you love sending emails with a fixed template, throwing in a couple of pictures and GIF’s from time to time?
I know I do. And this is something you can do easily using the in-built Drag & Drop Builder with Constant Contact.
Signup Forms
One of the fastest way to grow your email list is definitely by using signup forms.
If you look around my website you’ll find a bunch of those usually aimed at a specific audience.
With this email marketing tool you can easily create sign up forms, connect them to your website using the WordPress plugin and even change and control the appearance.
This makes the use of a separate landing page tool redundant.
Talk about flexibility!
There’s not much more you can ask for when it comes to a powerful and affordable email marketing tool that grows along with your business.
If you’d like a list building tool that is easy to use, affordable and scalable:
->>Click Here To Get A Free 1 Month Trial Using My Link.
Just to recap real quick, the reasons why your email list matters more than your social media followers is:
– You own your list and are not at the mercy of another platform.
– Your subscribers have a high intent to consume information and you get the chance to develop a 1 to 1 relationship.
– You can choose to monetize your influence in a controlled and scalable environment.
The first step you can take to start building and growing your email list is to use a powerful email marketing tool such as Constant Contact and you’ll be one step closer to growing your digital empire.
– You own your list and are not at the mercy of another platform.
– Your subscribers have a high intent to consume information and you get the chance to develop a 1 to 1 relationship.
– You can choose to monetize your influence in a controlled and scalable environment.
The first step you can take to start building and growing your email list is to use a powerful email marketing tool such as Constant Contact and you’ll be one step closer to growing your digital empire!
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