My business couldn’t function effectively without my email list. Having an email list is vital in retaining repeat customership. Your email customership waters your business- the seed. Without a list your business growth is stunted.
Yes, you receive water from other sources, such as, someone finding your business online, reviews from other blogs, search engines. The watering from those sources are not consistent. Your business will sustain itself, but not have a chance to flourish.
Your email list then becomes the basis on which your business grows. Your email list needs to be part of your business plan. Here is a chance to establish a wonderful relationship with the people on that list. Because of that relationship your email list becomes your customer base.
Without an email list, there is no way to predict what the outcome will be month to month yet alone year to year.
Here is a quick example that you can relate to offline. You are on an offline snail mail campaign when you receive flyers from various companies. Emailing or mailing are effective ways these companies stay in front of you. These flyers keep you up to date on sales from other companies. That is what email lists will do. They keep your customership up to date on what you are doing.
Here is another example. One school of thought says that if you have a big enough campaign people will come. That may be true, but they will only come once. Even making a million dollars on one promotion won’t sustain your business forever if none of those customers ever come back.
What Building An Email List Can Do For You?
Let’s say that you wanted to sell a product door-to-door. (Something that I cannot do that is why creating an email list is best for me 
) You visit every house on the block in your neighborhood. You are establishing the foundation of who would be interested in your products. After talking to your potential buyers you quickly ask them for contact information.
A month from then you decide to offer a new product. You don’t want to canvass the neighborhood again to find your customers. That would be a waste of precious time. But remember you have their contact information. You go and visit your previous customers. In addition to offering the new product you also bring a flyer offering them a free gift if they can recommend 2 friends who would be interested in the product. Now, instead of twenty names on your list, you have 40 more to add.
That is roughly how building an email list works even online. Your initial efforts cast a net over a larger group of people. The catch will consist of people interested in your market, but not necessarily the product you provide. Through marketing efforts on your website and through other sites, you will weed out those who are really ouside of your market. Leaving you with a group of people who are interested in what you have to offer.
Building your email list takes the guess work out of marketing. The money you spend is more effective if you know where to concentrate your marketing efforts. Once you build a substantial list, it can seem like you make the sale every time. Sales will increase, but not because you are lucky, but because you are smart. Like a fisherman you learned the best place to find what you are looking for, so you dropped your line and came up with the catch of the day.
Many Blessings,
P.S. If You have any questions feel free to ask over in the forum
Other Great Reads To Help You With Your Email List:
- Growing Your Email List Tip #1
- Growing Your Email List Tip #2
- Growing Your Email List Tip #3
- Driving Traffic Part 2
- Growing Your Email List Tip #4
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Carol. Thank you. I hope that helps you out. I know when I started my list, I did it because everyone else was doing it. I did not have a clear plan or perspective of what I was trying to accomplish. Plus my newsletters were so BORING.
It took my awhile to find the formula that works best for me.
Let me know what is going on with yours.
Hi Dawn,
Loved the article on the importance of your e-mail list.
Very informative and inspiring.