No matter what your online business model is, building a mailing list should be part of it.
For all of the online business ventures that I’ve been a part of, email marketing has always stood out as the most profitable traffic source. I personally created a long-lasting, full time income, seeded from a small mailing list of just a few hundred subscribers and none of my businesses would be nearly as profitable as they are today, without email marketing.
In this post, you’ll learn exactly why it’s time to start building a mailing list and you’ll discover the two factors that separate awesome mailing lists from weak ones.
Why Email Marketing Rocks
We’ve covered some of the technical aspects of email marketing in a previous post. In this post, let’s look at why and how to make use of email marketing, starting with the top reasons to begin building a mailing list right now:
1) The Permission Marketing Asset
The core of successful email marketing is permission: every subscriber is a subscriber because they want to be one. On the flip-side, the minute someone no longer wants to be a subscriber, they can opt out.
Every one of your subscribers should know why they are receiving emails from you, know what to expect and know that they can opt out at any time. Ideally, your subscribers actually look forward to your emails, so that you have not just permission, but enthusiastic permission to send your messages.
This permission is a very important aspect of email marketing, because it turns a subscriber- or customer-list into an asset unlike any other. Most online business assets are very fickle: your Google rankings can change from one moment to the next, AdWords, Facebook and other advertising platforms keep changing their rules and banning accounts and a website that’s valuable today can be worthless tomorrow.
Permission, on the other hand, is between you and each individual subscriber you have. Permission can be withdrawn by each individual subscriber, but it can’t be collectively wiped out by some third-party service.
In short: a mailing list is the most valuable and the longest-lasting online business asset you can own.
2) Traffic
You may notice that on IM Impact, the RSS feed is not very prominently promoted. And neither are my twitter, facebook and Google+ profiles. In fact, for a very long time, I didn’t advertise my RSS feed at all, even though that’s usually a standard thing to do on a blog. Instead, I strongly advertise the signup forms that lead to my mailing list.
The reason is simple: while it’s nice to have RSS subscribers, twitter followers etc., I’d much rather have a few more email subscribers. Email subscribers are massively more responsive than followers on any other channel. The social channels are always busy with loads of other messages and in social media, it’s normal and expected to ignore most of the noise. How many tweets from your twitter feed do you read and how many do you miss?
Email, on the other hand, is much more rarely ignored. With email, it’s possible to get 30% or more of your subscribers to click through on a link you send. Of course, this can also be a lot worse, depending on the size of your list, the nature of your messages, your subject line and many other factors. However, even a relatively low response rate on an email list will still be far better than an average response rate on social media channels.
Nothing has “on tap traffic” potential like a good mailing list.
3) Responsiveness
Emails can lead to many clicks, but what happens after the click is even more important and that’s where email marketing truly shines. As an example, my subscriber-exclusive weekly updates usually only receive traffic from my mailing list, yet they often receive dozens of comments (there are even some with more than 100 comments). On the other hand, there are posts on this blog that receive a continuous stream of traffic from Google, but virtually no new comments are ever made.
A few hundred visitors from a mailing list easily interact with your site more than thousands of visitors from Google ever will.
The same is also true for sales. I have products for which the conversion rate from emails is more than 10x the conversion rate from organic search traffic. Same product, same sales-page, same price. The only difference is in the traffic source.
4) Content Flexibility
You can send almost anything you want, via email. Do you want to send long, detailed articles, sharing loads of content? No problem.
Or would you rather just drop a quick note and add a link or two? Also no problem.
With email, you can send a simple text message or a professionally styled newsletter with images and all sorts of fancy elements and you can link to your blog, affiliate products, landing pages or anything else you want.
Compare that to twitter, facebook & co, where you are very limited in both message format and message length. On social platforms, your message needs to fit third party requirements. With email marketing, you can tailor your message for optimal conversion rates, without having to worry about too many limitations.
Strong vs. Weak Email Lists
Through my various products, I’ve had the privilege of experiencing many email promotions by many different affiliates. When it comes to affiliates, the Pareto principle applies: 80% of your sales will be generated by 20% of your affiliates. And the interesting thing is that often, those strongest 20% of affiliates are not the ones with the biggest names or the biggest mailing lists.
What matters is not the size of a mailing list, but the amount of subscriber attention a marketer has. What can you do to make sure that your own mailing list will be among the strong ones, rather than the weak ones?
The first and most obvious step is not to abuse your subscribers. Don’t write emails that you would not be happy to receive yourself. So far, so simple. Beyond that, there are three elements that will make your mailing list super responsive.
Both of them are often misunderstood and both are not nearly as difficult to implement as most people think.
Offering Value
Your mailing list will work best if you understand what your subscribers want and have something of value to offer them.
Does that mean you have to be an expert in your field and you have to be able to produce a constant stream of incredible content? No, not at all.
Providing your own, high quality expert content is just one of many options and it’s not the only way to provide value to your subscribers. For example, take AppSumo or any of the other countless “daily deal” type sites. AppSumo is an email marketing based company. They only send emails about new offers. They don’t have to come up with innovative new content ideas. They don’t have to write expert opinion pieces. They don’t have to worry about finding a balance between sending promotional and non-promotional emails. All they do is send promotions for special deals, because that’s exactly what their subscribers want.
Similarly, you can provide value by sending coupons, links to special offers, or links to some of the best content in your niche (even if it’s created by other people and even if it’s non-promotional). For original content, you can do interviews and “borrow” other people’s expertise.
There are countless easy ways to provide value to your subscribers. All you need to do is make it clear what it is that you will be offering, before people sign up and then keep providing what you promised.
Having a Unique Voice
AppSumo is a good example for another reason as well: even though all they do is promote products, they do so in a unique way. Their emails are typically written in a very casual and entertaining style; a style that is unique to them.
Just like any business, if you want to take your email marketing to the next level, you need some form of USP. There needs to be a reason for people to be subscribed to your newsletter, instead of any other newsletter in your niche.
My way of doing this is tied closely to the work I do with online video. I frequently post videos of myself, usually talking very frankly and informally about what I’m up to, about lessons I’ve learned during my online ventures and about anything else that I feel is highly useful for my subscribers to hear about.
As the AppSumo example shows, creating personal videos like that is not the only way to have a unique voice (it just happens to be the way I personally prefer). When you write your emails, record your interviews or create your videos, don’t filter yourself. Don’t be formal and don’t try to conform to the kind of things other marketers are doing. Dare to be different. Some people will be put off by it, but the others will love you for it.
And it’s always better to have a small group of fans than to have a large group of lukewarm subscribers.
Automation
The third element is automation. When a new subscriber signs up, they shouldn’t just receive whichever email you happen to send next. Instead, you should send them a few automated welcome emails. Any autoresponder service will make it easy for you to create an schedule emails like that, which will be automatically sent at specific intervals, after a new subscriber has signed up.
On a very basic level, you can simply send a few emails introducing yourself and your site or your products or whatever else you have to offer. Once the welcome emails have run their course, the new subscribers will receive your regular email broadcasts, just like everyone else. I’ve tested welcome sequences extensively and they can more than double the responsiveness of your subscribers, compared to just dropping them into the pool of your regular subscribers, right away.
You can take this concept even further by creating very long series of automated emails. In fact, you can completely automate your email marketing, using follow-up sequences. Write out all of your mails (promotional and non-promotional), put them all in an automated sequence and every new subscriber will follow the same “story”, at the same pace.
It’s Too Much Work and it Takes Too Long!
I guarantee you that that’s what at least 50% of the people reading this are thinking, right now.
Everyone who knows anything about online marketing knows that email marketing is hugely profitable. Everyone knows that if you have a mailing list with thousands of loyal fans, you never have to worry about your income. Everyone knows that the closest thing you can get to click-of-a-button money is having an awesome mailing list.
And still, most Internet marketers never even attempt email marketing. Because it’s “too difficult” and because it’s “too time consuming”.
And that’s a good thing, for you. Just like online video, email marketing is something that seems difficult until you actually start doing it and discover that it’s not nearly as complicated as you thought. But most people never get to that point. Most people make excuses and give up before taking the first step.
If you start building a mailing list, you’re immediately unique and you immediately leave many competitors behind. If you add video to the mix, you’re immediately in a tiny, elite minority. And if you also treat your subscribers well, offer them value and have a unique voice… well, then you’re one in a million!
Remember: obstacles are there to keep your competition back.
In just a few days, I’ll be revealing a tool that I’ve spent a lot of time developing and that I specifically created to help me build my list faster and more effectively. If you aren’t on my mailing list yet, make sure to subscribe using the form below, to receive an early announcement and special offer for this upcoming product.
But regardless of whether you are a subscriber of mine or not and of whether you’re interested in my upcoming product or not: now is the time to start building your mailing list and getting into email marketing.
Resources
- Aweber – good basic autoresponder service. Good to get started with and very affordable.
- Easiest and quickest way to create a freebie product, to use as a signup incentive.
- Autoresponders, What Are They Good For? – blog post about autoresponders and spam.
- The New Traffic Paradigm – blog post about the way forward for online marketers.
P.S.: If you have any questions about email marketing, please ask by leaving a comment below! And if you liked this post, I’d appreciate it if you’d share it on twitter, facebook or G+!
Please Share this Post!
Could not agree more with you on this point, Shane! I nag and bully my subscribers in nearly every post I write to start a list and build a relationship with that list. There’s no better way to “Google-Proof” your business.
Great Post!
Norma
Hi Norma,
Exactly. If I had never started with list building, my business would have suffered massively from the most recent Google updates. I lost lots of income on many niche sites. Mainly thanks to my mailing list and my own products, I’m not really bothered by that, though. :)
Excellent post, thank you Shane.
My experience with my list was a real eye opener to me. I never expected that high rate of responsiveness before building the list. And today the feedback of my subscribers builds the essence to develop new products – for them.
Reading this comment just reminded me of my own eye-opening experience: I remember back when I had just started building a list and I had only about 100 subscribers. I sent out a survey and got 22 responses to the survey! I knew that if I had just posted that to my blog, I would have been lucky to get a single response! I was definitely a believe in email marketing, after that. :)
Shane, thank you very much for all the quality information out here. Content quality and the overall site layout itself is out-standing!
Cheers,
Sumit
Hi Shane
I couldn’t agree more with you and believe that email is the marketers ‘Swiss Knife’ from his arsenal of online tools ;)
I am just re-writing my autoreponder list for what will be my future subscribers list when I eventually get to finishing this product.
One question – do you think that your blog is the best way to get subscribers, or through selling products and asking for opt-ins for future updates etc?
Or even the squeeze page with the free report?
Which method brings in the most responsive customers do you think??
Many thanks for another great post :)
(I love the bit about the ‘Remember: obstacles are there to keep your competition back.’)
Nice one !!
xxxxcarlxxxx
Hi Carl,
You should collect leads wherever you can. Blog, squeeze pages with freebies, webinars, products… it’s all good.
As a general rule, the most responsive contacts will be customers who have bought a product of yours (provided the product is awesome), but that’s no reason to neglect other channels. Someone who signs up for a freebie might turn into your biggest fan and buy all your stuff at a later point in time.
Thanks Shane
I am looking forward to building my list.
Do you have separate list for these different entry points to your list or just have one big list?
cheers
xxxxcarlxxxx
Hey Shane,
I would agree email marketing is an effective means to sell and showcase your products and or services but I fear it’s a dying means of communication. Text messaging seems to be the new email marketing. Maybe I am wrong but it seems people do not read email as much as they use to? Yes I read your email and that’s how I arrived here but I have read articles recently that suggest text messaging is more beneficial because people tend to open and read a text message within an average of 4 seconds whereas email its a much longer period of time passes before the email is read, thats assuming its read at all.
Not being the devils advocate but more or less wanting to discuss further the parallels and differences between the two as an effective means of communication.
And thanks for the email ;)
Chris
Hey Chris,
That’s definitely an important point. The way I see it, the future is more and more mobile, but the mobile devices are becoming more and more like desktop devices themselves. Even now, you can reach most smartphone users via email or via text.
Text currently has a better response rate because it’s not being used and abused for marketing purposes that much. If text-message marketing becomes more commonplace, response rates will go down. More importantly, someone who’s phone number you have can be considered a lead and they will probably read any text message you send, but it’s probably still easier to makes sales via email. No one’s going to read a really long text on a phone and not that many purchases are made from a phone.
I see text messages as part of the category “follow-up marketing”. The basic principle is the same: you want to get contact details and permission, then provide value etc.
Bottom line: mobile is interesting, but email is still far from dying out.
Terrific post, Shane – maybe one of your best in my opinion, except you have one glaring ‘mistake’… your estimation that 50% of marketers believe “It’s Too Much Work and it Takes Too Long!”
I’ve had the wonderful benefit of marketing training courses, and running an IM support forum for a few years. As such, I’ve taught & watched literally thousands of people as they try to develop and build an internet marketing business.
In spite of pointing out precisely what you’ve said in your post, and emphasizing (and re-emphasizing) the importance of it, my rough ‘thumbnail’ approximation would be that AT LEAST 75% – 3 out of 4 IM’ers – DO NOT TAKE LIST-BUILDING SERIOUSLY.
And it usually isn’t until it’s “too late” when they figure it out – too late as in, they’ve squandered the opportunity to capture all that they did up to that ‘lightbulb’ moment.
Great stuff!
Michael
Ouch, that’s worse than I thought, then.
I have to admit that even I had some initial resistance to email marketing. But I soon started noticing many marketers saying things like “I wish I had started email marketing sooner…” and I took the hint.
There are lots of variables in email list effectiveness. Not all products lend themselves to ongoing marketing. Not everyone can do the creative part well. Delivery rate, open rate, click rate, conversion rate, need I go on =8~).
In IM, yes it is very effective and certainly worth the effort. But it also does involve a lot of time and effort whether effective or not.
It’s similar to creating your own product, some can do it well, most can’t.
I do hate being so dependent on SEO and my close personal friends at Google. But that’s all part of the program. You have to be like the the US Marines… Improvise, Adapt, Overcome!
Hmmm… do you have an example of a business where email marketing wouldn’t work?
There might be some, but I think for most businesses, even the simplest follow-up marketing strategy would prove profitable.
I also have to add that I don’t believe in “some can, some can’t” anymore. The distinction is almost always “some have practiced a lot, some haven’t”, in reality.
Fads or the latest bs product is a very good example. When they are hot, they’re hot but they fade fast. And yes, you can go to the next one but it’s often a whole new ball game.
Another is any product that people choose bad keywords since they don’t understand how to do proper research. And you often see solutions in search of a problem that rarely do well. And I see them all the time. I also see people invest a huge amount of time, money, and effort on these ventures.
I see people with mailing lists that never produce since they are so poorly managaged. Copywriting is both an art and a science that many never understand.
The money may be in the mailing lists but only for those who get it. And how do you build your list? Traffic, organic or paid. And you end up paying for organic these days in one way or another.
I’m not trying to throw rocks at people who want to succeed, I’m just stating that the reality is very few people do unless they take the time and effort to learn how. They spend their time buying shiney new products that will do it all for them with little effort.
And there are a ton of people doing very well with no mailing list.
That’s something I’ll never disagree with. :)
It’s definitely a skill that needs to be built and cultivated.
Hi Shane
I agree with your sentiments about the social networks. Seems to me their value is in feeding people to our websites and mailing lists, not in having our websites feed our social media.
Given the value of having peeps sign up to your mailing list, and the minimal value that you’ve found comes from social media compared to email list building, have you considered doing away with RSS, fb, Twits, et al altogether on your site.
If that was the case, surely more people would subscribe to your email list because that was the only option available. A bit like the squeeze page principle if you like.
I would really appreciate your views on this.
cheers
Leo
The problem with doing away with social media is that it can be a massive free traffic source, especially if you can create compelling content that people are likely to share.
If you ONLY capture an email address then you have one new lead that you can turn into a fan over time. If you can, however, tap into the friends of this new lead, all of a sudden you place your brand in front of (in many cases) hundreds of her friends and associates. All for the same expense of capturing that initial lead.
“I agree with your sentiments about the social networks. Seems to me their value is in feeding people to our websites and mailing lists, not in having our websites feed our social media.”
I agree that the value of social media is to get people to our web sites and mailing lists. But, one of the most effective ways of doing this is by creating truly excellent content and leveraging your mailing list to spark an initial sharing flurry that will bring in new traffic and subscribers. Over time this creates a snowball effect. Without that initial push, it’s very hard to get any kind of social media traction going.
Thanks Paul, this is a very helpful reply. I appreciate your taking the time to write this.
cheers
Leo
Adding to Paul’s reply above: I have seen sites that were 100% focused on getting the lead. No sharing options, no affiliate links etc.
I think this is something that can work, especially if the subscribers are invited to follow your social media stuff in one (or several) of the follow-up emails.
However, having primary and secondary conversion goals works quite well, in my experience.
The primary goal on this site is to get subscribers. But for existing subscribers and people who simply aren’t interested in signing up, there are some secondary options, such as the social media stuff.
I deliberately don’t have too many possible goals on the site, though. I avoid having banner ads or AdSense in my content, for example. There can definitely be too much and it’s a question of testing, to find the right balance.
Only thing I am wondering always is , you rarely sell something on your emails. So how its helping you in marketing.
And for that reason, your emails are always opened by me and (may be every others).
-G
I created a video here, answering just this question: how to promote without being salesy. :)
Great post Shane and something that I couldn’t agree with more.
Fortunately from my brick and mortar business experience I knew how important (and valuable) it was to build a database of names that I could re-market to. When I moved to marketing online it was a total no-brainer that the first priority is to collect names and emails, and build my audience (tribe).
When I owned my model train site we built a 13,000+ list of subscribers and converted over 4,000 of those into paid members ($27/mo).
The paid members where then offered to make money with the product by becoming an affiliate. I then built an affiliate list of over 500 and then trained them via the autoresponder to sell. This affiliate list was so effective, that affiliates eventually became my only traffic source.
Last month I sold that site for 6 figures and the lists were the major asset. Hopefully people get your message because it is incredibly important to building a saleable business.
Cheers
Ian McConnell
Western Australia
That sounds like a great business you built there – Congratulations!
Thanks for the post. Building a list is now something in the pipeline that i hadn’t given that much thought about before.
Definitely agree. I recently finished Andre Chaperons Autoresponder madness product which was mind changing for me. Teaches how to build diehard highly responsive lists that convert 10-20x more than the gurus with big lists. Will be curious what product you have.
Shane
In a post above you said:
“Hmmm… do you have an example of a business where email marketing wouldn’t work?
There might be some, but I think for most businesses, even the simplest follow-up marketing strategy would prove profitable.”
Do you have any ideas for a mailing list when you have an Amazon review site? How would we get an optin and not lose the business we would get with the review?
Hi Joe,
I’ll add my two cents to this one. Shane may have a better answer than me when he replies, though.
A simple in-depth free e-book about a product or a range of products that contains your affiliate links would be a great way to capture leads without losing business.
You still have your standard review pages, as before, with affiliate links to Amazon, but you also have an additional sidebar, footer or popover opt-in box with an in-depth guide either on the particular product that the site is based on, or on “how to make sure you make the right decision when choosing x” if the sites has a range of products based on a specific category.
Combine this with a suitable followup series and I’m sure you’ll boost conversions.
I’m assuming the review site would be on a specific topic, yes? My approach is this: the site features reviews of products in a niche as well as some info-content fitting for the niche. In addition, I’d either write a short report myself or see if there are any affiliate programs with free reports available as promo tools and I’d offer that in exchange for the opt-in.
You can target different segments with the report and the reviews. For example, let’s say it’s a lawnmower review site. The report could be about “Lawnmower Maintenance: How to Make Your Mower Last 5x Longer” or something like that. People who are just looking for some confirmation that a specific lawnmower model is decent will land on your review and then click through to the vendor. People who are looking for more in-depth info or aren’t decided yet are more likely to be interested in the report.
Also consider this: someone who signs up to your list instead of clicking on an affiliate link is not “lost” to you. On the contrary: you’ve gained the option of staying in touch with them! And since you know they were looking for a lawnmower, you know they probably have a garden. Result: practically unlimited gardening related products that can be promoted.
Really productive Discussion. I enjoyed post will all comments. Mainly I liked Shane’s reply.
Thanks
Alex
Thanks Shane, another amazing post.
Your are helping many marketers to build their own profitable business online.
I have one question that is not related to this post. What do you do to show an image in your Recent Post Widget?
There is also another very important aspect of building a mailing list and that is how you position your opt-in form. One strategic place to place your form is after your posts and on the sidebar. You can also place your form on pages that are most visited such as the about page.
I agree with what one comment said, the best way to stop worrying about the Google updates is by creating an opt-in list.
I agree. I see so many companies with no email lists, and that aren’t trying to build one. It is so beneficial to have a list of emails to send updates and promotions from your company to. It can drive a lot of traffic to your site, and generate a number of sales at a low cost.
Shane, i was looking some stats at https://www.google.com/adplanner/, i a saw that you have 50% of the traffic that problogger.net gets. Your blog is one of the biggest in the internet marketing field. Your list is, I bet, some of the most responsive between all email lists. Other great site advertise http://www.searchenginejournal.com/advertising/4071/, this could add good 15 thousand dollars each month to your bank account.
This comment isnt to be accepted, but i guess such a valuable site could talk about good products, like seomoz and semrush, that give recurring affiliate payments and are great products.
I think you should market other great products, not just yours.
It’s a challenge to market to your audience using email marketing. I remember doing it for the first time, it was a disaster. But then I learned how to do it and now I can easily achieve 00% conversions from the usage of email marketing.
Email marketing is truly a goldmine and free traffic!
Hi Shane good read as usual. I agree email subscribers are good but social media should not be ignored. Just like a subscriber a Facebook or Twitter follower is a volunteer too. The problem with social media for the most part is that most companies don’t interact with their followers. I’m actually working on something now to see how many companies (from a hand picked list) respond to followers that reach out to them on Twitter and Facebook. Social media is about being sociable…sounds silly to have to say it but most companies fail at being sociable on social media. If you look at the resent election in the US both candidates used social media but both failed at social media because their interactions or lack of were one sided. If you send links to Twitter or post updates on Facebook but fail to communicate with those that respond eventually your followers will just tune you out. There are some really cool social media tools available to help find influential follower and engage them. commun.it is one such tool. I actually promote companies (or learning to) with social media giveaways and I’m trying to find ways to educate my sponsors on ways to make better use of social media. I can bring social media followers to a company but if they don’t engage them it is all for nothing. Do you think you could look into social media tools to make better use of social media too? I would love to see your no BS approach to social media tools.
Hi Steve,
I absolutely agree with you. And I’m aware that social media is potentially a huge asset to almost any business. Personally, I’ve always rather neglected it, but there’s a simple reason for that: whatever it is that fascinates people about social media simply doesn’t work on me. It’s like social media and me speak different languages.
But I’m trying to better myself. And yes: I would love to look at various social media tools and do a comparison of them. I’ve already signed up to and started playing around with a couple and doing a review of them is on my to-do list.
The reason I emphasize the importance of email marketing vs. social media is the “noise” factor. Email is personal, for you and even though people have a lot of noise in their inboxes, the general idea is that every email is for you and you pay some amount of attention to it.
Compare that to twitter, where it’s all noise and the normal thing to do is to ignore 90% of it.
Hi Shane I agree with you 100% on email and social media. You have to find a way past the noise. Twitter is not very good for getting the word out because only 23% of all Twitter user even read Twitter. The trick is to find the 23%. Crowdbooster actually looks at your twitter followers activity and can tell you when the majority of your users are actually on Twitter looking at tweets. crowdbooster recommends that I post just before or after 1pm 6pm and 11 pm (my time) based on impressions and clicks. commun.it keeps track of you most influential followers so you know who to follow back and who to ignore. Also helps you respond or interact with your influential followers. You might not have thousands of followers but a retweet by an influential follower can extend your reach on Twitter by thousands of users. As for Facebook I would recommend a Facebook group. Any links posted in a group will remain there and a group member can pop in at anytime to see what is new. You can also have live discussions in a group much like a forum. A Facebook group is Facebook without the noise. I look forward to your insights to see what you come up with.