If you’re new (or newer) in business, you may have heard that you need to be “building your list”, or “the money is in the list” or any variation thereof. So let me take a minute today to explain to you exactly what this means, and why there’s so much emphasis on this business-building strategy. Think of this article as your list building overview!
Why Building An Email List Is Important
Before you can set about bringing in new subscribers every day (a.k.a. building your email list) you need to understand why this is such an important business building strategy.
If…
- You’re struggling to get clients
- Your income looks more like a ride on a theme park roller coaster
- Not enough people buy your products or register for your programs
- You’re losing confidence in your ability to build your business
Then…
You need to create a BIG email list, which means you need to have a plan in place to bring in new subscribers EVERY DAY. And your subscribers need to be highly targeted, meaning that you don’t want just anyone on your list, but you want people who have a specific problem that they want solving, and which your services/products/programs can solve for them.
So, before you put any list building strategies in place you need to be really clear on who your ideal clients are and what the problems your business solves for them. Then, in your marketing and list building activities you can speak directly to that group of people.
It’s Simply A Numbers Game
Ever wonder how the big guys manage to have six-figure launches? Or sell a ton of products? Or fill their live events?
It’s not because they have a better product than you. Or are more of an “expert” than you. Or any other reason you care to come up with.
It’s simply because they have a bigger email list.
They have a BIG pool of subscribers who are their ideal clients. So when they make an offer to their subscribers more people sign up.
Let’s Do The Math…
Let’s make some assumptions based on industry averages* for email marketing to professional services business to business sector…
- Email open rate = 20%
- Email click through rate (subscribers who open your email click through to whatever you’re directing them to) = 3%
- Conversion rate (subscribers who click the link in your email and then take action on your offer) = 4%
So, let’s just look at those first two numbers — opens and click throughs. On an email list size of:
- 500 subscribers: open rate = 100 subscribers, click through rate = 3 subscribers
- 5,000 subscribers: open rate = 1,000 subscribers, click through rate = 30 subscribers
- 50,000 subscribers: open rate = 10,000 subscribers, click through rate = 300 subscribers
Now, before you feel despondent by some of these numbers, just a few things for you to note here:
- These numbers are on a single email broadcast – not an entire launch campaign.
- This is an industry average number. Your own numbers may be different (which is why it’s important to track your stats too). You need to know how YOUR business is performing.
But you get the picture… it all comes down to numbers!
1,000 Subscribers — The Tipping Point
There is a ‘magic number’ when it comes to building your list. If you can work your way torwards gettting your first 1,000 subscribers you’ll see things start to snowball after that. You’ll see more results from the offers you make, more interaction between yourself and your subscribers, and you’ll find once you’ve got some basic list building strategies in place, you’ll start to draw new subscribers to you every day.
However, before you go rushing off to work on your list building, let me just say that with all this talk of list building and numbers etc. remember that at the end of every email address is a person. Your first priority should be to build your relationship with that person, so consider that with every email that you send out. How is it building your relationship with your subscriber?
So now that you know a little more about email marketing and why it’s important that you have new subscribers EVERY DAY where are you struggling with your list building activities?
