Imagine starting your social media accounts, posting regularly, and growing your following to almost 100k. Then one day, you wake up, and everything is gone. The only option is to start all over again.

As a business owner, this could be you. As unlikely as this scenario may seem, it’s always a risk to be reliant on other platforms to connect you to your audience. But email marketing is different. It’s the marketing channel that gives you control over your contacts and audience. Unlike social media, diligently building your email list doesn’t come with as many risks. Since it’s essentially your asset and not owned by another platform, you have more control over your ability to market to your audience. 

But let’s dig deeper by looking at what exactly an email list is and why it’s so important for your overall marketing success. 

What is an Email List?

An email list is your business’s collection of email addresses and contact information of individuals who signed up to receive your email correspondence. When prospects and customers opt into your email marketing, it means they are open to receiving your messages and are interested in your brand.

With an email list, you can send out email campaigns to your subscribers, communicating with them directly and nurturing long, trustworthy customer relationships.

Why You Should Build Your Email List

Some business owners wait too long to start building their email list. Small business owners stall because they believe an email list and email marketing are for big organizations, while some wait till they see other businesses reaping the benefits of email marketing before taking action.

Irrespective of where your business is, below are reasons why you should build your email list now if you haven’t begun already.

1. Email is a Direct Communication Channel

Unlike other platforms where algorithms determine your content visibility, an email list lets you communicate directly with prospects, leads, customers, and subscribers without any interference. You have a direct line into their inbox, and that’s an invaluable method for engaging with interested prospects. 

2. Your Email List is Yours

Except in the cases where you are converting your social media followers into subscribers, any change in algorithm and policies may mean losing visibility, followers, or even losing your account and all of the information associated with it. With an email list, irrespective of the email client you use and the platform, your email list is yours.

You can keep communicating with subscribers so long as you are not sending spam and unsolicited emails.

3. It’s a Sustainable Marketing Channel

Ray Tomlinson sent the first email in 1971, opening the doors of electronic messaging to the world and changing how we communicate. Since then, the number of email users has grown exponentially to four billion.

In the last couple of decades, social media platforms like MySpace, Ping, and Open Diary were launched and have lost their relevance. Different social media platforms keep springing up, and it can be hard to keep up with each.

While taking advantage of relevant social media platforms to engage your audience is great, you don’t want to run your business on probabilities. Email marketing, on the other hand, is a sustainable marketing channel for your business because it’s already proven it’s not some passing fad.

4. Access to Email Metrics and Analytics

There’s a wealth of data and insights that email marketing offers. You can discover what resonates with your audience and what you need to improve with an email list and regular email correspondence. As a result, you can create optimized content for conversion and success.

Email metrics like open rate, unsubscribe rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, and conversion rate help you identify what’s working for your audience. And when you utilize an email marketing automation tool, you automatically have access to this information.

5. Contact Segmentation

Owning an email list and choosing email marketing lets you leverage segmentation to optimize and tailor your content to your audience’s needs. With email segmentation, you can make each email relevant to the individual receiving it, making your subscribers feel valued and therefore increasing engagement.

Tips for Maintaining Your Email List

When you build your email list, it’s vital that you maintain it to keep your metrics up and engagement going. List maintenance involves regularly analyzing your email list for contact duplicates, inactive and dormant contacts, and making sure the contacts in your email list are good fits for your business.

To keep your email list in top shape, perform the following:

• Connect instantly with new subscribers by sending welcome emails. Automate the process to avoid repetitively doing the same.
• Stay away from buying email lists from third parties; build your email list organically, as that will ensure your list is filled with real people who want to hear from you. 
• Let subscribers choose the type of emails they want to receive and the frequency, if possible. This can be done by including a simple poll in your welcome email.
• Remove contacts with inactive email addresses. With Benchmark Email, our Smart Sending feature does that for you, which helps improve your sender score. 
• For dormant and non-engaged subscribers, segment them into a group and try re-engaging them with a re-engagement campaign. For contacts who refuse to re-engage, delete them from your list to keep your email list in top shape and improve email deliverability.
• Make it easy for contacts to unsubscribe from your list by including an unsubscribe button in your emails.

Building your email list gives you direct access to contacts interested in your brand, products, and services. It’s an invaluable resource that gives you absolute control, so long as you practice healthy email sending. Start building your email list today by signing up for a free account with Benchmark Email.