For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect to make $42 on average. Is this a kind of return your business is willing to throw away?
Email marketing is a critical component of your overall digital marketing strategy. Due to the fact that the people who sign up to your email list are in effect, allowing you to message them, you stand a better chance of making a sale.
If you are wondering, “What is a mailing list?” then here is a guide to help you understand what such a list is and how it can benefit your business.
What Is a Mailing List?
Simply put, an email list is a collection of email addresses that a business gathers from its customers and prospects, to use when sending them periodic information.
The information you can send as a business includes your newsletter, discount offers, and other material related to your business. Unlike traditional post mail, an email list lets you send out an email to each subscriber in one go.
When you are building an email list, the quality of the information matters. Therefore, you need to source real data from real subscribers that look at their inboxes regularly.
The people who receive your email should also be interested in what you have to say for your list to make headway. Once you have the high-quality subscriber information from those interested in hearing from you, then you can focus on growing the subscriber base.
How Email Lists Are Critical for Your Business
Using technology to power how you reach your customers is nowadays a baseline operational requirement, and email lists help you achieve this. Some of the compelling benefits of using an email list include:
1. Personalization
Email is a personal form of engaging with your customers. As such, an email list offers you an opportunity to leverage personalization for great results.
When building your list, you can segment various subscribers according to the criteria that most matter to you. Using these preferences, you can send out information and offers that are specially tailor-made to meet their unique needs.
Being able to offer relevant solutions to a subscriber’s needs time and again can help you not only make sales but, more importantly, retain your customers.
The level of personalization you can achieve through a mail list is not just about what you say but also in how you say it.
For example, you can integrate each subscriber’s name in the content to make them feel you are speaking directly to them and not a massive amorphous crowd.
Such a touch tends to earn more attention from the subscriber for your current and future emails, which can set you above the pack as more businesses vie for the same subscriber’s inbox.
2. You Own the Land
Digital marketing platforms offer a unique opportunity for you to market your business. While there is immense value in this, there is always an unspoken, underlying risk – you don’t control the third party platform.
As such, there have been many cases where businesses have poured lots of money into such platforms only to lose them in one stroke.
When it comes to using email lists, you own the land and don’t build on rented digital property. Sure, you still need to rely on third-party email providers. But, you own the subscriber base, which is the most critical part of the asset.
Thus, as you plow your resources into growing and optimizing the list, you don’t need to fear losing it all due to a lack of control. You can, therefore, plan your marketing strategy with greater certainty to drive more leads and sales consistently.
3. There Is Customer Buy-In
Email lists are permission-based, and that fact holds one of the highest values when it comes to digital marketing. Since most subscribers give you consent to send them your message, they are more open to reading each email.
Due to this buy-in, you stand a higher chance of converting a reader into a customer since they are already showing a degree of interest in your offering.
The friction that comes in between you and the customer is reduced a bit, meaning you can not only find it easier to win clients but that retaining them also becomes easier to achieve with the right strategy.
4. You Can Introduce New Products With Less Resistance
Introducing a new product into the market is always an uphill task, no matter how high the reputation of your business. If you try to add to that the fact that you will be selling this new product to leads who are not yet buying from you, you have your work cut out for you.
One way you can ease the task of bringing that new product to market is by using an email list. As we have seen in the previous point, most subscribers give you permission to send them your emails.
Therefore, when it’s time to launch a new product, you will not be communicating with people who don’t care about your business. You can tap the buy-in you have with the subscribers on your list to generate interest that can give the latest entrant into your portfolio the traction it needs.
That is the reason why major brands like Amazon will continually send their subscribers an email about new products on offer no matter how successful they have become.
It is much cheaper to pitch a new offer to a customer who wants to hear from you than to try to win them over then convince them again about a new product.
Create a Direct Relationship With Your Customers
The email inbox is not dead. Businesses big and small rely on email marketing to deliver personalized messages to their customers for more effective campaigns.
An email list is the customer information tool you need to help you segment and target your subscribers effectively. Begin by asking and answering the question, “What is a mailing list?” to help you gain valuable insight on how you can optimize your email list for high conversion rates.
Sales Data Pro understands your need for high-value customer information to make informed sales decisions. Talk to us today for updated consumer data and internet leads you can access in real-time to fortify your sales strategy.