5 Reasons You Need An Email List For Your Online Business

Having an email list is vital for the success of your Online Business. It’s a well-known fact that the money is in the list!

However, many newbie bloggers overlook this very important step of starting an email list when setting up their Online Business.

Why Do You Need An Email List?

Following are five big reasons that you need an email list for your Online Business:

Ownership
Personalization
Trust and Credibility
Targeted Marketing
Value

1. Ownership

Your blog and your email list are two components of your Online Business that you will own and have control of, which is very important!

Together, these two components form the Foundation of your Online Business.

Your accounts on various Internet platforms—Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube—are not really your accounts. You are just utilizing the platforms for your business; you do not own your accounts, pages, or any part of the channels.

Just think about how hard you’ve worked to get those likes, followers, views, and subscribers (along with the trust you’ve built with them).

What would happen to your Online Business if, one day without warning, those platforms shut down? You would have no more contacts, no more fans, no more audience to whom you speak. Without an audience, your business would come to a standstill!

If your account on one of the platforms was shut down for some reason, you could just create a new one…but without an email list, you couldn’t redirect your audience to it.

This actually happened with one of the platforms, leaving many Online Business owners very worried! The ones who had an email list were able to communicate with their subscribers and carry on with business as usual.

Further, by having an email list, you don’t have to worry about ever-changing algorithms. You can connect directly with your audience whenever you want, versus just hoping they see your content on social media.

2. Personalization

Communicating with your subscribers, directly to their inbox, is so much more personalized than in a community. Your emails make them feel like you’re speaking directly to them vs. in a group of many others.

3. Trust And Credibility

Your subscribers signed up to your email list for a reason. By creating a schedule for sending emails (ie, at least once per week), you can remind them about your website and product(s), which will eventually lead them to a purchase.

However, to get there, you’ll first need to nurture your subscribers. If they hear from you on a regular basis, you’ll build trust and credibility for your business. Over time, this will create a relationship between you and your subscribers.

This nurturing should be ongoing, not just a once and done. The more your subscribers hear from you, the more they’ll see you as an authority (expert) in your niche. Ultimately, this will lead them to purchase a product or service that you are reviewing or offering.

4. Targeted Marketing

By owning your list, in addition to marketing to your subscribers anytime you want, you can also market anything you want!

Ideas for emails could include information and strategies, productivity tips, step-by-step how-to’s, or simply inspiration and motivation.

After nurturing them, as mentioned, your subscribers will get to know you, like you, and trust you enough to purchase from you. The purchase process can be started with a freebie, usually a printable, eventually leading to a paid product.

Many Email Service Providers (ESPs) allow you to segment your list so that you can target market products/services to only those who are interested in them.

5. Value

Eighty percent of retailers will tell you that email is their most cost-effective marketing tool. Having subscribers’ email reduces their need to pay for ads, monitor social media platforms, or run a blog, giving them the best bang for their buck.

That’s why it’s imperative that you don’t rely on social media followers, but instead cultivate an email list that you will own.

envelope inside blue button create an email list asap

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How To Start An Email List

The first thing you’ll need to do is choose an Email Service Provider.

The good thing is that some ESPs allow you to test their platform for free, up to a certain number of subscribers. Once you reach that threshold, you can then decide if you want to stay on with that provider by upgrading to their paid program, or move on to a different ESP.

Recommended Email Service Providers

After doing my research, I recommend signing up for one of the following ESPs:

MailerLite
Active Campaign
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

You can choose either one, but many new bloggers start with MailerLite. You should read about each of them, and ask for opinions inside your Facebook Groups.

MailerLite

Sign up for your FREE MailerLite account!

Free up to 1,000 subscribers;
Paid plans from $9/month
Great customer support

Active Campaign

Sign up for your FREE Active Campaign Trial!

Paid plans start at $15/month
Free services with any plan—active training, contact migration, workshops, tutorials, etc.

Kit (Formerly ConvertKit)

Sign up for your FREE Kit account!

Recommended by many bloggers!
Free trial, no credit card required, cancel anytime.

How To Get Email Subscribers

As a new blogger, you need to start an email list shortly after launching your blog. That way, you can nurture the readers who have found your blog as a result of looking for answers to their problem.

Your email list will consist of people who are interested in

your Niche, your message, your voice…your brand!

Your readers are looking for a solution, and by staying in contact with them via email, you’re feeding them with the information that they need to be able to solve their problem.

But, you may be wondering how to get people to sign up to your email list.

Offer Freebies Your Readers Will Want/Need

In addition to consistently providing valuable, helpful content, rather than just saying, “Join my email list” or “Sign up for my newsletter,” you can offer freebies to your readers in exchange for their email address.

Freebies can be a checklist, a worksheet, or anything that is helpful to the reader and relevant to the blog post on which it’s offered. You can create these items with the use of Canva for a very affordable price.

Make Your Free (and Future Paid) Products Irresistible

Try to make your freebie as enticing as possible, so your readers are more than willing to provide their email address in order to get their hands on your valuable freebie.

They have a pain point or problem, they’re looking for help/solutions, and you’re giving them the information, inspiration, and motivation that they’re looking for.

So, when you’re creating your free products, you need to really hone in on their problem, figure out exactly what it will take to catch their attention, and make them want to opt-in for your free offer and email list.

To provide further help to your readers, you need to send them emails with more information on a weekly or, at minimum, bi-weekly basis. By doing so, your readers will come to know, like, and trust you.

After nurturing your readers for awhile by providing free valuable content, when you eventually offer your paid products, they’ll be more likely to buy from you!

Promote Other Products To Your List

In addition to marketing your own paid products to your email list, you can also promote other people’s or companies’ products that will be helpful to your reader.

This is known as Affiliate Marketing. You can find information about it in The Guide (see below). Otherwise, there are many Affiliate Marketing tutorials available on YouTube.

The Guide

When I started answering (vs. just asking) questions in Facebook Groups, I realized that I needed to share what I’ve learned about Online Business.

So, in an effort to help others, I created EMPTY NESTER MOM To .com (The Guide).

spiral bound online business guide empty nester mom to .com

The Guide has five sections that outline the path I followed to start my Online Business, and can help catapult you from stuck to start:

FOUNDATION
CONTENT
PROMOTION
MONETIZATION
MINDSET

Ready To Set Up Your Blog?

After you:

Purchase Equipment
Get The Guide
Choose Your Niche
Define Your Avatar
Name Your Website

…you’re ready to set up your blog!

Hosting Provider/Content Platform

The next step is to give your blog a place to live on the Internet:

Sign up with Web Hosting Service—Bluehost

When you sign up with Bluehost, it includes a FREE 1-click install of WordPress.org as your content platform. If you have any problems along the way, Bluehost has great 24/7 customer support. They’ve been a trusted provider since 2003!

Legal Pages For Your Website

As mentioned in this post, once you have your blog set up, a very important next step is to get these Legal Pages on your website to protect your Online Business.