Why You Need to Take Your Email List Seriously

The short answer is: because your email list is your most important business asset. Your website, your social media, your outdoor marketing campaigns, your paid advertising – none of these surpass the efficiency your email marketing can have, today and in the long run.

But having an email list is not enough. It is a project that requires constant effort, and you simply can’t afford to treat it superficially. Here are three of the reasons.

Why you should handle your email list with care

It connects you to your customers

Sending emails to your (potential) customers is a little bit like visiting them in their home. By giving you their email address, they are inviting you into their inbox, which is their most intimate virtual space. It’s a place where you can start a conversation, exchange opinions and ideas, and build a meaningful relationship. That’s the number one reason why your email list is your most valuable asset.

Your email list stays, regardless of what happens outside of it

Remember six years ago, when the idea of boosting a Facebook post sounded rather strange? Those days are long gone. We have all witnessed the decline of the organic reach, which on Facebook is now about 2% and is expected to reach 0 (yes, zero) in the following years. On the other hand, no matter what happens on social media, your email list is here to stay.

ROI: $44 for every dollar spent

If used right, your email list will bring you the highest revenue. It’s a proven fact: email marketing is 136% more effective than all social media platforms combined.

Are you determined to take your email list seriously? Here are some of the actions you can take to improve your results:

Don’t think of its size

Many marketers tend to believe the quality of their email content should be directly proportional to the size of their email list. If they’ve just started it and they don’t have a lot of subscribers yet, they don’t feel motivated to write valuable emails, and this is a vicious circle that keeps holding them back. So, whether you have five or 50.000 subscribers, strive to offer them the same quality. The size of your email list will grow because of the quality of your content. Ryan Holiday started with a database of 90 people, and because he constantly offered them great content, he now has over 80.000 people on his list.

Take good care of it

What does that mean? Let’s see: you take care of your website and tweak its SEO and design every once in a while, right? You probably take care of your social media, too, and update your cover photos and “About” information. Well, your email list requires the same care. Actually, the more it grows, the more attention you need to pay to its hygiene. Some of the email addresses in your database may be invalid, abandoned, or spam traps that will ruin your sender reputation. An email verifier can identify all these useless and risky addresses and weed them out. For an affordable price, you can use an email validation system to scan your email list and make sure it’s healthy and safe to use.

Focus on being useful

Before you plan each of your campaigns, ask yourself: how will this help my subscribers? What is it that I’m offering that they can’t find anywhere else? Creating good content will take lots of resources, but every minute you spend investing in your email marketing is going to pay off, eventually. Focus on being useful, on sending original and creative ideas and solutions, and you will build a long-lasting bond with your audience.