This posting is for businesses and individuals that are not keeping an email list of family, friends, customers, and associates.
You are making an egregious error by not keeping an email list. I’ll explain why every citizen on earth should be keeping an email list.
Before I explain why every citizen needs an email list, I’ll address the businesses.
There appears to be two different areas where businesses fail to establish and properly use an email list. Those two areas are 1) storefront businesses that require customers and clients to come to their physical location; 2) the other is online businesses that acquire email addresses, but fail to maintain positive engagement with former customers and clients.
To you storefronts that don’t communicate with clients via email, you are asking them to remember everything that you said regarding upcoming events, special offers, and new products. Even if you give them a flyer, a visit to a client’s email box can easily remind them of whatever it is that you have to offer the them.
Email is personal and enables you to avoid the clutter of social media. Even if you have nothing to offer them but a kind word every month or so, they are likely to appreciate it. Email also enables you to reach out to customers that have not recently visited your health spa, art gallery, or whatever type of business that you have.
I’d like to share with you the experience of my friend Kevin who owns a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Kevin established his business in a center where there was other establish eateries. Competition for customers was tough. Kevin had some marketing experience and decided to establish an email list in order to share special offers. “Since we used affordable lunch specials to get customers, we ran lunch specials that we sent via email in the morning,” said Kevin.
Unfortunately for Kevin and the other entrepreneurs, their building was sold and the businesses had to move. Kevin shared, “it pained me to see the other businesses struggle to reestablish themselves. I thank God for my decision to establish my email list. It has paid off a thousand times over”.
For those of you that fail to leverage email addresses that you already acquired from your clients, I would like to share some statistics with you. An article from annexcloud.com revealed that returning loyal customers spend an average of 33% more per order as compared to first-time buyers. Returning clients have already established trust and familiarity with you. The importance of trust and familiarity cannot be overstated.
It is just as important for non-business owning citizens to establish and maintain an email list. For one, you want to keep an index of positive relationships that you have established over the years.
There is a popular lyric from the mega-star and mogul Jay-Z, where he says “I’m not a business man, I’m a business maaan!” You may not realize it, but you yourself are truly a business man or woman! Think about all of the brands that you have promoted for whatever reason, and you will come to realize that you are essentially an advertising agency or affiliate marketer that is working for free!
Your list should be comprised of clients, family, friends, church members, colleagues, etc. You can easily segment your list to establish different groups. Email marketing platforms like Zoho Campaigns will allow you to keep a list of up to 2,000 email addresses and send out up to 6,000 emails a month at no charge.
In addition to personal or social use, your list is as good as money. You never know what the future holds. You might want to establish your own operation. If you did, would a list of good people that you’ve met come in handy?
Let’s say that you come across a product on Amazon or another of your favorite websites. Amazon and many other websites offer affiliate programs. Affiliate programs provide commission to people that bring business to a company. You can make money by bringing good people and good products together. If someone on your list opens your email and uses your special link, you’ll get a commission if they buy. Email lists and affiliate marketing are two of the most underutilized strategies by small businesses and individuals. Those two strategies can be deployed from nearly anywhere in the world.
I’ll share with you a provider that I use. For businesses or individuals, I suggest Zoho Campaigns. I’ve either used or tested close to 20 providers including Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and others.
For customer service, delivery rate, functionality, and price, Zoho Campaigns is hard to beat. Even if they don’t answer, they will call you back, which is great for an old-timer like me. Their prices are low, considering all of the functions they provide. Zoho Campaign’s price is lower than premium providers like ActiveCampaign, and Zoho offers the same functionality. They offer features like “cart abandonment”, A/B Testing, funnel-building, and automation. Zoho’s functionality is better than MailChimp and Constant Contact, yet Zoho costs less.
Zoho offers a very low commission relative to their overpriced competitors, which is probably why they are able to sell a high-quality product at a low price. I chose to share them with you because of the quality of the product, not because of the commission.
Make a promise to your business or to yourself that you will endeavor to establish and maintain an email list, if you have not already.
If you need to hire someone to handle your email marketing for you. You can hire an experienced part-time email marketer at OnlineJobs.ph for about $250 dollars a month.
Thank you for your interest. Have a very productive day!