The 3 Biggest Benefits of an Email List
This is one of the most powerful marketing strategies and one of the most underutilized marketing strategies, particularly for us in the education sector. For most of us, the benefits of email marketing can be abstract, so I’ve got three clear benefits that I’m going to share with you right now!
Direct Line of Communication
An email list gives you a direct line of communication to your target client and there are plenty of different ways you can share your email list with people so they can sign up. You can do it through your website and social media. You can also offer a free resource and in order for people to receive, they need to sign up to your email list first.
Now, there are many ways to build your email list, but the key point of having people sign up for your email list is gaining their trust. Think about it, when people give you their email, they are giving you access to them. So when they sign up, they're identifying that you have knowledge that they want to know more about and telling you right off the bat that they are your target client!
Building Trust
Y’all may have heard me say this before, but that doesn’t make this any less true: Spending money is an act of trust. I will not give you money unless I trust you. That goes beyond consulting. Nowadays, nearly any purchase I make is backed up with research including but not limited to copious amounts of Googling, Youtube watching, review reading, and lurking in a few niche groups that are obsessed with whatever product I want to buy. That’s because I want to make the purchase trusting that it’ll be a good investment.
And that process is the same for any product or service including consulting. Which is why you want to take the time with your email list to build trust along that line of communication. Your clients have to go through the process of building trust in you, to get to a point where they are absolutely convinced that you will solve their problem and spending money with you is the best way to do so.
Now, ideally, you want to be sending an email once a week to your list. Of course, you decide what the content is, but you need to be communicating with your email list regularly so they have a chance to build trust. You want to be communicating with them so regularly that after a while, they are ready to become your client.
Segmenting Your Audience
This is really, really critical because having an email list is great and sending out regular weekly emails is even better, but if you can’t analyze the patterns of your subscribers, you’re not going to be able to fully realize the maximum potential of your email list.
Email marketing software that allows you to not only house your emails, but also manage all of your communication, see the history of all of your emails that you've sent, and analyze their engagement with your audience is invaluable. With that information, you can then segment your audience.
For example, if there are clients who you've contracted with, you can make them one group or segment. That way you can send tailored communication to clients who have already contracted with you. Their communication should be different to that of potential clients who have not contracted with you yet.
Maybe you do a webinar, and you want to segment your email list into the people who:
have contracted with you
have not contracted with you, but:
Attended your webinar
Did not attend your webinar
Segmenting your email list allows you to organize your list into different groups so that you can tailor your communication to each group and reach each group more efficiently.
Now this isn’t something that y’all will necessarily start with when you’re just establishing your email list, but it is a major perk of email lists! As your business grows, you’ll need to have these robust systems in place to help streamline your communication.
There are many email marketing softwares, however I personally recommend ConvertKit which is what I use in my business. I LOVE ConvertKit because of its user friendly interface, the analytics you receive from the dashboard and it’s overall ease of use. Here is my affiliate link if you are interested in checking out ConvertKit and signing up!
If you are ready to invest in coaching to help you grow your consulting business to six-figures and beyond, click here to apply for your invite to special training on how to build a six-figure consulting business!