The answer is very simple. Everyone’s got an email address which they log into several times a day.Most people with smartphones are
signed into their email accounts 24/7 with push notifications enabled. Email is
much more personal, direct and a reliable way to get in touch with most people.
Some will ask what about social media? Social media is a
great way to reach your audiences, but let’s face it; social media websites
come and go. Not too long ago we had friendfeed, Google Buzz, MySpace, Plurk
and countless other cool websites. Most of them are now irrelevant. Today we
got Facebook and Twitter, but not everyone is as hooked up on these sites as
they are to their email account.
Facebook for example has the Edge Rank metrics which limits
the reach of your updates. Twitter streams are so busy that there is a very
short span of time in which you can get user’s attention. There are other
places like Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, etc. You need a different content
strategy for different channels, but for a small business or an individual
blogger this can quickly get overwhelming.
We are not saying that social media is not important. It is,
and you should explore every opportunity to reach out to your audiences however
you should spend more time and effort into something that guarantees much
better results.
Advantages of an Email List
Our email list drives much more traffic and has a much higher
user engagement rate than any other platform.
Why? Because when someone subscribe to your email list with
double opt-in, they are really interested and are much more likely to open your
email and click on the links. It is not such a surprising fact, here is why:
Email is Personal – Email allows you to land into a user’s inbox. There
is no ranking system limiting your reach. Your message is intended for a user
and it lands into their inbox. It is very direct, personal, and casual
.
Email is Purposeful – To get your email a user needs to sign up for your
email list and confirm their email address. Someone doing this much work is
obviously already interested into hearing from you and is much more receptive
and responsive to your message.
Email is Targeted – As we mentioned earlier the user has already shown
interest in your products / content. They have already given consent to learn
more by receiving your emails. They are much more likely to click, buy and
spread the word around for your products and services. Since you already know
what they like, you can deliver them highly relevant content and offers to get
better results.
Email is One-on-One – People read email in the privacy of their inbox. The
message is not on a public wall or timeline. They can ask you questions
directly in private with confidence. You’d be surprised how many people don’t
want to ask questions on public forums where everyone can read them. Email also
allows users to build a one on one relationship with you. Gradually they
develop trust in your brand and proudly spread the word around.
To summarize all this, email works a lot better than any
other online marketing tool. Big name brands learned that long time ago and
this is why they spend thousands of dollars on social media campaigns to get
people to sign up for their email lists. They understand that the email is the
best long term investment and people will continue to get their message at a
very low cost for a longer period of time.
Source:www.wpbeginner.com
