This post includes affiliate links.
Almost every blogger I know says that email marketing is essential to their blog’s success. In fact, many content creators say that one of their biggest mistakes was not starting an email list sooner.
So, if you’re just starting your blog, or you have a blog but haven’t yet started building your email list, now is the time to change that.
Here are a few reasons why building an email list should be one of your top priorities:
Pro tip: In my opinion, MailerLite is the best email marketing tool, especially for beginners. You can have up to 1,000 email subscribers for free. Go here to set up your free MailerLite account.
Email is Cost-Effective Way to Market Your Business
Email is a cost-effective way to market your business for several reasons.
First, it is relatively inexpensive to set up and maintain an email list. As I mentioned above, you can get started with MailerLite for free, so there is no financial risk for setting it up.
Second, email provides a direct line of communication with your customers and potential customers. If you have an email list, you don’t need to spend money on ads or other paid forms of communication.
Third, email allows you to target your marketing messages to specific groups of people. Targeting is a more effective and less expensive way to promote your blog posts, products and services.
Finally, email is an efficient way to track the success of your marketing campaigns. By carefully measuring the open rates and click-through rates of your emails, you can fine-tune your marketing strategy and maximize your return on investment.
In short, email is an essential tool for any blogger that doesn’t want to spend a ton of money on marketing.
I’ll dive into some of these benefits and more below.
You Can Personalize Email for Each Recipient
One thing that makes emails more effective than other forms of marketing is that you can personalize your emails for each recipient.
By taking the time to craft a message that is relevant to the person you’re emailing, you’ll be more likely to capture their attention and interest.
When personalizing an email, consider mentioning something that is specific to the recipient’s situation or interests.
For example, if you’re emailing a potential customer, you might mention a product that would be a good fit for their needs.
You can base this on their past behavior, such as which blog posts they read and how they opted into your email list in the first place.
By tailoring your message to the individual, you’ll improve your chances of making a lasting impression.
Here are a few ways to personalize emails that you send to your list:
- Use the recipient’s name in the subject line and/or opening greeting. This is one of the easiest ways to personalize your emails, and it can make a big difference in terms of making the recipient feel valued.
- Segment your list based on people’s interest. This way you only send email on topics that are of interest to everyone on your list.
- Use conditional display in your emails. Conditional display is when parts of each email you send show only to some people. For example, if you promote a product in your email, you can use conditional display to keep from showing that part of the email to people who have already purchased the product. The flip side of that is that you can show promotional content to people who have previously clicked on a link to a product and not yet purchased it.
Read this article How Dynamic Email Content Gives You Magical Targeting Powers to better understand how to use conditional display in your email.
4. Ask questions and encourage feedback. Asking questions shows that you’re interested in hearing from your email subscribers, and it gives them an opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings with you.
Encouraging feedback also helps to create a two-way conversation, which can further strengthen the personal connection between you and the recipient.
One of my favorite things is getting email responses to the newsletters I send.
You Can Track Emails to Measure Their Effectiveness
Email marketing is a powerful tool because thanks to the magic of tracking, you can easily measure the effectiveness of each email you send.
Email tracking can tell you whether an email was opened, and what links were clicked.
You can also run reports to see your email subscribers over time. For instance, I like being able to identify my most engaged email subscribers and give them special offers.
This information can be invaluable in gauging the effectiveness of your emails and making necessary adjustments.
In addition to that, you can use email tracking to automate certain processes, such as sending follow-up emails or triggering certain actions based on your email subscribers’ interactions with your emails.
In short, email tracking is a valuable tool that can help you to get the most out of your communications.
Email Marketing is a Great way to Build Relationships with Your Readers
Nowadays it can be hard to build relationships solely through blogging. Blogging can seem impersonal, and it’s common for people to come to your blog, read a post, and then disappear, never to be seen again.
But when people opt in to your email list, you have a chance to continue to build the relationship, one email at a time.
The best way that I’ve used email to build relationships is by emailing a valuable, but personable email to my list each week.
I start each email with something happening in my personal life that is related to the overall topic of my blog. And I end the email by asking people to reply to the email to let me know how things are going for them.
When I write an email, I write as if I’m chatting with a good friend, so the email has an overall warm feeling.
And, this isn’t faking it. It helps if you really care about your readers. If you do, it will come across in the emails you send to your list, and people will feel that warmth and be more connected to you because of it.
Email is Great for Driving Traffic
Email remains one of the most effective means of driving traffic to a website. By including links in emails, you can direct readers to specific pages on your website where they can read a blog post or learn more about a product or service.
Here are a few ways you can use email to drive traffic.
Use Email to Drive Traffic to New Blog Posts
Email is a great way to drive traffic to your blog posts.
Here are a few tips for using email to drive traffic to your blog posts:
Include a Call to Action in Your Email
First, make sure you have a strong call to action in your email. Tell your subscribers what you want them to do, and why they should click through to your blog post.
Include a Brief Blog Post Summary in the Email
Second, provide a brief summary of your blog post in the email. This gives your subscribers a taste of what they can expect, and helps them decide whether they want to read the full post. In MailerLite, I use the blog post RSS feature. This makes it easy to pull in my latest blog posts along with a synopsis of the post.
In the image below, you can see what the RSS blocks looks like in MailerLite:
Also, if you want to create weekly blog broadcasts, this article explains how to do it: How to Create an RSS Campaign.
Include Links to Your Blog Posts in Your Email
Third, include a link to your blog post in the email. Make sure it’s easy to find and click on. In addition to including the RSS feed, if there is a particular blog post you really want them to click through to, put a link to it in the P.S.
Segment Your Email List
Finally, try to segment your list so that you’re only sending emails about blog posts that are relevant to each individual subscriber. This increases the odds of people clicking through to read your blog posts.
Pro tip: For more information on segmenting your email list, read this article, Make your email marketing work better with dynamic segmentation.
You Can Use Email to Promote Affiliate Products
Any affiliate marketer worth their salt knows that email is one of the most powerful tools in their toolbox. When used correctly, email is an incredibly effective way to promote affiliate products.
The key is to strike the right balance between providing value in your email and promoting the affiliate product.
Every email should include valuable content that helps the reader in some way. You also want to make sure that your promotion is highly relevant to your audience and that it doesn’t come across as too sales-y.
If you can strike this balance, you’ll be well on your way to successful email marketing campaigns that promote your affiliate products effectively.
You can Use Email to Build Your Social Media Following
If you’re looking to build your social media following, email can be a powerful tool.
By leveraging your existing contacts, you can quickly grow your list of followers on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Here are a few tips for using email to build your social media following:
1. Add social media icons to your email signature. This is a great way to promote your profiles and make it easy for people to connect with you online.
2. Include links to your social media pages in your email newsletters. This helps new subscribers find your profiles and follow you.
3. Use email marketing tools to share your latest blog posts or videos on social media. This allows you to reach a wider audience and can help increase traffic to your site.
You can also use the built in blocks in MailerLite to embed your social media posts into your emails.
Here are examples of what this looks like:
By using email to promote your social media profiles, you can quickly and easily grow your following. These tips will help you get started and see success in no time.
This article explains how to use social media in your emails: Social media emails done right (how to embed social posts).
Email Subscribers are More Engaged than Social Media Followers
There’s no doubt that social media is a powerful tool for reaching potential customers. However, when it comes to engagement, email subscribers are more valuable than social media followers.
This is because email subscribers have given you explicit permission to contact them, which means they’re more likely to be interested in what you have to say.
In contrast, social media followers may not even remember that they’re following you, and they’re certainly less likely to see your content in a crowded newsfeed.
In addition, email subscribers can be segmented into different lists based on their interests, making it easier to target them with relevant content.
For these reasons, email subscribers are more engaged than social media followers, and they should be a key part of any marketing strategy.
You Own Your Email List
When it comes to marketing your business, one of the most important things to consider is who owns the platform you are using.
An email list is a valuable marketing tool because it is something that you own. You can use it to cultivate relationships with your customers and promote your products or services.
In contrast, social media marketing takes place on platforms that are owned by someone else. This means that you are at the mercy of the platform’s algorithms and terms of service.
If the platform changes its rules or decides to delete your account, you will lose access to your customers.
Additionally, you will have to put in significant effort to build up a following on social media, whereas people who subscribe to your email list have already shown an interest in what you have to say.
For these reasons, an email list is a more reliable and sustainable marketing tool than social media marketing.
Conclusion
Regardless of the size of your blog, email marketing is a valuable tool because it allows you to build relationships with your readers. Email marketing is an important part of your overall inbound marketing strategy. (Read this article to learn more.)
Additionally, you can use email marketing to drive traffic to your blog posts and promote affiliate products. When you use email marketing correctly, you’ll see an increase in revenue from your blog, and have more loyal readers.
With that in mind, what are you waiting for? Start using email marketing to grow your blog today. 🙂
If you haven’t already signed up for an email marketing tool, I recommend MailerLite, since you can start for free and it has a lot of great features.
Related Articles
If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these related articles:
- MailerLite Vs. GetResponse | Why I Switched from GetResponse to MailerLite
- MailerLite Vs. ConvertKit | Which is the Best Email Marketing Tool?
- Are You Making These 10 Email Marketing Mistakes?
- How to Get Your First 1,000 Email Subscribers
- Why Email Marketing Beats Social Media for Your Marketing Campaigns
