Email Isn’t Dead. How Building and Nurturing Your Email List Builds Your Business

Email is not dead.

There. I said it. And I stand by it.

The best way to stay in touch with your audience and convert prospects into clients or customers  is through building an email list. 

A lot of people build their audience on social media. And that works really well. If you show up authentically and consistently, social media is a great place to reach new people. And you have a lot of options when it comes to social media platforms.

You can make TikToks, Instagram reels or stories, or even good old-fashioned posts and articles on LinkedIn. When you post consistently and utilize the right hashtags, new people see you, like you, and want to get to know you better.

Social media is the single’s bar. It’s the place to meet new people and get yourself out there.

But it’s not the place to build a long-term relationship.

If you rely on social media to keep your audience engaged you are at the mercy of:

😳 The ALGORITHM

Just because someone follows you on social media doesn’t mean the platform will consistently show them your content.

Think about your own social media accounts. I know for me, Instagram shows me stories by the same few people every day. Same goes for my feed. I’ll follow someone new, maybe check out some of their stuff. But then they don’t show up on my feed and I forget all about them.

I’ve seen so many social media influencers with HUGE followings complain that their views drop dramatically with no explanation. That’s the algorithm. You just can’t count on it to make sure your followers are consistently seeing your content.

😳 Disappearing Platforms

Remember Vine? It’s gone now. I looked on Wikipedia and found a list of 100+ social media sites that failed.

You just never know. 

If you’re counting on a social media platform to stay in touch with your audience and that platform just disappears, your audience will disappear and your business is screwed.

😳 Not Getting to Choose Who Sees Your Content

When you’re ready to launch a program, you want to make sure the right people in your audience know about it. 

When I had a nutritional therapy business, I had different subsets of clients. Primarily I worked with pregnant women and I ran 21-Day Sugar Detox group programs.

When I had something new for my potential clients who were pregnant, my 21DSD audience could have cared less. And if all they saw from me was pregnancy nutrition, they were going to stop paying attention.

But when you have an email list, you can make sure the right segments of your audience get the information they need to turn from prospects into clients. And you won’t bore the wrong ones.

Some of the Advantages to Having an Email List

✔ You can build relationships.

My favorite email marketers build a genuine rapport with their audience. They’ll ask a question in the email and actually email back when someone replies.

✔ You keep people’s attention longer.

On social media, people are quick to scroll. They don’t expect to spend more than 1 - 3 minutes on one person’s post (at the most). But when someone opens an email, they’re expecting to spend a little bit more time there. And there isn’t the temptation to just swipe to the next thing.

✔ People aren’t just looking to be entertained.

When I get on TikTok or Instagram, I want to be entertained. It’s not where I go when I need health information. But when I click on an email, my expectations are different. I’m looking for some value in the form of knowledge, insights, help, or something to purchase.

✔ Email builds trust with your audience.

If you show up consistently in someone’s inbox, you are going to build trust with them. They are going to get to know you and learn what they can expect from you.

✔ You own your email list.

I mentioned this above, but it’s worth repeating. When someone gives you their email address, you have a way of reaching them that is not reliant on a social media platform that’s owned by someone else.

✔ It’s easy to link to your website or a sales page.

Some of the most popular social media platforms don’t allow you to put direct links in your posts. You have to hope that people will take the extra steps of clicking on your profile, then clicking on your linktree, then clicking on the link you mentioned. It’s a lot of steps and most people won’t do it. But you can add links — or even buttons — to your emails and people have a one-step option to see exactly what you want them to see.

✔ People on your list are more likely to buy from you.

When you show up in someone’s inbox week after week, you are building that know/like/trust factor that helps turn prospects into clients. And if you are clear about the purpose of your emails — that you’re a business and you plan to sell your services or products — people will expect your emails to advertise what you have to offer.

Building and nurturing an email list can feel daunting. But if you want to connect with your audience, build the know/like/trust factor, and turn prospects into clients email is the way to go!

If you need help either getting your list started or providing ongoing content that will keep you top-of-mind with your prospects, you can work with a copywriter who specializes in email — like me! If you’d like to learn more about how I can take this work off your hands so you can get all the benefits with almost no effort, let’s chat.

Looking for some tips on how to make your emails more effective?