How to grow your email and marketing list to gain more influence

Interacting With Your Audience – How To Stand Out From The Crowd

What is the story with a mailing list? Do I really need one?

I recently assisted a client in revamping their newsletter look and feel and automate their system. On the second newsletter we sent, we could track that one person on their email list forwarded this email to another persona and from that one email that was forwarded, it was seen by an additional 128 people. The mailing list was only 158 people to start with. So with one action from someone within their email list, they had an almost 100% increase of their mail being viewed by people not on their current list. Does this make any difference? YES! They got their brand out to 128 additional individuals, giving them an opportunity to be seen and heard. If we didn’t have a newsletter program, we could not track what happened with this mail and how to improve.

We had the opportunity to go back to this individual that sent out the mail to his colleagues and friends to ask why he shared the message. His feedback was that it resonated with him so much, that he felt he had to share the message.

What did this do for my client? We could see what works with a specific audience and adjust our newsletters accordingly to reach more people with a similar message.

With the above newsletter that was sent out, the message was clear we understood what the most desired response was. It was not to sell a service or a product, it was to create awareness of a current change in the market.

It’s not a new thing, it’s been around for decades

Email is not a new thing, in fact, it’s been around for decades. Not everyone has a FB or an IG account or a LinkedIn profile, but every single one of us has an email address.

If you send out a mail, it will land in the person’s mailbox, whether they like it or not. They might not open it, but the mere fact that they have to perform an action (delete or respond) is a response in itself. It is a touchpoint to your client, it could very well be the only place that you would be able to connect with your potential client.

Why do you need an email list?

It is yours, you own it. It will never belong to your email host or anyone else. You can export it and move it whenever you want. You are not held by a hosting company or social media platform where you stand the chance of it not being used for its intended purposes.

That same email list can be used to create an audience on your social media platforms, meaning you can search for the same type of people to start following you on social media. The audience can be repurposed in many ways. You can use that list to market different products, events, blogs and more.

Practical tips to start your email newsletter

Even if you start small, have an email list. Here are some tips to get you started:

? Use a program to help you manage your newsletters – Mailchimp, Zoho or Hubspot are good options to consider.

? Create a simple welcome to your newsletter template. It will be worthwhile to spend extra time and effort in creating a good intro, tell people what to expect and the frequency of your updates.

? Create a link to your newsletter on your website and on your email signature, let people have the option to sign up.

? Spend time to write down what you want to achieve with a mailing list and what your topics would be for your newsletter.

? Have a look at your current connections (on all your social media channels and any lists that you might have). Create a basic list of who you think might be interested in your newsletter. Reach out to these people to let them know that you would like to add them to your newsletter.

? DO NOT add people randomly and without permission to your mailing list

? Build this list over time, treat it with respect and it will pay you back in more ways than you can imagine.

What starts as a simple newsletter, can grow into a big list of supporters.

Start your list today, start small, but start. One day you’ll thank yourself.

Extra Tip!

If you have read this far, you will find the following worth reading through it all 🙂 Want to grow your newsletter with not much effort? This one is an easy one:

We reached out to our client’s connections on LinkedIn. Collectively between the directors of the business, they have in excess of 6 000 connections. We started identifying who of the connections on this list is not on their mailing list. We reached out to these individuals and told them about the newsletter and asked them if we could add it to this list.

The response was overwhelming and we could grow the list from 158 to 267 within a few days. 

If you want to see how you can use what is already in your arsenal to grow your mailing list, reach out to start the conversation.