Email marketing is the promotion of products and services to your audience via email. Successful, long-term email marketing depends on building trust with your audience.
Your email list is vital to the success of your business because it’s the most direct way for you to communicate with your fans and future customers. As marketing expert Amy Porterfield says, “The energy of your business is directly tied to the strength of your email list.” I agree with this whole-heartedly.
When I started my first two online businesses back in 2008, I waited to start an email list. That’s right—I made this mistake twice! I had active and engaged audiences, but remember—even fans may not check your website regularly. By waiting to collect email addresses, I missed out on a huge opportunity to connect regularly with my audience, and when I was ready to sell to my audience, I didn’t have a way to let them know. I missed out on sales because I hadn’t taken the time to build a relationship over email.
My friend Nathan Barry, who built my favorite email service provider, ConvertKit, shows that when it comes to making sales, email consistently outperforms every form of social media. This is why my email list has become the #1 asset in my brand, and I’m on a mission to help others build their lists too. [Full Disclosure: FYI, I’m a compensated advisor and an affiliate for ConvertKit.]