These days, the only thing you hear online marketers talking about is growing an email list- and there's a good reason for that.
The money is in the list.
If you want your words read, your work seen, and your services and products purchased, an email list is what you need.
You can't rely on potential clients to remember to keep visiting your website and perusing your shop. You need to show up consistently in their inbox, proving to them how you're an expert, why they should buy from you, and showing them what they can buy.
Watch the video or read on to learn more!
Many freelancers think email marketing is only for product-based businesses.
I've even heard freelancers say:
I don't sell courses so I don't need a list.
I don't sell ebooks so I don't need a list.
I don't have a blog so I definitely don't need a list.I think freelancers believe that email marketing is only for product-based businesses because:
Service-based business owners don't really talk about email marketing.
Freelancers get most of their clients from referrals, so they don't feel the need to build an email list.
Even when freelancers do build a list, they rarely talk about it because they're busy talking about what their business is actually based on, and rightly so!
Above all things (even blogging) you need an email list. Email marketing will take your freelance business to new heights. Don't believe me? Here are ten reasons why.
9 reasons why all freelancers need to
build an email list
1. You can make sure potential clients don't forget about you.
Did you know that most potential clients won't hire you the first time they visit your website? Statistics show that most potential clients have to come in contact with your business seven times before they hire you.
You shouldn't rely on potential clients remembering to visit your website seven times. They're probably SO busy they'll forget your URL within the next hour and kick themselves for forgetting to bookmark your site. (This has happened to me sooo many times.)
When you add opt-in forms to your website and start collecting email addresses, you don't have to worry about potential clients forgetting who you are. You now have their email address. You now have entry into the one place they visit the most online: their inbox.
2. You OWN your list
You don't own your Twitter or Instagram followers.
You don't own your Facebook group members.
If social media shuts down tomorrow and that's the only tool you've been using to find clients, your business will be in trouble.
But you own your email list. You can back up your email list any time. It's yours to keep. Even if you join an email marketing platform that shuts down, you can take your subscribers to a different platform because you own them.
3. Your list is a fundamental part of your sales funnel.
A sales funnel works like this:
First, potential clients enter the top of the funnel. This is where they initially come in touch with your social media posts and blog posts.
The bottom of the funnel is when a potential client goes from a prospect to a paying client. They hire you or buy your products.
But what about the middle steps? Prospects won't just see your blog posts and jump straight into hiring you, right?
The middle step should be your email list. Blog readers and social media followers who love your posts still need to develop a relationship with you and build trust in you before hiring you.
The best way you can build trust and show them you're a true expert is through sending them high-quality emails each week.
So, in the mid-section of your funnel, prospects will sign up to your newsletter and you'll send them regular emails and freebies. After they've grown to know you and trust you through these emails, they'll be a more inclined to hire you!
4. You can get to know exactly what your potential clients need from you.
You can send out emails asking your community what they need from you, and all they'll have to do to reply is hit 'Reply' on the email.
It's not like asking these questions on social media. More often than not, social media posts aren't seen by the majority of your followers. But when you send an email, it's seen by a LOT more people because people are always checking their inboxes. This means you'll get a lot more answers to your questions, and you'll be able to build a business that is tailored around what your clients truly need.
Related post: Why I switched from Mailchimp to Convertkit
5. Your list will help you find clients and make sales- quickly!
If you publish a blog post promoting a service, it could be days before even your most loyal followers see it because they have to make the effort to check your blog.
But if you send an email promoting your service, it will be opened a lot faster. People hate leaving emails unopened.
6. People check their email WAY more than their blog feeds or social media feeds.
People are constantly checking their inbox. I check mine more than ten times a day!
Since people spend so much time in their inboxes, don't you think it's the place you need to be?
7. You'll know exactly who is finding your website and is interested in your message.
I use Convertkit for my email marketing, and one of the reasons I love it so much is because it shows me what each subscriber is interested in and which email funnels are converting subscribers into paying clients and customers!
If someone opts in to receive a freebie about Squarespace for instance, I use Convertkit to tag them as 'Interested in Squarespace'. This means that in the future, I can send these subscribers content that I know they'll love, and appeal to topics I know they're interested in. When I do this, I always convert more customers and clients!
8. Lists make more money
According to MarketingSherpa, 72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media.
And according to McKinsey, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers and clients than Facebook or Twitter.
Lists make more money than blogs or social media posts. Don't get me wrong- I looooove social media and blogging. I even wrote a book on using social media to find clients! But don't stop your marketing there.
Remember the sales funnel from earlier? You need to convert blog and social followers into email subscribers. THEN they're a lot easier to convert into clients.
9. Your list helps prospects get to know you and trust you.
We've covered this a little but I wanted to end the post on this note.
No one will hire you if they don't trust you 100% and believe you know what you're doing. The best way to build that trust is through regular emails to prospective clients every single week.
You don't have to send long, detailed emails if you don't have the time. You could just send just a few paragraphs each week with homework at the end, designed to help them with the subject you're an expert in!
When you show up consistently and share your expertise with your tribe, they'll start seeing you as the go-to person in your niche. That's when you'll become the person they want to hire most.
What tool should you use to start
building your list?
I use Convertkit for my email marketing and I absolutely LOVE it. Convertkit comes with a few things other email marketing platforms (like Aweber and Mailchimp) don't have.
Convertkit counts one subscriber as one subscriber. (When I was with Mailchimp, someone who signed up three times was counted as three subscribers. Ugh!!)
Convertkit makes it really easy and simple to create email courses and sales funnels, whereas I was always SO confused how to do it with Mailchimp.
Convertkit allows you create lots of automations so you can spend less time email marketing, and more time doing what you love. With Convertkit, you just set up automation rules and then your email marketing runs itself!
*All links with an * next to them are affiliate links.
