Why You Need an Email List For Your Creative Business

Business always needs a variety of approaches to tackle anything. Once upon a time, it was fine to market purely via social media. But with constantly changing algorithms at the whims of CEOs, it’s up to us to find ways to navigate uncertainty.

Introducing an oldie but a goodie: an email list. It allows you to reach people interested in what you do. And by continuing to put out good content, you grow your list. Here are some reasons why you should have one.

Email lists are 100% more reliable than social media

Your email list is yours. If you were to unfortunately lose access to your social media accounts and all your years of accumulating followers blew up because of a hacker, you still have your email list. 

Communicate directly to your audience

Rather than hoping that the algorithm gods will deign to favour you with more coverage today, an email list lets you get into the inbox of your subscribers. No need to fight with all the other reels, Tik Tok videos or FB posts populating everyone’s feeds. Emails also make it much easier to facilitate a personal conversation since they can just hit the ‘reply’ button

Higher click-through rates for emails as compared to social media

Even if a million people saw your social media post, what you really want are people to visit your website or shop. Because your subscribers are people who are already familiar with and like your work, you will find higher numbers of people clicking to actually view your products and services. Social media tends to be a huge jumble of images and videos, so it’s entirely expected that potential clients might just scroll past without taking the time to register what you posted.

You can segment your emails to target different groups

Let’s say you offer two kinds of services: workshops/classes/products and other paid content and free tutorials. Customers who might be interested in one might not be interested in the other. You can assign your email sign ups under different groups to ensure the emails they receive from you are personalised and tailored to meet their needs exactly. This is a level of flexibility that social media is unable to offer.

Everyone has an email address

While social media is prevalent, not everyone has or uses it regularly. However, an email address is basically a necessity. You don’t want to use Instagram and Twitter exclusively just to find out that some of your potential customers shy away from either. You can’t expect people to sign up for a social media account just to follow you. Since everyone checks their email regularly, they are far more likely to read what you have to say if you are in their inboxes.

Email lists aren’t that expensive

Ad spend can rack up quickly on social media. I use Flodesk which costs me SGD$209 a year and I get unlimited lists, emails and all the functions I could possibly want. Considering how traffic to my website has gone up 200% ever since I first started my email list, I think that money was a great investment. Also, email subscribers can in turn look you up on your socials, providing cross-channel benefits. 

As much as I believe in the power of an email list, you still need to do your homework and choose an email marketing service that best suits you and your budget. I once had to migrate my email list from one provider to another. Trust me, that was hell. So pick a good one that you can stick with because the time you will save is immense. If you need more help, I wrote an article where I share about my experience with the most popular email providers - Mailchimp and Flodesk. Read about it here!

Already got an email list? Feel free to let me know how it went for you.

Looking to get started with your own email list? Get 50% off Flodesk if you use my link.

Happy emailing!