A few good reasons come to mind when I ask myself this question. First off, email allows you to build a relationship with your visitor or subscriber. Secondly, you get the chance to warm people up to your offer. Sure, article writing works to some degree and you can gain lots of traction from an article, but let's face it , with an article you get but ONE chance to convert. If that same person is on your list, you get multiple chances , one with each email. As you well know, you must earn the users trust (99% of the time) before you can get them to take the desired action you want them to take. With that in mind, email marketing is the most effective, economical and efficient way to accomplish this task. Hence, this is what makes list building the most important factor you should be focusing on. There are several stages a person on your list is going to go through .. A. They are getting to KNOW you. They are becoming familiar and informed of your existence B. They are beginning to LIKE you, they are becoming interested and intrigued , either by your product, your service, your content or whatever else you have put in front of them. C. Once you accomplished the know and like aspects, the TRUST factor comes a bit easier. You have been able to show them that you care and understand and have a solution to solve a problem ...THEIR PROBLEM! After those 3 items the rest comes a bit easier. Once they are on your list, and they become familiar with you , now they may... D. Take your solution for a TRY. E. They are convinced that your solution is what they need and are ready to BUY your product or service. F. Here is where all your previous efforts pay off the most. An existing customer is by far the easiest way to boost your sales. Now that they already know you and trust you, they will be the easiest to convert on your next offer. Making them a REPEAT customer. Remember , everyone else is reaching out to the same person hoping for similar results. People are so limited on what they open anymore in their inbox that you have to stand out from the crowd. You have a very small window of opportunity to capture someones attention. It's best if you make the most of it otherwise they will be lost forever. You may never get a second chance.
There are numerous ways to increase your email list, like putting signup forms on your blog, Social media profiles, or ask subscribers to forward your newsletters, etc.
@boxerbuff: how many of the email newsletters that you've subscribed to do you actually read? I have a ton that I've signed up to in good faith but I never get time to read them.
It's true @sarahk that we seem to have little time to read our emails, I only sign up to newsletters that I want to recieve mail from. It's really not that hard to schedule 20 minutes or so per day to go through them and pick the ones that have the info I'm looking for. You would be surprised at the content that is being given away inside these messages anymore in hopes that you will stay a subscriber. How much actual time do you "WASTE" per day doing something that turns out to be non-productive? I don't recall announcing where one should get these subscribers so to assume they are fake and useless must be due to your own success (or failure).
I signup to email lists when I want to receive updates on new products. for instance: I normally follow this WP plugin developer/affiliate; I have so much going on, that i rarely go back to his site; however, when he comes out with a new product, then I will get an email telling me whats new.... and I have bought several new products because of his email... so for him, it would be good ROI for sure....
I wonder which of us is "the norm", amongst my friends I know I am. Open rates for an email a client sends - to people who have paid hundreds to belong to that NGO - are about 30%. These should be motivated recipients and yet they still don't open the emails.
People often subscribe because they had interest at the time; some people are auto subscribed because they bought a product... I am lazy myself; I get subscribed emails all the time without even opening the email simply because I am no longer interested. in fact, I unsubscribed from five email lists today.... People simply are too wrapped up their lives to read every single subscribed email they receive ie: info overload so they just stop opening the emails, and move on. and if you send me an email every other day, then that will result in an automatic unsubscribe; and for most, they would have to be hard core fans if they get emails all the time; along with daily spam... I think spam kills it for all the legit email lists... I simply get tired of all the spam, then on top of that I have to deal with subscribed emails....
You select the double opt-in or "confirm" email option in your auto-responder so that when they confirm you are assured that the email is real and your list will only contain confirmed emails.