7 Reasons Creators Should be Using Email Marketing to Grow Their Audience

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I love email marketing. In fact, if you’ve subscribed to Brand Your Passion, you’ll know! As email marketing’s biggest fan, I’m here to talk about why and how you can use it in your own business. 

In a nutshell, email marketing is about sending emails and developing relationships with prospects and customers (thanks to Neil Patel for that description!). And the beauty of it is that you can send whatever you want to those people that want to see it. 

You probably already know of email marketing from the brands you follow. You know the ones - it’s the information, sales, discounts and new releases that you just can’t resist. Well, that power isn’t just for big brands. Today, I want to show you how you as an individual creative can make email marketing your best friend, and give you 7 reasons why you’re going to want to. 

‍1. Your subscribers already KNOW you.

The people who sign up to your email list are warm leads - they already know you, your brand, and your products or services. However they’ve found you, they’ve found you already. Not only that, they’ve found out something about you that’s made them want to sign up for more. You don’t have to wow them with an amazing ad like this is the first time they’ve ever seen you. Pretty exciting, right? 

I don’t know about you, but my inbox is always full. Inbox space is precious, and by handing over their email address, your subscribers telling you they want more from you. That means they’re more likely to engage with your content, buy from you and work with you because they’re already interested in what you’ve got to offer. 

2. You’re in control of your email list and what you do with it.

Many times in the past, Instagram or Facebook has gone down. The same goes for Twitter, LinkedIn, you name it. All these social media platforms go down every so often and if that’s our only platform, then that means that we’re left without an opportunity to talk to our audience. 

That is, unless you have an email list. If you have an email list, then no matter which platforms you are tied to and what happens to them, you can always reach your audience and you can send them whatever you want, whether it’s a newsletter, information, testimonials, discounts, videos, audio files or links. You aren’t limited by the parameters of the platform you’re using.  

You can say goodbye to the algorithm here, because when it comes to your email list, you own it and you are in control of it. 

3. You can cultivate deeper and stronger relationships with your audience. 

The people on your email list are a captive audience who are already interested in what you have to say. They’ve let you into their life and into their precious inbox. When you email them, it’s a deeper and more intimate experience than social media or anything else. 

In emails, you can carry on the conversation that you have on social media. You can ask people to reply to your emails and have one-on-one conversations with them. You can nurture them by providing more of what they’re specifically looking for. That way, you get to know each other better, build a stronger relationship, and go forward together. 

4. You can reward your most loyal audience members. 

These are the people who open every email and click on every link. Show them some love! 

A study showed that the probability of selling to an existing customer is up to 14 times higher than the probability of selling to a new customer. If you already have people who are loyal to your brand, engaged with your work or have bought from you before, then they are already keen to keep supporting you and you can keep giving them rewards and discounts. 

Another study showed that people referred to loyalty programs spend an average of 13% more annually. If you have a loyalty program run through your email marketing, then those loyal audience members are more likely to buy from you. It’s smart, magical marketing. 

5. You can personalise your communications. 

To me, this is one of the most exciting parts. There are so many ways to personalise your emails so that it feels like you’re having a more personal one-on-one conversation with somebody. 

You can use their name in your emails, send them a birthday discount, or personalise the content that they receive so that it’s targeted for them, their interests and gives them what they’re really here for. When you do that, they’re going to engage more, get more out of it and enjoy it more.

6. Email marketing has the highest ROI out of any other platform. 

All the previous points feed into the fact that people are way more likely to invest with you through email marketing than they are through any other platform. Because of that, when you send an email to launch anything that people need to pay for, it’s going to be more cost effective than any other option because it has the highest return on investment (ROI). 

The ROI is how much money you get back for the money you put in (and the same goes for energy). 

The return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is 35:1. That means that on average, for every $1 you put into your email marketing, you get $35 back. It’s a super smart way to focus your marketing. 

7. Email is nearly 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined. 

Whatever your goals are, whether it’s building relationships, selling more products, booking more services or anything else, email marketing is the way to achieve them. Email is more powerful than Facebook and Twitter combined - and I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty good reason to be using email marketing. 

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This is just a small intro into what email marketing is and why you as a creative should be seriously thinking about using it. It’s so powerful, so important and so exciting, and there will be many more in-depth blog posts to come that delve into exactly what you can do with that. 

For now, if you’re interested in getting an email list up and running, then I highly recommend that you check out ConvertKit. It’s the email marketing software that we use here at Maker & Moxie and has been designed with creatives (i.e. you!) in mind. To get started on growing your audience right now, you can sign up for their free creative plan here. 

I can’t wait to see what you do with your email marketing, and to see you out there building amazing connections with your loyal audiences!