The Importance of email marketing for bloggers

Not sure about the importance of email marketing in 2021?

And you’re wondering what the actual benefits of email marketing are for your blog or small business?

You might have heard the saying “email marketing is dead” but is it though?

Not at all!

According to Hubspot, email marketing has the highest ROI (Return On Investment) compared to all other forms of marketing.

“…email generates $38 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 3,800% ROI, making it one of the most effective options available.”

So if you haven’t started your email list yet, you are leaving money on the table!

And you don’t want that!

To grow your blog income it is smart to start growing your email list sooner rather that later…

So let’s have a deeper look at the importance of email marketing, what is it, what are the benefits and how you can start building your own email list with a free email marketing platform.

Let’s dive in!

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What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a way of staying connected to your audience and new or existing clients. With the help of an email marketing platform, you write email campaigns in which you share useful content with your subscribers.

Email marketing is the perfect way to nurture prospects, create brand recognition and eventually promote your products, services and special offers.

The importance of email marketing

Email marketing is important because it’s a form of marketing that you have full control over.

With social media marketing you are dependant on the algorithms of the social media platforms and you don’t own your social media account, it can be shut down.

But with email marketing you own your subscriber list and you know that every email will land in your subscriber’s inbox and therefore has a much higher chance to be seen than social posts.

Email marketing also plays a crucial role in audience retention.

Imagine someone coming to your blog and after reading one blog post they leave your site. If they didn’t sign up to your email list, there’s a good chance they’ll never return to your blog again…

But if they do sign up to your email list, they’ll become familiar with your brand and you’ll be able to nurture them into becoming a loyal fan that reads all your latest blog posts and buys your products or services.

Basically your email lis is your direct connection to your audience… it can’t really get any better than that.

If you’re still not convinced of the importance of email marketing check out these 9 reasons that will show you why email marketing is so effective.

9 reasons why email marketing is the most effective form of marketing.

#1 Build a long term relationship with your audience

Getting prospective clients on your email list is the first step to a potentially long lasting relationship with your client. Sending out regular email campaigns to your subscribers will create brand recognition and trust, two key ingredients you’ll need to be able to make sales.

#2 More effective than social media

Email marketing is different than social media marketing in the sense that an email lands in someone’s inbox and has a higher chance to be seen. You might not scroll past someone’s Instagram post or miss a Facebook post because of algorithms and restricted distribution. But an email will always be seen, and if your subject line is enticing and relevant enough, your subscribers will click through.

#3 Personal communication with your audience

Email is more personal than social media. This is because:

an email gets sent to you personally
emails are often personalised by including someones first name
an email’s content can be targeted specifically to a subscriber’s needs or interests

#4 It’s cost-effective

Email marketing isn’t just effective, it’s also cost-effective. Remember my example above: for every dollar you spend, you’ll make $38? That means that your ROI (return on investment) is 3800%!

This is huge!

Email marketing is a super affordable way to keep your brand at the forefront of people’s mind. And with email marketing platforms like Convertkit and Mailerlite it’s even better because they offer a free plan to help you get started.

#5 It’s measurable

By using an email platform like Convertkit or Mailerlite you’ll be able to measure your performance. You can see your subscribe rate, email open rate, bounce rate and click-through rate. All this data is super helpful for finding out what works and what doesn’t, so you can improve your campaigns.

#6 It’s targeted

Because you can split up your subscribers into groups with different interests, you can send targeted emails to each individual group.

#7 It generates more website traffic and income

A special offer, your latest blog post or your new course are all great reasons to send your audience an email and direct them to your website.

This is why it’s important to grow your email list: more people on you list >> more eyeballs on your affiliate links and offers >> more sales.

#8 You own your email list

Promoting your website or blog on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms is great, but the downfall of these platforms is that you don’t own them and they can be shut down.

The good thing about email marketing is that you own your list, your emails are always seen by your subscribers and you have a direct connection to your audience.

#9 Save time by using automated campaigns

What I love the most about email marketing is the brilliant invention of automation.

You can create automated email sequences that get send out to your subscribers when they sign up. This is a huge time saver since you only have to set up your automation once and it will be send out to every new subscriber again and again on auto pilot.

If you’re wondering how to create automations in Mailerlite make sure to check out my

Easy Email Setup course here.

How to get started with email marketing

To start building your own email list, you need an email marketing platform.

Good email platforms to sign up to are Mailerlite and Convertkit.

Whatever you do, don’t use Mailchimp, they’re terrible to use and not intuitive at all…

I started with Mailchimp and it took me ages to figure things out. And then I discovered you can’t use automated sequences on their free plan… By this point I was so frustrated I decided to move to Mailerlite, and I have to say, I’m very happy I did!

Mailerlite is super easy to use, and the dashboard actually makes sense (unlike Mailchimp’s).

Mailerlite is a free email marketing platform up to 1000 subscribers, so it’s perfect for new bloggers.

You can sign up for a free Mailerlite plan here.

Another email marketing platform a lot of bloggers love is Convertkit. This platform is also very easy to use, but unfortunately they don’t give you access to automated sequences on their free plan. They are very popular though so if you have the budget for a future upgrade and want to check them out, you can try out their free plan here.

Once you’ve signed up to an email marketing platform, you need to create an email optin form for your website. You’ll want to display this on your homepage, in blog posts and throughout your website.

Increase sign ups with an optin freebie

To make it more enticing for people to sign up to your email list, it’s a good idea to offer a freebie in return for them handing over their email address. A freebie is a small gift and often a digital product like an ebook, a checklist, a planner or a discount code.

Here’s an example of my email optin form, where you’ll receive a free Checklist Template and Cheatsheet (on how to make money with your freebies) when you sign up:

Make sure to grab this freebie if you’d like to create a checklist for your audience…

A good freebie will help your audience with a problem they’re facing and is relevant to the content of your blog post or your general blog topic.

Freebies will really increase your subscribe rate so if want to create one, please check out:

How To Create Freebies For Your Blog

Once you’ve created your freebie you’ll need to link it to your sign up form and write a few emails that get sent out automatically after someone signs up.

If you have no idea how to set up the technical side of this, I have a super affordable video course that shows you every step of setting this up in Mailerlite.

It’s called Easy Email Setup and it shows you how to:

create a freebie in Canva
make a mockup of your freebie
create an email sign up form in Mailerlite
link your sign up form to your freebie
add your sign up form to your blog (the best way)
create an automated email sequence

If you’d like to create a flawless automation with step by step videos, make sure to

>> Sign up for the Easy Email Setup course here.

How to be successful at email marketing

To be successful at email marketing you don’t have to be an exceptional writer or marketing guru. The main thing you want to do, is connect to your audience and build a relationship.

To be able to do this, you have to make sure you know who your audience is and what their struggles are.

In your welcome email sequence you can show them you are familiar with their problem or maybe even tell them a personal story on how you overcame the same problem. If they can relate to you, they will feel a connection and are more likely to open your emails.

Talk to your subscribers like they’re your friend and give them quality tips for solving their problems. This will create familiarity and trust, two important components for an engaged email list.