These days it seems like everyone and their mama is telling you to focus on email list building. Everywhere you look — someone’s telling you to build, grow and serve an email list.

The advice? I love it. I share it nonstop (solicited or not 🤪) and am constantly telling my clients to hop on the email train.

But I don’t see a whole lot of people out there telling you WHY you need an email list – so I’m here to lay out that truth for you nugget by nugget.

You don’t own your followers on social media.

I’ll say this to I’m blue in the face, you don’t own your followers. On Instagram. On Facebook. On Twitter. On Tiktok. On Clubhouse. NONE OF ‘EM.

And the truth? Though unlikely, your social media could be taken away from you in an instant. Through (what some perceive to be) censorship or through hackers, we’ve all heard terrible stories of those who build their business on social media — only to wake up one morning and have all access to their followers stripped of them.

Your email list is different. When people sign-up to receive your email updates, you own the list they’re on. That means you get to email them whenever you want and you don’t have to stop until they tell you to. (I don’t recommend that as a strategy — but the hyperbole proves my point 🤪)

So — even if you wake up one morning and Instagram just isn’t a thing anymore — with an email list, you can still reach your audience.

Email is personal and 1:1.

For as much as I tell people to write all of their content as a love letter to their ideal client — the reality is that most (if not all) of your content is being consumed by the masses. Email is no different — except, it kind of is.

Even though your emails are going out to a list of people — there’s still so much customization you can build in that can make even your “mass emails” be received personally.

For starters, most email marketing softwares allow you to include a person’s name directly in the email (or the subject line) — as long as you collect that information.

After that — you can segment and target your audience by interest or behaviors. (Keep reading for that one!)

Email is targeted.

Like the functionality that allows you to drop a reader’s name into the copy of the email or the subject line — email marketing softwares allow you to “segment” (or target) your audiences based on their interests and behaviors.

For example, if someone gets added to your email list because they downloaded your free resource, 10 Productivity Tips for Busy Moms, you can add them to a segment that corresponds to that freebie / interest. After that, you can then add them to an email sequence that continues to drip out content related to their expressed interest (e.g., productivity, being a busy mom, organization tips, etc.).

Targeting your emails allows you to provide concrete value to your email list — because your contacts’ behaviors give you insight to what they actually care about.

Looking for help as you shift your focus to email list building this year?

Later this year, we’re launching a BRAND NEW RESOURCE designed to help you launch an email list that buys. Email Gold: Starting, Growing, and Serving an Email List That Buys is your step-by-step guide to knocking your email list off their feet… no matter where you are in the process. Hop on the Email Gold waitlist and be one of the firsts to know when you can get your hands on it — and for special early bird pricing!