4 reasons why you want to focus on email marketing in 2023

It can be a bit overwhelming, can’t it?

In fact, it can practically make us want to throw in the towel all together.

We go into business because we have a passion for something. And we want to share it with the world. We want to have an impact, and we want to feel fulfilled.

But, in order to have an impact, it means we need to reach our ideal clients and customers. And in order to do that, we need to find them. We need to (gasp) market ourselves.

There are a million ways to do it. And unfortunately, some folks try to do all million different ways at once - they’re on all the social media platforms, they’ve got a YouTube channel, they’re podcasting, they’re doing live events, they’re guest experts in other people’s memberships, they’re offering their time in summits and online conferences. Whew - I’m exhausted just writing this list.

Yet, the most effective way to market yourself?

Yep, it’s the humble email.

Yet, you’ll hear people say email marketing is dead.

But c’mon. You and I know that’s just not true. Let’s look at 4 key reasons why email marketing isn’t anywhere close to the grave and why it’s something you want to focus on in 2023.

1 - People love their email!

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning - do you check your email? How many times do you check your email throughout the day? There are apps galore out there to STOP people from checking their email so much (my fav? ScreenZen). People check their email on public transit, in the grocery store line up, while they’re waiting to pick their kid up from school. And you know that people even check their email when they’re sitting on the toilet. If you want some clear stats: almost every email user (99%) checks their email every day, with many checking it up to 20 times a day! One study found that 58% of email users check their email first thing in the morning.

2 - Ownership

I want you to imagine that you’ve spent a couple of years building your audience on YouTube, or Pinterest, or Instagram, or Tiktok. You have 1000s, maybe of tens of thousands of followers. And some billionaire with nothing better to do decides to buy that platform and mess around with it (hey, could happen!). All of a sudden, you lose half of your followers! Or maybe no one buys it, but the platform decides that you need to pay a fee to access your followers. Or the algorithm gets even worse (I know, that damn algorithm!) and now you can’t reach any of your followers! What I’m saying, is if you put all of your marketing efforts into building an audience on a platform that you don’t own, then that means you have no control over it. It could be gone in a flash. I know some people who lost 1000s of Instagram followers in the fall of 2022 simply because of a Instagram glitch - yikes 😯 !

But, your email list? That list is yours. Anyone who gave you their email, has given it to you. It’s not just a handle that is on a platform that you both happen to be on. No matter what happens, you can always email the folks on your list, even if you email them one by one. Of course, you will want to be making regular backups of your email list just in case your email management system or CRM also has a glitch or shuts down (I’ve seen that happen too 😞)

3 - ROI

The return on investment for email marketing is amazing - for everyone $1 spent on email marketing, you can expect to get $40 back. What the what? That’s a good enough reason right there for ensuring your email marketing strategy is top notch.

4 - Email vs Social Media: The Numbers

Email is nearly 40 times more effective in obtaining new customers than social media. WOW! Think about how much time you spend posting on social media, compared to how much time you spend growing and nurturing your email list. Think you might reconsider your priorities?

And a few more stats: There are 400 million more email users than social media users. That’s a lot. Also, email marketing conversion rates are three times that of social media marketing. And an average email clickthrough rate is 6X that of average organic social media engagement. This means you have a way greater chance of presenting your offer to a potential customer. If these numbers don’t sell you on the merits of an email list, then I don’t know what will.

Convinced that email marketing is for you? If you are wondering how to get started building your list, a quiz is a great lead magnet!

Resources from here and here.