It took me quite a while to truly understand the power of email marketing as an online service provider.
Like most, I focused all my energy and resources building my Instagram Profile without giving much thought to long term strategy for finding new clients. I thought that it was more important to have an established social media profile instead of working on growing my email list and nurturing people who made a commitment to me and my business – by subscribing to my newsletter.
Of course, at the time, Instagram felt like the right starting point for me and I enjoyed it. It felt good to me as I was getting my business off the ground.
But, as time went on, I began to withdraw from the platform and didn’t feel as connected to the people who were engaging with my content.
This is when I decided to nurture my neglected email list. And, when I discovered how beautifully email marketing suited my business at every stage of it – whether I was working with clients or launching a new product – I became totally HOOKED!
Today, I wanted to share 5 reasons to grow your email list as a service provider…
1. Build your connections outside of the noise of Social Media
With a new trend or feature being raved about (what feels like) every week, social media can become an overwhelming space to be. The noise of what everyone else out there is doing, can easily deter even the most experienced business owner from their main goals.
This is where email marketing outshines any social media platform – with the opportunity to just focus on your audience and what your business can do for them, instead of feeling like you need to “keep up with the Joneses”.
Having a space that feels more one-on-one allows you to build meaningful relationships and connections with the people on your list (who we’re hoping will then become dream clients) because you can be 100% authentically YOU.
2. Security for your business content and audience
While it may feel like a major accomplishment to reach 100, 1000, 10k followers and beyond on social media (if that’s your goal, awesome!!) It’s important to note that if anything should happen to the platform, you’ll have no way to stay in contact with the audience you’ve built.
Building an email list means you’ll still have a way to reach your audience members and continue to provide them with value so they feel loved and cared for.
In extreme circumstances, you may even lose the content you’ve spent hours creating! If you haven’t repurposed your content, this is huge, because it’s the way you reach people you want to help with your services.
What’s more is that with email marketing, you can reuse old content so that it continues to work for you long after you first hit that “publish” button – by setting up a welcome sequence for new subscribers, you can be sure that everyone in your audience are benefitting from the content you worked so hard on.
3. There’s a higher chance of your audience actually reading your content
Social media is all about the scroll! There’s just so much content to see, which means people may miss your posts through their frenzy of trying to get to it all.
Algorithms are also constantly changing, making it even harder to be spotted in newsfeeds by people you’re trying to connect with online.
Growing your list of subscribers and being consistent with the emails you send out will boost the chances of your audience actually reading the content you put out there!
People reading emails are more focused on one email at a time, unlike social media users who are constantly scrolling to the next post. This is awesome for you and your business, as it ensures that the people in your audience are more likely to invest in your services compared to someone following you on social media.
4. Less hands on than social media
While social media requires you to constantly engage with people on the platform by responding to DMs, comments and engaging with other accounts if you want to grow, email marketing does not.
Besides replying to people who email you, there are no comment sections, DMs or other accounts you need to interact with if you want to build a list filled with people who are truly interested in your services.
If you’re an introvert like me, this is good news for you since you won’t feel burned out from constant interaction, which will only become busier with the growth of your online presence.
Another benefit from email marketing is that it doesn’t require you to send out emails every single day like social media does. This takes a massive load off your shoulders as a solo-service provider, and frees up your time to get to more important matters in your business.
5. A less distracted audience
Much like the first reason listed here, email marketing also helps to keep your audience focused on your content without the distractions of other posts or profiles. This provides you with the perfect platform to set yourself up as an expert in your niche while building meaningful connections and trust amongst your audience filled with dream clients!
Less distractions also means that your subscribers can take in your value-packed content in a “quiet” space where they can equip themselves with the knowledge you provide, take action, and learn about your business in a more personal way – ensuring that you remain top of mind!
While social media gives you the podium to speak to a wider field of people and reach new audiences, email marketing gives you a room filled with dedicated individuals who makes the effort to show up and hear what you have to say. THESE are the people who will become your dream clients!
6. Build an audience for future offer launches
And a bonus reason you should be growing your email list as a service provider, is that you will have an audience ready for when you decide to launch a low touch offer later down the line.
Most service providers (myself included) neglect growing an email list, focusing on social media instead. But, at a later stage, when you want to scale and grow through passive income such as digital products, courses, or memberships, you don’t have anyone besides your social media to sell your offers to.
Growing and nurturing an email community right from the start will really pave the path for when you want to sell other offers to people who may not be ready to work with you 1:1 or perhaps cannot afford your services just yet.
There are so many more reasons why you should be building your email list as a service provider! However, the takeaway from this is that while you may have been led to believe that social media should be prioritized above email marketing in order to get new clients, you should always do what feels right for YOU in your business.
Of course social media can help you reach your goal! But, that does not mean you should force yourself to do what everyone else seems to be doing.
If you want to build a more fulfilling business that lights you up instead of weighing you down, then you need to start cutting out tasks that do not make the journey a pleasant one. Look into ways in which you can replace those grueling tasks with methods that goes against the norm but that bring out the best in your talents!
My big mission is to help you work with your dream clients so you can earn good money doing what you love, and what you’re awesome at. And, while there are many different ways to reach that point, I KNOW that email marketing is a fantastic way for you to cut back on all the fluff tasks filling up your schedule and get booked out with clients who love you as much as you love them.
Which is exactly why I went and created this awesome resource to help you prepare 2 months of email newsletters to nurture your subscribers into becoming your dream clients…
