As someone about to launch a product, you’ve definitely built a list at least once in your startup career. Probably more. With so many so-called A-Z guides and listicles out there droning on about the necessity of having a list of subscribers to drive early traffic to your product, you must already know their immediate value.
But what else can you gain from collecting an early list of subscribers?
Let’s explore 7 reasons why list building is essential to make your next product launch remarkable, and why your prospects’ emails make for one of the most valuable assets.
Social Media Algorithms Steadily Decrease Your Reach
The science behind social media algorithms is hazy. Their overly complex data interactions are hidden by the platforms, and have given rise to a multitude of theories and snake oil solutions. What’s left for us as marketers is to join the data points of our individual campaigns, watch the trends and draw correlations.
But it’s been almost a decade that the trend is sloping downwards.
In an attempt to decelerate the virality of promotional content, both Facebook and Instagram have steadily been degrading organic post reach. This way, they can draw in more advertisers to harness greater revenue. Afterall, it all boils down to money. This may very well be a logical move for many, but it leaves us marketers in a sad situation.
All those carefully selected target audiences may never even get to see our brand!
Guess what remains one of the best channels to reach out to potential prospects? Email.
Email has a Higher Return on Investment
When it comes to ROI, email marketing greatly exceeds social media and just any other digital marketing channel you can think of.
According to Campaign Monitor, on average, email marketing generates $44 for every $1 spent. That’s a whopping 4,400% return. It’s no surprise why almost 90% of marketers opt for email marketing as their principal lead generation tool.
Would you ever have thought that email is 40x more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined?
On top of that, with people’s emails at hand, you own your audience. Not Facebook. Not Twitter. Not even Google. If the social media scene evolves and people stop using those platforms, those audiences will disappear. But people use email for life, so if you’ve built a good list, you’ll always have your audience within direct reach.
Email is Permanent
Everyone has an email! Your potential clients might not be on Tik Tok or Instagram, but email is essentially guaranteed. This is probably because it is so simple, pervasive and grounded. Email is static—it doesn’t really change or evolve—making it one of your business’s permanent assets.
If your email marketing campaigns take a wrong turn, it’s usually not because of some out-of-your-control decision by the email companies. Instead, it’s something you can fix. And its learning is cumulative—as you gain more knowledge, your future email marketing campaigns will improve.
The challenges of email marketing campaigns are many, but they’re easy to learn and overcome. Because, remember, the medium doesn’t change.
Email is Still Powerful
In the vibrant landscape of digital marketing, email marketing never seems to lose steam. It is still one of the most powerful ways to cultivate a meaningful relationship with your potential clients and keep them entertained until the launch date and beyond.
While the temptation may be great, don’t give in to the salesyness trap. Make sure your prospects can take something away from your every email, instead of angrily closing your weakly-crafted overly promotional message. Your email sequences should be a fine mix of promotional and valuable content, which will take your relationship with your audience to a deeper level.
For one of our recent crowdfunding campaigns—a mechanical titanium watch—we wrote an entire ebook on how to choose the right watch. Amongst the valuable advice, we found an accurate position for the watch we were promoting. The ebook was promoted through email marketing and played a part in raising over $1.5 million on Indiegogo.
For another, we explored the philosophy of minimalism through a minimalist all-silicone electric toothbrush. Interspersed with promotional material, the email sequence offered true intrinsic value. It educated an interested audience on the positive aspects of decluttering their lives, the ethos behind minimalist design, and some famous examples of purposeful minimalism.
Tell stories. Offer insights. Give value. Your audience are people, put yourself in their shoes and think about what they’d like to receive in their inbox.
Email is More Engaging Than Social Media
Email is a two-way street. It’s not a billboard on the street that advertisers put up, people glance at and nobody knows what its results were. According to GetVoIP, email allows you to engage with your customers and hear their thoughts as well.
Arguably one of the most rewarding benefits of list building—due to its impact on your business development—is the feedback from your prospects. It can open avenues you hadn’t even thought of, new markets you never considered, and added functionalities you never knew your customers needed.
For best results, start when you’re still early in the email marketing stage. Include questions that will let you draw insights into your consumer preferences and their ideas. What colors do they want? What features of your product do they like most? What more features would they like to see?
It can be hard to get people to respond to your emails, after all, they’re busy with their own work. If you find it’s not working, think of offering additional discounts or little rewards to those who make the effort to give you some valuable feedback.
And listen to them. See what makes sense and adopt the changes. Market research and business advice, again, essentially for free!
Email Gets You Sales Before Your Product Launches
Getting going early is one of the most important aspects of a product launch. You have to know you can hit the ground running. And if you mastered the art of email marketing, you’ll have dozens if not hundreds of excited people looking to get their hands on your product first.
Warm the audience up as you near the launch, let them know you’re still around, remind them of their interest. If you can get the ball rolling from the start, you’ll have overcome one of the biggest challenges. That’s why we use a series of lead generation mechanisms and advanced list building strategies prior to launch and consistently reach our funding goals in under 24 hours. One of them is Optimonk. Thanks to their seamless integration and eye-catchy appearance, Optimonk’s popups have been a game-changing lead magnet in our every campaign. They always capture an ample fraction of our page visitors—whom we’d have otherwise just lost—and convince them to drop their emails to stay in the loop.
The successful email marketing afterwards allows us to hit our funding goal within the first day, signalling trust and credibility to new leads and boosting the chances of future conversions.
Email Raises Brand Awareness
Sharing things on social media may have overtaken email’s “Forward To” mechanism, but this just speaks to people’s love of sharing value with their friends. That’s why email is still one of the most effective tools to move the masses. And one of the easiest ways to do this is through strategically managed referral campaigns.
Encourage your current leads to share your product launch with their friends and family to earn further discounts or even cash back. Before you know it, you’ll have a huge new audience of subscribers adding their friends as well. This exponential effect is , and it costs essentially nothing.
Besides driving a stream of conversions, referral programs help spur buzz around your product and create brand awareness while it’s still at an early stage.
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Careful list building can take time and resources. But don’t let this stop you.
Instead, treat email list building as an investment that will launch your business onto a new wave of success and make it thrive even during the hardest of times. They are your permanent assets, and no competitor will ever take them away from you.
Just remember, use them wisely.
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Written by
Ani Ter-Margaryan
I’m a Copywriter at The Crowdfunding Formula. Fascinated to watch and act while AI shakes up today’s marketing landscape. Have my keen eye pointed at the latest trends and love creating engaging digital content.
Reach me at ani.tm@tcf.team
