I’m starting an online business focused on a niche community. I’m aware that having evidence of users through an email list is useful to investors, etc. However I’m wondering if it’s actually useful outside of that. I’m of the belief that the younger users are the less likely they are to use email. So in my mind it seems like a short term strategy. I worked with an email marketing team a few years ago that saw a dramatic drop in their email marketing effectiveness. One theory was that email was a less popular method of connecting to a user as opposed to social networking.
As I design and develop my online business I want to know if email lists really matter to anyone? Personally I would rather focus on social networking but maybe it should be contingent on my audience? Maybe investors don’t take social numbers as seriously as email? Is there any sensible reason why people take email lists seriously? I completely ignore 99% of the email lists I’m on.
For example, I’m placing CTAs in the design of my site. Should those be social links or newsletter sign-ups? I don’t know. Thanks in advance.
I doubt investors would care about the size of your email list - one they would probably be more interested in your growth/projections and you can grow a list with fake emails etc.anyways.
As far as usefulness, for sure. You might ignore 99% of your lists but there’s still the 1% you read…extrapolate that to thousands+ and you’ve got yourself a solid starting point!
As far as general advice goes? Everything I’ve ever read shows that having an email list that’s substantial is way more desired than more followers and the like. Click throughs and conversion rates are higher for email vs social. As you say, that may not still be the case long term, and I suspect that those rates are going down - but yeah.
Either way, I would definitely research my target audience and get a good metric. Perhaps you want to split efforts among multiple platforms, perhaps focus on just Facebook or just email or just (insert whatever platform here).
Hi rpeg! I was able to see your message and I’m willing to help.
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I hope I was able to help… Please do ask if you need more help from me…
