Building your own email list. Is it even necessary?

hitmeasap Level X⁵

October 13, 2016, 4:56 pm

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Building your own email list. Is it even necessary?

Fellow Freelancers,
I have never built an email list like "you're supposed to do". I have never given away products or services for free on my website, in exchange for subscribers and I've never worked with email lists before. I have some knowledge about it, and I do understand how the process works in general, but I've never had the urge of building a list myself. Not in the same way as others do.

What I have done, is that I have built my credibility and my reputation manually. I've talked to clients in person, and I've been in contact with literally hundreds of people during the years I've been online. - I've always done everything manually and by hand, instead of using email responders and stuff like that. - And that has worked for me, and even though I can see why a list would be something awesome to have, I can't say that I would actually need one.

What are your thoughts on this? - Would you say that all freelancers should have one and do you agree with the common saying, "the money is in the list"?

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CryptoGuru

Hey if you have been able to create client retention without any sort of repetitive marketing, then hey your in the money already. Do i think its important yes i think its a great idea for people to grab an email list from clients who agree to be on that list. Sending emails and being in peoples faces so to speak has been proven to drive more sales. I think its great that you where able to build your reputation and credibility to the point where you don't need to have a list to keep clients. My advice is to continue your model marketing strategy and add this one on as well. If you started generating a list and a Bi weekly newsletter you will see an increase in sales, especially if people are forwarding those emails. Awesome topic and thanks for sharing.

8 years ago

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Everett

I do a lot of freelancing on this marketplace, as it were. I sell PHP Scripts, and gain clients or customers or whatever else you want to call them. However, the sad part is, is that I can not build an email list because you don't get that information when they order from you. The only way to contact them would be to message them. It's all good, and it seems to work for the marketplace, however I wish there was other features to let them know that you updated a version of software, etc like other websites do, so you don't have to mail like 20 people and get restricted from messaging.

However, if i had a website where i was to sell other products say technology related, or even ebooks I can see how an email list would equal money. You could email those customers and alert them that a new product was launched, and they would either buy it or they won't. I never had a big email list, however I have tried to market via an email list platform and haven't had too much success with it. I think for every 100 emails sent out I got like 5 clicks on my links, but no sales at all. So I have no idea what went wrong there, or if I targeted the audience or what.

8 years ago

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Lynne

Oh so that is maybe a nice feature that SeoClerks would be able to add to the marketplace, the ability to let customers know about updates to products they have bought.

Perhaps when people order from you Everett you should tell them to follow you so that they get alerted if you post an update on your profile. Then if you have updated a version of software you can just post an update and let everyone know, they if they are interested and they purchased from you they could contact you?

8 years ago

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TommyCarey

Having an email list that you've built yourself is always good to have on hand in times of need, I think. I never blast out to my subscribers daily or weekly because I don't want them to think I just scraped their email in order to spam them lol. If I get some free time in my work load I'll usually send out a big blast of people who signed up with me and let them know I have some open space for a new client. This way I'm creating a limited time offer because I can only take one or two new clients and not the lot

Obviously I'll have the unsubscribe list on there, but not many leave because they know I'm not spamming

The way you're doing it manually is what I also do and I've noticed that it builds a much better list, even though it's much smaller. It's a better list because it's like you're just emailing friends who you talk to regularly. I have a short list of about 90 people that ask me questions here and there about their websites. I'll answer all their questions for free when I get around to it, and they love that because I'm like their own little database of information that is there to help them when they need it. And by answering everything for free, I usually get a few of them to sign up once in a while, and these are the higher paying clients. And when I say higher, I'm talking about $5,000+ a month

Keep doing what you're doing and it will pay off in the long run

8 years ago

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EliteWriter

If I understood you correctly you have managed to keep up a good correspondence with clients and people who may be interested in your services, despite the fact that you do not actually use email marketing and do not have a specific email list. I think that is just great and as long as you are doing fine, there is no need to embark on setting up an email list I guess. Sometimes it is good to have it but you cannot be relying too heavily on it as you may make followers get used to it, or consider your emails as a spam.

8 years ago

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Lynne

Well I can see how building my lists have helped me Andre. I am not like one of those crazy and obsessed list builders but I do use an autoresponder and I do try and build my list all the time.

I do run competitions and like right now a competition I am running is getting me about 10 subscribers every day for the last few days which is quite cool.

I find that I get quite a lot of traffic to my websites from my email marketing. I have it set so that any new content I post on my websites get sent out via newsletter and on one website I have a newsletter series that I set up which is quite cool,

I can see that if I spent more time refining this process it would pay off a lot for me.

So yeah I think it is worth it.

8 years ago

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Cristian

YES. I was a big sceptic when it comes to e-mail list, but having build one lately and actually testing it on clients I can definitely say having an email list and sending newsletters or certain offers can increase your sales! And why miss out on even a couple of sales since building an email list is not that difficult, especially if you just save the emails of your past clients or you build a website subscription box where people can leave their email address.
As far as online store go, encouraging your users to subscribe actually works and even if just 0.5% do it you will earn a lot on the long run.

8 years ago

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Corzhens

I have seen the strength of email during the time when there was no social media yet. People were relying on email for the main communication and correspondence. But in this modern times, I guess the emailing list is not that effective anymore even just for connecting to the clients for I’m sure the clients would prefer the social media because that is more convenient instead of the email. I said convenient because let’s admit that most people are always monitoring their social media account but opens their email only in the morning.

7 years ago

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jaymish2

I think that your case is different, but for others especially newbies I think building an email list is the way to go. When you are first starting out online, I think you need to use all the strategies available that will enable you to get your products seen. You have been working online for a while, and you have done your marketing offline, you are lucky. However for people just starting out online an e-mail list is one of the best way to market themselves and their products.

6 years ago

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SEOClerks

Building your own email list. Is it even necessary?

Building your own email list. Is it even necessary?

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