Why Email Marketing is dead in 2022
An introduction to a powerful email list building strategy
Email Marketing is like visiting a friend. You knock on their inbox door asking to enter their home and hang out for a few. As they open your email you enter into a conversation. That conversation hopefully persuades them to go deeper into the relationship with you.
Then you have social media.
Social media is like being at a dog pound. Your intended audience scrolls their social media feed to take their pick of the litter.
There you are pressing your face against the cage hoping that they show you attention. They take you out of your cage, play with you, pat your head, but just like that, they put you back.
Thus, they have continued to scroll and you’re stuck waiting for the next person to give you a like, share, comment, or any kind of engagement over your competitors.
This post is going to go into detail on why I think email marketing is dead. See, when I say that, I am not talking about email marketing being dead as a whole. What I am talking about is a better way to define what email marketing is, and what it should be.
A way that, if you focus on building your email marketing efforts the way I am about to layout, then you will see more opens, clicks, and sales as a result. So, if you’re a coach, course creator, writer, freelancer, or service provider in general, pipe up, it’s time to learn the ways of Ideal List Marketing.
What is Ideal List Marketing?
There has always been this idea that size matters more than anything when it comes to your email list. But like my wife reminds me, size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it.
And Ideal List Marketing is focused on the relationship that you are trying to build with your list. In this thought process, you set out to attract only the most ideal people to your list.
When you do as most teach in email marketing your just trying to flood your email list with as many people as possible. When doing this, you bring all types of people from the audience to your list. While your list may be massive you'll have people who don’t open, click, or purchase anything you pitch through emails.
Back in 2003 or 2004, my family went out of town while I stayed home. I was a senior in High School and a captain on the football team. As any teenager would do, I decided to have a party while my family was out of town. I had the most organized party for young adults anybody has ever seen. No, it wasn’t boring, but I made sure to invite the right people.
People who wouldn’t disrespect my house or any of families stuff, and people who wanted to hang out(with the opposite sex of course) and have a good time. No, nobody had sex…
Why am I mentioning this? Because the way others would have handled this is to open the flood gates and let every kid in the school come to the party. Which would have resulted in an out-of-control mess. Stuff would have been damaged, maybe fights would have broken out, and worse cops could have been called due to all the craziness.
That’s what most people approach to email marketing is, invite any and everybody and turn your list into the wild wild west.
No, with Ideal List Marketing, like my party, you invite the right people. The people who will want to learn from you, be around you, and purchase your offers because through the conversation they find out your offers solve their problems.
The last point here, what is great about this approach is that these ideal people on your list, know more ideal people. So while your party may get bigger, it’ll get bigger with more of the same clients.
They won’t invite others who will act unruly and turn everything into a shit show. They'll invite people to your list who will already be pre-qualified. The person inviting them will have already told the new person what the rules are, how your business functions, and what they will gain by coming inside.
Curating your ideal list
Now that you are focusing your efforts on getting the right people inside your list, it’s time you focus on building that relationship with them. A good party host, like a good leader in business, goes around and makes sure everybody is comfortable, has what they need, and offers anything if they don’t.
In email marketing, businesses tend to focus on getting emails opened, getting clicks, and making more sales. Which is the goal. Yet, Ideal List Marketing is putting the client first. Because when you are transparent about who your emails are for, you can have a conversation about going deeper into the relationship.
Those on your ideal list are people you want to talk to every day. In email marketing, you may talk to them when you remember you have an email list or have something to sell.
With Ideal List Marketing you don’t ignore these people. In fact, these people inside your party are more important than anybody outside because they knocked on your door and decided they wanted to get to know you more.
The money is in the relationship
From time to time you may see people post on social media that the money is in the email list. Yet, as the Guru says that, they tell you all the reasons you need to build your business around Instagram.
Ideal List Marketing has your business go deeper into the relationship. While social media keeps the relationship wide. Social media is where your audience is walking through the County Fair and they say, “Oh, that toy looks nice, I like it.” But they keep on walking.
While on the flip side, if you’re speaking with transparency to the right people, they will pick your toy and decide that they want to buy all the accessories to go with it.
So, as they play with you they’ll connect further and further with your business. You’ll become a habit to them. And at that point, those on your Ideal List will trust to purchase your offers on a regular basis.
Being grateful for your Ideal List
In today’s day and age, it is a treasure when people join your ideal email list. Why? Because people have become so protective of their privacy and giving out their emails. They are afraid of being spammed, sold too, and skeptical of just about everything on the market.
When somebody reads your sales pages, opt-ins, and landing pages — and they decided to input their info, that means they are trusting that you will get them to the next step in the process.
They are trusting that your freebie or your routine emails will protect them from the perils of the online space and show them how they can walk the right path to their desires.
That’s why you have to treasure those people on your list. You don’t do that by ignoring them. You don’t do that by boring them(which I talk about in this article here). And you don’t do that by begging them to support you.
This is the foundation of successful Ideal List Marketing campaigns. Appreciate the people who raised their hand and said I want to hear more from you — outside of the distractions of social media, and inside a comfortable familiar space where they can focus on your message.
This is Ideal List Marketing. And why email marketing is dead.
