In Business? Why You Need a Mailing List

In Business? Why You Need a Mailing List

MARCH 15, 2013 BY JILL HART

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Lately I’ve had several people ask me WHY they need a mailing list. It’s true that in the marketplace today, we hear many things about newsletters and mailing lists. Most experts will tell you that if you’re in business – whether it be direct sales, writing, selling your own product or service – you NEED a mailing list. I agree and here’s why:

Your Mailing List Is One the Best Ways to Communicate With Your Audience

One of the reasons I began a newsletter over a decade ago was to simply remind people – on a regular basis – that CWAHM exists. I didn’t start out with big plans for my newsletter (or quite honestly with ANY idea of what I was doing), I just knew that I needed constant reminders from websites I loved, so I assumed others were the same.

I try to fill my mailing list with interesting articles, tidbits from the website that may be of interest to readers as well as any special things that are happening at CWAHM like webinars, advertising specials and the like. Sending out special mailings to your audience is also a great way to let them know about product and book releases, special sales and other exciting things happening in your business. 

Over the years, I’ve found that Wednesdays, the day my newsletter goes out, is the highest traffic day on my website. Why? Because people check out the newsletter and are directed to the website. Plain and simple.

A Mailing List Makes It Easier For Others to Spread The Word

Within the last month, several of my friends and colleagues have forwarded me newsletters of other authors and entrepreneurs. You see, forwarding a newsletter is one of the easiest ways to share content with others. When you put together a great newsletter, with content targeted right at your audience, they will get excited about it and want to share their findings with others.

This teaches us three things:

1. When we put our newsletter together, we must make sure we know WHO our audience is and WHAT type of content they are looking for.

2. The larger our mailing list, the more people there are to share our content with others.

3. It makes sense to include a “Share This” link or button in a prominent place in our newsletter to encourage our readers to send it on to a friend.

Your Mailing List Is A Great Place to Make Sales

A few years ago, after the economy tanked, advertising sales on CWAHM went through a major slump. I knew the game had changed, but I wasn’t sure how to get people excited about advertising in the new economy we were facing. I sought the counsel of a wise colleague who advised me to put together a monthly mailing full of advertising specials.

That’s much too simple to work, I thought.

However, she was right and right away I saw a small climb in advertising sales.

One of the most important uses of our mailing lists is to make people aware of what we have to offer. We also need to make it easy for them to purchase right from the email using either PayPal buttons or direct links to the website page where purchases can be made. The easier it is for people to make that purchase, the more likely they are to do so.

So, you can see why mailing lists and newsletters are important to the success of any business. In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about how to get people to sign up for our mailing lists and what exactly to do with our list once it begins growing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jill Hart’s entrepreneurial career began in her teens when she spent a summer working with her father who ran his own business. When he put her in charge of a Coke machine and allowed her to keep the profits, she saw the benefits of being her own boss. She is the founder of Christian Work at Home Ministries (CWAHM.com) and the co-author of “So You Want To Be a Work-at-Home Mom.” Jill has articles published in In Touch Magazine, P31 Woman magazine and Focus on the Family’s Thriving Family, as well as across the web on sites like DrLaura.com. She speaks to audiences around the country about faith and business topics. Learn more about Jill at JillHart.com and connect with her on “http://www.facebook.com/SpeakerJillHart” “FB Jill Hart” and “http://twitter.com/cwahm.”