In 2018, Facebook made a huge change in its algorithm (that decides what you see in your feed and who will see what you post).
From one day to another, most companies saw their traffic from Facebook to their website cut in half. It dropped by more than 50%.
These kinds of changes are made all the time, on all social platforms.
You can never know when – or how – it will change again.
This means you have basically no control over your followers.
You don’t even know if the social platforms you are using today, will be around in 5, or even 2 years.
Social platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and so on) are great for reaching a lot of people.
The problem is to make sure you are keeping in touch with them long enough to make them a customer.
Few people will go from hearing about you for the first time to signing up for an account (or even free trial). You need to build trust and you need to show them how they will gain from using your service or product.
But how are you supposed to do this, if you don’t even know if they are going to see your next Tweet or status update?
Get them from your social platforms onto a platform you can control – as soon as possible.
You control your email list. No one (except a few persistent spam filters) can decide who will receive the emails you send out.
If someone signs up for your emails, they will most certainly receive them (whether or not they open it is completely up to your copywriting skills though.)
”If you have a Facebook page that has 50,000 likes, your latest post is likely to be placed in the newsfeed of approximately 1,000 to 3,000 of your own Facebook fans.
If you sent an email to a list that same size, it’s likely to be placed in 42,500 inboxes.”
– Email Marketing vs. Facebook Ads: Which One Wins?
Another huge benefit with email marketing is connected to what we just discussed; the conversion rates for email marketing are bigger than for any other marketing channel!
If done right, your email list will make it possible for you to make your audience trust you and when it’s time to sell; give you the best conditions to convert leads into paying customers.